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When Do Legal Immigrants Get to 'Speak Out'? | Since the Washington Post and the New York Times will never cover what I learned, I will "speak out" here. I hope it does some good. I went to El Salvador last year. This commentary explains how the experience finally reconciled me with the conservative position on immigration. I emphasize the pain caused to a beautiful people, the Salvadorans, by their living in a state not like Jesus in Egypt, but more like the Babylonian captivity of the Old Testament. Sometimes history presents lose-lose scenarios where a trend has no winners. Illegal immigration belongs in such a category. Immigration is emotional In the Los Angeles Civic Center, my wife took an oath to become a citizen. After sixteen years together, fourteen years of marriage, and over a decade with a green card, she had finally cleared all the hurdles, made her decision, and decided to become American. Few experiences can rival such a scene. Masses of people from every corner of the globe, dressed in their finest, carry bouquets and snap photographs. This happened before the homelessness crisis caused tents and human waste to cover the sidewalks downtown. I recall waiting with Iranians, Mexicans, Filipinos, Germans, British, Nigerians, Indians, Israelis, Russians, Poles, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Guatemalans, wiping the sweat from our multicolored brows, as we waited for our people to emerge with envelopes full of all-important papers. Papers, papers, papers. I grew up knowing that documents really mattered. Because before my wife became a citizen, my mother and father were immigrants. The first generation before mine My grandmother delivered my mother in Puerto Rico, twenty years after the Jones Act gave islanders citizenship. My mother found the island too small for her character and ambitions. So did her mother. My grandmother flew to New York to study, leaving her three children, including my mother, with my grandfather in the 1950s. She would return. The family had intelligence evidenced by the high number of college degrees and professions but they never seemed to have much money. They lived in a small city in southeastern Puerto Rico famed for its caaveral, its history of slavery, and sugarcane refineries. My grandfather had only completed fourth grade but knew that his oldest daughter had unusual genius. My mother rose to the top of both her high school and college. She had come to identify with a gay, lesbian, and possibly transgender (in today's terms) community. Neither her career nor her growing bohemian sensibility could fit in. She journeyed with little money but big ambitions to Buffalo to pursue medical school. In World War II Buffalo, many enlisted and went off to serve. Some Puerto Rican laborers replaced them, picking apples. Some stayed and found jobs in factories, settling on the city's west side. When my mother sought to leave the island, she needed to go somewhere affordable, where she knew people. She had some cousins living in Buffalo. Rent was cheap. The city had a medical school. My father arrived at almost the same time. He was born to a colorful family with a typically Filipino backstory. My grandmother came from an Ilokano rice town, where her four sisters and brother felt like royalty. They had some land. Known to be daring and flippant, my "Lola" ran off to Manila to work as a librarian. She lived in a house for working girls supervised by Catholics who made them pray each day and closely watched over them. As my Lola told me, one day she saw a warning posted in the boarding house. It said there were "dangerous bachelors" from a southern island city, Silay, who had been known to conduct themselves dishonorably. On this list was my grandfather. Lola snuck out a window to see if she could see this dangerous man up close at a dance. She met my grandfather and ran off with him, back to the island town where his family owned a plantation and a fishing reserve. They married and had children. They became separated during the Japanese invasion. As late as the 1990s, she would bristle if I brought a friend with Japanese ancestry along to visit. She had witnessed atrocities on a scale few could imagine. Her husband fought as a guerrilla and died of liver cirrhosis soon after. Their land suffered critical damage, and the documents proving their ownership got lost in the bombings. My Lola fought a court battle to regain her share of the land, but it got delayed for generations. By the time she died in 2005, at the age of 93, the courts were deciding the case. My father's brother fell in with gangsters in the years after World War II. This proved invaluable to my studious father. My grandmother worked several jobs. They lived in a dangerous neighborhood. My uncle hired bodyguards to walk my father to and from school. My father knew that every exam he took, every paper he wrote, had to excel for the sake of a whole family counting on him to lift them from poverty. Filipinos of my father's generation played no games with education. He took no creative writing classes or courses in gender studies. He finished a pre-medical training program, then got a visa to complete medical studies in Hartford and Buffalo. Eventually, he would end up helping to finance the studies, migrations, homes, and businesses of countless cousins. Their parents guarded him when he studied. He had to make good on what he owed them. When my father finished his residency in Buffalo, he received an appointment to work in a field nobody really respected in the late 1950s: combating "addiction." Back then, it was heroin. He started in the field at the very beginning of America's drug crisis. He would end up shining in his career. Even today, in his eighties, people fly him around to give lectures. He cannot quit because nobody can replace his extensive experience. He met my mother in Buffalo. They eventually had me. The mindset of a legal immigrant family I thought like this when I grew up: America held great promise, but you should never feel entitled to anything. If you want America's opportunities, you deal with American paperwork. You wait. And wait. And wait. Obligations defined immigration obligations to the old countries, where you had to send money, and to this country, where you showed gratitude for American living and proved you were committed. Racism ranked low on our list of worries. My folks knew that the Philippines and Puerto Rico were a lot harder than racism. My mother has some black ancestry, but she had the fairest skin of her siblings, while my father, for some reason, had very dark skin. To many people, they were simply not white, so classified with blacks. In Buffalo in the 1960s, they lived in a black neighborhood, accepting the era's segregation with patience and resignation. Riots tore across the city in the 1960s. When I was born in 1971, the family had moved to a white suburb of Buffalo. While we differed racially, almost everyone in our neighborhood had recent ancestors who had immigrated from Italy, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Greece, or Scandinavia. I dealt with racism the way my parents did. I learned to fight a longer war for justice, to give those who would hate us no ammunition. And the rules, the rules. You have to follow the rules, because you aren't like ordinary families. You are probationary Americans. If you don't like it, you can always go back and sell gum to tourists on a highway. How I met my wife My wife comes from another country. She and I met in grad school and got together in 1999. I fell in love quickly and felt profound Catholic guilt over being involved without being married. Like my Filipina grandmother, I followed my passions, but Catholic guilt persists in people despite even the most postmodern attempts to quash it. I moved in with her. I had grown up in a family that knew that documents, certificates, oaths, obligations, promises, and all the rest it all mattered. And you couldn't cut corners, or you might lose everything. We got married in January 2001. I remember so clearly all the rules we had to follow, down to the letter. My wife could not have dual intent, which meant she could not keep her student visa. The officials explained: the primary motive for resettling must serve as the basis for your visa. You cannot say, "I married and might start a family" and "I am just in town getting a degree." A student visa expires when the degree is done. A marriage visa moves toward a green card and possible citizenship. I remember I signed a paper saying that if we went on public assistance, she would be deported. We had to send papers regularly updating our status to the immigration office. It took years to get a green card. My wife could not travel outside the country for several years. She had "authorization to work," but if we set foot outside American soil, we would not be able to re-enter, and she would be repatriated. We lived five minutes from Canada. Her father came to visit us, and we took him to Niagara Falls. He felt furious that we could not cross a bridge to see the beautiful Horseshoe Falls. But those were the rules. By 2008, we had a daughter, and I worked in California as an assistant professor. A budget crisis swept the state. I could not go without work. My wife still did not have her citizenship. I signed up for the Army Reserves to make sure that if any layoffs happened, I would be able to keep my wife in the country. I went to boot camp at the age of thirty-nine. I had a concussion in training. I knew the stakes, so I got through it. The job market fell apart in Los Angeles. My wife tried to use her language skills but illegal aliens, working for lower wages and with no need to pay taxes, saturated the economy. She got a job offer in the Midwest and took it. I was shipped out to active duty for training. Between 2009 and 2013, I had to live apart from my wife and child. In 2014, she quit her job, and we reunited as a family, staying together since. We lived an American story not unlike my parents' generation's and the stories of generations before them. I feel many things. Primarily, I feel angry. To call us all "immigrants" with no distinctions demeans everyone. It disregards the incredible sacrifices people make to follow the rules in good faith. People who come legally do so because they know the harm caused by secrets, lazy shortcuts, sloppy decisions. People who come legally know that it is a ponderous decision to leave one land and join another. Leftists will say my family is "rich," but that's silly. Poverty at different times was part our stories. Liberals who talk about illegal immigration have never, in my experience, wanted to listen to people who followed the rules to come here. Their racism leads them to dismiss our stories (because we serve no purpose) and to oversimplify the stories of illegal aliens (because they assume that poor "others" are too stupid to know how to follow the rules). They dramatize the sufferings of people at the border while showing total indifference to the sacrifices of people in their midst who came to America the right way. Their advocacy amounts to using people for a while and then discarding them. That's wrong. In 2019, I refuse to play along with it anymore. Follow Robert Oscar Lopez at English Manif. Image: Gulbenk via Wikimedia Commons. | https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/when_do_legal_immigrants_get_to_speak_out.html |
How do the Liverpool and Manchester City shape up off the pitch? | Manchester City and Liverpool will meet in a blockbuster clash on Thursday night as the Premier League title race starts to truly take shape. Both clubs have designs on lifting the trophy at the end of the season and Liverpool could potentially move 10 points clear of their rivals with victory at the Etihad Stadium. City and Liverpool both also have aspirations to become the biggest football brand off the field and both have enormous commercial operations. We take a closer look at how the two Premier League front-runners compare. Pep Guardiola (left) and Jurgen Klopp are set to go head-to-head on Thursday in a blockbuster Premier League clash that could go some way to deciding who wins the title OWNERSHIP Manchester City: It is just over a decade now since the Abu Dhabi United investment group swept into Manchester and changed the landscape of English football forever. Overnight, Sheikh Mansour and his associates transformed City from perennial Premier League strugglers to major players in the global transfer market ready and willing to flex their financial muscle. The club's latest accounts revealed that Sheikh Mansour has directly invested some 1.3billion in everything from world class players to a state-of-the-art training complex. With an estimated wealth of 20bn, making him the wealthiest club owner in the world, there will undoubtedly be more investment to come yet. Since 2008, City have won three Premier League titles but have yet to crack the holy grail of winning the Champions League. Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour in conversation with manager Pep Guardiola last year Guardiola speaks with Sheik Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in Abu Dhabi Liverpool: The Fenway Sports Group assumed control at Anfield back in October 2010 after fellow American investors George Gillett and Tom Hicks were forced to sell the club. John W Henry is the club's owner and a familiar face in the stands. He also owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team, a NASCAR team and the Boston Globe newspaper. The latest Forbes list estimated his wealth at just under 2bn, something he has steadily built since the early 1980s through shrewd investment. As well as an improvement in the team's fortunes on the field, Henry has also overseen the expansion of Anfield's capacity to 54,074 with a further increase to come in the years ahead. But success on the field hasn't necessarily followed - they have won just one League Cup since Fenway took over, having a brush with Premier League glory in 2014 and losing last year's Champions League final to Real Madrid. American businessman John W Henry and his Fenway Sports Group own Liverpool Hnery and manager Jurgen Klopp at the unveiling of the expanded main stand at Anfield THE KEY FIGURES Manchester City: While Sheikh Mansour provides the investment, the more public figure of the ownership is chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. A busy man, Al Mubarak sits on the board of a number of companies that receive investment by the Abu Dhabi rulers both in the UAE and beyond. Driving City's bid for commercial success around the world is chief executive Ferran Soriano, who formerly had a similar role at Barcelona. Under Soriano's guidance, City have exceeded 500m in revenue and reported record profits of 10.4m in their latest financial report. Of crucial importance in the club's player recruitment strategy is director of football Txiki Begiristain. Another figure who worked at Barcelona, Begiristain's mission is to enable City to fulfil their objectives in the transfer market. Txiki Begiristain, City's director of football, with new signing Kyle Walker back in 2017 Watching brief MANCHESTER CITY vs LIVERPOOL Thursday; kick-off 8pm Live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier League and NOW TV Liverpool: Chairman Tom Werner has steered Liverpool's journey under the control of the Fenway Sports Group, helping them overcome the legal obstacles of relinquishing the control of Hicks and Gillett. It has been a largely upward curve on the field since then, especially under the management of Jurgen Klopp, who was appointed in 2015 in what Werner has described as a 'perfect marriage'. In November 2016, Liverpool decided to create the position of sporting director and Michael Edwards has ensured the new structure has worked well. It is his responsibility to identify and recruit players that will strengthen Liverpool's squad and Edwards, who was formerly the club's head of performance and analysis, has excelled. He has overseen some of the biggest signings in the club's history, including defender Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson, and the benefits are really being felt. Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has helped oversee an improved period for the club FINANCIAL MIGHT Manchester City: The latest Forbes Football Rich List placed City at No 5 globally behind Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Their estimated value was placed at 1.94bn. It is certainly impressive progress from a standing start when the Abu Dhabi investment started in 2008, but City have no intention of stopping there. Their latest set of financial figures registered a profit of 10.4m and revenue in excess of 500m following last year's Premier League triumph. Al Mubarak said at the time: 'Our journey is not complete and we have more targets to fulfil. We will always strive for more.' Given the almost limitless resources of their Abu Dhabi owners, City can position themselves in the market for just about any footballer in the world. They certainly continue to splash the cash, with Riyad Mahrez arriving for 60m and Aymeric Laporte for 57m last year - twice breaking their club's spending record. Riyad Mahrez - signed from Leicester City for 60m last year - is Man City's record signing Forbes Rich List 2018 1. Manchester United 3.24bn 2. Real Madrid 3.21bn 3. Barcelona 3.2bn 4. Bayern Munich 2.41bn 5. Manchester City 1.94bn 6. Arsenal 1.75bn 7. Chelsea 1.62bn 8. Liverpool 1.53bn 9. Juventus 1.16bn 10. Tottenham 0.97bn Source: Forbes Liverpool: Three places below City on the Forbes list in eighth are Liverpool with a current value of 1.53bn, just behind Arsenal and Chelsea. Their latest set of financial figures saw the club back in the black with an increase in revenue of 62m to 364m on the previous results. The Reds were in profit by 39m having recorded an overall loss of some 21m the previous year. Peter Moore, the chief executive, suggested in an interview with the Financial Times last year that non-football events at Anfield, such as concerts, will help boost them above the 500m revenue figure. In order to compete at the top end of the Premier League and in the Champions League, Liverpool have invested heavily in their playing staff, breaking their record transfer fee last year. That occurred when they paid 75m to Southampton for defender Virgil Van Dijk, and they followed that up by spending 67m on goalkeeper Alisson as well as 48m on Naby Keita and 39m on Fabinho. But they do balance the books, with 142m brought in from the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona last January. Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool's record signing at 75m, has proved an inspired purchase BRAND POWER Manchester City: It's fair to say that City didn't have much of an international appeal prior to the 2008 takeover and the success it brought. They had flitted between the first and second divisions for many years and had only returned to the Premier League in 2002. Silverware had eluded them since a League Cup win in 1976. But with their increasing success on the field, their appeal and global fanbase has swollen. While not as popular as their rivals Manchester United or Liverpool in the Far East or the United States, they are making inroads. City's Twitter account has 6.55m followers and their Instagram account 9.8m, some way behind their main European rivals, but the numbers are increasing all the time. The club's Abu Dhabi-run holding company, City Football Group, also owns parts of clubs in the United States, Australia, Japan, Spain and Uruguay, spreading the City message far and wide. Manchester City fans make their way to a home match at the impressive Etihad Stadium City can boast in the region of 6.5million followers on their official Twitter account Liverpool: A rich tradition of success means that Liverpool are one of the most famous names in world football and therefore have a huge international following. Matches played during pre-season tours in Asia, Australia and the United States draw capacity crowds and the Anfield club has a rich tradition to draw upon. They dominated English football during the 1970s and 1980s, making them the team of choice for many overseas lovers of English football, while that period also saw them win four of their five European Cups. The club has almost 11m Twitter followers and a further 11.4m fans on Instagram. With a legends team that tours the world and a network of ambassadors, Liverpool pride themselves in preserving and expanding their links with fans everywhere and it's fair to say they could draw a crowd anywhere on the planet. The red hot Anfield atmosphere is renowned the world over and the club boast a huge following around the globe | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6546693/How-Liverpool-Manchester-City-shape-pitch.html |
How do I handle showings with beloved pets in residence? | 1 / 1 Back to Gallery As an animal lover, I know pet owners need to take a few extra precautions when listing their home. Below are a few key tips to help you prepare. I recommend taking these steps well in advance of listing your home because they can take time and can involve multiple family members. 1) Have an outsider, like a friend or your Realtor, do a walk through to check for fur, smells, damage to doors and screens, carpet stains, clutter, and pet waste. Remember, most pet owners do not smell their own pets, but buyers and brokers will. Have a handyman make all repairs and have the house professionally deep cleaned with products specific to dog and cat issues. 2) Hire a cleaning service to come in weekly to keep it up to snuff. 3) Vacuum and Swiffer daily and empty the cat box every time its used. 4) Consider specific showing times when you know you will be there to take the pets for a ride. For showings, removing your pets from the house is the best option. 5) If pets cannot be removed, hire a young neighbor to take them for a walk. Another option is to crate them in a quiet area, cover the crate with something familiar to make a cozy den, and play soft music. 6) Do not leave bowls of food and water out. 7) A daily cleanup of the backyard or dog run is imperative. 8) Just as with childrens toys, pick up all pet toys and keep in a basket. 9) One last thing: Remember, pets are people too and can have psychological issues as a result of moving. If you are moving locally take them to see the house and walk the neighborhood often. By taking these precautions you will have gone a long way in ensuring buyers can focus on your houses key qualities. Youll also reduce stress for you, your family, and even your pets. Pamela Schwanke, Halstead Connecticut, LLC, (203) 856-4194, [email protected] | https://m.stamfordadvocate.com/realestate/article/How-do-I-handle-showings-with-beloved-pets-in-13505037.php |
Is Roe v. Wade at stake as 116th Congress convenes? | When Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was first nominated, an alarm was sounded that grew louder and louder over the four months leading up to the midterm elections. The warnings came from abortion rights groups, who saw the longstanding Supreme Court ruling that ensures a womans right to an abortion at risk of being overturned, or, what some saw as worse, quietly gutted. Theres no way to sugarcoat it, Dawn Laguens, the former executive vice president of Planned Parenthood who stepped down in November, said when Kavanaugh was nominated by the president in July. The constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion in this country is on the line. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images, FILE And what abortion rights groups saw as a threat, anti-abortion groups saw as an opportunity -- the best judicial climate in years. Indeed, this administration is not only shifting the Supreme Court, but the lower courts as well, said former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colorado, who currently works with the Susan B. Anthony List, a nationwide anti-abortion group that focuses on elections and policy, as the vice president of government affairs. As Congress reconvenes for the 116th session, half-a-year after Kavanaughs nomination and two months after the 2018 midterms, the nation has seen political shake-ups across branches of government that are likely to bring changes to abortion legislation and, potentially, the look of Roe v. Wade. Jose Luis Magana/AFP/Getty Images, FILE "That is a very serious concern not just for Planned Parenthood, but for anyone in this country who cares about safe, legal access to abortion," Dana Singiser, vice president for public policy and government affairs for the nationwide abortion rights organization, said in an interview with ABC News in December. At the Supreme Court level, the next few years are expected to bring cases that will present the opportunity to overturn or gut abortion law, as its currently known, said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks legislation for the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion advocacy group. It is a very real threat that the court will be revisiting abortion rights in the next few years and that because of the makeup of the court, abortion rights are in jeopardy, Nash said, referring to the addition of Trumps nominees, Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Legal experts say the effects of the new justices on the court remain to be seen. Whether the confirmation of Kavanaugh to replace [Justice Anthony] Kennedy was the final nail in the coffin is something well only actually be able to answer once the Supreme Court decides the matter, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who follows abortion legislation. That answer could come from any one of the 15 cases related to reproductive health currently working through the U.S. Courts of Appeals. The five cases closest to reaching the Supreme Court, according to Nash, are in Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. The court cases often begin in state legislatures in conservative states, said Nash, where restrictive abortion laws have frequently been approved as direct challenges to the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade. Ohio State Rep. Christina Hagan, a Republican and sponsor of a bill in her own state that would ban abortions after six weeks, said in a separate interview there is indeed a consensus among conservative state lawmakers to take advantage of the moment. We are better seated than weve ever been to present our case for life to the courts, and every state legislature in the nation recognizes that, Hagan said. The Washington Post/Getty Images But its not about the number of restrictive abortion bills out of state legislatures intended to pose a challenge to Roe v. Wade, according to Vladeck, and he doesnt predict a huge influx of such legislation, either. To me, its not the volume. Its the substance, Vladeck said. Once the courts have upheld a law in one state that prohibits abortions after you can detect a fetal heartbeat, other states will follow, he said. Hagan, the mother to 9-week-old twin boys and a three-year-old girl, had her children with her on the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives when her bill, also known as the Heartbeat Bill, passed in the state legislature in November. Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed the bill in December and said it was contrary to the Supreme Courts decision on Roe v. Wade. Hagan said that was exactly the point. Newly-elected Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican, has said he would sign it if its revived. Hagan, who is term-limited but whose co-sponsor on the bill continues to serve in the Ohio Statehouse, predicted it would be. I believe that the legislation we have developed in Ohio is going to be the arrow that goes into the heart of Roe v. Wade, she said. According to a preliminary analysis by Guttmacher Institute, there were 13 states that adopted 26 new restrictions on abortion and family planning in 2018. The way I envision it is the conservative states are kind of jockeying for position of who can pass the most extreme abortion ban first, Nash said. J. David Ake/AP, FILE Yet the institute also found 2018 was the first year in which more legislation was adopted to protect abortion rights than to dismantle them, with 80 new measures enacted across 29 states and Washington. Additionally, some state policy trackers point to the six state legislatures that flipped to Democratic control in the midterms and said these states are gearing up to protect against abortion restrictions in the same way conservative states are looking to enact them. In the states where we saw dramatic shifts in power, we see a lot of opportunity for states to not just protect but expand in legislative sessions, said Singiser of Planned Parenthood. Still, the robust position Republicans hold in state legislatures across the country is one reason Singiser, like Nash, predicts dramatic change. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, Singiser said, there are 20 states she predicted would quickly ban abortion or make it functionally inaccessible. For example, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota all have laws to ban abortions that would immediately go into effect were the case overturned. Still, beyond the courts and state legislatures, Singiser highlighted the new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Democrats will hold 235 seats to the Republicans 199, as a victory for abortion rights. Oversight and investigation arms interested in holding the Trump-Pence administration accountable, now hold subpoena power, Singiser said. One such move already came from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, who is set to become the chairman on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In July, Cummings set his sights on a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would affect womens access to contraceptive care. A record-breaking 102 women were also elected, Singiser pointed out. Particularly women, and women of color, made it clear they do not want elected officials controlling healthcare -- particularly reproductive healthcare, Singiser said. Alex Wong/Getty Images. FILE The Pro-Choice Caucus in the House, co-chaired by Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Diana DeGette, also called attention to the new makeup of their chamber. "In our historic new Democratic majority, with a record number of women and members of color, we are ready to hit the ground running to protect every womans constitutional right to reproductive health care," Lee and DeGette said in a statement. The new majority also puts Democrats in a position to block Republican efforts to deny Planned Parenthood federal funding, a longstanding threat when the GOP led the chamber. In a separate interview, former Rep. Musgrave, too, viewed the change of control in the House as a significant shift for abortion legislation and said Washington will be a different world in the new year. This is a new day and quite frankly, the abortion lobby spent tens of millions of dollars flipping the House and theyre going to want a return on their money, Musgrave said. Theyre going to expect Democrats to go after the pro-life legislation. But the Senate, which confirms judges to the federal courts, bolstered its Republican majority -- and saw a net gain of two anti-abortion senators, according to Musgrave -- putting more weight behind the presidents campaign promise to confirm more pro-life judges to the court. The good news is, we feel like the president and the pro-life Senate will stand for life, but yet we know we have to be very vigilant, Musgrave said. State houses around the country largely begin their new sessions in January and the U.S. House and the Senate open the 116th Congress Thursday. The Supreme Court began its new term in October and usually runs into the summer months. | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/roe-wade-stake-116th-congress-convenes/story?id=60033788 |
Can Ole Gunnar Solskjaer propel Manchester United back to their golden days? | Yash Sharma FOLLOW ANALYST Feature 243 // 03 Jan 2019, 14:59 IST SHARE Share Options Facebook Twitter Flipboard Reddit Google+ Email Ole Gunnar Solskjaer maintains a perfect record in Premier League after his initial four games. Manchester United had one of their worst starts to a season under former manager Jose Mourinho, as the Reds managed to get only 26 points out of their first 17 Premier League games - having already registered five draws and five losses to their names. The disappointment reached its peak when the Red Devils visited Anfield and suffered a woeful 3-1 defeat at the hands of their eternal rivals, Liverpool. Not just the scoreline but the entire match was one-sided, as Mourinho's men managed only two shots on target as compared to eleven from the hosts. Fed up with the stubborn behaviour of Jose Mourinho and increasing troubles for United, the club's hierarchy finally decided to sack the Portuguese tactician and appointed former player, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as the interim manager for the remainder of the season. Since his arrival, the 45-year-old tactician has secured all the possible points in the four matches he has managed, so far, keeping a flawless record. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the first manager since Sir Matt Busby who has managed to win all four of his United games getting underway. The Norwegian has tried three different formations in the four matches he has managed so far - scoring a mammoth number of 14 goals in the run while allowing just 3. Solskjaer and United's momentum grew stronger with a 5-1 thrashing of Crystal Palace - the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure that the Red Devils scored five goals in a game. The arrival of Solskjaer has not only enhanced their performances but also has brought the belief back in the United squad. Paul Pogba was sidelined in December, including the crucial away game at Anfield. However, with the arrival of the new manager, he appears to have taken a new birth. Solksjaer is building his attacking system around the Frenchman who had made the most of it by scoring four goals and providing three assists in the span of four Premier League games. In a recent post-match interview, Pogba praised the offensive style of play under Solksjaer as he said: Its different, we still won games with the old manager. Advertisement "Its just a different style of playing. Were more offensive and create more chances. Thats how we want to play, we want to attack and the manager wants to attack. Solksjaer is known for his attacking-kind of football and has provided a free role to his players - they pass, they attack, even shoot the ball from distance provided they have enough room. There couldn't be a much better start to Solskjaer's managerial career with the senior team. The fans and the players believe in him and he is expected to bring back the glory days to Old Trafford. With the Premier League completely out of sight, it remains to see how will the Red Devils perform in the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions. Advertisement | https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/can-ole-gunnar-solskjaer-propel-manchester-united-back-to-their-golden-days-ss |
Should I spend money remodeling my home before listing it? | 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Many of my clients ask me if its worth spending the money to remodel before putting their homes on the market. Its a good question. The truth is, most renovation projects will not add more to the value of a home than the renovation cost itself. That said, its still often a good option to consider, particularly in the kind of buyers market much of Fairfield County is seeing today. Done right, updating a home that needs it can be critical to getting your house sold in a timely fashion. When considering a pre-sale remodeling project, look first at your kitchen. The 2017 Remodeling Impact Survey, conducted by the National Association of Realtors, states that kitchen upgrades provide the highest increase in value in the sale of a house and that kitchens are the room in the house buyers tend to value most. Todays trend is for lighter paint tones with white cabinets and grey/beige walls and an open, clean and functional look. Depending on your current kitchen, to achieve this could span from a simple repainting of cabinets and new countertops all the way through to a full renovation. The second most valued area for focusing your remodeling efforts are bathrooms. Buyers are looking for modern fixtures and clean, light lines. This may involve just changing faucets to chrome and a new toilet seat. However, a more thorough upgrade of the bathroom may not break the bank and can often have a very positive impact. If your wood floors look tired, this is the third area to focus on. A refinish in popular colors such as dark walnut can give the whole house a tremendous lift. Among the areas of a house that on average return less value if remodeled are attics, basements, media rooms and garages. Pre-sale remodeling can help you sell your home. Just make sure you focus on the projects that add the most value and that you are careful that you dont overspend. Matthew K. Oldham, Halstead Connecticut, (203) 604-5463, [email protected] | https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/realestate/article/Should-I-spend-money-remodeling-my-home-before-13505027.php |
How are open borders a winning strategy for the left? | It is a complete mystery. Explain this to me if you can: OFFICIAL: DEMS REFUSED TO EVEN LISTEN TO BORDER SECURITY BRIEFING AT WHITE HOUSE. Democratic lawmakers brought a border security briefing at the White House to a screeching halt Wednesday, refusing to even listen to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a White House official tells The Daily Caller. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed this version of events to reporters outside the White House immediately after the briefing, saying, Once the secretary started, Schumer interrupted her and didnt want to hear it. Republican and Democratic lawmakers after the meeting indicated little progress was made toward ending the partial government shutdown and that they agreed to reconvene Friday. The White House official says there was a consensus in the room that negotiations would be put on hold until Pelosi officially assumed her expected role of Speaker. (Related: Trump Refuses To Budge in Shutdown Demand: As Long As It Takes) The White House official told TheDC that both Pelosi and Schumer refused to hear out Nielsens briefing and instead advocated for two solutions to end the government shutdown. Neither of the Democratic options would provide the additional funding for border security requested by The White House. Trump on Democrats saying the wall is immoral: "Well then you got to do something about the Vatican, because the Vatican has the biggest wall of them all. Look at all of the countries that have walls, and they work 100%. Its never going to change." pic.twitter.com/6Fgem53WJI Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 2, 2019 The left truly are beyond reason (ie insane). | http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/01/03/how-are-open-borders-a-winning-strategy-for-the-left/ |
Why is communication key when listing a home? | 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Communication is vital to the success of a real estate transaction for a number of reasons. Sellers need to communication why they are moving. Once the real estate agent understands the sellers motivation, the agent is better able to guide the seller. Agents need to communicate the state of the market to the sellers. Its an agents job to guide and advise the sellers on current market conditions. It is also important for the agent to communicate market conditions during the time the house is active. These conversations can educate the seller if the home is priced correctly or not. Once there is an accepted offer, the agent needs to communicate any inspection item requests that come up. Communicating inspection items in writing is always the best way to go. All parties buyers and sellers, the buyers agent and the listing agent are all communicating off one document. This typically alleviates any gray area. Communicating when contracts need to be signed, when mortgage commitments are waived and when walk-throughs are taking place are also important parts of the transaction. The feedback we always hear from our clients is how grateful they were to always be in the communication loop. They always knew what was going on during the process. Selling a home is typically one of a persons most valuable assets. Our job is to make this process as smooth as possible, with the least amount of stress. Communicating each step of the way is a sure-fire way to accomplish this goal. Jeannie Kasindorf, Auslander Kasindorf Group/Keller Williams Realty, (203) 504-3072, [email protected]. | https://m.stamfordadvocate.com/realestate/article/Why-is-communication-key-when-listing-a-home-13505006.php |
How do we get people to care about climate and energy? | We can't. We have to paint a bigger picture. And we can learn from what the Well people are doing. The Passivhaus Institut promotes "a building standard that is truly energy efficient, comfortable and affordable at the same time." It has been around since 1996. Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of it, but have often complained that energy efficiency isn't enough. There are now over 3,000 Passivhaus certified designers and consultants, and there are 4547 buildings in the Passivhaus Institute Database. The Well Building Standard covers a bigger field of interest. It is "focused exclusively on the ways that buildings, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness." Well Standard Well Standard The Well Building Standard started in 2014 and now has 6416 certified professionals and registrants. There are 220 million square feet in 1094 projects. It started with commercial space and is moving into residential real estate around the world. It does not even mention energy efficiency in the entire standard; it's all about health and wellness. Shelton Group Shelton Group We have noted many times before that it is hard to get people to deal with the serious issues of climate. I recently wrote that people don't want to talk about it, don't want to read about it, aren't going to vote to do anything about it. Paraphrasing Upton Sinclair, their lifestyle depends on them not understanding climate change. As the Shelton Group found in their survey, the biggest motivator for energy conservation was to save money, and the last was to preserve the quality of life for future generations. Given that energy prices are low, there is not a whole lot of incentive for people to spend serious money to burn less. Dan Gartner, writing in the Globe and Mail, points out that "climate change doesnt dominate elections. It doesnt dominate headlines, airtime, and social media. It doesnt dominate consumer choices." It is because of the way our minds work: Scientists have informed me that when I drive my gasoline-powered car, the car emits carbon dioxide into the air, which makes the atmosphere an ever-so-slightly more efficient heat-trapping blanket. If I multiply my cars emissions by one billion cars and thousands more greenhouse-gas sources and seven billion people and 150 years of industrialization, the total is big trouble. I know this. We all do. But the last time I got in my car, drove and got out, there was no perceptible change. I suffered no harm. No one did. The same is true of the time before that. And the time before that. He calls it the problem of psychological distance. But there is nothing distant about our own health and wellness, and the people who are seriously selling health and wellness do very well indeed. Goop is worth a quarter of a billion dollars, all while being what Julia Belluz calls "a reliably laughable source of pseudoscience". Wellness Real Estate/Screen capture Wellness Real Estate/Screen capture In its early days, the Well Standard had a few touches of pseudoscience, including vitamin-infused water and aromatherapy shower heads. They are gone now, but there are still many aspects of Well that are out there on the edge and are described as a bit flaky. They may be backed by real science but they are not exactly life and death issues. Pure air, pure water, acoustics, and Circadian lighting are the first steps. For years green building has focused on environmental impact. Not on the human biological impact. That is what we are doing here. But those of us who actually care about environmental impact can learn from all this. In a presentation to Passivhaus Portugal recently, I looked at what features of the Well standard are already covered by Passivhaus and what features could be co-opted. Air Passivhaus has this one nailed, with its requirement for Heat Recovery Ventilation and filtering. Air quality is becoming a serious health crisis in cities and people are finally getting seriously concerned; in London, people are apparently moving out of town. Passivhaus could own this. Chie Kawahara described living through the recent California fires in her Passivhaus Midori Haus: The tightly sealed enclosure, about 10 times tighter than conventionally built houses, keeps random air from coming in from random places. The heat recovery ventilator provides us with continuous filtered fresh air. Only during these extended bad air quality days do we need to pay special attention to our ventilation system to keep our indoor air clean. Comfort Elrond Burrell/ photo by Lloyd Alter/ Elrond Burrell/ photo by Lloyd Alter/ CC BY 2.0 Comfort is complicated, but is a prime feature of Passivhaus, with its thick blanket of insulation and high-quality windows; when walls are as warm as the air then you do not feel cold. Elrond Burrell has been pitching this for years, writing in Passivhaus; Comfort, Comfort, Comfort, Energy Efficiency that the standard for airtightness (0.6 air changes per hour) makes the house completely draft-free. Since the windows are so good, designed to have interior surfaces that are within 5F of interior temperature, there are no drafts off the glass like there are in most conventional houses. More: The three most important things about passive houses are comfort, comfort and comfort. Noise Jane Sanders/ Living and dining Jane Sanders/ Living and dining Again, those walls and windows significantly reduce exterior noise; Passivhaus designs are extremely quiet. As I noted after touring Jane Sanders' Passivhaus townhouse in Brooklyn, For someone living in New York City, perhaps the biggest benefit of building to Passive House standards is that it is incredibly quiet inside. Bergen is a busy street, with buses and trucks going by at all hours. However the high-quality triple glazed windows plus the thick blanket of insulation really cut the noise; you could see buses go by and really could not hear a thing. Light Juraj Mikurcik Juraj Mikurcik Windows are a source of both heat loss and heat gain that have to be taken into account, so they are very carefully designed and placed in Passivhaus buildings. The important thing about Passivhaus quality windows is that you or your dog can sit right beside them and not feel cold. Juraj Mikurcik describes "the luxury of being able to sit next to the large glazed window without feeling uncomfortable." But wait, there's more! These are four very important issues that Passivhaus designers can pitch to clients, as well as energy savings. But Well looks at other categories that Passivhaus designers have to think about too. Water is obviously important. Fitness, Nutrition and even Mind, which covers things like beauty and biophilia. The real lesson from Well is that people care more, as Chopra notes, about their own biological human impact than they do about environmental impact. Otherwise Well wouldn't be growing like mad and Gwyneth Paltrow wouldn't be a multimillionaire. The Passivhaus Institute may base all their decisions on rigorous science, but people want more than just energy efficiency, and they don't actually understand comfort, and Passivhaus designers don't do a great job of explaining it. So while Passivhaus addresses serious issues, they are psychologically distant. Health and wellness, on the other hand, are very close. Le Corbusier in Wikipedia/ Le Corbusier in Wikipedia/ CC BY 2.0 Le Corbusier famously said that good architects borrow, and great architects steal. (He stole the phrase from Picasso). I believe that we have to do some serious stealing learning from the Well people, who recognize that people care a lot more about what is going on inside their homes and their bodies than they do about what is going outside. The problem is not that we are ignorant or selfish. The problem is how we think. Gartner says that "learning to accept that may help save us." Perhaps it is time for those who care about climate and energy to recognize this, learn from it, and deliver more. To paint a bigger picture. There is a lot to learn from what the Well people are doing, they know their audience. I have been trying to get a handle on this since I started on TreeHugger and focused on promoting green building, but I am not sure we know ours. | https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/how-do-we-get-people-care-about-climate-and-energy.html |
Who is the Sporting Lisbon attacker Bristol City have been linked with? | Get Weekday Bristol City 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 According to the latest reports Bristol City have been linked with a man once dubbed "the Scottish Messi." The Sun report the Robins are considering a move for Sporting Lisbon attacker Ryan Gauld. Scotsman Gauld, 23, stared his career at Dundee United and made 42 appearances for the club, scoring seven goals before leaving for Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon in July 2014 for a reported fee of three million euros. At just 5ft 6ins tall the midfielder was once dubbed the Scottish Messi however his career has not quite had the same trajectory as the Barcelona star. Gauld is currently on loan at SC Farense from Sporting Lisbon having struggled to break into the first team. Farense play in the second division of Portuguese football, the Segunda Liga. So far this season the Aberdeen-born midfielder has played 11 games, scoring two goals, including a stunner in a 5-0 win over Oliveirense this week. Gauld has played for Scotland at U19 and U21 level and in 2014 he was called up to the senior side for the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign but did not feature. Rangers have also been linked with a move for the attacking midfielder and Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes tried to sign the youngster on a loan deal last summer after Sporting confirmed he could leave but missed out. | https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/who-sporting-lisbon-attacker-bristol-2384596 |
Should public money be sought for expensive organ transplantation procedures? | Organ donation is highly skewed in India with the poor too often being donors and the rich too often being recipients. Some transplant professionals suggest more money should be spent on transplant programmes to address this inequity. However, transplantation is an expensive proposition and public funds can be better spent on other preventive health and cost-effective measures to ensure the greater good of a larger number of people. In a 2010 resolution, the World Health Assembly urged member states to promote equitable access to transplantation services in accordance with national capacities, which provides the foundation for public support of voluntary donation. This foundation of equity is missing in India and public support for transplantation is starting to wane. Of the more than 2 lakh Indians getting into kidney failure each year, 90% die because they cannot afford to start dialysis, which is needed three times a week. Of those who start treatment, 60% stop soon because of financial constraints. Public dialysis centres are few and far between and one study shows that in a central government funded institution, a patient getting supposedly free dialysis had to spend on average Rs 2,800 for each session, which often results in catastrophic health expenditure, tipping the family into poverty. A study of over 13,000 patients covered by public insurance for dialysis in Andhra Pradesh showed that patients spent an average of only six months on dialysis. Only 3.5% of patients who dropped off dialysis got kidney transplants. The rest faced death. More than 95% organ transplantations in India, like most other tertiary care interventions, take place in private hospitals. Kidney transplants cost the least among transplant surgeries, at Rs 5 lakh, with other organ transplants costing three to six times as much. Then there are the recurring annual costs of around Rs 1.5 lakh for medication after any transplant surgery. The expense associated with transplantation is the main reason why more than half the hearts and lungs donated do not find recipients. Government insurance schemes provide very little cover for transplant surgeries and the procedures are required to be performed in public hospitals under such schemes instead of patients being allowed to choose a private transplant facility. Here is the dilemma of the state level policy maker. Faced with a finite health budget, she has to draw up a list of items on which money can be spent and then add weightage to each after assessing cost-to-benefit in achieving a certain goal. The Union health ministry has declared universal health coverage with equity as a goal. The achievement of universal health coverage is an objective of the National Health Policy of India, 2017. The World Health Organisation in its report, Making fair choices on the path to universal health coverage, 2014, recommends that healthy life years saved can be a measure to determine priorities for expenditure. For example, it points out that $1,000 spent on fortifying food with vitamin A and zinc can save 60 healthy life years and if spent on dialysis will save only 0.02 healthy life years. The report says that one unacceptable trade-off in trying to achieve universal health coverage is to give priority to very costly services whose societal health benefits are very small compared to alternative, less costly services. As an example, it cites a Thailand study that finds that money spent on dialysis can save 300 times more healthy life years if spent on tuberculosis control instead. Unreasonable costs Kanchan Mukherjee, who specialises in health policy and health economics, has critiqued the governments decision to open renal dialysis centres in all districts in India as being made without supporting evidence or evaluations of cost effectiveness. He cites an analysis that shows that if all patients with renal failure are to be treated, the cost of the programme could exceed the cost of the entire National Health Mission by 1.6 times. Only if the current stagnant public spend of 1.2% of gross domestic product on health doubles in the near term and trebles in the medium term, can transplantation services at least inch into the low priority category for public funds in India. This is one of many reasons for the central and state governments to substantially increase their health budgets and keep moving towards 5%, the share that WHO recommends. Meanwhile, the government should ensure preventive care that is far more cost effective than treatment. A doorstep program to control blood pressure and blood sugar has established that such interventions can possibly prevent 61% of kidney failures, 69% of heart attacks and 82% of strokes. Another such doorstep screening has shown that two-thirds of people identified as diabetic or hypertensive were unaware of their condition. Civil society can get more involved in organ failure prevention, supplementing government efforts in these doorstep programmes. The government can also consider mandating that private hospitals should perform 25% of all their transplant surgeries on poor patients referred to them from government hospitals free of cost. This will be similar to mandating that private schools allot 25% free seats to disadvantaged children under the Right to Education Act. This will amount to cross subsidisation, where affluent organ recipients will enable the less affluent to access the same service of the same quality. This is a partial solution to the equitable access problem and is far more practicable than public subsidisation. Equity in organ transplantation is difficult to address in a country that has high and increasing levels of inequality. It is not practicable to expect the government to help finance transplantation when there are other low-cost high-priority health initiatives possible. Instead, we need to push the government to quadruple its health spend, focusing on organ failure prevention and working on cross subsidisation for transplantation. Dr J Amalorpavanathan is a former member secretary of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, Chennai. CE Karunakaran is a Trustee of the NNOS Foundation, Chennai. | https://scroll.in/pulse/907893/should-public-money-be-sought-for-expensive-organ-transplantation-procedures |
Can anyone succeed as Trumps chief of staff? | Its a near-impossible job. But here are a few basic rules Mick Mulvaney can follow to avoid disaster. Its no wonder Mick Mulvaney, Donald Trumps new White House chief of staff, wanted acting in his job title. James A. Baker III, Ronald Reagans quintessential gatekeeper, tells every incoming chief the same thing when asked for his advice: Congratulations, youve got the worst f---ing job in government. The position is so relentless and punishing that Dick Cheney blames his stint as Gerald Fords 34-year-old lieutenant for triggering his first heart attack. For chiefs, those were the best of times. These are the worst, serving a president who makes their lives miserable, and the assignment virtually impossible. Dont ask Reince Priebus or John Kelly, who both failed in the position. In a recent exit interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kelly said he should be judged by all the terrible things he prevented the president from doing. As a metric for a White House chiefs performance, thats unprecedented. But then, so is Trump. While it will be incredibly tricky, it is still possible for Mulvaney to improve on the performances of his predecessors, and to be an asset to Trump and the country. Mulvaney was chosen in part for his presumed political savvy; the former South Carolina congressman was thought to be a possible help in Trumps expected reelection bid. But the 2020 campaign should be Mulvaneys last priority. What the president desperately needs now is someone who can help him governwhich is in both Trumps and the countrys best interest and, after all, is the reason we elect presidents. To help Trump do that, his new chief should stick to basics. First, Mulvaney should keep a low profile. Kellys credibility never recovered from his creepy, get-off-my-lawn performance in the White House briefing room in the fall of 2017, when he smeared Representative Frederica Wilson with a false story, then refused to apologize. While Mulvaney is more polished on camera, he has so far sounded more like a Trump sycophant than a person who can tell the president hard truths, the most important duty for any chief. This is what having a president who is nontraditional looks like, Mulvaney recently told Chris Wallace on Fox News, right after the president ordered a precipitous troop withdrawal from Syria and shut down the government, sending Wall Street stocks into a dizzying plunge. Actually, this is not what a nontraditional president looks like. This is what a dysfunctional White House looks like. Its Mulvaneys job to help the president fix the machinery of government, even if Trump doesnt know it is broken. Second, Mulvaney must understand the scope of his job. Kelly famously declared that while he would bring order and discipline to the White House, it was not his job to manage the president. Mulvaney has echoed that view, saying that he will be chief of staff (not of the president), and will not try to rein in Trump. That betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the job, a crucial part of which is to protect the president from himself. Its the chiefs responsibility to keep him from acting on impulse; from making half-baked decisions; from demonizing people who disagree with him. Granted, Trump is who he isgiven his personality and character, it may not be possible to manage how he operates as president. But its the chiefs job to try. Third, Mulvaney must act as the presidents honest broker of information. That means not only calling out Trumps lies, as Kelly often failed to do, but also enforcing a well-informed decision-making process. Even more than the national security adviser, the chief must see that only the toughest decisions get into the Oval Office, ensuring that accurate information is teed up on every sidewhether the president heeds it or not. Trump is someone for whom discipline, focus and process are anathema. And yet in the wake of his impulsive, seat-of-the-pants decisions to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan, which triggered Defense Secretary James Mattis extraordinary resignation, a well-informed, fully vetted decision-making process is more critical than evernot only for the president himself, but for the country. Sooner or later, a crisisforeign, domestic, economicwill come. Ten years ago, staring into the abyss of an imminent worldwide depression, President George W. Bush mulled whether to do something contrary to every political bone in his body: give an almost trillion-dollar bailout to the banks that had caused the crisis in the first place. It was the only way, chief of staff Joshua Bolten and his advisers told him, to prevent world economic collapse. Bush listened, and swallowed that bitter pill, averting total disaster. Not without a strong chief of staff. Fourth, Trumps new chief must help him learn the difference between campaigningwhich is dividing and demonizingand governing, which requires building coalitions. Kelly often reinforced Trumps worst, partisan instinctsfrom trashing Wilson to encouraging the administrations zero tolerance border policy. Even when this White House gets something right, it has displayed a genius for squandering the moment. The First Step Act, a genuine breakthrough in criminal justice reform, which passed the House and Senate in December, was a rare opportunity to turn the page from confrontation to bipartisan cooperation. But Trump buried the achievement in an avalanche of petulance and pique over his stymied border wall. At times like that, it will be Mulvaneys job to walk into the Oval Office, close the door and tell the president to cut it out. (Good luck with that.) Finally, with investigators and prosecutors closing in on Trumps malfeasance, Mulvaney must be careful to avoid the fate of Richard Nixons chief H.R. Haldeman, who traded his West Wing office for a prison cell after his conviction for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal. A more encouraging model for Mulvaney might be Howard Baker, Reagans penultimate chief of staff. At the height of the Iran-Contra scandal, with the threat of impeachment looming, Reagan stubbornly insisted, against all evidence, that he had not traded arms to Iran for hostages. Baker and his deputy, Ken Duberstein, who would later succeed Baker as chief, sat the president down and persuaded him, nonetheless, to deliver an apology on national television. Reagans popularity immediately rebounded; he finished his second term with an approval rating of 68 percent. Mulvaney will have to play the role of wartime consigliere for a White House under siege. When special counsel Robert Muellers hammer finally comes down, Trumps chief must be prepared to present the president with a range of unpleasant optionspossibly including his resignation for the good of the country. In return for his efforts, Mulvaney will almost certainly be fired. But there are worse fates, including complicity in some of this presidents shameful episodes (praising neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, attacking the free press) and misguided policies (separating migrant families, cozying up to Vladimir Putin). Just about everyone who serves this president ends up tarnished. For all of these reasons, Trumps incoming chief of staff should take James Bakers admonition to the bank. If I had Mulvaneys title, I would keep the acting part. | https://www.politico.eu/article/can-anyone-succeed-as-trumps-chief-of-staff-reince-priebus-john-kelly-mick-mulvaney/ |
What is the Bird Box challenge and why is Netflix worried about it? | Bird Box viewers have been donning blindfolds of their own (Picture: Netflix) Theres no denying Bird Box has captured the imagination of Netflix subscribers, nabbing over 45m views in its first week as well as a few famous fans (take a bow Kim K). But its taken on a disturbing new edge in the shape of the Bird Box challenge something which has left the streaming service worried, and forced to issue a warning. Heres what you need to know. The challenge is inspired by the fact that Sandra Bullocks character Malorie wears a blindfold and makes her children wear blindfolds to avoid seeing mysterious creatures which are causing other people to take their own lives. It sees people attempting random everyday tasks while wearing blindfolds with the results often being posted on social media. Advertisement Advertisement The streaming service has expressed concerns over people injuring themselves while attempting the challenge with some even running into walls or near traffic. Theyve since put out a tweet saying: Cant believe I have to say this but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THE BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. Referring to Sandra Bullocks children in the movie they added: We dont know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes. Cant believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We dont know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes. Bird Box is set in a post-apocalyptic future where residents have to stay blindfolded to protest themselves from an unseen force which threatens their lives. Sandra Bullock takes the lead as Malorie, the woman determined to protect her children from the unseen monsters at any cost. The movie has left viewers with a whole load of questions including the one of why we never actually see a single monster during the movie, even though they are the central focus. Well, as director Susanne Bier has explained, its because the creatures appear in very different forms to everybody who sees them. The creatures mess with your mind; they tap into your deepest fear, the director explained to Radio Times. Advertisement Advertisement And, because they tap into your deepest fear, we cant ever see them, because that deepest fear is going to be different whoever you are. Bird Box is available to stream on Netflix UK now. 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/2019/01/03/bird-box-challenge-netflix-worried-8304542/ |
When will Highways England ever learn? | How amazing is the response from Highways England! The first project was withdrawn by Highways England because it didnt have community support. The first project was withdrawn by Highways England because it didnt have community support. So the BaBA27 group canvassed and worked hard to find a solution that had community support and to be fair the proposals submitted were as near to a community supported solution as we were ever going to get. The people have spoken. (Where have I heard that before?) Unfortunately, even though the people have spoken, they spoke wrongly. We should have understood from the outset that any community support should have been in line with the original Highways Englands project. I suppose we will have another go and continue on this path until we get the response right. There are obviously two solutions to this problem Highways Englands solution and the wrong solution. Dont forget the man in charge is also responsible for the railways and see how successful the right solution to that problem has proved to be. There are none so deaf as those who dont want to hear. The first casualty of war is truth so it would appear that the first casualty of senior politicians is the ability to listen. Mike Beal, Kingsway, Selsey | https://www.bognor.co.uk/news/your-say/when-will-highways-england-ever-learn-1-8756644 |
What is the true measure of 'educatedness'? | Anne Oberholzer Every year our society experiences the release of the National Senior Certificate examination results through a range of lenses. None of these lenses acknowledge the NSC results for what they really are an indication of a learner's performance at a point in time by means of an examination which can only assess: a very small sample of the knowledge that could be associated with a specific subject; and a limited number of skills associated with that subject, primarily because expression of knowledge and skill is through a written examination or tests. Comparatively little is assessed using alternate methodologies. Some subjects have a practical component which is finally assessed through an examination such as visual arts or music. In some subjects such as physical and life sciences, there is no prescribed practical examination, and schools that don't have the facilities aren't able to expose their learners to the practical skills that are fundamental to the study of science. In some schools, where there might be facilities available, teachers do not bother with practical work because "it will not be tested in the examination". The notion of being educated implies a range of additional skills that true students develop over time at school soft skills of perseverance, prioritisation, persistence, working in collaboration with others, problem-solving strategies, debate and discussion, tolerance of different views, critical engagement with ideas, ownership of thought, responsibility and so on. This could be because these skills are difficult to assess or because they will not be overtly assessed in a written examination or possibly because of both. Very few schools actually encourage experiential learning activities as part of their teaching and learning programme. Similarly, almost no school formally assesses these soft skills because there are no established methodologies that provide indisputable validity and reliability. However, even though there are critical skills that children develop during their time at school that are not overtly measured in the final NSC examination, these skills are essential for a quality education. To prepare for the examinations, many schools adopt a rigorous process of "drill and practice", forcing Grade 12 learners to write an endless number of past examination papers, on the premise that if you do enough, there won't be a question in the exam that you would not have seen before. When educators focus narrowly on teaching and assessment as a process of achieving good examination results, we do our profession and, in turn, our learners a major disservice. We start believing that narrowing the learning experience to that which will contribute to achieving excellent examination results is educationally sound. Yet this is the complete anti-thesis of what quality education is all about. Tom Bodett, an American author, said: "In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson." If education is for life, I would suggest that the exercise of incessant "drill and practice" does not cut it. One of the characteristics of good assessment is to frame known concepts in unfamiliar contexts. Some suggest that this is educationally unsound as the context may be "inaccessible" to some learners and that assessment is only fair when questions are set in environments and contexts with which all learners are familiar. However, it is educationally sound and desirable to expect a child to apply a known concept in an unfamiliar context. Being given opportunities during class to extend their own knowledge and understanding by applying concepts that they know appropriately in unfamiliar contexts is fundamental. An education process that does not consistently expose learners to opportunities to develop this skill across all disciplines of thinking has failed its learners. Those who believe an examination paper must be contextualised to only those situations and experiences that are familiar to all learners are incorrectly seeing an assessment problem when, in fact, what we have is essentially a teaching problem. Education and training are often confused. Training is teaching learners what to do providing them with "recipes" or templates of what to do when they see a particular type of question. Education, however, is teaching learners how to think providing them with strategies and opportunities to apply those strategies, so that "they know what to do even when they don't know what to do"! In other words, they have strategies they can use to find a solution to whatever situation they find themselves in. Classrooms in which teaching is confined only to contexts that are familiar to the learners subtly reflect a personal belief within the teacher about what constitutes quality education. For example, a truly educated student in Engineering Graphics and Design should have been exposed to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and Dubai, the churches of Europe, the Temples of Antiquity, the shanty towns of India, the Cubic Houses in the Netherlands, the African rondavels in rural KwaZulu-Natal and so on. With modern technology or even simply a book, this is possible. As teachers, it is our responsibility to open up a childs world, no matter his or her background, and expose them to the range and variety of contexts and opportunities that exist outside their own world and range of experience. Give their minds an opportunity to explore the seemingly fantastical and alongside that exposure, give them the opportunity and the courage to engage confidently with the unfamiliar and the unknown, applying known concepts to address problems in unknown contexts. Miraculously, the assessment dilemma disappears and the problem is clear a matter of learner disposition and confidence in facing the unknown or possibly more accurately, the unpractised. The key point is that the fundamental notion of a quality education is the expansion of a child's experience beyond what is familiar to them. It is not the restriction of educational experience to ensure curriculum coverage or exposure only to the known world of the child or what might be in an examination paper. Our responsibility as teachers is to provide children not just with knowledge and academic skills, but more importantly to draw on their innate curiosity to develop the softer skills of courage and perseverance, to develop in them the confidence and strategies to tackle the unknown, to provide opportunities and challenges for them to venture purposely beyond their daily existence and engage with that bigger world and unfamiliar situations. In short, the best prepared learners are those for whom teachers open the world, who teach their students that education is what remains after they have forgotten everything they learned in school with apologies to Albert Einstein that prepares them for every eventuality in life that may confront them. - Anne Oberholzer is the CEO of the Independent Examinations Board Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. | https://www.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/what-is-the-true-measure-of-educatedness-20190103 |
Which film will make the most money in 2019? | In one sense, cinema has never been healthier. Thanks in part to growth in the Asian market, the worldwide box office hit a record-breaking $41 billion in 2018. At time of writing, four 2018 films, each with takings over $1 billion, have registered in the all-time top 20 (before any adjustment for inflation). Break out the top hats and the monocles. Lets roll around in piles of gold pieces like Scrooge McDuck on his birthday. And yet. Only two films in the current 2018 top 10 are not part of an existing franchise. Sonys Venom, not officially a planet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, gets by on a technicality. The impressively and unexpectedly robust Bohemian Rhapsody is the one release to emerge unsupported by any predecessors. Most of the money is still coming from stuff audiences already know they like. There is no reason to believe this will change in 2019. Indeed, you will struggle to find any standalone release with a plausible chance of breaking the top 10. Given the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton as Elton John, must have a whisper, but only a brave fellow would stake his house on it beating the behemoths below. Not much crossover appeal perhaps. We are thus pessimistically filling the 10 entirely with sequels, reboots and spin-offs. The other issue worth pondering is how many of the top films will be Walt Disney releases. That company now handles the Star Wars empire, the Marvel cinematic universe and the Pixar constellation alongside its own magic kingdom. Think on this. If Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw fails (doubtful) and we consider Spider-Man: Far From Home a Disney collaboration (Sony handles Spider-Man on the ground, so thats a bit of a stretch) then the mouse house could plausibly take eight or nine places in the top 10. When Wonder Woman 2 and Bond 25 were delayed into 2020 all sorts of possibilities opened up. Anyway, here are our guesses on the ranked lifetime takings for films released in 2019. Robert Downey Jr in Avengers: Endgame 1. Avengers: Endgame ($2.2bn) There can be only one winner. The Marvel films do well everywhere and the Avengers episodes do the best of all. Were nudging the total up just a little on Avengers: Infinity Wars $2.05 billion as there are only so many worlds left to conquer. A Disney release. 2. Star Wars: Episode IX ($1.3bn) Or not. As the Star Wars universe expands, it has become increasingly clear that the films play far better in Anglophone territories than elsewhere. The underperformance in China is particularly notable. So JJ Abramss space opera could slip a bit lower than this. A Disney release. 3. Frozen 2 ($1.2bn) It will do well merely by existing. If the film is good then, driven by word of mouth, there is scarcely any limit to how much it could take. Do not forget that Frozen is still the highest grossing animated feature of all time. A Disney release. 4. The Lion King ($1.1bn) There are a lot of these pseudo-live action remakes of Disney animations about, but, to be fair, most of them have been unnecessarily enjoyable. The trailer suggests that the boffins are still delivering. Will certainly get noticed. A Disney release. 5. Toy Story 4 ($950m) If the film is up to the standards of the first three then Pixars latest will shovel up astronomical amounts of dosh in the US and respectable piles elsewhere on the globe. A Disney release. Idris Elba in Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs & Shaw 6. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw ($850m) Tricky one this. If this were a straightforward sequel then we would not pause before placing it in the top three. The Fast & Furious films are enormous thats ENORMOUS in non-Anglophone territories. But its status as a spin-off may hold it back. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham play the eponymous petrol heads. Not a Disney release, amazingly. Its from the good people at Universal. 7. Captain Marvel ($840m) This has a lot going for it. Films with female protagonists score big just look at Wonder Woman and Brie Larson is agreeable casting for Marvels first distaff lead. Many will savour the 1990s nostalgia. But it may struggle outside the US. A Disney release. Zendaya and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home 8. Spider-Man: Far From Home ($820m) Spider-Man: Homecoming was an absolute delight and as the unexpected success of Venom has shown its a bad idea to bet against anything connected to the web-spinner. But there are surely only so many superhero films we can take. A Sony release (but Disney owns the governing Marvel Cinematic Universe). 9. Jumanji 3 ($810m) You may laugh. You will almost certainly laugh a lot more than you will when watching the film. But the last episode, to everyones astonishment, came within a hairs breadth of $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Were downgrading a little from that freak result, but were not knocking it out of the top 10. A Sony release. 10. The Secret Life of Pets 2 ($800m) Now were in Tarot card territory. Any one of the films listed below could creep into the top 10, but Secret Life of Pets ate the box office alive in 2016. It has a tasty early June release date that will allow it to play throughout the school holidays. A Universal release. The next 10... | https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/which-film-will-make-the-most-money-in-2019-1.3746696?localLinksEnabled=false |
Who left a set of bagpipes in hotel? | A SUITCASE full of jockey silks and a set of bagpipes were among the most unusual items in Travelodges lost and found office in Newbury in 2018. The budget hotel chain has today revealed some of the interesting items left behind in its 557 UK hotels during the last 12 months. With nearly 19 million people staying in a Travelodge hotel each year, below are some of the other unusual treasures that have been left in Newbury: A box of Marmite jars (Newbury Tot Hill) An academic gown (Newbury London Road) A set of bagpipes (Newbury Tot Hill) A Tiffany diamond point fountain pen (Newbury Chieveley M4) A suitcase full of jockey silks (Newbury London Road) | https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/news/26282/who-left-a-set-of-bagpipes-in-hotel.html |
What Is a Low-Carb Diet? | First things first: There's no one low-carb diet -- but many, many different approaches. Even with the Atkins diet, there are variations -- including the advice on how many carbs to eat daily. Generally speaking, low-carb diets often call for consuming no more than 20 carbs a day -- taking things like traditional pasta and breads off the plate, where one sandwich's worth of bread or a single serving of noodles could easily surpass that carb threshold. For example, with the Atkins 20, the original Atkins diet, you start out eating no more 20 carbs daily, while with the Atkins 40, you begin the diet eating 40 carbs or less per day; in both cases, carb consumption increases in later phases of the diet. Another diet, the paleo diet -- which is often thought of for sheer protein consumption -- is, when looking across the macronutrient spectrum, low-carb as well. Then there's the extremely carb-restricted ketogenic, or keto, diet. It's been prescribed for decades to treat medical conditions like epilepsy and is used to manage Type 2 diabetes (along with other low-carb diets), and has more recently become popular for weight loss, raising concerns among some health experts. The diet involves getting only about 5 to 10 percent of a person's calories from carbs, while the lion's share -- around 70 to 80 percent -- comes from fat, and the balance from protein. Dietary experts frequently say that a diet where a person gets around or under 30 percent -- or even in some cases 40 percent -- of their calories from carbs may be considered low-carb. But the total amount varies significantly by the approach taken, the individual and how much a person eats in regards to all macronutrients and calories consumed. [See: The 14 Best Diets to Prevent and Manage Diabetes.] Research shows that low-carb diets can be effective for weight loss. A 2016 position paper from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics lists low-carb diets among weight-loss interventions for adults who are overweight or obese. "I utilize and recommend low-carbohydrate diets in my practice all the time," says Robin Foroutan, an integrative dietitian nutritionist based in New York City and a spokesperson at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "But the No. 1 important thing that we really stress is that the diet still has to be anti-inflammatory -- and the way that you make your diet anti-inflammatory is to eat a lot of vegetables, utilize a lot of herbs and spices, choose very high-quality proteins, and cook those -- the animal proteins -- very low and slow, not high heat cooking." Cooking meats -- from beef to fish -- at high heat can create chemicals in meat that "have been found to be mutagenic -- that is, they cause changes in DNA that may increase the risk of cancer," the National Cancer Institute notes. As for sustaining weight loss, moderating carb consumption may help as well. The academy's position paper notes that a low-carb diet is commonly defined as consuming not more than 20 grams of carbs daily, and then: "Once a desired weight is achieved, carbohydrate intake can increase to 50 grams per day." But longer term, as with many diets undertaken to lose weight, it can be difficult to stick with a structured approach, like a low-carb diet, experts say. "To me that's more of a compliance issue," says Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, of people gaining weight back over time after losing it on a low-carb diet. What's more, Rimm says that while a low-carb diet can be an effective way to shed pounds, many who take a low-carb approach on their own, rather than following a plan prescribed to them, don't do it in a healthy way over the long term. Having a wide variety of high-quality foods, flavorful meals is critical. For better -- and worse, too -- a cottage industry has sprung up to provide oodles of low-carb options from low-carb bread to low-carb pasta (and ways to make substitutes, like spiralizing zucchini, and turning other veggies into noodles), low-carb beer to low-carb ice cream and even low-carb fast food. In other cases, adherents take liberties with meat -- piling on animal fat and protein, while dialing down the carbs. Many of the substitutions miss the mark and can make losing weight much harder (if not impossible), while putting a person's health in peril. | https://news.yahoo.com/low-carb-diet-120000357.html |
Where did Bollywood stars bring in the New Year? | (L-R) Priyanka and Nick in Switzerland, Disha Patani and Tiger Shroff in the Maldives Camping out at Pawna or clubbing in Goa might be a great start to 2019 for us mortals, but for Bollywoods biggest stars, it was all about bringing in the new year in style. From skiing in Switzerland to beach bumming in the Maldives, heres our round-up of where Bollywood brought in 2019. Priyanka Chopra Jonas celebrated in Switzerland with husband, Nick Jonas and his family on a ski trip. Also holidaying in Bollywoods favourite spot was Kareena, Saif and Taimur with Natasha Poonawalla and family. Katrina Kaif welcomed 2019 by running headlong into the freezing cold waters of the English Channel with her friends and sisters. (Not sure if wed recommend this, but they look like they had a blast!) Tiger Shroff literally flew into 2019 in the Maldives on holiday with Disha Patani. Full-time beach lover, Lisa Haydon brought in the New Year with her family at Mustique, a private island in the West Indies. Okay, so maybe your New Years wasnt as fancy. But dont worry, theres always next year! | https://www.cntraveller.in/story/bollywoods-stars-bring-new-year-priyanka-chopra-disha-patani-tiger-shroff/ |
Can House Democrats release Donald Trump's tax returns? | As Democrats edge closer to taking control of the U.S. House, many of the partys supporters are wondering what, if anything, the new House majority can do to obtain and make public President Donald Trumps tax returns. Breaking with tradition, Trump has consistently refused to release his returns, something that every previous presidential nominee and president had done voluntarily for decades. Critics of the president say his returns could shed light on possible conflicts of interest and irregularities in his holdings. We checked with several experts to gauge the state of the law governing such releases, as well as the outlook for possible public release. Attention has focused on a provision of the law known as 26 U.S. Code 6103. This allows the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, among other senior lawmakers, to seek returns by sending a written request to the Treasury Secretary. Officially, the decision to release the returns would be made by the Treasury Secretary, not the White House, although its not difficult to imagine presidential pressure being exerted on the secretary to refuse. This legal authority is almost a century old, said University of Virginia law professor George Yin. "Congress decided that tax information should remain confidential except in two situations," Yin has written. "First, it authorized the president to determine whether any tax information could be disclosed. And, in 1924, it gave the same power to certain congressional committees." After Watergate, the presidential power was rescinded, but the congressional power remains. Yes. The lawmaker whos in line to chair Ways and Means, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., has said publicly that he plans to do so. "I think we would all be comfortable if this was done on a voluntary basis," Neal told CNN. "If they would resist the overture then I think you could probably see a long and grinding court case," he added. According to the same provision of the law, any return or any information from a return "may be submitted by the committee to the Senate or the House of Representatives, or to both." Once in the hands of rank and file lawmakers, it would be hard to stop the returns -- perhaps with some redactions -- from reaching the public. The reason: Under Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution, known as the "speech or debate" clause, lawmakers are exempt from executive or judicial branch consequences -- such as criminal and civil penalties -- for "legislative acts" made as part of their official responsibilities. He can try. "The law has rarely been exercised, but when it has come up, to my knowledge, there has not been any controversy about compliance with the congressional request," Yin told PolitiFact. "The statute does not provide any grounds to refuse. So if the Treasury Secretary refuses the congressional request, we are largely in new territory." If Mnuchin does refuse, then Congress can hold him in contempt. Then, House Democrats could escalate to a subpoena. If Mnuchin refuses again, "thats when it hops into court," said Andy Grewal, a University of Iowa law professor. The court case could then climb the judicial ladder, perhaps ultimately reaching the Supreme Court. "It may not necessarily be resolved in two years" -- the time Trump has left in his current term. Jeff Hoopes, an assistant professor of accounting at the University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler School of Business, said that because the facts in the Trump case are new, "we really are in somewhat uncharted territory. They may well have the power, but I dont think anyone really knows how it will work out." For the record, Mnuchin told the New York Times in October that "if they win the House and there is a request, we will work with our general counsel and the IRS general counsel on any requests." Legal scholars suggest that the case, if it materializes, may hinge on whether the request is considered to be for a legitimate congressional purpose or whether its just a ploy to embarrass the president. "Everybody agrees that whatever the tax code might say, Congress has to have a legitimate purpose for an inquiry," Grewal said. "But theres a point of contention about whether there would be a legitimate purpose for such a request in this case." Grewal said hes sympathetic to the notion that the IRS deserves deference, given that, by Trumps own acknowledgement, it has audited his returns for many years running. Other scholars view this argument as a red herring, countering that Congress has a legitimate interest in executive branch oversight. "Such a step is appropriate and necessary, as part of our checks and balances," Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, has written. "The Constitution calls upon the House, along with the Senate, both to enact legislation and to oversee whether those laws are faithfully executed. To fulfill its oversight responsibility, I believe the House should demand the presidents tax returns." Beyond ordinary oversight powers, two elements could make the justification for demanding Trumps returns even stronger, legal experts say. One strategy would be to limit the request to tax returns filed during Trumps presidency -- when Trump, in theory, could have influenced the IRS from above. Theres historical precedent for this. According to the tax publication Tax Analysts, President Richard Nixon during Watergate faced "allegations eventually included in one of the articles of impeachment against him that the president attempted to use the IRS for unlawful purposes." In response, the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation -- another committee with the authority to demand tax returns -- approved the release of the presidents tax returns for 1969 through 1972. That move was made on a 9 to 1 vote, with three Republicans joining six Democrats. The second strategy is to wait for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to release his report to Congress on Russian interference in the 2016 election. If Muellers report includes references to material from Trumps returns -- which, as a law enforcement officer, he almost certainly has access to -- then Congress would have a strong argument for demanding a look themselves as a way of vetting Muellers conclusions. "Once you have a hook, whether through Mueller or otherwise, then I think the case for Congressional double-checking is much stronger," Grewal said. Even without these two approaches, though, Rosenthal told PolitiFact that he thinks Congress oversight responsibilities should be sufficient to justify a release. "I dont think having a legitimate purpose is a very high bar" to meet in the case of Trumps tax returns, he said. One is the Watergate example above. Another is the impetus for passing the law in the 1920s -- a series of scandals in President Warren G. Hardings administration, which included Teapot Dome. That involved bribes for oil leases, as well as conflict-of-interest allegations against Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, who continued to operate businesses while serving in the cabinet. "The parallels to President Trump (to Mellon) are striking," Rosenthal has written. "Trump maintains a sprawling business empire, which he refuses to transfer to a blind trust." This and other concerns "raise legitimate questions about whether the president is running the government for his benefit or the publicsor both. Has the IRS proposed any adjustments, and has the president paid them?" Yes. In August, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proposed the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, which would require the IRS to release eight years of returns for presidential and vice presidential candidates and two years for congressional candidates. The law would also require returns to be disclosed for businesses and nonprofit groups owned or operated by federal candidates. (Warren has voluntarily disclosed 10 years of her own returns.) The legislation, which would need to be reintroduced in the new Congress, would end the existing system, by which all presidents and presidential candidates in the post-Watergate period released their tax returns by custom but not by law. | https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/jan/02/can-house-democrats-release-donald-trumps-tax-retu/ |
Does Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri have a secret feud with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp? | Get Liverpool 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 Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri has appeared to hit out at Jurgen Klopp after liking a tweet digging out the Liverpool boss. The duo are both up for the Best Coach of the Year award at the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards, with the winner set to be announced on Thursday. The nominees for the award were announced back in November, and it is a tweeted response to the Globe Soccer Awards Twitter account criticising Klopp that Allegri has liked. Twitter used @Kun_rukky tweeted: One of the greatest mysteries I still can't get my head around is how klopp managed to convince liverpool supporters that 0 trophies over 4 years is a very good thing. Coach of the year imo just for that. (Image: @OfficialAllegri) Although Klopp is yet to win any silverware in his time at Anfield, his side currently sit top of the Premier League table and reached last years Champions League Final. The German also suffered defeat in the Europa League and League Cup Finals in his first year on Merseyside. In contrast, Allegri has led Juventus to the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in each of the last four seasons, as well lost in two Champions League Finals. It is unclear whether the Italian meant to like the tweet hitting out at Klopp, or what could be the cause for any potential issue with the German, but, at the time of writing, it remains on his profile over a month after the tweet was originally posted. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Klopp and Allegri have faced off as managers just twice, coming in the Champions League knockout stages during the 2014/15 season when the Liverpool manager was still in charge at Borussia Dortmund. Juventus won the first leg 2-1 at the Juventus Stadium before beating Dortmund 3-0 at Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund with Klopp and Allegri warmly embracing after both games. You can view Allegri's liked tweets HERE . | https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/allegri-secret-feud-liverpool-klopp-15623600 |
Does Hearing Loss Lead to Depression in the Elderly? | Elderly people with hearing loss are more prone to depression, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. New study suggests that age-related hearing loss had more depression symptoms. Generally, people with hearing loss have difficulty in communicating and tend to become more socially isolated which can lead to depression. Therefore, the greater the hearing loss, the greater the risk of having depressive symptoms. Read More.. A new study found that elderly individuals with age-related hearing loss had more symptoms of depression; the greater the hearing loss, the greater the risk of having depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that treatment of age-related hearing loss, which is underrecognized and undertreated among all elderly, could be one way to head off late-life depression. "Most people over age 70 have at least mild hearing loss, yet relatively few are diagnosed, much less treated, for this condition," says lead author Justin S. Golub, MD, MS, assistant professor of otolaryngology-head & neck surgery at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "Hearing loss is easy to diagnose and treat, and treatment may be even more important if it can help ease or prevent depression. "Age-related hearing loss is the third-most common chronic condition in older adults. The condition is known to raise the risk of other conditions, such as cognitive impairment and dementia. But there are few large studies asking whether hearing loss may lead to depression in the elderly -- particularly in Hispanics, a group in which depression may be underdiagnosed because of language and cultural barriers.The researchers analyzed health data from 5,239 individuals over age 50 who were enrolled in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Each participant had an audiometric hearing test -- an objective way to assess hearing loss -- and was screened for depression.The researchers found that individuals with mild hearing loss were almost twice as likely to have clinically significant symptoms of depression than those with normal hearing. Individuals with severe hearing loss had over four times the odds of having depressive symptoms.The study looked for an association at a single point in time, so it can't prove that hearing loss causes depressive symptoms. "That would have to be demonstrated in a prospective, randomized trial," says Golub. "But it's understandable how the hearing loss could contribute to depressive symptoms. People with hearing loss have trouble communicating and tend to become more socially isolated, and social isolation can lead to depression. "Although the study focused on Hispanics, the results could be applied to anyone with age-related hearing loss, according to the researchers. "In general, older individuals should get their hearing tested and consider treatment, if warranted," says Golub.Source: Eurekalert | https://www.medindia.net/news/does-hearing-loss-lead-to-depression-in-the-elderly-184856-1.htm |
Where do all of Quebec's forlorn Christmas trees go? | O Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches. But how sad you look stuck out on the curb come January. There are few things more forlorn than discarded balsam firs littering the snowbanks of the city post-New Years Day. They signal the end of a happy holiday season, the death of a short but productive arboreal life and, for some, an environmental waste. The good news is that in Montreal they find a second useful existence, albeit one that involves incineration. Compared to sending them to the garbage dump, where they rot and create planet-warming methane gas, their end is at least somewhat beneficial. Every year, firms contracted by the city collect roughly 25,000 trees. The 350 tonnes of holiday refuse are trucked to locations in Laval and Chteauguay, where theyre converted into wood chips that are then sold to firms often pulp and paper mills that burn and use them as energy sources instead of oil. Montreal pays $43 a tonne, or $15,000, every year for the trees to be picked up. We are doing it for the environment even if we have to pay for the service, it allows the city to divert them from garbage dumps, so its a small price to turn a biomass into a product that can be of use, city spokesman Philippe Sabourin said. Other municipalities turn them into mulch to be spread on gardens as a soil conditioner or as a weed suppressant. Others use it to cover hiking paths. Quebec is a major player in the Christmas tree market, accounting for 1.3 million of the nearly two million trees exported from Canada in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were the next highest sellers.) International sales of Canadas trees raked in $43 million in 2016, with 93 per cent of those sales going to the U.S. Some trees make it as far as France, the Philippines and Australia. Local sellers and many in the United States suffered from a lack of trees this season. Early snowfalls meant producers had trouble getting them to market, said Jimmy Downey, president of the Quebec Association of Christmas Tree Growers, most of whom are located in the Eastern Townships. While production has dropped in other provinces, it has been growing by nearly 20 per cent a year in Quebec, with estimates that growers here produced 1.9 million trees for export in 2018, Downey said. Local sales are not tracked, and thus are hard to estimate. There were a few years, from 2004 to 2014, where it was very difficult for us we were selling trees below the cost of production, because we had a surplus, he said. But lately we are finally at a point where we are evening out. Balsam firs, which are native to Quebec, remain the most popular product, but Fraser firs, which feature more compact bodies and needles that dont drop off as easily, are becoming more popular and boosting sales. Most Quebec municipalities have programs to pick up trees and turn them into compost or into wood pellets to be burned as a heating source, Downey said. Not all regions do. In the United Kingdom, the governments waste agency Wrap estimated 160,000 tonnes of the nations Christmas trees ended up in landfills in 2014. In addition to the environmental cost, there are financial ones: local government estimated it costs $4 in fees and landfill taxes for each tree dumped. Artificial trees have also been making a dent in the sales of natural trees. Statistics Canada found $61 million in artificial trees were imported into the country in 2016, mainly from China. A concerted effort to promote natural trees through the Keep It Real publicity campaign, funded by 10 cents off the sale of every tree in Canada, has borne fruit. Downey said figures show the sales of artificial trees dropped by one per cent this year after a long period of growth. The argument regarding which are more ecologically friendly comes down to a function of time. A comparative life-cycle assessment of artificial versus natural Christmas trees was conducted by the Montreal-based Ellipsos consulting firm, which specializes in sustainable development. If kept for only six years, which is the North American average, artificial trees have three times more impact on climate change and resource depletion than natural trees, whose main environmental harm is caused by consumers driving an average of five kilometres from home every year to pick them up. If artificial trees are kept for 20 years, the environmental impacts even out, Ellipsos found. There were nearly 1,900 tree farms in Canada in 2016, down from 2,381 in 2011. Growers say their trees represent an annual crop that sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and emits oxygen and serves as a habitat for birds and insects. Once theyve outlived their holiday-time usefulness, the important thing is to keep them out of landfills. In the U.S., they are often spread in parks and community gardens as mulch, or dumped whole onto coastlines to deter coastal erosion. In Kentucky, trees were sunk to the bottom of lakes to serve as a habitat for fish, the New York Times reported. In Montreal, residents can call the city information phone line at 311 to find out when Christmas tree pickup takes place in their borough, or look online at bit.ly/2F0zpPD. Residents are asked to take off all decorations and any plastic wrap. Trees should be put out the night before pickup, or the same day before 7 a.m. They cant go out with recycling bins, but if you miss the pickup dates, they can be brought to eco-centres to be recycled. [email protected] | https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/where-do-all-of-quebecs-forlorn-christmas-trees-go |
Who Killed The Weekly Standard ? | The Weekly Standard was killed last month, an act that had both a clear culprit and a muddy forensic trail. For twenty-three years, it was the most influential, and often the most interesting, publication of the American right, championing a less dreary and more adventurous conservatism, one that insisted that Washington was the center of human events. But, during the past five years, the magazine had lost about a third of its print subscribers and some three million dollars per year. In the second week of December, the C.E.O. of the Standards parent company, Clarity Media Group, told the staff that it would close the magazine and transfer subscribers to a new conservative publication that was already in the works, a weekly supplement to the Washington Examiner. That Friday, the staff threw an Irish wake at the home of Andrew Ferguson, perhaps the magazines most eloquent writer. Bill Kristol, the Standards founder, reminded them that his father, the pioneering neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol, had titled a book Two Cheers for Capitalism. Maybe, Kristol said, it should be edited down to one cheer. In the press, the magazines demise was a media story, confined to the inside pages and told in a tone of half-sympathetic reminiscence. But the death of the major intellectual journal of conservatism, at a time of profound transition for the right, is about more than the strategic calculations of a media holding company in Denver. The decisive turn in conservatism during the half decade when the Standard shed subscribers and, eventually, its owners faith, was toward Trumpism, an evolution that the Standard opposed so vociferously that for a long time it has been hard to separate Bill Kristols public persona from the anti-Trump cause. (As the 2016 Republican Convention neared, Kristol had frantically tried to recruit a challenger to Trump, a somewhat quixotic effort in which he was turned down by James Mattis, Mitt Romney, and eventually a National Review columnist named David French.) The division over the President among conservative lites has been especially sharp of late, as Mattis and Nikki Haley, favorites among Washington conservatives, left the administration, and Romney published an op-ed attacking the President two days before assuming his Senate seat. The Standards sources, friends, and sensibility were on one side of this divide. Many of its subscribers, fatally, were on the other. Many journalists spend their careers at the mercy of one billionaire or another. The Standards first owner was Rupert Murdoch, whose media portfolio was broad enough that the magazines editors trusted him to have reasonable expectations. (At the original pitch meeting, Murdoch turned to one of his executives and said, Lets make sure we dont lose too much money, John Podhoretz, one of the magazines founders, said on his podcast.) In 2009, Murdoch sold the Standard to Philip Anschutz, a Republican billionaire who made his fortune in oil and railroads. Anschutz and the neoconservative Standard were not a perfect ideological fit, but to its editors he exuded a cowboy graciousness, and when the Standard staged events with Republican grandees he would come. He liked that we were influentialthat was the word he would use, one of the Standards senior editors told me. A magazine like the Standard depends upon social currency of at least two kinds. One is inside Washington, a prestige that guarantees both its influence in Republican administrations and congressional offices and its access to important sources. The Standard never really lost this currency, despite its rift with the President. The final issues cover story was a friendly interview with Haley, who seems as likely as anyone to lead the Republican Party after Trump. But, for the magazine to thrive, it required a broader brand, too. For years, to name-check the Standard was to project a certain image: that you were conservative without being brutish or anti-modern, that you had some ecumenicism and intellectual style. That kind of currency filtered back to Colorado, where some of Anschutzs executives at Clarity Media moved in Republican donor circles. Whenever Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan or Cory Gardner would go through Colorado and have an event, they would say, Oh, you guys own the Standard! Its great, and they liked being part of that, the senior Standard editor told me. The aura it cast was not unlike the one supplied by The Economistname-drop it in a mundane setting and it suggested that you had access to a broader and more imaginative world. In the Trump years, the Standards reputation in Washington held. The broader brand did not. When I interviewed him last January, Kristol told me that hed been accosted for too persistently opposing Trump on the Standards annual cruise. There were intermittent tensions with the owners. Ryan McKibben, a Clarity Media executive, tried to get The Standard to hire highly partisan shock-jock screamers, David Brooks, a Standard alumnus, wrote in the Times last month. He tried to tilt it more in the direction of a Republican direct mail fund-raising letter. By Memorial Day, 2016, when Kristols efforts to find a challenger to Trump became public, the conflict with Denver had deepened. McKibben spoke with Kristol. He was surprisingly upset, a source familiar with the conversation said. He said this wasnt what Phil Anschutz wanted from the magazine. Soon after the election, Kristol gave the job of editor-in-chief to Stephen Hayes, one of the Standards most prominent writers, in part to try to ease the tensions, but his own partisan apostasy had come to define the Standard. Kristol told me last year that on the magazines cruise in 2017 hed been accosted by some of his own subscribers, who told him that the magazines anti-Trump stance was too rigid and that the Standard had lost its way. People dont like being at odds with the group theyve been part of, one way or the otherthe crowd at the dinner party, or at the country club. Its psychologically more difficult to sustain than one would have thought, Kristol said last week. You believe what your peer group believes. The Washington crowd, the George Conways, are on his side, but the country club is on Trumps. Last spring, Hayes, with Anschutzs permission, started searching for a buyer for the magazine; in the summer, Clarity Media executives asked him to stop. When they pulled the plug, in December, they required all the staffers to sign non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements or else risk their severance pay. If you know very little you think its about Trump, one Standard staffer told me. And if you know almost everything then you think it has almost nothing to do with Trump. But if you know absolutely everything there is to know you realize it really is about Trump after all. | https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/who-killed-the-weekly-standard |
Are cool PC form factors practical? | This article was provided by Maximum PC magazine for TechRadar PC Gaming Week. Click here to subscribe. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a tech fair that usually brings all sorts of craziness, and we're not talking about the Vegas crowd. All manner of gadgets and gizmos are demoed at the show, year after year, and frankly, most of them never actually make it to market. Companies like to show off a lot of concepts at CES to wow the audience and grab the limited share of press mindshare, but you can't blame them for tryingeveryone's vying for attention. The good thing about all of this is that it shows the effort being put into being innovative, regardless of whether or not there's a practical use. Thankfully, there's a lot of that happening in the PC industry and one of the areas that excites us is how the shape of the PC, the form factor, can be changed. In the last few years, the most striking development was actually from Apple, in the form of the black, cylindrical Mac Pro. Everything was custom designed, including the innovative cooling system. Then there was Razer's Project Christine, which was announced at CES a year ago. Unfortunately, that didn't make it to market, but it was still exciting to see. Later in 2014, Alienware debuted its striking Area 51. Needless to say, we were equally excited to see CyberPower PC unveil its "Fang Trinity" PC this time around. Meet the Fang Trinity PC Developed by DeepCool, the Fang Trinity PC is an interesting form factor that separates components in a way that's similar to Razer's Project Christine, except it's a lot more practical. Where Project Christine failed, Fang Trinity succeeds. The chassis accepts off-the-shelf parts, which means that you can make upgrades as you see fit. It doesn't restrict you to proprietary modules, and still succeeds in allowing for a good amount of expansion. In fact, Fang Trinity supports significant storage expansion: space for three or more SSDs, two HDDs, and even an optical drive. Liquid cooling comes standard, and yes, it takes a full length, full-fledged graphics card. Kinks need ironing out But alas, nothing's ever perfect. Fang Trinity is heavy. CyberPower PC says that the final version will be aluminum-based, significantly reducing its weight. The shape, however, will likely be problematic for some users. The footprint is wider than a typical case, and it's certainly not as easy as toying around in a traditional chassis. Also, because the graphics card is in a separate compartment to the motherboard, a PCI Express extender is used that could impact signal and performance. There are obviously still a few things that have to be worked out on the Fang Trinity. But this goes to show that companies are thinking of new ways to improve existing products. It may seem small, but changing the design of one element of a system can impact its function, and usability. Products like Alienware's new X51 and CyberPower PC's Fang Trinity PC take interesting approaches to problems such as thermal management. As with anything in life, making changes often requires compromises in some form or another. We're excited to see companies willing to experiment - heck, even make mistakes. At the end of the day though, the users will vote with their wallets, and if a product is sincerely awesome, it won't need the hoo-ha of CES to be successful. | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/gaming/are-cool-pc-form-factors-practical-1288971 |
Whats in store for the telecoms world? | 2019 is set to be a busy year for the telecommunications industry. Analysys Mason Research as released its annual telecommunications, media and digital economy predictions highlighting which trends will make an impact in the next 12 months. 5G: there will be many commercial 5G launches but consumers will not notice. IoT: the market for IoT connectivity will continue to develop and new models will appear. Enterprises: operators will buy IT operations to expand portfolios and there will be many SD-WAN launches. Small and medium-sized businesses: this market will streamline with DaaS and cloud apps. Homes: the battle for control of the emerging home ecosystem will intensify. Digital transformation: operators will offer mobile apps for customer care, and will push into edge computing and network slicing. Artificial intelligence: automation will lead operators to cut jobs and MSPs will capitalise on the needs of SMBs. Investor value: business simplification initiatives will enable telecoms operators worldwide to reduce headcount | https://it-online.co.za/2019/01/03/whats-in-store-for-the-telecoms-world/ |
Is Huawei preparing a five-camera Mate 30? | Yes, we are aware that the Mate 30 is ten months away. After all, the Mate 20 was just announced in October, and the P30 should arrive around May. Still, the images you are seeing above and below set the tone for a different story. Were looking at renders of a patent filed by Huawei with the CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration), published on January 1. We can instantly recognize the Mate 20-like camera arrangement, but the opening on these cases is much larger, as in taller. While this could mean nothing else than the fact that Huawei is experimenting, it could also mean that the opening is taller because it has to fit more cameras. The Mate 20 Pro has three cameras arranged in an L-shape, in addition to an LED flash that makes up the square. If Huawei would add an additional row of cameras for a total number of five, it would require a case to have an opening like the one youre seeing in these images. And, as usual, when it comes to patents, you know the drill: just because its patented it doesnt necessarily mean well see a similar commercially available product. Time will tell, though. | https://pocketnow.com/five-camera-mate-30?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pocketnow+%28pocketnow.com%29 |
Will Bluetooth get PANned by WiFi? | New wireless short-range technology is being demoed today at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The tech called WiFi PAN is made in conjunction with Intel and Ozmo Devices and is looking to take some of the limelight that main rival Bluetooth has been hogging. WiFi PAN essentially can enable Centrino-based laptops to connect to peripherals such as headsets, keyboards and stereo speakers. It even allows link-up to Apples iPhone. WiFi PAN advantages While competing against something like Bluetooth might seem akin to hitting your head against a brick wall especially in Europe where Bluetooth is as much a verb now as Google is WiFi PANs collaboration with everything Intel Centrino-based might prove lucrative. Ozmo Devices CEO Dave Timm pointed out in a recent press conference that around 50 million laptops due to ship next year will have Centrino chips thats half of all laptops due to hit the shelves. WiFi PAN is also said to be able to compete with Bluetooth when it comes to power consumption and will reportedly provide greater download/upload speeds. Timm also noted that where the technology may prove advantageous is with stereo systems. Currently Bluetooth has to compress music files before sending them to Bluetooth-connected stereos. WiFi PAN allows music to be sent uncompressed. Considering, however, that both PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii use Bluetooth technology, as do most mobile phones, headsets, keyboards, mouse and printers, WiFi PAN has got a long way to go before it proves itself as the short-range communications tech of choice. UPDATE: adjective has been changed to verb. Cheers for the heads-up on this - it was late! | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/wi-fi/networking/will-bluetooth-get-panned-by-wifi-380221 |
Are there signs that our traditional county boundaries are set to return? | Get daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Hundreds of thousands of people should be handed back their heritage by the restoration of the traditional boundaries of Northumberland and County Durham. Thats the call from Ron Baston, a member of the Tyneside committee of the Northumberland & Newcastle Society. The metropolitan county of Tyne & Wear came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. It had five metropolitan boroughs South Tyneside, North Tyneside, City of Sunderland, Gateshead and the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, said Ron, who lives in Wallsend. Prior to the reform, the counties of Durham and Northumberland were bordered by the River Tyne. (Image: Newcastle Chronicle) Tyne & Wear County Council was abolished in 1986 having lasted only 12 years and its metropolitan boroughs became unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county still exists in law as a geographic frame of reference and as a ceremonial county. People residing or doing business in Tyne & Wear have used the metropolitan county as their county of address ever since. But he said that many people were unaware that under the Royal Mails flexible addressing policy, the historic or traditional county names can be used in any postal address. And in 2014 the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition Government launched an initiative to support the tapestry of English traditional counties. Ron says: Planning rules were changed to allow councils to put up boundary signs marking traditional counties including Northumberland and Durham, redefining the historic county borders and effectively giving people back their right of choice as to which county to use as their address. (Image: Newcastle Chronicle) And he is calling for signs welcoming people to the traditional counties, but sited a considerable distance from the old River Tyne boundary, to be removed or relocated. Panels inscribed with the names of Northumberland and County Durham midway in the Tyne pedestrian and cycle tunnels mark the traditional boundary. Welcome to Northumberland signs such as the one near Moor Farm roundabout on the A19 are in the wrong place, says Ron. Tyne and Wear is only a ceremonial county, and this is superficial nonsense. Its just silly. A lot of people are proud of the traditional counties of Northumberland and Durham. Its their history and they should have it back. (Image: Newcastle Chronicle) The counties have magnificent histories and that needs to be restored to its rightful place, because it defines who people area. The expression historical county is a way of referring to those ancient territorial areas into which the country has been divided for many centuries. These are the counties of our history, our popular geography and our cultural identity. They are the basis of the many historic, sporting and cultural activities that define who we are. They have a geographical and spiritual identity which is widely understood by most people as places where people live, come from and where they belong. It is home. What is the point? says Ron, who is urging councils to restore once and for all the historic borders of Northumberland and Durham. In the 2014 initiative, then minister Eric Pickles announced that planning rules had been changed to allow councils to put up boundary signs marking traditional English counties and that changes were proposed to highways regulations to allow traditional county names to appear on boundary road signs. Mr Pickles said: The tapestry of Englands counties binds our nation together, and is interwoven with our cultural fabric from our cricket to our ales. Previous governments have tried to wipe the counties off the map, imposing bland administrative structures or alien euro-regions. But I believe we are stronger as a nation when we cherish and champion our local and traditional ties. A Northumberland county council spokesman said: While this is interesting research we have no plans to change the location of any of our signs. Brian Buckley, Durham County Councils strategic highways manager, said: While we are aware of the Government initiative to support the preservation of historic county boundaries, we currently have no plans to introduce signs marking such boundaries within County Durham. However, if any parish councils in the area wish to get involved in the scheme we would be more than happy to work with them in developing their plans. And a Royal Mail spokeswoman said: Although Royal Mail does not require county names for postal purposes, our systems do list historical county details for customers to reference if they wish to do so. This will have no detrimental impact on the delivery of their mail. | https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/signs-traditional-county-boundaries-set-15619069 |
Who gets shot in Neighbours siege drama? | Neighbours airs a dramatic siege next week when a crazed gun man storms the Waterhole and holds the punters hostage, putting the lives of several Ramsay Street residents in danger. Advertisement Leo Tanaka (Tim Kano) is being blackmailed by minxy Delaney Renshaw (Ella Newton) who has forced him into dumping Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou) and start a relationship with her, threatening under to turn her gangster family on him if he doesnt comply seeing as Leo was the police informant who put members of her criminal clan in prison, Mr Tanaka is struggling to escape her grip. Delaney also revealed to Leos dad Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) over Christmas the bombshell that he is inadvertently responsible for the death of Renshaw associate Mannix, so the feisty blonde has got the whole family over a barrel. Next week, Leo tries to push Delaney away and gets tired of her demands, but his gangster past comes back to haunt him in a big way on Friday 11 January when Delaneys uncle Ivan makes a surprise appearance at the Lassiters bar wielding a shotgun. Advertisement Visit our dedicated Neighbours page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers. | https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2019-01-03/who-gets-shot-in-neighbours-siege-drama/ |
What time is kick-off and what channel is the game on? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email The biggest Premier League game of the season tales place tonight, which could be a title decider. Dubbed as the 'Champions versus the Challengers' by Sky Sports, unbeaten leaders Liverpool travel to the Etihad to take on last season's winners. Manchester City know a win over Jurgen Klopp's side will close the gap to four points, and head into this one on the back of a much needed 3-1 win at Southampton after losing three of their previous four. A win for Liverpool would see them move to 10 points clear of City, putting them in pole position to win their first ever Premier League title. Here's all you need to know about tonight's mouth-watering clash. It all gets under way at 8pm tonight from the Etihad. Yep, the game will be shown on Sky Sports, on both the Main Event and Premier League channel. Coverage on both begins at 7pm. Odds Manchester City - 1/1 Draw - 13/5 Liverpool - 23/10 | https://www.devonlive.com/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-manchester-city-2385191 |
When is Keeping Faith series two on TV? | Get daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email It's been a long time since viewers first lived the ups and downs of Faith Howells' worst week ever on BBC drama, Keeping Faith. But after that series one cliffhanger, we are desperate to know when the second installment of the show is going to air. This week BBC Wales tweeted the first teaser for series two of Keeping Faith, and yes, the yellow mac is back! As well as some fetching wellies and devastatingly good scenery. The tweet confirms that Keeping Faith will indeed return in 2019. Exactly when is still a mystery, but we'll keep you posted about when the date is finally announced. Back in October Eve Myles told WalesOnline that production was in full swing and filming will finish next month. (Image: Jonathan Myers) (Image: Jonathan Myers) The actress, who won a Bafta Cymru award for her role as solicitor Faith Howells whose husband goes missing spiralling her cosy world out of control, said at the time: Im back in the deep dark water of Faiths world Ill come up for air around mid-February. We started on September 24 and were the third week in now its a big shoot filming Welsh and English. Series one first aired on S4C - as Un Bore Mercher - back in November 2017, then BBC Wales showed it last spring and its popularity really stepped up a gear when it was shown on the UK-wide network. It had more than 9.5million requests to view on iPlayer by October and was watched by almost 300,000 people in Wales, the highest audiences for a non-network drama shown in Wales for over 20 years. | https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/keeping-faith-series-two-tv-15623129 |
Why are black residents in Massachusetts more likely to die young? | Black infants are three times more likely to die in Massachusetts than white infants. Black men are the residents most likely to die as homicide victims. And blacks are more likely than whites to die at a younger age from cancer or heart disease. I think that we have a poly-dimensional crisis on our hand, said Henry Thomas, president and CEO of The Urban League of Springfield. Id definitely not shy away from using the word crisis. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health last Wednesday released its report on Massachusetts death data from 2016. The report includes stark statistics illustrating the health disparities between blacks in Massachusetts and other races. One significant measure of mortality is the premature death rate, which is based on the number of people who die before age 75. The average life expectancy in Massachusetts is 80.7 years. Blacks have the highest premature death rate in Massachusetts compared to whites, Hispanics or Asians, at 309.2 deaths before age 75 per 100,000 residents. The premature death rate statewide is 282.2 per 100,000 residents. (The numbers are adjusted for age, so they are not skewed by a population that is older or younger than the state average.) Chart by Greg Saulmon / The Republican Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health That tells us about people who are really dying before they should be, said Abigail Averbach, director of the Office of Population Health at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Thats where we have the greatest opportunity for intervention. The report found that in 2016, the total rate of death, adjusted for age, declined for whites, Asians and Hispanics but increased among blacks. This does not mean blacks had the lowest life expectancy. White Massachusetts residents did, possibly because they had higher rates of death at a young age from opioid overdoses and from suicide. But the numbers do point to some disparities. The leading causes of death among blacks were the same as those statewide: cancer, heart disease and unintentional injury. But black and Hispanic residents were more likely to die of cancer or heart disease at a younger age than white residents. Blacks also had the highest rates of diabetes-related deaths 79.4 per 100,000 residents compared to a statewide rate of 45.2 deaths per 100,000 residents. While deaths from HIV/AIDS have been declining for years, blacks are still dying of AIDS more frequently than whites or Hispanics. Averbach said social factors like education, employment, housing, access to health care, and a reduction in smoking all contribute to health. Data on life expectancy show gaps along income, racial lines Thomas said there is an issue of equity as it pertains to access to affordable health care and quality health care. Statistics show that education is correlated with good health, and Thomas noted that the quality of schools is generally worse in urban Gateway Cities, where the states black population is concentrated. He said black children are less likely to have access to quality pre-kindergarten programs, are more likely to go to public colleges and less likely to complete college due to financial pressures. Thomas said advocates need to take the data and make a stronger case for more investment in access to both health care and education for black communities. Often times, people assume the poor are going to be poor, theres not a lot we can do about that ... but there is a lot that we can do, Thomas said. Blacks were also the only race where homicide was one of the top 10 causes of death. In 2016, 46 black men were killed in homicides, making them the single largest demographic of homicide deaths. Jalil Johnson, a nurse practitioner at the Center for Human Development, a Springfield-based social service agency, has worked in marginalized communities for much of his career and has researched health disparities in minority communities. Johnson said social, cultural and historical forces are at play in determining someones health. These include education, access to quality health care, and the physical environment where someone lives. Cultural factors could include the foods people eat and their relationship to exercise. Those things are modifiable and not always measured, but they do have huge outcomes on health, Johnson said. Johnson said Massachusetts residents tend to have good access to health care. But a cultural undercurrent in the black community is a distrust of the medical system. In general, Johnson said more Americans are turning toward family, friends or online resources for medical advice, rather than doctors. But for the black community, it was only in the 1970s that the U.S. discontinued the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, in which U.S. researchers studied poor black men with syphilis who were not informed about the purpose of the study and were not treated for the disease. That is an undercurrent thats existed for a long time that Im sure still exists to some degree, Johnson said. One particularly stark disparity in the report was in infant mortality rates, which measure how many babies die before turning one. The mortality rate for black infants was 7.9 per 1,000 live births almost three times higher than the infant mortality rate for whites, of 2.7 per 1,000 live births. Candice Belanoff, a maternal and child health epidemiologist at Boston Universitys School of Public Health, said nationally, the gap in infant mortality between white and black infants is due to preterm births. In Massachusetts, the statistics also show that disorders leading to preterm birth and low birth weight were the leading cause of infant death among all races. Belanoff said social disadvantages, such as black women having less education or lower income, cannot be fully explain the gap. When we do the analysis, things like education and income, while they do contribute something to infant mortality, they dont account for everything, Belanoff said. Many researchers point to another answer: racism. The everyday navigating the world as a person of color is known to take a physical toll, literally, on their well-being, Belanoff said. While there have been some high-profile stories about health care professionals ignoring the concerns black women have about their bodies before and after childbirth, Belanoff said by the time a woman is pregnant, racism-related stress has accumulated for years. The fact that so many women of color are showing up in distress and in worse health is not because of their experience in the hospital," Belanoff said. Its because of decades of their lives that brought them to this place. | https://www.masslive.com/news/2019/01/why-are-black-residents-in-massachusetts-more-likely-to-die-young.html |
Can Nuclear Power Plants Resist Attacks Of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)? | Yes. Specifically, the small modular nuclear reactor company, NuScale, out of Oregon, has made their reactor resistant to electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and most other reactor designs should follow. EMPs are one of those things that many people think is fake, or over-blown, or a conspiracy theorists dream. But they are real. EMPs can be either natural, from things like extreme solar geomagnetic disturbances, or man-made like a large thermonuclear detonation or a cyberattack. If they are coordinated with physical attacks then things can get real dicey real fast. As the U.S. Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack points out, the physical and social fabric of the United States is sustained by a system of systems - a complex and dynamic network of interlocking and interdependent infrastructures whose harmonious functioning enables the myriad actions, transactions, and information flow that undergird the orderly conduct of civil society. According to the Commission, EMP effects represent arguably the largest-scale common-cause failure events that could affect our electric power grid and undermine our society, leaving it vulnerable on many fronts. High-voltage control cables and large transformers that control the grid are particularly vulnerable. Transformers weigh 400 tons, take two years to build, and cost $7 million apiece. We are already way behind in having backup transformers ready, so if many go out at once, we have a big problem powering our country. The phenomenon of a large electromagnetic pulse is not new. The first human-caused EMP occurred in 1962 when the 1.4 megaton Starfish Prime thermonuclear weapon detonated 400 km above the Pacific Ocean. One hundred times bigger than what we dropped on Hiroshima, Starfish Prime resulted in an EMP which caused electrical damage nearly 900 miles away in Hawaii. It knocked out about 300 streetlights, set off numerous burglar alarms, and damaged a telephone company microwave link that shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands. And that was from 900 miles away. On the natural side, in 1989, an unexpected geomagnetic storm triggered an event on the Hydro-Qubec power system that resulted in its complete collapse within 92 seconds, leaving six million customers without power. The storm resulted from the Sun ejecting a trillion-cubic-mile plume of superheated plasma, or ionized gas. It took two days for this cloud to smash into the Earths magnetosphere overwhelming its normal ability to throw off charged cosmic particles, triggering hundreds of incidents across the globe and causing undulating, multicolored auroras to spread as far south as Texas and Cuba. Such storms occur every 60 years or so, and in 1989, we weren't anywhere near as electrified and electronically interconnected as we are today, or as we will be in 30 years. This is the most likely EMP to occur. A new 2018 study by the U.S. Air Force Electromagnetic Defense Task Force addresses direct EMP threats to the United States and its allies. While some issues have existed for decades, the window of opportunity to mitigate some of these threats is closing. Meanwhile, many existing threats have gained prominence because of the almost universal integration of vulnerable silica-based technologies into all aspects of modern technology and society. In 2008, the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack made a compelling case for protecting critical infrastructures against EMP and solar geomagnetic disturbances. To avert long term outages, the U.S. must assure the availability of survivable power sources with long-term, readily accessible and continuous fuel supplies to blackstart the grid, sustain emergency life-support services, and reconstitute local, state, and national infrastructures. Long term outages are defined as the interruption of electricity for months to years over large geographic regions. Protection of electric power plants, and upgrading our infrastructure, will be essential in preventing long term outages and in restarting portions of the grid that have failed in the face of wide-area threats. It would be good at this point to understand some of the technical steps to an EMP. The first pulse occurs when gamma rays emanating from the burst interact with the Earths atmosphere and eject electrons that stream down the Earths magnetic field to generate an incredibly fast electromagnetic pulse within about a billionth of a second after the burst. That pulse peaks around 50,000 V/m on the Earths surface. This first pulse is of the most concern because of its high amplitude and wide bandwidth, allowing it to inject significant energy into conductors as short as twelve inches. Fortunately, this pulse only lasts a millionth of a second, but still time to wreak havoc. Another pulse occurs just after this, resulting from a second set of gammas produced by energetic neutrons. The peak fields are much lower, about 100 V/m and last less than a second. The final pulse is a wave similar in nature to naturally-occurring geomagnetic storms associated with coronal mass ejections from the Suns surface. These are low frequency, low amplitude pulses that lasts from minutes to hours. Although this may appear to be less intense, these can cause direct damage to equipment connected to long electrical lines, and can damage transformers, uninterruptible power supplies and generators. Fortunately, the same protection devices we have developed to withstand natural solar events will work with this third pulse. So new protection strategies need to focus on the first two short pulses. Nuclear power plants have a special place in any strategy because of perceived threats of meltdowns of the core and of nuclear fuel pools, as well as from public concern over all things nuclear. But in addition, nuclear plants could be the most likely power generators to restart quickest after a pulse and would be the baseload power that could keep critical parts of society operating. At present, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no regulatory framework to address the EMP risk to nuclear power stations, although NRC is currently working to create new fuel storage standards and most nuclear plants are EMP-hardening their back-up generators. So while there are differing opinions as to the direct threat of an EMP to a nuclear power plant, it is generally agreed that the threat should not be ignored. So NuScale didnt ignore it, and set about to actively deter EMP effects in the design of their new small modular nuclear reactor (SMR). NuScales SMR is already the most resilient, reliable and flexible of any energy source in history, with Black-Start Capability, Island Mode and First Responder Power, without needing external grid connections, capable of withstanding earthquakes, category 5 hurricanes and F5 tornados, planes crashing into it, floods, and cyberattacks. Now it has added EMP threats and geomagnetic disturbances. Fortunately, NuScale is the first SMR company to file a license and design certification application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it is the first one to have the NRC complete their Phase 1 review in record time. So the first unit should roll out in only a few years. NuScale evaluated support systems of their SMR as either likely vulnerable or inherently resilient to an EMP. The evaluation involved a qualitative vulnerability assessment of above and below ground subsystems, including communications, controls, switches, transformers and machinery within the SMR with special attention to the nuclear plants ability to safely shut down and the potential to provide continuous power during and after exposure to an EMP pulse. Several design features allow the SMR to withstand an EMP attack. There are no safety-related electrical loads, including pumps and electric motor-operated safety valves. Because natural convective core heat removal is used, electrically-operated pumps are not needed to circulate coolant. This means that, if necessary, the reactor can shut down and cool itself for indefinite periods without the need for human intervention, adding water, or external electrical power. So the inherent safety of the reactor is impervious to an EMP and cant melt-down due to an event. But just being safe isnt good enough. It would be great to be able to start up right away or, better yet, keep operating right through the event, so that power is available to mitigate, recover and respond to the worst of attack. The SMR can go into Island Mode operation, not requiring a connection to the grid to provide electrical power, and allowing for a rapid recovery to full power following the event. The reactor modules can keep safely running and go into stand-by mode such that they can be rapidly put back into service. Also, safety-related systems are electrically-isolated from the main plant electrical system, and all sensor cables penetrate the reactor containment vessel at a single location (containment vessel top plate), thereby reducing the EMP pathway. In addition, the reactor building provides effective electric shielding of EMPs by being several-foot thick concrete walls laced with steel rebar, effectively making it into a Faraday Cage, which is an enclosure or structure that can block an electromagnetic field. Electrical conducting lines are underground, which significantly attenuates the first burst effects. NuScale uses redundant fiber optic cable for communication links, which are immune to EMP effects. The NuScale plants feature multiple reactors, multiple turbine generators, an Auxiliary AC Power Source (AAPS), two 2MW backup diesel generators for blackstarting the plant, multiple main power transformers (MPTs) and unit auxiliary transformers (UATs), and redundant backup battery banks. Such redundancy is essential for addressing these complex threats. The design also provides good grounding practices, lightning protection systems, surge arrestors for connections to the switchyard, delta-wye transformers, and circumferentially-bonded stainless-steel piping. So new nuclear plants are able to be designed, and old ones upgraded, to withstand EMPs better than most energy systems. Their inherent isolation from the rest of the world is similar to why they can so effectively withstand cyberattacks. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/01/03/can-nuclear-power-plants-resist-attacks-of-electromagnetic-pulse-emp/ |
What is the Bird Box Challenge and why has Netflix asked people to stop? | Since Bird Box landed on Netflix over the festive period it has been causing quite a stir. Since Bird Box landed on Netflix over the festive period it has been causing quite a stir. Firstly, Netflix released viewing figures for the film, which stars Sandra Bullock, stating that it was watched by 45 million accounts in its first seven days on the streaming service. Netflix does not usually release these figures, and their decision to do so in this instance has come under fire in some quarters for the lack of context. The film also indirectly generated laughs courtesy of Kim Kardashian, who watched it and then asked social media if anyone else had seen it. The film sees Bullock star as a woman struggling to survive after mysterious creatures/demons/unidentified beings suddenly appear across the world and cause people who look directly at them to violently kill themselves. Pregnant when they first arrive, she then spends five years largely blindfolded with her son and adopted daughter before embarking on a perilous journey to find sanctuary. Now the Bird Box Challenge is sweeping across social media as people don blindfolds and attempt to navigate their lives without sight. Given it is an inherently risky endeavour, Netflix US has requested that people refrain from taking part. Cant believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We dont know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes. Netflix US (@netflix) January 2, 2019 Some people are attempting the challenge at home, while others are outdoors and in public spaces. Most are making fun of the challenge, and themselves, while others believe it is offensive to blind people. Am surprise guys around me ain't aware of the #BirdBoxChallenge just watch this. pic.twitter.com/h4eS2ZiJ4J Oks (@danioks_UG) January 3, 2019 We decided to let @ERINonyourRADIO do #BirdboxChallenge on me with makeup - it went well pic.twitter.com/x7GrV1Y3jZ Big Jim OBrien (@wcsxjim) January 2, 2019 my family and i wanted to see how well wed do if we were in the bird box movie #birdboxchallenge pic.twitter.com/da3d0KWTkO SydSyd (@LoveMahalHappy) December 27, 2018 Read more: Horror film Bird Box inspires cant hear, cant speak, cant see meme 8 things I learned from grappling with Netflix's interactive film Bandersnatch Online Editors | https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/banter/trending/what-is-the-bird-box-challenge-and-why-has-netflix-asked-people-to-stop-37677711.html |
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Why Arent Democrats Standing Up for Low-Wage Government Workers? | House Democrats had big plans for opening the 116th Congress, with showy votes on cracking down on government corruption and protecting pre-existing conditions. But such plans rarely survive contact with reality. The partys takeover of the House on Thursday coincides with Day 13 of a partial government shutdown of nine cabinet-level departments, a crisis that takes precedence over every other legislative priority. Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive House speaker, has outlined a two-bill package to fund the government, which will get a vote on Thursday. Its not likely to end the impasse, but it does signal an intention to make good on promises to the 800,000 or so federal workers who havent received a paycheck since the shutdown. Section 2 of the second bill states that employees furloughed as a result of the lapse in appropriations shall be compensated at their standard rate of compensation for the time that theyve missed. But only federal employees would be covered by this back-pay clause. That excludes everyone who toils for a federal contractor, particularly the low-wage workers who clean, secure, and staff federal buildingsaround 2,000 of them, according to the Service Employees International Union. When the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo closed on Wednesday, contract workers who provide concessions and take tickets also got sent home, adding to the ranks. Contractors are the most vulnerable people in the federal workforce, the ones who can least afford a disruption in their pay. And yet, in the aftermath of government shutdowns, they are the only employees who dont get compensated after the fact. In 2013, when the government closed for 16 days, federal workers received back pay, but low-wage contractors did not, causing serious financial depression for struggling families in Washington. When the politicians closed the government, they didnt think about the impact it would have on our families, Pablo Lazaro, a cook at a Smithsonian museum, said at the time. | https://newrepublic.com/article/152841/arent-democrats-standing-low-wage-government-workers |
Why be a Liberal Democrat and an Orange Booker? | A recent post in the Why be a Liberal Democrat? Christmas competition on LDV had me nodding along in agreement for the first few paragraphs (yes, Labour are hopeless, and despite this our party is in a perilous position), but the nodding stopped at the abrupt veer into advocating for getting rid of Orange Bookers in the party. As a board member of Liberal Reform, which (fairly enough) is regarded as the pressure group for Orange Book fans, Ive never really understood why some party members are so bothered by us. Though Liberal Reform members tend to be quite supportive of building more homes to lower living costs (and therefore sceptical of anti-development activism), see international trade as something to be encouraged, and take a dim view of attempting to regulate lifestyles (e.g. clamping down on vaping), these views are hardly anathema to liberalism. Nor do they constitute an excessively libertarian take on the role of government. Youll find our board members advocating for restoring legal aid funding, as well as more traditional Liberal Reform topics like taking a more permissive approach to drug policy and using competition to lower prices. While the author of the post was happy to say he respected Orange Bookers, the lurid claim that the books contributing authors (Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Susan Kramer, and Ed Davey among others) pursued market-friendly ideas to advance their own careers was an unfortunate slight on many of our current and former parliamentarians. I have no doubt that the Coalition damaged our electoral popularity, but cant see how the electoral math in 2010 allowed for anything other than entering government with the Conservatives, with many of the policy compromises that came with this. What matters now is how we position ourselves going forward. Wholesale disowning of our only time in government since WW2 is unlikely to bear fruit, so that leaves promoting what we got right (e.g. the pupil premium, lifting the lowest paid out of tax, and reducing carbon emissions), and crafting new policies on matters like legal aid access and immigration policy where we gave the Tories far too much say over. The team at Liberal Reform want to avoid the somewhat uninspiring centrism that the party has fallen back on at times and instead work with others to craft a compelling radical liberal message. Youll find us taking a hard look at any suggestions to launch huge new government programmes or regulatory regimes, but where a programme or idea is the most efficient way to achieve a liberal aim, is supported by evidence, and doesnt infringe on civil liberties, were going to back it. This isnt to say that Liberal Reform have no disagreements with others in the party. We think collaborating with the Greens in a progressive alliance when they are actively aspiring to destroy and replace our party is a daft idea. As is adopting elements of their anti-growth and anti-trade policy platform, which might appeal to 3% of the electorate, but which is (rightly) hard to defend when subjected to scrutiny. Disagreement over election tactics and policy shouldnt be grounds for instigating purges from our party though; lets leave that to the Corbynistas. The coming weeks and months are going to be crucial for stopping Brexit. Rather than taking the advice of some and spending this time trying to drive out fellow party members, lets unite to redouble our efforts on winning support for a Peoples Vote. * The author is politically restricted. He is an economist at a research institute. | https://www.libdemvoice.org/why-be-a-liberal-democrat-and-an-orange-booker-59597.html |
Should children as young as 12 be sent to juvenile detention? | (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Natalia Orendain, University of California, Los Angeles (THE CONVERSATION) Children under 12 will no longer be treated as criminals in the state of California when they break the law, based on a new law that went into effect on Jan. 1. Before the law was passed, California had no minimum age for sending children to juvenile court and thats still true of most states. That means that in many places, children as young as six, for example, can be arrested and detained. In Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, Colorado and other states, the minimum age is 10. Many California state legislators believe that setting a higher standard, 12 years old, will protect younger children from the dangers that come with juvenile detention. And, given that Californias juvenile justice system houses the largest number of youth in the United States and even the world, their stance may influence how other states set their standards for criminal responsibility. I am a doctoral student studying neuroscience at UCLA. In my lab, we are examining how time spent confined in juvenile facilities affects brain development and behavior. To do so, we study a range of experiences kids encounter when confined, from the good increased daily structure to the terrible assault by other youth and staff. Our study is just beginning, but previous research has shown that the majority of youth experience abuse while confined and show structural brain changes similar to individuals who have experienced lifetime trauma exposure. Juvenile facilities function as prisons for youth. The key difference between adult prisons and juvenile facilities is that the latter advocate for rehabilitation. Thats because young people, usually until their mid- to late 20s, have brains that are still developing and so have the capacity for change what scientists often refer to as plasticity. Every year, over 1.3 million youth in the U.S. are arrested and 60 percent face confinement for offenses neither violent or sexual in nature, such as probation violation, status offense, drug offense or property crime. Rehabilitative efforts can include behavior management, writing classes, religious services and even training on how to manage finances. Despite these efforts, the experience of being detained appears to have overwhelmingly negative consequences for young people. Research shows that the more youth are involved with the juvenile justice system from arrest to detainment to transfer to an adult court the higher their chances are of early death, specifically a violent one. Going to juvenile detention also increases risk for poorer life outcomes in terms of educational attainment, relationships and gainful employment. At this point, these relationships are only correlational, but have been demonstrated across many large studies. The physical environment inside juvenile detention facilities has an industrial feel, with limited natural light. They are surrounded by chain-linked fences topped with barbed wire. Once inside, youth are rarely in contact with their support systems, whether that be family, friends or other individuals. While some youth may have been removed from abusive situations at home, the high-threat environment of secure juvenile facilities is far from a rehabilitation-oriented setting. Maltreatment has been documented in youth detention facilities in most states. According to one survey, about 42 percent of youth in detention are afraid of being physically attacked, 45 percent report unneeded use of force by staff and 30 percent state that staff use isolation as discipline. Isolation, particularly during development, comes with a range of negative physiological and psychological reactions and is associated with the development of mood disorders, like depression and anxiety, and psychosis. Under such stressful conditions, even young brains would have a difficult time learning or growing. To make matters worse, most youth in the juvenile justice system have experienced early life trauma like abuse and neglect, which can compound the negative effects of these already detrimental experiences. No magic number The clinicians and academics who wrote a policy brief on the California bill cite developmental research, court decisions on youth sentencing and international standards on juvenile justice as the reasons to adopt the age of 12 as the minimum age at which children can be sent to juvenile detention. However, there is no strong evidence that setting 12 as the lowest age for sending children to detention will provide major benefits. Among these sources cited by the clinicians and academics, the only specific reference to the age of 12 is from international standards set forth by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. In 2007, the committee announced 12 as the absolute minimum age of criminal responsibility, but at the same time strongly advocated for higher ages, like 14 or 16. At the time, research investigating brain development in youth was still emerging. Now, more than 10 years later, we know that experiences during all of adolescence tremendously impact brain development and behavior into adulthood. While a systemic overhaul would be needed to address the current conditions of juvenile confinement, existing diversion programs are an avenue to affect youth of all ages. One such program is the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, founded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation more than 25 years ago. The initiative monitors the treatment of youth in secure detention facilities and diverts youth or limits time spent confined. The initiative is implemented in over 300 counties nationwide. Instead of placing young people in detention facilities, these initiatives promote confining them in their homes, in shelters and reporting centers. This approach has been shown to lower the number of times the youth commit crimes again a large feat given that 70 to 80 percent of youth involved in the juvenile justice system traditionally face rearrest within three years of their release. Rather than focusing on a specific age for juvenile detention, I believe a greater impact would come from ensuring that confinement is truly rehabilitative and developmentally appropriate for all youth. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/should-children-as-young-as-12-be-sent-to-juvenile-detention-107848. | https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Should-children-as-young-as-12-be-sent-to-13505334.php |
Is Emraan Hashmis Cheat India getting rescheduled because of Thackeray? | January 25, 2019, is a Friday when three interesting films will hit the screens, Kangana Ranauts Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi, Emraan Hashmis Cheat India and Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Thackeray. The trailers of all the three films are out and have created a good buzz. But then with three big films releasing together, a major concern is over the division of screen count that might hamper the business of the movies. However, looks like one of the films might get rescheduled. We are talking about Emraan starrer Cheat India. The makers of Cheat India have organised a press meet on January 4, 2019, to make an important announcement. The press conference will also be attended by Aaditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut who is the producer of the movie Thackeray. A press meet with the team of two films releasing on the same day clearly indicates that a big announcement is surely happening and the change in the release date could be the one. This reminds us how last year Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Akshay Kumar had also organised a press conference and it was announced that Akki is postponing the release date of PadMan to give Padmaavat a solo release. Lets see if the history will be repeated So, if Cheat India gets rescheduled, it will be Manikarnika vs Thackeray at the box office. While the former is a biopic on Rani Lakshmibai, the latter is a biopic on politician Bal Thackeray. Hrithik Roshans Super 30 too was slated to release on January 25, 2019, but it has clearly been pushed as theres no development on the movie yet. | https://www.in.com/entertainment/bollywood/is-emraan-hashmis-cheat-india-getting-rescheduled-because-of-thackeray-279069.htm |
Has anyone else seen the mysterious house on the bridge near Mytholmroyd? | Reader letter from Richard Constantine, Halifax wondering if anyone else has seen the mysterious house on the bridge. The weather has been a little challenging in photography terms and the leaves are fast disappearing, making colourful landscape subjects more difficult to find. Whilst photographing the River Calder in spate, I came across this illusion on the Rochdale Canal at Brearley, near Mytholmroyd. It only appears at certain times of the year and day. MORE LETTERS Calderdale resident says dont fly tip - its not big and its not clever This could be the worst road in Calderdale Resident shocked at increase in price of car parking in Brighouse | https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/your-say/has-anyone-else-seen-the-mysterious-house-on-the-bridge-near-mytholmroyd-1-9517763 |
Which Wear OS devices have a speaker? | There are a few features you come to expect on most smartwatches. Heart-rate sensors are pretty common, water-resistance is expected these days, and built-in GPS is always a nice touch. One feature that can often be overlooked, however, is a built-in speaker. Not only does a speaker allow you to make and receive phone calls right on your wrist, but it can also be used when talking to the Google Assistant. If you're looking for a Wear OS watch that's outfitted with a speaker, here are your best options. Built-in speakers are one of the less common features on Wear OS watches, but without a doubt, the TicWatch Pro is the best one you can buy that still retains this small, yet important, addition. It delivers just about every feature you could ask for in a good-looking package while also kicking out some of the best battery life you'll find. If you have the cash to afford it, the TicWatch Pro is the way to go. This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details. | https://www.androidcentral.com/which-wear-os-devices-have-speaker?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+androidcentral+%28Android+Central%29 |
Which branches of Greggs in Bristol will be selling the vegan sausage roll? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A savoury pastry, which sent meat-lovers into a frenzy when first announced, has hit the warm shelves of Greggs today. The vegan sausage roll will be available across the country, although not everyone was thrilled about the announcement. Meat-lovers were inexplicably angered by the new product, despite the original sausage roll still being available in all stores, with many taking to Twitter (standard) to express their vitriol. But some vegans, vegetarians, or those simply curious to have a taste, have been left disappointed this morning to discover the meat free snack was not available in their local branch, having only been rolled out to 900 stores nationwide. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now As vegan sausage roll is only on sale in certain locations we asked Greggs for the full list of stores across Bristol selling them. You're welcome. Bedminster East St Bristol Avonmeads Retail Park Bristol Broadmead Bristol Gloucester Road North, Filton Bristol Horsefair Bristol St Augustine Bristol St James Court Bristol Victoria St Bristol, Cabot Circus Bristol, Broadwalk Shopping Centre Bristol, The Galleries Bristol, Wine St Fishponds, Fishponds Road Yate, Yate Shopping Centre | https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink/branches-greggs-bristol-selling-vegan-2384788 |
Why does my body ache so much? | Irrespective of the intensity, body ache is a condition that affects our functionality in varying degrees. The common forms of pain such as a headache, back and neck pain, muscle soreness, joint pain, etc. sometimes become intolerable and they limit our range of motion significantly. Severe and chronic pain causes muscle inflammation, fever and disturbed sleep. It needs attention and the treatment varies depending on the underlying cause. Know about the diseases and conditions that could be the reasons behind your constant body ache. Chronic fatigue syndrome: Chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS is an impairing disorder that causes fatigue or tiredness persistently for a long period of time and doesnt improve with rest. If you suffer from CFS, then you will experience a severe headache, fatigue which will last for a minimum of 6 months and will not get cured with rest, widespread musculoskeletal pain, tender points in specific locations, pain and stiffness in many joints, difficulty in concentrating, impairment in sensation, memory loss and disturbed sleep. Your doctor before diagnosing the condition will note if you have any 4 of the above symptoms and ask you about the severity and duration of the unexplained fatigue. Then accordingly prescribe antibiotics as the first line of treatment. If not treated in time, the syndrome can cause long-term inflammation of your muscles ( Lyme arthritis) along with other health complications such as heart rhythm, brain and nervous system issues. If after a trek or a hike in the mountains you have a huge expanding red rash which may appear like a tick or an insect bite, it is recommended you check with your doctor at the earliest for it can possibly lead to a sudden feeling of fatigue and tiredness. Fibromyalgia: A muscle and bone disorder, fibromyalgia is marked by chronic body pain, fatigue, and disturbed sleep. Although the disorder can feel similar to the pain felt in osteoarthritis, bursitis, and tendinitis, the stiffness and pain in this condition is felt all over the body rather than restricted to specific areas. If you suffer from fibromyalgia you will experience from one or more of these symptoms: Anxiety, depression, morning stiffness, painful tender points, cognitive difficulties, mood and anxiety disorders generally co-occur with fibromyalgia, since they have common pathophysiologic (functional changes associated with or resulting from disease or injury) abnormalities, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, temporomandibular disorder (jaw and surrounding facial muscle problems), inflammation of the prostate gland and chronic pelvic pain and painful bladder syndrome. Since there are no tests that can detect the disease, your doctor will understand your medical history to rule out illnesses with similar symptoms such as underactive thyroid and types of arthritis. Accordingly, you will be prescribed muscle relaxants and anti-depressants to relieve the body ache symptoms and help you sleep. You will also be asked to consume a balanced diet, get physical therapy, massage and use relaxation techniques like yoga asanas to relieve stress and cognitive- behavioural therapy. According to various studies, many non-pharmacologic treatments like yoga, acupuncture, and traditional Chinese medication (TCM) have found useful to treat the fibromyalgia. Multiple sclerosis: This condition attacks the optic nerve of your eyes, brain and spinal cord causing difficulties with your vision, balance, muscle control, and excruciating pain in the entire body. A sclerosis patient suffers from tingling sensations, weakness, urinary problems, numbness, blurred vision, muscle stiffness, improper cognition. If you are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis then it is recommended to treat the condition timely in order to delay its progression. Your physician will treat the condition by using deep brain stimulation and prescribe medication to slow the course of the disease, ease your symptoms and help manage accompanying stress. Osteoarthritis: This is a type of arthritis known as Osteoarthritis in which the cartilage that exists between two bones depletes. As a result, when the bones rub against each other it causes extreme discomfort and pain. This is a type of arthritis known as Osteoarthritis. It leads the individual to go through constant body ache. Arthritis patients constantly complain about hip, back and hand pain which gradually reduces with increase in movement, morning stiffness that increases with excessive activity, and sore and stiff joints. Low levels of vitamin D: Vitamin D helps in calcium absorption in our body and keep the bones structure healthy and strong. Deficiency of Vitamin D leads to soft, week and achy bones and result in constant chronic body ache. If your body suffers from low levels of vitamin D then will experience constant fatigue, achy bones and weakness. You should consume a well-balanced diet along with vitamin D supplements to make up for the calcium deficiency. Avoid ignoring your low levels of vitamin D as it can increase the risk of Osteoporosis. Low levels of iron in blood: Lack of iron in blood cause anaemia. In Anemic individuals, body parts receive low levels of nutrients and oxygen due to the iron deficiency and make their body feel weak, achy and fatigued all the time. If you are anaemic, your muscles constantly ache, you have pale skin and nails, bleed excessively during menstruation, have brittle nails and hair, feel dizzy, moody, and irritated. To beat the deficiency consume an iron-rich diet. Other than that you can use medically prescribed tablets syrups as replacement therapies to increase your bodies iron content. | https://www.thehealthsite.com/diseases-conditions/why-does-my-body-ache-so-much/ |
Who is on food stamps in Alabama? | More than 751,000 Alabamians depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly known as food stamps to supplement the food they eat each month. Alabamas participation rate places it among the top 15 for all states. SNAP provides nutritional support for low-wage working families, low-income seniors, and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes. The federal government pays the full cost of SNAP benefits but shares the cost of administering the program with the states, which administer the program. Nationally, some 42 million people participate in the program. Heres a by-the-numbers look at food stamps in Alabama: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled food stamp numbers for fiscal year 2017. Heres what they found: In fiscal 2017, 804,000 Alabama residents or 17 percent of the states population, or 1 in 6 Alabamians received food stamps. Thats higher than the national average of 13 percent of the total population, or 1 in 8. Food stamp numbers in Alabama have been falling for the past several years. Bolstered by low unemployment and an improving economy, as well as regulatory changes requiring more people to work to receive benefits, September 2018s figures show 751,235 Alabamians receiving SNAP benefits. More than 73 percent of SNAP participants in Alabama are families with children, 5 percentage points higher than the national average. Thirty-five percent of SNAP recipients in Alabama are in families with members who are elderly or have disabilities, 2 percentage points higher than the national average. More than 45 percent of SNAP recipients in Alabama are in working families. Nationally, that figure is 44 percent. Forty-eight percent of SNAP recipients in Alabama have an income between 50 to 100 percent of the national poverty level. Thirty seven percent have income at or below 50 percent of the poverty rate; 15 percent have income above 100 percent. A little more than 16 percent of Alabama households were food insecure or struggled to afford a nutritionally adequate diet. That figure is almost equal to the percentage of the states population that lives below the poverty level. The average monthly SNAP benefit per each household member is $120, or $1.32 per person, per meal. Monthly income limits for SNAP households. There are several restrictions on who can receive food stamps, including: anyone who is in violation or their parole or probation; anyone found guilty of using food assistance benefits to buy firearms, ammunition or explosives or buying or selling food stamps of $500 or more; anyone who misrepresents their identity; anyone who does not meet citizenship or alien status requirements; anyone who fails to provide a Social Security number; or anyone who fails to meet work requirements. | https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/who-is-on-food-stamps-in-alabama.html |
What are the world's safest airlines for 2019? | It's not something most avid travelers think about, but knowing you're in reliable hands when flying from one side of the world to the other is always a plus. Which is why it's worth a glance at the annual AirlineRatings.com list naming the world's safest airlines -- and discovering which one is rated the best. Accidents Accidents, disasters and safety Air transportation Air transportation safety Air travel incidents Aircraft accidents Airlines Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Companies Delta Air Lines Inc Qantas Safety issues and practices Transportation and warehousing Travel and tourism Travel safety and security Australia Continents and regions Oceania For 2019, the airline at the top of the list, once again, is Australian carrier Qantas. Accidents involving air transport are still incredibly rare, although the past 12 months saw a year-on-year rise in fatalities. Last year AirlineRatings was unable to single out one airline over its rivals. This year the Australia-based safety and product rating website had a more definitive outlook, says editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas. "Qantas was a clear winner given its industry leadership in safety innovation," he tells CNN Travel, spotlighting the airline's new nonstop Australia-UK route for its reliability. AirlineRatings analyzed data for 405 airlines across the world to put together its list of the top 20 safest carriers. It used 12 separate criteria, including audits from governments, aviation's governing bodies and lead associations. Also considered were the crash and serious incident records for each carrier -- plus fleet age and profitability. Safety first Qantas held the accolade of AirlineRatings' world safest airline from 2014 to 2017, but took joint honors in 2018 when the website chose not to rank its top 20. For 2019, Qantas is singled out as the best, while the remaining 19 safest airlines haven't been ordered and are instead listed alphabetically. The result is a list that includes what the website calls a "who's who of airlines," praised for being reliable and secure. The top 20 are: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, and United Airlines and Virgin group of airlines (Atlantic and Australia). United returns to the list after being notably absent in 2018. Excluded in 2019 are former stalwarts Japan Airlines and Etihad. "Two US giants American Airlines and United Airlines are in the top 20 as they have reduced their fleet age significantly taking delivery of a large number of new aircraft," explains Thomas. "Japan Airlines was excluded this year one of its pilots was found to be intoxicated at Heathrow Airport," he adds. "Etihad was also excluded because of its significant losses." Although Qantas pipped the other carriers to the post, Thomas is keen to stress every airline in the top 20 deserves championing. "The top 20 safest airlines are all exceptional operations and the benchmark for excellence when its comes to safety and reliability," he says. High and low AirlineRatings also pinpointed the top 10 low-cost airlines with the best safety records. In alphabetical order, the top 10 safest budget airlines are: Flybe, Frontier, HK Express, Jetblue, Jetstar Australia / Asia, Thomas Cook, Volaris, Vueling, Westjet and Wizz. Mexican airline Volaris and Hungarian carrier Wizz are new additions to the list, while Aer Lingus lost its 2017 spot. AirlineRatings.com ranks the airlines using its seven-star rating system -- with the top 20 airlines all achieving the full seven stars. The lowest-rated airlines for 2019, achieving only one or two stars in the rankings, are Ariana Afghan Airlines, Bluewing Airlines, Kam Air and Trigana Air Service. | https://www.wthitv.com/content/national/503840382.html?ref=382 |
Will Tarrant Republicans remove Muslim from party post? | The countdown is on for the Tarrant County Republican Party to weigh in on whether a vice chairman of the party should be removed from his post because hes Muslim. This effort by a group of Republicans has drawn national attention as many wait to see what the Tarrant GOP will do about Shahid Shafi, a surgeon and Southlake City Council member. Its just outrageous that we are doing this, said Darl Easton, the GOP party chairman who appointed Shafi to the post six months ago. Its disgusting. A vote on the issue is scheduled for Jan. 10. $20 for 365 Days of Unlimited Digital Access Last chance to take advantage of our best offer of the year! Act now! But the question now is whether that vote will actually occur. Talk has bubbled on social media and among Republicans about compromises, a secret versus public vote and even potentially delaying the vote indefinitely. At issue is Eastons appointment last summer. He remembers one person speaking against the proposal before Republicans at an organizational meeting approved his slate of nominees, including Shafi. Before long, Dorrie OBrien a precinct chairwoman from Grand Prairie asked for the appointment to be reconsidered. She and others say this is not about religion but whether Shafi is loyal to Islam and Islamic law or connected to Islamic terror groups. We dont think hes suitable as a practicing Muslim to be vice chair because hed be the representative for ALL Republicans in Tarrant County, and not ALL Republicans in Tarrant County think Islam is safe or acceptable in the U.S., in Tarrant County, and in the TCGOP, OBrien recently posted on Facebook. Internal GOP emails about the issue delivered anonymously to the Star-Telegram, which has been covering this effort since August, show that the effort to remove Shafi has expanded. Others now targeted include Easton; a precinct chair and area leader, Kelly Canon; and a precinct chair who is married to a Muslim, Lisa Grimaldi Abdulkareem. Some top Texas Republicans including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Land Commissioner George P. Bush and House Speaker Joe Straus have condemned efforts to remove Shafi, as have Tarrant County Republicans including County Judge Glen Whitley, Sheriff Bill Waybourn and District Clerk Tom Wilder. OBrien recently posted on Facebook that a compromise she proposed regarding Shafi has fallen through. She said she believes her side has enough votes to recall Shafis appointment as vice chairman. Some fear the vote could prompt a civil war in the party. That not only would destroy a unified effort to re-elect President Donald Trump but would also likely hurt the Tarrant County Lincoln Day fundraiser, OBriens post read. In her post, she said her proposal calls for former Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Steve Hollern to resign as the partys chairman of the Education and Training Committee and for Shafi to resign his post as vice chairman of the party. Then Shafi would be appointed chairman of the committee. She posted that the compromise was rejected and that Easton hadnt countered with another offer. Not only did he start this situation with his ill-advised appointment over some really good advice not to, but he continues to bungle and mishandle it after numerous opportunities to bring it to a close, OBrien wrote. His ego, pride, hubris, whatever, is blinding him to the reality of how close to the edge of disaster his decisions have led the TCGOP. Easton said the compromise as originally presented was rejected, but he wouldnt say a compromise has been totally ruled out. With a week to go before the scheduled vote, Easton said anything could happen. We are very optimistic that we have more votes than they do, he said. But its who shows up. Jan. 10 vote on removal The agenda for the Jan. 10 meeting notes that the first part of the meeting will be to continue the Nov. 10 behind-closed-doors discussion about whether to remove Shafi. Easton said he isnt sure what will happen. Among the possibilities: Those private discussions could continue. A proposal could be made for an immediate public vote on the issue. A proposal could be made to indefinitely postpone consideration of the proposal to remove Shafi. Members could approve a proposed rules change that would eliminate the two vice chairmen positions and replace them with just one vice chairman. And that person would be elected by the executive committee, which is made up of precinct chairmen. A vote on the proposal could occur. Sharia Shafi, an immigrant from Pakistan, has said he became a U.S. citizen in 2009 and soon joined the Republican Party. He said hes not associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, nor the Council on American-Islamic Relations, nor any terrorist organization. He also said he supports Second Amendment rights and American Laws for American Courts. And he said hes never promoted Shariah. Shariah is a set of core principles derived from the teachings of the Quran, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. If somebody is wondering if one can be a Muslim and a ... good American, I am a living example of that, Shafi last month told the Star-Telegram. Sharia Law I have no interest in living under Sharia Law. Shafi said he has been overwhelmed with support since OBrien and others began talking about removing him from his post. It has reaffirmed my faith in the party and reaffirmed my faith in the country, he said. Im very proud to be an American and very proud to be a Republican. Hollern recently sent a letter to precinct chairmen urging them to keep Shafi in his position as a vice chairman. The current efforts by a misguided few to remove Dr. Shafi from Party leadership runs contrary to all principles Republicans have stood for, he wrote. And it is detrimental to the image of the Republican Party. He said the effort by a few folks with retrograde paranoia who hope to remove Shafi from the party post because he is Muslim is wrong. Dont be mistaken, I am as concerned as anyone about radical Islam and jihadi terrorists as Im sure Dr. Shafi is, Hollern wrote. But Dr. Shafi is not one of them. Please join me in sustaining Dr. Shafis appointment at our January 10th EC meeting and redeeming the TCGOP in the eyes of the general public. After all, Dr. Shafi has been endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz and many of the county elected officials. The TCGOP Executive Committee should not be out of step. | https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article223820565.html |
Is It Time to Buy BlackBerry's Resurgence? | BlackBerry's (NYSE: BB) transformation into a provider of software and services is now complete. The company's reliance on its legacy smartphone business has been pulling it down, but that won't be the case going forward, as the company's third-quarter results show. The company didn't get any revenue from selling devices last quarter, while the related service access business generated just $9 million, which isn't even 4% of the total top line. BlackBerry got the majority of its revenue by selling enterprise software and services, technology solutions, and licensing. The good part: These segments are enjoying robust growth momentum that won't be dying out anytime soon. A drawing of a cybersecurity shield, with random numbers and letters behind it and ripples appearing to pulse out of it. More Image source: Getty Images. Stepping on the gas BlackBerry now gets nearly 43% of its revenue from the enterprise software and services business. Bears might argue that this segment isn't in the best shape, as revenue in the latest quarter dropped 7.5% year over year. But there's more here than meets the eye. BlackBerry's implementation of the ASC 606 accounting change in the first quarter of the current fiscal year means it's facing unfavorable year-over-year comparisons. That's because, under ASC 606, BlackBerry isn't recognizing revenue from enterprise software sales on an up-front basis. Instead, the company's perpetual licenses are now recognized on a subscription basis over a period of four years. However, there's enough evidence that the enterprise business is on a growth path. BlackBerry recorded 7% sequential growth in this segment last quarter, following a double-digit sequential increase during the second quarter of fiscal 2019. But the more important thing to note is that this business carries tremendous potential, thanks to the solid contract wins BlackBerry has scored. For instance, BlackBerry is now selling enterprise software to eight U.S. government agencies, compared with six in the previous quarter. What's more, the number of users on BlackBerry AtHoc -- the company's crisis communication software-as-a-service platform, authorized by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program -- increased 20% in the latest quarter to 1.2 million users. Gaining traction in the U.S. government cybersecurity space will be a long-term driver for BlackBerry, as the federal government has been gradually ramping up its cybersecurity spending. But government contracts are just one of the things driving the company's software growth. BlackBerry has set out to build a platform that encompasses the privacy and security needs of an organization under one umbrella -- BlackBerry Spark. More importantly, the company is looking to push the envelope by adding more solutions to its portfolio. That's why it has spent $1.4 billion on cybersecurity provider Cylance, which will bring artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to its cybersecurity offerings. Such moves will help BlackBerry offer more to its existing clients, while opening up an opportunity to sell its existing solutions to the newly acquired Cylance clients. Cylance is going to open up a massive opportunity for BlackBerry to boost sales and enjoy higher margins, because the former has over a hundred Fortune 500 clients, which are a part of its 3,500-strong enterprise client base. Meanwhile, BlackBerry's technology solutions business is getting a nice shot in the arm from automotive design wins, as customers are lapping up the QNX software platform to power various aspects of connected cars. | https://news.yahoo.com/time-buy-blackberry-apos-resurgence-110000474.html |
Is It Worth Releasing X.Org Server Updates For Old Branches To Help Vintage Hardware? | We'll see, but at least one person wants to work on such releases.Kevin Brace got involved with the open-source graphics driver scene by being the lone one left/interested in working on OpenChrome for VIA x86 graphics hardware. He's learned along the way and managed to provide various fixes to the DDX and has also been working on the OpenChrome DRM/KMS driver though that effort seems to have stalled on getting mainlined as it would require porting to the atomic mode-setting interfaces.Since then he's taken to working on patches and issuing new DDX releases for old X.Org drivers like Matrox and Imagine 128 hardware as well as the ATI RAGE 128 and other decades old hardware. In some cases for having a personal interest in having the hardware and in other cases no hardware but an interest in preserving old hardware support.His latest proposal is wanting to issue a new maintenance release to X.Org Server 1.19 and potentially even older series too. One patch is currently motivating him and that was figuring out why Xfce was crashing with the SiS 6326, the Silicon Integrated Systems' GPU from 1997. That fix for the two decades old GPU turns out to be a problem within the EXA 2D acceleration code for handling 24-bit color modes. That bug has existed since X.Org Server 1.7.That xorg-server patch doesn't allow the SiS 6326 run bug-free on the Linux desktop, but there are reported artifact problems still, though Kevin believes that is due to SiS DDX driver bugs. But now he is interested in shipping new xorg-server point releases for 1.19 and potentially back further in order to ship this EXA patch.But with not having served as a xorg-server release manager previously and without the experience, he's currently soliciting feedback and potential help in making this a reality.It remains to be seen how practical these old X.Org Server releases would be since the Linux distributions still on dated server builds are generally now unmaintained or not common practice for those distributions to ship new point releases of key components like the X.Org Server, especially if it's for an obscure bug and not a security fix or some prominent change.The long unmaintained older branches also lack the X11 security fixes of the newer branches, so unless those patches were to be back-ported in which case it could turn out to be a slippery slope of additional work, it would be the potential of outing new point releases with known security vulnerabilities in order to fix vintage hardware issues.The current X.Org Server 1.20 stable series has already been available for 7+ months. So we'll see if anything happens on this topic. | https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xorg-Old-Updates-Old-Hardware |
Is there any way back for Marco Silva's 'bombed squad' at Everton? | Get Everton 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 Having been ostracised by Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, the French midfielder was able to express himself with freedom on a football pitch again and start playing with a smile on his face once the pair were parted. This isn't a tale about Paul Pogba, now revitalised at Old Trafford and the latest in a long line of players to experience the 'tough love' of the once self-styled 'Special One' but his compatriot Morgan Schneiderlin who departed the Red Devils for Everton some two years ago in the transfer window but now like several of his colleagues finds himself facing an uncertain future. Having been left out in the cold by Mourinho, Schneiderlin quickly impressed his new followers at Goodison Park with a string of Rolls-Royce displays as the Blues climbed the table in the second half of Ronald Koeman's first season. However, while luxury vehicles can look easy on the eye they sometimes prove high maintenance and form-wise the engine kept stalling for Schneiderlin in 2017/18 in what was a traumatic season for both club and individual. A ridiculous sending off in Lyon and alleged training ground incident also involving Kevin Mirallas did not help the player's popularity with Everton's support and the relationship reached its nadir when he was booed at Goodison Park when coming on as a substitute. (Image: LINDSEY PARNABY/AFP/Getty Images) However, with the slate seemingly being wiped clean under new manager Marco Silva last summer there was an opportunity for Schneiderlin to start afresh. He started four out of the first five Premier League matches under the new boss but hasn't been picked in the first XI in the competition since the 3-1 reversal at home to West Ham United on September 16. Less than a week ago, Silva told the ECHO that he was refusing to give up on Schneiderlin but admitted the player faces a big challenge. But Schneiderlin is far from being the only player at Everton to have suffered a fall from grace. One thing Silva hasn't been shy in doing since his appointment has been making big calls with high-profile players that often haven't been that palatable for the individuals in question. The club's prodigal son Wayne Rooney was packed off to the USA before pre-season began and while the squad's two longest-serving players club captain Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines the Blues best left-back of modern times who have both been at Goodison since 2007 were at least given the chance to show their merits, they quickly made way for new arrivals. And we're not just talking about being given a potential occasional run-out in fixtures like this Saturday's FA Cup tie at home to League Two Lincoln City. Unlike Koeman and Sam Allardyce, Silva it seems doesn't like to operate with two defensive midfielders and therefore there isn't room for both Schneiderlin and Idrissa Gueye in the side with the manager preferring the more creative talents of his compatriot Andre Gomes. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now A player of Schneiderlin's standing won't be satisfied with what has now almost become a replica of his Manchester United situation at Everton but like so many of the expensive misfits from the previous regime, the challenge for Marcel Brands is being able to offload such players. While Goodison stalwarts Jagielka and Baines seem likely to be retained as squad options for the remainder of their current contracts at the end of this season, the summer of 2019 seems an opportune time for a parting of the ways for both after a dozen years of sterling service apiece it's just a shame that neither has yet been given a testimonial game. For members of the squad still in their 20s who have found themselves out of favour though, amicable solutions seem less straightforward. Silva has a large virtually fully-fit squad to choose from but despite his players having the least rest of any of their Premier League rivals over the hectic festive period and his lacklustre side heading for a 1-0 defeat in an atrocious New Year's Day contest at home to Leicester City, he chose not introduce a third substitute. Such a gesture only fuels speculation that the manager does not have much faith in the options at his disposal. While Schneiderlin has found himself cast aside, Silva has shown great faith in homegrown hero Tom Davies, handing him the captaincy on occasions at the tender age of 20 but while the midfielder had been poised to come on against Leicester, he was sent back to the bench after the visitors went ahead. The chaos factor of Oumar Niasse, who Silva previously brought to Hull City on loan, was utilised as one last desperate throw of the dice in the previous contest at Brighton & Hove Albion but was absent from the matchday squad against the Foxes. Also missing was Ademola Lookman, whose stop-start career on Merseyside continues to frustrate. The young winger would have been a potential game-changer but was not included. (Image: Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images) After suffering a sickening double leg break last January, James McCarthy still hasn't returned to the first team picture despite apparently now being back up to speed fitness-wise and the Irish international has been linked to a potential exit this week. Like many new managers, Silva has tried to be fair to many of the players he has inherited but with now over half a season gone, his ideas are beginning to crystallise and those not at the forefront of his thoughts are starting to look increasingly surplus to requirements. There will continues to be casualties along the way as for the umpteenth time in recent years the squad is reshaped but while the club's new-found wealth thanks to Farhad Moshiri has enabled them to flex their financial muscles in the transfer market, Everton have found it far easier to bring players in than dispense with them and that includes the army of high-earners they currently have out on loan. | https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/any-way-back-marco-silvas-15624096 |
Why has China sent a spacecraft to the far side of the moon? | This is the first landing on the far side of the moon (right). Credit: NASA A Chinese spacecraft has landed on the far side of the moon in a landmark achievement for the nation and space exploration. This is the first time any nation has landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. The moon's far side isn't always dark but is sometimes called that because it faces away from Earth and is relatively unknown. The tidal "lock" means the moon rotates on its axis at the same rate as it orbits Earth, which is why we never see the far side, which has a different composition to the near side. Change 4 - a name derived from a Chinese goddess who, according to legend, has lived on the moon for millennia - landed on the so-called 'dark side' of the moon on December 3. A combined lander and rover, it will make astronomical observations and probe the structure and mineral composition of the terrain above and below the surface. The probe also took six live species - cotton, rapeseed, potato, arabidopsis, fruit fly and yeast - to the moon to form a mini biosphere. A CGI depiction of how the landing would have looked. It touched down on the floor of the Von Krmn crater within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, the moons largest, deepest and oldest impact structure. Change 4 will hope to shed some light on the history of the basin, according to Dr Long Xiao from the China University of Geosciences. In an article in September for the Planetary Society, he wrote: "The science team hopes to study the existence and extent of variations in composition of the sheet of melted rock that would have filled the newly formed SPA basin, and we hope to possibly study exposed upper-mantle materials. "Scientists also expect to improve understanding of the far side space environment and the evolution of far side regolith, the broken-up rocks and dust that make the lunar surface." The landing was a major scientific milestone, but just as significantly it highlighted China's growing ambition as a space power. Along with the United States and the former Soviet Union, China has previously sent missions to the near side of the moon. But Thursday's landing was hailed as the moment China "raced to the front" of the space race. China has plans to one day send a manned mission to the moon - only the US has done this before - and probe landings on Mars, Jupiter and asteroids are in its sights. China also wants to have a space station in operation by the early 2020s, with construction due to begin next year. China and the US appear to be entering a new space race. Credit: AP Wu Weiren, the chief designer of the China Lunar Exploration Project, said the moon landing was a trailblazing milestone. "Building a space power is a dream that we persistently pursue," he said in an interview with CCTV in Beijing. "And we're gradually realising it." China insists its ambitions are peaceful, but the US has previously accused it of pursuing goals which would give China control over space assets in a future crisis. One challenge of operating on the far side of the moon is communicating with Earth. To get around this, China launched a relay satellite in May so that Chang'e 4 can send back information. The satellite, named Queqiao, is positioned so it is visible to both Chang'e 4 and the team back on Earth, allowing the transfer data and images. | https://www.itv.com/news/2019-01-03/why-has-china-sent-a-probe-to-the-far-side-of-the-moon/ |
Could Ashley Smith-Brown be the answer to Plymouth Argyle's right-back problem? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Ashley Smith-Brown had arguably his best game for Plymouth Argyle in the 3-0 New Years Day victory over Oxford United at Home Park. It came with him playing at right-back, not at left-back as has usually been the case this season, because of a knee injury to Joe Riley. Smith-Brown was preferred to Tafari Moore, who was named among the substitutes, to take on the role. The 22-year-old had replaced Riley at right-back when he was injured in the first half of the 1-1 draw at Burton Albion last Saturday. Smith-Brown coped well with Oxfords Marcus Browne and earned praise for his performance from manager Derek Adams. It has opened up the possibility of the former Manchester City defender solving a problem position for Argyle. Riley and Moore have both had injuries this season but, even when fit, neither have convinced at right-back. Now, after decent displays against Burton and Oxford, Smith-Brown is another option for Adams in that position. With skipper Gary Sawyer now fully recovered from a broken foot and able to play at left-back, Smith-Brown can line up on the opposite side of defence. Adams gave this assessment of Smith-Brown after the win against Oxford. He has played a lot of games for us this season and hes one that can get forward. When he plays in that right-back area nobody will go inside him because hes quite comfortable on his left foot. And hes quick when he goes down his right-hand side as well. With the January transfer window now open, Adams will look to strengthen his defensive options for the second half of the season. It is not clear how long Riley will be ruled out by his latest knee injury but, even so, right-back is a position that Adams could look to address this month. However, Smith-Brown might have made him think again after his assured displays in the last two games. | https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/football/could-ashley-smith-brown-answer-2384853 |
Are these the worst examples of bad parking in Leeds? | Drivers parked on pavements, blocking junctions and in one case sideways across multiple spaces, these are just some of the most flagrant examples you sent to the Yorkshire Evening Post of poor parking. Send in your photos to [email protected] or join the Leeds Crime Facebook Group. More pavement parking in Leeds. Photo: Nicky Brookes other Buy a Photo This match day parking in Holbeck is truly shocking. Captured on Elland Road/Tilbury Road junction during a Leeds United game. The orange Skoda is literally parked across the junction. Photo: Kim Grimstead other Buy a Photo Several cars have parked badly outside the Flying Pizza in Street Lane. Photo: David Glanville other Buy a Photo If in doubt, park sideways across two spaces. Photo: Paul O'Flynn other Buy a Photo View more | https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/are-these-the-worst-examples-of-bad-parking-in-leeds-1-9518520 |
Which players have improved most under Man United interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer? | After four wins from four, Manchester United appear to be a team transformed under interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Wednesday night's visit to Newcastle United was the toughest assignment yet for Solskjaer but his rejuvenated side passed the test to maintain his 100 per cent start. The feel-good factor has been restored to Old Trafford following the misery of Jose Mourinho's final few months and United are playing free-flowing football again in their best tradition. On face value, it looks like the change of manager has brought the best out of every member of the United team but we have picked out five who have stood out. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has begun his interim tenure at Manchester United with four victories United remain sixth in the Premier League but are now just six points off the top four PAUL POGBA Pogba has been playing as though liberated from a 10-ton weight since Solskjaer replaced Mourinho in the dug-out. This really should come as little surprise with the catastrophic breakdown in the relationship between the French World Cup winner and United's former manager well documented. Mourinho clashed with Pogba over tactics last season, barely acknowledged his impressive form at the World Cup and then stripped him of the vice-captaincy in front of his team-mates. Given Pogba's effervescent personality and his influence within the squad, especially on its younger members, this created a schism in the dressing room that Mourinho couldn't recover from. Paul Pogba salute the travelling United fans following Wednesday night's win at Newcastle United under Solskjaer December 22 Cardiff City (A) 5-1 December 26 Huddersfield (H) 3-1 December 30 Bournemouth (H) 4-1 January 2 Newcastle United (A) 2-0 While Pogba did show unnecessary disrespect with his social media reaction to Mourinho's sacking, he has at least redeemed himself with a string of superb performances since. Pogba has finally started to play like an 89million footballer, scoring four times and creating another three in the wins over Cardiff, Huddersfield, Bournemouth and Newcastle. That goal return is the same as he managed in his previous 20 matches under Mourinho and after what was the most productive month of his career Pogba unsurprisingly won the club's best player award for December. Pogba's trademark dance moves have become a regular sight after four goals under Solskjaer His performance against Newcastle was more subdued but we Pogba still showed remarkable work rate and took the chance to extend those long legs in a forward burst at every opportunity. Compared to the average displays under Mourinho, every aspect of Pogba's game has improved, from successful passes to distance run. He looks born again at Old Trafford and all that transfer talk of an escape to Barcelona or back to Juventus has quietly faded away. For the time being at least, Solskjaer will build his side around a Pogba in imperious form. And that's how it should have been from the moment he arrived. The Frenchman produced a prodigious leap to score his second goal against Bournemouth MARCUS RASHFORD Having scored just two Premier League goals all season under Mourinho, Rashford now has three in four under Solskjaer in another transformation in form. Like Pogba, the 21-year-old striker has seen his confidence surge and, as well as scoring, has been pulling off all kinds of audacious passes and tricks. Witness the outrageous piece of skill to beat Bournemouth's Nathan Ake and Sergio Rico to set up a goal for Pogba last Sunday. And that was followed up by a smart finish later in the match for United's third and a composed strike to wrap up the win at Newcastle. Marcus Rashford jumps for joy after scoring United's second goal in the win at Newcastle Man United fixtures Premier League unless stated January 5 Reading (H) FA Cup third round January 13 Tottenham (A) January 19 Brighton (H) January 29 Burnley (H) February 3 Leicester City (A) February 9 Fulham (A) That came after his Cristiano Ronaldo-esque free-kick was spilled by goalkeeper Martin Dubravka for Romelu Lukaku's opening goal. The fact Rashford now has the confidence - or has been given the licence - to even try such set-pieces from outlandish distances speaks to the sense of freedom Solskjaer has brought. Rashford is producing the same kind of sparkling form he produced when he first burst onto the scene in 2016 and he is being spoken about in the highest terms once again. As Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville said: 'Rashford playing up front is fantastic - I love him to bits. He's played nearly 150 games at the age of 21 and his potential is enormous. 'It's actually now stepping up beyond potential to where he will be a top class player.' It helps that Solskjaer was a striker himself and knows innately what to say and do on the training field to get his forwards' confidence flowing again. The England striker slides in to score United's third goal in the win over Bournemouth ROMELU LUKAKU It's been a testing few months for Romelu Lukaku, a striker who scored 27 times last season but looked increasingly bereft of confidence under Mourinho. The Belgian had mustered just six Premier League goals in the first half of the campaign under Mourinho and failed to find the net in the Champions League group stage. Having missed the first two matches of Solskjaer's tenure, he now has two in two and both from making an immediate impact off the bench. Lukaku scored just two minutes after coming on in the 4-1 win over Bournemouth and bettered that with an intervention after merely 38 seconds at Newcastle. Romelu Lukaku made an instant impact off the bench by scoring the first goal at Newcastle Of course Solskjaer, the ultimate super sub, knows more than most about making an impact and that seems to be rubbing off. It will be interesting to see whether Lukaku, with his scoring confidence now restored, is satisfied in playing that role week-in, week-out. You suspect not but at least the free-scoring form of Rashford, Lukaku and Anthony Martial gives Solskjaer a pleasant dilemma. For Lukaku - who scored 27 last season, some 14 more than next-highest United scorer Rashford - it does mean a sharing of the burden. It came after the Belgian forward scored two minutes after coming on against Bournemouth NEMANJA MATIC The last four matches have seen a far greater energy about United's midfield and that isn't just reserved to Pogba. Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic have both produced improved performances, with United zipping the ball around with far greater urgency and purpose compared to most matches under Mourinho. And when out of possession, they have been snappier in winning the ball back, albeit playing largely against opponents unable to punish them. Nemanja Matic wins a header against Newcastle's Christian Atsu at St James' Park Matic has been a good example, losing his tendency to pass the ball sideways and occupy a conservative position just in front of the back four. Solskjaer shifted the starting positions of United's midfield 20 yards further forward, at a stroke injecting a greater purpose to their play. Matic is not only working harder but is finding more forward passes to spring United on the attack. It helps that he has more willing runners ahead of him. It will be interesting to see whether this changed when United play Tottenham on January 13 in what is the first real test of the Solskjaer reign. Midfielder Matic has been more forward-thinking in his play under Solskjaer's management LUKE SHAW Slim pickings admittedly, but Shaw was one of the plus points of the turbulent season opening under Mourinho. Having taken more than his fair share of criticism from the former boss, the left-back had responded with some of his best performances in a United shirt. And while he may have been the last to hear about Mourinho's sacking and Solskjaer's arrival - Shaw admitted his girlfriend burst into the room to break the news - he has looked even better under the caretaker. Luke Shaw has been given a greater licence to roam forward by the interim United manager Given licence at last to push forward down the left flank, Shaw has become more a part of the United attack than he has ever been before. His average position on the pitch has moved further forward and he's been able to deliver more crosses, make more runs and link up more often with the forward line. Still only 23, we may be seeing Shaw start to mature into the kind of dynamic wing-back everyone hoped he would become. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6553675/Which-players-improved-Man-United-interim-boss-Ole-Gunnar-Solskjaer.html |
What next for Syria's Kurds? | Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of the country's north and northeast, some of seized from the Islamic State group at the cost of heavy losses with backing from the US-led coalition Syria's Kurds have established an autonomous region during seven years of civil war, but the abrupt decision by their US ally to withdraw has thrown their political future into doubt. Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of the country's north and northeast, some of it seized from the Islamic State group at the cost of heavy losses with backing from the US-led coalition. A US withdrawal could leave them exposed on two fronts, both to an attack by neighbouring Turkey and its Syrian proxies, and to a return of Damascus government institutions. Syria's Kurdish minority have largely stayed out of the civil war, instead forging autonomy in a large swathe of the north and northeast, including along the Turkish border. The fight against IS has allowed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to expand that territory to include the Euphrates Valley city of Raqa, as well as key oil and gas fields in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. On December 19, President Donald Trump took many even among his own supporters by surprise with the announcement of a full US troop withdrawal from Syria. That prompted the Kurds to seek a new alliance with the Damascus regime to protect them from a long-threatened attack by neighbouring Turkey. Syrian Kurds demonstrate in the northeastern city of Qamishli on December 28, 2018, against Turkish threats of a new cross-border offensive following the US decision to withdraw their troops Ankara views the Kurdish fighters of the SDF as "terrorists", in cahoots with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting Turkish troops since 1984. Although unlikely without prior agreements between regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey, analysts foresee a possible carving up of the northeast between the different sides. "There will be a division of territory between the SDF, the Turks, and the Syrian army," political geographer and Syria expert Fabrice Balanche predicted. Today, the regime holds almost two-thirds of Syria after victories against jihadists and other rebels, and has pledged to eventually return the northeast to government control. Last week, Damascus deployed troops in the northern countryside to stem off any Turkish-led attack on the flashpoint SDF-held city of Manbij. A US military convoy passes through a checkpoint in the flashpoint Syria Democratic Forces-held city of Manbij on December 30, 2018 awaiting orders following President Donald Trump's announcement of a full US troop withdrawal from Syria On Wednesday, the army said 400 Kurdish fighters had retreated from areas around the Arab-majority city. But an Arab contingent of the SDF remains in control, and US forces are also present as they have not yet withdrawn. On Monday, pro-government newspaper Al-Watan cited an Arab diplomat in Moscow as saying the northern city would revert to "full state supervision". The source also said Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran would discuss "a return of state institutions" to areas further east, beyond the Euphrates River, at a meeting expected at the start of the year. Balanche said the regime would eventually resume full control of the main northeastern cities of Hasakeh and Qamishli. It would also retake the Arab-majority city of Raqa, as well as the oil fields of Deir Ezzor. "The Syrian army will... rapidly seize the Omar oil fields -- two-thirds of Syrian production," Balanche said. Turkey has led two previous incursions across the border, the most recent of which saw its Syrian proxies seize the northwestern enclave of Afrin from Kurdish forces last year. But analyst Heiko Wimmen said Ankara would first have to seek consent from Moscow before any third offensive, especially to use its air force. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen here in military fatigues during an inspection of the border region on April 1, 2018, has threatened to crush Kurdish forces on both sides of the Euphrates river "If it does happen however, Turkey will try to control the border strip," said Wimmen, of the Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group. "What they are aiming for is a buffer zone along the border," he said, stressing that the mission would be fraught with difficulty. "It is not clear that they are immediately prepared to take over and control a large area with a partly hostile population," he said. Balanche predicted Turkish troops and their allies would eventually push 20 to 40 kilometres (12 to 24 miles) into Syria. After decades of marginalisation, since the civil war erupted in 2011 Syria's Kurds have set up their own institutions in areas they control. After government forces pulled out of Kurdish-majority areas in 2012, the Kurds set up their own administrations and implemented longstanding demands such as Kurdish-medium education. But as loyalist forces gained ground last year and Damascus rejected Kurdish self-rule, the Kurds entered talks with the regime to seek some form of decentralisation. Syria Kurds wave the national flag during a demonstration in the northeastern city of Qamishli on December 23, 2018, seeking the Syrian army's protection against a threatened assault by Turkey With the Kurds now set to see their US ally withdraw from Syria, Wimmen said the Kurds were "certain to lose a lot". "The question is whether the loss will be total or whether some of it can be salvaged... through a deal with the regime, guaranteed by Russia," he said. But "given the track record of the regime and its negotiation positions so far... there is little reason for optimism." | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6554161/What-Syrias-Kurds.html |
What will Hollywood eat at the Golden Globes? | January 03, 2019 15:34 IST Here's what the A-list attendees will be eating at the awards show. The 76th Golden Globes awards are set to be staged on Sunday, January 6, and the preparations are well underway. The menu has been decided, and it looks mouth-watering! Here's a sneak peek at the show's special three-course dinner. It starts with sweet potato soup with wild micro chives, leeks and organic yam. The menu may be exotic, but it's all going to be very healthy. Photographs:Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images The vegetarian entree is squash stuffed with honeynut and crispy chickpeas, quinoa, golden raisins and sunflower sprouts. The entre will be Chilean sea bass with black rice, asparagus and roasted carrots. Chefs prepare the lobsters for the big night. Dessert will be a pistachio cream cheese ivory made with flourless chocolate and cream cheese, with a pistachio centre. It's the first ever gluten-free dessert at the Globes. Moet & Chandon will be the official champagne at the Globes for the 28th year in a row. Brazilian actress Camilla Belle has crafted the Moet Belle cocktail, which will be served at the awards show. There will be plenty of water to go around as well. Matthew Morgan is the executive chef for the Globes, and the menu has been created by him. Lead photograph courtesy: A screenshot from the movie The Hundred-Foot Journey. | https://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/food-what-will-hollywood-eat-at-the-golden-globes/20190103.htm |
Should Japan be forced to stop whaling? | In early 2019, Japan announced it would withdraw from the moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. Whaling is a long-standing tradition in countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland, and proponents of Japan's decision point out the country will now limit hunting to its own waters. Meanwhile, some countries and environmental groups mourn Japan's decision, maintaining that whale species still need protection. PERSPECTIVES The international ban on commercial whaling hasn't stopped Japan from hunting whales. The country participates in hunting season annually, claiming that the whales are used for scientific research. By now openly defying the international ban on commercial whaling, Japan will at least limit its hunting to its own waters. According to The Guardian's Justin McCurry and Matthew Weaver: [The Japanese government's chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga] told reporters the country's fleet would confine its hunts to Japanese territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, adding that its controversial annual expeditions to the Southern Ocean-a major source of diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Canberra-would end. Plus, many people see the ban on commercial whaling as an implementation of Western values on an international level: Japan argues that the moratorium was supposed to be a temporary measure and has accused a 'dysfunctional' [International Whaling Commission] of abandoning its original purpose-managing the sustainable use of global whale stocks. Japan's decision comes as a disappointment to much of the international community. According to the New York Times' Daniel Victor, Australia's government is "extremely disappointed" with Japan's announcement. Victor reports: Australia maintains a sanctuary for whales, dolphins and porpoises that includes parts of the Antarctic, and it has clashed with Japan over its annual hunts there. 'Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called "scientific" whaling,' the ministers said. 'We will continue to work within the commission to uphold the global moratorium on commercial whaling.' The U.K. environment secretary, Michael Gove, shares the sentiment: Extremely disappointed to hear that Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial whaling. The UK is strongly opposed to commercial whaling and will continue to fight for the protection and welfare of these majestic mammals. -- Michael Gove (@michaelgove) December 26, 2018 Victor continues by pointing out that, for Japan, commercial whaling is more than an economic stimulus, it's a long-standing tradition. 'In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but also for a variety of other purposes,' Mr. Suga said in a statement. 'Engagement in whaling has been supporting local communities, and thereby developed the life and culture of using whales.' Although demand for whale meat has declined sharply in Japan, the country maintains publicly that the tradition lives on. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports that according to the Japanese government: ...whaling is an ancient part of Japanese culture, that fishermen have caught whales for centuries, and that Japan will never allow foreigners to tell its people what they can and cannot eat. One Japanese official once said to me: 'Japanese people never eat rabbits, but we don't tell British people that they shouldn't.' But given the Japanese population's declining interest in whale meat, many are wondering why the country is pushing so hard to maintain a tradition that is no longer lucrative. The BBC's Wingfield-Hayes discovered that it might not be-at least not for long. During a private conversation with a high-ranking member of the Japanese government, Wingfield-Hayes explained why he believed resuming commercial whaling was illogical, the official replied: 'I agree with you,' he said. 'Antarctic whaling is not part of Japanese culture. It is terrible for our international image and there is no commercial demand for the meat. I think in another 10 years there will be no deep sea whaling in Japan.' 'There are some important political reasons why it is difficult to stop now.' he said. He would say no more. But [Greenpeace worker, Junko Sakuma] thinks the answer lies in the fact that Japan's whaling is government-run, a large bureaucracy with research budgets, annual plans, promotions and pensions. According to Sakuma, the pride of some government officials is more important to Japan than the survival of various whale species. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/01/should_japan_be_forced_to_stop.html |
Should top schools in Blackpool be inspected more often? | When it comes to choosing where to send your children to school, Ofsted ratings can be a deciding factor in making a choice. The Office for Standards in Education, Childrens Services and Skills, as its full title is known, publishes its verdicts on education establishments such as primary, secondary and special school as well as colleges after they have been inspected. Jill Gray, principal However the majority of Blackpools highest rated educational establishments, with a Outstanding rating, have not had an Ofsted inspection in more than five years. One of the resorts biggest, Blackpool Sixth Form College, had its last inspection and rating in 2009. Ofsted has said it would prefer to do more regular visits however it is not permitted by law. A spokesman for Ofsted said: By law, outstanding schools are exempt from routine inspection. We have publicly stated that this exemption should be removed and Ofsted fully resourced to inspect those schools. Montgomery High School principal Stephen Careless said progress has been made since the last Ofsted inspection Lengthy periods without inspection are unpopular with parents and even with teachers, 85 percent of whom agree that exemption should not be indefinite. We can inspect outstanding schools if we have concerns about pupil safety or the standard of education provided, and some issues with outstanding schools are captured in test and exam data. However, other issues, such as curriculum narrowing and gaming, are not. Blackpool Sixth principal Jill Gray said the inspection cycle is a matter for Ofsted to determine but an annual assessment of the college is carried out. She said: We are incredibly proud of our status as an Outstanding college. We work extremely hard to ensure our standards and outcomes for students remain consistently high and among the best in the country for colleges and sixth forms. Montgomery High School Ofsted undertakes an annual risk-based assessment of every college and so would take action if they had any concerns about the quality of education we are providing. She added: We have extremely rigorous processes for self-assessment and internal inspection, and continually share best practice with other Outstanding colleges. As the joint lead organisation in the Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance we are also deeply involved in helping to develop and promote excellence in teaching, learning and leadership across the area as a whole. At the start of the current school year, Blackpool had six outstanding state-funded schools and sixth forms. There were 30 rated as good and seven as requires improvement. One had been given the lowest inadequate rating but has since reopened as an academy and is yet to be inspected in its current form. Academies have not fared well in the area for inspections all seven of those told to improve were academies. Only one academy, Park Community, has gained an outstanding report. One school in the resort believes inspections dont always tell the full story. Stephen Careless, principal at Montgomery High School, said despite its requires improvement rating, Ofsted reported the school has made progress and can celebrate a successful year despite the inspection. He said: In March, Ofsted agreed with the schools own self-evaluation that we were requiring improvement. We knew we were not yet where we needed or wanted to be. Since then we have continued to raise expectations at the school with increased standards in terms of uniform, behaviour and classroom conduct. Our main improvement strategy is the implementation of our new vision for teaching and learning, called EXCEL, ensuring all students receive quality first teaching. The reputation of the school within the local community and our feeder primaries continues to rise with significantly more interest this year in places at the school. We have just won two Gazette awards, the Secondary Student of the Year and our year eight and 11 Boys football teams scooped the Sports Achievement Award. Since August, we have also introduced a new house system, which has gone a long way to embed our support and rewards culture. Raising expectations Montgomery High School principal Stephen Careless said progress has been made since the last Ofsted inspection. | https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/education/should-top-schools-in-blackpool-be-inspected-more-often-1-9518421 |
What's the weather forecast for the North East this weekend? | The video will start in 8 Cancel Get daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email The first weekend of January will be a "mild and dry" one, the Met Office has said. Bitterly cold temperatures, frost and rain are expected to stay away from the region in favour of some sunny spells. A spokesperson for the Met Office said conditions would be "fairly benign" from Friday to Sunday. Here's what's in store: Friday "There will be some sunny spells. At 5C, it's not terribly cold either. "Overall it will be mostly cloudy but dry." Saturday "We might get the odd shower and winds but it will be mostly the same at around 4/5C." Sunday "There could be temperatures of 7-9C. We might see some overnight rain and it will become windier from Monday. "It will not be extraordinarily cold so it is not expected to drop below freezing at any point over the weekend due to the cloud cover." | https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/whats-weather-forecast-north-east-15623661 |
When is Fiona Bruce taking over as presenter of Question Time? | Fiona Bruce has replaced presenter David Dimbleby as the new host of BBC1s flagship debate show Question Time. Advertisement The BBC newsreader is stepping into the veteran broadcasters shoes at perhaps one of the most turbulent and hostile moments in British politics. Shes the first woman to host the programme in its history. Some viewers might recognise Bruce for her cosy presenting style in Antiques Roadshow, but dont be fooled. The longtime BBC newsreader was originally an outside bet for the post, but reportedly beat out fierce competition, including Newsnight hosts Emily Maitlis and Kirsty Wark. She exhibited both warmth and authority during her audition, according to BBC News director Fran Unsworth. Read on to find out when Bruces first episode of Question Time will air. Question Time will return on Thursday 10th January at 10.45pm on BBC1, with Fiona Bruce presenting for the first time. A familiar face on British television, Bruce is a presenter on both BBC News at Six and News at Ten, which she juggles alongside hosting Antiques Roadshow and Fake Or Fortune. She will continue all these current roles alongside her Question Time post. On her appointment, Bruce said in a press release: For many years Question Time has been presented by one of my television heroes, so I am thrilled and not a little daunted to be stepping into his shoes. But it is a programme I have watched for as long as I can remember and have long wanted to be part of. I cant wait to get started. Advertisement Details about the guests featured on the show are yet to be confirmed. | https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-01-03/question-time-bbc-when-is-fiona-bruce-taking-over-as-presenter-from-david-dimbleby/ |
Is Competency The Hot New Education Thing For 2019? | Tom Vander Ark thinks that competency is the up and coming next big thing in education. He just said so a few weeks ago here at Forbes, but he's been saying so for several years now. Vander Ark has been at the education reform biz longer than most, but his career also includes the launch of K-Mart's competitor to Sam's Club, point man for the Gates small schools initiative, and an attempt to launch some charter schools in NYC that left a bad taste in many mouths. He's not always right. When we talk about competency (as in competency based education), we need to keep a couple of things in mind. First of all, it's not remotely new. For most of its history, it has been called "mastery" or "learning for mastery," and it crops up as far back as almost a century ago, when programs like the Winnetka Plan started playing with the idea that instead of focusing on the hours spent in a program, we could focus on whether or not the students had mastered a particular piece of skill or content. Mastery Learning began to catch fire again in the sixties. Most of us who went to teacher school in the seventies learned about it and were encouraged to make it a factor in our work, though nobody had yet solved one of the central problems with mastery learning. The premise was that every student could learn the material as long as she was given enough time--but there were still only 180 days in the school year. In the classroom, mastery learning often took the form of giving students multiple, even unlimited, attempts to show mastery of the material. On the ground this looked like, "Students, you can keep taking the unit test until you pass it." Students sometimes took advantage of the reduced sense of urgency, and parents were not always supportive--as one parent asked me, "Why should my kid try when he gets a dozen shots and everybody passes?" While mastery learning became central in very few classrooms, by the eighties, many teachers had incorporated elements of mastery learning into their practice. In the nineties, mastery learning made a comeback with the rise of Outcome Based Education. In OBE, each lesson would culminate in student demonstration of some particular outcome--new terminology for showing mastery (immortalized in a million million lesson plans as "The Student Will Be Able To" aka "TSWBAT"). We would have authentic assessments, where the students would demonstrate mastery in some "real" way; multiple choice tests and their ilk would be banished. Each student would have a portfolio that would show the complex web of her mastered skills, not just some simple letter grade. And finally, the motto, drilled into teachers at countless professional development sessions, was that "all can learn all." But OBE died a quick death. Part of the opposition came from conservative parents who resisted the "values" outcomes that required students to demonstrate mastery of the skill of being a good person. The other fatal attack on OBE came from the rising tide of accountability hawks, spurred to action by A Nation At Risk and demanding the kind of cold, hard numbers and measures that led us to No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and accountability based on a multiple-choice standardized tests. Competency is a new branding of a century-long thread in education. Now mastery can be marked with digital badges, the progression of skills maintained, measured and recorded by computers, the badges earned and issued in and out of school. If it's going to finally become the big thing in education, it will have to solve some of its old central problems. Vander Ark's evidence competency is really going to finally bust through this time is essentially a list of tech companies that are working on various parts of the problems. Some companies are working out how to issue a digital badge for a variety of mastered skills that will be assessed... somehow. Financiers like XQ and New Schools Venture Fund are throwing money at groups that want to work on these problems. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/01/03/is-competency-the-hot-new-education-thing-for-2019/ |
How should Nottingham Forest line up for Stamford Bridge clash with FA Cup holders Chelsea? | Get Weekday Nottingham Forest 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 Nottingham Forest make the trip to the capital on Saturday looking to pull off an FA Cup upset as they go head-to-head with Premier League giants Chelsea. Aitor Karankas side will travel to Stamford Bridge to take on the holders for the third round tie. And we want to know how you think the Reds should line up against the Blues. It will certainly pose something of a selection dilemma for Karanka, who has seen his resources hit by injury, particularly in defence. Michael Hefele was forced off early on in Saturdays 4-2 thumping of Leeds United with an Achilles problem, while Michael Dawson (hamstring) remains sidelined and it is still unclear if Tobias Figueiredo (dead leg) will recover for the weekend. Claudio Yacob filled in at centre-back at the City Ground and Jack Robinson has also played there in recent weeks, with Ben Osborn and Saidy Janko able to step in at left-back if required. Or perhaps you think Osborn should get his chance further up the pitch after making an impact from off the bench against the Whites, bagging a stunning strike. Maybe you feel the likes of back-up shot-stoppers Luke Steele and Jordan Smith, or midfielders Ben Watson, Liam Bridcutt and Ryan Yates should get the opportunity to show what they can do as they find themselves down the pecking order. Meanwhile, Karanka is also short of options up front. Lewis Grabban was not included on Saturday due to a slight injury and Karim Ansarifard is away on international duty, leaving Daryl Murphy to lead the line against Leeds. Heres your chance to be the boss and pick your team to face the Blues. Dont forget to share your selection on social media. | https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/how-should-nottingham-forest-line-2385144 |
Is The Global Economy Half The Apple It Used To Be? | For the first firm to crack the trillion-dollar valuation ceiling, Apples performance is usually a bellwether of broader market confidence and conspicuous consumption among fawning technophiles. It should worry more than Apple investors that the usually reticent firm when it comes to company performance has warned the world of economic deceleration in Greater China, a region that encompasses mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, roughly comprising 20% of Apples revenues. More importantly to Apples performance, China on the supply chain side of the equation is an Achilles heel to the firm, like much of the consumer electronics industry, which relies on China not only for consumption, but also for supply. The backdrop of an increasingly damaging Sino-American trade war, along with a perceived global economic slowdown does not bode well for 2019. Tim Cook's warning should be heeded not only by Apple's investors. U.S. markets are still rattled by the worst December since the Great Depression and the worst financial year since the Great Deleveraging of 2008. European countries, meanwhile, are facing a mix of domestic social pressures, along with the EU-wide uncertainly stemming from the impending impact of Brexit in March of this year, which is looking increasingly likely to follow the so-called hard path. Frances economy, home to more than 2 months of social upheaval at the hands of the gilets jaunes, who are now calling for Emmanuel Macron to step down, is teetering on the verge of recession. The dreaded r-word, recession, is beginning to echo on both sides of the Atlantic as economic uncertainty, rising political risk and global trade and investment absurdity have become the norm. Indeed, the whole world is beginning to look more like an emerging market, or a place where politics matters at least as much as economics to the rise and fall of markets. It would seem the rate of iPhone product introductions in the last round may have overwhelmed consumers, along with the exorbitant price point, for which consumers would prefer a slightly longer shelf life than 1-year before newer models are revealed testing the limits of conspicuous consumption. The U.S. market slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2018 was certainly dragged down by tech stocks, which can largely be viewed as the modern-day equivalents of industrials and the trading firms of yesteryear. By all measures something feels different about the headline economic risks in 2019 and Apples early warning call hints at it. The global economy is facing unprecedented pressures on all sides all at once and there is very little room for maneuver, especially as central bankers have exhausted most of the policy arrows in their quiver with quantitative easing in an up until now successful attempt to keep recession at bay. In the meantime, the world, investors and business leaders have become accustomed to comparatively cheap capital, as well as to hoarding cash, for which Apple has more than $130 billion in an echo to the cash is king mantra that followed the 2008 financial crisis. With fewer policy options left and certainly none that are politically expedient in the face of emboldened (at times torch-wielding) and heavily populistic voters around the world, the likelihood of protracted economic turmoil is high. Meanwhile, given that globalization and the attendant international collaboration are in retreat, the likelihood of a consensus-based approach to calm the disquiet is low. While Tim Cooks letter to shareholders warning of missing the revenue mark hints at the trade war between the U.S. and China as unhelpful, the more acrimonious the trade war becomes the more likely Apple will face more than economic deceleration in China. Indeed, as the detention of Huaweis CFO, Meng Wanzhou, at the behest of U.S. authorities works its way through the Canadian extradition and legal system, along with the growing Western ban on Huaweis products and services on national security grounds, Apple may find itself on the receiving end of a politically motivated Chinese riposte or similar bans. Notably, Huawei has overtaken Apple as the world's second largest smartphone producer and is considered a crown jewel of Chinese enterprise. While this would amount to a Pyrrhic move on the part of the Chinese, as it would damage many native industries and supply chain partners, the Chinese political system is proven to endure often irrational economic pain at home to drive a political point abroad. U.S. trade policy appears to be on similar footing. The bluster emanating from Washington, D.C. on trade and economic relations around the world is liable to produce such a damaging game of economic chicken. For this, Apples boss, Tim Cook, has been a vocal opponent to U.S. trade ructions with China. The fact that a Chinese slowdown has already taken a bite out of one of the worlds mightiest firms should send pause around the world and hopefully temper proponents of trade wars on both sides of the Pacific. Apple and the global economy would breathe a sigh of relief. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/dantedisparte/2019/01/03/is-the-global-economy-half-the-apple-it-used-to-be/ |
What does reconciliation mean to Indigenous people? | Reconciliation has emerged as a buzzword in Canada over the last three years. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even proclaimed a national day of reconciliation in 2018. He's also pushed his Indigenous rights recognition framework and stirred debate on ending or "decolonizing" the 1876 Indian Act, which gave Ottawa control over most aspects of Indigenous life, from health and education to land. However, much like the relationship it aims to fix, there is uncertainty about the concept of reconciliation among some Indigenous people in Canada. Sandlanee Gid is an instructor of Reconciliation Studies through the University of British Columbia and the Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society. Gid struggles with the very meaning of the word. "Reconciliation means that you had a good relationship to begin with and then you're reconciling the relationship, in particular with the Canadian government," she said. "But the relationship has never been good," Gid said from her home in Haida Gwaii. Sandlanee Gid dancing and throwing rocks in the chasm where the Chief IIdansuu's Jim Hart's Reconciliation Pole would go, at UBC. (Sandlanee Gid) She pointed to the more than 250 Canadian court cases that Indigenous people have won something lawyer and author Bill Gallagher has outlined in his book Resource Reckoning to be released later this year. She also said many Indigenous people don't have access to basic human rights like clean drinking water, safety and education, which other Canadians enjoy, arguing this is evidence that there is not a positive relationship to this day. What's needed first, Gid and others argue, is a process of conciliation which the Oxford dictionary describes as "the action of mediating between two disputing people or groups" before reconciliation can occur. Joanne Mills is also concerned about overuse of the word. She is the executive director of the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre in Surrey. "[Reconciliation in Canada] is more about the acknowledgement that there were wrongs, but there isn't a lot of action attached to it," Mills said. She said it's difficult to be talking about reconciliation while one party is in power and another is still asking for rights from the former. "There definitely isn't an equal power distribution. We're not coming to the table as peers, we're still coming to the table as have and have-nots," she added. 'Learn the truth' Mills said for meaningful reconciliation with the federal government to take shape, there needs to be an honest attempt to restore to Indigenous people what was taken at the time of colonization. Joanne Mills says before reconciliation in Canada can happen, Canadians need to educate themselves and there must be more equality for Indigenous people. (Joanne Mills) But she says the conversations remain basic. "I just don't want to talk about the stereotypes anymore. People should go and educate themselves and learn the truth," Mills said. She said inequality also remains in areas that are provincial responsibilities, such as the high rates of Indigenous kids in foster care in B.C., access to education and overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prison. B.C. has seen changes in elementary and secondary school curriculum to include more education about Indigenous people, but there have been bumps along the way. Some teachers say they are at a loss on how to teach Indigenous content. Others say they lack sufficient resources. A task force also formed looking at the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prison. Hope for future Organizations like Reconciliation Canada and UBC's reconciliation course have bolstered more dialogue about Indigenous people historically and today. Gid says the hope for her is seeing non-Indigenous people get educated. When non-Indigenous students learn about the paternalism of past government polices, many reflect hard on their own attitudes. "They realize they don't want to be called an ally because it's kind of like white Saviour ship and they realize they need to just respect culture and be an advocate when they see injustice," she said. Shelly Joseph's father Robert Joseph founded the organization Reconciliation Canada. (Angela Sterritt) For survivors of residential school, the conversations around reconciliation have been paramount to creating needed changes in Canada. One of the founders of Reconciliation Canada is survivor Robert Joseph. His daughter, Shelly Joseph, now works for the organization. "My father had a dream many years ago and in it, he saw 5,000 people walking through the streets of Vancouver in the spirit of unity [for reconciliation]," Joseph said. That dream was realized in 2013 when 70,000 people braved pouring rain for the inaugural Walk for Reconciliation in downtown Vancouver. Joseph's dad wanted to make sure people knew about the history, and to support survivors, but also make sure everyone had the same treatment. "What my dad calls a blue-sky visioning when we are reconciled there won't be anybody suffering here in Canada." | https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/reconciliation-doesn-t-exist-yet-say-indigenous-leaders-1.4963594?cmp=rss |
Are Phoenix employees really trying to thwart an initiative to stop light rail? | Opinion: Councilman Sal DiCiccio accuses city staff of 'slow-rolling' the initiative, but that's not exactly true. A light rail train pulls into the light rail staton on 19th Avenue and Dunlap Avenue in Phoenix, on Thursday, December 6, 2018. (Photo: David Wallace/The Republic) Backers of an initiative to stop light-rail expansion figured there would be forces that seek to thwart their effort which is precisely what some train supporters did Wednesday in suing over the validity of the signature-gathering process. Those forces, however, do not include Phoenix city staff a narrative that is sinister and, more importantly, unfounded. The narrative comes from an expected place, Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who days after Christmas griped that the Phoenix city clerks office was slow-rolling the initiative after the petitions were turned in the implication being staffers are sympathetic, or are in cahoots, with train supporters looking to derail a public vote. He pointed to conversations that initiative leader Susan Gudino had in late November with the clerk's office, including assurances that the petitions would be processed as quickly as a week. Initiative leader gets a suspicious call The week dragged into several, after which the clerk's office produced a letter that stated only phase one (of two) in the process had been completed. When Gudino inquired further, she got a call back not from the clerk's office, she learned from DiCiccio and his office, but from a staffer of former Mayor Greg Stanton, a light-rail supporter. Gudino described the caller as "very by the book" and rather unhelpful. "It's all very unusual," DiCiccio said. "The initiative is getting extra scrutiny. It seems to be undergoing a very different process than other initiatives." Except that it isn't. Train foes expect efforts to derail initiative DiCiccio's narrative is certainly compelling. Appealing, too especially for foes of expensive, heavily subsidized projects, in general. And foes of light rail, in particular. Gathering more than 20,500 signatures of voters to qualify the initiative for the ballot is no small order. And backers, many of them small-business owners and residents in south-central Phoenix, expect to be greatly outspent and outshouted in the campaign if and when the measure qualifies for the ballot. They're likely right. The lawsuit over petition signatures, filed by a general contractors group, portends a protracted, possibly expensive, fight. And light rail has advocates that include a majority of the elected council members. No evidence of shenanigans by city staff But to say nonpartisan city staff is attempting to "thwart the will of our citizens in favor of special interests" exaggerates to the point of maligning. Phoenix statute mirrors Arizona law, which calls for a two-step verification process the first to vet requirements of circulators, such as getting each sheet of signatures properly marked, notarized and the like. The city clerk's office did so within the required period of 20 business days. The second step, to verify that the signatures are legible, belonging to valid voters and matching signatories on file, must be completed within 15 business days following that. For the light rail initiative, that is Jan. 18. What room there is to stall is for the city council to take. It has roughly five weeks to set an election date after the signatures are certified but only a couple of options for this year by law either in May or in August. As for the phone call initiative leader Gudino got from a staffer associated with former Mayor Stanton, that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. A Seth Scott did indeed return Gudino's call, Deputy City Clerk Ben Lane said. But that Seth Scott is of the city clerk's office, not the Seth Scott who served as Stanton's chief of staff. DiCiccio is right about this on light rail Critics of DiCiccio don't even bother to shrug at his latest accusations. After he helped to defeat a proposed water-rate increase late last year, the councilman mocked city management for bringing forward nothing but a host of blunders even though his no vote puts at risk the water departments bond rating. His missive prompted interim mayor Thelda Williams and two council members to issue a rebuke that his attacks on city staff represent scorched-earth tactics and bullying (that) have become a cancer at City Hall. Regardless, DiCiccio is right about one lament: Phoenix voters deserve better. Should the Building a Better Phoenix initiative make it on the ballot, it would be in a special election, which will draw a fraction of the turnout for a regular election. The fate of light rail demands and deserves greater voter participation. Reach Kwok at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/abekwok/2019/01/03/phoenix-light-rail-initiative-stalling-sal-diciccio/2470540002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/abekwok/2019/01/03/phoenix-light-rail-initiative-stalling-sal-diciccio/2470540002/ |
Where is ESPN's update on Patriots demise? | There was a palpable sense in the building last season that the 2017 Patriots season would be the final installment of the dynasty, according to a wild report by ESPNs Seth Wickersham that was released a day before last years Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs. The 13-3 Patriots were taking advantage of their first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in the AFC but were suddenly in the spotlight for reported internal turmoil more so than for their on-field success. Though, maybe suddenly is too strong a word. After all, there had been plenty of drama surrounding the Patriots after the Jimmy Garoppolo trade, and then after Bill Belichick banned Tom Bradys personal trainer Alex Guerrero from the sidelines and the team plane. Before Wickershams report, we all pretty much knew that it might not have been one big happy family in Foxboro. But Wickershams piece gave those organizational disagreements a toxic feel. It attempted to validate the idea that last season would be the end of the Patriots Big Three: Robert Kraft, Brady, and Belichick. One month after that ESPN report, the Patriots were playing in their second straight Super Bowl their third Super Bowl in four years. Fast forward to one year after the report, just days before this years NFL playoffs begin, the Patriots are in a similar position. Okay, so the 2018 Patriots didnt have a perfect year. They began the season with Julian Edelman serving a four-game PED suspension, dealt with some offensive struggles after losing several key pieces in the offseason, and then lost Josh Gordon to a possible career-ending suspension. They finished 11-5 as the No 2 seed in the AFC, and while thats not as good a record as many projected, things could be a whole lot worse for this Patriots team that was supposed to be all but finished after last season. The reality is Wickersham exaggerated the reasonable conflict that he was told about by his sources. Im not knocking his sources or saying he made stuff up. But its clear that his report before last years playoffs was more than just a hard-news piece. There was plenty of opinion and assumption built in, so much so that some of those opinions and assumptions were ultimately portrayed as facts. But more than anything, it was an exaggeration of the facts. If it was strictly a hard-news piece, then the headline to Wickershams story wouldve been, Garoppolo repeatedly rejected a four-year, $72 million contract extension. Talk about burying the lead. That was some hard news right there. And it confirmed that both Belichick and Kraft wanted to keep Garoppolo around. But Wickersham even added his own commentary to that, saying Garoppolo and [agent Don] Yee rejected the offers out of hand, for reasons that remain unclear. I mean, if you have any common sense, those reasons wouldnt be unclear at all. Garoppolo and Brady have the same agent. Brady was about to be named NFL MVP. And Gaorppolo who finally wanted to be a starting quarterback was an impending free agent. Yet, one year ago, common sense was nonexistent in Wickershams report, and a glimpse into the reality of a dynasty trying to manage some very unique situations turned into a click-bait hit piece from the Worldwide Leader. Pretty powerful stuff, if you ask me. But whats even more powerful, is the way the Patriots, since, have gone to another Super Bowl and are now one win away from advancing to their eighth consecutive AFC Championship Game. And Im just wondering if ESPN has any update on how the heck that could be possible. | https://www.metro.us/sports/waiting-espns-update-patriots-demise |
Is a breath test key to detecting cancer? | Image copyright Owlstone Medical Ltd A clinical trial has been launched to see if a breath test could detect the presence of cancer. Researchers want to find out if signals of different cancer types can be picked up in patterns of breath molecules. The Cancer Research UK team in Cambridge will collect breath samples from 1,500 people, some with cancer. If the technology is proven, the hope is that breath tests could be used in GP practices to decide if patients need to be referred for more tests. They could potentially be used alongside blood and urine tests to help doctors detect cancer at an early stage, the researchers said. But it will be two years before the results of the exploratory trial are known. GPs' leaders said the research was exciting but they warned patients that breath tests to detect cancer were "unlikely to be commonplace at their GP practice anytime soon". Molecules called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are released when cells in the body carry out biochemical reactions as part of their behaviour. But if cancer or other conditions are present, the normal behaviour of cells is altered and they appear to produce a different pattern of molecules - and a different signature smell. The research team is trying to find out if this pattern or odour can be identified in people's breath, using breath biopsy technology. Their ultimate aim is to work out if different types of cancer produce different patterns - or signatures - which can be detected at an early stage. This is the start of the trial so we won't know for several years whether or not the initial results are promising. The science behind the test itself is not new. Many researchers around the world have been working on the possibility of breath tests for a number of cancers, including lung, for a number of years. There are some promising signs that breath tests could detect pre-cancerous symptoms, but it is not yet clear how accurate they are. Any breath test used on large numbers of patients would have to be sensitive and accurate to avoid misdiagnoses and false positives. In short, there is a long way to go and much more research needed on more people before a breath test will be appearing in any GP surgeries. It is possible that dogs could be also used to sniff out the odours given off by cancers, and other diseases like Parkinson's. The trial will start with patients with suspected oesophageal and stomach cancers and then widened to include people with prostate, kidney, bladder, liver and pancreatic cancers in the coming months. Healthy people will also be included in the trial. At Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, participants will be asked to breathe into a face mask for 10 minutes so a sample can be collected. The samples will then be sent to a laboratory in Cambridge to be analysed. 'Best chance of surviving' Rebecca Coldrick, 54, was one of the first people to take part in the trial. She has a condition called Barrett's oesophagus and could go on to develop cancer. "I was very happy to take part in the trial and I want to help with research however I can," she said. "I think the more research done to monitor conditions like mine and the kinder the detection tests developed, the better." Prof Rebecca Fitzgerald, lead trial investigator at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre, said: "We urgently need to develop new tools, like this breath test, which could help to detect and diagnose cancer earlier, giving patients the best chance of surviving their disease." Dr David Crosby, head of early detection research at Cancer Research UK, said breath tests were a technology that had the potential "to revolutionise the way we detect and diagnose cancer in the future". Cancer Research UK has made research into this area one of its top priorities. | https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46746552 |
Is The Best Lunch Spot In North Texas Located Inside A Mansfield High School? | Sylvia Birk says she goes out to eat at Savvy's Bistro in Mansfield at least once a week. In case you haven't heard of it, it's one of the fastest growing dining spots in North Texas. It's tiny, however. It only sits about 66 people, and it is only open two hours a day, three days a week. It's completely run and operated by high school students, and it's located INSIDE their school. Savvy's Bistro is located at Ben Barber Innovation Academy in Mansfield ISD, and is a full-service restaurant complete managed by students. They cook, serve, clean, and deal with all the problems any restaurant would face from day-to-day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIHRA2QffoI The students who have passed through the kitchens at Savvy's Bistros have gone on to great success in the food industry, with some located at The Mansion at Turtle Creek, Alaska, and even London. Instructor, Chef Adair Smith, told WFAA, "I mean I've got plenty of stories out there where students are running their own kitchens, but they're successful in other areas of their life because of the way we teach. I'm teaching them way more than the restaurant business. It's about how to manage people. How to get along with people you don't like." Find out more about Savvy's Bistro, HERE! Via WFAA | https://jackontheweb.radio.com/blogs/jt/best-lunch-spot-north-texas-located-inside-mansfield-high-school |
Was wollen wir? Und wie schnell? | Die Schweiz strahlt aus. Aber sie ist auch vielen Einflssen von aussen unterworfen. Weltwirtschaft, globale Vernderungen und die EU geben das Tempo an. In diesem Rahmen whlt das Land ein neues Parlament. Es wird eine Wahl zwischen Mitgehen und Hierbleiben. Teil 2 unseres Jahresausblicks. Unsere fnf Fragen ans Jahr 2019: 1. Jeder fr sich: Ein Trend erfasst die Schweiz. Infobox Ende gif Gif Die Schweizer Aussenpolitik setzt traditionell auf Diplomatie und Neutralitt: gute Dienste, Dialog, globale Vernetzung und internationales Genf. Die Schweiz steht fr Multilateralismus. Doch Multilateralismus und Dialog haben schon bessere Zeiten gesehen. Die Zeichen stehen auf Richtungswechsel: Protektionistische und gehssige Tne sind im Aufwind. Ein Jeder-fr-sich herrscht bis in die hchsten politischen Etagen. Dieser Trend strahlt auch auf die Schweiz aus. Der UNO-Migrationspakt, ein von der Schweiz mitausgearbeitetes Projekt, wurde im Parlament heftig attackiert. 2019 wird ihn das Land mglicherweise gar vom Tisch wischen. Ein hnliches Schicksal knnte dem Vorhaben des Bundesrats blhen, fr einen Sitz im UNO-Sicherheitsrat von 2023 bis 2024 zu kandidieren. Die rechtskonservative Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP) will dies verhindern. Die Debatte im Parlament wird spannend, denn Parlamentsmitglieder bis in die politische Mitte haben ihre Zweifel an der Kandidatur bekannt gegeben. Und dann ist da noch die schier unendliche Geschichte von der Regelung der Beziehungen mit der Europischen Union (EU). Der Vertragsentwurf fr ein Rahmenabkommen liegt nun endlich vor. Im Juni will die EU wissen, was die Schweiz damit zu tun gedenkt. Es ist fraglich, ob der neue Zeitgeist auf der Suche nach einem Miteinander hilfreich sein wird. 2. Das Land diskutiert Konzernverantwortung. Die Welt hrt zu. Infobox Ende gif2 gif2 Die Schweiz ist stolz auf ihre offene Wirtschaft. Firmen mit Sitz in der Schweiz sind in der ganzen Welt ttig und tragen zum Ruf des Landes bei. Die starke Prsenz von multinationalen Konzernen hat aber auch ihre Schattenseiten: Weltweit aktive Unternehmen sind oft in Flle von Menschenrechts-Verletzungen oder Umweltschden involviert. Das ist sicher nicht nur ein Schweizer Problem. Die Frage der sozialen und kologischen Verantwortung von Konzernen wird seit lngerer Zeit auch in den Vereinten Nationen (UNO) diskutiert. 2011 hat der UNO-Menschenrechtsrat Leitstze fr Unternehmen und deren Umgang mit den Menschenrechten angenommen. Es liegt an den einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten, sicherzustellen, dass diese Prinzipien eingehalten werden, sei dies mit freiwilligen Massnahmen oder verbindlichen Regeln. Die Schweiz steht bei dieser Diskussion an vorderster Front. Die Konzernverantwortungs-Initiativeexterner Link, die von einer Koalition von Nichtregierungs-Organisationen (NGO) lanciert wurde und von weiten Teilen der ffentlichen Meinung untersttzt wird, hat die Diskussion erneut angekurbelt. Das Parlament knnte einen Gegenvorschlag annehmen, der viele Forderungen der Initiative aufnimmt. Die Debatte findet momentan in einer parlamentarischen Subkommission statt, doch sie sollte im Frhjahr 2019 wieder im Parlament weitergefhrt werden. Nach dem parlamentarischen Prozess wird sich auf jeden Fall das Stimmvolk dazu ussern knnen. Eine spannende Diskussion ist programmiert. Und wie auch immer die Lsung aussehen wird, sie wird starke Auswirkungen auf das Image des Wirtschaftsstandorts Schweiz haben. 3. Auch mit angezogener Handbremse wird die Schweizer Wirtschaft gut laufen. Infobox Ende gif3 Gif Die Schweizer Unternehmen sind stark vom Export abhngig: Fast 50 Prozent ihres Umsatzes machen sie im Ausland. Wegen dieser starken Abhngigkeit wird sich die Schweiz den Auswirkungen der fr 2019 erwarteten globalen Konjunkturabschwchung nicht entziehen knnen. Handelsstreit zwischen den USA und China, Brexit, Angst vor einer neuen Schuldenkrise in Europa. Das sind die mglichen Verwerfungen, die laut dem Wirtschafts-Dachverband Economiesuisseexterner Link den Schweizer Unternehmen drohen. Er hat seine Wachstumsprognosen fr das nchste Jahr nach unten korrigiert (1,4% gegenber 2,7% im Jahr 2018). Um die Schwierigkeiten der Eurozone abzufedern, wenden sich Schweizer Unternehmen immer mehr den USA zu, die auch 2019 der globale Wachstumsmotor bleiben drften. Seit 2010 ist der Anteil der Exporte in die USA von 10 auf mehr als 15% gestiegen; ein Anstieg, der sich voraussichtlich fortsetzen wird. Angesichts der krisengeschttelten EU, dem wichtigsten Handelspartner der Schweiz, sollte der Schweizer Franken stark bleiben und seine Rolle als Fluchtwhrung beibehalten. Die Schweizer Wirtschaft hat sich jedoch in der Vergangenheit als widerstandsfhig erwiesen und knnte sich inmitten der Turbulenzen wieder gut behaupten. Die Schweizer Wirtschaft wird 2019 durch einen neuen Bundesrat vertreten, Guy Parmelin von der rechtskonservativen SVP. Er sollte nicht wesentlich von der liberalen und nicht-interventionistischen Politik seines Vorgngers abweichen. Parmelin wird namentlich fr die Fortsetzung der Verhandlungen ber den Abschluss von Freihandels-Abkommenexterner Link mit Vietnam, Indien und Malaysia zustndig sein. 4. Die Wahl bringt Verschiebungen. Infobox Ende gif (1) gif Am 20. Oktober whlen die Schweizerinnen und Schweizer an den Urnen ein neues Parlament. Die 200 Sitze des Nationalrats (grosse Parlamentskammer) und die 46 Sitze des Stnderats (kleine Parlamentskammer) werden alle vier Jahre neu besetzt oder besttigt. Laut des letzten Wahlbarometers der SRG SSR knnten die Grnen und die FDP Whleranteile gewinnen, whrend die SVP und die Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei (CVP, Mitte-rechts) Einbussen hinnehmen knnten. Der Hauptstreitpunkt bei diesen Wahlen wird wohl die Zusammensetzung des Stnderats sein, haben doch viele Stndertinnen und Stnderte ihre Absicht angekndigt, nicht fr eine Wiederwahl zu kandidieren. Die Machtverhltnisse knnten sich verschieben, weil die Sozialdemokraten (links) mit dem Abgang mehrerer ihrer Stndertinnen und Stnderte umgehen mssen. Die Wahlen werden auch das Thema Transparenz in der Parteienfinanzierung erneut aufs Tapet bringen: Die Kampagnen verschlingen geschtzte 50 Millionen Franken. Auslandschweizerinnen und Auslandschweizer knnen fr den Nationalrat kandidierenexterner Link. In einigen Kantonen ist sogar eine Kandidatur fr den Stnderat mglich. Aktiv whlen knnen sie in allen Kantonen Mitglieder des Nationalrats, in einigen Kantonen auch des Stnderats. Und wo wir gleich beim Thema sind: 5. Beim E-Voting geht es um ganz oder gar nicht. Infobox Ende giuf gif Tchtig beschftigen wird uns auch das E-Voting: Hier ist die Debatte mit dem Rckzug des Kantons Genf aus seinem digitalen Abstimmungssystem vollends lanciert. Whrend die Fnfte Schweiz in einer Petition die Einfhrung des E-Votings fr Auslandschweizerinnen und Auslandschweizer in allen Kantonen fordert, wollen Gegnerinnen und Gegner Anfang 2019 eine Volksinitiative zum Verbot der digitalen Stimmabgabe starten. swissinfo.ch Neuer Inhalt Horizontal Line | https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/politik/die-schweiz-2019_was-wollen-wir--und-wie-schnell-/44619086 |
What happened to the war in Syria? | By Philip Whiteside, international news reporter Growing numbers of governments around the world are acknowledging that the war in Syria is effectively over. Tens of thousands of rebel fighters remain in Idlib, with many having fled there from other territories that have been reconquered by pro-government forces and tensions remain on the front lines between rebels who seized northern parts of the country. But, while the fighting is still going on, in pockets, foreign ministries have re-established diplomatic relations with the regime of Bashar al Assad that were previously severed or paused as the country became mired in civil conflict. Although many Syrians supported Assad before the war, there were many others who harboured resentment against his rule. Image: Syrians hold up bread during an anti-government protest in Banias, a northern port in 2011 Some of this was as a result of the lack of democracy and cronyism - Assad had been in power since 2000 after being anointed as his father's replacement. But there was considerable sectarianism too, with some of the majority Sunni Muslims resenting the power that Assad, an Alawite Shia Muslim, both possessed and afforded his allies. In the previous decades, there had been numerous clashes between the Sunni conservatives and Assad's Ba'athists, some of which had led to the deaths of thousands of people - most notably in Hama where thousands were killed. Image: Cairo's Tahrir Square was the centre of many key protests during the Arab Spring of 2011 In early 2011, protests broke out across the Arab world and North Africa in what became known as the Arab Spring. The movement spread to Syria when a group of boys were arrested and tortured after daubing anti-government graffiti on a wall. Many of those who were discontented took up the opportunity to demonstrate against the Syrian regime, and within months, amid a crackdown, the situation descended into fighting. Protests first erupted in several cities in March 2011, and within months had turned into an insurgency. Image: A map showing the approximate areas of control in June 2012. Quickly, those rebelling formed into various groups, the members of which shared similar aims. Some of these, like the Free Syrian Army (FSA), shared the secular tendencies of the Ba'athists but opposed Assad. Image: A Free Syrian Army fighter in Idlib in February 2012 3:17 Video: The most dangerous checkpoint in the world Others were Sunni Muslims who were driven by their religious beliefs. With large numbers of Sunnis becoming involved in the growing conflict, into the fray stepped al Qaeda, which was fresh from its involvement in the post-Iraq War violence. Some Islamic fighting groups allied themselves with the aims of the Free Syrian Army, while others sought a future in which the Syrian state and Islam were intertwined. Besides al Qaeda, another group involved in the Iraqi conflict also realised it could achieve its aims if it became involved in Syria's war. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the founder of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), sent fighters into northeast Syria to take part in the insurgency. Image: IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi urged Muslims to join him and 'make jihad' Although originally an ally of al Qaeda, he fell out with its spiritual head Ayman al Zawahiri, and ordered his fighters to seize territory. It resulted in the al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-affiliated group which had originally been part of ISIL, splitting off and fighting separately. ISIL's success in taking territory across Syria and Iraq led to a flood of recruits coming into Syria from outside to fight for ISIL, which hailed Raqqa its capital and renamed itself Islamic State (IS). Image: A graph showing the origin of Islamic State fighters. Source: Soufan Center Image: A graph showing the origin of Islamic State fighters. HOMS (2011-2014) Homs was one of the first places where clashes between protesters and Syrian police intensified to combat. A brigade from the Free Syrian Army first began ambushing government forces and then took over several neighbourhoods. They were gradually surrounded and held out for several years before the arrival of Lebanese Hezbollah militia to bolster regime forces forced them to evacuate the city. Image: Destroyed buildings in Homs in 2016 Image: A map showing the approximate lines of control in Syria in summer 2014 ALEPPO (2012-2016) Syria's second-biggest city and commercial centre was largely peaceful at the start of the war, where only rival demonstrations took to the street. But by July 2012, the conflict that was escalating elsewhere arrived as rebels who came from nearby villages entered the city and were attacked by government forces. Image: Free Syrian Army rebels fight Islamic State at close quarters in Yarmoul, north of Aleppo 3:43 Video: Living among bombs: The children of Aleppo Several factions, including the FSA, Sunni opposition rebels and the al Nusra Front seized various districts and began a war of attrition against the regime, as front lines moved forward and backwards. Increasingly, the Russian military became involved and, after capturing several Shia villages on the outskirts, cut off the rebel strongholds in the city and gradually tightened their stranglehold. By December 2016, with just a scrap of the territory they had held remaining in rebel hands, a deal was struck to allow anyone who wanted to leave to flee. Most headed towards Idlib. Image: A reported government bomb attack in Aleppo in June 2014 RAQQA AND NORTHEAST SYRIA (2013-2017) ISIL's battle-hardened Iraqi veterans, sent into the country by al Bagdadi, quickly established themselves in a number of areas, including the northern Sunni-majority city of Raqqa. In 2013, fighters from ISIL and other mostly Sunni Islamist groups overcame a small government contingent and captured the first provincial capital to fall into rebel hands. Image: Islamic State fighters at a military parade in Raqqa province in June 2014 6:07 Video: The IS ghost town where bodies hung in street Following a split with al Qaeda, ISIL loyalists - many of whom were foreign - began to concentrate themselves in the Raqqa area (as well as Aleppo), at a point when the group was seizing territory in neighbouring Iraq. Leaders of the group claimed they had set up a new caliphate, the Islamic State (IS), with Raqqa as its Syrian capital. The West, fearing the establishment of a new, hardline Islamic nation, began to support rival rebel fighters in the region - the Kurdish YPG. US-led airstrikes and increasingly well-armed Kurds began to take territory from IS - as they did in Iraq too - driving them back from towns like Kobane, into the city until, eventually, they were forced to flee. 4:22 Video: Raqqa: Inside Islamic State's prison of death EASTERN GHOUTA (2013-2018) Like Aleppo, Ghouta took a while to become involved in the conflict, despite initial protests. By May 2013, however, a face-off between government forces and rebels, mainly from the Jaysh al Islam (Army of Islam), the FSA and various Sunni Islamist groups, led to the eastern part of the area becoming besieged. It was estimated in 2016 that 400,000 people were in territory surrounded by the Syrian government forces. A series of brutal operations failed to dislodge the rebels for five years, during which time they sometimes fought among themselves, until in March 2018, after a prolonged pro-government offensive, with assistance from Syria's allies, the rebel-held areas were first split and picked off. A deal was struck and tens of thousands of people, including rebels, were allowed to leave. 2:48 Video: Surrender or starve: The desperate fight for survival in Ghouta Image: A Syrian regime member walks amid the destruction in Eastern Ghouta in April 2018 DEIR EZ ZOR (2014-2017) Government troops in the desert outpost city of Deir ez Zor held out for three years despite being surrounded by Islamic State forces. After the Syrian army retook control of southern Raqqa province, it was able to turn its attention to Deir ez Zor, and recaptured the city a few months later, pushing out into the surrounding countryside, and taking with it IS's last territories. Image: A Christian Syriac patriarch holds mass at a heavily damaged church in Deir Ez Zor in February 2018 DARAA (2011-2018) Daraa is said to be the cradle of the revolution after the arrest of 15 boys who painted anti-government slogans sparked the Syrian uprising in March 2011. Already a hotbed of anti-government feeling, Daraa became the location for a major offensive against Assad's forces in 2014, when rebels united under the banner of an umbrella group called the Southern Front. Clashes between the Southern Front and IS split the resources of the rebels, and when the Syrian army went on the attack in June 2017, and again in 2018, pushed the rebels back, eating away at their territory until they were forced to surrender. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has been documenting the conflict, said in March 2018 that the war has killed about 511,000 people. Image: A graph showing the number of deaths in Syria per year according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights The names of more than 350,000 victims are known, the observatory says, and the remainder are cases where it knows deaths occurred but does not know the victims' names. A non-governmental organisation, the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria, puts the figure lower, at 190,000 killed as a result of battle, of whom, about 122,000 are civilians. In a 2018 report, the UN said it had identified 7,000 children who had been killed or maimed since the start of the war. An estimated 13.5 million people - out of a total pre-war population of 22 million - have been displaced from their homes by the Syrian civil war. Image: Hundreds of thousands of Syrians were among a stream of refugees and migrants who went to Europe in 2015 More than six million of those have been displaced inside Syria and a similar number have fled the country to a range of other nations. Most have not gone very far - with Turkey the country with by far the most Syrian refugees (3.5 million). Huge numbers have also ended up in Lebanon (nearly one million), Jordan (670,000) and Iraq (248,000). But large numbers have also fled to Europe: Syrians were the largest group of those undertaking the dangerous journey across the Aegean, from Turkey to Greece, during the migration crisis in 2015. CHEMICAL WEAPONS Use of chemical weapons in the Syrian war was been confirmed by several reports from the United Nations. Among the weapons alleged to have been used are: sarin (including a claimed attack on the Khan al Asal suburb of Aleppo in March 2013); chlorine (including a claimed attack on the rebel-held village of Kafr Zita, north of Hama, in April 2014); and mustard gas (including a claimed attack on Kurdish fighters in villages in the far northeast in June 2015). Image: People affected by what activists said was nerve gas targeted at Ghouta in August 2013 While Islamic State has been blamed for a few of the attacks, the Syrian regimes has been accused of the majority. Their use came at key points in the war. After allegations of the first major chemical weapons attack in Ghouta in August 2013, then-US president Barack Obama said Syria had crossed a red line and he would be seeking retaliation. But after indecision, and when there proved little support for it in Congress or in the UK, he struck a deal with Russia to force Syria to disarm, with hundreds of tonnes of chemicals removed and destroyed. Image: A child is treated following an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, eastern Ghouta, in April 2018 When an alleged attack took place eastern Ghouta, in the town of Douma in April 2018, it was US President Donald Trump who was under pressure to respond. Within the next week, the UK, US, France and Israel launched airstrikes against Syrian military bases. BARREL BOMBS DROPPED ON CIVILIANS Image: A Syrian army helicopter drops barrel bombs on a rebel-held area in the southern city of Daraa in June 2017 From 2013 to 2018, hundreds of barrel bombs - barrels filled with high explosive and shrapnel - are said to have been dropped in rebel-held areas by the Syrian air force. They were often focused on areas where rebel forces were under siege, such as eastern Aleppo and and eastern Ghouta. A study in The Lancet Global Health in December 2017 found about 97% of the deaths caused by the bombs were of civilians - an issue which could constitute a war crime, the researchers said. Image: Smoke rises after what activists said was a barrel bomb attack in Daraya, west of Damascus, in January 2014 DOUBLE TAP AIRSTRIKES Some of the barrel bomb drops are alleged to have been "double tap" attacks, with the aim of killing and injuring those who rush to help after a first blast. Among the alleged attacks was a hit on a Medecins San Frontiers hospital in Homs in December 2015 and several attacks on the White Helmets rescue teams, according to The Economist. RAPE AND MURDER OF CAPTIVES There have been widespread reports of rape being used as a weapon in the conflict, with international NGO International Rescue Committee among others, saying that it is fear of the sex crime above anything else that had forced many Syrians to become refugees. Image: An image said to be of IS captive Muath al Kasasbeh, a Jordanian pilot, shortly before his murder in January 2015 While all parties have been blamed in the seven-year war, greatest attention has been paid to the abuse metered out by Islamic State. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria found that women in territory controlled by IS, particularly Yazidis, "endured brutal rapes, often on a daily basis". Islamic State has also been blamed for the mass execution of unknown numbers of prisoners of war, civilians, and even its own fighters who tried to defect. IS BEHEADING WESTERNERS In summer 2014, soon after Islamic State declared its caliphate, videos began to emerge on the group's news services of Western journalists and aid workers being beheaded by a shadowy British-accented figure who became dubbed "Jihadi John". Image: (l-r) IS victims David Haines, Steve Sotloff, Alan Henning and James Foley Before the end of the following January, videos purporting to show or prove the murders of at least seven US, British and Japanese civilians had been released. Dozens of others are also thought to have been decapitated. Jihadi John, whose real name it later emerged was Kuwaiti-born but London-raised Mohammed Emwazi, was later killed in an airstrike. Two other members of a group which held Westerners hostage, dubbed "the Beatles" because of their British accents, were later captured and are awaiting justice in Kurdish-held territory. PALMYRA Once a stronghold of the Syrian regime, Palmyra was a publicity coup for Islamic State when they took it from Assad's forces in 2015. As well as being one of the best preserved Roman-era Middle Eastern cities and a UN World Heritage Site, Palmyra was considered notable for the quality, time-range and scale of its architecture. As they had done in Iraq, IS set about destroying what they saw as infidel symbols, blowing up many of the sites with explosive, including the huge Temple of Bel, despite its former use as a mosque. The temple contained decorative motifs which are said to have heavily influenced British architectural styles that became predominant during the Georgian period. ALEPPO The ancient city of Aleppo, the roots of which go back many millennia, is another UNESCO World Heritage Site which has suffered extensive damage during the war. Its medieval mosques and covered souks had been used by visitors for more than 1,000 years before they were attacked and largely destroyed in fighting between rebels and the regime. UNESCO estimates 30% of the ancient city has been reduced to rubble. While many Western countries were quick to declare their support for the rebels in the early stages of the revolution, it took some time before any took decisive action. Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons, however, changed the attitudes of many governments, and the advance of Islamic State meant some leaders felt compelled to act - often covertly. Still fighting the Syrian regime are a number of rebel groups which have morphed significantly since the war started years ago. Some are also continuing to fight each other, as the skirmishes for territory go on. As Assad's forces retook control of the many of the areas caught up in the war's biggest battles, many of those evacuated fled to Idlib. So far, Assad has held off from attacking Idlib, leaving it in limbo with its future uncertain. If Assad does attack, the consequences would be not just the deaths of and injuries to those caught up in the battle and the crossfire: it is feared it would spark a new refugee crisis. 3:15 Video: Idlib: The last stand in Syria for ISIS Image: A map showing the approximate lines of control in Syria in August 2018 The greatest danger currently, however, is to Syrians living in areas where rebels are still fighting each other. The announcement by Mr Trump before Christmas 2018 that he will pull troops out of Syria threatens to create a power vacuum in rebel held areas, disturbing the uneasy status quo that has existed since IS were defeated. In early 2019, al Qaeda-linked fighters have fought Turkey-backed fighters, and Turkey-backed rebels have advanced on Kurdish-held positions. The UAE is among countries which have said it will reopen its embassy in Damascus, since Assad reduced his military operations. It remains to be seen whether Assad will accept his lot and hold off from trying to take back the territory he lost in the north and east. Russia, a main backer of the Syrian government, has had talks with Turkey on future moves in Syria. | https://news.sky.com/feature/what-happened-to-the-war-in-syria-11502050 |
What about Calgary? | ACAD The small student population (around 1,200) and low student-teacher ratio is ideal for the kind of hands-on, studio-based learning the college has espoused for decades. Students have access to a variety of specially equipped work areas, including glass-working and glass-blowing studios, a wood shop, metals shop, printing presses, a darkroom, and a seamless studio for photography. ACAD, on the North Hill overlooking the Bow River and the citys skyline, is just a short walk from Kensington, a cultural hub filled with boutiques, cafs, restaurants, pubs and condo/apartment housing. Places to find food in the school (aside from standard cafeteria fare) are nowhere to be found, but a mutually beneficial relationship with the adjoining SAIT campus means several great dining options are just minutes away. University Insider Nick Austin Calgary Admittedly, the U of C community can seem a bit frostyregardless of the weatherfor those not in business or engineering. With more than 25,000 undergraduates in attendance, its easy to get lost in the shuffle of lectures in freshman year attended by 200 students. As a result, programs like Level Up and UCalgaryStrong have been launched to help students find their people on campus. There are more than 300 clubs to choose from, which means the events schedule is always packed. Volunteering opportunities are plentiful, and MacEwan Hall hosts frequent concerts at affordable ticket prices. University Insider Kathy Pham Mount Royal Im a small-town girl, and so a small school with a big heart is exactly what I was looking for in a university. Im sure youve heard that the class sizes are smallits kind of a big deal to us. Most professors still take attendance because at Mount Royal, we believe that you need to be present in order to learn something. Not only are the classes small, but the campus is as well. Its easy to navigate (especially when youve learned about the hidden stairwells and doorways) and I never have to worry about getting from one class to another with only a ten-minute break. University Insider Leah Laidlow MORE ABOUT CALGARY: | https://www.macleans.ca/education/what-about-calgary/ |
Are December's solstice and January's perihelion related? | Earth came closest to the sun on January 3, 2019 5:20 UTC (12:20 a.m. EST; translate UTC to your time). This event is called Earths perihelion. Meanwhile, the December solstice took place on December 21, 2018. At perihelion in January, Earth swings to within about 91 million miles (147 million km) of the sun. Thats in contrast to six months from now, when well be about 94 million miles (152 million km) from the sun. At the December solstice, Earths Southern Hemisphere is tilted most toward the sun; its the height of summer in that hemisphere. No. Its just a coincidence that they come so close together. The date of Earths perihelion drifts as the centuries pass. These two astronomical events are separated by about two weeks for us. But they were closer a few centuries ago and in fact happened at the same time in 1246 AD. As the centuries continue to pass, these events will drift even farther apart. On the average, one revolution of the Earth relative to perihelion is about 25 minutes longer than one revolution relative to the December solstice. Perihelion advances one full calendar date every 60 or so years. Earths perihelion or closest point to the sun will happen at the same time as the March equinox in about 6430 AD. Bottom line: Earths December solstice and January perihelion are not related. | https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/are-the-december-solstice-and-the-january-perihelion-related |
Does anyone really care about those monthly market share numbers? | Net Applications' latest press release got them a ton of virtual ink today, inspiring at least two dozen feature stories on tech news sites, including this one at ZDNet. That's not surprising, I guess, given that the story is to tech reporters what catnip is to kittens: WINDOWS 10 FINALLY OVERTAKES WINDOWS 7! It's a monthly ritual, as a handful of obscure analytics firms dig through their server logs in a desperate search for something, anything, that they can turn into a news hook. This month they hit the jackpot. They appear unconcerned that archrival StatCounter was able to accomplish the same feat when their database showed Windows 10 pulling ahead of Windows 7 way back in January 2018. I'll get to the accuracy question in a minute. First, though, let's look at who derives benefit from the monthly blast of reports. For starters, there are the owners of the platforms that are being measured: Apple, Google, and Microsoft. All three of those companies have much better internal numbers that they can rely on. The same is true for hardware manufacturers whose devices live on top of those platforms. OK, then, let's drop down a layer in the stack. Well, no. Most modern apps are targeted at the two big mobile platforms, iOS and Android, which have remained remarkably static in the past few years. For crying out loud, these might as well be straight lines: Meanwhile, on desktop platforms, virtually every new service lives in a web browser, which basically renders the "which device?" question completely irrelevant. Enterprise buyers certainly don't care about "market share" statistics. Neither do small business owners, who are going to buy a new PC or Mac without the slightest regard for which operating system runs on it as long as it passes the "runs the apps my business needs" test. Which pretty much leaves us at enthusiasts and fanboys, who see the tiny jitters in these monthly numbers as an opportunity to validate their chosen platform. For the rest of us, it's just noise. There was a plausible case for this sort of data-driven story 10 or 15 years ago, when the PC installed base was still rising and smartphones were still a new category with literally billions of new buyers to reach. But the PC market has been flat for years, and the major smartphone manufacturers are far more concerned with understanding when their existing user base will upgrade than they are with finding new customers. The trouble with these so-called analytics firms is that their data is suspect at best and its value is close to zero. They're measuring populations that are changing for very predictable reasons: People are migrating to Windows 10 by replacing older PCs running Windows 7, and outside of emerging markets existing buyers have already made their platform choices and aren't changing. And even if you can make the case that these numbers might be worth analyzing, there's the question of whether they're accurate. Everything I've seen about how this data is tabulated and reported says the final reports are, well, squishy at best. Both Net Applications and StatCounter are networks driven by advertising and disproportionately focused on smaller sites. They're also uncomfortably prone to manipulation by bot networks (no relation). In 2017, Net Applications made a big splash about how it was finally cracking down on what it called "Bot, Hidden, and Invalid Traffic." Which begs the question of how much impact those underground networks really had on their numbers in the decade before they "cracked down." There are a handful of companies that have large enough analytics databases to paint an accurate picture of the global Internet. If Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo ever decided to share those raw numbers, we could settle a lot of bar bets. But that's not going to happen, because it's far more economically advantageous to keep those numbers private. Meanwhile, when the first of the month rolls around and you see another wave of breathless stories based on shaky web stats, allow me to offer an alternative suggestion: Check your online horoscope, It's not going to be any more accurate, but it's likely to be far more entertaining. RELATED AND PREVIOUS COVERAGE Windows 10 is now most popular PC OS as Windows 7 wanes Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7 amid very slow adoption of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. | https://www.zdnet.com/article/does-anyone-really-care-about-those-monthly-market-share-numbers/ |
Will NVIDIA Sink or Swim in 2019? | Shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) have plunged more than 50% over the past three months, as the end of the cryptocurrency boom flooded the market with cheap graphics cards and disrupted the company's core gaming business. Concerns about softer demand for artificial intelligence chips from data center customers and a broader sell-off in semiconductor stocks exacerbated the pain. NVIDIA's sell-off forced analysts to hastily cut their price targets. Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh recently trimmed his price target from $245 to $230, noting that while crypto prices were stabilizing, they weren't rising quickly enough to generate fresh interest in new GPUs. A gold bull and a black bear racing, with gold and black bars behind them. More Image source: Getty Images. RBC analyst Mitch Steves also cut his price target from $230 to $200, stating that the secondary market was "reducing the average selling price" for GPUs and "could impact" NVIDIA's fourth quarter. Yet both Rakesh and Steves stayed bullish on NVIDIA with "buy" and "outperform" ratings on the stock, respectively. Investors should always take analysts' ratings and price targets with a grain of salt. Let's take a closer look at NVIDIA and see if its stock will sink or swim in 2019. Last November, NVIDIA reported its first quarterly revenue miss in three years. Its revenue rose 21% annually to $3.18 billion, but missed expectations by $60 million. This also marked its slowest growth rate in over two years. For the fourth quarter, it expects its revenue to decline about 7% year over year, whereas the analyst consensus had called for 17% growth. NVIDIA attributed the miss to the end of the cryptocurrency mining boom, which caused mid-range Pascal GPUs to clog up the retail and secondary markets. Tougher competition from AMD's newer GPUs also throttled NVIDIA's ability to sell pricier GPUs. That was great news for gamers, who were finally able to upgrade their gaming PCs with cheaper GPUs. But it torpedoed NVIDIA's core gaming revenue, which rose just 13% year over year and fell 2% sequentially last quarter. This sequential drop coincided with slower growth in NVIDIA's data center revenue, which rose 58% annually and 4% sequentially during the quarter. That represented a significant slowdown from the unit's 83% year-over-year growth in the second quarter, and was seemingly caused by softer interest in its widely-hyped machine learning and AI applications. Those challenges caused the company's non-GAAP gross margin to fall 250 basis points sequentially to 61%. | https://news.yahoo.com/nvidia-sink-swim-2019-124000345.html |
Is Yamana Gold a Buy? | Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) was hugely outperforming rival Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC) until mid-2018 before it started losing ground rapidly, so much so that both stocks are now among the worst performing mid-cap gold mining stocks for 2018 with similar 25% drops in value each. Investors in Yamana, though, would've been deeper in the red had the stock not gained nearly 11% in December. While rising gold prices can largely be credited for the recent recovery in Yamana shares, there's a fair chance rewards could outweigh risks in 2019 and beyond and drive the stock higher. Here's why. Why Yamana Gold's production rose but profits didn't in 2018 2018 was a significant year for Yamana as it successfully brought its seventh mine, Cerro Moro in Argentina, on line. Thanks largely to a first full quarter of production from Cerro Moro in Q3, Yamana's total gold production from existing mines (excluding Gualcamayo that it recently sold off) jumped 10% to 670,426 ounces during the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2018. Even better, Yamana's byproduct all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) per ounce produced dropped to $712 per ounce of gold from $758 per ounce during the period. Yamana also recently upgraded its fiscal 2018 gold production guidance by 20,000 ounces to 920,000. Comparatively, rivals like Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC) are struggling with declining production and rising costs. Gold bars stacked against each other. More Image source: Getty Images. That incremental production failed to show up on Yamana's bottom line, though, for a couple of reasons. First, Yamana had a lower quantity of consolidated gold to sell this year in the absence of contribution from its subsidiary, Brio Gold, which it spun off in 2017. Second, impairment charges on the sale of Brio Gold and Gualcamayo and other one-time items wiped out nearly $309 million, or $0.33 per share, from Yamana's profits during the nine-month period, resulting in a steep loss of $229.1 million. That's one big reason why investors haven't been happy with Yamana and sent the stock tumbling. Some investors are also worried about the humongous total debt worth $1.78 billion that Yamana carried as of Sept. 30, 2018. The bulk of the debt, however, is long term, and the nearest maturing fixed-rate debt, worth $84 million, isn't due for payment before 2020. By then, Yamana's gold equivalent ounce production is expected to have grown at a compound annual rate of 8.8% to hit 1.15 million ounces in fiscal 2020, bringing down its costs as well. Moreover, with major expansion projects behind it, Yamana should have more cash flows in hand to service debt or even pay dividends in 2019 and beyond. Just so you know, Yamana continues to generate strong operating cash flows. AUY Cash from Operations (TTM) Chart More | https://news.yahoo.com/yamana-gold-buy-140000176.html |
Why is Apple selling fewer iPhones in China and beyond? | Ever since Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s, Apples story has largely been one of unparalleled success. The overhaul of the Mac range and the launch of the iPod helped rejuvenate a struggling company before the iPhone and the App Store catapulted revenues to stratospheric levels and change technology forever. Meanwhile, the iPad, cautiously greeted as an oversized iPhone created an entirely new market of device. There were concerns that Jobs death in 2011 would impact Apples ability to innovate but even though its arguable that todays iPhones arent as revolutionary as they once were, CEO Tim Cook has overseen huge increases in device shipments and service revenues. Lower revenues It appeared that no matter what the market conditions were, Apple would continue to be a sure bet and last year it became the worlds first trillion-dollar public company. All of this serves to show why Apples reviewed guidance for Q1 revenues was such a shock for investors and why those in the mobile industry are concerned. Late last year, Apple predicted sales of $89 billion for the final three months of 2018. This was already concerning to investors given it followed the launch of three new handsets the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR in the busy Christmas period. Apple justified the figure by citing a staggered launch of its new devices as well as economic challenges caused by the strong US dollar and slowing demand in emerging markets. However even it was surprised by lower demand for iPhones, leading to the unusual step of providing further guidance before it publishes its final results for the quarter in a few weeks time. Revenues are now expected to be $84 billion down 5 per cent year-on-year, and the first such decline since 2016. China challenges In a letter to investors, Cook said it had underestimated many of the challenges it faced and placed particular emphasis on an economic slowdown in China. While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China, he said. In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad. This argument has some truth to it given Chinas economy is indeed slowing and the ongoing trade war between it and the US is causing uncertainty. At the same time, the smartphone market in the country is saturating and there is intense competition between major manufacturers like Apple and Samsung and with local vendors like Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus. Chinese extremely price-conscious and there is little brand loyalty. This means that competitively priced, feature-packed phones have caused problems for the iPhone which has become more expensive over time. iPhone struggles The downside was that customers began to get a far clearer picture of the real cost of their smartphone and data plan. Combine that with rising costs of high-tier smartphones and the result is an inevitable slowdown. Some of these trends are not unique to China. Market saturation is a challenge in developed nations too, with consumers replacing devices less frequently due to cost and a decline in operator subsidies in the US. While macroeconomic challenges in some markets were a key contributor to this trend, we believe there are other factors broadly impacting our iPhone performance, including consumers adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, US dollar strength-related price increases, and some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements, said Cook. Declining shipments wasnt necessarily a problem for Apple so long as it could increase the price of its phones. The iPhone X allowed Apple to increase the Average Selling Price (ASP) but it appears as though its bid to appeal to more market segments with the iPhone XR has fallen flat. While cheaper than the XS and XS Max, the iPhone XR is still considered to be too expensive for what some consider to be an inferior product to the flagship. Western Europe has been a difficult environment for several years, but the recent removal of subsidies in the US and shift toward instalment plans planted the seed for the steady lengthening of replacements, said Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CCS Insight. In the short term, it offered a fresh boost to the US market, as consumers were attracted by the ability to upgrade their device annually and spread the payment monthly through the year. Future path Apples reputation as the ultimate blue-chip stock means that the adjusted guidance has not only impacted its own share price but markets in general. Some fear it is evidence (or a symptom) of a global economic slowdown. It should be noted that Apple is still raking in cash and that its services revenue continues to grow as the number of active devices increases. However, the need to encourage its loyal customer base to continue buying iPhones may not extend to discounts or lower prices instead, Apple is looking to make the upgrade as easily and financially viable as possible. We cant change macroeconomic conditions, but we are undertaking and accelerating other initiatives to improve our results, said Cook. One such initiative is making it simple to trade in a phone in our stores, finance the purchase over time, and get help transferring data from the current to the new phone. "This is not only great for the environment, it is great for the customer, as their existing phone acts as a subsidy for their new phone, and it is great for developers, as it can help grow our installed base. However Apples return to growth could depend on the macroeconomic factors that Cook says Apple cant control. There's no single problem facing Apple, and few of these obstacles are exclusive to the Cupertino-based company, said Blaber. However, the more intensive competition from Chinese phone-makers such as Huawei, coupled with a global political environment that's fundamentally different, brings a new level of uncertainty. Resolution of the trade conflict could deliver a sudden lift to demand but the headwinds at the start of 2019 are stark compared with the growth-friendly environment of recent years. | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/why-is-apple-selling-fewer-iphones-in-china-and-beyond |
How good is the OnePlus 6T's battery life? | Whether you have $500 or $1000 to spend on a new smartphone, the OnePlus 6T is a device that should be at the very top of your shortlist. With a large display and a small waterdrop notch, in-display fingerprint sensor, reliable cameras, and a phenomenal software experience, the 6T is a good phone at pretty much any price. Along with all that, another reason to consider buying the 6T is because of its battery. With a 3,700 mAh unit, 1080p display, and the Snapdragon 845, the 6T has all the makings of pretty solid endurance. Here's what some owners in the AC forums have experienced so far. | https://www.androidcentral.com/how-good-oneplus-6ts-battery-life?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+androidcentral+%28Android+Central%29 |
Could Lotteries Be Better Than Grant Applications? | Two scientists have used economic theory to suggest that the current system of awarding federal research grants is fundamentally broken. The scientists argue in an article in PLOS Biology that the rates at which scientists win grants from federal science agencies is now so low that it may no longer make economic sense for scholars to put in the effort to write the best possible application. They argue that a better system might be a lottery of all applications that make it over a certain bar. This would relieve some of the pressure on scientists to focus on grant writing. They article also endorses the contest approach, where a grant goes to a team that achieves a certain breakthrough. The authors are Carl Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the University of Washington, and Kevin Gross, a professor of statistics at North Carolina State University. | https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/01/03/could-lotteries-be-better-grant-applications |
Will Sweden finally get a new government this month? | On Friday, the leaders of the centre-left Social Democrats and centre-right Moderate Party will meet the parliamentary speaker to update him on any progress made over the Christmas break. The three also spoke directly after Christmas, but a statement from parliamentary speaker Andreas Norln merely said that he had "taken note of their respective assessments of the process of government formation". All the party leaders have been similarly tight-lipped, confirming that talks have taken place but with no hint of what the next government might look like. Norln has already named January 16th as the date when the next prime ministerial candidate will face a parliamentary vote. But it is not yet clear who this candidate will be. Two such votes have already been held, with both incumbent prime minister Stefan Lfven of the Social Democrats and his centre-right counterpart, Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson, failing to gain enough support from parliament. By far the most likely scenario is that one of these two would be proposed for the role a second time. READ ALSO: Find all The Local's coverage of the 2018 election and its aftermath HERE Some of the party leaders meet with the speaker. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT A prime ministerial candidate does not need a majority of parliament to vote in their favour in order to be accepted, but if a majority vote against, the proposal will fail. This system, called 'negative parliamentarism', allows minority governments to rule thanks to abstentions or 'passive support'. If this third vote is unsuccessful, a fourth vote would happen on January 23rd, Norln has said. If one of these votes is successful, the new prime minister will officially take on the role and name their cabinet within a matter of days. But if neither vote is successful, Sweden will need to hold a second election, which must then happen no more than three months after the fourth and final vote. Swedish elections are always held on Sundays, so the latest date this could happen would be April 21st. READ ALSO: Swedish parliament votes through centre-right budget The leaders of the centre-right Alliance parties. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT This means that Sweden is in wholly untested waters. Previously, parliament has always accepted the first proposed prime minister. After the September election left the two main blocs separated by just one seat, one of the big obstacles to forming a government has been how to handle the third largest political group in Sweden, the far-right Sweden Democrats. The Centre Party and Liberal Party are part of a centre-right group, the Alliance, along with Kristersson's Moderates and the Christian Democrats. But the former two parties have refused to be part of or even support a government which would also rely on support from the Sweden Democrats. However, Lfven's attempts to win over these parties (the Centre has just enough seats to allow him to pass a parliamentary vote) have also failed, since the Centre Party in particular also made a promise in the election campaign not to support the Social Democrats. Lfven has hinted that he would be willing to make more concessions, but he will have to be careful not to lose the backing of the Left Party, whose abstentions he will also need to win a parliamentary vote. To catch up with everything that has happened since the election, The Local's timeline offers a handy overview. And if you have any questions about the process, please log in to comment below. | https://www.thelocal.se/20190103/will-sweden-finally-get-a-new-government-this-month |
How Does a 'Martian'-Style Gravity Assist Actually Work? | The first question is easya gravity assist (also called a gravity slingshot) is a space maneuver in which a spacecraft gets a speed boost by moving past a planet. You could also use the gravity assist to slow down or even to change directions. However, in this case let's just consider boosting the speed. Yes, this gravity assist was used by a bunch of spacecraft like both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to get out the outer part of the solar system (and beyond). The maneuver was also used by fictional spacecraft like the Hermes in the movie (and book) The Martian. OK, actually my interest in gravity assists started with this tweet. So, let's do it. Here is my introduction to gravity assists. One of the things we like to do in physics is to make things as simple as possible while still keeping the main concept that we want to explore. This is where the famous "spherical cow" joke comes from (it's a classic). The key physics idea in a gravity assist is of course the gravitational force. This is an attractive force between objects with mass. Since it's an attractive force, the direction of the force is always directed along a line between the centers of the two objects. The magnitude of this gravitational force depends on the product of the two masses and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them (we use r for the distance). It's easier to see this as an equation. Like this: As an object gets near a planet, this gravitational force will pull on the spacecraft and change its motion. This can be complicated, so I will just make a one-dimensional interaction with an object moving straight toward a planet. Of course there are two problems with this 1D model. First, the space object would hit the surface of the planetthat's hardly an efficient way to get a gravity assist. I can fix this problem by just not giving the planet a real surface. That's a simple fix. If there is not a planetary surface, that introduces the second problem. In that case, the distance between the object would be zero and the gravitational force would be undefined (because of the dividing-by-zero thing). Here's how I will fix this problem. When the object enters the planet's surface, there will just be a gravitational force of zero until it gets to the other side. OK, we are ready for this model. Of course I am using Python because that's what I do. Here is the code running below. Note that it doesn't run in real time, and the space object is huge so that you can see it. Also, you can look at (and edit) the code by pressing the Pencil icon and then run it with the Play button. With these values, the object starts with a speed of 1,000 m/s, and when it gets to the other side of the planet it is traveling at 1,011.86 m/s. Yes, that's pretty much the same velocityit's just a rounding error difference (or something like that). But really the animation isn't that useful. How about a graph showing the energy of the system. In this interaction, there are three energies to consider. First, there is the kinetic energy of the spacecraft. This depends on both the mass and the speed of the object. Second, there is the kinetic energy of the planetif it's locked in place (for now) then it will have zero kinetic energy. Finally, there is the gravitational potential energy. This depends on the distance between the two objectsexcept for the time when the object is inside the planet, in which case the potential will just be a constant value. So, here is the same interaction but with a plot of energy vs. distance. Notice that as the object moves toward the planet, it increases in energy (the blue curve) because of the gravitational force. Once it is inside the planet, there is no gravitational force (this is to prevent the calculation from going bonkers) and it just travels at a constant speed. On the other side, the gravitational force is pulling it backward so the object decreases in kinetic energy. Oh, the total energy (kinetic plus potential) is constantas it should be. In the end, it's at about the same speed as it was before the gravity assist. The stationary planet didn't really do much. It would be just like rolling down into a valley and then back up the other side. Without any frictional forces (which there aren't in space), it doesn't gain any energy. Let's do that. Here is a similar plot with a planet that is moving in the same direction as the object, with about 20 percent the speed (initially). I added another line for the total energy (kinetic plus potential) for the space object. In this case, the object again starts with a velocity of 1,000 m/s but now ends up with a speed of 1,280 m/s. Yes, it increased in speed. If you look at the total energy, it also increases at the end of the maneuver. Note that there is a small increase in energy during the time the object is inside the planet, but I suspect this is just a rounding error (not a big deal). This gravity assist would be like a ball rolling down a moving valley (yes, that seems weird). But the moving valley can give the ball a little bit of energy as it rolls down and then back up the incline. Just like in the example above. Now for the important idea. Yes. Even though the object increased in energy, the total energy is constant. The increase in kinetic energy of the object is matched by a decrease in kinetic energy for the planet. Technically, yesbut the amount is super small. But even a small change in speed of the planet can lead to a significant change in energy, because the planet has such a large mass. Really, this gravity assist is just like an elastic collision. Wait. Let me be clear. This IS a perfectly elastic collisionjust like two bouncy balls colliding. In order to have an elastic collision, two conditions must be satisfied. First, the total momentum must be constant. The momentum is the product of mass and velocity for the two objects. Since there is only the gravitational force acting on the objects, a change in momentum for one object is equal to the opposite change in momentum for the other object. The second requirement for a perfectly elastic collision is for the total kinetic energy to be the same "before" and "after" the "collision." Yes, I put those words in quotes for a reason. If you calculate the sum of the kinetic energies when the two objects are far apart (where far is relative) then the kinetic energy is conserved. The gravitational potential energy for the system decreases with distance between the objects, so that far away, it's close to zero. However, while the objects are close, there is significant potential energy so that kinetic energy is not conserved. But it's still essentially a perfectly elastic collision. In this collision, the space object increases in kinetic energy and the planet decreases in kinetic energy to make the total energy conserved. Oh, wait. The physics of an elastic collision just require that the force on one object is equal and opposite to the force on the other object. Since this interaction is from the gravitational force, that requirement is easily satisfied. No crashing needed. I guess I should answer the Twitter question from above. There would have to be some external force to balance the gravitational force from the Sun. But still, once the planet is stationary, you couldn't steal any energy from it, and you wouldn't be able to get a gravity assist. Technically, yes. However, even a large spacecraft would have a mass that is much less than a planet. Remember the mass of Earth is on the order of 1024 kilograms. There's no way an object would have a mass close to that. Oh, and there are planets like Jupiter with a mass that is about 300 times more than Earth's. In that case it gets a little bit more complicated. Not only does the speed of the spacecraft change, the direction changes too. It's not so trivial to find an approach angle to give the optimal speed boost (if that is your intention). But probably the best way to explore a 2D gravity assist is to just do one. You don't have to go to space, you can instead make a numerical calculation. Really, the code above still works in 2D. If you move the planet to a different location and give it a different starting velocity vector, you can still have a gravity assist. Go ahead and try that for homework. Play around and see what starting approach vector gives the best speed boost. It will be fun. More Great WIRED Stories | https://www.wired.com/story/how-does-a-gravity-assist-work/ |
Did a Team MVP Snub Set Off Antonio Brown? And How Should the Steelers Handle Him? | Its always been the little things that gnaw at Antonio Brown. It might be the ball not going his way. It might be something or someone rubbing him the wrong way. It might just be the wrong day. Or it could be something as arbitrary as not being named team MVP. Last week, Steelers players voted JuJu Smith-Schuster as the 2018 recipient of that award. This was in the aftermath of the Steelers Week 16 loss to the Saints, their fourth in five games and a defeat that took their playoff fate out of their own hands. Brown loaded the team on his back in that game, ringing up 14 catches for 185 yards and two scores, many of them spectacular and in critical situations, in the 31-28 loss in New Orleans. Sure he was. Or, at least, thats what those in the organization believethat he took the MVP snub personally, and that he carried that saltiness into work last Wednesday. It was there from the moment he walked in the building, and it boiled over in the much-discussed confrontation with Ben Roethlisberger at the morning walkthrough. He was just frustrated, said one source. The MVP voteits those things that set him off. He was unreal in New Orleans, we still lost, and the vote comes out and its JuJu. So he shows up for work, hes not voted MVP, hes in a bad way, and that carried over into the walkthrough. Eight days later, the talk on Brown is starting to shift from what happened to how the team might manage the cap ramifications of trading him, all while Brown seems to be putting a social-media heel turn into motion. Its actually not that complicated. In this weeks Game Plan, were going to give you a player to watchand some you may not be thinking ofin each of the four wild-card round games, get you ready for college footballs national title game with a couple prospects to keep an eye on, and answer your questions on the coaching searches, one offensive coordinators candidacy in the race for those jobs, and the offensive rookie of the year debate. But were starting with the Brown story, and where the relationship between one of the NFLs flagship franchises and perhaps the greatest receiver in its history went sour. That starts with the background on who the Steelers have always been, and who Brown is. Pittsburghs model for its coachesone Tomlin fits into, as Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher did before himcalls for, first and foremost, a battleship commander, the type who can manage big personalities and big problems. Thats always allowed the Steelers to cast a wide net in talent acquisition, which routinely has added up to wildly gifted rosters. Building that way, of course, comes with risk. Then you have Brown, who brings with him some of the standard diva receiver characteristics. Hes tough, and competitive, and as one staffer said, Hands down, hes the hardest worker on the team. I couldnt even tell you who number two is, thats how easy it is to say that. The flip side of that is, he wants that work to equal results, and getting results means getting the ball. And when he doesnt, it can be a problem. There are examples, those there explain, in every game, where Brown will run a flawless route, be impossibly open, and Roethlisberger will just miss him. That eats at Brown. His work ethic and his me-against-the-world attitude is what makes him great, one coach says, but it also creates some issues. And to put one element together with the other, for certain players, theres whats been referred to internally in the Steelers building as necessary tolerance. LeVeon Bell was afforded it. Martavis Bryant got it. Roethlisberger has it too. As does Brown. Brown has explained to those close to him that he didnt feel some of his teammates were as invested in 2018 as he was, and it was showing up in their work, and he was fed up with it. The standard, as he saw it, was slipping. And his side of the story holds that his handling of last weekfrom the Wednesday outburst to the Saturday no-showwas a manifestation of how he felt about the state of the team. Of course, that reaction put Tomlinas good at managing conflict as any coach in the NFLin a thorny spot. In taking the former path, Tomlin, and the Steelers, finally drew a line in the sand with Brown. It was, essentially, showing him the point where his problems outweighed his production, and that there was a point where football could be taken away. Maybe the Steelers hoped itd be a wake-up call. Instead, Brown added another chapter to his recent list of erratic behavior. Earlier this year, he reportedly called a Steeler beat reporter a racist and threatened an ESPN writer in response to the story that made the claim. This time around he didnt like how ex-Steeler Ryan Clark critiqued his behavior on ESPN and called him an Uncle Tom on Instagram. So if Pittsburgh was going to have Brown back after this latest blow-up, theres that background to deal with, and also the matter of how Browns current teammates would welcome him back after he abandoned them during what was, in effect, a playoff week. Yes, the Steelers would have to carry $21.12 million in dead money if they moved Brown. But hes already on the books for $22.165 million, and the money left on his deal (three non-guaranteed years, $38.925 million) is reasonable enough to be attractive to another team. At this point, it would probably be hard to get proper value for a player who is clearly carrying baggage (and will be 31 next season). But if the Steelers are motivated to find a buyer, theyll find one. Or its at least not crazy to think thered be enough interest to drum up a market. And if you consider all of the above, maybe its not that crazy that were here after all. Maybe this was always the way it was going to end. On to the weekend WEEKEND WATCH LIST A player in the spotlight in each wild-card game: Colts WR TY Hilton: The Texans have issues in two spots that will be addressed in the offseason. One issue, the offensive line, I believe theyll be able to manage on Saturday. The other, the problem at cornerback, is another story. The Texans have been able to mitigate their corner deficiencies somewhat with their pass rush, but Indys improved offensive line is equipped to deal with that, which should put the Colts in a good position to attack the Houston secondary. And going to Hilton, who had 13 catches for 314 yards in two games against the Texans this year, will be one way to do it. Seahawks S Tedric Thompson: Amari Cooper has cooled off down the stretch (last three weeks: 13 catches for 83 yards, no TDs, no gains of more than 11 yards), and the Cowboys have had to adjust. The last two weeks, thats manifested in big plays for Michael Gallup, Blake Jarwin, Cole Beasley and Allen Hurns. This approach should highlight the importance of the centerfielder in Seattles Dthe promising Thompson, whos returning after missing the last two weeks. Maybe. But it was Smiths work on Chargers G Mike Schofield that caused all kinds of problems for the Los Angeles offense two weeks agogetting consistent inside pressure to take Philip Rivers out of his comfort zone. Smith finished with 1.5 sacks, four hits on Rivers, and a whole lot of havoc caused. And thats not the only line-of-scrimmage matchup Im going to give you to nerd out on this weekend Eagles RT Lane Johnson: Phillys 2017 first-team All-Pro had a very up-and-down 2018. And just as hes getting right, his biggest test of the year comes on a playoff stagehis assignment for much of Sunday afternoon will be to stop Bears banshee Khalil Mack from getting to Nick Foles. Phillys invested a ton in its O-line. This will be one of those days it has to pay off. TWO FOR SATURDAY Or in this case, Monday. Alabama RB Josh Jacobs (vs. Clemson, CFP Championship, ESPN, 8 p.m. ET): Hes been overshadowed by star senior Damien Harris and super-talented sophomore Najee Harris, but to those in the program, and those evaluating its players, Jacobs is a real one. He set the tone in the Tides semifinal win over his home state Oklahoma Sooners, with 158 scrimmage yards on 19 touches. And one coach I talked to this week compared his style to that of Frank Gore. Theres also a benefit to the rotation hes been a part ofhes logged just 241 carries and 47 catches at Bama, so theres a lot of tread left on his tires. Hes a tough runner who doesnt have notoriety for various reasons, one AFC college scouting director said. Wasnt highly recruited, played mainly special teams early in his career, backed up Damien, there was Najee Harriss fanfare coming into Alabama. But you turn on the tape and hes hard not to notice. He should join Damien Harris in going somewhere in the first three rounds of the draft in April, and he could have a shot at being the first back taken. Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence (vs. Alabama, CFP Championship, ESPN, 8 p.m. ET): Among the insane numbers for a true freshman: 65.5% completion rate, 27-4 TD/INT differential, 8.4 yards per attempt, 155.2 passer rating. Yes, Lawrence is throwing to future NFL receivers like true sophomore Tee Higgins and true freshman Justyn Ross. But theres no denying his talent, which comes up in discussions with scouts who havent even begun to look at him in depth. Young, big, athletic, big arm, said one AFC exec. I havent studied him at all, but that jumps off the tape. Of course, all of this should come with a warning labelweve said these things about freshmen quarterbacks in the past, and in some cases you wind up with a Christian Hackenberg. But Lawrences ability, at this early stage, looks like its on another level. And given the way Clemson has recruited around him, its fair to forecast that the trajectory hes on will remain steady. MAIL TIME! Didnt see any improvement for Dolphins while he was there. I think a big part of this, Chief, is how he would mesh with the people in the building. And I think the fit is there from that perspective. The other piece, of course, is how hed work with the quarterback. Thats where I think you can take this one over the topRyan Tannehill and Jay Cutler posted career-high passer ratings under Gase, Peyton Manning tells anyone wholl listen how good Gase (who was his offensive coordinator in Denver) is, and he was even integral to making Tebowmania work, from a scheme standpoint, in Denver in 2011. As for the Miami question, Id say his biggest issue there was probably the way things worked structurally in the building. But the results were hardly a disaster. Gase went to the playoffs in his first season in Miami. His second year was marred by Tannehills ACL tear, his offensive line coachs escapades and a hurricane. And his third year was about cleaning up the roster to fix what prevented the team from the weathering the storm of 17. No. No. And theres enough good there to see why teams would think hed be worth taking a second swing at it. I said this on Colin Cowherds show, and I wanted to make sure people knowColin asked me to predict the futures of Bell and Josh McDaniels. So I made educated guesses and put Bell in Tampa and McDaniels in Green Bay. Since those things got attention, I should probably explain. On Bell, Im going on what I heard pre-trade deadline. The market for Bell wasnt strong, and Tampa was a team connected to him. Based on what the Bucs have offensively (Mike Evans, O.J. Howard, Chris Godwin, Donovan Smith, Ali Marpet, Ryan Jensen), and how second-round pick Ronald Jones failed to deliver on his draft standing, Bell makes sense in Tampa, pending the Bucs coach hire. On McDaniels, its simple. Ive heard him connected to the Packers for a while, and Green Bay needs a coach who can challenge Aaron Rodgers, push him, and give him new information. With a lot of candidates, the Packers would be projecting how a coach would handle that. With McDaniels, they wouldnt be. Hes faced that situation every day, coaching Tom Brady. Gase, by the way, did too, in coaching Manning in Denver. Sorry, James. This ones not that hard for me, and its not Saquon. I love him, by the way. Transcendent talent. But Mayfield is without question the offensive rookie of the year. The sort of change hes effected on the fly in Cleveland is rare, and his numbers arent too shabby eitherhe rang up an NFL rookie-record 27 touchdown passes. Add that to the degree of difficulty assimilating to pro football at quarterback, and this was a slam-dunk. The same boom-or-bust dynamic we saw at Penn State. He had six 100-yard games in 2018 and seven games where he failed to hit 50 yards rushing. Similarly, in his final college season, he had five 100-yard rushing games, and six in which he was held under 75 yard rushing. Some of that isnt on him, of course. Some of it is. I applaud them for looking at Iowa State coach Matt Campbell. I cant even begin to explain how many positive things Ive heard regarding him over the last four months. Lots of NFL peopleand specifically guys in the scouting community, whove been through Amesbelieve hes eventually going to be a huge success in pro football. Assuming that ship has sailed, I like Gases fit there, and also wouldnt mind a motivated Mike McCarthy. I think both those guys, and ex-Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, have a pretty legit shot at the job. Itll be an interesting one to keep tabs on, because this could be owner Christopher Johnsons one and only opportunity to hire a coach, and I know hes not taking the responsibility lightly. Cant be AFCN... too much animosity. Leaning towards Colts for proximity. Stew, this is pretty harsh. Things ended about as badly as possible for Jackson in Cleveland, but I think a lot of the positives hes brought to the table when he was hired in 2016 are still there. Things got so sideways with the Browns over the last three years that it would have been tough for any coach to make it work. And to be clear, Jackson absolutely has to shoulder some of the responsibility for that. Anyway, I happen to think Vance Joseph is the likeliest candidate to land the Bengals job, given how the Brown family prizes familiarity (Joseph was Cincys DBs coach in 2014 and 15). And it can be a good job, for the right person. The Bengals are a mom-and-pop operation, in both a good way and a bad way. In a bad way, because they lack some of the infrastructure and resources (example: a small scouting staff) that are standard across the league. In a good way, because its a healthy building to work in, where your bosses will be patient and understanding, and have a ton of experience in pro football. Also, a big plus to working therethe presence of well-respected personnel chief Duke Tobin. Product of K.C. Im not surprised, Nathan. People respect Andy Reids word, and Reid has been aggressive in recommending Bieniemy, the Chiefs offensive coordinator, to other clubs. And remember, Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy werent play-callers either. What Bieniemy does have is experience playing in the league, and leadership qualities that have been abundantly apparent to those whove been around him. I dont know. But Id bet he interviews well, and thatll position him to get one. Email us at [email protected]. | https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/01/03/antonio-brown-steelers-juju-smith-schuster-trade-possibility |
Did Joanna Burgess take a swipe at Phoebe Burgess on Christmas Day? | As the shock of Sam Burgess' split from wife Phoebe Burgess continues to reverberate, a growing divide appears to be gathering among other family members. On Christmas Day 2018, Joanna Burgess posted a family photo to Instagram, showing her, Sam, George and Luke Burgess and other friends and family enjoying lunch at a restaurant in Watson's Bay, Sydney. With Phoebe absent in the picture, Joanna captioned the photo, 'Chrissy crew', with the hashtag, 'BestOneYet.' Joanna, 28, captioned the photo, 'Chrissy crew', and added the hashtag, 'BestOneYet' Observers were left wondering if the hashtag was an apparent swipe at Phoebe - or simply a positive comment on a joyful family gathering. And after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Phoebe had unfollowed Joanna and George Burgess on Instagram on Thursday, Joanna likewise unfollowed Phoebe shortly afterwards. NRL star Sam, 30, split from glamorous wife Phoebe, 29, just weeks after the birth of their second child, it was revealed on Thursday. And in a sign of the darkening mood around the couple, Phoebe unfollowed Sam's brother George and his wife Joanna on Instagram. And after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Phoebe had unfollowed Joanna and George Burgess on Instagram on Thursday, Joanna likewise unfollowed Phoebe shortly afterwards. Pictured: Phoebe and Sam Burgess While Phoebe is no longer following the couple as of Thursday, it is unclear how long ago she made the social media move. NRL star George, 26, married Joanna in December 2016 in Noosa, Queensland. Phoebe (right) has unfollowed her brother-in-law George Burgess and his wife Joanna on Instagram after splitting with husband Sam (left) Sam and Phoebe called time on their three-year marriage less than a month after welcoming their second child. Despite the new addition to their family, there's no denying 2018 was a difficult year for the couple, with Sam finding himself at the centre of a sexting scandal in September. Sam and Phoebe first met at an Avicii concert in Sydney in January 2014. Social shock: And in a sign of the darkening mood, Phoebe has unfollowed Sam's brother George and his wife Joanna (pictured) on Instagram. Phoebe's Instagram followers made the discovery on Thursday They kept their fledgling relationship a secret for eight months, before making their debut as a couple at the Dally M Awards in Sydney in September that year. Their relationship progressed quickly and just a month later, in October 2014, Phoebe relocated to England to support her boyfriend after he signed with a rugby union team in Bath, Somerset. By June 2015, they were engaged following a romantic holiday in Greece. Social shake-up: NRL star George (far right), 26, married Joanna, 28, in December 2016 in Noosa, Queensland. He is pictured here with Sam (second from left) and friends Moving on: Sam and Phoebe Burgess' romance began at an Avicii concert and survived numerous obstacles before their split just weeks after welcoming a baby boy. Pictured together on February 11, 2016 in Sydney The couple returned to Sydney in November 2015, after Sam re-signed with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and they married a month later in December 2015 at Phoebe's parents' home in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. In January 2017, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Poppy Alice, who will soon turn two. Their second child, son William 'Billy' Mark, was born only last month. Hard times: Despite welcoming their son Billy just last month, there's no denying 2018 was a difficult year for the couple But despite what should have been one of the happiest times of their lives, a difficult few months clearly took a toll on the couple. Sam and Phoebe started 2018 with what appeared to be a fairytale marriage. In a May 2018 interview with Stellar Magazine, Phoebe praised her husband, calling him quite simply 'a good man'. Fairytale romance: They married in December 2015 at Phoebe's parents' home in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales 'The moment he had a daughter, he had this amazing new appreciation for the other 50 per cent of the population,' she said. 'He doesn't skirt his responsibilities as a father. He never takes off and goes out with the boys instead of being a dad. 'He always makes the right choice - which I've never bullied him to do! He's just a good man. And it's sexy.' | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6554151/Did-Joanna-Burgess-post-telling-photo-family-without-Phoebe-Christmas-Day.html |
Is more tech regulation coming in 2019? | This week we're looking ahead at what to expect in tech and business in 2019. Today we're diving into tech policy and regulation. Theres the possibility of federal privacy legislation, net neutrality is still on the table, tons of state laws are in the works, and, in 2018 we saw the first big challenges around Section 230, the law that says tech platforms aren't legally responsible for everything that gets posted on their platforms. That language in Section 230 is really crucial to the digital economy. But in 2018, Congress passed a law holding Google, Facebook and others responsible for sex trafficking posts on their sites. Molly Wood spoke with Cecilia Kang, who covers tech policy for The New York Times. She asked her what to expect next as Section 230 matures along with the digital economy. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Cecilia Kang: So you hear lawmakers saying "Enough. These companies are so big, they're so wealthy and they should be responsible for what's happening on their websites." So you'll hear much more of this. As to whether that translates into an actual bill that becomes law is a whole other question. It will be difficult. But I will say, the sex trafficking bill that passed this year was one of the only pieces of legislation that has passed in Congress so unanimously. They had so much support from both sides of the aisle in both chambers. And so you can see that one thing that's really changed over the last two years in Washington is that the general sentiment toward the tech industry and this feeling that Big Tech, the biggest tech companies, no longer should be completely immune of regulation. Kang: The thing about net neutrality is it's so messy. There's so many lawsuits right now on the federal level. There are actually several different lawsuits from different federal orders. So I think the first thing to happen is for the cases to go through the courts but after that I think you will see more determinative action in Congress. And meanwhile you will continue to see states enacting their own laws. Kang: You're going to see how the backlash toward big tech companies, the biggest ones in particular will play out. So I think what you're going to actually see is more action taking place in the way of investigations when it comes to privacy violations. You're going to see other companies potentially sort of get wrapped up in federal investigations at the FTC, potentially at the DOJ, and by state attorneys general. And also class action lawsuits. That's where I think you may see the biggest sting: lawsuits and actions and investigations, in lieu of real regulation. This is not to say that there won't be any regulation. I think you'll definitely see in 2019 the beginning of frameworks for real laws that will come into place. | https://www.wuwf.org/post/more-tech-regulation-coming-2019-0 |
Is the stylus back in style? | Like cowboy boots and 2D video games before it, the smartphone stylus appears to be on the verge of a comeback. Stylus-based screen control interfaces went out when touch-screen technology debuted in 2007, as Steve Jobs' masterwork was the first mobile device to successfully utilize finger-based touch controls. But Samsung's Galaxy Note, the large 5.3-inch Android smartphone that could easily be mistaken for a small tablet, could lead the charge to bring the stylus back into consumers' hands. Samsung's stylus-equipped Galaxy Note sold more than 5 million units, and with a rumored expansion to T-Mobile that number is likely to continue to rise. So it's no surprise that imitators are popping up. And they may copy the device's stylus as well as its size. Chinese device maker ZTE's head of handset strategy, Lv Qianhao, reportedly said last week, "We want to come up with the next generation of a Galaxy Note-type product - a combo product of handsets and tablets." Other rumors peg HTC with a Note competitor slated to be introduced later this year. The big phone/small tablet could sport Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 chip, 1 5-inch 1080p HD display, updated HTC Sense software, and a Scribe digital pen stylus. The stylus makes sense The Samsung Galaxy Note's relatively large touch screen is enhanced by the addition of a stylus, despite the negativity surrounding the little pens since Steve Jobs's infamous Macworld 2007 speech introducing the iPhone. "Who wants a stylus?" Jobs said. "You have to get them and put them away, and you lose them. Yuck." Maybe consumers have become more responsible with their mobile electronics since then, however, as the Galaxy Note is doing quite well. The device's advanced S Pen stylus allows for unique input methods that can turn it into a versatile sketchpad and more on the go. Third-party manufacturers have been crafting special stylus devices for use with Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad for years, so the demand is clearly there, even in Apple's traditionally hive-minded market. Via Bloomberg Businessweek | https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/is-the-stylus-back-in-style-1077991 |
Who's tougher? Baby sharks or daddy sharks? | Sharks can bend, swim, and maneuver in the ocean much differently than their bony fish counterparts. Credit: Dr. Greg Skomal It's not just their teeth and jaws that people find intriguing. It's also their funky shapes and unique skeletal makeup that capture attention. Unlike humans and most land animals, sharks have mineralized cartilage skeletons instead of bones. This allows them to move at unbelievable speeds through the water. Since cartilage weighs less than bone and is less dense, sharks can bend, swim, and maneuver in the ocean much differently than their bony fish counterparts. Because sharks vary in size and shape, there is great diversity in their morphology, physiology and how they swim. For example, the common thresher shark relies on its tail to stun prey when feeding, and the size of its vertebrae and their mechanics may explain why it depends on a strong and long tail that operates like a whip. To move this way requires low stiffness and toughness, or a lower resistance to deformation and ability to absorb energy, respectively. A shark's vertebral column is governed by dynamic and complex interactions among tissue composition and morphology, and there are many differences in growth, mineralization and mechanical properties. Scientists from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and the National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicted that the solid central part of the vertebrae in mature, older sharks would be stiffer and tougher. So they decided to put their theory to a test. They examined cartilage mechanics from six species of sharks under biologically relevant conditions along the length of their bodies and over a range of ages. They looked at small, infant (young of year) sharks, immature sharks and mature sharks from each of six different species: the dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurusp); the porbeagle (Lamna nasus); and charismatic sharks like the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias); the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) and the common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus). For the study, the researchers divided the sharks' bodies into two regions: anterior (pectoral fin insertion and first dorsal fin origin) and posterior (second dorsal fin origin and pre-caudal pit). They conducted mechanical testing, used an imaging technique called X-radiography, and evaluated the relationship between stiffness and toughness using a simple linear regression. One would assume that since humans and many animals tend to get stiffer and perhaps tougher as they reach adulthood, that the same would be true for sharks. Much to their surprise and contrary to their hypothesis, the researchers discovered the opposite in these swift-swimming marine predators. Results of the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, show that the youngest sharks were stiffer (able to resist compression) and tougher (able to absorb more energy) than older sharks. The researchers speculate that cartilage from younger sharks has fewer "interruptions" in the mineral matrix within the cartilage. They also discovered that the cartilage was stiffer and tougher in the posteriorly-located vertebrae (toward the back of the body), suggesting that this body region is better equipped to handle the mechanical loading that occurs during swimming. In addition, although scientists have historically looked at alternating patterns of mineralization on sharks' vertebrae to determine their age, a key finding from this study reveals that these patterns are not related to time. "Our results suggest that toughness and stiffness, which are positively correlated, may be operating in concert to support lateral body undulations, which is how a shark moves its body and tail from side-to-side to propel itself forward, while providing efficient energy transmission and return in these swift-swimming apex predators," said Marianne E. Porter, Ph.D., co-author of the study, an assistant professor in FAU's Department of Biological Sciences, and director of the Biomechanics Laboratory in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. Porter worked with graduate student and first author of the study Danielle I. Ingle; and Lisa J. Natanson, Ph.D., co-author, Apex Predators Program, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. "These comparative data from our study really highlight the importance of better understanding cartilaginous skeleton mechanics under a wide variety of loading conditions that are representative of the swimming behaviors that we see in the wild," said Ingle. Explore further: Fifty years of decline in Queensland's coastal sharks More information: Danielle I. Ingle et al, Mechanical behavior of shark vertebral centra at biologically relevant strains, The Journal of Experimental Biology (2018). DOI: 10.1242/jeb.188318 | https://phys.org/news/2019-01-tougher-baby-sharks-daddy.html |
How long can Apple wait for the next big thing? | The iPhone is so ubiquitous it's easy to imagine it has always been around, but it's actually only 11.5 years and 16-or-so models old. In that time it has made Apple one of the world's richest and most influential technology companies. Apple may be about more than the iPhone, but the smartphone generates by far the most revenue. It's also the engine behind revenue generated in other areas -- no iPhone, no Apple Watch, and no apps either. But it looks as though the days of the iPhone generating big growth could be numbered. The smartphone market in the West is saturated, and Apple has found it hard to compete in the potentially huge market of China. Hence Tim Cook's letter to shareholders yesterday, informing them of revised guidance on its fiscal Q1 2019 revenues because of tough market conditions in China and fewer iPhone upgrades elsewhere. "While Greater China and other emerging markets accounted for the vast majority of the year-over-year iPhone revenue decline, in some developed markets, iPhone upgrades also were not as strong as we thought they would be," said Apple's CEO in the letter. Cook blamed some macroeconomic issues -- a strong dollar and economic weakness in some emerging markets -- plus some Apple-specific stuff like the timing of the iPhone Xs and Xs Max, and not having enough Apple Watch 4 or iPad Pros and Air Pods to sell. But Apple had already worried analysts when it announced it would no longer provide data on how many iPhones (and Macs and and iPads) it has sold. Now it's vital to point out that Apple is a incredible revenue-generating machine. It has managed to push up the price that consumers are willing to pay for the iPhone again and again and is predicting $84bn in revenue for the next quarter and a gross margin of 38 percent. But inevitably some will be wondering where Apple goes next, after the iPhone. As my colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes points out, this could be good news for customers in the short term if it puts downward pressure on prices. It may also encourage Apple to bring forward plans for new products. Data: Apple / Chart: ZDNet Apple's vast revenues give it scope to do pretty much what it wants. The problem is, it's incredibly hard to find a product that can match the success of the iPhone, or in the longer term replace it. "We are confident and excited about our pipeline of future products and services. Apple innovates like no other company on earth, and we are not taking our foot off the gas," said Cook in the shareholder letter. I'm tempted to take that as an oblique reference to the long-awaited Apple car, which could be one of the most interesting products in the Apple pipeline -- assuming it ever arrives. That at least is a project on a big enough scale to have the same potential impact as the iPhone. Having said that, other tech giants are chasing the same target and it's not obvious why autonomous driving would play to Apple's strengths. Hey Apple: Forget AirPower. Get your accessories act together | Apple's biggest embarrassment of 2018 | Five major challenges facing Apple in 2019 Wearables is one area of growth; Cook said that Apple Watch and AirPods grew 50 percent year-over-year, although that's still from a low base compared to the iPhone. Apple's 'other products' -- which includes wearables plus Apple TV, Beats products, HomePod, iPod touch and other Apple-branded and third-party accessories -- stood at $4.2bn in Q4 2018, whereas iPhone revenue was $37bn. Further out you have the possibility of augmented reality headsets and glasses, which Apple -- and Tim Cook in particular -- has long been bullish on. However, there are still big technology issues to be solved before smart glasses are anywhere near ready for mass consumer adoption. A one-quarter blip is unlikely to worry Apple very much and is easy enough to bounce back from. However, the longer-term question of the post-iPhone future remains. It's hard for some to remember life before the iPhone, and it's equally difficult to visualise life after it, too. | https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-long-can-apple-wait-for-the-next-big-thing/ |
What Can We Learn From Chicagos Declining Gun Violence? | Shootings fell again in 2018. An expert unpacks the possible causes, and explains why the city still has a long way to go. For the second year in a row, gun violence in Chicago fell. Homicides in 2018 dropped nearly 28 percent over 2016, to 561, and shootings plunged nearly 33 percent, to 2,391. The decline is a welcome development for a city whose struggle with gun violence has been the focus of national headlines and political pronouncements, particularly from President Donald Trump. In 2016, the citys homicide rate reached a level not seen in two decades, and 90 percent of those deaths came by way of a gun. Seeking an explanation for the surge, observers pointed their fingers at a slew of perceived culprits, ranging from weather to fractured gang hierarchies to drops in social services funding. Related Story Data An Atlas of American Gun Violence Five years. More than 150,000 shootings. Researchers at the University of Chicago Crime Lab set out to test whether those explanations were true, and published their findings in a report with the straightforward title, Gun Violence in Chicago, 2016. Drawing on a meticulous examination of data, the researchers concluded that the rise in killings was a puzzle. Weather patterns were not abnormal. Spending on social services and public education held pretty steady. Officers were solving a smaller proportion of homicides and nonfatal shootings a calculation known as the clearance rate and while that may have fueled retaliatory violence, it was unlikely to have been the reason the surge began. But just because researchers couldnt pinpoint a cause didnt mean the city should shy away from formulating a response, the researchers wrote. Nor did it. In February 2017, the Chicago Police Department began setting up new district offices for police and analysts from the Crime Lab to track trends, predict trouble and deploy resources accordingly. The first such offices, christened Strategic Decision Support Centers, sprung up in the neighborhoods of Englewood and Harrison. Since then, the department has expanded its use of SDSCs to 20 of the 22 police districts. But just as the violence two years ago prompted a search for what might have caused the surge, the declines in 2017 and 2018 have yielded an array of explanations. Officials have cautioned that its too soon to celebrate, but to help us make sense of the numbers, I went to Max Kapustin, a research director at the Crime Lab who has been heavily involved in studying the citys crime statistics and assisted with the effort to set up SDSCs. The interview was conducted in December, and it has been edited for length and clarity: Brian Freskos: When you and your colleagues looked at Chicago violence in 2016, you concluded that the surge was something of an enigma. Max Kapustin: Youre right that that was essentially the line we came to. It wasnt just merely the fact that gun violence in 2016 was higher than 2015 that alone leaves open any number of possible explanations but it was that violence in every single month in 2016 was so much higher relative to the same month one year before. In addition, the rise was heavily concentrated in gun crimes, but you did not see a broad increase in property crimes or drug crimes or any other sorts of crimes, so it was really just this one narrow, albeit highly important, very salient and very tragic kind of crime. But in a lot of respects it was an unsatisfying answer when we wrote the report, and it remains unsatisfying now. Theres a lot we dont know, and in part thats because a lot of the factors that relate to gun violence are things that are not observable. If there are changes in conflicts between individuals who would engage in gun violence, thats not going to be recorded anywhere. Theres no dataset you can look at. BF: Homicides and nonfatal shootings are on track to post their second annual consecutive decline this year. MK: Yeah, I think so. If you look not at certain areas where you can isolate specific interventions or changes in policy, you start to see the inklings of a story forming. One of the clearest examples is the SDSC in Englewood. Here you have an intervention that is clearly focused on reducing gun violence in a district that saw an enormous increase in 2016, and our analysis has shown that at the moment the SDSC was introduced, gun violence fell dramatically and has stayed low. Because of the amount of gun violence Englewood historically produces, that drop had an impact on citywide numbers. But you still have to ask what accounts for drops elsewhere. The impact of SDSCs in other districts is a little less clear, and there may be some other factors at work. MK: The SDSCs have brought about a massive change in policing and management practices in the districts that have them. You get the folks that have the information you need in the same room, you get them to share that information, and you formulate your decisions based on that, and you do that day in, day out. This sharing of information across silos and using data to inform decision making was not happening enough at CPD prior to the SDSCs. But I dont want to make CPD out to be noteworthy in this respect: This happens in a lot of police departments. Its probably the exception rather than the rule that information is shared easily, and theres still a ways to go until information is truly flowing across all these silos in CPD. MK: This is verging into the realm of anecdotes. But I think in general when you talk to people in the city, everybody realized 2016 was an awful year, and they know that 2017 was better, and they know that 2018 was better than 2017, so they know things have improved, but gun violence is still far too high. Thats really where I think the danger is: People think, Well, weve turned a corner, things have gotten better, I guess we can breathe easy. But where Chicago was in 2014 is still way too high. BF: Some people Ive spoken to outside of Chicago express the sentiment that the entire city is dangerous. MK: Not at all. Its so amazingly unequal how the violence is distributed. It is heavily, heavily, heavily concentrated in the South and West Sides, but not just in the South and West Sides, but in specific neighborhoods within those sides, so you cant even paint with that broad a brush. Its very, very localized, even to certain blocks in certain neighborhoods. MK: While theres been a lot of progress with the police department, there is still so much work to be done. The clearance rate for homicides is such that only about a quarter of them are being solved, and the rate for nonfatal shootings is in the single digits. I dont think anybody could possibly look at that and say that the criminal justice system is working in a sense of holding people who commit serious acts of violence to account. Outside of law enforcement, the state of Illinois is last in how much funding it provides to local school districts, and the reason thats brought up in this context is because kids who fall off track in their education very often become at very high risk for gun violence. BF: The Associated Press recently reported that Chicago was on track to recover 10,000 guns this year. There arent any gun stores in Chicago. MK: There is no gun store within the city limits, but you can go across the street from the city limits and find gun stores. Some of the guns used in crimes in the city were originally purchased right in Cook County. Illinoiss laws are not so restrictive that it is difficult to purchase a firearm in the suburbs and drive it into the city. Many of the other firearms are purchased in neighboring states such as Indiana and Wisconsin. The guns get here through multiple routes, but studying this is something that researchers really struggle with because getting data on the original purchase locations of firearms is restricted by federal legislation, and even with that data, you dont know who purchased the gun on the secondary market. These are questions we are grappling with. MK: Theres a lot the state can do to help the city of Chicago reduce gun violence. I would focus on education, as I mentioned earlier, but there are other things they could do that might have a more immediate impact. One of the reasons why clearance rates are so low is that witnesses are unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement, unwilling to testify, and that makes it very difficult to bring cases against suspected assailants in these gun crimes. The state could provide better resources to protect those witnesses and help them feel safe. Another issue they should focus on is the massive backlog at the State Police lab, which Chicago relies on to process certain kinds of evidence. The justice system already works more slowly than anybody would like, and its a detriment if these cases languish because were waiting for evidence from the lab. If the state wanted to devote more resources to remedying that backlog, it certainly could. | https://www.thetrace.org/2019/01/chicago-gun-violence-decline-crime-lab/ |
How can we use the National Climate Assessment to prepare for climate change? | Credit: CC0 Public Domain Every four years, the National Climate Assessment evaluates the state of climate science and the impact of climate change in the U.S., now and into the future. The most recent NCA was released on Black Friday, and although the Trump Administration has done its best to ignore it, many cities, states, businesses, and local communities are ready to take action on climate changeand they're wondering how to go about it. Until recently, a federal advisory committee was tasked with developing recommendations on how to make the NCA's findings more useful for adapting to and mitigating climate change. The Trump administration dissolved the group in 2017, but the group was revived as the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) under the leadership of Richard Moss, a visiting scientist at the Earth Institute. At the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., a panel of committee members and additional experts described why a new approach is needed and gave a preview of the ideas explored in the report, which is due out in early 2019. The report is currently undergoing peer-review. "We know climate change is making problems like wildfires and floods more common across the country," Moss explains. "How do we use science to get better prepared?" The Friday morning panel touched on many topics considered in the soon-to-be-released report, from the types of information that government officials need for decision-making, to ideas for how to evaluate climate science for its fitness for use in adaptation strategies, and how to harness methods like citizen science and artificial intelligence to improve support for resilience planning. Moss's presentation focused on how the national assessment could be extended to help. One is to highlight the adaptation and mitigation challenges that communities are already facing. Some of these challenges involve preparing for worsening extreme eventsfrom wildfires and heat waves to coastal and inland flooding. In other cases, communities want to upgrade infrastructure, plan economic development, or conserve parks and other resources, to make them resilient to an uncertain climate future. An assessment of the science relevant to these challenges could be useful, says Moss. A second idea would be to use the assessment to bring together scientists and communities in long-term partnerships to clarify information needs, share and evaluate experience, and identify best practices. Social science research has found that information is more relevant, credible, and trusted when users and researchers communicate regularly throughout the process of preparing it. Third, science and engineering analysis is needed to design adaptation options, improve cost-benefit analyses, and aid in implementation. "There's more to taking action than making a decision," says Moss. "What are the right ways to source and use climate and impacts science to update codes and standards, rate public bonds, or establish zoning requirements?" Depending on the climate phenomena, there are different types of models and analyses communities could use. Some cities are starting to use climate science to move toward improving resilience, and others are interested in learning from and adapting the methods for their own communities. "The assessment could evaluate the right methods to use," observes Moss. A fourth and crucial point concerns whether to wait for the federal government to make these changes happen, or whether states and cities could collaborate with universities, non-profit groups, and private firms to do so. "There are challenges in coordinating diverse interests and organizations to do something like this. But people are expressing frustration that the federal government is not moving in the direction of how to solve these problems," Moss says. "While a continued federal role in supporting and assessing climate science is essential, we can't afford to wait to make progress in establishing how to use what we know to take action." Explore further: Report calls for integrating emissions reduction and climate adaptation practices | https://phys.org/news/2019-01-national-climate.html |
What kind of welcome will Kawhi Leonard get in San Antonio when Raptors visit tonight? | This is going to be interesting, I think. As much as we and thats us beat grunts as much as you Irregulars are eager to see just how weird it is to see DeMar in another uniform tonight, the other side of the story is fascinating. Whats it going to be like for Kawhi Leonard, and to a lesser extent simply because of circumstances, Danny Green. Im not sure theres ever been a situation like this with the Spurs in the 24 years or so that Ive been coming here and covering the team. Leonard is really the first star of the team to leave under rather hostile circumstances that really pitted player against the organization. All the rest have either retired as Spurs or moved on for different reasons than an open conflict with the team. I fully expect a less than glittering response to him, my interpretation of his departure was that he was seen as the villain in it; that might be wrong but I dont think so. Article Continued Below Itll be too bad if its hostile, at any substantial level. Have your say I watched a whole bunch of what Leonard did for the organization over the years, the two NBA Finals against Miami were epic, even if he did miss a free throw or two one year. No, he wasnt Timmy or Tony or Manu but, man, the Spurs dont win without him and, sadly, I bet a lot of fans will let that slide by and remember only last year. Too bad. As DeMar pointed out yesterday. At the end of the day, he won a championship here, was Finals MVP, some things that go on forever. You can't ever take that away from him. For me, any organization would be appreciative of a player bringing them a championship. Of course, they never want to see their star player leave, but things happen. For me, you can't take that away from the things that happened here. Fans are going to be fans and they can and will do whatever they want. I go for the totality of a players career and all the good that Leonard did here far out-weighs whatever went on last season. And, frankly, no one knows for sure what happened. Article Continued Below I would suggest there are three sides to that tale of a woeful season: Kawhis side. The Spurs side. The absolute truth side, which will be somewhere in the middle and the most realistic. This whole week has been weird, though. I always thought, naively I guess, that this week would be more about Kawhi than DeMar and that Februarys return game in Toronto would be more about DeMar than Kawhi. Hasnt turned out that way it really was nice to see DeMar yesterday and chat with him and catch up privately on a few matters and now I see it from a truly Toronto perspective, that it is about him. Today I think is going to be about Kawhi. He is not going to be as open and forthright as DeMar was, its not in his nature and I dont hold that against him in the least. Its the way he, private and a bit stoic and not given to showing his emotions openly and thats not going to change. But I would hope that the fans tonight give him the respect hes due for what he did. He played and won and fit in and was instrumental in some glorious franchise triumphs. Perhaps his most fatal flaw is that he wasnt Timmy or Tony or Manu; he was Kawhi. And thats not a bad thing to be. Maybe the people here will understand that and show respect tonight rather than vitriol. Last word to Patty Mills: I hope they react just as well and the same as with any other ex-teammate that comes back. Hes been a great teammate and a great friend to me and he deserves that, so hoping it will be a warm welcome back to San Antonio where hes won a championship and grew up here. It goes with saying that the kind of people that the community of San Antonio are and the class and how family oriented the city is. Thats what I hope and what I expect and I hope it goes that way. So do I. - Totally got the days of the week messed up this week. I forgot today was Thursday and its going to be busy, which means were gonna hold back Nothing But Net until tomorrow. I need to not do too much. We can still start compiling the mail today, though, so drop me a line at [email protected] and well eventually get around to it. Thats horrible. Times two. I wasnt a really, really big wrestling buff back in the day but I did know my way around the personalities of the squared circle and, let me tell you, Id howl at Okerlund and Bobby The Brain Heenan. They were classic. That was a greatly under-rated show and while I did know this, the fact hes the brother of Albert Brooks was nice to be reminded of yesterday. Sad day with those two leaving us too early. - | https://www.thestar.com/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog/2019/01/03/wondering-what-kind-of-welcome-leonard-will-get-tonight.html |
What is the Chinese New Year 2019 animal? And what does it mean for the coming year? | Get what's on 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 Chinese New Year is always a huge event in Newcastle with the annual celebrations bringing the streets alive with colourful processions and music. The main party is centred around Stowell Street and Chinatown but last year the famous lion and dragon parades began in the city centre for the first time as the event expanded even further. The Chinese community in Newcastle has a long and proud tradition in Newcastle, having flourished since the arrival of families from China in the early 1970s. The North East Chinese Association, which is based at premises in Stowell Street, was first established in 1982 to assist the immigrant population and now acts as a custodian of the country's vibrant culture - one of the oldest in the world. It uses such occasions as Chinese New Year to share its traditions, food and arts - from calligraphy to music - with the wider community, while the nearby Ceremonial Arch - funded with help from the Chinese community - is a focal point for the celebrations. Here we answer the questions about this year's event, which will be marked from 11am on February 5. Chinese New Year lasts for about two weeks and is based on the lunar calendar so the date can change each year. This year will be the year of the pig. That's because the Chinese calendar is based upon a 12-year zodiac cycle - a system used for around 2,000 years - and animals represent the years, possibly because zodiacs originally involved the worship of animals. The cycle repeats itself and people can work out which animal marked the year of their birth so, for instance, the last year of the pig was 12 years ago: 2007. Those born during the year of whatever animal applies, are said to take on some of its specific characteristics. It can be seen as a challenge. Many of the New Year celebrations involve symbols and tokens of luck to ward away any misfortune and red is seen as a lucky colour and is a big part of the festivities, featuring in everything from lanterns to the lion dance. Tell us more about the year of the pig The year of earth pig begins on February 5 and will last until January 24, 2020. The pig is the last animal in the zodiac. The pig is (falsely) considered to be a rather unintelligent animal; one which enjoys sleeping and eating so has links to laziness. Its tardiness caused by over-sleeping is said to be behind the reason it is placed 12th in the zodiac. But the pig is considered lucky in terms of wealth as it is linked also to affluence, as well as to a good personality and good behaviour. The Travel China Guide website highlights the following as lucky signs for those born in the year of the pig - and one of them includes the North East as a lucky direction so that bodes well. The other 11 animals are the rat; ox; tiger; dragon; rabbit; dog; snake; horse; goat; monkey and rooster. If you don't know what animal you are, you can work out here. According to the Chinese New Year website there is a legend about their placement in the zodiac. It says the Jade Emperor was choosing 12 animals to be his palace guards. A cat was keen to sign up and asked his neighbour, a rat, to help him but Rat forgot which is why they became sworn enemies. So, Ox was first in the queue at the palace but the Rat secretly climbed onto his back and jumped in front. Tiger and Dragon were annoyed at this but had to settle behind the Ox. The Rabbit raced the Dragon and beat him, which annoyed the Dog which then bit the Rabbit and was sent to the back as punishment. The Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey and Rooster all fought amongst themselves for a place before the Pig arrived late once the fuss was over and had to take last position. The site adds: "Of course, this is only a story. Cats didn't even exist in China when zodiac animals first came about." | https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/what-chinese-new-year-2019-15624951 |
Will Therapy Really Heal Ashley And Bar's Young And Pregnant Relationship? | Ashley and Bar have unfortunately been unable to curb their fighting on Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant. But Holly's parents are determined to make their relationship work regardless -- and have therapy to thank. Ashley revealed at the reunion show that although she and Bar were still living apart after their domestic dispute and his subsequent arrest, things were better between them. One reason: They were attending counseling both separately and together. We took some time apart. Hes going to therapy, Im going to therapy, were going to therapy together, she said. Bar had positive things to say about his therapy experience too. He had also been attending anger management classes and said the latter helps me get through a lot of stuff and allowed him to find better ways to deal with myself mentally. The duo even said their engagement was back on, though they hadnt set a wedding date yet. Were taking it slow. Marriage is always going to be there, Ash said. I love this dude. So whether we do it tomorrow or 10 years later, Im still going to be at his house every day. Ashleys mom Tea likely wont be attending the wedding -- she said at the reunion that her future-son-in-law broke my heart and betrayed my trust." Tell us your thoughts, then keep checking back with MTV News for more Teen Mom scoop. | http://www.mtv.com/news/3106534/teen-mom-young-pregnant-ashley-bar-therapy-reunion/ |
Are University Presidents Paid Too Little or Too Much? | Higher education recently has been confronted with falling enrollments, increasing financial uncertainty (as evidenced by recent credit downgrades by Moody's and Fitch) and falling public support. When those type of results occur in private markets, CEOs often lose their jobs or face pay cuts. It has risen --substantially. In 2008, only nine private university presidents made one million dollars annually. Eight years later, 61 did. A look at university president compensation reveals a number of oddities. For example, compare the 2016 compensation of the president of Harvard with that of a school located 2.2 miles away, Simmons University. Harvard is vastly larger, with huge endowment resources not available to Simmons. Moreover, Harvard is arguably the most famous and prestigious American university, while Simmons has a much more modest reputation. In the 2018 Forbes Best College rankings, Harvard ranks first; Simmons ranks 381. However, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's annual survey of private college presidential pay, the Simmons president's salary of $1,657,000 in 2016 (last year available) exceeded that of Harvard's president by more than 50 percent. Indeed, the correlation between university reputation and presidential compensation seems almost nil. Of 10 elite private schools comprising the Ivy League plus M.I.T. and Stanford, only two (Columbia and Penn) made the top 25 list in terms of presidential pay (Harvard came in 48th). Nido Qubein, president of High Point University, came in sixth in the presidential pay sweepstakes, making over $2.3 million. High Point has a so-so reputation (474 on the Forbes list). According to the Department of Education's College Scorecard, the average High Point student makes $39,000 annually after attending, a rather modest amount. Its six year graduation rate of 65%, while not bad, is fairly typical, indicating more than one of three attendees do not get degrees. To be sure, President Qubein appears to be highly competent, and High Point has expanded enormously in his long tenure as president. Trustees of High Point have argued high pay for Qubein is necessary because otherwise he might jump to a high paying corporate job. The big problem with determining presidential compensation is that there is rarely a well defined, easy to measure "bottom line," unlike with private corporations, whose profits and stock prices provide excellent performance measures. We easily measure the success of football coaches --and pay them accordingly, with failure often followed by firings. University presidents are rarely fired for poor performance ---however measured. The near randomness of presidential salaries reminds me of insights of the late lawyer-economist Henry Manne. Manne thought of universities of having "profits" (regardless of their formal non-profit status) distributed to the academic equivalent of stockholders, namely powerful people in the university community who determine the allocation of resources. In some universities, the president amasses large "ownership" --equivalent to share ownership in corporations--leading to big "dividends" conferred by the governing board. Often the president's clout and thus implicit "ownership" is much less. A second insight comes from the literature on "regulatory capture." The group being regulated, say an electric company, gains influence over the regulator (the public utility commission). Similarly, some university presidents are masters in turning themselves into bosses of subservient governing boards rather than their employee. University presidents have tough jobs: they need to be prodigious fund-raisers, inspire high levels of research and teaching performance, understand intricate finances, be shrewd diplomats who can navigate alternative viewpoints. They deserve pretty good pay. But they also mostly work for non-profit organizations given generous tax privileges because they serve the broader public good. Soaring pay for presidents of obscure schools does not help the already tattered image of America's universities. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardvedder/2019/01/03/are-university-presidents-paid-too-little-or-too-much-how-would-one-know/ |
What time is Living the Dream series two on TV? | Philip Glenister and Lesley Sharp return as two Brits from Yorkshire who up sticks to the US Sunshine State of Florida to begin a new business renting out trailers in a trailer park only to be met with hostility from their new American neighbours. Advertisement Heres everything you need to know about Living the Dream series two. The series airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Sky 1, beginning Tuesday 8th January 2019. Glenister and Sharp play Mal and Jen Pemberton, who, along with their teenage children Tina (Rosie Day) and Freddie (played by Brenock OConnor, who played Olly, apprentice to Jon Snow in HBOs Game of Thrones), move to Florida despite the fact that Mal has purchased Kissimmee Sunshine RV Park without ever visiting it. Sure enough, they run into difficulties with the parks eccentric residents, who arent keen on the couples proposed changes. Among their neighbours include busybody Aiden, played Leslie Jordan (Will & Grace), Troy, an ex-wrestler played by Kevin Nash (Magic Mike), and Rhoda, played by Kim Fields (The Facts of Life). 8 January ! Series 2 of Living The Dream folks pic.twitter.com/ZNe2gGarAM PhilipGlenister News (@PhilipGNews) January 2, 2019 Mal and Jen have decided to stick it out at the park but crime is on the rise in Florida, as nosy neighbour Aiden tells them (This is a sunny place for shady characters) and Mal is contemplating buying a gun, much to Jens chagrin. Advertisement Meanwhile, Tina and Freddie continue to navigate the minefield that is their new American high school. | https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-01-03/what-time-is-living-the-dream-series-two-on-tv/ |
When is Luther on TV for series five? Whos in the cast? Whats the plot? | Its official: DCI John Luther is returning to BBC1 this Christmas. The BBC crime drama will be airing over the holiday period in 2018, with Idris Elba returning to the role for four more episodes. Advertisement Find out everything we know about Luther series five below. The drama returns on New Years Day (Tuesday 1st January) at 9pm. It then airs at 9pm on Wednesday 2nd January, 9:05pm on Thursday 3rd January, before concluding at 9pm on Friday 4th January. After a teaser trailer for series five, which shows the troubled detective breathing heavily and limping through a darkened corridor with the words This. Will. Hurt., the BBC has released a new trailer featuring a terrifying encounter that will put you off taking the night bus forever. Elba will return as near-genius murder detective Luther, the maverick cop whose passion always seems to set him on a collision course with dangerous violence. The actor also hinted to RadioTimes.com that Ruth Wilsons enigmatic killer Alice could return, last seen in the series three finale four years ago. Theres no point trying to make something unfamiliar, he said. Her reappearance has now been confirmed as the official trailer reveals a VERY brief glimpse of Alices bloodied face. Wunmi Mosaku joins the cast as new recruit DS Catherine Halliday which means the return of previous sidekick DS Emma Lane (played by Rose Leslie) seems unlikely. Cold Feet star Hermione Norris will play a psychiatrist named Dr Vivien Lake who is called on to help Luther get to the bottom of a swathe of brutal murders. Its classic Luther, Elba told RadioTimes.com as he prepared to film series five. Were not reinventing the wheel. Announcing the four-episode series, screenwriter Neil Cross also gave us some clues about whats to come. Its a question Idris and I get asked a lot, he said. Theres so much we dont know. So much unfinished business. The thing is, weve been asking ourselves the same question. Because we love John and wonder what hes up to. And as for me, Im scared of the monsters. The face at the window. The hand under the bed. The shadow at the end of the street. Whos going to stop them, if not John Luther. In the end, we picked up the phone to some old friends and asked if theyd like to find out what happens next. It turns out, they would. So thats what were going to do. Were going to find out what happens next. Luthers coming back. Thats what. Check out the official Luther series five synopsis from the BBC below: When the moonless shadows of London give birth to a new nightmare, DCI John Luther played by Idris Elba is once more called to immerse himself in the deepest depths of human depravity. While the monstrous and seemingly indiscriminate killings become ever more audacious and public, Luther and new recruit D.S. Catherine Halliday played by Wunmi Mosaku are confounded by a complex tangle of leads and misdirection that seems designed to protect an untouchable corruption. But even as the case brings him closer than ever to the true face of evil, a reluctant Luther is forced to confront the unburied demons of his own recent past. Striding back into the line of fire, he must choose who to protect and who to sacrifice. Whatever his next move, it will have devastating consequences for those around him and change John Luther forever. Production on the fifth series began back in January with Elba marking his first day back on set with a Twitter video. Advertisement Now with filming finished, its time to look ahead to the series release this Christmas | https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-01-03/luther-series-5-air-date-time-channel-bbc1-cast-trailer-idris-elba/ |
Is govt planning to phase out Rs 2000 notes? | January 03, 2019 19:54 IST The printing of Rs 2000 notes has been substantially reduced. It has been decided to limit the printing of 2000 currency notes to minimum. This is nothing new, a FinMin official said. The printing of Rs 2000 banknote, introduced post-demonetisation in November 2016, has been reduced to the "minimum" by the Reserve Bank, a top finance ministry official said on Thursday. Soon after the sudden decision to ban old Rs 500/1000 currency notes by the government, the Reserve Bank had come out with the Rs 2000 currency note along with a new look Rs 500 note as part of its massive remonetisation exercise. The senior official said the RBI and the government from time to time decides on the quantum of currency to be printed on the basis of money in circulation. When the Rs 2000 note was launched, it was decided that the printing would be "scaled down" going forward, since the new high currency value note was meant for meeting the remonetisation need. "The printing of 2000 rupee notes has been substantially reduced. It has been decided to limit the printing of 2000 currency notes to minimum. This is nothing new," the official said. According to the RBI data, there were 3,285 million pieces of Rs 2000 notes in circulation at end-March 2017. A year after (on March 31, 2018), there was only a marginal increase in the number at 3,363 million pieces. Of the total currency in circulation amounting to Rs 18,037 billion at end-March 2018, Rs 2000 notes accounted for 37.3 per cent, down from 50.2 per cent at end-March 2017. The old 500/1000 bank notes that were scrapped in November 2016 accounted for around 86 per cent of the total currency in circulation at that time. Photograph: Mukesh Gupta/Reuters | https://www.rediff.com/business/report/cash-crunch-is-govt-planning-to-phase-out-rs-2000-notes/20190103.htm |
Why Is Kliff Kingsbury Getting NFL Head Coach Interviews? | Kliff Kingsbury possesses an acute offensive mind. Thats a fairly universal feeling in football circles. The 39-year-old is an offensive guru of sorts, which has made him a hot NFL coaching candidate this week. Kingsbury is reportedly going to get interviews with the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals. That fact alone should boggle the mind. He clearly has talent as an offensive coordinator, but theres zero reason to believe hes earned an NFL head coaching job. Kingsbury rose from his status as a record-breaking college quarterback, to a collegiate head coach. In between there he won Super Bowl XXXVIII as a member of the New England Patriots, carrying Tom Brady to a ring, and was an outstanding offensive coordinator at Houston and Texas A&M. Then his alma mater came calling, and he spent six unsuccessful seasons as the head coach at Texas Tech. He was fired this year after compiling a woeful record of 35-40. Hes since been hired as the offensive coordinator at USC. The NFL is a copycat league, and teams see what Sean McVay and Matt Nagy are doing and assume they can find the next version. Kingsbury fits the bill. Hes under 40 and has put together high-powered offenses. What NFL teams are missing is the key ingredient that made McVay and Nagy successful. Both of those guys learned under other coaches at the NFL level. Kingsbury has never coached professional football, and has never coached under anyone who has. McVay worked under Jay Gruden in Washington and Nagy was on Andy Reids coaching staffs in Kansas City and Philadelphia. Kingsbury worked under Kevin Sumlin at both Houston and Texas A&M, so youll forgive me for questioning if hes learned how to run a team from top to bottom. Sure. Hes been wildly unsuccessful in college and has shown absolutely no signs that hes a good head coach. If the Jets and Cardinals are both aiming for, Why not try it? then theres a serious problem with both franchises. I get not wanting a tired retread, like Chuck Pagano or Jim Caldwell, but there are other options out there. There are plenty of guys out there who fit that bill. Kingsbury could eventually be a great head coach, but theres absolutely zero reason to believe he is right now. | https://thebiglead.com/2019/01/03/kliff-kingsbury-nfl-jets-cardinals-interview-usc/ |
Will The Masked Singer be aired in the UK? | (Picture: Fox) Its only January, but The Masked Singer is already looking like it will be one of the unlikely TV hits of 2019 in the US. The American version of the show which originated in South Korea and has had spin-offs in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand kicked off on Fox last night and is already proving popular with viewers. It sees celebrities sing their hearts out while performing in elaborate costumes which disguise who they are with their true identities only revealed when they are eliminated from the show and remove their mask. Its all kind of fabulous with even BTS urging their fans to tune in. Your favorite boy band wanted to say hi! @bts_bighit breaks down #TheMaskedSinger before the premiere tonight at 9/8c on @FOXTV. Advertisement Advertisement Well at the moment it doesnt look like it as Fox UK told metro.co.uk they currently have no plans to show it. It could of course be snapped up by another network but at the moment nobody has nabbed it for the UK although if it proves popular across the pond then we reckon its only a matter of time before they do. Last nights premiere saw The Hippo, The Deer, The Monster, The Lion, The Unicorn and The Peacock perform for the judges, Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger. At the end of the night, The Hippo was eliminated, and revealed himself to be Pittsburgh Steeler Antonio Brown with the identities of the others yet to be revealed. The Masked Singer continues in the US on Fox on Wednesdays. 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/2019/01/03/will-masked-singer-aired-uk-8306141/ |
Why no state funeral for Ramakant Achrekar? | January 03, 2019 19:01 IST 'It is somebody's mistake and communication gap. I as a government representative, I'm sorry. This is very sad' IMAGE: Sachin Tendulkar, right, rides in the truck ferrying coach Ramakant Achrekar's body to the crematorium. Photograph: Sahil Salvi A senior Maharashtra minister, on Thursday, attributed master blaster Sachin Tendulkar's first coach Ramakant Achrekar not being given a state funeral to a 'communication gap' at the government level. Housing minister Prakash Mehta, who represented the state government at the funeral of the celebrated cricket coach, said Achrekar not being given a state funeral was 'sad and unfortunate'. "It is somebody's mistake and communication gap. I as a government representative, I'm sorry. This is very sad. I will check what happened," Mehta told reporters at the Shivaji Park crematorium, adjacent to the spot where the 87-year-old coach trained Tendulkar. Mehta, former Mumbai BJP chief, said he will speak to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on this matter. "I got a message from Mantralaya (the state secretariat) only this morning to attend the funeral," he added. Archrekar, the childhood coach of Tendulkar, died Wednesday at his Shivaji Park residence in Dadar in Central Mumbai. A senior official from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said, "We were not informed by the Protocol Department about the requirement for funeral with state honours." "Normally, the General Administration Department puts up a file (for according a state funeral) and the chief minister approves it. But in this case, we did not receive even a phone call," the official said. Ram Shinde, state water conservation minister, who also holds the charge of protocol department, said that he is out of Mumbai. "Generally, decisions on according someone a state funeral are taken by the CMO," Shinde said. "Had I been intimated on Wednesday night, I would have certainly taken up the issue and ensured that Achrekar sir got a state funeral," Shinde said. "When a public personality dies, the state government, depending upon the situation, decides whether to perform the funeral with state honours or not. This (practice) has nothing to do with whether the person received any civilian award," an official from the General Administration Department (GAD) said, when pointed out that Achrekar, like actress Sridevi, was a recipient of Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India. After controversy over Sridevi's state funeral in Februray this year, the GAD had said the discretionary powers to grant a funeral with full state honours was vested with the chief minister and it was not related to the conferment of any national honours or Padma honours on the deceased personality. | https://www.rediff.com/cricket/report/why-no-state-funeral-for-ramakant-achrekar/20190103.htm |
Is Chimping in Photography Good or Bad? | Photographers are pretty good at coming up with creative, self-deprecating insults. From GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) to pixel peeping, just look on any photography forum today and youll find a new term that makes you smile and cringe at the same time. One of my personal favorites is chimping a word that describes photographers who review their photos too frequently, often at the worst of times. But perhaps chimping doesnt fully deserve the bad reputation it has. Chimping is another word for reviewing photos immediately after taking them usually when youre still out on location with an interesting scene in front of you. Almost everyone has practiced chimping at some point, unless youre an all-film photographer. But its still looked down upon by photographers as a whole. If youve ever wondered why its called chimping, its meant to be based on the Ooh, ooh, ooh! sounds photographers make when they review a good photo theyve just taken. I dont know anyone who actually sounds like a chimp when reviewing photos, but you have to admit, its a catchy name. Why Chimping Has a Bad Reputation The distracted photographer is almost a cliche today. Theyre always looking down at their most recent photo, never out at the scene in front of them. Youll periodically see images of a photographer at the Olympics or another major sporting event who missed the perfect moment because theyre staring at their LCD. Chimping sounds silly, but it can be heart wrenching if it costs you a shot. Think of the wildlife photographer who sits for hours waiting for the right moment, then misses it because they looked away at the wrong time. Or the landscape photographer who reviews their earlier photos while waiting for the light to change, only to end up with a dead battery when it matters the most. Along the same lines, if you have a habit of chimping after every good photo you take, it might come back to bite you at an important moment. Its like photographers who say Ooh, ooh, ooh! to congratulate themselves at the wrong time. Chimping has its uses, but it sometimes functions as nothing more than a premature reward. But It Isnt All Bad Sure, chimping has a negative reputation, but that doesnt mean you should tape over your LCD. Sometimes, reviewing photos is the best thing you can do to improve your shots in the field. Thats really one of the main benefits of digital photography compared to film a way to correct your mistakes in the field when you still have a chance. So although its a bad idea to chimp when youre photographing fast action, it can be a very useful technique for slower-moving scenes. Some photographers will tell you that even a slow-moving scene could change rapidly, and thats true; you should always be prepared. But sometimes being prepared means taking advantage of every available tool to make the next shot as good as possible. Some large-format film photographers used to carry along a polaroid instant camera for this exact purpose seeing how the final photo would appear, at least roughly. Photographers using the same equipment today generally prefer a phone or compact camera for the same purpose, but the underlying idea is the same. Theres no better time to improve a bad photo than when youre still out in the field. Confession Time: Im a Chimper Ive hinted at it so far in this article, but I think its time to be fully transparent Im a chimper. Always have been, probably always will be. Im sure this has gotten me in trouble a couple times, although I cant think of a specific case off the top of my head (maybe because the amazing event happened so quickly I never even saw it). At a minimum, I know that my battery life isnt as good when I chimp heavily, and thats definitely contributed to some missed shots over the years. Then again, some parts of photography are inherently about tradeoffs, and I think chimping is one of them. Often, its worth spending the time to improve your next photo even if youre not capturing anything new in the interim. Think of it like a landscape photographer who runs from a good foreground to a better one during good light; they might miss some shots along the way, but the tradeoff has a good chance of being worthwhile. Conclusion At the end of the day, to chimp or not to chimp is a bit of a false dilemma. In many cases, theres no harm to it at all, since the chances of anything crazy happening while you wait are very low. Sometimes it can be downright silly not to chimp, like in a studio where you have as much downtime as you need from shot to shot. Many studio photographers shoot tethered to a laptop for this exact reason chimping on steroids. But if youre in the middle of an amazing moment, and you dont think it will last long, you would be crazy to start reviewing photos before its over! The same goes for a wedding or other event during the most important moments. If you chimp in cases like that, it could be a big disaster. That shouldnt surprise most photographers, though, and frankly I dont think very many people actually make this mistake. Like all things in photography, its best to strike a balance. Im probably a bigger proponent of chimping than most photographers are, but so long as you keep both sides of the coin in mind avoiding distractions without limiting the tools at your disposal youre on the right track. And if you hadnt heard of chimping before, now you know another interesting photography term to throw around in the right company. | https://photographylife.com/is-chimping-in-photography-good-or-bad |
Did Usher Perm His Hair? | Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images Famous people rang in the New Year with impromptu performances and parties hosted by Drake, as famous people do. Usher, a famous person, shook things up and celebrated by actually practicing the New Year, New You mantra instead of simply preaching it. Usher left 2018 with hair that looked like this: And emerged on January 1, 2019, with new hair that looked like this: People were confused. Someone come get Usher!!! pic.twitter.com/vln6QcVvdV Be my peace. (@connichameleon) January 1, 2019 And just like that, 2019s first meme was born. Usher out here looking like Basie Skanks https://t.co/teIhHxXSwj (@jayjenai) January 1, 2019 Usher look like frisch's big boy pic.twitter.com/wZMd6OeqKr MEERAK (@DJReemsDope) January 2, 2019 Usher bout to start doing K-Pop 2019. pic.twitter.com/4iy9bXlbzm OXTAIL GAWD (@ThatDudeMCFLY) January 1, 2019 Usher done joined the Hip-Hop/R&B Aunties Club. pic.twitter.com/sQvO06I1OG Glen Coco. (@itsjayeko) January 1, 2019 Some speculated (or hoped, rather) that this stylistic decision was for an upcoming role. Others (me) filed the new look under breakup hair (Usher filed for divorce from his estranged wife, Grace Miguel, on Friday). According to his Instagram Stories, everyone was wrong! He straightened his hair for a Rat Packthemed New Years Eve party and this beautiful influencer-worthy photo shoot. This set off alarms across the internet that the singer had permed his hair, which, in the black community, refers to permanently straightening or relaxing ones hair. Usher documented some of the getting-ready process on his Instagram Stories with black-and-white snippets of a stylist curling his straightened hair with a curling iron, and applying more and more gel at his direction. There was even a clip of the singer proclaiming Long hair dont care! And he truly doesnt! While the internet has been dragging his New Year, New Him, People reports that he stated, This aint going nowhere, on Instagram Live. I cant stop touching it! Im like the black Superman. 2019 is primed to be the year of a couple of things, like gout and Living Coral, which leaves plenty of room for perms of all kinds. Theres at least one celebrity hairstylist on record as pro perms in 2019, and Yung Jocs perm is still going strong. Only time will tell if Usher adds some momentum to the movement. | https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/usher-perm-hairstyle-new-years-eve-2019.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-part |
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