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What Time is Beer Thirty? | Someone actually spent some time figuring this out, but youve probably heard the old phrase Its Beer Thirty. Brooks & Dunn had a hit song with the same title. Anyway, a new study actually figured out when beer oclock really is. And the consensus is . . . 6:31 P.M. on Friday. In other words, it happens during happy hour tomorrow. Heres more from BroBible. Here are a few more results from the study on all things beer . . . 1. 52% of people say TASTE is the number one factor for them when they pick a beer. 2. One out of three people say theyre intimidated by craft beers. 3. And the average person switches their favorite beer every four years. | https://www.wccq.com/what-time-is-beer-thirty/ |
Should Catholics view the pope as infallible? | Pope Francis faced a testing year in 2018, which culminated in a spate of resignations that challenged his authority as the head of the Catholic Church. In a time of 24-hour news and social media, its a problem for popes that every word they utter may easily be shared as an infallible pronouncement which Catholics must adhere to, when they are clearly not. Although there is still a wide debate among scholars about papal infallibility and Catholics dont always agree what it means, the basic concept is that popes cannot err when speaking on behalf of the Catholic Church. The idea that the pope in Rome had some special, overriding authority derived from the Bible, in particular Matthew 16:18-19. This passage describes the powers of binding and loosing or forbidding and permitting that Jesus gave to St Peter, later Romes first bishop, and which early Christians believed were also given to his successors. Rome had spiritual claims to authority because St Peter and St Paul were martyred there, and political power as the seat of the western Roman Empire. Early Christians did not focus on the question of papal infallibility. They believed that even bishops were always right in their judgements until one bishop, Paul of Samosata, was condemned at the Council of Antioch in AD 264. Yet, early texts, such as the fourth-century On the Deaths of the Persecutors by the writer Lactantius, emphasised the idea of the Churchs indefectibility that it and its teachings will always survive. During the medieval period, popes wielded great power in the spiritual sphere as supreme religious leaders in the West, and also political power through the papal states. While the popes in this period were not considered to be infallible, embryonic versions of this idea can be found in the correspondence of popes such as Gregory VII (1073-85), Innocent III (1198-1216) and Boniface VIII (1294-1303) who claimed an extremely exalted position for the papacy. No going back The concept of papal infallibility arose in the 13th century due to increasing Franciscan influence at the papal court in Rome. Franciscans such as Peter Olivi and William of Ockham, concerned that future popes might deprive the Franciscans of their rights, argued that papal statements were infallible in other words, irreformable. By this they meant that a pope could not go back on the utterances of his predecessors, and so papal infallibility bound the pope to his predecessors statements. The idea also arose out of the papal canonisation of saints. As cults around popular saints grew, the papacy began to decide which saints ought to be officially canonised. As Franciscan and Dominican friars pushed for the canonisation of their saints, 13th-century theologians such as Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas claimed that popes could not err in their decisions. Later, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Conciliar Movement canvassed the idea that the Church should not be ruled by a sovereign pope, but rather that its supreme authority resided in its councils. Conciliarists believed the pope could err, but a corporation of Christians, embodied by a general church council, could not. By contrast, anti-Conciliarists such as Guido Terreni promoted the idea of papal infallibility to increase the popes sovereign power, albeit only on certain issues of faith and morals. At the time of the Reformation, Catholics looked to the pope as a symbol of the old faith in countries which had become Protestant. Yet there was nothing about papal infallibility at the Council of Trent in 1545-63, which aimed to clarify the churchs doctrines and teachings. The 17th century saw a scientific revolution, often treated with scepticism by a defensive counter-Reformation papacy, which feared that scientific ideas would lead its followers astray. The 18th century saw the papacy battling Gallicanism the idea that monarchs were on an authoritative par with the pope. From the papal throne In the 19th century, the idea of papal infallibility came to a head. In 1854, Pius IX decreed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception to be infallible in his bull, Ineffabilis Deus. The First Vatican Council in 1869-70, in its Pastor Aeternus decree, declared that the pope was infallible when he spoke ex Cathedra or from the papal throne on matters of faith and morals. So while the role of a medieval pope was as a teacher and supreme judge, and ultimately as a figure of unity, in later centuries, he was seen as an oracle of God and became almost a cult figure. Since then, the only infallible ex Cathedra statement which a pope has ever made came in 1950, when in his Munificentissimus Deus papal bull, Pius XII defined the doctrine of the assumption of Mary. A few years later, in his 1964 encyclical Lumen gentium, Paul VI defined papal infallibility more clearly as when a pope speaks either ex Cathedra or in an ecumenical council on a matter of faith and morals. In a further twist, in the early 21st century, Benedict XVI, clearly differentiated between the solemn but not infallible pronouncements he made as pope and the books he wrote in a personal capacity on the life of Jesus of Nazareth. All this means that for Catholics, almost all public pronouncements by popes, for example against artificial means of contraception, are not infallible. Nevertheless, they should be taken seriously by Catholics who believe that the pope is St Peters successor. Critics of Pope Francis, who believe that he has contradicted many of the teachings of his predecessors, might argue that, following the principles of the 13th century Franciscans Olivi and Ockham, he should be deposed. His supporters, however, might reply that the motives of his critics are political rather than religious. | http://theconversation.com/should-catholics-view-the-pope-as-infallible-109548 |
What could change the dynamics of Brexit vote? | Image copyright PA "We're going to get smashed" - one government insider's apocalyptic prediction about one of the most important votes in recent political history, the big night next Tuesday when MPs give their verdict on the government and the EU's compromise. As things stand, MPs are on course to kybosh Theresa May's long-argued-over Brexit deal, with a very heavy defeat. Dozens of her own backbenchers have said publicly they will vote against it. The opposition parties are adamant they will say "no" too. The Tories' supposed partners in government, the DUP, are deeply dug-in to opposing the agreement, for reasons we've discussed plenty of times here. And although there are whispers of compromises that might peel off a few rebels here and there and a handful of switchers - like her former policy chief George Freeman who revealed his change of heart in the Commons and will now back her - there is nothing on the horizon that looks like shifting big numbers. The draft script for Tuesday's drama, therefore, outlines a heavy and embarrassing defeat for the prime minister on her central policy, with nothing and no-one seeming to come to her rescue. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met Theresa May for talks on Thursday But there are at least two factors that could change the dynamics, quite separate to the chorus of warnings about no deal from members of the Cabinet and outside voices like the Japanese leader Shinzo Abe. First off, with any rebellion it's not a bad rule of thumb to suggest that many of those who have made loud complaints may, in the end, prove to be less brave than they at first appear. It is not unusual for cantankerous politicians to be proven to have had rather a lot of mouth - and rather threadbare trousers. One senior Brexiteer told me they reckoned they had around 40 or 50 critics solid and certain to vote to reject the deal, far fewer than the hundred or so publicly opposed. Parliament seems in such uproar that perhaps the numbers will be as high as the most dire warnings suggest. But don't be surprised when MPs actually have to make a final decision and go through the division lobbies with their deadly rivals, if the scale of the defeat looks rather different. Casting a vote, especially one so vital, is very, very different to criticising a policy. A "no-deal" Brexit is where the UK would cut ties with the European Union overnight without a transition period. Theresa May's government, and many others, believe this would be hugely damaging and want a more gradual withdrawal. But if Parliament can't agree on that, and nothing else takes its place, the UK will leave without a deal. This would mean the UK would not have to obey EU rules. Instead, it would need to follow World Trade Organization terms on trade. Many businesses would see new taxes on imports, exports and services, which are likely to increase their operating costs. That means the prices of some goods in UK shops could go up. The UK would also lose the trade agreements it had with other countries as a member of the EU, all of which would need to be renegotiated alongside the new agreement with the EU itself. Manufacturers in the UK expect to face delays in components coming across the border. The UK would be free to set its own immigration controls. However some UK professionals working in the EU and UK expats could face uncertainty until their status was clarified. The European Commission has said that even in a no-deal scenario, UK travellers won't need a visa for short visits of up to 90 days. The border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic would become an external frontier for the EU with customs and immigration controls, though how and where any checks would be made is not clear. Some Leave supporters think that leaving without a deal would be positive if the right preparations were made. They say criticism is scaremongering and any short term pain would be for long term gain. But critics - including both Brexit supporters and opponents - say that leaving without a deal would be a disaster for the UK: driving up food prices, leading to shortages of goods and gridlock on some roads in the South East resulting from extra border checks. Second, we're not exactly short these days of twists in Parliamentary drama. And there could be another one next Tuesday. Other tweaks, amendments, might be suggested by MPs, and voted on first. The way this place works, if any of those ideas are approved, that would change what's on the table - maybe a little, maybe a lot. That means, despite the months of rows about the precise terms of the agreement, there might not be a vote on Theresa May's deal in its original form. This could be something relatively minor, although important to some MPs, like the increased environmental protections the PM has discussed with Labour MPs. Or, much bigger, an amendment that kills the deal off altogether. Politically, what happens with the other ideas backbenchers put forward, before the expected vote on the deal as it stands, might matter enormously. That's because a defeat on the plan as amended, might be much smaller than a defeat on the deal with no changes. For Theresa May's authority, losing by a few dozen, is very different to losing by way over 100. That might, in turn, make it seem much more credible for the prime minister to have another go at getting it through. And it also will matter who the main architects of the defeat appear to be. Government sources warning of being "smashed" in the Commons suggest the best outcome for them is, perversely, losing on an amendment, therefore avoiding a straightforward and overwhelming "no" to their deal. Some Brexiteers and some in government believe that that the Labour MP Hilary Benn's suggested change - that would reject the deal, and rule out no deal - could be voted through by MPs, because of support from former Remainers. And a narrow defeat at the hands of Remainers would be a totally different political beast to a heavy, heavy defeat at the hands of Brexiteers in their own party. Games not over One well-known member of the Conservative Eurosceptic group the ERG joked: "We may not even end up being the bad guys - we might not have to rebel." It's possible that Hilary Benn will pull that particular amendment, with talk of a different "no deal" amendment being put forward. And one senior Labour figure suggested the party would do almost anything to make sure that there is a clear vote on the prime minister's proposal and that Parliamentary shenanigans don't get in the way of the Commons giving a definite view, (they expect a total kicking), of Theresa May's plan. But as we head into these next few vital days, the point is that the serious games in the Commons are far from over. And what happens this time next week will be affected by precisely how Tuesday night plays out. In the wake of the likely defeat, Theresa May might make an emergency dash to Brussels, could pivot to a "plan B" or a series of emergency cross-party talks. But the actual numbers, the atmosphere once the tellers have actually counted the votes and who walks through which lobby will still shape what she does next. Image copyright Getty Images If you feel like you ought to know more about Brexit... | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46831229 |
How Is Ring Of Honor's Live Event Business Looking In January? | With a significant amount of talent moves at the end of 2018 for Ring of Honor, many are curious how business will hold up going into 2019. One area to look at is attendance at the gate. Below is a look at tickets sold for January thus far (beginning with Saturday's Center Stage event). Where available, visual counts were taken of seats sold on Ticketmaster sales pages (or Showclix, where applicable) and compared to on-sale date screenshots to determine what seats had been put on sale initially and which never were put on sale. Historical numbers used for comparison purposes are from The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. On January 12th, ROH opens the year in Center Stage in Atlanta. The show is already sold out, with 700 tickets sold. ROH is on a 5-show sellout streak in Center Stage, its current longest streak (but also one of its smallest venues). On January 13th, ROH completes the double-shot in North Carolina's Cabarrus Arena. Tickets at the highest price level, $55, are sold out and as of 1/9, the best seats are in the 5th row. The seating chart does not show specific seats so a full count is not available. ROH announced that it will provide free tickets to United States military veterans via Vet Tix. Generally, the venue can be configured up to 5,500 fans and would easily accommodate any free demand for tickets. Prior shows at this Concord, NC venue have drawn between 500-1,100 fans. In a rare ROH triple shot, the weekend of January 24th through January 26th is being promoted as The Road to Supercard G1. The 24th will be a return to ROH's regular Dallas venue, Gilley's. So far, about 385 tickets have been sold. In 2018, the venue sold out with 800 tickets and in two appearances in 2017, sales were 600 and 750. The 25th is the use of an ambitious venue in Houston, the NRG Arena. A venue that can hold up to 8,000, appears to be set up with a little less than half of the seats opened. Just over 500 tickets appear to have been sold up to this point. Please note that according to a review of first day ticket sales, the corner floor sections near the ring were never opened up for sale. ROH has not been in the area since under previous ownership in 2009 for WrestleMania weekend. Those two weekend shows drew well at the time, between 1,800-2,000 fans each. Finishing up the month on the 26th is a show at the Austin Highway Events Center. 424 tickets appear to have been sold thus far for the event. 4 events were held in the city between 2016-2018, drawing between 400-1,000. One must wait until the final tickets sold have been tallied to do a true comparison to previous years but it does provide insight that sales would have to pick up significantly in a few venues for a good showing. Follow Lavie Margolin on Twitter via @Laviemarg | https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2019/01/how-is-ring-of-honor-live-event-business-looking-in-january-649685/ |
Will Jeff Bezos' divorce impact Blue Origin $1B funding pledge? | Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos impending divorce could impact his pledge to use proceeds from stock sales to fund his private space company Blue Origin. Continue Reading Below Bezos has repeatedly said he plans to liquidate $1 billion worth of Amazon stock each year to fuel Blue Origins growth. The Washington-based firm is developing reusable rockets that would transport space tourists into orbit at relatively low cost. The price of admission to space is very high, Bezos said while accepting the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award last March, according to Bloomberg. Im in the process of converting my Amazon lottery winnings into a much lower price of admission so we can go explore the solar system. Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, did not address the financial terms of their divorce when announcing their split in a joint statement on Wednesday. TMZ reported that the couple does not have a prenuptial agreement, meaning that Bezos assets, including 78.8 million shares of Amazon stock worth $130 billion, could be evenly divided between the pair. Its unclear how the potential division of assets would impact Bezos plans for Blue Origin or the stock sale pledge. Amazon and Blue Origin representatives did not return requests for comment. Advertisement One day before Bezos announced the divorce, Blue Origin executive Ariane Cornell said the company is still on track to sell flight tickets to tourists and transport them into space in 2019. So we are aiming to fly people early in 2019, but let's be very clear, we've also said this before, only when we're ready, she said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Believe me if I could I would jump on top of that rocket tomorrow. Amazon said the divorce will not have any impact on Bezos role or responsibilities at the company. Jeff remains focused on and engaged in all aspects of Amazon, a company spokesperson said in a statement. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Blue Origin is one of multiple private firms competing to develop their own rockets capable of space travel. Tesla CEO Elon Musks venture, SpaceX, has conducted several test flights and also plans to launch manned trips in the coming months. | https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/will-jeff-bezos-divorce-impact-blue-origin-1b-funding-pledge |
Can the Avengers save the 2019 Oscars from Kevin Hart? | It's important! Breaking news! In a blatant bid to distract everyone from the problematic initial host who still refuses to go away, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has announced it plans to assemble the Avengers on the stage of the Dolby Theater for the 91st Academy Awards next month. As The Hollywood Reporter pointed out, the 2013 ceremony brought Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo together onstage, but now apparently AMPAS, ABC and Marvel are trying to pull off something even more impressive, presumably reaching out to everyone who appeared in Avengers: Infinity War (and Renner and Paul Rudd, whose characters sat that movie out in anticipation of Aprils Avengers: Endgame) to attract young, desirable viewers. Since ABC and Marvel are both owned by Disney, and since those Endgame contracts surely included earths mightiest cross-promotional appearances, I dont think this will be too much of a problem. But if the Academy is really out to distract us from the Kevin Hart thing and proceed without a host, I hope they really go for it, and make it an all-Avengers evening, with every presenter and announcer coming from the MCU. Its not as much of a stretch as you might think given the massive scale of the Marvel project over the last 11 years, literally dozens of movie stars have been drawn into a movie or two. And if prestige is a sticking point, most of Marvels biggest actors have a nomination or two under their belts, and a surprising number of its players have won. And several members of Marvels rep company are chasing nominations of their own this year: Bradley Cooper, who voices Rocket the raccoon, is chasing a few for directing, producing, co-writing and starring in A Star Is Born, and Sam Rockwell and Robert Redford the villains in the second Iron Man and Captain America movies, respectively are chasing nominations for Vice and The Old Man And The Gun. Heck, Glenn Close who led the Nova Corps in Guardians Of The Galaxy just became a favourite for best actress after winning a Golden Globe for her performance in The Wife. So, what the hell: all Avengers, all the time. They can present, they can win, they can shake it out however they like. I would politely suggest Chadwick Boseman hand out the best picture award; whether or not Black Panther winds up in contention theres no question he deserves the moment. Superhero Nonsense is NOW's weekly column delving into all things superheroic. Check out previous columns here. @normwilner | https://nowtoronto.com/movies/features/superhero-nonsense-avengers-marvel-oscars/ |
Why have deficit target if it doesnt reflect reality? | Deficit in itself is not as important as the issue of the government crowding out private sector borrowers. When India first embarked upon the path of fiscal responsibility through the FRBM Act, a 3% fiscal deficit target was set for FY09. It speaks volumes for how various governments have decided not to adhere to this that, a decade later, in the FY19 budget, the fiscal deficit target is 3.3% of GDP. It is obviously true that a single-digit fixed number is a bad idea, the deficit needs to be counter-cyclical so that it can be low in years of good growth and high when growth needs to be stimulated through more government expenditure. After all, the deficit in itself is not as important as the issue of the government crowding out private sector borrowers; this happens only in years of high growth when private expenditure is also buoyant. The reason why India has never been able to do this, though, is precisely because no government has compressed expenditureand hence the deficitin high-growth years; only when this happens is there scope to raise the deficit in a low-growth year. That is why, while the NK Singh panel has allowed a slightly higher deficit in a really bad year, the deficit target remains a single number. ALSO READ: Air India allows economy class flyers to bid for business class; also takes this step to cut costs What is more problematic, as the CAG has pointed out in the past as well, is that the government of the day makes a mockery of this number by either doing a lot of off-budget financing or by simply deferring payment of various bills such as those of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for its food subsidy operations. And when the NDA came to power, another chosen off-budget vehicle was loans from other PSUs like LICLIC has, from time to time, extended loans to the Railways for its capex. Since this money has to be repaid eventually, it will impact spending in that year, so it is better to have clean accounting every year. As a result of this, CAG says, the Central governments total liability at the end of FY17 was not the 45.5% of GDP that was reported but a much higher 50.5%. ALSO READ: GST Council meet: Govt allows Kerala to impose 1% disaster cess on intra-State sales; check details In the case of fertilisers, CAG points out, an expenditure of Rs 26,417 crore was carried over in FY13 and this rose to Rs 43,356 crore in FY16, before falling a bit to Rs 39,057 crore in FY17; to put the FY17 number in perspective, it was 56% of the Rs 70,100 crore expenditure mentioned in the budget. Indeed, since the fertiliser companies werent paid on time by the government, the government had to arrange loans for them from PSU banks through what is called a Special Banking Arrangement. In the case of FCI, arrears rose from Rs 23,427 crore in FY12 to Rs 81,303 crore in FY17; in FY17, the arrears were slightly higher than the budgeted expenditure of Rs 78,335 crore. And, as FE reported, FCI had to borrow Rs 1.2 lakh crore from the small savings scheme in FY18 to help cover its subsidy arrears of Rs 1.35 lakh crore. For FY19, FE reported that the Central government had lined up extra-budgetary borrowing plans of Rs 1.7 lakh crore via FCI, Nabard, REC, PFC, etc, a number that was up 110% from that in FY18. Not surprisingly, the CAG has recommended the government come up with a policy framework for off-budget financing and report the number to Parliament. If every government is going to try and beat the FRBM target by withholding subsidy payments or by using off-budget borrowing, then why even bother with an FRBM target and pretending to achieve it each year. | https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/why-have-deficit-target-if-it-doesnt-reflect-reality/1440235/ |
Whats the Democrat Establishment Going To Do About Troublemaker Ocasio-Cortez? | How do you solve a problem like Alexandria? could be the Democrat establishments new song and deep lament. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the folderol-disgorging faux-Bronx-girl firebrand of a congresswoman, again threw a monkey wrench into her partys messaging. This time it was after President Trumps border-security speech Tuesday night. She appeared on MSNBC to weigh in on the matter, after Senator Chuck Schumers and Representative Nancy Pelosis response, which, mind you, was not exactly a tough act to follow. As American Thinkers Monica Showalter reported Wednesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is making herself an even bigger headache to her fellow Democrats, giving a wild third response to President Trumps speech, which pretty well eclipses the Democrats carefully crafted messaging. This shows just what a mess the Democrats are these days, Showalter continues, and how shes happy to be their problem. Of course, the Democrats couldnt even agree on a single responder, which evidences their dysfunction, opines Showalter. Instead, They had a pair of them, hoping to hog more camera time, perhaps, but it came at a cost of a unified message, she writes. The result, as they stared out at the TV cameras together, all botoxed and heavily made up, was American Gothic, except maybe with oily game show hosts instead of farmers, she continues. The image was so strong (and not in a good way) that it was hard to pay attention to whatever their words were. So enter buck private-ranked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as Showalter characterizes her, weighing in for a third Democratic response, the voice of the radical left, and her messaging was way out in left field compared to the other two. After all, Pelosi and Schumer, whatever the weakness of their message, did try to come off as mainstream and compassionate so as to win voters over, Showalter further states. They didn't call Americans rats for not liking illegal alien crime; they didnt promise illegals more goodies or argue much for the lawbreakers interests over those of American citizens. They were actually trying to persuade by making Trump look like the unreasonable one. In contrast, Ocasio-Cortez played the bull in the china shop, doing precisely what Schumer and Pelosi didnt, impugning her fellow Americans as deplorables, in so many words (video below). Of course, far, far fewer people watched Ocasio-Cortez MSNBC appearance than saw stiff Schumer and petrified Pelosi. But this doesnt change the big picture, which is that Cortez is now proving a problem for them [establishment Democrats], as Showalter puts it. She isnt the first to say so, either. Back in July already, the Hill wrote of Ocasio-Cortez that a number of House Democrats are up in arms over her no-holds-barred approach and that she appears set on using her newfound star power to attack Democrats from the left flank, threatening to divide the party. Shes carrying on and she aint gonna make friends that way, the Hill quotes Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) as saying. Asked if Ocasio-Cortez is, indeed, making enemies of fellow Democrats, Pascrell didnt hesitate, the Hill later related. Yes, he said. No doubt about it. The Hill also cited Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who warned that her agenda will be stifled despite her celebrity if she alienates people. Meteors fizz out, Hastings said. What she will learn in this institution is that its glacial to begin with, and therefore no matter how far you rise, thats just how far you will ultimately get your comeuppance, the Hill also informs. Aint happening, OK? Shortly after the election, the Atlantic observed that Ocasio-Cortez came into Washington like a wrecking ball. Most recently, comedienne-cum-commentator (using the term loosely) Whoopi Goldberg castigated the congresswoman for diminishing paid-their-dues Democrats, saying that Ocasio-Cortez should stop pooping on people and what theyve done (video below. Relevant portion begins at 2:26). So Ocasio-Cortez has made many establishment enemies. Its so bad that radio giant Michael Savage theorized on his program last Friday that the Democrat powers-that-be are going to eliminate the upstart. I know how power works, stated Savage, and within a year theyre going to set her up (he didnt offer any details). While this certainly is a possibility, I doubt its even a modest probability. But heres the issue with Ocasio-Cortez: No one, not even she herself, I believe, expected her to win. Hers is a Being There (1979) story; shes like the films Chance character, a simpleton propelled to prominence via a conspiracy of events. She didnt win her Bronx congressional-seat Democrat primary with party support; she upset the longtime incumbent, Joe Crowley, because he took her lightly, she played the ethnicity card, its an anti-establishment time, and she needed only 16,000 votes to win on a 13-percent turnout. So since she didnt need the establishment to prevail, she no doubt doesnt feel beholden to it. But she still can be bitten by it. Its not that her closet-socialist Democrat brethren dont often share her passions. But when she barges into Congress with her uppity attitude, 70-percent-bracket tax proposal, celebrity status, and Green New Deal, it turns the wheeler-dealers green with envy. Additionally, no one, least of all leftist egomaniacs, appreciates threats to his power attended by disrespect. Pelosi & Co. certainly will welcome new blood, but they demand deference to the pecking order. The Democrat establishment also has an eye on the 2020 White House, and they dont want to visibly tack so far left that theyre left on the fringe. After all, this is a House speaker who can cut your head off and you wont even know youre bleeding, as Pelosis daughter put it recently. I think that as long as Ocasio-Cortez commands a large following, the Democrat establishment will have to tolerate her. Whatever the case, shes truly dangerous not just to the Democrats but to the country. For shes a true believer in all the wrong things. Image: screenshot from YouTube video of Ocasio-Cortez interview on MSNBC | https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/31157-what-s-the-democrat-establishment-going-to-do-about-troublemaker-ocasio-cortez |
How do genetic differences affect the risk of bipolar disorder? | Fresh insights from a recent study of the genetics and biology of bipolar disorder could improve the diagnosis and treatment of the debilitating condition. A new study shows how specific genetic differences affect neural circuits and raise the risk of bipolar disorder as a result. A new study shows how specific genetic differences affect neural circuits and raise the risk of bipolar disorder as a result. So concluded the scientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge who carried out the novel research. In previous work, they had already shown that a protein called candidate plasticity gene 2 (CPG2) helps to regulate the strength of synapses in brain circuits. Synapses are the connectors through which nerve cells, or neurons, relay chemical signals to each other. In the more recent research, the investigators found that the brains of people with bipolar disorder contained unusually low levels of CPG2. They also linked specific variants in the gene for CPG2 to dysfunction in synapses. These same genetic differences happen to occur in people with bipolar disorder. The team reports the findings in a paper that now features in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. "It's a rare situation," says senior study author Elly Nedivi, who is a professor in the Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences departments at MIT, "where people have been able to link mutations genetically associated with increased risk of a mental health disorder to the underlying cellular dysfunction." "For bipolar disorder this might be the one and only," she adds. She and her colleagues are not suggesting that the gene variants that they uncovered actually cause bipolar disorder. What they are proposing, however, is that having those particular genetic differences could make people more susceptible to bipolar disorder. In laboratory models, for instance, they sometimes observed synapse dysfunction with combined rather than single variants. Bipolar and role of CPG2 in synapses According to the National Institute of Mental Health, around 4.4 percent of adults in the United States will have bipolar disorder at some point in their lives. People with bipolar disorder experience episodes of mania and depression that bring on extreme shifts in mood, activity levels, and energy. The episodes are much more severe than the "ups and downs" that affect most people. They can make it very difficult to carry out daily tasks, get along with people, study, and pursue a career. Bipolar disorder is a major cause of disability and high rates of death by suicide. Drugs do not always work and not everyone with bipolar will experience complete recovery between episodes. Prof. Nedivi and her team have been studying synapses for many years. They discovered that CPG2 influences synaptic strength by helping to regulate the number of receptors for the chemical signals that pass between neurons. Low CPG2 tied to bipolar disorder The gene that holds the instructions for making CPG2 is Spectrin Repeat Containing Nuclear Envelope Protein 1 (SYNE1). On learning that studies had linked variants in SYNE1 to raised risk of bipolar disorder, the team decided to investigate the underlying biology in the light of their own findings about CPG2. The researchers began by examining postmortem brain tissue from various brain banks. The samples came from people who had received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, or other psychiatric conditions that share some of its symptoms, such as schizophrenia or major depression. They also examined samples from individuals who did not have any of these conditions. The examinations revealed that only brain tissue from people with bipolar disorder contained significantly less CPG2. The bipolar samples did not show lower levels of other proteins known to play a role in synaptic functions: only CPG2 was lower. "Our findings," the authors write, "show a specific correlation between low CPG2 levels and incidence of [bipolar disorder] that is not shared with schizophrenia or major depression patients." Search for links to SYNE1 variants The researchers then used deep-sequencing tools to search for SYNE1 variants in the bipolar brain tissue samples that had shown reduced levels of CPG2. They focused their efforts on the regions of the gene that control CPG2 expression and therefore the amount that cells produce. In a separate exercise, they also searched genomic archives to identify variants in CPG2-encoding regions of SYNE1. Differences in this coding can affect the structure and function of the protein. In experiments with cultured neurons, the team then examined the cellular effects of both types of variants: those in the CPG2 expression-altering region of SYNE1 and those in the coding region for the protein. Effects from single and combined variants The results showed that some expression-altering gene variants had no effect on CPG2 level, while others altered it significantly. The team also found two examples of paired variants that reduced CPG2 expression but that had no effect as single variants. There was also a range of results in the experiments with protein-coding variants. These identified SYNE1 differences that altered the structure or function of CPG2 in specific ways. For instance, one SYNE1 variant reduced the ability of CPG2 to attach to the "spines" that contain excitatory synapses, while another impaired the cycling of receptors in the synapses. The findings reveal how specific SYNE1 differences that occur in people with bipolar disorder can upset the function of a protein that plays a key role in the connections in brain circuits. Further research is now needed to determine how bipolar disorder might develop from such cellular disruptions. Prof. Nedivi and her team are planning to examine the effect of some of the variants on behavior in animals. They also want to look more closely at some of the disrupted cell processes and how they might fix them. Alongside these studies, they will continue to investigate human samples to find out more about the specific gene variants and their links to the risk and development of bipolar disorder. | https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324147.php |
Why has David Dimbleby left Question Time? | David Dimbleby will leave Question Time at the end of the year (Picture: BBC) Its all change on Question Time following David Dimblebys departure from the show last month. The veteran presenter fronted the political programme for the last time in December, with Fiona Bruce making her debut in the hot seat as she takes over from David on Thursday night. The 80-year-old received a standing ovation as he closed his last ever show just before Christmas, thanking audience and production staff for their support. BREAKING: David Dimbleby announces that he will leave @bbcquestiontime in December 2018, after 25 years as presenter of the programme. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/qmy9WDlXCI BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) June 17, 2018 David said It was the right moment to leave, as the news was announced, adding: It has been a privilege to work for a programme which brings voters face to face with those in power. Advertisement Advertisement He plans now to return to my first love: reporting. Paying tribute, BBC Director General Tony Hall said at the time: David has been at the helm of Question Time for over 25 years: a brilliant champion of the public and the audiences friend getting the answers they want on the big and difficult issues of the day. He added: Always a commanding figure, David has ensured Question Time has not only stayed relevant through the years, but a must watch for those interested in politics and current affairs. David hosted his last edition of the show just before Christmas (Picture: BBC) The BBC and the public are extraordinarily lucky to have him in what are to say the least interesting times politically and socially. We look forward to working with him on other projects in the future. David had hosted Question Time since 1994 and didnt miss a show for the first 15 years, until he was knocked out by a bullock at his Sussex farm and taken to hospital as a precaution. Fiona was confirmed as Davids replacement in December after hosting a pilot episode of the show with panellists and a live audience. For many years Question Time has been presented by one of my television heroes so I am thrilled and not a little daunted to be stepping into his shoes, she said. But it is a programme I have watched for as long as I can remember and have long wanted to be part of. The show is on BBC One on Thursday night at 10.45pm. If you've got a story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk Entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you. | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/10/why-has-david-dimbleby-left-question-time-8329186/ |
Does the Jaguars' stadium need upgrades? | JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The president of the Jacksonville Jaguars raised some eyebrows this week when he said that TIAA Bank Field will likely need to be upgraded or rebuilt in years to come. The Jaguars have been quick to clarify this was in response to a question about Jacksonville hypothetically hosting another Super Bowl in the future. In 1994, demolition began on the city's old stadium to clear the way for a facility up to NFL standards that would be the home field for the Jaguars. Construction took under 20 months and cost $134 million, $60 of which was provided by the city of Jacksonville. The stadium was completed in August 1995 in time for the Jaguars' inaugural first home game. In November 2013, Jacksonville's City Council approved $63 million in improvements to EverBank Field, toward which Jaguars owner Shah Khan would contribute $20 million. Renovations included two end zone video scoreboards 362-foot-long that were the largest HD LED of their kind in the world, a platform area in the north end zone with two wading pools. After that, Daily's Place Amphitheater and Flex Field were built. Now, Jaguars President Mark Lamping is talking about whether millions of more dollars could be needed in years to come. Lamping made headlines when he was quoted in the Jacksonville Daily Record, saying, Theres no question that TIAA Bank Field has aged well ... But at some point in time, theres going to have to be a stadium solution. The Jaguars pointed out that Lamping was talking about if Jacksonville wants to get another Super Bowl, which would take a lot more than an upgraded stadium but also improved hotels. SLIDESHOW: Many names, faces of Jacksonville's football stadium City Councilman Jim Love said there won't be upgrades at the Bank for a while, but there will be eventually. "Their lease ends in 2030 and theres talk about, maybe, a Super Bowl again. And to get that, were going to have to do some improvements," Love said. "The east side of the stadium is not covered and its pretty hot in the summertime or early season." News4Jax sports reporter Cole Pepper said the shade issues is key, as well as everything from Wi-Fi to comfortable seats and shorter lines to get a beer, to draw people away from their TVs to the downtown stadium. "TVs are bigger than ever," Pepper said. "You might have a TV thats the size (of a wall) before too long, where you can sit there and watch the TV on an entire wall and the beers cheaper and you dont have to worry about parking and you dont have to worry about the guy next to you getting rowdy." Football fan Sean Evans said he's in favor of a new stadium, even if it costs taxpayers money. "Give them a new stadium," Evans said. "Taxpayers are fans. I'm a fan. Let's go." But ootball fan Susan Hill said she doesn't think the stadium is a problem. "It seems like a perfectly fine stadium," Hill said. "Ive been to a few games and their season wasnt so great, so maybe we should wait until theyre winning a little bit to think about that." The mayors office released a short statement saying there have been no discussions on the stadium. Below is the full statement from the Jaguars: Mark Lamping participated in a wide-ranging panel discussion on Monday night on the topic of downtown development. His comments were made in response to a question about whether Jacksonville would ever be awarded another Super Bowl. His answer reflected both a long term need for stadium enhancements and the growth of hotel, commercial and residential properties in and around the Sports Complex. All elements are essential to the success of downtown Jacksonville. This is a sentiment he and the Jaguars have expressed many times before and will continue to in the future." Copyright 2019 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved. | https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/jacksonville/does-the-jaguars-stadium-need-upgrades |
Are Big Banks A Buy Before Earnings Season? | Earnings season for big banks kicks off next week, with Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) scheduled to report Monday followed by heavyweights JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) on Tuesday. Two experts have mixed views. 'Very Cautious' Taking a look at the chart for the financial sector ETF, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLF), investors should be "very cautious" heading into next week's busy earnings season, Blue Line Futures President Bill Baruch said during a recent CNBC "Trading Nation" segment. The chart is showing "a lot of overhead resistance" around the $25 level, and recent weakness has the ETF gravitating closer to the 50-day moving average, he said. Also important to consider: bank stocks have in the past reported "solid" earnings, only for the stocks to show a "knee-jerk reaction," Baruch said. Despite a "lot of resistance" in the financial sector ETF, investors can take advantage of a "a great buy for the long term" if shares dip below key resistance levels, he said. 'Certainly Bullish' Stacey Gilbert, head of derivative strategy at Susquehanna Financial Group, took the other side of the debate and said activity in the option market is "certainly bullish." Upside call buyers are building positions through call spreads, she said. | https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/19/01/12965834/are-big-banks-a-buy-before-earnings-season |
Who plays Evie Steele in EastEnders Sophia Capasso's age and career? | Actress: Sophia Capasso plays Evie Steele in EastEnders (Picture: Harmoni Everett/ BBC) Evie Steele has made quite an impact in Walford since she joined EastEnders last year. The character is one of Albert Squares biggest schemers, central to the Tiffany Dean grooming storyline. But for those of you who want to know more about who plays Evie, heres what we know about the actress Actress Sophia Capasso plays the role of Evie Steele in the BBC soap, first appearing in EastEnders on 13 November 2018. Sophia Capasso plays Evie Steele (Picture: Instagram) She has only been involved in one storyline so far, which is the Tiffany Dean grooming plot. Evie is the leader of the gang of drug dealers causing havoc in Albert Square at the moment. Sophia Capasso as Evie Steele in EastEnders (Picture: BBC / Kieron McCarron) Tiffany was at first impressed by Evie, and desperate to impress her, did anything she asked, eventually with the pair getting closer than just friends. Advertisement Advertisement But Tiffany is set to become the collateral damage after Evie is left humiliated by Phil Mitchell. Tiffany wants to get back into Evies good books and will do almost anything to do that. Evie knows this and gives her an impossible task to find a replacement for Rat. Tiffany has no idea how shes going to do this, but she absolutely has to in order to keep on the right side of Evie. When Evie suffers an embarrassing run-in with Phil Mitchell and Dennis at the cafe and she takes her humiliation out on her newest recruit. She changes her demands not only must Tiffany find a replacement for Rat, the replacement must be Phils son Dennis. Its not clear how long Evie will be hanging around Walford for. Before EastEnders, Sophia appeared in a number of TV series including Chasing Shadows, Suspects, Doctors, Dixi, Endeavour and, most recently, Holby City. Sophia has both Twitter and Instagram accounts but shes not as prolific a social media user as some of her co-stars. Advertisement Advertisement She tweeted on-set pictures when she was announced as playing Evie last year and has since then only posted a handful of pictures, giving fans a glimpse into her personal life. | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/10/who-plays-evie-steele-in-eastenders-all-you-need-to-know-about-actress-sophia-capasso-8331184/ |
How can we help people living with chronic fatigue and depression? | Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (myalgic encephalopathy) is estimated to effect 250,000 people in the UK. It is a serious and debilitating illness that at times can render its sufferers unable to function effectively due to the level of fatigue. ME is more than just exhaustion. According to Dr Charles Shepherd, medical advisor to charity ME Association, the condition can cause greater functional impairment and poorer quality of life than many other serious medical conditions. ME has a unique and defining clinical feature known as postexertional malaise a delayed exacerbation of symptoms that can follow even minor physical or mental exertion (such as movement or exercise), he says. Research has discovered significant abnormalities in the central nervous system, immune system, endocrine (hormone producing) system, and in muscle, causing energy metabolism impairment. Chronic fatigue syndrome is described by the World Health Organisation as a neurological disease. There is still so much that doctors do not fully know about the condition but medical research continues to discover more about it and best courses of treatment. Advertisement Advertisement As well as physical side effects, having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME) also affects mental health. Those with the condition often develop depression and anxiety due to its impact on their lives. Sonya Chowdhury, chief executive of charity Action for ME, tells Metro.co.uk: We know that ME scores lower on health-related quality of life tests than some cancers, depression, schizophrenia, chronic renal failure in fact, most other chronic conditions. Its key symptom is post-exertional malaise, the body and brains inability to recover after using even small amounts of energy. This leads to a flare-up in chronic fatigue and pain, cognitive difficulties, inflammation and a range of other symptoms. The daily challenge of living with these symptoms can, unsurprisingly, lead to anxiety or depression for many of the 250,000 with ME in the UK. Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome/ME: Extreme tiredness that doesnt go away with rest or sleep Sleep problems, such as insomnia Muscle or joint pain Headaches A sore throat Problems thinking and concentrating Difficulty remembering things Feeling fizzy or sick Fast or irregular heartbeats Post-exertional malaise, where symptoms get worse after a physical or mental activity Chronic fatigue is categorised as mild, moderate, or severe. There may be times when symptoms get better or worse. Mild youre able to carry out everyday activities, such as work, studies or housework, but with difficulty; you may need to give up hobbies or social activities so you can rest in your spare time youre able to carry out everyday activities, such as work, studies or housework, but with difficulty; you may need to give up hobbies or social activities so you can rest in your spare time Moderate you may have difficulty moving around easily and problems carrying out daily activities; you may not be able to work or continue with your education and may need to rest often; and you may also have problems sleeping at night you may have difficulty moving around easily and problems carrying out daily activities; you may not be able to work or continue with your education and may need to rest often; and you may also have problems sleeping at night Severe you may only be able to do very basic daily tasks, such as brushing your teeth; you may be housebound or even bedbound and may need a wheelchair to get around; and you may also have difficulty concentrating, be sensitive to noise and light, and take a long time to recover after activities involving extra effort, such as leaving the house or talking for long periods When someone with ME experiences a mental health issue, it can be tough accessing treatment that does not exacerbate their illness. In some cases, exercise and some medication can be helpful in managing depression but absolutely not if you are living with ME, an illness made worse by exercise, and one which can also cause increased sensitivity to medication. Advertisement Advertisement Action for ME continue to say that having a well informed GP to assist with both depression and ME is important. Having appropriate and different treatments are vital, so that the mental health treatments dont make the neurological side of ME worse. Dr Natasha Bijlani, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Priory Hospital Roehampton agrees. She tells Metro.co.uk: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME) is a very debilitating, long term condition with a fluctuating course that results in extreme physical fatigue to the extent that sufferers struggle to even get out of bed, let alone cope with the most basic every day tasks. Not surprisingly then, this can tremendously impact on mental health, with people becoming depressed and developing low self esteem and confidence. The first step in coping with any condition like CFS (ME) that is unlikely to resolve quickly is to accept the diagnosis and then to try to manage fluctuating symptoms, following medical advice. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has a very good evidence base for managing the negative psychological aspects of any condition, and especially ME. We spoke to some people who are dealing with chronic fatigue and mental health issues. Elle I first developed symptoms 10 years ago and found it completely debilitating. We all get tired from time to time especially with work and children thrown into the mix. But chronic fatigue is exactly that chronic. Its beyond tiredness. The feeling of overwhelming weakness leaves you almost completely incapacitated and no amount of sleep refreshes you. Something as simple as making a cup of coffee or getting dressed is exhausting. Advertisement When I have flare-ups, it affects everyone around me, particularly my son, who gets annoyed when I cant do things with him. Most recently, the pain of my arthritis coupled with the severe fatigue makes getting up for work a horrendous chore and I cant wait to go back to bed again at the end of the day. Its not just feelings of emptiness or sadness, its an unbearable but unreachable pain My depression started when I was in my teens and was not well managed until my mid-twenties. It took a long time to find medication that was effective, and even now I have episodes when I struggle to eat, leave the house, or take care of myself. Its not just feelings of emptiness or sadness, its an unbearable but unreachable pain. I think, like any hidden illness, people dont comprehend the life-inhibiting effects. Because you look absolutely fine on the outside, there really is no way of people knowing how you feel unless you speak up. Even then, the unpredictable nature of both conditions means that one week you may be relatively normal and then the next week feel as if your life is falling apart. While there are certainly things I can do to manage my conditions, I cant cure or control them completely. Nicole I have experienced chronic fatigue syndrome twice in my life. Firstly, aged 10, shortly after a lot of family trauma, and secondly age 24, after work stress. In between I fully recovered, both times. Advertisement My symptoms included feeling total exhaustion, unable to walk, heavy legs, memory fog, headaches and fear of getting worse, along with anxiety and low mood. For a while, it felt like CFS really impacted my life. I lost my job, and it felt like the end of the world, but what I want to share with people now is how this can actually be the universes way of showing you where you are meant to be. As I allowed my life to unravel, I actually retrained as a wellbeing mentor and I transformed my life by doing that. I awakened to a profound understanding about life, and how we are experiencing life via thought in the moment, that allowed me to see depression, CFS, and our wellbeing in general, quite differently. I eventually set up a blog to help share this message, and I now help people tap back into their innate wellbeing I want people to know that there is absolutely hope of recovery, as well as acceptance that you are perfectly whole even though you are ill. I am the embodiment of that; I know it is possible. I used to hear some doctors say it is all in your head and it would really upset me. It isnt all in your head at all; the symptoms are very real. (Picture: Singularis Photography) I was diagnosed with CFS/ME at 14. I always had a sore throat and cough, and was generally rundown and exhausted. The doctor did all the usual tests and said I had it. I have always tried to hide it as much as possible. I try to fit in extra naps after lunch when I can. However, I am lucky in that my illness is a mild form, and as I have got older, I have learnt to manage it, and rest before I reach that totally exhausted stage. After my sons were born I suffered severe postnatal depression. CFS/ME for me, means I have to be a bit careful. For depression, running and yoga helped so much. You need to learn to be kind to yourself. I try to eat well and generally appreciate I am not superwoman, but thats okay. Its okay not to be perfect, to be tired, and to accept help every now and then. Thats a hard lesson to learn, and its taken me a long time to get there. Emma* (Picture: Phbe Lou Morson for Metro.co.uk) The term chronic fatigue was first mentioned when I was in my late teens Id been suffering periods of debilitating tiredness for ages and having mentioned this to my GP they suggested that it could be CFS. I started experiencing some more severe symptoms such as memory loss, clumsiness and severe joint and muscle pain. My new GP helped me investigate further. Symptoms can be so vast and no two people are the same, but I constantly feel like Ive not slept and run a marathon while carrying a bucket of water on my head. Ill have bad days when I just want to cry with the all over shooting pains and foggy head, and others where I feel pretty much normal. Ive found that lately it has been the frustration of not being able to get things done, not being as organised as I usually am, having to give up hobbies and not join in as many social events as I would like to. Its been a really tough few terms for my being a teacher, and I think it has definitely been a lot harder to keep on top of the game I have found that my mental health has started to deteriorate. This is to do with feeling so helpless and slightly lost not knowing who to talk to and how to describe exactly how you are feeling. I have also been one of the hundreds of unlucky people who is still waiting for referral appointments to specialists who will be able to help me better manage it and balance my life a bit more than I currently can. I think people just need to be more aware of the condition in general if someone is telling you they feel tired or ill frequently dont just roll your eyes and say youre always tired. Ask them if theres anything you can do to help. MORE: Six women open up about what it was like to have an abortion Advertisement Advertisement | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/10/what-its-like-to-live-with-chronic-fatigue-and-depression-8269651/ |
What is the milk diet and is it dangerous? | The most extreme form of the milk diet involves consuming nothing but milk for an entire month. No food, just four pints of milk every day, for four weeks. We have to be honest this sounds completely ludicrous. Any diet that advises cutting out all food in this way sounds like bad news. And a diet this restrictive will surely leave you lacking in a whole range of vital nutrients. But its January, and that means people are going really extra on the weight-loss front so the milk diet is being searched for a lot online. So, before you chuck everything out of your fridge and tie up a cow in your back garden, lets have a look at the facts. The diet plan which has actually been around for decades involves drinking four pints of semi skimmed milk for a month. Thats it. Advertisement Advertisement The science behind it is scant, but there appears to be an argument that consuming high levels of calcium leads to weight loss as it helps the body rid itself of fat, particularly abdominal fat. Yeah, that and not eating any solid food should do the trick. But if youre still at all tempted by the milk diet, this damning indictment by registered associate nutritionist, Sophie Bertrand, should put you off. The milk diet requires you to cut out pretty much everything expect milk. Cutting out food groups and relying on certain foods to help you lose weight is never going to lead to long term happiness, Sophie tells Metro.co.uk In fact, it will most likely lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and may be quite dangerous. By going on such extreme diets, you are also at risk of deficiency of certain nutrients including fibre. Of course if you cut out food and just drink milk, youre going to lose weight but you will also probably be extremely unhappy and likely to put the weight back on when you cant stand only drinking milk everyday. Fad diets like this are completely unsustainable. This diet is one of the most ridiculous Ive seen as it is just so restrictive. I would not recommend it for weight loss. There are also less extreme versions of the diet that recommend drinking a glass of milk before each meal to help control portion size and therefore calorie intake essentially it means you wont be as hungry, so you wont need to eat as much at meal times. Advertisement Advertisement This seems like a less dangerous option, and gives you the benefit of consuming regular calcium and vitamin D from the milk but it could still lead to a dubious relationship with food, calories and portions. Ultimately, theres no quick fix when it comes to weight-loss. If you want to lose weight and maintain it, then you have to develop healthy, sustainable habits that work for you in the long term. Anything that makes you miserable or pushes you to the brink of starvation wont give you the results you really want. Advertisement Advertisement | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/10/milk-diet-dangerous-8328852/ |
What Kind of Populist Is Elizabeth Warren? | Six months ago, with the 2020 Presidential race barely within view, Elizabeth Warren mentioned a new political theme on which she intended to concentrate. Opposing corruption, she told a reporter, is becoming a much more defining part of my work. Corruption has a common-sense definition, one that is quite stark: The seizure of governmental authority by special interests at the expense of the general welfare, as Richard L. McCormick, a historian of political corruption in America and a former president of Rutgers University, put it to me this week. By early fall, when Warren introduced the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act in the Senate, she seemed to have something broader in mind. In a speech at the National Press Club, Warren said, Our government systematically favors the rich over the poor, the donor class over the working class, the well connected over the disconnected. This is deliberate, and we need to call this what it iscorruption, plain and simple. Populists, even radical populists, often deploy the passive voice, speaking of inequality or a rigged game. Warrens talk about corruption was bracing and direct. Someone was to blame. At the National Press Club, Warren mentioned Mick Mulvaney, the former Republican congressman from South Carolina who is now the acting White House chief of staff. Warren said, After he left Congress, Mulvaney told a roomful of bankers that he had a rule in his office: if a lobbyist didnt give him money, the lobbyist didnt get a meeting. Warren went on to tell the story of Billy Tauzin, the former Republican congressman from Louisiana. From within Congress, Tauzin helped to engineer the passage of Medicare Part D, which authorized the government to pay more than a hundred billion dollars in prescription-drug costs. He then got hired to lead the pharmaceutical lobby in Washington. Billy delivered, Warren said. She continued, Sometimes the payoff comes upfront. Goldman Sachs handed Gary Cohn over a quarter of a billion dollars on his way out the door to become the head of President Trumps National Economic Council. A quarter of a billion dollars to help quarterback a tax package that included giveaways worth just over a quarter of a billion to Goldmanin the first quarter of 2018 alone. The Trump Administration, Warren said, has given us the most nakedly corrupt leadership this nation has seen in our lifetimes. But they are not the cause of the rottheyre just the biggest, stinkiest example of it. She had recently introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, a bill to reform the largest American companies, in part by requiring that forty per cent of the seats on their boards of directors be selected by employees. In business, as in government, she had noticed a pervasive culture of soft corruption that colors virtually every important decision in Washington. From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth, Richard McCormick, the historian, noted, anti-corruption was a theme of every major political movement. During the financial crisis of 2008, it returned, with the Occupy movement, and, during the 2016 election, Donald Trumps swamp and Bernie Sanderss rigged game rapidly brought it to the center of American political life. Warren, a Harvard bankruptcy scholar and the engineer of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has the habits and authority of an expert; even so, for her, the idea of corruption seems to hold broad explanatory power. Last Wednesday, appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, Warren mentioned the word corruption or alluded to it seven times. When asked how she saw the President, Warren replied, I see him as what happens when corruption invades a system. Two days later, when she arrived in Iowa to advance her case for the Presidency, she also seemed to introduce a new approach to American populism. Warrens tour of Iowa last weekend began in Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from William Jennings Bryans old political base, in Nebraska. The crowd was overflowing, as it would be at her other events, and she mentioned the President only in passing. Warren dwelled instead on her childhood, in Oklahoma, not poor but not steady either, and the moment when she saw her mother, past fifty and a lifelong homemaker, pacing her bedroom, her one fancy dress laid out on the bed, preparing for an interview for a minimum-wage job and repeating to herself, We will not lose this house. She got the job, minimum wage was enough, and the house was saved. Warren said that she had long understood this as a story about the tenacity of ordinary people but had come to see that it was a story about government, about what it had once made possible. The popular take on Warren when she began her political career was that she was awkward on stage, uncomfortable with the performative parts of the job. The solution turned out to be projecting grit, wielding her awkwardness as a signal of her determination. Her stage presence is full of punctuations: the left fist thrust upward, the ostentatious woo-hoo! While the Sanders and Trump campaigns shared a certain shagginess, a Warren event is a clockwork operation. The candidate arrives and leaves as scheduled. Her Presidential stump speech, which she dbuted, in Iowa, this week, lands at fifteen minutes, with only a few seconds of variation. The biographical section, with which she opens, takes almost exactly five minutes. A staffer or friend, pulling ticket numbers from a bucket, selects audience members to ask questions. After each event, there was a line to take a selfie with the senator, at the end of which you handed your phone to an aide, who passed it to a second aide, who held it over her head and snapped a half-dozen photos before handing it to a third aide, who gave it back to you. The Warren campaign is a populist undertaking, in that it seeks to organize rage at Washington and the elites, but it does so with expert efficiency. A woman of about sixty, with long hair and a slightly ethereal bearing, had her number called, and she walked up to the microphone and read her question from a phone. Her name was Catherine Nicholson, and she said that, even though she is a conservative, she supports Warren, whose advocacy on behalf of families she admires. Her son had recently died of brain cancer, at twenty-two, and the event had sharpened her sense of the frustrations of the health-care system. The atmosphere between the two women was inexplicably tense. Catherine and I know one another, Warren said. Nicholson, it turned out, had been a student and research assistant of Warrens, at the University of Texas School of Law, and later worked for her, before converting to Catholicism and homeschooling her children. Nicholson kept going. In this part of the country, she said, too many people who might otherwise find Warren appealing would write her off because she was pro-choice. (Nicholson had a point: last May, Iowas governor had signed one of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in the nation, the so-called fetal-heartbeat law.) Nicholson urged her old professor to rethink her position on abortion, suggesting that it might win her the support of conservatives. There was a quiet moment, and then Warren said, to a burst of applause, that the role of government is to back out and allow women the right to choose. I found Nicholson after the event. She said that, of course, she hadnt really expected Warren to become pro-life, but that any sensitivity would be most welcome. Nicholson is now a caregiver for her mother, who has Alzheimers; she spends her days listening to Fox News, her mothers preference, and her nights speaking with friends. Some of them have dismissed Warren with one word, Pocahontas, and Nicholson urges them to take another view. She seemed to have in mind the person she had known, rather than the more partisan figure on the stage in Council Bluffs. When Warren was asked, by a reporter, how she might appeal to Trump voters in Iowa, she said evenly that she was not a professional politician. She mentioned that, of her three ex-military brothers, just one was a Democrat, and she let that hang in the air. Nicholson had wondered, in part, how the cultural gap between her old friend and her new ones could be bridged. But conservatives seemed far from Warrens mind. | https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-kind-of-populist-is-elizabeth-warren |
Why Would Paul Manafort Share Polling Data with Russia? | On Tuesday, when news broke that Donald Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort had shared internal polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian business associate of his with ties to Russian intelligence, the through line between the campaign and the Kremlin began to look incontrovertible. The revelation came in an inadvertently unredacted court document, which was filed by Manaforts lawyers in response to charges made by the special counsel Robert Mueller that Manafort had lied to investigators. According to the New York Times, somebut not allof the data was already in the public domain. The rest came from the campaigns own polling operation. Trump, who famously eschewed polling in the early days of his campaign and told the Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that pollsters were a waste of his money, eventually had five polling firms working to get him elected. All were hired after Manafort joined the campaign, in March, 2016, without pay. Five months later, he was forced to resign when it was revealed that he had failed to disclose his work as a foreign agent on behalf of pro-Russia political forces in Ukraine. Since then, of course, Manafort has been convicted of multiple counts of financial fraud. In June, Trump downplayed Manaforts tenure on his campaign, telling reporters, You know, Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. But F.B.I. wiretaps show that Manafort continued his association with Trump long after he resigned. Manafort was also in touch with his business partner, Rick Gatesnow considered to be Robert Muellers star witnesswho had been his deputy campaign manager and remained a White House insider. But, even more significant, it was Paul Manafort who decided to hire Tony Fabrizio as the campaigns chief pollster. Their friendship dates back to the nineteen-ninetiesFabrizio and Manafort worked together on the Presidential campaign of Bob Dole. Fabrizio also worked for Manafort in Ukraine, earning $278,500 for the same type of work he would later do for Trumppolling and surveying to help elevate Viktor Yanukovychs Party of Regions in the 2012 parliamentary elections. During the same period, Manafort dispersed $531,000 to Kilimnik, his translator and fixer in Ukraine, for professional services. According to a report in Bloomberg about Manaforts Ukrainian ventures, Fabrizio is included in e-mail chains with Manafort and Kilimnik. Fabrizio, a native New Yorker who now lives in Florida, has worked for dozens of Republican candidates, including Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst, and Rand Paul, and is a senior counsellor at Mercury Public Affairs, which Mueller referred to federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, for failing to register as a foreign agent for its lobbying work on behalf of Ukraine. Fabrizios company, Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, bills itself as one of the leading survey research and campaign strategists in the nation. We were honored to have the privilege to serve as Chief Pollsters for President Donald J. Trumps historic upset victory, the companys Web site declares, at the top of its home page. But the firm also had the experience of many people who have worked for Trump: for a time, it was reported that Trump stiffed the company three-quarters of a million dollars for its services on the Presidential campaign. If nothing else, Fabrizio was familiar with both principals in this story. (Fabrizio did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Adam Geller, the founder and C.E.O. of National Research, a Republican polling firm that worked with Fabrizio on the Trump campaign, told me, I honestly have no idea what was and wasnt shared with the Russians. In the final months of the race, National Research was responsible for polling in Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Iowa. By then, Manafort, whom Geller never had any direct contact with, had left the campaign. (Another polling firm employed by Trump was the Polling Company, whose C.E.O., Kellyanne Conway, replaced Manafort as campaign manager after he resigned.) But, for a time, Fabrizio was at the helm of Trumps polling operation, and it was his job to share polling information with Trumps campaign manager. The contested swing states that Trump narrowlyand surprisinglywon, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, were also places where both the Trump campaign and Russias Internet Research Agency focussed their efforts. Herein lies at least one answer to the question of why Russia would want the Trump campaigns polling data: it potentially gave them granular demographic targets for their bots and propaganda. In her analysis of five million paid, issue-based Facebook adswhich covered such hot-button issues as gun rights, abortion, gay rights, immigration, terrorism, and raceduring a six-week period of the 2016 Presidential campaign, the University of Wisconsin professor Young Mie Kim discovered that the most highly targeted statesespecially Pennsylvania and Wisconsingenerally overlap with the battleground states with razor thin margins. These were ads placed by two hundred and twenty-eight groups, many of which were later linked to the Internet Research Agency. Kim also found that these efforts were calibrated to certain demographics. Low-income white voters, for example, were targeted with ads focussing on immigration and race. An even more comprehensive analysis by Oxfords Computational Propaganda Project, which was released last month, shows just how pervasive Russias inflammatory targeting was. On Facebook, the five most shared and the five most liked posts focused on divisive issues, with pro-gun ownership content, anti-immigration content pitting immigrants against veterans, content decrying police violence against African Americans, and content that was anti-Muslim, anti-refugee, anti-Obama, and pro-Trump, the researchers wrote. The posts developed by the Internet Research Agency tended to mimic conservative views against gun control and for increased regulation of immigrants. In some cases, terms such as parasites were used to reference immigrants and others expressed some tolerance of extremist views. These posts increased almost seven-fold between 2015before Manafort joined Trumps teamand 2016, when he, and the pollsters he hired, were guiding the campaign. Not long after the election, in an interview with Frontline, Fabrizio offered a glimpse of how this data was gathered, and how crucial it was to Trumps victory. One of the groups that we created early on in the campaign from the polling was what I called Trump targets, Fabrizio said. These were voters who wanted to change direction, wanted a new direction, werent voting for Trump, werent hardcore Democrats, werent hardcore liberals, werent hardcore Hillary supporters. Knowing who to target, where they were, and which issues resonated with them gave Trumps digital team crucial information for their advertisements and social media messaging. We would report out to the senior team what markets those voters were concentrated in, Fabrizio told Frontline. In Florida, literally, if you changed four counties in Florida, twenty-nine electoral votes would have been off the table. Four counties. When Kost Bondarenko, one of Manaforts long-time Ukrainian associates, told The Daily Beast in May, 2017, that Trump won because of Manafort, this is what he may have meant. Fabrizios polling also showed something else: from the start, Trumps overt racismhis claims that Mexicans were rapists and that Muslims were terrorists, for examplewas popular. Hed shoot straight with them. And thats what they were looking for. The Internet Research Agency, we now know, also exploited Americans xenophobia and prejudices, tendencies that had been lurking close to the surface of U.S. politics long before Trump came along. But knowing where to direct their Facebook ads and Instagram posts would have been quite useful. (It should be noted that Russia engaged in a similar socially divisive online campaign on behalf of Manaforts client, Viktor Yanukovych, in Ukraine.) Once Russian efforts to destabilize the American electorate and promote Donald Trumps candidacy were revealed, there appeared to be a strange and inexplicable synergy between the Trump campaign and Russias propaganda offensive. When the Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, spoke on the podcast Pod Save America, in April, 2017, he wondered if the Trump teams data had been passed along to the Russians, given their uncanny ability to target states and levels of voters that the Democrats werent even aware [of]. At the time, all eyes were on Brad Parscale, Jared Kushner, and their digital team, especially Cambridge Analytica, whose swing-state targeting was suspiciously spot on. But it seemed to be one of the few instances in which Manafort, who had left the campaign shortly after Cambridge Analytica had been hired, escaped public scrutiny. Mueller, who had launched his investigation a month earlier, has long had his sights on Manafort. We now know his investigation into the former Trump campaign chairman involves far more than financial crimes. | https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-would-paul-manafort-share-polling-data-with-russia |
Is It True That Morning Sickness Means Something Good? | So many health-related rumors about pregnancy seem to stick whether or not they have any basis in, you know, actual medicine. A big one you may have heard: Morning sickness means something good about the health of your pregnancy, even though it obviously feels horrid in the moment. We talked to ob/gyns and dug through the research for the truth. Good sign or not, one thing is clear: Morning sickness can be a truly sucky experience. Morning sickness, or nausea and vomiting during pregnancy that is estimated to affect up to 80 percent of pregnant people , usually starts before nine weeks of gestation, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). How much morning sickness you have and how severe it is really [vary], Christine Greves, M.D., a board-certified ob/gyn at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies, tells SELF. For some, morning sickness lasts for a few weeks or months, ACOG says. For an unlucky few, it lasts the whole pregnancy. And, although the morning sickness moniker is catchy, its not always accurate since you can experience pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting at any time. Its hard to say what, exactly, causes morning sickness, but doctors generally think it comes down to hormonal shifts. The most accepted theory relates to a rise in two hormones during pregnancy: human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and estrogen, Megan Quimper, M.D., an ob/gyn at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. HCG is secreted by the placenta , the organ your body creates during pregnancy to nourish the fetus via the umbilical cord. This hormone peaks in early pregnancy, which is when morning sickness is usually at its worst, Dr. Quimper explains. The placenta also produces estrogen , which increases during pregnancy and seems to contribute to morning sickness, Dr. Greves says. Besides those factors, its possible that a rise in progesterone , another hormone that supports pregnancy, can slow the digestive process and possibly add to morning sickness . Some pregnant peopleup to 3 percent experience the most severe form of morning sickness, called hyperemesis gravidarum . A doctor can diagnose you with hyperemesis gravidarum if youve lost at least 5 percent of your pre-pregnancy weight due to morning sickness and are having symptoms related to severe dehydration, ACOG says. Just like morning sickness, doctors arent 100 percent sure why hyperemesis gravidarum happens in some people, but experts are investigating the theory that theres a genetic link . ACOG also says that being pregnant with multiples, having a history of hyperemesis gravidarum, having a history of motion sickness or migraines , and being pregnant with a fetus that will be assigned female at birth may also raise your risk. While some evidence suggests that morning sickness is linked with a reduced risk of some pregnancy complications, theres not enough proof to say it means much either way. As a basic rule, having morning sickness typically indicates that a shift in hormones is taking place to sustain a pregnancy, Iffath Hoskins, M.D., clinical professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Health, tells SELF. (There are some exceptions, like if you have underlying conditions such as thyroid or liver disease that can cause unrelated nausea and vomiting while pregnant, the Mayo Clinic says.) But some experts believe that in addition to signaling hormonal shifts, morning sickness may offer some kind of defensive effect against pregnancy complications like miscarriage and preterm labor. However, the research to back up these claims is varied and not conclusive, so scientists arent yet sure whether or not this effect is real. A 2016 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzed data from 797 pregnant people in the United States who had previously experienced one or two miscarriages. The study authors found that morning sickness in early pregnancy seemed to have a protective association that resulted in a 50 to 75 percent reduced risk of miscarriage. Experts arent sure why this possible protective effect may exist, but one theory is that the nausea and vomiting represent that a viable placenta with sufficient hormones is supporting the fetus. A 2018 study published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth analyzed data from 96,056 pregnant people in Japan, finding that those who didnt experience morning sickness had a slightly higher rate of preterm births , while those who had severe morning sickness had the lowest risk. People with morning sickness also experienced fewer instances of issues like pregnancy-induced hypertension . Interestingly enough, though, people with morning sickness experienced higher rates of threatened abortion (vaginal bleeding with or without abdominal cramps in the first trimester ) and threatened premature labor (experiencing contractions before 37 weeks ). Theres a similarly interesting variation in a 2015 BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth study that examined 51,675 pregnant people in Norway, finding that those who experienced at least some nausea and vomiting during pregnancy had higher odds of complications like hypertension and preeclampsia than their symptom-free counterparts, but lower odds of issues like preterm birth and low birth weight. There are clearly a few intriguing potential links between morning sickness and maternal and fetal health, but science hasnt determined anything definitive so far. Its hard to prove cause and effect for any of these claims. The fact that so many people experience morning sickness makes it a tricky thing to study, Dr. Greves says. Think of all the variables involved that researchers need to rule out in order to truly investigate only the effect of morning sickness on pregnancy and childbirth without including any other factors. Various studies also point to an inconsistent research classification of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy as a complicating issue. Ultimately, the point is that theres no medical reason to think morning sickness is automatically a good or bad thing. Its just a thing that happens to many people while pregnant. Theres also no scientific reason to think that a lack of morning sickness is cause for concern. If you are not experiencing morning sickness, this does not mean the pregnancy is unhealthy, Dr. Quimper says. Experts dont know why some people experience morning sickness and others dont, but sailing through pregnancy without nausea and vomiting doesnt automatically mean anything is wrong. The only thing that can really be wrong when it comes to morning sickness is if you have hyperemesis gravidarum, because that means your nausea and vomiting are too severe. If you think you have hyperemesis gravidarum, you need to talk to your doctor about being especially on top of your health, nutrition, and hydration. First of all, it may help make you less miserable. Beyond that, the relentless nausea and vomiting can make it hard to get enough calories, which can theoretically negatively impact the fetuss growth in severe cases, Dr. Hoskins points out. With that said, the link here is also not definitive, as this 2017 Pharmacology review of 81 related studies explains, so you dont need to immediately be concerned that having hyperemesis gravidarum could affect your baby. This illness alone does not typically affect the health of your baby as pregnancies are very resilient, Dr. Quimper says. But talk to your doctor anyway. If you do have hyperemesis gravidarum, you may benefit from IV treatment and anti-nausea medications . The takeaway: Its entirely possibleand commonto have a healthy baby even if you have the most severe version of morning sickness. Its also completely possibleand, again, commonto have a healthy baby if you dont experience morning sickness at all. But if youre concerned about your level of morning sickness or anything else about your pregnancy, its always a good idea to check in with your doctor. Related: | https://www.self.com/story/what-does-morning-sickness-mean |
How Will the Government Shutdown Affect the FDA? | By Beth Mole for Ars Technica After a year plagued by deadly E. coli outbreaks linked to widely distributed romaine lettuce , 2019 is off to an anxiety-inducing start. With hundreds of food inspectors furloughed in the ongoing government shutdown, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended all routine inspections of domestic food processing facilities, according to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., who revealed the news in an interview with the Washington Post published Wednesday. Dr. Gottlieb said that the agency, which oversees about 80 percent of the food supply, is continuing to surveil foreign manufacturers and imported food, as well as any domestic producers involved in a current recall or outbreak. But the agency is skipping the 160-or-so routine food inspections it usually performs each week. In those evaluations, FDA inspectors assess manufacturing practices at food-processing facilities, as well as check for unsanitary conditions, such as infestations, and contamination issues. About a third of those 160 weekly inspections involve facilities that the agency considers high risk, Dr. Gottlieb added. High-risk facilities are those that either handle foods particularly vulnerable to safety issues, such as soft cheeses and seafood, or facilities that have a track record of food safety problems. We are doing what we can to mitigate any risk to consumers through the shutdown, Dr. Gottlieb told the paper. Hes now working on a plan to call back 150 inspectors to focus on the high-risk facilities. While those workers still wouldnt be paid until after the shutdown ends, Dr. Gottlieb said he was setting up an agency travel account to help those inspectors keep large balances off their personal credit cards. Still, Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs at nonprofit advocacy group The Center for Science in the Public Interest, called the missed inspections unacceptable. That puts our food supply at risk, Sorscher said. Regular inspections, which help stop foodborne illness before people get sick, are vital. Each year, an estimated 48 million people are sickened by foodborne illnesses in the U.S., leading to 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The good news is that meat, poultry, and egg facilities not inspected by the FDA are overseen by the US Department of Agriculture, which has maintained inspections during the government shutdown. Related: | https://www.self.com/story/government-shutdown-fda |
When will football leave bullying culture in the past? | Craig Bellamy knows how it feels to be on the wrong end of bullying in football. Life as a junior player at Norwich City became such a bruising daily experience at the hands of the club's veteran defender John Polston, whose boots he cleaned, that he would weep at his parents' house in Cardiff when it was time to go back. Every time he returned, Polston would order Bellamy to re-introduce himself and if the young Welshman had not made the tea to the defender's satisfaction, he would throw it in the sink and demand another. 'I think the rest of the players saw it as character-building,' Bellamy reflected in his autobiography. 'I agreed with certain aspects of it but it felt like bullying really. It felt like they were trying to break you.' Under investigation: Cardiff youth coach Craig Bellamy has denied allegations of bullying The old ways of hammering young players to prepare them for the physical battles of British football seem out of date. Players are asked to apply their intellects in a way that they were not at early 1990s Norwich; to think for themselves about tactical solutions and multiple systems of play. The game has awakened to the notion of nurturing, respecting and protecting children and considering their mental health. 'Young players often learn more from honey than vinegar,' says Simon Jordan, the former Crystal Palace owner who helped build a thriving academy at the club. David White, the former Manchester City player, became a club legend after making it through Tony Book's unremittingly tough management, but he does not believe that is the way. 'If your youngsters are going in scared, you are not creating good footballers,' he says. 'There has to be a totally different attitude. There is also the consideration that some of them will not make it. We are not just trying to develop them as footballers but as human beings.' White's father was so determined that his son should make it, that the City starlet felt unable to tell him that he had been abused by Barry Bennell, the convicted paedophile. Now White works to safeguard children in the game, through the SAVE Association he co-founded. Bellamy knows how it feels to be on the wrong end of bullying during his early days at Norwich John Polston would throw tea made by Bellamy in the sink if it wasn't up to his satisfaction Old habits die hard, of course. Try telling coaches brought up in a school of hard knocks that more sensitivity is required with academy players who are already earning 10 times what they did. Bellamy has denied bullying in his Under 18s coaching role at Cardiff City after the parents of two trainees provided Sportsmail with detailed testimony to the contrary, though his observations on the academy culture suggest that he does believe it should be tougher. 'My biggest concern with most kids now is that they don't have that edge to want to be better than their mate,' he said a few years back. 'Football takes such good care of you now at every age group that some of the hunger's gone.' If the kids are scared, you're not creating good players Peter Beardsley, suspended by Newcastle United since last January accused of bullying, endured an even bleaker learning environment under Bob Stokoe at Carlisle. 'The tough ways are what he knows,' says a source. The welcome removal of football's worst excesses is accompanied by an unease among some inside football that the game is becoming too soft and that coaches find themselves the target of parents whose children are not good enough to make the grade. 'I wanted our scholars to understand the vigour and rigour it was going to take,' says Jordan. Ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan said young players learn more from honey than vinegar Former Man City star David White feels making youngsters scared is not good for development 'You build discipline and strength of character by subjecting people to environments that build character in them. That's not changed. But the parents are a problem. They're desperate for their sons to make it. They tell them what they want to hear rather than what they need to know. Parents' expectations need to be managed. Agents play a part in this, too. They are influencing parents.' Some coaches feel the same. 'A parent challenged me because I let his son have it during an Under 18 game,' says one. 'By Under 18, players need to know the score.' Several parents have told Sportsmail that there is a sense of entitlement and self-importance among their own contingent on the touchline. 'The parents are the worst,' says the mother of a Premier League academy player. 'Some give out dogs' abuse to anyone who challenges their sons.' Jordan sees the problem as a cultural one. 'There's a culture of liberalism in our society, far too much political correctness and mamby-pamby,' he says. 'We're living in an age of entitlement.' Sources in Cardiff feel uneasy that the complaints about Bellamy entered the public domain almost as soon as they were made to the club. Yet the parents concerned speak with despair and frustration about what they claim became a toxic and destructive environment under Bellamy. Peter Beardsley was suspended by Newcastle United last January over accusations of bullying Beardsley also endured a bleak learning environment under Bob Stokoe at Carlisle The code of silence within some clubs has not helped. When Sportsmail investigated allegations of serial bullying by Aston Villa coach Kevin MacDonald last year, three parents told us they could not discuss it. 'There's a career at stake,' said one. A former colleague of MacDonald could not allow his views to be published, even anonymously, for fear that he would be in breach of a non-disclosure agreement. Eventually, a video clip was shared with us. It captures a Villa coach screaming: '**** off kid. Just **** off.' The recipient of the abuse which went on for months according to his father looks inconsolable. After former player Gareth Farrelly came forward with more allegations last month, MacDonald was suspended pending an investigation. Some coaches feel the game is too soft and blame parents The uncomfortable truth for the old drill-sergeant coaches is that their time has passed and that effing and blinding is no longer good enough. Martin Allen, who has managed 10 clubs in the past decade, says he has learned this the hard way. He was coached by the unremittingly tough Jim Smith, who became so angry with his young charges that a blue vein on his forehead, known to them as the M1, would bulge. But when Allen tried one of the jokes which would have worked in the past to get a player into the gym, he was tripped up. He felt that a Greek youth team keeper at Gillingham was overweight and made a reference to a kebab shop. This was brought up with him when he left the club. The code of silence in Kevin MacDonald's case has not helped the issue of bullying in football 'The world has changed and coaches have had to change with it,' Allen says. 'Adapt or die. The League Managers' Association courses have helped us to get to grips with that.' Jordan feels that there has to be balance when it comes to delivering the stick and carrot. 'You must get that right,' he says. 'Different players will respond to different approaches. It might need to be an iron fist in a velvet glove. It's down to proper oversight. If there's an issue with an individual coach's style, the academy director should manage the academy properly and deal with it.' The winning coaches know where the line lies. Sir Alex Ferguson began his career by injecting what he called 'Glaswegian ferocity and discipline' at Aberdeen. 'I didn't spare the horses and it turned them into men,' he reflected years later. But he learned to pick his moments. 'For the youngsters who were hoping to make the squad, I could set their heads spinning simply by refusing to let them travel with the first team,' he said. 'You don't have to mete out punishment very often for everyone to get the message.' | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6578805/When-football-leave-bullying-culture-past.html |
Could linebacker Thomas Davis be a fit for the Seahawks? | Carolina Panthers veteran linebacker Thomas Davis released an emotional video on Wednesday stating that the Panthers, the only team he has ever played for in his 14-year career, wont be retaining him for 2019. The 35-year-old also announced that he has no plans to retire, and would like to play at least one more season. Davis is a three-time Pro Bowler and was an All-Pro in 2015. He is Carolinas all-time leader in tackles. Even at age 35, Davis started 12 games in 2018 and recorded 79 tackles, two fumble recoveries and earned a very nice 74.2 grade from Pro Football Focus. The Seahawks have plenty of options at weakside linebacker next season, including a former Pro Bowler of their own in K.J. Wright. Wright, 29, is set to hit free agency and will no doubt command a hefty, multi-year deal. With both Austin Calitro and Shaquem Griffin in the fold, not to mention the possibility of a reconnection with Mychal Kendricks, the Seahawks could certainly opt to let Wright walk and take their chances elsewhere. Calitro played well when called upon last season, however, both he and Griffin could use an extra year of learning before they step into a starting role. Enter Davis. The Seahawks could pursue Davis on a cheap, one-year contract to fill in as their will linebacker while Calitro and Griffin continue to grow in depth roles. His leadership and experience would make him a great teacher for the young linebackers, and he would pave the way for them to take over in 2020. Of course, losing Wright would be a huge blow to the team, and theres no guarantee that Davis body would hold up at age 36. It is a risk, but if Seattle wants either Calitro or Griffin to be their future at WLB, then letting Wright walk and signing an experienced veteran teacher like Davis could be the way to go. Related Russell Wilson will attend spring training with the Yankees | https://seahawkswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/10/could-linebacker-thomas-davis-be-a-fit-for-the-seahawks/ |
Who are the best players at the 2019 Bass Pro Tournament of Champions? | The 2019 Bass Pro Tournament of Champions will once again feature a number of the top high school basketball players in the nation. This year's tournament includes the No. 1 senior in the country and a deep group of highly rated juniors. The tournament tips off Thursday at JQH Arena. More: Everything you need to know before the 2019 Bass Pro Tournament of Champions More: 2019 Bass Pro Tournament of Champions bracket revealed Here is a look at each team's best player heading into this year's Bass Pro Tournament of Champions. James Wiseman, Memphis East Signed to play at Memphis ESPN's No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2019 The tournament's biggest name is Memphis East's James Wiseman. The No. 1 recruit in the country will be a must-see attraction at JQH Arena over the three days of the tournament. Wiseman is a 7-foot center who has drawn comparisons to Chris Bosh and Karl-Anthony Towns and will likely be one of the top picks in the 2020 NBA Draft. The high school senior signed to play at Memphis, where former NBA player Penny Hardaway is now the head coach. Hardaway was the head coach at Memphis East until the college lured him away before the 2018-19 season. CLOSE Memphis signee James Wiseman took over against Whitehaven on Thursday Khari Thompson, The Commercial Appeal Wiseman is a prolific presence in the paint on the offensive end and on defense as a shot blocker. He has great mobility for a seven-footer, showing speed in the open floor and lateral quickness. Other notables: Malcolm Dandridge (Memphis signee), Antonio Thomas (Bradley signee) Jaelen House, Shadow Mountain Signed to play at Arizona State ESPN four-star recruit Jaelon House is a 6-foot-1 guard signed on to follow in the footsteps of his dad Eddie House at Arizona State. Eddie House played four seasons at ASU from 1996-2000. He averaged 16.5 points per game, including 23 points a game his senior year a year in which he was named the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year. AZCENTRAL: An inside look Mike Bibby's unique Shadow Mountain basketball practices Shadow Mountain's Jaelen House (2) shoots free throws against Chino Hills during the 2018 Hoophall West tournament at Chaparral High School. (Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic) ASU was the only Power 5 conference to offer House during his recruitment. Through Jan. 7, House was averaging 21.4 points and 6.1 assists per game for Shadow Mountain. Last season, House averaged 18.6 points and 6.6 steals. He led the Matadors back from a 22-point third-quarter deficit in the 4A final against Tucson Salpointe Catholic with 30 points and 14 steals in an 83-79 win. Other notables: Jovan Blacksher (Grand Canyon signee), Shemar Morrow (ESPN's No. 13 player in Arizona), Jalen Williams (Nevada football signee), DeVontes Cobbs (Future 150 projects him as a mid-major player) CLOSE Auburn commit Okoro and top-ranked junior Cooper scored McEachern's final 16 points as the Indians erased a 10-point deficit in the City of Palms semifinals. Adam Fisher/Naples Daily News Sharife Cooper, McEachern ESPN's No. 23 recruit in the Class of 2020 Offers from Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, Cincinnati, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, NC State, Seton Hall, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCLA and USC McEachern's Sharife Cooper enters the tournament as one of the most sought after juniors in the country. Cooper is a 6-foot guard and was named the USA Today's 2018-19 ALL-USA Preseason Boys Basketball team. A season ago, Cooper averaged 21 points, seven assists and four rebounds a game. Over the summer, he earned Offensive MVP at the prestigious Nike EYBL while averaging 28.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 8.6 assists and 1.8 steals per game at the Nike Peach Jam. Other notables: Isaac Okoro (Auburn signee), Jared Jones (Northwestern signee) Belleville (Ill.) West forward EJ Liddell (Photo: Alicia Willis, Belleville West Yearbook) E.J. Liddell, Belleville West Signed to play at Ohio State ESPN's No. 45 recruit in the Class of 2019 E.J. Liddell enters the Tournament of Champions as one of the top prospects in the Midwest. At Belleville West, Liddell is a true post player and has a dominant scoring presence in the paint. He picked Ohio State over schools such as Mizzou and Illinois. The 6-foot-7 forward led Belleville West to its first Illinois state championship in 2018 and was the second junior in Illinois history to earn Mr. Basketball honors (Jabari Parker). Other notable: Keith Randolph (Illinois football signee) N'Faly Dante, Sunrise Christian ESPN's No. 12 recruit in the Class of 2020 Has offers from Kansas, Kentucky, LSU, Oklahoma State, Oregon and St. John's The tournament's top-ranked junior is a 6-foot-11 center for Sunrise Christian. N'Faly Dante averaged 13.7 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game over the summer as a member of MOKAN Elite. Dante is a raw and active big who plays with lots of energy and impacts the game on both ends. 247Sports predicts Dante will attend school at LSU, Kentucky or Oregon. Other notables: Grant Sherfield (UCLA signee), Jordan Turner (Baylor signee), Elijah Wood (247Sports' No. 103 player in Class of 2020), Bryce Cook (SMU signee), Austin Crowley (Vanderbilt signee) MarJon Beauchamp, Rainier Beach ESPN's No. 28 recruit in the Class of 2020 Has offers from Arizona State, Washington State, Arizona, Eastern Washington, Cal Poly, Seattle, Washington, Montana and Florida State Rainier Beach shooting guard Marjon Beauchamp (Photo: 247Sports) Rainier Beach has had a recent history of sending top prospects to the college ranks, and MarJon Beauchamp won't be any different. Beauchamp joined Rainier Beach before the season and instantly made the school one of the top teams in Washington and is currently one of the top teams in the nation. The 6-foot-5 forward can score from all three levels and is an explosive athlete. Other notables: Kenny Curtis, Jamon Kemp, Javion Garrett, Stevie Smith Buy Photo Parkview Viking Dontae Taylor shoots a three-pointer over Strafford's Dillon Hester during a Blue Division game during the 2018 Blue and Gold Tournament at JQH Arena on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018. (Photo: Nathan Papes/News-Leader) Dontae Taylor, Parkview Has offers from Missouri S&T and North Arkansas Since Tyem Freeman's season-ending ACL injury, the Parkview Vikings have been led by junior point guard Dontae Taylor. And he has proven to be worthy of being the leader of a talented Ozarks high school basketball team. Taylor has shown the capability of scoring contested layups as he attacks the rim. He's also able to put his team on his back during clutch moments proven by a game-winning bucket with 2.5 seconds left during the Blue and Gold Tournament quarterfinals. While he won't be the highest-ranked recruit at the tournament, he's still a fun one to watch. Other notable: Latre Morrison CLOSE Catholic guard Jake Branham answers 20 questions after the Fightin' Irish's win over Bolivar. Wyatt D. Wheeler, [email protected] Jake Branham, Springfield Catholic Has offers from Missouri-St. Louis, Central Methodist, Missouri Southern State and Rockhurst Springfield Catholic's Jake Branham continues to be one of the best scorers in southwest Missouri as he plays his senior year. Branham's junior year saw him average 20 points and a pair of 3-pointers per game. Through 14 games this season, Branham is averaging 18.7 points and is shooting 50.8 percent from deep. The senior was forced to sit out for a majority of his team's Gold Division championship victory on Dec. 29 with a knee injury. While it's supposed to be a short-term injury, this is something to keep an eye on as Catholic enters the tournament. Other notable: Charlie O'Reilly, Tyson Riley The USA Today Network contributed to this report | https://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/01/10/2019-bass-pro-tournament-champions-best-players-high-school-basketball/2475184002/ |
Will we need boards in the future economy? | The future economy, with its emphasis on digital disruption and hyper-disintermediated business models, augurs change in the way businesses and companies are run and governed. The changing relationship between boards and management will have significant impact on the roles and responsibilities of directors. In traditional companies, the board is appointed to represent and safeguard shareholders interests. Given the information asymmetry between management and owners, the board seeks to ensure conformance with regulations and accounting standards even as it pushes management to perform. Processes such as internal and external audits, board dashboards, and reporting requirements are assumed to reduce the likelihood of management pursuing their own interests, or performing poorly. The new company model sentifi.com Market voices on: In the new economy, technologies such as distributed ledger technology (i.e. blockchain), could bring about a completely new way of governing companies. Instead of large, hierarchical, centralised entities, blockchain may enable highly localised structures connected via a distributed network. Instead of the traditional ownership structures of the public or private limited company, it may give rise to decentralised autonomous organisations. Instead of having shareholders, companies may create and issue crypto-currency or tokens via initial coin offerings (ICOs), which may be held by employees and customers. Technology platforms could enable barter within ecosystems, wherein users could trade goods and services using each others tokens or coins. This could also cause a convergence of the roles of customers, employees, suppliers and owners. Imagine a business where all the customers and all the employees were also the co-owners, thus leading to a strong purpose-driven organisation. This could result in a closed-loop ecosystem in which everybody is driven by the same purpose good products and services, and fair wages and prices. I posit that there will be shifts in board roles, composition and dynamics. From fiduciary to advisory The first is a shift from a fiduciary to a more advisory role. Traditionally, most boards focus on carrying out their fiduciary responsibilities, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. However, in the new economy, smart contracts could take over the role of ensuring conformance with regulations and reporting requirements. With decentralised ledger-keeping, company accounts could be instantaneously verified anywhere in the world, likely rendering the audit and compliance function of the board redundant. Similarly, companies may not need annual general meetings or boards to vote on key issues related to business strategy and organisational priorities. Advances in technology would allow for highly distributed decision-making, where all token-holders be they customers, employees, or investors exercise their preferences on key strategic issues using real-time voting platforms. The focus of the board then, very importantly, would need to shift from conformance to driving company performance. Unencumbered by regulatory requirements, the boards of some new economy companies may likely evolve to advisory boards. Board members would become more like internal consultants to the CEO and management. These advisers would need to have deep knowledge and industry expertise, relevant experience and track records, helpful networks and connections. Ideally, they should have shared interests with management. The advisory board would also need to act as custodians of the corporate culture by helping to place the right people in the right jobs, determining what performance is valued, and which behaviours get rewarded. Stronger need for diversity Given the focus on the advisory function, it will be particularly important to ensure appropriate diversity of thought and experience. Board members of different skills, gender, age and culture will likely continue to provide varied perspectives. But the new economy company board will need to move beyond these traditional visible dimensions of diversity. They would also need to focus on the non-visible aspects of diversity, such as stewardship styles, emotional and social intelligence, and functional domain expertise. In addition to the traditional skills of commercial, accounting and legal, companies would also need directors with specialist skills across domains such as public relations, crisis management, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency design and cultural transformations. Technology disruptions and disintermediation behoove boards to have deep expertise related to digital transformation and organisational development. The argument for directors with long tenures on the board would become redundant in new-economy companies. Technology and artificial intelligence (AI) could replace directors valued mainly for their insights into the companys history and context. It is not inconceivable that the board of the future would be supported by an AI function or a bot; which can keep up with any boardroom discussion, contextualise the premise, have instant access to data and analytics, and also provide historic context and precedence as required. Indeed, companies in the new economy will continue to need boards, albeit with a different mandate. Whilst blockchain and other technology advances will change its role, the board will still be required to guide and advise management, and help drive company performance. Even more so, this makes it critical to have the right, and diverse, skillsets and experience represented on boards. Yes, the board of directors will still be needed for the future economy company. After all, you cant come up with an algorithm for experience and judgement. The writer is a member of the Professional Development Committee of the Singapore Institute of Directors. | https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/hub/boardroom-matters/will-we-need-boards-in-the-future-economy |
Does the DJI Osmo Pocket work with the iPad? | Best answer: It's not an ideal setup, but the Osmo Pocket and the DJI Mimo companion application do both work with the iPad, though a cable connection or buying the wireless module is your best option. Supports both Lightning and USB-C connections Out of the box, the DJI Osmo Pocket handheld camera supports devices with either a Lightning connector or a USB-C connector. DJI includes a connector for each in the box to hook up to the pogo pins on the Osmo Pocket, so you can use your smartphone connected directly to it and operate with the DJI Mimo app. The same can also be said of the iPad and the new USB-C toting iPad Pro, although it would be pretty awkward and not really recommended, since the connector on the Osmo Pocket is not designed to hold the weight of a tablet. But natively you can connect both Lightning and USB-C iPads directly to it. Probably best to use a cable The pogo pins aren't the only connector on the Osmo Pocket. The device charges over USB-C through the port on its base and port can also be used for output to a phone or tablet. You will get the same exact experience with the Mimo companion app as you would hook up to the included connector. You don't get any cables in the box for this, so if you want to hook up your iPad you'll need the right cable. For the majority of folks who will be using an iPad with a Lightning connector, Apple's USB-C to Lightning cable is an easy suggestion. Pop this into the Osmo Pocket and connect your iPad with your regular USB-A to Lightning cable. Going wireless | https://www.imore.com/does-dji-osmo-pocket-work-ipad?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheIphoneBlog+%28iMore%29 |
Can the All-New 2020 Ford Explorer Reverse the Automaker's Sales Decline? | Ford Motor (NYSE: F) revealed its all-new 2020 Explorer SUV at an event in Detroit on Wednesday evening. The popular three-row crossover has been completely redesigned on a new rear-wheel-drive architecture, with more room and more towing capacity. The new Explorer is a big deal. The Explorer has been a huge seller for Ford for years, generating hearty profits especially in upscale trims, but sales (and profits) sagged last year as newer rivals stole sales. The company is betting that the all-new Explorer will reverse those trends when it begins arriving at U.S. dealers this summer. Here's what we know. A blue 2020 Ford Explorer, a midsize crossover SUV, parked in a wooded setting. More Ford said that its all-new 2020 Explorer will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer. Image source: Ford Motor. What's new about the 2020 Explorer: Everything While it looks a lot like the current model, the all-new Explorer really is all-new. It's built on a new rear-wheel-drive architecture that gives it a distinctive look, as well as more towing capacity and more room inside. (The new Lincoln Aviator SUV is built on the same architecture.) That question contains one of the answers: It's a competitive differentiator. These days, rear-wheel drive is associated with luxury vehicles. But there are practical advantages as well: In addition to the added towing capacity, the new architecture will give four-wheel-drive versions of the new Explorer improved rough-weather and off-road capabilities. But while the new Explorer has a bit more "truck" added to its feature set, it's a far cry from the truck-based Explorers of old. This new Explorer should be quite refined on the road, thanks to its unibody construction, a new 10-speed automatic transmission, and a long list of standard comfort and convenience features. The dashboard of a 2020 Ford Explorer Platinum, showing a large touchscreen above the center stack. More In Platinum trim, the new Explorer features a big centrally located touchscreen. Image source: Ford Motor. The current Explorer isn't exactly cramped, but the new model is roomier inside. Notably, it's a bit wider -- with the seats folded down, it can carry a 4- by 8-foot sheet of plywood, a feat the outgoing model can't manage. The new Explorer comes standard with Ford's well-regarded 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine, which will make 300 horsepower and 310 pounds-feet of torque in this application. With an optional trailer-towing package, Explorers with the 2.3-liter engine will have 5,300 pounds of towing capacity, up from just 3,000 pounds in current base-model Explorers. | https://news.yahoo.com/2020-ford-explorer-reverse-automaker-230500731.html |
How much snow will central Pennsylvania get this weekend? | CLOSE York County PennDOT has 55 snowplows for the 55 routes around the county. Sean Heisey, York Daily Record "It's going to be a light snowfall," AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Alan Reppert said. Forecasts vary for a snowstorm expected to bring snow to central Pennsylvania this weekend, and the area could see anywhere from a coating to 4 inches. Snow could start falling by late Saturday afternoon and continue through midday Sunday, meteorologists say. "It's going to be a light snowfall," AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Alan Reppert said. AccuWeather.com is predicting 2 to 4 inches, Reppert said. The National Weather Service is calling for 1 to 3 inches, meteorologist Mike Colbert said. Buy Photo A plow moves snow from Church Road, in Manchester Township, Thursday. Central Pa. saw its first snowfall of the season, with an estimated 4 to 8 inches accumulating. (Photo: Ty Lohr, York Daily Record) And the Millersville University Weather Information Center predicts a coating to 2 inches for York and Lebanon counties. Franklin and part of Adams counties would be in the 2- to 4-inch range. Admit it! I know you were... (grin) Seriously, this is going to be a complex two-part storm...with a sharp northern edge. My sense is that southern PA gets brushed by "part 1" (SAT PM), but "part 2" (Sunday) is likely to stay south. Developing... pic.twitter.com/pMSvSu0Yl4 E. Horst, MU WIC (@MUweather) January 10, 2019 The storm is coming out of the southern plains and pushing eastward, Reppert said. Much of the precipitation is going to stay to the south. Virginia and West Virginia will likely see heavier accumulations of snow. Some areas could see more than 6 inches. This will be the second snowstorm the season, but it is weaker and not as developed as the one that hit before Thanksgiving, Colbert said. That storm dumped 7.5 inches of snow in the York area and resulted in gridlock on the roads as commuters tried to get home. There's a 50-50 chance... More: Crippling pre-Thanksgiving snow may be sign of worse winter than predicted More: Flu bug is crawling around. Here's how to avoid getting sick during peak season The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is monitoring the latest storm, and plans to have all 55 state trucks out on Saturday afternoon, said Glenn Rowe, manager for operations in York County. Rental trucks will be called in, if needed. PennDOT looks at multiple forecasts, and as of Thursday, they still varied, he said. "It's almost like they're not sure yet," Rowe said. Meteorologists will likely zero in on the snowstorm by Friday, he said. PennDOT plans to pretreat the roads, if the temperatures and forecast allow for it. Read or Share this story: https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2019/01/10/how-much-snow-central-pennsylvania-get-weekend/2538324002/ | https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2019/01/10/how-much-snow-central-pennsylvania-get-weekend/2538324002/ |
Has Ole Gunnar Solskjaer just tipped Mauricio Pochettino to replace him at Man Utd? | MANCHESTER UNITED boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer clearly understands why Mauricio Pochettino is being linked with the Old Trafford job full time. But he stopped just short of tipping him to take his job in the summer. Solskjaer is currently working wonders at his former stomping ground following Jose Mourinhos sacking before Christmas. The Norwegian has led his side to five successive Manchester United wins ahead of his biggest test against Tottenham this weekend. Solskjaer has only been appointed until the end of the season when the club are expected to pursue No 1 target Pochettino. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOOTBALL TRANSFER NEWS Hes done a very good job, hes one of the... the speculation is there for a reason because hes done well but its not my job to rate different managers. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Mauricio Pochettino However, the fanbase remains divided over Mourinhos long-term successor with some feeling Solskjaers stay should be extended if he delivers the club Champions League football next term. And speaking ahead of his sides trip to Wembley on Sunday, Solskjaer may have realised it wasnt the best moment for him to laud too much praise on the man who could pose the biggest threat to his job in the summer. Asked for this thoughts on Pochettinos work at Spurs, Solskjaer said: Hes done a very good job, hes one of the... the speculation is there for a reason because hes done well but its not my job to rate different managers. My focus is on me and my team. Man Utd news: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke highly of Mauricio Pochettino (Pic: GETTY) Man Utd news: Mauricio Pochettino remains the No 1 target for the Red Devils (Pic: GETTY) Solskjaers five wins so far have come against Cardiff, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Newcastle and most recently Reading in the FA Cup. But the 45-year-old is preparing for a busy few weeks that sees his side play, Spurs in the league, Arsenal in the FA Cup and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. No weve had tests, Solskjaer replied when asked if the trip to the capital was his biggest test so far. Newcastle away was a test, the first game how everyone reacted away to Cardiff was a test, the second game, how crowd would affect is a test. Man Utd news: It's been five wins on the trot for the Red Devils (Pic: GETTY) You get tested every single game in the Premier League but of course this is against a top top side and if we want to get close to them and go past them we will need a good performance and a good result. You always adapt to any opponent, we play one of the best teams in the league, have to be aware of their strengths but we need to attack teams, thats our strength as well. Going forward, attacking both as a team and the way we played, we wont get as many chances to attack against these as weve had before so weve got to be ready for when we got hold of the ball and play well with it because Wembley is a decent sized pitch. In aid of their preparations for Sundays game, Solskjaer took his players to a warm weather training camp in Dubai. Man Utd news: Paul Pogba has been declared fit to play against Spurs (Pic: GETTY) | https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/752807/Ole-Gunnar-Solskjaer-Mauricio-Pochettino-Man-Utd-Tottenham |
Is Eric Bellinger the Reigning King of R&B? | Best known for his club bangers I Dont Want Her and Valet, singer-songwriter (and sometimes rapper) Eric Bellinger prides himself on quality, authenticity and passion in not only his music but his everyday life. Having traveled the world tearing down stages across all major cities and clubs, the 32-year-old hasn't forgotten his Compton roots. Having entered the industry as a songwriter and producer which led to a Grammy win for Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. in 2014 it was his debut effort, The Rebirth, that secured his place as a solo R&B singer, mixing the nuances of 90s soul and contemporary production. Fast-forward to 2018 and he has unleashed his fourth studio album, Eazy Call, showcasing his versatility in catering to both older and newer generations alike. Continue Reading At the end of the day, Bellinger is just trying to be the innovative spirit behind todays culture in music, especially R&B. In between being a husband, father, mentor and mindfulness advocate, he finds time to entertain the masses with his voice, charm and affectionate personality. L.A. WEEKLY: Talk about being from Compton. ERIC BELLINGER: I just say L.A., but whenever people ask what part of L.A., I definitely go crazy. Naturally, I moved around so many times. Ive been all over the place. High school is when I lived in Compton but I went to school in Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs. I was commuting every single day. It was dope, though, because I got the best of both worlds. I got to experience the hood when I get home sirens, gang shit, all that then when I went to school, it was a brighter day. I grew up around a level-headed, solid family. All my friends, we all had both of our parents growing up. I got to see family values and morals thats why I promote that more so than anything. Thats what needs to be promoted. My main objective is to show and be the example that you can still be in music, you can still be an R&B singer, you can still be cool, you can still be wavy (whatever you wanna call it), and promote things that are of value. I definitely promote both, but my main objective and narrative is to show the culture. Look at me: I love my wife, I love my son, we out here. Man, I would get home so late cause I would play sports. Every season: OK, footballs over, time for track. Or Tracks over, time for basketball. Whatever it was, I was always staying busy after school. When I would get home, it was either homework or going to church. My upbringing was real simple, real routine. I had my select friends. Me and Neiman [Johnson, his manager] actually went to junior high together. Since the beginning! Thats rare. Beginning, beginning. Over 20 years, basically, weve been growing together and still growing, still learning. Its the bond that really keeps this thing moving. What most people would have given up on or when they would have quit Will Smith, for example, says divorce is not an option. You dont even think about it. In a relationship, it needs to be the same purpose, the same goal, the same foundation. So when you see a problem, youre able to look past it. Some people dont look past problems because they dont see the further end goal result and the longevity of it; they just look at now. Whenever youre too much living in the now, you can destroy the plans of the future. Man, its so dope. Seeing his success and remembering doing shows with him, its just incredible. Our camps are really close. Both being from Compton, I actually got to really watch and see all the different stereotypes, roadblocks, obstacles and challenges just be washed away. Its inspiration and hope. Its inspiring to see him and Dave and their relationship, and then see me and Nieman with the same vibe, same chemistry. If they did it, thats a great example. We saw them not compromise and stick with what they believe. To see the other people believe one at a time from the beginning, even before Section.80 way back in the day, then see Dre come in and help with the co-sign, see Power 106 show love and support, the different major artists and major platforms support the authenticity and the movement. Really it was Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Everything about it was real and you could relate. The album was a great album. No, havent made music. Thats one of the highest things on the bucket list for me. Im real patient in the timing and having the right song. A lot of people tend to take the relationship and maybe prematurely do certain things. With him, I just want to wait. When Im ready, its all going to come together the right way. Nah, never moved away. I love L.A. When I leave town, its like I cant wait to get back every single time. Its always great, Ive just gotten used to enjoying when Im gone. But for a while, it was like, Why am I leaving?" I know this is what Im wanting to do, but I just love being home with the family. Actually lately, Ive started enjoying the fruits of my labor rather than looking at it as me getting homesick. Im like, We out here, lets get it. We gone, lets have some fun. L.A. has been this market for every artist, every out-of-towner to come through. Its interesting because a lot of people are unsure of what L.A. is. They have this built-up perspective and opinion based on what they see on Instagram or reality TV, then they get here and realize its tough. [chuckles] The glitz and glamour, its hard to keep up with that lifestyle. Especially because its cheaper everywhere else. Its way more expensive here. Everything you want to do, you really need to be prepped. If youre not, it's tough, because youre hit with all kinds of different things. Everyones busy, running around, hitting events. We gotta do this, we gotta do that. Its tough to fish and sift through the chaos, but I like it. The cream rises to the top. If you can navigate and still mingle, thats always important. Outta sight, outta mind. The old morals of the mysterious, those are gone. You have to have the perfect balance of being able to exist in it all but still somehow have your own lane. I always had a job until I got a cool check from publishing. That was a lot of money at the time for me. When you first get a publishing deal or any advance coming from Compton, coming from buckets, coming from gimme $3 and a number 18. I did a pub deal in 2010, but even before that, I had been doing singing groups for so many years and never got paid. It was a fantasy vibe but I loved it. Once that came, I was like, I quit! Im rich, bitch! I got a Benz, an apartment and a studio. Thats it, then I was good. I had my studio down the street from the apartment. I thought I was doing it. Your name has been a staple in the game for a minute. Erika Nuri is somebody that I always want to big up and give love to. Because I was doing a bunch of different things in a bunch of different situations writing songs, singing groups, solo mixtapes, you name it and Erika was somebody who believed in me through it all. Was just like Come through, I got you, and took me into the big rooms with the big guys. Guys like Rodney Jerkins, Harmony Samuels, MIDI Mafia paved the way for guys like myself to be able to show what I can do, and then further get my shot. Because its always up to the artists, no matter what. At the end of the day, how far youre willing to go and what type of work ethic youre willing to put in addition to your talent to take it there. Its a lot of people with talent, but theres more people willing to work for it. Im actually signed to her publishing company. I came into the game and actually got my big break from being a songwriter. Being able to collab, she taught me everything about songwriting formula-wise. When it comes to actually writing a song, its completely opposite. Knowing how to actually formulate a song is what has formed my longevity in the behind-the-scenes realm. I actually know how to write a song rather than Im a writer. The singing groups is what really got me into it. I was playing football when I was younger, and entering and transitioning from football into music by myself was a little nerve-racking at the time. But entering with a group, with some brothers that would help me I would just learn my note, everybody else has their note, and were harmonizing Boyz II Men style. Singing In the Still of the Night and all these different harmony songs that made me fall in love with the blend of music. From then on, I started just writing. After the writing took off, thats when I slowly eased back into my original passion, which was the artistry. For sure. It was interesting because the writing was going so well I didnt expect it to but it was one opportunity after the next. Youre writing over there, we want you over here, etc. Its hard to pass up that check, too. Exactly. Maybe two to three years in, me and Nieman felt it was necessary to take some time to focus on me, focus on my records. Make sure I had some singles, some club records, so that Id be able to perform in the club, travel and be able to be on the radio. Especially in our time, in order to break, you really needed a West Coast song, a 90s BPM type song. Me being from here was my perfect window. Being able to create it, go for the tempo, go for that sound, we really nailed it. Shout out to Jaynari, Problem, the whole team that made that happen. Getting the peers to really support in a way thats like, Wow, they got my back. Transitioning is the toughest part because once people introduce you as one thing, they expect that from you. Thinking outside of the box and seeing you as something other than what their first impression of you was, its tough to redirect that narrative. I have so many friends who are stuck in that space of songwriter/wanting to be an artist. Thats the thing too. The people that know me as the artist first, they champion more than the people that knew the songwriting first. But then its only a matter of time before the people that knew the artistry first quickly come on the other side, too. I just always knew it would be a process. The same way I built up my writing career, I would need to build my artistry. The patience came with it, but I had the success of the writing to massage my back in the meantime. I mean, a Grammy aint bad. I think I was just at home. I didnt understand the severity or how serious it was. It was so early in my writing career, I was just like, Oh cool, OK, dope. [laughs] When it actually won, I was in Atlanta working with Usher actually, on the Looking 4 Myself album. Mark Pitts was in there, Usher, were doing his album, and the Chris Brown album won as we were working. I remember that being a defining moment for me because it was like the big accolade, the big accomplishment, then you always wanna do it again. You always wanna keep it going. It just let me know, We doing all right, we doing the right thing, we on the right path, we in alignment. To have the support of those guys that I look up to so much definitely keeps me going. I want to talk about your creative process. We gotta have dark and laser lights. It has to be really dark and moody. My favorite is a fluorescent vibe. Then I need tree, some marijuana. Honestly, just the vibe and my mind needs to be clear. Until then, I dont even go in the booth. Im cool to just chill, relax and talk to people until my mind is free. Once I get all my text messages out Im not thinking of a post or caption, what I need to do later or if Im hungry all conversations have been put to rest, and I look around and Im just floating, then Im like, All right, we can go in the booth. That whole process might take four hours but the song process, thats gonna take 30 minutes. I just go for it. If Im in a co-writing session, I always write it. Because youll sit there with somebody for 10 hours and you dont know whats going on. But if youre like, Oh here, this is the verse, this is what I got so far, they can even say yes or no. Boom, lets move to the hook. But if Im by myself, I dont need nothing. I just go in the booth and boom. But even just being in that atmosphere is not enough, that vibe still gotta be right. Cause thats when I can pull and create and really get in my bag. Main Thing with Dom is at over 2.5 million views on YouTube. Bring us back to that studio session. Actually, that was a record that got put together over a long time. [whistles] Because we had the hook idea, and then I needed to throw some verses on it. I got in with Dom Kennedy and I knew I wanted him on it. I wanted that West Coast/L.A.. He came and it was interesting. Im trying to get you on this song! He was like, I know, I know, Im just thinking over here, you gotta trust me. I was like, All right. He was like, You need to go in on that verse. You need to start if off like Usher did when he was like, They call me U-S-H-E-R, but you need to say, They call me E-R I did it and had a verse in 10 minutes. I was just standing there, we were vibing, and I just started writing it. I was like, I think I got something! He was like, See, I told you. I was like, Yo, that was hard! But I wouldve never did that. That was a dope moment. To have his support all the way through is one thing for people to do a verse or do whatever he still did a cool intro and an outro, and then did a remix verse for us to put on later. All that really just happened but in the beginning, it was dope to just have his support. I love that you guys shot that at World on Wheels, too. Exactly. He came through and shot the video, then he came through at various performances and performed it with me. Thats what happens when boys link up, when West Coast artists come together. Youre able to do those things that keep creating, rather than, Oh, this artist over here, he jumped on a song. I dont know him, no participation, he never post it. The fans and the consumers can see that, but when youre really working with your family and your people, you get to see an organic blossom happen. You recently put out a single called King. Talk about your mind state creating this one. The mind state is the MP3 version of my thoughts on the subject, for the past 10 years anyway. I really feel like the energy that I bring to the R&B storefront as a whole is beyond anything that anyone could say in this current time. Im not even saying of this generation, Im saying of this current time. What I have contributed to over the past couple years consistently shows for itself. What Ive done for myself in an independent state speaks for itself. I look at everything as a pound-for-pound vibe. Even in being content in my standing you know when people are like, Well how come you're here and not here, and you should be here, Im so content because I know the people that know, know. Im not gonna spend time worried about the people that dont know, Id rather nourish and massage the people that do know so it can grow in a way that its intended to. All Im saying is that the work speaks for itself. At this point, Jacquees is the self-proclaimed king of R&B. I dont ever wanna be that. I wanna be the peoples champ. I want the people to say it, I dont wanna say it. You can say it, thats cool, but I want the people to say it. I just let the work be so crazy that once the right person of influence says it first, Ill just be here driving the train. Welcome all aboard to the bandwagon! Talk about this #KingsChallenge you started. I was originally gonna put it out just by myself. Somebody was like, Yo, let me put a verse on it, so thats why I had screenshotted and posted it. I want people to see the the whole process of being real transparent, because there was so many talks of the people that are huge and have already done this for the past 40, 30, 20, 10 years. I knew that if Im thinking, Hold up, my name holds some weight, theres also some people that still do their thing that may not have the platform. Its one of the challenges I did in the past where I let my fans, consumers and the world showcase their talents with my platform and my page. Open verse to whoever got something to say. Cause a lot of people are insanely talented, they just need a little window. Find out who you are first, find out why the game needs you, and find out what you can bring to the table that the game is missing. Those three things are huge. Once you got those, you can start making music. Youll know the type of music you need to make because you know who you are and what people and what lane are counting on you. For me, its because I need to show the young generation its cool to be in a relationship, its cool to floss your girl instead of every other person talking about everything else. I dont need to. I can talk about my life and whats real because not only will the people relate but theyll also be able to decide if they want to be a real Eric Bellinger fan or not. You gotta just lay out yourself and your qualities so people can have the ammo to say, I rock with you, or I dont. Cause theyll just always be on the fence if all they have is music. Its just, All right, I like that song. But if you dont have a hot song out right now, Im not really rolling. If theyre invested into who you are, they also wanna know that you took your son to the aquarium yesterday. Then that will also be the thing that can keep them attached to you and keep growing with you. You definitely gotta know who you are. You gotta know what it is you like and not waver from it. Theres so many people out there that arent themselves. If you spend your life as a carbon copy of another person, thats already a huge indication that theres not much use for you. Man, I keep saying Im done but the thing is, I keep going to the studio. I feel like every song I write beats the last one. Cause now, theres a certain standard. I wont even write it. I wont even waste time. Its easier at this point than when youre just trying to create and figure out what the album is. When people are just in album mode, they are kind of in question. When theyre like, Yeah, the album is done, at that point, its the best time to create (low-key). Now, I can potentially beat out four songs because I know what Im up against. When I used to play football every week, we would look at the scouting report. Not only would I watch my film from the last week, I would look at the plays from the team were about to play. Im using that same type of judgment and outlook on records. OK, that song has this strong point, this pro, this con. But this one over here Im able to beat them out. Its a real competition. My tracklist right now is in triple overtime. He told us it was over three hours worth of music. OMG! Yeah, thats crazy. See, I got a whole nother approach. My shit gonna be long but its different. I got some new songs. I got some greatest hits that people might have never heard. Im gonna break the album down into new fans and old fans. Talk about your upcoming show with Ro James at the Avalon on Jan. 13. That ones gonna be good because I actually like Ro James music a lot. A lot of times, I got a show and Im in the back. But bro, Im finna watch for sure. No matter what, I gotta see him. I just respect what he is doing. Just organic, hes raw. Him as a person. Thats what I mean about the music is secondary. I know him, so I know hes gonna act a fool. Its dope to be able to combine that with a great voice and vulnerability. He reminds me of the new Prince, in a way of him just letting go and not caring. The style, the fashion and the vintage. Its actually the launch of Young Legend Nights, a monthly R&B series. With him and me, its real R&B. When people see and meet me, theyre like, Wow, youre the same. Thats really who I am. Im love. Im spreading love. Im smiling. When you mix all these different energies combined in one night, one venue (great venue) I didnt even know it was at the Avalon, thats gonna be good. Its going to be real intimate. Theres gonna be real fans in the R&B world. You can expect a great night. Hes probably gonna be giving out roses and shit. Just a lot of truth. When Im picking the songs for the show, Im a realist. I can cater to each show. If its a hip-hop show, Im doing a hip-hop show. If its an R&B show, I'ma slow it down. This is L.A., so I know what I can do where. What boundaries and what markets certain songs are stronger in. Being home and with it being Christmas time, I got a couple Christmas songs... Kisses on Christmas! Thats the new one. This is actually the first song that I produced and released. I always do beats on my own time but putting it out, Im always like, Its not good enough. It needs to be crazy and Im not the one that needs to be like I produced this, just to say I produced it. I dont care. I was just like, Let me get my chops up and when its good enough, then well have a song. I brought it to my boys Ayo and Reggie, and Im proud of this one. Im excited to get it out and let the people see another avenue of me creatively. 2019 is gonna be the setup year for the new decade. Thats my year. Im just gonna be working cause I really wanna just own the next decade. Eric Bellinger plays with Ro James on Sunday, Jan. 13, at the Avalon Hollywood. | https://www.laweekly.com/music/is-eric-bellinger-the-reigning-king-of-randb-10117169 |
Why Dont My Parents Trust Me With My Phone? | I am a 13-year-old girl. I get good grades, I have good friends, and Ive never given my parents any reason for concern. However, they dont trust me with my own phone and have gone so far as installing an app on it to track what I do with it. Im not worried about what theyre going to find, but I am upset by the fact that they dont trust me. Now, I dont trust them either. LAUREN I would probably be more sympathetic to your plight, Lauren, if a responsible teenage boy I know hadnt shared his Instagram password with a good friend, only to be betrayed by him when vulgar posts began popping up on his account. The virtual world can be an amazing place when its not terrifying or dangerous. By monitoring your phone, your parents are wisely (sorry!) trying to make sure that youre ready to navigate it on your own. But I also get that their uncertainty feels insulting to you. So, lets make this standoff productive. You may have to help them out here. Your parents may not mistrust you, but there are still things they need to be aware of, such as unsolicited contact between adults and minors. | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/style/why-dont-my-parents-trust-me-with-my-phone.html |
Is There a Future for 'Bull' After Michael Weatherly's Scandal? | In December, news broke that CBS paid former Bull actress Eliza Dushku $9.5 million in a settlement agreement after she made sexual harassment complaints against her costar and the show's lead, Michael Weatherly. Dushku claimed Weatherly made demeaning comments about her appearance on set and joked about having a threesome with her. According to an internal CBS investigation, Dushku felt "disgusted and violated." After she spoke up, Dushku alleges she was written off the CBS legal drama in what she believed to be a retaliation effort. Weatherly issued an apology to The New York Times when the network's actions were exposed. During the course of taping our show, I made some jokes mocking some lines in the script," he wrote. "When Eliza told me that she wasnt comfortable with my language and attempt at humor, I was mortified to have offended her and immediately apologized. After reflecting on this further, I better understand that what I said was both not funny and not appropriate and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza." As did CBS: The allegations in Ms. Dushkus claims are an example that, while we remain committed to a culture defined by a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace, our work is far from done." Then, Dushku slammed Weatherly and Bull showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron who also reportedly was involved in writing her off the show The narrative propagated by CBS, actor Michael Weatherly and writer-producer Glenn Gordon Caron is deceptive and in no way fits with how they treated me on the set of the television show Bull and retaliated against me for simply asking to do my job without relentless sexual harassment, she wrote. This is not a he-said/she-said case. Weatherlys behavior was captured on CBSs own videotape recordings. "I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired," she concluded. After Dushku spoke out, neither the actor nor showrunner nor network responded again or released any new information. The womens activist group, Ultraviolet, called for his firing. CBS must immediately move to fire Michael Weatherly and send a clear example that sexual harassment and abuse will not be tolerated by anyone at the network including both CEOs and star actors alike, said Shaunna Thomas, the co-founder and executive director of Ultraviolet. Bull's fall finale aired on Monday, December 10, and drew in 7.3 million total viewers and had a 0.80 rating. It's set to return on January 14 to finish out its 22-episode third season, with the season finale expected to air in May. For what it's worth, Weatherly's NCIS former co-stars Pauley Perrette and Sasha Alexander took to social media to defend their friend. This man ... I love, respect, trust, and I KNOW. TWO decades of friendship and respect, Perrette tweeted. The best. I love you @M_Weatherly Always and forever. Alexander tweeted, I have been in trenches w/ my friend [email protected]_Weatherly?. Always laughs, true friend & as big as they come." We'll see what the future has in store for Weatherly's career, and specifically for his involvement on Bull. Bull, Midseason Premiere, Monday, Jan. 14, 10/9c, CBS | https://www.tvinsider.com/743797/bull-return-2019-canceled-michael-weatherly/ |
Who can stop record-chasing Roger Federer clinching Australian Open hat-trick? | (Picture: AFP/Getty) Roger Federer will begin the defence of his Australian Open title on Monday as he targets a hat-trick of titles at Melbourne Park. The 20-time Grand Slam champion was written off in some quarters after failing to produce his best form in the second half of 2018, but he has started the new season looking back towards his best. Some impressive displays at the Hopman Cup have seen Federer be hailed by many as the man to beat down under and he will likely take some stopping. Here we take a look at how his draw panned out and who he will have to watch out for on his quest for a record seventh Australian Open and a 100th career title. First round opponent Istomin can pose a threat (Picture: Getty Images) Although hes not seeded, Denis Istomin will be a familiar face to many in the tennis world and he has made headlines in Melbourne before. Advertisement Advertisement The Uzbek ace dumped defending champion Novak Djokovic out of the 2017 edition and has power and fast hands at his disposal. Federer has won all six of his previous meetings against the world No. 99, although they havent faced off since clashing in Basel back in 2014. Denis Istomin fact file Age: 32 Nationality: Uzbekistani ATP titles: 2 Best Grand Slam result: Round 4 (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open) Head-to-head vs Federer: 0-6 Win/loss record in 2019: 0/1 Interestingly, their first contest came at this event some 13 years ago, with Federer winning in straight sets at the same stage. Istomin can be dangerous on his day, with decent power behind his serve and quick hands but Federer will be widely expected to dispatch the 32-year-old without too much fuss. Tsitsipas could meet Federer in the last-16 (Picture: AFP/Getty) Assuming he defeats Istomin, Federer will face a qualifier in round two, which could well end up being Britains Dan Evans if he comes through the final round on Friday. Another Brit could face the Swiss in round three, with Cam Norrie displaying good form at the start of the season, although 30th seed Gael Monfils will be the favourite to take on Federer. The 37-year-old can then expect a test of his credentials against Greek hotshot Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last-16, although Nikoloz Basilashvili has been in decent form and could upstage the 20-year-old youngster. Federer's potential route to Australian Open glory R1: Istomin R2: Qualifier R3: Monfils R4: Tstisipas QF: Khachanov SF: Nadal F: Djokovic Andy Murray is a potential quarter-final opponent but, in truth, its hard to see the three-time Grand Slam champion getting beyond Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round. Advertisement Advertisement Bautista Agut, who beat Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych on his way to the Qatar Open title already this season is in with a shout of reaching a first Grand Slam quarter-final, but Marin Cilic or Karen Khachanov perhaps are more likely to face the world No. 3 in the last-eight. Nadal will be expected to come through his draw and reach the semi-finals, while Djokovic is the favourite to reach the final in the other half. (Picture: AFP/Getty) Given his flying start to the year, its hard not to see Federer being one of the strongest contenders at this tournament. His draw looks relatively straightforward in the early rounds and once he finds momentum, the six-time winner will take stopping. Nadals fitness problems remain a concern so Federer is the favourite to reach the final. If he avoids Djokovic in the title showdown, he will likely win, but it seems more likely hell have to settle for second place this time around. | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/10/australian-open-draw-analysis-can-stop-record-chasing-roger-federer-clinching-melbourne-hat-trick-8332374/ |
Could a hotel be coming to ILM? | WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) Wilmington International Airport will start to look and feel different over the next few years, as it expands to accommodate more passengers. In 2018, a record 934,000 passengers flew in and out of ILM, up 12 percent from 2017. - Advertisement - As the number of passengers continues to grow, possibly exceeding one million in 2019, the airport must grow too. Where were at now, we have three airlines. With this expansion we want to be able to facilitate the addition of a potential fourth airline, said ILM Planning and Development Director Granseur Dick. The airport expansion is a four year project. Dick says the first phase started in October of last year, and the final phase will wrap up in summer of 2022. Dick says some things might go unnoticed by passengers, but will make them safer. other changes will be obvious. More efficient TSA checkpoints. Once they get through that checkpoint, theyre also going to have additional concessions in the gate area, said Dick. Another potential addition to the airport is a 100 room hotel. Its always been in our thinking, but its bubbled up to the top now, just because of our growth, said ILM Business Development Director Carol LeTellier. Vacationers who dont want to pay for the high rate to be on the ocean front, might want to stay at an airport hotel. They can get downtown in six minutes, they can get to the beaches in 20, said LeTellier. LeTellier says an airport hotel would be built near the main road entering the airport. She says it would be beneficial to more than just vacationers. I believe that we could handle the overflow when UNCW has its graduation. If we had another hurricane, it might be suitable for emergency rooms, she said. LeTellier says a hotel could also be beneficial for airline employees, and would provide jobs to those in the Cape Fear. She says no bids have been made yet, but they hope to have one built by 2020 or 2021. | https://www.wwaytv3.com/2019/01/10/ilm-grows-to-accommodate-more-than-one-million-passengers/ |
Will Kate Middleton Be Godmother to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Baby? | In case you didn't get the royal memo, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's first child is due this spring! And you know how the saying goes: first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes an extremely extra christening complete with an ancient lacy dress and a mile-long list of godparents. Unclear, but almost certainly not on the list is a Duchess by the name of Kate Middleton. And no, it has nothing to do with the reported "feud" between her and Meghan. It's just sorta how the royals do things: siblings (and presumably their significant others) simply are not godparent material! In fact, neither Kate nor Prince William should expect to be godparents to lil' Thomas Markle Jr. Jr., and for what it's worth, Harry isn't a godparent to either his niece or his nephews. If you're looking for an official explanation, royal correspondent Robert Jobson said (around the time Prince George was being christened) that because he's an immediate relative, Harry "will have a role in [the baby's] life anyway." That said, it's possible Harry and Meghan could bend protocol and name Kate and William godparents. Crazier things have happened, and it's not like family members are totally off limits! In fact, the Cambridges have some distant fam on their list of godparents, including Laura Fellowes (Princess Diana's niece), Adam and Lucy Middleton (Kate's cousins), and Zara Tindall (William's cousin). We have a full breakdown right this way, but some highlights include... Jessica and Ben Mulroney Aka Meghan's best friend/stylist and her husband, whose kids were in Meghan and Harry's royal wedding party! Getty Images Misha Nonoo Misha and her ex-husband Alexander Gilkes are rumored to be the people who introduced the Duchess to Prince Harrywhich makes sense because Harry and Alexander went to school together. Getty Images Lindsay Jill Roth A close friend who Meghan has known since their college days. Fun fact: Meghan was maid of honor in Lindsay's wedding, so the likelihood of her being named a godparent seems pretty damn high. Zoe and Jake Warren Friends of Harry's whose daughter was also in the royal wedding. FYI, Jake was one of Princess Diana's godsons so there's a strong family history there. Getty Images George and Amal Clooney Meghan and Harry are super chummy with the Clooneys, and The Daily Mail recently reported that they're "all but confirmed" to be picked, with a source saying "Amal and Meghan have been close for years, and Harry and George have become buddies because of that. They're much closer than the headlines let on." F*ck that noise" (but way more posh) and pick Kate and William to be godparents, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. | https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/a25844007/meghan-markle-prince-harry-godmother-not-kate-middleton/ |
Can Children Be Too Young to Test? | For the first decade after the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001 putting into high gear the testing-based model of education almost all standardized testing took place in grades 3-8 and 11. Little children were the only ones spared being subjected to the data-driven business model approach to learning, with its fixed testing targets and its multitude of accompanying charts and graphs. Developmentally Inappropriate No more. Little children have now caught up with their older siblings in the testing derby, on track to join them in taking more than 110 standardized tests by the end of high school. Yes, 110. Teachers in pre-kindergarten through grade 2 have now joined their teaching colleagues in the older grades in the pressure cooker to produce accountability data to match predetermined benchmarks. Little children are now joining their older siblings in experiencing the sidelining of art, music, creative play and other non-tested curriculum. They, too, are now spending more and more of their day in seat time, focused on tested subjects. They, too, are now being repeatedly tested, sorted and tracked. Their teachers know this is developmentally inappropriate. They know it is clearly wrong. But they are not allowed to tell you that. They are not allowed to tell you that most high-performing countries in the world test once in elementary, once in middle school and once in high school. They are not allowed to tell you that teachers already know full well how to identify kids who are struggling with reading, writing and math. Over the ages, teachers did not need multi-billion dollar testing corporations to tell them how to do their jobs. Two Ways to Say Enough! Oregonians have an opportunity to change things in a good way. We have the chance to say No to the developmentally inappropriate and harmful practice of testing-sorting-tracking little children. We can say No to the drive to minimize their other important qualities, such as creativity, divergent thinking and problem-solving. One way to change things is for all of us to tell our legislators to support the Too Young to Test bill (HB 2318) that has been introduced by Rep. John Lively (D- Springfield). It would prohibit the state government and local districts from standardized testing children from pre-kindergarten through grade 2. It is modeled on legislation in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. It would allow teachers to make their own professional decisions about which assessments to administer. The second way is for parents to Just Say No to every form of standardized testing that they can. This is where the ultimate power is: If parents say no more by opting their children out the testing juggernaut will begin to collapse. We could then join much of the rest of the world in giving a few well-constructed, classroom-based assessments, and save our kids from harm, save our teachers and principals from dispirited burnout and save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year. There is no ethical or curricular justification for repeatedly testing very young children or any of our children. Let young children experience the joy of learning and the thrill of making, doing, exploring and play. They are indeed Too Young to Test. Do two things for our little ones: Support HB 2318 and encourage your friends to opt out. Roscoe Caron and Larry Lewin are retired Eugene School District middle school teachers and members of the Community Alliance for Public Education (CAPE). Pat and Jan Eck are retired elementary educators and founders of Angry Grandparents Against High Stakes Testing (AGAHST). All are members of the Oregon Public Education Network (OPEN), which defends public education. Check out their websites: oregoncape.org and orpublicednetwork.org. | https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2019/01/10/can-children-be-too-young-to-test/ |
What Does the New Farm Bill Mean For Legal Cannabis? | / By legalizing hemp, the Farm Bill has created a legal source of CBD. January 10, 2019 4 min read Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The Farm Bill signed in December 2018 clears the way for CBD products to become legal nationwide - or, at least, that is the hope of marijuana industry advocates. If that is the way the situation unfolds, it would eliminate the ambiguity that has hung over CBD products since states began legalizing marijuana, starting with Colorado in 2014. Thats because the federal government still lists marijuana as an illegal Schedule I drug in the Controlled Substances Act, alongside cocaine and heroin. However, by legalizing hemp in the Farm Bill, the U.S. Congress and the president opened the door to CBD products, which are derived from hemp. Much of it will depend on what states decide to do. But the potential is there. At this point, the question might be what arent CBD products? CBD, which stands for cannabidiols, is already being infused into gummies, candy, chocolate, coffee, water, pet food, specialty menu items at restaurants, lotions, oils, bath soaks - the list goes on and on. Because CBD has been found to help relieve headaches, muscle aches, menstrual cramp pain, chronic pain, anxiety and even depression. Athletes have espoused its use both before and after workouts. CBD also is an ingredient in Epidiolex, approved this year by the federal Food and Drug Administration to treat seizures for people who suffer from two of the most severe forms of epilepsy. It is the first drug approved by FDA with a derivative of cannabis and signaled a regulatory shift away from the Drug Enforcement Agency, at least regarding pharmaceutical use of CBD, to the FDA. Importantly, CBD is the chemical in marijuana that does not cause the high feeling (thats THC). This is an important distinction when it comes to considering the Farm Bill. Related: Federal Cannabis Prohibition Got a Lot Weaker in 2018 Hemp Made Legal In passing the Farm Bill through the Senate, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ensured that it contained a provision that made domestic hemp legal. It helps that his home state of Kentucky sold $16 million in hemp in 2017 alone under a state pilot program McConnell supported. The president even signed the bill with a pen made from Kentucky-grown hemp that McConnell provided. Among its many provisions -- including $867 billion in programs over the next decade -- the Farm Bill also accomplished two major CBD-related goals. Changed the language of the Controlled Substances Act to remove hemp Gave states the right to develop a plan -- which must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- on how they will move forward with legal hemp production As pointed out in Rolling Stone, that does leave some uncertainty about how the USDA will view the state plans and whether this could become a major obstacle. If states do not submit a plan, individual growers have the right to submit a plan directly to the federal government. In a sign of the significance of the change, Colorado-based Charlottes Web named Eugenio Mendez as chief growth officer for the company. Charlottes Web specializes in producing CBD-infused wellness products, including beverages. Mendez formerly served as vice president of global marketing for water, enhanced water and sport drinks at Coca-Cola. Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news. | https://www.greenentrepreneur.com/article/326045 |
Is 2-star DE/OLB Marcus Mauney close to making his college decision? | We are closing out the first week of January 2019, but it was back in April of 2018 that Rivals 2-star DE/OLB Marcus Mauney took his official visit to Army West Point. The talented prospect out of Gastonia (NC) remains as a 2019 recruiting class priority, as the Army Black Knights begin to put the final touches on the incoming class. The 6-foot-2, 230 pounder told GoBlackKnights.com that he will be making his college decision following his scheduled and upcoming official visits to Davidson (1/11); Yale (1/20); UPenn (1/25) and Navy (2/1). Yes, I have four official visits set up and I will make a decision soon after, stated Mauney, who confirmed that Army is very much in the mix. | https://army.rivals.com/news/is-2-star-de-olb-marcus-mauney-close-to-making-his-college-decision- |
Would yew believe it? | Every Irish yew (Taxus baccata fastigiata) is descended from two found in the 18th century at Cuilcagh Mountain, Co Fermanagh, one of which still exists PAUL TOMLINS/CORBIS Our most dramatic evergreen is the yew, and specifically the Irish yew, the sombre tree that watches darkly over churchyards and offers shelter to roosting birds. All Irish yews are descendants of a pair found around 1760 on the side of Cuilcagh Mountain in Co Fermanagh. The finder, George Willis, gave one to his landlord, Lord Enniskillen, at nearby Florence Court. The nonconformist seedlings had an upright, columnar (fastigiate) shape, completely different from the spreading branches of the species, Taxus baccata. The original Florence Court yew, which still exists, is female, but the seeds almost invariably produce non-fastigiate trees, so the only way to make a new Irish yew is from cuttings. The fact that there were no Irish yews before the mid-18th century gives | https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/would-yew-believe-it-gxsfjc9xt |
What Do I Do With My Smelly Gym Clothes In Between Laundry Days? | Photo: Quino Al (Unsplash) Squalor Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert and advice columnist. Shell be here every week helping to answer your filthiest questions. [Email her. ](mailto:[email protected]) I have a problem Im dependent on going to the laundromat to wash my gym clothes so I cant wash them right away. Thanks! Have you ever come to the right place! For not only am I your resident cleaning expert, Im also a laundromat-dependent gym rat. I have help for you! Advertisement Lets start by addressing the two suggestions you threw out: Youre definitely thinking along the right lines, but I definitely dont recommend leaving gym clothes in a bucket of water, even if it does have vinegar in it, for a whole week. Thats just gonna create a fetid mess. As for the freezer, while freezing clothes doesnt actually get them clean (go ahead, take your jeans out of the icebox now) it will nuke odor-causing bacteria during the time the clothes are frozen. So! Not a bad choice, but honestly Id rather not take up your entire freezer with dirty gym clothes so that you may have room for ice. Delicious, delicious ice. (I am an Ice Enthusiast, its a whole thing.) Okay so now here come the things I do want you to do! Switch Up Your Laundry Hamper The main problem with sweaty gym clothes is, duh, that theyre sweaty. All that moisture + bacteria = bad smell times, and so one super simple way to cut back on the bad smell times is to let the clothes dry out. A laundry hamper that allows for air circulation will help with that; you may be like, But wont that make my room smell? Which is a good question! No, an open hamper wont make the room smell significantly worse than a closed one. Advertisement Mesh popup-style hampers are a good choice for gym gear, and theyre what I use in my own life. If you want something sturdier and more structured, this plastic Sterilite hamper will do the trick. Another option, if you truly prefer a closed hamper, is to get an odor-neutralizing liner like Smelleze. And finally, this Sport Hamper that looks like a SimpleHuman trashcan but for your dirty gym clothes seems pretttttty promising (though it doesnt actually seem to be available to buy right now, sadly). Shower Rinse+Drying Rack I mentioned already that letting gym clothes dry out is a good way to prevent their smell from getting worse in between wearing and laundering them, and this is true! If you can level up on the drying by hanging them for a brief spell before tossing them into the hamper, GREAT! Advertisement A wall-mounted telescoping drying rack is the perfect thing for this operation, provided you have the right space for it. There are lots of sizes and styles available, like this Brightmaison fold-down style, this Whitmor fold-up style and this Tangkula accordion style, so if the idea of a wall-mounted drying rack sounds like it might be the right solution to your problem do know that there are options out there. Now then, and even better way to level up is to do what we refer to in the business as the shower rinse. The shower rinse, youll be gobsmacked to learn, involves taking your sweaty workout clothes into the shower to rinse them out. The benefit of doing this is that it will, yes, rinse away the sweat but also the body oils and dead skin that combine to make those rank smells. If you want level up like WHOA you can stash a bottle of Dr. Bronners in the shower, and put a tiny blurt of it on the clothes during the rinse. Dr. Bronners is SUPER great on smells and is also gentle enough that you wont need to worry if some of it gets onto your personal parts. Because, you know, youre in the shower . Nuke Odors With Science So Im gonna totally show my math on this one: When I came across that Sport Hamper it gave me this idea get one of those UV wands and wand it over your gym gear before tossing it in the hamper. This is actually my favorite of all the suggestions I have for you today! You can stash the UV wand either in your gym bag, or right next to the hamper, so its right there at the ready for you to grab, wand, and toss. One last idea to leave you with, along with a promise to do a follow-up column on gym gear washing best practices Lysol Laundry Sanitizer is a great product that I think is aces for using alongside laundry detergent with stuff you want to wash in cold water but that might be extra bacteria-y (thats a technical term, yes). It can also be decanted into a small plastic spray bottle and used to spritz dirty workout clothes in between the wearing and the washing of them. Let us know in the comments please! | https://theinventory.com/what-do-i-do-with-my-smelly-gym-clothes-in-between-laun-1831546740 |
Should Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray play football or baseball? | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft to try his hand at professional football. After being awarded the top honor in college football, this seems like a no-brainer. However, Murray was already a first-round MLB draft pick. In the interest of his long-term health and financial success, many feel he should choose baseball over football as his professional calling. PERSPECTIVES Murray proved he could hang with the big boys in college football, winning the Heisman Trophy and quarterbacking the most productive offense in the sport. While he might be smaller than your average quarterback, he showed he can get gaudy numbers that could translate at the pro-level. Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and others have show that there is a future for Murray in pro football. Murray is almost assured to be picked in the first round, where his rookie contract will overshadow every rookie contract in baseball -- a sport where even the best players have to cut their teeth in the minors for a few years. Once he proves he can play at the pro-level, Murray could be one of the highest-paid players in the league. The smart money would be to be pursue pro football. Kyler Murray will reportedly enter the NFL draft. @MJ_Baumann explained why that would be a completely logical financial decision: https://t.co/mejK1x0zp1 -- The Ringer (@ringer) January 10, 2019 If Murray wants to be paid fully-guaranteed money, while saving his brain from being scrambled, baseball is the only choice. Unless you are one of the top quarterbacks in the league, you are not making anywhere near what you could in baseball. The median salary in MLB is $1.5 million, while the NFL has a median salary of $860,000. At least with MLB, you're getting all of that money. In the NFL, you're subject to incentives or being cut and losing money on your contract. Aside from the money, baseball is a much safer sport, especially when it comes to head injuries. Football has become synonymous with concussions and concussion-related ailments that cause brain trauma. If Murray values his life, he should choose baseball. Kyler Murray throwing away easy guaranteed baseball money to go to the NFL makes zero sense -- Chris August (@august_chris_) January 10, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.masslive.com/sports/2019/01/should_heisman_trophy_winner_k.html |
Will Justin Fischer return for Married At First Sight season six? | Married At First Sight's Justin Fischer has hinted he will return for the upcoming season of the Channel Nine show. The businessman, 41, shared a video to Instagram on Friday reflecting on his journey in the spotlight over the past 12 months. Maybe. Maybe': Justin Fischer (pictured) has hinted he will return to Married At First Sight for a second time - as Channel Nine blacklists the entire season five cast Justin's video was a montage of his MAFS journey, but it was the caption that really caught fans' attention. 'Did something out of my comfort zone. Loved it,' he wrote. 'I met Carly Bowyer [his on-screen 'wife', who he is no longer dating], learned a lot about the TV industry, made friends for life.' Justin continued: 'Channel Nine produced a great show and I was fortunate enough to be part of it. Maybe. Stay tuned...' 'Stay tuned': Justin shared a video montage of his MAFS journey on Friday, but it was the caption (above) that really caught fans' attention Justin was paired with marketing manager Carly Bowyer, 32, on Married At First Sight. However, they struggled with intimacy issues during their experimental marriage and eventually parted ways before the finale. He was later romantically linked to his co-star Ashley Irvin. Justin (left) was paired with marketing manager Carly Bowyer (centre) on Married At First Sight. After their break-up, she began dating Troy Delmege (right) It comes after Channel Nine controversially blacklisted the entire cast of Married At First Sight's fifth season. The show's official Instagram account blocked every single participant, including Justin, in retaliation for them speaking negatively about the show. A Nine spokesperson defended the move however, saying it was 'not unusual'. Married At First Sight premieres at 7:30pm on January 28 on Channel Nine Blocked! It comes after Channel Nine controversially blacklisted the entire cast of Married At First Sight's fifth season | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6579403/Will-Justin-Fischer-return-Married-Sight-season-six.html |
Where is the promised CRIME APP promised by Marvin Dames for citizens? | PM Minnis and his National Security Marvin Dames. Nassau Back in June last year, as Marvin Dames attempted to deflect news of murders and police shootings in the country, the Minister of National Security made a bold announcement that a new mobile application presently under development by the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) was about to rollout. Dames added that the app, which was then in its testing phase, would allow residents to report crimes anonymously. Police, Public, Private Partnership or P3TIPS, according to Marvin Dames, was expected to strengthen the partnership between officers and the public and added that the online platform will allow all citizens the ability to do their part. Well, after the Commissioner of Police presented his Crime Report to the nation this week, nothing was mentioned of the app. In fact, no app has been developed, according to our sources, and, well, the report of one must have been a mistake or a distraction. Back in June it was promised that, when fully developed, the app would be available for download in both the Apple and Google Play Stores. It was also noted that citizens can send pictures and videos of a crime in progress to the police through the application. The public has yet to know who got a contract to develop the app. Anyway we at BP are still waiting to see if this will develop or whether his is just another boldfaced lie to deflect from the reality. We report yinner decide! | http://bahamaspress.com/2019/01/10/where-is-the-promised-crime-app-promised-by-marvin-dames-for-citizens/ |
Should rape be dropped from the Penal Code and made a civil matter? | Even if the BFM victim declines to testify, the police can still interview the rapist and warn him that they are keeping tabs on him. Picture via Facebook COMMENTARY, Jan 11 Earlier this week, radio station BFM issued a press release stating it had sacked an employee accused of rape in 2017 after it became aware of the allegation that same year. BFM said it sacked the alleged rapist but did not lodge a police report because the complainant did not wish to do so. The radio station, well-known for its progressive stand on various issues, also announced in the same press release that it had fired two other male employees accused of sexually harassing their colleagues. But hardly anyone has spoken up even though a crime punishable by 20 years jail was made public in a press release. The police, government officials, lawmakers, senior womens rights activists, women leaders, and liberal opinion makers have not said anything. Except for two DAP MPs. Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh said in a statement that BFM should file a police report against the employees it sacked for rape and sexual harassment. Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto told me that sacking an employee accused of rape without filing a police complaint simply means that the perpetrator is free to roam, preying for his next victim, in total disregard of the law. Some liberals have even gone so far as to say that a criminal investigation should not be launched out of respect for the rape victim. Then we might as well drop rape from the Penal Code and make sexual assault solely a civil matter. After all, according to some activists and liberals, it is up to the victim to decide whether she wants action taken against her rapist or not. So, if rape is merely a civil issue, then no one else be it third parties or the State is obliged to seek action. Rape is currently a crime which means, according to lawyers, that it is an offence against the State. It is not simply an offence against an individual. This is why rape is prosecuted by public prosecutors and is an offence under criminal law. But if we feel that only the victim has the right to seek action because only she, not the State, was wronged by the act of non-consensual sex, then lets drop the pretence of fighting for justice and just let rape survivors decide for themselves if they want to sue their perpetrators. No need to get the police or everyone else involved. Just let rape be a private matter between two individuals. Or, if a man rapes multiple women, they can file a class-action suit! Lest people dont get sarcasm, I must clarify that I do not advocate dropping rape from the Penal Code. I was merely explaining the logical conclusion of some liberals response to the BFM case. But no one is screaming. Two lawyers Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi and Daniel Annamalai told me that BFM can file a police report over the rape case. There is no legal requirement to state that the person lodging the report ought to have a personal experience or a first-hand experience of the particular offence alleged of being committed because the criminal law can be set in motion by anybody, said Daniel. He said a private citizen can lodge a police report as well and that under Section 107(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code, a police officer is duty bound to receive any information on any offence. Upon having made a police report, the police are duty bound to commence an investigation upon the rape incident based on a reasonable suspicion. In BFMs scenario, the fact that the organisation has sacked the perpetrator could mean that BFM has credible evidence to prove such an incident did take place and this in itself gives rise to a reasonable suspicion to the police officers to investigate further into the criminal aspect of the incident, said Daniel. Filing a police report over the rape case is not just for the survivor, but it is also to protect other women from a rapist on the loose. Even if the BFM victim declines to testify, the police can still interview the rapist and warn him that they are keeping tabs on him. Being on the police radar will make him think twice about assaulting other women, even if he got away with the BFM attack. I dont know about you but I do not feel safe knowing that there is a rapist out there who got away with his crime even though the whole country knows what he did. His identity is protected, the police are not looking for him, and no one is baying for his blood. He merely got the sack. But because he remains anonymous, he has probably found another job. The rapist eats, sleeps, and goes to work like the rest of us. Like us, he has friends and co-workers and socialises with them, including unwary women who do not know that he is a rapist. If a poor unsuspecting woman falls into his clutches and refuses to have sex with him, he may rape her... after all, he got away with it once. | https://www.malaymail.com/s/1711299/should-rape-be-dropped-from-the-penal-code-and-made-a-civil-matter |
Who Will Get the First MacKenzie Bezos Interview? | In a 2013 Vogue interview, MacKenzie Bezos describes her husband of more than two decades as the opposite of me. She talks about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as gregarious and outgoingthat one in the couple who is more comfortable at cocktail parties. He likes to meet people, she says. Hes a very social guy. It was one of the only times the award-winning writer has spoken to the press. And while this isn't exactly deep insight into the Bezos marriage, it's one of the few quotes she's ever given about her husband. MacKenzie has managed to keep a low profile during her 25-year marriage to the richest person in the world. She and their four children are rarely photographed. And the only times shes agreed to be interviewed, shes promoting her novelsand sticking closely to the script. MacKenzie and Jeff Bezos at an Amazon Studios Oscar after-party in 2017. Getty Images Jerod Harris On Tuesday, MacKenzie and Jeff announced on Twitter their separation after 25 years. The joint statement indicates an amicable separation: 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. 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. But hours later, Page Six and People were reporting that Bezos is already seeing TV anchor Lauren Sanchez, who is divorcing Hollywood talent mogul Patrick Whitesell. "Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years, because both (now former) couples have houses in Seattle," an unnamed source told Page Six. TV networks are hoping so. A source tells Town & Country a race is heating up for the first sit-down with MacKenzie. "Yes, we are efforting her," says a TV source who asked not to be named, using a common bit of industry parlance for the process of courting an interview. "So many people would be interested in hearing from her. Shes like every American woman." "Shes like every American woman." While that might be debatable, MacKenzie's historic reticence coupled with the scale of their divorce, makes her a fascinating figure. And she would certainly have interesting stories to tellshe met Bezos while they worked together at a New York hedge fund in the early nineties, and she made the first move after becoming smitten with his booming laugh. She encouraged her husband to start Amazon and was one of the companys first employees, propelling the family to a net worth of a whopping $137 billion. We may never know, judging from her media track record. MacKenzie and Jeff Bezos in 2015. Getty Images Imeh Akpanudosen Shes an accomplished person in her own right and her first interview will probably be to promote something, like one of her novels or for one of her initiatives, such as Bystander Revolution, [an anti-bullying organization] says Katie Thomson, senior talent producer for HBOs Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and former booker for Barbara Walters and Larry King. You could see if shes willing to talk about anything personal, but based on her history, and the likelihood of a confidentiality clause being included in her separation agreement, Id say its unlikely. She will probably establish ground rules up front and I think its important to honor those, although it would be interesting to hear her views on the explosive growth of Amazon as she was the first employee. Thomson adds that live TV is sometimes seen by talent as safer than a sit-down with a print publication, because a writer has more power to edit quotes and add editorialized context to an interview, like, for example, she said with a sneer. "Shes an accomplished person in her own right." Though thats the route Justine Musk, who was married to Elon Musk, went when she sat down with Marie Claire after their high-profile divorce. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, and Diane Sawyer were the first stops for big, newsy profile interviews. Today, on-air talent likely to land a big get include CNNs Anderson Cooper, George Stephanopoulos at ABC, and Norah ODonnell and Lesley Stahl at CBS News. But things are different from when Walters and Winfrey reigned. The landscape has changed from the days where a handful of top journalists vied for the biggest interviews and now there are so many more options than just network and cable news programs, with so many talk shows and even satirical news shows like mine sometimes include interviews, such as the one John Oliver did with Edward Snowden, Thomson says. When picking an interviewer for her brief 2013 book tour, MacKenzie went with a journalist she knew when she sat down for an extended talk with Charlie Rose. At least 15 or 20, I think right after the first child was born. In 2004, MacKenzie and Jeff Bezos attend an Amazon event. Getty Images Jean-Paul Aussenard That conversation rarely veered from the topic of MacKenzies writing. She explained that it took 10 years to write her first book, talked about her Princeton thesis advisor, Toni Morrison, and how her children tease her for her love of Thesaraus.com (her favorite site second to Amazon). Because she's shied away from press, MacKenzie could be hard to reach, as well. It's unclear whether or not she has her own representation, so networks would likely try to contact her through an attorney, a previous book publicist, or through a philanthropic organization she's worked with. But she could lay low until she's ready to promote a project. Her book publisher didnt respond to our request for comment about any forthcoming novels. But reading between the lines of her fiction might, in the end, provide the most revealing glance into her private life. As MacKenzie told Vogue: My characters are based on people I know, but not in a direct way. | https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a25836179/who-will-get-jeff-bezos-wife-mackenzie-interview-first/ |
Who benefits from the solar energy revolution? | Not everyone is benefiting equally from the availability of new solar energy technologies, a new study by researchers at UC Berkeley and Tufts University shows. By combining remote sensing data from Googles Project Sunroof with census tract information, the researchers discovered significant racial disparities in the adoption of rooftop solar photovoltaics. Our work illustrates that while solar can be a powerful tool for climate protection and social equity, biases and barriers to access can dramatically weaken the social benefit, said Daniel Kammen, professor and chair of energy in the Energy and Resources Group and, professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. For households with the same median household income, black- and Hispanic-majority census tracts had fewer rooftop solar photovoltaics installed compared with those areas with no majority ethnic group, by 69 and 30 percent, respectively. White-majority census tracts had installed 21 percent more. When correcting for home ownership, black- and Hispanic-majority census tracts had fewer rooftop photovoltaics installed by 61 and 45 percent, respectively, compared with no-majority tracts, while white-majority census tracts had installed 37 percent more. The Green New Deal and other environmental justice efforts can use our findings to build a better and more inclusive energy transition, said Kammen, who is also a fellow of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and is a former Science Envoy for the U.S. State Department. Advances in remote sensing and in big data science mean that we are now able to take a unique look at not just where solar is deployed, but to combine that with census and demographic data to chart also who gets to benefit from the solar energy revolution, and therefore think deeper about the effectiveness of current policies and approaches to accelerate solar photovoltaic deployment, said Sergio Castellanos, a postdoctoral scholar in the Energy and Resources Group and research faculty in the Center for Energy and the Environment. The findings were published Jan. 10 in the journal Nature Sustainability. Kammens Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory is on the web at http://rael.berkeley.edu, where the data for the study can be found. | https://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/who-benefits-from-the-solar-energy-revolution/ |
Did construction of a border fence cut down on crime rates in El Paso? | CLOSE The new wall will replace chain link fencing for four miles from the Chihuahuita neighborhood to Fonseca Dr. Mark R Lambie, El Paso Times During a meeting with President Donald Trump, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the fence in El Paso proves that a border wall will work. (Photo: Jae S. Lee/The Dallas Morning News file) AUSTIN Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday told President Donald Trump that the border fence in El Paso helped drastically reduce the city's crime rate and shows why a wall along the nation's southern border would be effective. Paxton did not offer statistics to support his claim or specify which iteration of El Paso's border fence he was referring to, although he did reference border barriers erected under former President George W. Bush. "El Paso used to have one of the highest crime rates in America," Paxton said. "After that fence went up and separated Juarez, which still has an extremely high crime rate, the crime rates in El Paso now are some of the lowest in the country. So we know it works." We looked at the claim. Here's what we found: More: El Paso leaders say city is safe because of people, law enforcement not border fence Construction of a fence in El Paso Some form of barrier has existed between El Paso and Ciudad Jurez for decades, whether it was a chain link fence or the more substantial barrier that stands along the border today. Paxton's office did not return a request for comment looking to clarify which iteration of the fence his remarks referred to, but given his reference to Bush, he was likely pointing to fencing constructed under the Secure Fence Act from 2006. The proposal, signed into law by Bush in October of 2006, kicked off years of sparring over construction of the fence in El Paso and legal challenges to the effort. An El Paso Times article from the front page of the paper the same month the law was signed captured attitudes on the ground. "If you believe elected officials, business leaders and community activists, the proposed border fence to limit illegal immigration is either a cure-all or a calamity," the article reads Construction started on the fencing in the El Paso sector in 2008 and had finished by mid-2009. In his remarks, Paxton said El Paso had a high crime rate before the fence was constructed and that the rate of crime dropped substantially after it was completed. That was not the case. Using Uniform Crime Reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the rate of violent crime in El Paso can be calculated by combining data reported by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and the El Paso Police Department. Looking broadly at the last 30 years, the rate of violent crime reached its peak in 1993, when more than 6,500 violent crimes were recorded. Between 1993 and 2006, the number of violent crimes fell by more than 34 percent and less than 2,700 violent crimes were reported. The border fence was authorized by Bush in 2006, but construction did not start until 2008. From 2006 to 2011 two years before the fence was built to two years after the violent crime rate in El Paso increased by 17 percent. More: Trump Mexico wall talk before Texas visit prompts Rep. Veronica Escobar's first floor speech Same claim made by the White House In January 2018, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Ask El Paso, Texas (now one of Americas safest cities) across the border from Juarez, Mexico (one of the worlds most dangerous) if a wall works." She linked to an opinion piece published in the New York Post that was titled This town is proof that Trumps wall can work. The piece, written by a conservative political commentator based in Washington, D.C., argued that El Pasos border fence is the reason for the city's low crime rate and decreased illegal border crossings. At the time, local leaders rejected the article's findings and argued that it did not mention the police-community relations and cooperation between law enforcement agencies that contributed to the city's safety before border fencing was put in place. More: During Texas visit to tout border wall, Trump takes swipe at Beto O'Rourke Former El Paso Police Chief Russ Leach told the El Paso Times in 1997 that people are quick to credit law enforcement as crime rates ebb and flow, but the residents of El Paso are actually behind the city's safety. "It's not the police, and it's not the conditions in the community: It's the people, he said at the time. U.S. Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, pauses to speak to the news media during member-elect briefings Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press) U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said there is no evidence to support Paxton's claims. "Mr. Paxton, like most people who purport to know anything about the border, is dead wrong," Escobar said in a text message. "El Paso has long (and consistently) been one of the safest communities in American even before the wall was built." "It's this kind of willful ignorance that is so damaging to border communities and our country," she said. Madlin Mekelburg is a reporter with the USA Today Network Austin Bureau; she may be reached at 512-479-6606; [email protected]; @madlinbmek on Twitter. 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Will Brazil's New President Usher In a Return to Dictatorship? | Jair Bolsonaro began his tenure as president of Brazil in the new year exactly as human rights and environmental activists feared he wouldby issuing executive orders aimed at indigenous groups, Afro-Brazilians descended from enslaved people and the LGBTQ community. He declared that his inauguration meant liberation from socialism, inverted values, the bloated state and political correctness. Like his counterpart in the United States, Bolsonaro enjoys making pronouncements over social media, using his Twitter account prolifically. Many fear that Brazils rabidly right-wing, pro-business, pro-gun and pro-military president will usher in an era reminiscent of the two-decade-long dictatorship, the horrors of which are still fresh in the memories of many Brazilians. Bolsonaro has even spoken admiringly about the years between 1964 and 1985, describing the dictatorship as a very good period. Ivo Herzog is the board president of the Vladimir Herzog Institute, named after Ivos father, a Brazilian journalist who was tortured and assassinated during the dictatorship. In an interview from Sao Paolo, Herzog explained that the best way for you to understand Bolsonaro is that his mentor is Donald Trump. Indeed, Bolsonaro has echoed much of Trumps racist and misogynist rhetoric and has mirrored his agenda on the environment, business, the military and even, to an extent, foreign policy. His slogan Brazil Before Everythingmimics Trumps America First mantra. Trump is only too eager to embrace him, tweeting on the day of Bolsonaros inauguration, The U.S.A. is with you! Within hours of taking office, Bolsonaro tranferred the authority for land protections of indigenous communities away from the National Indian Foundation (known as FUNAI by its Portuguese acronym) to the Ministry of Agriculture. Herzog explained that this was a conflict of interest, as agribusinesses are more interested in farming than in protecting the rights of indigenous people. The new minister of agriculture, Tereza Cristina Dias, is the former chair of the farm caucus. An attack on Brazils indigenous people is, by extension, an attack on the Amazon rainforest. Indigenous tribes have historically been stewards of the precious land that functions as a massive, planetary-scale carbon sink. Dinam Tux of the Brazils Association of Indigenous Peoples told Reuters, We are very afraid because Bolsonaro is attacking indigenous policies, rolling back environmental protections, authorizing the invasion of indigenous territories and endorsing violence against indigenous peoples. Seemingly as racist as Trump, Bolsonaro has included Afro-Brazilians in his targeting. In fact, he has a history of virulently anti-black racism. Among those whose land rights he has weakened are the descendants of enslaved Brazilians. Herzog explained that Bolsonaro also is attempting to rescind racial quotas at universities, which were put in place only in the past decade to address systematic racism. The history of Brazils slave tradelike that of other nationsis a sordid one. Millions of people were trafficked from Africa to Brazil, and it was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish the institution. But racism stemming all the way back to slavery persists in Brazil. For example, according to Herzog, in Sao Paolo, where he lives, The police in 2017 killed over 900 people; 70 to 80 percent of those were Afro-Brazilian, most of them young men. Bolsonaros racism goes hand in hand with his homophobia. On his first day in office, he disempowered the Human Rights Ministrys ability to monitor the rights of the LGBTQ community. Brazils new president hails from a powerful evangelical churchan institution that poured money into electing him and has promoted a homophobic agenda. He also has unleashed controls on gun sales, once more taking after his American counterpart. Second only to the U.S. in the number of gun deaths each year, Brazil is awash in guns. Bolsonaros answer to the scourge of gun proliferation is to flood the market with more guns. In fact, the National Rifle AssociationAmericas largest gun lobby groupappears to have as much a hold on Bolsonaro in Brazil as it does on Trump in the U.S. Herzog also warned that Bolsonaro has empowered several state governors to use violence against crime. In other words, police are encouraged to shoot at suspects first and ask questions later. Corporations love Bolsonaro, and he appears to love them back, with his announcement on Twitter of a plan to privatize a number of airports and seaports. Brazils stock markets have soared since he took office, leading to declare in the first week of the year that Brazil is the best stock market in the world. Bolsonaro is not only ushering in a frightening new chapter in Brazil, he is dangerously ignorantanother similarity to Trump. According to Herzog, [H]is knowledge is very limited on everything, an inference based on the fact that he refused to participate in debates during his campaign. Additionally, when reporters questioned Bolsonaro on his policies, he often demurred to his future Cabinet members for details. Its very scary to have the leader of a nation the size of Brazil as someone who knows so little about our country and about the world, Herzog said. Again, the answer is eerily linked to Trump. Herzog explained that social media played a huge role in disseminating propaganda during the election campaign and tilting the election toward Bolsonarojust as it did in the U.S. The result of this election is due to social media, one hundred percent, he said. In Brazils case, the popular messaging software WhatsApp was the primary means of sharing misinformation. But, according to Herzog, Bolsonaros campaign also hired Cambridge Analyticathe now-defunct British firm that Trump and the Brexit campaign successfully deployedto help him win. So prevalent was the fake news that people lost their reference point for truth, Herzog said. A majority of Brazilians were convinced that a far-right president harboring the same ideology as that of the loathed dictatorship was preferable to the liberal leftist Workers Party that held power under the now-imprisoned Luiz Incio Lula da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff, until her impeachment. When I asked Herzog whether he fears a return to the type of repression seen under the dictatorship, he said, Actually I think it might be even worse, because during those dark days, the enemy was well known. We had a dictatorship put in place. Now, he explained, You have the same people with the same ideology, but they have the legitimacy of the vote. | https://www.truthdig.com/articles/will-brazils-new-president-usher-in-a-return-to-dictatorship/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Truthdig+Truthdig%3A+Drilling+Beneath+the+Headlines |
What's the priciest residential rental available in Beverly Hills? | 400 Walker Drive (Beverly Hills) 619 N. Camden Drive (Beverly Hills) 1108 Laurel Way (Beverly Hills) Believe it or not, the priciest listing in today's Beverly Hills rental market is going for $52,000/month -- a mind-blowing 1,430 percent above the median average for three-bedroom rentals. As absurd as it may seem, it's not the only luxury listing in the city. But just how choice are the features, given these astronomical prices?We examined local listings in Beverly Hills via rental website Zumper to pinpoint the city's most posh listings.Here are the city's select listings, below. (Note: prices and availability are subject to change.) ---Here's a single-family home located at 400 Walker Drive in Beverly Hills. It has three bedrooms and four bathrooms, and it's 3,680 square feet in size. Whereas the average price for a three-bedroom rental in Beverly Hills is approximately $6,746/month, this home is currently priced at an unthinkable $19,500/month. Why so costly?In the unit, you can anticipate air conditioning, high ceilings, a walk-in closet, carpeting, a kitchen island, floor-to-ceiling windows and a fireplace. There's also outdoor space, garage parking and a swimming pool. As la-di-da as this set-up might sound, pets are not permitted.According to Walk Score's assessment, the surrounding area isn't very walkable, has minimal bike infrastructure and doesn't offer many public transit options. (Take a look at the complete listing here . )Next, take a look at this single-family home situated at 619 N. Camden Drive in Beverly Hills. It has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, and it's a voluminous 5,418 square feet in size. This place is currently priced at a jaw-dropping $17,500/month.The home features air conditioning, marble and hardwood flooring, high ceilings, stainless steel appliances, a walk- in closet, a kitchen island, granite countertops and a fireplace. You'll also find garage parking, outdoor space and a swimming pool. Pets aren't allowed in this high-end rental.Per Walk Score ratings, this location is moderately walkable, has some bike infrastructure and has good transit options. (Take a look at the complete listing here . )Lastly, here's this single-family home over at 1108 Laurel Way in Beverly Hills. It has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, and it takes up 3,409 square feet. This rental is currently going for an unimaginable $16,995/month. What makes it so steep?In the house, you can expect air conditioning, hardwood flooring, a walk-in closet, a fireplace, stainless steel appliances, floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony. The home also features garage parking, outdoor space and a swimming pool. Dwelling in this top-of-the-line rental is a human-only thing: cats and dogs are not welcome.Walk Score indicates that the area around this address isn't very walkable, isn't particularly bikeable and has a few nearby public transportation options. (Check out the complete listing here .) | https://abc7.com/realestate/whats-the-priciest-residential-rental-available-in-beverly-hills/5050122/ |
What next for North Korea-US ties after Kim's China trip? | Riding on a bullet-proof train, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived this week in Beijing just in time to spend his 35th birthday alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping. The surprise trip to the Chinese capital served as a reminder to Washington that nuclear-armed Pyongyang has other strategic allies, underscoring the importance of the Sino-North Korean relationship ahead of Kim's possible second summit with US President Donald Trump. "It's no secret China has always wanted to be a part of this talk," said James Kim, director at the the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in South Korea's capital, Seoul. He added that the two-day trip shows that Kim is "sensitive" to the demands of China, North Korea's primary trade and aid source. But it may also have sent a message to Trump that Pyongyang has other options if rapprochement with Washington fails. Focus on sanctions At their high-profile summit in Singapore last year, Kim and Trump signed a vaguely-worded pledge on denuclearisation but progress between the two sides has since stalled amid disagreements over the interpretation of their agreement. In his annual New Year's speech last week, Kim renewed his commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula but warned the United States of taking a "new path" if it doesn't ease sanctions. 170810121538674 His trip to Beijing offers a glimpse as to where that path could lead. Pyongyang could be using the visit to show the US that it has an "alternative power to gravitate towards", according to Tai Wei Lim, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore. The North Korean leader is keen to achieve sanctions relief, but he seems to know Xi may be better able to grant that wish than Trump. The US president's strategy of maximum pressure depends largely on cooperation from Xi. With over 90 percent of North Korea's trade volume flowing through China's borders, Xi can control the faucet of North Korea's economy better than Trump by choosing to enforce those sanctions or take a more relaxed approach. Recently, China may be doing more of the latter, says James Kim, pointing to ongoing rumours of "de facto loosening of sanctions implementation in China". And while Beijing hasn't formally claimed to be ignoring enforcement, reports about "pockets of sanctions violations" are growing, he added. 'Have his cake and eat it too' North Korea has a well-honed talent for playing the world's major players against one another, leading analysts to believe that Kim at this point may be using that skill for leverage to get what he wants from a second summit with Trump: both striking a deal with the US and keeping his nuclear weapons. "He wants to have his cake and eat it too," argues James Kim. North Korea has been under international sanctions fairly consistently since 2006, curtailing its resource-based economy by capping exports on coal and banning exports of copper and nickel. China has also banned imports of textiles from the North, while several countries have an embargo on selling them luxury goods. 181013073434764 The campaign on sanctions may be losing steam though, with North Korea importing $640m in luxury goods from China in 2017. Rumours of thinly disguised coal shipments to South Korea have added to US frustrations in getting Kim's neighbours to maintain pressure. If Beijing is willing to loosen its grip on sanctions, Kim could indeed emerge as a winner. But China, perhaps hesitant to sour relations with Washington amid a bruising trade war between the world's two biggest economies, may also be hoping to extract something from Kim's visit. Xi seeks an end to the ongoing trade dispute, which is hurting the Chinese economy. Experts agree that while neither the US nor China is "winning" in the trade war, China may be at a disadvantage. By inviting Kim to meet him in China before a summit with Trump, Xi may be sending a message to Washington that "Beijing still has leverage over Pyongyang", according to Lim. The fact that Kim's visit came at the same time US negotiators were in China to discuss an end to the trade war is also unlikely to be a coincidence, said Sangsoo Lee, head of the Stockholm-based Korea Center at the Institute for Security and Development Policy, adding that there could "political intention" behind it. If Trump believes Xi holds the key to Kim's cooperation, the Chinese president will have another card to play in trade talks. The two sides are wrangling to draft a deal before March 2, when US tariffs on Chinese goods are expected to intensify if no agreement is reached. Kim has said openly that his goal remains modernising the North Korean economy, which he underlined by visiting a traditional Chinese medicine factory in Beijing on Wednesday. In his address to the nation last week, Kim outlined goals to upgrade North Korea's industrial capabilities, especially in pharmaceuticals. The country is a major producer of ginseng, a common ingredient in Chinese medicines, highlighting a potential export opportunity for Pyongyang. 181231014258448 But so far Kim's strength has been in what he doesn't say. Like his father - Kim Jong-il, who ruled North Korea from 1994 to 2011, Kim's strength has always been his "vagueness" about what he'll do next, and an ability to "keep everybody guessing until they do it", said James Kim. While Trump is happy to broadcast his plans and successes on Twitter, Kim's skill as a negotiator lies in not showing his cards "until the very last moment", added Kim. Instead, it may be more fruitful to look at what Pyongyang has actually done so far in the wake of the Singapore summit. "Pyongyang has taken no meaningful steps toward denuclearisation," said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Center in Washington, DC. In fact, according to Klingner, any steps North Korea is taking appear to be in the wrong direction. Satellite images and intelligence reports show North Korea "has continued nuclear and missile production", even expanding their operations, upgrading equipment such as reentry vehicles and mobile missile launchers, Klingner added. What those actions could show, and what Kim communicated in his New Year's address, is that North Korea is "not really serious about denuclearisation," said James Kim, or at least not in the way the US would like to see it. "That seems to be fairly clear and out in the open now." Until now, Kim appears to have been able to get a lot by giving very little. He's had a summit with a US leader, developed a nuclear programme and is now eyeing greater economic expansion through China. And after rallying support for sanctions relief in Beijing, Kim will be hoping to use that leverage to continue his success at a second meeting with Trump. The question now is how far the US is willing to concede from their original goal of complete denuclearisation, and what its response will be if North Korea chooses a better offer. | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/190110233144024.html |
Did the Tabloids Force Jeff Bezoss Hand on His Divorce Announcement? | Our curiosity was apparently sated mere hours later when Page Six reported hes allegedly been dating Lauren Sanchez, a longtime correspondent on Foxs Good Day L.A. and helicopter-flight consultant for television and film. On Thursday, The National Enquirer followed up, quoting what it claimed were text messages sent by Bezos to Sanchez sometime in April. The alleged messages are fine, though they suggest MacKenzie was really the writer in that marriage. Private messages made public are embarrassing, no matter how boring they are. In a teaser article that preceded the main bombshell, the tabloid also bragged about stalking the pair from one luxury locale to the next and also Boston during a four-month investigation. It claimed it followed Bezos and Sanchez across five states and 40,000 miles, tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates, and quality time in hidden love nests. So! Having now read the alleged receipts, lets assemble the narrative as the tabloids have presented it. Sanchez and Bezos apparently first met the way most Hollywood characters usually encounter tech barons. In 2016 Bezos threw a party for Manchester by the Sea with Matt Damon, and Sanchez was present. He eventually hired Sanchez to take aerial shots in a helicopter for his aerospace company, Blue Origin, according to a Page Six source. Multiple sources also claimed to the outlet that Sanchez is separated from her husband Patrick Whitesell, the co-C.E.O. of Hollywood talent agency W.M.E., and an insider claimed to People that the marriage has been on-and-off for some time. A lawyer for Bezos told the Enquirer that he and MacKenzie had been long separated. It all seems subdued when compared to the usual tabloid exploits of the nation-state rich, and the next-level maturity persists, as Sanchez and Bezos were even at the same Golden Globes party on Sunday, along with Whitesell. Not surprisingly, effort was seemingly made to tamp down the scandale of it all on Wednesday when Bezos posted a statement calmly announcing the divorce. It reads in part: 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. For the majority of Americans who, unlike the Enquirer, are not close Bezos-watchers, it came out of nowhere. Its a lot to take in. Many New Yorkers havent forgiven the guy for commandeering Long Island City yet. Maybe the conspiracy-minded see this as a distraction, a little dirt-dishing to deflect attention from the rents that have already gone upno wonder he wanted that helipad. Remove all the gossip packaging and the billions hanging in the balance, and a surprisingly pedestrian story writes itself. Namely, they allegedly worked together and were neighborsboth couples had houses in Seattle, per a Page Six sourceand then they allegedly started dating. (Bezos and Sanchez did not respond to requests for comment by Page Six.) And despite all the stalking and intrigue and the power players involved, the story as its been set forth by a tabloid or two with all its holes and unconfirmed details, so far, is a familiar tale of a man seeking a new relationship after a divorce. Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss a story. | https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/01/jeff-bezos-lauren-sanchez-alleged-relationship |
Is J.C. Penney Finally Showing Flickers of Life? | Shares of J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) surged 11% on Jan. 9 after the struggling retailer issued a holiday sales update. The company stated that its comparable-store sales for the nine-week period that ended on Jan. 5 fell 3.5% on a shifted basis (which aligns the fiscal and calendar years) and 5.4% on an unshifted basis. J.C. Penney also reaffirmed its goals for generating positive free cash flow (FCF) in fiscal 2018, reducing its inventory by more than 8%, and finishing the year with more than $2 billion in liquidity. The company also stated that it will close three stores "as part of an ongoing evaluation of its store portfolio" over the next few months as it explores the monetization of "beneficial" real estate assets. Exterior of a JCPenney store. More Image source: J.C. Penney. J.C. Penney plans to reveal additional details when it reports its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 28. Stumbling over a very low bar J.C. Penney was crushed between e-tailers, superstores, and fast-fashion retailers over the past decade. An ill-advised turnaround effort by former CEO Ron Johnson alienated the retailer's core customers, and his ineffectual successors failed to win them back. A string of executives -- including CEO Marvin Ellison and CFO Jeffrey Davis -- also abruptly resigned over the past year. A glimmer of hope appeared when J.C. Penney hired Jill Soltau, the former CEO of crafts and fabric retailer Jo-Ann Stores, as its new chief executive -- but Soltau faces a tough uphill battle. J.C. Penney's comps flatlined over the past year and tumbled into negative territory during the third quarter, and its holiday update indicates that trend will continue in the fourth quarter: Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018 Comps growth 1.7% 2.6% 0.2% 0.3% (5.4%)* Source: J.C. Penney quarterly reports. *(4.5%) on a shifted basis. However, J.C. Penney's 5.4% comps decline during the holiday period notably wasn't worse than its decline in the third quarter, and its 3.5% decline on a shifted basis actually marked an improvement from its 4.5% drop in the third quarter. But without other crucial information -- like store traffic, transactions, and margins -- we can't tell how much of that comps growth was fueled by promotions. Interior of a JCPenney store. More Image source: J.C. Penney. Soltau hasn't said much about her turnaround plans for J.C. Penney, but she's made clearing out the retailer's excess inventory a top priority. An 8% decline in inventory for the year is encouraging, but it also suggests that its "improvement" in shifted comps during the holidays was driven by markdowns -- which will further dent its gross margins. | https://news.yahoo.com/j-c-penney-finally-showing-233000005.html |
How much has the shutdown hit the US economy? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption President Trump says there is a border "crisis" Washington is at a standstill, as US President Donald Trump and Democrats feud over his demand to include $5.7bn (4.5bn) for a border wall in a new spending bill. The fight has closed parts of federal agencies since 21 December and is on track to be the longest government shutdown in US history. Food inspections have halted. Listings of new companies are on hold. Mortgage approvals have been delayed and the release of certain economic data has been suspended. For those outraged by the impasse, the answer may be unsatisfying because, at least for now, it appears to be - not much. Economists estimate that the shutdown is likely to shave between about 0.04% and 0.07% of gross domestic product (GDP) off economic growth per week - an average of just over $1bn a week. That is far less than estimated losses of more than $20bn incurred during the 16-day shutdown in 2013, which affected much more of the government. "As long as this shutdown is relatively short, these impacts are going to be fairly modest," says Joel Prakken, chief US economist for Macroeconomic Advisors by IHS Markit. The fight has closed parts of most major departments, including the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security. The most immediate pain stems from those closures, which mean about 800,000 federal workers will not receive pay this week. Many contractors are also affected. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lila Johnson's last pay cheque was at the end of December Lila Johnson, 71, is a member of the 32BJ SEIU labour union, which represents about 2,000 custodian and security guard subcontractors at federal agencies involved in the shutdown. Her part-time job, as a custodian at the Department of Agriculture, pays $22.10 an hour and helps to supplement her retirement as she cares for two great-grandsons. But her last pay cheque arrived at the end of December. Ms Johnson is now relying on her Social Security benefit to keep up with car payments, credit card balance and other bills - and is starting to fall behind. "It's a struggle," she says. "I have to pay a little here and a little there. I'm doing the best I can... but people need to go back to work to take care of their families." While wages for contractors like Ms Johnson are uncertain, in previous shutdowns, federal workers have recouped their pay. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US shutdown: 'My son wants to sell art to pay our bills' Many also earn enough to absorb a hit to their finances without seriously reducing other spending - as long as it's temporary. The average annual compensation, including benefits, of the federal workers affected is more than $100,000, according to Mr Prakken. Most importantly, unlike previous shutdowns, this one involves much less of the government - the bill concerns only about 25% of money Congress allocates to fund the government. And about half of the staff going without pay are still working, minimising wider disruption. There are other losses - such as cancellations at national parks which are closed. But it is likely tourists are spending their dollars elsewhere, mitigating the wider economic effect. "While it is certainly a concern, the size of the impact is rather small," says Beth Ann Bovino, chief US economist at S&P Global. "We are a $19 trillion economy after all." Right now, much of the pain is being felt in areas with large concentrations of federal workers, like Washington, DC, where Moody's Analytics estimates that one in six jobs are potentially affected. But as the shutdown persists, economists warn that the delays and lost pay cheques will start to add up. By Friday, S&P Global estimates the shutdown will have cost the economy $3.6bn. Within two weeks, the firm says losses from the shutdown will be larger than the cost of the wall itself. "Even though it is a small amount, it still hurts," Ms Bovino says. Already, the chaos, suggestive as it is of political dysfunction, is likely to have hit confidence. The business world is also worried about missing certain economic data, including retail sales GDP figures, at a time of uncertainty over the economy's direction. "We would have a less clear picture into the economy if it were to go on much longer," Federal Reserve chair Jerome "Jay" Powell warned on Thursday, adding that an "extended" shutdown would hurt growth. Image copyright EPA Image caption Tourist dollars are being diverted from national attractions Michael Roosevelt, co-owner of a small brewery in New Jersey, expected to open an expansion this month that would allow his Alementary Brewing Co to roughly quadruple its output and lead to the hiring of several new workers. But he's still waiting on a licence from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which is shut, while paying about $1,000 per day to cover the new lease, utilities and equipment loan. "In another week or so, that's when the panic is going to set in," he said. | https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46815847 |
How Should Political Figures Treat The Media? | 11 SHARES Share Tweet QUESTION OF THE DAY Media practitioners subscribe to the principle of decriminalising speech. They do agree that the media should protect the rights of all and should not be seen to be a violator of the rights of others. Political figures who are offended by media reports would address their complaints to the Gambia Press Union and seek for ways and means of defending their reputation through publication of the truth should misstatements be qualified. The courts should be out of bounds in such matters if we want to promote freedom of expression and freedom of the media. | https://foroyaa.gm/how-should-political-figures-treat-the-media/ |
What will Mississippi Power customers see on their bills in February? | CLOSE Mississippi Power's Tony Smith reports on state's largest solar facility near Sumrall Ellen Ciurczak/Hattiesburg American It's official starting next month, Mississippi Power customers will see a small decrease in their power bills. The state Public Service Commission Thursday approved the company's annual fuel filing, thus reducing the fuel portion of customers' bills by 3 percent. A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month will see an average savings of $4.14 on their bill. The Commissions approval of our annual fuel filing allows us to deliver savings to our customers, beginning in their February bills, said Anthony Wilson, Mississippi Power President and CEO, in a news release. The company made its annual filing in November, when it announced the cost reduction might be coming. The filing reflected a decline in fuel costs, driven primarily by lower natural gas prices. Each year the commission adjusts Mississippi Powers prices up or down to reflect changes in the cost of fuel used by the company to generate electricity. In August, the commission approved a 9 percent rate increase for the utility, raising customer rates by about $11 a month. Mississippi Power does not earn a profit on fuel costs, which is reflected dollar-for-dollar in customers bills. Mississippi Power produces energy for more than 187,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties. More: Commissioner Sam Britton talks internet, Mississippi Power rate increase and Arnold Line Read or Share this story: https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/2019/01/10/mississippi-public-service-commission-approves-power-rate-decrease/2535257002/ | https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/local/2019/01/10/mississippi-public-service-commission-approves-power-rate-decrease/2535257002/?from=new-cookie |
What exactly is a vacation? | Here is the problem with going on vacation: You can take a vacation from work and you can take a vacation from school but you cant take a vacation away from your loved ones. Trust me, Ive tried. I was able to close out 2018 by taking some time off from work. I had my entire vacation schedule lined up, most of which consisted of important chores such as the following: sleep in late, wake up, eat Ramen noodles, watch football and King of the Hill reruns (most underappreciated show in television history) and fall asleep wherever I happened to be lying down at 3 a.m. Much like when I had the great idea to have a urinal installed in our home restroom; however, my wife had other plans. For starters, she had actual chores she wanted me to accomplish, most of which were, technically speaking, beyond my skill set. She wanted me to do such high-level tasks as: laundry, dishes and something she described as picking things up off the floor and putting them back where they actually belong. Apparently, she must have thought I would have a team of NASA scientists, the 2008 graduating class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and MacGyver at my disposal. Furthermore, my wife was not on vacation during much of my vacation, which meant I was to accomplish all of these tasks by myself. In my infinite wisdom, I said the following: Cant I just sit around my house in my underwear like you do when you go on vacation and I have to work? Its funny, Ive often heard the phrase steam coming out of someones ears, before, but up until that moment, I always kind of figured it was just some sort of colorful metaphor. Its not. I am pretty sure I literally saw steam coming out of her ears. Its statements such as that one, Ive come to find out, that have me sleeping on the couch more often than not. Not only was I charged with accomplishing my wifes seemingly endless list of back-breaking chores (She wanted me to run the vacuum, for crying out loud! ), but I would also spend large portions of my vacation with the unenviable task of keeping two human beings alive. Since my kids were out of school for a large portion of my vacation, it would be my responsibility to make sure they did things like eat and sleep and not play with flamethrowers. Apparently, my wife had forgotten whom she married 17 years ago. Fortunately, my kids are at ages (11 and 14) where they have become largely self-sufficient. They know how to use a microwave (sort of), how to call 9-1-1 and how not to run while carrying scissors. Once we went over those ground rules, I figured I could take a lengthy nap while the warm glow of the television watched over my two precious children. Its this type of thinking that likely will win me a Father of the Year award at some point. No sense in coddling the little tykes. Its important to teach self-reliance. I hope my kids are ready to move out into their own apartment by the time they graduate. Other than those delights, however, I suppose my vacation was largely uneventful. Both of my children lived through the week under my care, I didnt manage to set the dishwasher on fire and I managed to get a delicious dinner on the table for my wonderful wife every night when she came home from work. (For all of my general sloth, cooking is the one chore I actually enjoy.) I cant wait until I go on my next vacation. I hope when I take my time off from work, Ill be able to travel to someplace exotic. And I hope my family stays at home with their chore lists while Im gone. David Fong writes for the Troy Daily News, a division of AIM Media Midwest. https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/01/web1_web1_Fong-David-mug-1-.jpg | https://www.wnewsj.com/opinion/columns/93721/what-exactly-is-a-vacation |
Can Huya Stock Set Up for Another Massive Breakout? | Shares of Huya (NYSE: HUYA ) have been on fire over the past few weeks. Its not just Huya stock either, as a number of Chinese equities are starting to gain some bullish momentum. Of course, it helps that the U.S. and China are seemingly finding common ground in recent trade talks. While the current trade spat may not directly impact a company like Huya or iQiyi (NASDAQ: IQ ), it does impact the Chinese economy. As you may or may not have read at this point, the Chinese economy is stumbling a bit. Granted, its growth remains robust compared to many developed nations, but manufacturing and other industries are taking a hit. Some companies are moving production out of the country due to the trade war. As a result, that hurts Chinese workers, which hurts the economy. Auto sales which enjoyed two decades of growth are stagnating. There are numerous data points suggesting the slowdown. I wouldnt say the sky is falling when it comes to the Chinese economy, but the nation is more vulnerable than many previously thought. The two countries have been hammering out talks for three days now, the last of which was unscheduled and suggests the meetings are progressing towards a solution. That presents both an opportunity and risk. While trade negotiations are playing the hero right now, they can just as easily play the villain. Should negotiations fall apart, look for it to deal a devastating blow to names like Huya, JD.com (NASDAQ: JD ), iQiyi, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA ) and others. Evaluating Huya Stock Huya is sort of like the Twitch of China. For those that dont know what Twitch is, its an online game-streaming platform owned by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ). Given the growth in gaming and e-sports, its no surprise that Twitch and other streaming platforms are benefiting as well. Chinas stance on video games is not as lenient as it is here in the U.S. Benefiting Huya was Chinas decision to ban Twitch. On the flip side, it also took a more strict approach to video games and which ones would be approved for consumers. Less games equals less streaming opportunities for Huya, which in turns hurts its growth. But all is not lost. Last quarter the company reported earnings of 8 cents per share and revenue of almost $186 million. That doubled analysts earnings estimates and topped revenue expectations by more than $7 million, which rose by almost 120% year-over-year. User growth also showed impressive marks, with monthly active users up 14.6% and mobile monthly average users up over 28%. For the year, analysts expect earnings of 25 cents per share on revenue of $667 million. In 2019, estimates call for earnings to nearly double to 47 cents per share on revenue of $1.02 billion, up 53% year-over-year. If Huya can achieve those numbers, its hard to imagine its stock trading below current levels. Hint: here are 8 other Chinese stocks with promising long-term future. Trading Huya Stock Click to Enlarge Huya stock went public in May at $12 per share and hit $50 per share a month later. This quadrupling in share price obviously meant Huya stock needed to cool off, and thats exactly what its down. Shares have been trapped in a nasty downtrend for almost eight months. However, that came to an end a few days ago when Huya stock broke out over $16.50. Not only did the move propel Huya over the 21-day moving average, but also over downtrend resistance (blue line). It quickly tore higher, climbing 25% in five days and running into possible resistance near $20. Huya and other high-flying Chinese stocks have the potential to really rip if and when the U.S. and China put together an official trade deal. But until then, Im still skeptical of the group, regardless of the breakouts. I am eventually looking for Huya stock to breakout over $20 to $21, which would put Huya over its 100-day moving average. But it wouldnt be the worst thing for the stock to pullback and/or consolidate for a bit now. Over the 21-day and 50-day moving averages, and the name is still attractive on the long side. Its imperative for the bulls to keep Huya over prior downtrend resistance and the $15 mark. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long AMZN. | https://investorplace.com/2019/01/huya-stock-another-massive-breakout/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InvestorPlace+%28InvestorPlace%29 |
Why the UAE is the 7th Most Competitive Economy in the World? | In the recent global study, the UAE has now moved to the 7th most competitive economy in the world. This calls for celebration because not only did they advance three spots up to secure that position, but they also scored an impressive number one ranking in multiple factors which lead them to this ranking. 1: Global Investments The UAE has mastered the art of attracting international investments. Moreover, they go beyond attracting foreign investments and actively seek to create an atmosphere where global companies are willing and eager to bring their funding to the shores of the UAE. For example, the execution of the Freezones without a doubt transformed the way investors looked at Dubai. This model facilitates the relocation of foreign businesses into the city, while also collecting rent, while still being in a position of control with regards to the companies which seek to do business in the city. This overall makes it appealing for the government and also appealing to the investor. Aside from businesses, individual real estate investors can also have a piece of the pie. With the sale of properties such as Emaar beachfront apartments, Madinat Jumeirah Living apartments, Port De La Mer apartments, Bluewaters Residences, Dubai real estate agencies have their hands full of great real estate investment options for families or individual investors looking invest in this economy. In turn, developers of the Emaar beachfront apartments also make attractive offers to garner the attention of potential buyers. Essentially, Dubai offers a perfect atmosphere for any potential investor. 2: Global trade This is another factor which has tremendously strengthened the UAEs overall position on the leaderboard. After all, trade counts for a whopping 30% of the GDP. Historically, the UAE relied heavily on the exchange of pearling and fishing and since the discovery of oil, it is one of the backbones by which this economy lives and thrives on. 3: Immigration Laws The government of Dubai leaves no stone unturned to attract foreign investors with investor-friendly laws. The Govt. has introduced 10-year visas for professionals within a certain field. Specialists such as accountants, doctors and scientists to name a few would benefit from this new law. This, in turn, would create more jobs, boost the property market and would also continue to attract even more funding from foreign sources. Even though the UAE outshined nations such as Sweden and even Canada to name a few yet it continues with its ambitious goal and dreams, one thing is for sure, they simply have no plans of slowing down anytime soon. (Visited 9 times, 1 visits today) | http://techiediva.com/2019/01/07/why-the-uae-is-the-7th-most-competitive-economy-in-the-world/ |
Whats Brexit worth to May? | Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn + Benedict Cumbatch is starring in a new Brexit movie that is out on Monday 7 January. Its premiere on the UKs Channel 4 is being followed by a US airing by HBO two weeks later. The Brexiteers are angry things arent going their way and the Bremainers are angry theyre not getting a second referendum; everyones angry and everyone is anxious about what is going to happen. EU affairs connoisseur Jon Worth took time out over the Christmas break to map out the possible scenarios. In the chart above, you can see the four different endgame possibilities in red in each of the four corners. But apart from where we are now, and where we can possibly end up to journey to Ithaca is to dive into the abyss of uncertainty. Worth has attached probabilities (in orange) to each possibility in the early stages and they dont seem unreasonable. While the snakes and ladders map is complex, what is even more difficult is to factor in the variable of time that is running out. With the increasing possibility that the UK government will likely be forced to ask the EU for an extension of the negotiation period (likely to be tied to some kind of vote or political event), leaders of European member states are starting to ponder what they can ask for to secure the unanimous vote is successful. Beware the Greeks For example, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras would be unfaithful to his people, if he did not request the UK give back the Parthenon marbles in exchange for his consent to extend the Article 50 2-year period. And thats little Greece. Who knows what other countries could ask for. If we do end up with a multitude of bilateral compromises, Theresa May will have to decide what Brexit is worth to her. Let the games, begin. | https://www.neweurope.eu/article/whats-brexit-worth-to-may/ |
Why Isn't Cardi B Considered A Headliner At Bonnaroo? | The 2019 lineup for Bonnaroo was released Tuesday morning, and the camping music festival, taking place at Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tennessee, features some revered hip-hop acts for the grand event taking place Thursday, June 13 to Sunday, June 16. If youre a fan of Childish Gambino and missed the This Is America tour, which he announced would be his last one ever, you may have a second chance at seeing him before he retires his moniker, Childish Gambino. Hes heading on a festival trek beginning with Coachella in April and making his subsequent stop to Bonnaroo this summer. Childish Gambino will take center stage as the leading headliner on Friday, while Post Malone will bring his Rockstar persona to his (bound to be memorable) set on Saturday. Weirdly enough, hip-hops queen Cardi B will perform on Sunday, but is not listed as one of the main acts of the night. Despite having the the fourth-biggest album of 2018 with Invasion of Privacy, the lineup lists her as a secondary set to Phish and The Lumineers, who both didnt even release projects last year. Her debut studio album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and two singles I Like It featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin and Bodak Yellow (Money Moves) from the project peaked at No. 1 on the Hot 100. The unstoppable rapper even garnered five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Rap Album. It should also be noted that no female artists were named headliners for the festival. Rather than giving at least one headlining spot to a female artist, the festival organizers decided to give Phish two sets on two separate nights of the four-day extravaganza. The festival overall fails to recognize mainstream and emerging female artists, as the secondary line doesn't completely reflect the women currently impacting the music industry today. Only one female artist is listed per day in the follow-up line except for Sunday. Even if Cardi B was moved to the much-deserved headlining role, that would still only leave one female artist serving as a supporting act that Sunday. Out of 14 acts listed under the headliners, only four female artists were announced to perform, and the remaining 10 acts are men acts. While Bonnaroo fails to fully recognize women especially in hip-hop other notable hip-hop acts include Chicago rapper Saba, who will perform on Thursday, Solange and Brockhampton, who will perform on Friday, and Juice WRLD, Gucci Mane and Lil Simz, who will perform on Saturday. Lil Dicky, The Soul Rebels and Prince cover band Princess comprised of Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum will bring the weekend to a close with their enthusiastic sets. More acts not in the hip-hop/R&B categories include Phish (with two sets), Odesza, Kacey Musgraves, The Lonely Island, Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers, Beach House, Courtney Barnett, Bishop Briggs, Zhu and Mac DeMarco. Launching in 2002, the festival originally based their lineups on jam and folk rock bands, but explored other genres as trends in music evolved throughout the years. Bonnaroo festival organizers havent completely honed in on diversity and inclusion with their lineup, seeing that they failed to incorporate an all-encompassing set of women acts on its bill. Though, they have slowly improved with their hip-hop presence in the last three years. Previous hip-hop MCs featured in the past include Kanye West, Eminem, JAY-Z, Lauryn Hill and Wu-Tang Clan. Check out the full lineup here. Follow me on Twitter @champagnelali. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenalvarez/2019/01/10/why-isnt-cardi-b-considered-a-headliner-at-bonnaroo/ |
Are smart cities the solution to urban problems? | Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn + Over the past years, the concept of smart cities has been discussed among global leaders, European Institutions and prominent technology providers. Smart cities have now become more than a term; it is a concept has evolved into a multi-billion-euro market, accompanied by a regulatory battlefield. The end result: technology now has an additional, social dimension that fosters the contact between citizens and government. In this dynamic view of smart cities, the term has come to be defined as a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommunication technologies for the benefit of its inhabitants and business, according to the European Commission. These are in effect cities that incorporate the Internet of Things (IoT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into their digital strategy, where citizens are invited to experience the transformation of the urban environment. Their city will be a more efficient city in every way. Barcelona and Amsterdam are two of the leading European examples that give priority to smart urban growth, responding to challenges, and implementing a green policy that has spurred the development of local innovation clusters that include start-ups, research institutions and service providers concentrated in specific geographic areas. Barcelona and Amsterdam It is not a coincidence that Barcelona was the Mobile World Capital of 2018. From the establishment of pilot projects for testing the 5G technology in different sectors to solar panels and smart sensors, Barcelona is one of the European cities that serves as an example, when it comes to being smart. One of the actions taken in order to significantly improve citizens quality of life are noise sensors. Barcelonas fabrication laboratory developed sensor technology that residents placed on their balconies, showing that the noise levels during the night in Sol square, were much higher than the recommendations of the World Health Organization. Barcelona took action and now the locals enjoy noise-free nights and better sleeping conditions. Amsterdam is also a good example of what a smart city looks like. As the most bicycle-friendly capital city in the world, it promotes an eco-friendly way of life. By creating a network of cycling paths and lanes, Amsterdam created a safe urban infrastructure which forces cars to drive slowly and gives cyclists more space in the city. It also introduced a new life style and transformed the citizens to eco-conscious travellers and consumers. Eco-friendly living is one of the core characteristics of a smart city that aims on urban innovation. Putting humans into the equation Community evolvement coupled with technology lead to a positive impact to the local community and the improvement of citizens quality of life. Smart cites have a holistic approach to the problems faced, and goals align themselves with the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, as set by the United Nations. Sustainability is a key element for a city to evolve. Smart energy meters, solar power meters, garbage and waste management, co-create a futuristic perception of services. Human capital is significant in these kinds of cities, since citizens and entrepreneurs are involved in a co-creation model, where they have the opportunity to participate through their work and actions. Some of the problems that are effectively tackled by smart cities are transportation, infrastructure and mobility, aiming at the social inclusion of all its inhabitants. If there was a moto for these towns and metropolises, it would be Alive and Connected. IT connectivity, digitalisation and collective intelligence form a knowledge-based context, where creativity emerges. Modern democracy is also based on the use of open data, control and transparency that enable citizens to have access to information and become involved in politics. The concept of open governance is based on digital technologies that facilitate the interaction between residents and politics. Open Government Data (OGD) refers to the government datasets available online, which increase transparency and further citizen engagement. All the above mentioned notions create a social context from which creativity and multifaceted solutions emerge. From the concept of bike sharing to the broader issues of the sharing economy and sharing cities, the smart cities increase prospects for the public good. Smart cities perceive society as a whole to better anticipate the future and drive the economic growth by enabling local development. In this framework, a smart city adopts a positive vision and accelerates urban revitalisation. The initial steps include not only the possession of technology, but also its implementation. Choosing how technology will be applied in different contexts paves the way to the citys evolution. Having more sustainable cities is one of the European Unions goals, according to the 20-20-20 targets. To accelerate this process, the European Commission has launched the European Innovation Partnership to Smart Cities and Communities which aims to bring together small cities, businesses and civic organizations that will develop and implement innovative solutions. Some of the Partnerships priorities are the sustainable urban mobility, the creation of knowledge-based cities and the focus on citizens. Furthermore, the EIP-SCC Marketplace is a platform that helps cities to become smarter and more sustainable socially, environmentally and economically. The attraction of investors plays also a key role for this change. However, some of the challenges the smart cities face is the demand of spending a significant budget under a tight public financial plan and the fragmented European market that puts out of focus potential economies that can scale. To tackle these challenges, shared knowledge through cloud utilisation and open platforms are needed. Smart cities are coming to transform our present, encourage us to envision a connected future and discover innovative solutions, based on shared knowledge and services. Aiming at the individuals well-being, they are eager to respond to the needs of the ageing population, the people in need, ameliorate our quality of life and raise the standards. | https://www.neweurope.eu/article/are-smart-cities-the-solution-to-urban-problems/ |
Could an on-fire Alexis Griggsby help snap the Huskies five-game losing streak? | The Huskies are still looking for a consistent offensive threat to complement Amber Melgoza. Lately, Alexis Griggsby appears to have stepped up her game, and her deadly perimeter shooting could be huge for UW against Colorado on Friday. Weeks ago, Jody Wynn struggled to find any positives following one of the most lopsided losses in the 45-year history of the Washington womens basketball team. After sifting through the debris of a 103-56 defeat to No. 4 Mississippi State, Wynn singled out Alexis Griggsby, a sophomore reserve who piled up a team-high 11 points mostly in garbage time. It was good to see Lexi play the way that (she) did, Wynn said. That will hopefully continue to encourage (her) to keep working and getting in the gym and keep believing that (she) can be a good piece to our family. [UW WBB | Starting lineups, scouting reports against Colorado] The next game, Griggsby didnt attempt a shot during a scoreless, 12-minute performance against Washington State. Nonetheless, Wynn never lost confidence and remembered the 5-foot-9 guard was one of the best players during preseason workouts before an ankle injury forced her to miss a few weeks and the first two games of the season. Needing a spark to jump start an offense that ranks near the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring (69.5 points per game) and three-point shooting (28.9 percent), Wynn gave Griggsby her first start of the season and fifth in her career last week at No. 5 Oregon. Were searching for consistent performers and I thought it was her turn to get that start, Wynn said. And she ran with it. During an 84-71 loss, Griggsby responded with a personal best 26-point performance that matched her season total through 11 games. She also converted 6 of 11 three-pointers and 10 of 16 field goals both career highs in 26 minutes. Two days later, Griggsby knocked down 5 of 7 three-pointers for 15 points in a 78-67 defeat at No. 11 Oregon State. My teammates just trusting in me and believing in me to make the shots, Griggsby said. Coaches believing in me to make shots. My teammates screening to get me open to get the shots off. Its an all-around collective effort for me to get my shots off. Griggsbys offensive fireworks couldnt have come at a better time for Washington (7-8, 0-3 Pac-12), which has lost five straight heading into Fridays 7 p.m. matchup against Colorado (10-4, 0-3) at Alaska Airlines Arena. Since Wynns arrival last season, the Huskies have desperately searched for consistent scorers to support all-Pac-12 guard Amber Melgoza, who ranks fifth in the conference with a 19.5 scoring average. Melgoza has led Washington in scoring in 13 of 15 games and no other UW player averages more than 10 points per game. This cant be just the Amber show, Wynn said earlier this season. Weve been looking for 1, 2 or 3 more players to get a little more consistent (scoring) so teams cant just load up on Amber. I dont know who its going to be. At times its been Missy (Peterson). Jenna (Moser) has had some nice games. And Hannah (Johnson) and Mai-Loni (Henson). It could be anybody and weve seen that. Last week, it was Griggsby. Admittedly, she wasnt ready to contribute much last season. That mental game that you have a freshman, you kind of feel like sometimes you dont belong, said Griggsby, who averaged 5.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 17.7 minutes last season. Youre doing the little things, but you feel like the little things dont get noticed as much. And an ankle injury ruined what had been a promising performance in preseason practices. In the month of October she was an outright starter, Wynn said. She was one of our most consistent performers. And it went away after the ankle sprain. Pretty bad ankle sprain sat her out for a few weeks and just really never got her groove back. Lost confidence and just battled through the confidence struggle throughout November and December. You knew it was there, it was just hidden under a few layers. Griggsby said: When shooters cant get that shot to fall it kinda of just puts you in a little rut. But I was able to get out of it. After tallying 52 points against UWs three ranked opponents, Griggsby deflects the extra attention shes garnered for her offensive exploits. Im just coming out here to play and do the best for our team, she said. Im not a person that needs all the praise. However, Griggsby will likely land on opposing teams scouting reports considering shes connected on 11 of 18 3-pointers (61.1 percent) against Pac-12 opponents. Its nice to have her energy and her confidence, Wynn said. She might not be the fastest, she might not be the biggest, she might not be the strongest and she might not be the most athletic, but shes going to do little things for us that helps us on both sides of the ball. | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-basketball/could-an-on-fire-alexis-griggsby-help-snap-the-huskies-five-game-losing-streak/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Why are Republican baby boomers more likely to share #fakenews on Facebook? | Social media doesnt help people determine what is real and what is fake, but the phrase fake news has been used by social scientists to describe fictional articles online and by President Trump himself when he has criticized mainstream media outlets. Facebook FB, -0.02% meanwhile, is struggling to stem the flow of fake news and erroneous memes, and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the worlds biggest social-media site is making progress in dealing with the problem. President Trumps relationship with the media has been acrimonious from the moment he embarked on his campaign for president. Since then he has labeled news outlets that have reported critically on his administration fake news. He has described CNN T, +1.00% NBC CMCSA, -0.67% ABC DIS, +0.12% CBS CBS, +0.10% and the New York Times NYT, +0.08% as the enemy of the American people. The researchers suggest the need for renewed attention to educate particular vulnerable individuals, such as ageing baby boomers, about fake news. The good news: Most Facebook users did not share any fake news articles during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, according to a study released Wednesday, but the small number who did were mostly Republican Americans over the age of 65. The findings suggest the need for renewed attention to educate particular vulnerable individuals, such as aging baby boomers, about fake news or misleading information that appears to resemble a fact-checked news article, researchers said. One theory: As they didnt grow up with technology, they may be more susceptible to being fooled. (Case in point: The grandparent scam gained some success with Americans because of their lack of familiarity with how computers and technology work. One version involves a person pretending to be a computer technology assistant telling them that they must turn on their computer because it has a virus. The computer, invariably, does not.) Younger Americans who grew up with the internet, whether Republican or Democrat, may be less overwhelmed by stories that cross their newsfeeds on Facebook and Twitter TWTR, +2.60% and more adept at spotting tell-tale signs of fake news. Because of technology, we are inundated by information, Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University, told NPR last year. We just dont have time to separate the facts from the falsities. Even fact-checkers dont have time. A message can go viral before any serious truth filter has been applied. This leads to a positive feedback cycle. Most of the Facebook users who shared fake stories (18%) in 2016 were both self-identified Republicans over the age of 65, a new study claims. To shed light on the issue in the latest study on who was more likely to share misleading facts on Facebook during the 2016 presidential election, Andrew Guess, an associate professor at Princeton University, and his 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 researchers to analyze the age and political affiliations of those people who were more likely to spread fake news. The results showed that 90% of these users actually did not share the misleading or fake articles and only 8.5% shared one or more fake news articles. Most of the Facebook users who shared the fake stories (18%) were both self-identified Republicans and over the age of 65, the authors concluded, and these individuals shared nearly seven times as many fake news articles than respondents in the youngest age group, those ages 18 to 29. Boomers are more likely to be conservative and ideological Another possible explanation: Older Americans may have felt particularly passionate and entrenched in their political views and, therefore, ideological. For instance, the most ideological members of Congress shared news stories on their Facebook pages more than twice as often as moderate legislators between Jan. 2, 2015, and July 20, 2017, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center study, which examined all official Facebook posts created by members of Congress in this period. Conservative Republicans made up the largest single partisan and ideological group among boomers, according to the Pew Research Center. Whats more, baby boomers are more likely to be conservative and ideological, according to data crunched by Pew. In both 2015 and 2016, about one in 10 baby boomers identified as conservative Republicans the highest percentages dating back to 2000, researchers Shiva Maniam and Samantha Smith wrote for Pew. In both years, conservative Republicans made up the largest single partisan and ideological group among boomers. To be fair, older Republicans share more news in general and fake news gets caught up in the mix. Members of Congress with very conservative or very liberal voting records both shared news links in about 14% of all their posts, but members with more moderate ideology scores shared links to news stories in just 6% of their posts, Pew found. Therefore, ideological individuals could share more stories and, simply by their sheer volume, spread more fake stories by accident. (Ideology measures were taken from an analysis of congressional roll call votes compiled by Voteview.com.) You probably wont agree with this chart There may also be a political explanation, a trickle-down effect from the presidents own remarks about the liberal media. Older Republicans could feel more emboldened by President Trumps comments and, as a result, assume stories that support their causes are accurate. The president has doubled down on the mainstream medias criticism of his administration in recent times. The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and often times false attacks and stories, Trump said last year. People are more likely to believe news that jives with their own beliefs Confirmation bias helps outlandish theories and reports gain traction on social media. And that, psychologists say, is where fake news comes in. Psychologists say people develop defense mechanisms to deal with an uncertain world early in life, but this also draws people to information that seems to confirm their own beliefs and worldview and to ignore reports or opinions that contradict their perceptions. The brain is hard-wired to accept, reject, miss-remember or distort information based on whether it is viewed as accepting of or threatening to existing beliefs. Mark Whitmore, Kent State University At its core is the need for the brain to receive confirming information that harmonizes with an individuals existing views and beliefs, said Mark Whitmore, assistant professor of management and information systems at Kent State Universitys College of Business Administration. In fact, one could say the brain is hard-wired to accept, reject, miss-remember or distort information based on whether it is viewed as accepting of or threatening to existing beliefs. Whitmore presented a paper at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Philadelphia with his wife, Eve Whitmore, a developmental psychologist with Western Reserve Psychological Associates in Stow, Ohio. They said parents teach children to role play and when these kids reach adolescence they should have developed critical thinking skills that help them distinguish between what is true and false, especially when they read news on social media. However, many people effectively rationalize the irrational in order to avoid going against what values and ideas that were taught to them by their parents. Childrens learning about make-believe and mastery becomes the basis for more complex forms of self-deception and illusion into adulthood, Eve Whitmore said. When people are faced with absurd and conflicting messages, her husband added, It becomes easier to cling to a simple fiction than a complicated reality. Get a daily roundup of the top reads in personal finance delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Personal Finance Daily newsletter. Sign up here. | https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-are-republican-baby-boomers-more-likely-to-share-fakenews-on-facebook-2019-01-10?siteid=rss&rss=1 |
Has Another Old Summer Palace Zodiac Fountain Head Been Found? | PARIS A bronze dragon head, one of the six missing heads from Beijings Old Summer Palace Zodiac Clock fountain, is speculated to have been sold December 17 at auction house Tessier & Sarrou et Associs for $3.4 million. It measures 18 inches high. The lot was consigned by the family of Nineteenth Century French diplomat Comte Marie-Joseph-Claude-Edouard-Robert de Semall, secretary of the embassy in Beijing, 1880-1884. Designed by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) for the Qianlong emperor, the heads have become a point of cultural pride in recent years, following the 2009 Christies sale for the property of Yves Saint Laurent, which included a rat and rabbit head. In that sale, the two heads were bid to 31.4 million euros (about $40 million) by Cai Mingchao, a Chinese businessman and art dealer, who then announced that he would not pay for them and instead demanded they be voluntarily returned to China. The heads were then bought by the owners of Christies, the Pinault family, who returned them to China in 2013 shortly before the auction house was granted permission to operate in the country. The fountain was looted as part of the 1860 destruction of the Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces in the Second Opium War. The heads and their loss have come to symbolize Chinas century of humiliation. While the auction house was aware of the rumors surrounding the work, they believed it to be from the Qing period. The buyer has not yet been identified. Five other heads still remain unknown: the horse, tiger, boar, ox and monkey. Price includes buyers premium. For information, www.tessier-sarrou.com. | https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/has-another-old-summer-palace-zodiac-fountain-head-been-found/ |
Has marijuana legalization created disaster? | Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana. Supporters of Americas long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. No. Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison because weed has been legal in those states now for five years. More people in Colorado tried marijuana after legalization, but thats not a surprise. Colorados crime rate did rise a bit. But many things influence crime rates. Washington states violent crime rate rose a little but slightly less than the national average. In California, people I interviewed said legalization made the streets safer. Its cleaned up the corner, said one woman. Marijuana stores have a lot of security (and) pay attention to whos on the sidewalk. Sounds good to me. But drug warriors are not convinced. Paul Chabot, a former anti-drug policy advisor for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, tells me that legalization has been a disaster. Colorado youth have an 85 percent higher marijuana use rate than the rest of the country, he says in my new video on marijuana legalization. But he is wrong. Federal and state surveys and the New England Journal of Medicine report that teen marijuana use dropped a little in Colorado. Maybe theres something about legal businesses, with the dreary name dispensaries, that makes weed less sexy to kids. But there is bad news: The driving death rate increased in Colorado and Washington after legalization. But the data isnt clear driving deaths are up even more in some neighboring states like Idaho, where weed is still banned. Chabot says, Pot driving fatalities in Colorado are up 151 percent! Thats true, but that statistic is misleading because traces of marijuana stay in a persons system for a long time. Some of those people may have used marijuana weeks before. A more stringent measure that may indicate whether someone was actually high at the time of an accident suggests an increase of 84 percent. Thats terrible, but the numbers of accidents are so small 35 in all of Colorado in 2017, up from 19 in 2014 its hard to draw conclusions. That deserves more study. If anti-drug warriors like Chabot want to look seriously at the statistics, they should also include the harm done by drug prohibition itself. Its nearly impossible to overdose on pot. But banning marijuana drives sales into the black market, where criminals do the selling. And criminals are more likely to settle their disagreements with guns. They dont perform the reliable quality controls that legal drug sellers must do to please their customers. On the black market, customers take their chances. Drug markets are inherently unsafe! Banning drugs doesnt stop teens or adults from using them. Anyone who wants the stuff knows how to get it. One survey found that teens said its easier to buy weed than alcohol. Alcohol is rarely sold in schools, but banning marijuana creates fat profits that inspire dealers to recruit students to sell to their peers. Then there are the billions of dollars spent by law enforcement $900 per second. (Thats just the federal cost. Total spending is much higher.) And the million people arrested yearly for drug violations. I suggest to Chabot that drug prohibition has worked out as badly as alcohol prohibition did nearly 100 years ago. Just because something doesnt work doesnt mean that we end it, he replies. Doesnt mean we quit. I say failure sometimes does mean you should quit, because youre doing more harm than good. No, because then we give up, and thats not American, Chabot says. Well, today, two-thirds of Americans say marijuana should be legal. One state at a time, with New York and New Jersey about to join the list, Americans are giving up on marijuana prohibition. Good. Adults should have the right to make their own decisions about what to put in their own bodies. John Stossel is author of No They Cant! Why Government Fails But Individuals Succeed. | https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/10/has-marijuana-legalization-created-disaster/ |
Does Lady Gaga Stand a Chance at the Oscars? | Vanessa Obioha Usually, the Golden Globes is seen as a precursor of the Oscars, particularly in the most competitive categories. There are times however that permutation doesnt work perfectly. For instance, last year, both award shows werent on the same page on the Best Picture trophy. While the Golden Globes crowned Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri winner in that category, the Oscars chose The Shape of Water. But the Golden Globes predicted right that Frances McDormand deserved the Best Actress in Drama Motion Picture award, which is why the chances that Lady Gaga will be favoured by the Academy suddenly appeared slim. Prior to the the 76th edition of the Golden Globes which held on Sunday, Lady Gaga was the projected winner of the Best Actress award in a category that had Glenn Close (The Wife), Nicole Kidman (The Destroyer), Rosamund Pike (A Private War) and Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me). Gaga was highly lauded for her performance at the Bradley Coopers remake of A Star is Born and was expected to swoon the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organisers of the show. With the new twist at Sundays event, critics are weighing in if Gaga stands a chance at the Oscars which started its nomination voting on Monday, January 7 and will round up on Monday, January 14. While some agree that Close may be seen as a major threat in the Academy, others argued that Gagas performance can still fetch a nod. The Academy will announce its official nominations on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. | https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/01/11/does-lady-gaga-stand-a-chance-at-the-oscars/ |
Are Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms being binned? | Consider this, it is just over three years since the last piece of the jigsaw in Andrew Lansley's controversial NHS reforms was put into place. In 2015, health visitors moved into local government to complete the transfer of public health from the NHS to councils. It completed what former NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson once described as a reform programme so big it could be seen from space. Now - with the country mired in Brexit - it is easy to forget just how tricky it got for the government in the early coalition years. Unions and royal colleges lined up to oppose the changes and at one point it even threatened to turn the coalition partners against each other. Eventually changes were made and Mr Lansley got them over the line with the Health and Social Care Act passed in 2012. The restructuring created a new body, NHS England, to run the health service, set up new regulators and replace primary care trusts with GP-led clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to organise local services, while handing healthy lifestyle programmes to town halls. Underpinning the changes was the idea that greater competition in the NHS would help create a service fit for the 21st Century. But on Monday that was effectively reversed, with the NHS Long Term Plan arguing collaboration was key. It called for integrated care systems (ICSs) to be created across the country by 2021. These are partnerships that bring together hospitals, CCGs, community services, charities and councils, so they can work together rather than against each other. The ageing population requires different services to work hand-in-hand, sharing expertise and staff to make sure people get the joined-up care they need. If that sounds like NHS-speak, let's take a typical patient with whom the NHS deals. She is in her 70s, has heart disease, the early stages of dementia and lives alone. She needs regular contact with her heart specialist, support from community nurses and, ideally, some company from befriending services which are run by the voluntary sector with support from councils. Image copyright Getty Images If she needs to go into hospital - perhaps after a fall - in an ideal world she will be treated quickly and then the hospital staff will be in touch with community services to arrange the support to allow her to come home. In a world where budgets are linked to individual services, where different organisations are encouraged to compete and tender for work, the pooling of resources and staff is not so easy. But buried in among the 130 or so pages of the NHS Long Term Plan was a section recommending legislation could be important, arguing it could "accelerate" progress. The government has not committed to that yet, but the fact it was included in the first place after close vetting of the report by ministers is telling. The interesting thing will be what happens now. NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens - the author of the plan - was pushed on this by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday. Understandably, he was reluctant to be pushed into making predictions. But these integrated care systems are well on the way to being established. Within two or three years, there should be around 40 to 50 of them up-and-running. Meanwhile, CCGs are merging. There were once 211 of them, but there are now 195 after a series of mergers. But even that is misleading, with many sharing back-office functions and staff with others - many are their own organisations in name only. In theory, they could easily start aligning themselves with the footprints of the ICSs and with some new legislation - CCGs have a range of statutory functions relating to accountability and budgets - there could be a whole new structure and way of working. The same could happen at a national level with NHS England and NHS Improvement, which were both born from Mr Lansley's reforms. They already have a joint leadership team. Further merging is clearly possible. It is too early to tell what the government is thinking and where it might go. But Nigel Edwards, the influential chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, believes a "significant unpicking" of Mr Lansley's reforms are on the cards and in time they will be judged as "one of the most major public policy failures" of all time. | https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46827981 |
Will Oklahoma's Kyler Murray enter the 2019 NFL Draft? | CLOSE Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy following a 50-plus touchdown effort that helped the Sooners earn a College Football Playoff berth. USA TODAY Kyler Murray has an uncommon decision for a highly-successful, Heisman Trophy-winning underclassman. Murray's decision has at least three likely answers. He can play baseball all year with the Oakland A's organization, play until late July and return to Oklahoma for his senior season or forgo baseball altogether and enter in the NFL Draft. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that the A's expect Murray to enter into the NFL Draft. Murray's rookie contract with the A's is worth $4.66 million. Entering the draft would not immediately cancel Murray's baseball deal, but it would be a substantiated sign that he wants to play. The Chronicle reported that the A's would have to get approval from MLB to allow Murray to go to the NFL Scouting Combine. If he does decide to continue on to the NFL, Murray would have to pay back his signing bonus. He would also be far from the first player to flirt (or outright play) with playing both professional football and baseball. CLOSE The Athletics and Oklahoma's Kyler Murray have agreed to a deal that guarantees him almost $5 million and allows him to play football for the Sooners for one year, reports FRS Baseball's Jon Heyman. Time Others who have flirted with the NFL and pro baseball John Elway Elway played short-season rookie ball in the Yankees in 1982, then played his final football season at Stanford and finished second in Heisman Trophy balloting. Elway was the No. 1 overall pick and leveraged that with his baseball career. The Colts traded him to Denver and the rest is Hall of Fame history. Deion Sanders Sanders was a world-class athlete who was a top football recruit and a sixth-round pick by the Kansas City Royals. He decided to play and star in both sports at Florida State. Sanders once called baseball his mistress, so as it were, baseball came and went in Sanders' life. He was drafted in the 30th round by the Yankees in 1989 and made his MLB debut that same season. He was a key cog of the Braves' teams in the early 90s as he switched between the NFL's Falcons and the MLB's Braves in the fall. He'd play for three more MLB teams while he starred with the Falcons, 49ers and Cowboys. Brian Jordan Jordan worked his way up through the St. Louis Cardinals' organization as he starred as as a safety with the Atlanta Falcons. As he got closer to the majors, a decision was going to have to be made. The Cardinals gave Jordan a bonus to quit playing football as he moved up to the MLB level. John Lynch Lynch was a junior at Stanford when coach Dennis Green headed to the Minnesota Vikings. He was then drafted in the second round of the 1992 MLB Draft by the Florida Marlins as a pitcher. But new Cardinal coach Bill Walsh convinced him to play minor league baseball for a season before returning to Stanford for a final season in college football. He was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft in 1993 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is a member of both the Buccaneers and Broncos hall of honors and will be a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist next month. Russell Wilson Wilson's case is the most recent. He starred as a two-sport athlete at NC State and played minor league baseball with the Colorado organization in between his junior and senior years of college football. Wilson struggled in minor league ball, transferred to Wisconsin and had a stellar senior season on the gridiron. Now, he is one of the league's top quarterbacks. 2019 NFL DRAFT ORDER:Titans pick 19th; Cardinals are No. 1 | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/01/10/kyler-murray-enter-2019-nfl-draft-oklahoma-heisman/2537508002/ |
How can Britain buy more time to resolve Brexit crisis? | Political divisions at Westminster over the UKs divorce agreement with the EU has brought the possibility of delaying bringing Brexit into play in order to avoid a costly no-deal scenario. British prime minster Theresa May said this week she still wanted the UK to exit on March 29th, but Labours shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has said an extension of the article 50 withdrawal may well be inevitable now given the position we are in. As the Brexit clock ticks down with no clear UK parliamentary majority for the divorce deal or an alternative, other options may inevitably surface to buy the British more time to resolve the crisis. Delaying Brexit The Brexit process under article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty can be extended for a specified period of time, but only if each and every one of the other 27 EU member states agree. That might not be so easy given the frustration that some in Europe feel over political indecisiveness in London around the UKs departure and, for pro-Brexit MPs, the terms of the exit. A lot of the countries are very bored of Brexit. I think they would extend if the UK needed a few more weeks to pass an act, but they are not going to extend just because Britain hasnt made up its mind yet and is showing that it is not going to make up its mind, said Ronan McCrea, professor of constitutional and European law at University College London. It is open to question as to whether EU member states might see to apply conditions to an extension and permit a delay in Brexit only in certain circumstances. Would they just grant it or would they need to have some guarantees that the UK was trying to buy time to get its act together? said Catherine Barnard, EU law professor at University of Cambridge. Providing more time for the UK parliament to pass the withdrawal and implementation bill to allow Brexit to happen might be the most straightforward and uncontroversial reason for an extension. BREXIT: The Facts Read them here There may, however, be restrictions on the amount of time the EU would allow. A complicating factor is that the European Parliament elections take place on May 23rd, so the EU would likely prefer the UK to be out by that date to avoid the British voting for MEPs who will not be there for very long. It is legally possible but politically it is rather awkward to contemplate a process of having an election with the UK still a member. I think there might be great political reluctance to extend beyond that date, said Steve Peers, professor of European Union law at the University of Essex. There may also be some question on the process of extending article 50. Peers say May has the power under the UKs withdrawal act to change the exit date but some might dispute that. The EU could permit a delay in Brexit to allow for a general election as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for yesterday in order to break the deadlock over Brexit. I think the EU would grant extension for a democratic act such as an election, said Barnard. I think it is much less likely they will grant an extension just to allow the UK time to decide what it wants to do or to deal with splits in the cabinet. Revoking Brexit The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled last month that the UK can cancel Brexit unilaterally without seeking the permission of the other 27 EU member states and remain in the EU on the same terms. The ruling leaves very narrow conditions in applying for a revocation: it must take place within the two-year Brexit time limit in other words by March 29th; it must be unequivocal and unconditional and the UK must give notice to the European Council in writing. That notice, the ruling says, can only be made after the UK has taken the decision to revoke in accordance with the constitutional requirements of the member state [the UK] and following a democratic process. The trouble is we dont have a written constitution so we dont know what our constitutional requirement are. I think we would need an act of parliament to revoke article 50, said Barnard. This may leave the UK parliament in the same position it is in now, but fighting over a revocation of Brexit rather than the withdrawal agreement. Postponing Brexit Given that revocation under the ECJ ruling has to be definitive, this may not be the route that the UK parliament would be able to travel if it sought to suspend Brexit to hold a second referendum. McCrea says the people have misunderstood the ECJ Wightman case ruling last month. The UK can revoke [Brexit] to stay in the EU but they cannot revoke to work out more time to leave, he said. One of the difficulties with the ruling is that it did not include in its test the formal legal recommendation by the ECJs advocate general that application for revocation must be sincere and done in good faith. In theory there is nothing to stop the UK revoking article 50 to buy more time to consider whether the country really wants Brexit, though McCrea says the court could render the application void if it believes the UK has revoked with the intention of extending, not bringing Brexit to an end. The million dollar question about revocation is can we do the hokey pokey can we revoke, have a think about it for a bit and re-notify if we want Brexit? said Barnard. She believes it is possible to consider a scenario where the UK has to cancel Brexit in order to set up some sort of royal commission a group of the great and the good to work out what the UK actually wants. You could imagine where things have gone so pear-shaped you may have to revoke article 50, she said. | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/how-can-britain-buy-more-time-to-resolve-brexit-crisis-1.3753826?localLinksEnabled=false |
Why is there a cage with children in front of a South Side residence? | Drivers in Chicagos far South Side have been wondering whats the installation on the front yard of an Oak Lawn residence that shows brown-skinned dolls in a cage, under a banner that reads Resist. Hoy talked to the owner of the home located on 110th St. & Pulask Rd., Thomas John Jendresak, who said he believes, The United States is not united anymore. Its actually the Divided States of America. Asked to elaborate, he said he was making a political statement about the migrant crisis and the scapegoating of innocent children taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Jendresak complained that he was frustrated by the political amnesia he noticed in his area, where he claims many police officers and city workers reside, and the general misinformation about U.S. policy at home and abroad. He theorizes that Trumpsters didnt vote in 2008 because they didnt think a Black man [Barack Obama] could be elected president. But when he was elected, they freaked out, Jendresak said. So this Trump thing is like a backlash. The 56-year-old said his father was a Marine raider in World War II and earned two Purple Hearts, and that is where he gets his inspiration. Its kinda like saying, Did my dad fight for nothing? Now we have a fascist in the White House, he said. Jendresak started out by erecting two flags in front of his house: an Iwo Jima flag representing a WWII battle in which only a Native American soldier survived, and a Resist flag of the kind waved by environmental groups. Jacqueline Serrato Chicago South Side installation makes statement against the caging of children at the U.S.-Mexico border. Chicago South Side installation makes statement against the caging of children at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Jacqueline Serrato) (Jacqueline Serrato) The Resist flag has been stolen by disgruntled neighbors and he has had to replace it and raise the pole. He also added lights with sensors. The five dolls representing migrant children are wrapped in aluminum foil to resemble the space blankets handed to minors who are detained by Border Patrol in sometimes freezing cells or cages. Several layers of chicken wire, black wire, and wrought-iron frame hold up the installation. A No Trespassing sign hangs from the cage, with the names Trump and Pence. Jendresak hopes Vice President Mike Pence is indicted in the future. When I say America, its Canada all the way to South America. Being that you have indigenous blood in you you have more right to be here than me! Because youre indigenous already. Its your country first, he continued. He places his faith on the younger people, who he thinks are open to more diversity of racial, religious, and ethnic groups. He has no plans to remove his monument against fascism, and plans to add to it along the way. This is deplorable. We cannot stand for this, he said. Contact Reporter Twitter @hechaenchicago ALSO While Ald. Muoz is in rehab, candidates call for his resignation Chicago immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen and votes on the same day Neighborhoods join forces to push for clean future of polluting sites The landmark that welcomes Mexicans in the Midwest | https://www.chicagotribune.com/voiceit/ct-why-is-there-a-cage-with-children-in-front-of-a-south-side-residence-20190110-story.html |
Is it time for the Maple Leafs to trade Jake Gardiner? | Maybe its time for the Maple Leafs to trade Jake Gardiner. And if Kasperi Kapanen has to go as well as the Leafs deal with a tighter salary cap, then its up to general manager Kyle Dubas to make it all fit for a playoff run now while looking to keep the core together for playoff runs to come. Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner will become an unrestricted free agent July 1, and whether or not the organization will be able to afford him remains a topic of discussion. ( Rick Madonik / Toronto Star file photo ) But such talk may fly in the face of logic given Gardiner is an important part of the Maple Leafs, a team that finally can say it has Stanley Cup aspirations and is respected around the league. But the defencemans future with the team is tenuous. Hell be an unrestricted free agent July 1, able to command a salary in the $6-million to $7-million range, a price tag that would appear too high for the Leafs. Because by the time Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews get news deals, most of the teams pending $26 million in salary cap money will be gone, and there will be others to sign. Article Continued Below Logic would suggest keeping Gardiner an Own Rental is the term in the NHL these days to keep the team intact and see how it fares in the playoffs. The Leafs did a similar thing last season with James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov. They didnt make it out of the first round, and all three left as unrestricted free agents in the summer, signing lucrative deals elsewhere. Now consider what the most valuable of those players van Riemsdyk, the scorer might have fetched at the trade deadline last year. San Jose gave up a first-rounder, a fourth-rounder and a prospect for Evander Kane, who was a pending UFA, like van Riemsdyk. Ditto Paul Stastny, worth a first-round pick and other considerations to the Winnipeg Jets to acquire him from the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs appear headed for another No. 2 vs. No. 3 showdown with the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division playoffs. If Toronto turns the tables on a team that has owned them recently, next up would be the No. 1 Tampa Bay Lightning. As they say, anything can happen. But if anything can happen with Gardiner, then anything can happen without him too. In the long term, moving Gardiner would seem to be a positive. Presuming the Leafs get a first-round pick, that player will almost certainly be a contributor in a year or two. And for the first three seasons hed be a cheap addition on an entry-level deal, something the Leafs will be starving for. Combined with their own first-round pick, the Leafs would be well-positioned to provide support players for Matthews and Marner. Article Continued Below In the short-term, the here and now, moving Gardiner wouldnt make much of a difference. Either Dermott or Nikita Zaitsev can take over the second power-play unit. If Martin Marincin and/or Justin Holl start getting minutes, or if Calle Rosen gets that long-awaited call up, the Leafs will probably not have surrendered much in the present to secure a more solid future. And whatever might be lost defensively by trading Gardiner could be tempered by a Kapanen deal, because moving Gardiner would not preclude the Leafs from shoring up the right side of their defence, their biggest deficiency. To get a good right-side player will cost them a young stud. Dubas has already promised William Nylander he wont be traded, so its doubtful hed go back on his word. At least not this quickly. Kapanen is probably the most tradable, and his appearance on the teams first power-play unit only adds to his resume. Kapanen appears destined for a third-line role, behind Marner and Nylander, making somewhere around $2.5 million a season. Another team might see Kapanen as more valuable than that, perhaps even at the $4-million level. The compensation the Leafs would get on a $4-million offer sheet to Kapanen also a restricted free agent July 1 would only be a second-round pick, something Dubas would have to be aware of. The Carolina Hurricanes could be a potential trade partner, as they boast a slew of right-handed defencemen. Brett Pesces name keeps coming up; his cap hit is $4.025 million a season until 2024 and hes just 24. Kapanens speed and scoring ability would shine on Connor McDavids wing. And his ability to kill penalties and be a force in his own zone would be a match for coach Ken Hitchcocks system. Larsson is 26. And there are bigger fish to be caught: Theres Alex Pietrangelo of the Blues, currently out with an injury to his right hand. Though its hard to see how his $6.5-million hit next season would be a fit for the Leafs. But the 28-year-old would be a difference maker in the short-term. His price tag would be higher than Kapanen, maybe Timothy Liljegren or Rasmus Sandin as well. No matter what Dubas chooses to do, theres risk. The safe route is to stay the course, maybe add a rental. But Dubas doesnt want to be like previous GMs, and more likely will break with the tradition of how things had been done. Kevin McGran is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @kevin_mcgran Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/analysis/2019/01/10/is-it-time-for-the-maple-leafs-to-trade-jake-gardiner.html |
What is going on in Brexit and what might happen next? | Heres your no-frills primer to whats going on in Brexit and what might happen next. Two-and-a-half years and a fraught series of negotiations after the UK voted to leave the EU, the two parties finally managed to sign their two-part divorce deal late last year. The first part of this is the 858-page withdrawal agreement covering the rights of EU citizens in the UK and British nationals on the continent, the sum Britain must pay the bloc for past commitments, and a mechanism (the backstop) to avoid customs and other border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The second part is a much shorter political declaration on the shape they would like their future trading relations to take, which is vaguely worded enough to allow for almost any outcome, from a close Norway-style relationship to a more distant free trade arrangement like the EU has signed with Canada. In theory, this whole package must now be approved by the British parliament so the necessary legislation can be passed to allow the UK to formally leave the EU as planned at the end of the two-year article 50 exit process on 29 March. Britain would then enter a 20-month transition period, during which nothing much will change and the future relationship will be negotiated, before finally stepping out into the big, wide world in December 2020. Essentially because the withdrawal agreement and particularly the backstop, which will come into force if the detailed terms of the future trading relationship do not manage to avoid that hard Irish border does not have a majority in parliament. MPs in favour of Brexit fear it could leave Britain a perpetual Brussels rule-taker, potentially trapped in the EUs regulatory orbit for ever. Those opposed to Brexit say the deal risks leaving the country economically weakened, with no say in EU rule-making, and worse off all round than staying in the EU. The opposition Labour party rejects the deal, as do a large number of Conservative hardline Brexiters. The Ulster unionists of the Democratic Unionist party, on whom the government relies for its majority, also object, leaving the government facing a crushing defeat in the House of Commons. For this reason, Theresa May, the prime minister, pulled the Commons vote on the agreement that was planned before Christmas, rescheduling it for 15 January in hopes she could persuade the EU to come up with concessions or guarantees that would win her opponents (or enough of them) over. Good question. The EU hasnt budged (it cant, to any great extent: the agreement is legally binding, approved by 27 countries, and will not be re-opened), and it is hard to see what supplementary assurances it could offer that would satisfy the Brexiters. Parliamentary resistance has not weakened, and the government has been reduced to trying to cut side-deals in the form of amendments to the deal with various different interest groups to try and peel off some of the objectors. Few observers think this tactic will work. In the meantime, the prime ministers opponents in the Commons are waging a procedural guerilla war, tabling and winning amendments aimed at wresting more and more power over the process from the government and giving it to MPs instead, particularly if a no-deal Brexit looks likely. The problem is that while there is no clear majority for Mays deal, there is no clear majority for anything else either: not for a second referendum, nor a fresh election (Labours objective), or no deal (which almost all economist and business groups say would be a catastrophe), or a mooted Norway-plus, single-market style deal. And the clock is ticking. Assuming May is defeated on 15 January, it seems increasingly likely that the government may have to ask the EU27 for an extension to the two-year article 50 deadline to allow it (or more accurately, given the current mood, MPs) to look again at the existing deal, or try to develop an alternative Brexit approach it can agree on. Brexit, in other words, is far from over yet. | https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/11/what-is-going-on-in-brexit-and-what-might-happen-next |
Does BYTONs Huge 48-Inch Display Screen Obstruct Drivers View? | Weve had quite a few posts here on BYTON since their world introduction at CES 2018. By far, the most controversial feature in BYTONs vehicles is the giant 48 long display screen that stretches across the entire dashboard. In nearly every post, we get comments on how distracting the display screen will be, as well as concerns of whether or not it obstructs the drivers view. Weve driven in the M-Byte five or six times now, and have conveyed in previous posts that the screen auto-dims at night, and that since the content is static while driving, it doesnt appear to present a distraction issue. Once were able to take the M-Byte for a proper test drive later this year, well be able to comment definitively on that. Until then, we understand why those that havent been in the vehicle might be concerned. BYTON has assured us that they have spent a lot of time making sure the display will not present a distraction problem, and that while the car is in motion it will display static content that most cars today already display. For instance, all of the content on the left 1/3 of the screen, which is in front of the driver, (in most markets) will be what is normally seen by the driver, like speed, range, navigation info, state of charge, etc. While we cant prove that here today, we can demonstrate that the screen doesnt physically present a line-of-sight issue, as some have claimed it would. We understand why some may think that, since most of the pictures of the dashboard are taken from a lower position than the drivers line-of-sight, giving the allusion that the view is severely obstructed. We spoke to BYTONs VP of Design, Benoit Jacob at CES, and he told us that they designed the display so it wouldnt obstruct any part of the drivers view, and that the line-of-sight angle actually exceeds what is required by regulations. So, take a look at the pictures we took earlier this week at the BYTON booth at CES, and you can judge for yourself. | https://insideevs.com/byton-ev-huge-display-screen-obstruct-view/ |
Why is North Korea holding elections? | North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un voting for the elections of deputies to the Pyongyang City People's Assembly and Constituency No. 102 for the elections of deputies to the Sosong District People's Assembly at a polling station in Pyongyang, July 19, 2015. Source: AFP/KCNA via KNS YOULL likely recognise North Korea as a dynastic totalitarian dictatorship and you would be dead right in that summary. But what may surprise you is that every four or five years that same dictatorship holds nationwide elections; after all, they need to live up to their full name the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). When authorities call them elections, they do so in the loosest sense of the word. Theres no denying the fact the country is under dictatorial rule, with leadership passed down through the bloodline of the Kim family current Supreme Leader being Kim Jong Un. And what exactly does democracy look like in the worlds most secretive autocracy. The upcoming elections in March will be to elect new members of the Supreme Peoples Assembly (SPA), the highest body of state power who exercises legislative power. All 687 districts nationwide will head to the polls to vote for their candidate. Voting in the country is mandatory, which is not unheard of in other countries. Australia, Belgium, and Singapore, for example, all have a compulsory voting system in which citizens are legally compelled to turn up to a polling station. This pressure means North Korea routinely gets a 100 percent turnout for every election, also allowing authorities to use the voter roll as a national census. Well, like all things North Korea, its not quite that simple. Dummy democracy When the North Korean people exercise their democratic rights, they are not faced with much of a choice, or, in fact, any choice at all. There is only one candidate on the ballot in each district. This candidate is chosen by the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), the sole governing party of North Korea whose chairman is, you guessed it Kim Jong Un. Even if there were a choice of representative, the SPA is nothing more than a rubber-stamp parliament for any plans of Kim and the WPK. It doesnt hold any real power and has no room to effect change in their respective districts. The only option open to people when casting their vote is to cross the name out to show they are not voting for the candidate on the ballot. But this, like any kind of dissent in North Korea, is highly dangerous. Voting is not done in secret and dissenting ballots are filed into a separate box from those that conform. To ruin your ballot is essentially raising your head above the parapet for investigation by the authorities and restrictions. Failing to register can be even more serious. While in Australia you may receive a AU$10 fine for not turning up, in North Korea you could be risking your life. Defector Mina Yoon told the Telegraph elections are a time when everyone is watching for acts of defiance. People must register a month before the election and the government checks the list of voters for anyone missing, Yoon said. Anyone found missing not only risks themselves being sent to labour camps, known for their brutality, but their extended family and future generations. It is often during this time the government is able to identify defectors so some defectors over the border in China will return to North Korea just to register and avoid detection, Yoon said. One horse race still worth watching Despite such an overwhelmingly predictable outcome, North Korean analysts will still be watching Marchs election with keen interest. There are 687 district candidates, all of which are selected by the WPK. The selection will provide some hints of any shift in the countrys elite structure and who Kim chooses to have in his orbit. | https://asiancorrespondent.com/2019/01/why-is-north-korea-holding-elections/ |
Was Thai ex-PM Yingluck a Cambodian passport holder? | Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is hugged by one of her supporters outside of a shopping mall in Bangkok on Nov 5, 2016. Source: AFP THAILANDS deposed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is reportedly a Cambodian passport holder, a Hong Kong newspaper reported, fuelling speculation that she fled the country via Cambodia. The report from the South China Morning Post comes amid strong denials by Phnom Penh that Yingluck had used a Cambodian passport to avert sentencing in her home country over criminal negligence charges which she claimed were politically motivated. The paper cited corporate filings which revealed the 51-year-old leader has used a Cambodian passport to register as the sole director of P.T. Corporation Company in the city in Aug 24 last year. SEE ALSO: Loyalists of deposed Thai PMs Yingluck, Thaksin form new political party The filing came almost a year since she went into exile ahead of the sentencing for the case. The Cambodian government had earlier denied issuing any travel papers to Yingluck when she left Thailand under mysterious circumstances. At the time, Yingluck was supposedly under 24-hour surveillance of Thailands military government. After she fled, a Thai court sentenced her to five years imprisonment for mishandling rice subsidies amounting to billions of Thai Baht. The documents on the companys incorporation in Hong Kong is among the first to publicly shed light into Yinglucks business dealings since she went into exile. While the nature of the business of the company was not clear, Yingluck was appointed chairwoman of Shantou International Container Terminals, a Guangdong-based port operator, barely four months after she set up the company, the SCMP reported. SEE ALSO: Thailand asks Britain to extradite ex-PM Yingluck to face jail If it is an official [Cambodian] passport, the question would be, how does someone like Yingluck get the passport? said Chong Ja Ian, a professor of foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, was quoted as saying However, Chong said Yingluck may have acquired the passport as the neighbouring country Cambodia was an easy option. If you want to travel relatively inconspicuously, having a passport such as a Cambodian one would be easy in that sense, Chong said. Clearly as neighbours, this could become an issue of contention. | https://asiancorrespondent.com/2019/01/is-ex-thai-pm-yingluck-a-cambodian-passport-holder/ |
What is DevSecOps? | DevSecOps enables organizations to deliver inherently secure software at DevOps speed. -Stefan Streichsbier DevSecOps as a practice or an art form is an evolution on the concept of DevOps. To better understand DevSecOps, you should first have an understanding of what DevOps means. DevOps was born from merging the practices of development and operations, removing the silos, aligning the focus, and improving efficiency and performance of both the teams and the product. A new synergy was formed, with DevOps focused on building products and services that are easy to maintain and that automate typical operations functions. Security is a common silo in many organizations. Securitys core focus is protecting the organization, and sometimes this means creating barriers or policies that slow down the execution of new services or products to ensure that everything is well understood and done safely and that nothing introduces unnecessary risk to the organization. [Download the Getting started with DevSecOps guide] Because of the distinct nature of the security silo and the friction it can introduce, development and operations sometimes bypass or work around security to meet their objectives. At some firms, the silo creates an expectation that security is entirely the responsibility of the security team and it is up to them to figure out what security defects or issues may be introduced as a result of a product. DevSecOps looks at merging the security discipline within DevOps. By enhancing or building security into the developer and/or operational role, or including a security role within the product engineering team, security naturally finds itself in the product by design. This allows companies to release new products and updates more quickly and with full confidence that security is embedded into the product. Building rugged software is more an aspect of the DevOps culture than a distinct practice, and it complements and enhances a DevSecOps practice. Think of a rugged product as something that has been battle-hardened through experimentation or experience. Its important to note that rugged software is not necessarily 100% secure (although it may have been at some point in time). However, it has been designed to handle most of what is thrown at it. The key tenets of a rugged software practice are fostering competition, experimentation, controlled failure, and cooperation. Gettings started with DevSecOps involves shifting security requirements and execution to the earliest possible stage in the development process. It ultimately creates a shift in culture where security becomes everyones responsibility, not only the security teams. You may have heard teams talking about a "shift left." If you flatten the development pipeline into a horizontal line to include the key stages of the product evolutionfrom initiation to design, building, testing, and finally to operatingthe goal of a security is to be involved as early as possible. This allows the risks to be better evaluated, socialized, and mitigated by design. The "shift-left" mentality is about moving this engagement far left in this pipeline. This journey begins with three key elements: empowerment enablement education Empowerment, in my view, is about releasing control and allowing teams to make independent decisions without fear of failure or repercussion (within reason). The only caveat in this process is that information is critical to making informed decisions (more on that below). To achieve empowerment, business and executive support (which can be created through internal sales, presentations, and establishing metrics to show the return on this investment) is critical to break down the historic barriers and siloed teams. Integrating security into the development and operations teams and increasing both communication and transparency can help you begin the journey to DevSecOps. This integration and mobilization allows teams to focus on a single outcome: Building a product for which they share responsibility and collaborate on development and security in a reliable way. This will take you most of the way towards empowerment. It places the shared responsibility for the product with the teams building it and ensures that any part of the product can be taken apart and maintain its security. Enablement involves placing the right tools and resources in the hands of the teams. Its about creating a culture of knowledge-sharing through forums, wikis, and informal gatherings. Creating a culture that focuses on automation and the concept that repetitive tasks should be coded will likely reduce operational overhead and strengthen security. This scenario is about more than providing knowledge; it is about making this knowledge highly accessible through multiple channels and mediums (which are enabled through tools) so that it can be consumed and shared in whatever way teams or individuals prefer. One medium might work best when team members are coding and another when they are on the road. Make the tools accessible and simple and let the team play with them. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, DevSecOps is about training and awareness building. Different DevSecOp teams will have different preferences, so allow them to be independent whenever possible. This is a delicate balancing exercise because you do want economies of scale and the ability to share among products. Collaboration and involvement in the selection and renewal of these tools will help lower the barriers of adoption. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, DevSecOps is about training and awareness building. Meetups, social gatherings, or formal presentations within the organization are great ways for peers to teach and share their learnings. Sometimes these highlight shared challenges, concerns, or risks others may not have considered. Sharing and teaching are also effective ways to learn and to mentor teams. In my experience, each organization's culture is unique, so you cant take a one-size-fits-all approach. Reach out to your teams and find out what tools they want to use. Test different forums and gatherings and see what works best for your culture. Seek feedback and ask the teams what is working, what they like, and why. Adapt and learn, be positive, and never stop trying, and youll almost always succeed. Download the Getting started with DevSecOps guide What to read next | https://opensource.com/article/19/1/what-devsecops |
What's happening with Aldi in North Rockhampton? | A shopping centre complex and service station is proposed for 337-341 Yaamba Rd, North Rockhampton. A shopping centre complex and service station is proposed for 337-341 Yaamba Rd, North Rockhampton. Contributed AS the South Rockhampton Aldi construction continues, the future of the promised northside store remains a mystery. The Morning Bulletin has attempted many times to find out more information from Aldi however they have advised all northside store enquiries need to go through the landholders. The Morning Bulletin has been unsuccessful in getting in contact with the landholders, Glenwaye Pty Ltd. The Melbourne-based company owns the block of land on the corner of Moores Creek Rd and Yaamba Rd. This includes the buildings and carpark which Spotlight and Bag To Go are tenanted in. The Bags To Go store took over after Toyworld left in April 2016. According to RP Data, this space is rented out for $95,000 per annum. In June 2017, this land was valued at $4.3 million. Aldi were looking at going into the proposed site. Contributed In February 2017, Rockhampton Regional Mayor Margaret Strelow announced there would be two Aldi stores coming to Rockhampton. She stated the council had been in talks with the German supermarket chain since 2013. It was mentioned then, the second site could "potentially form part of the mixed use proposal over the vacant site next to Spotlight on Yaamba Road, Park Avenue. An application for the site for a service station, shop, showroom and food and drink outlet was first made in November 2015. In February 2017, Stockland Rockhampton issued a notice of discontinuance, appealing the development with legal action commenced in August. A Stockland spokesperson previously said the appeal was based on the view that the application conflicted with elements of Rockhampton's planning scheme. "In our view, the development has also not appropriately addressed a number of local impacts including catering for adequate parking or pedestrian walkways, the spokesperson said. Stockland lodged a legal dispute over the proposed development. Contributed In their legal submission, Stockland also claimed the "scale and form of the development is not appropriate for the location, based on its proximity to an established major centre that is located adjacent to the proposal across Moores Creek Rd. The judge ordered the council and Stockland Property Management Pty, which runs Stockland Rockhampton, to undergo mediation. Stockland Rockhampton withdrew the appeal in March last year. The development application for the Yaamba Rd site was approved in June 2017 and has an expiry date of August 9, 2021. This means they have until this date to complete the development until the approval lapses. | https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/whats-happening-with-aldi-in-north-rockhampton/3619793/ |
Are Chinas Trade Practices Really Unfair? | The temporary truce reached by US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires in December should give both sides some time to reflect on the issues in question. And the most fundamental of those issues is whether American grievances against China shared by many of the advanced economies are justified. About the author Daniel Gros is Director of the Center for European Policy Studies. To be sure, unilateral US measures are indefensible under global trading rules. But some pushback conceivably could be warranted if the advanced economies which have already created an informal contact group of China losers, including representatives of the European Union, Japan, and the United States are right that China has been engaging in unfair trading practices. For the US, the biggest concern seems to be so-called forced technology transfer that is, the requirement that foreign companies share their intellectual property with a domestic partner in order to gain access to the Chinese market. But this is a misnomer, at best, because companies that do not want to share their technology can always choose not to invest in China. Average tariff rate below 4% Europes complaints or, more specifically, the complaints of over 1,600 European companies are summarized in a new report issued by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. But, interestingly, few of those complaints are about Chinas trading practices per se, at least in the narrow sense. Tariffs, for example, are not cited. With its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, China was forced to reduce its tariff protections by one-half. In the ensuing years, the average tariff rate applied by China has continued to fall, and now stands at less than 4%, though China does maintain an unusually high number of tariff peaks (that is, high tariffs for very limited categories of product). Of course, tariffs are far from the only way to create obstacles to trade. Indeed, in many ways, tariffs are yesterdays problem at least they were, until Trump dusted them off as a weapon for his trade war. But when it comes to non-tariff barriers, Chinas record also does not seem as problematic as is claimed. Liberalization step by step To be sure, it is difficult to measure the overall importance of non-tariff barriers to trade, because they can take so many forms. But, according to the independent Global Trade Alert observatory, since 2008, China has introduced only 25 measures (referred to as state interventions) per year, on average, that might restrict trade with the US. Meanwhile, China enacted about the same number of new measures that liberalize trade with the US. Overall, then, China has not become more protectionist against the US; on the contrary, the opening process is continuing, albeit very slowly. By contrast, the US has enacted between 80 and 100 restrictive measures against China every year, and far fewer liberalizing measures. Other indicators confirm Chinas gradual move toward liberalization. This is the case even for foreign investment an issue about which both US and European companies complain. Although China remains far less open to foreign direct investment than most advanced economies, the OECDs composite indicator shows that there has been continuous, albeit sluggish, improvement. Western monopolies come to an end In short, even if Chinas non-tariff barriers (both formal and informal) remain high, they are lower than in the past. The answer lies in the increased competitiveness of Chinese producers. When Western companies had a near-monopoly on know-how and technology, their competitive edge more than compensated for distortions created by Chinese barriers to trade and investment. But, as Chinese enterprises have become increasingly serious competitors in their own right, Western countries capacity to bear the extra costs of non-tariff barriers has diminished. Complaints about unfair Chinese trade practices, therefore, are actually complaints about the mismatch between the slow pace of economic opening and the very fast pace of modernization. The competitiveness gap between China and the OECD countries is closing much faster than the regulatory environment is converging. Foreign pressure will have little effect In fact, per capita GDP and thus productivity in a number of Chinese provinces with a combined population of over 100 million is similar to that of advanced countries (around $30,000 per capita at purchasing power parity). Of course, the national average is much lower (about one-half), as overall productivity is much lower, and the Chinese authorities have to calibrate policies for their entire vast country. But, for the outside world, the high-productivity regions are what matters. If we are to avoid further escalation of tensions, the West and China must acknowledge each others perspectives. Ultimately, however, foreign pressure will have little effect on Chinas massive and powerful economy. In the past, it might have made sense to protect the nascent industries in the coastal regions from foreign competition. Today, however, Chinas protectionist regime does little to help nascent industries in the poor interior, because their biggest competitors are no longer foreign companies, but rather firms from the dynamic coastal areas. This implies that China must rethink its very development strategy. And to do that, the last thing policymakers need is an ongoing trade war. Copyright: Project Syndicate. | https://www.fuw.ch/article/are-chinas-trade-practices-really-unfair/ |
When does an Olympic data network behave like a corporate one? | It's been a Winter Olympics of new records - we've seen the first ever British Olympic medal on snow, legends like Shaun White in the half-pipe and Shani Davis in the speed-skating have been usurped by younger contenders and we've witnessed the first Olympic shared gold in Alpine skiing. The network behind the Games has also delivered its share of records: the first time IPTV has been used to transmit live TV feeds to the Olympic family over the games network, the first time wireless network traffic has outnumbered wired traffic at a Winter Games and the first fabric-connected network to be deployed at an Olympic event. While all this is very exciting, you may be wondering how Sochi 2014 relates to the businesses which make up the vast majority of Avaya's customers. In reality there are many parallels between the average business network and that of these Olympic Winter Games. Regardless of the scale and profile of the project, organisations of all sizes face many of the same challenges and therefore should follow the same best practice approach. IT managers everywhere will be familiar with the key issues our team has faced in Sochi: addressing huge data demands on the network; operating across multiple sites and the rise of BYOD. Ever increasing data As the opening ceremony began, thousands of Olympic family members connected to the Games network, creating a significant peak in demand. At the moment when the main character, Lubov, floated above the audience in his troika sleigh, 250MBPS of data was streamed over the network as the Olympic family posted photos, messages and emails. Last week, in a sample four-hour period,5,130 MB of data travelled over the network to Twitter - the equivalent to 10,000 photos being tweeted in that time. Businesses today are also faced with greater volumes of multi-media content as well as spikes in network demand. They are having to assess their networks to ensure they have the capacity to operate effectively. Many are already adopting tools that allow them to free up space by determining the user's identity, status and the type of device they are using, thereby granting a type and level of access, dependent on who they are. Multiple sites As I wrote in my second post in this series, Sochi 2014 has been taking place in a variety of venues across two very different sorts of environments. The network is providing seamless connectivity and consistent quality of service, for the Olympic family, across all 11 competition venues. Likewise, many businesses work across different types of sites from factories to head-offices to retail outlets and smaller branches. Additionally, many organisations cater for employees who want to work from home, from other offices, and on the move, as effectively and securely as they would at their 'desk. 'The common architecture and centralised management of the Games network that is providing a seamless experience for users, is easy to replicate in a business environment. BYOD Creating a secure BYOD environment for the Olympic family has been a vital ingredient of the success of these Games. Olympic family members have been taking their devices everywhere. For example, data from inside the stadium during the opening ceremony showed that around 58 per cent of network connections were from smartphones, 37 per cent from laptops and 4 per cent from tablets. The Olympic network caters for a range of different user groups and many different devices while ensuring bandwidth is protected and security breaches are prevented. As I mentioned earlier, identity management for network access is a technology that businesses are increasingly adopting to ensure they can cater for myriad devices used by employees, suppliers and customers, in an open but secure way. While the scale of Sochi 2014 is obviously much bigger than that of an average business network, the principles behind both are the same. We all need to embrace and enable the new era of communications we live in today, as the Sochi network has done. I think that the biggest 'takeaway' for businesses from these Games is that regardless of the scale and profile of the project, organisations of all sizes have the chance to create a network that delivers a great user experience while operating efficiently and securely. | https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/networking/when-does-an-olympic-data-network-behave-like-a-corporate-one-1226638 |
Why Is the Fed Still Raising Interest Rates? | Earlier this month, the US Federal Reserves policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted unanimously to increase the short-term interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, taking it from 2.25% to 2.5%. This was the fourth increase in 12 months, a sequence that had been projected a year ago, and the FOMC members also indicated that there would be two more quarter-point increases in 2019. The announcement soon met with widespread disapproval. About the author Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, chaired President Ronald Reagans Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984. Critics noted that economic growth has slowed in the current quarter and that the Feds preferred measure of inflation (the rate of increase of the price of consumer expenditures) had fallen below the official 2% target. Low level of the real interest rate The FOMC statement announcing the latest interest-rate hike gave no explicit reason for it. Fed Chair Jay Powells remarks at his press conference also gave no reason for maintaining the originally planned rate increase despite the economic slowdown. Determining the appropriate level of the interest rate depends on balancing a changing array of considerations. There are three possibilities. First, the current level of the real (inflation-adjusted) interest rate is remarkably low. The most recent annual inflation rate as measured by the rise in the Consumer Price Index was 2.2%. Subtracting that inflation from the 2% nominal federal funds interest rate implies that the real interest rate was slightly negative before the recent increase and approximately zero even after it. A recession might be at hand A zero real rate might be appropriate in a very depressed economy, but not in an economy in which real GDP was growing this year at more than 3% and the unemployment rate was an exceptionally low 3.7%. The Feds own estimate of the sustainable level of the unemployment rate is considerably higher, at 4.4%. An extremely low real interest rate can cause a variety of serious problems. Businesses respond to the low cost of capital by taking on excessive debt. Banks and other lenders reach for yield by lending to low-quality borrowers and imposing fewer conditions on loans. Portfolio investors can drive up the price of equities to unsustainable levels. Governments are induced to run large deficits because the interest cost of servicing the resulting debt is relatively low. A second reason for raising the interest rate is that the FOMC needs a higher level now so that it can reduce interest rates later, during the next economic downturn, when it needs to stimulate demand. The current expansion, one of the longest since World War II, has now lasted 114 months since the upturn began in June 2009. Although expansions dont die of old age, there are enough warning signs including falling equity prices, weakness in the housing sector, downturns in major European countries, and the uncertain level of US exports to indicate that the next recession could begin during the next two years. The elusive neutral level In the last three downturns, the Fed cut the fed funds rate by five percentage points, 4.8 percentage points, and 5.3 percentage points. But with a starting level of 2%, it could reduce the federal funds rate by only two percentage points before hitting zero. Although the Swiss National Bank and the European Central Bank have reduced their key interest rates below zero, that has created problems for their banking and insurance companies. Moreover, it is not clear what additional problems will occur as these central banks normalize their rates. The third reason that the FOMC might have wanted to raise the rate is to return the real rate to the neutral level. Some economists have said that the neutral rate, the level that neither increases nor depresses overall demand, often referred to as r*, has declined substantially in recent years. But r* is not a number to be calculated in a straightforward way like the rate of inflation. It must be estimated with a complex economic model. Powell and others have emphasized that it is difficult to know the value of this neutral level. My own view is that the calculations implying that the estimated value of r* has declined sharply in recent years really reflect the declining interest rate set by the Fed and other central banks. In the past, it was generally assumed that the real value of the neutral rate was equal to about 2%. Because the current real rate is close to zero, substantial increases are needed to get back to the traditional neutral level. These three reasons, and perhaps others, justify the view at the FOMC that the current interest rate is too low and needs to be raised. Unfortunately, if anything, the recent increases may be too little and too late. Copyright: Project Syndicate. | https://www.fuw.ch/article/why-is-the-fed-still-raising-interest-rates/ |
Will NVIDIA's New Automotive Platform Widen Its Moat Against Intel? | NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) recently introduced Drive AutoPilot, a new reference platform that lets automakers add automated driving features to their vehicles, at CES 2019. The platform improves current advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) with features that bridge the gap between semi-autonomous vehicles and fully autonomous ones. These features include lane changes, highway merging, pedestrian and cyclist detection, parking assistance, and personal mapping features. Inside the vehicle, it provides driver monitoring features and AI copilot capabilities. It also allows updates to its software over the air -- a feature most major automakers (except Tesla) -- haven't adopted yet. The platform is powered by NVIDIA's Xavier AI-focused SoC, which can process over 30 trillion operations per second. A woman sits in a driverless car. More Image source: Getty Images. Drive AutoPilot isn't a fully driverless platform like NVIDIA's Drive PX series of onboard computers (a version of which powers Tesla's similarly named Autopilot feature). Instead, Drive AutoPilot seems squarely aimed at Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) Mobileye, which provides ADAS platforms for over 90% of the world's automakers. Understanding NVIDIA's automotive ambitions NVIDIA's Tegra series of ARM-based CPUs form the foundation of its driverless business. NVIDIA originally tried to market the Tegra as an application processor for smartphones, but it was pushed out of the market by Qualcomm. But instead of abandoning the chipset, NVIDIA pivoted the Tegra toward other markets -- including game consoles (like the Switch), drones, and navigation and infotainment systems for connected cars. NVIDIA's early foothold in the connected car market led to the launch of Drive PX in 2015. The second version, Drive PX 2, was introduced in 2016. In 2017, NVIDIA introduced Drive PX Xavier and Drive PX Pegasus -- two platforms that were designed for fully autonomous vehicles. Last September, it launched Drive AGX Xavier, a scalable platform for autonomous machines, robots, healthcare devices, and self-driving cars. NVIDIA currently has over 370 Drive partners, including Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, and various service providers and auto suppliers. Those companies support the growth of its Automotive revenue, which accounted for 5% of its top line during the third quarter. | https://news.yahoo.com/nvidia-apos-automotive-platform-widen-013000792.html |
What Does it Mean to Be Asexual? | Image zoom Eva Hill DEAR DR. JENN, I am in my 20s and have only had two boyfriends. I am really not that into sex. I feel romantically connected to the men I have dated but I dont find myself feeling turned on or really wanting to get it on. Ive never had anything traumatic happen to me sexually. Just Not That Into It DEAR NOT INTO IT, People who identify as asexual are not that way due to a trauma, that is a whole different diagnosis. Many people, like you, just do not feel sexually drawn to others. The Asexuality Visibility and Education Network, the most well known asexuality organization, describes asexuality as follows, An asexual person does not experience sexual attraction they are not drawn to people sexually and do not desire to act upon attraction to others in a sexual way. People who identify as asexual and researchers who study this stuff refer to themselves as the "ace" community. When determining whether you fit into that community, it's important to note that asexuality is different than celibacy. While it is controversial, many people consider asexuality to be an orientation (what you are or are not sexually attracted to), whereas celibacy is a behavioral choice (not having sex). Someone may choose to be celibate for religious reasons or personal reasons, like because they want to save themselves for marriage. Someone who is asexual is not sexually attracted to another person and does not want to engage in sexual acts. It's not a fleeting state. An article on Pride.com put it pretty clearly: "If you're offended when people say being gay, lesbian, or bi is a choice, then you can't just say the same thing about asexuals." RELATED: How to Deal When You and Your Partner Have Mismatched Libidos Someone who is asexual may feel drawn to another person, and date them for reasons that are not sexual. Asexual people experience different kinds of attraction. Here's how these might look in your daily life: Romantic attraction: I would love to go for a walk on the beach and share a sunset with that person. Aesthetic attraction: I can really appreciate how attractive that person is, just the way I can appreciate a beautiful piece of art but not have a desire to touch it or take it home. Sensual attraction: I would love to cuddle, hug, kiss or hold hands with this person. That is how people within the asexual community identify their sexual orientation. Here are some of the common categories they use to differentiate. Aromantic: a lack of romantic attraction towards anyone Biromantic: romantic attraction towards either sex Heteromantic: romantic attraction towards the opposite sex Homoromantic: romantic attraction towards the same sex Panromantic: romantic attraction not limited with regard to gender or gender identity Most people who are asexual have always felt that way. If this lack of libido and sexual desire is new for you, it is especially important to rule out any medical or emotional issues that may have shifted your feelings. Asexuality is different from conditions such as Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. In cases of HSDD, The lack of libido, sexual fantasies and desires causes distress and relationship difficulty. This is not the case for people who identify as being asexual. Asexual people do not have higher rates of depression, personality disorders, or an inability to describe their feelings, emotions or bodily sensations. It is possible for an asexual person to experience tension in their relationship (perhaps because the other partner is not asexual, and is not feeling sexually satisfied), but let's talk about the health stuff first. If you're unsure about your own lack of sexual desire, get checked out. Make sure to get a physical, meet with your gynecologist to get an exam, have your hormones tested and get a full blood panel. If this change is emotional, it is especially important to meet with a psychotherapist or sex therapist to discuss why the sudden shift in libido. A history of trauma, depression, anxiety or struggles with intimacy issues can cause a person to turn off sexually. Again, any of these medical or emotional issues are different then asexuality. There are many different ways to have a relationship if you are asexual. There are some people who choose to not have any sexual contact at all. There are others who opt to have sexual experiences with their partner in order to please that person. Many asexual people want to experience intimacy of some sort in a connected relationship. There's a famous Daisy Mae Darling quote: Intimacy is not who you let touch your genitals. Intimacy is who you text at 3 a.m. about your dreams and fears. Intimacy is giving someone your attention when 10 other people are asking for it. That all depends on how they feel about it. As a person who identified as Queenieofaces on Tumblr said, We need to recognize that for some people, sex is great and for some it is horrific and for some it is on a par with folding laundry. If it is positive or neutral, having sexual contact can be okay for someone who is asexual. If it is unpleasant or negative, that can be unhealthy and create resentment. There are some asexual people who are in relationships with sexual people who opt to have an open relationship. At the end of the day, what matters is that you have good communication and talk through any challenges with anyone you date. | https://www.instyle.com/lifestyle/hump-day/asexual-how-to-know |
What is Germany planning in case of a no-deal Brexit? | As his sleek metal machines whirr and grind in a soothing rhythm, Paul Kuendiger's rather high-tech print shop exudes the kind of ordered efficiency upon which so many German businesses like to pride themselves. Brexit Britain, the furious cries of its politicians and the anguished chants of its protestors, seem far away. But some of Mr Kuendiger's best customers are in the UK. The stickers he exports there are worth 10,000 euros (9,000) a month to his business. The companies he supplies expect delivery fast - often within two days of order. And so, as British MPs wrestle over how the country intends to leave the EU, perhaps it's no wonder that Mr Kuendiger feels uneasy. What German business fears most - uncertainty - is, after all, contagious. "We're preparing for the worst of all cases, preparing for everything", he says, as shining sheets of brightly coloured stickers emerge from the printing machine. "If we have a soft Brexit, we'll have a bit more time and that's good but obviously we have to assume there could be a hard Brexit." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Angela Merkel is hoping for a Brexit deal but her ministries are planning for a no-deal scenario He's not alone in fearing the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. The IFO institute for economic research surveyed 1,300 German businesses before Christmas and found they rated the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit at 43%. And, as Germany's Economy Minister, Peter Altmaier, acknowledges, "a disorderly Brexit would hit the economy hard". He met his British counterpart in Berlin this week to discuss "the challenges and consequences of Brexit". Britain is Germany's fifth-largest trading partner (after the US, the Netherlands, China and France). Exports amounted to 85.4bn euros (77.2bn) in 2017. Germany's imports from the UK were worth 36.8bn euros (33.3bn), giving Germany a trading surplus of 48.6 bn euros (44bn). Theresa May's end of year dash to Berlin brought warm words from Angela Merkel - but no concessions. Mrs Merkel remains - officially - optimistic an orderly Brexit can still be achieved but she's also adamant the negotiated EU Brexit deal is the only one on the table and she's ordered her government to make preparations in case Britain rejects it. Among the contingency plans approved by her "Brexit cabinet" are moves to secure the rights of British citizens living in Germany - in the event of a no deal, ministers have drafted a law that would enable British people to stay in the country, though after a three-month period (which may yet be extended) they would have to register and apply to remain. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has concerns about the potential effects of a disorderly Brexit There are plans to recruit hundreds of extra customs staff and a spokesman for Angela Merkel, speaking recently about the need to protect the German financial services market, said a draft law aimed to change tax and working legislation - including a measure to make it easier to hire and fire senior banking staff - to ensure no disadvantage to this sector of German industry. The German finance ministry - together with the German chamber of commerce - has organised touring roadshows to educate and advise businesses. But there is concern here - in commercial and political circles - that Germany is not really ready for the full impact of a no-deal scenario. One concern is there's no simple "one-stop shop" website or government-issued notices providing advice and information regarding a no deal, in the way there is in the UK and the EU. Privately, officials admit that many companies - particularly the smaller ones - have not done enough to protect themselves. "I believe Germany is woefully unprepared", says Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the foreign policy spokesman for the opposition Free Democrat Party (FDP), who doesn't hold out much hope for the Brexit deal. "Looking at the political situation in the House of Commons, we see no majority in the Tories and a prime minister having to implement something that she probably doesn't believe in. It's a little bit like Theresa in Wonderland with Boris Johnson as the March hare." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The UK is the German motor industry's largest export market He's urging the German government to do more to prepare for a no-deal scenario. "Actually, on that count, the British government is doing a better job, as is the European Commission. Both are already issuing notices for the case of a hard Brexit and Berlin must follow suit." And this outspoken opposition MP makes the striking comment that, while he says he's been lobbied by plenty of business and industry figures concerned about a no-deal Brexit, not one of them wants the German government to take a softer approach, or offer more concessions to Britain. Neither, significantly, does the powerful German car industry. Britain is its largest export market. Manufacturers have warned that a no-deal Brexit would be profoundly damaging. Bernhard Mattes, the president of the German car manufacturers association (VDA), says that such a scenario would result in tariffs, tricky logistics, higher costs and must be avoided. Nevertheless, when he sits down with Angela Merkel, he says, he doesn't advocate or lobby for a different approach to Britain and the negotiated Brexit deal. "The priority for us is the remaining 27 member states, that we stay together," he says. "That has to be first priority and that we don't make concessions that would invite others to go the same way." | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46798281 |
Should we weed out the worst-performing KiwiSaver funds? | Australia's Productivity Commission seems to think so. It has just released its final report on a review of the superannuation industry which recommends ways to weed out the worst performers. Advertisement It wants all regulated super funds to carry out an annual test which would check the performance of the fund against a pre-set benchmark. If the fund is more than half a percentage point a year below its benchmark over a rolling eight-year period the fund would get a year to lift its performance or face being withdrawn from the market. Members of the closed fund would then be transferred elsewhere. It sounds like a nice idea - an independent body looking out for consumers - especially when for many people KiwiSaver is a complicated product they struggle to understand. Research has already shown many KiwiSaver members are complacent and aren't motivated to switch funds based on fees or performance. Of the 2.7 million people in KiwiSaver just 189,736 switches were made in the year to March 31. There is now more than 10 years' worth of performance data for KiwiSaver funds, which is enough time to see who the consistent poor performers are. But the challenge would be in ensuring each fund's benchmark is appropriate. In the past some fund managers chose to set their benchmark as the cash rate, which was not appropriate for funds invested in shares. Setting an appropriate benchmark would need to be checked by the regulator, as would the performance data. All of that takes time and money for a regulator which already has a stretched budget and limited resources. New Zealand's KiwiSaver market is much smaller than Australia's. There are just 31 schemes, although underneath those lie several hundred funds. Checking and comparing the performance of your fund is not that difficult. Members can either use the quarterly Morningstar figures or the Financial Markets Authority's KiwiSaver tracker tool. Those who aren't happy with the performance of their fund can switch easily by getting in touch with a different provider. The reality is if you care about avoiding the dogs of KiwiSaver the power is already in your hands without waiting for the regulator to step in. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=12188684 |
Should people with pot convictions be able to supply in a legal cannabis market? | People with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis and, if recreational use became legal, be offered a clean slate, Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says. But the National Party say only "fit and proper persons" should manufacture legal cannabis. Swarbrick's comments follow an email exchange - released to the National Party under the Official Information Act - showing that the Greens had asked Ministry of Health officials to look at proposals for the medicinal cannabis legislation, including one that would "allow individuals with previous drug convictions to manufacture cannabis". The Greens' proposal never came before the House, but that door has not closed. Advertisement Who should be eligible to supply medicinal cannabis will be a key aspect of the Government's new regulatory framework, which will be in place by the end of the year following public consultation. National's associate health spokesman Shane Reti said medicinal cannabis manufacturers and employees should be "fit and proper persons". National has proposed clean slate legislation requiring no terms of imprisonment and no convictions for seven years for employees, and even tougher standards for licence holders including no associations with gangs. "The industry was adamant that it understood the need to be absolutely squeaky clean in this new industry and they were up for that," Reti said. "The Greens have listened to one version of the pleadings from East Coast-based Hikurangi Enterprises (which has a licence for medicinal cannabis) and ignored the rest of the industry, who were completely behind the fit-and-proper-persons requirements." He called the Greens "soft on drugs" but Swarbrick, the Green Party's spokeswoman for drug law reform, dismissed this as "classic National Party hysteria". "If you're convicted of something while it is illegal, you serve your time," Swarbrick told the Herald. "If that substance then becomes legal and regulated and you jump through the same hoops that everyone else does, why shouldn't you equitably be able to engage in that market?" The people who have been disproportionately penalised by the war on drugs shouldn't be excluded from participating in a legal market, she said. She had visited Hikurangi and spoken with people taking a course at the Eastern Institute of Technology's Ruatoria Regional Learning Centre on experimental hemp production. "Some of them have gone away for that substance and have served their time and are now they're looking to use their skills and invest in their community. And this is a massive economic opportunity for them." It was Green Party policy to have regard for equity and social justice in drug law reform, but she said it was not yet party policy to allow those with previous cannabis convictions to work in the medicinal cannabis market. "I guarantee we will have discussions on that point [during the Government's public consultation process] and it's something that should be discussed with maturity." Currently, licences for medicinal cannabis are only issued for medical or scientific research. The Government's medicinal cannabis law was passed last month and the regulatory framework, such as rules around licences and quality standards, will be drawn up after public consultation. A binding referendum on legalising cannabis for personal use will take place at the 2020 election. Canada's legal cannabis regime started in October last year and includes a pardon for convictions for carrying 30g or less of marijuana, but not for other crimes such as supplying cannabis. The Canadian Government has been criticised for not expunging cannabis convictions, which would remove any record of a criminal conviction; a pardon seals the record but does not erase it. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12188844 |
Which Palm Springs-area golf course made Golf Digest's top 100 national list? | CLOSE #5: The Quarry at La Quinta, No. 17 Every other year, the folks at Golf Digest put out their list of the top 100 greatest golf courses in the United States. And every other year golfers who are familiar with the Coachella Valley golf scene scratch their heads wondering if the folks on the rating panel for Golf Digest have simply forgotten about this desert. When the biennial ratings came out last week, the Coachella Valley had just one golf course in the top 100 list that is the most quoted and most debated list of golf courses in the country. That course is the Quarry at La Quinta -- Tom Fazios design in the hills of southern La Quinta on the grounds of an old rock and sand quarry. The Quarry is a terrific course that plays on three different levels of the hills near Lake Cahuilla. It has many of the characteristics that a top 100 course should have, from a fabulous setting to shot value on holes to variety in its hole design. Its a course that definitely belongs in the top 100. The Quarry checks in at No. 77 this year. The 17th hole at The Quarry at La Quinta. (Marilyn Chung, The Desert Sun) (Photo: Marilyn Chung,The Desert Sun) More: Jon Rahm, who's defending his Desert Classic win, is playing and winning all over the world More: Tickets, parking, general information for 2019's Desert Classic golf tournament But The Quarry was also the only desert course on the list two years ago. And two years before that, for that matter. In other words, as worthy as The Quarry is, the panelists for Golf Digest couldnt find even one other golf course in the desert to put in the top 100. And that seems remarkable to people who know Coachella Valley golf. In fact, two years ago, when Golf Digest also released its list of the second 100 greatest courses in the country, only two Coachella Valley courses made that list. Madison Club in La Quinta was 108th and climbing in popularity, while the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta was 194th and falling in the rankings. The second 100 list hasnt been released for this year, but you can expect Madison to be high on the list and maybe the Stadium Course, the host course of the Desert Classic next week, to slip out of the top 200. There are plenty of reasons that a course might somehow not be on the top 100 list. First, the competition is pretty stiff. Consider the top 10 of Pine Valley, Augusta National, Cypress Point, Shinnecock, Oakmont, Merion, Pebble Beach, National Golf Links, Sand Hills Golf Club and Fishers Island. Plenty of U.S. Opens and other events have been played on those layouts. More: Golf fans benefit the most from Justin Rose in the Desert Classic A course might offer a design style that is out of vogue with the ratings panel. Thats certainly true of the Stadium Course at PGA West, which was once a top 100 course when Pete Dye courses were more appreciated and in style. Or a course simply might not care much whether it is on the top 100 list or not. Panelists have to play the courses in order to rate them, and in the desert there are several courses that have not gone out of their way to accommodate the panelists with a tee time in the peak season. Anyone who plays golf in the desert can name courses that at least merit consideration, like the Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills Country Club, two courses at Bighorn Golf Club, Tradition, the Reserve and the Mountain Course at The Vintage Club. Not being on the top 100 list or in some instances not being on the second 100 list certainly doesnt mean these courses and others in the desert are bad courses. They are, in fact, great golf courses. You just wonder at times if the rest of the world understands how many great courses the Coachella Valley truly has. Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry-Bohannan. | https://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/golf/2019/01/10/shouldnt-coachella-valley-have-more-than-one-course-golf-digests-top-100/2542716002/ |
Who will pay for Donald Trump's border wall? | With the US government in partial shutdown, the president continues to demand funding for his Mexican border wall. Lauren Gambino, in Washington DC, and Bryan Mealer, in Texas, discuss how Trumps central campaign promise has led to this point of paralysis. Plus, John Harris looks back to the optimism of 1989 Donald Trump has visited the southern US border in Texas after walking out of talks to resolve one of the countrys longest government shutdowns in history. The president has refused to authorise the release of funds to pay up to 800,000 government workers until he secures funding for his central campaign promise of a border wall. The Guardians US political correspondent, Lauren Gambino, joins Anushka Asthana to discuss the paralysis in the US government and why the president is so fixated on building his wall. And, as Trump tries to rally support in Texas, the Guardians Bryan Mealer reports that there is indeed a crisis at the border, but one largely of the presidents own making. Refugees and asylum seekers are facing appalling living conditions in detention centres struggling to cope with new arrivals. Also today: the columnist John Harris looks back to 1989: a period of sudden transitions, revolutions, exciting new music and optimism for the future. | https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/jan/11/who-will-pay-for-donald-trump-border-wall-podcast |
Is HP about to do a Beyonc by launching two new phones by 2014? | There's a rumour circulating that HP will bust out two large-phone/small-tablets (OK, OK, "phablets") before 2013 is out. That gives the company just eight days to pull the new handsets out of the bag - and one of those days is Christmas Day. One handset is set to be a 6-inch phone while the other is a 7-incher, but the devices are apparently set to be reasonably affordable and aimed at "emerging markets" like India, China and the Philippines. Love me like HP No word on whether these will be Windows Phone handsets or Android ones, although HP did launch some surprise Android-running Slate7s onto US shelves earlier this month, which could well be a clue. We've also heard tell of an HP Slate 6 Voice Tab for which some benchmarks leaked earlier this year. That handset is supposedly running the old-school Android 4.2 and rocking a 1GHz quad-core processor and 720p display - specs that sound about right for the rumoured pricing of these here phones. The new information comes from the aptly-named The Information, although it cites only "sources" so we can't guarantee their reliability. That end-of-2013 launch date sounds a bit optimistic to us, but hey. If Beyonc can do it... yeah, OK, no HP probably can't. Perhaps CES 2014 is a more sensible launch date - check out what else we expect from the Vegas tech-fest Via The Verge | https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/is-hp-about-to-do-a-beyonc-by-launching-two-new-phones-by-2014-1210731 |
What Part of 'War' Don't We Understand? | Political debates tend to be moved forward by new facts generated "on the ground." At these moments, it is far easier to convince people of the truth, because that truth is tied directly to facts people can see out in the world. Hezbollah's initiation of a war with Israel is one of those moments. A few of us have been saying for years that the War on Terrorism is not just about Israel by itself or Iraq by itself that it is a "regional war," as Michael Ledeen has put it, in which the U.S. and its allies are being attacked by an "Islamist Axis" connecting Iran to its network of terrorist proxies across the Middle East. Now this is everybody's headline. Last week, for example, a headline in the New York Times admitted "Crisis Is Regional, Not Just Israel vs. Palestinians." This week, Newsweek devoted its cover story to Iran's role as the instigator "feeding the fire" of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Condoleezza Rice summed it up when she concluded that the terrorists "have showed their hand. And they've showed that their sponsors are in Tehran and in Damascus. Things are clarified right now." And the real news about President Bush's open mic night at the G-8 summit is not his use of a common vulgarity, but an exchange between Bush and Tony Blair regarding Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. There's been a lot of talk about the cleverness of the Iranians and about what master chess players they are to outmaneuver the Bush administration. But their strategy turns out to be utterly transparent. Bush followed his exchange with Blair by adding, "I felt like telling Kofi [Annan] to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen." As we all know, the most fearsome response to an act of war is a phone call from a U.N. bureaucrat. A similar paralysis is even holding back some of the most seemingly belligerent commentators. The Wall Street Journal, for example, characterizes the Hezbollah provocation as "Iran's First Strike" against the U.S. then counsels that we should let Israel do our fighting for us while we seek sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council. Similarly, Michael Oren advocates an Israeli strike against the Syrian military but only to force the Syrian regime to make a bargain, keeping itself in power by withdrawing support for Hezbollah. None of these actions matches the problem. If the problem is that the Syrian and Iranian regimes seek to preserve themselves and extend their influence by supporting terrorists across the Middle East, then the solution is to end those regimes and we should devise a military response directed at that goal. Syria and Iran cannot be pressured, deterred, or contained, because supporting terrorists is their means of survival. This has been the Iranian and Syrian strategy since 2003: support the insurgency in Iraq, support Hezbollah and Hamas in the Palestinian territories and keep everything in such turmoil that America will be afraid to take further action, for fear that things will get even worse. But past military action has led to chaos only because we have always left intact the terror-sponsoring regimes in Syria and Iran. Consider the incentives we have created for these two regimes: the more trouble they cause for us the less likely we are to attack them. The more they attack us, the more secure they are from our retaliation. This is the opposite of a rational strategy. What makes this possible is the crippling effect of two fundamental errors in our thinking: myopic short-range Pragmatism and crippling altruistic self-doubt. Pragmatism doesn't just mean being practical; it's a philosophy which holds that there are no over-arching ideas and principles that can guide our action. The best expression I have ever read of the fractured thinking method of Pragmatism is in the current Newsweek cover story. After showing that Iran is the force behind every major conflict in the Middle East, the authors admonish us: "The Iranian challenge is not a Gordian knot that can be sliced through in one bold stroke. It's a bag full of knots, each of which has to be untied and, if possible, untangled from the rest." Part of the reason America hesitates to act is because generations of Pragmatists have tried to turn our brains into bags full of knots making it harder for us to see the big picture and the bold strokes that are actually necessary to defeat our enemies. Just as powerful is the warped logic of the "suicide bomb morality" of altruism, which identifies self-sacrifice as the essence of virtue. In any conflict, the good guys are expected to prove that they are good by backing down and sacrificing their interests while nothing is expected of the bad guys, precisely because they are evil. That's why a Los Angeles Times op-ed demanded that Israel "has to be the most responsible party" by declaring an immediate ceasefire. The author answers: "What, after all, can we expect from Hamas or Hezbollah?" Notice the warped psychology this fosters: the onus is always on the good guys to turn the other check and submit to evil. This is a moral outlook that empowers the evil because they are evil and restrains the good because they are good. There is no longer any doubt what is driving the conflict in the Middle East: it is the Syrian-Iranian strategy of using proxies to strike at the U.S. and extend Iran's fanatical influence over the region. The only question is whether we can stop tying our brains into knots and stop turning the other cheek long enough to strike back and topple these two regimes. | https://www.foxnews.com/story/what-part-of-war-dont-we-understand |
Can the U.N. Save the Day in the Middle East? | This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 20, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!" BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Impact" segment tonight, the U.N. Security Council met today to try to figure out what to do about the violence in the Middle East. With us now, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. This is going to sound like an immature question. I know it is. And I don't mean it to be, but I have to ask the question. I mean, you passed a resolution almost two years ago, 1559, that said that you were going to control what happened in Southern Lebanon, you were going to disarm Hezbollah. It was a joke. It was a joke. JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, I think what can happen is that we can use the Security Council as a way to accomplish the objective of bringing democracy to the Lebanese people. We've helped pushed Syria out of Lebanon, although they're intelligence services are still there. So it is a place where, under the best of circumstances, you can make progress on issues like that. BOLTON: Yes. Well, the U.N. has been involved in Lebanon for 28 years. And that gives you some measure of how unsuccessful it's been. But in the past couple of years, because of not what happens in New York but because of what's happened in the region, there has been pressure to get Syria out. What we need to do now is move to get that 1559 framework fully implemented, get the Syrians out completely. And that means have them stop... O'REILLY: You know, I don't see the United Nations as able to do anything. BOLTON: Yes. O'REILLY: They can't stop the slaughter in Darfur. They couldn't do anything in Iraq. We're almost going it alone. Britain and the United States. They sit by Kofi Annan today. I don't know what Kofi Annan said. I listened to the sound byte 12 times. I don't know what the man's talking about. And I mean, maybe I'm not smart enough, but he's going this is bad, this is bad, this is bad. It seems to me that the United Nations, number one, should understand there's a worldwide war of terror. BOLTON: No, I don't think they do. O'REILLY: OK. So number one, the United Nations doesn't even understand there's a worldwide world on terror. Even though India gets bombed, even though Somalia now is making trouble with Ethiopia, and country, after country, after country. They still don't get it. BOLTON: Well, I think what we're trying to do is advance American interests. And in this case and the case of Lebanon, we've got a chance to set the Syrians and the Iranians back, not because of what happens in the Security Council, but because of taking advantage of the moment that the action Israel has taken against Hezbollah. Hezbollah wouldn't be in the position it's in today if it weren't for Iranian, Syrian financial support. O'REILLY: We know that. But the world now is focusing on civilian casualties inflicted by Israel. You don't hear about civilian casualties inflicted by Hezbollah on Haifa. All you hear from Chirac, from the Pope, is oh, Israel are killing the civilians. So I don't think it's ever going to be overcome. BOLTON: Well, I think what President Bush is doing is making a pretty clear statement that Israel has a right to self-defense. And when it's attacked by a terrorist, it's entitled to respond. O'REILLY: Yes, but they don't care what President Bush says. BOLTON: Well... O'REILLY: Chirac doesn't care. Russia doesn't care. BOLTON: What our job is in New York is to make sure that that right of self-defense is not abridged arbitrarily. But also, to try and do what we can to help the Lebanese government, which was elected democratically, and to see if we can help remove the cancer. O'REILLY: I hope he can help, but I don't have any faith he can. And that's not any reflection on you. I just think the whole place is a rat's nest. BOLTON: Well, they have a lot of trade interest in Iraq. BOLTON: But what we hope the five foreign ministers have agreed to here is begin to put the squeeze on Iran. We'll see. Look, this is a test, Iran, North Korea, Lebanon. These are all tests for the Security Council. It may fail, it may succeed. BOLTON: No, I'm not optimistic. I'm not pessimistic either. I just try and take it a day at a time. What we need to do is to use this forum to advance American interests. And it's hard there. There's no question about it. O'REILLY: You must have the most frustrating job in the world. BOLTON: Could be right. O'REILLY: Because you can't reason with people. BOLTON: Well, I think the thing to keep your eye on is making sure that American interests are protected and the interest of our allies. And that makes it worthwhile, because if we weren't there protecting them, it would be... O'REILLY: Yes, you have to be there, but I got to tell you, Mr. Ambassador, and I appreciate you coming in, most Americans don't have a use for the U.N. They have no confidence in the U.N. These poor Darfur people are getting slaughtered. BOLTON: Right. We're taking our good, old time, but the administration is committed to making sure that we do whatever we can in Darfur. It's been frustrating dealing with the U.N. there. There's no question. BOLTON: Right. 750,000. BOLTON: Right. The U.N., Kofi Annan. All right, Mr. Ambassador, thanks for coming in and keep slugging it out over there. If you need any help, get me a pass. I'll come with you. BOLTON: I'll give you a call. Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2006 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2006 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation. | https://www.foxnews.com/story/can-the-u-n-save-the-day-in-the-middle-east |
Is Samsung getting serious about robotics? | The company showed off a trio of robots and an exoskeleton at CES 2019 A funny thing happened at Samsungs CES press conference. After the PC news, 8K TVs and Bixby-sporting washing machines, the company announced one more thing, handing over a few brief moments to announce a robotics division, three new consumer and retail robots and a wearable exoskeleton. It was a pretty massive reveal in an extremely short space, and, quite frankly, raised far more questions than it answered. Within the broader context of a press conference, its often difficult to determine where the hype ends and the serious commitment to a new category begins. This goes double for a company like Samsung, which has been taking extra care in recent months to demonstrate its commitment to the future, as the mobile industry undergoes its first major slowdown since the birth of the smartphone. It follows a similar play by LG, which has offered a glimpse into its own robotics plans for back to back years, including allowing a bot to copilot this years keynote. We all walked away from the press conference unsure of what to make of it all, with little more to show for things than a brief onstage demo. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to spend some quality time with the new robots behind the scenes the following day. There were some caveats, however. First, the company insisted we watch a kind of in-person orientation, wherein a trio of miced up spokespeople walked us through the new robots. Theres Bot Care, a healthcare robot designed to assist with elder care, which features medication reminders, health briefings and the ability to check vitals with a finger scan. There are also yoga lessons and an emergency system that will dial 911 if a user falls. Theres also Bot Air, an adorable little trash can-style robot that zooms around monitoring air quality and cleaning it accordingly. Bot Retail rounds out the bunch, with a touchscreen for ordering and trays in the rear for delivering food and other purchases. The other major caveat was look, but dont touch. You can get as close as you want, but you cant interact with the robot beyond that. The demos were impressive. The robots motions are extremely lifelike, with subtle touches that imbue on each a sense of personality rarely seen outside of movie robots like Wall-E. The response time was quick and they showed a wide range of genuinely useful tasks. If the robots are capable of performing as well in person as they do in these brief, choreographed demos, Samsung may have truly cracked the code of personal care and retail robotics. That, of course, is a big if. Samsung wouldnt answer the question of how much these demos are being orchestrated behind the scenes, but given how closely the company kept to the script, one suspects were largely looking at approximations of how such a human/robot interaction could ultimately play out somewhere down the road. And a Samsung spokesperson I spoke to admitted that everything is very early stages. Really, it looks to be more akin to a proof of concept. Like, hey, were Samsung. We have a lot of money, incredibly smart people and know how to build components better than just about anyone. This is what it would look like if we went all-in on robotics. The company also wouldnt answer questions regarding how seriously theyre ultimately taking robotics as a category. You cant expect to succeed in building incredibly complex AI/robotics/healthcare systems by simply dipping your toe in the water. I would love to see Samsung all-in on this. These sorts of things have the potential to profoundly impact the way we interact with technology, and Samsung is one of a few companies in a prime position to successfully explore this category. But doing so is going to require a true commitment of time, money and human resources. | https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/10/is-samsung-getting-serious-about-robotics/ |
Whats causing glowing waves at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront? | Please enable Javascript to watch this video VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - If you head out to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront after dark, you could see an amazing light show. Some bioluminescent organisms are in the water off our coast right now, making the waves glow a vivid blue. "They're planktonic animals called dinoflagellates that are basically becoming much more dense, which causes that bioluminescent property," explains Michelle Coley with the Virginia Aquarium. "That bioluminescence is created because these animals have a light-creating pigment inside of them and when oxygen interacts with that light-creating pigment, that's when you get that really cool looking, natural light show down at the oceanfront." Kenyon Productions produced a video of the beautiful sight. A similar event happened last year in the Sandbridge area. There's no way to predict it because tidal events change year to year, but Coley says it typically happens in late summer or early fall when there is warm water coming up the coast. It can also occur if a significant number of the plankton are washed in due to a storm off the coast. If you want to check it out, Coley says the best place to spot them is at the north end of the Oceanfront where there are fewer man-made lights. People have reported seeing the glowing waves from around 40th St. all the way up to 84th St. If they're still in the area, you can see them anytime between sunset and sunrise. | https://wgntv.com/2016/09/21/whats-causing-glowing-waves-at-virginia-beach/ |
Should CEOs Welcome The Activist Embrace? | On December 10, 2018, Starboard Value managing partner Jeff Smith sent a politely threatening letter to Gary Philbin, Dollar Trees CEO, notifying him that the activist has a 1.7% stake in the company and wants board seats and strategy changes, and wants them now: We believe that Dollar Tree is a great company and one that is significantly undervalued in the market today. We also believe that Dollar Tree has the potential to create significant value for shareholders moving forward by embarking upon the initiatives we have outlined. Smith made it clear that Philbin is underperforming. He says that Dollar Tree under Philbins leadership has been hurtful to shareholders. Philbin rejected Starboard Values offer of help. He hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to defend management in the ensuing battle, and responded with a letter of his own that reiterated the companys desire to seek strategic value without the activists participation or role on the board of directors: Dollar Tree is committed to a strong, independent Board. We note that Starboards nominations for the board were made without seeking any engagement or making any communication to the Company. In Philbins defense, he previously considered some of the options Starboard suggested. They turned out to be more challenging than Starboards back of the envelope calculations would indicate. The right answer is that those who take the strategy messaging too literally might be misled. It is about making the company more responsive, and the strategic options are merely to gain entry into the thought process of the boardroom. The fact is that Smiths advice is the opening gambit that Starboard is hoping will impress Wall Street (Dollar Tree is 90% institutionally owned) long enough to sell the shares while the stock is hot. Thats certainly true. They dont care how Dollar Tree does it. Activist embraces are about time, not ideas. Thank them. Treat them like a free put you can accept or reject at any time. Recognize that their intrusion provides a chief executive with a formidable opponent that can wake up the team, unite the employees around common goals, and achieve both the gain in shareholder value while maintaining the integrity of leadership. To reject them without deliberation is to weaken the defense that management has the shareholders interest at heart. Activists are not clairvoyant. Their financial rewards come from calculating odds, not the future. But they rarely devote the amount of energy required to guide the company through the seemingly impossible changes they outline unless there is a legitimate expectation the shares will respond to shifts in strategy. If they believe theres room to grow your companys value, you should give it every consideration. Examine the options in light of actual history, not their projections, and hypotheticals. Either their advice will appear naive or formulaic, or it will be sound, or it will inspire new thinking on your team that may be the right way forward. The added benefit is the world knows you are engaging in battle. The goal should change from fending off an activist to aligning the company, its shareholders and employees, around the need for process improvement. With the catalyst of the activist, a house cleaning that opens up the company to new ideas, new talent, and new shareholders is possible. There are many ways an activist can be misguided. They may overvalue the company or Wall Streets opinion of the strategy changes. The customer base may not react well, or management may not be able to pull off the coup in strategic direction. The way to assure against these outcomes is to first engage and then require the activist to increase shareholdings. This would lift the stock and align them with long-term players because exiting a large position would have to be done over time. An activist embrace does not mean marriage. It only suggests the leadership team is confident enough to examine every option to increase value. Even if it means dealing with people you dont really like very much. Read more: Lessons From GE: When The Board Wants You Out | https://chiefexecutive.net/ceos-welcome-activist-embrace/ |
Is a Global Rare Earths Shortage Imminent? | As demand steadily grows around the world, many wonder if a rare earths shortage will materialize in the coming years. Every day we unwittingly interact with an array of rare earths theyre in the planes that transport us through the air, in the sonar systems that scan the sea floor and everything in between. These 17 minerals have become an integral part in the evolution of technology and society. As demand for rare earths steadily grows, output remains flat, theoretically creating the perfect environment for a rampant shortfall. The short answer is probably not, or at least not right away. While most rare earths are in a general surplus supply, most notably cerium and lanthanum, neodymium supply and demand were estimated to have reached equilibrium as of 2017, which makes the market more sensitive to disruptions in supply, Nils Backeberg, deputy manager at Roskill, told the Investing News Network in late 2018. Neodymium prices saw a spike in end 2017, related to an increased market tightness following environmental inspections in China causing sustained closures and speculative trading exacerbating the situation, he explained. Ongoing environmental crackdowns in China are likely to continue to impact the global rare earths sector, largely because China is the world leader in production, accounting for 105,000 of the 130,000 tonnes produced in 2017. China is also getting increasingly restrictive in the amount of rare earths it exports, opting to reduce foreign shipments in favor of using the materials domestically or stockpiling. This alone has created volatility in the sector that was further exacerbated last year, when the US included rare earths on a list of critical metals and minerals out of China that would be heavily taxed. The country quickly changed its mind, perhaps because the US produced no domestic rare earths in 2016 and 2017, instead spending US$118 million and US$150 million, respectively, on imports. The trade war has affected most commodity markets in some way, said Backeberg. The US backpedaled rare earth metals and compounds off of its original trade tariff list, realizing the reliance on Chinese supply of separated rare earths and products. China continues to grapple with environmental issues around the mining sector, which may result in another production cap like the one the issued for the second half of 2018, when the country cut quotas by 36 percent. Backeberg believes this could impact end users both outside and inside China. In China, the six official domestic producers of rare earth raw materials are becoming increasingly integrated downstream, reducing rare earth materials available for export or for non-integrated processors in China, he said. Non-government affiliated companies, such as Shenghe Resources (SHA:600392), are looking for alternative sources of raw materials to tackle this, investing in MP Materials in the US and Greenland Energy Minerals (ASX:GGG) in Greenland. The trend to import international feedstock is a trend expected to become more common for Chinese-based rare earth manufacturers. Increased investment in ongoing and developmental projects around the world could offset tightening in the Chinese market, while supplying the growing demand for rare earths. But as Backeberg pointed out, its more difficult than simply raising output levels or building a mine. The main restraints remain finance for project development and technical knowledge for processing and separation of rare earths to maximize value outside of China, he said. Unless investment focuses on downstream rare earth applications, much of the new material from non-Chinese sources will likely be filtered through Chinese manufacturers. One application that is projected to see extreme growth in the next decade is the electric vehicle sector, which utilizes neodymium in permanent magnets as well electric motors. The renewable energy sector is also using rare earths in wind turbines, rechargeable batteries and biofuel catalysts. The supply/demand balance for neodymium remains tight, and Roskill forecasts the balance to oscillate in and out of equilibrium over the next decade as supply and demand shift with the growing electric vehicle demand, added Backeberg. Much of the growth in neodymium applications will be heavily correlated to price and affordability. The growth of neodymium magnet demand in non-electric vehicle applications will be determined by the price sensitivity of each application, whereas electric vehicle manufacturers will be able to absorb much larger price fluctuations compared to other applications. Automotive demand for neodymium, which is mined alongside similar rare earths lanthanum and cerium, is only dwarfed by the magnet industry; however, as Backeberg pointed out, that may not last. A further hurdle for lanthanum and cerium over the longer term will be demand for autocatalysts and fluid catalytic cracking: Roskills automotive analysis is forecasting an erosion of the automotive industry towards the end of the 2020s, which together with electrification could begin to erode rare earths second-largest demand sector after magnets. Dont forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time news updates! Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence. | https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/rare-earth-investing/global-rare-earths-shortage/ |
Is Kilimnik de missing link? | Die vragen staan nu centraal in het Rusland-onderzoek van speciaal aanklager Robert Mueller. Eerder deze week bleek dat Trumps voormalig campagneleider Paul Manafort zijn samenwerking met Kilimnik, een Oekraens-Russische lingust en mogelijke spion, had verzwegen tegenover de aanklager. Manafort werd vorig jaar schuldig bevonden aan witwassen en fraude en is een belangrijke getuige in het onderzoek naar de Russische connecties van de Trump-campagne. Volgens Manaforts advocaten is het niet vreemd dat hun clint vergat met wie hij allemaal zaken deed. Immers, als leider van de Amerikaanse verkiezingscampagne sprak hij met allerlei personen. Dat stellen zij in een verweer dat eerder deze week per ongeluk online kwam. Daardoor werden eerdere berichten bevestigd dat Kilimnik de mysterieuze persoon A is waarover al maanden wordt gespeculeerd. Opiniepeilingen Dat Manafort Kilimnik niet zou kennen is niet geloofwaardig. De nu 48-jarige, in de Oekraense stad Krivii Rih geboren Kilimnik werkte rond 2000 in Moskou voor het Amerikaanse International Republican Institute. Vanaf 2005 ging hij in Kiev aan de slag voor Manafort, die in Oekrane actief was als politiek adviseur. Samen hielpen ze de Oekraense president Janoekovitsj uit het dal na diens nederlaag bij de Oranjerevolutie in 2004, en leidden hem naar de overwinning in 2010. Maar ook daarna zette Manafort zijn contacten met Kilimnik voort. Deze week bleek dat hij hem in 2016 opiniepeilingen heeft gestuurd voor de Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen, met de opdracht deze te delen met twee Oekraense oligarchen. Wat daarna met de informatie gebeurde, blijft vaag. Kilimniks rol als Oekraense fixer is inmiddels dus wel duidelijk. Zelf ontkent hij bij hoog en laag. Dan zou ik hier niet zijn, maar in Rusland, zo zei hij in een interview zijn enige met nieuwssite Radio Free Europe, vorig jaar in Kiev. De spionnen-speculaties worden gevoed door het feit dat Kilimnik zou zijn opgeleid aan een militaire talenschool in Moskou, die bekend staat als broeinest van Russische recruteringsactiviteiten. Daar zou hij zijn carrire en contacten aan te danken hebben. Een van die contacten is belangwekkend: met de Russische aluminiummagnaat Oleg Deripaska, een loyale bondgenoot van president Poetin, en rond 2005 behulpzaam bij Janoekovitsj politieke intriges. Al in 2017 werd bekend dat Manafort contact onderhield met Deripaska, en hem informatie over Trumps campagne stuurde. Manafort was niet de enige binnen de campagne die contact had met Kilimnik. Ook zijn rechterhand en zakelijk partner Rick Gates heeft toegegeven contacten met persoon A te hebben onderhouden. Gates verklaarde dat tegenover zijn advocaat, de Nederlander Alex van der Zwaan. Die werd vorig jaar in staat van beschuldiging gesteld. Ook hij had gelogen over zijn contact met Gates en Kilimnik. | https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/01/10/is-kilimnik-de-missing-link-a3407054 |
What happens when rich people divorce? | Its not every day the worlds richest man gets divorced. But Wednesday's announcement that Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos are splitting has a lot of people wondering what will happen to the couples fortune. As the founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is estimated to be worth $137 billion. Most of that is tied up in Amazon stock. He owns about 16 percent of the company. KING 5's Mark Wright talked to well-known Seattle family law attorney Jennifer Payseno, a McKinley Irvin partner and First Vice President of the King County Bar Association. A: A petition is what is filed to start a divorce. If the parties are not able to agree on the terms of the divorce, then a court decides. Many couples also draft a separate agreement spelling out how their property will be divided. That agreement is not filed with the court. The attorney I talked with thinks Jeff and MacKenzie probably have already agreed on how to divide their assets. The last thing the CEO of the worlds biggest company wants is an ugly, public fight over who gets what. Whats important to know is the divorce decree is a public document, but the property division agreement is not. That means well probably never know how much money MacKenzie will get in the settlement. A: Rich or poor, the law in Washington is applied the same. We live in whats known as a community property state one of 9 in the U.S. A lot of people mistakenly think that means any assets accumulated after you get married are split 50/50. Thats not necessarily true. The law in Washington only says the assets shall be divided in a fair and equitable way. It is possible that one spouse could get more than another, depending on the circumstances. Heres another important point: an asset that belongs to one spouse before marriage could be given to the other spouse in a divorce settlement. Again, it goes back to if the division of assets is fair and equitable. A: The short answer is yes, according to the attorney I spoke with. Length of marriage is an important factor to consider in Washington. In a longer-term marriage, the court is going to be more concerned with equalizing the parties resources. Jeff and MacKenzie were married for 25 years. Q. A: The couple married in New York when they both worked for a hedge fund. They moved to Seattle where Jeff Bezos started Amazon. Thats a key factor. They started the company after they were married. The attorney I spoke with said MacKenzie may certainly be entitled to one half of the estate, which would include the value of the Amazon stock. A: We dont know. Washington does allow both pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements. The attorney I spoke with says marital agreements are favored in Washington provided that the agreement appears fair, there has been full disclosure of all of the assets and there was full opportunity to have independent legal advice to understand the nature and terms of the agreement. | https://www.krem.com/article/news/what-happens-when-rich-people-divorce/293-8e53c6dc-a57f-49b8-b320-25f1b6f6258c |
Where are fuel prices headed after recent dip? | The Indian basket of crude cost $56.51 a barrel on 8 January, shows Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell data Retail fuel prices, which touched record highs last year on surging global crude prices and a depreciating rupee, have softened in recent days. Mint analyses the decline in prices at petrol pumps. There has been a 40% fall in global crude oil prices in the past three months on signs of oversupply due to higher US oil production, fears of slowing global growth and weakening oil demand, besides an all-out trade war between the US and China. The slump in prices is despite US President Donald Trump pulling his country out of a 2015 accord with Iran and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)-led decision to cut crude oil production by 1.2 million barrels a day. However, India on its part, has been able to secure a six-month waiver on importing crude oil from Iran. Retail prices of petrol and diesel in India track global prices of auto fuels and not crude oil, though they are broadly linked to crude price trends. Also, crude oil accounts for about 90% of the cost of these refinery products. The average price of petrol and diesel in the international market and the US dollar-rupee exchange rate for the previous 15 days are considered while determining domestic prices. The central government is in favour of bringing petroleum products within the ambit of the goods and services tax (GST), but the move requires the approval of the GST Council. The Indian basket of crude cost $56.51 a barrel on 8 January, shows Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell data. From $80.08 a barrel in October, the average price fell to $57.77 in December 2018. According to Moodys Investors Service, oil and natural gas prices will be volatile but range-bound in 2019, with the medium-term price band for West Texas Intermediate crude in the $50-70 a barrel range. This is significant given that India imported 220.4 million metric tonnes of crude in 2017-18. India says it is a price-sensitive customer and will seek reasonable rates as its demand grows. New Delhi has been trying to impress upon Opec, dominated by Saudi Arabia, to maintain supplies as it accounts for around 40% of global production. Any dip in global crude prices will reduce Indias oil import bill and trade deficit. Every dollar increase in the price of oil raises the import bill by around 10,700 crore on an annual basis. Imports of oil surged by more than 25% to $109 billion in 2017-18 from the year-ago period. Low prices may help bring down Indias trade deficit and, in turn, its current account deficit. Also, with crude petroleum having a 1.95% weightage in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), any decrease in the oil price will lower the WPI inflation number. | https://www.livemint.com/Companies/F0cAeSTAzIQQCoWcS2q9aN/Where-are-fuel-prices-headed-after-recent-dip.html |
Why cant Zimbabweans engage in dialogue? | LET me indulge you with a comical tale whose home truths are funny but relevant to the situation Zimbabwe currently finds itself in. Candid Comment,Brezhnev Malaba [email protected] A police officer sees a drunken man intently searching the ground near a streetlight and asks him the goal of his quest. The drunkard replies that he is looking for his car keys, and the cop helps for a few minutes without success, then he asks whether the man is certain that he dropped the keys near the streetlight. No, is the reply, I lost the keys somewhere across the street. Why look here? asks the surprised and irritated officer. The light is much better here, the intoxicated man responds with aplomb. There are various versions of this amusing tale on the internet, although the import is invariably the same. Zimbabwes tragedy is that people are cracking their heads, searching high and low for economic solutions yet the national problem is essentially political. There is a confidence crisis caused by a legitimacy deficit. The imbroglio has been further complicated by politicians stubborn refusal to embrace inclusive politics. With a few rare exceptions to the rule, modern nations are built on a foundation of democratic consensus rather than state authoritarianism. Zimbabwe is burning. The government appears utterly clueless. At this rate, a teachers strike could last three months. Political scientist Ibbo Mandaza has posed a pertinent question: So, now that the country is burning and those purportedly in charge are clueless and virtually in disarray, what is to be done? The political question of the day can only be adequately addressed through an honest resolution of the confidence deficit. This week, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube was in Brussels, the seat of the European Union. The cost of living is shooting through the roof; doctors have gone 40 days on strike; the civil service faces a paralysing shutdown; salaries have been rendered worthless; fuel queues are growing longer; unemployment is worsening; extreme poverty is on the rise, and the entire economy is in turmoil. After watching videos showing frustrated motorists exchanging blows in fuel queues, I decided to venture out and chat with stranded citizens who have turned the hunt for fuel into a full-time pursuit. Hopelessness and anger do not even begin to describe the situation on the ground. When a traumatised society seethes with raw anger, a red line has been crossed and nobody can expect a picnic. Fuel queues are the logical outcome of a deep-seated culture of primitive accumulation, which has gained traction on the back of failed democratisation. Zimbabweans must begin talking to each other, before they even dream of re-engaging the world. | https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2019/01/11/why-cant-zimbabweans-engage-in-dialogue/ |
What is preventing Indias gem and jewellery industry from shining? | By Sponsored Post It is not a secret that the gem and jewellery sector plays a very important role in the Indian economy. Precious gems, as well as metals worn as decorations, are part of traditions and customs. Gold, for instance, has been treasured from the dawn of time, considered to be the soul of the world. Silver, on the other hand, is thought to bring good luck and is, therefore, a preferred gift choice. The countrys fascination with personal ornaments started 5,000 years ago, when it was the dominant manufacturer and exporter. For a great many years, India was the main supplier of gold, diamonds, sapphires, and pearls. All that has changed, unfortunately. The gems and jewellery industry is one of the fastest growing ones in the Indian economy, with an impressive annual growth rate of nearly 15%. That is indeed a very good question. The export turnover has dropped significantly Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, did his best to reassure people. It seems that the efforts of the Indian politician were in vain. There are many concerns regarding the gems and jewellery industry. It is impossible to blame people considering the fact that exports have been extremely low. The worrisome decline in shipments is due to contraction in the dispatch of silver jewellery, gold medallions, and let us not forget about coins. It is essential to not forget about the problem of financing. Financial institutions are blocking credit to exporters even if they are only one day late. Neighbouring Thailand is doing better than ever. The jewellery segment is a major export revenue earner. As stated by ELF925, this is not at all surprising taking into account that the country has years of experience in the industry and has an extended network of artisans, in addition to a strong manufacturing base. Right now, it does not look like India will become the hub of the global jewellery market. It is true that the exports grew by approximately 18% in October, yet the sector did not witness a significant growth. What the authorities should be doing is help the players in the field reach their full potential. At the time being, things do not look so good and there is absolutely no way of knowing what will happen in the future. In spite of the fact that the gems and jewellery industry has manifested considerable growth over the previous decade, it does not seem like it will perform forcefully. There is hope that the sector will bounce back and continue to contribute to the development of major brands and retailers. There is potential to be unravelled and people are waiting for a change. One cannot say that the industry is shining. Actually, the only thing that we can see is a dim light. Maybe exports will grow the following year and lenders will become more positive. | http://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2019/jan/10/what-is-preventing-indias-gem-and-jewellery-industry-from-shining-1923258.html |
Will Intel Reform Bill Make Us Safer? | This is a partial transcript of "The Big Story With John Gibson," Dec. 17, 2004, that has been edited for clarity. Watch "The Big Story With John Gibson" weeknights at 5 p.m. ET! JOHN GIBSON, HOST: It's been a long road to the signing of the Intel Reform Bill today. I'm joined by former Speaker of the House, FOX News Political Analyst Newt Gingrich (search). Newt, the only reason any of us care about this is the idea that we do need to be made safer. NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, I think this is a step in the right direction. It doesn't do it by itself. The intelligence budget is way too small; we have far too little emphasis on human intelligence; we don't have enough assets in places like Syria or Iran or North Korea. So it's going to take a lot of work to really strengthen the intelligence community and to make it effective over time. This bill is a start, but nobody should relax and think that this bill does the job. GIBSON: Mr. Speaker, bills are also something that sometimes make most Americans' eyes glaze over. Walk us through it. GINGRICH: Well, the most important driving thrust of this bill is that there should be a coordinated effort where all the different intelligence services talk to each other, where the information flows to the president and to other decision-makers and to the military in a timely way, and where there's some kind of overall coordination, which is what we've not had; we've had a series of disparate agencies doing things. But I just want to emphasize, while this is a very useful step, I very much supported passing this bill, unless the budgets are adequate, unless we recruit enough people, unless Congress changes its attitude about human intelligence and the problems involved in asking people to go out and risk their lives for this country in difficult places like Syria and Iran and North Korea, this bill by itself will just add a new layer of bureaucracy. So, there's a lot more that has to be done than just this bill. GINGRICH: Well, first of all, nobody should assume ever that we're 100 percent safe or that any kind of intelligence preparation is going to make us 100 percent safe. We're up against smart opponents. They're going to study us every day, they're going to try every day to get through. They only have to get through once to cause a disaster. Whereas, we could stop them 50 or 100 times and some of them will come back again. So, I think this is a step in the right direction, but it's not going to guarantee that you and I can go to sleep tonight and be sure that the United States is safe. What it will do is it'll create a much more integrated picture of where our resources go; what we're trying to accomplish. Having a National Counterterrorism Center gives us a much greater ability to integrate the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (search), the Border Patrol, Customs, the people involved in actual CIA and other kind of spying; the National Security Agency (search), which does most of our electronic intercepts. There are a lot of different assets out there that are working to make America safe. And historically, they haven't talked to each other very well; they very often have hidden secrets from each other; and I think we're trying to get to a system where the user can pull forward all of the information. And the obligation is on the intelligence agency to actively share that information, not to hide it from other American agencies. GINGRICH: Yes, I think it makes an enormous difference because the person who sees the president the first thing every day is the effective deliverer and describer of intelligence on America. If that person sees the president say, 280 days a year and they're with the president for a half hour 280 times a year, their relative influence on the president, their ability to win bureaucratic arguments is going to be dramatic. So, whoever you'll know where the real power is by who gets to actually walk in the Oval Office and brief the president. GIBSON: I've got to sort of, move us over one click in this discussion, and that is this because we're going to talk about it later in the show at much greater length, but I do want to know what you think about this there's this whole sudden discussion about whether Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, should stay or should go. And his critics are, this time, not coming from the left, but from the right. GINGRICH: Well, I think it's totally wrong to focus on Secretary Rumsfeld. The American military did a great job in Afghanistan; the American military did a great job in Iraq; the American military's doing a great job in the global war on terror. It is the State Department which has failed to cut off Iran and Syria; it is the State Department which has failed through the Agency for International Development to create jobs in Iraq. The Congress gave $18 billion to the Coalition Provisional Authority (search) and they couldn't spend the money. The bureaucracy couldn't deliver. So, I think it's really wrong for people to focus on the Defense Department as the problem, when most of the problems, frankly, are in the civilian side of national security, and in bureaucracies that aren't able to deliver. GIBSON: Right. But Mr. Speaker, this particular discussion is centered on a moment when Mr. Rumsfeld was asked a question by a soldier, and he said something, and I think everybody agrees is true: "You go to war with the army you got, not the one you wish you had." But nonetheless, it seems most people, or a lot of people, think he was being insensitive to the soldiers who were out there riding in those vehicles that aren't armored up. GINGRICH: Look, Don Rumsfeld has had the characteristic for four years of telling the truth to the American people and telling the truth to the men and women he leads in the Defense Department. I think what he said that day he believes. And I think he said it as directly and as candidly as he could. I find it amazing that politicians, including people who have pretty regularly voted against appropriations for defense and people who have pretty regularly voted against doing what we need to strengthen our country, in terms of these kinds of things, decide to jump on Don Rumsfeld for what they think is insensitivity. This is a man who has done everything he could for three and a half years so our young men and women could have the best equipment, despite the Congress, so our young men and women could have the best support, despite some of these people in Congress. And I find it a little ironic that some of the people, who voted no on spending the money, now want to say that it's Donald Rumsfeld who's somehow insensitive. GIBSON: A ringing endorsement of the Secretary of Defense. Former Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Mr. Gingrich, thanks a lot. Appreciate it. GINGRICH: Good to be with you. Content and Programming Copyright 2004 Fox News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2004 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C. 's and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation. | https://www.foxnews.com/story/will-intel-reform-bill-make-us-safer |
Why all the fuss over Franco Mostert? | There are many examples that can be given to demonstrate just how talented a player Franco Mostert is. However, perhaps the clearest indication of all is the fact that in May 2018, just hours after Gloucester had announced the second-row would be joining them in November, Mosterts former club were fighting to retain his talents. We are in dispute, Lions chief executive Rudolf Straeuli told reporters in South Africa. We are contesting it because it is a transgression of World Rugbys player movement regulations. Franco Mostert I cant go into specifics of how we are fighting this but the process is underway. Our lawyers are busy with it. This is a legal dispute. The crux of Lions complaint appeared to boil down to Gloucester announcing the move months before Mostert was due to join. Such a situation, however, is not uncommon in rugby certainly not in Europe and the Premiership side insisted they had done nothing wrong. The reality is weve done the same in terms of signing Franco than we have with every single player and every other club does exactly the same thing. There have been so many precedents set anyway, the clubs chief executive Stephen Vaughan told Gloucestershire Live in June. The furore rumbled on into the autumn and even resulted in Mostert missing South Africas Test with England at Twickenham on November 3. Premiership policy was to not release English-based Boks for the match, such as Sale scrum-half Faf de Klerk. Ambiguity lay with Mostert given that both Gloucester and Lions claimed he was their player. If he is currently a Gloucester player he wont be available for the English Test match and if he is a Lions player he will be, said South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus. In the end, Mostert was left out. Its such a touchy thing at this stage, Erasmus added. By the middle of November the second-row was back playing for South Africa in the autumn Tests, but his club future was still unclear. Lions lobbied to World Rugby to intervene and it was reported the Super Rugby club were holding onto his registration documents. Throughout the saga, Gloucester remained calm about the matter and by December 1 their patience had paid off as Mostert made his debut off the bench against Worcester. It had been a long and at times arduous journey to that point, but without doubt the battle for the 28-year-old had been worth it. We know the Gloucester fans love their physical, hard-working forwards, and Franco is exactly that, said Director of Rugby David Humphreys. When it comes to producing second-rows, there are few countries in the world with a better track record than South Africa. Mostert is the latest in a long line of talented players, however he is different to the likes of Eben Etzebeth. Etzebeth and others rely on their size, but Mostert is not the biggest when it comes to locks as pointed out by Munster coach Johann van Graan this week. Van Graan knows Mostert from his time working with South Africa and as such, he knows how much of a threat he will pose tonight at Kingsholm. The 28-year-old is excellent in the line-out, both at ensuring his own ball is won and stealing others. Indeed, during the 2018 Super Rugby season, he won 87 line-outs 25 more than any other player. However, it is Mosterts work-rate that sets him apart from others. He may not be the biggest but he is a willing carrier and he weighed in with 163 for the Lions last season (the 10th-highest in Super Rugby). Defence, though, is where the second-rows work-ethic really shines through. He is one of the best tacklers in the modern game and he unsurprisingly topped the charts for that in Super Rugby last season. His tally of 234 was also 25 more than the next-best player. The challenge for Mostert now is to replicate that form in Europe and the visit of Munster is the perfect chance to showcase his talent. Nights like tonight are exactly why Gloucester signed him. | https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/why-all-the-fuss-over-franco-mostert-896911.html |
Is a Malahat Emergency Route the Way of the Future? | A number of alternatives to the notorious Malahat have been floated for quite some time and the province is taking a hard look at an emergency route when the Malahat is closed. The provincial government announced its southern Vancouver Island transportation strategy earlier this week and the Ministry of Transportation is going to conduct a feasibility study into costs, risks and environmental concerns associated with building an emergency route when the Malahat is closed. Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Mitzi Dean said the feasibility study is in its infancy. Were just starting that, were engaged with the Capital Regional District and with Indigenous groups and with stakeholders to actually look at having a feasibility study done, said Dean. To have a look at what alternatives might be available, so that weve got a temporary alternative route for when the Malahat is shut down when there is an accident. One of the ideas is to run the emergency route through the Sooke Hills up to Shawnigan Lake and Cowichan Valley Green Party MLA Sonia Furstenau said local residents know the negative consequences that go with not having an alternative to the Malahat. For a lot of people who live in Shawnigan Lake, when that highway gets closed, it creates an enormous problem. The other day there was an accident around Leigh Road and we got caught in a significant detour, said Furstenau. It was the time of day that kids were coming home on the school buses. The realities of the impacts of that for the families and the people that live in Shawnigan and the Cowichan Valley generally can be quite severe. Dean said its important to find a solution to the Malahat because the lengthy closures significantly impact travellers. Hopefully we can come up with some kind of solution so that when the Malahat gets shut down with another bad accident, people arent left in gridlock and stuck there and worried about whether theyre going to be able to pick up their kids at the end of the day, or whether theyve got enough medication and worrying about the medical appointments their missing or the flights theyre missing, said Dean. One idea is to run the emergency route through the Sooke Hills up to Shawnigan Lake, and Furstenau said getting home is hugely concerning when sitting behind an accident on the Malahat. This would not be a route that would be used daily, it would only be in emergencies, only at a time when the highway has a serious closure, said Furstenau. Ideally, the impacts would be minimal but, at the same time, being able to get home is a real concern for people when that highway does have an accident. Some other alternatives to the Malahat include recommissioning the E&N rail line, building a bridge over the Finlayson Arm portion of the Saanich Inlet, or running a ferry between Cowichan Bay and Sidney. | https://www.mycowichanvalleynow.com/41949/is-a-malahat-emergency-route-the-way-of-the-future/ |
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