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Who Helped Patriots Most In 37-31 AFC Championship Win Over Chiefs? | KANSAS CITY, Mo. The New England Patriots finally answered the call when it mattered most, winning on the road in the AFC Championship Game. The Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 38-31 to advance to Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, where theyll take on the Los Angeles Rams. The Patriots were 3-5 away from the friendly confines of Gillette Stadium during the 2018 regular season. Their road woes were really the only question the Patriots had left to answer in the conference title game. Well, they answered them. Heres who helped the Patriots most: PATRIOTS OFFENSIVE LINE The hog mollies will never get the credit or recognition they deserve, but they were fantastic protecting quarterback Tom Brady and opening holes in the run game. The Chiefs pass rush didnt register a sack and had just one QB hit while going against Trent Brown, Joe Thuney, David Andrews, Shaq Mason and Marcus Cannon. The Patriots put up 176 yards on 48 carries. They opened holes for four rushing touchdowns. RB SONY MICHEL The rookie running back topped 100 yards for his second consecutive postseason game. He carried the ball 29 times for 113 yards with two touchdowns. Rex Burkhead had 12 carries for 41 yards with two more touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 26 yards. James White caught four passes for 49 yards. He carried the ball six times for 23 yards. LB KYLE VAN NOY Van Noy wasnt perfect in coverage, letting up three catches on three targets for 40 yards, but he sacked Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes twice. His second sack, which closed out the first half, was of the strip-sack variety, but the Chiefs recovered. DE TREY FLOWERS Flowers sacked Mahomes, as well. He also hit Mahomes on an incomplete pass from Mahomes to wide receiver Chris Conley that was broken up by cornerback Jason McCourty. Defensive tackle Lawrence Guy and defensive end John Simon also split a sack. Thumbnail photo via Mark Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images | https://nesn.com/2019/01/who-helped-patriots-most-in-37-31-afc-championship-win-over-chiefs/ |
Is my teenager at risk for anaemia? | Its the beginning of a new school year and your teen is already exhausted and complaining of frequent headaches. Your first reaction is that it might be the heat and the start of a busy term. Few parents consider the possibility of anaemia, especially when their teen seems healthy. The reality is that teenagers are especially at risk for anaemia, especially menstruating teenage girls. Teenagers experience rapid growth spurts, requiring plenty of nutrients, including iron. Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia. This occurs when the body cant produce enough oxygen-carrying red blood cells because of a lack of haemoglobin. Anaemia should always be taken seriously, but fortunately, with the help of supplements, iron deficiency anaemia can be rectified. According to Dr Sue Hubbard, an award-winning paediatrician, adolescent females are more prone to anaemia than adolescent boys because of the loss of menstrual blood each month. It is also possible for teens to have low iron levels without yet being anaemic. Dr Hubbard says that more frequent blood tests should be done in teenagers from the age of 13 to determine whether they have an adequate level of iron in their blood. Dr Hubbard also states that obese teenagers have a higher occurrence of anaemia than those in a normal weight range, because of a possible lack of certain nutrients. A diet low in nutrients such as folic acid, vitamin B12 and iron may lead to anaemia. There are also other causes of anaemia, such as chronic diseases and hereditary factors. The main symptom of anaemia is often exhaustion because of the lack of oxygen in the blood. If you notice your teenager struggling to get going in the morning, lacking energy during extramural activities and struggling to get a decent night's sleep, it might be worth checking if they have adequate iron in their diet. Other symptoms you should look out for include: Frequent headaches Lack of concentration Forgetfulness Muscle aches Chest pain Weakness Paleness If your teenagers presents with any of these symptoms, a visit to the doctor might be worth it. Your doctor will check haemoglobin through blood tests, and if levels are low, will prescribe a suitable iron supplement, as well as advise on lifestyle changes that may help. Prevent anaemia While anaemia can be successfully treated, it is important to take preventative measures to ensure a healthy, happy teenager. These are some of the lifestyle factors that can help prevent anaemia. 1. Ensure enough iron and vitamin B12 through diet Include iron-rich foods in your teenagers diet. This includes eggs, lean red meat, leafy greens such as spinach, fortified cereals, nuts and legumes. If your teenager follows a vegan or vegetarian diet, monitor their iron intake closely and ensure that they eat plenty of legumes and vegetables that contain iron. You may also need to include a vitamin B12 supplement. 2. Regulate their period If your teenage daughter bleeds heavily during her period, she might be more at risk of developing iron deficiency anaemia. If she complains of heavy periods, it might be a good idea to consult a doctor or gynaecologist to investigate any other underlying causes of heavy periods, such as endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Your doctor might suggest a measure to regulate a heavy flow, such as oral contraceptives. 3. Encourage a balance Teenagers may burn the candle at both ends academic requirements, extramural activities and social life might start taking their toll on your teens health. Ensure they get enough sleep and intervene when you suspect that their schedule is too full. Image credits: iStock | https://www.health24.com/Medical/Anaemia/News/is-my-teenager-at-risk-for-anaemia-20190121-2 |
Did Ariana Grande copy from other songs for her Spotify mega-hit 7 Rings? | NEW YORK - Ariana Grande's new single 7 Rings may have racked up the biggest number of plays on streaming platform Spotify in one day but it has not won a ringing endorsement from some artists. They are accusing her of plagiarism after 7 Rings chalked up 14,966,544 global plays on Spotify after it was rolled out last Friday (Jan 18). That tally easily overtook the previous record of 10,819,009 for All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, that was set on Dec 24. On 7 Rings, which begins with a riff on The Sound Of Music's My Favourite Things, Grande raps about being able to buy Tiffany rings for her friends because she has a lot of money. But rapper Princess Nokia is not impressed, posting that 7 Rings borrows from her song Mine, incorporating a similar beat and even some lyrics. 'Cause that sounds really familiar to me," she wrote. "Ain't that the lil song I made about brown women and their hair?" Another artist, Soulja Boy, has asked Grande for "credit. Period. ", tweeting that 7 Rings sounds like his single Pretty Boy Swag, reported the Vulture entertainment portal. Rapper 2 Chainz also notes that the chorus in 7 Rings echoes that of his song Spend It. | https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/did-ariana-grande-copy-from-other-songs-for-her-spotify-mega-hit-7-rings |
Could Thailand become the next big higher-education powerhouse? | CHINESE students are flocking to universities in Thailand, with the countrys affordable tuition fees and friendly visa rules prompting a significant influx in the last few years. According to Reuters, Thai government data shows their annual enrolment numbers doubling since 2012. Meanwhile, institutions are reportedly scrambling to meet this recent surge in demand as Chinese students look for alternatives to Western schools for their study abroad experience. Speaking to Reuters, Chada Triamvithaya, an academic at King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Ladkrabang who has been researching Chinese migration patterns in Thailand, said universities currently make twice the amount in tuition fees from Chinese students as they do from locals. Not always Private and state universities, including those for Buddhist monks, are tapping into this trend and creating courses aimed at attracting Chinese students, she said, adding that the lure of rising Chinese demand in Thai education has already attracted Chinese investment within the sector. Meanwhile, Beijing Foreign Studies University Assistant Professor Diane Hu said Thai universities are affordable study abroad options for Chinese students when compared to popular destinations such as Australia, US and Britain. Cheaper to study and friendlier than the West. As many as 8,455 Chinese students enrolled in Thai universities in 2017, twice the number in 2012. Interesting story by @panuw https://t.co/rGfIHAZxM0 Matthew Tostevin (@TostevinM) January 17, 2019 For example, an undergraduate business degree costs up to 120,000 baht (US$3,700) a year in Thailand, while tuition fees for a similar course can range from US$8,000 in Singapore to over US$60,000 a year at some US universities. Many of these students come from the largely rural, southern provinces, hoping to escape a highly competitive but poor education system in China and land well-paying jobs in Southeast Asias second-biggest economy, said the report. Hu explained that interest in southern provinces can be attributed to heightened trade ties between the two countries and Belt and Road-driven initiatives, which promotes expanding land and sea links between Asia, Africa and Europe, with billions of dollars pledged for infrastructure development. Thailand has fewer higher ranking universities when compared to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. For example, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) University World University Rankings, the highest-ranking university in Thailand is Mahidol University, which is ranked at number 601800, and tied at 97th in the THE Asia University Rankings 2018. SEE ALSO: Indias aggressive push to regain its glory as the worlds top education hub Meanwhile, Malaysia and Singapore both have institutions in the top 50 of the THE Asia University Rankings 2018. Despite that, students continue to come in droves. It added that part of Thailands largest private university, Dhurakij Pundit University, started with 23 Chinese students in 2010 but now hosts about 3,700. Meanwhile, reports say Chinese investors have injected cash in private universities like Bangkoks Krirk University, with plans to introduce more courses aimed at the Chinese market. This article originally appeared on our sister site Study International. | https://asiancorrespondent.com/2019/01/could-thailand-become-the-next-big-higher-education-powerhouse/ |
Why Is Fortis Buying Back Its Assets Less Than 7 Years After Divesting? | In November 2017, Fortis announced its intention to buy over the assets of RHT Highlights With no operating business, RHT Health Trust is deemed to be a cash trust Fortis appears to be strengthening its balance sheet, say analysts It may attempt to sell part or to find strategic partner, they speculate Last week, the Trustee-Manager of RHT Health Trust, a business trust listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), announced the completion of the process of disposing its entire portfolio of healthcare assets. Fortis Healthcare, a listed company in India and, also the controlling unitholder with a 30 per cent stake will pay 895.55 million Singapore dollars ($660 million) including debt of some 220 million Singapore dollars. RHT Health Trust, which was originally named Religare Health Trust, netted Fortis about 510 million Singapore dollars when it listed in October 2012. It was then the largest IPO of a business trust sponsored by an Indian company in Singapore and the second largest primary listing in Singapore that year. In November 2017, Fortis announced its intention to buy over the assets of RHT. The deal is aimed at consolidating the entire portfolio of RHT Health, comprising two hospitals, 12 clinics and four new clinics into Fortis. These hospitals and clinics operated by RHT Health subsidiaries International Hospital Ltd, Fortis Health Management Ltd, Fortis Hospotel Ltd, Escorts Heart and Super Speciality Hospital Ltd, and Hospitalia Eastern Pvt Ltd will now all come under the Fortis umbrella. All these companies will become Fortis subsidiaries after the acquisition. On Friday, RHT announced that it will distribute 0.752 Singapore dollar per unit to unitholders within 45 calendar days from completion of the disposal in accordance with the requirements of SGX. This was in fulfilment of its commitment to distribute 95 per cent of the net proceeds from the sale to unitholders. It will retain 32 million Singapore dollars as undistributed proceeds to cover on-going expenses of the Trust while it seeks a new business. As a result of the disposal, RHT will ceased to have any operating business and its assets consist wholly or substantially of cash, and hence RHT is now deemed to be a cash trust. If no new business is found for what remains of RHT within 12 months, SGX will require RHT to delist from the Exchange. A maximum 6 month extension to the 12 month period is possible if a definitive agreement for the acquisition of a new business has been signed and provided the acquisition must be completed within the 6 month extension. Back in 2012, then Fortis Healthcare executive chairman, Malvinder Singh was quoted saying, "the increasing demand-supply gap in healthcare delivery requires a significant increase in investment. By pursuing this model, we are focusing on our core strength of delivering superior healthcare services with an emphasis on specialisation and widening the access to quality medical care." It appeared then that Fortis was following an emerging international business strategy of being asset light so that they can access funds to sustain and accelerate business growth. When its intention was announced in November 2017, Fortis said, "the transaction is beneficial and will be value accretive for the company and its shareholders as it would save significant clinical establishment fees that Fortis currently pays." Bhavdeep Singh, CEO of Fortis Healthcare, added, "This restructuring is a significant initiative and will integrate RHT's entire India-based asset portfolio into Fortis, while also improving the overall financial health of the business." Although on the surface, buying back the assets for 900 million Singapore dollars while only gaining 510 million Singapore dollars when listing in 2012 does not make business sense, a quick calculation will reveal that Fortis walked away with a gain of more than 100 million Singapore dollars after counting the dividends it gained as a 30 per cent unitholder of RHT including the final special distribution after disposal. Analysts are speculating that buying back its assets is an effort to strengthen Fortis balance sheet in advance of an attempt to sell part of the company or to find a strategic partner. The company has been known to be talking to private equity funds as well as strategic investors including IHH Healthcare which is controlled by Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad. IHH Healthcare acquired a 31.1 per cent stake in Fortis in November 2018 but has been stopped by the Supreme Court from making an open offer for a further 26 per cent stake. The legal complication arose because of a court battle between brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh - former promoters of Fortis - and Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo. The Japanese company has been trying to stop the sale of Fortis on the grounds that it would hinder its ability to enforce an arbitration award against the brothers, who Daiichi alleges withheld crucial information when they had sold drugmaker Ranbaxy in 2007. The Delhi High Court has restrained Fortis from selling any assets without its permission. | https://www.ndtv.com/business/why-is-fortis-buying-back-its-assets-less-than-7-years-after-divesting-1980683 |
How Many Poops Does it Take to Create a Petty Dictator? | Rate this post Only a third-world backwater communist dictator would have ordered something like this. Kim Jong Un, North Korean dictator, butcher, and murderer of his own brother, has decreed that every able-bodied citizen must turn in 100 kg (220 pounds) of human feces a day to be used for fertilizer, to bolster the agricultural sector. North Korean Poop Mandate Kim announced the poop scoop requirement in his New Years address saying that the agricultural front would be the primary instrument for economic reconstruction, according to an article published on Radio Free Asia (RAF) January 18. Quoting an anonymous source in North Hamgyong province, RFAs Korean Service said, After Kim Jong Uns [speech], the entire population has been mobilized to produce manure as the first major task of the year The authorities in each local region task factories, institutions and citizens groups with assigning production quotas to each individual. They are demanding that each person produce 100kg of human feces per day, or about 3 tons per month, said the source. But how on earth can it be possible for one person to make 3 tons of human feces and deliver it? Well, yeah! While the collection of human feces is a yearly task, high quotas this year are driving many to find interesting ways to collect human feces in the bitter cold, or to find ways to get out of their quota. Some however, are critical of the government, saying the high quotas amount to a shakedown of the people. If you cannot fill the quota, you have to supply 300kg of compost or livestock manure instead, the source added. Most people cant [make or collect] 100kg per day, so they end up giving what they think is sufficient. The quota is therefore meaningless, said the source. [The quotas] are the same in both the cities and the countryside because the quotas are applied to everyone evenly, said the source, adding When the citys clothing and food factories are [operating at full capacity], workers will try all sorts of ways to fill the quota. There are, however, alternative ways for North Korean citizens to buy their way out of the potty pot. Compared with last year, theres a growing number of residents who are choosing to pay cash instead of providing the manure itself, said the source. In addition to paying cash, citizens can buy manure from merchants. The manure merchants are doing really well these days, charging 20 yuan (about $3) per 100kg of human feces or 300kg of compost, the source said. Young women who work in restaurants and beauty parlors usually just pay cash, though, said the source. Another source, also in North Hamgyong province, said, The residents of Chongjin City have been fully mobilized to fulfil this task. Authorities are encouraging people to produce more manure, stressing that it provides a vital boost to the agricultural front, and thereby the socialist movement in general, the source said. People are becoming increasingly dissatisfied though, as authorities are keeping production records for each person and putting pressure on those who havent produced enough [to fill their quota. ], said the source. In winter, there isnt as much manure and compost. Cash payments exceed the value of the manure that actually ends up being delivered, so people are saying the regime is just using the quota as a means to collect more money from the citizens, the source said. More than 80% of all the female workers in Chongjins clothing factory pay cash instead of manure, said the source. People are angry, criticizing the regime for [deliberately setting quotas so high] to force people to pay cash, then claiming its for agricultural production. ~ Grif Please follow and like us: 0 Share this: Gab Twitter Facebook Google Print Tumblr LinkedIn Reddit Pinterest Skype | https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/how-many-poops-does-it-take-to-create-a-petty-dictator |
Does safe found in Pretoria contain Kruger pounds or Gupta millions? | THE mystery safe that was found near the intersection of Madiba Street and Nelson Mandela Drive on Saturday. Pretoria - Speculation surrounds the contents of a mystery safe that was found near the intersection of Madiba Street and Nelson Mandela Drive on Saturday. While nobody could confirm where the safe came from, it was suspected to have been dumped by trolley pushers who were seen hanging around the spot. Councillor Elmarie Linde sparked the debate after posting a picture of the safe on Facebook, saying mystery of a safe found in Nelson Mandela Drive. Wonder what the content is. Within seconds respondents offered to open it, while others recommended that it be taken to a locksmith. Ina Strijdom said it would probably contain Kruger pounds. Others suggested that it could be Gupta millions and that the safe was probably too heavy to carry, hence being left behind. Linde said police were contacted and immediately took the safe to a police station. Pretoria Central police station spokesperson Constable Mandlakayise Zwane confirmed they took the safe. The safe has not yet been opened, so we do not know the contents as yet. - Virgilatte Gwangwa Pretoria News | https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/does-safe-found-in-pretoria-contain-kruger-pounds-or-gupta-millions-18888914 |
Was Mayor Joe Anderson's decision to scrap Liverpool's bus lanes the reason so many are now late? | Get Weekly Politics updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email The decision to scrap the majority of Liverpool's bus lanes caused a stir when it was made by city Mayor Joe Anderson back in 2014. Bus companies slammed the decision at the time, saying the move - that saw the number of lanes reduced from 26 to just four, displayed "complete disregard" for passengers. On January 14, bosses from Arriva and Stagecoach - Merseyside's two main operators - were quizzed alongside Matthew Goggins, head of bus at Merseytravel, by a panel of MPs on how the region's services are run. Arriva and Stagecoach revealed recent performance had declined, with average running times - the time it takes for a bus to get around its route - in Liverpool up "15 to 20%" in the past five years - but both refused to blame it directly on Mayor Anderson's 2014 decision. (Image: ReachPLC) Instead, they put the statistic down to the number of roadworks in the city, also claiming the past year had been the worst in a "long time" in terms of closures and disruption. Bosses of local Stagecoach and Arriva services called for council highways services to be made more accountable when it comes to the numbers of buses leaving on time. The public evidence session by the House of Commons' Transport Committee, which took place on Monday at Mann Island, was led by chair Lilian Greenwood MP. When discussing how buses have fared in Liverpool over the past five years, Ms Greenwood and her fellow elected representatives kept coming back to Mayor Anderson's controversial decision. (Image: Colin Lane) Ms Greenwood, who is MP for Nottingham South, said: "Its not going to be lost on any of us that Liverpool was the place where they removed bus lanes - that attracted a lot of attention. "Priority measures are things that help reduce congestion for buses. I know from my own city that if I'm going to the medical centre from the city centre, I will get on the bus because it's going to fly down the bus lane past the traffic that's stuck." Should they take a different approach?" The diary of a commuter - what it's really like dealing with Northern delays: Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Howard Farrall, regional managing director of Arriva Merseyside, who was sat alongside Rob Jones, Stagecoach Merseyside's regional managing director, responded by saying technology had moved on "so much" that there are now other ways to reduce delays. He added: "There are solutions out there, it's not only about having dedicated bus lanes. "It's a mixture of everything, there's not one thing that fits all. Different solutions for different bus corridors." The meeting heard that certain innovative schemes, such as priority for late-running buses, were currently being looked at. Despite not blaming recent poor punctuality directly on the lack of lanes, Mr Farrall did say: "Just to stand still we are having to put more buses into our cycles, which doesn't do anyone any good. "The bus doesn't have the benefit over the car when travelling down roads. It's on a par. There's nothing there to benefit the bus. There haven't been those measures to restrain the use of cars like in London, to make buses a more attractive choice." Mayor Anderson said in 2017, years after the decision was taken, that with fines handed out for driving in the lanes, it was wrong to use motorists as cash cows, and that the majority of lanes "simply [didn't] work". At the ECHO we are serious about politics Merseyside is a region that is deeply passionate about politics, it always has been and it always will be. At the ECHO we feel the same and we take pride in giving our readers the crucial news, information and analysis of the fast moving world of politics both in our local area and further afield. Now more than ever it is vital that people are fully informed about the decisions being taken that affect their lives and that those in positions of power are held to account. Political Editor Liam Thorp heads up a team including four Local Democracy Reporters who cover every borough across our region - making sure that wherever you are, you are getting the political news that matters to you. The majority of our political stories can be found here. We also produce a weekly newsletter that rounds up the bigger stories of the week alongside some extra gossip and information that you might not have read on the website. To sign up for the Echo Politics Briefing, click here, enter your email address, select politics and update preference. It was found in an independent review that they only offered "marginal benefits" to passengers. The council said on Friday those views remain the same, but also revealed there was work ongoing to "better manage" the roads and ease delays - including the priority for late-running services. A spokesman said: "We recently introduced a permit scheme to enable the authority to better manage activities on the highway which cause disruption. "Anyone wishing to undertake work must have a permit, which is helping us better plan and schedule projects, as well as minimise disruption for all road users. "We have also worked with Merseytravel and the bus operators on a successful trial which uses on-board technology to give buses priority at traffic signals if they are running late, and we are in the process of identifying key routes this could be implemented on. Last week's session was held to ask Liverpool City Region combined authority officials and bus bosses how services are run in the city through its Bus Alliance - a body aimed at improving services in the region. Comment: It's hard to disagree with the MPs Given MPs' questioning during the evidence session, it's clear they can't entirely see past Mayor Anderson's decision in 2014 to scrap the city's bus lanes as being a factor in service times rising quite dramatically. It's hard to disagree with them, although questioning at the meeting as to whether they should ask the Department for Transport to change guidance was at best provocative - at worst patronising. Nonetheless, transport officials in Liverpool, while acknowledging services have indeed slowed down in the past five years or so, seem reluctant to admit the move has had a detrimental effect. That's despite slamming the decision when it was first made AND venting that there's 'nothing to benefit the bus' at last week's session. Add that to the 15-20% increase in running times having started five years ago in 2014 - the year the decision was taken - and the picture begins to become clearer. Perhaps too optimistically, the authorities are looking to alternative, technological measures to fight that decline. Time will tell us whether they can beat it - even as our roads continue to become more and more congested. The gathered MPs also asked the question as to whether a congestion charge could be introduced in Liverpool, like the one that sees drivers in London pay to use roads around parts of the city centre. But Mr Goggins of Merseytravel said the body was "not in that place at the moment". | https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mayor-joe-andersons-decision-scrap-15699959 |
Which Scottish Premiership side has had the best transfer window so far? | ANTHONY HAGGERTY: It is shaping up to be an exciting battle at the top of the Premiership tree but when all is said and done, it will be Celtic who will prevail as Brendan Rodgers men reel off eight in a a row. CRAIG SWAN: Rangers are really serving it up to Celtic this season and it could go to the wire. However, the champions should have enough to get over the line for the eighth sduccessive time. GAVIN BERRY: For the first time in years they will be made to fight for it but Celtic should win an eighth title on the spin. They have a favourable run of fixtures to start the year and can enjoy home advantage in the next Old Firm game and that should be enough to open up a gap. (Image: SNS Group) ANTHONY: This might finally be a season too far for Hamilton Academical but bringing back Tony Andreu could prove to be a masterstroke by Martin Canning. It is perm any one from three between St Mirren, Dundee and Accies although Motherwell could conceivably get dragged into the relegation mire. CRAIG: St Mirren could go. There lingers a feeling that Jim McIntyre might just get a burst out of Dundee at some point. The Dark Blues may still need to negotiate a play-off, mind you. GAVIN: You could almost toss a coin between Dundee and St Mirren but the Buddies, already with that two point advantage, look like they will just have enough to avoid automatic relegation. (Image: SNS Group) ANTHONY: Ill stick by Dundee United as I still believe that in Robbie Neilson the Tangerines have one of the best young managers in the country. However they are going to be made to fight all the way for the flag by an impressive Ross County side who are going great guns under Stuart Kettlewell and Steve Ferguson. CRAIG: Ross County have had a wobble, but they still have enough to see the job through. Dundee United might well join them through the play-offs. It could be sweet revenge for 2016 in that double header over Dundee. GAVIN: Robbie Neilson was a shrewd appointment for Dundee United and the Tangerines will only continue to improve under him. He knows what it takes to get out of that division after his success with Hearts and will do it again on Tayside. (Image: SNS Group) ANTHONY: Tough one but Hibs for me are up there and if they can somehow team up Ryan Gauld with Scott Allan before the summer then that woud be an exciting and dynamic midfield duo at Neil Lennons disposal. Aberdeen have produced two rabbits out of the hat by getting Max Lowe back from Derby and snatching Greg Stewart once again and Motherwells Ross McCormack will come good despite his inauspicious start. CRAIG: Aberdeen. Derek McInnes wanted two key positions filled. A left-back and an attacker. Getting Max Lowe back from Derby and snatching Greg Stewart for a second spell at Pittodrie has been perfect. Celtic and Rangers have done good business done, but theres more to come. At this stage, the Dons boss has ticked all of his boxes. GAVIN: Rangers have improved their squad the most by adding the experience of Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis. When you consider they are replacements for Umar Sadiq and Ovie Ejaria then its a serious upgrade to the squad. Celtic still have time to do something about it but as it stands Gers business has been the best. | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/scottish-premiership-side-best-transfer-13885270 |
What is going on at Chelsea? | Chelsea's Eden Hazard applauds fans after the final whistle during the Premier League match at The Emirates Stadium. Chelsea's Eden Hazard applauds fans after the final whistle during the Premier League match at The Emirates Stadium. MAURIZIO SARRI CAME to the Premier League with a great reputation. Last season, his Napoli side pushed Juventus to the wire in Serie A, coming desperately close to winning the title with a highly attractive, exhilarating style of play. In recent years, Chelsea, even at their best under Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, were criticised for their somewhat pragmatic approach. In appointing Sarri, Roman Abramovich would surely have thought he was selecting the kind of coach who would get Chelsea playing in a manner even neutral fans can appreciate. And to a point, Sarri succeeded with this aim of translating his Napoli template to the unforgiving cut and thrust of English football. Consider an interview he gave to Corriere dello Sport last October recalling his the Londoners enthralling 1-1 draw with Liverpool earlier in the season. There are times when a great show convinces you to put aside any regrets. Even if you suffer a goal in the last minute or the fifth minute of injury time. And that [the game at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool] had been an extraordinary show. Ten minutes before Klopp looks at me and I dont understand. The match is still in progress, I ask him: Why are you smiling?. And he says: Are not you having fun? I in return I say: Very much. And he says: Me too! And hes losing. Then the Sturridge goal comes, but remembering that moment we hugged like two old friends. Here [in English football] its nice for this, Im sure he would have done it even if Liverpool had not equalised. Premier League is the full taste of football, everything is different. In more recent times, however, Sarri has seemingly struggled to retain this positive outlook. I have to say that Im extremely angry because this defeat was down to mentality, Sarri told the press, after this weekends Arsenal defeat. They were far more determined than we were and I cant accept that. It was similar to Spurs I spoke to the players and I thought it was solved. I want to talk about tactics but it would appear this group of players are very difficult to motivate. I think when you see this type of game where one team is more determined then you cant talk about tactics. Their level of determination was much better than ours throughout the game. He continued: I dont think a player at this level can be afraid to face up to their responsibilities. The best thing that can happen is that the players and I speak very openly. I am the person responsible for the players and its important for them to have the right attitude. If they cant achieve that then maybe they shouldnt be playing at this level. Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has been unimpressed with his players' attitude of late. Source: Chris Radburn There were no obvious signs of this disharmony earlier in the season. Chelsea began the campaign promisingly and it was only on 24 November against Spurs when they finally suffered their first Premier League defeat. Now, however, the situation suddenly seems perilous. Sarris comments suggest exasperation with and an inability to relate to the beleaguered players at his disposal. So far, though, their worrying predicament is by no means catastrophic. Chelsea are fourth and the season would surely be considered a relative success should they finish there and secure a coveted Champions League spot. Yet the game with the Gunners was crucial in this regard. A win would have seen them open up a nine-point gap on Unai Emerys side. Instead they are now just three points behind the Londoners and Manchester United. They have also fallen four points behind Spurs, after the latters defeat of Fulham on Sunday. So for Sarri to essentially suggest his players werent up for Saturdays clash with their London rivals indicates there are major problems within the club. Cynics would be forgiven for suspecting this situation represents dj vu. Many of the key players from the Jose Mourinho era remain at the club. In May 2015, under the Portuguese coach, they impressively won the Premier League title with three games to spare. But the following December, after losing nine of their opening 16 matches, the Special One was ruthlessly shown the exit door. A few months later, Antonio Conte was appointed as Mourinhos permanent successor. Despite having a similar group of players to work with in addition to a couple of important new recruits, they looked instantaneously rejuvenated following the Italians arrival. His debut season couldnt have gone much better they equalled Arsenals 2002 record for most consecutive league wins in a single campaign and ultimately claimed the 2016-17 title convincingly. The following season, however, was a different story. After Conte had signed a contract extension in the summer, they badly under-performed, finishing fifth and missing out on a Champions League place, with the former Juventus midfielder losing his job as a result. So two esteemed coaches, Mourinho and Conte, had clearly failed to get the best out of Chelseas perennially unpredictable players at various points. It would be premature to suggest the exact same situation is occurring under Sarri, but the current signs are ominous. One important difference is the style of football. Chelsea have gone from a somewhat defensive counter-attacking team under Mourinho and Conte to one that dominates the ball and attempts to seize the initiative. Even in Saturdays 2-0 defeat to Arsenal, they had 64% possession. In the recent 1-0 League Cup loss to Spurs, they had 58% of the ball. Yet a recurring theme of late is the Londoners lack of cutting edge. They lack a truly top-class out-and-out striker. Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata (who is reportedly close to joining Atletico Madrid) have struggled to convince as the answer to their attacking problems. Eden Hazard has, at times, operated as a false nine, but the results have similarly been mixed. The Belgian international is arguably the best player in the Premier League when in top form, and he was highly complimentary after being asked about Sarri earlier in the season. I like to have the ball. Not in my own half, but in the last 30 metres, he told Chelsea TV . I like this type of game, its completely different from Antonio Conte or [Jose] Mourinho before. Like I say, we have more of the ball so for me its not bad. But after complaining about the tactics from the previous two bosses, the performance at Arsenal on Saturday gave the impression that the Chelsea players have now become fed up with the opposite approach too. The 28-year-old Belgian star clearly has the potential to thrive at the highest level. He was named PFA Players Player of the Year at the end of the 2014-15 season, and was named runner-up for the same prize in both 2013-14 and 2016-17. Hazard looked like a serious candidate for Player of the Season early on in the current campaign as well. In his first 12 games this season in all competitions, he scored 10 goals. Since then, however, in 22 matches, the rumoured Real Madrid target has found the net just four times. The star attackers woes are a significant example of the serious problems at Chelsea currently. He is one of a number of players that Sarri is simply failing to get the best out of, though whether the manager should be held primarily responsible for this issue is debatable. The next couple of days are likely to be key in dictating how the Blues overall season pans out. Two major developments could quell talk of another imminent Mourinho-esque collapse. Beating Tottenham on Thursday and securing a spot in the League Cup final is the kind of big, morale-boosting victory that has the potential to reinvigorate their stuttering campaign. Furthermore, the London club are reportedly close to signing Argentina international Gonzalo Higuain. At 31, the player is perhaps a short-term fix, although it is still less than three years since Juventus paid a club record 90 million for his services. If the out-of-favour star can show anywhere near the level of form he demonstrated to earn that big-money move, then he will certainly make a substantial difference to the embattled Premier League club. For now though, Sarri must wait patiently for Higuains anticipated arrival and hope the disconcerting status quo at the club represents a blip rather than the kind of prolonged decline that has become a recurring feature of recent seasons. Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here: | https://www.the42.ie:443/whats-going-on-at-chelsea-4450425-Jan2019/ |
Should dash cams be compulsory on UK roads? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Dash cams are now commonplace on UK roads. The small video camera attached to a cars dashboard or windscreen records the road ahead and the footage can often be used as evidence following an accident to prove which party was at fault. As well as recording footage and other information like speed and location, drivers who use dash cams can also benefit from car insurance discounts of up to 20 per cent. Now there are calls to make them a legal fixture. New research from GoCompare Car Insurance found that 25 per cent of drivers would like to see dash cams become compulsory in all cars. And nearly a third or 32 per cent of motorists think the cameras should be fitted as standard in every new vehicle. At the same time, almost half of the drivers surveyed would be happy to have a dash cam installed in their own car. But a small minority said they wouldnt have one amid fears they would be watched by insurers and that it would be an invasion of privacy. Other concerns include the potential distraction of a video camera while they are driving and that using a dash cam would be too much hassle. Some worried road users also fear the camera would provide evidence of their bad driving. Matt Oliver, spokesman for GoCompare Car Insurance, said: Dashboard cameras give a drivers eye view of the road ahead. The footage they record can be valuable to insurers, police and the courts as evidence following an accident. In addition to capturing images, many cameras use GPS to record speed and location. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now He added: Insurers are increasingly aware of the benefits of dash cams, with several offering a discount to drivers who use them. Unlike telematics policies, insurers dont use dash cams to monitor overall driving performance. But footage captured, showing how a crash occurred, could be useful evidence following an accident. Clear evidence from a dash cam can benefit both the insurer and the policyholder by helping to speed up claims and deliver a fair outcome. For example, by making it possible to determine the at fault driver in an accident. Camera footage may help to reduce the number of knock-for-knock settlements, whereby each insurer pays its own policyholders regardless of liability, which could help drivers protect their no-claims bonus. At the moment, only a small number of mainstream insurers offer discounts of between 10 and 20 per cent for dash cam users, including Swiftcover, RAC and Axa. But experts believe that as the cameras become more mainstream, then more insurers would offer the savings. Mark Moston, owner of Wheel Wizard Stoke, has welcomed the plans to make dash cams compulsory. The 30-year-old, who lives in Newcastle, said: I would totally agree with making them compulsory. Van drivers in general spend more time on the roads than car drivers do and the amount of stupidity we see on the roads on a daily basis is ridiculous. I pay a higher insurance premium simply because I drive a van. If something so simple as a dash cam could bring my payments down, I would do it in a heart beat. | https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/should-dash-cams-compulsory-uk-2375747 |
Why are all the employees leaving? | In the department I manage, we have recently experienced a sudden increase in turnover. What concerns me is that none of the supervisors knew that their employees were planning to leave. I encourage supervisors to have monthly one-on-one meetings with employees, but this apparently isnt working as well as I had hoped. You seem distressed that your former employees never confessed their desire to depart. However, smart people dont tell management when theyre considering other opportunities. Instead of trying to ferret out secret job-search plans, you should determine what is motivating your employees to look elsewhere. For this purpose, you need some additional tools in your communication toolbox. When people resign in the future, make it a practice to do exit interviews. Continue the supervisory one-on-ones, but add quarterly skip-level meetings in which you chat with each employee individually. Even if people are cautious with their comments, you may spot red flags if you listen carefully. During these conversations, consider asking current staff members why they believe people have been choosing to leave. Employees are usually much more willing to discuss others complaints than to reveal their own. Finally, conduct an annual employee opinion survey using an experienced outside vendor. When people believe responses are confidential, they are much more likely to be open and honest. Then, once you have diagnosed the reasons for this turnover, you can begin to create some realistic retention plans. Our new manager is apparently having an affair with a young woman in our department. The two of them often disappear for hours at a time. This co-worker used to be pleasant and helpful, but lately she has become condescending and distant. Everyone is upset about how our office atmosphere has changed, but no one will speak up. I seem to be the only person willing to address the issue, but I dont know how to do it diplomatically. Manager-employee romances always create problems. Talking directly with the participants is pointless, since people in the throes of lust are seldom rational. And when one of them is your boss, the risk of retribution is high. A better option is to find someone in upper management or human resources who can sit this new manager down for a frank talk about inappropriate workplace relationships. When you meet with that person, be sure to keep the tone calm and businesslike. For example: We are concerned about some recent developments in our group. Theres a rumor that Mark and Beth are having a relationship outside of work. We dont know if thats true, but the two of them are often gone for hours, and Beth seems to have a different attitude. Were afraid to discuss this with Mark, so we hope you can help. Even though your cautious colleagues would prefer to make you the sole spokesperson, they should also attend this meeting. When several people deliver the same message, management is much more likely to pay attention. TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE | https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/01/21/career-13/ |
Was steht im Plan B fr den Brexit? | Grobritanniens Premierministerin will am Montag ihren Plan B fr den Brexit vorlegen. London (dpa) l Vor der Brexit-Erklrung der britischen Premierministerin Theresa May im Parlament am Montag zeichnet sich in London kein Ausweg aus der Krise ab. Mitglieder des Parlaments versuchen, den Austrittsprozess ber Umwege selbst zu steuern. Nach Medienberichten vom Sonntag arbeiten Abgeordnete verschiedener Parteien daran, die Brexit-Entscheidung hinauszuzgern und einen ungeordneten EU-Austritt ihres Landes zu verhindern. Tory-Hardliner warnten die Premierministerin derweil vor Zugestndnissen an EU-Freunde im Parlament. Eine britisch-irische Lsung fr Nordirland hat Berichten zufolge wenig Aussicht auf Erfolg. Das britische Unterhaus hatte am vergangenen Dienstag Mays Brexit-Vereinbarung mit Brssel eine klare Absage erteilt. Einem Misstrauensvotum am Mittwoch hielt die Premierministerin jedoch stand. Heute will May dem Parlament ihren Plan B prsentieren: Laut Times sieht er unter anderem Plne fr einen Vertrag Grobritanniens mit Irland vor, um das Problem einer neuen Grenze zwischen der britischen Provinz Nordirland und der Republik Irland zu vermeiden. Plne, Austrittsentscheid zu verzgern Nach Mays Prsentation will eine parteibergreifende Gruppe unter der Federfhrung der Labour-Abgeordneten Yvette Cooper und des Konservativen Nick Boles allerdings einen nderungsantrag fr weitere Verhandlungen mit der EU einbringen, sollte das Parlament Mays neuen Vorschlag am 29. Januar ablehnen. Damit wollen die Rebellen den Brexit hinauszgern und einen ungeordneten EU-Austritt verhindern. Der Konservative Dominic Grieve will nach Informationen der britischen Times mit einem weiteren Antrag dafr sorgen, dass Artikel 50 des EU-Vertrages zeitweise ausgesetzt wird ebenfalls um Zeit zu gewinnen. Der Artikel regelt den Austritt eines Landes aus der Union. In der Downing Street 10 Mays Amtssitz ist man ber die Plne der Anti-Brexit-Rebellen offensichtlich wenig erfreut. Jeglicher Versuch, der Regierung die Macht zu entziehen, zu diesem historisch bedeutenden Zeitpunkt die rechtlichen Bedingungen fr einen geordneten Austritt (aus der EU) zu erfllen, ist in hchstem Mae Besorgnis erregend, zitierte die BBC. Es bestehe die Gefahr, dass das Parlament einen Brexit stoppen knnte. | https://www.volksstimme.de/deutschland-welt/politik/eu-austritt-was-steht-im-plan-b-fuer-den-brexit/20190121 |
Which NFL Player has the Most Super Bowl Appearances? | Tom Brady will be appearing in his ninth Super Bowl after leading the Patriots to an AFC Championship win over the Chiefs on Sunday. With the win, Brady holds his spot atop the list of NFL players with the most Super Bowl appearances. Brady and pass rusher Charles Haley have both won five Super Bowl ringsthe most of any player in NFL history. Behind Brady, there's nose tackle Mike Lodish, who has played in six Super Bowls during his 11-year career. Wide receiver Don Beebe also appeared in six Super Bowls, winning one with the Packers. He only played in three of the games though. A number of players have appeared in five Super Bowls, including Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, who has won four titles. Quarterback John Elway has also appeared in five Super Bowls, winning twice. Three players have appeared in five Super Bowls but won none: Linebacker Cornelius Bennett, Guard Glenn Parker and quarterback Gale Gilbert who lost five straight Super Bowls. The Patriots will play in their ninth Super Bowl in 18 years when they face the Rams on Feb. 3. | https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/01/20/which-nfl-player-has-most-super-bowl-appearances |
Should Karen Pence Be Teaching At A School With Unfriendly L.G.B.T. Policies? | These seem to be the underlying questions posed by Matthew Haag in the New York Times. Religion is different from a relationship. Religion, pick your brand, is about establishing formulas, rules and systems that when followed, supposedly draw us closer to God and each other. However, this assumes that we are separated from God in the first place and need a bridge to cross the chasm to get "home." Building the bridge is about keeping the rules. Keeping the rules is about getting others to obey them as well. The better we follow the rules, in this case, agreeing to the L.G.B.T.unfriendly imperatives in the schools application by signing the pledge, the closer we get to God. Except we dont. And, we dont because rule-keeping does at least four things: First, it makes us, not Jesus, the focal point. Its about what we do; not what Jesus has done. The result is pseudo-self-righteousness and a whole lot of posing, pretending and hiding because if we are honest, we suck at keeping the rules. To earn the favor of those who determine how good we are at following the rules, we perfect the art of the faade. Rule-keeping performance is about trying to get in blinded by the fact that we are already in. The second problem with legalism is that it makes us neurotic. When we don't match up to the socially-prescribed roles the "system" creates, guilt and shame put a choke-hold on us. These spiritual toxins produce fear and anxiety which cause us to do all kinds of damage to ourselves and others. Is it bringing you closer to God? It isnt. Does it give you more peace and freedom? It doesnt. Legalism has a third kind of devastating effect. It sets up an honor-and-shame-system where holiness is achieved by heroic willpower and getting it right. The more disciplined you are, and the more you get it right, the holier you are. Then again, it is a counterfeit kind of holiness because its all about what you do; not what Jesus has done. It creates a facade, a form of holiness without the substance of it. Individually, rule-keeping sets up scorekeeping. I validate my ability to keep the rules by comparing myself to others. Striving and grinding to get it right usually temps me to become self-righteous and smug because at least I can do it better than somebody else. But the social and ego payoff this produces is temporal at best because it doesn't deliver. Moreover, it creates false self-esteem. All of this runs in diametric opposition to relaxing into the presence of God and surrendering our willfulness. It is counterintuitive to letting go and emptying ourselves so that God can fill us with his strength and wisdom. Holiness in this respect is about communion, not contracts. Its about surrendering our striving and grinding to the love of God, living loved in union with him, and letting his love flow through us, out on to others. The fourth thing rule keeping does is foster debate and divisiveness among schools, churches and institutions that want to legislate Christian morality. Kevin grew up in a staunch Catholic family where he was told that the Catholic church was the one true church. We dont ever remember Jesus saying that. Legalism establishes a competitive landscape where one faction, with its formula for getting back to God, justifies its rightness by showing you why the other factions and formulas are wrong or at least less effective. You end up with those who have the way the truth and the life and those who dontthe haves and have nots. Legalism then has less to do with helping people get free in Christ and more to do with validating a group by getting people to join it and accept the doctrines and principles espoused by it. Never mind that a large portion of the people who walk down the aisle to get saved do so out of guilt because they feel manipulated. Never mind that some segment of the people who sign documents stating they will abide by the schools rules live secret lives in diametric opposition to those rules. Sorry, God isnt that fickle. The scriptures say he is fond of you and for you, period, end of the story, not because you are one way or the other. You cant make God love you any more than he already does. He loves you because of who he is not who you are. That won't change. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. The purpose of the law is to awaken you to your short-comings and to see that in them, God is already there loving you, accepting you, befriending you and healing you. When you recognize your inability to keep the rules, and simultaneously see that Gods grace for you has no constraints, the Kingdom of God has come. If Jesus is anyone to go by, leadership distinguishes between love and approval. He may not approve of our politics or sexual orientation, but his love is inclusive, not alienating, and never failing. He doesnt withhold his love to express disapproval. He doesnt say I will love you if you sign this application and live accordingly. He loves without any strings attached. Go back and read the text. The L.B.G.T. No. Jesus most often got in the faces of the religious perfectioniststhe smug Sadducees and Pharisees who pointed out the flaws in others to build themselves up. They multiplied the rules and in doing so, created their own form of "godliness." Their man-made rules about how to live for God took their eyes off God. As they led others to do the same and then shamed them for not matching up, Jesus became irritated and impatient. What got under Jesus skin were those who robbed the poor in spirit of the Good News because their egos had such an insatiable appetite for order and control. What broke his heart and made him angry was religious rule-keeping that drove people to deeper levels of anxiety and enslaved them. And ultimately, drove them away from God. God created us for joy, to love and enjoy him forever and live exuberantly. He desires our love more than our duty and our hearts more than our behavior. Jesus didnt buy into the system because the system never transformed anyone. He lived a love that was unconditional and all-encompassing. He said everyone is included in his Kingdom. The mass exodus from the church suggests that the world has had it with being badgered about legalistic rule-keeping. People seem bored, sad, hurt, tired and burned out with religion that doesnt work. The same criticism can be levied at our policymakers. In the halls of Congress and the court of public opinion politicians childishly pole vault over mouse turds to gain an edge in vilifying the other side. Meanwhile, as our leaders perfect the art of in-fighting, countries such as China and India are poised to surge ahead of the United States on many fronts. We need to rethink what it means to lead. Karen Pence has the right to teach wherever she wants to teach. We are grateful she is choosing to serve. However, if she or any other public figure wants to reunify our nation and make it great again, we think our leaders should focus on inspiring commitment and inclusion, not legislating compliance and exclusion. For over two millennia this model of leadership has had a transformational effect on our world. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinandjackiefreiberg/2019/01/21/should-karen-pence-be-teaching-at-a-school-with-unfriendly-l-g-b-t-policies/ |
Why do we dunk biscuits into tea? | The act of dunking a biscuit into a cup of hot tea awakens a level of comfort in the biscuit-dunker that is the culinary equivalent of curling up on the sofa with a hot water bottle. Theres an instinctive draw to dunking your biscuit in a hot beverage, and its not hard to believe that humans have been doing so since we had biscuits to dunk and tea to dunk it in. Naval life in the 1500s included an allowance of hard tack, a simple cracker that sailors lived off. They were ideal for long voyages, and its thought that the bakers of the time made these biscuits as hard as possible to make sure they would maintain their crunch after long periods, often years, in the high seas. They were sometimes known as tooth dullers and molar breakers on account of their hardness. To moisten the hard tack sailors would dunk them in brine or coffee to soften up the biscuits. Centuries before hard tack, the Romans were dunking unleavened wafers into wine. Its believed that the word biscuit comes from the Latin bis cotum which means twice baked. Dunking has a place in cultures the world over. In Italy today deliciously crunchy biscotti are served on the side of cappuccinos. In parts of India sweet and salty osmania biscuits are dunked into chai. In the USA chocolate chip cookies are dunked into milk. Irish Times Food&Drink Club Join now To ensure the perfect dunk there are a few important points to consider. After all, it can be seen by some as bad manners to dunk. Beverage Perhaps most important is the relationship between the biscuit and the beverage, and the dunking time. In the late 1990s, Australian scientist and writer Dr Len Fisher conducted an experiment with colleagues in Bristol University physics department to analyse the intricacies of dunking. If recent market research is to be believed, wrote Dr Fisher on FirstScience.com, one biscuit dunk in every five ends in disaster, with the dunker fishing around in the bottom of the cup for the soggy remains. The problem for serious biscuit dunkers is that hot tea or coffee dissolves the sugar, melts the fat and swells and softens the starch grains in the biscuit. The wetted biscuit eventually collapses under its own weight. This painful calamity is a tragedy that many of us have experienced first hand. Dr Fisher recommends something between 3.5 seconds and 5 seconds. When it comes to dunking biscuits into tea, I personally believe that perfection lies in alternating between the highly-absorbent Rich Tea biccie and the ultra-crunchy Ginger Nut. | https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/why-do-we-dunk-biscuits-into-tea-1.3751350?localLinksEnabled=false |
Who is likely to replace long-time ABC radio host Jon Faine? | The Age understands multiple ABC identities are being considered as possible successors, with Trioli one of them. The News Breakfast host filled in for Faine while he was on leave last year and is one of the ABC's most recognisable and respected broadcasters, with more than seven years of full-time radio experience under her belt. The ABC's John Faine has announced he is stepping away from the microphone. Credit:Eddie Jim Trioli said she would seriously consider the mornings hosting role, if it were offered to her. "Jon is a friend of mine and has done an extraordinary job and will be an incredibly hard act to follow," she said. "If it [his role] was offered, I would consider it very, very seriously. "It's one of the great jobs at the ABC, but ... I'm also lucky to be in one of the great jobs at the ABC. I adore News Breakfast and the achievement of creating this show out of nothing in the face of extraordinary scepticism 10 years ago. It's a fantastic achievement for so many of us and something I'm enormously proud of." Loading Another name being thrown around the halls of ABC Radio Melbourne is drive presenter Rafael Epstein. The Walkley Award winner has been in the role since 2012 and last year increased his audience share. There is a view among ABC staff that he would be well-suited to the agenda-setting mornings program. However, shifting Epstein to mornings would leave a gap in the competitive drive slot. ABC management would then be expected to canvass some of the talented women who have filled in for Epstein over the years. (ABC TV's Tamara Oudyn and Nine newsreader Alicia Loxley both received positive feedback during recent on-air stints.) An ABC spokesman didn't rule out the possibility of Melbourne radio listeners having an extended, double-header breakfast program next year, replacing the mornings program entirely. | https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/who-is-likely-to-replace-long-time-abc-radio-host-jon-faine-20190121-p50sp3.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed |
Is Abhishek Bachchan playing villain in Kamal Haasan-starrer Indian 2? | regional-cinema Junior B has been offered a powerful negative role in the Kamal Haasan and Kajal Aggarwal-starrer, which rolled last week Abhishek Bachchan Abhishek Bachchan is said to be in talks with S Shankar for Indian 2. Junior B has been offered a powerful negative role in the Kamal Haasan and Kajal Aggarwal-starrer, which rolled last week. Rumour has it that Boman Irani, John Abraham and Akshay Kumar were also approached. We will have to wait for the announcement. The film is a sequel to the 1996 Tamil blockbuster. Recently, on the occasion of Pongal, filmmaker S. Shankar unveiled the first look poster of his next movie, Indian 2 featuring Haasan. Shankar shared the poster via a tweet and extended Pongal wishes to everyone. Via the poster, it was revealed that the project will go on the floors from Friday (January 18). As this is the actor's last film before he turns to politics, fans could not keep calm after seeing him as a vigilante again. Shankar added that he was thrilled to see Haasan sporting the look of the popular octogenarian character Senapathy, a freedom fighter-turned-vigilante bent on rooting out corruption. Indian 2 will have music by Anirudh Ravichander. The rest of the cast and crew are yet to be revealed. Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates | https://www.mid-day.com/articles/is-abhishek-bachchan-playing-villain-in-kamal-haasan-starrer-indian-2/20280185 |
What Role For A Government Spokesperson? | 26 SHARES Share Tweet Government according to section 230 of the Constitution means the Executive Government of The Gambia. Hence the spokesperson of the Government is the one who speaks on behalf of Executive, meaning the President and his or her Cabinet. In short, section 76 of the Constitution states that the Executive power of the Gambia is vested in the President shall be exercised by him or her through the Vice President, Ministers or officers responsible to him or her. Hence a Spokesperson of the Government must be a Vice President, Minister or officer directly responsible to the President. It goes without saying that the President has power under section 80 of the Constitution to constitute any public office for the Gambia and make appointments for such office and terminate such appointments. This however cannot be done without regard to the payment of the salaries and other emoluments of such appointees. Hence appropriation must be done from the Consolidated Fund for the payment of the salaries of such appointees which would have to be approved through an Appropriation Act or Supplementary Appropriation Act before the payment of the appointees could be effected under the law. It is therefore important for appointees of the President not to be put in a state of limbo for lack of proper preparation in creating an office. It is important for the President to make a clear demarcation between the office of Minister and that of other officers appointed by him to answer directly to him or her. A Minister is a member of the Cabinet. Officers could only be observers or technocrats in the Cabinet. Section 73 of the Constitution states that there be a Cabinet which shall consist of the President, the Vice-President and the Ministers. Hence if a Spokesperson of the Government is to be a member of Cabinet instead of a mere technocrat or observer such a person must be a Minister and a ministry created in that regard. | https://foroyaa.gm/what-role-for-a-government-spokesperson/ |
Is The Barrow Youth Movement Active During The Tour Of The President? | 118 SHARES Share Tweet QUESTION OF THE DAY The reports reaching Foroyaa does indicate that the President does give recognition to the presence of a group he refers to as the Barrow Youth Movement. The President appears to be paddling his own canoe as he continues with his tour rather than show affiliation to any political party. His T-Shirts are being distributed and the focus of the reception is on him. Foroyaa will assess the weight of this movement and its political direction. At the moment a five year mandate for the President is featuring in the tour. The future will tell what the Presidents final decision will be. May be the Director of Press and Public Relation or his Spokesperson will clear the air on the three or five year term rather than leaving the matter to speculation. | https://foroyaa.gm/is-the-barrow-youth-movement-active-during-the-tour-of-the-president/ |
How Should The Visit Of Former Members And Officials Of The APRC Be Seen? | 52 SHARES Share Tweet QUESTION OF THE DAY The broadcast of President Barrow addressing former MPs during the Jammeh era and other officials is instructive. This should teach every Gambian that power is transient. Hence loyalty should be to the Gambian people and nation and not to an individual. No power is permanent. Hence Gambians should begin to value their own sovereignty and seek not to win the favour of those who rule by singing praise to them but oblige them to govern on the basis of law and justice without fear or favour, affection or ill will. When that happens there will always be security of tenure and no one will be displaced, one will forever have a sense of belonging to the nation and no one will be an outsider. Foroyaa will follow developments after their visit. Will they join the President on his tour and sing praise to him. The future will tell. | https://foroyaa.gm/how-should-the-visit-of-former-members-and-officials-of-the-aprc-be-seen/ |
How To Cover Up A Tattoo With Make-up? | Tattoos are cool. They look nice and trendy and most people love having tattoos. Well, you can always cover them up with make-up. But there's a catch! You have to do it perfectly. Applying makeup to conceal the tattoo is probably the easiest way to hide the inked designs in your body! The tattoo gets hidden and makes the skin look clean. This is when make-up comes to the rescue. Materials Required Moisturizer Primer Color corrector Concealer Foundation Setting powder Makeup brushes How to do Start off by cleansing your skin with a gentle soap or a body wash, This helps to remove excess oil and dirt from your skin and make it softer and smoother. Once done, wipe it dry with a tissue or a soft towel. Next, move on to moisturising your skin. Apply a gentle and hydrating moisturiser on the area where you have the tattoo and massage it gently for about a minute. Massage in circular motion. Once you notice that you moisturiser has absorbed into the skin, move on to using a primer. For this, you can use a pore-minimising primer. Pat it gently on the selected area and rub it for a few seconds. Next, use a colour corrector to get rid of discolouration and pigmentation on your skin. Some people might not know this fact that colour correctors are very efficient in hiding ink on the skin. You can take little amount of colour corrector and dab it on the selected area using a small concealer brush and gently blend the edges to hide it perfectly. Now that you have already started off the process of hiding the tattoo, finish it off by concealing it properly and completely. For that, use a full-coverage concealer and apply it on the tattoo. Ensure that you blend the edges with a fluffy brush to make it look smooth and polished. Next, move on to applying the foundation. Use a kabuki brush for that. Since you want to hide the tattoo away, you can use a full-coverage matte finish foundation. Blend it perfectly into your skin. The trick here is that one should know which foundation to pick up, especially the one that matches their skin tone. This will ensure that your foundation blends in seamlessly with your skin tone and does not look patchy. You can also use a make-up sponge to get rid of any harsh lines appearing while applying make-up. Once you have successfully applied concealer and foundation and blended it perfectly, it is time to seal it with a loose setting powder and finish off the task. For that, use a translucent loose setting powder and blend it into the make-up to keep it in place. Do use these tips and tricks and make sure that you hide your tattoo perfectly without people noticing it! | https://www.boldsky.com/beauty/make-up-tips/2011/how-to-cover-tattoo-with-makeup-230911.html |
Which Zodiac Signs Are The Most Unreliable? | We often come across some people whom we approach for some help, but all we get is apologies from them for not being able to help on time. They claim of being too busy and unable to maintain long-term contacts. Or sometimes, they just do not get done the work assigned to them, and ultimately prove to be unreliable. Yes, of course, it cannot be predicted just by looking at their faces, whether they will accomplish a given task or provide the required help on time or not. However, astrologers claim that it can be known by finding out the zodiac sign of the person. Yes, it is believed that people of some zodiac sign are the most unreliable. Read more. 2019 Yearly Horoscope | https://www.boldsky.com/astrology/zodiac-signs/which-zodiac-signs-are-the-most-unreliable-127233.html |
What Type Of Tour For The President? | 3 SHARES Share Tweet QUESTION OF THE DAY The purpose of the tour is for the President to familiarise himself with the problems of the people and the impact of government policies so far and their living standards. The tour would serve its purpose if it is not transformed into general mobilization to promote political interest. The citizenry should be encouraged to come out and discuss their concerns irrespective of their affiliation to any political party. The president should not be seen as the president of any political grouping but the executive of a nation. Foroyaa will closely monitor the programme during the tour and make an assessment at the end to inform the public of the essence of the tour. | https://foroyaa.gm/what-type-of-tour-for-the-president/ |
How to Tackle Unhealthy Eating at Super Bowl Parties? | Font : A- A+ If you're into the habit of healthy eating to manage your diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol, hosting a Super Bowl party could be quite challenging. Hence, its integral to have a game plan before tackling the Super Bowl spread says dietitians at UT Southwestern Medical Center. "Remember that healthy-food choices and controlling portions are key to good health," says Dr. Jo Ann Carson, a registered dietitian nutritionist at UT Southwestern. An average American consumes about 2400 calories during the four to five hours football viewing extravaganza. If you're hosting a party, include healthy options such as salad, fruits, and vegetables. Low-calorie and sugar-free selections can help diabetic friends and family control calories and carbohydrates and make sound choices without much fuss. "For people with diabetes the goal is to keep the carbohydrates down - and encourage more of the protein-rich foods - to enhance satiety," Dr. Carson advises. She also coaches her patients to eat slowly, so that they consume a limited amount per quarter, and to get up and walk around during each commercial break to encourage activity as well as better eating habits. If you're a party guest trying to keep control of your diabetes, find out what's on tap for the Super Bowl party you're attending. If it's shaping up to be a high-carb feast, bring some of your own favorite dishes, or coordinate with others with diabetes to ensure the table includes healthier options. It is also important to monitor blood sugar on a regular basis. If blood pressure is more of a concern for you, load up on fruits and veggies that provide potassium and limit your sodium by avoiding salty snacks, dips, and sauces. Dr. Carson offers these hosting guidelines: Zero penalties for eating these foods: Broad array of salad options including salad greens, sprouts, mushrooms, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes and sugar-free and low-calorie dressings Crunchy low-calorie vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, jicama, asparagus, and cucumbers Varied beverage options such as water, unsweetened tea, coffee, and calorie-free diet sodas Grilled fish, skinless chicken or turkey, and/or soy-based "veggie" burgers Low/Nonfat dairy options including nonfat cheeses, yogurts, and skim milk 5-yard penalties (meaning go sparingly and watch portion sizes): Fruits and vegetables, especially those with edible skin (apples, corn, and beans) and those with edible seeds (berries) Whole grain options for rice, pasta, breads, and crackers in small portions Beans/legumes such as kidney, pinto or black beans, chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), and lentils Unsalted nuts (1 ounce or about 20 nuts is a serving) 15-yard penalty for consumption of these items: Cookies, pies, candies, desserts Potato chips, high-fat dips, and high-fat crackers Regular sodas, alcohol, and sweetened beverages Source: Newswise "Remember that healthy-food choices and controlling portions are key to good health," says Dr. Jo Ann Carson, a registered dietitian nutritionist at UT Southwestern.If you're hosting a party, include healthy options such as salad, fruits, and vegetables. Low-calorie and sugar-free selections can help diabetic friends and family control calories and carbohydrates and make sound choices without much fuss. "For people with diabetes the goal is to keep the carbohydrates down - and encourage more of the protein-rich foods - to enhance satiety," Dr. Carson advises. She also coaches her patients to eat slowly, so that they consume a limited amount per quarter, and to get up and walk around during each commercial break to encourage activity as well as better eating habits.If you're a party guest trying to keep control of your diabetes, find out what's on tap for the Super Bowl party you're attending. If it's shaping up to be a high-carb feast, bring some of your own favorite dishes, or coordinate with others with diabetes to ensure the table includes healthier options. It is also important to monitor blood sugar on a regular basis.If blood pressure is more of a concern for you, load up on fruits and veggies that provide potassium and limit your sodium by avoiding salty snacks, dips, and sauces. Broad array of salad options including salad greens, sprouts, mushrooms, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes and sugar-free and low-calorie dressings Crunchy low-calorie vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, jicama, asparagus, and cucumbers Varied beverage options such as water, unsweetened tea, coffee, and calorie-free diet sodas Grilled fish, skinless chicken or turkey, and/or soy-based "veggie" burgers Low/Nonfat dairy options including nonfat cheeses, yogurts, and skim milk Fruits and vegetables, especially those with edible skin (apples, corn, and beans) and those with edible seeds (berries) Whole grain options for rice, pasta, breads, and crackers in small portions Beans/legumes such as kidney, pinto or black beans, chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), and lentils Unsalted nuts (1 ounce or about 20 nuts is a serving) Cookies, pies, candies, desserts Potato chips, high-fat dips, and high-fat crackers Regular sodas, alcohol, and sweetened beveragesSource: Newswise Post a Comment Comments should be on the topic and should not be abusive. The editorial team reserves the right to review and moderate the comments posted on the site. Notify me when reply is posted I agree to the I agree to the terms and conditions Post Comment Please keep your comments brief and relevant.This section may also have questions seeking help. If you have the information you are welcome to respond, but please ensure that the information so provided is genuine and not misleading. Your comments are automatically posted once they are submitted. All comments are however constantly reviewed for spam and irrelevant material (such as product or personal advertisements, email addresses, telephone numbers and website address). Such insertions do not conform to our policy and 'Terms of Use' and are either deleted or edited and republished.Please keep your comments brief and relevant.This section may also have questions seeking help. If you have the information you are welcome to respond, but please ensure that the information so provided is genuine and not misleading. Advertisement More News on: by Mohamed Fathima S on January 21, 2019 at 12:33 PM Diet & Nutrition News | https://www.medindia.net/news/how-to-tackle-unhealthy-eating-at-super-bowl-parties-185272-1.htm |
Should I stop pension contributions to get a bigger mortgage? | Q I have a question based on the article you wrote in 2015. I am a deputy head teacher. My partner and I are having strong arguments over me stopping my pension, which I want to do so that I can get the best possible mortgage by providing three payslips clear of pension contributions. We are looking to increase the size of our house in north London as we have a young family. My partner doesnt have a pension as she thinks they are the devil. She is freelance and so her payslips wont be contributing to the mortgage process. It appears most mortgage firms do not overlook your pension payments. MW A To repeat what I said in May 2015, I most certainly wouldnt advise anyone to cancel their pension contributions for a few months to boost their chances of getting a mortgage. Besides, there may be no point as a significant number of lenders dont ask about pension contributions. In addition, lenders ignore pension contributions deducted from salary as I assume yours are because they are already taken into account in the net pay figure on payslips, which areused to assess affordability. In addition, stopping contributions wont bump up the net pay figure by as much as you think because your tax bill goes up. Rather than stopping pension contributions, you should concentrate on reducing what you owe on other loans, including credit card debts. Also, if your partner fills in a tax return every year which she should if she doesnt pay tax through the PAYE (pay as you earn) system she can provide evidence of income to a prospective mortgage lender in the form of HM Revenue and Customs tax-assessment forms. So it doesnt make sense to exclude her from the mortgage process as her income could increase the amount you can borrow. Finally, Ill repeat what I said about using a mortgage adviser if you think your pension contributions are going to be a deal-breaker since an adviser can point you in the direction of a lender that will not take them into account. | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/21/should-i-stop-pension-contributions-to-get-a-bigger-mortgage |
Who is Shivakumara Swami? | Shivakumara Swami of Siddhaganga Mutt in Tumakuru is a revered seer of the Lingayat-Veerashaiva faith. The 111-year-old pontiff of the mutt is currently undergoing treatment for a lung infection in Karnataka and is on ventilator support. Advertising Born on April on April 1, 1907, in Veerapura village of Ramanagara, the Lingayat religious head is well known for his philanthropic activities. In recognition of his social work, he was conferred with the third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan, in 2015 and the Karnataka Ratna in 2007. He was also conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by Karnataka University in the year 1965. The pontiff also heads the Sree Siddaganga Education Society which runs close to 125 educational institutions in Karnataka. The society runs several institutions offering a variety of courses, including engineering. Swami, who is revered in the Lingayat community, counts several politicians in Karnataka among his followers. His sway in the Lingayat community is such that national leaders such as BJP president Amit Shah and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had in the past visited him to seek his blessings. Last week, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy recommended the seer for the Bharat Ratna. BS Yeddyurappa, the BJPs state president also said that their party would request the Prime Minister to confer the award on the seer. Advertising On January 17, PM Modi tweeted, His Holiness Dr Sree Sivakumara Swamigalu is a remarkable personality and has positively impacted crores of lives through his outstanding service. The entire nation is praying for his speedy recovery and good health. | https://indianexpress.com/article/who-is/shivakumara-swami-lingayat-siddhaganga-mutt-tumakuru-5548096/ |
What is Predictive Maintenance Based on Condition? | Condition-based Predictive Maintenance (CBM) is a type of management that proposes repair or replacement solutions on the current or future condition of the machinery. Thanks to this type of maintenance we can have the most objective data about the machinery, being able to identify possible errors or possible machine failures before they happen and allowing us to anticipate them. This is possible thanks to a continuous analysis and prolonged in time, which allows us to see the variations or drastic changes in the operation of the machine and that can mean a future error, or a turning point in the operation of the system. One of the keys to perform a correct Predictive Maintenance based on the condition, is to maintain a permanent monitoring that provides us with accurate and constant information that we use as a source to detect potential abnormalities and thus be able to conduct a study on when it is possible that the machinery can lower performance, and even detect when it will fail. All the information that we receive constantly provides us with an improved planning that allows us to optimize the processes, increasing energy efficiency and minimizing downtime, in a way that, otherwise, would have entailed work and additional costs. We can use enterprise asset management as our improved planning. The fact of anticipating any change that the equipment may suffer makes the planning of maintenance work much shorter and more precise, reducing spare parts costs, downtime and also costs related to the time needed by technicians to repair the machine. Advantages of Predictive Maintenance based on the Condition Creating a maintenance philosophy based on Condition-based Predictive Maintenance allows us to achieve greater savings compared to traditional preventive maintenance techniques, since it allows us to optimize times and calculate when it is really necessary to stop the machines. The main advantages that this type of maintenance provides us with are: Greater job security in the center / warehouse / plant. Longer equipment life. Reduction of the number of accidents. Reduction of repair time. Lower environmental impact It allows us to better optimize the resources we have available. Through the condition based maintenance we can establish a defined control over the established parameters that we wish to obtain from any of the equipment from which we want to extract information. In order to obtain all this information flow continuously, the correct sensor installation is needed, establishing the key points where they will be located and defining which parameters to analyze. Through continuous monitoring we can obtain a series of trends and performances through which we can see when the performance of the equipment can be reduced, and even at the moment in which they will fail. Some of the functions that will allow us to integrate a Predictive Maintenance system based on the Condition are: Detection of possible gaps, ruptures or wear of the pieces. Identify the moment in which there will be a functional failure in the equipment, allowing us to anticipate it. Reduction of maintenance costs, both at the level of human and mechanical resources. Study the trends of machine performance peaks to produce accurate reports. When carrying out this monitoring it is very important to define which parameters are the ones we want to study, and through which we will obtain the results to be analyzed. Although there are types of discontinuous monitoring (thermograph), the ideal is to perform a continuous monitoring. Some of the parameters to analyze within this continuous monitoring would be: Analysis of temperatures. Pressure analysis Vibration analysis. Fault analysis. Analysis of operational dynamics. In short, it is a type of maintenance that is an investment that in the medium / long term can be very profitable and will also affect from the first moment to avoid possible problems of equipment productivity, avoid and anticipate failures critical, and have a full knowledge of what is happening throughout the process to have everything under control. The fact of being able to carry out trends and analysis according to the results is a determining factor that can provide us with infinite advantages. | https://news.worldsnap.com/india/what-is-predictive-maintenance-based-on-condition-210965.html |
What Will the IDF Look Like Under Newest and Highest Ranking Leader? | I charge you: Be strong and resolute; do not be terrified or dismayed, for Hashem your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 (The Israel Bible) On January 14, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kohavi assumed the IDFs highest position as Chief of the General Staff. He succeeds outgoing IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Eisenkot, who served for four years as Chief of the General Staff and 40 years of service in the IDF. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman selected Kohavi in October and is considered one of the most brilliant in the military according to Israel National News. Kohavi, 64, is highly educated, holding a BA in philosophy from Hebrew University, an MA in public administration from Harvard and an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins. Kohavi drafted into the IDF in 1982 and has served in the First and Second Lebanon War, the South Lebanon conflict, First and Second Intifada, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense and Operation Protective Edge. In the past two years, Kohavi served as deputy chief of staff, commander of the Gaza Division, head of the operations division in the General Staff, head of Military Intelligence and head of the Northern Command. Among his many achievements, Kohavi developed the use of a 5 kg hammer during the Second Intifada in 2002 to break down walls and cross through homes in the terror-infested refugee camps. This tactic, used to prevent his soldiers from being shot by snipers, has been replicated by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Setting the tone for the future of the IDF, Kohavi announced at his inauguration ceremony his goals and the values that will be prioritized under his leadership: The incoming Chief of the General Staff, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, after receiving the rank of Lieutenant General in a ceremony today: pic.twitter.com/JJsFYhsvGT Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 15, 2019 Clear Vision, Judgment and Determination, Ability and Willingness to use Force During the inauguration ceremony, Kohavi declared, The national home that was founded here is an unmatched marvel in the history of the nations. [] In order to protect this home, a clear vision is needed, an able military force, the willingness to use it, judgment and determination; in this spirit, we shall act. Morality He maintained, I shoulder the responsibilities with awe, and see my role as a privilege granted to me with the help of many that are deserving of thanks. Among those thanked were Kohavis parents who gave him a moral compass. Commitment to Fallen, Wounded and Missing Soldiers Kohavi continued, Each and every soldier is a precious asset that we have received to safeguard, and the care for those who serve is a decree. So too is the memory of our fallen, the strengthening of the bereaved families and the wounded, and our commitment to bringing home the missing. Behind every great man The New IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, with his wife Yael. pic.twitter.com/K6PacG8YC3 Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 15, 2019 Strengthening Defensive Shield Announced Kohavi, Now, in my turn, since I have accepted the responsibility to lead the military, I vow to devote all my efforts, in a critical and demanding way, to strengthen our defensive shield, and to suit it to the challenges of the present and the future. Enhanced Offensive Abilities He posed, We must focus on enhancing our ability to strike the enemy, and positioning a powerful, efficient and innovative military which preserves its purpose and uniqueness. Meet our new Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi! pic.twitter.com/HU21RF1snj Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 15, 2019 Embodying the Best of Israel The IDF is the military of the people, for the protection of the people, which respects its soldiers from all [its nations] people, draws its strength from the people, and embodies the best of the people, Kohavi maintained. Driven by Rule of Law and Jewish Values Added Kohavi, The IDF is a professional fighting force, led by its commanders, ready for every mission, which operates according to the law, the decisions of the Israeli Government and in the spirit of the values of the Jewish people. Proactive and Victorious According to Kohavi, the IDFs essence is defensive in its purpose but offensive and proactive in character, with victory its only essence. The new IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Kohavi Holds a BA in Philosophy from @HebrewU, an MA in Public Administration from @Harvard and an MA in international relations from @JohnsHopkins. pic.twitter.com/DY72ZS6qOM Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 15, 2019 Dr. John A.I Grossman, Chairman of LIBI USA, thanked Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot for his many decades of leadership in defending the State of Israel. He told Breaking Israel News, Outgoing IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen Eisenkot commanded the IDF with sharp strategy and profound leadership. He fought Iranian entrenchment in Syria, assisted in the international coalition against ISIS and was a strong advocate of the IDFs diversity. Continued Grossman, Eisenkots legacy will be a hard act to follow, and we are confident that Maj. Gen. Aviv Kohavi will do just that. His vision for the IDF will surely continue the legacy of the State of Israel as one of the most prepared, effective, capable, innovative and ethical armies. Written in coordination with LIBI USA. | https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/120594/what-will-the-idf-look-like-under-newest-and-highest-ranking-leader/ |
Is the Barclays share price a buy? | But just three weeks into 2019, were already seeing some indications that it might turn out to be a pretty good year. So far, the Barclays share price A dividend yield of an expected 4.2% provides a bit of a consolation, but the share price drop is still a very disappointing result and takes the firm far below the FTSE 100s 12-month fall of 12%. Barclays (LSE: BARC) shareholders have suffered a dreadful 12 months, seeing the value of their shares fall by 23% in 2018 alongside similar falls for Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group. I would like to receive emails from you about product information and offers from The Fool and its business partners. Each of these emails will provide a link to unsubscribe from future emails. More information about how The Fool collects, stores, and handles personal data is available in its Privacy Statement. Register by giving us your email below to continue reading all of the content on the site. Soon you will also begin to receive our FREE email newsletter, The Motley Fool Collective. It features straightforward advice on whats really happening with the stock market, direct to your inbox. Its designed to help you protect and grow your portfolio. (You may unsubscribe any time.) Barclays (LSE: BARC) shareholders have suffered a dreadful 12 months, seeing the value of their shares fall by 23% in 2018 alongside similar falls for Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group. A dividend yield of an expected 4.2% provides a bit of a consolation, but the share price drop is still a very disappointing result and takes the firm far below the FTSE 100s 12-month fall of 12%. But just three weeks into 2019, were already seeing some indications that it might turn out to be a pretty good year. So far, the Barclays share price has regained 7.7%, ahead of the Footsies 4.7%. Not safe yet Before we get too enthusiastic, I do think the 2019 uptick in optimism could still turn dramatically gloomy again depending what happens next in the long-running sitcom that Brexit is becoming. The Prime Ministers overwhelming defeat in the vote on her proposed Brexit deal will have raised hopes for two things. One is the possibility that we might not leave the EU on 29 March after all, and the other is the apparently diminishing possibility of a potentially disastrous no-deal Brexit. A no-deal scenario, if it comes about, is widely expected to hit the banks hard. But I dont have the same pessimism as many in the markets, and the horrible Barclays share price performance in 2018 doesnt appear to be related to the actual performance of the bank at all. In fact, Barclays Q3 figures showed a 23% rise in pre-tax profit once litigation and conduct costs were stripped out, suggesting its underlying business has been doing rather well. Novembers Bank of England stress test turned out nicely too, with the bank telling us that its minimum stressed transitional CET1 ratio, at 8.9%, comfortably exceeded the stress test hurdle rate of 7.9%. Barclays also confirmed its intention to pay a 2018 dividend of 6.5p per share, subject to regulatory approval. While the specifics of the percentages might not mean a lot to most investors, the bottom line from this, plus the rest of the recent years stress tests, is that Barclays and our other high-street banks are in enormously better financial shape than they were before the financial crisis. Mismatch The combination of a plummeting share price and an improvement in fundamental performance is leading to the former, in my opinion, getting further and further dissociated from the latter. What that means is Barclays shares have been pushed down as far as P/E multiples of around seven. Thats only half the long-term valuation of the FTSE 100 average, and I just cant see how that can be anything but crazily cheap. Big dividends Add to that the expected dividend yields, tipped to come out at 4.2% for the year just ended and to rise to 5.1% in 2019 and 5.7% in 2020, and I just cant see Barclays shares as anything but a buy. Full-year results for 2018 arent due until 21 February, and by then well hopefully have seen some progress on the Brexit front. Any positive political developments, on top of results, if theyre as good as expected, could lead to the Barclays share price recovery (which might have finally started) gathering more strength. | https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2019/01/21/is-the-barclays-share-price-a-buy/ |
Will a composition scheme under GST help the real estate sector? | A ministerial panel headed by Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel will look into the possibility of rationalisation of GST rate for the real sector besides formulating a composition scheme a preferential scheme under GST extended to consumer centric sectors or industries. The move follows the GST Council meeting on January 10 that referred matters pertaining to the sector to the Group of Ministers due to lack of consensus. The GoM will now decide on the issue of reducing the current GST levied on real estate which is 12 percent to five percent. Tax experts say that while composition schemes may look attractive, one needs to do a thorough analysis to weigh whether a reduced GST rate of 5 percent without input tax benefit is better than a standard rate of 12 percent with full input tax credit. At present, GST is levied at an effective rate of 12 percent (standard rate of 18 percent less a deduction of six percent as land value) on premium housing and effective rate of eight percent (concessional rate of 12 percent less a deduction of four percent as land value) on affordable housing on payments made for under-construction property or ready-to-move-in flats where completion certificate has not been issued at the time of sale. However, GST is not levied on buyers of real estate properties for which completion certificate has been issued at the time of sale. If the government reduces the eight percent GST rate on affordable housing to five percent without extending the benefit of input tax credit, sale prices may increase and real estate developers may pass on the burden/increase in price of apartments for most low and middle income projects. This may impact the governments affordable housing scheme, says Harpreet Singh, Partner, KPMG. Builders are hoping that the government will allow input tax credit on under-construction residential properties even after reducing the GST rate to five percent. The concept of composition scheme is not new under GST regime. Such a scheme existed under VAT laws, service tax laws and other indirect tax laws. Composition scheme refers to a scheme under which small taxpayers can discharge a composite tax liability at certain fixed percentage of their turnover/ sales. Such a scheme is generally effectuated with the objective of putting lower tax burden and lesser compliance on small vendors. One view is that if the composition scheme is introduced in the real estate sector, it may result in reduction of prices of properties owing to lower rate of tax and bring higher degree of certainty regarding compliance under GST law. Also, under the composition scheme, the taxpayer is not allowed to collect tax from customers for inputs used. Thus, if the proposal for composition scheme for reality sector receives consent, buyers cannot be charged extra on account of GST paid for the raw material (inputs) used by the builder. But it may have the same detrimental effect that the composition scheme has had on non air-conditioned restaurants, say experts. The other view is that if GST rate on under construction properties is reduced and input tax credit to developers is denied, the overall burden on home buyers may actually increase if the benefit on taxes paid for raw material (input tax credit) used has been done away with. If input tax becomes a cost to the developer, he may pass it on to the buyer, says Singh. The scheme might have detrimental effect due to the blockage of input tax credit. Construction material, input services and capital goods attract GST at the rate of 18 percent. Thus if the credit chain is blocked, then GST paid on inward supplies shall form part of the cost which will result in increase in the cost of construction, says Kapil Sharma, Partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan. Further, the builder might incorporate the GST portion in the price of property as a dealer under composition scheme is not allowed to recover tax amount from customer, he says, adding due to these reasons, the scheme may have a similar detrimental effect as in case of (non-airconditioned) restaurants where consumers are charged GST at the rate of 5 percent. An ideal composition scheme would be the one where the rate of tax is fixed taking into consideration the increase in cost on account of blocked input tax credit and tax component on sale of property that builders may try and recover from the buyers by including it as part of the total price. The scheme should be such that it results in reduction of tax burden (from the present 8 percent to 12 percent to 6 percent for instance). Also, the builder should have an option to pay tax under the composition scheme but the same should not be made obligatory, adds Sharma. GST replaced a plethora of age old 17 central and state taxes and 26 cesses in 2017. GST was seen as a tax that would liberate the taxpayer from the evils of cascading, multiplicity of levy, unwarranted litigation, compliance burden, among others. GST on under-construction properties was a severe hurdle in 2018, and the possibility of a possible GST rate cut in late December literally froze property buying decisions for many. It bears remembering that the modest growth numbers we witnessed last year were significantly led by sales of ready-to-move properties not only because they are exempt from GST, but because incessant project delays have taught buyers to be wary of under-construction projects, said Anuj Puri, chairman ANAROCK Property Consultants. Issues like ambiguity on treatment of Joint Development Agreements (JDA), taxability of Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs), restriction on availability of credit in case of works contracts resulting into immovable property (other than to contractor), allowing centralised registration etc still need to be addressed under GST. The GoM is expected to also analyse tax rate of GST, including issues/challenges in view of the proposal for shoring up the real estate sector. The panel would examine the legality of inclusion/exclusion of land or any other ingredient, in composition and suggest valuation mechanism. It would also examine various aspects of GST on Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and Development Rights in a joint agreement and suitable model, a finance ministry statement issued last week has said. [email protected] | https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/real-estate/will-a-composition-scheme-under-gst-help-the-real-estate-sector-3413421.html |
Are we doing our enemies' work? | They would hack into the nations electric grid, showing the world how easy it would be to dismantle it entirely. They would hack into the nations largest companies through the Securities and Exchange Commission computers. They would foment resentment, anger and frustration by dividing the country through the use of such terms as white supremacy and white nationalism. They would send a signal that the U.S. government intends to wall the country off from her neighbors and make it difficult for immigrants from other countries to enter, both legally and illegally. They would signal that non-Christians are not welcome in America. They would loan vast government-backed sums of money to new tech start-ups and energy and resource development companies in developing countries, many in South America and Africa, to prevent U.S. companies from getting a foothold in such countries. They would paint American companies as greedy and environmentally cavalier instead of being moral global citizens. They would undermine NATO and other international organizations that have prevented world war for half a century. They would make sure America pulls out of long-held commitments to allies, causing consternation in world capitals about what this country stands for and what it no longer supports. They would undermine the admired and imitated U.S. democratic election process, using social media, hacking into computers and wreaking discord at all levels of government. They would distort reality so citizens dont know what is true and what is not. They would hinder rebuilding of roads, sewers, water mains, bridges, tunnels, ports, airports and other infrastructure necessary for a vast country to function properly. They would point out that the rule of law doesnt always apply to the top echelon of American society; that its top political leaders can be immune from indictments and prosecutions. They would cause Americans to lose faith in their government, possibly shutting down services in an arbitrary and unfair way, denying pay to employees for their services while demanding they continue to work. They would shake up trade alliances so that the economy wobbles and investors pull back and American farmers and manufacturers are harmed. They would cheer as America pulls out of arms control treaties, relinquishing her seat at the table, leaving chaos behind and an invitation for her enemies to move in. They would divert money from necessary social services, such as early childhood education, food stamps and housing allowances. They would bolster the nations richest citizens, making sure their taxes are cut and their benefits increased. They would give energy companies new access to once-forbidden public lands, such as pristine parks and wildlife reserves and coastal areas, stealing assets from future generations. They would make other countries distrust America, worried her word no longer means anything as she pursues an America First policy on all fronts. They would rejoice as American morale plummeted, as Americans bickered among themselves, forgetting pride in and love of their country, the many bamboozled by the few. They would make chaos and dissension the new normal. It cant happen here. Email Ann McFeatters, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, at [email protected]. Read or Share this story: https://www.vcstar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/01/20/we-doing-our-enemies-work/2605545002/ | https://www.vcstar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/01/20/we-doing-our-enemies-work/2605545002/ |
Why have English clubs struggled so badly in Europe this season? | Premiership is too big Out they went, one by one, the supposed giants of the English game. Wasps being spanked by Leinster on the opening Friday night of the tournament, conceding eight tries in a 52-point thrashing, hapless, depowered and intellectually bankrupt, set the tone for a competition in which two other former European champions, Leicester and Bath, also underperformed. Of course, there are caveats stirring displays by the likes of Exeter at Thomond Park on Saturday and Newcastle, who beat three-time champions, Toulon at the Stade Mayol, and followed up with a last-gasp lunge over the line against Montpellier a week later. But this is scrubland growth across a barren landscape. Six... | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/01/21/have-english-clubs-struggled-badly-europe-season/ |
Did Karnataka cops cover up Congress MLAs brawl? | BENGALURU: The drunken brawl between two Ballari MLAs at a resort in Bidadi, Ramanagara has not only put Congress leaders in a spot of bother, but also the local police. Kampli legislator JN Ganesh allegedly hit Hospet MLA Anand Singh on the head with a bottle.The opposition BJP has accused the Ramanagara police, under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, of trying to hush up the case. The resort is located in the assembly constituencies of chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and water resources minister DK Shivakumar. "Police definitely had prior information about the incident but failed to act," a BJP leader alleged. "Only after a Congress minister admitted that there was a fight between the two MLAs, the police took cognizance of the case and promised to act. "Ramanagara SP Ramesh Banoth told TOI that they will take action based on the medico-legal report from the hospital through Seshadripuram police. The SP also cited jurisdictional issues. While the resort where the brawl took place falls under Bidadi police station limits in Ramanagar district, the hospital where Singh is being treated comes under Sheshadripuram police station limits. "We received the medico-legal report on Sunday evening and it suggests that there was alleged traumatic injury," Banoth said. "I have directed the Bidadi inspector to record Singhs statement and take appropriate action. "Senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar questioned the inaction of police, saying the incident holds a mirror to the collapse of governance in the state. "Police have become silent spectators in this case," he said. "When contradictory reports and statements are being made about the entire incident and health of Anand Singh, police at least should have taken up a primary investigation and cleared the air. "Defending the police, former DGP ST Ramesh said they cannot act suo motto especially when the victim is unavailable to render a statement. "Only after recording the statement of the victim, they can consider lodging a complaint (FIR)," he said. | https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/did-karnataka-cops-cover-up-congress-mlas-brawl/articleshow/67615715.cms |
Was bringt das Rahmenabkommen dem Aargau und wo liegen die Risiken? | Ob die Schweiz ein Rahmenabkommen mit der EU abschliesst, ist derzeit vllig offen. Die Frage wird in Bern intensiv diskutiert, letzte Woche wurde sogar zum ersten Mal ein Hearing der aussenpolitischen Kommission mit Experten live bertragen. Doch das Thema interessiert nicht nur Politiker auf nationaler, sondern auch solche auf kantonaler Ebene. So hat FDP-Grossrat Titus Meier krzlich einen Vorstoss eingereicht, der sich um mgliche Auswirkungen eines EU-Rahmenabkommens auf den Aargau dreht. Meier hlt fest, der Aargau sei aufgrund seiner geografischen Lage und seiner Wirtschaftsstruktur enger mit dem EU-Wirtschaftsraum verknpft als andere Kantone. Er rumt ein, dass auswrtige Angelegenheiten zwar Sache des Bundes seien, doch mssten auch die Interessen der Kantone gewahrt werden. Darum will Meier vom Regierungsrat wissen, wie und mit welchem Inhalt sich der Kanton in die Verhandlungen eingebracht habe. Dies kann direkt geschehen oder ber die Konferenz der Kantonsregierungen. Meier fragt weiter, ob bei einem allflligen Abschluss des Rahmenabkommens kantonale Gesetze angepasst werden mssten. Fragen zu entsandten Arbeitern Ein wichtiger Streitpunkt bei den Diskussionen um das Rahmenabkommen ist der Lohnschutz, auf den insbesondere die Gewerkschaften und linke Parteien pochen. Mit flankierenden Massnahmen soll Lohndumping durch Arbeiter, die von Unternehmen aus der EU fr kurze Zeit in die Schweiz geschickt werden zum Beispiel fr Bauarbeiten vermieden werden. 22% Ja 78% Nein Titus Meier will vom Regierungsrat wissen, welche Bedeutung diese Entsendungsarbeit in der Aargauer Wirtschaft habe und welche Sektoren wie stark davon betroffen sind. Er verlangt detaillierte Angaben dazu, wie viele meldepflichtige Kurzaufenthalter in den vergangenen drei Jahren im Aargau gemeldet wurden. Die Angaben soll die Regierung in den Kategorien kurzfristiger Stellenantritt, selbststndigerwerbende Dienstleistungserbringer und Entsandte von auslndischen Unternehmen liefern. Meier fragt weiter, welches Arbeitsvolumen, umgerechnet auf Vollzeitstellen, diese Kurzaufenthalter im Aargau geleistet htten. Und er fragt, welche Kosten fr die Kontrollen in diesem Bereich anfallen. Schliesslich will Meier wissen, wie die Regierung zur mglichen Verkrzung der Voranmeldefrist fr auslndische Unternehmen steht. Bisher mssen diese sich acht Tage vor Arbeitsbeginn in der Schweiz bei den Behrden anmelden, knftig sollen es nur noch vier sein. Ein umstrittener Punkt im Verhltnis mit der EU sind laut Titus Meier Beihilfen in Form von Subventionen, Steuererleichterungen oder staatlichen Beteiligungen an Unternehmen. Diese sind in der Europischen Union, von einigen Ausnahmen abgesehen, verboten. Meier will deshalb vom Regierungsrat wissen, welche Beteiligungen und Subventionen des Kantons Aargau in die Kategorie staatliche Beihilfen fallen. Weiter fragt er, ob es Beteiligungen und Subventionen auf Stufe der Gemeinden oder Gemeindeverbnde gibt, die in dieselbe Kategorie fallen. Schliesslich will er wissen, welche Auswirkungen ein Rahmenabkommen mit der EU auf diese Beihilfen im Aargau htte. | https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/aargau/kanton-aargau/was-bringt-das-rahmenabkommen-dem-aargau-und-wo-liegen-die-risiken-133984520 |
When is the next total solar eclipse of the sun in the UK? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Thousands of people across the country set their alarms to witness this morning's rare celestial event - the super blood wolf moon. The lunar eclipse, the last one until 2021, occurs when the moon is positioned slightly closer to Earth than normal, and appears slightly bigger and brighter. Hence the name, super moon. It also gave off a coppery red glow as it slipped into the Earth's shadow. It got its full name because it appeared in January, when wolves were known to howl in hunger outside villages. It was visible at around 4am, with the clearest views in the South East, the Met Office said. But it's the solar eclipse which really gets stargazers going. The last total solar eclipse in the UK was on August 11, 1999. It may have passed you by, but there was a partial solar eclipse between Saturday, January 5, and Sunday, January 6. Here's when you can expect to see the next partial and total eclipses in the UK. 2021 On June 10, 2021, there will be a partial eclipse across Britain - around 50 per cent in the north if Scotland and only around 30 per cent in the south east 2022 On October 25, 2022, Britain will see another partial eclipse - but this time only 35 per cent in the north east of Scotland and only 20 per cent in Cornwall. 2025 Three years later, on March 29, 2025, there'll be another partial eclipse - around 40 per cent in Kent and 50 per cent in the north west of Scotland. 2026 On August 12, 2026, there will be a total eclipse of the sun across Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean and Spain. In Britain, there will be a very large partial eclipse, around 96 per cent in Western Ireland and Cornwall and 91 per cent in Aberdeen. 2090 But Britain won't see a total eclipse until September 23, 2090, reports the Telegraph. To subscribe to our daily newsletter, enter your email address into the box at the top of this story. To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Facebook and Twitter . Find our Bath Facebook page here or Somerset's can be found here . Alternatively, follow us on Twitter - @BathLive and @SomersetLive | https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/you-next-see-total-solar-2450330 |
Has Abhishek Bachchan signed Kamal Haasan's Indian 2? | From Akshay Kumar to Ajay Devgn, Simbu to Siddharth, many names have been linked to Indian 2 claiming that they would be playing a key role. Now, one more name has cropped up in the form of Abhishek Bachchan. According to the reports, Abhishek Bachchan will be playing an all-important role in Indian 2. Rumours are rife that the actor has signed the project on the dotted lines and excited about being part of a film, originally made in South India. The movie was formally launched on 18 January with a formal pooja. Kajal Aggarwal will be doing the female lead in the flick, produced by Lyca Productions. The movie has Anirudh's music, Ravivarman's cinematography, Sreekar Prasad's editing, Muthuraj's production design, Jayamohan and Kabilan Vairamuthu's dialogues, Pa Vijay, Thamarai and Vivek's lyrics, Bosco's choreography and Jack Gill along with Tado Griffth and Peter Hein will be choreographing stunts. While most names of cast and crew have been formally announced, the makers are yet to reveal the villain and the role of Kamal Haasan's grandson in Indian 2. Kamal Haasan will be enacting the role of vigilante named Senapathi in the movie, a sequel to blockbuster Indian. | https://www.ibtimes.co.in/has-abhishek-bachchan-signed-kamal-haasans-indian-2-790462 |
Why was former chief justice Saqib Nisar so popular among the people? | Former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar made headlines because of his judgments and judicial activism. He stepped down from his post on January 17. Haider Waheed, the host of SAMAA TVs programme Agenda 360, believes that he was the man of the year because each of developments written by the former top judge has been over genuine issues and for the benefit of the people of Pakistan. From acquitting Aasia Bibi to taking note of corruption in high places, issue of scramble school fees and medical college fees. All the suo moto notices taken by him were on genuine issues, and were for the people of Pakistan, said Waheed. Mian Saqib Nisar was a constitutionalist and a federalist and his judgments were clearly a mirror of who he was. Waheed considers that, be it good or bad, the former chief justice has left a flourishing legacy behind. He had the single most significant initiative tenure. He has touched thousands of lives with his remarks, rulings, and verdicts. Justice Nisar was appointed a judge of the Lahore High Court on May 22, 1998, and elevated to a Supreme Court judge on February 11, 2010. He took oath as the chief justice of Pakistan on December 31, 2016. | https://www.samaa.tv/opinion/2019/01/why-was-former-chief-justice-saqib-nisar-so-popular-among-the-people/ |
Can Conan OBrien Reinvent Conan? | BURBANK, Calif. In his opening monologue here one recent Thursday afternoon, Conan OBrien told his studio audience hed discovered a trick to help him get used to the new half-hour running time of his TBS late-night show, Conan. I ordered a Dominos pizza, he said. Ill know when it arrives to shut the [expletive] up. This was just a test show an episode not intended for air and an opportunity for OBrien to adjust to the new rhythms of his refashioned program, which formerly ran for an hour a night. As of Tuesday, he will have no such safety net. Thats when, after having taken a break for more than three months, OBrien will resume hosting Conan in its shortened version. [Read an interview with Conan OBrien about the new Conan.] This modified program is one he hopes will be looser, less predictable and more intimate, with a spirit informed by other projects that OBrien pursued during his production hiatus, including a podcast and a live tour. | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/arts/television/conan-obrien-new-show.html |
Was droht beim harten Brexit? | Bitte fllen Sie alle Pflichtfelder mit * aus. Bitte stimmen Sie unseren Nutzungsbedingungen zu. Bitte stimmen Sie unserer Datenschutzerklrung zu. Bitte geben Sie Ihr Einverstndnis. Bitte akzeptieren Sie die Datenschutzbestimmungen. Bitte whlen Sie Ihren Benutzernamen. Bitte tragen Sie Ihre E-Mail-Adresse ein. Diese Email-Adresse ist bereits bei uns registriert. Bitte versuchen Sie es mit einer anderen Adresse. Mailadresse bereits bekannt, bitte mit bestehendem Account einloggen und Kinderprofil anlegen Diese E-Mail-Adresse scheint nicht korrekt zu sein sie muss ein @ beinhalten und eine existierende Domain (z.B. zdf.de) haben. Die eingegebenen Passwrter stimmen nicht berein. Bitte versuchen Sie es erneut. Das Passwort muss mindestens 8 Zeichen lang sein. Das Passwort muss mindestens einen Grobuchstaben enthalten. Das Passwort muss mindestens einen Kleinbuchstaben enthalten. Das Passwort muss mindestens ein Sonderzeichen enthalten. Das Passwort muss mindestens 8 Zeichen lang sein und mindestens eine Zahl enthalten. Die Registrierung hat leider nicht funktioniert. Bitte berprfen Sie Ihre Angaben. Benutzername E-Mail Passwort Passwort wiederholen Das Passwort muss mindestens 8 Zeichen lang sein, einen Grobuchstaben, eine Ziffer und ein Sonderzeichen enthalten. Ich akzeptiere die Nutzungsbedingungen des ZDF * Ich akzeptiere die Datenschutzerklrung des ZDF * Ich bin einverstanden, dass mein Kind 'Mein ZDFtivi' nutzt. * Ich akzeptiere die Datenschutzbestimmungen zur Nutzung von 'Mein ZDFtivi' * Pflichtfelder * Registrieren | https://www.zdf.de/politik/laenderspiegel/was-droht-beim-harten-brexit-100.html |
Was kommt nach der Braunkohle? | Bitte fllen Sie alle Pflichtfelder mit * aus. Bitte stimmen Sie unseren Nutzungsbedingungen zu. Bitte stimmen Sie unserer Datenschutzerklrung zu. Bitte geben Sie Ihr Einverstndnis. Bitte akzeptieren Sie die Datenschutzbestimmungen. Bitte whlen Sie Ihren Benutzernamen. Bitte tragen Sie Ihre E-Mail-Adresse ein. Diese Email-Adresse ist bereits bei uns registriert. Bitte versuchen Sie es mit einer anderen Adresse. Mailadresse bereits bekannt, bitte mit bestehendem Account einloggen und Kinderprofil anlegen Diese E-Mail-Adresse scheint nicht korrekt zu sein sie muss ein @ beinhalten und eine existierende Domain (z.B. zdf.de) haben. Die eingegebenen Passwrter stimmen nicht berein. Bitte versuchen Sie es erneut. Das Passwort muss mindestens 8 Zeichen lang sein. Das Passwort muss mindestens einen Grobuchstaben enthalten. Das Passwort muss mindestens einen Kleinbuchstaben enthalten. Das Passwort muss mindestens ein Sonderzeichen enthalten. Das Passwort muss mindestens 8 Zeichen lang sein und mindestens eine Zahl enthalten. Die Registrierung hat leider nicht funktioniert. Bitte berprfen Sie Ihre Angaben. Benutzername E-Mail Passwort Passwort wiederholen Das Passwort muss mindestens 8 Zeichen lang sein, einen Grobuchstaben, eine Ziffer und ein Sonderzeichen enthalten. Ich akzeptiere die Nutzungsbedingungen des ZDF * Ich akzeptiere die Datenschutzerklrung des ZDF * Ich bin einverstanden, dass mein Kind 'Mein ZDFtivi' nutzt. * Ich akzeptiere die Datenschutzbestimmungen zur Nutzung von 'Mein ZDFtivi' * Pflichtfelder * Registrieren | https://www.zdf.de/politik/laenderspiegel/was-kommt-nach-der-braunkohle-100.html |
Has The Salt Lost Its Savor? | Drive by the Capitol Building any given night and one thing strikes instantly, and that is the darkness which envelops the entire building, the newly constructed annexes built by the Peoples Republic of China and the entire courtyard. Enter the building on any given day and check out the rest rooms: they are all filthy, according to staffers at the Capitol. Also visit the Legislative library to do some research, and you will be greeted by doors slammed shut in your face. That the Capitol remains swallowed in darkness nightly speaks volumes about the character of our legislature, especially its leadership. But even more disappointing is the fact that the Legislative library and resource center has had its doors shut to the public and even to members and staffers of the Legislature. The late President Charles D. B. King once said, a fish begins to rot from the head. In all of this, the public is left wondering whether the apparent neglect of the home of the Legislature is symbolic or symptomatic of this rot eating away the innards of government beginning with the first branch. This brings us to the current sour relations between the Speaker of the House and some representatives who have accused him of corruption, citing the illegal tampering of the national budget after it had been passed into law. The ongoing debacle could, if left unchecked, likely lead to paralysis of the House of Representatives. Some representatives are reported to be openly calling for the expulsion, from that body, of legislators involved in the feud with Speaker Chambers. The question which arises is whether a group of legislators can legally or constitutionally dismiss another legislator on account of views expressed on issues of national concern. Article 42 of the Constitution is instructive on this note: Article 42 No member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall be arrested, detained, prosecuted or tried as a result of opinions expressed or votes cast in the exercise of the functions of his office. Members shall be privileged from arrest while attending, going to or returning from sessions of the Legislature, except for treason, felony or breach of the peace. All official acts done or performed and all statement made in the Chambers of the Legislature shall be privileged, and no Legislator shall be held accountable or punished therefor. Further to the above, Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution also provide protection against the prohibition of free speech. Article 14 All persons shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment thereof except as may be required by law to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. All persons who, in the practice of their religion, conduct themselves peaceably, not obstructing others and conforming to the standards set out herein, shall be entitled to the protection of the law. No religious denomination or sect shall have any exclusive privilege or preference over any other, but all shall be treated alike; and no religious tests shall be required for any civil or military office or for the exercise of any civil right. Consistent with the principle of separation of religion and state, the Republic shall establish no state religion. Article 15 (a) Every person shall have the right to freedom of expression, being fully responsible for the abuse thereof. This right shall not be curtailed, restricted or enjoined by government save during an emergency declared in accordance with this Constitution. (b) The right encompasses the right to hold opinions without interference and the right to knowledge. It includes freedom of speech and of the press, academic freedom to receive and impart knowledge and information and the right of libraries to make such knowledge available. It includes non-interference with the use of the mail, telephone and telegraph. It likewise includes the right to remain silent. (c) In pursuance of this right, there shall be no limitation on the public right to be informed about the government and its functionaries. (d) Access to state-owned media shall not be denied because of any disagreement with or dislike of the ideas expressed. Denial of such access may be challenged in a court of competent jurisdiction. (e) This freedom may be limited only by judicial action in proceedings grounded in defamation or invasion of the rights of privacy and publicity or in the commercial aspect of expression in deception, false advertising and copyright infringement. Given the foregoing, the public is left to question whether colleagues of Representatives Yekeh Kolubah, Adolph Lawrence, Larry Youquoi, et al, do actually have the power to expel any of these individuals from the National Legislature. More importantly these individuals have called into question the integrity of the Speaker, accusing him of impropriety. He must address these concerns rather than seeking subterfuges to shield himself from probity and accountability. And this newspaper cannot help but remind Speaker Chambers of the fury and fire he unleashed against former President Sirleaf during her tenure. He shunned her when she extended a hand of friendship to him. Strange therefore that Speaker Chambers appears to have made a U-turn on the things he once railed against and the values of integrity he once openly purported to have espoused. | https://www.liberianobserver.com/opinion/editorials/has-the-salt-lost-its-savor/ |
Do Bristol Rovers need a new left-back? | Get Weekday Bristol Rovers FC updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email There have been rumours this week that Bristol Rovers left-back Michael Kelly has attracted interest from a number of Premier League teams. Kelly, 21, joined the club in 2017 and this season has established himself as first choice in his position, despite competition from Tareiq Holmes-Dennis and Joe Martin. However, Martin returned to his parent club Stevenage earlier this month, and Holmes-Dennis has been deployed as a left-winger. This leaving Kelly as the only left-back at the club mainly operating in the position. (Image: Ryan Hiscott/JMP) If Kelly were to leave the club, it would spell disaster considering the nature of his performances this season. Whether he is ready for the Premier League remains to be seen, but he is more than contributing for Rovers in a position where they are not exactly blessed with numbers. Even if Kelly stays, Rovers fans should be slightly concerned about their strength in that position. He could pick up an injury and force the club to move Holmes-Denis back to left-back. Something which the management team would surely be reluctant to do considering the excellent nature of his performances further up the field. (Image: Robbie Stephenson/JMP) Luckily, the club does recognise these concerns. Earlier this week, Chris Hargreaves said: "We think there's definitely room for perhaps another player on that side, whether it's a winger or defensive player but, as I said, it's whether we get them through the door. Despite what Hargreaves said, they do not appear to be in any rush and could conceivably not sign anyone at left-back before the window shuts. "Tareiq was signed as a left-back, we've decided to play him higher up because of his qualities, so if you look at it as still having two left-backs in the building then we aren't short, Hargreaves added. What you will find in January, similar to when you go on holiday with the children at half-term, which I've never done because I'm always too busy, the prices become ridiculous. (Image: Robbie Stephenson/JMP) "There are opportunities there for some players, and if they grasp it, then we're not short. "So again, we've got to protect the club because we can't afford it and some clubs can afford it and they will get the players. No, you get on with it, so that's what we'll do. With Rovers still in a battle to preserve their League One status, bringing in a left-back would at least give them cover, if Kelly were to be sold or get injured. | https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-rovers-need-new-left-2450420 |
Who will replace Kelly O'Dwyer in Higgins? | Just five months out from the expected federal election, the race is on to find a new candidate for the high profile seat of Higgins in Melbourne's leafy inner southeast. The seat has been held by Minister for Women and Industrial Relations, Kelly O'Dwyer, who announced she's leaving politics to spend more time with her young family. Higgins has long been a jewel in the crown for the Liberal Party, but with the federal government facing a wipe out in Victoria, there are concerns about retaining even this safe seat. Fran Bailey, former Minister for Small Business and Tourism in the Howard Government Judith Troeth, former Liberal Party Senator for Victoria | https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/who-will-replace-kelly-odwyer-in-higgins/10733484 |
Who would want to be a diplomat? | Modern communication platforms are testing the bounds of diplomacy. Backroom manoeuvrings are giving way to public forums. And carefully laid plans can come unstuck with a single tweet. Its a cause of concern and a challenge. Diplomatic ranks are scrambling to adjust. Part TWO of our look at the future of diplomacy. Original broadcast on 22 July 2018. Guests Professor Caitlin Byrne Director, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University Professor Philip Seib Professor of Public Diplomacy and International Relations, University of California Associate Professor Stuart Murray International Relations, Bond University and Fellow of the Academy of Sport, Edinburgh University Professor Rory Medcalf Head of the national Security College, Australian National University | https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/summer-diplomacy-2/10222326 |
Was knnen die Vitamin D-Pilze aus dem Supermarkt? | Die braunen Champignons liegen mit aufflliger Kennzeichnung in den Regalen der deutschen Supermarktkette Kaufland: Sie sollen einen besonders hohen Anteil an Vitamin D haben. Schon zwei bis drei Champignons sollen die empfohlene Tageszufuhr an Vitamin D zu 100 Prozent decken. Auf der Verpackung wird mit einer 30 Mal hheren Menge an Vitamin D im Vergleich zu anderen Champignons geworben. 200 Gramm der Zuchtchampignons sind fr etwa zwei Euro zu haben. Sieben Packungen im Labor untersucht Die Stiftung Warentest ist dieser Frage nachgegangen. Dazu wurde der Vitamin D-Gehalt von Pilzen aus insgesamt sieben Packungen im Labor untersucht. Die Ergebnisse variieren: In der Packung mit dem niedrigsten Gehalt wurden 5,3 g Vitamin D pro 100 Gramm und fr die Packung mit dem hchsten Gehalt 15,1 g Vitamin D pro 100 Gramm gemessen. Letzterer ist laut der EU-Novel-Food-Verordnung sogar ber dem festgelegten Grenzwert von 10 g/g. Allerdings besteht laut Stiftung Warentest kein Grund zur Sorge, da eine berdosis nicht zu befrchten sei. Selbst auf Dauer knnten mehrere Packungen Champignons ohne Bedenken verzehrt werden. | https://kurier.at/gesund/was-koennen-die-vitamin-d-pilze-aus-dem-supermarkt/400383911 |
Who was voted off Dancing On Ice last night and who is favourite to win? | To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Richard Blackwood was the latest contestant to be voted off Dancing On Ice. The 46-year-old and his professional partner Carlotta Edwards failed to impress judges with their routine to Smokey Robinson & The Miracles The Tracks of My Tears. So when put up against Coronation Street actress Saira Khan and her partner Mark Hanretty, the pair were sadly booted out of the competition. Chatting about his experience on the show, the Casualty actor said: Its all good. Yeah, Im disappointed but its all good. I understand. Advertisement Advertisement While his skating pro partner added: Im so happy for Richard, weve built a friendship that will last forever, thats what means most for me. Richard Blackwood was the latest contestant to lose his place on the show (Picture: REX) And the fact that my dad and brother are watching. But while viewers at home were left devastated by the news, Holly Willoughby also appeared shocked that Richard was the second celeb to go. She said: This doesnt seem right somehow, it feels too soon to be losing you. Richard was the second celebrity to lose his place on the show, after Mark Little was voted off last week. On leaving the Neighbours star said: I did my best. I never imagined Id do any of that, so Im really, really happy. We had really good skate. The pair leave behind the likes of Brian McFadden, Wes Nelson, Gemma Collins and Didi Conn who are set to continue to battle it out in order to win. Wes is now favourite to win (Picture: Rex) Currently, Love Island star Wes stands as the favourite to be crowned winner of the competition after receiving the best scores of the show so far. Wes was excellent on the ice and punters have been keen to get their cash on him to go all the way and win the show off the back of his display, said Corals Harry Aitkenhead. Weve cut the odds on it happening and hes now only just behind James Jordan in the betting. Its going to be a fierce battle. Advertisement Advertisement He added: Gemma was the lowest scorer yesterday but clearly has very strong support. 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. MORE: Kieran Hayler admits Peter Andre was the love of Katie Prices life | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/21/voted-off-dancing-ice-last-night-favourite-win-8368335/ |
What did Jason Gardiner say to Gemma Collins on Dancing On Ice? | Gemma Collins lashed out at Jason Gardiner following her performance on Sunday night (Picture: Rex) Dancing On Ice got dramatic all over again on Sunday night as Gemma Collins engaged in a furious spat with Jason Gardiner following her performance. The pair exchanged words after Jason criticised the Towie stars routine, which saw her channelling Marilyn Monroe as she skated to Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend. All of which led Gemma to accuse the judge of selling stories about her after revealing how upset she had been this week. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Well following the performance Jason told her: Gemma, I know you were channelling Marilyn but we ended up with Anna Nicole Smith and that was because there wasnt any elegance. Advertisement Advertisement Like you were saying in the VT, she had to be elegant, shes a woman whos in control of her femininity, you were all over the place still hun and as Ashley [Banjo] said, theres not enough skating content still and this is your second skate now. You need to up the ante because were not going to see big lifts from you. Jason was criticising Gemmas skating before things started to get awkward (Picture: ITV) Gemma hit back saying: Can I just say one thing, maybe if you didnt sell stories on me maybe I wouldnt have been so upset this week. So take that. Defending his corner, Jason replied: I dont have to sell stories, Im talking about your performance darling. After Gemma branded him boring, Jason added: This doesnt help your cause. Youre just a brat before presenter Phillip Schofield promptly intervened to defuse the situation. With Gemma having already revealed how upset she was following remarks made by Holly Willoughby over claims about her backstage behaviour on the show, Jason also spoke out about the reality star last week suggesting she could turn the show into a pantomime. If you really want people to see a different side of you, this is a great opportunity to do that, rather than saying this is too uncomfortable for me, Im not the star attraction any more, Im bored then quit, Jason told The Sun. Advertisement Advertisement The 47-year-old also took a pop at the cult of reality fame as he said: When I grew up people were bloody good at what they did. They were exceptional at something, so you were inspired by people on TV. Now we celebrate mediocre in this country, he added. That, it seems, has become the new celebrity. Ouch. Despite her low scores from the judges, Gemma and skating partner Matt Evers made it through to next weekends show following the public vote, as Richard Blackwood became the second celebrity to be eliminated. Dancing On Ice continues on Sunday night on ITV at 6pm. 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. MORE: James Argent defends girlfriend Gemma Collins after she lays into Jason Gardiner on Dancing On Ice MORE: Matt Evers confirms he had little rehearsal time with Gemma Collins amid Dancing On Ice feud | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/21/jason-gardiner-say-gemma-collins-dancing-ice-8368208/ |
Who is Kato Kaelin as he joins Celebrity Big Brother US 2019 cast? | Kato Kaelin is ready to answer all questions about the trial of the century (Picture: Skip Bolen/CBS/Getty) A line-up of scandalous stars are preparing themselves to enter the US Celebrity Big Brother house. This is why Gemma Collins and Jason Gardiner rowed on Dancing On Ice Among the dozen famous faces set to enter the house for the second series on Monday is Kato Kaelin. Heres what you need to know about the 59-year-old housemate. Kato (real name Brian) gained notoriety in the 90s, after he was called as a witness for the prosecution during the OJ Simpson murder trials. At the time of the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, Kato was living in OJs guest house. Advertisement Advertisement Kato appeared in a handful of films and television shows following the 1995 trial, and has also dabbled in TV and radio presenting. Hes also the co-creator of Slackerwear, a clothing brand dedicated to comfortable, stylish and affordable loungewear. Kato has already revealed his plans to spill the beans on any questions his fellow housemates may have regarding the OJ trial. He added: Its so, to me, boring. Its not who I am. Kato will be joined by a number of famous housemates including actress Lindsay Lohans mum Dina, Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett and Anthony Scaramucci, Donald Trumps former communications director. Singers Tamar Braxton and Kandi Burruss will also grace the series, alongside comedian Tom Green, ex NFL star Ricky Williams and WWE wrestler Natalie Eva Marie. Olympic medallist Ryan Lochte, Olympic bobsledder Lolo Jones and actor Joey Lawrence round off the celebrity dozen. MORE: Lindsay Lohan helps mum Dina with Celebrity Big Brother USA game plan MORE: Ryan Lochte hopes Celebrity Big Brother US will help public forgive him for Olympics scandal | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/21/kato-kaelin-now-joins-celebrity-big-brother-us-cast-8368128/ |
Who has to apply for settled status and how will the scheme work? | EU citizens - excluding those from the Republic of Ireland - who plan to stay in the UK long-term will have to apply for settled status, guidance published on the Home Office website states. Irish citizens' rights are guaranteed under the Common Travel Area established in 1923 to ensure open borders between the UK and Ireland. EU nationals that have previously been granted indefinite leave to enter the UK or indefinite leave to remain in the UK are also exempt from the scheme. (Image: Katie Collins/PA Wire) But EU citizens who only have a permanent residence document will still need to apply for settled status. Non-EU nationals in the UK with an EU spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner also need to apply for the settlement scheme, and are advised to apply at the same time as them. You will still need to apply for settled status if you are a non-EU national and your partner is an EU citizen who does not need to apply because they meet exemption criteria. Any EU national married to a British person will need to apply for settled status if they have not previously taken British citizenship. Widows of deceased British citizens will also need settled status if they wish to remain in the UK. The application process is online and via an app - applicants will be asked to prove their identity, their residence in the UK and will be asked whether they have criminal convictions in any overseas country. Individuals with a persistent offending history, particularly if it involves violence or drugs, will have their application considered on a case-by-case basis, a spokesman for the Home Office said. "We don't expect to reject any genuine EU citizens living lawfully in the UK," he said. Today (21 January) marks the first day that some EU citizens can first apply for "settled status" in the UK ahead of Brexit. The scheme will be fully open from the start of the transition period on March 30 and the deadline is two years later on June 30, 2021. Those who have been living in the UK for less than five years before the deadline will get "pre-settled status", which can be changed to settled status when you have reached five years of continuous residence. The application process will cost 65 for adults and 32.50 for children, while those who have previously been granted permanent residence will not face an extra charge. The process is still undergoing testing, but a trial of 30,000 people saw two-thirds of applications approved within three days and 81% within a week. People not planning on staying in the UK beyond the transition period do not need to apply for the scheme. But EU nationals who plan to remain for several years but not settle in the UK permanently are still advised to apply for settled or pre-settled status as it is likely to be cheaper and simpler than other visa options. Each case will be considered individually, the Home Office said, but those with a history of persistent, serious offending may be subject to deportation. | https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/who-apply-settled-status-how-2450539 |
Can Software & Services Boost F5 Networks (FFIV) Q1 Earnings? | F5 Networks Inc. FFIV is set to report first-quarter fiscal 2019 results on Jan 23. The company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 6.45%. In the last reported quarter, the companys non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.90 increased 18.9% year over year and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.63. Moreover, F5 Networks revenues grew 4.6% to $562.7 million and topped the consensus estimate of $560.7 million. For first-quarter fiscal 2019, F5 Networks expects revenues in the range of $542-$552 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at $546.65 million. The company expects non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of $2.51-$2.54. The consensus estimate is pegged at $2.54. Lets see how things are shaping up for the upcoming announcement. F5 Networks, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise F5 Networks, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | F5 Networks, Inc. Quote Factors at Play F5 Networks growth in services and software solutions segment is a key driver. The companys traction in public cloud deployments, given the surge in demand for security in the multi-cloud environment, is a tailwind. Additionally, the company is also upping its public cloud expertise. The joining of former General Manager of Global Business Development and sale operations for Amazon's AMZN AWS Marketplace, Barry Russell, as the head of its cloud sales team, in fourth-quarter fiscal 2018 is expected to boost F5 Networks expansion into multi-cloud opportunities globally. The BIG-IP Cloud Edition had started gaining traction among customers immediately after its launch last year. This trend is expected to continue in the fiscal first quarter and drive revenues. On the last earnings call, the company hinted that a key managed care provider has chosen F5 Networks solutions, including the BIG-IP Cloud Edition, to aid its transition to the public cloud. This is expected to give impetus to the momentum further. Moreover, the company stated that it is witnessing strong momentum in Enterprise License Agreements and Virtual Edition subscription software deals. The size of deals is increasing, allowing F5 Networks to expand its use cases and implement a new consumption model, which is expected to drive software growth. The software segment grew 19% year over year in the last quarter of fiscal 2018, and contributed 17% to product revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for product revenues in the fiscal first quarter is pegged at $237 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 4.4%. Further, the companys growth opportunities in the security market are driven by its advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF). It is witnessing an expansion in its addressable market and revenue growth prospects on the back of its WAF offerings. The strong adoption of advanced WAF in existing as well as new customers is expected to continue in the to-be-reported quarter. The company, however, expects quarterly fluctuations in hardware sales despite demand for new hardware in emerging markets like China and Latin America. A volatile spending environment and increasing competition remain headwinds for F5 Networks revenue growth. Soft spending by tier 1 service providers in North America is a concern. Additionally, increasing competition remain headwinds for F5 Networks revenue growth. Notably, Cisco Systems CSCO poses the most significant competitive threat to F5 Networks, given the dominance of the former in the overall networking market. What Our Model Says According to the Zacks model, a company with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) has a good chance of beating estimates if it also has a positive Earnings ESP. Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) stocks are best avoided. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. F5 Networks has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and carries a Zacks Rank #3. Some Stocks With Favorable Combination Here are few stocks, which per our model have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter: Twitter, Inc. TWTR has an Earnings ESP of +26.55% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | https://news.yahoo.com/software-services-boost-f5-networks-093809268.html |
Why are continental breakfasts called 'continental' breakfasts? | The best part about staying in a hotel isnt the crisp, white sheets or comfy beds its the free breakfast. Theres no better place to start your day than an all-you-can-eat buffet, after all. But at first glance, theres nothing very continental about a continental breakfast. No, American-style waffles and bagels dont have anything to do with it. These nationwide breakfasts were actually modeled after the light morning meals common throughout the European continent. Hence, the word continental. As hoteliers popped up across the country, they began to offer a lighter alternative to American breakfasts, serving fare like coffee, bread, pastries, and fruit. It was a win-win situation all around: Not only did the buffet please the palates of European tourists, but it was also cheap and easy to provide for the hotels. This wasnt the kind of hearty meal that Americans were used to, though. In fact, when hotels first began serving light breakfasts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American diners were outraged. Harpers Weekly even demanded the idea be banished from the hemisphere where the Monroe Doctrine and the pie should reign supreme. Luckily, people arent as passionate about their hotel buffets anymoreor they just go to IHOP. More importantly, breakfast isnt the only free perk you can get from your hotel. Find out 21 secrets your hotel doesnt want you to know. This article originally appeared on Reader's Digest. | https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/why-are-continental-breakfasts-called-continental-breakfasts |
How long do people need to be monitored after fainting? | For the first time, physicians in the Emergency Department (ED) have evidence-based recommendations on how best to catch the life-threatening conditions that make some people faint. New research published in Circulation suggests that low-risk patients can be safely sent home by a physician after spending two hours in the ED, and medium and high-risk patients can be sent home after six hours if no danger signals are detected. Most of the time fainting is harmless, but a small percentage of people faint due to serious medical conditions, such as an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia. These arrhythmias usually come and go quickly, and the person's heart rhythm returns to normal by the time the ambulance arrives or they reach the ED. Fear of these arrhythmias coming back have led to patients being kept in the ED for eight to 12 hours. Approximately half of all patients who are hospitalized for fainting across Canada are admitted so their heart rhythm can be monitored. However, only a small proportion of patients will experience a dangerous irregular heartbeat, heart attack or death within a month of fainting. "Before this study we didn't know which fainting patients needed to be monitored in the Emergency Department, and how long they needed to be monitored. We didn't know who needed to be hospitalized in order to catch life-threatening conditions. Now we have answers to these questions that will help improve patient care, and potentially reduce ED wait times and hospital admissions." said lead author Dr. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy, an emergency physician and scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Thiruganasambandamoorthy's team previously created a simple tool to help emergency physicians identify those fainting patients who are at greater risk of adverse events. In this observational study, they used the tool to rank 5,581 patients from six EDs across Canada as low (0.4 percent risk of an arrhythmia within 30 days), medium (8.7 percent) or high risk (25.3 percent). Out of the 5,581 people, 74 percent were classified as low-risk, 19 percent as medium-risk and 7 percent as high-risk. One month after fainting, 3.7 percent of individuals (207) suffered an arrhythmia. The team found that half of the arrhythmias were identified within the first two hours of arrival at the ED for low-risk patients, and within six hours for the medium and high-risk patients. They also found that 92 percent of the underlying arrhythmias were identified within 15-days among the medium and high-risk patients. "We learned that irregular heartbeat called arrhythmias usually happen soon after fainting" said Dr. Thiruganasambandamoorthy. "This means we can catch most of these events in those first few hours in the Emergency Department, where we can quickly give people the treatment they need. The types of arrhythmias that medium-risk patients suffer are important but non-life threatening, so these patients can be monitored from the comfort of their homes. A few days in hospital can be considered for high-risk patients." Low-risk patients, the majority of fainting patients, can be discharged home after two hours without further heart rhythm monitoring. After six hours have passed for medium and high-risk patients, a physician can decide whether to admit them to hospital while considering their overall health, ability to cope at home, injuries and need for further monitoring. The research team found that medium and high-risk patients benefit from home heart rhythm monitoring for 15 days, which should ideally start when they leave the ED. "Our study suggests that three quarters of the 200,000 fainting patients who come to Canadian Emergency Departments every year are at low risk of adverse events. They can safely be sent home once they've been in the ED two hours and a physician sees them." said Dr. Thiruganasambandamoorthy. Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital are known around the world for creating decision rules that improve patient care. The study was funded by the Physicians' Services Incorporated Foundation, Innovation Fund for Academic Health Sciences Centres of Ontario through The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada. Research like this is possible because of generous support for research to improve patient care at The Ottawa Hospital. It was also supported by The Ottawa Hospital's Ottawa Method's Centre. ### Full reference: Duration of Electrocardiographic Monitoring of Emergency Department Patients with Syncope. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy, Brian H. Rowe, Marco L.A. Sivilotti, Andrew D. McRae, Kirtana Arcot, Marie-Joe Nemnom, Longlong Huang, Muhammad Mukarram, Andrew D. Krahn,George A.Wells, Monica Taljaard. Circulation. Jan 21, 2019. About The Ottawa Hospital: Inspired by research. Driven by compassion. The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada's largest learning and research hospitals with over 1,100 beds, approximately 12,000 staff and an annual budget of over $1.2 billion. Our focus on research and learning helps us develop new and innovative ways to treat patients and improve care. As a multi-campus hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, we deliver specialized care to the Eastern Ontario region, but our techniques and research discoveries are adopted around the world. We engage the community at all levels to support our vision for better patient care. See http://www. ohri. ca for more information about research at The Ottawa Hospital. University of Ottawa: --A crossroads of cultures and ideas The University of Ottawa is home to over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroads of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We are one of Canada's top 10 research universities--our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today's challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe. http://www. uottawa. ca Media Contact: Amelia Buchanan, Senior Communication Specialist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; [email protected]; Office: 613-798-5555 x 73687; Cell: 613-297-8315 | https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/toh-hld011719.php |
Is er nog toekomst voor tablets? | De laatste tijd werden we als het ware overspoeld met lanceringen van nieuwe smartphones. Daarbij kwamen verder nog de nieuwe Surface Pro 6 en Surface Laptop 2 van Microsoft. Aan smartphones is er absoluut geen tekort, zo zijn er de nieuwe (en zeer prijzige) iPhones van Apple en de nieuwe Google Pixel smartphones. Ook smartwatches maken een sterke opmars tegenwoordig en beginnen hun naam van luxeproduct kwijt te raken. Nog niet zo gek lang geleden was dit ook een product dat concurrentie tussen bedrijven veroorzaakte. Intussen lijkt het er echter op dat het tijdperk van de tablets zijn einde heeft bereikt. De iPad Het is intussen acht jaar geleden dat we kennis mochten maken met de eerste echte tabletcomputer, namelijk de iPad van multimediagigant Apple. Voorheen experimenteerden andere bedrijven zoals Microsoft reeds met tabletachtige toestellen, maar de iPad wordt door velen gezien als de eerste tablet. In die tijd was de tablet een soort van middenweg tussen de eerste smartphones in 2010 bleven de slimme functies vaak beperkt tot een touchscreen en een iets betere camera en de laptop. De iPad was compacter dan de meeste laptops en werd vooral gebruikt om mails te beantwoorden en te surfen op het internet. De eerste versie van de iPad kon bovendien alleen via wifi verbinding maken met het internet en nog niet via een draadloze 3G-verbinding. Als we hier nu op terugblikken, kon deze iPad niet verbazingwekkend veel. Toch kende het toestel een grote populariteit, waardoor Apple de iPad-lijn verdergezet heeft en andere technologiebedrijven mee in de tabletmarkt zijn gedoken. De iPad was een soort van middenweg tussen de laptop en de eerste smartphones. Het nut van de tablet Er is altijd een reden waarom een nieuw technologisch snufje aanslaat bij de consument (of waarom net niet) en bij de tabletcomputers is dit niet anders. De eerste iPad kon inderdaad niet zo verrassend veel, maar wist vooral te verbazen door zijn compactheid in combinatie met de gebruiksvriendelijke software van Apple. Softwareontwikkelaars waren dan weer niet zo gelukkig, aangezien de iPad met iOS niet veel mogelijkheden gaf om te experimenteren. Daarvoor moesten ze nog wachten op de tablets van, wel, letterlijk elke andere producent die niet Apple is. De eerste tablets wisten enkele basisfuncties van laptops in een kleiner formaat te verwerken. Zo kon je met de tablet o.a. diavoorstellingen afspelen, vergaderverslagen en andere documenten lezen, en tal van andere zaken uitvoeren waar je voorheen altijd een laptop of computer voor nodig had. Het was wel mogelijk om ook teksten te typen met een tablet, al ging dit niet verbazingwekkend snel met een extern toetsenbord erop. Bovendien wist de tablet zijn weg te vinden naar de schoolbanken waar leerlingen ze konden gebruiken onder begeleiding van hun leerkrachten ter ondersteuning van de lessen. Ik weet nog goed dat sommige van mijn leerkrachten in het middelbaar ons soms de iPads lieten halen zodat we per twee opdrachten konden maken. Voor leerkrachten was de tablet een handige manier om geen computerlokaal te moeten reserveren, wat vaak een probleem was, aangezien die lokalen niet eindeloos waren. In gezinnen zag je dan vaak weer dat ouders en/of kinderen met de tablet op de bank zaten en zo surften op het internet, videos bekeken, sociale media controleerden, games speelden of online tijdschriften lazen. Het duurde echter niet verrassend lang vooraleer de talloze smartphone-innovaties de tablets in wisten te halen en als het ware de dooddoener werden van deze technologie. Ook sommige scholen waagden zich aan de tablets De inhaalbeweging van de smartphones Als je even terugkijkt naar de opsomming van zaken waarvoor de tablet vaak gebruikt werd, dan valt er je waarschijnlijk iets op. Namelijk dat de gemiddelde smartphone vandaag de dag voor dezelfde (en zelfs meer) dingen kan dienen. Als ik onderweg ben van of naar het werk dan zie ik rondom mij op de bus veel medependelaars op hun smartphones mails of Facebook-berichten beantwoorden, het nieuws checken en videos op YouTube bekijken. In de loop van de jaren zijn smartphones in feite een soort van kleinere tablets geworden. Een volledige aflevering van Thuis op je smartphone kijken, kan misschien wat teleurstellend aanvoelen (alhoewel smartphones ook alsmaar groter worden), maar een paar korte videos op YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram of nieuwswebsites zijn zeker doenbaar. De meeste nieuwswebsites hebben intussen ook een mobiele versie die aangepast is aan smartphones of zelfs een eigen app in de App Store of Play Store. Ook bij het afspelen van games ondervinden de meeste (degelijke) smartphones intussen geen problemen meer. Voor de gemiddelde mens vervangt de smartphone dus de traditionele tablet. Dat is dan ook de voornaamste reden waarom de tabletmarkt zich al een tijdje in een neerwaartse spiraal bevindt. De (stille) toekomstmuziek Ondanks de inhaalbeweging van de smartphones en de opkomst van de Microsoft Surfaces, die op hun beurt weer een combinatie zijn een tablet en een laptop, lijkt het nog niet volledig voorbij voor tablets. Tablets zijn vandaag de dag nog steeds handig voor kinderen als een soort van tussenstap naar de smartphone. Je gaat namelijk niet meteen je 8-jarige zoon of dochter naar school sturen met een iPhone op zak, maar aangezien je kinderen later sowieso in aanraking zullen komen met een smartphone en laptop kunnen ze de basishandelingen al onder de knie krijgen door middel van de tablet. Ook op bouwwerven of grote festivals zijn tablets handig voor de crew om bij zich hebben. Deze tablets kosten vaak ook wel enkele duizenden euros en zijn specifiek bedoeld voor dat soort scenarios. Dergelijke toestellen ga je dus niet meteen in de gemiddelde huiskamer aantreffen. De losstaande tablet zoals we die tien jaar geleden hebben leren kennen, verschijnt ook nog amper op de markt. De meeste tablets worden nu gelanceerd met een bijbehorend toetsenbord dat al dan niet deel uitmaakt van het basispakket. Hoewel er nog steeds naar dergelijke toestellen zoals de Microsoft Surface Pro-reeks of de Google Pixel Slate wordt verwezen als tabletcomputer, zijn deze allesbehalve vergelijkbaar met de originele tablet. We lijken bovendien steeds meer te verwachten van deze nieuwe tablets, aangezien simpelweg de krant lezen en wat videos afspelen op een iets groter scherm niet meer voldoende is om een tablet in huis te halen. De nieuwe tablets, zoals de Pixel Slate, lijken dan ook eerder op een laptop met een touchscreen dan op een smartphone met een groter scherm. Wat mij betreft is het tijdperk van de traditionele tablet, zoals de eerste iPads, dan ook zo goed als afgesloten. | https://www.clickx.be/achtergrond/172462/er-nog-toekomst-voor-tablets/ |
Should Jersey City bring back a police horse unit? | Jersey City may bring back police horses for the first time in 46 years. The City Council will hear a measure next week that would authorize the city to use 605 Monmouth St. as the site of stables for police horses. The city got rid of its mounted unit in 1972, calling it "a luxury the city cannot afford" and re-assigning its 12 officers to the motorcycle squad. Mayor Steve Fulop said on Twitter that the unit will be useful during festivals and large events. Councilman Rich Boggiano, a retired police detective, has used his Facebook page to wax nostalgic about the city's police horses. Boggiano, reached by phone, initiated the conversation by neighing, then said he will vote against the plan. Then we can bring back the horses," Boggiano said. "How about straightening out the police department?" Jersey City disbanded the motorcycle squad three years ago. City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione pointed to the recent reduction in shootings and homicides in the city, saying, "All residents see the progress and we will continue to add resources to the JCPD as needed to expand a world class department." It is not clear how much the unit will cost, but Fulop says it has been budgeted. Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and tell us why in the comments. | https://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/10/should_jersey_city_bring_back_a_police_horse_unit.html |
Can Sarri arrest mentally soft Chelsea slump? | It took 19 games for Maurizio Sarri to suffer defeat as Chelsea manager, but a stunning start to life at Stamford Bridge has quickly turned sour with the Italian lambasting his sides mental fortitude after Saturdays 2-0 defeat at Arsenal. A fourth loss in 11 league games leaves Chelsea at serious risk of missing out on the Champions League for a second consecutive season for the first time since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Sarris men are still in pole position for a top-four finish, but lead Arsenal and a resurgent Manchester United by just three points. Moreover, Chelsea still have to visit United, as well as title-chasing Liverpool and Manchester City in their final 15 games of the league campaign. The trend since the Blues lost for the first time under Sarri at Tottenham at the end of November suggests Chelsea will not maintain their slender lead. Under Abramovich Chelsea managers do not tend to be given time if unsuccessful in their first season. Sarri insisted he is still up for the fight, even if he accused his players of lacking heart. It seems to me that, as a group of players, theyre not aggressive from a mental point of view. They dont have a ferocity in their mentality, said Sarri. Its difficult to change. You have to try and influence their mentality and it could take some time, or it could change with a new player coming in or an older head assuming more responsibility and driving the team on. Sarri does seem set to get what he wanted in the signing of Gonzalo Higuain on loan from Juventus for the rest of theseason to offer some firepower. However, while the former Napoli boss pointed the finger at his players, his tactics have also come under the spotlight in recent weeks. Chelseas early-season form owed much to the goals of Eden Hazard with Sarri claiming the Belgian was capable of scoring 40 this campaign. Instead, Hazard has just 12 as his goals have dried up since he has been wedged into a centre-forward role due to Sarris lack of faith in Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud. In keeping with their performances of late, Chelsea enjoyed 64% possession against Arsenal but had just one tame shot on target to show for it. Removing Hazard from his favoured position wide on the left of a front three has made it easier to crowd out Chelseas most dangerous player. Meanwhile, as Sarri demands more aggression, his most tenacious player, NGolo Kante, is also out of position. Kante shone in winning back-to-back Premier League titles with Leicester and in his first season at Chelsea, as well as winning the World Cup with France, as a relentless holding midfielder. However, Sarri prefers the passing of Jorginho, who he brought with him from Napoli in mid-2018, at the base of his midfield and Kante has been shunted further forward. Hazard has voiced his frustration at playing out of position and keeping him happy is a club priority as he enters the final 18 months of his contract, with Real Madrid interested in a cut-price swoop come the off-season in June-July. Teenager Callum Hudson-Odoi also seems set to snub the offer of a new deal to join Bayern Munich after becoming frustrated at his lack of first-team opportunities under Sarri. The Italian needs answers quickly to arrest the slump with the finance and prestige of the Champions League paramount to his and Chelseas future. Arsenal boss Unai Emery recently revealed the financial restrictions he is under with no money available for players on permanent transfers in January. Two seasons without Champions League football is part of the reason for penny pinching at the Emirates. Now Chelsea run the risk of a similar fate. AFP | https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/sport/soccer/2019-01-21-can-sarri-arrest-mentally-soft-chelsea-slump/ |
Could the iconic Grand Pavilion Cinema be repurposed as a music venue? | Local music mogul David Stopps wants the council to rethink plans to knock down the iconic high modernist building. The iconic high frontage of the Aylesbury building stands out between several charity shops and cafe's on Aylesbury's High Street. Tommy Steele meets a fan The building is even immortalised in Roald Dahl's iconic book, Mathilda: "My mother goes to Aylesbury every afternoon to play bingo. The building originally opened in 1925 as The Grand Pavilion Cinema. It was taken over by the Granada Theatre chain in November 1946 and renamed simply Granada a year later. The Granada closed in 1972 and the premises was converted into a Granada Bingo Club. The Granada back in its heyday Gala Bingo took over in May 1991. The plan for the site is to create an additional new entrance to the Exchange Street car park, this time leading from the High Street. David Stopps said: "Last year we lost two iconic entertainment venues. The Britannia on Buckingham Road and the Odeon cinema. This is the only one left really in town apart from the Waterside - but that's a different beast entirely. "I think it's incredibly important we save this building and re-purpose it as a multi purpose entertainment venue. What the town is really missing is a mid-sized music venue. We have sites like the amazing Dukes, and the Ex Serviceman's club on Walton street - but these venues hold about 200-250 people. "The Granada could easily hold about 700 to 800 people, which is the perfect size to attract new and upcoming bands. "It's what's missing in town and what could help reignite the local music scene. David concedes it would take a giant effort from the Council and investors, but says we'd be looking at the model of the 02 in Oxford, a hugely successful venue. "We need something like the old civic centre, a multipurpose venue with two or three rooms. One of them could even be for bingo to placate the bingo fans who must be bitterly disappointed. The bingo hall is reminiscent of Dr Whos tardis, it's narrow frontage on the High Street, opening up into a massive space that seems to go back forever, and even harbours an upstairs. It is an important part of music history, as it's the only time the Rolling Stones played as a four piece band. It was an extremely foggy night and Brian Jones (who tragically died 5 years later 3 July 1969) got lost in the fog. Support was American legends The Ronettes who also arrived late because of the fog and went straight on stage from the bus in their street clothes. George Entecott, who started the petition to save the building said: "It seems a shame that we are losing all of Aylesbury's history. We lost the police station and the beautiful old Odeon cinema recently which was a real shame. "I'm not trying to stem 'progress' of the town - I just think we should take a bit more glory in our history and keep these beautiful and unique building. "These buildings are an important part of our heritage, to repurpose this site as a music venue would be a fantastic move and maybe give the town the CPR it so desperately needs. "My proposal is to ask Aylesbury Vale District Council and Bucks County Council to delay their planned demolition of the building and allow time to find investment in the building to allow it to continue to be used. "This building is in current use so could be converted to a multipurpose public venue at a reasonable cost. "I believe that Aylesburys existing music scene, and with the planned housing growth in the town, will be sufficient to support this venue and it could become a true asset to the town. A medium sized venue at this location would be fantastic for promoters such as Friars to hold events in, as the cost of hire would be less than hiring Waterside Theatre but there would be sufficient capacity to make booking decent acts more economical. "Please support this petition to help protect our heritage, build a stronger community and build upon our music scene!" To sign the petition, please visit: https://bit.ly/2CDgBTQ | https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/could-the-iconic-grand-pavilion-cinema-be-repurposed-as-a-music-venue-1-8777514 |
Why should governments open up their data? | Running 21st century governments by the old rules is reinforcing information asymmetry, inefficiency in public service, inequality and ultimately poverty. In 2016, the eight richest people in the world had as much money as the bottom 50 per cent of humanity thats three-and-a-half billion people. And of those eight, six were infotech billionaires. The world can no longer feign indifference on the priceless-ness of public data in this age. Similarly, governments are stewards of public data and money, responsible for allocating it to priority sectors in the society and policy-making. Technological advancement such as computer, internet and airplane has not only demystified global challenges (e.g. transportation) to the point that one could fly from New York to London in six hours or less; technology has made governance and public policy increasingly participatory and interactive. I believe that such interaction will ultimately result in more democratization of decision-making, getting citizens more involved in the allocation of state resources for public good. Democracy requires transparent decisions; so that citizens are aware of what is decided and how much money is being spent on which purposes. In developing economies especially Nigeria, one phenomenon driving political instability and economic stagnation is corruption. Stakeholders are unanimous that the incidence of corruption is unacceptably high and that open government opening up government data and public processes, is the antidote. The importance of data-driven transparency is indisputable in combating corruption because corruption thrives in atmospheres of opaqueness and secrecy. Incontestably, transparency counteracts corruption and sharp practices in government circles. A fundamental concept for understanding open government is information asymmetry. Information asymmetry is a situation in which one party has more information than another, for instance, when a government has more information than its constituents. One of the reasons why governments open their data is to reduce information asymmetry, but completely overcoming this is often not realistic. Somebody who is inside the system on a daily basis will always have more knowledge than outsiders do. However, easy access and a clear presentation of information are often necessary. We can see a clear picture, but completely bridging the information asymmetry is virtually impossible. The second point why we should open up government data is civic participation and engagement. Among other forms of centralized governments, one distinctive characteristic of democracy is citizens voice or civic participation. Citizens can never be able to properly engage their elected or public officials without data or information about what is happening inside government institutions. World over, a military dictator can always build roads; primary healthcare centres; potable water supply; etc., but at any instance, military dictators lack legitimacy because they rule by the barrel of a gun. Article 21 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads that: The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot or by equivalent free voting procedures. Fundamentally, access to relevant public data inevitably guide electorates during elections, guaranteeing credible electoral outcomes among nations. Undoubtedly, under democracies where voices are present, human rights are best protected. So there is a relationship between open governments, legitimacy of governments and trust. The importance of easy access to public data as a way of building trust is highlighted in open government ambitions. Commitments to open government should show that governments are not hiding anything from citizens. In the circumstance, the public can see how the government is functioning, and influence its working where necessary. For example, viewing how the budget is spent and thereafter suggesting alternative ways of spending the budget better. Challenging the status quo For five decades (19622011), Nigeria operated a horrible law Official Secret Act, which provided for the protection of official information from public interaction or scrutiny. The Act imposed restrictions upon public servants concerning disclosure of certain privileged information. Thus, for 50 years, Nigerian political environment was more or less a black box citizens living in an information blackout. In the same year (2011) that Open Government Partnership (OGP) was launched, Nigerian government enacted a revolutionary law Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), providing for free access of public information to citizens. The act also provides for the protection of personal privacy, protection of serving public officers from adverse consequences when they disclose certain kinds of official information without authorization. The Nigerian FOIA is considered a game-changer in the countrys long push for openness, transparency and accountability. Global efforts at opening up government-controlled data for public participation and engagement birthed a multilateral initiative OGP. In September 2011, on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting, Heads of State from 8 founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States) endorsed the Open Government Declaration. The OGP aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to open up government data and processes, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance among member states. How civic organisations are disrupting service delivery using FOIA and OGP For many years in Nigeria, corruption and cultures of opacity meant that resources meant for development were frittered away. According to a UN report, roughly $4.6bn is spent on bribes in Nigeria each year. Poor transparency and accountability have allowed corruption to flourish, but these civil society groups are trying to change the opaque environment. Empowered by the provisions of OGP and FIOA, governments are under intense pressure to intensify fights against corruption; sharing more information about the way federal ministers or commissioners are managing public resources and increasing citizen participation in public decision-making. A host of civic organizations: Follow The Money, Tracka, PPDC, SERAP etc are harnessing new technologies to strengthen governance especially in the grassroots. The activities of these above-named organizations are examples of how citizens (activists) can be part of the solution of nation-building in a fragile or failing democracy. Therefore to increase civic participation, promote transparency, and strengthen accountability; governments must open up public data hitherto administered in secrecy, for public perusal, consumption, and ownership. This article was first published in Apolitico, United Kingdom, in December 2018. Oped pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija | https://ynaija.com/why-should-governments-open-up-their-data/ |
How quickly does Herts County Council fill in dangerous potholes? | Hertfordshire County Council aims to repair dangerous potholes within one day of being alerted, data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows. That's much slower than the most common response time of two hours, with the fastest councils in the UK acting within minutes. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace." A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Hertfordshire County Council uses a "risk-based" approach to fixing potholes. Not only will a pothole's size be considered, but also the potential impact on road users and volume of traffic. That means deeper potholes on quiet lanes will be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. On rarely-used roads, Hertfordshire County Council will only intervene when potholes are at least 10cm deep . On busy major routes, potholes at least 5cm deep will be investigated. RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Hertfordshire, patching up could take almost three weeks. And the least troublesome defects may not be repaired at all - but the council will keep an eye on the pothole in case the problem worsens. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds." He added that councils need "consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance". | https://www.hemeltoday.co.uk/news/how-quickly-does-herts-county-council-fill-in-dangerous-potholes-1-8777476 |
How quickly does Leeds City Council fill in dangerous potholes? | Have your say Dangerous potholes that could cause accidents can take more than a day to repair in Leeds, data obtained from the RAC Foundation shows. Thats considerably slower than the most common response time of two hours, with the fastest councils aiming to act within minutes. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a cars suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace. A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Leeds City Council determines how dangerous a pothole is by measuring its size and depth. The local authority will only investigate potholes that are at least 4cm deep. That applies regardless of whether the pothole is on a quiet lane or a major route. The RAC Foundation recommends a different approach, assessing the impact of a pothole on road users over size. Director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds. He added that councils need consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance. | https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/how-quickly-does-leeds-city-council-fill-in-dangerous-potholes-1-9548173 |
How quickly does Oxfordshire County Council fill in dangerous potholes? | Oxfordshire County Council aims to repair dangerous potholes within two hours of being alerted, data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows. That's the most common response time, with the slowest councils in the UK taking up to five days. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace." A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Oxfordshire County Council uses a "risk-based" approach to fixing potholes. Not only will a pothole's size be considered, but also the potential impact on road users and volume of traffic. That means deeper potholes on quiet lanes will be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. The local authority will only investigate potholes that are at least 4cm deep and 15cm wide. That applies regardless of whether the pothole is on a quiet lane or a major route. RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Oxfordshire, patching up could take up to a month. And the least troublesome defects may not be repaired at all - but the council will monitor the pothole and consider including repairs in future roadworks. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds." He added that councils need "consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance". | https://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/news/how-quickly-does-oxfordshire-county-council-fill-in-dangerous-potholes-1-8777486 |
How will AI change domestic politics? | My son is a musician and composer. He desperately endeavors, every day and night, to compose creative music. I dreamed of becoming a professional musician 40 years ago. Now I have full sympathy for my son because it seems increasingly difficult for artists in the 21st century to be original in music or any other form of art. Take my sons example. When I was a teenager, electric instruments changed the music scene. There were no digital recorders, computers or databases then. No matter what you did, you could easily sound creative. Now everything is digitally recorded for reference and, for my sons generation, being original is very difficult. Although he utilizes digital sound sources, my son composes music manually, meaning without computer-assisted composition software. AI-assisted composition, he argues, doesnt always sound creative and only humans can make great music. It is particularly so, he believes, in the case of live music. I agree with him. Then more questions arise. If so, my son will lose his job. AI may eventually outsmart humans. Pundits call that moment the singularity. Some warn that will be the day when machines outperform human beings and finally start controlling them. Others, however, disagree by claiming that AIs current technological level is still low and will not surpass humans in the foreseeable future. Maybe so. I have no expertise to challenge their propositions. Indeed, practical applications of AI technologies have just started. Moreover, unfortunately, Japan is only focused on business and commercial not political and military applications of AI technologies. The singularity may come later rather than sooner, at least here. Having said that, the history of mankind looks like one of battles between machines and humans. Since our ancestors started using fire and tools a few million years ago, the holders of state-of-the-art technologies have grabbed power and the technologically inferior have been forced to obey them, whether they like it or not. For the past few centuries, revolutions in mobility (steam engines), in energy (internal combustion engines) and in communication (data processing) have changed the winners and losers in the history of mankind. The Fourth Industrial Revolution with AI technologies will soon follow. The question is, what will then happen to us. There are two schools of thoughts on the AI revolution. Optimists claim that advanced technologies will enhance productivity and lead to more new industries and employment. Pundits claim that even after the Luddite movement in 19th-century Britain, workers living standards improved. Such optimism is based on the logic of macroeconomics by powerful winners who enjoy a technological edge. From the viewpoint of the weak losers, however, the result is the opposite. Once lost, it is not easy for them to find new jobs quickly. The voices of frustrated, angry, unemployed men and women should not be underestimated. When the AI revolution takes place the world will dramatically change again. AI-assisted economization and rationalization will result in numerous unemployed people in both the manufacturing and services sectors. Many of them may join and even radicalize the politically intense nationalist and populist movements in the West. Macroeconomic solutions could take a decade or more. By that time, the socio-political environment in the industrialized countries could easily deteriorate. A half century after the Luddite movement, the First International was established in London. If history rhymes, the AI revolution may have two serious consequences. The first is a series of radical or anti-government political movements by frustrated and desperate unemployed people. Western governments may need to be ready to face such political challenges. The second is the possible rise of neo-socialism, which gives priority to economic equality over liberty and democracy under capitalism. All in all, political stability and economic prosperity in the future seems likely to depend on who can control the anger and frustration of the critical mass of the unemployed. I may be too pessimistic about AI technologies but the following is my take on how the AI revolution will change domestic politics in the next few decades: There will be no AI versus humans battle in the foreseeable future. It may be wrong to expect the singularity to take place soon in politics. What AI technologies will bring about in domestic politics will be intensified power struggles among human groups, each using different AI technologies to compete with one another in economic, political and social affairs. In the AI versus AI battles, the superior AI will win. Future battles in the AI field will be fought by AI technologies. But they will be battles between the people who wish to utilize AI for good and those who want to use it for malicious purposes. The singularity may eventually come, but in the foreseeable future what matters most is who uses AI and for what objectives. It is not machines but humans that make AI evil. From a practical point of view, AI or any other technologies are apolitical and fundamentally non-partisan by nature. While AI seems to be favored by authoritarian regimes such as China, for example, where it can be applied to control people, AI also can be a means to weaken such harsh control if properly utilized. All in all, we should not be afraid of the artificial intelligence revolution. In fact, it already started in the past decade and will only accelerate from now. By the same token, weve started benefitting from AI even while we dont recognize its endgame yet. Again, it is humans, not machines, that make AI a force for good. Kuni Miyake is president of the Foreign Policy Institute and research director at Canon Institute for Global Studies. | https://www.japantimes.co.jp/?post_type=opinion&p=1709639&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes+%28The+Japan+Times%3A+All+Stories%29 |
Was erwartet der Groenhainer OB vom neuen Jahr? | Rdertalbienen mit blamabler Vorstellung Grorhrsdorf. Wegen einer vllig indiskutablen Leistung verlor der HC Rdertal beim nchsten Aufsteiger, TuS Lintfort, mit 21:27 (10:15). Die 320 Zuschauer sahen eine engagierte Leistung der Heimmannschaft, whrend die Rdertalbienen trge wirkten und meist einen Schritt zu spt waren. Neben Julia Mauksch musste Bienen-Trainer Frank Mhlner auch kurzfristig auf Lisa Loehnig verzichten, die im Training umgeknickt war. Ansonsten stand ihm der gesamte Kader zur Verfgung. Die Mannschaft von Bettina Grenz-Klein legte einen grandiosen Start hin und ging schnell mit 2:0 in Fhrung. Beide Tore erzielte Loes Vandewal (10/3 Tore). Die quirlige Rckraumspielerin war heute die erfolgreichste Schtzin auf der Platte. Den ersten Treffer auf Seite der Bienen erzielte Meret Ossenkopp (7 Tore), die nach einem Zuspiel von Tammy Kreibich (3 Tore) frei zum Abschluss kam. Kurz darauf konnte Kamila Szczecina (2 Tore) ein Anspiel von Brigita Ivanauskaite (4 Tore) verwerten und glich zum 2:2 aus. Das Lintfort heute gedankenschneller war, deutete sich bereits beim 3:3 an in der Rckwrtsbewegung schlief der HCR beim Wechseln. In Unterzahl konnten sie den Ausgleich zum 3:3 nicht verhindern. Die Mhlner-Sieben lie sich davon zunchst nicht aus der Ruhe bringen und ging nach sechs Minuten mit 5:3 in Fhrung. TuS-Trainerin Grenz-Klein reagierte sie lie Ivanauskaite frhzeitig in Pressdeckung nehmen. Fr den Rest des Spiels waren die Bienen ein Schatten ihrer selbst. Immer wieder konnte Vandewal ihre Mitspielerinnen gut in Szene setzen. Es bentigte 13 Minuten und zwei Time-Outs von Mhlner, bis der HCR wieder etwas Zhlbares auf die Anzeigetafel bekam. In der 20. Minute spielte Kreibich einen przisen Diagonalpass auf die inzwischen eingewechselte Rabea Pollakowski (1 Tor), die zum 6:8 traf. Der HCR leistete sich auch weiterhin zu viele Fehler im Aufbauspiel und war auch in der Verteidigung meistens einen Schritt zu spt. Dadurch baute Lintfort den Vorsprung bis zur 28. Minute auf 15:9 aus. Kurz vor Ende der ersten Hlfte klaute Szczecina noch einmal unter vollem Einsatz dem Gegner den Ball. ber Pollakowski kam das Spielgert zu Ivanauskaite, die zum 10:15-Halbzeitstand traf. Zu Beginn der zweiten Hlfte machte sich noch einmal etwas Hoffnung im Lager der Bienen breit. Mhlner lie seine Mannschaft nun in einer offensiven 5:1-Abwehr verteidigen, womit Lintfort einige Schwierigkeiten hatte. Im Angriff war es Kreibich, die zum ersten Mal mit Tempo auf die gegnerische Abwehr ging und prompt das 11:15 erzielte. Kurz darauf verkrzten Ivanauskaite und Ossenkopp auf 13:15 (37. Minute). Beide Mannschaften leisteten sich nun immer wieder Fehler, weswegen das Spiel offen blieb. Die Bienen waren besonders in der Abwehr deutlich engagierter, lieen im Angriff aber mehrfach Grochancen ungenutzt. Bis zur 45. Minute zog die Sieben von Grenz-Klein auf 20:16 davon. Der HCR bumte sich nochmals kurz auf und verringerte den Rckstand wieder auf zwei Tore (18:20 nach 46 Minuten). In der 50. Minute erhielt Ivanauskaite ihre dritte Zeitstrafe und wurde disqualifiziert. Wie schon ber die gesamte Spieldauer lieen sich die Bienen weiterhin hngen. Es kam nie das Gefhl auf, dass sie dieses Spiel noch drehen knnten. Mit einem 4:0-Lauf zog Lintfort bis zur 55. Minute auf 26:20 davon. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war die Partie schon lngst gelaufen. Die Spielerinnen des HCR wirkten schlapp, kraftlos und konnten nicht annhernd das Tempo der Gastgeberinnen mitgehen. In den letzten fnf Minuten der Partie konnten beide Seiten noch ein Tor fr sich verbuchen. Ossenkopp erzielte das zwischenzeitliche 21:26, ehe Mie Norup Isaksen (3/3 Tore) per Strafwurf zum 27:21 Endstand traf. Neben der offensichtlichen konditionellen berlegenheit der Gastgeberinnen muss erneut ber die Ausbeute von der Strafwurflinie diskutiert werden. Die Bienen trafen lediglich einen von sechs Versuchen. Die Mannschaft tte gut daran, nach dieser blamablen Vorstellung, am nchsten Spieltag eine Trotzreaktion zu zeigen. HCR-Trainer Frank Mhlner: Wir haben heute wegen Arroganz verloren. Oft genug wurde darauf hingewiesen, dass die Spielerinnen von Lintfort um ihr Leben rennen werden. Wir haben unsere komplette Linie verloren und nicht das gemacht, was vorher besprochen wurde. Im Kopf waren die Mdels viel zu langsam. Konsequenz ist, dass der trainingsfreie Tag gestrichen ist. Florian TriebelWegen einer vllig indiskutablen Leistung verlor der HC Rdertal beim nchsten Aufsteiger, TuS Lintfort, mit 21:27 (10:15). Die 320 Zuschauer sahen eine engagierte weiterlesen | https://www.wochenkurier.info/sachsen/meissen/artikel/was-erwartet-der-grossenhainer-ob-vom-neuen-jahr-67036/ |
Is There Garbage Pickup on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2019? | Its Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which means many businesses and offices are closed. The day is a federal and state holiday and is celebrated each year on the third Monday of January. There is no mail delivered on MLK Jr. Day, and offices are closed as well. Many garbage disposal companies will not be running today. NYC.gov reports that there is no garbage, recycling, or organics collection on Monday, January 21. The site goes on to say that if Monday is your garbage or organics day, those items should be put out Monday after 4pm, and collection will begin on Tuesday, January 22. In Connecticut, there will be no garbage collection on Martin Luther Kings Day. Since the holiday falls on a Monday, regular waste and recycling collection will be delayed by one day for that week. For many areas, like many counties in Colorado, garbage removal may not occur until the next cycle day. In New Jersey, however, the garbage will run on a normal schedule with no delay. And in San Diego and Los Angeles, you are advised to set out your recycling and waste containers for collection on your regular scheduled service on MLK Jr. Day. In general, the trend is that most garbage and recycling collection will take place on Tuesday, June 22. However, to make sure you are not a day late, it will be necessary to check information provided by your local town, city, or state, to ensure that you take out trash and recycling as necessary. Martin Luther King Jr. Day marks the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Kings actual birthday is January 15, 1929; he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. MLK Jr. is famous as a Baptist minister and activist, who was a major leader in the Civil Rights Movement in our nations history. It took years before a bill creating a US holiday in honor of MLK Jr. was finally passed. In fact, the first people pushed for a holiday to be created in his honor just four days after his assassination. The year a bill for an MLK holiday was finally passed was 1983. The first time MLK Day was celebrated was three years later, in 1986. As History.com points out, it was a struggle to get MLK Day to come into existence. The outlet notes, it continues to face resistance today in the form of competing holidays to leaders of the Confederacy. King is the first modern private citizen to be honored with a federal holiday. | https://heavy.com/news/2019/01/garbage-recycling-collection-martin-luther-king-day/ |
How quickly does Wakefield Council fill in dangerous potholes? | Wakefield Council aims to repair dangerous potholes within one day of being alerted, data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows. Thats much slower than the most common response time of two hours, with the fastest councils in the UK acting within minutes. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a cars suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace. A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Wakefield Council determines how dangerous a pothole is by measuring its size and depth. But the data shows deeper potholes on quiet lanes will still be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. On rarely-used roads, Wakefield City Council will only intervene when potholes are at least 6.5cm deep. On busy major routes, potholes at least 5cm deep will be investigated. The RAC Foundation recommends a different approach, assessing the impact of a pothole on road users over size. Director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Wakefield, patching up could take up to a month. And the least troublesome defects may not be repaired at all - but the council will keep an eye on the pothole in case the problem worsens. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds. He added that councils need consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance.a | https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/how-quickly-does-wakefield-council-fill-in-dangerous-potholes-1-9548175 |
Is Trump thinking about copping a plea? | I cant be the only one left scratching his head by William Barrs performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. President Donald Trumps nominee for attorney general told the senators: I dont believe that Mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt. Yet that is the epitaph under which Trump would love to bury the investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller. And that wasnt an isolated attempt of Barr sounding like he was buttering up Democratic members of the committee. Time and time again, Barrs answers to the senators questions were 180 degrees out of sync with Trumps tweets and applause lines in his stump speeches. Barr said that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions probably did the right thing in recusing himself from the probe of possible Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election. Sessions was a member of Trumps campaign team but for Trump, that was no excuse. Before Sessions took the hint and resigned, he was subjected to months of abuse. Trump called him weak, beleaguered, mixed up and confused. Barr said the Russia investigation should be completed. Trump thinks it never should have begun. Barr told the senators that he and Mueller have been friends for 30 years, and that he had greeted Muellers special counsel appointment as good news. Trump has called Mueller a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue. That dissonance brought to mind something Id observed while sitting next to my kid-brother lawyer when hed try a case. Bob would draw a line down the middle of a piece of legal-size paper. On one side hed note the points his witnesses made while testifying. On the other side, hed list the points the opposing counsels witnesses made. In his final summery before the case went to a jury, Bob would underscore his witnessess testimony and poo-poo what the other lawyers witnesses said. Thats what lawyers do: They support a clients view of a dispute. But Trumps lawyer undercut him before a panel of U.S. senators. Technically the attorney general is not the presidents lawyer, but the nations. Thats not how Trump sees it. Not likely. Barr was frank about his friendship with Mueller when Trump was wooing Barr for his legal team, some months ago. Their wives are in a Bible study group. Trump didnt hire Barr then. Maybe its because what seems to make Barr a strange choice is, in fact, why hes a perfect fit for an endgame Trump could be toying with. Up to now, friends and foes have assumed that while a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives might impeach Trump, the Senate wouldnt convict him. But that scenario was written when the evidence of his potentially impeachable offensive was sketchy. Now theres a daily drip of leaks about the cards Mueller may be holding. The New York Times reported that, even before Muellers appointment, the FBI was concerned that Trump might be acting on behalf of a foreign power. The Washington Post wrote that Trump went to lengths to keep his tete-a-tetes with Vladimir Putin secret. He confiscated an interpreters notes. Perhaps Trump is less confident now that his supporters will keep the Senate in his corner. Confronted by the FBI with evidence of financial hijinks, Agnew cut a deal: He resigned his office, and the feds didnt prosecute him. Of course, thinking that he will follow Agnews lead requires the assumption that Trump can carefully weigh his options. He is prone to impetuous decisions. But there are those around him with a vested interest in leading Trump down the path of rationalism. Donald Trump Jr. and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner are increasingly vulnerable as it becomes evident that their 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian emissaries wasnt just about adoption policies. That problem would be solved by a deluxe version of Agnews deal: Trump resigns in return for immunity from prosecution for him and them. Generally its someones lawyer. But Rudy Giulianis public pronouncements tend to be untenable or incoherent. His goofy idea of letting the White House edit Muellers report didnt make it out of the starting gate. Barr, on the other hand, is a buddy of Muellers. They could meet, show each other photos of grandkids and amicably work out a deal that both sides can live with. [email protected] | https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-trump-barr-grossman-20190117-story.html |
When is the Super Bowl 2019 and how to watch in the UK? | (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) The Super Bowl is one of the biggest days of the year for American sports and it is an event that is shown around the world. 5 things we learned from the Masters as Judd Trump finally comes of age As well as the exciting half-time show and high-budget adverts, the football game between the two teams remains the key spectacle. The two teams who will be playing at this years Superbowl have now been confirmed and the anticipation is starting to build. Maroon 5 have been confirmed as headling the half-time show and they will also be joined by Travis Scott and Big Boi. This years Super Bowl event will take place on Sunday 3 February 2019. Advertisement Advertisement It is set to begin at around 23.30 GMT at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. How to watch in the UK This years game will be shown live on BBC One and Sky Sports and fans can also stream all of the action live using BBC iPlayer or Sky Go. This year it will be between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots. The Rams secured their place in the Super Bowl after getting a 26-23 win against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday after finishing 1st in NFC West. Serena Williams battles past world No. 1 Simona Halep to reach quarter-finals Yesterday also saw the AFC Easter leaders the New England Patriots win 37-34 against the Kansas City Chiefs as they cemented their place in this years final. It will be the third year in a row that the New England Patriots have competed at the Super Bowl, but the team failed to win last years event, losing 41-33 to the Philadelphia Eagles. They still have one of the highest win records at the Super Bowl with five victories so far, but a win later this year would see them go level with current leaders the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Los Angeles Rams have only had won victory at the Super Bowl which came in 1999 when they beat the Tennessee Titans 23-16. Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Scientists discover evidence to back up Professor Stephen Hawkings most important theory about black holes MORE: Gonzalo Higuain to arrive in London on Tuesday ahead of Chelsea transfer switch | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/21/2019-super-bowl-teams-playing-8367751/ |
Will Rams-Saints debacle bring down Al Riveron? | Getty Images The missed call at the end of regulation in the Rams-Saints game should spark real and meaningful changes to the manner in which NFL games are officiated. The league may opt for changes far more superficial. Peter King of Football Morning in America wonders aloud whether the blunder will bring down senior V.P. of officiating Al Riveron. As soon as this call got made, I heard from a couple of acquaintances/sources about the impact of it, King writes. Al Riveron is gone, one said. He cant survive this. Another said the league will have to pay big to bring back Dean Blandino or Mike Pereira (less likely). I think Riveron was on thin ice before Sunday. What the NFL should do, if it decides to dump Riveron, is pay realistic money to get Blandino back from his cushy gig at FOX. Hes a trusted and trustworthy guy. Blandino has publicly mused about returning to the league office; in late 2017, Blandino half-jokingly acknowledged that hed potentially be willing to return. Depends on what the numbers are, what the finances look like, Blandino said during a visit to the #PFTPM podcast. Blandino admitted in that same interview that his departure for FOX resulted from the numbers, or lack thereof, that applied to his position. I think that there was a sense of, around the league office and some of the people in leadership positions, they didnt value that position the way it should have been valued, and how important it is, Blandino said at the time. During the season, other than the Commissioner, the head of officiating is probably the most public-facing person in the office. And those decisions that are made, I mean, these affect the outcome of games, and thats your product on the field. Of course, Sundays humiliation for 345 Park Avenue didnt fall within the range of plays that Riveron or Blandino could have fixed, technically. But the real-time pipeline is there, and from time to time theres a distinct know-it-when-you-see-it delayed reaction decision at a game site that feels palpably like the execution of a mandate from on high. Riveron could have (should have) used the ability to speak directly to referee Bill Vinovich to tell him to drop a flag. Yes, it would have come late. Yes, it would have sparked speculation that the rules of the high-speed fiber line had been violated. Yes, it would have indeed violated the rules. No, nobody would have really cared including the Rams and their fans. It was a foul, plain and simple. It should have been caught when it happened and, failing that, it should have been caught in the de facto safety net provided by the league office, contours of said net be damned. While the league needs to do much heavy lifting to improve its officiating function, paying Blandino whatever it takes to put him back at the wheel of the bus will be the best way to ensure that, no matter what changes regarding the nuts and bolts of officiating, someone with a keen sense for what needs to happen and when it needs to happen will be there to provide the last line of defense against all hell breaking loose. | https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/01/21/will-rams-saints-debacle-bring-down-al-riveron/ |
How quickly does Doncaster Council fill in dangerous potholes? | Doncaster Borough Council aims to repair dangerous potholes within two hours of being alerted, data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows. That's the most common response time, with the slowest councils in the UK taking up to five days. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace." A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Doncaster Borough Council uses a "risk-based" approach to fixing potholes. Not only will a pothole's size be considered, but also the potential impact on road users and volume of traffic. That means deeper potholes on quiet lanes will be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. The local authority will only investigate potholes that are at least 4cm deep and 25cm wide. That applies regardless of whether the pothole is on a quiet lane or a major route. RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Doncaster, patching up could take almost a month. Repairs for the least troublesome defects will be included in planned roadworks. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds." He added that councils need "consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance". | https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/transport/how-quickly-does-doncaster-council-fill-in-dangerous-potholes-1-9548168 |
How quickly does Bucks County Council fill in dangerous potholes? | Buckinghamshire County Council aims to repair dangerous potholes within two hours of being alerted, data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows. That's the most common response time, with the slowest councils in the UK taking up to five days. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace." A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Buckinghamshire County Council uses a "risk-based" approach to fixing potholes. Not only will a pothole's size be considered, but also the potential impact on road users and volume of traffic. That means deeper potholes on quiet lanes will be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. The local authority will only investigate potholes that are at least 4cm deep and 30cm wide. That applies regardless of whether the pothole is on a quiet lane or a major route. RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Buckinghamshire, patching up could take up to a month. Repairs for the least troublesome defects will be included in planned roadworks. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds." He added that councils need "consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance". Buckinghamshire County Council aims to repair dangerous potholes within two hours of being alerted, data obtained by the RAC Foundation shows. That's the most common response time, with the slowest councils in the UK taking up to five days. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace." A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Buckinghamshire County Council uses a "risk-based" approach to fixing potholes. Not only will a pothole's size be considered, but also the potential impact on road users and volume of traffic. That means deeper potholes on quiet lanes will be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. The local authority will only investigate potholes that are at least 4cm deep and 30cm wide. That applies regardless of whether the pothole is on a quiet lane or a major route. RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Buckinghamshire, patching up could take up to a month. Repairs for the least troublesome defects will be included in planned roadworks. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds." He added that councils need "consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance". That's the most common response time, with the slowest councils in the UK taking up to five days. Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents. In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering 12 million. It said: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace." A Freedom of Information request by the RAC found that Buckinghamshire County Council uses a "risk-based" approach to fixing potholes. Not only will a pothole's size be considered, but also the potential impact on road users and volume of traffic. That means deeper potholes on quiet lanes will be less of a priority than minor defects on a major route. The local authority will only investigate potholes that are at least 4cm deep and 30cm wide. That applies regardless of whether the pothole is on a quiet lane or a major route. RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: The total number of potholes being filled in might still be limited by a shortage of funding, but this approach at least means those that are most dangerous are fixed first. Those particularly vulnerable to potholes cyclists and motorcyclists might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users. For less dangerous potholes that are earmarked for specific repairs in Buckinghamshire, patching up could take up to a month. Repairs for the least troublesome defects will be included in planned roadworks. The Local Government Association called for more funding for council-controlled local roads. Transport spokesman Councillor Martin Tett said: Keeping roads safe for all users is one of the most important jobs councils do. Thats reflected in the fact that local authorities are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds." He added that councils need "consistent and fairer government investment in local road maintenance". | https://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/news/how-quickly-does-bucks-county-council-fill-in-dangerous-potholes-1-8777466 |
Will Boeing Continue to Surge Higher? | As of late, it has definitely been a great time to be an investor in The Boeing Company. As of late, it has definitely been a great time to be an investor in The Boeing Company BA. The stock has moved higher by 0.1% in the past month, while it is also above its 20 Day SMA too. This combination of strong price performance and favorable technical, could suggest that the stock may be on the right path. We certainly think that this might be the case, particularly if you consider BAs recent earnings estimate revision activity. From this look, the companys future is quite favorable; as BA has earned itself a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), meaning that its recent run may continue for a bit longer, and that this isnt the top for the in-focus company. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | https://news.yahoo.com/boeing-continue-surge-higher-111411962.html |
Was bringt der Hebammen-Bonus? | Hebamme: "Geld allein wird die Probleme nicht regeln" Elke Schl ist seit ber 30 Jahren Hebamme, sie hat eine Praxis in Petershausen im Landkreis Dachau. Auch sie hat den Hebammenbonus vom Bayerischen Gesundheitsministerium beantragt. Aber Geld allein, sagt sie, wird die Probleme der Hebammen nicht regeln. "Darber freuen wir uns. Wer freut sich nicht ber eine finanzielle Anerkennung. Es wird aber an den problematischen Rahmenbedingungen in der Hebammenarbeit, insbesondere derer die Hausgeburten und generell Geburtshilfe leisten - an der problematischen Situation wird es nichts ndern. Und es wird nicht eine einzige Hebamme deshalb in der Geburtshilfe bleiben oder deshalb in die Geburtshilfe einsteigen." Elke Schl, Hebamme Viel Arbeitsaufwand fr Papierkram Elke Schl sagt, Hebammen htten immer weniger Zeit fr den Kern ihrer Arbeit: die Betreuung der Frauen. Ein Drittel ihrer Zeit gehe mittlerweile fr Dokumentationen zur Qualittssicherung, fr Antrge und Formulare drauf. Gesundheitsministerin Huml: Runder Tisch mit Hebammen Die Bayerische Gesundheitsministerin Melanie Huml will im Februar bei einem Runden Tisch von Hebammen, Krankenkassen und Elternvertretern besprechen, was ber den Bonus hinaus noch getan werden muss. "Wir haben in Bayern mehr Geburten erfreulicherweise, wir brauchen auch in Zukunft mehr Hebammen. Obwohl rein statistisch die Zahl der Hebammen in Bayern die letzten Jahre auch gestiegen ist. Aber leider nicht diejenigen, die unbedingt auch in der Geburtshilfe ttig sind. Sprich: Man muss immer die Zahlen auch differenziert betrachten. Und von daher haben wir schon auch einiges vor uns." Melanie Huml, Gesundheitsministerin Viele Hebammen denken ans Aufhren Die Hebammen, die noch arbeiten, machen hufig Vor- und Nachsorge die Geburtshilfe ist vielen zu stressig, die Haftpflichtprmien zu hoch im Moment liegen sie bei ber 8.000 Euro, auch, wenn die Krankenkassen da noch einen Zuschuss zahlen. Mechthild Hofner, die Vorsitzende des Bayerischen Hebammen-Landesverbandes, sagt, wenn die Hebammen nicht ausreichend Zeit fr die Frauen htten, dann wrden mehr Medikamente eingesetzt, die Zahl der Kaiserschnitte steige. Und der Stress schrecke viele ab, in die Geburtshilfe einzusteigen. "... dass immer weniger Hebammen immer mehr Geburten betreuen mssen. Also normalerweise gibt's internationale Standards: Eine Hebamme betreut 30 Geburten pro Jahr. Das wre einfach so konzipiert, dass da eine Ein-zu-eins-Betreuung mglich ist. Deutschland ist da wirklich trauriges Schlusslicht. Bei uns sind sogar 40 bis 60, in ganz schlimmen Zeiten sogar 80 Geburten pro Jahr. Und das geht eben gar nicht." Mechthild Hofner, Vorsitzende des Bayerischen Hebammen-Landesverbandes Ein weiteres Ergebnis der Studie des Gesundheitsministeriums: Etwa ein Drittel der Hebammen in Bayern hat im Jahr 2016 ernsthaft ans Aufhren gedacht. Daran wird auch der Hebammenbonus so schnell nichts ndern. | https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/was-bringt-der-hebammen-bonus,RFmRf7f |
Is he the next face to launch legions of memes? | He's the sweet-natured hunk known for his gentle personality and killer looks. But it appears that The Bachelorette winner Taite Radley has another side to him. After he struck what is known as a 'bad boy pose' during a gym session, the 29-year-old bank manager was unexpectedly mocked by amused fans. The Bachelorette fans hilariously mock winner Taite Radley after he strikes a bizarre 'bad boy' stance at the gym The photograph, which was posted to Taite's Instagram Stories on Monday, showed the handsome hunk kneeling on the floor of Brunswick's Snap Fitness gym. Taite held up a shaka hand gesture, which showed his right hand in a loose fist while extending his thumb and pinky finger. His other arm gently rested on his knee, allowing for a subtle flex that showed fans a glimpse of his bulging biceps. Straight Outta the gym! Followers quickly took the meme-inspiring picture and superimposed Taite beside a group photo of '90s hip hop group N.W.A. Looking every inch the fitness lothario, Taite opted for a classic Nike t-shirt teamed up with blue shorts and sneakers for the occasion. Followers quickly took the meme-inspiring picture and superimposed Taite beside a group photo of '90s hip hop group N.W.A. Another fan hilariously edited Taite into a bizarre setting in the sea, where he appeared to be surfing. Hilarious: Another fan hilariously edited Taite into this bizarre setting in the sea, where he appeared to be surfing Taite shot to fame after winning the latest season of The Bachelorette - scoring the heart of girlfriend Ali Oetjen. Most recently, Ali and Taite have become known for their promotional posts on Instagram, with the pair posting a combined 25 branded posts in their first week together following the finale of the Network Ten show. At every destination on their travels the pair have tagged businesses or venues to thank them for their hospitality - sparking speculation they are funding their trip through promotions. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6614625/Is-face-launch-legions-memes.html |
Is misbruik in de kerk een westers probleem? | Zo'n 260 bisschoppen kwamen oktober vorig jaar in Rome bij elkaar om tijdens een synode te praten over de vraag hoe jongeren meer bij de kerk kunnen worden betrokken. Maar in de vergaderzaal en zeker in de wandelgangen ging het maar al te vaak over dat ene beladen onderwerp dat als een deken over die bisschoppensynode heen lag: misbruik. Des te opmerkelijker dat in het 55 pagina's tellende slotdocument de misbruikcrisis - die in de maanden ervoor weer hevig was opgelaaid - er nogal bekaaid af kwam. Over misbruik werd gezegd dat 'de synode opnieuw onderstreept dat er rigoureuze maatregelen moeten worden getroffen om herhaling van seksueel misbruik te voorkomen'. Een eerdere versie waarin steun werd uitgesproken voor zero tolerance haalde de eindtekst niet. Die terughoudendheid viel wellicht te verklaren uit het vooruitzicht van die misbruikconferentie in februari en het feit dat die synode toch echt over wat anders ging. Lees verder na de advertentie Maar er speelde ook nog iets anders mee. Sommige bisschoppen uit Azi en Afrika vonden al die aandacht voor wat zij zien als een westers probleem, niet nodig. Bij hen zou het probleem niet zo groot zijn. Maar er waren ook andere geluiden. De Maleisische aartsbisschop Simon Poh riep zijn collega-bisschoppen in Azi op om alert te zijn. "In plaats van te zeggen dat die dingen hier niet voorkomen, kunnen we beter proactief zijn en zeggen: 'Wat moet er gebeuren?'" Rodrigo Duterte haalt regelmatig hard uit naar priesters en bisschoppen, ook vanwege seksueel misbruik Gijs Moes Dat misbruik als een westers probleem wordt gezien is aan de andere kant ook niet zo vreemd. De meeste schandalen over geestelijken die zich aan kinderen vergrepen, kwamen naar buiten in landen als de Verenigde Staten, Ierland en Australi. Vooral de Amerikaanse katholieke kerk werd het afgelopen jaar hard getroffen, met schandalen rond aartsbisschop McCarrick en een schokkend rapport van Justitie in de staat Pennsylvania. In heel het land doet Justitie nu onderzoek naar misbruik in de kerk. In Zuid-Amerika was er het enorme misbruikschandaal in Chili dat zelfs de paus in verlegenheid bracht, maar over de rest van het continent is nog veel onduidelijk. Dat geldt nog in sterkere mate voor Azi en Afrika. Niemand weet goed hoe groot het probleem daar is. Als het om de aanpak seksueel wangedrag door geestelijken gaat, zijn dat nog altijd onontgonnen gebieden. Argentini Van onze correspondent Remi Lehmann Seksueel misbruik door rooms-katholieke geestelijken wordt in Argentini zelden bestraft. In het land van de paus zijn slachtoffers overgeleverd aan politieke onwil en beperkte kerkelijke goodwill. In 2002 vertelde 'Gabriel' op televisie hoe hij door priester Julio Grassi was gedwongen tot seks. Het was een schok voor veel Argentijnen: zij kenden de mediagenieke priester juist als welzijnswerker die met zijn stichting onderdak en zorg bood aan kwetsbare kinderen. Na een jarenlang proces werd de priester veroordeeld tot vijftien jaar cel. Sinds de zaak-Grassi zijn 62 geestelijken aangeklaagd voor vergelijkbare misdrijven, onder wie een bisschop en drie nonnen. Toch leidde dat tot slechts acht vonnissen, weet advocaat Carlos Lombardi, die slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik steunt. "De verdediging probeert het proces te rekken, zodat de misdrijven verjaren." Het steekt Lombari dat de kerk veroordeelde geestelijken blijft beschermen. "De paus predikt zero tolerance, maar heeft Grassi nooit uit het ambt gezet." Het is volgens de advocaat tekenend voor de doofpotcultuur en de inefficintie van het kerkelijk recht. Ins Franck gelooft wel in het zelfreinigend vermogen van de kerk. De juriste werkt voor een commissie die minderjarigen beschermt in het bisdom Paran. "We geven voorlichting om misbruik te signaleren en voorkomen", aldus Franck. Zo verbiedt de gedragscode van de commissie fysiek contact tussen geestelijken en kinderen en is er een aangiftenprotocol. "We bieden vooral steun aan het slachtoffer, maar stappen desgewenst naar justitie." Franck hoopt dat andere bisdommen de werkwijze overnemen en kijkt uit naar de top in het Vaticaan. "Men is zich bewust van het probleem, maar het mag niet bij woorden blijven. Het is tijd voor actie." Advocaat Lombardi werkt aan een wetsvoorstel voor een onafhankelijke onderzoekscommissie in Argentini. Hij krijgt weinig steun van parlementsleden in dit verkiezingsjaar. Driekwart van de kiezers is katholiek en de paus is populair. "Politici vliegen naar het Vaticaan om een wit voetje bij de paus te halen", verzucht Lombardi. studio vonq Filippijnen Van onze verslaggever Gijs Moes De Filippijnen kennen een unieke combinatie van een zeer katholieke bevolking en een populaire president die als een wilde tekeergaat tegen de kerk. Rodrigo Duterte haalt regelmatig hard uit naar priesters en bisschoppen, ook van-wege seksueel misbruik. Het probleem van misbruik binnen de kerk is niet nieuw op de Filippijnen: al in 2002 bood de bisschoppenconferentie haar excuses aan. Volgens de toenmalige aartsbisschop van Cotabato, Orlando Quevedo, hadden destijds 200 van de 7000 priesters in het land zich in de twintig jaar ervoor seksueel misdragen. Onder die term vatte hij niet alleen kindermisbruik, maar ook homoseksualiteit en affaires met volwassen vrouwen. Hij beloofde nieuwe richtlijnen op te stellen. In veel landen in Afrika ten zuiden van de Sahara heerst nog altijd het 'grote man-syndroom Ilona Eveleens Ook daarna zijn er nog klachten ingediend tegen priesters en bisschoppen op de eilandengroep, waar ruim 80 procent van de meer dan 100 miljoen inwoners katholiek is. Enkele jaren na de excuses van de conferentie moesten twee bisschoppen zelfs opstappen. In 2015 klaagde een man de Jezueten op de Filippijnen aan vanwege het feit dat hij in zijn jeugd was misbruikt op scholen van die orde. Vorig jaar moest de Filippijnse kerk opnieuw door het stof, bij monde van de aartsbisschop van Davao, Romulo Valles. "Dezer dagen voelen we opnieuw, met groeiende intensiteit, pijn en schaamte vanwege de vele onthullingen van seksueel wangedrag, begaan door een aanzienlijk aantal bisschoppen en andere gewijde personen." Een grondig onderzoek naar misbruik binnen de Filippijnse kerk is tot nu toe niet uitgevoerd, dus is er weinig zicht op de omvang van het probleem. President Duterte steunt de slachtoffers, maar wel in zijn eigen botte stijl. "De katholieke kerk is iets heel wellustigs geworden", zei hij enkele weken geleden in Manila. "Ze moeten zichzelf corrigeren voordat ik hun vijand word. Ik blijf hen aanvallen." Duterte herhaalde bij die gelegenheid hoe hij in zijn jeugd zelf werd misbruikt door een priester. Dat zou gebeurd zijn tijdens de biecht, nadat hij vertelde hoe hij een kindermeisje in haar slaap had betast. Afrika Van onze correpsondent Ilona Eveleens De onthullingen en discussies over seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk worden in Afrika breed uitgemeten in de media. Maar de meeste publicaties merken op: 'Het is een Westers probleem'. Er zijn weliswaar in diverse landen beschuldigingen geuit, maar die hebben zelden tot vervolging geleid. Alleen in Zuid-Afrika wordt door slachtoffers en kerk meer openheid in acht genomen. Daar zijn de laatste jaren meer dan dertig klachten bij de kerk gerapporteerd en zijn drie priesters uit het ambt gezet. De politie onderzoekt enkele zaken. In het verleden is het tot een enkele veroordeling gekomen. In veel andere landen in Afrika ten zuiden van de Sahara heerst nog altijd het 'grote man-syndroom, waarbij de gewone man of vrouw niet naar buiten durft te treden over dubieus optreden door veelal autoritaire leiders. In Kenia zijn een paar beschuldigingen geuit tegen buitenlandse Mill Hill-paters, onder wie een Nederlander. Die aanklachten leidden niet tot vervolging. De paters in kwestie gingen terug naar hun thuisland en een van hen werd door het Vaticaan verboden nog langer de mis op te dragen. Berichten over seksueel misbruik van nonnen door mannelijke geestelijken komen sinds de eeuwwisseling mondjesmaat naar buiten. En weer is er meer openheid in Zuid-Afrika. Elders zijn er geruchten, maar heerst vooral een cultuur van stilzwijgen. Vrouwen zwijgen over seksueel misbruik uit schaamte en angst voor stigma. Daarbij komt ook dat in veel Afrikaanse landen klachten over seksueel misbruik door politie en andere autoriteiten meestal niet erg serieus worden genomen. Wel is er meer openheid, vaak in de vorm van een soort publiek geheim, over seksuele relaties van katholieke geestelijken met vrouwen buiten de kerk. Menig priester houdt er niet alleen een vriendin op na, maar heeft ook kinderen verwekt. In Kenia worden sinds vorig jaar DNA-testen gedaan als een geestelijke verdacht wordt van het verwekken van kinderen. De resultaten blijven binnenshuis. "De uitkomsten worden aan de katholieke kerk in Kenia en het Vaticaan overhandigd en zij beslissen wat er mee te doen", aldus het Keniaanse DNA-testinstituut. Lees ook: | https://www.trouw.nl/religie-en-filosofie/is-misbruik-in-de-kerk-een-westers-probleem-~a701ca9e/ |
Does Journalism Have a Future? | The wood-panelled tailgate of the 1972 Oldsmobile station wagon dangled open like a broken jaw, making a wobbly bench on which four kids could sit, eight legs swinging. Every Sunday morning, long before dawn, wed get yanked out of bed to stuff the cars way-back with stacks of twine-tied newspapers, clamber onto the tailgate, cut the twine with my mothers sewing scissors, and ride around town, bouncing along on that bench, while my father shouted out orders from the drivers seat. Watch out for the dog! hed holler between draws on his pipe. Inside the screen door! Mailbox! As the car crept along, never stopping, wed each grab a paper and dash in the dark across icy driveways or dew-drunk grass, crashing, seasonally, into unexpected snowmen. Back porch! Money under the mat! He kept a list, scrawled on the back of an envelope, taped to the dashboard: the Accounts. They owe three weeks! He didnt need to remind us. We knew each Doberman and every debt. Wed deliver our papersWorcester Sunday Telegramsand then run back to the car and scramble onto the tailgate, dropping the coins wed collected into empty Briggs tobacco tins as we bumped along to the next turn, the newspaper route our Sabbath. The Worcester Sunday Telegram was founded in 1884, when a telegram meant something fast. Two years later, it became a daily. It was never a great paper but it was always a pretty good paper: useful, gossipy, and resolute. It cultivated talent. The poet Stanley Kunitz was a staff writer for the Telegram in the nineteen-twenties. The New York Times reporter Douglas Kneeland, who covered Kent State and Charles Manson, began his career there in the nineteen-fifties. Joe McGinniss reported for the Telegram in the nineteen-sixties before writing The Selling of the President. From bushy-bearded nineteenth-century politicians to baby-faced George W. Bush, the paper was steadfastly Republican, if mainly concerned with scandals and mustachioed villains close to home: overdue repairs to the main branch of the public library, police raids on illegal betting establishmentsWorcester Dog Chases Worcester Cat Over Worcester Fence, as the old Washington press-corps joke about a typical headline in a local paper goes. Its pages rolled off giant, thrumming presses in a four-story building that overlooked City Hall the way every city paper used to look out over every city hall, the Bat-Signal over Gotham. Most newspapers like that havent lasted. Between 1970 and 2016, the year the American Society of News Editors quit counting, five hundred or so dailies went out of business; the rest cut news coverage, or shrank the papers size, or stopped producing a print edition, or did all of that, and it still wasnt enough. The newspaper mortality rate is old news, and nostalgia for dead papers is itself pitiful at this point, even though, I still say, theres a principle involved. I wouldnt weep about a shoe factory or a branch-line railroad shutting down, Heywood Broun, the founder of the American Newspaper Guild, said when the New York World went out of business, in 1931. But newspapers are different. And the bleeding hasnt stopped. Between January, 2017, and April, 2018, a third of the nations largest newspapers, including the Denver Post and the San Jose Mercury News, reported layoffs. In a newer trend, so did about a quarter of digital-native news sites. BuzzFeed News laid off a hundred people in 2017; speculation is that BuzzFeed is trying to dump it. The Huffington Post paid most of its writers nothing for years, upping that recently to just above nothing, and yet, despite taking in a hundred and forty-six million dollars in advertising revenue in 2018, it failed to turn a profit. Even veterans of august and still thriving papers are worried, especially about the fake news thats risen from the ashes of the dead news. We are, for the first time in modern history, facing the prospect of how societies would exist without reliable news, Alan Rusbridger, for twenty years the editor-in-chief of the Guardian, writes in Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now. There are not that many places left that do quality news well or even aim to do it at all, Jill Abramson, a former executive editor of the New York Times, writes in Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts. Like most big-paper reporters and editors who write about the crisis of journalism, Rusbridger and Abramson are interested in national and international news organizations. The local story is worse. First came conglomeration. Worcester, Massachusetts, the second-largest city in New England, used to have four dailies: the Telegram, in the morning, and the Gazette, in the evening (under the same ownership), the Spy, and the Post. Now it has one. The last great laying waste to American newspapers came in the early decades of the twentieth century, mainly owing to (a) radio and (b) the Depression; the number of dailies fell from 2,042 in 1920 to 1,754 in 1944, leaving 1,103 cities with only one paper. Newspaper circulation rose between 1940 and 1990, but likely only because more people were reading fewer papers, and, as A. J. Liebling once observed, nothing is crummier than a one-paper town. In 1949, after yet another New York daily closed its doors, Liebling predicted, If the trend continues, New York will be a one- or two-paper town by about 1975. He wasnt that far off. In the nineteen-eighties and nineties, as Christopher B. Daly reports in Covering America: A Narrative History of the Nations Newspapers, the big kept getting bigger. Conglomeration can be good for business, but it has generally been bad for journalism. Media companies that want to get bigger tend to swallow up other media companies, suppressing competition and taking on debt, which makes publishers cowards. In 1986, the publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle bought the Worcester Telegram and the Evening Gazette, and, three years later, right about when Time and Warner became Time Warner, the Telegram and the Gazette became the Telegram & Gazette, or the T&G, smaller fries but the same potato. Next came the dot-coms. Craigslist went online in the Bay Area in 1996 and spread across the continent like a weed, choking off local newspapers most reliable source of revenue: classified ads. The T&G tried to hold on to its classified-advertising section by wading into the shallow waters of the Internet, at telegram.com, where it was called, acronymically, and not a little desperately, TANGO! Then began yet another round of corporate buyouts, deeply leveraged deals conducted by executives answerable to stockholders seeking higher dividends, not better papers. In 1999, the New York Times Company bought the T&G for nearly three hundred million dollars. By 2000, only three hundred and fifty of the fifteen hundred daily newspapers left in the United States were independently owned. And only one out of every hundred American cities that had a daily newspaper was anything other than a one-paper town. Then came the fall, when papers all over the country, shackled to mammoth corporations and a lumbering, century-old business model, found themselves unable to compete with the upstartsonline news aggregators like the Huffington Post (est. 2005) and Breitbart News (est. 2007), which were, to readers, free. News aggregators also drew display advertisers away from print; Facebook and Google swallowed advertising accounts whole. Big papers found ways to adapt; smaller papers mainly folded. Between 1994 and 2016, years when the population of Worcester County rose by more than a hundred thousand, daily home delivery of the T&G declined from more than a hundred and twenty thousand to barely thirty thousand. In one year alone, circulation fell by twenty-nine per cent. In 2012, after another round of layoffs, the T&G left its building, its much reduced staff small enough to fit into two floors of an office building nearby. The next year, the owner of the Boston Red Sox bought the newspaper, along with the Boston Globe, from the New York Times Company for seventy million dollars, only to unload the T&G less than a year later, for seventeen million dollars, to Halifax Media Group, which held it for only half a year before Halifax itself was bought, flea-market style, by an entity that calls itself, unironically, the New Media Investment Group. The numbers mask an uglier story. In the past half century, and especially in the past two decades, journalism itselfthe way news is covered, reported, written, and editedhas changed, including in ways that have made possible the rise of fake news, and not only because of mergers and acquisitions, and corporate ownership, and job losses, and Google Search, and Facebook and BuzzFeed. Theres no shortage of amazing journalists at work, clear-eyed and courageous, broad-minded and brilliant, and no end of fascinating innovation in matters of form, especially in visual storytelling. Still, journalism, as a field, is as addled as an addict, gaunt, wasted, and twitchy, its pockets as empty as its nights are sleepless. Its faster than it used to be, so fast. Its also edgier, and needier, and angrier. It wants and it wants and it wants. The daily newspaper is the taproot of modern journalism. Dailies mainly date to the eighteen-thirties, the decade in which the word journalism was coined, meaning daily reporting, the jour in journalism. Early dailies depended on subscribers to pay the bills. The press was partisan, readers were voters, and the news was meant to persuade (and voter turnout was high). But by 1900 advertising made up more than two-thirds of the revenue at most of the nations eighteen thousand newspapers, and readers were consumers (and voter turnout began its long fall). The newspaper is not a missionary or a charitable institution, but a business that collects and publishes news which the people want and are willing to buy, one Missouri editor said in 1892. Newspapers stopped rousing the rabble so much because businesses wanted readers, no matter their politics. There is a sentiment gaining ground to the effect that the public wants its politics straight, a journalist wrote the following year. Reporters pledged themselves to facts, facts, and more facts, and, as the press got less partisan and more ad-based, newspapers sorted themselves out not by their readers political leanings but by their incomes. If you had a lot of money to spend, you read the St. Paul Pioneer Press; if you didnt have very much, you read the St. Paul Dispatch. Unsurprisingly, critics soon began writing big books, usually indictments, about the relationship between business and journalism. When you read your daily paper, are you reading facts or propaganda? Upton Sinclair asked on the jacket of The Brass Check, in 1919. In The Disappearing Daily, in 1944, Oswald Garrison Villard mourned what was once a profession but is now a business. The big book that inspired Jill Abramson to become a journalist was David Halberstams The Powers That Be, from 1979, a history of the rise of the modern, corporate-based media in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his reporting from Vietnam for the New York Times, took up his story more or less where Villard left off. He began with F.D.R. and CBS radio; added the Los Angeles Times, Time Inc., and CBS television; and reached his storys climax with the Washington Post and the New York Times and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, in 1971. It was weird. He got on his knees and put this rock on my finger and asked me to spend the rest of my life with just him! Halberstam argued that between the nineteen-thirties and the nineteen-seventies radio and television brought a new immediacy to reporting, while the resources provided by corporate owners and the demands made by an increasingly sophisticated national audience led to harder-hitting, investigative, adversarial reporting, the kind that could end a war and bring down a President. Richard Rovere summed it up best: What The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Time and CBS have in common is that, under pressures generated internally and externally, they moved from venality or parochialism or mediocrity or all three to something approaching journalistic excellence and responsibility. That move came at a price. Watergate, like Vietnam, had obscured one of the central new facts about the role of journalism in America, Halberstam wrote. Only very rich, very powerful corporate institutions like these had the impact, the reach, and above all the resources to challenge the President of the United States. Theres reach, and then theres reach. When I was growing up, in the nineteen-seventies, nobody I knew read the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Wall Street Journal. Nobody I knew even read the Boston Globe, a paper that used to have a rule that no piece should ever be so critical of anyone that its writer could not shake hands the next day with the man about whom he had written. After journalism put up its dukes, my father only ever referred to the Globe as that Communist rag, not least because, in 1967, it became the first major paper in the United States to come out against the Vietnam War. The view of the new journalism held by people like my father escaped Halberstams notice. In 1969, Nixons Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, delivered a speech drafted by the Nixon aide Pat Buchanan accusing the press of liberal bias. Its good politics for us to kick the press around, Nixon is said to have told his staff. The press, Agnew said, represents a concentration of power over American public opinion unknown in history, consisting of men who read the same newspapers and talk constantly to one another. How dare they. Halberstam waved this aside as so much P.R. hooey, but, as has since become clear, Agnew reached a ready audience, especially in houses like mine. The press regarded Agnew with uncontrolled hilarity, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., observed in 1970, but no one can question the force of Spiro T. Agnews personality, nor the impact of his speeches. No scholar of journalism can afford to ignore Agnew anymore. In On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News, the historian Matthew Pressman argues that any understanding of the crisis of journalism in the twenty-first century has to begin by vanquishing the ghost of Spiro T. Agnew. For Pressman, the pivotal period for the modern newsroom is what Abramson calls Halberstams Golden Age, between 1960 and 1980, and its signal feature was the adoption not of a liberal bias but of liberal values: Interpretation replaced transmission, and adversarialism replaced deference. In 1960, nine out of every ten articles in the Times about the Presidential election were descriptive; by 1976, more than half were interpretative. This turn was partly a consequence of televisionpeople who simply wanted to find out what happened could watch television, so newspapers had to offer something elseand partly a consequence of McCarthyism. The rise of McCarthy has compelled newspapers of integrity to develop a form of reporting which puts into context what men like McCarthy have to say, the radio commentator Elmer Davis said in 1953. Five years later, the Times added News Analysis as a story category. Once upon a time, news stories were like tape recorders, the Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors commented in 1963. No more. A whole generation of events had taught us betterHitler and Goebbels, Stalin and McCarthy, automation and analog computers and missiles. These changes werent ideologically driven, Pressman insists, but they had ideological consequences. At the start, leading conservatives approved. To keep a reporters prejudices out of a story is commendable, Irving Kristol wrote in 1967. To keep his judgment out of a story is to guarantee that the truth will be emasculated. After the Times and the Post published the Pentagon Papers, Kristol changed his spots. Journalists, he complained in 1972, were now engaged in a perpetual confrontation with the social and political order (the establishment, as they say). By 1975, after Watergate, Kristol was insisting that most journalists today . . . are liberals. With that, the conservative attack on the press was off and running, all the way to Trumpismthe failing New York Times, CNN is fake news, the press is the true enemy of the peopleand, in a revolution-devouring-its-elders sort of way, the shutting down of William Kristols Weekly Standard, in December. The pathetic and dishonest Weekly Standard . . . is flat broke and out of business, Trump tweeted. May it rest in peace! What McCarthy and television were for journalism in the nineteen-fifties, Trump and social media would be in the twenty-tens: license to change the rules. Halberstams Golden Age, or what he called journalisms high-water mark, ended about 1980. Abramsons analysis in Merchants of Truth begins with journalisms low-water mark, in 2007, the year after Facebook launched its News Feed, the year everything began to fall apart. Merchants of Truth isnt just inspired by The Powers That Be; its modelled on it. Abramsons book follows Halberstams structure and mimics its style, chronicling the history of a handful of nationally prominent media organizationsin her case, BuzzFeed, Vice, the Times, and the Washington Postin alternating chapters that are driven by character sketches and reported scenes. The book is saturated with a lot of gossip and glitz, including details about the restaurants the powers that be frequent, and what they wear (Sulzbergerthe Times publisherdressed in suits from Bloomingdales, stylish without being ostentatiously bespoke, and wore suspenders before they went out of fashion), alongside crucial insights about structural transformations, like how Web and social-media publishing unbundled the newspaper, so that readers who used to find a fat newspaper on their front porch could, on their phones, look, instead, at only one story. Each individual article now lived on its own page, where it had a unique URL and could be shared, and spread virally, Abramson observes. This put stories, rather than papers, in competition with one another. This history is a chronicle of missed opportunities, missteps, and lessons learned the hard way. As long ago as 1992, an internal report at the Washington Post urged the mounting of an electronic product: The Post ought to be in the forefront of this. Early on, the Guardian started a New Media lab, which struck a lot of people as frivolous, Rusbridger writes, because, at the time, only 3 per cent of households owned a PC and a modem, a situation not unlike that at the Guardians own offices, where it was rumored that downstairs a bloke called Paul in IT had a Mac connected to the internet. A 1996 business plan for the Guardian concluded that the priority was print, and the London Times editor Simon Jenkins predicted, The Internet will strut an hour upon the stage, and then take its place in the ranks of the lesser media. In 2005, the Post lost a chance at a ten-per-cent investment in Facebook, whose returns, as Abramson points out, would have floated the newspaper for decades. The C.E.O. of the Washington Post Company, Don Graham, and Mark Zuckerberg shook hands over the deal, making a verbal contract, but, when Zuckerberg weaseled out of it to take a better offer, Graham, out of kindness to a young fella just starting out, simply let him walk away. The next year, the Post shrugged off a proposal from two of its star political reporters to start a spinoff Web site; they went on to found Politico. The Times, Abramson writes, declined an early chance to invest in Google, and was left to throw the kitchen sink at its failing business model, including adding a Thursday Style section to attract more high-end advertising revenue. Bill Keller, then the newspapers editor, said, If luxury porn is what saves the Baghdad bureau, so be it. More alarming than what the Times and the Post failed to do was how so much of what they did do was determined less by their own editors than by executives at Facebook and BuzzFeed. If journalism has been reinvented during the past two decades, it has, in the main, been reinvented not by reporters and editors but by tech companies, in a sequence of events that, in Abramsons harrowing telling, resemble a series of puerile stunts more than acts of public service. Merchants of Truth has been charged with factual errors, including by people Abramson interviewed, especially younger journalists. She can also be maddeningly condescending. She doffs her cap at Sulzberger, with his natty suspenders, but dismisses younger reporters at places like Vice as notable mainly for being impossibly hip, with interesting hair. This is distracting, and too bad, because there is a changing of the guard worth noting, and its not incidental: its critical. All the way through to the nineteen-eighties, all sorts of journalists, including magazine, radio, and television reporters, got their start working on daily papers, learning the ropes and the rules. Rusbridger started out in 1976 as a reporter at the Cambridge Evening News, which covered stories that included a petition about a pedestrian crossing and a root vegetable that looked like Winston Churchill. In the U.K., a reporter who wanted to go to Fleet Street had first to work for three years on a provincial newspaper, pounding the pavement. Much the same applied in the U.S., where a cub reporter did time at the Des Moines Register, or the Worcester Telegram, before moving up to the New York Times or the Herald Tribune. Beat reporting, however, is not the backstory of the people who, beginning in the nineteen-nineties, built the New Media. Jonah Peretti started out soaking up postmodern theory at U.C. Santa Cruz in the mid-nineteen-nineties, and later published a scholarly journal article about the scrambled, disjointed, and incoherent way of thinking produced by accelerated visual experiences under late capitalism. Or something like that. Imagine an article written by that American Studies professor in Don DeLillos White Noise. Peretti thought that watching a lot of MTV can mess with your headThe rapid fire succession of signifiers in MTV style media erodes the viewers sense of temporal continuityleaving you confused, stupid, and lonely. Capitalism needs schizophrenia, but it also needs egos, Peretti wrote. The contradiction is resolved through the acceleration of the temporal rhythm of late capitalist visual culture. This type of acceleration encourages weak egos that are easily formed, and fade away just as easily. Voil, a business plan! Perettis career in viral content began in 2001, with a prank involving e-mail and Nike sneakers while he was a graduate student at the M.I.T. Media Lab. (Peretti ordered custom sneakers embroidered with the word sweatshop and then circulated Nikes reply.) In 2005, a year the New York Times Company laid off five hundred employees and the Post began paying people to retire early, Peretti joined Andrew Breitbart, a Matt Drudge acolyte, and Ken Lerer, a former P.R. guy at AOL Time Warner, in helping Arianna Huffington, a millionaire and a former anti-feminist polemicist, launch the Huffington Post. Peretti was in charge of innovations that included a click-o-meter. Within a couple of years, the Huffington Post had more Web traffic than the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Its business was banditry. Abramson writes that when the Times published a deeply reported exclusive story about WikiLeaks, which took months of investigative work and a great deal of money, the Huffington Post published its own version of the story, using the same headlineand beat out the Times story in Google rankings. We were learning that the internet behaved like a clattering of jackdaws, Rusbridger writes. Nothing remained exclusive for more than two minutes. Pretty soon, there were jackdaws all over the place, with their schizophrenic late-capitalist accelerated signifiers. Breitbart left the Huffington Post and started Breitbart News around the same time that Peretti left to focus on his own company, Contagious Media, from which he launched BuzzFeed, where he tested the limits of virality with offerings like the seven best links about gay penguins and YouTube Porn Hacks. He explained his methods in a pitch to venture capitalists: Raw buzz is automatically published the moment it is detected by our algorithm, and the future of the industry is advertising as content. Facebook launched its News Feed in 2006. In 2008, Peretti mused on Facebook, Thinking about the economics of the news business. The company added its Like button in 2009. Peretti set likability as BuzzFeeds goal, and, to perfect the instruments for measuring it, he enlisted partners, including the Times and the Guardian, to share their data with him in exchange for his reports on their metrics. Lists were liked. Hating people was liked. And it turned out that news, which is full of people who hate other people, can be crammed into lists. Chartbeat, a content intelligence company founded in 2009, launched a feature called Newsbeat in 2011. Chartbeat offers real-time Web analytics, displaying a constantly updated report on Web traffic that tells editors what stories people are reading and what stories theyre skipping. The Post winnowed out reporters based on their Chartbeat numbers. At the offices of Gawker, the Chartbeat dashboard was displayed on a giant screen. In 2011, Peretti launched BuzzFeed News, hiring a thirty-five-year-old Politico journalist, Ben Smith, as its editor-in-chief. Smith asked for a scoop-a-day from his reporters, who, he told Abramson, had little interest in the rules of journalism: They didnt even know what rules they were breaking. In 2012, BuzzFeed introduced three new one-click ways for readers to respond to stories, beyond liking themLOL, OMG, and WTFand ran lists like 10 Reasons Everyone Should Be Furious About Trayvon Martins Murder, in which, as Abramson explains, BuzzFeed simply lifted what it needed from reports published elsewhere, repackaged the information, and presented it in a way that emphasized sentiment and celebrity. BuzzFeed makes a distinction between BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed News, just as newspapers and magazines draw distinctions between their print and their digital editions. These distinctions are lost on most readers. BuzzFeed News covered the Trayvon Martin story, but its information, like BuzzFeeds, came from Reuters and the Associated Press. Even as news organizations were pruning reporters and editors, Facebook was pruning its users news, with the commercially appealing but ethically indefensible idea that people should see only the news they want to see. In 2013, Silicon Valley began reading its own online newspaper, the Information, its high-priced subscription peddled to the information lite, following the motto Quality stories breed quality subscribers. Facebooks goal, Zuckerberg explained in 2014, was to build the perfect personalized newspaper for every person in the world. Ripples at Facebook create tsunamis in newsrooms. The ambitious news site Mic relied on Facebook to reach an audience through a video program called Mic Dispatch, on Facebook Watch; last fall, after Facebook suggested that it would drop the program, Mic collapsed. Every time Facebook News tweaks its algorithmtweaks made for commercial, not editorial, reasonsnews organizations drown in the undertow. An automated Facebook feature called Trending Topics, introduced in 2014, turned out to mainly identify junk as trends, and so news curators, who tended to be recent college graduates, were given a new, manual mandate, massage the algorithm, which meant deciding, themselves, which stories mattered. A lot of that was stuff on Trending Topics. (Last year, Facebook discontinued the feature.) BuzzFeed surpassed the Times Web site in reader traffic in 2013. BuzzFeed News is subsidized by BuzzFeed, which, like many Web sitesincluding, at this point, those of most major news organizationsmakes money by way of native advertising, ads that look like articles. In some publications, these fake stories are easy to spot; in others, theyre not. At BuzzFeed, theyre in the same font as every other story. BuzzFeeds native-advertising bounty meant that BuzzFeed News had money to pay reporters and editors, and it began producing some very good and very serious reporting, real news having become something of a luxury good. By 2014, BuzzFeed employed a hundred and fifty journalists, including many foreign correspondents. It was obsessed with Donald Trumps rumored Presidential bid, and followed him on what it called the fake campaign trail as early as January, 2014. It used to be the New York Times, now its BuzzFeed, Trump said, wistfully. The world has changed. At the time, Steve Bannon was stumping for Trump on Breitbart. Left or right, a Trump Presidency was just the sort of story that could rack up the LOLs, OMGs, and WTFs. It still is. O.K., toss and turn and sigh so loud that I have to wake up and ask you whats wrong. In March, 2014, the Times produced an Innovation Report, announcing that the newspaper had fallen behind in the art and science of getting our journalism to readers, a field led by BuzzFeed. That May, Sulzberger fired Abramson, who had been less than all-in about the Times doing things like running native ads. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed purged from its Web site more than four thousand of its early stories. Its stuff made at a time when people were really not thinking of themselves as doing journalism, Ben Smith explained. Not long afterward, the Times began running more lists, from book recommendations to fitness tips to takeaways from Presidential debates. The Times remains unrivalled. It staffs bureaus all over the globe and sends reporters to some of the worlds most dangerous places. It has more than a dozen reporters in China alone. Nevertheless, BuzzFeed News became more like the Times, and the Times became more like BuzzFeed, because readers, as Chartbeat announced on its endlessly flickering dashboards, wanted lists, and luxury porn, and people to hate. The Guardian, founded as the Manchester Guardian in 1821, has been held by a philanthropic trust since 1936, which somewhat insulates it from market forces, just as Jeff Bezoss ownership now does something similar for the Post. By investing in digital-readership research from the time Rusbridger took charge, in 1995, the Guardian became, for a while, the online market leader in the U.K. By 2006, two-thirds of its digital readers were outside the U.K. In 2007, the Guardian undertook what Rusbridger calls the Great Integration, pulling its Web and print parts together into a single news organization, with the same editorial management. The Guardians own success is mixed. As of 2018, it was in the black, partly by relying on philanthropy, especially in the U.S. Reader revenue, in the form of donations marked not as subscriptions but as voluntary memberships, is expected to overtake advertising revenue before long. Raising money from people who care about journalism has allowed the Guardian to keep the Web site free. Its also broken some big stories, from the Murdoch-papers phone-hacking scoop to the saga of Edward Snowden, and provided riveting coverage of ongoing and urgent stories, especially climate change. But, for all its fine reporting and substantive Long Reads, the paper consists disproportionately of ideologically unvarying opinion essays. By some measures, journalism entered a new, Trumpian, gold-plated age during the 2016 campaign, with the Trump bump, when news organizations found that the more they featured Trump the better their Chartbeat numbers, which, arguably, is a lot of what got him elected. The bump swelled into a lump and, later, a malignant tumor, a carcinoma the size of Cleveland. Within three weeks of the election, the Times added a hundred and thirty-two thousand new subscribers. (This effect hasnt extended to local papers.) News organizations all over the world now advertise their services as the remedy to Trumpism, and to fake news; fighting Voldemort and his Dark Arts is a good way to rake in readers. And scrutiny of the Administration has produced excellent work, the very best of journalism. How President Trump Is Saving Journalism, a 2017 post on Forbes.com, marked Trump as the Nixon to todays rising generation of Woodwards and Bernsteins. Superb investigative reporting is published every day, by news organizations both old and new, including BuzzFeed News. By the what-doesnt-kill-you line of argument, the more forcefully Trump attacks the press, the stronger the press becomes. Unfortunately, thats not the full story. All kinds of editorial decisions are now outsourced to Facebooks News Feed, Chartbeat, or other forms of editorial automation, while the hands of many flesh-and-blood editors are tied to so many algorithms. For one reason and another, including twenty-first-century journalisms breakneck pace, stories now routinely appear that might not have been published a generation ago, prompting contention within the reportorial ranks. In 2016, when BuzzFeed News released the Steele dossier, many journalists disapproved, including CNNs Jake Tapper, who got his start as a reporter for the Washington City Paper. It is irresponsible to put uncorroborated information on the Internet, Tapper said. Its why we did not publish it, and why we did not detail any specifics from it, because it was uncorroborated, and thats not what we do. The Times veered from its normal practices when it published an anonymous opinion essay by a senior official in the Trump Administration. And The New Yorker posted a story online about Brett Kavanaughs behavior when he was an undergraduate at Yale, which Republicans in the Senate pointed to as evidence of a liberal conspiracy against the nominee. Theres plenty of room to argue over these matters of editorial judgment. Reasonable people disagree. Occasionally, those disagreements fall along a generational divide. Younger journalists often chafe against editorial restraint, not least because their cohort is far more likely than senior newsroom staff to include people from groups that have been explicitly and viciously targeted by Trump and the policies of his Administration, a long and growing list that includes people of color, women, immigrants, Muslims, members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and anyone with family in Haiti or any of the other countries Trump deems shitholes. Sometimes younger people are courageous and sometimes they are heedless and sometimes those two things are the same. The more woke staff thought that urgent times called for urgent measures, Abramson writes, and that the dangers of Trumps presidency obviated the old standards. Still, by no means is the divide always or even usually generational. Abramson, for instance, sided with BuzzFeed News about the Steele dossier, just as she approves of the use of the word lie to refer to Trumps lies, which, by the Posts reckoning, came at the rate of more than a dozen a day in 2018. The broader problem is that the depravity, mendacity, vulgarity, and menace of the Trump Administration have put a lot of people, including reporters and editors, off their stride. The present crisis, which is nothing less than a derangement of American life, has caused many people in journalism to make decisions they regret, or might yet. In the age of Facebook, Chartbeat, and Trump, legacy news organizations, hardly less than startups, have violated or changed their editorial standards in ways that have contributed to political chaos and epistemological mayhem. It often feels like the latter. Sometimes what doesnt kill you doesnt make you stronger; it makes everyone sick. The more adversarial the press, the more loyal Trumps followers, the more broken American public life. The more desperately the press chases readers, the more our press resembles our politics. The problems are well understood, the solutions harder to see. Good reporting is expensive, but readers dont want to pay for it. The donation-funded ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force, employs more than seventy-five journalists. Good reporting is slow, good stories unfold, and most stories that need telling dont involve the White House. The Correspondent, an English-language version of the Dutch Web site De Correspondent, is trying to unbreak the news. It wont run ads. It wont collect data (or, at least, not much). It wont have subscribers. Like NPR, it will be free for everyone, supported by members, who pay what they can. We want to radically change what news is about, how it is made, and how it is funded, its founders state. It will stay above the fray. It might sometimes be funny. Its slated to dbut sometime in 2019. Aside from the thing about ads, it sounds a lot like a magazine, when magazines came in the mail. | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/28/does-journalism-have-a-future |
When Will My Apartment Be Underwater? | On a recent chilly Saturday, Jon Leland, a director at Kickstarter, sat in a SoHo coffee shop writing a guided meditation for an upcoming sound festival. Its about being a cicada emerging from seventeen years underground, he explained. Closing his laptop, he took a break to discuss another passion: scaring people about climate change. Leland has had this preoccupation since 2011, when he attended a U.N. Security Council meeting and heard a former President of Nauru speak about losing his island country to rising seas. It was heartbreaking, Leland said. And yet he watched the machinery of international politics do everything it could to not change. Last summer, he set about formulating the simple, stark messaging that he believes the climate-change movement needs. Using six thousand dollars, raised mostly on Kickstarter, he designed and printed eight thousand stickers that say This Place Will Be Water. Theyre available for purchase on thisplacewillbewater.org, which has an interactive map showing how sea-level rise will impact coastal cities. (He hopes to pursue a related project, called This Place Will Be Desert. He explained, The Midwest is fucked, too.) So far, Lelands stickers have been put up in more than a dozen cities around the world. New York is his home turf. Leland discussed how the city will be affected by a two-degree increase in global temperatures, the upper limit set forth by the Paris climate deal. With a two-degree change, the Rockaways are lost, he said. J.F.K. Airport is entirely underwater. Southern Queens and a lot of Brooklyn are underwater, especially around the canals. On the map, lower Manhattan looks a bit like Italy. Large portions of itthe West Side, especiallyare underwater, all the way to Broadway, he said. Much of the East Village, too. Avenues B, C, D. Jersey City is history. He laughed. Lets talk about whats not underwater. Leaving the coffee shopBells Coffee & Design, well into the water, he notedLeland stepped outside, carrying a satchel full of stickers, which are corn-based. Theyre biodegradable, he said. In six months, theyll be gone, after lots of people have read them. He began putting up stickers along Grand Street, keeping an eye out for police, since, technically, stickering is vandalism. I dont enjoy risk, he said. I guess this is why most people sticker at night. On Canal Streetwhich will be water, he saidLandman placed a sticker on an advertisement. It read Low Sex Drive, Now Optional. An older woman watched from the doorway of a bodega. Whats this? she asked. Its about climate change, Leland said, and pointed to the sticker. Yeah, she said, darkly. Its real. Trust me. Leland kept walking. I like how she said that almost like its a secret, he said. He stickered a utility pole and the entrance to a subway station. A man smoking a cigarette outside a jewelry shop introduced himself as Mahmut. Reading the sticker, he asked, When underwater? Well, Leland began, we dont know yet. But Mahmut interrupted: Next generation or this generation? Does it matter? Leland asked, philosophically. Next generation, theyll be flying, Mahmut said. High technology theyll use. He laughed and exhaled. A hundred years from now, no problem. I dont think thats true, Leland said. He continued down Canal. Techno-utopianism is one technique people use to avoid thinking about climate change. Turning onto Lafayette Streetgotta preach to the hyper-materialistshe approached a makeup store called Glossier. A line stretched outside. A trio of teen-age girls eyed Leland as he stickered a phone booth. They said that their names were Chloe, Shannon, and Amanda. In how long? Chloe asked, referring to when Glossier will be underwater. Or until we have to do something? Leland responded. Both. Um, Leland began, we have twelve years to fix this. Wow, Shannon said. Thats messed up. Yeah, Leland said. New York is the most vulnerable American city to climate change, in terms of sea-level rise. Amanda chimed in, They said if the plates shift we could be underwater in, like, forty-five minutes. Leland was briefly speechless. That could be true, he said, finally. Buthe pointed to the stickerthis is currently whats going to happen. Because of global warming? Chloe asked. Leland nodded and launched into a mini-lecture on melting ice caps and water expansion. The girls attention waned. Sorry, this isnt the most fun topic, he said. I hear Glossier makes great face sunscreen. They waved goodbye. Thats disappointing, Leland said, turning the corner. But Im more optimistic about their generation than the baby boomers. Hed put up forty-six stickers in an hour. Time to head home, to Clinton Hill, in Brooklyn. Its a hill, he said. Ill be fine. | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/28/when-will-my-apartment-be-underwater |
Why Marzieh Hashemi? | Last week, Mrs. Hashemi was abducted by those who day and night preach on freedom and democracy. In her recent flight to the US, in which she wanted to visit her ailing brother, Mrs. Hashemi has fallen the victim of Washington's racist, bigoted and arrogant imperialist practices. Her rights have been blatantly infringed firstly as a citizen (specifically black), secondly as a Muslim woman and thirdly as a journalist. One who knows Mrs. Hashemi recognizes her distinct humanitarian sense and great personality. She has been inspired by the political and social tremor that shook humanity in the early eighties; led by Imam Khomeini (RA), the founder of the system, which sponsors human rights, supports the oppressed and empowers women. The Islamic Republic of Iran was an outlet for an active woman such as Mrs. Hashemi, who is sincerely concerned about others and their righteous causes. On Press TV, she has frequently appeared to transparently and objectively dissect and analyze news and political events. She has often interacted, shown her passion and cried over the subjugated and the oppressed because she is a human being who embodies the principles of sympathy, consideration, and compassion, and which are specifically authentic Islamic values. A revolutionary woman, with every sense of the word, who has armed herself with the Hijab in the course of her missionary work. She has been keenly aware of the greatness of this crown that has singled out Muslim women and reflects their moral, religious and political identity. Mrs. Marzieh Hashemi has not limited herself to journalism; however, she has devoted her youth and strength to the Islamic missionary work and to reflect the oppression of African-Americans. Mrs. Hashemi has worked to disseminate the values of authentic Islam and refuted all the radical currents that violate the core teachings of this religion. She is a beacon of resistance for her determination, perseverance, courage, and patience. For this reason, Mrs. Hashemi is abducted today just like every woman who follows the line of Sayyedah Zainab (PBUH). The latter, 7th Century revolutionary heroine of Ashura uprising, constitutes a role model for every Muslim woman, they arm themselves by her brilliant stances and dedicate their lives like her to the service of their nation. Obviously, Mrs. Hashemi has revealed Washington's mask, which on daily basis allegedly claim to be sponsoring freedom and democracy. She has revealed the hypocrisy of this Machiavellian administration, which unfortunately some still bet on. Mrs. Hashemi has spoken loud about the atrocities committed by the imperialists. It is now crystal clear who is behind fanaticism, terrorism, and racism. It is the United States of America, the colonial imperialist empire, the cradle of Islamophobia. Today, Mrs. Hashmi is unlawfully tried because of her Islamic principles, which never distinguish between a white and a black, between a woman and a man; which protects women and preserves their rights since the 7th century. No one will move today to exploit Hashemi's case, along with Esra al-Ghomgham (Saudi activist), Hajar Mansour, Amira al-Qasa'ahmi (Bahraini activists) and the wife of Sheikh al-Zakzaki, and many other women who are illegally detained, in the dungeons of the arrogant regimes, as they have exploited the runaway Saudi teenager Rahaf al-Qunun's case. Regardless of the credibility of what this teenager claimed; who was already living under a system that does not reflect the original Islamic teachings; she has sparked the hypocritical West's attention because her case is a good investment for twofold purposes: to 'milk' the Saudi regime and to misrepresent Islam. Rahaf takes no notice that she has moved from prison (A) to prison (B), where she would be protected by no one and where the phantom of Western 'Freedom' would cost her dear. The Hijab of Mrs. Hashemi, and other illustrious revolutionary women, is undoubtedly feared even before her righteous voice since she is perpetuating the steadfastness and resistance methodology of Sayyedah Zainab; put in her echoing words while addressing the arrogant oppressor of her time, "I swear by God that you shall never be able to erase our memories." Mrs. Hashemi has been providentially freed by the authentic Islam that the Islamic Republic of Iran upholds; the Islam which relies on empowers and honors women. This agitates the colonizer, who works studiously to fragment Muslim societies, through its Soft War propaganda. Just the opposite, Iran regard women as put by Imam Khomeini's words, in which he equates women with the Holy Quran. The late Imam Khomeini maintains that both the Holy Quran and women "build the character of human beings." Women, like Mrs. Hashemi, tutor courageous scholars, leaders and devoted martyrs of truth. The US administration wants to make women cheap commodities in its most dangerous war; the war of minds, as when women are absent, weakened and marginalised; the nation collapses and deteriorates. Unlike the criminal terrorist Maryam Rajavi who led the terrorist Munafikin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO), who has so far killed thousands of innocent people; Hashemi has always fought terrorism and racist policies in her own unique strategies. The terrorist Rajavi is backed and sponsored by the US for she serves their interests; summarized by demolishing counties, spreading chaos and committing atrocities. What Rajavi orchestrates is criminal conspiracies, whilst what is managed by Mrs. Hashemi is a huge media project aims at uncovering the false allegations and refuting mainstream media fake news sponsored by American, British and Saudi governments. Mrs. Hashemi has been the sound of free journalists, who were murdered, merely for they had settled, to tell the truth, such as her late colleague and compatriot, the American Press TV's correspondent Serena Shim. Currently, there has been speculation that Mrs. Hashemi is incarcerated in connection with her latest documentary, entitled 'Black Lives Matter.' Today, Mrs. Marzieh Hashemi is persecuted in the same brutal way that her African-American ancestors were persecuted. Her freedom of expression and faith are shamefully violated in flagrant breach of the international conventions that guarantee freedom of belief and conscience. In addition, she is unlawfully prosecuted without any clear and explicit charge. Whatsoever, this great journalist has now become a thrust to each and every journalist to confront arrogance and its tools with utmost strength, determination and perseverance; armed with their full Zainabi Hijab. Our least duty is to be her voice, to tell her words and to reflect her persecution until her freedom, Insha'Allah. MNA/TT | https://en.mehrnews.com/news/141760/Why-Marzieh-Hashemi |
What will the return of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo mean for the countrys 2020 elections? | By Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbos acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens the way for his return to Cte dIvoire once released. His return after seven years in detention at The Hague and eight years after being discovered in a bunker during the disputed 2010 presidential election, could shape the character of the countrys 2020 presidential election. Despite his absence, his influence on Ivorian politics has shaped opposition divisions in the years since hes been gone. His return therefore raises the question of internal opposition party loyalties. Gbagbo and his co-accused, youth militia leader, Charles Bl Goud, were arrested for having allegedly orchestrated the murder, rape and persecution of opponents after he lost the election in Cte dIvoire in December 2010. At least 3,000 people were killed in the violence. Despite his absence, he has continued to influence internal opposition party loyalties. His return is therefore likely to shape the character of the election. Another reason hes likely to play a significant role is that the coalition that won presidential elections in 2010 and 2015 led by President Alassane Ouattara has, for the time being, fallen apart. Ouattara has signalled that he may stand for a third consecutive term. But Cte dIvoires new constitution promulgated in 2016, states that a candidate can only be reelected once. These signals have not been well received by Ouattaras now former coalition partners. For example, his entertaining a third term and efforts to lessen the power of coalition partners has led one member of the coalition to quit the arrangement. Others have also walked away. In response, Ouattara has attempted to solidify his support by morphing his ruling coalition into a new party called the Houphouetists Rally for Democracy and Peace. The jury is still out on whether it will be enough to bring back disgruntled coalition partners. With Ouattaras coalition weakened and the opposition divided, Gbagbos return could shape coalition politics before the elections. Gbagbo continues to hold a bastion of popular support in the country, including his home area in Western Cte dIvoire. More broadly, its likely that Ivorians would support his bid for the presidency. And, his return to Cte dIvoire would lend credence to his purported innocence and the image of success in his struggle against Ouattara and Western bias. In short, his return could make him a larger than life figure ahead of elections. Gbagbos friends and foes Early on in his absence, Gbagbos party, the Front Populaire Ivoirien, fragmented between those loyal to him and those interested in moving beyond his legacy. In particular, Aboudramane Sangar, Gbagbos friend, dismissed attempts to continue the partys work without him. Sangar, and like-minded opposition officials, believed that Gbagbo would return to Cte dIvoire, ready to contest incumbent President Alassane Ouattara after the ICC proceedings ended. Sangar gained the unofficial title of guardian of the temple, for his part in maintaining Gbagbos place at the centre of the opposition movement. Sangar died late last year though his imprint hasnt diminished. Efforts to move beyond Gbagbos legacy were led by Affi Pascal NGuessan, a former prime minister during Gbagbos presidency, who took over the presidency of the party before the 2015 election. This sparked vehement protests from Gbagbo loyalists. Although NGuessan paid homage to Gbagbo, the loyalists felt he wasnt sincere. Peter Penar More controversy followed NGuessan when he decided to contest the 2015 presidential election. In advance of the election, he met then French president Francois Hollande. This led to Gbagbo loyalists suggesting he was receiving payment from France to contest the election. The claim has never been verified. With low voter turnout at 55% compared to 80% in 2010, NGuessans lack of popular and internal party support saw him garner just over 9% of the vote compared to Ouattaras nearly 84%. The opposition boycott and calls to await Gbagbos return appeared strong. Since then, NGuessan has experimented with different political alliances and has seemingly not reconciled with Gbagbo loyalists. Gbagbos options If he returns, one option is that Gbagbo resumes the flag-bearer position of the Front Populaire Ivoirien and contests the 2020 election. Because he sought election in 2010 but lost, he would be able to run. In addition, the removal of a maximum age for candidates (previously age 75) makes him eligible. Hell be 74 in May. This scenario assumes that Ouattara doesnt set up legal roadblocks to Gbagbos return. Another scenario is that Gbagbo may guide the Front Populaire Ivoirien towards a new political alliance ahead of the election. The alliance may involve some of Ouattaras unhappy former partners. A related scenario is that Gbagbo will be able to unite the Front Populaire Ivoirien and opposition forces, but anoint a new flag-bearer and act as the elder statesman for the party. Finally, Gbagbo may decide to stay on the political sidelines but remain vocal on the political scene. According to a 2017 survey by Afrobarometer the independent African research network Ivorians strongly support (81%) the maintenance of a two-term limit for a president. They also overwhelming support democracy (77%). But, they have some concerns about the democratic space afforded ahead of elections next year, with 52% suggesting that they are not satisfied with how democracy works in the country. One of the criticisms that the opposition has levied against Ouattara is his intolerance of dissent. Among Ivorians, 48% feel that they are not at all or not very free to criticise the president. Its quite possible that Gbagbo will build on these concerns, and the energy and high levels of participation that characterised Ivorian politics in 2010 could return. Abel Gbala, who holds an M.A. from the University of Flix Houphout Boigny and is a Development Monitoring and Evaluation expert, contributed to this article. Peter Penar, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Michigan State University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. | https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/political/2019/01/21/what-will-the-return-of-former-ivory-coast-president-laurent-gbagbo-mean-for-the-countrys-2020-elections/ |
Is Brad Pitt dating Charlize Theron? | Brad Pitt is dating Charlize Theron after being introduced to the actress by her ex-fiance Sean Penn. Their relationship began over Christmas. This is Brads first serious romance since he split from Angelina Jolie in 2016. They have been casually seeing each other for nearly a month now, a source told The Sun. Related: Brad Pitt says he quit drinking, in therapy after splitting with Jolie Oscar winner Charlize, who called off her marriage to Penn in 2015, is understood to have visited Brad at his home in Loz Feliz, LA. Jolies sudden announcement in September 2016 that she was filing for divorce sent shockwaves through the celebrity world. The couple, known as Brangelina, who married in 2014 and have six children, embarked on a bitter child custody dispute and Pitt was investigated for possible child abuse after losing his temper in front of some of the children. | https://www.samaa.tv/culture/2019/01/is-brad-pitt-dating-charlize-theron/ |
Is The Punisher Canceled? | Ever since the cancellation of Marvel and Netflixs Iron Fist, followed by the surprise cancellation of Luke Cage and downright shocking cancellation of Daredevil, fans have been lamenting the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universes street level heroes. But in the midst of all that gloom and doom, the streaming service is still releasing content specifically The Punisher Season 2, which dropped on Friday (January 18), and Jessica Jones Season 3, which should debut later this year. For that answer, lets go to the prognostication orb. Normally wed say this sort of thing depends heavily on ratings, even from a secretive outlet like Netflix. But Daredevils third season was one of the more popular shows on Netflix by our independent investigation (much more than Luke Cage and Iron Fists second seasons). So even if The Punisher ends up being a runaway hit, thats no guarantee that the show will be picked up. Given three other shows on the roster were canceled, and Jessica Jones showrunner Melissa Rosenberg is leaving after the third season to pursue a Warner Bros. deal, it would seem that The Punisher is deader than one of the criminals he kills. Add in that Disney seems to be getting all its Marvel television ducks in a row to clear the way for the debut of Disney+ later in the year, with its A-list stars and movie properties (Loki, Scarlet Witch, Winter Soldier to name a few), and the Marvel/Netflix shows which have lost some of their buzz recently seem to be redundant. On a plot level, if we do need to say goodbye to Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), the second season ends on a pretty definitive note. Spoilers past this point, but Frank finally decides on what hes meant to do: dress up in a skull costume and murder people, a real triumph of the human spirit type thing. The last shot is him releasing a guttural yell as he mows down gangsters with guns, an iconic Punisher shot if there ever was one. After two seasons of denying his destiny, The Punisher has finally arrived. They all but flash The End on screen. That said! While the first four Marvel shows were all part of a deal that included the superhero mashup The Defenders, The Punisher was a separate deal with Netflix, which makes the ultimate decision on whether these shows are renewed or canceled. And nothing against the other fine folks on the Marvel/Netflix shows, but Jon Bernthal is arguably the biggest star on the whole roster. Given Netflixs penchant for angsty man-drama, and love of working with big stars, its possible they could keep Bernthal around for another season. Theres also not a lot of connection between The Punisher and the other shows. It does touch on Daredevil at times and technically shares a universe, but Punisher is otherwise very much its own thing. Its also one of the few Netflix shows to have a consistent showrunner (Steve Lightfoot), and if Netflix likes Season 2 and Lightfoot comes with a strong pitch for Season 3, its possible we may see that skull insignia one more time. or maybe hell end up hanging out in superhero heaven with Danny, Luke and Matt. RIP, fellas. Stream Marvel's The Punisher on Netflix | https://decider.com/2019/01/21/marvel-the-punisher-renewed-canceled-netflix/ |
Who is Shipwrecked castaway Liv? | Shipwrecked fans, get ready the series is back (Picture: Channel 4) Shipwrecked is returning to E4 for its first series since 2012 and we couldnt be more excited. The Channel 4 show was a staple in the morning weekend schedules, seeing a bunch of young pretty things dumped on a tropical island in a compelling mix of survival and love triangles. This time around the show will once again take the Battle Of The Islands format as nine castaways fight to win new arrivals to their islands with 50,000 at stake for the winning team. Among those taking part is hot-headed Mancunian Liv and heres what you need to know about her. : Liv explains: I needed something different in my life. At the time, I didnt know what to expect but I wanted to meet new people and to see what would happen. Advertisement Advertisement Liv could well bring the drama to the island also as she admitted that she had a few rows while she was there: I am not one to take any shit off anyone, she explained. Confirmed: Shipwrecked starts Monday 28 January at 9pm on E4 pic.twitter.com/JeCnehCFUm Channel 4 Press (@C4Press) January 16, 2019 The series kicks off on E4 on Monday January 28 at 9pm. 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/2019/01/21/meet-shipwrecked-castaway-liv-hot-headed-waitress-bringing-drama-island-8369337/ |
Who is Shipwrecked castaway Harry? | Shipwrecked fans, get ready the series is back (Picture: Channel 4) Shipwrecked is returning to E4 for its first series since 2012 and we couldnt be more excited. The Channel 4 show was a staple in the morning weekend schedules, seeing a bunch of young pretty things dumped on a tropical island in a compelling mix of survival and love triangles. This time around the show will once again take the Battle Of The Islands format as nine castaways fight to win new arrivals to their islands with 50,000 at stake for the winning team. Among those taking part is chilled-out model Harry and heres what you need to know about him. : Harry has revealed that Shipwrecked isnt something he would normally have considered doing, but admitted: I literally had nothing to do and I just thought f**k it. Who doesnt want to be on the beach? Advertisement Advertisement He went into the experience with a completely open mind, saying: I did think I would go in and be a little f**ker just because it is my nature, but has said he loved life on the island, admitting I would go back in a heartbeat and was particularly good when it came to keeping the island fires burning. I am definitely good at making fires! he quipped. Confirmed: Shipwrecked starts Monday 28 January at 9pm on E4 pic.twitter.com/JeCnehCFUm Channel 4 Press (@C4Press) January 16, 2019 The series kicks off on E4 on Monday January 28 at 9pm. 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/2019/01/21/meet-shipwrecked-castaway-harry-model-skill-making-fires-8368956/ |
Should the entire Mueller report be released to the public? | The nation is waiting with bated breath for the results of Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and potential ties with Russia. But many are beginning to worry they may never see the fruit of Mueller's labor. During his Congressional hearings, Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, William Barr, refused to offer lawmakers assurances that he would release the report in its entirety. Many believe the public deserves the full, unedited truth. PERSPECTIVES Barr, who previously served as attorney general under George H.W. Bush, holds an extremely expansive view of presidential powers. Barr's ideological beliefs include the theory that a sitting president cannot be indicted for a crime. During his confirmation hearing, Barr would not guarantee he would release Mueller's investigation in its entirety. Barr specifically noted if Mueller declined to prosecute anyone he investigated, Barr would not release that information. The New York Times talked to Neil Kinkopf, a law professor at Georgia State University and a former Justice Department official, about how Barr's beliefs in presidential powers could affect the release of Mueller's report. On Wednesday, Mr. Kinkopf noted that the Justice Department had taken the position that sitting presidents could not be indicted while in office. Maybe Many Americans still remember independent counsel Kenneth Starr's extensive, explicit report on Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Starr released his full report not only to Congress but to the public as well. Starr's report has become infamous for how revealing and salacious it was in its details. The Washington Post reports since the Starr report's release, Congress has rewritten the rules governing Justice Department investigations. Starr was required to "not only to conduct a criminal investigation but also to submit a report to Congress if he found any evidence of impeachable offenses." That statute lapsed in 1999 and the rules under which Mueller are working are far stricter. Section 600.8(c) of the regulations provides that the special counsel shall provide the attorney general with a "confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the Special Counsel." If the special counsel finds that "other governmental action outside the criminal justice system might be appropriate," (presumably, such as impeachment) he is empowered only to "consult with the Attorney General with respect to the appropriate component to take any necessary action." Under these new regulations, it is up to the attorney general to determine how much, if any, of the special counsel's report to release. Opinion | A Mueller report may never see the light of day Politico reports many lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum believe the report needs to be released in full in order to provide the American people with transparency. "The American people deserve to know what the Department of Justice has concluded. And they're smart enough to figure it out," Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told Barr during his confirmation hearing. "The American people don't read Aristotle every day, but they can figure it out." "I would strongly encourage you to put this all to rest, to make a report, a final report public," he added. "Let everybody draw their own conclusions so we can move on. If somebody did something wrong, they should be punished. But if they didn't, let's stop the innuendo and the rumors and the leaking and let's move on." Without the full report, some amount of distrust will continue to exist for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation. GOP wants Mueller transparency -- with caveats There are concerns of a dramatic loophole that could work in President Trump's favor. If, as Barr believes, a sitting president cannot be indicted, and the only portions of the report that can be released are those related to indictments, then the president would be able to get away with past criminal activity--whether or not it has been discovered by Mueller's team. Per The Washington Post: "If the only reason that Mueller's grand Jury can't file an indictment is the DOJ policy that says no indicting of sitting presidents, then Trump gets the best of both worlds: no indictment and no revealing of the evidence the grand jury saw -- even though it may be more than enough to indict any other citizen of the republic," former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter said. Analysis | R.I.P. 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/politics/index.ssf/2019/01/should_the_entire_mueller_repo.html |
What is the settled status scheme for EU citizens and how to apply? | (Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) One of the main points of contention throughout the Brexit debate has been the citizenship status of those from the EU once we leave. Although the debate on the final deal rages on, this issue seems to have come to a conclusion. EU citizens who currently reside in the UK will have to apply for settled status through a new scheme. (Picture: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images) The scheme applies to EU citizens and their family members who are living in the UL but do not have indefinite leave to remain. It does not apply to those who are from the Republic of Ireland. Settled status does not mean youre a British citizen, more that you can stay here for as long as you want. You can apply to become a citizen at a later date if you wish. Advertisement Advertisement Youre able to work here, study here, claim benefits or access the NHS. According to the government, youll usually get settled status if youve: started living in the UK by 31 December 2020 lived in the UK for a continuous 5-year period (continuous residence) If you do not have 5 years continuous residence, youll usually get pre-settled status instead. (Picture: Rex Features) With settled status, youre able to leave the UK for five years at a time before youd need to re-apply. With pre-settled, this is two years. You can begin applying from the day after Brexit (30 March 2019), and will need to do so before 30 June 2021, or 31 December 2020 if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Your status will not change until 30 June 2021. Fees to apply The fee to apply is: 65 if youre 16 or over 32.50 if youre under 16 Itll be free to apply if: you already have indefinite leave to remain in or enter the UK you have a valid UK permanent residence document youre applying from April 2019 to move from pre-settled status to settled status youre a child looked after by a local authority Once the applications open, youll be able to enter everything online. Youll need ID and proof of your continuous residence (which can be input more easily with a National Insurance number). If you have an Android phone, you can scan your documents. If not, youll have to send them through the post. Youll be asked about your criminal history in the UK and overseas and also be checked against the UKs crime databases. Advertisement Advertisement From there, your application will be processed. MORE: World leaders in Davos have a choice: keep the super rich wealthy or make life fairer for all MORE: Surprise find of ancient animals in Antarctic lake buried under half a mile of ice | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/21/settled-status-scheme-eu-citizens-apply-8368674/ |
Why did CBB US housemate Natalie Eva Marie leave WWE? | Eva Marie spent four years with the WWE (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images) The new series of Celebrity Big Brother starts in the US tonight and it includes a number of top stars. Coleen Nolan says Gemma Collins has 'lowered the tone' of Dancing On Ice Some of the famous faces that will be entering the house include Joey Lawrence, Kato Kaelin, Jonathan Bennett and Joey Lawrence. Former WWE wrestler Natalie Eva Marie will also be part of this years line-up. Natalie is most well know as Eva Marie thanks to her time as a WWE wrestler. She first joined the company in 2013 and was quickly added to the main show, despite having very little training. Here are other bingeable crime dramas As part of the move she died her hair bright red to fit in with her all red everything character and she joined the new reality series Total Divas, which followed the lives of several female wrestlers. Advertisement Advertisement The Total Divas fame led to Eva working as a valet for her co-stars The Bella Twins but she soon started to compete in her own matches including an appearance at Wrestlemania 30 as part of the Vickie Guerrero Invitiational match for the WWE Divas Championship. An injury and other setbacks saw Eva dissapear from TV towards the end of 2014 and she then started training with wrestler Brian Kendrick to improve of skills in the ring. As part of her new development she spent some time in NXT to continue developing her wrestling skills and she proved to be a convincing heel, getting regularly booed by fans at NXT events. In 2016 she moved back to the main show a was drafted to WWEs Smackdown show in July with her character constatnly making long entrances and avoiding actually wrestling in matches. In August 2016 Natalie had tested positive for aderall, but despite have a prescription the paperwork wasnt submitted until after WWEs deadline. The resulted in her being suspended for 30 days for violating the companys wellness policy. This led to her slowly moving away from WE as she began to take on other projects and it was then revealed that she wouldnt be appearing in Total Divas season 7. In August 2017 Natalie Eva Marie confirmed that she had parted ways with WWE. MORE: Nikki Bellas first date in six years was filmed for Total Bellas and it was embarrassing | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/21/cbb-us-housemate-natalie-eva-marie-leave-wwe-8365548/ |
Was Vanguard's Jack Bogle too successful? | The under-pinning insight Bogle brought to investing was that the average manager produced average and below-benchmark returns once taxes, costs and fees were taken into account. Passive investing buying and holding the stocks in an index meant fewer taxes and costs because there were fewer transactions and none of those lucrative fees for highly-paid fund managers. The power of that realisation can be seen in the sheer size of the index fund sector and the sibling sector, exchange-traded funds, which emerged in the 1990s. There are estimates that passive funds now hold about 20 per cent of all global equities and account for about 40 per cent of activity in the US equity markets. Bogles legacy was to give ordinary investors an easily-accessible, simple and low-cost way to get an exposure to equity markets. He was so passionate about democratising investing and lowering its costs for ordinary investors that he created a structure for Vanguard that effectively means it is owned by its investors. Without diminishing the remarkable positive impacts of that legacy, the scale and continuing growth of passive investing has started to concern regulators, and others. Even Bogle himself once said that if everybody indexed it would lead to chaos, catastrophe The markets would fail, he said. What he was effectively saying was that, in a completely indexed investment world, thered be little trading or liquidity, no price discovery by active investors and markets would be driven by ebbs and flows of cash into the index funds rather than by the fundamentals of the equity markets or the individual stocks within them. Jack Bogle left his mark on Wall Street. Credit:AP Its probably never going to get to that because, in theory at least, the greater the share of passive investment in a market the more opportunity there should be for active investors to out-perform. Theres no doubt, however, that the sheer growth in the amount of funds passively invested has changed markets and the way they function, if only at the margin. While there is a distinction between traditional index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) the former are relatively passive while the ETFs provide a secondary market, are a vehicle for quite active trading and come in more exotic varieties -- as a group index funds are pro-cyclical investors. To match the indices they buy when the stocks in the index and rising and sell when their prices are falling. In effect, they are momentum traders (which have spawned a sub-group of pure momentum traders) and their significance within markets probably means that any material movement in prices will be exaggerated by their activity. That raises the question of whether the growth in index investing is undermining the efficiency of markets and the pricing of individual stocks the prices of individual stocks are now more closely correlated than they once were - and whether it could create bubbles, or crashes, unrelated to the fundamentals of the stock or the markets. Theres a subsidiary question as to whether the growth of the sector rewards large-cap stocks with big index-weightings and punishes smaller stocks. If they continue to grow at the rate they have grown, the index funds could change the nature of markets and the efficiency with which they allocate capital they could dumb down those markets. Its not just the funds alone that appear to be re-shaping markets. A lot of fund managers "hug the indices that they are benchmarked against to avoid the risk of significantly under-performing their benchmark. If the indices are being strongly influenced by the index funds, then the index-huggers will amplify that influence. The other issue of concern is that while the funds management giants that dominate index investing Black Rock, Vanguard and State Street profess to be engaged with companies within their indices on corporate governance issues, they have no financial incentive to do so. Whether a company is a good corporate citizen or not, if they are in the index the index funds have to invest in them. The industry whose foundations Jack Bogle built has undeniably produced public good on a vast scale and he thoroughly deserved the credit he received last week. Even he, however, recognised that it carried latent and sizeable risks if it were ultimately too successful. | https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/was-vanguard-s-jack-bogle-too-successful-20190121-p50smf.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed |
How can Californias Kamala Harris stand out in crowded 2020 race? | Breaking through will require any Democrat to possess a mix of policy chops, smart digital strategy, a deep fundraising network, a robust team in the field, and charisma that radiates from Iowa to South Carolina to Nevada. In short, someone who can convince the partys highly motivated rank and file that she or he can defeat President Trump. A lot of this, said Michael Ceraso, who was Sen. Bernie Sanders California presidential campaign director in 2016, is going to boil down to personality. Thats because most of the major Democrats who are expected to run generally agree on a progressive platform. It includes supporting government-insured universal health care coverage commonly referred to as Medicare for all raising the federal minimum wage and backing some version of tuition-free public college. Supporting Medicare for all is the price of admission in the primary, said Markos Moulitsas, founder of the DailyKos blog that is influential in progressive circles. Harris was the first senator to announce her co-sponsorship for Sanders Medicare-for-all legislation in 2017. It is a sign of how much the Democratic Party has shifted since the 2016 primary battle between Sanders and Hillary Clinton. In that campaign, the Vermont independent senator captured much of the progressive left with positions on health care and tuition that moderate Democrats thought were too far out of the mainstream. Sanders routinely won 60 percent of the vote in DailyKos reader straw polls, Moulitsas said. Now, Sanders has plenty of company on the left. This month, in DailyKos first straw poll of the 2020 campaign, the sites readers put Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at the top of all candidates, with 22 percent. Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden were tied for third at 14 percent, right behind former Texas Rep. Beto ORourke. Sanders lagged in fifth. Sanders is kind of yesterdays news, Moulitsas said. He stood out when it was a binary choice between a flawed establishment candidate (Clinton) and him. But now people are looking for someone different and fresh. Yet Harris is so fresh that many voters dont know who she is. A Qunnipiac University poll in December found that 57 percent of respondents didnt know enough about the California senator to form an opinion. It could be worse: Sixty-eight percent felt the same way about Harris fellow senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who announced last week that she was running. Moulitsas said Sanders and Warren start out as the lefts favorites but that Harris candidacy could catch fire, because as the daughter of an Indian-born mother and Jamaican father, shell be one of the few women of color in the race. So far, her only competition on that front is from Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who was born in American Samoa and announced her candidacy this month. I think demographics are going to be pretty important, Moulitsas said. This is the era of MeToo and Black Lives Matter, so any candidate who can reflect that energy, who can reflect the base of the party, will have a huge advantage. Being a woman of color gives (Harris) a perspective and an ability to address issues in a way that sets her apart from some of the other candidates, said Aimee Allison, an Oakland activist whose organization supporting women of color in politics, She the People, will host a presidential candidates forum in April in Texas. The goal of any Democratic candidate will be knitting together a 2020 version of the coalition of women, young people and people of color that vaulted Barack Obama into the White House more than a decade ago. The two people who are best positioned and equipped to reassemble that coalition are Kamala Harris and (New Jersey Democratic Sen.) Cory Booker, said Steve Phillips, a San Francisco fundraiser and commentator who focuses on increasing the political influence of communities of color. Phillips, author of the best-selling Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created A New American Majority, created a super PAC in December to support Booker and other candidates called Dream United. Groups affiliated with Phillips helped raised $11 million for Obamas 2008 campaign. Harris was an early endorser of that Obama campaign, and Phillips said she has already shown promise in making cultural connections with the Obama coalition. Those connections dont have to involve weighty policy issues. On a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Harris offered up a recorded mood mix of her favorite music, including a presidential song, Funkadelics One Nation Under a Groove. Harris gave a few dance moves as she sang a snippet, something it would be hard to imagine Joe Biden attempting. Phillips compared it to an episode in the 2008 campaign, a day after Obama gave a poorly received debate performance against Clinton. In a speech, Obama referenced the Jay-Z song Dirt Off Your Shoulder, miming the singer by giving his shoulder a dismissive dusting a way of saying, No big deal. The outburst of social media approval showed that Obama was winning cred among communities that Democrats have to motivate to win elections. That level of cultural connection is going to be significant among people of color in general and black women in particular, Phillips said. But Harris will have her challenges, too. Since she has served only two years in the Senate all in the minority her list of legislative accomplishments is short. While she often describes herself as a career prosecutor, some of her positions will be controversial in a Democratic primary. For example, she stayed neutral on Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that reformed Californias three-strikes law by reducing some nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors. She didnt support legalizing cannabis for recreational use until last year, two years after California voters did. She will also be on unfamiliar ground campaigning outside her deep-blue native state. When she describes herself as a prosecutor from San Francisco, the only words some people will hear will be the last three. When you come from California, you feel protected and safe because nobody tells you youre wrong, said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist who is the California adviser for a group supporting an ORourke candidacy. Its going to be interesting to see how she handles that grind, day in and day out, in Iowa and New Hampshire, where some people are going to love her and some will hate her. That will be a real test for her. The ideal Democrat, said several national political strategists, will be someone who can fight toe-to-toe with Trump, yet be inspirational enough to heal the nations divisions. A September poll found that 91 percent of Democratic likely voters in Iowa a nearly all-white state whose caucus is the first in the campaign said it was important that a 2020 candidate heal the racial, ethnic and partisan divide in our country. Voters are going to have two questions for the candidates, said Bill Burton, a top adviser to Obama who is not affiliated with a 2020 campaign. And second, can you get things done? Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @joegarofoli | https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/How-can-California-s-Kamala-Harris-stand-out-in-13549183.php |
Is the desktop version of OneNote dead? | The 'hot ideas' section in the OneNote for Windows UserVoice is currently headed by requests (14 out of the top 20 suggestions) to either add all the missing features from OneNote 2016 to the Store version of the app or just keep shipping the desktop version. Despite appearances to the contrary (like a bug that automatically uninstalled OneNote 2016 when you installed one particular version of Office 2019), Microsoft is committed to doing both. There are plenty of features the Store version of OneNote doesn't have yet: the ability to send a copy of a page by email; paste multiple images at once; create custom AutoCorrect options; rotate printouts; pin your favourite tools to the quick access toolbar; send clips directly to OneNote without having to spend time finding the section you want; or work with a notebook stored on a network drive instead of in the cloud, for example. If any of those are features you need, you can keep using OneNote 2016. The desktop version isn't getting any new features (so the new fast sync engine and automatic sync of custom tags won't come to desktop OneNote) and you'll have to put up with Microsoft telling you that you're not using the 'best' version of OneNote and 'strongly encouraging' you to switch. But despite the nagging, you can carry on using OneNote 2016 without worrying that it's going to stop working. You can carry on reporting bugs and they'll get fixed; security updates and support will be available until October 13, 2020 for mainstream support and October 14, 2025 for extended support. That's longer than support for Windows 7, where OneNote 2016 is the only option apart from OneNote Online. Image: Mary Branscombe/TechRepublic So the desktop version isn't 'dead' or deprecated: OneNote 2016 may be the legacy version, but Microsoft video president and technical fellow for 'Notes and Tasks' (NoTa) Laura Butler also calls it the 'mainstream' version. The OneNote team is very aware that there are a lot of features missing from the Store version of OneNote, and in most cases the plan is not just to match the desktop features but to improve on them. So custom tags have been in desktop OneNote for a long time, but you had to add them on every new PC you used; when you add them in the Store version, they sync automatically (although you can't yet assign them to keyboard shortcuts). After that there are new features planned, like much richer tools for sending content from other applications and a better interface for managing notebook sections and sub-pages. Butler teased future plans and priorities for the Notes and Tasks group on Twitter, appropriately enough as a capture of her own OneNote notebooks. The modern version of OneNote is about half finished, and while this work continues desktop OneNote isn't dead. SEE: Windows 10 power tips: Secret shortcuts to your favorite settings (Tech Pro Research) One desktop feature isn't going to be in the Store version or on Macs or smartphones: the ability to keep notebooks on your own PC or a network drive (which lets you sync notes between devices, but only when they're connected to that network). That's a popular feature, but for the Store version of OneNote the only options will be cloud storage or the on-premises version of SharePoint (which hosts OneDrive). That's because the new sync engine needs the cloud connection for things like versioning. There's no equivalent of the Group Policy controls for OneNote 2016 either (you can find those in the Administrative Template files for Office). It's not clear if there will be MDM equivalents for controlling OneNote for Windows 10 as more features are added; so far the admin experience is more about allowing teachers to create and distribute staff notebooks through SharePoint and make student homework in OneNote read-only once it's been marked. Office 2019 makes OneNote for Windows 10 the default; Office 365 ProPlus also makes it the default, and from January 2019 that applies to all update channels, including the Semi-Annual Channel that goes to mainstream business users. If you install Office 2019 or Office 365 (including Office 365 ProPlus and Business) on a new PC, that won't include OneNote 2016. If you upgrade from Office 2016 (or 2013) to Office 2019 and you have desktop OneNote installed, it should stay on your PC. One specific Office update in September 2018 (version 16.0.10730.20088) uninstalled OneNote 2016; Microsoft says that was a bug that affected only a small percentage of users and that subsequent updates won't uninstall OneNote. But the Office 2019 upgrade also pushes 'upgrading' from 32-bit to 64-bit. That's good for handling larger Excel spreadsheets, and because Office 2019 uses Click-To-Run rather than an MSI it's seamless. But it means the upgrade actually uninstalls Office, reinstalls it and migrates your settings and that uninstalls OneNote 2016 but doesn't reinstall it. If you're an admin, you can configure the Office image you use for deployment to include OneNote 2016, even if you're moving to 64-bit Office; if you use the Office Deployment Tool to deploy Office 365 ProPlus, OneNote 2016 will be installed by default. If OneNote 2016 isn't installed but Office 365 ProPlus is, deploying it with the Office Deployment tool will add OneNote without reinstalling the rest of Office. If you're using the Office 365 Installer in Configuration Manager, older versions include OneNote 2016 by default. But if you're using the Current Branch, OneNote 2016 will be excluded by default, so you'll need to choose it explicitly in the Office 365 Installer UI. If you're a user (or you're setting up Office on user machines by installing it from the Office 365 portal), you can install OneNote directly, and there are different ways to do this. If you're moving to 64-bit Office, make sure you get the 64-bit version; if you're not sure, use File / Account / About Word to check whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit Office installed. You'll also need 64-bit versions of any OneNote plugins you use, like the excellent Onetastic. If you're sticking to 32-bit Office, you can download the 32-bit version of OneNote 2016. SEE: System update policy template download (Tech Pro Research) If you have a paid licence for Office, you get extra features in OneNote (like the ability to open local notebooks). If you install OneNote 2016 before you install and activate Office 2019 or Office 365, it will install with the Home and Student licence, which doesn't include those features. Once you install and activate Office, OneNote will pick up the full licence and enable the extra features, but you may still see the licence displayed as Home and Student. To avoid that, make sure Office is activated before installing OneNote. But if you want the advantages of getting desktop OneNote as if it was a Store app, you can get OneNote 2016 from the Microsoft store. This is a preview of the Centennial version of OneNote and it has some limitations (you can't use add-ins like Onetastic yet, for example) and you can only get it using the direct link because it doesn't show up when you search the Store for OneNote. But if you're using the Microsoft Store to get the other desktop Office applications, you can do the same for OneNote. Organizations that block the Microsoft Store can set up Microsoft Store for Business and whitelist applications like OneNote 2016 that they want to make available. While you're sticking with desktop OneNote, you can uninstall the OneNote app if you don't want to try it out as long as you have Windows 10 1809 installed. If you do use both versions there are some things to watch out for. The Store version of OneNote doesn't share notebook files with OneNote desktop, so if you open a notebook in both applications, you'll be storing and syncing it twice (for a large notebook, that can take up a lot of space). And if you record audio in the Store version of OneNote, you can't play that back in OneNote 2016 because it uses a different audio format (a breaking change Microsoft could fix by giving users a choice of audio formats in the Store version of OneNote). Making it easier to use both versions of OneNote together would make it easier for users to move to the Windows 10 version of OneNote for some tasks and only go back to OneNote 2016 for those last few features they need. Microsoft Weekly Newsletter Be your company's Microsoft insider with the help of these Windows and Office tutorials and our experts' analyses of Microsoft's enterprise products. Delivered Mondays and Wednesdays Sign up today See more | https://www.techrepublic.com/article/is-the-desktop-version-of-onenote-dead/ |
Will Facebook Start Paying a Dividend in 2019? | For years, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has been a pioneer in social media, bringing billions of users together across the globe. Along the way, Facebook has become a huge business, attracting advertising revenue from those seeking to reach its huge audience. In the past, when companies reached the point at which they were generating large amounts of free cash flow, they'd often seriously consider starting to pay a dividend. Facebook hasn't yet made the move to pay one, and some think that it should reward its shareholders with dividend payments. Below, we'll look to see if Facebook will make 2019 the year in which it makes its debut in the dividend-investing universe. Stats on Facebook Metric Current Stat Free cash flow, last 12 months $17.45 billion Net income, last 12 months $19.5 billion Earnings per share, last 12 months $6.73 Earnings growth from full-year 2017 22% Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Why Facebook should pay dividends Tech companies have historically been slow to start paying dividends, and with Facebook having gone public in 2012, a seven-year history without dividends is far from unusual. It usually takes a long time for newly public companies to gain traction in their respective businesses, and in the technology sector, it can take even longer to establish yourself as a major player in the industry. Facebook, however, is far from a typical company. When it did its IPO, Facebook was already the dominant player in the social media space, and it was already consistently profitable. Although the company did take steps to bolster its position by investing profits back into its business and making key strategic acquisitions, Facebook's earnings and free cash flow have kept growing over time. As you can see below, net income has jumped tenfold or more in just the past five years, and free cash flow has shown similarly impressive gains. FB Net Income (TTM) Chart More FB Net Income (TTM) data by YCharts. Moreover, Facebook has built up an impressive war chest of cash on its balance sheet. As of its most recent quarterly report, combined cash and short-term investments were above $41 billion, up from just $11.2 billion in 2014. That shows that even if Facebook intends to make another acquisition similar in size to its $19 billion buyout of WhatsApp in 2014, it wouldn't put a dent in its available cash flow. Picking buybacks over dividends It took a long time for Facebook to consider returning capital to shareholders in any form. But the dam broke in late 2016, when the social media giant's board created a stock repurchase program, authorizing up to $6 billion to go toward stock buybacks. Facebook used about $2 billion of that money on buybacks in 2017, and during the first nine months of 2018, it accelerated its repurchase activity pursuant to an expanded authorization, spending more than $9 billion to buy its own stock. In December, the company made its latest expansion to its buyback program, putting in another $9 billion. Yet some investors still aren't satisfied. The benefit of dividends for investors is that they tend to be more reliable than stock buybacks. Companies tend to buy back stock in large chunks when money's most readily available, and those repurchases can disappear during tough times. Companies are more reluctant to cut dividends, and so shareholders can be more confident with a solid dividend than with buybacks -- even if they amount to the same amount of capital returned to investors. | https://news.yahoo.com/facebook-start-paying-dividend-2019-131900807.html |
Will Zendesk CRM Take a Bite Out of Salesforce and HubSpot? | I've been following Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) for years, and I felt a bit uneasy when the company announced plans to go beyond its core suite of customer support products and introduce a new ground-up customer relationship management (CRM) platform hosted in Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) cloud. But then I dug a little deeper and recognized something important: Zendesk has been moving up the CRM stack for years. Its new effort, dubbed Zendesk Sunshine, isn't surprising at all. A rising sun with the words zendesk sunshine featured underneath More Sunshine is Zendesk's newest -- and perhaps most ambitious -- product yet. Image source: Zendesk. Skeptics will say that salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) dominates the market for CRM software, and they're right. But even with its leadership position, Salesforce still only occupies about 20% of the overall market, leaving plenty of room for challengers like HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) and, naturally, Zendesk. There are two reasons to expect Zendesk to cash in. 1. The company already competes successfully...without really trying To be clear, Zendesk isn't anywhere near the top of the market in terms of overall revenue from CRM system sales. Sunshine may change that, but in the meantime, client adoption of multiple products for serving customers has made Zendesk one of the leading players in CRM for three years now, according to technology research firm Gartner. 2. It cultivates freshly grown, free-range, organic growth With Sunshine, Zendesk promises a completely open experience that the company says makes it easier to tap into customer data wherever it may live and improve every aspect of the experience with your company. And Amazon is part of the Zendesk pitch. "Sunshine is natively built in the public cloud on Amazon Web Services, which means your developers get the freedom to build your customer apps or services the way they want," says Zendesk. "Data will flow more freely through the AWS services that developers already use." Hooking developers with a friendly CRM experience that goes with the AWS they know could be remarkably enticing. But let's say it isn't. Let's say instead that it just fills a niche as Zendesk has with the majority of its other products. That in itself would be a big win. Here's why: A quick check of S&P Global Market Intelligence shows that since 2014, Zendesk has made four small acquisitions totaling at least $72 million but probably less than $100 million. (Terms of the company's September acquisition of Future Simple weren't disclosed.) Zendesk has grown revenue more than $400 million -- roughly four times that total acquisition cost -- over that same period while also improving gross margin and cash flow. That's the beauty of growing (mostly) organically. A very Foolish bottom line Finally, while it's an anecdotal point, here at The Motley Fool we've enjoyed enough benefits using Zendesk for different levels of service and support that we're rapidly bringing new elements of the platform to new parts of the company. I've no idea, but I'm also not sure it matters. The bigger point I'm making is that Zendesk has made an excellent business out of developing open, flexible, customizable software that lives in the cloud. Sunshine continues that tradition, and should find its market just as every other product in the Zendesk suite has. As an investor, I'm excited to see where it lands. More From The Motley Fool John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Tim Beyers owns shares of HubSpot and Salesforce.com. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, HubSpot, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk. The Motley Fool recommends Gartner. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | https://news.yahoo.com/zendesk-crm-bite-salesforce-hubspot-131700748.html |
What's in Store for Bristol-Myers (BMY) in Q4 Earnings? | Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY is expected to report fourth-quarter 2018 results on Jan 24, before market opens. Bristol-Myers shares have decreased 8.9% in the past six months, against the industrys growth of 7.1%. Bristol-Myers has an excellent track record. The company delivered positive earnings surprise in all the four quarters. Average positive earnings surprise in the last four quarters is 12%. In the last reported quarter, Bristol-Myers delivered a positive surprise of 19.8%. Lets see how things are shaping up for this quarter. Bristol-Myers key immuno-oncology drug, Opdivo is expected to be the primary revenue driver in the fourth quarter, with several line extensions in the past year. Earlier in 2018, Opdivo was approved as a monotherapy for the treatment of metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in third-line setting in patients who have received platinum-based chemotherapy and at least one other line of therapy. The drug also received approval for treating microsatellite instability high or mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer, in combination with Yervoy in second-line setting in the United States. The European Commission recently approved the combination of Opdivo plus Yervoy for the first-line treatment of patients with intermediate- and poor-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Opdivo has already captured 30% share of new patients in the first-line RCC market. The drug, which is approved for multiple indications, has generated sales of $1.8 billion in the third quarter and $4.9 billion in the first nine months of 2018, increasing 42% and 37%, respectively, from the year-ago period. Yervoys line extension in pediatric patients aged 12 years or older with unresectable or metastatic melanoma was approved in Europe. The FDA approved the drug in combination with Opdivo for first-line treatment of RCC. Label expansion of the drug should further boost sales. Oncology drug, Sprycel is also maintaining momentum. The European Commission approved a line extension of Sprycel in pediatric patients with Ph+ chronic myeloid leukemia. The FDA also approved the drug for the treatment of pediatric patients aged one year or older, with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), in combination with chemotherapy. We expect the recent label expansion of the drug to boost sales. Cardiovascular drug, Eliquis also showed strong performance in the first nine months of 2018, with sales growing 35% from the year-ago quarter. In fact, robust sales are expected in the fourth quarter too, driven by expansion in market share. However, the Hepatitis C and HIV businesses continue to face competitive pressure. Sales for the franchise are expected to decline. Investors will also focus on further updates on the companys recent announcement of acquiring Celgene Corporation CELG for $74 billion. The impending acquisition will result in a specialty biopharma company with a strong oncology portfolio and diverse pipeline in the therapeutic areas of inflammatory, immunologic and cardiovascular diseases. Bristol-Myers was pursuing an acquisition for quite some time now to bolster its portfolio. While its blockbuster immuno-oncology drug, Opdivo continues to perform well on the back of label expansions, pricing concerns and stiff competition in the immuno-oncology space have limited market share gains. | https://news.yahoo.com/whats-store-bristol-myers-bmy-125012911.html |
Will Core MedSurg Segment Aid Stryker's (SYK) Q4 Earnings? | Stryker Corporations SYK fourth-quarter 2018 results, scheduled for release on Jan 29, after market close, are likely to gain from a strong show by the core MedSurg segment. A strong 2018 view also buoys optimism. Q3 Results at a Glance In the last reported quarter, Stryker delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.69, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Earnings improved 11.2% year over year and were within the companys guidance. The company reported revenues of $3.24 billion, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.26 billion by a narrow margin. Revenues increased 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Stryker has a positive average surprise of 2% for the trailing four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings per share is pegged at $2.15, reflecting year-over-year growth of 9.7%. The same for revenues is pinned at $3.73 billion, showing growth of 7.6% over the prior-year quarter. Stryker Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Stryker Corporation Price and EPS Surprise | Stryker Corporation Quote Lets see how things are shaping up before the earnings results. MedSurg in Focus This segment consists of surgical instruments, endoscopic and emergency medical equipment and has been consistently driving Strykers top line. In the last reported quarter, the unit contributed a significant 44.4% to Strykers net sales. Revenues in the segment came in at $1.44 billion, up 10.4% at constant currency (cc). It is encouraging to note that, for the quarter to be reported, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segments revenues stands at $1.69 billion, up 7.2% year over year. MedSurg has three subsegments Endoscopy, Instruments and Medical. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Endoscopy revenues is pegged at $505 million, up 7.7% year over year. The same for Instruments revenues stands at $533 million, showing a year-over-year rise of 9.2%. Moreover, for MedSurg Medical revenues, the consensus estimate is pinned at $590 million, up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Other Factors at Play Strong Guidance For the fourth quarter of 2018, earnings are projected within $2.13 to $2.18. In fact, for 2018, Stryker projects earnings in the range of $7.25-$7.30, higher than the previous guidance of $7.22-$7.27. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $7.28, within the guided range. Orthopaedic Implant, Neurotechnology & Spine to Drive Growth In the last reported quarter, Strykers core Orthopaedic segment contributed 36.1% to net sales. For the quarter to be reported, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segments sales is pegged at $1.36 billion, showing a year-over-year rise of 3.8%. Meanwhile, Neurotechnology & Spine accounted for 19.4% of Strykers revenues in the last reported quarter. For the quarter to be reported, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segments sales stands at $677 million, showing year-over-year growth of 15.5%. Acquisition Risks Stryker has lately been on an acquisition spree. Last November, the company completed a previously-announced acquisition of K2M Group Holdings and in October, it acquired Invuity. While this improves revenue opportunities, it adds to integration risks and also exerts pressure on gross and operating margins. | https://news.yahoo.com/core-medsurg-segment-aid-strykers-125612073.html |
Are Recessions About Employment? | Most economists believe the reduction in employment during recessions is non-optimal, that it does not reflect preferences. Thus, in an accounting sense, recessions are mostly about employment, not factors such as productivity. Id say yes, but Nick Rowe disagrees. He recently tweeted an old post from 2015, which ends as follows: Recessions are not about output and employment and saving and investment and borrowing and lending and interest rates and time and uncertainty. The only essential things are a decline in monetary exchange caused by an excess demand for the medium of exchange. Everything else is just embroidery. First Im going to tell you why I disagree, and then Ill explain why my disagreement is not very important, at least for the US economy. I dont believe that terms like monetary exchange and excess demand are clearly defined. In my view, the most useful definition of a recession is a slowdown in employment growth that is sudden, significant and in some sense anomalous. By that I mean a slowdown in employment growth that seems unrelated to fundamental factors such as demographics or preferences. As this graph shows, slowdowns in employment growth are extremely strongly correlated with recessions, as defined by the NBER. (The end of WWII was a bit weird. But that was an unusual period, with women entering the labor force during the war, then leaving, and soldiers returning home.) Thus, in an accounting sense, recessions are mostly about employment, not factors such as productivity. And most economists believe the reduction in employment during recessions is non-optimal, that it does not reflect preferences. In my view (and I think Nick agrees), these recessions are caused by sharp declines in NGDP growth in an economy with sticky wages and prices. Here is some data on NGDP growth: Once again, the correlation is quite strong. At the same time, I could easily imagine other factors causing a recession. A government might institute an extremely high minimum wage rate and then later remove this wage floor. This would temporarily depress employment growth, without impacting NGDP. So, I dont see how recessions can always be caused by an excess demand for money, unless they are defined that way. But since we cannot directly measure excess money demand, thats not a useful definition. All we can do is look at various macro variables and infer that there was an excess demand for money. Nor can we solve the problem by looking at the other part of Nicks definition, a decline in monetary exchange. If monetary exchange suddenly falls in half and all wages and prices are cut in half by administrative fiat, there may not be a recession. Indeed, something like this occurs during a currency reform. [Please dont misinterpret this observation. I am not claiming that making wages and prices flexible is a good way of avoiding recessions - it isnt. Rather, the thought experiment shows that a recession is not identical to a decline in monetary exchange. And keep in mind that NGDP is only a tiny fraction of monetary exchange, which is dominated by the exchange of money in the financial markets.] Lets look at the recession that is generally regarded as the least monetary of all post-WWII US recessions, November 1973 to March 1975: That graph is actually pretty good for Nicks claim, as even the least monetary of all recessions looks quite monetary. NGDP growth slowed significantly during the 1974 recession. On closer inspection, we can see why this is viewed as the least monetary recession. The slowdown in NGDP growth was fairly mild compared to other recessions, whereas the fall in employment growth and RGDP was relatively severe, at least for the post-1965 period. Many economists would attribute this to 1974 being an adverse supply shock, caused by soaring oil prices. Im not so sure, as the equally severe 1979-80 oil shock produced a boringly normal recession; that double-dip recession was about as severe as one would expect from the size of the NGDP growth slowdown in early 1980, and then again in 1981-82. So, even that double-dip oil shock recession looks quite monetary. Instead, I believe the unusual severity of the 1974 recession reflects a wage shock caused by the removal of wage controls. These same controls had artificially boosted output during 1972 (when Nixon just happened to be running for re-election), and we paid the price in 1974 (when Nixon was fittingly removed from office.) As a result, wage growth actually rose during the 1974 recession. Rather than define a recession as a negative monetary shock that causes less monetary exchange, Id rather say that a recession is a sudden, sizable, and anomalous slowdown in employment growth. And then Id say that US recessions are virtually always caused by monetary shocks that reduce NGDP growth, but in other countries (such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe), recessions are often caused by real shocks - usually bad (interventionist) government policies. PS. I understand that the correlation between NGDP and recessions doesnt prove causation, but we have a mountain of other evidence suggesting that causation goes from monetary variables such as NGDP to employment. Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors. | https://seekingalpha.com/article/4234487-recessions-employment |
Has 1m gold bangle scam damaged Birmingham's historic hallmarking trade? | In this special report Carl Jackson reveals the details of a painstaking two-year investigation by Trading Standards - codenamed Operation Egyptian. The 1m Birmingham bangle scam was brought crashing down when investigators captured the ringleader hiding under a bed holding Gaviscon tablets and a bottle of water. But now grave concerns have been raised that the five-year racket has severely damaged the city's world-renowned hallmarking trade. It is also thought scores of fake bangles could still be out there being worn by unsuspecting victims. Conspiring trio Ibrar Hussain, his ex-wife Sabhia Shaheen and jeweller Mohammed Afsar were jailed for a combined 14 years in November sending shock waves through the jewellery trade. The case is set to be the subject of a BBC Fake Britain documentary later this year. But now Birmingham Trading Standards has laid bare the details of its painstaking two-year investigation, codenamed Operation Egyptian, to the city council's Licensing and Public Protection committee. It centred around a sophisticated plot to manufacture 14 carat gold bangles advertising them as 22 carat - and raking in thousands of pounds in extra profit in the process. But councillors have been left stunned to learn that a small number of the pieces had been hallmarked by the Birmingham Assay Office, which has been a centre of expert opinion and independent assessment of jewellery for nearly 250 years. Cllr Mike Leddy, a trained jeweller, said: "I can't recollect where an article has been hallmarked by the Birmingham Assay Office and it has not met the standard. "When I read this I was absolutely dumbstruck. It has taken the shine off gold. "Families from the Middle East and south Asia invest their family fortune in gold. It's been kicked out of the trade." Cllr Bob Beauchamp, a former silver production engineer, echoed the concern declaring that famous Birmingham engineer Matthew Boulton, who lobbied Parliament vigorously to create the office in 1773, would be 'rolling in his grave'. He said: "They have got to get their act together as far as this city is concerned. "Our reputation throughout the world, not to mention Europe, is on this Assay Office and for them to let something like this slip through they have got to be jumped on." And Cllr Neil Eustace added: "There used to be three things in life you could trust to happen; death, taxes and anything you bought with a hallmark on in Birmingham you could trust. "This shook me to the core." Fears were also raised that not enough effort has been made to warn the public they may have unwittingly spent thousands of pounds on fake gold. Cllr Leddy accused the authorities, particularly the Assay Office at Moreton Street, of failing to 'close the loop' and called for a hotline to be set up for potential victims. He said: "Who is going back to that individual and saying there is a possibility you've got 14 carat and not 22, that it's valued at 2,000 and not the 6,000 you paid?" Cllr Nagina Kauser quizzed Trading Standards officials on what guarantees people had when buying Asian gold. In response Mick Davis, from the department, said: "You haven't got any guarantee in a sense." He, along with fellow investigating officer Gary Singh, advised people to only buy Asian gold with a hallmark but admitted there was still a risk. They also recommended people make expensive purchases on a credit card, as opposed to cash, for additional insurance. Both officials defended Birmingham Assay Office pointing out they had since changed their procedures around hallmarking, particularly Asian gold bangles, and were now far more rigorous. Mr Davis said: "Confidence is something that is built up over time obviously and because there has been a knock in confidence on the Assay Office this time, it is going to take time for them to recover. "But we are confident that the new procedures they have got in place will prevent this thing happening again. "So far we have put three people away. The message will get through that Birmingham Trading Standards are serious about taking prosecutions in relation to these matters." Response from Birmingham Assay Office Doug Henry, CEO and Assay Master, said: "We were pleased to play a key role in this carefully planned and executed investigation working with colleagues in Trading Standards and West Midlands Police. "We test and mark several million precious metal items of jewellery each year and fraudulent activity in precious metal jewellery in this country is rare because of the techniques that we and the other UK Assay Offices have in place to provide security to the consumer. "In this case, we had previously rejected some items as being below the standard claimed but the complex construction methods employed by these criminals made detection of some of the bangles much more difficult until process changes were implemented. "For reasons of security we cannot comment on or disclose our methods and procedures or the systems we use." He also confirmed that, outside of Operation Egyptian, the office has occasionally identified jewellery and precious metals below the standard stipulated in the Hallmarking Act but was unable to say whether any further investigations were on-going. Advice for consumers Anyone buying jewellery, particularly Asian jewellery, can reduce the risk of getting substandard purity by only purchasing items with a hallmark. Hallmarks contain three mandatory elements; the Sponsor Mark to identify the manufacturer, importer or retailer, the Standard Mark showing the metal's purity and the Office Mark which shows which Assay Office tested and marked the piece. The certifying mark of Birmingham Assay Office is an anchor. There may also be optional marks such as the date letter and the traditional fineness mark. Mr Henry added: "Even experts cant tell the precious metal content of an alloy by touch, feel or colour the only way to be sure is through a series of tests. "Were keen for consumers to be more aware of the value of hallmarking and there is useful and interesting information on our website, in particular our Hallmarking Consumer leaflet. "If anyone has any concerns, Birmingham Assay Office in the Jewellery Quarter provides independent valuations and product testing for consumers. "If anyone has doubts about any jewellery they have purchased, they should get in touch with local trading standards office who are enormously helpful." More information is available at - www.theassayoffice.com/download-centre/download-centre2 Trading Standards can be contacted through the national Citizens Advice helpline on 03454 040506. Background to Operation Egyptian Trading Standards received intelligence about the alleged fraud in September 2016, after a bullion dealer purchased a large quantity of 'scrap' gold. He expected it to be worth up to 90,000 but when melted down it was valued at 57,000. The gold had been in-filled with silver copper and other alloys as well as being heavily gold plated. What was advertised as 22 carats (99 per cent gold) was actually no more than 14 (58 per cent). A lengthy investigation began with the support of West Midlands Police. Ibrar Hussain, Sabhia Shaheen and Mohammed Afsar (known as Malik) were soon identified as the three key suspects. It was thought Shiza Jewellers and Zaiver Jewellers, both on Stratford Road, were at the heart of the operation which it was feared had been going on for more than five years. Intensive surveillance took place, tracking the suspects' movements using Automatic Number Plate Recognition, establishing their meeting places and monitoring their activities. Trading Standards then used 8,000 worth of Proceeds of Crime funding to buy two eight-item sets of bangles, one from each jewellers. The pieces were investigated by the Assay Office who confirmed they were significantly under carat. By this time they had already changed their own processes and agreed to flag up any parcels from the suspects. In January 2017 Hussain and Shaheen were caught on CCTV submitting 20 bangles for hallmarking under another trader's details. The Assay Office seized them after drilling found they were all under carat. The fraudsters tried to retrieve them unsuccessfully as Trading Standards used delay tactics as they prepared search warrants. Surveillance continued but ringleader Hussain had been particularly elusive up until this point, moving from safe house to safe house and never staying anywhere longer than a few days. He was thought to be travelling all over the country shifting the bangles making up to 1,200 extra profit per set of six to eight items. He was also selling them on eBay. In February 2017 officers tracked Shaheen from an address in Yardley to London where she met up with Hussain. It was a major breakthrough in the case, in locating Hussain and establishing the pairs' relationship. A few weeks later 15 officials executed simultaneous entry warrants at the two jewellers as well as two homes, one in Grestone Avenue, Handsworth, and another in Stockfield Road, south Yardley. Three secret workshops were discovered filled with hundreds of rubber moulds, bangle expanders, furnaces and gas bottles. Around 600 bangles were recovered which were found to match up with the moulds. Mountains of paperwork and several electronic devices were also seized with investigators having to spend months trawling through Whatsapp and text messages, photographs and CCTV footage. Shaheen, who it emerged was an 'educated' business degree holder and in the country via 'marriage of convenience', was detained and quizzed but remained tight-lipped. Asfar was also brought in and denied he was the owner of Zaiver jewellers - despite saying so on CCTV - claiming it was a lie he made up to impress women. The whereabouts of Hussain remained unknown prompting West Midlands Police to issue a wanted appeal. It was not until March 2018 when he was tracked to the Jewellery Quarter and followed to an address in Wychbold Crescent, Tile Cross. He was caught hiding under an ottoman holding a bottle of water and Gaviscon tablets seemingly intending to lay low for a long time. Following a nine-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court all three were found guilty of committing fraud by false representation and jailed on November 7 last year. Hussain, then aged 38, who ran Shiza, was also convicted of three counts of intimidating witnesses and imprisoned for a total of seven years. Shaheen, 40, also of Shiza, received a three-year sentence and a seven-year ban on being a company director. Afsar, then 47, was also found guilty of blackmail after coercing a witness to work for him without pay under threat to his family. He was jailed for four years. Upon sentencing Judge Laird said: "You were able to manufacture gold bangles in such a skilled fashion that even the Birmingham Assay Office were incapable of detecting that they were of inferior quality and on many occasions such bangles were hallmarked by the Birmingham Assay Office as 22 carat gold. He was 'quite satisfied' that the fraud could be valued between 300,000 and 500,000. But Trading Standards believe the scam lasted at least five years with the trio potentially pocketing up to 1m. | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/1m-gold-bangle-scam-damaged-15708947 |
What Became of MLKs Dream? | And in this dream, I was sitting poolside up in heaven. And, around this exquisitely beautiful pool were some very, very happy people, some I recognized, many I did not. One person I definitely recognized, sitting comfortably in his tailor-made lounge chair sipping a very bright, sparkling beverage, was the Reverend Martin Luther King. His robe was dazzling white (like everybody else's), but it looked like there was a splotch of some kind on the front of it. I was confused, until the Reverend King stretched out his arm as he replaced the empty beverage glass onto a small table. The splotch was actually a face. The face was that of Barack Obama. You can imagine my surprise. The Reverend King caught my look, and gave me a look of his own, a little smile. He got up and turned to leave. And as he set off, I saw the back of his white robe. It read: #NotMyPresident. Unfortunately, down here on Earth, the dream of Barack Obama as president became an all-too-real nightmare. I have often thought of the day that Barack Obama got nominated by his party to be the day that the Reverend King began spinning in his grave. I said it was 'content of character,' not 'color of skin' that mattered!" Bill Clinton certainly grasped what was happening back in the spring of 2008. Bill made his feelings clear when the Democrats went full throttle for Obama that spring, jettisoning their love for Hillary at the time. Bill made this apt observation: "They played the race card on us!" This utterance barely registered due to the excitement across the nation of this historic moment. The clarion call had been sounded. Here at last was the first truly electable black man to run on a major party's ticket for president. But Bill was right. Race was the deciding factor in Obama's selection to represent his party. Think of it this way (the way both Bill and Hillary saw it at the time): If Barack Obama had been white, he never would have gotten the nomination of the Democratic Party. If Hillary had been running against six white guys instead of five whites and a black, she would have been the Democrat's nominee -- and almost without question would have gone on to beat John McCain for the presidency. Back in 2008, then, with Obama at the top of the ticket, history could be made -- and, perhaps, racial wrongs righted. People went on to vote for a man who had no notable credentials, no accomplishments, no record of successful leadership. His big claim to fame, as his future vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden put it, was that he was a well-dressed, well-spoken black man. Barack Obama's nomination and subsequent two terms in office ushered in the worst kind of racism: acceptable racism. It's okay now to champion skin-color over character (for one of the major parties, at least). And it's okay to demand diversity, as long as it's diversity of, most notably, skin color and sexual preference, not diversity of ideas. True racism has gone unchallenged in almost every area of politics, academia, the culture, and unfortunately, the church. Christians have become phobaphobic, afraid to challenge the advance from the aggressive left because they will be called all sorts of "phobic" -- homophobic, Islamaphobic, transphobic -- plus some phobics yet to be invented. Racists are boldly making their accusations, and no one seems to be challenging them. Not long ago, philosophy professor George Yancy was speaking at Wheaton College, a Christian college in Illinois, and he boldly proclaimed to the students and faculty in the audience that all white people are racist who have all profited from racism. Think of it like this: Yancy is a 400-pound obese person telling a guy ten pounds overweight that he needs to go on a diet. Here's another way to look at it, Professor Yancy: There are plenty of racists in America today and, yes, some of them are white. It's not true that the answer to the movement "Black Lives Matter" is that "All Lives Matter." "All" is too general and impersonal of a statement. The Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created equal," which is what the Bible also tells us. Each individual person is unique, created in the image of a loving God. So, it's better to say, "Individual Lives Matter." And since each person is unique, each is created equal; therefore, no person should ever be referred to as a "minority." If you call someone a minority you are raising your status above theirs. If each person is a "majority of one" because of their uniqueness -- not better or worse in worth and human dignity -- then true diversity is defined as any two, three or more people in any gathering. They can be any color, have any ideas, anything. You don't need representation by groups that have been described as "minorities." So, Reverend Kings dream was not realized with the election of a black man to the presidency. With Obamas election (and, sadly, re-election), Americans voted for their own punishment for the national sin of acceptable racism. I guess I can dream. | https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/what_became_of_mlks_dream.html |
How unique is the Raiders' Jon Gruden-Mike Mayock dynamic? | ALAMEDA, Calif. -- It wasn't like Mike Mayock dropped a bombshell in his interview with ESPN's Steve Levy before the College Football Playoff National Championship game earlier this month when he said, "In all honesty, Jon's got final say." Of course Jon Gruden has the last word when it comes to which players the Oakland Raiders pick up. Anyone paying attention since Gruden signed that 10-year contract worth a reported $100 million to return to the sidelines last year knew this to be true, especially with general manager Reggie McKenzie being shown the door last month. But for Mayock, hired as McKenzie's replacement on Dec. 31, to actually acknowledge the situation and add, "I've got zero problems with that," well, that was news. Because ever since Gruden returned to the Raiders (with McKenzie entering his seventh season), the key word was "collaborative," as in Gruden and McKenzie would work in a "collaborative" manner. 2019 NFL DRAFT When: April 25-27 Where: Nashville, Tennessee How to watch: ABC/ESPN/ESPN App Kiper's Mock Draft 1.0: Murray's options Draft order: Picks 1-28 set Tracking underclassman declarations McShay's Mock Draft 1.0: Going 1-32 Meet the 2019 quarterback class Priorities for teams with top-10 picks Kiper's Big Board | McShay's Top 32 More NFL draft coverage Even when Mayock, lured out of his role as a longtime draft analyst for NFL Network, was introduced, the coach stayed on message, saying, "We're going to work together on this." Together. They get their first chance to publicly show their synergy this week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, where Mayock and Gruden's staff will coach the North team. "The last time I coached the Senior Bowl as the head coach of the Raiders, we drafted Eric Barton and Rod Coleman," Gruden said of the 1999 game. "It was a great tool for us, in Tampa and in Oakland. We have three picks in the first round. We also pick in every other round and we also have the potential to add [undrafted] players after the draft. "It will give our coaches, I think, a chance to go to Mobile in front of the entire NFL and show what kind of coaching staff we have -- show the energy and enthusiasm that we have as a staff. We are going to sell ourselves to the players." And those players will try to sell themselves to the Raiders -- and 31 other teams. Which brings us back to Oakland's GM-coach dynamic. Twenty have a dynamic in which the GM, or his equivalent, has final say on such matters, while the Raiders, New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons have dynamics in which the coach has final say. Meanwhile, seven teams are seen to have that ubiquitous collaborative effort mindset, including three of the NFL's final four this year in the Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams. One team reporter was not sure how the dynamic would play out since the coach was just hired. A year after leaving Monday Night Football for the Raiders, Gruden is trying to build up a roster that -- by the end of the season -- featured 38 players on its 53-man roster who had not played a single snap for Oakland a year earlier. Plus, only eight of McKenzie's 50 pre-Gruden draft picks, from 2012 through 2017, remained on that 53-man roster. Time, then, for Gruden (and, of course, Mayock) to hunt and gather. "If we can eliminate two or three players by coaching the Senior Bowl, sometimes that is just as important as finding two or three guys that you really want," Gruden said. "We are really excited. It will be the fourth time that I have done it. We have to do a good job in this draft, and the best way to do it is to be as close as possible to the players." Gruden also will need to come to an agreement with his GM, before Gruden has to use what amounts to executive authority. "I like a little yelling," Mayock told Levy, "a little screaming, a little fighting for what player you believe in. But at the end of the day, I guarantee you, Jon Gruden and I are going to know what a Raider looks like and smells like. I don't think we're going to have any issues." | http://www.espn.com/blog/oakland-raiders/post/_/id/22676/how-unique-is-the-raiders-jon-gruden-mike-mayock-dynamic |
Was fhrt zu Kopfschmerzen nach dem Krafttraining? | Unserem Sohn (25), gesund und vital, geht es nach dem Krafttraining tags darauf immer schlecht. Der Kopf fhlt sich an, als htte er tags zuvor zu viel Alkohol getrunken. Seine Trainingszeit dauert etwa eine Stunde, er bertreibt nicht, Flssigkeit nimmt er gengend zu sich. Dr. med. Daniel Wegmann* Was Ihr Sohn beschreibt, ist ein altbekanntes Phnomen. Schon die alten Griechen beschrieben einen Zusammenhang zwischen krperlicher Aktivitt und Kopfschmerzen. Dr. med. Daniel Wegmann. Lassen Sie mich zunchst kurz den Begriff Kopfschmerzen definieren, bei dem die Unterschiede nicht immer trennscharf verlaufen. Heute werden Kopfschmerzen generell in primre und sekundre Formen eingeteilt. Zu den primren Kopfschmerzen zhlen die Migrne, der Spannungskopfschmerz und die Kopfschmerzen ohne eine Schdigung der Hirnstrukturen, die zum Beispiel durch grosse Anstrengung oder Klte entstehen knnen. Frauen leiden hufiger unter Kopfschmerzen Sekundre Kopfschmerzen treten als Folge einer anderen Krankheit oder eines Unfalls auf. Beispiele dafr sind ein erhhter Blutdruck, Alkoholkonsum oder eine Hirnerschtterung. Von primren Kopfschmerzen sind rund 95 Prozent aller Menschen irgendwann im Leben einmal betroffen, bei rund der Hlfte der Bevlkerung treten sie regelmssig auf. Frauen leiden zudem hufiger an Kopfschmerzen als Mnner. Bei Kopfschmerzen nach dem Krafttraining handelt es sich in der Regel um Anstrengungs- oder Spannungskopfschmerzen. Diese sind von drckender, nicht pulsierender Natur und meist beidseitig am Kopf, an den Schlfen oder der Stirn lokalisiert. belkeit, Seh- oder Hrstrungen, wie sie bei anderen Formen des Kopfschmerzes vorkommen knnen, treten hier nicht auf. Auch verschlechtern sich die Schmerzen nicht zunehmend durch krperliche Aktivitt, etwa das Hochsteigen von Treppen. Flssigkeitsverlust ausgleichen Man vermutet, dass diese Art von Kopfschmerzen aus Spannungsvernderungen der Gefsse in der Schdelbasis resultieren. Gefrdert wird dies durch hohe Umgebungstemperaturen, die einen grsseren Flssigkeits- und Salzverlust begnstigen. Ausserdem kann ein krankhaft erhhter Bluthochdruck, der unter Belastung auftritt, ebenfalls zu starken Kopfschmerzen fhren, was jedoch meist ltere Sportler betrifft. Auch ein einseitiges oder zu intensives Training mit lokaler bersuerung der Muskulatur oder die Ausbildung von muskulren Ungleichgewichten knnen entsprechende Kopfschmerzen frdern. Das scheint bei Ihrem Sohn aber glcklicherweise nicht der Fall zu sein. Falls die Beschwerden regelmssig auftreten, empfehle ich Ihrem Sohn eine weiterfhrende Abklrung bei Ihrem Arzt zur Ursachenklrung. Eine regelmssige Einnahme von Schmerzmitteln sollte vermieden werden. Vorbeugend ist auf eine regelmssige und ausreichende Flssigkeitszufuhr in kleinen Portionen whrend des Trainings zu achten sowie auf die Einnahme von Eiweissen und Elektrolyten, zum Beispiel in Form von Magnesium (Bananen, Kerne, Mandeln ) und Salz (Bouillon). Auch Massagen und Muskelentspannungsbungen wie Yoga oder Autogenes Training knnen Spannungskopfschmerzen vorbeugen. | https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/leben/ratgeber/was-fuehrt-zu-kopfschmerzen-nach-dem-krafttraining-ld.1087028 |
Who is Dancing on Ices Vanessa Bauer and what happened with Wes and Megan? | Get celebs updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Up until the 2019 series of Dancing on Ice , Vanessa Bauer was known only as a pro skater from the ITV talent show, who won the 2018 series with former X Factor star Jake Quickenden. However all that changed on her debut night skating with Love Islands Wes Nelson in 2019 when she also happened to announce she had split with her boyfriend. Viewers watching the show commented on Wes girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson s straight face whilst watching her lover and his partners performance from the audience. Cue a barrage of accusations, finger pointing and media excitement in the days following. (Image: Instagram/vanessabauer_skates) (Image: PA) Vanessa Putri Bauer was born in Berlin, Germany in May 1996. She became German national pairs junior champion with her partner Nolan Seegert at the 2013 German Figure Skating Championships. Vanessa wasnt selected for the World Championships and has no senior medals, instead she opted to work for Willy Bietak Productions Inc, which produces skating events and cruise company Royal Caribbean. After working in several cruise shows, she moved to London in 2017 and joined Dancing on Ice as one of the professional figure skaters. Vanessa also has a background in dance and acrobatics. Winning DOI with Jake Quickenden (Image: PA) (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Vanessas first series on the show saw her paired with X Factor and Im a Celebrity star Jake Quickenden. The 2018 series was back after a four year hiatus and right from the outset Jake and Vanessa wowed the judges and audience, with their performances and their abs. Making it all the way to the final, despite Vanessa being struck down the novavirus during the series, the pair skated to victory against Coronation Street actress Brooke Vincent, who came second and rugby star Max Evans, who made it to third place. Vanessa and Jake stunned with performances to A Little Conversation by Elvis vs JXL and Canned Heat by Jamiroquai. They also skated the Bolero made famous by Olympic champions and Dancing on Ice head judges Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean and pulled off the deadly move the Headbanger. Shortly after DOI finished Jake split from his fiancee Danielle Fogarty - just seven months after they got engaged. The blame was put down to the strain of the DOI tour and not spending time together. Jake has since said that Vanessa had nothing to do with the break down of his relationship but he does think ITV bosses deliberately put celebs together with sexy partners theyll get on well with. Who was Vanessas boyfriend (Image: vanessabauer_skates/Instagram) (Image: Instagram/vanessabauer_skates) Vanessa had been dating Louis Nathaniel a circus performer and poi expert for two and a half years before she revealed they had split. The couple had seemed close, regularly posting loved up pictures of their sun-soaked holidays together with loved up messages about each other. However Vanessa shocked everyone when she announced they had split just as she embarked on Dancing on Ice 2019 live shows with Wes Nelson her new partner who bears a striking resemblance to Louis. A source at the time claimed Louis was annoyed at her close relationship with Wes that had blossomed during training. They told The Sun: Louis was backstage at rehearsals as Vanessa and Wes practised for their big performance. No one saw their split coming. "They seemed perfectly fine - there was no arguing, no tension... nothing. Louis just seemed like the perfect, supportive boyfriend. "It's come as a shock to everyone onset as they seemed quite happy together. (Image: Instagram) On Wes debut performance on the ice with Vanessa the judges commented on the pairs chemistry and skill in the rink. Viewers at home were quick to point out the very sombre expression on Wes Love Island girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson's face, who was sitting listening to the comments and watching the performance from the audience. Meg took to Instagram the next day and totally called out Vanessa in the most public of fashions. She wrote: @@Vanessabauer_skates love that you decide to announce your breakup with your boyfriend on the night of your 1st performance with my boyfriend! "You've never reached out to me once or invited me to watch you train, it pained you to introduce yourself to me last night, you didn't even look me in the eye LOL. "Hope the tactical breakup got you the headlines you wanted babe. @wesnelson" Vanessa hit back by posting a snap of herself with skating partner Hamish Gaman and shared a fan comment about her winning the argument, with a laughing emoji. She then wrote a post about skating being the most important thing to her and had a dig at Megan by mentioning women empowerment. "Because whenever Im on the ice everything is good again. Im so grateful for yesterdays voting window number, she posted. "There is nothing in the world I am more passionate about and that makes me happier than figure skating! "Last nights number was an absolute dream. I cant thank everybody enough for all the love and support #strongwoman #DancingOnIce #womenempowerment." Wes backed up his girlfriend by calling out the public haters of Meg rather than Vanessa. Meg then appeared on Loose Women to talk about the saga and claimed that Vanessa showed a lack of respect by not asking her to come to the ice rink to meet her. "Her boyfriend got invited down, Meg told the panel. I feel like as a woman she should have reached out to me and introduced herself to me." She went on to say she was jealous that Wes was spending hours a day skating in Lycra and she was left with the tired version of him at the end of the day. Meanwhile Wes, who claimed the two women had cleared the air privately, and Vanessa were pictured laughing and joking during rehearsal. Vanessas Instagram is @vanessabauer_skates and her Twitter handle is @TheVanessaBauer | https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/who-dancing-ices-vanessa-bauer-13887259 |
Could anti-price gouging laws slow rising rents in California? | Crooning in the shower is not Chad Regeczis thing. Thats why when he learned last year his monthly rent would go up $300 so the new owners of his La Mesa apartment in San Diego County could upgrade his bathroom with a sound system, he was bemused. 300 bucks! he said. I mean an iPod costs less than that. Everybody has got a phone now. Its just weird. Regeczi, a VA employee, said the 30 percent rent increase didnt match the condition of his apartment. But he felt powerless to challenge his landlords on the hike. Whos gonna tell them no? he asked. There are no rules to how much your rent can go up. That may change. Talk is underway about putting a law on the books that would bar California landlords from raising rent beyond a certain percentage. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in November the rule would mimic limits on what businesses can charge during natural disasters. When theres a fire, you pass an anti-rent gouging ordinance, Schaaf said. The state has a fire. Its called the housing crisis. Rents are surging in some California cities where there is no rent control by double, even triple digits, according to mayors and tenants rights advocates. And more than half of the states renters pay more than a third of their income on housing, according to the California Budget & Policy Center. And a third of renters spend more than half of their paycheck on a place to live. The real estate firm Zillow reported last month that communities where people pay more than a third of their salary on rent, see a faster rise in homelessness. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,500 a month, in Los Angeles its $2,420 and $1,950 in San Diego, according to the real estate search site Zumper. And Attom Data Solutions found the average rent on a three-bedroom apartment in California has risen 20 percent since 2014. The states affordable housing crisis has downgraded the California Dream, that once included almost guaranteed homeownership, to a point where even renting an apartment is becoming out of reach. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said politicians should not interpret voter rejection of the rent control initiative Proposition 10 in November to mean theyre off the hook. It is not going to be good enough to say, `Well the voters spoke, Garcetti said. We have a problem we have to confront. Garcetti wants the state Legislature to approve an anti-price gouging rent cap. Support of such a cap may be building. Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco said legislators are mulling over whether to pitch a bill as one way to deal with the states 3.5 million housing unit shortage over the next decade. That shortage is leading to displacement, evictions, people becoming homeless, working families leaving, young people not having stable housing, Wiener said. Wiener sees a cap as an interim measure until more housing is built. Until we get there, and its going to take a while to get there because housing doesnt get built overnight; and it is a huge hole that we have to fill until we get there, we need to take action to keep people stable in the housing that they have, he said. David Garcia, who is policy director at UC Berkeleys Terner Center for Housing Innovation, said the cap would protect tenants from the most egregious rent increases aimed at removing them from an apartment. Tenants receiving increases 25, 30, 40 percent which we read about all the time, those increases would be illegal, Garcia said. Landlords dont like the idea. Its a form of tenant welfare, paid only by a small number of people, Dan Faller, president of the Apartment Owners Association of California. If this is a society problem, then society ought to solve it. But this will make the crisis worse. Tenants advocates, like Rafael Bautista of San Diegos Tenants United, worry for another reason. He said the state needs rent control that restricts annual increases to 2 percent. He believes that the proposed anti-gouging cap is a ruse for mayors to punt the housing affordability issue to the state Legislature. Its basically a watered-down version so that we dont pursue rent control because theyll point to that and say, `Well, you know we have these measures in place. Why do you still need rent control? Bautista said. But La Mesa resident Chad Regeczi called the cap a good start. This is America, Regeczi said. People want to make money. But at the same time they cant be crushing people. Its about whats acceptable, whats doable, whats fair. Regeczi moved out of his apartment following the $300 rent increase. Hes in a larger place now. Related Articles Gov. Newsom on housing crisis: California dream is in peril Could Gov. Kaiser Permanente to spend $5.2 million on affordable housing in Oakland Editorial: Tech titans need to respond to Newsom housing challenge This place is way nicer than that and its just 200 bucks more than what I was paying there, he said. It doesnt even make sense. But deja vu could be setting in. Regeczis new place just got new owners and that may mean a new rent increase. The California Dream series is a statewide media collaboration of CALmatters, KPBS, KPCC, KQED and Capital Public Radio with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the James Irvine Foundation. | https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/21/could-anti-price-gouging-laws-slow-rising-rents/ |
Are young people from rural Chorley travelling to the borough's Youth Zone? | Chorleys Youth Zone is to explore whether more needs to be done to attract young people from rural parts of the borough to the town centre venue. But its chief executive asked for patience and said the organisation had already exceeded many of the targets which it had set itself since it opened last May. READ MORE >>> Queues in the street as Chorley Youth Zone opens its doors Janine Blythe also told a meeting of Chorley Councils liaison committee that she was disappointed that the prospect of a similar facility opening in Preston appeared to have passed. Borough and parish councillors heaped praise on the project, which has the largest membership of any of its sister schemes in the North West - one in three young people in Chorley has now joined. Our target was for 3,000 members in the first year, but we have hit 5,000 after just eight months, Ms. Blythe said. When we first opened, we were getting 200-300 visits per night, which was actually unsustainable - now it has settled down to about 160. But some councillors expressed concern that young people in less central areas could be losing out, because of a lack of public transport. The meeting was told that the facility already has a good distribution of members from across the borough. We are happy to look at whether we need to co-ordinate travel into the centre, Ms. Blythe said. But we have to assess whether young people from those areas would come. There is the possibility of doing outreach work first, where we go out to [those communities] and get to know them. When youre coming to [somewhere like the Youth Zone] from a village, it might be more daunting, so its about building trust and making them want to come, she added. Deputy chief executive of Chorley Council, Chris Sinnott, said the authority had to balance any support which it could give with the capacity of what the Youth Zone can offer. The authority has committed 100,000 for the facility in its draft budget for the next financial year. Meanwhile, councillors heard that the Youth Zone is still trying to secure funding for its core services, which have expanded beyond the charitys expectations for its first year of operation. Unscheduled developments have included the formation of groups focused on healthy relationships and supporting those questioning their sexuality, as well as giving pupils from special schools access to the centre during the day, when it would otherwise have been closed. Ms. Blythe said that mentoring and outreach work was next on her wish list for the Youth Zone to deliver. For some young people, having dedicated time with a trusted adult would make a world of difference [to them]. Sometimes it would only be needed for a short period, for others longer, she said. Chorley councillor Steve Holgate described the work being undertaken by the Youth Zone as faultless. It was astounding to see young people making presentations at a business breakfast event, when they were devoid of confidence just a few weeks earlier, he said. | https://www.lep.co.uk/news/are-young-people-from-rural-chorley-travelling-to-the-borough-s-youth-zone-1-9548932 |
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