question
stringlengths 9
197
| article
stringlengths 174
99.3k
| url
stringlengths 23
392
|
|---|---|---|
Is Bannon becoming the Bernie of Breitbart?
|
Steve Bannon has kept a pretty low profile for the last few months. After being described as the puppeteer behind Trumps administration in a few articles early on, weve heard little about the man and what hes doing. In recent days, however, two articles by The Intercept have described recent Bannon pushes. And theyre not exactly what youd expect. The first piece, published yesterday, described an increased marginal tax rate for the rich. Anonymous sources said that Bannon has been advocating for a 44% marginal tax rate for people who make over $5 million, compared to the 39.6% one in place now for the top tier. In essence, hes pushing for greater taxation on the rich, which doesnt sound that Trumpian. Today, anonymous sources are saying that not only is Bannon lobbying for a higher tax rate, hes also pushing for more government control over technology giants. Specifically, writes The Intercept, he wants Facebook and Google to be considered public utilities. This means essentially that they would be considered public goods that citizens consume, and thus should be held to more uniform regulation. (Its also something I argued a few months ago!) Another priority Bannon shares with Bernie: Both want the end of the use of offshore tax havens by the tech giants and the rest of corporate America. In a photo posted to Twitter by a visitor to Bannons office in May, a glimpse of Trumps tax reform plan was visible on a whiteboard of White House goals: Create a 10% repatriation tax. Dont get me wrong: Bannon is still Bannon. For example, he had reportedly been lobbying for Trump to take the action he did yesterday on transgender people in the military. Hes also still the man that made Breitbart what it is today, which today published an article that put Earth emojis around the name of Trump chief economic advisor Gary Cohn. Yet Bannons recent pushes, if proven, show that hes gunning for something that is definitely not within the confines of the traditional Republican party. And theyre also both pushes that someone like Bernie Sanders would probably endorse.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/4045582/is-bannon-becoming-the-bernie-of-breitbart
|
How Will We Police The Police?
|
The hard work of policing is done on our behalf, to serve and protect us, its often said. But we the people play a very small role in the way that that policing is conducted. That yields to the cops a powerto use force and surveil usthat is awesome and exceptional in modern democracy. This inconvenient truth is as alarming as it is nearly obvious, and its the basis of the book Unwarranted, an engaging tour of modern policing by constitutional scholar Barry Friedman. As he put it recently, policing outran the structures and rules that we and the Founders created for it. advertisement advertisement The courts, which exist in a kind of symbiotic relationship with the cops, have proven to be poor checks on that power. Witness, for example, how in a single week last month, juries failed to convict three police officers in the shooting deaths of black men; because of a legal standard that defers to the judgement of a reasonable officer, or that requires that an officer acted with malice, very few prosecutions against police for deadly shootings end in convictions. Deadly encounters and the videos that have documented some of them have led to public outrage, new calls for reform, and a re-dedication by many police departments to improve their training and their community relations. But suspicions on both sides of the blue line have festered. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has tied the increase in violent crime to a lack of respect for police officers, has nudged the Justice Department away from consent decrees, the formal reform agreements between the federal government and police departments that are overseen by a federal court, and left some feeling jittery about the future of reform. But Friedman is an optimist. As director of the Policing Project at New York University, a group dedicated to public-police collaboration, his quest for democratic policing has included some promising steps forward: in cities like Camden, NJ, Tampa, Tucson, and Cleveland, the organization is building community advisory groups and working with youth and police to find common ground. In New York and Los Angeles, the project has also used citizen input to help departments design policies around the use of body cameras. It was the stark lessons about government power unleashed by Edward Snowdenand, a year later, by Michael Brown, in Fergusonthat prompted Friedman to write about all of this. Those abuses and a steady stream of othersamplified by the viral spread of online videohave sowed distrust and fear among many communities. Black people are less than half as likely to trust the police as whites, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey. Asked if police treat racial and ethnic groups equally, 75% of white people said cops do a good or excellent job at this; only 35% of black people said so. When asked if police do a good or excellent job using the right amount of force during violent confrontations, the responses were similar. If there is any accountability in policing now, its happening on the backend, says Friedman: body cameras, civilian review boards, inspectors general, judicial review. That kind of accountability is aimed at addressing problems after the fact. Friedman wants better rules on the front end, with police chiefs and the public collaborating on designing policies together, in order to prevent things from going wrong in the first place. Real reform will need to come from within, but the onus is on the public to demand it, he argues. And We the Peopleand the courts and the legislatureshave not done enough. People cant just demand the police reduce crime and then duck the question of how, he writes. The same goes for a growing arsenal of gadgets, like license-plate readers, Stingray cellphone interceptors, facial recognition software, internet surveillance, and DNA evidence. Here, the people, not the police, must decide as an initial matter if these things are in or out. So far, even when the public speaks, its not as audible as hoped. In New York, Friedman and the Policing Project solicited the opinions of tens of thousands of New Yorkers in creating recommendations for the citys body camera program. But in its final policy, the NYPD decided not to accept some significant recommendations, such as limiting the ability of officers to view footage before filing a report on a use of force, one of many controversial questions surrounding cameras. Its hard to know how to feel about that, says Friedman. The police propensity for secrecy only makes it harder to know what is being done on our behalf, and what benefit that work is bringing. Even the concept of cost-benefit analysiscommon to business and government workremains rare in criminal justice and law enforcement. Honoring the hard-fought rights enshrined in the Constitution is one thing; but it can be hard to know if policing is even effective at its mission. No one expects perfection by the police, says Friedman. But are we even coming close? Same Constitution. Different Effects. BF: One of my favorite stories is the time that the Compton police got a surveillance plane. The company that was doing the surveillance, they get caught doing it. And then the police Public Information Officer explains, people are worried about this kind of thing, so we decided to keep it hush hush. Imagine another government official saying, well, we knew this would bother you so we kept it secret. I mean its such a great line, its hilarious. But it was honestly sad. Any other government official who said that would be looking for a job the next day. advertisement Its just a culture that weve created in this country of not inviting the public voice in law enforcement. Its just never been the norm. When I finally realized it, it was just like a huge lightbulb that went off of in my head one day. Ive wanted to write about policing for a long time. I taught criminal procedure for 30 years and its something Im incredibly passionate about, as you can tell. But Ive written about all kinds of other stuff: the Supreme Court, and public opinion courts, federalism. And then by happenstance I get assigned to teach in one semester constitutional law and criminal procedure. Constitutional law is the rules about how we run the government; criminal procedure is the rules about how we run policing. And Im literally preparing for one class after the other, and all of a sudden I think, Well, this is weird. Why dont the rules that apply in my constitutional law class apply in my criminal procedures class? Same Constitution, same justices deciding the cases. But they talked about stuff differently. Everything they know about race in one context they toss out the window in the other context. And thats what led to all of this. BF: I had this thought to start the Policing Project right after Snowden. That was the impetus. Thats nuts! And I actually dont think all of that [surveillance] was good faith, but I like to believe that a lot of it was, about keeping us safe. advertisement And then I went to the dean and we decided to start the Policing Project. And I was working on it, and then Ferguson happened. And then of course it was all off and running. Litigate it. But then I was talking to my dear friend and colleague Ann Milgram, who at the time was the vice president of criminal justice programs at the Arnold Foundation. And she listened to the idea and said, you really need to work with law enforcement. And I thought, I dont know if they want to talk to me. But she helped facilitate a founding conference for the Policing Project [in November 2015] that was a closed-door session with law enforcement. And we did PowerPoints and had group discussions. They asked us to write a set of democratic policing principles for them and then they all signed on to it. And since then major city chiefs have signed on to it, and PERF [The Police Executive Research Forum] has signed on to it, and NACOLE [The National Association Of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement] has signed on. The second session was about cost-benefit analysis, and then we all had a good night together. And then the next morning we got there, and it was like, its time to talk about this democratic thing! And we did a PowerPoint, and there was silence in the room. And then you know someoneIm not going to identify who, because it was no attributionsays, that seems right to me. And from there, the conversation just ran, and ran really fast, and it ran so fast that we ended up working with a bunch of police departments. advertisement When you sit down with the police, many if not most of them are right-minded people and some of them are just flat-out inspiring. Its like the military: If you go talk to a lot of people who are in or have been in the military, they get the democracy thing. Theyre inculcated with it. They get it and theyre interested. And its a change for them. I have this text message somewhere from Jim Bueermann, the president of the Police Foundation [an independent nonprofit dedicated to policing, and former chief in Redlands, CA]. BF: The role of trust is immense. And helping justifiable trust to exist is a lot of what the Policing Project is about. Theres an anecdote in my book about the police use of red light cameras and drones and public involvement in Menlo Park, California. In that case, theres legislation thats going to limit the use of data, and the police chief takes umbrage and says, You know, you dont trust us. And the city council responds, Actually, we do trust you. Thats why we gave you all that stuff. But itd be remiss of us not to be involved in deciding what happens with it. And so, you know, trust is a shared thing. If the framers of the Constitution were here, or the authors of the Federalist Papers, they would say, You should never trust government completely. You always have to keep a watchful eye. And I think thats true. But theres been shattered trust in many communities in which were dealing. I mean its stunning, its really stunning, to be sitting in these rooms of community members and realize how shattered the trust is at times. I mean, its actually kind of heartbreaking. BF: This is the thing I think everybody misseswe live in a society where everybody wants to fight it out. Like, Im for privacy. NoIm for security. Its like, ordinary human beings arent walking around being for privacy but against security, or for security and against privacy. We all want to lead private lives safely. And so something is sort of fundamentally broken in our discourse. And thats what were trying to do: to get people to understand that, if theyll sit down and talk to each other, they share a similar set of values, and that what theyre really facing are collective societal problems that are hard. And if we work together we can try to crack them. FC: I think of Snowdens revelations about government surveillance as the last time society grappled with privacy in a sizable way. BF: When the public is engaged, policy changes, but the publics busy. And its hard to keep something salient for the public mind. And so the challenge is, how to force front-end accountability when its not salient in the public mind. In part because, if you stop and think about it, we have a really good record on making bad decisions in emergencies, when things are too salient. You know, decisions that get made in a panic arent always the right decision. What you want is kind of an ongoing, thoughtful process. On privacy, polling is all over the map on this stuff, and its because how questions get asked of people about their privacy varies. But it is absolutely true that the public doesnt understand the stakes, and they also feel like they dont have control. advertisement Theres a kind of sweeping pastthe what can I really do about this? attitude. I sit at dinner parties all the time and somebody says to me, yeah, yeah I dont have anything to hide, and I say, I want the last two days of your email. And everybody, once they actually stop and think about their emails over the last few days, talking about the fact that Im constipated, or whatever it is. And so everybody wants privacy. I think its wrong to say people feel like theyve given up their privacy and they just dont care. Theyre actually mad about it, a lot of people. They dont think they have a choice. And weve done an inadequate job as a society in part because this gets fought out in such tendentious terms, rather than letting people understand that there may be choice. I just think weve had a very starved discourse about this. But people arent going to care on a regular basis. What we need to do is get them to understand that there are choices, and to be demanding of their representatives that there be more serious conversation about this issue. Its because we have framed this from time immemorial as a fight between privacy and security. Theres something about the structure of American discourse thats binary. But good solutions are never binary. Thats what makes them good. And we have to actually just become convinced that instead of fighting about this stuff, the charge to the people that represent us is to sit down and figure out a way to try to do both of these things. [He recently reasserted policies of civil asset forfeiture, permitting state and local police to take cash and property from crime suspects, even without a criminal charge.] BF: The International Association For Chiefs of Police issued a statement on immigration enforcement, and their position is that we should care about immigration, but we also have to care about sanctioning cities that arent seen to be cooperating. Lots of police departments have spoken up all over the country saying, we were working really hard to develop trust in our communities and then [immigration] agents wearing raid jackets that say POLICE on them are pulling people out of houses, and thats just destroying that trust. advertisement Balance is really important and we often arent. Instead, what we do is pendulum swing. The administrations the beneficiary of a swing of the pendulum. But what I would urge is to try to find that resting place, because, again, theres been a lot of talk out of the Justice Department about safety and crime. But we all want to be safe; the people of Chicago suffering violence in their neighborhoods really want to be safe. They would welcome support. But they also want to have a voice in how theyre policed to achieve that safety. Related: How The Lucrative Fight To Put Cameras On Cops Is Changing The Way Police Work FC: Speaking of Chicago, that citys police department uses whats called the Strategic Subject List, which crunches data to predict whos likely to be shot. Other technologies like social-media tracking and facial recognition are proliferating. BF: A lot of these technologies, just because of how and where they are deployedif youre using license plate readers and youre using them on patrol cars that are in more heavily policed neighborhoods, then youre picking up cars in those neighborhoods more. And so thats something we need to be very aware of and thoughtful about. As my dear colleague Brian Stevenson often says, if youre worried about marijuana enforcement, go police some university dormitories. Imagine the world where the cops are going down the street and everything is happening in real time and theyve got Google Glass on, or there are body cameras that instantly recognize the peopleits not just recognizing them but were getting their security scores coming up at the same time. People are getting colored by how dangerous the algorithms think they are. Thats one darn scary world. We worry about false positivesgetting the wrong people. The one thing I cant say, sadly, enoughwell, you know what Im about to say: if were going there, we better all go there together. Like, now. advertisement I get that there are minority rights questions and things to worry about there that are super serious. But you dont even get to those questions until the point that you first say, whoa did we all discuss this and agree to this? And my instinct is, most of the time, we dont get there. BF: It is a foregone conclusion unless we start to force public engagement around all of it. Its what we saw around San Bernardino and encryption, which is that when the companies realize that there is a demand for the public-facing security part of it, the privacy part of it, the companies will be driven to accommodate that. Its not like everything is going to be fine. There are hard questions. But you know, its rare that we want to answer a hard question by just saying yes or no. As you might guess from the work, Im fundamentally an optimistic person, and I like to believe things are possible. I wrote this article called Democratic Policing with Maria Ponoromenko that was kind of a wonky version of the first part of the book. I remember sitting in my office with her and saying, If you told me when we were writing the article that a year later that we would be conducting the the public-facing version of notice and comment for the largest police force in the country, Id have laughed you out of here. But were doing that right now! What is gratifying too is the number of people on every side of this issue who, once you talk with them about it and offer them a way forward including, and I just want to stress, law enforcement, because they need it, they know that theres an issue even if they dont want to concede it, but they know theres an issueand if you offer them a way to acknowledge it thats positive, as opposed to being shouted at, theyre happy to give it a try. FC: I wonder how the publics perception of policing will evolve along with the spread of officer-worn video. It makes me think of the show Cops, just on a bigger, uglier scale. Theres just going to be a lot more of that footage out there and its already changing the publics understanding of the police, one way or the other. advertisement BF: I think that goes back to the fundamental point of our conversation, which is, we ask the police to keep us safe, and do not get very involved in how that happens. And as one police chief said to me, and as many police will tell you, policing is often a violent business. And that is sometimes the nature of the job. And yet the public doesnt watch it very often, and it would be interesting to see how the public reacts. One shouldnt presume to know what that reaction will be. On the one hand, cops do lots of stuff every day that none of us would want to. If Ive learned anything from riding in police cars, its that I can never be a cop. Im not up to it, and I respect the people who do it. On the other hand, theres things involved with policing that trouble people when they see it. So the good news is, we may all get forced to do the job we should have been doing all along, which is weighing in on, how can this happen?
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40435652/democratic-policing-unwarranted-barry-friedman
|
What Will It Be Like To Have Robot Coworkers?
|
You already have an idea of what the future of work looks like because you are likely already working with bots, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. They are increasingly being incorporated into everything from work stations to websites to cloud platforms. advertisement advertisement But while the U.S. is leading the world in robotics investment, There is clear evidence that points toward robotic automation in many cases being a complement for human labor, rather than a direct substitute, says David Whitaker, managing economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research. As robots do more things in the office, which some experts say will free people to do more valuable, creative work, what will it be like to have them as our assistants and office-mates? Related: Robots Are Changing the Future of Telecommuting Form And Function Many will be integrated into work stations and peripherals, as well as various cloud-based platforms says Marco Perry, a robotics expert, futurist, and founder of Brooklyn-based design and invention firm PENSA. SAP research director Kai Goerlich says most of these assistants will likely be integrated into devices you already use with seamless interfaces. We will have more algorithms, helping us do tedious office work. So, basically, tax analysis, image analysis, comparisons, statistics, etc. He says that machines will likely evolve to rely more on voice recognition and less on keyboards. So, for example, give your device a voice command, such as scheduling a meeting or sending a document with a specific person or group, and the algorithm will exchange the necessary information with the targets algorithm to get the task done. That functionality is going to save time and improve the way we work, says futurist Nikolas Badminton. By the time you sit at your workstation, your tech assistant will likely have organized scheduling and tasks in anticipation of the day ahead. Youre probably going to walk into an office and your systems been churning over the last couple of hours considering whats been going on in business, your role, your job, what you need to do that day, and probably offer up several ideas about the right direction of what to do, he says. advertisement In cases where a personal touch is still needed, robots can still be helpful. Just ask Jodi Goldstein, managing director of Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab), a collaborative education and entrepreneurship initiative at Harvard University. Goldstein got a crash course in working with robots when Rony Abovitz, founder of augmented reality startup Magic Leap, was suddenly unable to deliver a keynote speech for her event, he offered to send his Beam. A beam is a robotic device with a monitor, speakers and camera. The device stands about 4 feet, 5 inches tall with a four-wheel base. It can be operated remotely, so it can move around the room and turn to face participants. At first, Goldstein says she was concerned that it was going to be strange or awkward. However, as Abovitz operated the Beam remotely, his face on the screen, turning to address audience members and answer questions, she says that any apprehension she had went away. There was no diminished experience for the crowd, she says. It enabled us to have this phenomenal founder who, at the last minute, couldnt be there. So when you think about the way telecommuting and telepresence, it can really change the interaction people have on a day-to-day basis in an office environment, I think it really unlocks a lot of potential value for office workers and management as well. You can have the right person, wherever they physically are, but you can have that person in the room when you need them to be. This type of technology may give us a glimpse into how meetings will evolve and options for collaboration, she says. New Skills Needed While the concern about the jobs robots will take is well-documented, Paul R. Daugherty, Accentures chief technology and innovation officer, says that the proliferation of these technologies will create new roles, for which workers will need new skills. We summarize those as trainers, explainers, and sustainers, he says. Trainers will include new jobs to train machines in artificial intelligence. (Think IBMs Watson and its ability to answer questions and find answers through data analysis.) He says that a good example is people who are working on chatbots and virtual agents to help consumers interact with companies. Theres a need for personalities to train the artificial intelligence in the chatbots themselves, to embody the values of the company, the right personality, he says. Explainers and sustainers are new jobs that involve explaining AI and how its working and maintaining or improving AI systems over time. This will create greater demand for people with technology skills, but will also create greater demand for soft skills, such as empathy trainers to help machines deal more effectively with people and who can analyze the needs of customers to ensure machines are effective in dealing with them. advertisement I would predict that five years out well probably have a bigger shortage for those types of skills around, the softer skills around how can we shape the experience for people using machines and that will be a bigger skill deficit than the hard-core technology skills, he says. Most of all, employees must stay open to learning new ways of working with technology. As such technologies help more people, Daugherty says well also need to learn to be comfortable interacting with them. He points to platforms like Autodesks Project Dreamcatcher, a generative design system that works with a designers or engineers project objectives and parameters to generate multiple design options. In addition, as more companies adopt virtual agents those whose jobs include interacting with those agentsfinance departments working with banks increasing use of virtual agents, for examplewill need to adapt to be comfortable interacting with these technologies, he says. New Challenges For Managers And HR Goldstein believes that robots and AI in the workplace will change human resources dramatically and create new challenges related to human and robot management. And while there will be a temptation to automate everything, the more sensitive or complex a situation, the more likely people will want to deal with an actual person, so its critical to consider the context in which you use robots, AI, and machine learning and determine if its really the best solution for the situation, Perry adds. If you completely automate that, people feel helpless, he says. Frustration can also be a problem. For example, if you have a sensitive problem with your health insurance and cant get anyone on the phone to help you navigate the challenge empathetically, youre likely to feel a loss of control as well as feeling as if youre not valued by the company, Perry says. Such a dynamic can alienate valued employees. In addition, companies are going to need to take steps to protect workers privacy, Goldstein says. Just as smart home assistants like Google Home or Amazon Echo are listening all the timemonitoring ambient noise so they can be activated by wake words, office robots and machines will act similarly. This holds the potential for companies to inadvertently capture sensitive information about employees, she says. How that information will be used and protected are among the emerging issues companies must face. As for job loss, Badminton isnt convinced its going to be dire. History tells us that when innovation occurs, new jobs are created, he says. advertisement And while these machines are designed to take away rote tasks to free workers to do more valuable, creative work, Perry worries there are consequences to being too reliant on machines to do our jobs. It makes us a little bit dumber, he says, citing people who dont know important phone numbers because theyre just stored in a device or who cant find their way without GPS. Not only does it take the control out of my hands, it takes the intelligence out of me because I dont need to know that any longer. If the systems go down, youre totally hosed. You cant do anything about it, he says.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40441311/what-will-it-be-like-to-have-a-robot-co-workers
|
How dangerous is marijuana for young men's mental health?
|
A bestselling anti-marijuana book, Tell Your Children, is sounding the alarm with a link between cannabis and violence. Just because today marijuana is widely regarded as safer than alcohol doesnt mean thats the final word. A bestselling anti-marijuana book is making waves for suggesting that the drug may be far more dangerous than the industry would have us believe. Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, by the former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, reminds readers that when it comes to health, we never know as much as we think we do. The most demonstrable health risk associated with marijuana is that for a small portion of users, largely men in their teens and early 20s, the drug may induce psychosis and schizophrenia, sometimes after only short-term use. By highlighting this real, and terrifying, risk of marijuana use, Berenson has done an important public service. But as others have pointed out, the book overreaches in trying to establish a causal link between cannabis use and violence. And it suffers from Berensons refusal to consider marijuana as anything other than a serious threat to a relatively small segment of the population. Brain scans show how cannabis extract may help people with psychosis Read more Science takes time and is not immune to the dogmas of its era. Today doctors universally recognize the dangers of cigarette smoking, but it took decades and millions of early, agonizing deaths before the consensus solidified. The best parts of Tell Your Children document the connection between pot smoking and psychosis, from 19th century Mexico and India to the present day. The connection hadnt been a secret. According to a 2013 statement from the American Psychiatric Association, current evidence supports, at minimum, a strong association of cannabis use with the onset of psychiatric disorders. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to harm, given the effects of cannabis on neurological development. But Berenson has amplified it more effectively than anyone else. It isnt a fashionable argument right now. The for-profit cannabis industry promotes the drug as a nearly harmless medicine and it seems to be working. Last year, Canada became the first large country to legalize recreational cannabis. About 90% of Americans favor access to medical marijuana and roughly two-thirds favor full legalization. The rapid shift in US public opinion towards legalization has been fueled by disgust with the war on drugs and mass incarceration, as well as the largely unproven hopes that medical marijuana can mitigate complex health crises such as the opioid epidemic. Facebook Twitter Pinterest For many men in their teens and early 20s, marijuana use may induce psychosis and schizophrenia. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Media According to Berenson, the great majority of teenagers who smoke weed will not be affected by psychosis. But young people who are at greatest risk deserve the best available information. By describing numerous psychotic breakdowns in excruciating detail, the books scare tactics could save a few lives. Berenson is also not the first person to soundly argue that the high-potency pot products available now are likely to make the problem worse. The second part of Berensons argument, however, has attracted more criticism. He attempts to show that because marijuana can cause psychosis and psychosis can cause violence, marijuana causes users to commit senseless, nightmarish acts of violence. (For rebuttals see here, here, here and here. For a discussion of the issues involved see here.) Tell Your Children opens with an Australian woman who knifed eight children to death, seven of them hers. Later it tells the story of Jared Loughner, a 22-year-old Arizona man who in 2011 shot six people to death and nearly killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords; Loughner also smoked pot. Theres lots more. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Legal marijuana markets dont seem to have witnessed an uptick in ultraviolence. Illustration: George Wylesol Yet legal marijuana markets dont seem to have witnessed an uptick in ultraviolence. Berenson suggests the crimes are out there but have not been well-publicized, and that the problem is gestating. Maybe, but the argument suffers from a definition of psychosis which seems to encompass everything from low-level paranoia to fits of homicidal rage. And while Berenson focuses on questionable concerns over violence, he misses a number of less cinematic, but perhaps more dangerous threats. He could have looked, for example, into the little studied question of whether cannabis use by pregnant women can impair fetal brain development. Every adult in America, meanwhile, knows someone they think smokes too much weed, not because the user mutilated someone, but because it seemed to diminish their emotional or intellectual capacities. By some estimates, 10% of marijuana users develop a dependency on the drug. Under any legalization scenario, its this population, the anonymous problem user, who will weigh most heavily on society. A better anti-weed book would tell their stories. But this would force questions Berenson has no interest in answering. If 20% of marijuana users have a problem, 80% dont. Berenson doesnt want to come off as a prig. He gets that people like to get high and tries not to hold it against them. But hes uninterested in why people get high, much less able to acknowledge the possibility that theres any good reason for it. Like a lot of weed opponents, he says only a small fraction of marijuana users use it to treat a clinical medical need. Thats true. Much about weed invites this kind of easy contempt. But the great bulk of users feel its beneficial, because it helps them relax, it improves their sex life or makes it more fun to play with their kids. Maybe it helps them drink less alcohol, which they find more destructive. Quitting cannabis could lead to better memory and cognition Read more And at the other end of the spectrum from the problem users is a population who consider weed something like a performance-enhancing drug. They can be found, among other places, throughout the ranks of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The last century of music, one might argue, was brought to us by weed. The book would have been better if Berenson had some understanding of, or curiosity about, the drugs allure and complexity, or even could put its dangers in context. By some criteria, I am dependent, the journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote in 2017. Weed most definitely isnt for everyone. But compared with all the other substances available, and most other avenues to chill and friendship, it remains, it seems to me, a no-brainer to legalize it, and for many sane adults, one of Gods great gifts to humankind.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/28/how-dangerous-is-marijuana-for-young-mens-mental-health
|
Why Is There A Gender Gap In Side Hustles?
|
Though more people are earning some form of secondary income, research suggests that men and women often have different motivations when pursuing a side hustle. advertisement advertisement According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the number of Americans with more than one job hit a two-decade peak in 1995, with more than 6.8% of workers holding a second job, before declining steadily until a low of 5% in 2013. A recent survey of 2,000 Americans by the recruiting platform Jobvite, however, has found that nearly a quarter of working Americans earn some form of secondary income. Researchers suggest that the rapid increase in side hustling is a result of a number of recent developments that have made earning a secondary income more appealing, necessary, and attainable than ever before. The skyrocketing debt levels of American students, averaging more than $37,000 last year, are leading many graduates to pursue a side hustle to pay down their student loans. With nearly half of millennials switching jobs every one to three years, secondary incomes have also become more necessary to help bridge the gap between full-time roles. Furthermore, the past few years have seen an explosion in digital tools that make a side income more attainable than ever, ranging from sharing economy platforms like Uber and Airbnb to freelance platforms like UpWork and 99 Designs. While the Jobvite survey suggests that approximately one in four people across all age brackets now has a second source of income, it has also found that men are more likely to pursue a side hustle out of passion, while women are more likely to be motivated by financial necessity. The study found that 61% of women with a side hustle indicated that they pursued a second source of income because they needed the money, compared with 48% of men. At the same time 31% of men with a side gig report being primarily motivated by passion, compared with only 19% of women. Jobvites research is consistent with another recent study conducted by consumer financial services provider Bankrate, which found that nearly 70% of women use their secondary income to help pay for expenses, compared with only 42% of men. advertisement Though neither study was able to provide a precise reason for the discrepancy, researchers have considered a number of explanations. Without speculating too much we know that the wage gap is very real, so its possible that could be a factor in why more women are spending side hustle income on living expenses in comparison to men, said Bankrate blogger and analyst Sarah Berger. We also know that being a single mother is very expensive, so a side hustle might be necessary for women with kids who are struggling to make ends meet. Though the gender wage gap still sits at around 23.7%, according to a 2016 study by PayScale, FlexJobs senior career specialist Brie Reynolds isnt convinced that its the primary factor leading more women to pursue a secondary source of income. Maybe men more often take full time jobs that theyre not necessarily passionate about but that pay the bills, so they pursue freelance work as a way to follow their passion, she says. It might be that more women are already doing things in their full time jobs that theyre more passionate about. Another theory behind the gender discrepancy in side hustle motivation relates to the fact that, according to Pew Research, the number of married Americans is at its lowest point in nearly a century, with millennial men and women marrying at an average age of 29.5 and 27.5 years, respectively. I think theres an independence factor that is leading this, says Rachel Bitte, the chief people officer for Jobvite. You may be seeing [in these statistics] that women are increasingly trying to become more financially independent and secure earlier in life. advertisement Financial independence was a factor for 26-year-old side hustler Kassondra Cloos. After graduating in 2013 with debt greater than her starting salary, Cloos says the only way she could justify spending on anything aside from her student loans was with money earned outside of her day job as a newspaper reporter in Virginia. I was paying almost as much in rent as I was for student loans, she says. I really wanted to save money to travel, but it wasnt something that I felt I could justify with my student debt. Cloos worked as an Uber driver between shifts at the newspaper, rented out her living room on Airbnb, and even donated plasma in order to support herself, travel, and continue paying down her student loans all at once. While Clooss side hustles were entirely motivated by financial necessity, Daniel Berzen initially lost money on his. The 29-year-old loves his senior creative role at a marketing agency, but his true passion has always been in live music and events. He began his side hustle in college, booking artists to play small venues near campus, before launching an artist collective called Almost Art after graduation. We basically find art we love and help build it out, he said, explaining that the role could involve anything from designing album art to booking private events. I was entirely motivated by my love for art, and once youve decided that youre willing to lose money on it youre more than willing to put a lot of time into it. Though it required some upfront investments and a lot of his time, Berzen says hes building experience that he could one day use to create his own label. Furthermore, hes able to leverage the relationships hes built on the side to the benefit of his full-time employer. advertisement Bitte explains that both Clooss and Berzins stories are consistent with the feedback gathered in Jobvites study, adding that such discrepancies in motivation could have long-term implications for employers. It shows that women are feeling financial pressure, and that financial pressure is going to lead them to potentially look at their full-time gig and question whether theyre making enough, and maybe theyll start to negotiate more, she says. On the flip side, Bitte believes that the fact that men are pursuing their passion in the form of a side hustle should be of equal concern to their employers as well. They might start to ask themselves, why cant I turn my side gig into a full-time career? As a result Bitte believes its more important than ever for employers to pay their employees fairly and provide an opportunity for them to pursue passion projects at work. Otherwise they could risk losing talent to the growing number of side hustle opportunities available to them.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40440969/why-is-there-a-gender-gap-in-side-hustles
|
Is a Parliamentary Official Trying to Stop Brexit?
|
The Speaker of the House of Commons is supposed to be the referee. He, or she, sits in the Speakers Chair, a throne made of black beanwood from North Queensland, Australia, and presides over whatever faretechnical, listless, boorish, crazedis unfolding in the chamber at a given moment. By tradition, Speakers are chosen by their fellow members of Parliament, and dragged unwillingly to the chair, where they resign from their parties and remain politically impartial for the rest of their lives. In the Commons, they choose who speaks, for how long, and what business they should be discussing. The role requires presence and a strong grip on the phrase Order! Order!, which is what Speakers shout to bring the Commons into line. When I was growing up, the Speaker was Betty Boothroyd, a former Labour M.P., from Yorkshire, who was the first and only woman to hold the role. Boothroyd had gray curls and a face that was kind and withering at the same time. She eschewed the wig previously worn by Speakers and had a way of standing up wordlessly (when the Speaker stands, everyone else sits), clenching her hands, and calmly saying, Order-order, with a force that shut the whole place up. Her successor, a former sheet-metal worker from Glasgow named Michael Martin, was the first Catholic Speaker since the Reformation. He had a high-pitched, offended-sounding cry of ord-er!a wild Scottish lamentwhich also got peoples attention. In early 2019, its hard to say what phase of Brexit the nation has entered. However, since the almighty defeat of Prime Minister Theresa Mays proposed deal with the European Union, on January 15th, it has been clear that the action has shifted to Parliament. With May unable to count on the support of her Conservative party, M.P.s on all sides have been taking the initiative, tabling amendments and discussing optionsNorway plus, Common Market 2.0, no deal, or a second referendumthat might break the deadlock. The House of Commons, a tight, claustrophobic place laced with a faint smell of school lunches, is now the main stage for Brexit; its procedures, which are arcane at the best of times, have disproportionate importance for what happens next. At times of fundamental political crisis, Britains unwritten constitution allows Parliament great sway, and John Bercow, a puckish, performative, former Conservative M.P., who has been the Speaker since 2009, is the conductor of the show. The problem is that Bercow doesnt seem keen on Brexit. Like the Prime Minister, and most M.P.s, Bercow voted to stay in the E.U. in the 2016 referendum. I thought it was better to stay in the European Union than not, he told students at Reading University, in 2017. Last year, a bright-yellow Bollocks to Brexit sticker was spotted on the windshield of a black Range Rover in Bercows parking spot outside the Commons. (Bercow said that the carand the stickerbelonged to his wife.) And, after Mays defeat earlier this month, Bercow allowed an unprecedented motion to pass in the Commonsover the advice of his officialswhich forced the Prime Minister to return to Parliament with a Plan B for Brexit within three days. Bercows decision wasnt in the rule book, though it won the support of a majority of M.P.s. This is a bold moment for a Speaker to start ignoring centuries of precedent, and everyone has noticed. Brexit is a game that could scarcely be controlled by any referee since long before it started, the Independent, a solidly anti-Brexit newspaper, reported. That the referee is now so clearly out of control too is a shocking, if unsurprising, development. Bercows perceived pro-E.U. biasand his general liveliness, amid the dense machinationshave made him a hit in mainland Europe. The only order in British politics comes from John Bercows mouth in these turbulent days, the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported recently, describing Bercow as yes, more animal than ever. A German TV news show, Tagesschau, made a reel of Bercows interventions and put it on YouTube. Brexiteers cant stand him, naturally, and last week a member of the Cabinet told the BBC that Bercowunlike every other Speaker for the past two hundred and thirty yearswas unlikely to be given a peerage when he steps down. Bercow has been a reforming, eye-catching Speaker since he was hauled to the chair, nine years ago. He abandoned the Speakers traditional uniform of court dress in favor of a suit, and has championed the use of so-called urgent questions by M.P.s to summon government ministers to the Commons against their will. Two years ago, Bercow refused to allow President Trump to address the House of Commons on a proposed visit to the U.K., citing the bodys opposition to racism and sexisma move that was simultaneously popular and a test of the limits of his office. When he is in the Speakers chair, Bercow, who is short and has a labile, cat-like grin, also enjoys the more traditional, knockabout elements of his job. He shouts Ord-AARR with a tremendous emphasis on the second syllable, and berates M.P.s for talking while they are sitting down, or chuntering from a sedentary position. Bercow invites overexcited members to take their medicaments or to step out of the chamber, and sometimes just yells Zen! to see if that will have any effect. Last year, one of Bercows former private secretaries, Angus Sinclair, broke a non-disclosure agreement to tell the BBC that the Speaker had bullied and intimidated him, an accusation that Bercow denies. Sinclairs successor was given a diagnosis of P.T.S.D. On Thursday, I spoke to Vernon Bogdanor, a visiting professor of government at Kings College London, who is one of Britains leading constitutional scholars, about Bercow. I think he has damaged the role of the Speaker, Bogdanor told me. Every other Speaker in living memory has been scrupulously neutral, never been accused of any partisanship. He is the first. Next week, the pressure will increase further. Bercows every call will be scrutinized. On Tuesdaythe next big day in Brexitthe Speaker has to choose six amendments from M.P.s, which will set the course of the drama for the coming weeks. Another plot among rebel M.P.s, who are searching for a cross-party solution to Brexit, is to suspend the rule that gives the governments agenda priority in the House of Commons. If Bercow allows that, it would probably be the most dramatic act by a Speaker since William Lenthall defied King Charles I, who was trying to arrest five M.P.s, in January, 1642and that helped set off the First English Civil War. One of the saddest, and most maddening, aspects of Brexit has been the timidity of many British politicians to speak their mind about what is happening to the country. Neither Theresa May nor Jeremy Corbyn has ever saidor is likely to saythat leaving the E.U. will be positive for Britains health, wealth, culture, or well-being. It is both shocking and not surprising that one of the only people who really isnt allowed to have a point of view about Brexit seems determined to express itand that isnt helping, either.
|
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/is-a-parliamentary-official-trying-to-stop-brexit
|
Did terrorists once plot to blow up the Swiss government?
|
President Karl Schenk receives a threatening letter. In the first part of a four-part series telling the little-known story of anarchist attacks in Switzerland, we look at a 19th century plot to blow up the federal government in Bern. As Swiss president Karl Schenk sorted through his mail on January 26, 1885, he got a big fright. An anonymous letter warned that anarchists were planning to "blow up the government buildings during a plenary session of the federal cabinet". It said that 17 men had volunteered to "do the terrible job", there were supplies of dynamite and a timer in place, and that there were enough explosives on hand "to destroy Bern". The writer, who signed himself "Number 5", was apparently a repentant terrorist. "I am horrified at the thought of being an accomplice to this terrible crime, he wrote, so at the urging of my dear wife, I am making this confession." He finished with this recommendation: "Have the government building guarded day and night, and do not let unknown persons in but be careful, because all comrades are provided with weapons and sulphuric acid." Karl Schenk, who was Swiss president at the time. (zvg) Attacks on European leaders Schenk may well have found the threat plausible, given numerous deadly attacks on political leaders and crowned heads of state in Europe in preceding years. Most of the attackers came from Propaganda by the Deed, an ideological tendency within anarchism that advocated changing society by violent means. Whereas the first assassins used knives and guns, later anarchists started using bombs made of dynamite, which Alfred Nobel had patented in 1867. In October 1878 King Alfonso XII of Spain was shot at, a month later King Umberto I of Italy was wounded in a knife attack, and in 1881 Czar Alexander II died in a bomb attack. German Kaiser Wilhelm I had survived no less than three assassination attempts since 1878. He likely only survived the last one, a bomb attack, because the bomb had a damp fuse and failed to explode. Switzerland had been spared the violence so far, but it was indirectly involved to a significant extent. Due to its liberal asylum policy it became a refuge for revolutionaries on the run, most of them from Germany, France, Italy and Russia, who carried on the armed struggle from neutral Switzerland. Since freedom of the press was constitutionally guaranteed in Switzerland from 1848, they were also able to print revolutionary tracts and periodicals which they then smuggled into their countries of origin. So it was not a coincidence that the main mouthpieces of militant anarchism, Freiheit (Freedom) and LAvant-Garde, were started in Switzerland. Both spoke of the "need for revolution" and preached violent action as a legitimate defence against exploitation, repression and hypocrisy. The federal parliament (seen here in the early 1900s) was completed in 1902. The old government buildings, targeted by the supposed plot, form the west wing of today's parliament complex. Schenk must also have found the timing of the anonymous letter disquieting, since this could be vengeance for the fate of anarchists who had links to Switzerland. Just a month before, the anarchist Friedrich August Reinsdorf, who was the main instigator of the attack on Wilhelm I, had been sentenced to death in Germany. He had spent four years in Switzerland and was well-connected in the anarchist milieu there. August Reinsdorf. (zvg) The plan might also have to do with the fate of the German anarchist Hermann Stellmacher and the Austrian Anton Kammerer. They had lived in Switzerland, before carrying out a series of political murders in other countries, for which a court in Vienna sentenced them to death in September 1884. Since then the movement had been glorifying them as "martyrs of social revolution". And the newspaper Freiheit openly called for vengeance. "There will be no mercy for those who sent Stellmacher to the gallows, it warned. His death must be avenged in blood." "Switzerland cannot escape" Six days later the Swiss president received another anonymous letter. The first had come from St Gallen, where Stellmacher had lived, but this one had been posted in Frauenfeld. Yet it clearly came from the same hand and repeated the same warning. On February 4 a further letter arrived from Winterthur threatening that the "blowing up of the federal building" would "inevitably happen this month. A fourth letter said that a letter from the conspirators had been deposited in a post office near Bern. On investigating, police found a map and detailed instructions as to how dynamite was to be smuggled into the federal building. Finally, on February 21, Freiheit, which was now being printed in London, issued a warning. "In England the dynamite is doing its powerful work, it said. Switzerland cannot escape us. It said that anarchists would soon be ploughing the earth in the place where the government buildings stood. Wave of arrests At dawn the next day, 24 foreign anarchists in Bern and 7 in St Gallen were arrested and their houses searched. There were further arrests in other major centres. Police seized large quantities of publications, propaganda leaflets and private correspondence. In the meantime, the anonymous warning letters kept coming, first from Winterthur, then one from Paris. On March 12 there was even a letter from New York. The anonymous writer said that "a respectably-dressed German with a blond beard and whiskers, rather tall and powerfully built would be carrying out the bomb attack on the federal building. The attacker would carry the explosive device in a small bag, "or perhaps even under his hat". Then another anonymous letter said a Swiss anarchist group had decided to kill all government ministers and members of both houses of parliament, "blowing them to hell with dynamite". Then a local policeman in St Gallen recognised the handwriting in several of the letters as belonging to Wilhelm Huft, a German hairdresser who occasionally wrote for the anarchist papers. On March 31, 1885, Huft was arrested and questioned. He maintained his innocence. After being held in custody for 44 days, he hanged himself in his cell with his own silk handkerchief. The examining magistrates report was scathing about Huft, calling him a womaniser and spinner of yarns with an over-fertile imagination". But the report was unable to explain how Huft managed to have the letters sent from different locations in Switzerland, let alone Paris and New York. The federal government sought to bring closure to the whole affair by deporting 21 anarchists, although none of them were convicted of any criminal wrongdoing. To this day it is anybodys guess as to whether anarchist groups were seriously thinking of blowing up the federal government building, or whether it was just the fabrication of a lone-wolf anarchist hairdresser. It inspired the later folksinger Mani Matter to a musical reflection on Swiss democracy that has remained popular in Switzerland ever since he wrote it. Here it is in a version by the Swiss German (dialect) pop group "Zri West" recorded in 1992: Terrorist violence in Switzerland A look at Swiss history shows that politically motivated violence was more frequent in the past than we might imagine today. The first terrorist attack in this country was the assassination of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth, who was stabbed to death in 1898 by an anarchist named Luigi Luccheni. Sisi, as she was called, was the first victim of anarchist terror in Switzerland, but she was certainly not the last. In the early 20th century Switzerland experienced a wave of terrorist attacks. Anarchists raided banks and even a police building in Zurich, tried to blow up trains, blackmailed industrialists, carried out bomb attacks and assassinated political opponents. Most of the attackers were foreign: Russians, Italians, Germans and Austrians who had sought political asylum in Switzerland. The Swiss government reacted by deporting undesirables and making laws more severe. In 1894, in what became known as the Anarchists Law, penalties for crimes using explosives were increased, and preparing for them was made a criminal offence. But Switzerland refrained from tightening its asylum legislation, which ensured ongoing protection for people wanted by police elsewhere. end of infobox Neuer Inhalt Horizontal Line
|
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/anarchists-in-switzerland-part-1_did-terrorists-once-plot-to-blow-up-the-swiss-government--/44702574?utm_source=multiple&utm_campaign=swi-rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=o
|
Why Would Anyone Let Their Employer Stick A Microchip Into Their Body?
|
advertisement advertisement Thats the question facing workers at Three Square Market, a Wisconsin company whose self-checkout technology powers more than 2,000 miniature convenience stores in offices and break rooms around the world. Since the news broke last week, the company has come under fire from the public, and its barely managed to stay above a one-star rating on Google. The chips, RFID-compatible devices roughly the size of a grain of rice and typically injected between the thumb and forefinger, are strictly voluntary, the company says. About 50 out of 80 employees in the River Falls, Wisconsin, headquarters have opted in, as have the companys college interns. Theyll be able to use the chips to unlock doors around the office, log in to computers and copy machines, and, naturally, make purchases at the in-office minimart. Now, instead of remembering hundreds of passwords, well be able to hold our hand over an RFID reader, says CEO Todd Westby. Three Square is working with Swedish company Biohax International to install the chips and is paying the roughly $300 parts-and-labor cost for employees who want them. Those who want the benefits of the chip without breaking their skin can opt to have it installed in a wearable ring or bracelet, says Westby. Other employees are free to stick to passwords and traditional badges to access computers and unlock doors. The people who dont want to be chipped are understandable, he says. This is a voluntary thing. Software engineer Jon Krusell says the company has been supportive of his decision to skip the implant and use a removable RFID ring instead. advertisement I like the technologyI just dont like it in my body, he tells Fast Company. I know you can take out the microchip, they can pop it out, but Id rather just take off a ring if I want to get rid of it. Still, the project has naturally stirred up plenty of concern that its the first step on a slippery slope to a dystopian future, and that similar chips will one day be necessary to do business, receive government services, or board a plane. Comments on the companys Facebook page reference the Bibles Book of Revelation, and its prophecy that only those with the mark of the beast will be able to buy or sell goods, and some are calling for a boycott of Three Square and its related companies. Parent company TW Vending is also the parent of Turnkey Solutions, which offers similar kiosks for use as automated prison commissaries, which has further unnerved some critics of the proposal. But general manager Dewey Wahlin says the company has no plans in the works to deploy the chips in prisons or jails. Other critics have expressed concern about the health ramifications of having such chips inside the body, and warned that Three Square or third parties will be able to use the devices to spy on the microchipped workers. (Westby emphasizes that the chips dont contain any GPS technology, so they wont be able to monitor their employees movements other than their interactions with devices in the office.) Melissa Timmins, sales director at Three Square, says shes still unsure whether to have the chip implanted. Its something thats being implanted into my body, she says. Im just a little nervous about that. Timminss 18-year-old daughter, who asked that her name not be used, doesnt share those concerns. She says shes planning to get a chip of her own, adding that she hopes to be able to use the device for payment at more stores in the future, in lieu of services like Apple Pay, believing that it will be more secure from the threat of hacking. She says she trusts the simple chip more than a complex, network-connected device like a smartphone. advertisement She also looks forward to the simplicity of paying with the palm of her hand, she says. Most stores at, like, the Mall of America accept Apple Pay, and I think thats pretty cool that you can just put your hand down [to pay], she says. Three Square isnt the first company to offer digital implants to its employees: A little over a decade ago, a Cincinnati-based surveillance system provider called CityWatcher.com made the news by embedding similar chips into a handful of employees. In response, a number of statesincluding Wisconsin, where Three Square is basedpassed laws saying employers cant require the chips. In Europe, a number of companies have offered chips under similar voluntary conditions. New Fusion, a Belgium-based digital marketing company, recently implanted chips in about a dozen employees. Managing director Vince Nys says the project to install chips and corresponding readers, a boon to employees who forget their key cards, was along the lines of a Google-style 20% time project, voluntarily undertaken by tech-curious workers. If you should force someone into doing this, that should be really wrong, he says. Its more a personal thing than a company thing. And Westby says Three Square first learned of the concept when installing its vending kiosks at Epicenter, a Stockholm coworking space, which made headlines earlier this year by offering chips to employees and members for use in unlocking rooms, activating printers, and other tasks. ' says Westby. We all looked at each other and said, Thats interesting. ' At Epicenter, too, the chips are strictly voluntary, says Epicenter CEO and Cofounder Patrick Mesterton. Theres no sort of group pressure to do anything, he says. Generally, the chips have proven more popular in workplaces outside the United States, where people are less worried about government or corporate tracking, says Amal Graafstra, author of the book RFID Toys and founder of biohacking supply company Dangerous Things. The company supplies chips to hobbyists, who install them to access doors in their homes, start their cars, or even share business card data with compatible phones. But so far, the market for more serious uses in the U.S. appears limited. In 2004, a company called VeriChip won Food and Drug Administration approval for an implantable chip that would be used to help doctors access medical record information. But the company withdrew the controversial devices from the market just a few years later, citing lack of interest. VeriChips successor company declined to comment. Laws in some states prevent companies from offering incentives to get the chips implanted, which some companies interpret as meaning that they cant pay for the devices in employees who want them. And others are worried about a potential consumer backlash, he says. If one person says, Were not going to buy your product because youre chipping employees, theyre not going to do it, Graafstra says. advertisement In other countries, the public reaction can be just the opposite, he says. In Denmark or Sweden, the company goes, We could offer implants to employees, people are going to talk about us, theyre going to talk about how innovative we are, says Graafstra. Theres no financial benefit to offering chips to employeesits just coverage. Its just corporate image.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40444110/why-would-anyone-let-their-employer-stick-a-microchip-into-their-body
|
Why Am I So Dizzy?
|
There are common reasons why you may find yourself feeling dizzy, from a rough day on a boat to twirling around one too many times. But if you cant pinpoint why youre feeling off balance, there could be another trigger you might not have thought of. Feeling a little lightheaded can be a result of an underlying medical condition or things like not drinking enough water. It could also be age-related. Below are some reasons why you may be feeling like the room is spinning, plus what you can do about them: You stood up too fast JGI/Jamie Grill via Getty Images When you get up too quickly from a sitting or lying position and your blood doesnt travel as quickly up to your head, you may experience a head-rush feeling. Medically, this is known as orthostatic hypotension, where there is a drastic drop in blood pressure when you stand up, said Dr. Sherry Ross, an OB/GYN and womens health expert at Providence St. Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, California. She noted that this typically isnt too much of a cause for concern. Our body has a way of regulating this from happening as long as you are medically healthy and well hydrated. You have an inner ear problem According to Dr. Ilan Danan, a sports neurologist at Kerlan-Jobe Center for Sports Neurology and pain medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, a common cause of vertigo is an issue called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV. BPPV is caused by a temporary malfunctioning of the inner ear canals resulting in severe dizziness and rapid involuntary movements of the eyes, known as nystagmus, he said. Katharine Miao, medical director of urgent care center CityMD, said patients with this condition usually report a sudden onset of the room spinning around them as they are getting out of bed. This type of vertigo is due to an inner ear imbalance, and patients frequently report feeling it worsen with motion, she said, adding that symptoms usually resolve on their own within a few days, but the condition can be treated with medication if necessary. Additional causes for vertigo include inner ear disorders such as Menieres disease (symptoms include loss of hearing, ringing in the ear, recurring vertigo and a feeling of fullness in the ear); labyrinthitis or vestibular neuritis (symptoms include severe dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and impaired concentration and vision); as well as issues like concussions or migraines. As a general rule of thumb, if dizziness is worse with head movements, then it causes me to be concerned about symptoms from inner ear disease, said Dr. Clifford Segil, a neurologist in private practice in Santa Monica. You have a migraine Carlo107 via Getty Images Dr. Constantine W. Palaskas, an otolaryngologist at Seattles Swedish Neuroscience Institute, said that an atypical migraine may very well be to blame for a dizzy spell. A migraine is a very common disorder, and while usually characterized by headaches, a large number of migraine sufferers may find themselves battling migraine-associated vertigo, he said. Palaskas noted that vertigo associated with a migraine can last from hours to days. Clues are sensitivity to stimuli, such as bright lights or sounds, during an episode and a personal or family history of migraine, he said. You have low blood sugar You could have low blood sugar if you havent been eating, Palaskas said, adding that this issue can lead to dizziness. Try getting some nutrients in your system as soon as you can. If this takes care of the problem and it doesnt recur, that was the likely culprit. If not, or you have other symptoms, such as chest pain, definitely call your doctor, he said. Additional symptoms of low blood sugar also called hypoglycemia may include irritability, hunger, feeling cold, sweating, nervousness and a rapid heartbeat. To ward it off, experts suggest eating balanced meals that contain protein and carbohydrates, as well as not skipping meals and packing snacks to fuel you while on the go. Your blood pressure is low When your blood pressure drops very low, it may cause you to feel dizzy or lightheaded, said Dr. Tania Elliott, an internist and associate attending at New York University Langone Health. Dr. Richard Wright, a cardiologist at Providence St. Johns in Santa Monica, said that blood pressure is measured with the systolic, or upper number i.e., the 120 in 120 over 80 and the diastolic, or lower number, the 80 in this example. He added that the most common reason that a person may become dizzy or faint is that their systolic blood pressure is temporarily too low to allow adequate blood flow to the brain. This usually occurs when the systolic pressure is less than 80, he said. It could be your medication Maskot via Getty Images According to Elliott, certain medications particularly antidepressants and other psychiatric medications, sleep medications, blood pressure medications, muscle relaxants and pain relievers can all lead to dizziness. Check the label, chat with your doctor or look into other reliable medical sources to figure out if that could be the cause. Youre older Your age may be to blame. Imbalance is really common in the elderly due to decline of vision, [as well as the] ear and brain, said Dr. Anil K. Lalwani, an otolaryngologist in New York and chair of the council of scientific trustees with the Hearing Health Foundation. Older adults are more likely to take medications that may cause dizziness as well. Youre dehydrated Lacking HO can be a huge culprit of dizziness. When your body doesnt get enough water, the volume of your blood goes down, lowering your blood pressure and keeping your brain from getting enough blood, causing lightheadedness, according to Harvard Health. Ross said conditions like severe diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating and electrolyte imbalance can cause a significant loss of body fluids, which can be a catalyst for a dizzy spell. Diuretics, blood pressure medication, marijuana and other mind-altering drugs are other causes of this phenomenon, she added. You have an iron deficiency Westend61 via Getty Images Insufficient levels of iron are often linked to anemia, a condition that can cause an array of symptoms, such as dizziness and fatigue, Palaskas said. Your doctor can do a blood test to check the level of iron in your body. A lack of iron can be treated by taking an iron supplement, but be sure to ask your doctor first. You can also boost your intake by incorporating foods such as kidney beans, spinach, Swiss chard, lentils, edamame, oats, quinoa and oysters into your diet. Youre under the weather All infections, even the common cold and flu, can ... cause of dizziness in all age groups, but even more so in the elderly, Miao said. She added that when your body gets attacked, it automatically triggers a response from your immune system, which can give you a multitude of symptoms. Other than dizziness, people frequently have headaches, fevers, weakness and chills. Miao noted that the majority of the time, these types of infections are viral in nature, but sometimes its difficult to distinguish them from bacterial infections. If you are unsure, please see your doctor for further evaluation, she said. You have motion sickness This one is obvious but still worth mentioning. Riding a roller coaster, traveling as a passenger in a car or spinning in circles with your toddler can all lead to an array of symptoms. Research shows that symptoms of motion sickness include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headache and pallor. If feeling dizzy is not a recurring problem, then its typically not a cause for concern, said Dr. Kim Langdon, medical adviser at Medzino, a European online doctor and pharmacy company. To combat a one-off dizzy spell, Langdon suggested lying down until it passes, stopping any fast movement, resting and drinking lots of water, as well as avoiding tobacco, coffee and ... drugs and alcohol until it calms down. But if the condition worsens or becomes more frequent, Langdon suggested making an appointment with your family physician. And if your dizziness is accompanied by a fever, headache, chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, nausea and/or vomiting, immediately seek medical treatment, Miao said.
|
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-am-i-dizzy_n_5c4a0275e4b0287e5b88f3fc
|
Could Hawaii Be The First State To Offer A Basic Income?
|
With trials already underway in Kenya , Finland , and Oakland , and several others planned elsewhere, basic income is starting to get a thorough testing. The idea of direct cash transfers to meet basic human needs has been getting a lot of attention in the media, from Silicon Valley leaders, and among academics and think tanks. It cant be long before a city or state in the United States experiments with basic income for itself (Oaklands pilot is run by Y Combinator, a startup incubator). Several are apparently discussing the possibility behind closed doors, but Hawaii has come the closest. In May, its legislature passed continuing resolution HCR 89, setting up a commission to study the concept. It has a remit to examine how automation, and innovation in general, will affect Hawaiis future job market and to analyze how other states and cities around the world are facing up to the challenge of delivering economic security. For the first time, a state has declared that everyone deserves basic financial security, says Chris Lee, the state representative (a Democrat) who sponsored the measure. In the wealthiest nation on the planet, we have the resources to ensure that no-one gets left behind. A lot of people might question that last statement. But as he looks at Hawaiis economic future, Lee is greatly concerned. Several of the states manufacturing industries, including pineapples and sugar, are in trouble, he says. Many residents are reliant on service jobs (like tourism) that often dont pay well and lack security. Automationlike computerized cashier desksis taking retail jobs. The state has a high homeless rate, and a very high cost of living (utility bills are 35% higher in Honolulu than in Austin, Texas, for example). And welfare, traditionally a safety net, looks less and less able to take up the slack. Hawaiis welfare benefits (TANF) are now effectively below 1996 levels, according to the Center for Budget And Policy Priorities. Moreover, says Lee, Hawaii is more isolated than other states. Sitting in the Pacific, its less able to feed off its neighbors, taking in new industries or benefiting from economic spillover effects. It lacks big anchor industries like tech or gambling. We definitely feel more exposed and a greater sense of urgency to look at new ideas, he tells Fast Company. (Alaska, another non-contiguous state, has had a sort of basic income since the early-1980s, paying out as much as $2,000 annually to residents from its oil revenues.) Lee wants Hawaii to consider paying a basic income guarantee because he believes work is no longer able to provide for everyone and because there may be ways to improve the potency and efficiency of todays public assistance budget. Hes not sure how Hawaii might pay for a basic incomewhich perhaps is the most important question of all. But he says it could mean everything from expanding the states recently passed Earned Income Tax Credit to a regular monthly payment, perhaps amounting to $1,500. Paying out a basic income to cover peoples needs, including food, housing, and childcare, may be less costly than traditional benefits, he argues. We know its going to be significantly more expensive to taxpayers and businesses if we do nothing if wages have stagnated and unemployment increases, than to create a basic income mechanism. Its not only a new safety net, but it could also encourage entrepreneurship and give people the capacity to start new businesses and make investments in themselves that they wouldnt ordinarily do, he says. Lee says he would consider cutting existing assistance programs to pay for a basic income in Hawaii.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40441607/could-hawaii-be-the-first-state-to-offer-a-basic-income
|
Can These 2 Public Servants Solve Social Security's Biggest Challenges?
|
Social Security is a vital program for tens of millions of Americans, but a financial crisis for the program is looming. For a long time now, those who follow Social Security have predicted that a major financial disruption will hit around the mid-2030s, and both current and future recipients of Social Security benefits could see devastating cuts without further action. Even with the American public becoming increasingly nervous about the future of Social Security, Washington gridlock has thus far remained an insurmountable impediment to finding a solution. For several years, the public hasn't even had a voice among the trustees of the trust that holds Social Security's asset reserves. There are supposed to be two members of the public named among the six trustees, but those spots have been vacant for years. Below, we'll go into more detail about the role that the public trustees are supposed to play -- as well as why two people who used to fill those roles have taken it upon themselves to volunteer to provide the same sort of information that they used to give in their official capacity. Three Social Security cards with a brass key on top of them. More Image source: Getty Images. How public trustees got onto Social Security's trust fund Social Security's trust fund didn't always have public trustees. Indeed, for much of the first half-century of the program's existence, only appointed government officials were entitled to a seat among the trustees of the trust fund. Today, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services are the three cabinet-level trustees, and the Commissioner of Social Security fills a fourth seat. When Social Security reform last happened, in 1983, former Fed chair Alan Greenspan led a commission that recommended two public trustees to join those overseeing the trust fund. The commission's hope was that including members of the public would boost confidence among everyday Americans about the trust fund's management. Mary Falvey Fuller and Suzanne Denbo Jaffe took their spots as the first public trustees in 1984, and subsequently, replacements were named on a regular basis. Over the years, political wrangling has led to vacancies in the post. From 2008 to 2010, no public trustees were listed, as the White House and Congress couldn't agree on who should fill the seats of the departing public trustees. A similar situation occurred in 2016, and as of the most recent trustees' report, the public trustee spots are again listed as vacant. What the most recent public trustees have said But the expiration of their terms in 2015 hasn't stopped Robert Reischauer and Charles Blahous from making their views known. Shortly after the most recent release of the trustees' report, Blahous and Reischauer issued an open letter through the Bipartisan Policy Center. In the letter, the two former public trustees discussed what they saw as the key findings of the report: The Social Security trust fund is expected to draw down its fund balances beginning this year, starting what most see as a downward spiral that will eventually led to the depletion of the trust fund. Even though the date at which financial troubles for Social Security are expected to begin has stayed stable, the fact that it's getting closer will make it more difficult for lawmakers to remedy the problem. Solving the problem currently would take either a 21% boost in tax revenue, a 17% cut in benefits, or some combination of the two. Overall, the two former public trustees said that the trustees' report used appropriate methodologies and assumptions in coming to its conclusions. Yet they still think that the public trustees have a role to play:
|
https://news.yahoo.com/2-public-servants-solve-social-110100424.html
|
Why are France's yellow vest protests so white?
|
Paris, France - Youcef Brakni was preparing to hit the send button on his Facebook post when he took a moment to reconsider. Finally, his organisation, the Adama Committee, an anti-racism and anti-police-violence group, had decided to join the yellow vest movement. But Brakni wasn't sure his voice would be heard. "We're always associated with violence," he said later. "Whether you stay out of protests or get involved, you're associated with violence." Finally, he decided to push the button and join the protests. Critical of French President Emmanuel Macron's socioeconomic policies and worried about unemployment and rising poverty in his neighbourhood, he found common ground with the yellow vest protesters. Yet his group stands out. Despite suffering from high living costs and difficult access to benefits, minorities have been reluctant to join the yellow vest movement, with few seen in demonstrations. Their absence noticed by newspapers and TV stations across France. It's a white movement. The question of minorities and their specific concerns are not central to yellow vests. Rafik Chekkat, law expert and editor of website Etat d'Exception "Banlieues are hesitant to join yellow vests" read a Le Monde article, referring to the impoverished dwellings outside urban centres, which are overwhelmingly represented by minorities. "There's been an underrepresentation of immigrants, people from North Africa or the rest of Africa," said Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme, an anti-racism organisation. With immigrants and minorities suffering from disproportionate rates of unemployment and poverty, similarities with yellow vests when it comes to pay and work are obvious. "It's the France that's forgotten, the France that's left behind," said Brakni. Yet a study by sociologist Herve Le Bras suggested that yellow vest protesters are overwhelmingly from rural areas, where there are few minority groups. "It's a white movement," said Rafik Chekkat, a law expert and editor of the website Etat d'Exception. "The question of minorities and their specific concerns are not central to yellow vests." The protests, which began late last year, have gathered momentum on issues of the erosion of people's purchasing power, the widening of the wealth gap and a proposed tax on cars' fuel consumption. They are not focused on racism nor have they embraced minorities, said Chekkat. 190127114614728 "If you look at the [2017] presidential elections, racial questions were never discussed," said Chekkat. Because minorities were left out of politics, they have not been accommodated space in demonstrations either, said Chekkat. "There's nothing new in the fact that people of colour stay out of protests." Another deterrent is how the media describes minorities, specifically in how they come from the banlieues, Chekkat said. The term is at times meant pejoratively and brings back memories of the 2005 uprising when young people in these neighbourhoods burned cars to protest police brutality and inequality under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy - who in return described them as "racaille", or scum. "There's something almost racist in using that term [banlieues] to talk about race as if people of colour were one homogenous group," said Chekkat. Banlieues were, in other cases, accused of starting the yellow vest movement; minorities are seen as troublemakers, rioters and thugs, said Chekkat. Referring to the rise of far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who made it to the second and final round of the 2017 vote, SOS Racisme's Sopo added: "France has not been immune to the rise of populism in Europe." To him, the question of racism has become unpopular across the political spectrum and has been replaced with discussions on identity and nationalism. Racist outbursts The yellow vest movement, meanwhile, has witnessed outbursts of racism. In one instance, white yellow vest protesters forced a black woman out of her car and insulted her in front of her children, telling her to "go back to [her] country." "It's white France that's suffering," said Jean-Yves Le Gallou, a self-proclaimed yellow vest member and far-right politician. "Bourgeois France duped us, telling us migrants are poor," added Eric Zemmour, a right-wing writer. Minorities have been reluctant to join a movement that might very well turn against them, said Sopo. 190125105528002 "When you're of foreign descent, you know that populism can easily turn against you," he said. "A movement with anger at its roots can easily turn it on migrants and their kids." Some minorities in urban areas have found the rallying call around tax on car oil irrelevant to them. Others were worried that joining protests would cast a negative light on a population already marginalised and attacked by state institutions. "Justice in France is not colour blind," said Chekkat, who explained that a friend of his of Arab descent was sentenced to days in prison for participating in yellow vest protests in Marseille. Minorities face tougher sentences, with immigrants comprising 30 percent of France's prison population despite accounting for less than six percent of the overall population, according to a 2015 study. Brakni decided to join the movement to use the momentum of the yellow vests to shed light on his organisation's specific concerns. The Adama Committee was created to stop police violence against minorities. It was launched after the death of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old man of Malian descent, who died in 2016 in police custody. "There's systemic racism, at the highest level of the state," said Brakni. "Police target people from former colonies. They marginalise us. They hit us, sometimes to death." With police responding violently to protests after Macron promised a crackdown, police brutality has come in the spotlight. "People see things differently now," said Brakni. Yet, while the yellow vest demonstrators have made progress with Macron walking back some of his policies, including the tax on car oil consumption, neither the movement nor the government have addressed systemic racism or discriminatory police violence. Looking at Macron's letter to start a national debate earlier this month, the focus was put on identity and immigration, not on racism. "Regarding these issues," said Brakni on systemic racism, "we'll see. It's too soon to tell."
|
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/france-yellow-vest-protests-white-190127223757928.html
|
When will Dewsbury Wetherspoons re-open after Saturday's car crash drama?
|
Dewsbury's 'The Time Piece' Wetherspoons restaurant hit the headlines this weekend after an out-of-control car smashed through its front window. And after its closure this weekend, regulars now are waiting to hear when the Northgate branch will open. Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: The incident at The Time Piece pub on Saturday was a complete shock to everyone. Fortunately no one was injured as a result of the crash. Structural engineers will be assessing the pub, but in the meantime it remains closed and at present there is no date set for its reopening. READ MORE: Car crashes into Wetherspoons Pub in Dewsbury An elderly driver was aided at the scene but was not thought to be seriously hurt. A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said on Saturday: "At 9.38am today police received a report of a vehicle which had crashed into The Time Piece pub on Northgate, Dewsbury. Emergency services attended and found a grey Saab estate car had gone into the building. The elderly driver of the car [was] receiving medical treatment at the scene, but is not thought to be seriously injured. No other injuries have been reported and the vehicle has now been removed.
|
https://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/when-will-dewsbury-wetherspoons-re-open-after-saturday-s-car-crash-drama-1-9560948
|
Has the BBC been ordered to stop reporting on Yellow Vest protests?
|
No, of course there isnt but that hasnt stopped a bonkers conspiracy theory circulating (and being forwarded by people who should know better). Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson tweeted an image, first circulated on 4Chan, claiming that the BBC had been silenced via a government notice and told not report inflammatory content about yellow vests. (Getty) It is, self-evidently, rubbish: a quick glance at the BBC site reveals dozens of stories on the yellow vests, including reports of police officers pulling guns on protesters. Pearson deleted the Tweet and apologised for being gullible. Also known as a DSMA-Notice or Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice, they are requests for editors not to publish details of a story due to national security reasons. Autistic woman raped 'by night shift worker' contracted HIV The notices are issued by the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, and are voluntary one was issued (for instance) in the wake of the Manchester bombing, requesting media outlets not to publicise details of ongoing police operations. Advertisement Advertisement Conspiracy theorists and low-rent news outlets love to claim that mainstream outlets have been silenced via D-Notices on various issues, fuelling the idea of fake news. Sorry, John, I was being gullible. https://t.co/O9VxDfqgAA Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) January 28, 2019 The lie that stories about yellow vest protesters are being silenced has been circulating since last year and has been republished by dubious outlets such as Europe Reloaded. @BBCNews Marcus Jones (@Marcus_RJones) January 22, 2019 Various activists and conspiracy theorists claimed that media had been silenced over the number of deaths in the Grenfell fire, for instance despite most outlets running back-to-back coverage. Again, the Salisbury Novichok attacks saw right-wing blogs and chemical weapons truthers claiming a D-Notice was in force. Student died after eating pasta he left out on worktop for five days
|
https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/28/bbc-ordered-stop-reporting-yellow-vest-protests-8402611/
|
Why did the Trump administration yank climate experts from Zuckerbergs national park tour?
|
As part of this years personal challenge, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been touring the country, seeking to visit every state, and getting to know real people along the way . Last Saturday, reports the Washington Post , Zuck flew to Montana, where he planned to check out the ways that climate change has ravaged the glaciers at that states fabulous Glacier National Park. The Post also writes that just days before Zucks arrival, the Trump administration decided to remove some of the experts on climate change that were originally supposed to take him around the park. You can decide for yourself.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/4044041/why-did-the-trump-administration-yank-climate-experts-from-zuckerbergs-national-park-tour
|
Did The Fed Really Throw In The Towel Already?
|
To me it sounds more like the WSJ is moving the market and not the Fed. If the Fed confirms a date or level where QT will end, I expect gold and other commodities will be very well. The Fed Timeline I have written a number of articles during the fall that the Fed will have to pause and reverse much sooner than the market has expected. So, let's look at what has been communicated before. On the 3rd of October 2018 Powell claimed we are likely a long way from normal with the following quote. We may go past neutral, but we're a long way from neutral at this point, probably. Figure 1 - Source: YCharts This was the start of the equity sell-off during the fall, which lasted until Christmas. On the 19th of December 2018, the Fed hiked rates and lowered 2019 guidance to 2 rate hikes instead of 3. The most damaging comment was likely to communicate that the balance sheet normalization was on autopilot. This caused the market to accelerate the decline. The equity market reversed after Christmas from having been a bit oversold in the short term. On the 4th of January 2019 we saw a non-farm payrolls number coming in strong at 312K instead of the consensus estimate of 177K. On the same day, the Fed also communicated the data dependence, more or less taking back the autopilot comment. We will be prepared to adjust policy quickly and flexibly and to use all of our tools to support the economy should that be appropriate to keep the expansion on track, to keep the labor market strong and to keep inflation near 2%, The market has almost ruled out further rate increases during 2019 and the focus is primarily on the balance sheet normalization. It is true that we have seen some more dovish comments from Fed officials since then. This Friday the 27th of January, a Wall Street Journal article highlighted that the balance sheet normalization might come to an end much sooner than what has previously been communicated. While I have argued this for some time, the market started pricing this in with equities increasing and gold went above $1,300/oz level for the first time in 6 months. Figure 2 - Source: TradingView Takeaways There are a few takeaways from this article. The Fed has certainly become more dovish over the last few months. The price increase in gold is likely a good indication of what will happen, if or when the Fed pauses quantitative tightening. However, the WSJ article is in my view simply speculating what can happen, there is very little tangible information in that article which would justify the market pricing this in already. If the Fed confirms that the balance sheet normalization will end, gold will likely continue to climb, but I would caution against assuming this being the time the Fed throws in the towel. I certainly expect them to do so in 2019, but I would be hesitant to assume this is that time simply based on the WSJ article and market action. Don't misunderstand me, I am still very bullish on commodities, but the action on Friday could just be that the market heard what it wanted to hear and extrapolating the dovish trajectory. I am still not bullish on U.S. equities at this level. Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
|
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4235885-fed-really-throw-towel-already
|
Is Yelp a fair way judge a business?
|
The internet and social media have long proved to be important tools when it comes to promoting a small business, but sometimes, they also can have the opposite effect. Over the last few years, online review platforms such as Yelp.com have occassionally made headlines due to complaints from business owners and others that certain reviews are overly negative, fake or unfairly ranked to make poor reviews more prominent. In a few cases, these complaints have led to court cases. In July, the Associated Press reported on a California Supreme Court that found that Yelp could not be ordered to remove posts against a San Francisco law firm that another lower court judge originally had determined were defamatory. In a divided 4-3 opinion, the higher court ruled removal orders obtained against Yelp "could interfere with and undermine the viability of an online platform." Some local business owners, however, are more worried that Yelp and similar websites could interfere with and undermine their livelihoods. And while many complaints are about unfair reviews from users, at least one local business believes Yelp's own policies are the problem. "Yelp is targeting small businesses by withholding positive reviews," said Michael Brown, executive director of Rome Main Street and owner representative for Copperccino's Coffee House, which opened Nov. 1. "There are multiple lawsuits against their predatory practices. Our new business has 33 positive reviews (with 4 to 5 stars) and Yelp is only counting three bad reviews from our first week in business." A review of the cafe's Yelp page shows it currently has a one-and-a-half star rating based on five "recommended" reviews. A nondescript link at the bottom of that list of reviews gives users the option of viewing "36 other reviews that are not currently recommended." As Brown said, those hidden reviews appear to be overwhelmingly positive. On Facebook, by comparison, the cafe currently has a 4.9 out of a five-star rating based on 54 reviews. Brown said the business got a few negative Yelp reviews the first few weeks they were open, but questioned whether those early reviews should forever haunt the enterprise. "We were working the bugs out," he said. Other local business owners also have expressed concern about the fairness of some online reviews, including those on Facebook and Google. "I will say this," local entrepreneur Jack Pflanz wrote as part of one Facebook thread on the topic. "I disagreed with someone on their political views, and because I did, they went to my business Facebook page and gave me one star." Brown said he called Yelp to object to Copperccino's ranking, but was dismayed that the conversation did not go well. The customer service representative was rude, he said. He remembered asking the representative why some positive reviews were apparently disappearing. "He said, 'We don't have to be fair. We're Yelp,'" Brown remembers. "It's awful," he added. "(Business owners) have no recourse. They hold these things over their head. There's so many cards stacked against you as a business person to have this large company go against you." When Yelp was asked for an interview, an emailed statement was provided that explained how their review ranking algorithm works. "Yelps goal has always been to protect consumers and provide trustworthy and reliable content," the statement reads. "Our automated recommendation software is engineered to highlight the most useful and relevant content to consumers. Our recommendation software weeds out reviews that may be fake, biased, solicited or unhelpful rants or raves. We err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting consumers and providing trustworthy and reliable content, so sometimes our software weeds out real reviews from real people because we just dont know enough about the user to recommend their opinion to our community. We cant say for certain why any specific review is displayed first or becomes not recommended. Our recommendation software looks at a number of data points to determine if a review is trustworthy. More often than not, the reviews we recommend come from the most active and engaged members of the Yelp community." One option for those who feel they've been treated unfairly by a business is to file a complaint with the state Attorney General's Office. Then, if enough complaints are received regarding a particular issue, a division of the office opens an inquiry. "We always encourage people to file complaints. Those lead to investigation," a spokesman said recently. Regarding the Yelp algorithms specifically, however, the state Attorney Generals Office noted that they were examined about five years ago and found to be acceptable. Contact reporter Jolene Cleaver at 315-792-4956 or follow her on Twitter (@OD_Cleaver).
|
https://www.uticaod.com/news/20190128/is-yelp-fair-way-judge-business
|
Could Driverless Cars Turn Manhattan Into A Lush Pedestrian Paradise?
|
But whats less certain is how our cities will change to accommodate them. Some urban designers propose ripping out streets and planting parks, for example, while MIT technologists imagine intersections with no traffic signals at all. Meanwhile, another new concept called Loop NYC envisions how New Yorks existing infrastructure could be adapted for AVsand how it could make room for more walkable streets throughout the city. The concept, created by the architecture and engineering firm EDG, involves transforming existing highways and thoroughfares into a ring of self-driving car expressways to make traveling in and out of the city more efficient. One lane in each direction of the FDR and West Side Highway would be reserved for autonomous vehicles, and so would major cross streets, like 14th, 23rd, 34th, 57th, and 86th. The concept calls for building pedestrian overpasses on these streets so that people and cars are separate, reducing the potential for collisions. EDG also calls for turning existing boulevards in the city into linear parks where bikes and pedestrians can freely move. In EDGs plan, vehicular travel is restricted to just a few streets, meaning that multimodal transportationlike walking, biking, or using subwayswould have to take the place of AVs on the streets they dont serve. Its not unlike car-free zones in European cities like Madrid, Paris, and Copenhagenbut on a much larger scale. There are several uncertainties in EDGs plan, too, like how drivers would hail the AVs, what would happen to the rest of the street grid that isnt part of the AV expressway, and if the designers imagine conventional vehicles operating alongside AVs. These are issues that urban designers and technologists will face as self-driving cars infiltrate our streetsand as we begin to reevaluate the infrastructure and safety protocols, created largely for automobiles, that govern our cities.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/90133918/could-driverless-cars-turn-manhattan-into-a-lush-pedestrian-paradise
|
How does Rangers boss Steven Gerrard solve the Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis puzzle?
|
Get Rangers updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email The arrival of Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis were hailed as game-changing signings for Steven Gerrard. Two proven, reliable campaigners who could another dimension to a Rangers side that, off the back of dumping Celtic at Ibrox, was now eyeing a title challenge. But the sheer weight of their presence could, and perhaps already is, causing Gerrard a problem. The pair were thrown in from the off at Kilmarnock and, for 20 minutes, it worked a treat. Defoe took just 12 minutes to score and Davis slotted into the heart of midfield as Rangers piled the pressure on Killie. (Image: SNS Group) (Image: Getty Images) But when Joe Worrall's brain short-circuited momentarily to hand Eamonn Brophy a free pop at Allan McGregor's goal, things took a turn for the worse. By the time Jordan Jones intercepted Ryan Kent's dodgy crossfield pass before firing home the winner, fingers were already being pointed at the manager. It was suggested that travelling to one of the most notoriously tough grounds in the country was perhaps not the time for experimentation - not least given how effective Rangers were against Celtic before the winter shutdown. Gerrard refuted the notion that tactics had anything to do with the defeat and pointed to the individual errors that Killie punished ruthlessly. He said: "I dont think it was responsible. We beat ourselves at Kilmarnock, it was nothing to do with tactics or formation. It was to do with a defender gifting Kilmarnock a goal and then being done on a counter-attack after a square pass. It had nothing to do with personnel, 4-4-2 or 4-3-3." (Image: SNS Group) Individual mistakes there may have been, but the fact Gerrard said all this AFTER dropping both Defoe and Davis for the trip to Livingston suggests his tinkering didn't quite work. The Old Firm win was Rangers at their best - Kent, Scott Arfield and Daniel Candeias were all integral and Ross McCrorie may just have come of age that day. But with the hefty outlay the club have made on Davis and Defoe, it seems unlikely they will be relegated to bit-part roles. The lack of width against Killie was obvious and an error Gerrard moved quickly to atone for by restoring Kent and Candeias to the side that beat Livi. It's a key component of this Rangers team and to see it sacrificed again would be a real surprise - the confidence is surging through Kent and Candeias' tenacity sets the tone for the high press Gerrard loves. (Image: SNS Group) Fitting Davis into the side seems the simpler task given his adaptability in midfield. The three across the middle can be rotated and although McCrorie has impressed, he's not likely to play every game given how much importance Gerrard has placed on being careful with his development. Davis could sit at the base of midfield or be deployed slightly further forward. The Northern Irishman is no No.10 and may not have the legs he did a decade years ago, but there's still enough experience and nous to affect the game in all areas. It's Defoe's place in the team that may prove the bigger headache. Morelos has excelled as a lone striker but it's unclear how he would fare with a partner alongside him on a regular basis. That's not to say he's not capable, there's just been precious few occasions where he's been asked to dovetail with a team-mate up top in a Rangers shirt. The obvious option is to revert to a flat 4-4-2 that ensures Defoe's place in the side and retains width. But it also breaks up the midfield trio that provide so much industry, even if they do still lack a touch of craft and guile. However, the 4-2-3-1 that has been Gerrard's go-to hasn't always worked against sides who look to sit in and frustrate. Gerrard has been criticised for a lack of flexibility and the diamond we saw at Rugby Park wasn't suited to breaking up the so-called "low block". Unless a No.10 arrives between now and the end of the window, perhaps the better option for Gerrard is to sacrifice one midfielder and play two up top, while still deploying the likes of Kent and Candeias on the flanks. Defoe's already shown his predatory instinct and instead of shoehorning someone into the hole behind the strikers, perhaps a front two would give stout defences something else to think about. As good as Morelos has been, he can become isolated in games where Rangers are struggling to create, therefore an added presence alongside him could be beneficial. Of course, there's the option to go 3-5-2 but Gerrard has been reluctant to retread that path following a difficult afternoon at Motherwell. The winger's attacking instincts could be inhibited if he's given further responsibility going the opposite way. Regardless, it's a real challenge for the Rangers manager. His ability to adapt when plan A isn't working has been questioned but that's the risk the club have taken in hiring in inexperienced coach. If Gerrard can find a way to successfully incorporate the pair, not just shoehorn them in, then it could be huge for Rangers. Time will tell.
|
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/how-rangers-boss-steven-gerrard-13916963
|
How Cheap Does Geothermal Need To Be Before It Becomes The Next Solar?
|
At a cost of $80,000 and upwards, geothermal systems have often been too expensive for homeowners, even if harnessing the natural temperatures of the earth will eventually mean year-round savings on heating and cooling, and no more oil and propane tanks in the basement. Thats the hope of a New York startup called Dandelion. It has developed a whole new process for installing, packaging, and financing home geothermal systems, thus cutting the typical cost by up to three-quarters. Developed over two years at X, Alphabets moonshot factory, Dandelion recently won $2 million in seed financing from venture capital firm Collaborative Fund, plus other firms like ZhenFund and Borealis Ventures. The startup currently operates in 11 New York counties (Dutchess, Ulster, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Saratoga, Montgomery, and Fulton) and plans its first installations this September. Our goal is a product where homeowners who use expensive fuels today can switch to a geothermal system, pay no money down, and still have their financed payment be lower than their normal operational payment, Kathy Hannun, Dandelions CEO, tells Fast Company. The cost of paying off a loan to build the system, in other words, will be lower than what homeowners would normally pay for oil or gas power over that same period, Hannun says. Dandelion hopes to do for geothermal what companies like Solar City and Sunrun have done for home solar: reduce equipment prices, wring efficiencies out of the installation process, and offer new types of financing packages where homeowners pay monthly instead of all-upfront. Geothermal systems have two main elements: an electric heat pump inside the home, and ground loops dug into the garden (Dandelions go down about 500 feet). The systems exploit the natural heat of the ground below a house (in New York, its a constant 50 degrees Fahrenheit). In winter, the pump circulates water through the loops absorbing warmth in the ground and bringing it inside the home. The heat is condensed, then transferred into circulating air. In summer, the systems transfers the water and heat to the ground, cooling the air inside a home. The heat pump is roughly the same size as an oil furnace, which Dandelion installs alongside a water heater and smart thermostat. Dandelions value proposition rests in simplifying and standardizing the installation process.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40440653/how-cheap-does-geothermal-need-to-be-before-it-becomes-the-next-solar
|
Are Jules and Cam the most perfect MAFS match ever?
|
Married At First Sight has become infamous for its appalling track record when it comes to matching couples, but it looks like the show has finally got it right for once. On Monday night's season six premiere, barber Jules Robinson, 36, was paired with cricketer Cameron Merchant, 34, in a fairy-tale ceremony so perfect it seemed to be written in the stars. The couple appeared to fall in love at first sight, with an instant connection so strong it left Jules' mother into tears. Married At First Sight finally got it right on Monday as Jules Robinson, 36, married Cam Merchant, 34, in a fairy tale ceremony so perfect it seemed to be written in the stars 'You look stunning,' gushed Cam as he laid eyes on his new bride for the first time. 'You're absolutely beautiful,' he continued. Jules was just as smitten, saying in a piece to camera that her new husband had 'the kindest smile' and that their meeting 'instantly felt good.' Smitten: 'You look stunning,' gushed Cam as he laid eyes on his new bride for the first time She's happy! Jules was just as smitten, saying in a piece to camera that her new husband had 'the kindest smile' and that their meeting 'instantly felt good' The red headed bride fought back tears as Cam recited his touching wedding vows, with her bottom lip visibly quivering as he pledged himself to her. 'I'm so happy right now,' she expressed. 'Everything he said was a moment, it was really beautiful.' The new couple kissed at the altar and later shared another smooch at their wedding reception. Emotional: The red headed bride fought back tears as Cam recited his touching wedding vows, with her bottom lip visibly quivering as he pledged himself to her 'They just seem so comfortable together, they just seem really happy': Cam got the stamp of approval from Jules' mother Evelyn, whose eyes were red from crying from emotion A perfect moment: Jules and Cam were inseparable as they enjoyed their first dance Cam got the stamp of approval from Jules' mother Evelyn, whose eyes were red from crying after the heartwarming ceremony. 'I'm really happy for her,' said Evelyn. 'I think she really likes him. They just seem so comfortable together, they just seem really happy.' The couple's fated union almost experienced a hiccup when it turned out that Cam was shorter than Jules, but the blushing bride admitted that the height issue didn't bother her. In a piece to camera, Jules said: 'Height is no longer an issue for me... He's confident, he's charming, great smile, kind eyes. I'm winning, I'm definitely winning' 'I'm quite curvy and I wanted someone that was taller than me,' she admitted to a stunned Cam. 'But as soon as I got to you, I promise you, that all went [away].' In a piece to camera, Jules said: 'Height is no longer an issue for me... He's confident, he's charming, great smile, kind eyes. I'm winning, I'm definitely winning.' Channel Nine had previously teased that a bride on this season of MAFS would 'fall madly in love at first sight,' and now it's clear that they were referring to Jules. Married At First Sight will continue on Channel Nine at 7:30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
|
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6638761/Are-Jules-Cam-perfect-MAFS-match-ever.html
|
What Will Happen To Clean Energy Startups Under Trump?
|
In the middle of the Nevada desert, 10,000 billboard-sized mirrors reflect sunlight onto a tower that stores the energy in molten saltan innovative way to make solar power available to nearby Las Vegas at night . In Arizona, Fluidic Energy designs rechargeable, next generation batteries for energy storage that are in use around the developing world. In Oregon and elsewhere, the solar developer SunPower is using drones to more quickly plot the ideal configuration for solar farms, and robots to clean panels so they can absorb more sunlight. All of these technologies got their start at least in part because of government funding, from sources that may dwindle or disappear under Trump. The White Houses proposed budget eliminates the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), as does a spending bill currently in Congress. The Congressional bill also cuts funding roughly in half for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Trump wanted to cut it 71.9%). It cuts 2018 funding for energy programs in the Department of Energy by $1.7 billion compared to 2017 (Trump wanted to cut it by an additional $2.3 billion). This is happening when the renewable energy industry is arguably stronger than it ever has been before. In 2016, more than half of all new energy installations used renewable sources. Solar and wind are now cheaper than coal power in many markets, and in about a decade, solar is likely to be cheaper than natural gas. Cleantech startups are thriving. But its also possible that changes in policy and government funding could slow down future innovation. Large energy companies, who often invest in startups with new technology, typically dont want to fund nascent innovations that arent already proven. If they look externally, theyre going to look at companies that have already established themselves, that have a product that can come to market relatively quickly, says Rohit Shukla, CEO of the Larta Institute, a company that helps commercialize technologies funded by federal grants. In the past, the riskiest new ideas might have had a better chance of getting a government grant. Who fills that gap is the real issue, Shukla tells Fast Company. Theres so much good science coming out from universities or smaller companies. And yet theres no particular support for the first phases of bringing that technology to a particular point so that they then become acceptable and worthwhile for larger companies to invest in. The possibility of slower progress is worrying some of those larger companies, not just the researchers and entrepreneurs working on very early-stage technology. Ive been having conversations with some of the larger companies, and theyre nervous because they benefit from the cleantech startups that can take the risks they cant, says Eliot Metzger, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute, a global research organization. Theyre worried that this stunts their growth.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40437401/what-will-happen-to-clean-energy-startups-under-trump
|
Why Are So Many Bottles Sqround?
|
Theyve all embraced the same type of bottle for their products. Its not exactly a square. And its not exactly round. The official term is sqround,' says John Zelek, Senior Creative at Soylent. The companys new bottles are shipping now. Soylent redesigned its own bottle a mere two years after the company launched its first pre-bottled drink. The food startup known for its mixable powder had made the leap to full-fledged, meal replacement beverage, but to do so quickly, Soylent also made a compromise: It used an off-the-shelf bottle its manufacturer had in stock rather than create its own bottle from scratch. The cylindrical white bottle had a wide mouth and a rounded neck. It was almostbut not quiteas neutral as the Soylent brand itself. Because with an almost art deco flourish, it tapered toward the bottom and had feet at the bottom to add stability. It was the kind of thing we needed then, says Zelek. We used it as a blank canvas to put our brand on. But there were a couple of issues with it. Part of it was about ensuring competitors couldnt put their name on bottles that looked just like Soylents. But the larger problem was that Soylent had chosen this cylindrical bottle for a product that was shipped in 12-packs straight to consumers, taking the abuse of warehouse pallets and UPS trucks. Two circles are going to have one pressure point. If you hit one side of the box, all of the bottles are going to smash into each other, says Zelek. A lot of the time, wed ship to consumers, and the bottle would show up dinged. It just didnt set up the best look possible.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/90131777/why-are-so-many-bottles-sqround
|
What was Timothee Chalamet reading at the Sag Awards?
|
(Picture: TNT) Timothee Chalamet left SAG Awards viewers rather confused on Sunday night when he was pictured with his head in a book during the ceremony. As the cameras panned to Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Timothee who was sat next to John was seen not paying attention to what was happening on stage and was instead having a good old read. @EW @timmyisabunny list of signatures in a petition to sue the Oscars Nohemi (@Nohemi_Madrid) January 28, 2019 @EW He looks like he's last minute studying for SAT's. Sassbox Grand Supreme (@MissSassbox) January 28, 2019 @EW Dune script Infinity War of the Roses (@OscarPurgatory) January 28, 2019 In a perfect world, Timothe Chalamet would be reading the script for the Call Me By Your Name sequel. twitter.com/EW/status/1089 (@DavidRP91) January 28, 2019 The 23-year-old actor was snubbed by the guild who awarded the win for best supporting actor to Mahershala Ali for Green Book. Advertisement Advertisement Timothee was also snubbed from the Oscars, as he failed to pick up an expected nomination for the Steve Carell-led Beautiful Boy. If you've got a story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk Entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Brian McFadden is convinced that Westlife dont like him except Nicky
|
https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/28/every-theory-may-explain-timothee-chalamet-reading-sag-awards-8402326/
|
Can These Innovative Journalism Projects Find The Future Of News?
|
By early 2018, New Cave Media, a Ukraine-based organization plans to launch an app called Aftermath VR, which uses photogrammetryor the science of taking measurements from photosto create 3D renderings of events like mass shootings or natural disasters with the sort of scope and scale thats sometimes needed to make them comprehensible. About the same time, Voxhop, a Cambridge, Massachusetts research group, will debut another reporting tool to share what happened a crime scene with immersive video that switches focus, allowing an event to be seen and narrated from multiple witness perspectives. Meanwhile, the Arizona Republic and USA Today will have gone all-in on a VR-augmented reality hybrid: In the coming months, theyre expected to create a series of VR videos showing the proposed border wall as it begins going up between the U.S. and Mexico, including from a birds-eye view but, the imagery overlaid with relevant statistics about things like mounting costs, progress, and economic and cultural impacts. Thats because all three of those groups, and eight more, has received between $15,000 and $30,0000 of a $285,000 pot put up by the Knight Foundation, Google News Lab, and The Online News Association as part of the Journalism 360 Challenge, a competition that focused on answering one question: How might we experiment with immersive storytelling to advance the field of journalism? The Journalism 360 Challenge generated 812 submissions within the U.S. and several other countries including Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Norway, Germany, and the UK since it was announced in March. The winning answers showcase the boldest tech-enabled plans to help newsmakers craft better narratives, ensure more ethical storytelling, and democratize production for underrepresented or underfunded groups within industry. Entrants ranged from classic print and broadcast groups, to universities, and digital startups. I think the through line with these grant recipients is accessibility, says challenge director Laura Hertzfeld in an email, who notes that projects like The Wall from Arizona Republic and USA Today are aimed at creating new ways of experiencing content and making hard-to-reach places available to a wider audience. The idea of accessibility applies in another way, too: Some projects at places like City University of New York and Northwestern are aimed at making it easier for those in the field to make and distribute VR-related content, including through smartphones. That money comes with a fittingly tight deadline: All teams now have six to 12 months to make their concepts a true reality. Theyre expected to share results by early 2018, in hopes that other groups might adopt whats working.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40439941/can-these-innovative-journalism-projects-find-the-future-of-news
|
How Long Can We Really Expect a Respite from the Shutdown?
|
"How Pelosi won the shutdown battle." That was a headline on the Politico website following President Trump's announcement of an agreement that reopened the government. But the article never mentioned the fact that this was only a lull in the battle a three-week suspension. Both sides claim victory, and both remain undeterred. So, in three weeks, it will likely all heat up again. During his announcement, President Trump recognized the hardships suffered from the shutdown and noted that several Democrats had quietly expressed a willingness to negotiate a real solution. He made it clear that, come February 15, if Democrats still refuse reasonable funding for a border wall, either the government will shut down again or he will fund it through other means. Senator Pelosi was certainly emboldened by the polls, suggesting that most Americans hold the president responsible for this shutdown. Perhaps that was because of his intemperate remark during that meeting with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. It may be because the liberal press joins the Democrats in propagating that narrative. Or it could just stem from our tendency to hold the person at the top responsible when things go wrong. But a more objective look shows a different picture. It turns out that even the president can't compel federal employees to work without pay. That's where the budget and Congress come in. The impasse congressional Democrats' refusal to pass a budget that accommodates Trump's demand for a border wall suggests that both sides were equally responsible for the shutdown. Still, while Trump made several overtures to the Democrats, Pelosi and Schumer were, and apparently still are unwilling to give an inch, steadfastly refusing to consider any funding for the wall. A negotiated compromise seems to be the best solution, but since the Democrats' concept of negotiation seems to be "Give me what I want, and then we'll talk," these five basic rules of negotiation are offered for her benefit: You have to first come to the bargaining table. Pelosi's and Schumer's supporters might believe that those jaunts to Hawaii and Puerto Rico and that truncated trip to Brussels were really intended to ease the pain they claim to share with those furloughed federal workers. But, as President Trump strongly suggested, the best way to help those workers is to remain in Washington and negotiate a budget. Know what you want. Successful negotiation requires clear goals. Not that long ago, many leading Democrats firmly opposed illegal immigration. In 2009, Schumer announced that illegal immigration is wrong, "plain and simple." Then, during the 2018 campaign, they were all beating your breasts for illegal aliens, wailing about building bridges, not walls. Now, once again, they claim to oppose illegal immigration while at the same time encouraging it with tantalizing incentives, like sanctuary cities, free health care, and offers of in-state college tuition for illegal aliens. Along with those calls to abolish ICE, what Democrats want is becoming increasingly clear. Their goal is not to negotiate a budget, but to defeat Trump's plans to secure our border. That's called negotiating in "bad faith." Don't negotiate in bad faith Try candor. Be honest. Democrats should stop pretending they bear no responsibility for the shutdown. Don't argue that "walls are ineffective," when common sense and most experts tell us they work when statistics show illegal crossings dropping dramatically where walls are constructed. Don't try to argue that surveillance systems, alarms, and fences alone can prevent the kind of chaos that recently occurred when hordes of caravanners trekking north stampeded across the flimsy fencing separating Guatemala and Mexico. And don't say walls are immoral when you know they help prevent crime. Don't talk about morality when you refuse to even meet with Angel Families, Americans whose lives were upended by criminals who had no right to be in this country. Don't overplay your hand. Democrats may believe that polling data puts them in a strong bargaining position, but external events can quickly change that. More caravans, more illegal border crossings, and more Angel Families are inevitable, and that will only increase the demand for real border security. Unless they can reach a negotiated compromise in three weeks, we'll be back to square one, and voters will finally come to understand that they care more about hurting President Trump than you do about border security or government shutdowns. Those favorable polls will change, and their bargaining advantage will quickly evaporate. Always remain detached and dignified. Both sides have violated this cardinal rule, but Democrats' decision to hold the State of the Union address hostage to their demands is unprecedented. While it makes them a hero to the left, history will record you both as the first woman speaker of the House and the most ruthless, self-serving politician to ever hold that position. So it wasn't Nancy Pelosi's obstinacy that won the shutdown battle. Nor was it those endless tears she and the Democrats cried over the furloughed federal workers. They could have opened the government, though, simply by offering a budget that funded even a portion of the border wall. It was Donald Trump's reason and compassion that ended the stalemate, not Pelosi's crocodile tears. Now, if Democrats can stop gloating long enough to begin meaningful negotiations, they may be able to prevent a resumption of the shutdown or some unilateral action by the president.
|
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/how_long_can_we_really_expect_a_respite_from_the_shutdown.html
|
Can the Republic Survive the Mainstream Media?
|
People complain of the cultural turmoil and upset in the country without realizing that the mainstream media which nowadays includes almost all broadcast media as well as the digital giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter, and others are the main determinants of the mood and cultural milieu of the United States. At this point it is inescapable that unless the mainstream media are happy, we cannot, as a society, be happy. While almost nobody fully grasps the profound cultural influence of the media, we all respond to media-fostered agitation when theyre upset notably when conservative/Republican ideas are in the ascendance and the relative calm and quiescence when their like-minded, left-leaning Democrats are in charge. A sad, perhaps damning adjunct in terms of cultural survival is that while we feel the swings in mood of the culture, most of us have little idea about the medias pivotal influence. Instead we buy into media-generated mis-assignment of blame (and consequently into dysfunctional solutions). All of us hope for a peaceful national/cultural mood: were all driven to escape the querulous, fractious atmosphere that pervades during periods of Republican dominance. And we learn behaviorally by experiencing the milieus foisted on us by the media that tranquility can only come our way when their designated proper people are in office. Disquieting agitation will ever prevail when idiots like Reagan, Bush 43 and Trump aloof patricians like Bush 41or Nazis like Trump and Bush 43 are in power. The subliminal behavioral message is powerful although its underpinnings remain concealed: if you want to experience cultural peace and tranquility, it can ONLY happen when Democrats are in power (concealed in part by a media pattern of portraying the current Republican leader as appalling while occasionally celebrating those of the past, like Reagan and G.H.W. Bush, who, most importantly from the medias perspective, have quit the arenas of power). An unfortunate element, which bodes ill for the possibility of finding a solution, is that the media seem generally unaware of their prejudices, complicity and cultural power. For the vast majority of them, Trump really is to blame for the cultural upheaval just as future Republican presidents Riley, Smith or Jones will be to blame for the upheaval during their tenures. You can almost hear the future outcry consistent with their pattern: And we thought Trump was bad! At least he talked to us. Theres never been anybody as dysfunctional and dangerous as Riley! Exacerbating factors that make this period particularly perilous include: -- Media groupthink, constantly groomed and tended by a compliant social media: those who stray from the paradigm are, through dint of social and administrative forces, excluded or removed. -- Increasingly selective and tainted media reporting of events, with both elevation of their groupthink heroes and denigration of their villains and positive reinforcement within the group for the debasement of their craft. Events and people that the media choose to ignore or hide effectively dont exist, while elements they elevate or invent become central in our lives. Rather than attempting to report news without prejudice, they seem to regard themselves as agents of positive change within the culture, directed from their groupthink perspective. Illustrative of the corruption of both the media and the compliant academy, ask yourself how many youngsters/college students youve met whove become incensed about the unconscionable story invented by top federal officials to explain the Benghazi disaster to the grieving families and the nation; the officials added the implication and pursuit of an innocent filmmaker to bolster their invented story. This is one of countless examples of reprehensible behavior by public officials that the media renders invisible to much of the nation by failing to note, focus on, or scrutinize it. Concretize the point by asking a nearby college student what he or she thinks of the governments response to Benghazi: the response will be a blank stare and perhaps, I didnt even know that Ben was in trouble. -- Fear and cowering from Republican/conservative politicians secondary to decades of nearly wholly effective intimidation and, effectively, domination by the mainstream media. When the media has chosen to take down a Republican over the last 50 years, which is fairly often, they have been batting almost 1000, which is why the failed Billy Bush kill shot of candidate Trump was viscerally infuriating to them. While favored Democrats run afoul of decency and the law with impunity, the media demand that Republicans respond to perceived impropriety by resigning, apologizing, and, if the media hit the jackpot, testifying to a special counsel. For the last 50 years, the media have been shooting Republican fish in a barrel. These are also major factors contributing to why most Republicans seem more comfortable in the minority; at least there they can temporarily keep their heads down and enjoy a less precarious existence. Their irrelevance and relative powerlessness gives them welcome respite from the media crosshairs and its highly effective elimination strategies. -- A general failure to confront political malfeasance, made the more present by the left-leaning digital worlds ability to effectively target and crucify those with whom it disagrees. The reach and left-leaning bias of the digital universe makes the old Beria quote, Show me the man and Ill find you the crime, the more culturally alarming. There is little information that cant be discovered and distributed on the web. Many on the left have scant compunction about using discovered or invented information to destroy Republicans and conservatives because they believe that its justified in furthering their world vision. At the same time most on the left are blind to their reservoirs of anger and hate, a stance encouraged by unenthusiastic to nonexistent reporting about it by print, broadcast and digital media. A good example is the anemic coverage and analysis of the attempted mass assassination of Republicans at the softball practice. -- Because the controllers of the digital world are almost exclusively left wing, Republicans face a stultifying obstacle in distributing their information. Supporters of left-wing causes and the information they advance are heralded while distribution of conservative information is curtailed. -- A decline in education so that a substantial minority or even the majority of Americans are ignorant of our countrys founding ideas and principles, and clueless regarding disastrous historical epochs, the precepts of which are being echoed by some contemporary politicians. Many Americans have neither the capacity nor motivation to challenge the media. The difficulty is massively exacerbated by groupthink throughout most of the academy, with social and administrative elements including political correctness enforcing compliance with allowed thought, while stragglers and the recalcitrant are punished and isolated. Those familiar with the thought and behavioral control techniques of the Soviets or Chinas Red Guard will note similarities. A few conclusions: -- We are surrounded by a cloud of broadcast, digital and entertainment media inputs that create and sustain the nature and tone of the culture. Because essentially all central figures controlling this cloud are aligned with liberals/Democrats and are unhappy, even disgusted with Republicans/conservatives, you can forget about experiencing a settled, non-agitated culture until Democrats/liberals regain control of government. This is consistent with the increasingly frequent observation that the only way to temporarily free oneself from a daily underlying sense of upset and dismay is to limit or eliminate broadcast and digital news inputs from your life. -- A malignant aspect of the reciprocal, reinforcing relationship between the prejudiced media and its audience and one that may signify that the United States as founded may already have passed is the end of equal protection under the law. At this point the bedrock principle seems little more than a quaint bygone concept. -- The attempted elimination of Trump the outsider, political iconoclast and disrupter is not the beginning but the culmination of broad and multipronged processes that have been in the ascendance for at least 50 years and which we have mostly ignored or shrugged off, including: the creation and sustenance of the cultural mind by the broad electronic media (coincident with the withering of genuine education and stabilizing, nurturing families/social groups); widespread acceptance of unequal justice under the law, largely through ignorance and the influence of selective media reporting (for example, the above noted Benghazi filmmaker; Chappaquiddick; Bill Clintons Juanita Broaddrick; the sickening decades of Kermit Gosnell) the growing fear, even terror of the media felt by non-liberal politicians while those aligned with the progressive media, which cultivates and sustains them, are growing in audacity and fearlessness; the use of sweeping, instantaneous information distribution through social media to police the non-compliant; and the alignment of all levels of education with the progressive/media goals, rather than encouraging broad information gathering and independent thought. History has unpredictable and unexplainable anomalies: the appearance of Charlemagne and the stabilization that he brought, or the explosion of humanism in 15th century Florence. But barring such an aberration, its difficult to imagine how a visionary whos out of step with leftists could survive the combination of the medias machinations and social media crucifixions. So, no, Mr. Franklin, it appears that we couldnt sustain the republic. We may already have been done-in by the silencing of dissent through oppressive control of information and near-instant social pummeling of the non-compliant; along with coincident and, in some respects, consequent atrophy of independent thought; the terror of non-compliant politicians; and widespread ignorance of and indifference toward the countrys mission and laws. Time will tell. Graphic credit: Croppped from Glass Lamp via Pixabay. David Harris is a pen name.
|
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/can_the_republic_survive_the_mainstream_media_.html
|
Could the iPhone 7 lose those unsightly plastic strips?
|
A new rumour suggests that Apple has found a way to overcome the ugly plastic band of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Although Apple's most handsets are often praised for being decent-looking bits of kit, the plastic bands that Apple included to help radio waves get to the iPhone's antennas stuck out like a sore thumb. Urgh. However a new patent filed by Apple suggests that it has found a way around this, so that future iPhones won't have their all-metal bodies spoilt by some garish plastic. Plastic not so fantastic The patent describes combining materials such as metal oxides to create a new composite metal material that looks and feels like metal, but will still allow radio frequencies to pass through. This would mean future iPhones could retain a premium all-metal look and feel without compromising wireless strength. The patent wouldn't just apply to iPhones either, so Macs and other Apple devices could benefit from this. Apple suggests that the new material could be used for trackpads on new Macbooks, so the body looks completely sleek and unified. Not all patents end up becoming real-world devices or technologies, but for anyone who thinks the plastic bands around the recent iPhones is a bit of an eyesore, you'll want Apple to make good on this patent promise. Via Business Insider
|
https://www.techradar.com/au/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/could-the-iphone-7-lose-those-unsightly-plastic-strips-1297425
|
Can A Maternity Concierge Service Help Keep Women On The Leadership Track?
|
Charnella Grossman is a vice president and senior portfolio manager in Fifth Third Banks investment advisory group. Shes also a mother of a 1-year old and is currently 38 weeks pregnant with her second child. Grossman is planning to take full advantage of Fifth Third Banks paid leave policy (four weeks for both moms and dads who have a new baby, adopt, or foster a child in addition to six weeks of medical leave for women after they give birth) when her baby is born. But shes also using another benefit right now thats relatively new to her employer. For the last several months, Grossmans been using Fifth Third Banks Maternity Concierge for everything that isnt work related. She ticks off tasks like picking up dry cleaning and helping her replace broken heels to organizing the new nursery. They helped me order my breast pump that Ill use [when I return to work], she adds, all so she can focus on her job while shes in the office. Thats exactly why Maternity Concierge was started in late January and then rolled out as a virtual concierge for employees of the banks locations across 10 states. Fifth Thirds chief administrative officer, Teresa Tanner, says that she took note of how many women she spoke to reached a career pivot point when they began planning to start a family. Tanner says that while benefits like flex time, part time, and job sharing can help, Theres a big cost to that, you still delay your career or slow it down. Fifth Third Bank is a rare example of a financial institution that skews female. Just over 60% of the banks total of 18,473 employees are women. We looked at making sure theres not unconscious bias keep them from being promoted, Tanner asserts. But she points out, If you look at executive management its not near what I want it to be. This pipeline is getting clogged, and a lot of it is because women are self selecting out. A recent Kauffman report reveals a broader trend. Since 2000, womens labor force participation has actually stagnated despite Census data showing women now hold more bachelors degrees than men. This is due in part to the astronomical cost of childcare, especially for parents of multiple children, making it more cost effective for one parent to stay homeand thanks to the gender wage gap, that person is often the mom. So the question became how to keep women from opting out if they dont want to. Tanner suggested a different approach to juggling the demands of work and life to help those who want to stay on a full-time career path. As companies continue boosting their paid leave offerings to entice talent, as well as provide benefits like egg freezing or shipping breast milk, Fifth Third Bank hit on a partnership with women-owned concierge service Best Upon Request. The bank has offered similar concierge services for all employees in their Cincinnati office for several years, so it didnt take long to build out this additional free offering for mothers to use before, during, and after their pregnancy in the months after they return to work.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40438478/can-a-maternity-concierge-service-help-keep-women-on-the-leadership-track
|
Is Tom Brady the most accomplished athlete of all time?
|
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is just days away from making his ninth career start in the Super Bowl, and hell have the chance to win a sixth Super Bowl ring against the Rams in Atlanta. For The Wins Nick Schwartz and Charles Curtis debated the topic to kick of Super Bowl LIII week. The case against Tom Brady: This is an extremely easy question to answer: Heck no, Tom Brady isnt the most accomplished athlete of all time, and its not even close. Brady is the best quarterback ever to put on an NFL helmet, but football is a team sport with key players on both sides of the ball. Yes, the quarterback is the position that holds all the keys he can audible, he can make decisions after the snap and hes supposed to know where everyone is on the field at all times. But all those Super Bowls belong to the Patriots franchise and not just to Brady. There are also a group of people who wonder if Brady is the GOAT quarterback. After all, the season Brady went down with a season-ending injury resulted in a 11-5 record with Matt Cassel under center for the Pats. I dont necessarily agree with them, but you have to wonder how Belichick would fare if he didnt have the dependable Brady. Thats not the argument we should make here. Id throw Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan in there despite them playing team sports like Brady, but look at what each of them accomplished in their careers. I dont know enough about soccer, but I imagine some people would think about Pele and his three World Cups in a team sport. Brady has more than earned all of his countless accolades. Even his head coach might have a few terse replies to that assertion. Charles Curtis The case for Tom Brady: Its far more difficult to dominate a team sport than an individual one, and given the parity of the NFL, its unthinkable that well ever see another player own an entire league the way Tom Brady has for nearly two decades. Yes, Bill Belichick deserves some of the credit for Bradys success, but players make the plays, and no quarterback in NFL history has delivered in clutch moments as consistently as Tom Brady. Were not even going to discuss Bradys regular-season totals, because enduring legacies are built in the postseason. When it comes to playoff accomplishments, Brady is peerless. While Michael Jordans six titles are dwarfed by Bill Russells total, theres no quarterback that even approaches Bradys production in the biggest games year after year. Joe Montana, the other popular choice in the greatest QB of all time debate, is fourth all-time with 5,772 career playoff passing yards and 45 touchdowns. Brady has Montanas yardage nearly doubled (10,917) and has thrown 73 touchdowns. With his ninth career Super Bowl start, Brady will have more playoff appearances (40) than 18 NFL franchises (hat tip to Sporting News). Bradys detractors might argue that he owes a few Super Bowls to Adam Vinatieri and Malcolm Butler but at the same time, Brady was robbed of a ring by David Tyrees helmet catch, and he had a phenomenal 505-yard, three-touchdown game in a losing effort last year. Tom Brady plays the toughest position in any sport, and his rsum in high-stakes games is unparalleled. Love him or hate him, hes the GOAT. Nick Schwartz
|
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/01/tom-brady-most-accomplished-athlete
|
Could The Amazon-Whole Foods Union Be What Takes Organic Sales To The Next Level?
|
To say the June 16 announcement that Amazon announced that it will be acquiring Whole Foods, the iconic purveyor of organic wares and interesting beverages, to the tune of $13.7 billion sent shock waves through the retail sector would be an understatement. Whole Foods has been struggling as of late: Amid competition from companies like Target and WalMart, both of which have been ramping up their sales of organic and natural products, Whole Foods has posted seven consecutive quarters of tumbling sales and in May, swapped out five of its dozen board members (one of whom, full disclosure, is Fast Company owner Joe Mansueto) in an effort to inject new energy into the company. By selling to Amazon, theyre throwing a Hail Mary. But as substantial as the deal is, its perhaps not all that surprising, once the aftershocks fade. I was surprised, but not too surprised, Joe Dobrow, who was head of marketing at Whole Foods until 2000, and subsequently wrote the book Natural Prophets: From Health Foods to Whole FoodsHow the Pioneers of the Industry Changed the Way We Eat and Reshaped American Business, tells Fast Company. Rumors of a Whole Foods sale had been circulating for a while, Dobrow says; competitors like Albertsons, Kroger, and Publix had all expressed interest. While selling out to a larger grocery retailer with a bigger reach might have given Whole Foods the financial boost it needed, that would have entailed sticking with the status quo. If youre looking at the talent pipeline at Whole Foodsfollowing CEO John Mackeytheyre all grocery guys over there, Dobrow says. What Whole Foods needs is innovation, and if youre looking for where that brilliant visionary leadership is going to come from, its not going to be from within Whole Foods. But Amazon could be a huge booster shot of innovative leadership, and set Whole Foods on a path to adapt to the 21st century, which has been lacking. The entire $800 billion grocery industry as a whole, Dobrow says, is facing some uncertainty. Caught in the middle of a will-they-or-wont-they dance with online retailfueled in part by Amazon, whose AmazonFresh grocery delivery service debuted in 2013the financial performances of brick-and-mortar groceries like Kroger, which have long been predictably strong, are faltering. While online grocery sales account for only 4.3% of the market currently, a report from Nielsen this year predicted that theyll reach as much as 20% of the market share by 2025. That gives you a sense of how much of a ramp there is, Dobrow says. And in buying up Whole Foods, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, seems to have identified another sector of the grocery industry with a huge growth potential: natural and organic food. Despite the enormous growth of Whole Foods since it was founded in 1978, and despite the piqued interest of larger retailers in selling higher quality products, natural and organic foods still represent only around 5% of all food sales in the United States. Before this deal, you heard people in the industry saying that if we could get organic sales up to 10% of the market share, that would be a huge chunk of business, and represent a huge societal change, Dobrow says. So Im sure Bezos took a look and realized it was a no-brainer for Amazon to play a role in expanding the percent of the market taken up by natural and organic food. And the way theyll be doing so appears will likely be through ramping up Whole Foods e-commerce component. For those Whole Foods devotees concerned that the Amazon acquisition will tarnish the stores signature community-centric and friendly ethos, theres little cause for immediate concern: Amazon has said that proceedings at Whole Foods 456 outposts, as well as its handful overseas and in Canada, will remain largely unchanged. Amazon, at least initially, says it has not implemented the technology it developed to facilitate Amazon Go, its Seattle-based cashless convenience store, nor are there any planned payoffs. Of course, that could all change in the future, but the company has let subsidiary Zappos largely chart its own, often idiosyncratic course. (On the other hand, there is certainly the possibility that Amazon, always ruthless, thought this was just the cheapest way to get a lot of urban real estate for warehouses.)
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40432482/could-the-amazon-whole-foods-union-be-what-takes-organic-sales-to-the-next-level
|
What are the key Brexit amendments tabled by MPs?
|
Various factions of MPs are jostling to stamp their mark on the EU withdrawal agenda in what is shaping up to be Brexits Super Tuesday showdown in the Commons. It will be down to Speaker John Bercow which proposals are selected for a vote. Any successful amendments will not have the force of law, but will carry heavy political weight as a signal to Downing Street and Brussels of what kind of Brexit MPs are likely to approve. (PA Graphics) Here are some of the most prominent amendments tabled: Grieve amendment In a bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit, the cross-party backed proposal from Dominic Grieve would effectively wrest control of Commons business from the Government for six individual days in the run-up to the UKs scheduled withdrawal date of March 29 with the intention of getting MPs to reach a consensus on how to handle it. Taking control The bill has limited effect - it doesnt change constitution/stop Brexit/revoke Article 50/determine what happens next. It just gives Govt & Parliament the chance to ask for a bit more time if country is facing No Deal https://t.co/ib4rE6BTTj Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) January 23, 2019 In a similar vein, a move by Labour former minister Yvette Cooper, supported by Tories such as Nick Boles, calls for a vote on a Bill that would give Parliament control over the Brexit process if Theresa May fails to secure a deal by February 26. MPs would get a vote on extending Article 50 to the end of the year and preventing a no-deal exit under the terms of the Bill. The Labour frontbench has been publicly flirting with throwing its weight behind the amendment. Brake on the backstop Tory grandees including 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady and former minister Andrew Murrison want a deadline of the end of December 2021 put on the backstop proposal intended to avoid a hard border in Ireland. The amendment is believed to be viewed favourably by Downing Street as a way of showing Brussels that the Withdrawal Agreement could get through the Commons if concessions are made regarding Northern Ireland. Another amendment from Sir Graham and Dr Murrison seeks that the backstop is replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border. No to no deal I am proud to have signed @spelmanc & @JackDromeyMP cross party letter along with 211 other MPs. We urge Theresa May to rule out a no deal Brexit - even if her deal is defeated in the Commons next week. pic.twitter.com/3kZjeqlDy6 Vernon Coaker (@Vernon_Coaker) January 7, 2019 A cross-party effort headed by Tory Dame Caroline Spelman has widespread support and rejects the UK quitting the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement. This would probably be more palatable to the Government than either the Grieve or Cooper bids for MPs to take back control. Labours twin track approach This calls for MPs to be able to vote on options to stop a no-deal exit, such as a customs union with the EU, as well as the possibility of a new Brexit referendum. Jeremy Corbyn has been careful not to commit Labour to officially back such a poll, though. Amendments have been tacked on to the Labour push, with the Liberal Democrats calling for Remain to be on the ballot paper in any referendum, and Labour backbenchers urging Parliament to legislate for a public vote. Indicative votes 1/3 Heres the case for holding a series of indicative votes on Brexit. Parliament is currently deadlocked. Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) January 26, 2019 Commons Exiting the European Union Committee chairman Hilary Benn wants a series of votes on various Brexit options to see where the most support lies.
|
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-6639879/What-key-Brexit-amendments-tabled-MPs.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
|
What motherboard / CPU combo do I need to build an Intel Coffee Lake or AMD Ryzen PC?
|
If youve ever decided to build your own PC, youll know there are some bits of the upgrade process that are easier to work out than others, especially when it comes to finding the right motherboard for your new CPU. The first step is easy. Thats a whole other kettle of fish. Im here to help. Below, youll find an in-depth guide of which motherboards are compatible with which CPUs, as well as everything you need to know about all the different types of chipsets and sockets youll see when buying a new motherboard. If youre thinking about making the jump to Intels 8th Gen Coffee Lake processors, or fancy one of AMDs Ryzen chips but dont know which motherboard you should get, read on. First, the socket Take a quick glance at any CPU and youll probably see its got a heck of a lot of pins on the bottom. These are the connection points that slot into your motherboards CPU socket, so youll need to buy one with the correct socket to make sure it fits. If you try and stuff one into the wrong kind of socket, all youre going to end up with is a load of bent pins and a very broken processor. There are two main types of socket that we need to concern ourselves with for building a gaming PC: LGA 1151 for Intel-based systems and AM4 for AMD users. You may also see TR4 sockets for AMDs workstation-grade Threadripper processors or LGA 2066 socket boards for Intels high-performance Core i9 processors, but unless youve been squirreling away several thousands of pounds / dollars, these will likely be beyond the remit of your typical PC build. LGA 1151 supports three different types of Intel processor: 6th Gen Skylake chips, 7th Gen Kaby Lake chips, and 8th Gen Coffee Lake chips. However, for reasons Ill explain in a minute, anyone looking to build an Intel system now should really only be considering an 8th Gen Coffee Lake chip. With that in mind, heres a list of all the Intel Coffee Lake processors you can currently buy that support the LGA 1151 socket. Core i3 Core i5 Core i7 Core i9 Intel Core i3-9350K Intel Core i5-9600K Intel Core i7-9700K Intel Core i9-9900K Intel Core i3-8350K Intel Core i5-9400 Intel Core i7-8086K Intel Core i3-8300 Intel Core i5-8600K Intel Core i7-8700K Intel Core i3-8100 Intel Core i5-8600 Intel Core i7-8700 Intel Core i5-8500 Intel Core i5-8400 AM4, on the other hand, is for AMDs Ryzen processors. This includes both AMDs first generation of Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips also known as the Ryzen 1000-series as well as the new second generation, known as Ryzen+ or the Ryzen 2000-series. AM4 will likely form the basis of AMDs eventual third generation of Ryzen processors as well, as AMD have confirmed theyll be supporting their AM4 platform until at least the year 2020. This is good news for anyone building a new PC now, as it means you probably wont have to buy another new motherboard when it comes to upgrading your CPU. Again, the table below details all the Ryzen chips you can buy today that are compatible with the AM4 socket. Ryzen 3 Ryzen 5 Ryzen 7 Ryzen 3 2200G Ryzen 5 2600X Ryzen 7 2700X Ryzen 3 1300X Ryzen 5 2600 Ryzen 7 2700 Ryzen 3 1200 Ryzen 5 2400G Ryzen 7 1800X Ryzen 5 1600X Ryzen 7 1700X Ryzen 5 1600 Ryzen 7 1700 Ryzen 5 1500X Ryzen 5 1400 Second, the chipset So weve narrowed it down to the type of motherboard socket you need. The next thing is deciding which chipset to go for. This is the circuitry inside the motherboard itself. Without getting into too much technical detail, a motherboards chipset essentially determines what kind of features it has, including the types of ports and display outputs it comes with. Theyre also usually designed to work with a particular family of processors in mind. This is where things get tricky at least if youre going down the Intel route. You see, despite their new 8th Gen Coffee Lake processors using the same LGA 1151 socket connection as their previous families of Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs, Coffee Lake processors will only work with a particular type of chipset the 300-series chipset, to be precise. This means that existing Skylake and Kaby Lake owners with a 100- or 200-series chipset on their LGA 1151 motherboard still have to buy a new one if they want to upgrade to Coffee Lake, even though technically it still fits into their existing board. A bit of a bum deal, if you ask me. If youve chosen an AMD Ryzen processor, on the other hand, things are a lot simpler. Sort of. Regardless of whether youve got a first gen Ryzen or a second gen Ryzen, theyre all compatible with every single chipset supported by the AM4 socket. Some AM4 motherboards still require you to update the BIOS before you can start using it with your shiny new second gen Ryzen (which may require an older AM4-compatible processor to get working if you dont already have one), but to all intents and purposes, its a lot less confusing than the situation over at the Intel camp. Going back to the lets assume youre building an Intel-based Coffee Lake system idea for a minute, you currently have four (soon to be six) different LGA 1151 chispet options for your potential motherboard, which is a heck of a lot better than the single, rather expensive option you might have had if youd been upgrading your PC last October, when Coffee Lake first launched. Ordered from entry-level budget chipsets at the top to high-end enthusiast ones at the bottom, these are the letter and number combinations you should be looking out for and a rough guide to the sort of prices you can expect to go with them (note that all of these have a 300 number in their model name, hence the 300-series): Sometimes motherboard manufacturers make it easy and include said chipsets in the name of the product. Other times, its less obvious, so you may have to check the box or online specifications to check it falls into one of those six chispets. In terms of picking the right one for you, its important to think about what you want from your PC once its finished. If youre building a powerful Core i7 system, for instance, youll probably want a high-end Z370 or Z390 chipset motherboard to make the most of it especially when these are the only two chipsets that actually support CPU, GPU and RAM overclocking. For those building a more modest Core i3 PC, on the other hand, its probably best to look toward the H310 or B360 end of the spectrum unless, that is, you have an Intel Core i3-8350K, which does support overclocking by virtue of that K on the end of it, in which case youll probably still want a Z370 board. The H310, for instance, is pretty basic. It comes with just 2 DIMM slots for your RAM, which limits the amount you can put in it (all the rest have four), and only supports a maximum of 10 USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports. The B360, by comparison, supports 12 USB 2.0 ports as well as up to six USB 3.1 Gen 1 and four USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, while the rest can handle up to 14 USB 2.0 and even higher combinations of USB 3.1 generations. Some chipsets will also have integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi options if your PC isnt going to be anywhere near an available Ethernet port (handy, if youd rather not clog up one of your PCIe slots with a network card), while others have RAID support for combining your storage devices into one single, giant drive. It all rather depends on what your needs are and whether you want to leave yourself any wiggle-room in the future for further tinkering. If youre building an AMD Ryzen system, on the other hand, youve mainly got a choice of four (soon to be five) chipsets, which are again ordered below from lowest to highest in terms of overall cost and features: There are a few intricacies worth pointing out here. While AMDs second gen Ryzen CPUs will theoretically work with all of the above chipsets, those looking to maximize their performance should consider the new X470 boards. For starters, every X470 chipset has built-in Ryzen+ support from the off (the others will require a BIOS update unless it states otherwise on the box), and theyve been designed with Ryzen+ in mind, allowing you to get more out of them for gaming and daily computing. The upcoming X300 chipset boards, on the other hand, are being specifically designed for small form-factor PCs, so youll probably want to concentrate on the A320 and above chipsets if youre building a regular tower PC. Much like the Intel chipsets, the lower-end AMD chipsets dont have quite as many features as ones further up the scale. The A320 and B350, for example, dont support AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI which let you use two graphics cards at once, so those considering a multi-GPU system should really be looking at X370 or X470 boards only. The A320 doesnt support CPU overclocking, either, and only comes with four SATA ports and one SATA Express connection for your storage devices. B350, X370 and X470 chipsets, meanwhile, do support overclocking and come with six SATA ports and two SATA Express. All of them, however, have some sort of RAID support. From there, its pretty much up to you what kind of extra features you go for. Some motherboards like the Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-Fi) have additional overclocking tools such as an LED troubleshooting display, boost buttons and extra controls for open-case builds right there on the board, while others like the Asus ROG Strix X470F-Gaming have pre-mounted I/O boards for a neater finish round the back of your PC. It probably goes without saying that you should also pick a motherboard that actually fits inside your intended case. Theres no point buying an ATX-sized motherboard when youve got a small form-factor or mini-tower case, nor is there much sense in buying a jumbo full tower case for a tiddly mini-ITX motherboard. Personally, Id recommend going for either a B360 or Z370 if youre looking for an Intel motherboard, or a B350 or X470 if youre going with AMD, depending on how much cash youve got to throw around. The MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC is currently my top pick out of the X470 boards Ive tested, but Ill be getting more Intel ones in for testing very soon to help balance things out. Ill also be talking more about how to build an actual, honest to goodness PC over the coming weeks, taking you through everything step-by-step in easily digestible chunks. Hopefully by the end of it well have a range of suggestions on offer, starting from the best components for a budget build PC right through to mid-range and high-performance systems. Until then, have a gander at our best gaming SSD listings, our top picks for best DDR4 RAM and best gaming monitor, as well as our best gaming keyboard and best gaming headset articles to help you get (almost) everything you need to build your next gaming PC.
|
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/01/28/motherboard-cpu-combo-for-intel-coffee-lake-amd-ryzen-pc/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RockPaperShotgun+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%29
|
Why can't Nokia get one thing right?
|
There's this question swirling around in my head that just won't leave. It's enough to keep me up at night. I just need to know the answer. Before the diehards kick off, yes, yes, I know Nokia has made some decent cameraphones - plural. But it's the plural that's the problem: Nokia is just making too many of the damn things. The wow factor is being diluted. That's why I'm begging to Nokia to just put its eggs all in one basket. High exposure Just earlier this week, analysts were encouraging Nokia to start embracing Android as well as Windows Phone. But the real focus of its efforts should be on giving the market a single, brilliant product that it can showcase. Last week, I criticised Samsung for releasing new devices too quickly in succession - but Nokia's guilty of the same charge in a much more blatant way. Just look at the Finns' offerings over the last few months. We'd barely got our hands on the Lumia 920, when the Lumia 925 seemed to trump it. And now, there's the EOS/909/Lumia 1020 which is all but confirmed. It's making me dizzy because they're all offering the same thing as their main selling point: the camera. At least Samsung has the decency to dress it up by shouting about its models having different unique qualities (for example, the S4 Active is life-proof, while the Galaxy S4 is a life companion) even if they do come along more often than Terminator sequels. Time shift Let's wind back a few years. Nokia was the first handset manufacturer to give us a phone with a camera on board. The 7650 was sweet - even if many didn't believe it would actually take off. In the days before social media, 3G and Wi-Fi, it seemed little more than a novelty. But this was a real sign of the Finns' innovation and one which paid dividends - if Apple claims it can copyright things like pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-unlock, then surely Nokia can demand every iDevice have its camera ripped out. Problem is, Nokia's strategy has changed. We all know the firm has fallen on hard times. It may be the biggest supplier of handsets in the developing world, but that doesn't sound as sexy from a marketing point of view. And it's kinda sold its soul here. By going with Windows Phone, it can't make the huge customisations that Android OEMs can to differentiate themselves, so it has little maneuverability. Ultimately, that means it has to concentrate on the hardware to make ripples. Nokia's always been one to churn devices out. 10 years ago, a trip to The Link (remember them?) would have seen dedicated Nokia sections with handsets competing for different demographics: the 3000 line for the populists, the 6000 line for the serious, the 7000 line for the fun types, the 9000 line for the serious business folk and so on. You didn't get removable covers on a 9210i Communicator, but you did get a great business machine for its day. This was a very specific, targeted strategy that really worked. Nokia owned its OS and it owned the market. How times have changed. The biggest lesson the Finns can learn from these changes now is this: less is more - especially when you're fighting for your survival. I've reviewed dozens of phones and tablets for TechRadar over the years - each time putting them through their paces in the most unbiased, rigorous way possible. But as well as being a professional, I have a love/hate relationship with tech, and that's what these columns are all about: the passionate howlings of a true fanboy. Tell me why I'm right, wrong or a hopeless idiot in the comments below or by tweeting @techradar or @phillavelle.
|
https://www.techradar.com/au/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/why-can-t-nokia-get-one-thing-right-1163399
|
Should investors consider Zee Entertainment after recent events?
|
Highlights Zee Entertainment Enterprises promoters strike an agreement with lenders- Pledged shares of Zee will not be invoked till some time as a part of a deal- This is a near term positive, but all eyes on impending stake sale by promoter- Valuation has turned enticing but multiple headwinds exist - Investors should look to exit on all up moves -------------------------------------------- The management of Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zee) on January 28 said it has reached an understanding with lenders to ensure no further invocation of promoters' pledged shares. Zee stock had plunged 27 percent on January 25 as the lenders invoked pledge on 0.6 percent of promoter shares following a default. Zee also said last week it will initiate legal action against a media entity that alleged the Essel group was associated with Nityank Infrapower which is being probed by Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) for demonetisation deposits of over Rs 3,000 crore. However, it is important to note the allegation is against the group and not directly against Zee Entertainment. The bigger concern for investors is the promoters pledge on shares and not the media allegations. Hence, our focus is on the latest announcement on pledged shares. Incidentally, the promoters of Zee Entertainment have pledged a large chunk of their holding in Zee Entertainment to raise funds for group entities. Essel group, promoters of Zee, have pledged around 59 percent of their 41.6 percent ownership in Zee to group lenders. Around 96-97 percent of the lenders by collateral value of Zees shares consisting of MFs, NBFCs and banks have entered into a time-bound written agreement. Without specifying a deadline the management said the agreement extends beyond April. The news has brought relief to the sinking stock putting on hold further selling by lenders. However, the support may be temporary. As multiple headwinds persist in the near term, we believe investors should look to exit the counter on any rally. Business fundamentals intact Zees business operation remains on a strong footing with healthy growth in advertisement and subscription revenue. ZEE5, the broadcasters over-the-top (OTT) platform was launched in February last year, continues growth trajectory with 56.3 million monthly active users and an average watch time of 31 minutes a day. Above all, despite continued heavy investment in ZEE5, management is confident of maintaining EBITDA margin above 30 percent in the near term. Valuation has turned enticing With a sharp correction in stock price last week, valuation has turned relatively attractive with the stock trading at around 16 times FY20 estimated earnings, more than a 40 percent discount to its 10-year average price to earnings (P/E) multiple. But impending promoter stake sale to weigh on stocks performance In an interesting development, Essel group had in November 2018 announced its intention to sell up to 50 percent of its equity stake of around 41.6 percent (which now stands reduced to 41 percent post-invocation of pledge) to a strategic partner by March- April 2019, most likely a top global player. We had expressed our scepticism over the intended stake sale right after the November announcement, and much ahead of stock downgrades by some brokers. A strategic sale to a global giant will help Zee expand its international offerings and strengthen its OTT platform. That was the often heard argument after the announcement of promoters intended stake sale in November. The events that have unfolded over the weekend indicates otherwise. Promoters intended stake sale seems more for survival than for growth. Even if there is a positive outcome of the stake sale in the near term, we do not see material benefits for the company or minority shareholders for two reasons: First, since promoters is looking to sell around 20-21 percent equity stake (50 percent of their total holdings), it is unlikely to trigger an open offer. Second, by selling the stake, promoters will get the get cash and nothing will flow to the company. Though this is positive for equity investors in the near term as it can help promoter service the debt and/or part release the pledge shares, it will not materially alter the broadcasters fundamentals or equip it for higher investments. That said, stake sale to a large company especially a global player can provide impetus to Zees future plan. Also, getting any strategic investors (could be a large telecom giant) can significantly uplift the beaten-down stock. But thats trying to gaze a crystal ball. Investing is all about taking calculated risks. With Essel groups bargaining power significantly reduced after the recent events, any delay or difficulty in selling equity stake could create further pressure on the stock price. Despite the correction, multiple downside risks persist for Zee in form of increasing competition from OTT players and new tariff order adversely impacting subscription revenues. The promoter stake sale will undoubtedly be positive for debt holders of the Essel group but not necessarily for minority equity holders of Zee Entertainment. Hence, investors need to tread cautiously and use any price rise to exit the counter. Disclaimer: Moneycontrol Research analysts do not hold positions in the companies discussed here Follow @nehadave01
|
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/moneycontrol-research/should-investors-consider-zee-entertainment-after-recent-events-3445001.html
|
How Japanese is Naomi Osaka?
|
Last Saturday I sporadically watched the final match of the Australian Open on TV sporadically because whenever I turned on the TV set, Naomi Osaka started losing points to Petra Kvitova. I would then superstitiously switched it off, hoping that Osaka would regain momentum while I was not watching. Mysteriously enough, she always did. After I switched on the TV for the fourth time, they were in the last set and 10 minutes later Osaka finally won the championship. When Kvitova failed to return Osakas powerful service, I first could not believe what had just happened and then I was convinced that her victory in the U.S. Open last year was by no means a fluke. Osakas fans in Tokyo and elsewhere were overjoyed by her victory. Japans mainstream media reported the breaking news referring to Naomi Osaka as the first Japanese female tennis player to win two consecutive Grand Slam titles and to be ranked World No. 1. Yes, she is. I felt something odd, if not wrong, about those media stories. Yes, Osaka was born in Japan but she and her family a Haitian father, a Japanese mother and a sister moved to New York when she was 3 and started playing tennis. Now living in Florida, Osaka holds dual U.S. and Japanese citizenship and calls America home. Its not because she had no other choice, but rather that her father wanted her to play for Japan for financial reasons. The Japan Tennis Association has reportedly offered more financial support than its U.S. counterpart. JTA seems to have made a critically important judgment. I felt another odd feeling about the stereotypical comments on Osakas victory. Some expat pundits living in Japan frequently criticize xenophobia and discrimination in Japanese society. They claim that mixed-race Japanese nationals are unfairly treated and the Japanese government must change its xenophobic policies. Having lived in Taiwan, the United States, Egypt, Iraq and China since 1976, however, I have a different view on the issues related to Japans xenophobia. First, having served as a diplomat for 27 years in the Foreign Ministry, my conclusion is that discrimination and xenophobia are very human and quite common everywhere. In the Middle East, for example, every nation, tribe, clan and individual discriminates against others. This is especially the case if you belong to a small minority in an area with big majority of different nations, tribes, clans or individuals. The most typical examples are the Jews and Christians in the region. Dreams of an open and non-discriminatory Europe have recently been eroded and unhealthy nationalism, populism and xenophobic discrimination against Muslim immigrants from the other side of the Mediterranean are on the rise. Of course, the U.S. is no exception, either. Second, Japan is learning lessons as well. Now it is rapidly becoming a multiracial and multicultural society, especially in some suburban areas something that nobody had imagined would happen. With the amended immigration control law, up to 340,000 new non-Japanese workers are expected in the next five years to join the already 1.3 million strong foreign labor force. In downtown Tokyo, for instance, Shin-Okubo is already a multi-ethnic town and pedestrians speak foreign languages such as Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic and Urdu, etc. A great majority of the residents in some housing complexes in the cities of Warabi and Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture are non-Japanese. In those places, Japanese nationals are minorities, but they are learning lessons on how to get along well with foreign newcomers and are making progress. In Japan, and especially in rural areas, foreigners and biracial Japanese are not rare any more. Living with hundreds of thousands of Naomi Osakas in Japan is becoming a reality here. Third, Osaka is very Japanese. She said after the match, Huge congrats to Petra, I always wanted to play you. Youve been through so much and I honestly wouldnt want this to be our first match. Youre really amazing and Im so honored to have played you. Unlike in New York, she got very positive reaction in Melbourne. A tennis journalist described Osakas humility. He wrote, She bowed to Kvitova at the net and she bowed to everyone who surrounded her during the ceremony. Shes the rare player who picks up her own plastic bags and water bottles on court and puts them in the trash, rather than having a ball kid do it for her. This is a Japanese characteristic. I can tell the difference. Modesty, politeness, honesty and humility. These make Osaka truly represent Japan although she is still trying to become fluent in her mothers native language. In the world of tennis, there have been many arrogant, selfish and assertive champions, but Osaka is different. One 30-year-old expat in Australia criticized Osaka, saying she does not speak well at all a shame really, as most #1s are pretty well able to front the mic. A tennis writer disagreed by saying, Osaka shows that (power and speed) to be a champion, you dont have to talk the talk, you just have to walk the walk. I fully agree. Fourth, I found one big dilemma for Japan. Japanese law requires Japanese citizens with more than one nationality to give the others up when they turn 22 years old. If not, Japan will lose one of the greatest Japanese tennis players. Its time for Japan to allow dual citizenship. Finally, the eternal question is What is Japanese? Unlike the United States, Japan is not a country of immigration and in this respect is similar to some European nations. Japanese-ness is not something you can artificially define. It is rather a transformational concept to be permanently defined by the Japanese in the years to come. In the coming decade or two, we will have millions of people like Osaka who will enrich and evolve the Japanese nation. Let them play their role in our community and we must work together to refine and recreate the already multicultural nation of Japan. Kuni Miyake is president of the Foreign Policy Institute and research director at Canon Institute for Global Studies.
|
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/?post_type=opinion&p=1724639&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes+%28The+Japan+Times%3A+All+Stories%29
|
Is jumping ahead to Wi-Fi 6 the right move?
|
In five years, all youre going to find is Wi-Fi 6, or what most wireless experts are still calling 802.11ax. But five years is a long time. If youre considering an early move toward the most cutting-edge Wi-Fi technology on the market, there are some hurdles that youll have to overcome. The first is the preliminary state of the technology. Every access point (AP) on the market thats being sold as 11ax or Wi-Fi 6 is pre-standard gear, given that that the Wi-Fi Alliance hasnt yet finalized the standard. That poses potential interoperability issues down the line, according to analysts. And of course, there are no Wi-Fi 6-ready smartphones, laptops or other client devices available yet. Its important to understand why youre updating, as well, noted Gartner senior principal analyst Bill Menezes. The main reason to upgrade now is futureproofing, given the lack of Wi-Fi 6-capable client devices on the market. Youre really just putting it in there because you got a great price on it, or youve decided, Well, I may not have the money in five years to upgrade, he said. Its worth noting, however, that there are particular use cases that could benefit from Wi-Fi 6-ready hardware more than others. The one that comes up more than any other unsurprisingly, given the technologys focus on efficiently connecting to large numbers of client devices via a single AP is the hospitality and entertainment sector. Sports stadiums, convention halls and other large event venues are likely to benefit from Wi-Fi 6s ability to handle lots of connections per endpoint. Beyond that, however, theres little consensus among experts about early adoption of 802.11ax among particular verticals. Some analysts posit a use case for IoT particularly industrial IoT using that high connections-per-AP ability to connect sensors together, but others note that Wi-Fi is unlikely to be the preferred connectivity medium for the actual sensors. Thats not to say that edge gateway devices wont use Wi-Fi to connect back to clouds or data centers, but the gateways themselves are more likely to use slightly more specialized technology usually some form of low-power WAN to communicate with the sensors directly. Compatibility could be an issue for early adopters Another potential hurdle is the difference between pre-standard hardware and standard-ready hardware. Certain gear being sold as Wi-Fi 6 now might not be guaranteed to fully comply with the final 802.11ax standard, which the Wi-Fi Alliance is expected to finalize near the end of 2019.
|
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3336263/internet-of-things/is-jumping-ahead-to-wi-fi-6-the-right-move.html
|
How Do Lemon And Ginger Help In Losing Weight?
|
Losing weight can be a minefield of diet plans that promise to give you a lean figure. So, choosing the right diet plan is important if you want to be fit and healthy. In this article, we will be writing about the use of ginger and lemon for weight loss. Excess body fat stored in the body can lead to self-consciousness and it can be quite frustrating. If the body fat is left unattended it causes serious health issues which include high blood pressure, heart disease, atherosclerosis, stroke and diabetes. 1. Stomach The stomach or the abdomen is a common area of the body where the fat gets stored. Compared to women, men have a higher tendency to store fat in the abdominal area. This type of fat that gets stored in the other vital organs including the liver and intestines is called the visceral fat. This increases the risk of conditions like type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high blood pressure and high triglycerides [1] . 2. Calves The calves are right below the knees situated at the back of the legs which mostly consists of the soleus muscles and gastrocnemius muscle. Excess fat accumulates here easily. 3. The hips, butts and thighs The fat stored in the hips, butts and thighs is known as the subcutaneous fat and lies directly under the skin. This type of fat is detrimental to your health just as abdomen fat and women are more likely to gain weight in their thighs, hips and butts compared to men [2] . 4. Back The back is another place in the body where fat gets stored. It accumulates in the upper and lower areas and women often have upper back fat known as the bra overhang. 5. Upper arms The upper arms consist of muscles known as the triceps and this is one place where fat often builds up. 6. Chest Both men and women have muscles in their chests which are known as the pectorals. Men, who don't exercise or keep their muscle toned, develops flabbiness in the chest area which is commonly referred to as man boobs or man breasts. Lemons are excellent when it comes to losing weight. They are packed with vitamin C and antioxidants and their acid content promotes better digestion and protects the liver. Lemons are known to have diuretic properties which aid in detoxification and speed up the burning of fat [3] . On the other hand, ginger has been used traditionally for medicinal purposes. Ginger has an active compound called gingerol that helps in the absorption of fat and prevents it from accumulating in the body. It elevates satiety and reduces hunger cravings, thereby helping in burning stubborn belly fat[4] . Both lemon and ginger possess anti-inflammatory properties. When these two ingredients are combined together it enhances the activity of the liver which releases bile that aids in fat breakdown and helps in proper digestion. The liver further eliminates the toxins out from the body, regulates blood pressure and glucose. Also, both ginger and lemon boost up your metabolism and burns more calories, thus helping in shedding pounds. How To Consume: 1. Lemon and ginger water for weight loss Ingredients: 2 lemons 1 inch chopped ginger root A glass of water Method: Juice two lemons and simmer it with the chopped ginger in a bowl. As it boils, reduce the heat and add a glass of water and two pieces of lemon peel. Store it in a water bottle and drink it. Best time to drink: It is advisable to drink ginger and lemon water before meals throughout the day. Note: Just be careful with how much ginger you consume as it heats up your body due to its two pungent compounds - gingerol and shogaol. Also, drinking lemon and ginger water alone won't help, you have to make dietary changes and include exercises in your routine to make your weight loss plan effective. You can get creative by making lemon and ginger tea for weight loss as well. 2. Lemon and ginger tea for weight loss Ingredients: 2 lemon slices cup of sliced ginger cup of raw honey Method: Boil a cup of water, and add the sliced ginger and lemon juice. Simmer it for 15 to 20 minutes. Let it sit for at least 5 minutes. And drink it. Best time to drink: It's best to drink ginger and lemon tea before or after eating a meal.
|
https://www.boldsky.com/health/diet-fitness/2017/lemon-and-ginger-for-weight-loss-115800.html
|
Can the Drybar model be replicated with makeup?
|
Until Drybar came along, nobody imagined they would spend $50 at a salon to have their hair styled. No cut, no color, just blow-dried. But these days, Drybar is growing rapidly around the country. New York-based salon Joli Beauty Bar is testing out a model in which women stop in and pay between $35 and $60 to have their makeup done. Theyve discovered that many women feel more confident knowing that a professional artist has worked on their face. We have women who come in here before an interview or a date, says Zsuzsi Evans, founder and CEO. Some women come as a group, just for fun, with nowhere in particular to go. So far, it hasnt taken much to convince women that this service is worth the money. The companys founders are now planning to expand in New York, and the rest of the country. [Images via Joli Beauty Bar]
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/4041490/can-the-drybar-model-be-replicated-with-make-up
|
Can Cottage Cheese Become The Next Greek Yogurt?
|
During his presidency, the late Gerald Ford reportedly asked the White House chef for the same meal each daycottage cheese served with a dollop of ketchup. advertisement advertisement That might have been the last time someone innovated on cottage cheese. Popular sentiment has been less than enthusiastic. Its ridiculed on health sites, with multiple fitness and body-building forums dedicated to the topic of how to make a spoonful of the stuff go down. It tastes like nothing and sadness all at the same time. (Over 70% of readers voted they agreed with the article.) But the cottage cheese image problem is relatively recent. Roughly 40 years ago, the cottage cheese market was double that of yogurt. Today, yogurt is seven times more profitable than cottage cheese, according to Nielsen findings. Love it or hate it, the thick milky food is packed with protein, vitamins, and calciumequal to that of yogurtand its poised to make a comeback. One company that is hoping to reposition the food from sad and lumpy to cool and tasty is Irvine-based Good Culture. They have launched a line of flavored organic cups in hopes of jump-starting the $1.1 billion cottage cheese category. This is a market ripe for disruption, says Jesse Merrill, cofounder of Good Culture. In 2014, the former VP of marketing at Honest Tea wanted to start his own company. He got his inspiration following a workout with his friend Anders Eisner, cofounder of Activate Drinks, which sells vitamin-packed sports drinks. The friends were eating cottage cheese when they realized their preferred post-fitness snack was far from satisfying. advertisement Most were watery or pretty slimy, recalls Merrill. Other complaints high on his list were the ingredientspreservatives, additives, xanthan gumand the large tub format that made portable snacking a real hassle. You always had to scoop it out for put into a bowl, then mix your own flavors, he says. No one was offering convenient on-the-go solutions. Presentation also left much to be desired. Big name brands such as Breakstones and Knudsenboth under the Kraft Foods Group umbrellahadnt updated their packaging in years. Knudsen still boasts a cozy 1975 hue of Pepto-Bismol pink, while Breakstones features a bland graphic of a spoonful of cottage cheese. None of it was being presented in a particularly appetizing way or spoke to the modern day consumer, notes Merrill, who wasnt surprised that you had to look for the cottage cheese off in the corner somewhere of a store. Just a few feet away, though, was usually an entire area devoted to various Greek yogurts: Chobani, Oikos, Dannon, and a dozen morea sub sector that wasnt commoditized until someone came in and made a premium product. The yogurt industry is, at current estimates, an $8 billion industry, according to a recent report by business analyst firm Sprout Intelligence. We decided we want to be the Greek yogurt of cottage cheese, says Merrill. advertisement It's an olive kind of day. #goodculture A post shared by good culture cottage cheese (@good_culture) on Dec 13, 2016 at 1:46pm PST Making Cottage Cheese Trendy Within six months, Merrill and Eisner executed their vision: a range of sweet and savory cottage cheeses with all the buzzword healthy trimmings. The organic, non-GMO superfood would be sourced from grass-fed, free-range, so-called respected cows on a sustainable family farm in Wisconsin. Labels would feature simple ingredients that consumers would recognize: milk, cream, and water. There would be no additives, preservatives, starches, stabilizers, or milk protein concentrates. There would just be added sea salt to ensure a shelf life of 45 days (versus 100 days of its more chemical-reliant competitors). I wanted ingredients you could pronounce, stresses Merrill. They also restructured the consistency, opting for a thicker and creamier soft curd experience. The 100% recyclable 5.3 oz cups, meanwhile, feature a modern font and clear imagery of its trendy flavors: pineapple, strawberry chia, blueberry aa, and kalamata olive. Merrill, a self-described savory fan, is particularly proud of the saltier flavors. Extending beyond traditional fruity flavors is the precise innovation he found missing from the sector. advertisement Theres a way to do savory right, he explains, adding, it just requires some heavier lifting. Merrill and Eisner personally funded it at the start, with later seed money provided by the Eisner family (Anders is the son of former Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner). By March 2015, Good Culture introduced their product at Natural Products Expo West, a top-tier food convention in Anaheim, California. Right away, the year-old startup picked up interest from a highly coveted retailer: Whole Foods. Within a few months, their cottage cheese was on West Coast regional shelves. By early 2016, it extended to nationwide Whole Foods. Each 5.3 cup sells for $1.99. (Chobani averages around $1.50 to $2, depending on location.) Don't forget to top off your #monday with some our of blueberry #cottagecheese! A post shared by good culture cottage cheese (@good_culture) on Jan 30, 2017 at 5:55pm PST Yogurt sales were starting to mature, explains Merrill of the product hitting peak saturation. It was the right time for it. Within six months, the cofounders received a phone call from 301 INC, the new business development and venturing unit of General Mills, which predominantly focuses on emerging healthy brands. The branch, along with CAVU Venture Partners, led a $3 million investment round of strategic funding in May 2016. advertisement That General Mills took interest is no surprise. Big food companies increasingly look to diversify into more health and speciality brands, explains Brian Todd, president and CEO of food industry analyst firm The Food Institute. General Mills recently took a minority stake in granola maker Purely Elizabeth, while Unilever purchased Sir Kensington fine condiments. Its definitely easier for them [to get into food trends] via acquisition or investments rather than start up a new division, says Todd. And some of the these products have seen some sort of a market test. But 301 Inc. does more than just invest in Good Culture; the unit, says Merrill, is very hands-on in helping with sales strategies, distribution, and consumer research. We like brands that are developing and delivering health benefits in new ways, John Haugen, VP and general manager of 301 INC, tells Fast Company. This is not your grandmothers cheese, and not your grandmothers brand. Haugen explains that Good Culture is being positioned in the protein snack category. 301 INC.s goal is to have Good Culture be synonymous with healthy snack alternatives. (What if we came up with a new term, like bubbly cheese, dairy pearls, or heavens pinballs?) advertisement We did think about it, admits Haugen. [We thought], well ,where should this product live? But the fact of the matter is, it is cottage cheese. It wants to be a next-door neighbor to yogurt. There is an opportunity to have [consumers] rethink the product. Clean living starts with a clean label! A post shared by good culture cottage cheese (@good_culture) on Feb 9, 2017 at 2:50pm PST The Plan To Crush Yogurt Part of Good Cultures marketing strategy is touting cottage cheeses advantages over its chief competitor, yogurt. With the tagline of more protein, less sugar, it heavily promotes the fact that its products have 19g of protein, versus 12g found in a traditional cup of Chobani. This disparity makes a difference to its core customer: the health and fitness enthusiast, the majority of which are millennials. According to a recent report by PwC, 47% of those aged 18-34 have changed their eating habits toward a healthier diet, as compared to just 23% of those over 55. The definition of what constitutes a healthy diet varies, with millennials attributing more trend-based meanings (e.g. high protein, high vitamins) versus older consumers more traditional definitions (e.g. low fat). To that end, Good Culture stages tastings at gyms, marathons, fitness festivals, and fashion events, where the crowd is generally under 35. The company also attempts to appeal to millennials conscious wallet. Good Culture donates 1% of the sale of each cup to nonprofits helping the environment. Were trying to live up to the Good Culture name, says Merrill. The multi-pronged approach has served the startup well. In 2015, Good Culture was in 300 stores. By 2016, it was 2,000. Today, the product is found in over 6,000 stores nationwide, including supermarkets like Publix, Sprouts, and Target, as well as in speciality retailers like Dean & Deluca and Murrays Cheese. A company rep could not disclose financial details, but did confirm that sales in 2016 increased over 17 times versus the year prior. advertisement Whole Foods is one retailer that has further increased its Good Culture offerings. While the supermarket chain sells other small brands in the cottage cheese category, it sees Good Culture especially promising. Whole Foods category manager Lee Robinson believes its the startups ability to take cues from other categoriessuch as convenient single-serve format that have proven particularly successful. Theres also Good Cultures flavors, which Lee finds a little more adventurous than the average cottage cheese company. [Whole Foods] customers tend to be on the early adopter side, he says. They are more willing to try new innovations in our store. Overall, fruit flavors sell the fastest, says Merrill, since theyre more accessible to a wider group. But the kalamata flavor is seeing substantial growth in stores like Whole Foods, thanks to what Merrill calls a loyal cult following of olive aficionados. But Good Culture shouldnt get too comfortable. Competition has solidified within the past year as more brands recognize an untapped market. Breakstones now sells single-serve packs with fruit toppings, as do several up-and-coming startups. There are also plenty of new, interesting taste profiles on the scene. Massachusetts-based HP Hood offers savory cottage cheese flavors like chive, toasted onion, and cucumber with dill. Artisa, produced by Ohios Smith Dairy Products Co., comes in raspberry pomegranate, peach and apple cinnamon, and black bean with salsa. Last August, Israels largest food manufacture, Tnuva, released its American cottage cheese brand Muunawith flavors like peach, mango, and pineapplein Northeast retailers like ShopRite and Stop & Shop. Less than a year later, its sold in 4,000 retailers. advertisement The international company wanted a piece of the American dairy market, but not necessarily the more competitive categories. This green bean salad will be the perfect accompaniment to whatever youre making for your BBQ tomorrow! Click the link in our bio for the recipe! #MDW A post shared by Muuna (@muunacottage) on May 28, 2017 at 2:54pm PDT Everyone and their mother is in the yogurt business now, says Gerard Meyer, Muunas CEO. Meyer most recently served as president of Sodastream USA. Like Good Culture, Muuna ($1.49) comes in fruity flavors and single-serving cups. The Minnesota-produced product is quickly catching up to Good Cultures success, although Meyer is quick to point out their distinctions: Muuna, for example, is creamier than its thicker-based competition, and at $1.49, the non-organic item is bit more accessible to mainstream consumers. Overall, though, he believes competition only helps better adjust consumers view of the cottage cheese. I think rising tides lift all boats, says Meyer. Those I spoke seemed convinced it certainly has a good shot considering consumers tendencies towards high-protein, low-sugar products. Were waking up a category from a coma that is completely on trend, says Meyer. Merrill, meanwhile, says Good Culture plans to further elevate cottage cheeses profile by adding new flavors in the coming years. You likely wont spot a kale or ketchup variety, but Merrill has a few unexpected flavors in the pipeline. Were always experimenting, he says. We want to make cottage cheese exciting. So far, with all these marketing and innovation strategies, cottage cheeses image is starting to turn. While its not yet associated with the likes of John Stamos, a portion of consumers are reconsidering their passionate distaste of the food. I totally HATE cottage cheese, writes one Muuna Facebook fan on the companys page. But I was very hungry after a tough workout [so] I decided to try the pineapple flavorto my surprise it was very creamy and flavorful. I will be buying more.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40432204/can-cottage-cheese-become-the-next-greek-yogurt
|
Will no-deal Brexit mean Britain has no machinery or salads?
|
Britons are preparing for the possibility of the U.K. finding itself with a no-deal Brexit on March 29. It will be catastrophic but at this moment it still has an air of comedy. Its like being shut out of the house in the quarrel that brings on the divorce. You cant pound on the door and say I love E-U even if its just to get your suits back. Where youre going, you wont need suits. Nevine and Richard Mann shop for supplies at a local store in Cornwall, England, in October. The Manns have joined the countrys band Brexit preppers, people who fear chaos in March, when Britain will leave the European Union, and who are stockpiling supplies. ( JAMES BECK / NYT ) Itll just be you and lot of other badly dressed Brits hissing at each other at the checkout because Derek wanted to stockpile cat food, but no, Tristram said we had loads in the cupboard. So the cats going to starve then, thanks to you. The cat will flourish as will Britannia, says Tristram. Well have plenty of beef. You see, 90 per cent of British beef is exported to the EU, which will no longer buy it because it wont meet EU health standards. Derek: Even if it doesnt, we dont have the ferries to transport it. Article Continued Below Tristram: Mrs. May has stockpiled ferries. Derek: From a start-up contractor with no experience with ferries. And also no ferries. Tristram: Never mind, Blighty shall carry on. Derek: Until the insulin runs out, and who knows when that is because the government wouldnt tell us how much refrigerated medicine they were storing up. Then well run out of body bags. Tristram: Nonsense, the government has it all in warehouses. They didnt tell us because they didnt want to attract thieves. Derek: No, because they ran out of warehouses. Full of dog food probably. These are the conversations to come if Britain reverts to wartime conditions. The Conservatives brought in their austerity policy in the Great Recession of 2008, clamping down so hard on libraries, schools, spare bedrooms, and basic welfare that it began to feel like the historic austerity years, 1945-1951. It wont be popular. Article Continued Below Britain, for reasons best known to itself, is risking returning to an era when it had just helped win the war against Nazi Germany but at the price of extreme poverty. Britain had won the war but lost the peace. And its happening all over again. Look at Germany now. Most EU countries despise Germany how it clings to its surpluses but its prosperous. I hesitate to refer to Great Britain or the U.K. any more. What with Welsh and Scottish separatism and Northern Ireland a dead weight, its really just England now. Watch the new Benedict Cumberbatch Netflix drama Brexit: The Uncivil War and shudder. It tells the horrifying story of how a nation was destroyed by a coalition of rich politicians, win-at-any-cost Brexiteers, and the sinister Trump campaign-linked Cambridge Analytica using Facebook data to target British voter dead zones. Add austerity and social media goading and youve got yourself a calamity. It is possible that Prime Minister Theresa May will make a better deal with the EU by the March deadline, though its hard to see how because nations usually negotiate while threatening to leave. Britain was foolish enough to announce its exit first. The EU has no wish to bankrupt Britain, still part of NATO and still useful in many ways, but it has to signal to the other 27 EU nations that leaving would be catastrophic, a self-inflicted blow from which it will not recover in the wild world that Donald Trump has created. I am reading Nella Lasts War, the diary of the English living on scraps in 1941. I made cabbage soup today and added a shredded carrot and a leek. Her husband says reprovingly, We dont need much. Dont forget theres a war on. The government had curtailed inessentials like cups, toys, clocks and furniture. Luxury goods like pencils, needles and cosmetics were almost unobtainable. Rationing didnt end until 1954. Six decades later, the French company LOreal is stockpiling makeup in Britain instead of leaving customers to experiment with beetroot and shoe polish. For cosmetics, along with electrical machinery and many other things, are no long manufactured locally. Britain shops elsewhere. Heather Mallick is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick
|
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/01/28/will-no-deal-brexit-mean-britain-has-no-machinery-or-salads.html
|
Is There Any Controversy On The Declaration Of Results Made By The Iec Chairman On 13 April 2018 And The Rectification That Followed?
|
0 SHARES Share Tweet QUESTION OF THE DAY The IEC Chairman declared on 13 April 2018, that the APRC won 18 seats and the GDC 23 seats. The figure was later changed, allocating 25 seats to GDC and 16 seats to APRC. FOROYAA considers APRC to be the party that should be aggrieved if any wrong doing is suspected. Mr. Seedy SK Njie of APRC confirmed that his party has won 16 seats in Council elections and that 18 seats announced by the IEC earlier, was an error. They have not been deprived of any seat. Counting was done on the spot and they knew the results before it was announced. According to him, the rectification of the IEC is accepted. Mr. Samba Baldeh of GDC also clarified that his party has won 25 Council seats and that the 23 announced by the electoral body was an error. 23 was a form of a mathematical error and now that it is put to that, we believe that stops it. 25 seats is the fact and right calculation, but 23 was not the right figure, said Mr. Baldeh. Hence according to GDC, the rectification of the IEC Chairman is accepted. This is how matters stand. The IEC and the Inter Party Committee should take stock of the elections which have been held under the new political dispensation and try to remedy any shortcoming so that the Mayoral Election will reflect the implementation of the lessons learnt, to avoid future errors. Those who wish to challenge any of the election results, have thirty days to file election petitions. Foroyaa has received only one complaint so far, of how the ballot boxes were sealed and the votes were counted, declared and posted, in connection to Jareng Ward. We will keep our readers posted on this developing story.
|
https://foroyaa.gm/is-there-any-controversy-on-the-declaration-of-results-made-by-the-iec-chairman-on-13-april-2018-and-the-rectification-that-followed/
|
Could Biofortified Crops Be The Key To Solving Global Hunger?
|
For around 2 billion people in the world, a meal is not necessarily a source of nutrition. Among the poorest populations, starchy staple crops like potatoes and cassava make up the bulk of peoples diets. The people surviving off these crops may not feel hungry, says Bev Postma, CEO of HarvestPlus, but theyre not getting a diverse, nutritious meal, and this hidden hunger can lead to blindness, disease, and stunting. For children under the age of 11, who grow up without consistent access to adequate nutrition, the developmental effects are irreversible; mothers who lack essential vitamins and minerals are unable to pass them onto their children. HarvestPlus is working to eradicate the hidden hunger epidemicnot by diversifying the crops that people rely on most, but by ensuring that those starchy staple crops also deliver essential nutrients like zinc, vitamin A, and iron, which are too often missing from peoples diets. HarvestPlus uses a process of biofortification. In the early 1990s, the companys founder Howarth Bouis, who at the time was working as an economist at the International Food Policy Research Institute, got interested in the idea that crops themselves could provide some of the crucial micronutrients that were reaching developed countries in the form of supplements, through a delivery and development system that required billions of dollars to sustain. ' Postma tells Fast Company. That line of inquiry led Bouis to the Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory at Cornell University, where he encountered several researchers looking into the potential of cross-breeding plants to result in higher nutrient levels, without compromising yield. He teamed up with scientists who were piloting an orange-tinted sweet potato high in vitamin A in Mozambique, and others breeding cassava and maize tinged with extra vitamin A. However, the concept was still relatively newthe term biofortification wasnt coined until 2001and Bouis struggled to find funders to support the research and pilot programs that would prove his concept. He basically went around with a tin cup for 10 years, looking for funds, Postma says. That is, until he met Bill Gates. Bill Gates is a huge fan of cassavahe thinks its an amazing crop that has the potential to transform Africas future, Postma says. In 2003, The Gates Foundation gave Bouis a $25 million grant to prove that high-nutrient crops could be produced using basic plant breeding, without leaning on genetic modification. To do so, he visited seed banks around the world, consulting with breeders to determine that crossing higher-nutrient strains of crops could eventually result in those that contained adequate nutritional levels. Bouis was aiming for a single cassava, for instance, that could contain 100% of a childs daily dose of vitamin A. He published several papers on his research, proving the concept, and then, working with the Consultative Group on International Agriculture (CGIAR), a coalition of 16 organizations specializing in global crop development, Bouis launched HarvestPlus in 2003. For the first five years, the organization identified target populationssub-Saharan Africa, rural Indiawhere hidden hunger was most prevalent, and solidified research to prove that biofortification could scale. In 2009, HarvestPlus began rolling out the first wave of biofortified crops. The organization focused on 12 staple cropswheat, maize, sorghum, cassava, beans, and millet, to name a fewand three micronutrients: vitamin A, zinc, and iron. In the world generally, deficiencies in these three nutrients track poverty, Postma says. What were finding is we have to tackle all three at the same time. The organizations biofortified crops, she adds, can supply children and mothers with up to 100% of their daily nutritional requirements.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40436843/could-biofortified-crops-be-the-key-to-solving-global-hunger
|
Why Is There So Much Modern Architecture In The NRAs New Ad?
|
If you came across a video featuring Frank Gehry s frenetic Disney Concert Hall, Renzo Pianos towering New York Times building, John Portman s postmodern Westin Bonaventure Hotel, the Art Deco Los Angeles Times building, and Anish Kapoor s reflective Bean sculpture, youd probably assume you were watching a survey of some of the past centurys most memorable modern architectural landmarks. Unfortunately, all of these buildings are featured in a video far more sinister, as first noted by Citylabs Kriston Capps and discussed by design critics across the internet: the National Rifle Associations latest propaganda ad. Images of these works, along with street scenes in New York, Chicago, and Los Angelesstereotypical bastions of liberal elitescycle through the video as NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch snarls: And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance. All to make them march, make them protest, make them scream racism, and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia. ' It is an open call to violence to protect white supremacy, as Deray Mckesson put it; some NRA members have condemned the ad according to The Washington Post. But whats less clear is why these modern buildings are featured. Its complicated. Already knowing that the NRA is a crypto-fascist arm of white supremacy, only thing that confuses me is their issue w/modern architecture. pic.twitter.com/jNIPdf0wa8 Soulless Golem (@ZacharyLipez) June 29, 2017 apparently the nra think's gehry's la phil is a threat to freedom. maybe they should play the 1812 overtureit has canons. https://t.co/k6WF87WMn3 mark lamster (@marklamster) June 29, 2017 Clinched fist of truth! The NRA's propoganda video is really something. Frank Gehry & Anish Kapoor make appearances. https://t.co/x9bC2CPvXD pic.twitter.com/csh4fCC8h0 Kriston Capps (@kristoncapps) June 29, 2017 Unsurprisingly, authoritarian regimes have typically looked to emulate the architecture of monarchs. Commissioned by men who held absolute power, these buildings and their lavish ornamentation were symbols of their wealth and strength of their empires. Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler all used overt classical references in the buildings they commissioned.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/90131936/why-is-there-so-much-modern-architecture-in-the-nras-new-ad
|
Is The TSA Really Necessary?
|
As the U.S. government shutdown enters a three-week intermission, many are taking a moment to assess the political impact of the longest shutdown in the countrys history. Beyond the political and social ramifications, however, the hiatus also provides an opportunity to look at how our infrastructure and transportation systems fared. Airports have seen the brunt of the disruption. Last Friday, January 25, the FAA issued ground stops at a handful of major airports due to a sharp increase in air traffic controllers calling in sick amid shutdown-induced financial strain. For example, nearly half of the controllers for one Washington-area zone called in sick on Friday, leaving the high-volume Washington center short-handed. The Transportation Security Administration has also seen an increase in unscheduled absences, which have more than doubled year over year during the shutdown. Unlike the shortage of air traffic controllers, however, the lack of TSA personnel has not led to abnormal delays. Over Martin Luther King Jr. day weekend, for instance, one in 10 TSA employees (who are not being paid through the government shutdown) took the day off, crediting financial strain caused by the shutdown. Despite this 10 percent reduction in TSA officers, security screening wait times did not exceeded normal lengths at most airports. The efficiency and security of our air transportation infrastructure is of paramount importance to the economic and social wellbeing of our nation. Air travel is still the only truly global transportation network that can connect people and places regardless of whether they live in a port city or a small town. In the U.S. alone there are nearly 16 million flights a year, transporting nearly 1 billion passengers and 42 billion pounds of freight annually. These activities account for over 5 percent of the nations GDP and nearly 11 million jobs. Air transit is mission-critical, and keeping our airports and airlines safe and orderly isnt an indulgence, its a necessity. In 2017, Homeland Security inspectors were able to transport facsimile firearms, explosives and knives through TSA checkpoints an appalling 70 percent of the time. This is not only unacceptable, but calls into question the effectiveness of the TSA. Many experts, in fact, have long criticized the TSA as security theater, noting that body scanners are largely ineffective at detecting common explosive materials. Further, theres been very little evidence that measures such as the liquid ban are in any way essential or effective, and even the European Union has been trying to eliminate liquid restrictions for years. Numerous studies have found that the TSA has consistently mismanaged security investments and that private screeners perform as good or better than TSA screeners. With a nearly $8 billion annual budget, the TSA hardly seems like a good investment, especially when 10 percent of its workforce can call in sick without dramatically impacting efficiency or security (at least thus far). While we shouldnt put a price on human life, theres also an opportunity cost that needs to be considered. Yes, we need to protect the safety of our airports, airplanes, air cargo and air passengers, but the current tactics employed by the TSA arent our only options. There are more effective ways to deter, prevent and impede would-be hijackers and terrorists. First, on-board safety measures like reinforced cockpit doors are widely seen as one of the simplest, yet most effective ways of thwarting hijackers. Theyre also relatively affordable. Investing in specific structural measures like more secure cockpits can add undeniable value without adding another layer of inefficiency or inconvenience to the travel experience. Second, programs like CLEAR are demonstrating how new technologies can handle identity verification while making the screening process more efficient. CLEAR uses biometrics to scan your fingerprints and irises to ensure you are who you say you are, allowing you to bypass the TSA ID checker. Tech-enabled programs like CLEAR can go a long way in enhancing the accuracy of identity screening while making it faster and cheaper. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the use of big data and data analytics have allowed government agencies and contractors to add an entirely new layer of security. Much of the action in the fight against terrorism takes place upstream, that is, long before a potential threat ever enters a U.S. airport. Data analytics packages like those offered by Palantir, which counts the Department of Defense and many of the three-letter agencies (e.g. CIA, NSA, FBI) as customers, let officials extract insights from dense, seemingly unrelated and previously unusable data sets to identify threats before an attack. As a result, much of the terrorism prevention in the era of big data occurs far away from the TSA officers in the terminal. Palantir CEO Alex Karp even said recently that he hears about a thwarted terror attack once a week. The TSA officers we know and respect are not, in most cases, on the front-lines of the war on terror. The real war is taking place in cyberspace in real-time. Investing in preemption rather than cumbersome point-of-departure security systems is not only likely to be more effective, but less intrusive and disruptive as well. The safety and security of our air transportation infrastructure is vital to the well-being and growth of our nation. While some have argued that agencies such as the FAA should be privatized, air traffic controllers are undoubtedly necessary to the safe operation of our aviation network. Conversely, the absence rates the TSA has faced during the shutdown emphasize how non-critical the agency and a sizable percentage of its workforce has become. The TSA was important after 9/11 to provide both physical and psychological security. Today, new technologies may allow us to start reclaiming our airports from our blue-shirted compatriots. The TSA was only ever a means to an end and, today, there are better means. Its important we use the shutdown to identify where improvements can be made to the TSAand all federal agencies. Our country needs a working government, but we also have to recognize that its not always working even when it is.
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellistalton/2019/01/28/is-the-tsa-really-necessary/
|
Could Gun Laws Across The Country Start To Look More Like Those In Texas?
|
From Texas Standard: Ever since two important cases struck down gun restrictions in Washington, D.C. and Chicago rulings that essentially protected gun ownership in the home a question has remained as to whether it's legal to carry guns in public. But now, the Supreme Court is planning to review a case dealing with that very question; it's known by the shorthand "New York State Rifle." Adam Winkler is a professor at UCLA School of Law who specializes in American constitutional law and the Supreme Court. Winkler says the case challenges a New York City ordinance that limits where people with permitted guns can bring them into public; they can bring them to specified gun ranges, for example. "But you can't take that gun to another residence you might have in Upstate New York or to gun ranges outside of the city of New York, and the challengers are saying this is a violation of their Second Amendment right," Winkler says. Winkler says it's those restrictions that got the attention of the Supreme Court. But New York City's law is especially specific; Winkler says it's "highly unusual," and that no other city has one like it. The Supreme Court could simply strike down the provisions in that particular law. But Winkler says it could also go another way. "I think probably the real reason the court took the case was because the court was prepared to articulate some broader principles about the Second Amendment, including whether you can take a gun that you have in a home and take it outside of your home and transport it," Winkler says. With the addition of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court now includes a 5-4 majority of conservative-leaning justices, and Winkler says that will impact the decision on this case. "We do have five justices who are likely to be strong, favorable votes in favor of broad Second Amendment rulings," Winkler says. "Not because they're Republican appointees, but because most of them have made clear their views on the right to bear arms." When Justice Anthony Kennedy was still serving, Winkler says he was a more "reluctant advocate" for the Second Amendment; the court refused to hear many Second Amendment cases during his tenure. But now that Kavanaugh has replaced him, Winkler says that's changing. "I think it's really a reflection of the personnel change on the court, more than anything," Winkler says. And while Winkler says the Supreme Court won't be looking directly at Texas law to determine its decision on this case, he says there is a chance the court will help set in motion a broader trend toward gun laws that look like those in Texas. "The view of the right to bear arms that has governed Texas over the last 30 years ... that same attitude, I think is shared by several of the justices," Winkler says. "And they may find that laws that are more restrictive than the laws in place in Texas ... are too onerous and too restrictive of Second Amendment rights, and that Texas is the model for America." Written by Caroline Covington.
|
http://www.kut.org/post/could-gun-laws-across-country-start-look-more-those-texas
|
Why does Roger Goodell continue to ignore the mess from Rams-Saints?
|
Hard to know where to start when discussing the eight-day-old officiating decision heard-round-the-NFL that played a major role in the Rams winning the NFC title game. I think we should start at silence silence from the NFL, and from commissioner Roger Goodell, and (mostly) from vice president for officiating Al Riveron. It is disconcerting that Goodell, who entered the league as a PR intern three-and-a-half decades ago, has been so weak-kneed in hiding from the onslaught of this controversy. It started with an obvious pass interference infraction that went uncalled in the Superdome eight days ago, advanced to the chambers of the U.S. Senate on Friday, and will dog Goodell till he acknowledges the momentous error, presumably at his state-of-the-league press conference Wednesday. Goodell has a new high-powered PR team around him, but hes never been one to take much advice in how to respond to public crises. That frustrated some of his now departed PR appointees, who found that he listened to their advice but usually did what he wanted regardless. But what seems so tone-deaf and arrogant about ignoring the no-call in New Orleans is well, let me enumerate: It flies in the face of what the NFL has done for years. Searching the internet Friday, I found 15 occasions (I bet its closer to 30) since 2003 that the NFL admitted an officiating error publiclyeither in a statement, or on the leagues in-house NFL Network, or on Twitter. The NFL has not commented publicly since Nickell Robey-Coleman of the Rams slammed into Saints wideout Tommylee Lewis before the ball arrived with 1:43 left in a tied NFC title game at the L.A. 6-yard line. The Saints, had the obvious infraction been flagged, could have run the clock down to about 20 to 25 seconds, kicked the go-ahead chip-shot field goal, then kicked off to the Rams, who had no timeouts left. Suffice to say that its more likely than not that the Saints would have won the game. After the game, Saints coach Sean Payton said Riveron admitted the mistake to him over the phone. But thats all weve heard about the most important officiating mistake in years. Its so different from recent history. The leagues three officiating czars in the last 16 yearsMike Pereira, Dean Blandino and Riveronhave publicly admitted errors large and small and often have apologized for them, including a huge missed defensive pass-interference error at the end of the 49ers 39-38 wild-card win over the Giants in January 2003. The game [should] have been extended by one untimed down, a league statement said. Take it all the way to last month, when Riveron admitted the officials blew a Bobby Wagner illegal leap to block a Vikings field goal in Seattle. This is a foul, Riveron said. But now, nothing. The sounds of silence, disgracefully, on the worst missed call in the league in years. The message: The NFL will admit mistake after mistake after mistake, significant ones, but when it comes to a colossal gaffe, league officials will hide in their Park Avenue fortress. Not much. But in a league that asks for the public trust and holds itself up as a sporting model of propriety, its called doing the right thing. Its a simple public statement Goodell could issue; he should make it, because the buck stops with him. Or he could do it on camera with someone like Judy Battista or Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. He could deliver a simple message: We appreciate the passion of the Saints and their fans, who are some of the best fans in the league. Were lucky to have them. There was a mistake made by our officials at the end of the NFC Championship Game at a crucial point of the game, and its a mistake we dont take lightly. We regret the error. We know that doesnt fix the mistake. But we want fans of the Saints and fans of our league to know well work hard to improve our officiating. This takes nothing away from the efforts of the Los Angeles Rams, who deserve the victory and will be worthy representatives of the NFC in the Super Bowl. Were now going to re-double our efforts to make sure we close the loophole that allowed this to happen. All options are on the table for improving officiating, and our Competition Committee will work immediately to figure out the best way to help our officials be even better in 2019 and beyond. Its totally disrespectful to fansin Louisiana and across the countryto ignore the story. Lets now count how many places Goodell must need extra securityif he even shows his face in public there. New England. St. Louis. San Diego. Oakland. Louisiana. Anywhere the draft is held. As for the Saints: Its hard to go to New Orleans and not be wowed by the passion of the fans. When a third of the metro area population went away following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the fans of a bad Saints team responded by selling out the Superdome for 2006and every year since. I go to all the cities and see all the teams. I can tell you there is no place more passionate than Louisiana about its team. Theyre hurting. Theyre angry. Theyre despondent. The back of its hand. I spoke to retiring Saints tight end Benjamin Watson the same day he issued his impassioned where-is-Roger statement. He echoed it to me, pretty much. This an imperfect game, coached by imperfect people, played by imperfect people, reffed by imperfect people, Watson said. This is simply a case where one of those imperfect people made a huge mistake and impacted a team and a city and a lot of passionate fans. The commissioner should say something. This is an NFL franchise. These are some of your most passionate fans. This is not a franchise on the fringe, or an expansion franchise. For him to sit there and not say anything, for him to be silent, is disheartening for the fans. Not just for Saints fans but football fans. They want to know the game is not rigged. Plus, it is disrespectful to the men in both locker rooms, who deserve the truth. Instead, all we get is silence. The leagues valuation of the vice president of officiating position is dumb, and should be re-thought, even if it means Riveron goes. Football Zebras, the NFL officiating watchdog site, estimates that the officiating VP post a salary of about $350,000 a year. From Labor Day to early February, a span of more than five months, the job is the second-most important in pro football administration, behind one personGoodell. It is beyond ridiculous that the second-most important guy in the league office for the season, the face of the league in many weeks, makes 1 percent of Roger Goodells annual compensation. Lets say the NFL moves to strengthen the internal operations of officiating. Lets say they begin to pay this job for what the headaches and brickbats and cover-the-NFLs-rear part of the job are worth. My recommendation: Call Blandino and his employer, network partner FOX, and see if a signing bonus of $1 million and annual salary of $1 million could convince him to jump back to the league, where he is missed. Convince FOX its for the good of the game. (Blandino recently said hell stay in television, but Id like to see what hed do if offered $2 million for his services in 2019.) Keep Riveron, if hell stay, as Blandinos number two, which he used to be. One last thing: Put everything on the table for discussion at the leagues March meeting in Phoenix, but decide nothing. Give it the proper consideration. Then convene a week-long post-draft power meeting in New York with the Competition Committee and other influential league pillars, like Belichick. Put everything on the table. Bring in John Madden, Ozzie Newsome, Ed Hochuli and the respected idea people to figure out the best way to proceed on new officiating strictures. With most every significant league figure in Atlanta for at least part of this week, this should be the start of an idea period. Ill share one that I got from an active NFL coach last week, in a text. Rules need to be changed for the playoffs, the coach wrote. Coaches need to have more challenge and be able to challenge more types of calls, like P.I. Its too important to say, Well, weve never done that before. Its the playoffs. All that matters is we get it right! Well put. Read more from Football Morning in America by clicking here
|
https://sports.nbcsports.com/2019/01/28/why-does-roger-goodell-continue-to-ignore-the-mess-from-rams-saints/
|
Can The Blockchain Help Renew Confidence In Government?
|
If you own a nice piece of ocean-front property, and I decide I would like that piece of property, and my cousin works in the land registry where we both live, I dont need to buy the property from you to have it for my weekend parties. I can contact my cousin and ask him to transfer the record over to me. Yes, that would be illegal, but in some developing countries, I might get away with it. With the application of a bribe here and there, its easy for me to change a public record, and hard for you, as the property owner, to rectify the situation. Its basically your word against the public record, which you have no means of controlling. It happens all the time, according to corruption experts. Its this sort of problem that blockchain technology could help with, and, in fact, its already happening. The Republic of Georgia (the country) has put almost 200,000 public land titles on a system that combines a tamper-proof private blockchain with a public blockchain viewable by anybody. The registry is thought to be one of the first times a government has used the decentralized network underlying bitcoina blockchainfor a public service purpose. It allow citizens of Georgia to validate the integrity of their record and have that record recorded publicly, says Tomicah Tillemann, cofounder of the Blockchain Trust Accelerator, which helped to develop the project. Until 2014, Tillemann worked as a State Department advisor on civil society and democracy-boosting technology. He helped set up a peer-to-peer network for democracies in transition, and, as revealed by one of the Clinton email leaks, he once went 100 hours without sleep as he finished a speech for Secretary Clinton about internet freedom. Tillemann believes blockchain could play a big role in improving trust in government, improving bureaucratic efficiency, and maintaining integrity of public data, from vote counts to land registry titles. (We discussed several other social impact applications for blockchains here). The critical challenge facing society right now is the breakdown in trust in institutions, he tells Fast Company. Blockchain was designed from the ground up to address that, creating systems that are highly secure, highly transparent and resistant to corruption.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40434501/can-the-blockchain-help-renew-confidence-in-government
|
Can Pricey Baby-Food Delivery Startups Crawl Their Way To Mainstream Success?
|
Baby food isnt as simple as mashed bananas. advertisement advertisement Thats what private equity firm director Angela Sutherland discovered while pregnant with her first child in 2013. When she wasnt working 10-hour days, she was researching what a baby should consume during the first 1,000 days. Proper nutrition at the start of a childs life, she had read, is fundamental to health and development. Everything you feed them goes straight to their brain, says Sutherland, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker. Sutherland recalls how the baby nutrition category seemed, to her, inefficient and overwhelming. Her options were either spending hours each week in the kitchen or grabbing a jar off the supermarket shelf that, as she describes, was sometimes older than my baby. Or, in some cases, loaded with sugar, additives, and preservatives. Roughly 90% of Americas babies are fed mass-produced food, according to food historian Amy Bentley, author of Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet. And most options from major brands, including Gerbers, are not even meant to be daily meal staples, but rather supplements. The University of Glasgow concluded that supermarket baby brands contain fewer nutrients than homemade meals and that babies would need to eat twice as much of the processed food to get the same energy and protein as home-cooked meals. The World Health Organization found that babies who eat homemade meals may learn to appreciate a wider variety of food types and be leaner than infants who eat store-bought products. And, as if all that werent scary enough, the Environmental Defense Fund recently announced that detectable levels of lead were found in 20% of 2,164 baby food samples. Theres plenty there to cause parents concern. Those were the questions Sutherland hoped to answer when, in late 2015, she teamed up with former Wall Street Journal journalist Evelyn Rusli to found Yumi, a meal delivery program for infants and toddlers that attempts to ensure a proper balance of nutrients. advertisement Launched this month, the Los Angeles-based startup services greater California. Parents receive 6, 10, or 14 fresh, organic, low-sugar meals at their doorsteps for $45-$85 a week. And were not talking basic applesauce. These are recipes crafted by chefs and infused with the Yumis philosophy of every ingredient has a purpose. Think blueberry chia seed pudding mixed with quinoa, dates, and wheat germ oil, or pured squash and kale with spirulina, nutritional yeast, and flax. The company caters to moms who want the very best for their little onewhich might mean chopped dragon fruit. Its not the only service of its kind. In the last two years, nearly a dozen new companies have sprung up that present themselves as a healthy, convenient alternative to big brands like Gerbers, which owns 61% of the market. With weekly prices for these services averaging about $45, the startups cater to affluent, health-conscious young parents who are familiar with services like Blue Apron and want an alternative to the standard jarred food model. Some of these companies specialize in fresh meals, some in frozen, and they vary in how they prepare and ship their products. But all are founded on the premise that there are no simple, healthy alternatives on market. The average supermarket-shelf baby food has about 12 grams of sugar, so if a baby is eating that three times a day, thats equivalent to a can of Coke or more, says Michelle Davenport, a registered dietician and cofounder of one of the new companies in this sector, Raised Real. The bottom line, Yumis Sutherland says, is that feeding your child shouldnt be this onerous process. So our goal is: How do we make the parent worry-free? Baby Steps To Better Nutrition In an era when even organic dog food has its own delivery startup, its no surprise baby food has received the Silicon Valley treatment. Mainstream attention to health and wellness has crept into nearly every product category, demographic, and age range. Yumi cofounder Rusli says the well-heeled millennial moms she and Sutherland encounter, many of them in Los Angeles and New York, consider health their chief concern. As a recent Goldman Sachs report found, millennials, more than other generation, are increasingly opting for healthier food options. Just as traditional fast-food chains lost market share to slightly more nutritious establishments like Panera Bread, the pattern could make its way to toddler menus. advertisement Jill Castle, a pediatric nutritionist and the author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School, says that baby nutrition is as important as all these startups stress. Its not just a helicopter moms anxiety. It is one of the most important stages in a childs life, in terms of setting the foundation for growth and developmentnot just body growth, but brain development, she says. Gerbers does have an organic baby food line. For $1.29, parents can purchase a pouch of fruits and veggies made with no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or artificial flavors. An average serving has 4g of sugar, on par with its organic competitors and about 3-8g less than a similar product from the companys only slightly cheaper conventional line. But even the organic pouch isnt meant to be consumed three to five times a day, says Gerber CMO Aileen Stocks. We acknowledge, that yes, our products play a role [in a daily diet], but so do fresh fruit and veggies, she says. We do fully support having a varied and healthy diet, which includes our products and homemade food. Yumi, on the other hand, is meant to be a comprehensive meal plan for babiesand a de-stresser for anxious new parents. The companys holistic approach, Rusli says, provides all of a childs nutritional needs for each week. If one meal is high in iron, the other might be rich in Vitamin C. To create menus, the cofounders partnered with several registered physicians and nutrition experts, including Dr. Nicole Avena, author of the upcoming What to Feed Your Baby. Another company, Thistle, was born of similar intentions. Three months ago, Shiri Avnery and her husband, Ashwin Cheriyan, launched a startup that, for $45 a week, delivers 21 flash-frozen, organic plant-based baby-food meal kits to parents in California and Nevada. Avnery says each meal is crafted with herbs, spices, and superfoods to develop babies palates for healthier food. Little Green Machine is made of broccoli, asparagus, green beans, pears, and tarragonall peeled, chopped, measured, and ready to steam and pure. Raised Real, which started shipping to a handful of states in April, offers a similar biweekly formula with a Juicero-like twist. In addition to 20 meals a month for $95, customers can purchase a $99 Meal Maker, a blender that steams and puresjust like the many other machines that have been on the market for years, including the Beaba Babycook. For a limited time, the Meal Maker comes free with a monthly subscription. advertisement Another April arrival, Little Spoon, considers itself a response to the trend of pouch-packaging, which some nutritionists deem detrimental to babies developing proper chewing and biting skills. Each plastic meal cup of pured organic fruits and veggies comes with a kid-friendly spoon. While investors have thrown their support behind these startupsthe multibillion-dollar Schwan Food Company invested $1 million in Raised Real, for instancethat doesnt necessarily mean that the companies will scale successfully. The on-demand food startup sector is marked by plenty of struggling newcomers that fail to profit off the industrys small margins. Sprig, SpoonRocket, and Maple are just a few meal delivery services that ceased operations of late. Currently, the meal kit sector is a very small market, says Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst for market research company The NPD Group. Only 5% of of adults say that they have tried one, and of those who havent, 20% said they are interested, reports the group. Most leave the service for cost reasons, Seifer says. The market is also crowded. It seems to be mirroring what we saw in the late 90s with all the dot-coms jockeying for market shares, and then it whittled to a few big ones, like Amazon, he says. On the plus side, however, the core customer base is a coveted one. [Millennials] are driving new habits. They grew up knowing they can order basically anything on the internet, Seifer says. While Yumi and others do offer free recipes and nutrition information on their websites, thats about as close as lower-income parents will likely every get to the luxury of delivered gourmet baby meals. And these are the very people who need fresh, nutritious food the most, since poorer neighborhoods tend to lack full grocery stores that stock a variety of fruits and vegetables. In these food deserts, cash-strapped families depend on convenience stores with limited produce, according to the nonprofit Food Resource and Action Center. And when there are decent supermarkets, healthier products are almost always more expensive than processed ones. Little Spoon cofounder and CMO Lisa Barnett says that, in the long run, she doesnt intend for her company to only cater to the one percent in coastal cities. She says her company plans to go national in the coming year and is creating a supply chain that can just as easily ship to Kentucky as it can ship to New York. Cost-wise, these startups hope that once they secure more customers, they can lower prices. Just how low, however, is unclear. advertisement Of course, theres also the question of just how useful these services are. The handful of mothers I spoke had mixed responses. Taskrabbit founder Leah Busque, a self-described crazy busy working mom in San Francisco, started using Raised Real after the birth of her second child. I feel so much freer this time and not so overwhelmed, she says. I love that [my baby] is getting introduced to interesting ingredients so early. This is the time when their taste buds are developing. Halie Geller, on the other hand, doesnt see the point. I dont see why its so difficult to take a fork and mash up a sweet potato or banana, says Geller, an attorney from Huntington, New York. My toddler is a picky eater, so the idea of paying a small fortune for her to spit out or throw her organically grown, freshly prepared, mashed-up food seems ridiculous. Allegra Marino Shmulevsky, an adjunct lecturer at New Yorks Pratt Institute, is also unlikely to sign up for any of the services anytime soon. When its time for her son to eat, she simply pures a portion of whatever is on the menu for the entire family. Its called child-led weaning and its what her pediatrician recommended. I give [my baby] soft things to eat and he sort of figures it out himself, she says. Part of my hesitance to do pures made just for him, rather than just blending what we were eating, is that that sounds really time-consuming. To grow beyond the 1%, these companies have their work cut out for them. But Little Spoons Barnett isnt worried. The service is still invite-only, but she says there are 3,000 people on the waiting list. And she sees another promising sign: parents who have grown so fond of the meal packets that they use them for their own usein a morning smoothie, for instance. Hopefully by the time Little Spoon is national, Barnett says, it will no longer be, Im not trying the baby food, but Hey, I hope theres some left over for me.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40423887/can-pricey-baby-food-delivery-startups-crawl-their-way-to-mainstream-success
|
What are non-disclosure agreements?
|
Image copyright EPA Image caption Sir Philip Green denies allegations of sexual harassment and racist behaviour Topshop boss Sir Philip Green has dropped his legal action against the Daily Telegraph, which prevented it publishing allegations of racist behaviour and sexual harassment. He had argued that former staff were breaking the law by breaching non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) they had signed. Sometimes known as "gagging orders" or "hush agreements", they're legal contracts between employees and companies, typically preventing staff and ex-staff making information public. This applies to commercially sensitive details such as inventions, ideas, accounts or strategies, or anything likely to damage an organisation's reputation. Recently, Jose Mourinho was reported to have signed an NDA as part of his pay-off when he was sacked as Manchester United manager. But NDAs have also been used to prevent employees reporting allegations of misbehaviour in the workplace to the media after a settlement has been agreed. They are signed when employees and organisations decide to resolve a dispute - such as claims of wrongful dismissal - without having to go through a full tribunal hearing. But they can be signed earlier, such as when staff are taken on. They can be about specific details, such as a certain invention or contract, or they can be more general. In the UK, NDAs don't stop people reporting alleged illegal acts. If a manager or colleague faced allegations of attempted rape or fraud, for instance, reporting these to the police would not be prevented. But allegations of a boss making sexual comments or bullying staff could be covered. Campaigners argue that this could allow those responsible to get away with misbehaviour and stops other potential victims coming forward. The length of time for which an NDA applies varies. In the US, it's thought that a third of workers have signed NDAs but no equivalent figures exist for the UK. Julie Morris, a senior employment partner at Slater and Gordon Lawyers, says that, in her experience, "almost all settlement agreements" contain NDAs "which prevent employees from speaking about various matters, including allegations about harassment or discrimination". The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned law firms against "inappropriate" use of NDAs, including to prevent reporting of "sexual harassment or misconduct". The Commons Women's and Equality Committee has recommended that the government "clean up" the use of NDAs in sexual harassment cases, and is now looking at what effect NDAs have on pregnancy or maternity discrimination or racist abuse. In one committee hearing, Nick Whittingham, chief executive of Kirklees Citizens Advice and Law Centre, said about 80% of settled tribunal cases involved an NDA. If someone breaches an NDA, they break a contract. This leaves them open to being sued. But if a company thinks the NDA is going to be breached anyway, it can apply for an injunction, as Sir Philip did to prevent his name being circulated by the Daily Telegraph in connection with allegations of racial and sexual harassment. If someone breaches an injunction, this is a criminal offence, and can lead to a fine or jail for those found guilty. Yes. Parliamentary privilege - guaranteeing free speech for parliamentarians - allows MPs and peers to mention them in the House of Commons or House of Lords. Last October, former Labour cabinet minister Lord Hain used this to name Sir Philip as the businessman accused by the Daily Telegraph of sexual and racial harassment, after the newspaper was prevented by the injunction from doing this. It reported that interviews with five members of staff revealed that victims had been paid "substantial sums" in return for legal commitments not to discuss their alleged experiences. But it hadn't named Sir Philip, because of the injunction. Sir Philip says he is "not guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour" and that he has been the subject of "vicious" and "untrue" personal attacks in the media.
|
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47027062
|
What are the key Brexit amendments tabled by UK MPs?
|
Various factions of British MPs are jostling to stamp their mark on the EU withdrawal agenda in what is shaping up to be Brexits Super Tuesday showdown in the Commons. It will be down to Speaker John Bercow which proposals are selected for a vote. Any successful amendments will not have the force of law, but will carry heavy political weight as a signal to Downing Street and Brussels of what kind of Brexit MPs are likely to approve. (PA Graphics) Here are some of the most prominent amendments tabled: Grieve amendment In a bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit, the cross-party backed proposal from Dominic Grieve would effectively wrest control of Commons business from the Government for six individual days in the run-up to the UKs scheduled withdrawal date of March 29 with the intention of getting MPs to reach a consensus on how to handle it. Taking control The bill has limited effect - it doesnt change constitution/stop Brexit/revoke Article 50/determine what happens next. It just gives Govt & Parliament the chance to ask for a bit more time if country is facing No Deal https://t.co/ib4rE6BTTj Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) January 23, 2019 In a similar vein, a move by Labour former minister Yvette Cooper, supported by Tories such as Nick Boles, calls for a vote on a Bill that would give Parliament control over the Brexit process if Theresa May fails to secure a deal by February 26. MPs would get a vote on extending Article 50 to the end of the year and preventing a no-deal exit under the terms of the Bill. The Labour frontbench has been publicly flirting with throwing its weight behind the amendment. Brake on the backstop Tory grandees including 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady and former minister Andrew Murrison want a deadline of the end of December 2021 put on the backstop proposal intended to avoid a hard border in Ireland. The amendment is believed to be viewed favourably by Downing Street as a way of showing Brussels that the Withdrawal Agreement could get through the Commons if concessions are made regarding Northern Ireland. Another amendment from Mr Brady and Dr Murrison seeks that the backstop is replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border. No to no deal I am proud to have signed @spelmanc & @JackDromeyMP cross party letter along with 211 other MPs. We urge Theresa May to rule out a no deal Brexit - even if her deal is defeated in the Commons next week. pic.twitter.com/3kZjeqlDy6 Vernon Coaker (@Vernon_Coaker) January 7, 2019 A cross-party effort headed by Tory Caroline Spelman has widespread support and rejects the UK quitting the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement. This would probably be more palatable to the Government than either the Grieve or Cooper bids for MPs to take back control. Labours twin track approach This calls for MPs to be able to vote on options to stop a no-deal exit, such as a customs union with the EU, as well as the possibility of a new Brexit referendum. Jeremy Corbyn has been careful not to commit Labour to officially back such a poll, though. Amendments have been tacked on to the Labour push, with the Liberal Democrats calling for Remain to be on the ballot paper in any referendum, and Labour backbenchers urging Parliament to legislate for a public vote. Indicative votes 1/3 Heres the case for holding a series of indicative votes on Brexit. Parliament is currently deadlocked. Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) January 26, 2019 Commons Exiting the European Union Committee chairman Hilary Benn wants a series of votes on various Brexit options to see where the most support lies. - Press Association
|
https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/what-are-the-key-brexit-amendments-tabled-by-uk-mps-900598.html
|
Whats The iPhone Done To Us?
|
Sometime around 2011 or 2012, it suddenly became very easy to predict what people would be doing in public places: Most would be looking down at their phones. advertisement advertisement For years, mobile phones werent much to look at. The screens were small, and users needed to press the same key several times to type a single letter in a text. Then, 10 years agoon June 29, 2007Apple released the first iPhone. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during the iPhones introductory news conference. Within six years, the majority of Americans owned a smartphoneembracing the new technology perhaps faster than any other previous technology had been adopted. Today, smartphones seem indispensable. They connect us to the internet, give us directions, allow us to quickly fire off texts andas I discovered one day in spring 2009can even help you find the last hotel room in Phoenix when your plane is grounded by a dust storm. Yet research has shown that this convenience may be coming at a cost. We seem to be addicted to our phones; as a psychology researcher, I have read study after study concluding that our mental health and relationships may be suffering. Meanwhile, the first generation of kids to grow up with smartphones is now reaching adulthood, and were only beginning to see the adverse effects. Sucked In In the beginning, sociologist Sherry Turkle explained, smartphone users would huddle together, sharing what was on their phones. As time has gone on, theres been less of that and more of what I call the alone together phenomenon. It has turned out to be an isolating technology, she said in the 2015 documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. Its a dream machine and you become fascinated by the world you can find on these screens. advertisement This is the new normal: Instead of calling someone, you text them. Instead of getting together for dinner with friends to tell them about your recent vacation, you post the pictures to Facebook. Its convenient, but it cuts out some of the face-to-face interactions that, as social animals, we crave. More and more studies suggest that electronic communicationunlike the face-to-face interaction it may replacehas negative consequences for mental health. One study asked college students to report on their mood five times a day. The more they had used Facebook, the less happy they were. However, feeling unhappy didnt lead to more Facebook use, which suggests that Facebook was causing unhappiness, not vice versa. Another study examined the impact of smartphones on relationships. People whose partners were more frequently distracted by their phones were less satisfied with their relationships, andperhaps as a resultwere more likely to feel depressed. Nevertheless, we cant stop staring at our phones. In his book Irresistible, marketing professor Adam Alter makes a convincing case that social media and electronic communication are addictive, involving the same brain pathways as drug addiction. In one study, frequent smartphone users asked to put their phones face down on the table grew increasingly anxious the more time passed. They couldnt stand not looking at their phones for just a few minutes. iGen: The smartphone generation The rapid market saturation of smartphones produced a noticeable generational break between those born in the 1980s and early 1990s (called millennials) and those born in 1995 and later (called iGen or gen Z). iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence with smartphones. Although iGen displays many positive characteristics such as lower alcohol use and more limited teen sexuality, the trends in their mental health are more concerning. In the American Freshman Survey, the percentage of entering college students who said they felt depressed in the last year doubled between 2009 and 2016. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a sharp increase in the teen suicide rate over the same time period when smartphones became common. The pattern is certainly suspicious, but at the moment its difficult to tell whether these trends are caused by smartphones or something else. (Its a question Im trying to answer with my current research.) advertisement Many also wonder if staring at screens will negatively impact adolescents budding social skills. At least one study suggests it will. Sixth graders who attended a screen-free camp for just five days improved their skills at reading emotions on others faces significantly more than those who spent those five days with their normal high level of screen use. Like anything else, social skills get better with practice. If iGen gets less practice, their social skills may suffer. Smartphones are a tool, and like most tools, they can be used in positive ways or negative ones. In moderation, smartphones are a convenienteven crucialtechnology. Yet a different picture has also emerged over the past decade: Interacting with people face-to-face usually makes us happy. Electronic communication often doesnt. Jean Twenge is professor of psychology at San Diego State University. A version of this story first appeared at The Conversation. Fast Company welcomes your manuscripts of 750-900 words (see some tips here from our Leadership section), as well as your letters, tips, materials, questions, or thoughts about the worldemail us at ideas at fastcompany dot com.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40435888/whats-the-iphone-done-to-us
|
Will Netflix Fall Into the Apple Trap?
|
For the past several years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) seemed invincible. Sure, there were ongoing concerns about slowing iPhone sales, but the company's revenue continued to grow, spurred on by a seemingly endless string of price increases for its flagship device. That all came crashing down recently. A combination of increasing smartphone penetration, slowing growth in China, and lackluster adoption of the latest model caused Apple to warn that its revenue results for the important holiday quarter would fall well below its previous guidance. There are some interesting parallels with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) as it begins to more aggressively raise prices. An Apple sits atop a bear trap. Image source: Getty Images. A similar mindset Over the years, Apple has often suggested that as it continued to add high-end features to its iPhone, consumers would be willing to pay a premium for the device. Here's what Apple CEO Tim Cook had to say on the subject on the third-quarter 2018 conference call last June: If you look at iPhone X in particular, it's the most innovative smartphone on the market. We priced it at a level that represented the value of it. And we could not be happier that it has been the top-selling iPhone since the launch. Netflix had been much more reluctant to raise prices since the ill-fated splitting of its DVD and streaming services back in 2011. Where customers were previously charged $10 for both services, the price jumped to $8 each or $16 for both. Customers revolted at the 60% price increase and Netflix lost 800,000 members that quarter, or 3% of its subscriber base. That led to a long period of stable pricing. Over the past couple of years, however, Netflix has been much more willing to institute price increases. Consider this recent quote from Netflix's chief product officer, Greg Peters, on the company's fourth-quarter conference call, referring to the recent price increase: "Our job is to effectively invest the money that our subscribers give us every month so that we can give them incredible content and a better and better product experience. And if we do that well, we create more value for our subscribers and then occasionally, we'll come to them and we'll ask for a little bit more money." That sounds an awful lot like Apple's justification for higher prices. Diverging paths While both companies have a history of recent increases, the results over time have been vastly different. Since 2014, Netflix has raised the cost of its standard plan -- which includes high-definition streaming and concurrent streaming on two devices -- from $7.99 to $12.99, a 63% increase. While that might seem ambitious, the path of price increases for the iPhone has been far more aggressive. In 2014, a low-end iPhone 6 cost about $199. Today, the cheapest iPhone XS comes in at $999 -- a fivefold increase. Not Apples to apples It's important to note that other factors are at play, so this is obviously not a perfect comparison. Smartphones have experienced much greater penetration worldwide than streaming has. In addition, the ongoing trade war and slowing economic growth in China probably took the greatest toll on Apple's results, so growth may rebound somewhat once Washington, D.C., and Beijing strike an accord.
|
https://news.yahoo.com/netflix-fall-apple-trap-123000378.html
|
Can eBay Deliver When It Reports Earnings?
|
Last year was a tough one for eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) investors. The e-commerce platform lost a quarter of its value as the broader digital shopping market grew up around it, dwarfed by the success of major players like Amazon. In the wake of these events, eBay has worked to remake itself, targeting more of a niche market. Investor enthusiasm coupled with recent events have pushed eBay's stock up more than 16% in recent weeks, putting pressure on the company to continue to deliver. eBay is scheduled to release the financial results of its just-completed fourth quarter after the market close on Tuesday, Jan. 29. Let's take a look at the company's third-quarter earnings, a news flash, and eBay's outlook to see what insight they provide into the company's upcoming earnings report. A building entrance adorned with the eBay logo. More Image source: eBay. A look back In the third quarter, eBay generated revenue of $2.65 billion, an increase of 6% year over year, falling at the low end of the company's guidance and just missing analyst consensus estimates of $2.66 billion. Diluted earnings per share of $0.73 climbed 52% compared to the prior-year quarter. Adjusted earnings per share jumped 19% year over year to $0.56, at the high end of management's forecast and edging past expectations of $0.55 per share. eBay reported that global active buyers grew to 177 million, up 4% compared to the prior-year quarter. Marketplace revenue of $2.1 billion climbed 6%, while StubHub revenue of $291 million increased 7%, both year over year. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) for marketplace and StubHub grew to $21.5 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively. Total GMV of $22.7 billion grew 5% year over year. eBay's classified ads business added revenue of $254 million, up 8% year over year. Current events Activist investment firm Elliot Management released an open letter to eBay's management, after disclosing a 4% stake in the online marketplace, making it one of the company's largest investors. The letter said Elliot's $1.4 billion investment in the company "demonstrates our strong belief in the value opportunity at eBay." Elliot's team pointed out that the stock had underperformed its peers, and laid out a number of steps it believes eBay must take to unlock that value. These steps include revitalizing the company's core marketplace, spinning off StubHub and eBay's classifieds business, instituting operational improvements, implementing a 1.5% dividend yield, and accelerating its stock buybacks. The hedge fund believes if eBay were to implement these steps, it would nearly double eBay's stock price to $63 per share within two years. eBay has said it's reviewing Elliot's proposals. What the quarter may hold For the upcoming fourth quarter, eBay is guiding for net revenue in a range of $2.85 billion to $2.89 billion, representing year-over-year growth of between 4% and 5%, excluding the impact of foreign currency changes. The company is also expecting diluted earnings per share (EPS) of between $0.87 and $0.92, and adjusted earnings per share in a range of $0.67 and $0.69. To put this into the context of investor expectations and the broader market sentiment, analysts' consensus estimates are calling for revenue of $2.87 billion, in line with management's guidance, and adjusted EPS of $0.68, at the high end of eBay's forecast range.
|
https://news.yahoo.com/ebay-deliver-reports-earnings-121100665.html
|
Is Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
|
If investors are looking at the Non US - Equity fund category, make sure to pass over Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX). GBFAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective GBFAX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too. History of Fund/Manager GBFAX finds itself in the Van Eck family, based out of New York, NY. Van Eck Emerging Markets A made its debut in January of 1994, and since then, GBFAX has accumulated about $119.07 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, David A. Semple, has been in charge of the fund since December of 2002. Performance Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 4.57%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of GBFAX over the past three years is 16.16% compared to the category average of 10.08%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.38% compared to the category average of 10.02%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. In the most recent bear market, GBFAX lost 73.44% and underperformed its peer group by 14.99%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -6.67, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, GBFAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.41% compared to the category average of 1.21%. So, GBFAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, Van Eck Emerging Markets A ( GBFAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Non US - Equity area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into GBFAX too for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
|
https://news.yahoo.com/van-eck-emerging-markets-gbfax-120012752.html
|
Is ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A (SBLGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
|
ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A (SBLGX) is a potential starting point. SBLGX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective SBLGX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers. History of Fund/Manager SBLGX finds itself in the Legg Mason family, based out of Baltimore, MD. ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A debuted in August of 1997. Since then, SBLGX has accumulated assets of about $1.89 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Peter Bourbeau, has been in charge of the fund since July of 2009. Performance Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 10.47%, and it sits in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 10.01%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of SBLGX over the past three years is 11.58% compared to the category average of 9.76%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 11.43% compared to the category average of 9.64%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. In the most recent bear market, SBLGX lost 46.03% and outperformed its peer group by 2.81%. This might suggest that the fund is a better choice than its peers during a bear market. Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1, so it is likely going to be as volatile as the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. With a positive alpha of 1.93, managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Holdings Exploring the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States. Right now, 87.53% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, with an average market capitalization of $280.46 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors: Technology Other Retail Trade Finance With turnover at about 18%, this fund makes fewer trades than the average comparable fund. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, SBLGX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.03% compared to the category average of 1.05%. SBLGX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost. Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $50. Bottom Line Overall, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A ( SBLGX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth A ( SBLGX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Large Cap Growth, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research
|
https://news.yahoo.com/clearbridge-large-cap-growth-sblgx-120012740.html
|
What If The Data Science Skills Gap Is Just A Hiring Hot Mess?
|
I honestly feel for recruiters who are tasked with filing data-science and machine-learning job openings. The list of requirements that employers draw up for those roles is pure bravado with a side of madness: 10 years of data science with at least five years in natural-language processing and either a Masters or PhD (never mind that I can count on one hand the number of data scientists who were building for production back in 2007). Others ask for experience with three different programming languages, 10 platforms, a niche algorithm set, leadership skillsand by this point Im typically only halfway through reading the job qualifications. advertisement advertisement Ask any tech recruiter and theyll tell you about the stack of job openings like these that theyve been unable to fill for the past six months to a year. Every couple of weeks, the client calls and berates them for not being able to send them quality candidates. After awhile everyone involved throws up their hands and calls it a skills gap. It isnt. Related: How To Satisfy Demand For The Biggest Job Of The 21st Century Scrap Your Stupid Job Qualifications Google doesnt require a PhD to be a machine-learning engineer. A recent survey found that only one in four data scientists has a PhD. Yet I still see advanced-degree requirements on the vast majority of data-science and machine-learning job descriptions. Most companies just throw it in unthinkingly. But unless theyre investing heavily in advanced research, its pointless. Requiring a set number of years of experience is equally stupid. Forget years and start thinking in terms of problem-solving abilities. I love formulas, so heres mine for hiring a great data scientist: Platforms + Business Problems = Required Skills There are no years of experience in the equation. Great! Data scientists are used to working with uncertainty. Were used to turning business problems into technical solutions. Tell us your problems, show us your platforms, and take us to your data. Well outline a roadmap in the job interview that leads to a solution. If you like it, hire us. It really is that simple. Related: Every Data Science Interview Boiled Down To Five Basic Questions advertisement Both these mistakes, and several of the other common ones, come from the myth that every data-science team member needs to be some kind of multitalented wunderkind. Most businesses just need one person with the rare trio of strategy, engineering, and mathematical modeling chops. The rest of the team is built around this person and supports their work. So setting more sensible job requirements for those roles can actually help you build the right team structure. When every member isnt expected to do everything, hiring gets a lot easier. There Are Thousands Of You And One Of Me When job candidates start sounding like Kanye, you know demand is high. Were all trying to stay humble and grounded amidst a massive hype cycle that we neither started nor have any long-term interest in perpetuating. When I was hiring software developers a decade ago, we tossed candidates aside who seemed to feel they were hot commodities; we didnt want to hire a bunch of arrogant, aloof divas. These days, the race for data-science talent has built up egos in a similar way that does a disservice to hiring managers and job seekers alike. Thats not to say that businesses dont need to attract rare talent that gives them a competitive edge. Data scientists and machine-learning practitioners are in high demand for good reason. But the businesses that succeed in finding candidates for these roles dont compel them to be as boastful as possible; they follow much the same approach as they do for recruiting senior-executive talent. Its a relationship-building process, more focused on the company selling the position than the candidates selling themselves. The bigger problem is that many companies view data science and machine learning as checkboxes on their operational to-do lists. Hiring a data scientist checks the box, and theyre done. Businesses that havent really teased out the connection between that type of role and the return on investment theyre expecting from it wont ever have the right tools to hire appropriately. This can also help you avoid both overpaying and underpaying data scientists. How much theyre worth is a lot clearer once you know how much value that person will bring to your business. The hype cycle bears a lot of blame for this problem. Companies are afraid of missing out on the benefits of data science and machine learning. Investors are starting to ask tough questions about how these emerging technologies will play into businesses larger strategies. And thats all good and well. But very few are talking about concrete solutions. Hype gets all the likes. advertisement Doing better means integrating these emerging technologies as strategic solutions to clearly defined business problems. It means more executive oversight for these roles and sticking to a clear schedule of deliverables. And yes, it also means less sexy, over-the-top job listingswhich will be much easier to fill. Based on my experience in the field, there are actually plenty of data scientists to go around. Clarity around how data science and machine learning solve business problems is a lot less plentiful. If you ask me, thats the real skills gap. Vin Vashishta is founder and chief data scientist at V-Squared Data Strategy Consulting. Follow him on Twitter at @v_vashishta.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40432834/what-if-the-data-science-skills-gap-is-just-a-hiring-hot-mess
|
Is DFA US Small Cap Institutional (DFSTX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
|
Starting with DFA US Small Cap Institutional (DFSTX) is one possibility. DFSTX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective Zacks categorizes DFSTX as Small Cap Blend, which is an area packed with options. Usually targeting stocks with market caps of less than $2 billion, a Small Cap Blend mutual fund lets investors diversify their funds among other kinds of small-cap equities. This can help reduce risk found in companies that have a lower stock market valuation. History of Fund/Manager Dimensional is based in Austin, TX, and is the manager of DFSTX. DFA US Small Cap Institutional made its debut in March of 1992, and since then, DFSTX has accumulated about $17.52 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. DFSTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3.86% and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.17%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 15.86%, the standard deviation of DFSTX over the past three years is 15.48%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 14.84% compared to the category average of 15.25%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, DFSTX lost 53.79% and underperformed comparable funds by 1.62%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.1, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -4.6. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Holdings Exploring the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States. The mutual fund currently has 79.33% of its holdings in stocks, with an average market capitalization of $2.37 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors: Other Finance Industrial Cyclical Technology Turnover is about 12%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than its comparable peers. Expenses For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, DFSTX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.37% compared to the category average of 1.04%. So, DFSTX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment. Bottom Line Overall, DFA US Small Cap Institutional ( DFSTX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, DFA US Small Cap Institutional ( DFSTX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Small Cap Blend, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
|
https://news.yahoo.com/dfa-us-small-cap-institutional-120012299.html
|
Is Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
|
Any investors hoping to find an Allocation Balanced fund could think about starting with Permanent Portfolio Fund (PRPFX). PRPFX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective PRPFX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. Allocation Balanced funds seek to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, though including precious metals or commodities is not unusual; these funds are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. Investors utilize Allocation Balanced funds as a way to get a good start with diversified mutual funds, as well as for core holdings in a portfolio of funds. History of Fund/Manager PRPFX is a part of the Permanent family of funds, a company based out of San Francisco, CA. Permanent Portfolio Fund made its debut in December of 1982, and since then, PRPFX has accumulated about $2.36 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Michael J. Cuggino who has been in charge of the fund since May of 2003. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PRPFX has a 5-year annualized total return of 1.32% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 4.85%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 7.14%, the standard deviation of PRPFX over the past three years is 7.1%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 6.98% compared to the category average of 7.27%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment. In PRPFX's case, the fund lost 15.14% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 21.26%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.33, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. PRPFX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -1.72, which means managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, PRPFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.83% compared to the category average of 0.88%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, PRPFX is actually cheaper than its peers. Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, Permanent Portfolio Fund ( PRPFX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Allocation Balanced area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into PRPFX too for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research
|
https://news.yahoo.com/permanent-portfolio-fund-prpfx-strong-120012755.html
|
Is T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
|
Starting with T. Rowe Price Japan Fund (PRJPX) is one possibility. PRJPX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective PRJPX is part of the Japan - Equity section, which is a segment that boasts many possible selections. Japan - Equity mutual funds mostly invest in Japan-based companies, which is one of the world's richest and most diversified economies. Japan's focus on exports allows them to be somewhat exposed to global economic trends, but investors should note that the country's lack of natural resources can also have an impact. History of Fund/Manager T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of PRJPX. T. Rowe Price Japan Fund made its debut in December of 1991, and since then, PRJPX has accumulated about $918.73 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Archibald A. Ciganer who has been in charge of the fund since December of 2013. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PRJPX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.37% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 9.02%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 16.56%, the standard deviation of PRJPX over the past three years is 13.31%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 12.63% compared to the category average of 16.18%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, PRJPX lost 50.7% and outperformed its peer group by 5.92%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment. Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.78, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.01, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, PRJPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.94% compared to the category average of 1.20%. So, PRJPX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective. While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100. Bottom Line Overall, T. Rowe Price Japan Fund ( PRJPX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, T. Rowe Price Japan Fund ( PRJPX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. Don't stop here for your research on Japan - Equity funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare PRJPX to its peers as well for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (PRJPX): Fund Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
|
https://news.yahoo.com/t-rowe-price-japan-fund-120012551.html
|
Is Seattles Rising Minimum Wage Helping Or Hurting Low-Wage Workers?
|
As the minimum wage goes up in Seattlewith workers now required to make as much as $15 an hour, and all workers set to make that much by 2021the city has become a bellwether for other communities that are looking to raise their minimum wage or have one already scheduled. Instead of arguing about economic theory, we can finally look at real data. One recent report found that the changes havent led to a loss in jobs in food service, a key industry for low-wage jobs. But another new study says that the effects are more complicated: While the overall number of restaurant jobs might not have changed much, the researchers believe that low-wage workers in the city are working fewer hours. Even though those workers might be earning more per hour, the study finds, theyre losing an average of $125 a month. The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, is still a work in process and has not yet been peer-reviewed (it has also already attracted significant criticism). The researchers, economists from the University of Washington, used unique data that includes both hourly wages and the number of hours worked for individuals, something that past studies havent; only four states, including Washington, collect such detailed data. Because other studies didnt have this rich data, they would pick a proxy for low-wage workersthe standard one has been the restaurant industry, because it does employ a lot of low-wage workers, says Robert Plotnick, a public policy professor at the University of Washington and one of the authors. But when you look at the restaurant industry in total, youre also including a lot of medium- and high-wage workers . . . you cant quite answer that question as well as we can. At the time voters in Seattle approved the minimum wage increase, in 2014, the minimum wage was $9.96. It increased to $11 by April 2015, $13 per hour by January 2016, and $15 an hour, for some workers at large companies, by January 2017. The University of Washington study looks at the effects of the raise to $13. Compared to a scenario where Seattle didnt raise the minimum wagea model the researchers call synthetic Seattlethe study estimates that workers earning less than $19 an hour worked 9.4% fewer hours after the wage rose to $13 per hour. The income lost because of the reduction in hours outweighs the gains from an increase in wages. Critics say that the study has flaws. For one, it didnt include the employees from large businesses that have locations both inside and outside of Seattle, McDonalds, for example. In a letter to the mayor of Seattle, Michael Reich, a professor of economics at the University of California-Berkeley and one of the authors of the other recent report (also not peer-reviewed) that said food service jobs had not been lost in Seattle, said that excluding multisite employers excludes 48% of Seattles low-paid workforce. As well, workers who left a single-site employer for a larger company are counted as losing a job, while their new wages dont factor into the analysis. The University of Washingtons researchers model of what would have happened in Seattle without the wage increase might also be flawed. Its tricky to isolate, as Seattles economy has also grown rapidly during the same period, and an increase in higher-wage jobs and a decrease in low-wage jobs could also be the result of a hot economy. To build the model, the researchers compared the city to other communities that didnt increase their minimum wage, but they were limited to Washington, where other hourly wage data was available. Reich argues that the economies used to create the model arent anything like Seattle, where the booming tech sector is creating economic growth totally separate from the rest of the state.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40435527/is-seattles-rising-minimum-wage-helping-or-hurting-low-wage-workers
|
Did Bill Belichick Unwittingly Fib To Bradley Chubb At NC State Pro Day?
|
After Bill Belichick worked out defensive end Bradley Chubb at North Carolina States pro day last month, the New England Patriots head coach threw in a quip. Were picking 31st, Belichick said. No chance we see you. "Honor to meet you, Coach Belichick." The @Patriots head coach led Bradley Chubb (@ASTROCHUBB) through a drill at @PackFootball's Pro Day. pic.twitter.com/uzWsGzPtDq NFL (@NFL) March 19, 2018 That was true at the time. The Patriots were selecting 31st in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and they had two picks in the second round. Even packaging all the picks together, there was no way the Patriots could grab Chubb, who very well could be selected within the top five picks later this month. Well, since that time, the Patriots acquired the 23rd overall pick in the 2018 draft by dealing Brandin Cooks to the Los Angeles Rams. Combining both of the Patriots first-round picks, and one of their second-rounders, New England presumably could now move up to take Chubb. The Patriots are more likely to trade up in the first round for a quarterback, but theres a lot to like in Chubb. He fits the Patriots from a size and measurable standpoint after running a 4.65-second 40-yard dash with a 36-inch vertical and 10-foot, 1-inch broad jump at 6-foot-4, 269 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine. He has long 34-inch arms and performed decently, for his size, with a 7.34-second 3-cone and 4.41-second short shuttle. He had 10 sacks in each of his last two seasons with the Wolfpack. He recorded 194 total tackles and 54.5 tackles for loss in his last three college seasons. He also had 55 total pressures as a senior and performed well as a run-defender, according to Pro Football Focus. While its still unlikely the Patriots will wind up with Chubb, they could potentially move up for the defensive end if he starts to fall in the draft for any reason. The Patriots could move into the top 10 if they just package their 23rd and 31st overall picks. They could land in the top four by trading two first-round picks and a second. The Patriots have greater needs at quarterback and offensive tackle, but they could fill those later in the draft with players like Richmond quarterback Kyle Lauletta, Washington State quarterback Luke Falk or Pittsburgh offensive tackle Brian ONeill. Thumbnail photo via Matt Cashore/USA TODAY Sports Images
|
https://nesn.com/2018/04/did-bill-belichick-unwittingly-fib-to-bradley-chubb-at-nc-state-pro-day/
|
Is Trump baiting Iran into an armed confrontation?
|
With US President Donald Trump's top diplomat ramping up his campaign to confront Iran's "malevolent influence" in the Middle East, and his top national security adviser reportedly seeking military options to strike the Islamic Republic, Iran observers are warning the US may be provoking Tehran into an armed conflict that could quickly spread to the whole region. Sina Toossi, a Washington DC-based security and nuclear policy analyst, said the Trump administration's Iran policy now "seems firmly under the control of hardliners" such as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, both of whom had previously advocated regime change in Iran. "Even if Trump does not desire further military entanglements in the Middle East, Pompeo and Bolton appear to be edging the US towards military confrontation," said Toosi, research associate with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which advocates diplomacy with Iran. "Already Pompeo is suggesting that a 'regional conflict' is inevitable if the world fails to latch onto the White House's Iran strategy," he told Al Jazeera. Azadeh Shahshahani, an Iranian-American human rights lawyer and peace activist, said with the US president entangled in political controversies at home, he may be trying to "build up" tensions with Iran to divert attention abroad. "They probably think that the war with Iran is a good way to distract from all of that," she said. "So, as a result, every day you hear a new announcement from the administration about allegations against Iran." Shahshahani also described the strategy as "very similar" to what the world saw in the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. "The Pompeo and the Bolton crowd, they have a very clear goal in mind," she told Al Jazeera. In recent days, there have been more indications of the "maximum pressure" Pompeo vowed to apply against Iran and its allies in the region. On Thursday, the US Treasury announced new sanctions against the Fatemiyoun Division and the Zaynabiyoun Brigade, two militia groups fighting in Syria and backed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. An airline company with ties to Iran's Mahan Air was also targeted. In a statement, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin accused Tehran of using the sanctioned entities "to export terrorism and unrest across the globe". 'Ill-timed measures' Under pressure by the US government, Germany has also banned Iran's Mahan Air, which is already on the sanctions list. An Iranian minister was also quoted as saying the national flag carrier, Iran Air, is also on Germany's banned list. Earlier in January Pompeo also threatened Iran with more economic and diplomatic isolation, if it continues to launch satellites using space vehicles similar to ballistic missiles. On Friday, France also warned it could slap Iran with more sanctions if there is no progress over its ballistic missile programme, which Tehran has insisted is not covered by the 2015 nuclear deal, and is solely designed for defensive purposes. The US has also organised what is seen as an anti-Iran summit in Poland, viewed by Tehran as a "hostile act". The danger is these series of actions by the US and its allies could push Iran into abandoning the historic nuclear deal - a course of action that could quickly escalate, analysts said. Diako Hosseini, director of the World Studies programme at Tehran's Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera these "ill-timed measures" could endanger the nuclear agreement. Hosseini also counseled Europe to resist US pressure and "stay committed" to the nuclear deal, instead of imposing more sanctions that could force Tehran to reconsider its options. So far, Iran has said it will stay with the agreement. Iraq War playbook But if Pompeo and Bolton succeed "in baiting Iran" into leaving the 2015 deal, it is likely the neo-conservative establishment will replay the Iraq War playbook and "begin pushing for a military attack under the pretext of stopping the Iranian nuclear programme", Toosi said. In an article published on Friday, the foreign policy website Lobe Log also warned a war against Iran is "becoming ever more likely". "Donald Trump's domestic troubles, combined with the current makeup of his foreign policy team, provide a confluence of circumstances, perhaps a perfect storm, to pull the United States into a war with Iran," wrote Jim Lobe and Ben Armbruster. Iran is not taking too kindly of the threats either, demonstrating bluster against the US and its allies. In December, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the US was turning the Middle East into a "powder keg", with the amount of weapons it is directing to its allies. Last week, Iran's air force commander, Brigadier-General Aziz Nasirzadeh, was quoted as saying the country is "impatient and fully ready to confront the Zionist regime and eliminate it from the Earth" - a reference to the US' closest ally in the region, Israel. On Thursday, Iran's ground forces wrapped up a "massive drill" in the desert of Esfahan province, wherein Brigadier-General Kioumars Heydari warned "the enemy ... to better think twice before attacking Iran". "They might be able to start a new war. But they would not be the one to finish it," said Heydari. On Sunday, the army's chief of staff, General Mohammad Baqeri, also hinted it could shift its military doctrine from a defensive to offensive approach at the "tactical level to preserve the country's national interests". Trump's 'unpredictability' The "unpredictability" of Trump could mean "anything is possible", according to Mehran Haghirian, an Iranian analyst and doctorate student of Gulf Studies at Qatar University. "What I believe is that Trump himself is not really pushing for a war," Haghirian told Al Jazeera, saying the American public would not support him. Trump had previously shown disdain for American military engagements abroad, while noting his top advisers such as Pompeo and Bolton are the people more eager for confrontation, he said. "They are not credible enough for the international community to support an action," said Haghirian. "But anything in the US is possible" under Trump, he added. Still, he also did not discount the likelihood of talks with Iran, pointing to Trump's strategy of mixing rhetoric and diplomacy in dealing with North Korea. However, Toossi, the Iranian-American analyst, warned the current "aggressive rhetoric of Trump" and the absence of communication and deconfliction channels between Washington DC and Tehran "creates a high risk of miscalculation and conflict". "The spark for a massive military conflict could come from multiple directions, whether a clash in contested Persian Gulf waterways, US efforts to remove Iranian influence in Syria, or Iranian retaliation for perceived foreign support for terror within Iranian borders," said Toosi. Already there have been a series of Israeli air raids on reported Iranian targets in Syria in recent days, and some worry it could draw the US into the mix if hostilities escalate. In response, a commander of the Revolutionary Guard said on Monday Iran's strategy was to wipe "the Zionist regime" off the political map, Iran's state TV reported. "We announce that if Israel takes any action to wage a war against us, it will definitely lead to its own elimination and freeing occupied territories," Brigadier-General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the organisation, was quoted as saying. "Israelis wont even have a cemetery in Palestine to bury their corpses," he said. Shahshahani, the Iranian-American peace activist, called on the opposition in the US Congress and the American public to be "vigilant" about the dangers of the Trump administration going to war with Iran. "People seem to be more sceptical about the US administration's foreign policy. Hopefully people are waking up and understanding that they need to fight back against any attempts at initiating a war with Iran."
|
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/trump-baiting-iran-armed-confrontation-181208112950681.html
|
What is the new Office app for?
|
Windows 10 used to include an annoying little app called Get Office (designed to help you install Office) that was installed even if you already had Office installed, couldn't be uninstalled completely without running a PowerShell command and popped up adverts for the latest version of Office if you were using an older version. This evolved into the much more useful My Office app, which is more of an Office hub rather than a way to easily install the Office apps on a new PC or smartphone. Over the course of 2019, that in its turn is getting replaced with the Office app, which will come on new PCs and at some point automatically replace My Office on a Windows 10 PC. That's probably going to be when 1903 is installed, as the latest Insider builds enable the new app. If you want to try it out, you'll need to be on the Insider Fast Ring with at least build 18317 installed. If you can't find the Office app in the Start menu, install the My Office app from the Store and you'll get the new version. Image: Mary Branscombe/TechRepublic Get back The new Office app is inspired by the hub at Office.com, where you can find all the Office web apps in one place, along with documents you've had open recently from OneDrive (and for commercial Office 365 users, a list of SharePoint sites and folders you've used recently in OneDrive for Business). Both of those are useful: 'word.com' and 'excel.com' don't go to Microsoft sites, and URLs like 'office.live.com/start/Word.aspx', 'www.onenote.com/notebooks' and 'sway.office.com' aren't particularly memorable (or consistent). Like linking to the official mobile apps, this is a way to ensure that users end up on the legitimate sites rather than phishing sites that might turn up in web search results. The Office web extension is another quick way to get to the most common Office Online apps (Office.com has a longer list) and recent documents. You can use the My Office app and the new Office app to launch the Office applications once they're installed (assuming you don't have them pinned to the Start menu or taskbar); again, it's always convenient to have a quick way of getting back to the last document you were working on, even if it was on a different device. It's certainly a better alternative to filling up your inbox by emailing yourself the most recent copy of the document. My Office has some other useful tools that will be in the Office app, although they're not all there yet. The home and business versions of Office 365 let you install Office on multiple PCs and Macs, and the account tab in My Office lets you see how many installs you've used up; that can save frustration if Office won't activate when you're setting up a new PC (and there's a link to the online account page where you can deprovision devices you're no longer using to reuse the licence elsewhere). You can also make sure the free Skype minutes that come with an Office 365 Home subscription are enabled and linked to your Skype account. Plus there are links to training and support, like the Office section of answers.microsoft.com. SEE: 20 pro tips to make Windows 10 work the way you want (TechRepublic download) In the current version of the new Office app, the account link just opens a website; this is less useful because it doesn't even show the details about Office, just your Microsoft account, let alone the handy summary from My Office. We're hoping this will be updated soon as it makes the new app less useful than before. You can still switch between a personal and business Office account if you have both, without having to sign out of your Microsoft account the way you do on Office.com (which signs you out on every Microsoft site). You do that by clicking on the user picture for your account rather than on the cog for Settings. The new Office app will allow organisations to customise the support and training options, and to add links to non-Office line-of-business applications as long as those use single sign-on (which you can manage through premium Azure Active Directory subscriptions). Companies can also add their own branding to the app, suggesting that it's going to be a PWA underneath. That's not available yet, but business Office 365 users can choose one of fifty colour themes (which you may recognise from the online Office experience). Image: Mary Branscombe/TechRepublic In fact, the new Office app looks very much as if it's the modern SharePoint experience underneath (which would allow organisations to customise it using the existing SharePoint branding options). Instead of just a recent list of documents, everyone gets the same pivots that Office 365 business users have today on the Office.com site: they can pin files from the recent list and see files that other people have shared with them on OneDrive and SharePoint even if they haven't opened them before. This saves a lot of time digging through email for the message with the link for the document. Explore, search and discover Those options are already in the Office 2019 File Open experience, but for business Office 365 accounts the Office app will also end up with all three of Microsoft's tools for searching and discovering (which can seem confusingly similar at first). The Discover pivot that business Office 365 users see on Office.com and in the Office app is the most basic level: it shows folders you've used recently, the SharePoint sites you visit most, and the ones you're following. If what you need isn't in the recent list, these are the most likely places you'd want to look. Above that will be a new Recommended section, which isn't yet in the app: this will include documents that the Office Graph has identified as interesting or relevant to you because you're @ mentioned in them, or your comment has been replied to, or they're created by someone you collaborate a lot with, or they have keywords that are in a lot of your recent documents. "They're not files you've necessarily touched or even files you know exist," director of product marketing for SharePoint and Yammer Dan Holme explained when it was announced for Office.com (it's not there yet, either). "This surfaces files that people around you are working on that you ought to know about. I use it to catch up with my team, to see what they're working on and to find anything I need to provide feedback on." Those are the kinds of insights that are in the Office 365 Delve service, but you don't have to go to a separate site to see them, so you're more likely to actually spot them. Image: Mary Branscombe/TechRepublic Office 365 business users will also see a search box at the top of the Office app the new unified Microsoft Search, which offers what Holme described as a personalised, intelligent 'zero query' search: "The goal is, when you click in that box, you might find what you're looking for without having to type anything; recommendations of apps, files, new sites that are likely to be useful to you." That includes apps, SharePoint sites, documents, and people your colleagues and later your contacts on LinkedIn: "it's not just what do you know, but who do you know and what do they know?" Holme said. It could include videos if your organisation uses Stream as part of Office 365, transcripts of the relevant five minutes of a meeting shared through Stream or teams, or VR and 360 content in SharePoint Spaces. SEE: Windows 10 power tips: Secret shortcuts to your favorite settings (Tech Pro Research) If you do type something into the search, files stored on SharePoint or OneDrive include a thumbnail preview that you can click to zoom in on to get the snippet of text that includes the keyword you looked for. That means you can see if the file is what you're looking for without leaving your search, making it less likely that you'll get distracted from your work. In the long run, this takes the Office app from a file menu to part of Microsoft's grand vision for what Holme calls "a more immersive, engaging, intelligent experience" for content collaboration. "The vision is to make sure that whatever device you're on and whatever app you're in, you can find the things you need to get started and to get back to work." Image: Mary Branscombe/TechRepublic So far, it's still rather basic, and we're sad to see that the account information is less useful than in My Office. However, we expect to see it develop quickly especially as the design of Office, the Office Graph, Microsoft Search and the collaboration vision are all slightly in flux. But if you really want to take advantage of it, consider how you're using SharePoint and the Office and third-party services that feed into Microsoft Search. Microsoft Weekly Newsletter Be your company's Microsoft insider with the help of these Windows and Office tutorials and our experts' analyses of Microsoft's enterprise products. Delivered Mondays and Wednesdays Sign up today Also see
|
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/what-is-the-new-office-app-for/
|
How Far Can California Go It Alone After Trump Withdraws From Climate Accord?
|
Californians who watched cable news on Thursday before, during or after Trumps error-ridden Rose Garden speech, kept hearingfrom Senator Rand Paul, from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, and from Trump himselfthat the Paris climate agreement was a bad deal for Americans. Paul, the Kentucky Republican, asserted on CNN that the agreement required too little of other countries; Pruitt, that it somehow hindered American independence. Trump promised he would exit and renegotiate any deal which fails to serve Americas interest, he said, and so thats what he was doing. But what the U.S. signed onto in Paris 18 months ago wasnt really wasnt really a deal at all; it was a voluntary agreement, without the force of law or the treaty imprimatur of the U.S. Senate. It was so manifestly not an ironclad deal, in fact, that reportedly Secretary of State John Kerry, four hours before deadline, refused to sign unless the word shall was changed to should in the segment about the U.S. providing $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, which helps poorer countries in their efforts to establish clean-energy economics. (Trump on Thursday referred to that sum as a vast fortune.) Nor was the U.S. governments nationally determined contribution, or NDC, to greenhouse gas reductions all that draconian, as Trump claimed. California has a near-term legislative mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and an executive order to achieve 80% below 1990 reductions by 2050. An international coalition of regional and local jurisdictions led by California, the Under2 MOU, assumes only reductions of 80% to 95% by 2050 will keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.5 degrees Fahrenheit), by the end of the century. The Paris compact hewed to the same climate goal, but when John Kerry put his pen to the agreement in December of 2015, the U.S. had agreed to cut the nations greenhouse gas emissions to, at best, 28% of 2005 levels by 2025. By some estimates, thanks mostly to the decline of coal-fired power, the nation is already a third of the way there. Which doesnt mean Paris was useless. The 21st Conference of Parties, or COP, an assembly mandated under a United Nations treaty the U.S. Senate ratified in 1992, is where governments come together and share observed data on climate impacts, exchange technological fixes to dirty energy plants and, most of all, affirm individual commitments to climate mitigation. The United States has so far not withdrawn from the UN treaty, and consequently, it must still participate in that process. And dozens of U.S. states and cities remain committed not just to the Paris goals, but to even more aggressive standards arrived at in separate constructive alliances. Governor Heads To China For Clean Energy Meeting In fact, as the news broke Thursday that Trump would pull out of the Paris accord, California Gov. Jerry Brown was packing his bags for China. On Friday, hed be on his way to a convocation of multinational energy policy makers called the Clean Energy Ministerial. On his agenda next week is a Beijing gathering of the Under2 group, which Brown and Winfried Kretschmann, the minister-president of the German state of Baden-Wrttemberg initiated two years ago to promote local solutions to a global problem. So far, over 170 regional and local jurisdictions from 33 countries have signed on, including Oregon, Minnesota, and the city of Austin, Texas. With the recent additions of Canada and Mexico in April, the coalition now represents 37% of the global economy. The Under2 Coalition may be Californias most significant contribution to climate mitigation since 2006, when then-assemblymember Fran Pavley successfully pioneered legislation to control climate-forcing pollutants. Brown insists that the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accords will only fuel its momentum. Californias too: California will resist this misguided and insane course of action, Brown said in a statement. Trump is AWOL, but California is on the field, ready for battle.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40427088/how-far-can-california-go-it-alone-after-trump-withdraws-from-climate-accord
|
What will Apple announce at Mondays WWDC keynote?
|
On Monday, June 5 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, Apple will hold its WWDC keynote at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California . My colleague Mark Sullivan and I will be in the audience to provide news and analysis as fast as our fingers can type . Mark also rounded up some rumors and educated guesses into a preview of what the event may have in store. Apple has done a better-than-usual job of keeping details about its announcements from leaking; if its secrets stay secret for another 72 hours, this will be, by definition, an unusually newsy WWDC.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/4039696/what-will-apple-announce-at-mondays-wwdc-keynote
|
What are the food supplements worth taking?
|
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 We're given so much - often conflicting - advice on how to live healthily, that it can easily get overwhelming. No doubt you've come across a whole range of 'guidance' on which vitamins and minerals you need to be topping up on with pills. With so many options out there, it can be hard to know what's actually worth your time - not to mention your money, as buying tubs upon tubs of supplements doesn't come cheap. With this in mind, we asked Dr Faiza Khalid, a GP at MedicSpot.co.uk, for her take on the matter. (Of course, nutritional needs aren't always 'one-size-fits-all' and if you're concerned about ongoing symptoms or deficiencies, it's best to check in with your doctor.) Here are three supplements Khalid says could be useful to certain people - but bear in mind, these aren't a replacement for a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet. (Image: PA Photo/thinkstockphotos) 1. Vitamin D "Out of all of the vitamin supplements, vitamin D is the one that most people living in the UK should consider taking," says Khalid. "Vitamin D helps with absorbing calcium and phosphate from our diet. These minerals are important for healthy bones, teeth, muscles and all our body systems," Khalid explains. "While exposure to natural sunlight provides most people in the UK with all the vitamin D they need from late March to early April, this is not the case during the winter months." From October to early March, your vitamin D levels will drop because the sunlight doesn't contain enough UVB radiation for your body to produce the much-needed vitamin. While vitamin D can be found in foods like oily fish, red meat and eggs too, Khalid points out: "It is difficult for people to get enough vitamin D from food alone. Everyone - including pregnant and breastfeeding women - should consider taking a vitamin D supplement during the autumn and winter months." In fact, Public Health England advises taking a daily 10mcg vitamin D supplement during the autumn and winter months. Don't be tempted to 'boost' your levels by taking far more than is recommended, however. "Taking more vitamin D than is required for a long period of time might lead to hypercalcaemia, a build-up of calcium in the body which can weaken your bones and damage your heart and kidneys," Khalid notes. 2. Vitamin B12 Unlike vitamin D, this one isn't as widely recommended. Instead, the group Khalid thinks may need to consider taking vitamin B12 supplements are vegans. "This is because vegans are at a higher risk of developing a deficiency, as they do not eat foods such as meat, fish and dairy products which provide enough vitamin B12 for most people," she explains. Vitamin B12 is vital for helping make red blood cells, as well as supporting the nervous system. However, Khalid also notes it can "take a long time to develop a deficiency after changing your diet, as your body stores vitamin B12 for around two to four years". (Image: Bojsha65) 3. Iron According to the British Nutrition Foundation, iron is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. It's an important mineral because it makes up part of haemoglobin - the substance found in red blood cells which helps transport oxygen around your body. There's no doubt it's crucial to health - but not everyone should rush into buying supplements. However some people may be more at risk of developing low levels, or iron-deficiency anaemia. "Young women with heavy periods may wish to consider taking an iron supplement because they are at a higher risk of iron-deficiency anaemia," Khalid advises. "This causes tiredness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and pale skin. If you believe you may have an iron deficiency, you should see a GP first, who will be able to do a simple blood test to determine if you are anaemic." If there's no chance you could be anaemic, it's easy to maintain healthy iron levels through your diet. There is a varied range of foods rich in the mineral - anything from red meat, to pumpkin seeds and spinach are among good sources. And the one you really shouldn't bother with... Your first priority should be making sure your diet is well rounded and balanced, before you start thinking about supplements. And remember to check in with your GP if you are concerned. According to MedicSpot GP Dr Abby Hyams, that'll be beta-carotene supplements. "You should be able to get enough beta-carotene from the foods you eat. Beta-carotene is found in yellow and green vegetables and yellow fruit," she explains.
|
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/special-features/what-food-supplements-worth-taking-2476994
|
What makes a good Super Bowl ad vs. a wasted opportunity?
|
Commercials have become as much of the Super Bowl broadcast as the game itself. Twenty-one percent of people watching the event are most interested in the ads, according to a Google Survey by Offers.com. Some ads will have you talking the next day at the water cooler. Others are far more forgettable. The commercial that set the standard for making Super Bowl ads into a cultural phenomenon was Apple's "1984" to introduce the Macintosh computer, said David Griner, Creative and Innovation Editor for Adweek. The advertisement played off George Orwell's book by the same name, set in a dystopian future. "While it certainly helped launch the success of Macintosh, I think more importantly it created the idea that Super Bowl ads could be something huge and cultural that launched entire ideas and conversations and dominate the news cycle," Griner said. One of the more recent examples, in Griner's opinion, came last year with four commercials by Tide. The ads were designed to fake you out. They would start as a commercial for something different, but then surprise you at the end by being a Tide ad. "It really did have the intended effect of making you watch for Tide throughout the Super Bowl," Griner said. "It was refreshing. It was incredibly well done and most importantly for Tide, perhaps, it turned around the conversation about Tide which, up until then, it's recent memory had been focused on Tide Pods." There were reports around the country of people getting sick by taking what was called the Tide Pod Challenge by eating the colorful detergent packets. Even though Tide didn't promote this, it was a public relations problem, according to Griner. He said the ad boosted sales of Tide. What an advertiser paying $5 million doesn't want is an ad that is instantly forgettable, which Griner said makes up the vast majority. But there's something that's worse -- an ad you remember for all the wrong reasons because it creates controversy or is tone deaf. One of those, Griner said, was a 2015 Nationwide Insurance ad. It started off with a boy in a series of coming of age adventures. But his own narration said he would never do those things "because I died from an accident." Then there was an image of an overflowing bathtub, a cabinet full of poisonous chemicals and a television that has fallen over. "That ad we actually liked from a critical point of view when we watched it in isolation," Griner said. But when you watch it in a Super Bowl party, when you watch it in a social scenario, it is a tremendous downer and it's one that feels like a bit of a rug pull in a bad way where it just turned the audience against them in a way that I have honestly probably never seen in ten years or more of covering the Super Bowl." If it brings your party to a halt. "These ads make people pause, listen, and then inevitably when the ad is over, everyone kind of looks at each other and the next thing that comes out of their mouth kind of determines how people feel about that ad," Griner said. He adds the commercial has to have an emotional resonance, which can be funny or serious. Among the worst ads, Griner said, are ones where the company throws a celebrity on the screen for no reason for a bland commercial. He points out that beyond the $5 million the company has to pay the network just to get a 30-second slot, it pays millions more just to that celebrity and to produce the spot. One celebrity ad that Griner said could do well this year, and has already been teased on social media, is singer Michael Buble' pitching Bubly sparkling water. The teaser shows Buble' sitting on the floor of a convenience store next to the cooler and using a marker to correct the spelling of the drink to Buble'.
|
https://www.whas11.com/article/news/nation-world/what-makes-a-good-super-bowl-ad-vs-a-wasted-opportunity/417-bb8809e0-0dc5-4898-b9c5-0341f839e55b
|
Who else is ready for 'big school'?
|
Frankie Smith, 5, of Wollongbar, is super excited to start kindergarten next week. Frankie Smith, 5, of Wollongbar, is super excited to start kindergarten next week. Marc Stapelberg THE first day of kindergarten can be a big ordeal for parents and children alike. Luckily for Sian Smith, her daughter is eager to go to "big school", something she says has helped make the process easier. Frankie Smith, 5, of Wollongbar, is excited to be starting kindergarten next week. Marc Stapelberg Frankie, 5, starts kindergarten at Wollongbar Public School next week, and said she was "very excited". "I've been going on lots of visits to the school, half with preschool and half to get ready for big school," she said. "I'm looking forward to it." One of the things she is looking forward to most is visiting her new Year 6 buddy, after being paired with the older student in the school's buddy program. "She's really nice and I like her," Frankie said. Frankie said it was exciting to be able to go to "the big shop" to get her school supplies, and she has already been practising writing and counting with her mother. Frankie has already decided she loves animals so much she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. "My favourite animal is a cheetah," she said. "They're the speediest animal in the world." Ms Smith said the process of getting her daughter ready for school had been relatively easy, mostly because her daughter is "such a cruisey child". "I haven't had much stress about her going to school, because she is so confident and comfortable with the situation," she said. "Nothing really fazes her." Ms Smith said she was confident Frankie will go well in kindergarten - she has cousins who attend the same school, while four preschool friends will be going as well, but she admitted she was still a little nervous as Frankie is her first child. "I don't know how it'll go, but I think we'll be alright," she said. To other parents who are facing the prospect of sending their children to school next year, Ms Smith has some advice: "I definitely recommend going to the orientation days and parent information meetings. "It really helped Frankie grow more settled and comfortable and has helped both of us to really get used to the idea of her going to school." Term 1 for NSW public schools start today.
|
https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/who-else-is-ready-for-big-school/3633328/
|
Why Is Access To Public Records Still So Frustratingly Complicated?
|
Congress has wide discretion to investigate what it chooses, including the right to issue subpoenas demanding access to potential evidence. But Chaffetz isnt the only one interested in reading Comeys notes, which reports have indicated document the president attempting to influence the FBIs investigation into Russian election interference. The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Privacy Information Center have both filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the documents. While we hope that Congress will be serious about its constitutional oversight role, we believe the issues raised by the Comey memos are so vital that the public should have access to them without delay, wrote Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, in a blog post. The Freedom of Information Act, often known as FOIA, has been used by journalists, activists, and private citizens to get access to federal government records since it went into effect in 1967. And every state has passed similar laws that allow the public to get access to state and local records, generally with exemptions for files like records of ongoing investigations or personal medical records. (Floridas are called the Sunshine Law.) The trouble, say transparency advocates and people who rely on open records laws for their day-to-day work, is that in an era when files can be searched, copied, and transmitted in minutes at minimal cost, many agencies still respond to requests with excessive delays, claims of high processing costs, and files produced in difficult-to-handle formats like scans of printed versions of digital documents. Weve had situations where someone says I want the Excel spreadsheet, but one of the custodians of the record will say no,' concerned that would make it too easy to tamper with the document, says Daniel Bevarly, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. And last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published a collection of FOIA horror stories, including a decade-long delay from the Defense Department and a bill from a Texas sheriffs office for $98 in Wite-Out, presumably used to redact documents. The problem isnt universal. Some federal agencies have taken steps to improve how materials are releasedfor example, a State Department system that includes searchable copies, not just scans, of Hillary Clintons much-discussed emails. And some states have adopted laws requiring documents be produced in their original digital formats. Florida, its written into their Sunshine laws, that any information requested be provided in its native format to the petitioner, says Bevarly. (Those sorts of requirements arent always perfectly followed. The EFFs stories include a report from a MuckRock journalist who contested a request from controversial Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis for $1,200 in photocopying costs for email records, despite a state law requiring digital documents).
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40423207/why-is-access-to-public-records-still-so-frustratingly-complicated
|
Where in the Jackson area is Michigans Best diner?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-in-the-jackson-area-is-michigans-best-diner.html
|
Where is the best diner in Michigans Upper Peninsula?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Michigans Best Diner Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-the-best-diner-in-michigans-upper-peninsula.html
|
Where is the best diner in Ann Arbor?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-the-best-diner-in-ann-arbor.html
|
When can the Ravens try to trade Joe Flacco?
|
The Baltimore Ravens seem intent on moving on quarterback Joe Flacco this offseason. Whether its via trade or release, the way coach John Harbaugh is talking, the plan is already set in motion. While all the talk has been about what team would trade for Flacco and what Baltimore can get in return, one of the bigger questions is when the Ravens can officially shop him. For that, we turn to the NFLs 2019 calendar. On March 13, Baltimore can officially trade Flacco. This coincides with the start of the free agency for the NFL. Though therell likely be some phone calls placed ahead of time and some talk around big events like the NFL scouting combined more unofficially, no deal can be official until the league year starts. Baltimore really isnt under a huge amount of pressure to move Flacco, as some might think. Though he does have a 2019 cap hit of $26.5 million, the Ravens have an estimated $31.7 million in available cap space. Baltimore can afford to wait for the first wave of free agent quarterbacks to get signed before the next rung of franchises in need of a starting quarterback become a little more desperate. Even then, the top of the free agent class at quarterback is slim. Tyrod Taylor and Teddy Bridgewater are the two quarterbacks set to hit free agency that could be considered real starting options. You might be able to throw Robert Griffin III on that list as well, but none of those names comes close to Flaccos accomplishments or production. Barring a big enough offer out of the starting gate for Flacco, the Ravens should keep hold of him for a little while to boost desire and raise his value. That could mean we wont see Flacco traded until after the draft which ends April 27 when teams could be even more desperate to make a deal for a starting-caliber quarterback. At his State of the Ravens press conference, Harbaugh said he believed Flacco will have a big market this offseason. Gallery 27 best photos of Joe Flacco's career with Ravens
|
https://ravenswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/28/when-can-the-ravens-try-to-trade-joe-flacco/
|
Where is the Lansing areas best diner?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-the-lansing-areas-best-diner.html
|
Where is Kalamazoos best diner?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-kalamazoos-best-diner.html
|
Where is the best diner in Michigans Northern Lower Peninsula?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-the-best-diner-in-michigans-northern-lower-peninsula.html
|
Where is Michigans Best diner in Muskegon and on the lakeshore?
|
MUSKEGON, MI -- Who will be crowned as the Best Diner in Muskegon and on the Lakeshore. There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-michigans-best-diner-in-muskegon-and-on-the-lakeshore.html
|
Is Ted Cruz the guy in the office who microwaves fish?
|
Thats what former SNL cast member and Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) said about former presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX) in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN yesterday . Hes kind of the toxic guy in an office; the guy who microwaves fish. Theres no love lost between the two, but Franken devotes an entire chapter of his new book Al Franken: Giant of the Senate to exactly what he thinks of Cruz. To get things done in the Senate youve got to be able to get along with people, Franken said. And while he believes hes played well with others, Franken maintains Cruz hasnt. As he says in his book: I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz, and I hate Ted Cruz. Ouch. Al is trying to sell books and apparently hes decided that being obnoxious and insulting me is good for causing liberals to buy his books, Cruz said in an interview. I wish him all the best. [Photo: Flickr user Gage Skidmore]
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/4039212/is-ted-cruz-the-guy-in-the-office-who-microwaves-fish
|
Where is the Flint areas best diner?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline to vote is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-the-flint-areas-best-diner.html
|
Where in Grand Rapids is Michigans Best diner?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-in-grand-rapids-is-michigans-best-diner.html
|
Where is Michigans Best diner in the Saginaw/Bay City/Midland region?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-michigans-best-diner-in-the-saginawbay-citymidland-region.html
|
Where is metro Detroits best diner?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-metro-detroits-best-diner.html
|
How old is Steph and Dom Parkers son Max and what condition does he have?
|
Steph and Dom Parker have opened up about their son Maxs epilepsy battle (Picture: Channel 4) Gogglebox favourites Steph and Dom Parker show another side to their life when they return to Channel 4 on Monday night. While the couple may be best known for their TV opinions and their fondness for a glass of champers away from the cameras things are very different for them as they care for their chronically ill son Max. Steph and Dom, together with their 15-year-old daughter Honor, look into whether medicinal cannabis could ease 18-year-old Maxs suffering. The teenager has been ill with severe epilepsy since he was four years old, still suffering up to 100 seizures per day as well as being autistic. As a result of his condition Max has the mental age of a six-year-old, and has to take a cocktail of drugs daily to keep his symptoms under control. Max is also autistic and can suffer up to 100 seizures daily (Picture: Channel 4) Speaking on Mondays Good Morning Britain Dom said: I know were not going to fix him, well never reverse the damage. Advertisement Advertisement Quite a long time ago we came to the conclusion that hes going to be like this for the rest of his life. Although the couple know that medicinal cannabis will not cure their son, the show sees them looking into it as a way of improving his quality of life by reducing the number of seizures he has. Steph and Dom are known for their TV critiques on Gogglebox (Picture: Channel 4) For us, personally, we dont expect this to be the cure-all or anything like that for Max, they explained. We dont think for a minute it will reverse the damage, we think its too late for that. We hope it might reduce his seizures. Medicinal cannabis has become legal on prescription in the UK, and is believed to be able top help ease a range of conditions from epilepsy to chronic pain. Two high profile cases those of 13-year-old Billy Caldwell and eight-year-old Alfie Dingley helped bring about changes in the law to legalise it in the UK for medicinal purposes, although it can only be prescribed under certain circumstances by specialist doctors. CBD oil, made from cannabidiol, is more widely available and is thought to have benefits to both physical and mental health. The oil is extracted from the cannabis plant but does not contain THC the compound which causes a high, which is illegal in the UK. is on Channel 4 on Monday night at 9pm. https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/25/what-happens-when-you-start-using-cannabis-oil-8065315/
|
https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/28/old-steph-dom-parkers-son-max-condition-8402630/
|
Where is the best diner in Port Huron and the Thumb region?
|
There is only one way to find out: Vote and see the results. The deadline is noon Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. You can vote once per hour, per email address. Poll Winners will be revealed later in the day on Feb. 1. The poll is below. TO VOTE IN OTHER POLLS, CLICK HERE. Each poll winner is guaranteed to be a finalist in our search and will get an official visit. Along with our poll winners, we will will select additional finalists based on our own personal experiences, your comments we received during the nomination process and our travel schedule. Our goal is to visit between 30-40 restaurants. Were looking for the classic diners that offer tasty dishes, great service, decent prices and that something extra special. We will hit the road starting Feb. 4, depending on the weather, of course, and then release our Top 10 List in late February. If you have any questions, email us: Amy Sherman is at [email protected]. John Gonzalez at [email protected]. SOCIAL MEDIA We are always posting videos, photos and more on MLives MI Best Social Media channels. Follow our journey here: @mlivemibest on Twitter @mlivemibest on Instagram Well be using the hashtags #MIBest and #MIBestDiner and #BestDiner. Also, be sure to follow our new MI Best Facebook page where we post photos from all of our stops. MI Best Facebook Page In addition: Amy Sherman is on Twitter @amyonthetrail, as well as Facebook and Instagram @amyonthetrail. John Gonzalez is on Twitter @michigangonzo, as well as Facebook and Instagram @MichiganGonzo.
|
https://www.mlive.com/michigansbest/2019/01/where-is-the-best-diner-in-port-huron-and-the-thumb-region.html
|
What now for Exeter City when they are next put on the spot?
|
Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email He may not have been smiling at the time, but manager Matt Taylor was able to look back on Exeter City's FIFTH missed penalty of the season with a sense of relief and humour following the narrow 1-0 win over Cambridge United on Saturday. Jonathan Forte was presented with the opportunity to give the Grecians a 1-0 lead when Pierce Sweeney had seen his header handballed inside the box, but the striker smashed his effort against the crossbar. Thankfully, it didnt prove to be too costly as Nicky Laws 82nd minute goal eventually broke the deadlock - and spared his team-mate's blushes - but with five missed spot kicks already this campaign six if you include Jake Taylors in the penalty shoot-out win over Ipswich Town the manager is slightly concerned. Asked about Fortes miss, Taylors facial expression said it all. Im not smiling, Im wincing! he said. Of course I am worried because that is five goals and five opportunities and thats a huge amount that affects a lot. Jonno scored his last penalty (in the 2-0 New Years Day win at Swindon) and I would have put my house on him to score that one, but maybe that was how his game went. He was fantastic in working his socks off, it didnt quite fall for him in front of goal, but it is something we will look at and address. We will look at characters and personalities, but he keeps putting himself forward these penalty takers keep putting themselves forward. It hasnt quite gone full circle and is back to Pierce just yet, but we are not far away! I may have to run on and take one myself I am one in one in my career! Sweeney started the season as the penalty taker, but missed three in a row against Notts County, Grimsby Town and Blackpool. The miss in the 5-1 win against Notts would have seen him notch a first ever career hat-trick, while the miss at Grimsby was costly as the Grecians ended up drawing 0-0. Sweeneys saved spot kick against Blackpool fortunately fell to Jordan Tillson to score on the rebound, while Jayden Stockley missed number four when City trailed 1-0 at Bury (they went on to lose the game 2-0). Taylor added: They put themselves forward, but it is a good opportunity to score a goal and we have to take those opportunities. I keep saying that its going to be fine margins in the next 17 games, so if we get any penalties, I want them to make them count.
|
https://www.devonlive.com/sport/what-now-exeter-city-next-2477425
|
What Would John Stuart Mill Doto Fix Facebook?
|
Mills concept of harm is notoriously slippery: Its not necessarily clear how the Liberty principle would apply in cleaning up Facebook. Mill probably wouldnt have much objection to Facebooks attention-hijacking maneuvers, for instance. Its your choice how you procrastinate, and as long as youre not harming others in the process, the government shouldnt patronize you by micromanaging. When it comes to privacy, again Mill might have argued that by agreeing to the terms and conditions, one voluntarily consents to giving Facebook access to some private data. The voluntary nature of data sharing there is questionable. Complicating matters further, Mill encouraged states to protect peoples rightssuch as the contemporary right to privacy some legal frameworks now recognize. But what counts as a right, according to Mill, is specifically something without which human happiness cannot be maximized. We cant be sure whether data privacy would have been the kind of thing Mill would have thought necessary for maximizing happiness. When it comes to the 2016 election-related scandals, there are two separate issues: The dissemination of fake news stories with the aim to spread confusion and short-circuit the democratic process, and the use of data by third parties, such as Cambridge Analytica, with the aim to influence voters in very personalized ways. Mill wouldnt have seen the spreading of fake news as problematic. Mill wouldnt have seen the spreading of fake news as problematic. When discussing freedom of speech, Mill argued that not only are false views not damaging, they are actually beneficial. Encountering and combating false views helps prevent the truth from becoming dead dogma, Mill wrote: Truth would constantly need defending and reaffirming. Mill seemed to believe that an open, free debate meant the truth would usually prevail, whereas under censorship, truth could end up being accidentally suppressed, along with falsehood. Its a view that seems a bit archaic in the age of an online marketplace of memes and clickbait, where false stories tend to spread faster and wider than their true counterpoints. But Mill did also believe that some cases called for the limiting of the freedom of expression. When it is highly likely that ones remarks will lead to the physical harm of others, then you can be punished for them by the state. The enabling and dissemination of inflammatory content believed to have contributed to the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar would very much fall under that category: In a series of posts going back years, The New York Times reported last fall, military personnel in Myanmar turned the social network into a tool for ethnic cleansing, taking advantage of the platforms ubiquity to spread propaganda vilifying the countys minority Muslim group, who were then repeatedly massacred.
|
https://newrepublic.com/article/152939/john-stuart-mill-doto-fix-facebook
|
Should Companies Make Vacation Mandatory?
|
The importance and benefits of taking time off from work are well-documented. Without downtime, you and your team are likely less creative and more likely to burn out. But Americans just cant seem to unplug. Between 2000 and 2014, the number of vacation days U.S. workers took declined steadily from a long-term average of 20.3 days to 16. And while the number of vacation days taken ticked up to 16.8 in 2016, 54% of employees have unused vacation time, according to a report by the Project: Time Off Coalition, a group of businesses, mostly in tourism, retail, and related sectors. Companies have experimented with different methods to get employees to take more time off. In recent years, some have experimented with unlimited vacation, which removes arbitrary limits on the number of vacation days an employee can take, with mixed results. Kickstarter found that the policy actually resulted in employees taking less vacation time. When Paying Employees To Take Vacation Isnt Enough Social media sharing platform Buffer has experimented with various vacation policies, including unlimited vacation time. In 2015, the company also found that unlimited vacation wasnt as effective as they had hoped and began paying employees $1,000 to take vacation time. Even so, 57% of the companys employees had taken less than 15 days of vacation time. Then, in September 2016, the company began a new policy: Every employee must take a minimum of three weeks of vacation. Managers are tasked with monitoring employees time off and working with them to schedule vacation time if the employee has not done so. Based on the data so far, the company estimates that 56% of employees will have taken 15 days or more of vacation by the end of the year. I think that the switch from unlimited to minimum was huge, and we heard as much from our employees who were slightly confused, or they thought it was vague, and they felt a lot more comfortable, says Hailley Griffis, Buffer communications specialist. More Than A Nice-To-Have Making vacation mandatory is a good idea, says Sharon DeLay, founder of HR consultancy GO-HR. Some industries already mandate time off for a variety of reasons. In addition to stress reduction and improvements to quality of work, ensuring that employees take time away from their jobs is also a good hedge against an employee having too much control over a particular area or losing institutional knowledge when the employee leaves.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40427648/should-companies-make-vacation-mandatory
|
Will VR Ever Be Mass Entertainment?
|
The technology itself is too expensive for the vast majority of people, with full consumer models running upwards of $600a lot of money to commit if youve never tried somethingand cheaper versions on mobile offering little more than 360-degree video, which can be viewed without a headset. You go to a film festival, you get ticket in advance, you know when to line up, says the media scholar and tech expert Tim Wu, the author of The Attention Merchants whos part of Sundance Film Festivals advisory group. A reasonable number of people get to experience the films. We dont have this figured out in VR. At the virtual reality conference Versions earlier this year, Wu described the chaos of attending the VR gallery at Sundance Film Festival, where there are usually only a few headsets for each experience, often resulting in long lines for VR films that typically range between 5 and 10 minutes. Overcoming those frictions is key, he says. If I had the magic bullet for how you do it, I would tell you. Because while the content itself is important, the experience surrounding VR is vital in encouraging more people to try it. One part of that is just finding a place to put it. Space is a huge issue. If you want to set up a Vive, you need a 12-by-12-foot square. Increasingly, space in New York is not necessarily available all the time, says Alex Darby, head of operations and production at the New Museums art and technology incubator, New Inc. Darby puts on events like the Versions conference, which is dedicated to VR and has two days of talks and workshops. Ironically, the opportunity to actually see VR experiences is limited to the conferences afterparty. Setting it up is incredibly difficult from a production standpoint, she says. The gaming engines required require dedicated circuits. Not all venues can support this, she says. If you cant guarantee me this required AMP or a dedicated circuit, it might actually set your building on fire. Darbys job entails working with New Incs VR creators, but she finds that even though she has incredible access to content, VR is still difficult for her to see. Even if you can solve all of these problems and set something up, theres maybe one headset, Darby says. Its been a huge problem at Sundance and Tribeca [Film Festivals], even at a smaller scale where theres less specific demand. advertisement But with the market size projected to be worth $5.2 billion by 2018, many companies are looking for ways to give consumers their first taste of VR, while dodging the logistical issues that come with the medium. Whether thats in a dedicated arcade, a bar, or your local multiplex, VR is likely coming to a venue near you soon. Back To The Arcade Arcades have all but disappeared from the commercial landscape today, but in the 1970s and 1980s, they were hugely popular. Video game makers like Atari made millions on games like Pong, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man before consoles became cheap enough for people to purchase them personally and play games at home. In 2017, some believe that the arcade model, where visitors go to a dedicated place specifically to play games, is VRs best bet at making its way into popular culturejust like its media predecessors before it. TV itself was in salons and bars before it went to peoples houses, media scholar Wu says. Its a natural step. Maybe the rush to try to get into everyones houses has been a little premature and the natural step is the arcade. There are some examples of VR arcades sprouting up in the U.S. But the business model is most prevalent in Asian countries like China and Japan, where the Taiwanese company HTC, which makes the Vive VR headset, is bringing VR to thousands of arcades by the end of the year. In Taipei, the company opened a giant arcade-cum-theme park called Viveland at the end of 2016 thats meant to act as an example for what a great arcade could look like, and inspire third parties to open their own. Part of the problem is that anyone who wants to start an arcade has to independently negotiate licenses for content with each developer. For instance, if someone wanted to get a license to screen the VR film Life of Us, which has made the rounds on the festival circuit this year, theyd have to go directly to the films production company to buy the rightsand then do the same thing for every other experience they wanted to provide.So the company is launching a platform where HTC does that negotiation on arcade owners behalfs, and they can purchase a license for hundreds of hours of content directly through HTC. Anybody with a Vive essentially can start an arcade, says Drew Bamford, a designer and the head of HTC Creative Labs. Were trying to make it as accessible as possible. On the more immersive, high-end side of the spectrum, he images arcades that feature robust object tracking, haptic chairs, and even omnidirectional treadmills that would let you run freely in VRsomething between an arcade and a theme park. advertisement In a lot of ways, its the Apple showroom, says Jamin Warren, the founder of video game publication and company Kill Screen. But thats in Asia, where arcade culture is generally already accepted. It may not necessarily translate over to an American audience. In some cases, those cultures have been in the lead in influencing the west so itll be interesting to see whether thats the way it works this time, Bamford says. On the flip side, in general theres a trend toward people wanting their own personal technology, driven partly by things like smartphones. Thats what VR guru Michael Deathless thinks. His company, Deathless VR, which develops content, runs workshops, and even does VR art therapy classes, has experimented with putting virtual reality inside bars over the last year or so. He now puts on VR showcases at the restaurant The V Spot in Manhattans trendy East Village neighborhood on weekend nights, where you can eat vegan food (of course), grab a drink, and paint in Tiltbrush, all in the same venue. You go in, you drink a beer, eat a burrito, shoot some zombies, he says. Its kind of like a karaoke situation. Deathless also opened a more permanent locationcalled Jump Into the Lightin September of 2016, where he offers four types of VR experiences from 5 p.m. until early in the morning, mostly targeting partiers whod stumble upon the arcade after a night of drinking. Jump into the Light recently moved into another location, next to the lobby of the Indigo Hotel in the heart of one of New Yorks hippest places to go out. advertisement Deathless is a die-hard believer in VRs futureand he means the name of his establishment quite literally. We love screens. We love the light. We put thousands of people into their first experiencesthe vast majority of people are blown away by it, he says. I dont see it just as technology evolution, its the future of humanity. But the next step of combining VR with 21+ entertainment will have to wait for now. I wish weed was legal, Deathless says. We want to pair weed with VR experiences. Thats the next level. Heading To The Good Old Multiplex While Deathlesss vision of VR is decidedly for adults (though he says he also hosts kids birthday parties all the time), other companies are looking to truly take it to the mainstream. Most prominently is Imax, the large-format film company that has chosen VR as the next product in the evolution of its business. And its putting it in a place that makes the most sense for a company primarily in the movie business: the multiplex. Over Memorial Day weekend, Imax opened a VR arcade in the lobby of a New York City AMC theater. Its the second of 10 pilot VR arcades that the company is rolling out over the course of 2017, starting with a standalone VR center in Los Angeles, and with multiplex arcades coming to theaters in Manchester in the U.K., Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and more. Imax has also created a $50 million fund to invest in content developers, showing just how much its betting on VRs future. The model that we like is similar to the model we like in cinema, says Rob Lister, the chief development officer at Imax. We partner with the exhibitor, provide them with Imax technology, we install it, and split the box office. Because Imax has relationships with movie theaters in 74 different countries, it could quickly scale up from 10 theaters to hundreds or even thousands, depending on how the pilot process goes. advertisement To avoid the problem of lines, all Imax VR experiences are ticketed. Each VR center is composed of modular pods that are either 11-foot or 12-foot squares that are partially enclosed, designed to allow for a more social experience because theyve found that most people who buy tickets are attending with two or more friends. The flexibility of the design, created by the architecture firm Gensler, allows the company to adjust the number and configuration of pods to fit into any space. In New Yorks AMC, it takes up 2,900 square feet of the multiplexs lobby, while another one the company is building is in retrofitted auditorium. Lister says the company is testing everything from the cost (usually a dollar a minute), to the length of experiences (most range from eight to 12 minutes), to the amount of interactivity (so far, the more interactive the better), to the demographics. He says that while they expected their main demographic to be what he called fanboysmen in their late teens and early 20s who love Marvel moviesinstead the attendees at the Los Angeles center has been less than 60% male. In March, they hosted a birthday party for a 35-year-old man on the same day as an 11-year-old girl. Currently, that center is pulling in between $13,000 to $15,000 per week, or about $700,000 per year. Thats a very health business model, Lister says. Itd be a boon for movie theaters, toothe prospect of VR has the potential to bring millennials and generation Z back to the multiplex. A Nielsen report in 2014 shows that young people are seeing 15% fewer movies, while 87% of surveyed 12-to-24-year-olds were streaming movies online. But Imax is hoping to make VR more of a social experience, giving groups of young people more of a reason to try out the next kind of entertainment. Rolling out VR in movie theaters would also give people a place with which they are already familiar to experience the new medium for the first time. Developers still need to design content thats so good, people will willingly pay $10 for a 10-minute game. But the first step is making the user experience around VR good enough to convince someone to put on a headset in the first place.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/90128979/will-vr-ever-be-mass-entertainment
|
How much Iranian regime fears upcoming Warsaw conference?
|
2019/01/28 | 01:20 (Hatha al-Youm | Iraq News )- The Warsaw conference, planned for next month in Polands capital, has apparently frightened the Iranian regime so much.The conference, known as the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East, will address terrorism and extremism, missile development and proliferation, maritime trade and security, and threats posed by proxy groups across the region, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.The clerical regime knows full well that the days of appeasement policy are numbered. The days that the West were willing to go out of its way to please the Iranian regime are over.Irans Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, angrily criticized the Polish government on January 11th on Twitter, writing: Those who attended last US anti-Iran show are either dead, disgraced or marginalized. And Iran is stronger than ever. Polish Govt cant wash the shame. "The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Polands Charge dAffaires Wojciech Unolt on January 13th over an anti-Iranian conference that Warsaw is hosting, according to Iranian state media.In a speech in Cairo, Egypt on January 10, Secretary Pompeo outlined the Trump administrations Middle East policy and spoke extensively of the U.S. campaign to stop Irans malevolent influence and actions against this region and the world.The nations of the Middle East will never enjoy security, achieve economic stability, or advance the dreams of its peoples if Irans revolutionary regime persists on its current course, Pompeo said.The Iranian regimes predicament speaks volumes. The first sparks of 2017/2018 nationwide protests in Iran which according to regimes officials mushroomed into some 160 cities across the country, soon throwing the whole nation into a social turbulence; something that has never been seen in the history of the theocratic regime in Iran.Iranian officials quietly downplay the conference in Warsaw while they hardly can hide their fear of its outcome. The supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards top brass know that the international event maybe one of the final nails on the coffin of a failed policy that shielded the regime for decades. Most Western countries eagerly advocated the appeasement policy toward Iran for years.Iranian state-run television broadcasted Zarifs disappointment with the Warsaw conference on January 12th. It quoted Zarif as saying, The U.S. attempts to host a summit against Iran an anti-Iranian circus and disappointing. [Javad] Zarif criticized Poland for cooperating with the U.S. administration and added that while during the World War II, Iran rescued Polish citizens, hosting an anti-Iranian circus by this country is disappointing.A government official daily, Asr-e Iran, which is close to Hassan Rouhanis so-called moderate faction, also revealed Irans strategically weak position and the dilemma it faces. It wrote: In response to news about next months summit in Poland, Iranian officials only considered it from the angle of bilateral relationships between the [Iranian] regime and Poland and also the hostile relationships between Washington and Tehran. They didnt try to turn it into a European-Islamic Republic issue; especially when the EU has passed new sanctions against the [Iranian] regimes intelligence community.It is true that the Iranian people can no longer stand the regime and its also true that the main Iranian opposition is the source of great fear for Khamenei and his cronies.The volatile state of the country plus the prospect of an end to the appeasement policy and on top of that a viable alternative to organize the protests in Iran is certainly a terrifying outlook for the regime in 2019.
|
https://english.hathalyoum.net/articles/437-how-much-iranian-regime-fears-upcoming-warsaw-conference--
|
Why Does Apple Think It Can Get Away With Selling Overpriced Stuff?
|
I want to tell you a story about three amazing products. advertisement advertisement The worlds most popular smart home speaker. The worlds most popular laptop computer. And the worlds most popular smartphone. Thats the Amazon Echo. Its a Lenovo or HP. Currently, its Apples iPhone. In the past, Samsungs Galaxy line has challenged that, though. Google wins twice, Amazon once, and Apple not at all. Most investors and fans will assure you that this isnt a problem. Apple is one of the most profitable companies in history, after all, making $215 billion in revenue last year. And thats because the company makes money by selling hardware, on average, for about two to three times the price it takes the company to build it. advertisement The $650 iPhone 7 has a build estimate of $220 (not counting research and development)which is actually high for iPhones, historically. Apple made nearly 70% of its revenue specifically from selling iPhones last year. Add in iPads and Macs, and youre at 85% of Apples revenue. Say what you will about those margins, but consumers have deemed it fair with their wallets, paying a surcharge on industry-leading industrial design, commonly dubbed the Apple Tax. Apple reveals its ultimate strategy: put fingers in ears. Sell its latest product, the smart home HomePod speaker, for $350or about the cost of 2.5 Amazon Alexas or Google Homes. Apple will continue to make money off of its premium hardware, while its competitors continue cutting corners to sell devices at cost, but make up the money with ever-present services in your life rather than gadgets in your home. It has worked before. Apple introduced the strategy most successfully with the iPod line in 2001, and perfected it through the release of subsequent editions of iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Compare that to what Amazon does. While tight-lipped on the matter, Jeff Bezos has said the company makes no money off Kindle hardware sales, and one report says the Echo has actually cost Amazon hundreds of millions of dollars to date. The companys annual report also reveals that even Prime is something of a loss lead product. But Amazon keeps consumers close, because it believes theres money in the service end, sooner or later. Now, the company makes billions off of Amazon Web Services. Thats right, all of the server infrastructure it built for its own business of serving people, Amazon now sells to power much of the web. advertisement Google is in a similar spot. The Google Home speaker is not a profitable piece of hardware, but Google CEO Sundar Pichais claim to shareholders is that with such devices, We are very focused on the consumer experience now . . . I think if you go and create these experiences that work at scale for users, the monetization will follow. Services from Search to Android itself are offered freely to consumers. (Manufacturers dont pay to run Android on their phones, either.) Googles revenue primarily comes from serving us ads, for, again, keeping the consumer so close, that it can find money to be made in the digital bits, not the physical blocks. Amazon wont reveal how many Alexas it has soldat least one estimate says about 10 millionbut in a sense, its an irrelevant stat to the balance sheet. Amazon only needs to worry that, if and when people order toilet paper or Dominos pizza with their voices, Amazon has a product ready to take the order. Likewise, the Chromebook has started eating into dwindling iPad and Mac sales for all sorts of reasons, but chiefly, that schools can buy students a fully functional laptop for less than the price of an iPad, and Macbooks are all more than $1,000. And Google gets to raise the next generation of internet users on Chrome, Search, Google Docs, and other services core to the intimacy of Googles ultimate ad play. Generally, no. But the best design isnt always the most polished, with the tightest tolerances and finest materials. Mass-produced goods first and foremost have to be affordable, too. Back to Apple. To sell an iPhone at cost would literally destroy the business. Only about 10% of the companys income is off of services, detached from glass and aluminum. Even Apple seems to understand that hardware is ultimately a limited business in 2017. Because the company call its apps, not its phones or tablets, its fastest growing, highest margin product. Apps that Apple, for the most part, doesnt even make. But Apple still gets a hefty 30% cut of app sales and in-app purchases. advertisement
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/90128329/why-does-apple-think-it-can-get-away-with-selling-overpriced-stuff
|
Can Spatial 3D Audio Reinvent Live Music?
|
This concert sounds insane. Its not just that the electronic, laser-like sounds coming from the modular synthesizer onstage recall an intergalactic battle from a sci-fi movie. Its that theyre firing away all around me, bouncing from speaker to speaker inside the room. It sounds like Im somehow in the music. advertisement advertisement The performer is Suzanne Ciani, the electronic music pioneer and composer who was recently given the Moog Innovation Award at the Moogfest music and technology festival. This show is one of dozens of performances held during the four-day celebration, but it sounds different from the others. For many years, Ciani has performed using a quadrophonic sound system: a setup that uses four primary speakers placed in the corners of the venue, which allows the music to be split into four channels. The audio, not unlike that of a surround-sound home theater, can travel around you in a way that standard stereo systems cant. One sound might come from behind you, while another chimes in from above or in front of you. People love quad, Ciani tells me. But its hard to get sometimes. You have to fight with the venue. You have to fight with the promoter. Her performance nearly didnt happen as planned. But if anyone is going to be receptive to a sound-bending demand like this, its the Moogfest organizers. The daytime conference-style programming featured several workshops and discussions about three-dimensional spatial sound, an increasingly hot topic discussed at the bleeding edge of the music/tech nexus. Why A Decades-Old Idea Is Coming Back The resurgence of interest might seem odd, considering that spatial audio is hardly a new innovation. The quadrophonic version of immersive sound employed by Ciani has been around since the 1950s and peaked in the 1970s, after the format failed to gain much traction with consumers. In 1967, the famously experimental Pink Floyd played what is believed to be the first surround-sound rock concert using their own custom-built quadrophonic speaker system, the Azimuth Co-ordinator. Binaural recording, the process of capturing three-dimensional sound, had been in use for nearly a century when Lou Reed released the first binaurally recorded pop album, Street Hassle, in 1978. By then, attempts to release music on quadrophonic vinyl and other new multi-dimensional sound formats had largely been abandoned by the music industry, which opted to stick with stereo. The shortest and most obvious answer: Technology. Back in the 1970s, capturing high-quality, three-dimensional audio was expensive and cumbersome for the music industry and for consumers to enjoy it would have necessitated costly home audio systems (or special headphones). At the time, it wasnt clear that there would even be enough demand for spatial 3D audio to warrant the heavy investment required to produce and market it. But technology, of course, tends to get smaller and cheaper as time marches on. Today, its easier to capture 3D audio and its even becoming easier to adapt older recordings to work in spatial formats. On the consumer side, the market is awash in relatively affordable home speaker systems that allow for surround sound, driven in part by the development of formats like DTS and Dolby 5.1 for movie theaters and home theater setups. Indeed, lots of albums get remixed in 5.1 surround sound for hardcore fans, like the recently reissued Beatles classic Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. advertisement This type of sound is slowly finding its way into concert venues as well. For now, electronic artists like Ciani have to demand it on their tech riders at shows (If you say it is nonnegotiable, they will come around, Ciani says), but the request may soon become easier to fulfill. In late April, musician Christopher Willits helped open Envelop, a venue in San Francisco with a 28.4 channel sound system that specializes in immersive 3D audio. The venues 28-speaker Ambisonic system has also been adapted to a mobile sound space called Envelop Satellite, which can be deployed at music festivals and other temporary locations. Virtual Reality Pushes 3D Sound Forward Virtual reality is another major factor behind the push toward spatial audio. As VR and augmented reality gradually creep into the mainstream, the immersive content created for these formats needs spatially rich, 3D audio. In a rare display of early tech adoption, the music industry has embraced VR, eager to carve out its own slice of a market thats expected to be worth $120 billion within a few years (and perhaps try to preempt another technology-driven disruption of the business). In the last six months, Universal Music and Warner Music have inked partnerships with MelodyVR to develop VR music content, and Viacom released what it calls the first-ever VR album. Virtual reality music videos and live concerts filmed in 360 degrees are becoming more common, even as VR headsets remain relatively rare in households. If the VR hype turns out to be a sustainable growth sector, though, the music industry will need to be prepared with material that sounds good in that world. However the VR market plays out, the heightened investment seems to be driving renewed interest in spatial audio more generally. One of companies trying to push 3D sound forward is Sennheiser, the German microphone and speaker manufacturer that was an early pioneer in binaural recording. Sennheisers Ambeo sound format offers a 9.1 channel immersive 3D mix that can be used in home audio setups, theater sound systems, and even specialized headphones. An Ambeo remix of Pink Floyds Comfortably Numb was recently used in the new exhibit about the band at Londons Victoria and Albert Museum, where the song is played on 25 speakers, with different layers and details of the track coming from various directions in the room. With Ambeo, we try to create situations where theres no difference between being there and not, says Daniel Sennheiser, who runs the company along with his brother, Andreas. If you close your eyes, your perception tells you its real. Very few of us will ever have museum-grade sound systems in our homes. But Sennheiser is working to make its Ambeo format more accessible to consumers and music engineers. Its Ambeo VR microphone is a $1,650 gadget that records high fidelity sound in three dimensions for use in VR and other immersive media. They also make Ambeo-enabled earbuds for the iPhone that allow for binaural 3D recording on the go. advertisement The purpose of devices like these is to lower the barrier of entry for 3D recording so that sound designers, music producers, and consumers can become familiar with the concept. As awe-inspiring as the Pink Floyd Ambeo remix may be for fans of the band, not every artist has the means to have their work remixed at Abbey Road Studios by world-class engineers, which was the case with Comfortably Numb. To help nudge things along, Sennheiser published instructional blueprints for audio engineers looking to dabble in spatial audio. The hope is that, in the future, music will be recorded in a more 3D-friendly format so that intensive and costly remixing projects wont be necessary. For Sennhesier, getting their 3D sound into public installations is a way of marketing the idea to people who otherwise may not realize this technology exists. One of the difficult parts of this is that you have to let people experience it to really understand it, says Andreas Sennheiser. Its like a great bottle of wine. To get somebody from buying a $5 bottle to a $15 bottle, you have to invite them to taste. Thats what were after. The hope for Sennheiser and others toying with 3D sound is that in time, the technology becomes more commonplace. Its adoption requires costly hardware and engineering that smaller venues may not be able to affordand to be sure, not all music would necessarily sound great in 3Dbut if widely implemented, the experience could enhance live music just enough to attract more people and bump up ticket prices. Immersive audio can also be used in live broadcast scenarios to effectively increase the size of the audience for big shows. The Pink Floyd Ambeo installation at the V&A Museum certainly mimics the experience of being at a concert, both with sound and imagery. The next time Adele tickets go on sale and invariably sell out in minutes, promoters may well consider holding a satellite viewing of the show shot in 360 degrees and mixed in 3D to open up the event to people who couldnt get tickets to the actual show. With more and more money being poured into creating live music VR content, theres no reason that those virtual concerts need to stay crammed inside an Oculus Rift.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40425973/can-spatial-3d-audio-reinvent-live-music
|
Who made Rob Maclean's Scottish Premiership team of the weekend?
|
The Scottish Premiership is back in full swing after two rounds of fixtures following the winter break. BBC commentator Rob Maclean picks his team of the weekend. Formation 4-3-3: Ofir Marciano (Hibernian); James Tavernier (Rangers), John Souttar (Hearts), Stuart Findlay (Kilmarnock), Nathan Ralph (Dundee); David Turnbull (Motherwell), Stevie Mallan (Hibernian), Callum McGregor (Celtic); Alfredo Morelos (Rangers), Oli Shaw (Hibernian), Ryan Kent (Rangers). Goalkeeper - Ofir Marciano Hibernian, minus head coach Neil Lennon, showed real character to come back from a goal down against St Mirren in Paisley and goalkeeper Ofir Marciano takes a lot of credit for the 3-1 win. He made a couple of great saves to deny Stephen McGinn and Kyle McAllister. Defenders - James Tavernier, John Souttar, Stuart Findlay, Nathan Ralph Rangers captain James Tavernier set the tone for an impressive team performance. On his 28th birthday, Tavernier was influential from start to finish, still piling in maximum effort when the match was well won at 3-0. John Souttar made his first start for Hearts in two-and-a-half months and cruised through the win over Dundee. The Scotland defender was typically calm at the back and picked out Godinho with a perfect assist for the opening goal. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: Heart of Midlothian 2-0 St Johnstone Kilmarnock did not do much going forward in the goalless draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie but they were solid in defence. Stuart Findlay is consistently outstanding for them. The former Celtic and Newcastle defender is a big part of the Killie success story. Nathan Ralph has been a big plus for Dundee during a difficult time. The former Woking left-back is comfortable on the ball and delivers well from out wide. In a regularly changing team he's been an automatic pick. Midfield - David Turnbull, Stevie Mallan, Callum McGregor Motherwell midfielder David Turnbull has been one of the newcomers of the season so far and scored the only goal of the game twice in four days for the Steelmen. The 19-year-old makes a quality contribution whenever he plays. There was, rightly, no great celebration from Stevie Mallan as the Hibs midfielder came back to haunt his old team St Mirren on Sunday. He had a hand in the first two goals then scored the clincher himself as Hibs moved up to seventh in the Premiership. Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: St Mirren 1-3 Hibernian Another no-sweat Saturday for Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor as he quietly controlled the game against Hamilton Academical. The opening goal in a comfortable 3-0 win was his first since October but the Scotland stick-on does not get so many scoring chances these days as he continues to flourish in a deeper role. Forwards - Alfredo Morelos, Oli Shaw, Ryan Kent Alfredo Morelos looked happier doing his own thing in Rangers' emphatic win at Livi than trying to team up with Jermaine Defoe in the 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock last Wednesday. He scored, hit the post and, on another day, would have had a hat-trick. You may say Oli Shaw played only 40 minutes of Hibs' defeat of St Mirren but his introduction off the bench made all the difference. Like team-mate Mallan, the 20-year-old striker scored one goal and was involved in the other two. Rangers winger Ryan Kent tormented the Livingston defence all Sunday afternoon at the Tony Macaroni Arena and lashed in the second goal. He's on loan from Liverpool and gaffer Steven Gerrard will be keen to make the temporary arrangement a permanent one.
|
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47030632
|
Do we still need Australian troops in Afghanistan?
|
The real reason is of course to show we are a willing ANZUS and Western alliance partner in order to be well regarded by the US and receive the defence and intelligence benefits that go with active membership of the Five-Eyes relationship. Afghanistan per se is of little strategic importance to Australia. About 300 Australian Defence Force members and Defence civilians are deployed in Task Group Afghanistan as part of Operation Highroad headed by a one-star, Brigadier Jane Spalding. Task Group Afghanistan's headquarters is at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. It comprises a command element of about 40 defence force personnel that coordinates administration, communications and logistics support for all defence force members deployed to Afghanistan performing in a variety of specialist and advisory roles as embeds. Defence force embeds work with members of the US-led coalition, Afghan National Defence and Security Forces, and Afghan security ministries to assist in institutional capacity building. Australia also contributes to the UK-led training support element at the Afghanistan National Army Officer Academy at Qargha near Kabul, and Australian soldiers provide a force protection element and mobility support for Resolute Support and our various commitments. A small contingent of Australian Special Forces personnel provides support to NATOs Special Operations Component Command Afghanistan and to the Afghan General Command of Police Special Units Special Forces. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video In sum, we have a large support contingent for a relatively small number of people performing operational missions. Many of the latter are apparently not in-place long enough to provide full value. I met with an American colonel at one of the Afghan training schools who spoke highly of his two Australian instructors, but said they were just becoming familiar with his training requirements when they were rotated out. (He was on a two-year posting, while the Australians were only there for six months.) The security situation in Afghanistan has not improved in the 17 years we have been there; in fact, it has become worse. Most of Afghanistan is controlled by the Taliban and local warlords who have little time for the Kabul government whose writ does not extend much below province level. In those 17 years we have had 41 defence force personnel killed and 261 wounded - seven of the deaths were from insider attacks by our Afghan allies. (I cant recall any other international training mission where we have had to protect ourselves from those we were training.) The financial cost so far to Defence of being in Afghanistan is close to $10 billion Australian dollars. (Since 2001 it has cost the US over one trillion US dollars.) Loading Perhaps it is time to look constructively at the security situation, what our interests are, and what we can do about it. The Taliban, the main insurgent group threatening the Afghan government, is not a problem for Australia because it does not pose an external threat - except to Pakistan. The main security problem for the West has arisen from foreign self-invited terrorist groups in Afghanistan, initially al-Qaeda and now Islamic State. Islamic State has been building capability in Afghanistan as the Islamic State Khorasan network. Islamic State has a global intent to attack its Western enemies, including Australia, so its containment is something we do need to be concerned about. Islamic State Khorasan has 3500-4000 fighters in Afghanistan and is growing in numbers. Its lethality in Afghanistan and Pakistan is beyond question. Between January 2014 and July 2018, there were 211 Islamic State Khorasan attacks in Afghanistan resulting in 1511 deaths. The Taliban is - as part of any agreement - prepared to crack down on Islamic State Khorasan elements in Afghanistan and prevent Afghanistan-based groups from attacking the US or its allies. The best and most cost-effective way for Australia to contain Islamic State Khorasan would be to assist its local, mainly Taliban, enemies and integrate more defence force personnel to work in US drone operations against them. We are largely wasting our time supporting successive corrupt Afghan governments and their ineffectual Afghan security forces.
|
https://www.theage.com.au/national/do-we-still-need-australian-troops-in-afghanistan-20190123-p50t40.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
|
Is Blue Apron Even Going To Exist In Five Years?
|
One of the food delivery industrys biggest and most well-funded meal-kit subscription companies, Blue Apron, has filed its intent to go public. The companys stated goal is to take on grocery stores and dining out. We believe our customers choose to buy Blue Apron meals instead of shopping at grocery stores, ordering takeout, or eating at restaurants, its filing reads. advertisement advertisement But while interest in meal kits is growing, there isnt strong evidence that most people are ready to give up entirely on the grocery aisle. Meanwhile, Blue Aprons marketing department is spending an exorbitant $94 per customer to get people to sign up for its serviceand in the last year, its customer growth rate has actually slowed. Meal-kit subscription companies fancy themselves innovators, refashioning grocery shopping for a digital world. But not everyone is equally enchanted by this newfangled shopping experience. Recipe cards and quick meal prep packages represent less than 1% of retail food and alcohol spending in the U.S., according to a recent report from research firm Morningstar (Editors note: Fast Companys owner, Joe Manuseto, is executive chairman of Morningstar.) Among meal-kit adoptees, the metrics are more encouraging. Food box loyalists are known to spend 13% of their weekly grocery dollars outside the traditional grocery store, the report notes. The research asserts these kits could be the catnip that convinces consumers to shop for groceries onlinenot just for meal kits, but as part of their regular grocery routine (online grocery shopping has had many false starts as it attempts to go truly mainstream). That puts Blue Apron in an interesting rolea pied piper luring the masses to online grocery shelves. Though Blue Apron was one of the first to offer meal-kit subscriptions, its not alone. There are countless meal-kit offerings out there from a bevy of providersboth brand names and newcomers. These adversaries are all aggressively waving their own coupons and rock-bottom deals as they attempt to attract customers. Notably, one in four Americans has tried a meal kitwith 70% continuing to purchase them, according to Nielsen. All the price competition, however, enables someone with an interest in meal kits to hop from one platform to the other, sopping up discounts as easily as bread in pasta sauce. That means not all meal-kit consumers are staying loyal to just one service. Given the high cost of customer acquisitionthanks to hyper-competitive pricing and epic marketing budgetsturning this product into a consistent profit generator is one of the biggest challenges Blue Apron and businesses like it face. The whole scenario calls into question whether meal-kit subscriptions are a sustainable business on their ownor if they are better off as components of a larger digital grocery spread. advertisement The Challenge Meal-kit subscription services endure a lot of customer drop-off. In its filing to the SEC, Blue Apron notes that while its high spending has grown its customer base, its expansion efforts have the potential to lose steam. Over time our customers on average order less frequently or sometimes cease ordering. That statement is echoed in Morningstars data, which reports that a year after trying a meal kit, only 8% to 18% customers remain with that particular service. Some of that drop-off is circumstantialfor example, you might not restart a meal-kit subscription you paused while you were away on vacation. Thats problematic because meal kitsespecially those hoping to capture a wider market like Blue Apronare limited in their ability to increase prices on kits without losing customers to competitors offering better deals. Meal-kit startups cant raise their prices too significantly because theyre competing with traditional groceries as well as other meal kits, which limits margin potential. Therefore, their main way to grow is by adding customers, pushing them to focus heavily on costly customer acquisition, says CB Insights Natan Reddy, a tech industry analyst. Signing up and keeping loads of customers in this space is a fraught endeavor. Meal kits are at once trying to change a deeply ingrained customer behavior and attempting to introduce them to a new brand. In order to get people on board, they need to spend heavily on marketingparticularly cost-intensive offline marketing like television ads. On top of that, they have to keep their product affordablethey cant make up for the cost of their high marketing spend with higher prices on their products. Because many of these players, like Blue Apron, have received a lot of venture funding, theyve been comfortable spending a lot to get customers, says Reddy, even in the face of reportedly high churn. When I met with Sunbasket CEO Adam Zbar last month, he claimed his company could be profitable tomorrow if not for its marketing spend. The same seems to be true for Blue Apron. Though it enjoyed a quarter of profitability from January to March last year, in the first quarter of 2017 it took a loss of $52 million. Already this year its spent $61 million on marketing, setting it up to nearly double last years spend. Yes, you read that right. advertisement Not The First Customer acquisition is an age-old problem in the digital grocery world. Both Webvan and Peapod attempted to build web-based grocery delivery in the late 1990s. Webvan went under and Peapod, which went public, found an acquirer in Royal Ahold N.V. Not enough orders and mounting costs. By coming under Royal Ahold N.V., which owns Giant and Shop & Stop retail grocery stores, Peapod was able to access a ready customer base. What Peapod has done in the years since it was acquired is well worth paying attention to. Peapod still does grocery delivery, but exclusively for its parent company stores. It also has its own meal kits, which it sells in tandem with its online grocery service. That allows customers to do their normal weekly shopping in addition to buying instructional meal kits. Incorporating a la carte meal kits into a bigger, a la carte online and offline grocery service allows customers to be flexible in their approach as they shop for food. They dont need to cancel a subscription meal kit service if they go on vacation because they are buying meal kits individually, and Royal Ahold N.V. doesnt have to worry about customers dropping off after they come back from a holiday the way most meal-kit subscription services do. Even if customers dont race online to order a meal kit when they get back home, theyll probably run to the grocery store to pick up some staples for their first meal back. This need for fluidity makes obituaries for retail grocery businesses appear premature: I think people love going to the grocery store to find new products and to be a part of their social community and it is just a part of the fabric of how people exist, says Andy Levitt, CEO of vegan meal kit Purple Carrot. Blue Apron and many meal kits are rigid in format and as such largely supplemental to traditional grocery stores. That makes them potential targets for acquisition by grocers with a digital strategylike Peapods scenario in the early aughts. Because Blue Aprons meal kits are something of a luxurynot necessary products that a standard household cant live withoutit makes them susceptible to getting nixed when belts need to tighten. Other Opportunities Blue Aprons last uttered valuation was $2 billion, making it unlikely to get bought upand this may be a part of why its going public. At the end of March, the company had $61 million in cash, but its working capital was negative $84.8 million. Its possible that Blue Apron is going public to raise more money. The last time it raised privately was in 2015. advertisement Another reason: Right now Blue Apron is still considered an emerging company, which entitles it to disclose less in its public filings. Once it starts earning more than $1.07 billion in revenue, that stops being the case. If it waited until after it was earning more, Blue Apron would have to report on executive compensation and more readily comply with certain accounting standards. Going public in the immediate future gives the company a little bit of shield from prying investors and reporters while it figures out how to become reliably solvent. To that end, there are still unexplored revenue channels that Blue Apron has yet to take advantage of. We view the meal-kit service category as another means through which packaged-food firms can position their products to get in front of consumers, Morningstars report on meal kits notes. Consumer packaged goods companies like Unilever or Nestle might pay for product placement in boxes, helping to spur an additional channel of revenue for Blue Apron. Theres also opportunity in Amazon. With Amazon Fresh, the Everything Store is exploring a bid at online grocery and is considered the biggest threat to the brick and mortar grocery stores. But when it comes to meal kits, Amazon may offer a boost. Right now the platform is selling a meal kit from Martha Stewart and Marleyspoon through a partnership. If this initial foray goes well, it stands to reason that Amazon could team up with other meal kits, making it a distribution platform rather than a meal-kit brand of its own. On Amazon, meal kits have a chance to reach the masses they so desperately need to support their companies, possibly helping to reduce consumer acquisition costs (depending of course on the potential the terms of being featured on the site). Such an alliance could also benefit Amazon. Meal kits could act as a lure to its larger grocery store offering, giving customers access to both meal kits and all the usual items they might need in a given week. Meal kits may be convincing some shoppers to consider going online, but it will never fulfill all their needs. Whether Blue Aprons business model can fulfill the desires of investors has yet to be seen.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40427253/is-blue-apron-even-going-to-exist-in-five-years
|
Can Elon Musk Get SolarCitys Gigafactory Back On Track?
|
In Buffalo, NY, Elon Musk and his newly acquired company, SolarCity, are trying to build the largest solar-panel factory in the western hemisphere. But the once-heralded project has faced significant obstacles in recent years. advertisement advertisement The Gigafactory 2, as it is now named, is a 1.2-million-square-foot facility just a short drive south of downtown Buffalo, on an 88-acre site called RiverBend that was formerly home to a steel plant. It has become a symbol of hope and revitalization for the city, a bellwether partnership between the private sector and state government, which has invested nearly $1 billion in the project to date, that promises to bring innovation to the Rust Belt, along with manufacturing jobs. As we detail in our new feature on Teslas controversial $2.6-billion acquisition of SolarCity, the solar company founded by Musks cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive, the Gigafactory 2 was a selling point for the merger and is key to the future of a new product: the Solar Roof. But for the past several years, the Gigafactory 2s development has run into a series of project delays, automation challenges, and budget overruns, according to people familiar with the matter. With pressure now mounting on Musk to lead the clean-energy revolution, the stakes couldnt be higher for him to deliver on the Gigafactory 2s promises. This factory was supposed to help save the city of Buffalo, as well as the planet, says one source involved. If it fails, it will set back the entire solar industry. Related: The Real Story Behind Elon Musks $2.6 Billion Acquisition Of SolarCity And What It Means For Teslas FutureNot To Mention The Planets Tesla and SolarCity have maintained that the Gigafactory 2 is on track. Timing and strategy shifts for cell and module manufacturing were either as a result of wanting to increase the capacity of the facility or transition our focus to Solar Roof rather than traditional panels, a Tesla spokesperson says via email. The company initially approved Fast Companys request to visit the facility, but later reversed course. (Instead, Fast Company was allowed to see inside Teslas other Gigafactory, near Reno, NV, a factory focused on battery production that is far more developed.) The following account of the factorys evolution, based on interviews with scores of sources familiar with the projects development, includes many previously unreported details. The genesis of the Gigafactory 2 can be traced back to SolarCitys acquisition of solar-panel startup Silevo, in June 2014, for $200 million in stock plus an additional $150 million tied to certain development targets. The company thought Silevos panel technology could achieve a breakthrough in the cost of solar power, as Lyndon and Peter wrote in a blog post at the time along with Musk, who was then SolarCitys chairman and largest shareholder. The trio also touted a deal Silevo had inked with the state of New York to build a manufacturing plant in Buffalo, and sought to ramp up the factorys output. Silevo originally had modest goals for Buffalo, but when Elon, Lyndon, and Peter came into the picture, those goals jumped 5x, says a former high-level employee. We had to scramble to figure out how to do it. Project Whitney New York Governor Andrew Cuomo committed $750 million to fund the project, on the condition that SolarCity would generate 1,460 direct manufacturing jobs at the facility and spend $5 billion in related area investments in the next decade when the plant becomes fully operational. The arrangement was made in collaboration with Empire State Development, a public agency that promotes regional economic development, and the State University of New York (SUNY) Polytechnic Institute. Musk and the Rives targeted an annual production capacity greater than one gigawatt by the first quarter of 2016. [Lyndon] Rive said, Im going to build SolarCity, my vision, my baby, my future right here in Buffalo, because he believes in Buffalo, Cuomo said in September 2014, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the factory. advertisement But the project ran into challenges. The goal was to build what are known as high-efficiency solar panels that feature premium cells that can convert sunlight into energy at a materially higher percentage and at a cost on par with what SolarCity had been paying to Chinese manufacturers for more standard-efficiency solar panels. (The latter may produce around 250 watts per panel and convert sunlight at an efficiency rate of around 13% to 18%.) While the company had focused on developing a more standard-style solar panel at first, its attention eventually shifted to one that featured roughly 330 watts per panel, which it hoped would reach a solar-cell efficiency rate of about 22%. Internally, teams referred to this panel-development effort as Project Whitney. But panel prices globally were plummeting to the point of commoditization, down more than 75% since 2009, and the Silevo team wrestled with creating an economically viable product. On a call with shareholders in February 2015, Lyndon delayed the timeline: The factory, he indicated, would now be built and ready for equipment by early 2016 (while that one-gigawatt production target wouldnt be reached until the first quarter of 2017). Silevos R&D team, working out of an old Solyndra building in Fremont, CA, in early 2015, tried to create a pilot production line that they hoped to one day replicate in Buffalo. Their aim at the Fremont facility was to reach an annual production capacity of 100 megawatts, which would enable them to achieve 10 times that capacity at the companys Gigafactory. But as Governor Cuomos office, along with the Empire State Development corporation and SUNY Polytechnic, announced that high volume manufacturing would soon be coming online at the Gigafactory, the Silevo R&D team was still figuring out how to hand-assemble the modules in Fremont that they hoped to produce in Buffalo, according to multiple sources. To reach the 100-megawatt goal, sources indicate that the pilot production line in Fremont would eventually need to yield between 800 to 1,000 high-efficiency Whitney panels per day. But the team was not able to automate the process consistently enough to produce more than dozens of Whitney panels per day, according to people familiar with the matter. Most of the production resulted in scrap, they say. The big problem was simply that they couldnt scale up the technology to the point where you could run it in a factory, a source familiar with the development explains. A spokesperson for SolarCity acknowledges that the company ran into issues with some of its automation equipment, but says this was not necessarily due to its cell technology. Multiple sources also claim that even the Whitney panels that did make it through the automation process in Fremont were not reliable enough for the market. Normally, solar panels are designed to last several decades on rooftops, but according to these sources, in early 2016, the Whitney panels failed internal tests that determined whether they met industry-standard longevity. SolarCity decided to go ahead with installing trials on around 70 customer roofs. But in many cases, the Whitney panels lasted just weeks before malfunctioning, and later needed to be removed, according to two sources familiar with the matter. (A SolarCity spokesperson says the trial deployments generated data that have since helped improve the product, and that its customers were reimbursed for any lost solar production.) To date, there are just roughly five customer homes still equipped with Whitney panels. Trouble in RiverBend Meanwhile, in Buffalo, SolarCity was burning through hundreds of millions of dollars of government funding to get the factory built as fast as possible. Because of its leasing arrangement with the state of New York, SolarCity acted as a tenant of the facility, meaning that the property and equipment purchased with state funds was owned by the state through the SUNY Polytechnic Institute. But SolarCity was nonetheless essentially directing the facilitys layout and making decisions about equipment for future operations. Even though the production line in Fremont had not been finalized, according to multiple sources, the company purchased more than $250 million in custom machinery for Buffalo in 2015 and 2016 using state funds. Much of it sat idle while layouts were being reconfigured and the building was still being constructed. (A spokesperson for SolarCity suggests that ordering some of this machinery in advance was partly due to equipment lead times of 12 months or longer. Around this time, federal investigators reportedly began looking into questionable practices of how the Cuomo administration awarded third-party developer contracts, which some insiders suggest also delayed the project.) advertisement Moreover, the equipment was purchased in such a way that panel manufacturing couldnt begin in earnest even if the building had been ready for it. The company aimed to get to one gigawatt of annual production capacity there by manufacturing 10,000 high-efficiency panels per day, on four to five production lines. But instead of starting by creating, say, one or two production lines in Buffalo at a time, it purchased a fraction of the equipment necessary for even a single production line of Whitney panels. At Teslas battery factory [in Reno, NV], they [added] on to make it more and more functional, whereas in Buffalo, SolarCity tried to do the whole thing in one shot, says one knowledgeable source. In hindsight, it was really crazy. (A SolarCity spokesperson says the company phased the significant orders [of equipment] for the first 550 megawatts of cell production.) Some company insiders theorize that the Silevo team was influenced by the earned-payout structure of its acquisition by SolarCity, which would give some team members big bonuses for hitting certain technology and production milestones by predetermined dates. That incentive structure incentivized horrible results, claims one source. (SolarCity declined to comment on how this earned-payout structure influenced the Gigafactory 2s development.) But other sources say it was more a matter of the company lacking an overall core competency in building factories. Silevo was an R&D company that was very good in the lab, says a former SolarCity executive. And SolarCity had no institutional knowledge in large-scale solar manufacturing. Even still, they had this Muskian management style, where they kept muscling ahead. Leading into 2016, the knowledgable source says, it was clear they were heading toward some serious delays and budget problems, but nobody seemed ready to admit it. In the first half of 2016, SolarCitys financial pressures were also intensifying, and, another source involved says, It all just stopped. We were going to rely on SolarCitys money to finish the Buffalo project, but our sales were so far down that all the money just stopped. The company confirms that there was limited activity in Buffalo during this period but explains that the intended operations in Buffalo were shifting and management attention was squarely focused on this. Related: Inside Steel Pulse, The Project That Became Elon Musks Solar Roof As Tesla was considering its acquisition of SolarCity in mid-2016, Musk visited the Fremont facility to assess the companys manufacturing progress. According to several sources, while touring the site, he told the team that he thought they could do a lot more than one gigawatt in Buffalo. He proposed that they try to double or triple the Gigfactory 2s output. In the weeks ahead, the company redesigned the factorys layout to try to fit more equipment into the space to increase production capacity. Most sources say this was a smart, long-term decision, even though it also meant altering certain scheduling and financial assumptions. Things were just constantly changing. The management was never able to settle on a goal, says the source familiar with the Gigafactorys development. In an earnings call later that summer, Peter Rive, who was then SolarCitys CTO, explained the merits of the changes to shareholders: We dont want to rush to actually initiate some of the equipment installation for the cell line and then have that be a regretful layout only months later. He added that SolarCitys module manufacturing was actually ahead of schedule. The company, by that point, had also begun considering how it might be able to manufacture its new solar roof product in Buffalo, which led it to reassess whether it should actually be producing Silevos so-called flat-plate modules at all. advertisement In November, the site was finally almost ready to accommodate machinery. But the building cost had gone over budget by at least $130 million, and in order to pay for the remaining equipment, SolarCity would need to pony up an estimated $200 million of its own, according to people familiar with the matter. The following month, SolarCity, having determined that Silevo would not achieve two of its three production and technology milestones, decided that it had to bring in an outside partner, Panasonic, to help bear the costs and to take over solar-cell manufacturing. City Of Light Since the merger, Tesla and SolarCity have been able to share expertise and resources, and shifted their attention to producing Solar Roof tiles at RiverBend rather than Whitney panels. But according to sources, with Tesla focused on ramping up Model 3 production at its other factories, Musk himself has yet to tour the Buffalo plant. The CEO and CTO of Silevo have departed the company, and there have been additional layoffs in Fremont and Buffalo. While the state of New York has invested more than $900 million of taxpayer funds to date into the project and its associated developments, SolarCity has spent just around $20 million in capital expenditures in Buffalo so far, according to multiple sources. (The company confirms this figure, but says in the coming years, We expect the project to contribute vastly more in job and economic value than the state expends.) SolarCity currently does not expect the Gigafactory 2 to reach one gigawatt of solar-module production until 2019. Governor Cuomos office and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute declined to comment for this story. In a statement provided to Fast Company, Jason Conwall, a spokesman for the Empire State Development corporation, says that the Tesla facility in Buffalo will soon begin to produce the most advanced solar technology on the market. The Gigafactory at RiverBend will make products for distribution across the country and continues to remain on schedule, with its official opening slated for the third quarter of 2017. The financial consequences for Tesla will be significant if the Gigafactory 2 does not achieve its goals. Per its agreement with the state of New York, if the company does not meet its obligations during any year in the decade after it hits full-production capacity, Tesla must pay a penalty of $41.2 million per year and may lose its lease to the Gigafactory. In a May SEC filing, Tesla said, Although we continue to remain on track with our progress at Gigafactory 2, our expectations as to the cost of building the facility, acquiring manufacturing equipment and supporting our manufacturing operations may prove incorrect, which could subject us to significant expenses to achieve the desired benefits. The pressure is now on Musk and Tesla to live up to the promises SolarCity made to the city of Buffalo and the state of New York. For a clean-energy industry already facing political headwinds, and a high-profile CEO often highlighted as Americas best bet to end the countrys dependence on fossil fuels, the years ahead will be crucial. Even before President Trump announced the U.S.s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, many industry observers say the odds were stacked against Tesla and SolarCity, considering the competition it faces in China, where the countrys investments in solar and other renewables far outpace the rest of the world. Says Shayle Kann, the head of GTM Research, which analyzes the renewable-energy industry. Building [this solar factory] is hard to do. Its a tough road ahead, but that is Elon Musks speciality. For the residents of Buffalo, the pressures Tesla faces are less of an immediate concern than their need for a job at the Gigafactory 2. The forecast has been lowered for the number of direct manufacturing opportunities the facility will offer, with documents indicating that just around 500 positions will be created at the plant itself. At a series of job fairs held around the city in December, recruiters told potential hires that the facility would likely be heavily automated. Im going to try to apply for something in manufacturing, a disappointed job hopeful told me after one of the recruiting sessions. I would like a supervisory positionIve been a machinist for 35 years and was recently laid offbut [the SolarCity rep] said if I want a job, it would be entry level, paying around $15 an hour. advertisement Even still, applicants, city officials, and other residents remain optimistic. They express pride in the possibility of being a part of the future, rather than stuck hoping for a revival of industries of the past. They also have faith in Elon Musk, who, a number of them told me during my visit, is a visionary and an innovator. They still believe that Buffalo, known locally as the City of Light, will be a part of the solar revolution. Now that SolarCity has been merged with Elon Musks company, Mayor Byron Brown told me in December, it truly brings the eyes of the world to Buffalo.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40422079/can-elon-musk-get-solarcitys-gigafactory-back-on-track
|
Is Parliament's Brexit fog about to clear?
|
As much as I can feel your pain, don't bet on it. You've probably heard a lot of noise about the amendments that MPs will be voting on tomorrow night, not least from me. But there is no guarantee at all that any of them will pass. First, some Tory MPs are coming round to the government's deal, if they can cut out the bit they don't like (yes, of course, the backstop.) A lot of them have signed up to a way of making that clear, by supporting Sir Graham Brady's amendment. And if enough of them get on board it would allow the prime minister, in theory, to go back to the EU and say, tah dah! Look! I can get this deal through apart from this really pesky part, which might, as we've been reporting in the last few days, move things forward, despite the very strong warnings from Dublin that it can't happen. But, I wouldn't bet very much that Brexiteers will switch to back it in a coherent and decisive way. As I wrote last week, some Tory insiders are pushing for the prime minister to put her own amendment forward to say what she really wants. And if she doesn't, well, she may well be simply stuck in the same predicament. By the end of today it will be clearer where the numbers might lie. Iain Duncan Smith, the influential Brexiteer, has just told me: "The government should now place its own amendment setting out what it wants to achieve in the negotiations. This is the time when the PM must make clear her intentions in the negotiation, to seek support. We need more than back bench amendments with nods and winks from the government, we need clarity and purpose." In other words, if the PM is willing to front-up and say she will go and demand Brussels changes the backstop, they might play ball. But if she doesn't, don't expect the Brexiteer votes she needs to be suddenly forthcoming. But the government has an additional dilemma. If they try to stop MPs voting for the Brady plan (you can read more about it and the other amendments here) there's likely to be a rebellion against that attempt too. On the other side, there are MPs trying to create and take control of a set of brakes to stop the government from heading towards leaving the EU without a formal deal. Labour's Yvette Cooper's attempt is the most prominent and would be the most significant because it would commit to changing the law in a bill that would put Parliament in charge if the government can't get things sorted out by the end of February. But it doesn't have much of a hope of passing if Labour's frontbench team don't get behind it. They have made supportive noises about it, because their priority is to remove the possibility of a 'no deal' Brexit. But they have reservations about potentially delaying Brexit until Christmas, and indeed, just like the Tories, if they try to get MPs to vote for it officially by whipping the vote, they too would face their own rebellion because some MPs are implacably opposed. Again, by this evening we should have more sense of where the decisions might land. You wouldn't be blamed for thinking that all seems like Parliamentary fog. But until we see the numbers in the votes tomorrow, this week may not be the occasion when Parliament's view on Brexit becomes that much clearer. (Sorry!)
|
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47027641
|
Are Tech Companies Funding Online Intolerance?
|
Follow the money. That Watergate-era mantra has been reinterpreted for todays politicsnot as a tip for how to investigate a scandal, but as a road map for how to attack your political enemy. In recent months, activists have organized b oycotts of Ivanka Trump products and OReilly Factor advertisers, focusing on high-visibility targets. Now some of them are also going after other sources of income for groups they oppose, by pressuring the back-end services such as as PayPal and Squarespace that process their payments or donations. A liberal organization called SumOfUs, for instance, has collected over 200,000 signatures demanding that online store provider Shopify drop Breitbart as a clienteliciting no response from Shopify. But other sites are far more provocative than Breitbart, promoting white supremacy, black supremacy, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and Holocaust denial. They belong to organizations that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), labels hate groups. Many rely on mainstream services to raise money. Some of these companies espouse free speech principles that tolerate nearly all views (short of those advocating or facilitating crime). But private companies arent bound by the First Amendment and some of them require users to agree to terms of service that strictly limit extreme and racist content, for example. For them, it becomes a task of making judgment calls to determine whether some content has crossed the bounds. Its thankless work and it never ends. I reported on the difficulty of these situations while researching my feature Activists Are Pushing Back Against The Tech Platforms That Quietly Empower Hate Groups. Here is a list of where some of the major e-commerce and payment providers stand on the issue and the sites they serve or have dropped. CafePress The online store providers user agreement bans sites connected to SPLC hate groups, and many types of content, including obscenities, vulgarities, and/or offensive remarks that harass, threaten, defame, or abuse others such as F*** (Ethnic Group). Furthermore the company told us that, CafePress uses SPLC as an internal resource to help identify hate groups that may be selling merchandise on CafePress. CafePress dropped three SPLC-listed sites after I asked about them: Stop Islamization of the World, which features an animated burning Quran and sold T-shirts with messages like Islam Sucks.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/40422357/are-tech-companies-funding-online-intolerance
|
Did an Instagram leak just reveal Watch Dogs 2's protagonist?
|
The protagonist of Watch Dogs 2 might have had an early reveal on Instagram. The picture was uploaded by performance artist King, who posted the picture of the new character. "Had a blast doing motion capture work as the lead character work as the in a new video game series," he wrote in the caption alongside, including the hashtag #WatchDogs2. The account was later set to private, but NerdLeaks grabbed a screenshot before it vanished. Check it out below. The character can be seen wearing a bandana over his mouth, much like Aiden Pierce had in the first game, while the phone in his left hand suggests he's poised for some hacking. We've known that a second Watch Dogs game has been in the pipeline since a developer let it slip on his LinkedIn profile last year, but this is the first glimpse we've had of it. In an earnings release Ubisoft later confirmed that the sequel will launch before April 2017. A Ubisoft representative when asked for comment said that the company does not comment on rumors and speculation.
|
https://www.techradar.com/au/news/gaming/did-an-instagram-leak-just-reveal-watch-dogs-2-s-protagonist-1320275
|
Whats Driving The Billion-Dollar Natural Beauty Movement?
|
When Tata Harpers stepfather was diagnosed with cancer, his doctors told him to remove all products containing synthetic materials, such as body washes and shampoos, from his home. In solidarity, Harper got rid of hers too. But she found the switch surprisingly difficult. advertisement advertisement I have always been a serious skin care customer, using the most effective, high-end, high-tech skin care available, says Harper, who is originally from Colombia and studied industrial engineering in Mexico. So when it came time to switch to natural skin care, I was really disappointed with the existing offerings. There wasnt anything out there for women like me, who wanted serious skin care but didnt want to use industrial chemicals on their skin. The most common chemicals in skin care products are parabens, synthetic colors, and phthalates. Harper spent the next few years researching alternatives with scientists in Europe who believed that effective, chemical-free skin care products were possible. In 2007, she founded Tata Harper, an all-natural luxury skin care line that uses multiple high-performance ingredients including Spanish lavender extract to help reduce wrinkle formation and retinoic acid from rosehip seed oil (instead of Retinol) to reduce the appearance of fine lines. Headquartered at Harpers 1,200-acre farm in Vermont, the brand is now a best-seller at Sephora and hailed as a pioneer in the land-to-face movement. The famously chemical-averse Gwyneth Paltrow is among the companys robust celebrity clientele. Tata Harper is just one of many success stories in the booming organic and natural beauty market, whose value is expected to reach $13.2 billion by 2018. Brands with a natural and/or botanically derived clinical orientation now represent the largest combined share of prestige skin care sales. Last year, they accounted for all gains in the category. The space for cleaner, safer, better beauty has grown and is only continuing to grow, says Gregg Renfrew, founder of Beautycounter, a cosmetics and skin care e-retailer that tries to educate consumers about the potential toxicity of some makeup. In fact, natural and safer brands are outselling their traditional competitors by two to threefold. Late last year, the research firm Kline & Company reached a similar conclusion, predicting that the synthetic cosmetics sector will decline in the next two years, while the natural skin care segment will grow. Already, the firm found, naturals have grown by 7% in the U.S., compared to a 2% rise in the overall beauty market in 2015. And now that these products have become so mainstream, you dont have to go rummaging through your local health food store to find your organic jasmine-infused eyeshadow. Sephora has sold botanical, chemical-free cosmetics for years and now offers a Naturals landing page showcasing hundreds of items. Nordstrom is opening dedicated natural beauty sections in 46 of its locations. Target announced plans to expands its natural beauty selection, thanks to a double-digit percentage lift in sales last year. And, reacting to customer feedback, CVS recently promised to remove chemical ingredients such as parabens and phthalates from approximately 600 of its in-house brands personal care products. Natural is available everywhere. It all makes perfect sense to Harper. People often think that natural means simple or untested, but natural ingredients are actually [some of] the most powerful ingredients in the world, she says via email. Synthetic ingredients are, in many cases, cheaper, more predictable versions of natural ingredients created in labs to simplify the manufacturing process. The Safer Ingredients Boom The organic beauty boom is part of the larger shift in consumer awareness about health and wellness. Thanks to a growing number of beauty blogs and social media accounts dedicated to the benefits of going chemical-free, consumers have access to more information than ever before. Late last year, Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic senator from California, introduced the Personal Care Products Safety Act, a bill to strengthen regulation of ingredients in personal care products. Our skin is our largest organ, and many ingredients contained in these productswhether it be lotion, shampoo, or deodorantare quickly absorbed by the skin, Feinstein said in her testimony to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. There is increasing evidence that certain ingredients in personal care products are linked to a range of health concerns, ranging from reproductive issues, such as fertility problems and miscarriage, to cancer. advertisement Parabens and phthalates, for instance, have been found to be endocrine disruptors linked to increased risk of breast cancer. A recent study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, revealed how a short break from certain shampoos and lotions made with chemical ingredients can result in a significant drop in levels of peoples hormone-disrupting chemicals. Startling findings like these are what inspired Beautycounters Renfrew to start her own company. Launched in 2013, the California-based startup aims to increase awareness about the predominantly unregulated U.S. beauty market through blog and social media campaigns. Beautycounters own line of products range from makeup basics like lipstick and blush to sunscreen and body scrubs. Last March, Renfrews company raised a $13 million round from 33 undisclosed investors, bringing its total funds raised to nearly $42 million. Renfrew points out that natural and organic have no legal definition in this category, and even a non-synthetic ingredient found in nature can be harmful. Lead, for example, should not exist in any beauty products. We focus on the safety profile of an ingredient, rather than the source, Renfrew says. In other words, just because something is naturally derived doesnt mean its automatically safe. To that end, Beautycounter developed a rigorous ingredient selection process, listing 1,500 questionable or harmful ingredients it vows never to include in its formulations. Roughly 1,400 of those chemical ingredients are already banned or restricted in personal care products by the European Union. Educating consumers is a key piece of this movement, and one in which the e-commerce beauty site and subscription service Birchbox is heavily investing. The New York-based startup debuted an Ingredient Conscious shop category in 2014 as a way to differentiate between natural (i.e., using primarily ingredients found in nature) and clean beauty products (entirely free of parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and petrochemicals). Weve noticed that our subscribers have a real desire to learn about ingredients, says Jamie Johns, the senior merchant manager of Birchboxs skin care division, via email. Our approach at Birchbox is to demystify ingredients and provide an approachable way to try and learn about them. advertisement The company offers natural beauty products both online and in subscription boxes, with prices ranging from $7 to $105. Birchbox saw between 10%-50% growth in the overall category over the last year, driven by more customers trying and sticking with the natural brands. Its definitely something that will become more mainstream, says Artemis Patrick, Sephoras SVP of merchandising. Sephora currently offers a wide range of natural productscoconut cleansing oil, kale and spinach age prevention cream, and oat milk dry shampoo among themand is pursuing more brands to expand the category even further. One of its latest additions is the biotechnology-backed Biossance, a 100% plant-based skin care line that relies on squalane, a mega-moisture molecule that helps hydrate skin. Natural skin care is growing fast, almost eight times as much as compared to last year in terms of searches, Patrick reports, adding that popular keywords include organic, paraben-free, and vegan. Sephora has also witnessed established brands like Este Lauder go back and add natural ingredients or remove certain potentially harmful ones. Big brands are becoming more conscious, Patrick says. Or at least keenly aware of what sells. Last year, after witnessing consumer interest in natural ingredients soar, Ulta, the largest beauty retailer in the U.S. with 950 stores, launched its own line of natural products that includes a top-selling lip oil infused with green tea and avocado extracts. According to Ulta SVP of merchandising Julie Tomasi, its good business: Ulta natural buyers spend 80% more in total beauty than the average customer. We anticipate additional growth from this category, she says. Romain Gaillard has experienced the rise of organic beauty firsthand. The Detox Market, the green beauty e-commerce shop that he founded in 2010, didnt take off until 2012, when a rush of new brands hit the scene and brought attention to the niche sector. Now his company has four brick-and-mortar retail locations and an online store that has been doubling in size for the last four years. In the coming year, Gaillard wants to open more shops, partner with restaurants and lifestyle brands, and launch an ambassador program. Gaillairds approach is to make natural cosmetics carefree and fun, versus focusing on why chemical alternatives are dangerous. Natural products, he is known to repeat to sell the concept, feel better. advertisement Drunk Elephant founder Tiffany Masterson, meanwhile, wants to simplify what constitutes clean. Her company uses a mix of natural and low-hazard synthetic ingredients, and each product comes with a simply worded explanation of how and why ingredients were sourced. Customers, Masterson believes, are growing weary of healthy living buzzwords like non-toxic and organic. It is so overwhelming out there, she says. Consumers are fed up with marketing, gimmicky phrases that have been diluted over time. They want transparency. Going clean is costly. Sourcing fresh botanical ingredients, like exotic marula oil from overseas, does not come cheap. Organic farms tend to produce smaller batches because they dont rely on growth hormones, so each ingredient is at a premium. Goods made without chemical preservatives also have a shorter shelf life. Tata Harper, for example, recommends using its products within six months. Compare that to conventional drugstore brands, which give a window of two to three years. The longer shelf life allows big box retailers to buy in bulk without worrying about expiration dates. Our ingredients are perishable and delicate, so our manufacturing processes are more like food production than an industrial factory, Harper says. Synthetic ingredients can be made much faster and more cheaply than natural sourcing. The fact that the industry has spent the last 20 to 30 years focused on synthetic ingredients also keeps their costs low, as large companies often use the most cost-effective ingredients available to be able to produce as much as possible, she says. Most consumers still rely on drugstore brands, such as Maybelline and Revlon, which keep their costs and ingredient prices lowsometimes one-third the price of premium organic brands. A Revlon lipstick sells for as little as $4.99, while an Honest Beauty alternative, an antioxidant blend of coconut oil, murumuru butter, and shea butter, goes for $18. A similar lipstick by Hemp Organics uses 95% certified organic ingredients and is priced at $15.80. Karen Grant, global beauty industry analyst for the market research firm the NPD Group, isnt sure the natural movement will catch on with the majority of Americans who dont have the means to spend $40 on blush. Still, she isnt ready to say its a passing fad. Its still early, still a bit niche, she says. But I dont think this is something that will disappear. Its a way of life. advertisement Grant identifies two demographics that make up the strongest part of the clean beauty base: younger millennials (18-25) who are concerned primarily with environmental impact (and are already familiar with the principles of natural ingredients, thanks to the ongoing Korean beauty phenomenon), and an older generation (40 and up) focused on health benefits. Gaillard predicts this group of conscious consumers will remain faithful to the cause, like newly health-conscious eaters who never return to McDonalds. Once the curtain is pulled away and consumers know the truth, they wont revert back to unhealthy behavior, he says. Tata Harper agrees that consumers arent likely to revert to slathering unknown chemicals on their face. They want to know whats in their moisturizer, just as they want to know whats in their snack crackers. Its a movement happening around the world, Harper says. A movement toward better health, an evolution in consumer products where were realizing that a lot of things we thought were good are not.
|
https://www.fastcompany.com/3068710/whats-driving-the-billion-dollar-natural-beauty-movement
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.