text
stringlengths 245
34.4k
| id
int64 0
1.27M
|
|---|---|
The Gold Coast SUNS are pleased to announce another contract re-signing, with Sean Lemmens becoming the second player this week to extend his future with the club.
Lemmens’ show of faith comes just days after Adam Saad also put pen to paper on a new deal, with both half-backs considered key pieces to the club’s defensive group.
With 46 senior appearances to his name, Lemmens is approaching the 50-game milestone in his third season in the AFL.
After playing 18 games in his debut season and exceeding expectations, the South Australian played another 18 in his second year at the Gold Coast SUNS to continue his development.
He is just one of six SUNS to have played all 10 games so far this season, alongside Jesse Lonergan, Jarrod Harbrow, Jack Martin, Tom Lynch and Nick Malceski.
Lemmens welcomed the opportunity to re-sign with the club.
“We really have a united playing group and we want to establishing a winning culture here on the Gold Coast,” Lemmens said.
“It is no secret to anyone that knows me that the Gold Coast has become my home away from home, so to continue to live out my AFL career in Queensland is an opportunity I don’t take for granted.
“The club has been incredibly supportive in my three years at the club; from our player welfare program to our emerging leadership sessions and football education – the club works tirelessly to help all players taste success both on and off the field."
Lemmens reiterated he and his teammates were looking forward to establishing a winning culture on the Gold Coast.
“It goes without saying that we’ve had a rough time of it with injuries but to be honest, that’s not an excuse. Everyone involved in the club are acutely aware of the responsibility we all have to the Gold Coast community, the AFL and our fans to perform both on and off the field.
“We know what is expected of us, and we will continue to work very hard to ensure we become the club we set out to be, and our fans expect us to be and that starts with creating a winning culture.”
GC SUNS list and strategy manager Scott Clayton said he was thrilled another key player was eager to lock away their AFL future on the Gold Coast.
“We are rapt to be in a position to once again be announcing another key re-signing for the Gold Coast SUNS,” he said.
“Sean has seized every opportunity that has been presented to him during his three seasons on the Gold Coast, and has continued his upward trajectory under coach Rodney Eade.”
“His fearless attack on the footy, strong work ethic and competitiveness is often highlighted by his teammates and coaching staff.
“We’re absolutely excited about his future, and strongly believe we are building towards sustained success for years to come.” | 1,269,000 |
Jonathan Oosting
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing — Voting irregularities in Detroit have spurred plans for an audit by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office, Elections Director Chris Thomas said Monday.
State officials are planning to examine about 20 Detroit precincts where ballot boxes opened during the recount had fewer ballots than poll workers had recorded on Election Day.
“We’re assuming there were (human) errors, and we will have discussions with Detroit election officials and staff in addition to reviewing the ballots,” Thomas said.
Records: Too many votes in 37% of Detroit’s precincts
The Detroit precincts are among those that couldn’t be counted during a statewide presidential recount that began last week and ended Friday following a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court.
The recount problems were the worst in Detroit, where discrepancies meant officials couldn’t recount votes in 392 of the city’s 662 precincts, or nearly 60 percent. State law that bars recounts for unbalanced precincts or ones with broken seals.
Democrat Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly prevailed in Detroit and Wayne County. But Republican President-elect Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, or 47.5 percent to 47.3 percent.
The Detroit News last week was first to report that more than half of Detroit would be ineligible for the recount because of the irregularities. The results were based on county reports obtained by The News.
Republican state senators last week called for an investigation in Wayne County, including one precinct where a Detroit ballot box contained only 50 of the 306 ballots listed in a poll book, according to an observer for Trump.
City officials have told state officials that ballots in that precinct were never taken out of a locked bin below the voting machine tabulator on Election Day, said Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams.
“That’s what we’ve been told, and we’ll be wanting to verify it,” Woodhams said. “At any rate, this should not have happened.”
The state is not calling the audit an investigation, “but based on what we find, it could lead to more,” he said.
City Clerk Janice Winfrey and Elections Director Daniel Baxter did not return messages.
Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, called the planned audit “a good place to start” that could help determine whether Detroit elections workers “followed the correct procedures” or “fraudulent procedures” on Election Day.
Whether a poll book mismatch suggests there are too few or too many ballots in any given precinct, “it’s concerning,” said Colbeck, who spearheaded the request for probe. “It’s supposed to reconcile to zero.”
It’s unclear how many votes were added in Detroit.
[email protected]
Staff Writer Joel Kurth contributed | 1,269,001 |
VANUATU, a nation of just 257,000, expelled the 12-member police contingent from neighbouring Australia on May 10th. The action was in retaliation for an incident at Sydney airport involving Vanuatu's prime minister, Sato Kilman. While in transit to Israel, Mr Kilman and his entourage were made to pass through immigration, rather than being ushered into a VIP lounge. Once on Australian soil, Mr Kilman's private secretary, Clarence Marae, was promptly arrested by federal police on charges of tax fraud. The Vanuatu government has been careful to justify the expulsion of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) not by complaining about Mr Marae's arrest but by protesting at the discourtesy shown to the prime minister. Australia's foreign minister, Bob Carr, responded by threatening to cut aid to Vanuatu.
This is not the first time Pacific Island leaders have taken umbrage at their treatment in Australian airports. In 2005 security officers in Brisbane airport required Papua New Guinea's then prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, to remove his shoes, sparking angry protests. Nor is it the first time Vanuatu has clashed with the AFP. In 2004 its government closed down the AFP offices in the capital, Port Vila, and expelled officers, after allegations that they were spying and interfering with domestic politics. The AFP's main concerns in Vanuatu have been over the country marketing itself vigorously as an international tax haven, and over the risk posed by the volatile Vanuatu Mobile Force, the paramilitary wing of the local police force. Protecting Australia's national interests under the guise of so-called capacity-building can quickly lead to tensions.
The AFP's activities in Vanuatu have been part of a broader expansion over the past decade of Australian policing across the Pacific. Peacekeeping missions to Timor-Leste since 1999 and to the Solomon Islands, beginning in 2003, boosted police numbers. In the past decade, the AFP has trebled in size and increased its budget fivefold. The AFP commissioner now has an influential role on the Australian cabinet's national-security committee. In Australia most domestic policing is carried out by state police forces, leaving the federal force largely free, outside aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, to focus on international deployments.
Their efforts have often led to accusations of heavy-handedness. In 2005 a mission to Papua New Guinea was abandoned after that country's Supreme Court ruled that legal immunities granted to AFP officers were unconstitutional. In 2006 the Solomon Islands' police chief, Shane Castles, an Australian, was sacked and declared an “undesirable immigrant” after a raid by his police officers on the office of the prime minister. That raid was connected with the AFP's long-standing pursuit of the Solomon Islands' then attorney-general, Julian Moti, on charges of sex with an underage girl. Mr Moti was deported to Australia in 2007, arrested and brought before the courts. In December 2011 the High Court threw the case out, finding that Australian officials had colluded in Mr Moti's illegal deportation. | 1,269,002 |
A doctor who survived Ebola while treating patients in West Africa has revealed what it's like to be an emergency room physician on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City.
Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at Columbia Medicine, posted a Twitter thread documenting a day in the life of an ER doctor during the Covid-19 outbreak in New York, which has more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus than any other state in the country.
He said he begins each morning by “making a big pot of coffee for the whole day, because the place by the hospital is closed” due to the city’s stay-at-home orders.
Once he enters the emergency room, Mr Spencer wrote that he’s “struck by how the calm of the early morning city streets is immediately transformed” and added: “There is a cacophony of coughing. You stop. Mask up. Walk in.”
Mr Spencer went on to share tragic details about Covid-19 patients and the severe symptoms they all seem to face when arriving in the emergency room.
“Nearly every patient is the same, young [and] old,” he wrote. “Cough, shortness of breath, fever.”
In one example, Mr Spencer said he was forced to “have a long and honest discussion” with a Covid-19 patient and their family over the phone about how he thought it was “best to put her on life support now, before things get much worse”.
As he was setting up to put the patient on life support, he said another patient in the room next door also immediately required life support as well.
“Two patients, in rooms right next to each other, both getting a breathing tube,” he wrote. “It’s not even 10am yet.”
“We were too late to stop this virus,” he added. “Full stop. But we can slow it's spread. The virus can't infect those it never meets. Stay inside. Social distancing is the only thing that will save us now. I don't care as much about the economic impact as I do about our ability to save lives.”
“I survived Ebola,” he said. “I fear #COVID-19.”
In an interview with NBC’s Today Show, Mr Spencer said the most important thing for people to do about Covid-19 was to “take it very seriously” and remember that “everyone can be impacted by this virus”.
Loading....
“What we’re seeing in the emergency room is dire,” he added. “It’s only a matter of time before we see this spill out into the streets. Please stay home. Please protect yourself. Please protect your health care providers.” | 1,269,003 |
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The convention covers waters within 12 miles of the British coast
The Scottish government has backed a UK plan to leave an international agreement on fishing access.
The UK government is to withdraw from the deal which allows foreign fisherman access to British waters.
It has announced it will begin the process of leaving the London Fisheries Convention, giving two years notice of its intention.
Signed in 1964, it allows vessels from six European countries to fish between six and 12 miles from the coast.
UK environment secretary Michael Gove said it was an important step in "taking back control" of fishing.
Scottish Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said he and his colleagues have been pressing for the move "for some time".
British vessels will lose the right to fish in waters belonging to the other countries which signed the convention: France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
'First step'
Mr Gove said: "Leaving the London Fisheries Convention is an important moment as we take back control of our fishing policy.
"It means for the first time in more than 50 years we will be able to decide who can access our waters.
"This is an historic first step towards building a new domestic fishing policy as we leave the European Union - one which leads to a more competitive, profitable and sustainable industry for the whole of the UK."
The EU Common Fisheries Policy allows, in addition to the London convention, vessels from all EU countries to fish beyond the 12-mile limit.
Scottish Fishermen's Federation Chief Executive Bertie Armstrong has expressed his support.
He said: "This measure is warmly welcomed - access to our rich fishing grounds will become a matter for us on withdrawal from the Common Fisheries Policy.
"Leaving the London Convention as part of that sends a very strong additional message of commitment."
Sustainable fishing
Environmental campaigners have expressed caution about the regulation of fishing once the UK leaves the current international framework.
Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK head of oceans, said: "For years, successive UK governments have blamed Brussels for their own failure to support the small-scale, sustainable fishers who are the backbone of our fishing fleet.
"If Brexit is to herald a better future for our fishers, the new Environment Secretary Michael Gove must keep the 2015 Conservative Party manifesto commitment to re-balance fishing quotas in favour of'small-scale, specific locally based fishing communities'."
The Scottish government supports the principle of leaving the London convention.
Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said: "The UK government's decision to withdraw from the London Fisheries Convention is a move we have been pressing for some time now.
"Our priority is to protect our fishing industry and allowing unrestricted access to our waters to remain through this convention clearly would not be doing that."
He added: "The Scottish government will always stand up for our fishing industry, which too often has been let down by the UK government." | 1,269,004 |
We’ve seen how the pickup segment grown exponentially in the PH market. The results are quite overwhelming as more people today use pickups for their daily work. For manufacturers, it’s a good sign of business. But more than that, it also allows manufacturers to improve their products in a long term basis. One of them is the Isuzu D-Max.
Last Friday, we got invited to the unveiling of Isuzu PH latest D-Max variant—the X-Series.
According to Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC), the new variant of D-Max will redefines a new “lifestyle persona” as it becomes even more appealing to the market. The company also highlight that the new D-Max X-Series host a substantial equipment upgrades fitted to the lifestyle of young and dynamic families.
So what’s new with the D-Max X-Series variant? Here’s what we found out:
EXTERIOR
Obviously, it’s the same D-Max body. The only difference is the gun-metallic radiator grille and the patent red Isuzu badge attached to its bumper. There is also a red stripes lining on the front skirt of the new X-Series variant, which provides a more macho appearance.
A side skirt is present mounted toward the bottom edge of the truck’s bed, and cargo spoiler fitted on top of the bed. To further boost its testosterone look, Isuzu added a newly designed two-tone 18-inch alloy wheels, which provides a sporty character of the vehicle.
INTERIOR
For the longest time, pickup trucks are not known for interior sophistication; but as trends changed, so with the consumer demands. We see it with the new D-Max X-Series. Matching the red accents on the exterior are the red stitching on the black leather material covering the seats, as well as the special X-Series badges displayed on the front seats. There’s also a piano black trim on various surfaces which boosts a macho appeal.
POWERFUL ENGINE
The D-Max X-Series is powered by Isuzu’s 4JJI-TC (HI) diesel engine with a Variable Geometry System (VGS) turbocharger and intercooler. This inline-four, 3.0-liter, Common Rail Direct Injection diesel engine produces maximum power of 163 PS at 3,200 rpm and 380 Nm of torque at 1,800 – 2,200 rpm. Providing power and fuel-efficiency for the engine is either a 5-speed automatic transmission with sequential shift, or a 5-speed manual transmission.
PRICING
The new Isuzu D-Max X-Series is priced at P1.260 million (LS Manual Transmission); and P1.330 million (LS Automatic Transmission). Unfortunately, there’s no available 4×4 variant for the D-Max X-Series. | 1,269,005 |
The world’s first confirmed case of multi-drug-resistant gonorrhea has been reported in the U.K., according to public health officials.
Health experts have expressed concern for some time about the rise of drug-resistant strains of the sexually transmitted infection (STI). Still, even as gonorrhea strains begin to evade certain antibiotics, doctors have usually been able to treat the disease using some combination of commonly used medications — until now.
The U.K. patient — a heterosexual man who reported one regular female sexual partner in the U.K., and one in Southeast Asia about a month before symptom onset — has the world’s first confirmed case of gonorrhea that is resistant to both drugs commonly used to treat it, according to a case report from the U.K.’s public health department. His disease did respond to either azithromycin, an antibiotic frequently used against gonorrhea, or ceftriaxone, which the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the “current last-resort treatment.” He was also treated with the antibiotic spectinomycin, the report adds.
“This report is one more confirmation of our greatest fear: drug-resistant gonorrhea spreading around the globe,” David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told CNN.
The patient, who first sought medical care in early 2018, is being treated with an intravenous course of ertapenem, a powerful antibiotic typically used, at least in the U.S., for “serious infections in hospitalized patients,” according to the National Institutes of Health. The results of his next test are expected in mid-April.
Gonorrhea is one of the world’s most common STIs, affecting 78 million people globally each year, according to the WHO. The disease — complications from which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, infertility and an increased risk of HIV infections — is also common in the U.S. A September report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 470,000 Americans were diagnosed with gonorrhea in 2016 alone — making the prospect of untreatable strains all the more concerning.
Get our Health Newsletter. Sign up to receive the latest health and science news, plus answers to wellness questions and expert tips. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.
Write to Jamie Ducharme at [email protected]. | 1,269,006 |
raised the “acceptable levels” of radioactive material in foods. Clearly, the “it’s-all-for-your-own-good” government will not protect us, or even inform us of the dangers so we can protect ourselves, because it might dip into the pockets of the global elite, the nuclear energy industry, and the food industries. There is big money behind this cover-up. Refusing to purchase and consume their tainted goods is the best way to fight back, while keeping our families safe and healthy. How can we protect ourselves? First, be aware of what items are likely to be highly tainted. Here’s a list of foods you should now be wary of: 1. Seafood: Question the origin of ALL seafood. Fish and crustaceans from the Pacific Ocean should all be considered to be poisoned with radiation.
2. Water: The rainfall and snowfall are all radiated. Do not drink any water that has not been filtered. The tap water that flows from your faucet has NOT been treated to rid it of radioactive particles. A recent report from the NY Times stated, “A rooftop water monitoring program managed by UC Berkeley’s Department of Nuclear Engineering detected substantial spikes in rain-borne iodine-131 during torrential downpours…”
3. Dairy products: Milk and milk products from the West Coast states currently have the highest levels of radiation in North America. 4. Produce: Leafy vegetables, wines, tomatoes, strawberries… all produce from California or any other West Coast State are also likely to be tainted. 5. Meat: If an animal eats any leafy vegetable all along the West Coast, that animal has consumed radiation, and is poisoned. This is any animal from cows, pigs, goats, sheep to wild deer and other game. If you eat the above foods from areas with high radiation levels, you are eating radiation and feeding it to your children. Slowly the radiation levels within your body will build up. This is permanent. Infant mortality rates across the United States have increased by more than 35% since the nuclear disaster, according to a court statement by Dr. Sherman with independent Scientist Leuren Moret, MA, PhD. A study published in The International Journal of Medicine indicates that more than 20,000 deaths right here in North America can be directly attributed to the release of radioactive material from Fukushima. Radioactive isotopes of the type released from Fukushima have a half-life of 30,000 years. This means that we must permanently change the way we prepare our food.
• Wash your food with soap and rinse it in filtered water.
• Be aware of the origins of your vegetables, fish, game and seafood.
• Keep abreast of radiation levels to help monitor where your food is acquired.
• Use only filtered water for drinking, cooking and ice.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but that one way trip to colonize Mars is looking pretty darn attractive right now…” | 1,269,007 |
Midge is doing, there’s going to be costs and there’s gonna be trade-offs.
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO: When you go into the life of being a road comic, something’s gonna fall apart. Something’s gonna be given up.
DAN PALLADINO: Usually it’s sobriety.
Image zoom Amazon Studios
Michael Zegen’s Joel seems to be stepping up this season, helping Midge with the kids while she’s on tour — what can you preview for him?
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Joel is actually one of my favorite characters, I love him, and this is the year where we really wanted him to start putting his life together. He spent last season sort of flagellating himself, and we always said that because of their breakup, Joel was going to become the man that Midge always thought he was. Once he lost her, it’s something that he’s going to be living with for the rest of his life. So this year, we thought, like let’s start Joel down a path to having his own thing, his own life, his own dream. It was time for him to have a turn. He made a massive mistake, he’ll never be able to take that mistake back, it’s spiraled everybody’s life in a different direction, but he’s a young guy, a lot of time ahead of him to do good things, and especially to figure out what he wants.
Part of what split Midge and Joel up is that they were two really young people who got married with fairy tales in their heads of what marriage was. They weren’t quite mature enough to take on the roles that they took, both of them, and that bit ‘em in the ass. So now they’re both growing up and going after something.
A lot of people hope that they’ll get back together.
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO: When you have children, you’re never truly apart. And I think anybody who’s ever gotten divorced can tell you that — there’s never a separate road once you’ve gotta talk about that Timmy fell down a well. They are bonded in a way that they will never be able to be unbonded. We’ve always said that they’re Desi and Lucy, like when they’re 80 they’ll be sitting at the pool at some friend’s house and they’ll find each other more fascinating and more fun than anybody else in the room.
Their love is never really gonna shake, but their moment may or may not have passed. These are tricky times.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 3 premieres Friday, Dec. 6 on Amazon Prime Video.
Related content: | 1,269,008 |
The past few months have been dark times for the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) in Dallas, Texas. But since the advent of the government shutdown, things have become significantly worse. The Department of Agriculture is a major supplier for the NTFB, and its closure means that the food bank may lose as many as 305,000 meals intended for low-income Texans.
Because of the shutdown, the USDA has had to cancel ten truckload deliveries of food to the NTFB, representing about one quarter of those meals. An additional 36 loads are “in limbo” according to NTFB President Jan Pruitt. Widespread USDA furloughs have made it difficult to even determine the status of those deliveries.
“They’re just not answering questions right now,” said Pruitt. “They’re saying, ‘We can’t guarantee that you’ll get the truckloads.’“
Texas’ junior senator, Republican Ted Cruz, is widely credited with leading the anti-Obamacare strategy which resulted in a government shutdown. Now the poor of his state is feeling the consequences as much as any other—perhaps more so. At last count, Texas had a higher percentage of uninsured people than any other state, and ranked eighth in poverty. Nearly one-fifth of the state is “food insecure” according to the non-profit Feeding America, meaning they are unable to feed themselves adequately. A prolonged shutdown has the potential to make matters even worse.
“I think Texas is different just because there are so many people,” said Pruitt. The Lone Star state is the third-most populous state in the country, and also has the third-highest concentration of workers employed by the federal government. When the shutdown first began, some 11,500 workers in the Austin area alone were sent out on furlough, though at least some of them are likely to be called back as the Defense Department recalls most of its furloughed workforce.
Perhaps the Texans most vulnerable to the harmful effects of the shutdown are those 19% said to already be suffering from food insecurity. While Texas’ Department of State Health Services says that it can draw on reserve funds in order to continue paying out WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children) benefits, the program may be under threat if the shutdown drags into November. The same holds true for food stamps.
The North Texas Food Bank is already struggling to deal with widespread hunger in the state, because it never returned to pre-recession levels after the 2008 financial collapse, said Pruitt.
“The numbers have not let off at all,” she said. “The gas pedal’s down and there’s no release. And so we’re providing food at the 2008 level, which has created tremendous stress on our food bank. And then to have these other factors come in is what’s making it very hard this time.” | 1,269,009 |
play for the Bruins. Ball has a brilliant floor game, great size and can make threes despite a funky release. He's been groomed to play an uptempo style that relies on outlet passes and 30-foot threes, which should make for must-see TV in Westwood next year.
Like, this pass!
Fox is considered the best defensive point guard in the country and arguably the fastest player in this class. The 6'3 Kentucky commit led the EYBL in assists and steals last summer. He struggles to shoot from three at this point, but he still has all the tools to be John Calipari's next great point guard.
Fultz is 6'4 with a 6'9 wingspan and a silky-smooth game that allows him to create separation off the dribble at will. The DeMatha product has become one of the most improved players in the class, going from JV to five-star status over the course of 12 months. He'll run the show at Washington next season from the moment he steps on campus.
There's also Frank Jackson, a 6'3 combo guard who could fit either in this section or with Monk and Ferguson above. He's expected to play off the ball at Duke next season, but could be a point guard long-term. If anyone doubted his explosiveness, he was the surprise winner of the McDonald's dunk contest Monday night:
The bigs
(Kentucky commit Bam Adebayo // Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)
Duke commit Harry Giles would have been the headliner of this group and in the mix for the No. 1 player in the class, but he tore his ACL in November and isn't at the McDonald's Game. Giles is a 6'10 big with great athleticism and solid two-way skill set, but the injuries are starting to become worrisome. He also tore his ACL, MLC and meniscus playing for USA Basketball after his freshman year of high school.
Bam Adebayo rose to prominence as Dennis Smith's grassroots teammate and will be the most highly touted big in Kentucky's 2016 class. He doesn't have much of a perimeter game at this point, but he's incredibly strong at 6'9, 230 pounds and can get off the floor effortlessly:
Marques Bolden is considered the best low-post scorer in this class. The 6'10, 255-pound center is thought to be choosing between Duke and Kentucky, and is good enough that he should be projected to start at the five as a freshman, regardless of which program he chooses.
* * *
The 2016 McDonald's All-American Game tips off at the United Center in Chicago on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on ESPN.
* * *
Best NCAA Tournament Player: Was it Carmelo Anthony or Christian Laettner?
Be sure to subscribe to SB Nation's YouTube channel for highlight videos, features, analysis and more | 1,269,010 |
A political storm is brewing over plans for a historic joint reception for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland football teams.
Both sides have qualified for next summer's European Championships in France and a motion is to go before Belfast City Council next week proposing the two teams are honoured at a ground-breaking City Hall event.
However this has been met with resistance by some Unionists.
Councillor Jim Rodgers questioned the motives behind the proposal and said he would prefer "a reception for the British Isles teams which would include England and Wales".
Brian Kingston said the DUP was unlikely to support the motion.
"I welcome the success of four teams from the British Isles qualifying but it would be inappropriate to hold a joint reception for the Northern Ireland squad and a team from another country," he said.
It is the first time in football history that both teams have qualified at the same time.
The motion is being proposed by the SDLP, with Declan Boyle stating it was "a genuine and long-overdue attempt at inclusiveness and reconciliation".
"The reality is that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland support one of the two teams.
"You just don't see local people going to the pub in England or Wales jerseys. Michael O'Neill and Martin O'Neill were born within a few dozen miles of each other in Northern Ireland.
"The Republic has Northern Ireland players in its ranks. We should be celebrating all this. Everybody talks about shared space, well having a joint reception for both teams would show that Belfast City Hall is open to everybody. It would be a great advertisement to the world."
"I'd be surprised if anybody could vote against it."
"In light of this unique situation, where both teams have achieved this international success and brought happiness to their supporters throughout the whole of Ireland regardless of football affiliation or geography, I move that a joint dinner be hosted for both teams."
The motion continues: "In light of recent tragic events in Paris, we need to show that through sport we can rise above conflict and unify people."
Mr Rodgers said that the Ulster Unionists Party would have to discuss the issue before deciding how to vote and feared that the motion was an example of "playing politics with sport".
"If this is the road we are going down, then we must invite the English and Welsh teams as well. Sadly, we can't include Scotland as they didn't qualify. But it should be celebrating the success of the British Isles teams."
DUP councillor Brian Kingston said his party was unlikely to support the motion. "I welcome the success of four teams from the British Isles qualifying but it would be inappropriate to hold a joint reception for the Northern Ireland squad and a team from another country.
Martin O'Neill's side booked their place at Euro 2016 with a 3-1 aggregate play-off victory over Bosnia Herzegovina while Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland topped Group F which also contained Romania and Hungary.
Belfast Telegraph | 1,269,011 |
the rest of the world is filtered. So, you’re on Geralt’s journeys, and Yennefer sort of comes in from the side; to me, I wanted to know who she was before she met Geralt. And there’s a lot of things in the books that alluded to this. We culled together a lot of those instances in the books, and then we made that story the present day. As opposed to just a character waxing poetic about something that has happened to them in the deep past.”
Image source: Netflix
About Cavill, Hissrich had this to say: “He’s a dream to work with, but even more than that, and the fact that he’s a genuinely nice human being — he is absolutely obsessed with Geralt in a way I could not even fathom when we met.
“He has so thoroughly steeped himself in this world. He’s a huge gamer and knew the games very well and then when he realized Netflix was making the show, he went and read all of the books, so he’s really a scholar of the material that’s come before us. What I love is also what Henry has brought to his own Geralt. With any actor, a little piece of them comes into the role they’re playing. Henry has a stoicism to him and sort of a quiet thoughtfulness that he has instilled in Geralt.”
As far as Hissrich, her past writing credits range from shows like The West Wing to Marvel’s Daredevil, also a Netflix series (which has since been canceled). Even with past experience like that, it’s no wonder she says The Witcher tries to be more than a sword- and magic-heavy fantasy tale. She wanted it to also grapple with interesting and complicated ideas, to try and tell a story that audiences will feel is “deep and meaningful.”
“We tackle what would be considered sort of heavy political issues — racism, xenophobia, feminism, when to use magic, what you lose of yourself to be able to access a skill. However, the show is also really funny and fun. The show is an adventure. It has some romance. It has some violence. It has some fun, sexy moments. And I think at the end of it, you’re left thinking about what you saw, but also having thoroughly enjoyed what you saw.”
She brings up the show’s tagline about the worst monsters being “the ones we create.”
“That, to me, is the central core of our show. Which is, we have a world with humans and with monsters and, oddly, sometimes humans are the more monstrous creatures. One of the things we tackle a lot on the show is the simple dichotomy of good versus evil. We want to deconstruct that and show there is no simple good and there is no simple evil.” | 1,269,012 |
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) issued a bullish mid-year report today: Total revenue from recorded music rose 10% to $4.6 billion year over year (from $4.2 billion and $3.5 billion in 2017 and 2016, respectively), with streaming accounting for $3.4 billion — some 75% of that total, and up from $1 billion at mid-year 2015. (At wholesale value, revenues rose 10% to $ 3.1 billion.)
Paid subscriptions accounted for 75% of the streaming total, and in the first half of 2018 streaming services were averaging 1 million new paid subscribers per month.
In his enthusiastic opening letter, RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier singled out titles by Camila Cabello, Drake, Cardi B, Post Malone, Migos, Charlie Puth, Travis Scott and Jason Aldean as the leaders in Nielsen Music’s estimated 70,000 albums released in the first half of 2018, and also got in a dig at the existing U.S. licensing model.
“We also recognize that the growth achieved so far is in spite of our music licensing system, not because of it,” he wrote. “That’s not how it should work. Fortunately, a bipartisan bill, the Music Modernization Act, is edging closer to final Congressional enactment. The elements included in that bill close some of the most glaring loopholes in our licensing laws, but it is not a comprehensive reform that ensures all artists earn fair market rates on all platforms. We still have much work to do.”
With that in mind, paid subscription revenues were up 33% year over year to $2.55 billion, with $528 million coming from digital and customized radio services (such as Amazon Prime and Pandora Plus) and $369 million from ad-supported — i.e. free — on-demand audio and video revenue such as YouTube and Vevo.
As always, the report does not fail to point out that the revnue from the free tier is grossly disproportionate to its use: YouTube is by far the most popular streaming platform for music globally.
“Advertising supported on-demand revenues for music from services like YouTube, Vevo, and the ad-supported version of Spotify grew 21% year-over-year to $369 million,” the report reads. “While Nielsen has reported that these services streamed hundreds of billions of songs to fans in the U.S. in [the first half of] 2018, revenues from ad-supported on-demand platforms make up only 11% of total streaming revenues.”
Of the remaining 25% of the total revenue, digital downloads accounted for 12%, physical sales of CDs and vinyl for 10%, and synch for 3%.
While vinyl sales continued to rise with a 13% increase year-over-year, the report notes that a 41% drop in revenues from CD sales more than offset that gain.
Read the full report here. | 1,269,013 |
Cameron van der Burgh calls time on illustrious swimming career
Share this article: Share Tweet Share Share Share Email Share
Cameron van der Burgh bowed out of an illustrious career in style winning the 100m breaststroke gold medal at the World Short-Course Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday. The South African swimming legend announced his retirement from a career that spanned more than a decade. The 30-year-old’s accolades include the London 2012 Olympic title and more than a dozen world championship medals across both the long and the short course. Van der Burgh holds the world short-course 50m and 100m breaststroke records and also held both records in the 50-metre pool. He boasts two worlds 50m breaststroke long-course titles while his heroics on Wednesday earned him his third short-course gold medal extending his tally to five world titles.
“I did make a commitment two years ago after the Olympics to transition from swimming and look forward to my next career and start to plan where I go,” Van der Burgh said.
“It means the world to me. It is my last race, so I am extremely happy. The world championship means a lot. It is the last one. It is sad but I am happy to end on a high.”
Van der Burgh tied the knot with Nefeli Valakelis in Greece in July and has since relocated to London where he started a new career as a hedge fund analyst.
BREAKING: Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) has announced his retirement from international swimming. He bows out as an absolute legend of SA sport! — Ockert de Villiers (@ockertde) December 12, 2018
The South African sensation was in a class of his own on Wednesday leading the race from start to finish to win the 100m breaststroke title eight years after he won it for the first time.
He hit the wall in a new championship record of 56.01 seconds chopping 0.28s off the previous mark.
Van der Burgh burst onto the international scene as a 19-year-old when he won the 50m breaststroke bronze medal at his maiden World Long-Course Championships in Melbourne 2007.
He set his first world record at the South African Championships in 2009 and raced to his first major title at the World Long-Course Championships in Rome later that year.
Van der Burgh’s crowning glory came at the London 2012 Olympic Games winning the 100m breaststroke title in a world-record time of 58.46 shaving 0.12s off the previous mark.
Four years later he became only the second male Olympic 100m breaststroke champion to earn a podium place at consecutive Games when he finished second behind world record holder Adam Peaty.
Former world-record holder Kosuke Kitajima of Japan won gold in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
IOL Sport
Like us on Facebook | 1,269,014 |
Nigerian police have raided an alleged "baby farm" where teenage mothers were forced to give up their newborns for sale to human traffickers.
Thirty-two pregnant girls were rescued from a maternity home run by a trafficking ring in the southern city of Aba, police said.
The girls, mostly of school age, were allegedly locked up at the Cross Foundation clinic so they could produce babies to be sold for illegal adoption or for use in ritual witchcraft.
Bala Hassan, the Abia state police commissioner, said: "We stormed the premises of the Cross Foundation in Aba three days ago following a report that pregnant girls aged between 15 and 17 are being made to make babies for the proprietor.
"We rescued 32 pregnant girls and arrested the proprietor, who is undergoing interrogation over allegations that he normally sells the babies to people who may use them for rituals or other purposes."
Hassan added that four babies, already sold in an alleged deal but not yet collected, were also recovered in the raid.
Estimates of the girls' ages varied. Geoffrey Ogbonna, another police spokesman, was quoted by CNN: "There are about 30 pregnant young ladies; the eldest was 20 years old. Some belong in secondary, even in primary school."
A doctor arrested at the clinic said the babies had been handed over to social welfare for adoption.
Some of the rescued girls told police that the hospital owner gave them $192 (£118) for newborn boys and $161 for newborn girls after they were sold.
Dr Hyacinth Orikara, proprietor of the Cross Foundation, is likely to face charges of child abuse and human trafficking, police said. Buying or selling babies can carry a 14-year jail sentence.
Orikara, reportedly a university graduate and employee of the Abia state health management board, denied the allegations, claiming the home was a foundation to help teenagers with unwanted pregnancies.
Human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime in Nigeria - after financial fraud and drug trafficking - according to Unesco's report on human trafficking in Nigeria. At least 10 children are sold every day across the country, according to the UN. Traffickers are seldom caught.
Babies are sold for up to $6,400 each, depending on the sex, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons says. Teenagers with unplanned pregnancies are sometimes lured to clinics and then forced to hand over their babies.
The children are often put up for illegal adoption or, in some parts of the country, killed as part of witchcraft rituals because they are thought to make charms more powerful.
The police carried out similar raids on such clinics in neighbouring Enugu state in 2008.
A Nigerian woman was jailed in Britain three years ago for trying to smuggle a baby into the country in order to get on the list for a council flat.
• This article was amended on 3 June 2011 to include a reference to the Unesco report on human trafficking in Nigeria. | 1,269,015 |
Donald Trump said Tuesday evening that he'd love fight Vice President Joe Biden.
The vice president made headlines last week after he responded angrily to recent allegations that Trump had sexually assaulted nearly a dozen women.
"What he said he did and does is a textbook definition of sexual assault," Biden said at a Clinton campaign stop in Wilkes-Barres, Pa. "Think about this. It's more than that. He said because I'm famous, because I'm a star, because I'm a billionaire, I can do things other people can't! What a disgusting assertion for anyone to make!"
The vice president added, "The press always asks me, don't I wish I were debating him. No, I wish we were in high school. I could take him behind the gym."
"That's what I wish," he added to cheers and applause.
On Tuesday, Trump said he'd love to go a couple rounds with the vice president.
"Did you see where Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn? Me. He wants to. I'd love that. I'd love that. Mr. Tough Guy. You know, he's Mr. Tough Guy," the GOP nominee said at a campaign stop in Tallahassee, Fla. "He wants to bring me to the back of the barn. Oh, some things in life you could really love doing."
"You know when he's Mr. Tough Guy? When he's standing behind the microphone by himself. That's when," Trump said into the microphone as he stood alone on stage.
He added, "And, by the way, if I said that, [the media would] say, 'He's violent! How could he have done that?'"
The recent allegations against Trump started after the Washington Post published a report revealing that the GOP nominee once bragged about sexually accosting women.
The Post released a video from 2005 that showed Trump saying to former "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush, "You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait."
"And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything." "Grab them by the pussy," Trump said. "You can do anything."
Trump has sought to downplay the audio by dismissing it as nothing more than "locker room talk."
"[T]his was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk," he said at the second presidential debate.
He added later in an interview on Fox New, "First of all, locker room talk, and most people have heard it before, and I've had a lot of women come up to me and say, 'Boy, I've heard that, and I've heard a lot worse than that over my life.'" | 1,269,016 |
Arsenal Women are pleased to team up with Oaklands College in St Albans to provide aspiring female footballers with an exciting new football education opportunity.
The new Oaklands College Women’s Football Academy will provide female players, aged 16-19 years old, with the unique opportunity to study a wide variety of courses including A-Level and vocational qualifications, while participating in a high-level football development programme to support the next steps in their football journey.
The programme will have a dual career focus supporting players to fulfil their football potential technically, physically, psychologically & socially while ensuring they also commit to furthering their education.
Those that are invited to join the Women’s Football Academy will be coached by experienced Arsenal Women FC licensed coaches who will be delivering the female football provision at Oaklands College.
Students will receive training with Arsenal Women FC coaches on four afternoons per week while competing in the English Colleges FA league on Wednesday Afternoons. This will include 12 hours of weekly football contact time, while receiving an extensive individualised coaching programme, physiotherapy and weekly strength & conditioning sessions as well as committing to their chosen academic studies.
The new Oaklands College Women’s Football Academy provides another level within the Arsenal Women FC Talent Pathway enabling aspiring young female players to continue their development at all levels of the Women’s game.
As of September 2020, Oaklands College are due to become the Further Education Provider for the Arsenal Women FC FA WSL U21s Academy Programme. Students that are part of the Oaklands College Women’s Football Academy may also be invited to join the Arsenal Women U21s WSL Academy programme if considered to be at the appropriate level.
Oaklands College are further planning significant investment to their facilities, with a state-of-the-art residential facility in construction to provide exemplary on-site accommodation for future Sports Academy students for Summer 2020, as well as a brand new 3G pitch to be completed for October 2019 and a number of brand new grass pitches.
Arsenal Women have previously teamed up with Oaklands College and were one of the first female Football Academies in the UK. The programme at the time was the first of its kind and saw the likes of Kim Little and Jordan Nobbs attend along with many other players that now play across the WSL. Arsenal Women’s Academy Manager, Tessa Payne said “Following the increased profile of the Women’s game since the World Cup, we hope that this renewed association with Oaklands College will provide further opportunities for us to develop and attract talented female footballers to the club while also helping grow the women’s game.”
Anyone interested in joining the Oaklands College Women’s Football Academy, starting this September, can register to trial here
If you wish to register your interest in the Oaklands College Women’s Football Academy for September 2020, please email [email protected]
For more information, please visit www.oaklands.ac.uk/wolves | 1,269,017 |
A former employee of Fox News called the company a “propaganda outfit” that is determined to undermine the Obama administration and Democrats.
“I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up,” the employee, whose name was kept anonymous, told the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters.
ADVERTISEMENT
“They say one thing and do another,” the former employee said. “They insist on maintaining this charade, this façade, that they’re balanced or that they’re not right-wing extreme propagandist.”
“You have to work there for a while to understand the nods and the winks,” the former employee added. “And God help you if you don’t because sooner or later you’re going to get burned.”
The former employee’s comments did not come as a surprise to many critics of Fox News, who have long suggested the channel is biased in favor of conservatives. The 2004 documentary film “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” criticized the channel and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for skewing its reporting of events to promote conservative viewpoints.
“Like any news channel there’s lot of room for non-news content,” the former employee continued. “The content that wasn’t ‘news,’ they didn’t care what we did with as long as it was amusing or quirky or entertaining; as along as it brought in eyeballs. But anything – anything – that was a news story you had to understand what the spin should be on it.”
“If it was a big enough story it was explained to you in the morning [editorial] meeting. If it wasn’t explained, it was up to you to know the conservative take on it. There’s a conservative take on every story no matter what it is. So you either get told what it is or you better intuitively know what it is.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Internal emails obtained by Media Matters also showed that a seemingly spontaneous response concerning the Obama campaign canceling an appearance on a local news station to have been scripted by Fox News’ producers,
In another e-mail obtained by the media watchdog, Fox News Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon told his staff to downplay the importance of climate science that showed the globe’s average temperature getting warmer.
Additional emails showed that Sammon asked his news department to refer to the public option as the “government run option” because polls showed the phrase “government option” was opposed by the public.
ADVERTISEMENT
Perhaps not coincidentally, a poll gauging public trust in TV news found that PBS was the most trusted name in news, while trust in Fox News dropped significantly over the last year.
Photo by Rae Whitlock | 1,269,018 |
use Achievements makes me optimistic that there will be no segregation between indies and published titles. The discoverability is going to be the most important part.”
There has also been a generally optimistic response to the concept of using the Xbox One as a devkit itself.
“It’s an absolutely brilliant idea,” offered Jele.
“And it was about time too. Anyone who has ever worked with devkits knows how cumbersome and expensive they make games development, for no real reason really. Using the consumer console as a development platform is a huge step forward as making games for consoles won’t be the privilege of a selected few any longer.”
But not all are convinced that the console’s status as a devkit is that important. As Sawkins was quick to point out, XBLIG, iOS, and Android already let developers use the destination devices as development hardware.
“People seem to be talking a lot about this like it’s important, and it confuses me,” he said.
Others, however, saw the return to the approach seen with XBLIG titles as reason to be more hopeful.
“This model of having to buy $10,000 development kits just doesn’t work for indies, and just isn’t necessary,” said Steinke on the subject of the Xbox One’s potential as a devkit.
“In my past I had spent many years as a professional developer doing console dev, and the XBLIG system worked better than any of the pro set-ups. It was a joy to work with. I hope they learned something from that.”
Furthermore, there is a sense among indies that the initial denial of self-publishing and subsequent U-turn overall may have had a positive impact that reaches beyond the confines of games platforms specifically.
“Ultimately them dragging their feet on this issue was good for us,” revealed Steinke. “It forced us to look at relationships with other companies and publishers, which has been very positive for us.”
A BRIGHT FUTURE
Jele, meanwhile, is not alone in being hopeful that the new policy could also serve consumers – and the Xbox One itself – very well.
“If handled well, this move might just propel the Xbox One forward and make it truly next generation, instead of just an iteration on the last,” he offered.
“Replacing the desire for control with the will to enable developers makes consoles more attractive for indies. That means more and better games for our players. And ultimately that’s what makes a platform successful.”
“Microsoft needs this to succeed these days,” added Steinke. “This is truly the ‘era of indie’, and I don’t believe old publishing models alone will be enough to carry this box.” | 1,269,019 |
Starbucks is the first UK coffee chain to introduce a national “latte levy” - a 5p charge on single-use paper coffee cups - in a bid to reduce the overuse and waste of 2.5bn disposable cups every year.
Following the success of a three-month trial in London, the chain said it would roll out the charge to all of its 950 stores in the UK from 26 July.
The initiative means its customers will have to pay an extra 5p on the cost of any drink in a single-use paper cup in a bid to encourage them to switch to reusable mugs or tumblers.
Customers using reusable mugs already receive a 25p discount off any Starbucks drink, while those drinking in-store are encouraged to use ceramic cups.
Starbucks worked on the pilot with the environmental charity Hubbub, which carried out the evaluation. It revealed a 126% rise in the use of reusable cups in participating stores, measured by the number of customers redeeming the reusable 25p cup discount.
“We saw encouraging results from the first three months of this trial with Hubbub and what stood out to us was the positive response we had from our employees and customers,” said Martin Brok, the president of Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“Extending this to all our stores across Britain is an exciting step and we’re hoping this charge will remind customers to rethink their use of single-use plastic as they have with plastic bags.”
Disposable cups cannot be recycled by normal systems because they are made from cardboard with a polyethylene liner that is difficult to remove. As a result, just one in 400 cups is recycled. Half a million coffee cups are dropped as litter each day in the UK.
In January, MPs on the environmental audit committee called for a standard 25p to be charged on top of the price of all hot drinks bought in single-use cups amid mounting concerns over coffee cup wastage.
Other coffee chains, including Costa, Greggs, Paul and Pret a Manger offer discounts to customers who bring in refillable cups, but Starbucks is the first to actively explore the impact on consumer behaviour of a charge for the use of paper cups.
On Monday, Starbucks announced plans to eliminate single-use plastic straws globally by 2020, making a strawless lid a standard on all iced coffee, tea and espresso beverages. This new lid has already been launched in 150 stores across Europe, Middle East and Africa and will reach all stores through a phased rollout.
The proceeds of the 5p levy will be invested in further work to support recycling and sustainability efforts with Hubbub.
“Single-use plastics is an issue that has become more significant in people’s minds than ever before,” said Trewin Restorick, Hubbub’s chief executive and founder. “We look forward to discovering what more can be done to encourage people to use reusable cups.” | 1,269,020 |
Published in the February 2013 issue
[1] The Following
Although it starts with a familiar cliché — a guy comes out of retirement to catch the escaped criminal (played by James Purefoy) only he could put behind bars in the first place — The Following quickly redeems itself with its cinematic quality (Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson is helming the show) and, well, Kevin Bacon. As a former FBI agent, Bacon plays a man who must have learned law enforcement from episodes of The Wire. He's an alcoholic, violently angry, and prone to sleeping with the wrong women — in this case, the wife of the serial killer he's hunting.
Mondays at 9:00 P.M. on Fox, starting January 21.
[2] House of Cards
In Netflix's second attempt at original drama (the first, Lilyhammer, starring Steven Van Zandt, was predominantly boring — nothing but jowls and muttering), Kevin Spacey is a manipulative, unlikable, and perfectly caricatured politician who, after being screwed over by a new administration he helped put into power, becomes hell-bent on finding a new route to the top. It's ruthless and entertaining, good enough even to get you to overlook Spacey's ridiculous ploy of engaging the camera to narrate. And you'll only occasionally need to hit pause to unravel all the complicated subterfuge.
On Netflix February 1.
[3] Kroll Show
If you like Nick Kroll's characters — obnoxious, hard-to-look-at drag queens and assholes — not much could make you happier than a half hour of skits from a guy still making The League one of the funniest shows on TV. If you don't like those characters, which is entirely reasonable, watch for hilarious and offensive sketches like "Wheels, Ontario," about an able-bodied Canadian teen politely trying to find his way in a new school for wheelchair-bound students.
Wednesdays at 10:30 P.M. on Comedy Central.
[4] The Americans
Two Russian spies (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) try to pass as an average American couple by maintaining a 15-year sham marriage, replete with two wholesome children, as a cover for a KGB operation. Set during the cold war, the show is mercifully light on Eastern Promises — style accents and heavy on period details: Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight" plays in the couple's '77 Oldsmobile as they drive to dispose of a body. Maybe it's the success of Homeland, or just Russell's undying charm, but it won't take much more than a couple episodes to have you pulling for the Russians.
Wednesdays at 10:00 P.M. on FX.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io | 1,269,021 |
lead. We should just wait and see.
Download Kell Kay - JUJU ft Charisma & Provoice mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=8063
#6 (60K views): Janta - Nde Nde Nde ft Macelba
"Nde Nde Nde" music video by Janta which was directed by Mest comes at number 6 with about 60K views.
Download Janta - Nde Nde Nde ft Macelba mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=8670
#5 (68K views): Saint ft hilco - wanga
Coming at number 5, "Wanga" gained over 68k views. Pretty impressive.
Download Saint ft hilco - wanga mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=9930
#4 (73K views): Frank Kaunda - Mphini Yobweleza
Frank Kaunda "Mpini Yobweleza" managed to get over 73K views within 4 months. We can expect the video will double it's views in the next few coming months.
Download Frank Kaunda - Mphini Yobweleza mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=7793
#3 (97K views): Kell Kay - Nono ft Macelba
Kell Kay's video which was directed by Mest and uploaded in February 2018 managed to gain over 97K views within ten months just shy of 3K views which would have allowed it to enter the 100K views club. Needless to say, it will be joining the club soon in the next coming weeks.
Download Kell Kay - Nono ft Macelba mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=8430
#2 (143K views): Dan Lu - Akunva Pain
At number 2, "Akumva Pain" by Dan Lu is second most watched music video of 2018. The video was shot by HD Plus Creations. It's one of Dan Lu most stunning video.
Download Dan Lu - Akumva Pain mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=8701
#1 (166K views): Piksy - Umakwana
Piksy second single "Umakwana" from his upcoming album "Mthunda" won the hearts of malawians as it became the most watched music video of 2018.
Download Piksy - Umakwana mp3 audio here: https://m.malawi-music.com/song.php?id=8451
Artists with more than one song: | 1,269,022 |
Tax rates including imputed corporate taxes. (Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez)
Republicans and a few Democrats don't like President Obama's one-year proposal to keep only "middle-class" income tax rates where they have been since George W. Bush introduced cuts reducing the marginal rate for nearly all taxpayers. Not only do they want the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to stay in place permanently, they want, as we have heard endlessly in the past three years, to cut them even further.
As has been the case for a long time, including the Bush-era tax cuts, the greatest benefit of new cuts would go to the wealthiest. Not by accident. By design. One third of the benefits of the Bush-era tax cuts went to the top one percent, 65 percent went to the top 20 percent, and the other third was shared by the rest of the population. This skewing is not a new phenomenon, and it is a major factor in the income inequality that plagues our society.
These cuts and this skewing of benefits have been, of course, accompanied by a steady right-wing effort to weaken our social infrastructure, the programs of the New Deal and Great Society and others dedicated to assisting the most economically vulnerable among us.
When John F. Kennedy announced his tax cut plan 50 years ago this December, the top marginal rate for the highest income households was 91 percent. That plan, which wasn't enacted until after his assassination, took that top marginal rate down to 70 percent. Changes since then have reduced it even further, now to 35 percent. Average federal taxes and the effective overall rate, that is, what people actually pay in taxes, is and was always considerably lower than might appear to be the case from looking at the marginal rate in isolation.
Mitt Romney epitomizes the problem with the way income tax cuts have been arranged, with an effective rate just below 14 percent, less than many Americans whose primary income comes from salaries or wages. Paul Krugman points out that Romney's defenders claim the taxes paid by the corporations Romney invests in should be counted as part of his tax burden.
But my guess is that conservatives really shouldn’t want to go there. Because if we do, we realize that tax cuts are a much bigger story in rising inequality than the right wants to hear. Tax rates for the super-elite, the top.01%, have fallen in half since Mitt Romney’s father ran for president; or to put it differently, after tax income for this group has doubled due to policy alone. And bear in mind that the US economy flourished just fine under those [1960-70] tax rates …
The last thing we need right now is further skewing of the tax code to benefit the top 10 percent, much less the top one-tenth of one percent. Yet that is exactly what the right-wing foes of President Obama's one-year extension of cuts for those households making $250,000 or less want to do. What they will do given the chance. | 1,269,023 |
The announcement that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over by the US government because they were 'too big to fail' is just the latest in a series of taxpayer bailouts. This time we're in for more than $200 billion to bail out these firms and stabilize the market-especially overseas markets so they will continue to invest in the US.
Ironically, the heads of these firms will walk away with millions of dollars in their pockets while pension funds, mutual funds and common stock holdings of the little guy get decimated. Despite these firms acting so recklessly whereby top management pocketed millions in profits, they're more than comfortable with socializing the losses on to the American taxpayer. So much for a free market, huh?
Enough already. It's time for the American taxpayer to stand up and insist that the Congress get a backbone and create a solution that works FOR the taxpayer instead of against it. There is historical precedent for this-and one that's already proved successful---create a publicly owned bank. In doing so, we would set up a system where money is circulated in such a way that we could avoid inflation and fund government operations without taxes. For more details, see www.webofdebt.com.
The current mess-not only with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but Bear Stearns, UBS, Northern Rock bank (nationalized in England) and many others -- exposes a major problem of the private banking system, where those who run it stand to profit despite violating any type of business controls. Because they keep getting bailed out, there's no incentive for them to act responsibly and so they don't. As a result, many banks sit on the brink of failing. The taxpayer cannot be subsidizing the wealthy few who are laughing all the way to the bank on the back of the taxpayer! The private banking system benefits so few, while a public banking system can benefit the many.
We've had a public banking system before: in the 1930's, as a result of the worldwide Depression, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created. The RFC was a wholly government owned agency that performed the function of a public bank. It was successful at pulling the US out of the Depression as well as financing World War II. And amazingly, it turned a small profit. That profit gets returned to the American taxpayer while providing a banking system that is effective in funding mortgages, infrastructure like bridges and roads and other services necessary to keep our economy vibrant.
We can take this step again. In doing so, we could take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and end up in the plus column instead of where we are now-watching $200 billion get siphoned out of your children's future and out of our economy. Congress could take this step instead of the one the Treasury Department announced over the weekend. Call your congressman today and ask "Isn't it time to open up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation again?" In doing so, we tell Congress "no thanks" on the bailout, we choose public banking instead. Hey-it's our money, and our choice. | 1,269,024 |
It is well known that the relationship between Haydn and Beethoven was not an easy one. The blame falls almost entirely on Beethoven, but at the end he just made it right.
Haydn and Beethoven first met in 1790 in Bonn, when the old Master was on his way to London with Johann Peter Solomon, who arranged Haydn’s visit to Britain. They met again on the return journey in 1792, when it was agreed that young Beethoven would go to Vienna and learn from this undisputed composer champion of his time, Haydn.
At the end of that year this ill-fated cooperation had begun. Haydn, above from being busy composing, was enormously tired, just lost a very dear friend and had no great desire to tame a young lion. Beethoven on the other hand was young, arrogant and ungrateful. Leaving a drunk, abusive father behind he had trouble accepting any kind of authority. During the partnership Beethoven was not satisfied with the lessons nor the progress, thus secretly started taking lessons from Albrechtsberger and Salieri. Beethoven even pulled a financial scam on him, lying to both Haydn and the Elector of Bonn, who commissioned his study in Vienna. The tension went as far as it could, when Beethoven stated: I never learned anything from Haydn!
Many years later in March 1808 came the gala of Haydn’s Creation, celebrating the composer’s 76. birthday. By this time the old Master was very ill and weak. A witness told “We found him holding a rosary in his hands, and I believe he passes almost the whole day in prayer.” He was almost toothless and invalid being able to play at the keyboard only the simplest tunes. Any day could have been his last.
This night was a big one, comparable to an Oscar gala. All the celebrities and members of the Vienna high society were present. Haydn got permission from his doctor to go to this celebration, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy sent his personal carriage to bring the Master to the event. Then, four men carried him into the hall sitting in an armchair. As people later noticed that he was shivering, they started taking off and to wrap him around with their elegant robes.
Antonio Salieri conducted and the whole event was extraordinary! Ecstatic applause broke out at the intermission, the deeply moved Haydn could no longer take the excitement and his doctor ordered him to go home.
As the bearers prepared to lift him up, the 38 years old and already matured Beethoven pushed through the crowd and approached his old Master. They faced each other for a moment and then he kissed the old man’s forehead, kissed his hands and knelt before him! What a moment!
It was time to make it right, it was time to forgive and to forget. It was time to give over the torch to the next generation… | 1,269,025 |
H&M was forced to offer an apology on Monday after posting an online advertisement featuring a black child modeling a sweatshirt reading “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle.”
“We sincerely apologize for offending people with this image of a printed hooded top. The image has been removed from all online channels and the product will not be for sale in the United States,” wrote H&M in a statement obtained by Fox News. “We believe in diversity and inclusion in all that we do and will be reviewing all our internal policies accordingly to avoid any future issues.”
H&M SLAMMED FOR DRAMATIC SIZING DISCREPANCIES
Outrage over the ad bubbled up on Sunday, after social media users noticed that H&M’s U.K. website was advertising this particular hooded sweatshirt using a young black child, while other sweatshirts from the same line were advertised on white models.
Social media users on Twitter soon began accusing the brand of racism, and even profiting from any resulting online backlash this incident may cause. One woman, who said she had worked for H&M, claimed the Sweden-based retailer is sometimes “clueless” to issues of “racism, cultural & social challenges.”
Other users took further issue with H&M using a white child to model a hoodie from the same line — featuring text reading “survival expert” and “junior tour guide” — and alleging that it was a deliberate move to pair those children in with their sweaters.
KELLOGG'S APOLOGIZES FOR RACIALLY INSENSITIVE CORN POPS CARTOON
However, a couple of commenters defended the brand. One believed that people who were outraged by the hoodie were “looking to be offended,” while another alleged that those same people were reading something into the sweatshirt’s message that H&M didn’t intend.
Many others also called for a boycott of H&M entirely, and R&B artist The Weeknd — who partnered with the retailer on a line of apparel — announced he would no longer be working with the company via a tweet he posted on Monday afternoon.
H&M has since removed the offending image from its website, although the sweater, which retails for 7.99 pounds, is still available for purchase on its U.K site.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
The outrage over H&M’s advertisement follows several similar incidents involving major brands in recent months. In early October, Dove apologized for “missing the mark” with a Facebook ad for body wash, which showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman underneath. And later that month, Nivea was accused of racism after promoting a skin cream for “visibly fairer skin” in several African countries. | 1,269,026 |
. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea. https://t.co/vlpqOBLK4R — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) June 25, 2018
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said that “there’s nothing wrong” with confronting Trump administration officials, but people should do it in a way that “leads with love.”
Sen. Booker on Rep. Waters' comments: "There's nothing wrong" with confronting Trump admin. officials in a way that "leads with love." https://t.co/75hozKVI5n — NBC News (@NBCNews) June 25, 2018
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., offered the strongest condemnation of Waters, saying that calling for harassment of political opponents is “not American.”
One would hope that mob law and mob justice don’t become the norm, but we’ve already seen a steady uptick in the mentality that leads to that point.
We’ve seen it with the mobs that descended on historic statues to illegally pulverize them in the name of social justice. Now the mobs are coming for living people.
This kind of ugliness is a bad sign for our future.
Lincoln explained to his Springfield audience what could ultimately destroy the United States.
“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?” Lincoln asked.
No, never.
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?” Lincoln asked again. “I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Passionate debates are good and healthy in a republic.
There was never a “golden age of civility” when all Americans got along, nor should we necessarily desire one.
Nevertheless, the ability to live together as free citizens in large part necessitates a respect for civil relations among us, where we look to persuasion and ballots to put our ideas in action, not brute intimidation of opponents.
The constitutional system the Founding Fathers built is strong, but it can’t survive when citizens en masse are ready to come to blows with one another on a semipermanent basis, are ready and willing to gin up mobs to go after one another for political disagreements.
That system shattered in 1860, and ended with the bloodiest period in our nation’s history.
This sort of crackup may, in fact, be what some want, but it’s unlikely to end well for those who believe in free institutions in the United States. | 1,269,027 |
A Supreme Court remade by Donald Trump said on Monday that it would hear a major LGBTQ rights case, giving the White House a possible assist in its ongoing assault on gay and transgender rights.
The court said it would consider three cases that look at whether Title VII, the federal civil rights law that prohibits workplace discrimination, applies to LGBTQ workers.
The court will look at two decisions that came down on opposite sides of the issue: In Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, a Long Island skydiving instructor named Don Zarda was fired after telling a client he was gay. Last year, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Zarda’s firing was discriminatory. But the 11th Circuit went the opposite way in a similar case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia.
The Supreme Court will also look at a third lawsuit, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which a transgender woman was fired after she transitioned. The 6th Circuit ruled that her firing was discriminatory.
The case marks a pivotal moment in the fight for gay civil rights, but the current composition of the court with its two new Trump appointees ― Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch ― has some advocates worried. Kavanaugh replaced retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered a swing vote in favor of gay rights.
“Everyone had hoped these cases would reach the Supreme Court with Justice Kennedy still on the court,” said Peter Romer-Friedman, a counsel at Outten & Golden, who’s worked on LGBT rights cases on behalf of workers. “I think the chances of a victory for LGBTQ people and those who believe in civil rights is much smaller than several years ago.”
Title VII makes it illegal to discriminate against workers on the basis of race, religion and, crucially in these cases, sex. For example, under the law, employers can’t fire someone because they’re a woman, or African American or Christian.
For the past several years, some federal courts have held that the prohibition on sex discrimination carries over to sexual orientation and gender identity, reasoning that the concepts are impossible to disentangle. For example, gay women are discriminated against for being partnered with women, but straight men are not discriminated against for doing the same.
“The stakes are very very high,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior attorney with Lambda Legal. “These are cases in which we have an opportunity to cement our understanding that federal law already protects LGBT people from discrimination.”
Currently, 30 states lack laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations on the basis of both sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign. If the Court rules that Title VII’s protections against sex discrimination don’t cover sexual orientation or gender identity, employers in those states will continue to be able to fire someone simply because they are gay. | 1,269,028 |
シャープは2月23日、従来型携帯電話「SH-03」をNTTドコモ向けに納入すると発表した。カメラ機能を搭載していない、シンプルな折り畳み式ケータイだ。発売は26日の予定。
シャープが普及の先駆けとなったカメラ付き携帯電話だが、携帯カメラによる情報漏えいリスクも顕在化し、オフィスや工場などでカメラ機能なしの端末を使いたいニーズがある。また、高機能なスマートフォンが普及する一方で、通話機能に特化したケータイへのニーズも多いという。
SH-03はカメラ機能を省いた上で、防水（IPX5/7）・防塵（IP5X）対応やリモートでロックができるセキュリティ機能（ドコモ「あんしんマネージャー」契約が必要）などを備え、ビジネス用途に配慮した。片手でワンプッシュで本体が開く機構や、通話の録音機能、ハンズフリーが可能なBluetooth通信機能、Webブラウザも搭載している。
関連記事 シャープの「ロボホン」は、普及するのか？
シャープが久しぶりに「目のつけどころがシャープ」な商品を発表した。ロボット電話「ロボホン」だ。 関連リンク ニュースリリース | 1,269,029 |
work on light instead of electricity. During a talk last month at the University of Melbourne, organised by the national research institute NICTA, he reflected on his early years at Bell. "I have learnt the lesson that if you try to predict the future you have to expect the unexpected. My first job was in the transistor circuit department (at Bell Labs), only seven years after the transistor was invented. What they had me do was take a vacuum tube circuit used to test telephone lines and convert it to a transistor circuit. It had an aluminium chassis where the vacuum tubes were plugged in. The transistor came in a little can, a few millimetres on the sides, with three wires coming out. It was pretty simple to convert the circuit. I went home and told my wife the transistor probably wouldn't amount to very much. The reason was that these transistors cost $50 and these vacuum tubes cost only a dollar. I was only 24, so you can forgive me for making that dumb mistake but I can't forgive Bell Labs for missing the idea of integrated circuits. I can see two reasons. Yields (the amount of working transistors in a batch of silicon) were poor, so if you have a 10% yield and put two (transistors) on the same device the yield would be 10% of 10%. That was a short-sighted way of looking at things; also, the guy who was in charge of this was pretty arrogant. About 1958 (electrical engineer Jack S.) Kilby, a new hire at Texas Instruments during summer vacation when everybody was out of the labs, decided to put several transistors on the same chip. And that was the origin of the integrated circuit. He connected them with resistors and capacitors with external wires, so it wasn't really fully integrated. A few months later (Robert) Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor, which later became Intel, he made an integrated circuit where the wiring was integrated on the chip. Since then there have been quite a few surprises. According to Gordon Moore, in the 1990s, more transistors were made each year than raindrops in California. I'm sure that 10 years later you can multiply that by several orders of magnitude. Ten to the 18th (power, that is, a billion billion) transistors are made each year, more than existed at the beginning of the year. That's 10 to 100 times the number of ants on Earth. So all these advances are based on a design for transistors."
This is a short, edited extract of Professor Kaminow's talk. TIMELINE
1947 Transistor invented in Bell Labs. 1948 Shockley develops first semiconductor transistor. 1952 Hearing aids are first commercial products to use the transistor.
1954 Texas Instruments introduces transistor radio. 1956 AWA manufactures first Australian portable transistor radio.
1965 Intel co-founder Gordon Moore coins Moore's law. 1981 IBM launches the PC. 2007 Intel demonstrates chip with 1.9 billion transistors.
2007 IBM reveals it has developed a single-molecule switch. | 1,269,030 |
, relying on Swedish diplomats to help Americans with any consular needs. In addition, the number of Americans who do business in North Korea and the number of Americans who work for nongovernmental organizations there are estimated to be small.
Chang said the State Department could rebuke North Korea for Warmbier's death by including it on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, joining Iran, Sudan and Syria.
North Korea was delisted in 2008 as part of the negotiations by the George W. Bush administration to sway the isolated nation to scale back its nuclear program.
Another option, Chang said, is tightening economic sanctions further. That would put Kim in a bind as he continues to struggle with a financially depressed nation and his own failures to build up a nuclear and missiles program, he added.
Another unknown is whether Warmbier's death will nudge open the door to the freeing of the other three Americans currently detained in North Korea.
Chang said Trump would be pressed to act on their behalf in order to ensure that they don't befall a similar fate. The North Koreans claimed that Warmbier contracted botulism and fell into a coma after taking a sleeping pill, according to his parents.
Doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said last week that they found no traces of botulism in his body. But the cause of death remained unclear after Warmbier's family on Tuesday objected to an autopsy.
Warmbier was released on June 13 after Joseph Yun, the State Department's top official on North Korea, flew to Pyongyang with a medical unit. He said he also had contact with the other three Americans and the State Department wants to get them released soon, although no timetable was given.
Related: Otto Warmbier Has Extensive Brain Damage, Doctors Say
Han Tae Song, the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, said the Americans detained in North Korea have not complained about their conditions and that "they said they were fairly treated."
But Warmbier's deteriorating health during his incarceration highlights the poor conditions that North Korean prisoners routinely face, according to human rights groups.
Jonathan Pollack, a senior analyst on North Korea at the Brookings Institution think tank, called Warmbier's death a "sobering moment." Nonetheless, as compared to the chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people and led Trump to launch missiles on a Syrian base in April, the complexities surrounding how to handle North Korea don't call for an immediate strike, he added.
"The problem is you cannot address North Korea in a strategic sense if you simply react to one event," Pollack said. "It will take a level of coherence, discipline and motivation that is frankly rarely achieved in government."
Warmbier's death "also plays into the debate within Trump's administration in how to deal with this issue," he added. "Despite Trump’s own statements, there are very mixed signals that come out of the United States government with how we will proceed with North Korea." | 1,269,031 |
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong on Tuesday kick-started a process which could lead to a ban on a group that promotes secession from China, the first time since the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997 it has sought to outlaw a political organization.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
The move against the Hong Kong National Party comes at a time authorities have ratcheted up pressure on young democracy activists, some of whom have been jailed, and denounced any pro-independence action as an illegal challenge to Communist Party rulers in Beijing.
The Security Bureau wrote a letter to the founder of the party, Andy Chan, telling him he had 21 days to “make representations in writing” as to why it should not be banned, according to the party’s social media page, which posted photos of the letter.
Secretary for Security John Lee said he had not banned the group and that he could only do so after giving it time to submit its response.
“Yes, in Hong Kong we have freedom of association, but that right is not without restriction,” Lee told reporters.
Hong Kong is governed under a “one country, two systems” principle which promises it a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in China, such as the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
But China’s perceived tightening grip over the financial hub has stoked tensions including the “Occupy Central” movement in 2014 that blocked major roads for nearly three months in a failed bid to pressure Beijing to allow full democracy.
Lee wouldn’t give details about what the group had done to trigger a possible ban, though he cited Hong Kong’s Societies Ordinance that states a group could be outlawed “in the interests of national security or public safety, public order or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others”.
“National security” is specifically defined as “the safeguarding of the territorial integrity and the independence of the People’s Republic of China”.
The Hong Kong National Party is one of a handful groups that openly advocate Hong Kong independence.
Founded in 2016, it drew at least 2,500 people to what was dubbed Hong Kong’s first pro-independence rally two years ago.
Chan told Reuters he would need to consult lawyers on his next step. He pledged to continue pushing for independence.
“I will never stop in my pursuit of freedom, human rights, equality and dignity,” Chan, 27, who was previously banned from running for a seat in the city’s Legislative Council, told Reuters.
Most people in the city of 7.3 million do not support independence. Beijing has repeatedly slammed the movement, fearful of the idea taking hold on the mainland.
President Xi Jinping warned during a visit to the city last year that any attempt to endanger China’s sovereignty would be an act that crosses a “red line”. | 1,269,032 |
Via Glenn Beck, the bit about Hillary comes at the start of the second clip but both are worth listening to as an insight into how O, Biden, and Clinton allegedly operate in semi-private circumstances. The awkward “cueballs” line from Biden rings especially true, although I think he meant it as a compliment in his own oafish, hey-hiya-howareya way. With all due respect to Beck and Mr. Woods, though, I find Hillary’s comment about the movie significant for reasons different than they do. They seem to take it as evidence of a lie. She was pretending that the movie was to blame when we now know that the White House was tipped off to a terrorist connection in the earliest hours after the attack. Fair enough, but that gets back to the point I made last night: As far as I can tell, even now, the White House isn’t treating the “spontaneous outrage over a YouTube movie” and “organized terrorist attack” narratives as mutually exclusive. As recently as last week, long after the entire administration had finally gotten on board with the idea that this was in fact terrorism, the State Department was still looking at what role the Mohammed movie might have played in inspiring the attack. The going theory, I guess, is that the attackers seized on the uproar over the film elsewhere in the region as an incentive to hit the consulate in hopes of ingratiating themselves with people angry about the movie. That seems unlikely given how many people were involved and the sophistication of the weapons they used — there had to be some planning beforehand to pull this all together — but it beats the chump theory that none of this would have happened if jihadists’ delicate sensibilities hadn’t been inflamed. The assault on the embassy in Cairo pretty clearly used the movie as a pretext, to flex Islamists’ muscles; in theory, the attack on the consulate was a more vicious exercise towards the same end. As I said last night, The One and Hillary owe us a firm explanation on what their theory is.
What I found significant about this wasn’t the “movie protest” versus “preplanned attack” element, it was the fact that Hillary’s promise of vengeance to the father of a fallen SEAL wasn’t that we’d get the jihadis who killed him but that we’d punish the filmmaker. That’s perverse, but in keeping with the fact that she decided to run ads on Pakistani TV apologizing for the film while Islamist cretins menaced American diplomats across the region. Even if you give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she had no intention of prosecuting the filmmaker but was merely telling Woods something she thought would console him, why on earth would she zero in on the filmmaker as the target of blame instead of the degenerates who actually shot his son? She and O need to answer. Let’s see how much they really value free speech. Simple question for both: Is Woods a liar or not? | 1,269,033 |
(Updated below)
A week ago, on a Friday afternoon, a reporter called us with news that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) had received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to employ two unmanned aerial drones it had purchased. The news came not from city officials, but via the fruits of a public records request by our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
City officials declined to comment. Did the ACLU have anything to say? You bet.
ACLU of Washington executive director Kathleen Taylor called for the mayor and city council to develop clear and transparent policies to safeguard privacy and free speech rights, declaring, “We need to have a public dialogue about the use of police drones over Seattle’s skies.”
The dialogue was quick in coming. “Eye-in-sky SPD drones stir privacy concerns” proclaimed the top front-page article in the next morning’s Seattle Times. Garnering 337 online responses, it became the paper’s most commented upon story of the weekend. And the local Fox TV affiliate cited the national ACLU’s report, “Protecting Privacy from Aerial Surveillance,” and its warning that our nation’s current privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure that the new technology will be used responsibly and consistently with democratic values.
With drones—and the privacy questions they raise—thrown into the public spotlight in that way, a contrite assistant police chief appeared before the Seattle City Council this week to assure city leaders and the public that the drones would not be deployed until written policies for their use are in place. He promised that police would work with the ACLU and others in the community to draft them.
The ACLU is calling for the city to specify—through a legally binding ordinance—what kind of information can be collected, who can collect it, how the information can be used, and how long it can be kept. And we want an auditing process to make sure the policies are followed.
After revelations of widespread abuses, Seattle in 1979 became the nation’s first city to enact a strong law curbing police spying on lawful free speech activities. Our Police Intelligence Ordinance prohibits law enforcement from maintaining files on the political activities of individuals and groups without suspicion of criminal activity. Now the ACLU-WA is pressing the city’s officials to show similar leadership—by acting to ensure that police drones are not used to engage in intrusive surveillance expeditions that do not respect the privacy of Americans. As far as we know Seattle is the first city to take this step, and we hope we can be a leader for other cities and towns around the country.
Update (May 7)
The Seattle Times has come out with an editorial calling for "formal oversight" over drones. The piece concludes, "The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington raises good points and questions about usage restrictions, image-retention limits, and regular audits and reviews of drones as a law-enforcement tool. Give Seattle police the latitude to use drones, but define their limitations via city ordinance." | 1,269,034 |
Today, millions of people all around the world own cryptocurrencies. Popular digital currency exchange Coinbase has beyond 20 million users, meaning that they alone have more users than one of the world’s largest traditional brokerage firms, Charles Schwab, has customers.
So far, the average cryptocurrency user trades or holds assets on around 4 to 5 different digital currency exchanges and wallets simultaneously. Thus, keeping track records for tax purposes becomes increasingly difficult. In most European countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, capital gains from cryptocurrency trading, mining, airdrops and forks are taxable and must be reported to the authorities.
Blockpit makes crypto tax reporting easy for everyone
Blockpit was founded in 2017 by Florian Wimmer, selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in finance and avid cryptocurrency trader since 2015. His team and him are closely collaborating with tax experts from one of the world’s Big Four auditors, KPMG. They are set out to develop a web-based application which should become the European standard for automated crypto tax reporting. Subsequently, they will be tackling jurisdictions all over the world. As of Q1 2018, the web-based application is in beta with thousands of cryptocurrency holders actively using the service.
TAX token private sale is anticipated to raise three million Euro
Currently, the company is conducting a three million Euro private sale of its TAX utility token. For each 0.10 Euro contributed during the private sale, participants will get 1.5 TAX token, including a 50 % private sale bonus. The company anticipates to raise up to a total of 12.5 million Euro through a public token offering later this year. In order to promote the token sale CEO Florian Wimmer is presenting Blockpit on pitching stages throughout Europe. Amongst other achievements, Blockpit is the pitch contest winner of crypto investor and influencer Ian Balina’s Paris Crypto World Tour stop.
About Blockpit
Blockpit is a seamless, automated web-based and mobile cryptocurrency tax reporting and portfolio monitoring application. Blockpit uses APIs of numerous exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Poloniex, Kraken and many more to link them up with its services. The vision is to allow Blockpit’s users to automatically combine all their trades, wallets, mining rewards and other incomes such as airdrops into one dashboard. The dashboard provides a clear overview on what was realized in gains to report to tax authorities. Blockpit also allows its dashboard users to generate tax reports which can be legally approved by one of Blockpit’s partners.
Media Contact
Telegram: https://t.me/blockpit
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blockpit.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blockpit_io
This is a press release. Trustnodes has not undertaken any verification of any of the above statements and any statement or project contained therein is not necessarily endorsed by Trustnodes. Readers are strongly urged to do your own research. | 1,269,035 |
The relationship between Core Curriculum and college preparedness
Most educational experts agree that common core curriculum is not the solution to closing the achievement gap. Too bad politicians are the ones with a final say.
Common Core Curriculum is meant to be an equalizing force
But states with historically lower quality education systems are just falling farther behind.
With proficiency levels plummeting
In West Virginia: 35% failed exit exam for highschool
In Oklahoma: 33% failed
Algebra in the 8th grade is perhaps the biggest stumbling block
With 43% of New Mexico students falling below proficient
And 39% of Tennessee students
While core curriculum has improved performance in states with traditionally good educational systems, all of the unimproved states beg the questions…
Is core curriculum a one-size-fits all pathway governed by abstract government content?
Three main arguments for core curriculum
Students will learn more if their learning targets are set higher
Students will learn more if the passing grade for state tests are set higher
And students will learn more if lesson plans and textbooks are all made more complex and rigorous
or is it the great equalizing force?
History of Common Core
Historically, a dual educational system included vocational and college-bound tracks. Core curriculum is meant to bridge the gap between these tracks.
The conundrum: By forcing a standard (and harder) curriculum on all students, many students fall even farther behind, get discouraged and ultimately drop out.
Case study: Algebra
Common core teaches algebra in the 8th grade
During a plateau in childhood brain development
Making it much harder to deal with and retain new concepts
Rationale:students with algebra have more options when they graduate, and the earlier one takes algebra, the more advanced courses they can take before college.
In real life: Algebra at too early of an age turns kids off to math, and often becomes a cited reason for dropping out, ultimately leaving kids with less options.
Perspective: in the real world, how many times will an employer ask you for a proof of the quadratic equation?
Is the system really working?…Higher Education
Only 1% of the 1.7 million bachelor’s degrees awarded last year were in math
Coupled with the fact that only 58% of those that enter higher education graduate
Meaning only.0058 of those who enter college will successfully graduate as math majors
(That’s 58 out of every 10,000 matriculating students)
Think about it: with the well documented negative effects of forcing math at too early of a developmental stage, we could be weeding out the next Pulitzer prize winner, famed historian, or innovator by turning them off to school.
Children are emotionally vulnerable, and learn in many, many ways, but the only question in policymakers mind is how to keep up with other nations educational systems. | 1,269,036 |
Two episodes into its final season, the wacky, charming and often poignant CW musical series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is continuing to deftly tackle mental health — all while managing to include at least two original songs per episode.
In the latest episode, which aired on Friday, the show managed to marry a classic, spooky Halloween sitcom episode with a lesson about the ways in which anxiety can manifest in new symptoms. The show’s flawed hero Rebecca Bunch — played by series co-creator Rachel Bloom — is newly sprung from prison and dealing with the public humiliation of being dragged by her local paper, the Daily Covina.
Reading the comments section sends Rebecca into an anxiety spiral, and gives us the episode’s fantastic, and all too relatable, ode to anxiety: “Time to Seize the Day.” The song is about how Rebecca, suddenly too anxious to leave her house, procrastinates by cleaning the refrigerator, sitting on the floor, reading facts about stingrays on the internet and masturbating to gay porn. You know, normal anxiety things.
Yet again, the show treats Rebecca’s mental health — this time it’s her anxiety-related agoraphobia — as an essential part of her character, not an external element or a dramatic twist. Getting trapped in her house by her own fears is sort of funny, sort of sad and mostly matter of fact.
Her friends see what’s going on and try to encourage her to come out, because they’re good friends, but that doesn’t work, because friends can’t always help. She makes an appointment with her therapist, Dr. Akopian, but feels too anxious to actually go outside and show up. Ultimately, it takes some time — and the excitement of a ghost story — to get Rebecca to leave her house again.
The episode-long arc is another standout turn in a show that has done a singularly great job among TV comedies of representing a main character’s ongoing exploration of her mental health. Season one saw Rebecca coming up with all sorts of wild, rom-com schemes to land her true love, Josh. Season two made it clear that maybe some of Rebecca’s wild ideas and poor judgment are symptomatic of a larger issue, and that maybe the goofy exploits women take on in rom-coms aren’t actually healthy ways to handle life’s ups and downs. The third season gave Rebecca an official diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, got her on meds and had her in both group and individual therapy.
And even though Rebecca has done a lot of the right things — seeking help from professionals and figuring out treatment plans, which are the sort of unsexy steps that rarely get play on television — this latest episode shows there will always be new challenges for her to work through. Like the song goes, it’s “Two steps forward, four steps back, five more steps back and now I’m back in bed.” | 1,269,037 |
After an area fire chief called out his website, a Virginia website owner is speaking out.
WASHINGTON — After an area fire chief called out his website, a Virginia website owner is speaking out.
Cary Wiedemann, owner of Fairfax Underground, said that Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers’ call for the site to remove posts about firefighter-paramedic Nicole Mittendorff is an attempt to shift the spotlight from the department.
“Fairfax Underground believes the fire chief’s comments are a clear deflection of blame,” Wiedemann said.
On Friday, the fire chief called for the site to remove several vulgar posts which criticized Mittendorff’s sex life, her appearance and even her death. The comments sparked speculation about the role cyber-bullying may have played in Mittendorff’s demise. Virginia State Police has said there is no evidence that the posts were a factor in her death, which was ruled a suicide.
Wiedemann said that the message board with the comments contained thousands of posts, and moderators were not aware of the comments’ existence before the 31-year-old went missing. The website has a policy against personal attacks, and if users flagged those posts, Wiedemann said that they would have been removed.
Wiedemann said removing the comments now, after the fact, would cause confusion among people researching what happened. He also said that, ultimately, it is difficult to truly remove anything from the Internet.
“It can be re-posted thousands of times, with slightly different variations and no one will ever know what the true original looked like,” Wiedemann said.
The website owner said he would be willing to remove the posts if he were to receive a request from Mittendorff’s family.
When it comes to users who posted the comments, Wiedemann said he wants to see them brought to justice. He said that with a court order, he can turn over the anonymous poster’s IP addresses to investigators. With an IP address, police can contact internet service providers and see who the address belonged to when the post was made. So far, Wiedemann has not been contacted about handing over the addresses.
Wiedemann said that the focus here needs to be on the people behind the posts and the not the website which the posts appear on.
Fairfax Underground has been around for 11 years, and Wiedemann said that he built it around users being able lead the conversation. The website owner said that unfortunately in this situation, it was used for abusive purposes.
“There is not much that can be done in today’s legal frame work to prevent a few dedicated bad actors from tarnishing someone else’s reputation on the Internet,” Wiedemann said.
Copyright © 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. | 1,269,038 |
Thousands marched across London today demanding a ‘People’s Vote’ on the final Brexit deal. 670,000 people took to the streets in protest, with the aim of achieving a ‘referendum’ on any deal which is put through parliament – with many seeking the ‘option to remain’ as part of the vote.
Organisers aimed for the march to be the biggest and most important anti-Brexit protest since the referendum. Saturday’s march is estimated to be six-times the size of June’s protest, where 100,000 took to the streets.
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable addressed crowds at the protest, where he said it was “a tragedy this country is being divided by generation”.Cable said that it was the “majority” of his generation that voted to leave, “taking the freedom” away from young voters. “There is no deal better than the one we have now: it is better for Britain and better for Europe,”
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon sent an unexpected message of support to protesters in London, where a video message of Sturgeon was broadcast to the crowds. Sturgeon told crowds: “Let me say this loudly and clearly, if the issue comes before the House of Commons, SNP MPs will support a people’s vote which includes the option to remain in the EU. The leave campaign has already gone down in history as one of most disingenuous, dishonourable and downright dishonest electoral contests of modern times. Those responsible should be utterly ashamed of themselves.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan was also in attendance, where he posed with protesters, before taking to twitter to demand that the “the British people get the final say on Brexit”:\
Incredible atmosphere on today’s @peoplesvote_uk march – with people from every corner of our country, every age, faith, race gender and background coming together to demand the British people get the final say on Brexit #PeoplesVote pic.twitter.com/z1x4PhEZBF — Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) October 20, 2018
David Lammy, a Labour MP who has always been a strong supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, also showed his support on Twitter:
Can you hear the will of the people now, @theresa_may? https://t.co/uhQiwl2749 — David Lammy (@DavidLammy) October 20, 2018
Earlier this year, a People’s Vote march also took place in London. The protest, which also aimed to raise awareness and support for a referendum on the final deal, saw over 100,000 people marching.
The Brexit plans put forward by Theresa May’s government have come under intense scrutiny in the last few weeks, as the prime minister has signalled the possibility of extending the Brexit transition period. This, in particular, has angered many of her own cabinet and Tory backbenchers. | 1,269,039 |
The Department of Defence has requested sweeping new powers that would allow it to control how all technology developed in Australia is sold or exported in the interests of national security.
In a move certain to provoke a backlash from the university, start-up and venture capital sectors Defence’s Strategic Policy and Intelligence branch has revealed it wants final say on what technology can be shared with “foreign entities” – including those now operating in Australia through either academic institutions or commercial partnerships.
The audacious bid for sweeping new administrative powers dramatically lifts the threshold that now applies to universities and the research and development sector under the Defence Trade Controls Act (DTC Act).
The DTC Act regulates the supply of military and ‘dual-use’ technologies overseas which Defence administers through trade controls and export restrictions, via the Defence and Strategic Goods List (DSGL).
Many of those restrictions date back to a pre-digital era when weapons or systems could be stopped at the border rather than weaponised code or applications, which has Defence visibly concerned.
In its submission the required two-yearly review of the DTC Act, Defence argues that changes to how technology can be communicated means technology can now largely bypass Customs regulations.
Think downloads.
“Limited government oversight and control of the transfer of sensitive technology by Auistralians to foreign entities could have significant consequences for Australian defence capability, industry and universities,” Defence’s submission says.
The specifics of Defence’s ultimate demands are contained in two recommendations to the review that deal with the expansion of Defence powers to rope in both DSGL and “uncontrolled” technology.
Uncontrolled technology, essentially encompasses everything the DGSL does not and would essentially give Defence administrative power of veto over what can and can’t be shared.
Under the first proposal Defence has requested “measures to require a person to apply for a permit to supply or transfer DSGL or uncontrolled technology to foreign entities when the Australian government notifies them that it has reason to believe the technology is significant to developing or maintaining national defence capability or international relations of Australia”.
The second proposal “requests that the review expanding the power to prohibit the supply of technology to include both DSGL and uncontrolled technology”.
The DTC Act review is being by highly respected former intelligence governance, Vivienne Thom, who previously ran spy watchdog the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security.
The timing of Defence’s submission is also likely to raise questions as to the effectiveness of consultation with the technology industry and R&D sector.
The review, launched by Defence Minister Marise Payne in April this year, has received 47 published submissions – with the Department of Defence’s being the 46th.
One section in Defence’s submission asks “how has the national security environment changed”.
“See classified Annex A,” the submission states.
Comments are now being sought from industry and institutions by iTnews. | 1,269,040 |
There's going to be a lot of terminology thrown around when people talk about this, and rightfully so since it is a very technical issue. But the economic ideas are simple, and I want to give you the water cooler guide to thinking through the relevant issues in the debate. When you hear discussion about this going forward, think of how the points made influence these concepts.
Information Asymmetries
As you can see from the quick eBay analogy above, being able to see someone else's information, when they can't see yours, makes for terrible markets. Beyond issues of fairness and equity, which are incredibly relevant here, this also leads to an issue of bad prices. The information reflects only part of what you believed about the stock in question; computers took advantage of your situation, but the information that others see as a result of the front-running doesn't reflect what you actually believed. You hear stories about stock prices jumping all kinds of crazy values, with crazy volume numbers and volatility, because of a few stock purchases, and these price movements reflect the HFT. Now remember that the feedback mechanism of stock prices - if you are a Hayekian - is the whole point of having a market. If trading in markets doesn't aggregate information among many diverse parties but instead turns the price mechanism into a roulette wheel played out by supercomputers ransacking your 401(k) - because believe me, your 401(k) is a great target - what's the point? Does that have any more information than the tyrant social planner?
Liquidity
The strongest claim in favor of HFT is that it is providing liquidity to the financial markets. More liquidity in markets is usually considered to be a good thing, and as such they are being rewarded for providing a service. There's a problem with this though - they have no obligation to provide liquidity. There's no formalized procedure in which they post prices with certain time limits. They, and the HFT practitioners have been very upfront about this, have no obligations when it comes to providing liquidity. And it is very likely that they won't step in when the financial markets need them the most.
So in this sense, liquidity from HFT is like having an airbag in your car that works all the time except when you are in a car accident. It isn't there when you most need it, and it encourges you to drive a bit faster, and take turns a bit sharper, because you think you are protected. So instead of being a risk management tool everyone is aware of, it is instead misinformation.
Power of the Market
Won't markets take care of this by themselves? Remember that there will be brutal competition to get the trades to run faster, hit more stocks and spin more money out of consumers. Even though more players can get into this, that just means there will be more players ripping off the information of other players. The issue isn't that this is concentrated among a few big market players (though that is an issue) but that it is happening to our investments.
| 1,269,041 |
-- the Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts on June 8. Apple is famously secretive about upcoming announcements. But an apparently false report in Fortune inspired the company to reveal a few facts in advance of WWDC.
After a widely circulated report said Apple's home automation platform, called HomeKit, was delayed until the end of the year, the company came out and said: No, it's right on track. Apple even revealed plans to announce third-party home automation products at its developers conference, and those products will be available in June. Apple claims that it has "dozens of partners" for HomeKit.
When Apple unveiled HomeKit at its developers conference a year ago, execs said it would involve a "common protocol" to allow home automation devices to communicate with each other, and with iPhones and iPads. Since then, however, it has been suggested that two additional hardware platforms may play roles in Apple's home automation initiative: The Apple Watch and Apple TV.
At the Apple Watch rollout in September, Apple Watch vice president Kevin Lynch demonstrated a home-automation app from Alarm.com that not only showed a live video of the inside of a garage, but also enabled the garage door to be opened and closed via the watch. So it looks like Apple Watch is going to be a prime controller for HomeKit-enabled devices.
According to an unconfirmed but credible report on the blog 9to5Mac last week, Apple might unveil Version 9 of iOS at WWDC and the update of the mobile operating system may include a home automation app called Home.
The Home app is a user interface for controlling HomeKit-enabled products, according to the post. It organizes home automation devices by room and enables you to discover, set up and control home automation devices.
That same report said that Apple TV would serve as a hub for HomeKit devices, and for the iOS devices that control them.
In fact, Apple's cryptic graphic for WWDC says "the epicenter of change" and features a colorful rounded square surrounded by lots of different shapes. The conventional Kremlinology on this image is that the square in the middle is Apple TV, and the surrounding objects are home automation devices. If that's accurate, the idea of Apple TV as the hub for home automation is the main theme for Apple this year.
Google and Apple intend to be major players in the mainstreaming of home automation. But other big companies jumped into the ring this month, too.
Samsung introduced a line of chips called Artik for IoT and home automation systems. The company already owns (through acquisition) a company called SmartThings, which makes a hub for controlling and connecting home automation appliances.
And Chinese tech giant Huawei introduced an IoS operating system called LiteOS.
Nearly every major consumer-facing tech company will be involved in the home automation revolution. It's an industry that's just in its infancy and will roll in major revenue for the companies in the future.
So say goodbye to your dumb home. The smartification begins Thursday. | 1,269,042 |
The carved alabaster vessel (shown from two sides) found in the burial chamber caused the archaeologists to conclude the tomb was that of Lady K’abel. (Photo : El Peru Waka Regional Archaelogical Project/ Washington University in St. Louis)
Archaeologists have discovered a seventh century tomb of a Maya queen in Guatemala.
The tomb belongs to the Maya Holy Snake Lord, Lady K'abel, one of the most powerful queens in her kingdom during the Classic Maya civilization.
A team of archaeologists led by David Freidel, co-director of the expedition from the Washington University in St. Louis, found the tomb during an excavation of the royal Maya city of El Perú-Waka' in northwestern Petén, Guatemala, based on artifacts suggesting that a higher-ranked queen is buried there.
Four glyphs carved into a white alabaster jar which was found in the burial chamber gave evidence that the tomb belonged to the queen, Lady K'abel. The jar is carved to make it look like a conch shell with the head of a mature woman with a lined face and a strand of hair in front of her ear, and her arm appearing from the opening.
Of the four glyphs carved in the jar, two of them is said to have titles of the person buried in the chamber. The title "Lady Waterlily-Hand" in the third hieroglyph represents the personal name of the owner and the title "Lady Snake Lord" in the final glyph identifies the owner of the tomb is a princess of Calakmul - Lady K'abel.
Besides these evidences, experts also noticed ceramic vessels and stone slab carvings in the tomb giving more support to show it was the Maya Snake Lord's tomb. The discovery is very significant as Classic period is the only Maya civilization which has both archaeological and historical records, according to researchers.
"The Classic Maya civilization is the only 'classical' archaeological field in the New World - in the sense that like archaeology in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia or China, there is both an archaeological material record and an historical record based on texts and images," Freidel said in a statement.
"The precise nature of the text and image information on the white stone jar and its tomb context constitute a remarkable and rare conjunction of these two kinds of records in the Maya area," he said.
Lady K'abel was one of the most powerful person and gained more respect as a ruler along with her husband K'inich Bahlam, for at least 20 years (672-692 AD). In fact she was more powerful than her husband as she was also holding the post of military governor of the Wak kingdom.
She was given the title of "Supreme Warrior," higher in authority than her husband, the king. The queen was buried in the location of a temple. The temple received much attention and admiration for decades even after the fall of the dynasty at El Perú.
For a complete report on the discovery, click here. | 1,269,043 |
After 60 minutes of the game Wasps were still in contention but two tries in four minutes from Duncan Taylor and Owen Farrell turned the game the visitors’ way as Saracens took their winning run over their rivals to nine games. Farrell converted both tries and kicked four penalties.
“I’m frustrated because that four minute spell took the game away from us,” said Young.
“It was nip and tuck until then and it was going to be a three-point game. I was disappointed to concede the first try from a set piece and the second was a fortuitous bounce of the ball so we let the game get away from us.
“You have to give them credit, but it’s a boring way to play. Their kicking game is very difficult to play against.”
As a result Wasps could only manage a consolation try from Frank Halai. The try was converted by Jimmy Gopperth, who also kicked two penalties.
Saracens coach Mark McCall responded to Young’s criticism of his side by saying: “They kicked a bit more than us in the first half.
“They should have played the way they normally do as it probably would have been more successful.
Meanwhile Chris Robshaw’s return to the scene of England’s World Cup disaster was quickly forgotten amid a chaotic but brilliant Aviva Premiership clash that produced another RBS 6 Nations injury doubt in Jonny May.
It was Robshaw’s first appearance at Twickenham since the World Cup-ending defeat by Australia on October 3 and he played his part in a logic-defying fixture that justifiably finished in stalemate.
Gloucester wing May limped off in the 42nd minute with a left hamstring problem incurred while taking a kick and he spent the rest of the afternoon on the bench with the damaged muscle strapped with ice.
From his vantage point on the sidelines, one of England’s most dangerous players this year watched as Harlequins drew 39-39 in a roller-coaster at Twickenham that produced bonus points for both sides.
The 2012 Premiership champions had a last-gasp chance to win the match with a drop-goal, but Danny Care’s pass to Nick Evans was poor and the former New Zealand fly-half’s kick drifted wide.
At the Recreation Ground Bath posted only a third Aviva Premiership win of the season — and their first for seven weeks — by edging out Worcester 21-14.
First-half tries by centre Ollie Devoto and wing Horacio Agulla underpinned Bath’s success, although Worcester proved predictably dogged opponents during an often dour struggle.
Wales international fly-half Rhys Priestland kicked three penalties and a conversion, while Worcester replied through a Cooper Vuna try, plus two penalties from former Bath number 10 Tom Heathcote and a long-range Ryan Mills strike. | 1,269,044 |
A former National Guard soldier who had a picture of Timothy McVeigh on his dresser will spend five years in federal prison on charges linked to a bizarre double homicide case in Tampa, Florida.
Brandon Russell, 22, a private first class in the National Guard and a self-identified neo-Nazi, was sentenced Tuesday in a U.S. district court after pleading guilty to illegally stockpiling explosive materials and possessing an unregistered destructive device. After discovering two dead bodies in his apartment, police had also found bomb-making materials, including more than a pound of ammonium nitrate in a package addressed to him.
It all began last May, when Russell’s roommate, 18-year-old Devon Arthurs, held three people at gunpoint in the Green Planet Smoke Shop across the road from the apartment they shared with two other people. Arthurs, also a neo-Nazi, claimed to have recently converted to Islam and told his hostages he was angry due to “America bombing Muslim countries.” He later surrendered to law enforcement, and informed officers that two people were dead in the apartment.
When police arrived at the apartment, they encountered Russell, clad in camouflage, who had just returned from his Army National Guard shift, standing outside the front door “visibly upset and crying,” according to the complaint. When police entered the apartment, they found two bodies who’d suffered fatal gunshots to the upper body and head. They were later identified as Arthurs and Russell’s two roommates, 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman and 18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk. The four young men had met online in neo-Nazi forums.
According to the complaint, police also discovered a cooler in the garage containing a “white, cake-like explosive material known as HMTD,” a highly explosive and unstable substance that's been used in domestic terror attacks, as well as “precursor chemicals” also used in improvised explosive devices. Bomb technicians’ devices also picked up on radioactive materials in Russell’s bedroom.
Prosecutors later argued that Russell planned to use explosives on civilians, nuclear facilities, and synagogues.
Explosives weren't all the police found. On Russell's dresser was a framed photograph of McVeigh, the domestic terrorist who killed 168 people in Oklahoma City with a truck bomb in 1995, along with white supremacist and neo-Nazi propaganda.
Russell voluntarily told police that he was a self-identified national socialist. He was later found to be a leader of Atomwaffen, a little-known militant neo-Nazi group that takes its name from the German word for “atomic weapons.”
Arthurs, meanwhile, confessed to killing his roommates and faces two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and three counts of armed kidnapping. In December, a judge ordered him to undergo a mental health exam, the results of which were discussed at a Jan. 4 hearing. | 1,269,045 |
her. Sharp, whose single mother had brought her and seven other children to the refuge to sing for the militiamen, was one of the only individuals in the convoy of standoff leaders who was not arrested in the wake of Finicum’s death. She too had been riding in the truck with Finicum on the way to a community meeting. Sharp became a witness, an early voice dictating what had transpired between police and the Arizona rancher. In a recorded interview not long after Finicum’s death, Sharp testified that Finicum had left the vehicle with his hands up when he was killed.
“He got out of the car and he had his hands in the air. He’s like, ‘Just shoot me then!’ And they did. They shot him dead,” she said. “I saw it. I swear to God, just walking with his hands in the air. They just shot him,” she added. “They shot him dead and then after he was down on the ground they shot him three more times.”
Quickly, Finicum became a martyr in the movement, something that egged on the remaining protesters in the final weeks.
One of the final four occupiers, one of the individuals who was actually holed up in a tent in the dead of winter in the vast, southeastern Oregon desert was Sandy Anderson, a 48-year-old former hairdresser– who emerged as one of the toughest minded ideological purists at the standoff.
On Wednesday night before the occupants agreed to surrender, it was Sandy–not her husband Sean Anderson–who was calling the shots.
Clockwise from top left: Oregon standoff participants Sandy Anderson, Sean Anderson, Jeff Banta and David Fry
“I am not going to jail for standing up for my rights,” Sandy Anderson said.
Her husband then chimed in, “If my wife says she’s not leaving, I’m not leaving.”
In the end, Anderson did turn herself over to police.
Oregon was not the first time that women played a critical role in an anti-government occupation, however.
“There always seems to be repeated surprise whenever women are found to be involved in right wing extremism,” Pitcavage says. “A great many women are involved in these movements and the roles that they play may differ from movement to movement and group to group, but they are always present.”
Pivcavage points out that if you go back to Ruby Ridge in 1992, Vicki Weaver, Randy Weaver’s wife who is shot and killed, is “every bit as adamant if not more so than Randy Weaver” about their subscribed ideology. And in the Montana Freemen standoff in the 1990s, Dana Dudley Landers – a member of the sovereign citizens movement– was one of the more hardcore occupiers who was on the run from charges in Colorado, according to CNN. | 1,269,046 |
This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
(CNN) — China’s ban on certain chemicals is being credited by Drug Enforcement Administration officials in a noticeable decrease in certain synthetic drugs in the United States.
Police encounters with six substances that were part of China’s 115-chemical ban have dropped dramatically (PDF) since it took effect in October, DEA numbers show.
Synthetic cannabinoids — commonly known as K2 or spice — stimulants similar to cocaine or MDMA and the notoriously dangerous synthetic known as flakka have fallen dramatically from they were last summer.
Flakka has all but disappeared from Florida, where it was wreaking havoc.
“We’ve definitely seen a significant decrease, especially of flakka,” Broward County Sheriff’s Lt. Ozzy Tianga said.
As a result, DEA officials say, they are optimistic that ongoing meetings with their Chinese counterparts can continue the trend. This month, 14 high-ranking DEA officials spent a week in Beijing and two other Chinese provinces, where they talked about how to work together to tackle the problem of Chinese chemists making and selling dangerous synthetic drugs in the United States.
DEA spokesman Russell Baer called it an “unprecedented dialogue between the two countries.”
China now faces a problem similar to one the United States has been struggling with: how to keep up with chemists who are constantly tweaking formulas to stay one step ahead of the law.
Tianga said he anticipated that new synthetics would show up in place of those banned, and officials have seen some of that, but the numbers have been nothing like last summer, when flakka use was at an alarming high.
“Overall, [synthetics have] significantly dropped since the ban — at the epicenter here in South Florida,” Tianga said. “But by no way are we out of the woods. There will be more molecular changes to substances that will be introduced to society.”
In Florida this summer, the Legislature approved and the governor signed a blanket ban of substances that have no practical use other than to get high.
Baer said the DEA is continuing to work with Chinese officials on a similar ban as they now battle a nationwide problem with synthetic fentanyl.
“They talked about continuing efforts to try to understand each other’s perspective of this problem,” he said. “Historically, we have not been able to talk about this stuff. We’ve now gotten to the point that China is listening to us and addressing some of the [drug] scheduling issues. They are their own country, and they have their own concerns. One [problem] people don’t understand is that China has an extensive commercial manufacturing program over there. These illicit substances … are a small part of that huge legitimate industry.” | 1,269,047 |
Heartless Nimmo ran away with all of Pran Nath Banke’s money leaving him with egg on his face. The neighbourhood is abuzz with it.
Technically it was not his money but we’ll come to that later.
Many of his men friends turned up at his place with ‘we told you so’ condolences. He was yet another casualty of the nefarious schemes hatched by women out to squeeze helpless men dry of their juice.
Too bad this was not Love Jihad otherwise they could’ve hacked Nimmo into boti sized pieces.
Theirs was an unlikely LOU story. Nimmo and Banke were as different as wine and lassi. She, pish -posh, born with a diamond ring in her mouth, soft spoken and petite, who wore nothing but couture. He, a hard-working simpleton, unpretentious to the point of shabby. A quintessential nice guy he was every aspiring mother-in-law’s dream come true. Since he only spoke Punjabi and she really bad Gujarati in a firang accent, they communicated by poking each other. Nimmo had even given him a cute nick-name - Pokemon.
Nobody expected Nimmo to be the runaway bride. Leaving on a jet plane, with not even a note when she’ll be back again. Didn’t even wake him up to say goodbye.
She was after all from a rich khandan and from the looks of it definitely not in need of his money. Ok, not his money but given by others for safeguarding it.
Idiot. Couldn’t even do one job right!
It’s not as if Pran Nath Banke was short of suitors. But they were mostly middle-class and needy. For the uninitiated this is the breed that has to earn their own money instead of inheriting it from their family and then pays most of it as taxes to a government that doesn’t do its job well. Our dear Banke loved to make them sweat like they were in a Mumbai local. One of the commandments of the holy grail of dating is act like a government servant. Keep mum, make them run, and always look disinterested, just like a dead fish. It is rumoured he even made one them dance on broken shards of glass like Basanti in Sholay.
The poorer they were the nastier he was with them.
Nimmo was subjected to none of this. All she had to do was shimmy in a skimpy tight dress that could have gotten her raped but didn’t and pout seductively. Then she faked some interest. And before she could croon ‘are you loansome tonight’, he was hopelessly in LOU with her.
Unfortunately, his inner voice that was screaming Banke, you fool, you are giving her too much credit, was put on mute. | 1,269,048 |
has been falling.
Gender Inequality: Fossil fuel societies have become intolerant of gender inequality, though it has been something of a struggle. Morris argues that the technologies supported by the fossil fuel revolution eventually broke down the rationale for the pre-existing gendered division of labour. Muscle power was no longer so important; brain-power became key. Contraception allowed women (and men) to control the number of children they had. Various other technologies reduced the burden of housework (e.g. automated cleaning equipment). Of course, gendered stereotypes and attitudes remained long after the dawn of the fossil fuel age (and linger to this day) but there is widespread recognition that they are undesirable.
I should note here that the chapter on fossil fuel societies is one of the longest in Morris’s book and he explores the nuances and the evidential basis for his claims about values in a lot of detail. I’m skipping over virtually all of that in my summary.
4. Conclusion
As I said at the outset, I think that it is an interesting way of describing and categorising the evolution of human values. And as set out by Morris, it seems to fit the data, but I’m not well-versed enough in the empirical minutiae to dispute what he says.
By way of conclusion, I should say something about why Morris thinks that these changes have taken place. Obviously, he thinks that the changes in techniques of energy capture are the root cause of the changes in values, but he does have a more elaborate explanatory framework. I don’t have time to cover it in great detail here, but in broad outline it all hangs on the relationship between energy capture and population size and density. In essence, he thinks that changes in energy capture encouraged changes in population size and density, which in turn forced changes in social organisation, which encouraged experiments in different value systems. Social organisations that adopted particular sets of values tended to do better than others who adopted alternative values, which eventually led societies to settle down into the general patterns outlined above. This sounds vaguely plausible, but of course it is very difficult to test.
I want to close with one final image, taken from Morris’s book. This is his ‘reductionist, simplifying and doubtless distorting’ attempt to compare the value systems of all three societies. There is something interesting about the patterns this diagram reveals. Take a look:
Did you notice the pattern? Farming societies are relatively more different than fossil fuel and foraging societies. They are, in a sense, the societies with values most alien to our own. Morris suggests that some of the contemporary clash of civilisations can be understood in terms of cultures that continue to cling to agrarian value systems in the face of fossil fuel imperialism.
Morris has some interesting speculations about what all this means for the future as we transition to a post-fossil fuel society. I have some thoughts on this too. I hope to outline them another time.
| 1,269,049 |
Close
Naughty Dog's "Uncharted" franchise has been a smashing success, with the latest title "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" getting high praises from critics and gamers alike.
So what's next for a huge franchise like "Uncharted?" Movie adaptations, of course.
Talking to Daily Star, actor Nolan North, the voice of "Uncharted" protagonist Nathan Drake, confirmed that the movie is being planned.
When asked who he wants to play as Nathan, North mentioned "Guardians of the Galaxy" star Chris Pratt. North, who also did the motion capture for Nathan Drake, said that Pratt will do the "Uncharted" hero justice.
"He's vulnerable, he's kinda funny, he's kinda that hero with a smirk, cocky and confident," North said. "That scene when he says 'I'm Starlord', that's such a Drake moment."
The studio previously made an offer to Pratt,but he reportedly turned down the role, according to Hollywood Reporter.
North also agreed that "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." actor Brett Dalton will make a perfect Nathan Drake. Dalton has been highly recommended by fans of "Uncharted". Fans took to Twitter to express their desire for Dalton to snag the role using the hashtag #BrettForNate.
North also said that the actor who is rumored to be in the running for the main role, Mark Wahlberg, will not be suitable for Nathan Drake.
"The last I heard Mark Wahlberg was still in the running, but I really don't see it," North said.
Wahlberg has said in an MTV interview in 2010 that he is confirmed for the role, saying that director David O' Russell is a good friend and is already starting on the script.
"The idea that he has is just insane," Wahlberg said at the time. "So hopefully we'll be making that movie this summer."
O' Russell has since left the production, stating that Sony rejected his script about "an art-heist movie involving a family of international thieves, using the game as a loose template."
In April, "Uncharted" game director Neil Truckmann confirmed that the movie adaptation is being made, but Naughty Dog has only been "somewhat involved" in the development, according to IGN.
"Every once in a while they'll come in and they'll present to us: here's the script, here's what we're thinking. We'll tell them what we think works, what we think doesn't work," Druckman said. "That's where we're at. Last I heard is they got a new screenwriter, but we haven't seen anything in a while."
"Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" is slated for a June 30, 2017 release date.
© Copyright 2020 Mobile & Apps, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. | 1,269,050 |
Perfect symmetry: J. D. Salinger complains that his book is censored, then J. D. Salinger turns around and censors someone else’s book.
He probably wouldn’t see it that way. He’d probably say he’s “protecting his property” or something like that. But in fact what he has done is ban a book — a sequel someone else wrote to Salinger’s book The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger had other options. For example, if he doesn’t like this particular sequel, he could simply not endorse it. In fact, given the extraordinary powers current copyright law grants him, he could even insist that the sequel be marked as “unauthorized”, so that his name and reputation wouldn’t be associated with it. (Of course, in a world where people didn’t assume that a sequel must be authorized, even that step wouldn’t be necessary.)
But instead of choosing an option that respects the freedom of readers and of other authors, he’s suing to ban the new book. The usual pieties about freedom of speech (“the best antidote to bad speech is better speech”) somehow melt away and magically don’t apply for him, even though if he were asked, he would probably claim that he agrees with them. What is it about copyright, that it manages to sink so deeply into people’s worldview that they cannot see censorship when it’s right in front of their faces? When they’re the ones doing the censoring?
On the other hand, the author of this sequel, Fredrik Colting, gets it:
“I am pretty blown away by the judge’s decision. Call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books.”
His lawyer, Edward H. Rosenthal, raises the free speech issue too:
“…members of the public are deprived of the chance to read the book and decide for themselves whether it adds to their understanding of Salinger and his work.”
Though really, why should it even be necessary that the book add to anyone’s understanding of Salinger’s work? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. Either way, it still shouldn’t be censored.
What can you do? Well, wear one of our ©ensorship shirts (women’s and men’s available in various sizes), and when someone asks you about it, tell them how copyright leads some authors to ban other authors’ books. The back of the shirt has our web site address and logo:
Wearing them really works, by the way. I wore one on a train recently and wound up having a great conversation about copyright with two people, one of them a musician coming back from a gig, after they asked me about the front. | 1,269,051 |
Somebody with a keen pair of eyes ;-)
Gets raunchy a bit
More so!
A LOT more so :-O
And well...
lol
Almost getting boring with this...
When the Duolingo robot starts to flirt ;-)
Becomes really sweet :)
But then the flirting gets complicated ;-)
Straight to the point :-) Like this bluntness.
Dang!
People start sensing when it gets creepy ;-)
Creepier!
Next level of creepiness
Duo also ventures into BDSM :-P
From BDSM to …
That’s the question.
Consequences of over-flirting ;-)
Honest Duo promptly acknowledges it
But it won’t stop :-(
Being brutally honest
Here starts the unavoidable irony comments
More irony
No irony here, seems legit.
Resurrection
Duo beings to show its dark side.
And soon it gets intimidating :-O
The intimidation escalates!
Almost there
It’s done :-(
Duo goes to depression mode :(
Maybe that’s because...
Could also be because…
Never fall in brozone, bro!
This is weird, though :-D
Thank you, made my day :)
Been my resolution from last three years.
And this habit, of course :)
There’s battle of sexes.
I’m speechless ;)
There’s more…
Liberal Duo ;)
Duo is both a social and cultural liberal ;)
Familial values ;)
Duo is an owl, FYI.
And then these absurd numbers ;)
What the…
Valid question ;)
Good contender for Reddit TIL frontpage
Coastal folks maybe, but still...
Kinda scary ;)
Another TIL candidate.
For sure
lol :-P
Hahaha.
PetRent ;) New startup idea.
Speaking of start-ups...
Careful ;)
Fair deal I’d say
Passed the Turing Test yet?
| 1,269,052 |
Controversial guerilla journalist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas has released new material, which he had promised would directly implicate US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton -- it would seem as though he was not exaggerating.
The new video revolves around “Donald Ducks,” an actor dressed as the Disney character with a sign urging Donald Trump to release his tax information, that appeared at Trump Tower towards the end of the summer.
In the footage, Robert Creamer, the former head of Democracy Partners, a progressive consulting group, discussed how this idea came about directly on Clinton’s orders. Creamer has already stepped down from his position, after being implicated in the first two Veritas videos.
“In the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground,” says Creamer. “So, by God, we would get ducks on the ground.”
It is illegal for a campaign or party to coordinate directly with a Super PAC or action group.
“Hillary Clinton and the DNC wanted the Donald Ducks agitators at Trump and Pence campaign events. The direct involvement of the campaign and the Democratic National Committee with Americans United for Change and activists wearing Donald Duck costumes smacks strongly of illegal coordinated campaign expenditures,” Project Veritas notes in their release.
Scott Foval, the national field director of Americans United for Change, also discusses nearly getting punched while wearing the duck costume himself. He seemed almost excited by the prospect of violence surrounding the duck — consistent with a previous video, in which he discussed the tactic of “bird-dogging.”
In the first video, Foval explained that “bird-dogging” is a tactic the Clinton campaign is said to employ, of hiring provocateurs to incite violence at Trump events.
"I mean, honestly, it's not hard to get some of these a------- to pop off," Foval purportedly says at one point in the video. "It's a matter of showing up, to want to get into their rally, in a Planned Parenthood T-shirt. Or 'Trump is a Nazi,' you know. You can message to draw them out, and draw them out to punch you,” Foval tells the undercover journalist.
The second video was focused on voter fraud, as the operative explained how to successfully commit it on a mass scale.
Foval and Creamer have both since lost their jobs, with Foval being fired and Creamer stepping down. It was subsequently revealed that Creamer has visited the White House 340 times — meeting with Obama 45 times.
O’Keefe has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against both Clinton’s campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee based upon what he has uncovered.
During a rally in Gettysburg on Saturday, Trump also promised that he would be suing the DNC for inciting violence at his rallies, based on the Project Veritas videos. | 1,269,053 |
mkmagius01 wrote:
The only peculiarity I see of the nominees are Kennerspiel ones. When reading the rules for QofQ and Clever, I thought they seemed light compared to past Kennerspiel nominees. I didn't find them any more complex than Azul. On the other hand when people were predicting Heaven & Ale in the weeks prior I kept thinking it was too complex for a nomination. The bgg weight ratings somewhat agree with me. QofQ (which doesn't have many ratings) and Clever are currently the lowest weight games to be nominated by Kennerspiel and while H&A is within the range of past nominees is on the high end of the scale.
Maybe there weren't many good games between those 3?
Quote:
Unfortunately, we are increasingly under the impression that ever more very good games are being hastily put together at the last minute in order to meet release deadlines, without sufficient attention being paid to the comprehensibility and completeness of their rulebooks. We have never had to rule out so many in and of themselves very good games as this year, simply because their rulebooks did not meet the quality we expect. We jury members no longer wish to see ourselves in the role of beta-testers for rulebooks, which are only made adequate on the second printing run.
Quote:
What most annoyed us this year, however, was rulebooks which were full of mistakes, and which lacked any careful editorial revision. Especially with international publishers, sometimes misleading and incomplete translations led to helplessness and a shrugging of shoulders around the gaming table. Only adults experienced in playing games were able to play correctly purely by intuition. That's why certain extraordinary and stunning game concepts, and ones children really enjoyed, haven't made it onto our recommendation lists. That's an incredible shame, sometimes these shortcomings were evident even after the first play. We're wondering where this comes from. Are the publishers or the German distributors really under such high pressure that new releases have to be rushed out onto the market in such haste?
Ganz's score sheet — intuitive enough for everyone?
Quote:
Red [i.e., Spiel] marks games for everyone, especially people who have little experience with games. Even this group will have little difficulty getting to grips with these games. The charcoal-grey category [i.e., Kennerspiel] is for those players who have a little more experience in learning and applying tactical thinking to rules systems.
Quote:
Santorini we recommend as a purely two-player game. With Facecards we've managed to get a small, relaxed party game onto the list. Woodlands appeals to a logical sense of spatial awareness. Memoarrr! requires a good memory, 5-Minute-Dungeon is co-operative teamwork under time pressure and Majesty is a classic improvement game. In the more challenging arena there is a deck-building game in the fantasy genre (Clank!) and a strategic Western adventure (Pioneers). | 1,269,054 |
Hillary Clinton, Marc Elias
All eyes are on Florida right now as the state braces for another recount.
Marc Elias, partner at Perkins Coie law firm and Hillary Clinton’s fixer who paid Fusion GPS for the fake Russia dossier, has been retained to help the Democrats steal the election recount operation.
Broward County and Palm Beach County in Florida, both Democrat strongholds are still counting ballots two days after the polls closed and Senator Marco Rubio is blaming elections supervisor Brenda Snipes.
Earlier Thursday, Senator Rubio said Broward County and Palm Beach County refused to disclose how many ballots they have left to count.
TRENDING: BREAKING: 'At Least 10 Shots' Reportedly Fired at Police By Louisville Black Lives Matter Rioters — UPDATE... At Least Two Officers Shot (VIDEOS)
Rubio said the latest ballot dump from Broward County flipped the AG Comm race to Dem and cut down Scott’s lead from 54K to 17K against Democrat Bill Nelson in the US Senate race and we still don’t know how many ballots they have left to count!
Democrat Bill Nelson is fighting Republican Rick Scott with swamp dweller Marc Elias of Perkins Coie.
Figures.
Sen. Bill Nelson is bringing in election law lawyer Marc Elias to run his Florida recount operation. “A significant number of ballots have not yet been counted and, because of the size of Florida, we believe the results of the election are unknown,” Elias says
https://twitter.com/TroyKinsey/status/1060320341313179648
Wednesday evening, Marc Elias warned ‘more tomorrow’ in response to US House Editor at the Cook Political Report Dave Wasserman who said, “Still trying to wrap my head around Dems winning House seats in Oklahoma, Staten Island & Beaufort, SC but failing to breakthrough statewide in FL.”
“Just wait. Don’t be so sure. More tomorrow,” Elias said.
https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1060347112213360640
Thursday evening, Marc Elias bragged about Nelson magically gaining votes two days after the polls closed.
ELIAS: BREAKING: The Florida Senate election has further narrowed. Nelson now trails by only 15,597 or.19%. Counting continues As I said earlier, I expect that margin to narrow further until recount. The outcome is currently unknown, but I would rather be Nelson than Scott.
https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1060690919421292545
Thursday evening, Governor Rick Scott filed a lawsuit against Broward election supervisor Brenda Snipes.
Gov. Rick Scott & the NRSC are filing a public records lawsuit against Broward election supervisor Brenda Snipes for failing to provide them with information about outstanding ballots that have yet to be tabulated. The lawsuit comes as Scott’s margins are shrinking v. Sen Nelson | 1,269,055 |
This is the position the Obama administration took in 2014, when Holder released a memo stating that the Department of Justice would no longer argue that gender-identity-based workplace-discrimination claims weren’t covered by Title VII. “Although Congress may not have had such claims in mind when it enacted Title VII,” Holder wrote, “the Supreme Court has made clear that Title VII must be interpreted according to its plain text.” On his reading, the statute could rightfully include discrimination against someone simply because the person is transgender.
This position, however, is controversial. Opponents have argued that the text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not explicitly include gender identity, and the government cannot enforce the law that way. This is the line Sessions took in his new memo. “‘Sex’ is ordinarily defined to mean biologically male or female,” he wrote. “Although Title VII provides various protections to transgender individuals, Title VII does not prohibit discrimination based on gender identity per se.” Based on this reasoning, Sessions has withdrawn Holder’s previous memo, noting that this is the position the DOJ will take in “all pending and future matters.”
“The Department of Justice cannot expand the law beyond what Congress has provided,” wrote Devin O’Malley, a DOJ spokesman, in an email. “Unfortunately, the last administration abandoned that fundamental principle, which necessitated today’s action.”
As it turns out, a lot of cases on this topic currently are pending. A number of high-profile cases deal with Title VII and discrimination based on sexual orientation, including a case about a skydiver recently heard before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trump administration filed a brief in that case as well, asserting a similar position: It does not see Title VII as prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians based on their sexual orientation.
Legal advocates on both sides tend to present the interpretation of sex discrimination under Title VII as a black-and-white issue. “They’re starting from different policy views, and when people are strongly committed to a policy view, they put a gloss on words that are more ambiguous,” said Harper. Sessions stated in his memo that the change is “a conclusion of law, not policy,” arguing that his is simply the straightforward interpretation of the statute.
The National Center for Transgender Equality and other advocacy groups, on the other hand, claim the opposite: Theirs is the correct interpretation of the law. “According to Sessions, an employer is free to hang a ‘Transgender Need Not Apply’ sign in their window,” wrote the executive director, Mara Keisling, in an emailed statement. “Fortunately, he is dead wrong on the law.”
This divide is reflected in the courts, which are split on the question of whether sex discrimination covers sexual orientation. Eventually, “the interpretation of Title VII will be decided by the Supreme Court,” Harper said. | 1,269,056 |
Frank Wildhorn, Tracy Miller Schell, Carly Robyn Green, Jason Howland collaborate on musical
TOHO and Fuji TV announced on Thursday that Naoshi Arakawa's Your Lie in April ( Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso ) manga is inspiring a stage musical that will run in Tokyo's Brillia Hall in July 2020.
Frank Wildhorn, an American composer known for songs sung by Whitney Houston ("Where Do Broken Hearts Go?") and Natalie Cole, is scoring the musical. Wildhorn also previously scored Death Note the Musical, and is a Broadway veteran of such hit musicals as Jekyll & Hyde and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Tracy Miller Schell and Carly Robyn Green co-wrote the lyrics with Wildhorn. Composer Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Jekyll & Hyde) is in charge of the arrangement and orchestration for the musical. Ikko Ueda directs the musical, while Riko Sakaguchi ( The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Mary and The Witch's Flower ) pens the book.
The cast includes Yūta Koseki (top row left in image above) and Tatsunari Kimura (top row center) double cast for the role of protagonist Kōsei Arima. Erika Ikuta (top row right) plays the heroine Kaori Miyazono. Fūka Yuzuki (bottom row left) plays Tsubaki Suwabe. Kōki Mizuta (bottom row center) and Takuto Teranishi (bottom row right) are double cast for the role of Ryōta Watari.
Arakawa's original manga follows Kōsei Arima, a former child prodigy who lost his ability to play the piano when his mother died. His daily life is monochrome, but it begins to gain color when he meets a female violinist by chance. Kaori Miyazono is an audacious go-getter who is overflowing with personality. Enchanted by the girl, Kōsei begins to rediscover his love for piano when Kaori invites him to be her accompanist for a competition.
The manga debuted in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine in 2011, and ended in February 2015. Kodansha published the 11th and final compiled volume in Japan in May 2015, which shipped with an OVA episode. The series won the Best Shōnen Manga category in Kodansha's 37th Annual Manga Awards in 2013. Kodansha Comics released the manga in North America, and released the 11th and final volume in December.
A television anime series adaptation of Arakawa's manga premiered in 2014. Aniplex of America streamed the anime on the Aniplex Channel, Hulu, and Crunchyroll as it aired in Japan. The company released the series on home video with an English dub. The manga also received a live-action film adaptation, which opened in Japan in September 2016. A stage play adaptation debuted in 2017.
Source: Comic Natalie | 1,269,057 |
Family members said a Kansas City man died while shielding his grandchildren and great-grandchildren during a drive-by shooting.Now, the daughter of Gary Cutchlow Jr. is asking the public for help finding his killer.“My dad was 62 years old. He still had half his life to live,” said his daughter, Chiquita Wash.Bullet holes riddle Cutchlow’s house on South Benton Avenue.“One up the window. Others went upstairs through the window,” said Wash.She said her father was outside hugging his grandchildren and great-grandchildren when someone drove by and opened fire.“His life was taken because he was trying to, he was saving the other people,” Wash said.She said there’s no doubt that her dad saved those children Monday. She said she’s left thinking about all the things she’ll miss.“Going fishing, having barbecues, having a fish fry. He was the life of the party. I’m going to miss all that,” she said. “I just want justice for my dad and it’s going to happen one way or another.”Another man was also injured during the shooting. He was treated at a hospital and released.Anyone with information that can help police is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
Family members said a Kansas City man died while shielding his grandchildren and great-grandchildren during a drive-by shooting.
Now, the daughter of Gary Cutchlow Jr. is asking the public for help finding his killer.
“My dad was 62 years old. He still had half his life to live,” said his daughter, Chiquita Wash.
Bullet holes riddle Cutchlow’s house on South Benton Avenue.
“One up the window. Others went upstairs through the window,” said Wash.
She said her father was outside hugging his grandchildren and great-grandchildren when someone drove by and opened fire.
“His life was taken because he was trying to, he was saving the other people,” Wash said.
She said there’s no doubt that her dad saved those children Monday. She said she’s left thinking about all the things she’ll miss.
“Going fishing, having barbecues, having a fish fry. He was the life of the party. I’m going to miss all that,” she said. “I just want justice for my dad and it’s going to happen one way or another.”
Another man was also injured during the shooting. He was treated at a hospital and released.
Anyone with information that can help police is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. | 1,269,058 |
If you exceed your $175 minimum, you can donate funds to help your team member reach their minimum. Adult climbs must raise a minimum of $175 and youth must reach $100. However, you cannot give your team members more than the required minimum to climb. Email [email protected] if you have questions.
How do I register a new team or add myself to an existing team?
Please visit base2spaceseattle.com and click the register button. Then select “join a team” or “create a team”. To select a team to join, simply use the search field to find the registered team name and continue to fill out the required information to complete your registration. To form a team, create a team name and set a team goal based on the total number of participants on your team. There is a $175 fundraising minimum or adults and a $100 minimum for youth.
What is the fundraising minimum for a team?
To determine your team’s minimum fundraising goal, simply multiply the number of adult team members by $175, and the number of youth team members by $100, and then add the two totals for your team’s minimum fundraising goal. The team’s total funds raised must cover each climber’s minimum donation requirement. If you need to move funds to a teammate’s fundraising page, please email [email protected]. Participants cannot move more than the required minimum to their teammates’ fundraising pages.
Do all team members need to sign up for the same wave type?
No. You can register for the wave that is right for you! However, if you would like to climb with your team, make sure you sign up for the same type of wave during registration. The deadline to switch your wave is Sunday, September 9. Email [email protected]. Please note that there will be a $10 fee charged for each request.
How do I change my team’s fundraising goal?
So long as your team raises enough funds to cover everyone’s minimum, you can edit your overall team goal. No team’s fundraising goal should be below the minimum donation amount.
How are company matches applied to team fundraising pages?
Simply ask your HR rep or your employers matching gifts rep to submit the paperwork to the Space Needle Foundation. Be sure to note the matching gift is for Base 2 Space. Please note the time it takes to receive the actual gift can vary depending on your company. Some companies will send it within a couple weeks of your request, while others take months. Matching gifts are an easy way to increase your team’s fundraising goal. Be sure to encourage your donors to submit matching gift requests to leverage your fundraising. NOTE: To qualify for the Spire Climb, climbers must submit written proof that they have been granted a matching gift when they pick up their packets at the registration tent. | 1,269,059 |
Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Sorry Sarah Silverman, not all celeb Bernie Sanders supporters are hopping on Hillary Clinton‘s bandwagon.
Rosario Dawson and Shailene Woodley are joining Susan Sarandon in their skepticism of Clinton’s campaign.
“There’s a lot of talk about unity, but we’re not feeling it, we’re not seeing it, it’s not being reflected to individual delegates I’ve spoken to … [there are] a lot of voters who didn’t even get to be counted, so that we’re not just saying unity, but trying to build it,” Sanders support Dawson, 37, told the Young Turks.
Dawson was particularly peeved by the recent DNC email leaks’ implication that the party was biased against Sanders from the start.
“When Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns because of the DNC leaks and is immediately hired and there’s nothing in the statement from Hillary Clinton that even acknowledges the reason why she’s now available to run her campaign … there’s already a trust gap, there’s already a feeling that there isn’t integrity there,” Dawson said. “They want not just our votes, they want that energy, they want that phone banking, they want that canvassing, they want what people were inspired to do for Bernie Sanders, and [supporters are] not feeling that inspiration. The narrative that’s being pushed is that there’s this wonderful unity that’s going on, and in reality, there [was] a huge walkout yesterday.”
“It has not been a fair fight. It’s been an ugly fight,” she continued. “The DNC leaks just showed this weekend that there was a willingness to be anti-Semitic in order to push back against Bernie Sanders. That’s big, and that’s not being acknowledged.”
Woodley, 24, had her own reasons for not joining Clinton’s camp just yet. “If you tell someone, ‘You have to vote for this person to prevent A, B, C and D,’ I don’t think there’s going to be much momentum.”
Dawson echoed the sentiment. “When I’m at the DNC and I’m seeing Trump’s name everywhere because ‘Love Trumps Hate,’ I want to know that that love is actually there. Saying that you’re better than Trump is not saying very much … I think it’s important that [Sanders supporters’] votes are earned and not just expected to be delivered.”
More stars who’ve felt the Bern: | 1,269,060 |
« Bailout: Christopher Story FRSA: Urgent and Breaking Update, 24th September 2008 | Main | About Great Trucks, Vans and SUVs »
ATTEND AN EMERGENCY RALLY, IN YOUR AREA, AGAINST THE BAILOUT
I started monitoring these guys years ago simply because they like to alert members of when congress is going to do something stupid. Recently I just respond to their advertisements for Obama with a polite, Obama and McCain are both evil speech. I don't think anyone reads it, but it makes me feel better about actually being on their damn near communist roster. Anyways, tonight I got this:
Dear michael,
Our pressure is working. Already this week, TrueMajority members have made almost 20,000 calls to tell their Senators "NO" to the Bush corporate bailout. Now news is beginning to come out that some lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, are having second thoughts about going along with the administration's plan.
We can put the brakes on this.
Tomorrow, Thursday, September 25th at 5 pm ordinary Americans are organizing Emergency Rallies against the Bailout nationwide. Other TrueMajority members have already started 75 rallies in their towns, will you join them?
ATTEND AN EMERGENCY RALLY AGAINST THE BAILOUT
We're all in this together. The proposed bailout is a $700,000,000,000 dollar check from your bank account, handed over to Wall Street. This is literally the largest give away of public money to the private sector in history. We have an historic emergency, and it's on us to step up and lead.
If there isn't already a rally in your community, start one right now.
Once you pick a time and place we'll help turnout other TrueMajority members to your event and provide signs you can print out and a sample program. The most important thing is for you to pick a spot where you'll be seen, and start inviting other people you know right now.
Together we'll send a clear message that America Says NO to Bush Bailout!
Thanks for leading the way,
-Ilya
Ilya Sheyman
Online Organizer
America Says NO Bush Bailout!
Attend an emergency rally against the Bush bailout.
I don't support these guys, but if anyone wants to go with me to hand out literature, just let me know.
September 25, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451d3ac69e2010534d432ea970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference ATTEND AN EMERGENCY RALLY, IN YOUR AREA, AGAINST THE BAILOUT:
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed. | 1,269,061 |
The video will start in 8 Cancel
The Daily Star's FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inbox Sign up today! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email
(Image: PA/GETTY)
Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe has been ordered to undergo the painful operation if he wants to become a Muslim.
Now the 70-year-old is thought to be changing his mind after Islamist prisoners told him it’s the chop – or nothing.
Daily Star Sunday revealed last month that the monster planned to switch religions to stay safe in prison.
(Image: GETTY)
The multiple murderer has faced daily death threats since moving from Broadmoor Hospital to HMP Frankland in August.
Sutcliffe hoped that by converting to Islam his fellow Muslim prisoners would protect him.
But the hardline Islamic group inside the prison have demanded Sutcliffe first proves his commitment – by having his foreskin surgically removed.
All Muslim men have the operation within a few weeks of birth. But it is not always mandatory for adult converts to Islam because the surgery can be so painful.
Sutcliffe has been attending daily Islamic prayer meetings, and has been given a copy of the Koran.
He has also stopped eating pork. Insiders said the killer hoped he had done enough to convince Muslim inmates.
(Image: GETTY)
One source said: “He was told by his Muslim brothers he could only show he had properly converted to Islam if he was circumcised.
“When he was told that the operation is incredibly painful he went very quiet and very white.
“Sutcliffe asked if there was any alternative but was told there was none.”
Prison sources have told the Daily Star Sunday that the killer had hoped that changing faith would allow him access to a special diet.
In addition, he was told by other Muslims that he would get more time out of his cell and the right to refuse certain types of prison work.
They have also revealed that Sutcliffe told fellow inmates that he murdered 13 women because he was following God’s orders.
He is said to be “holding court” in his prison cell describing the murders in explicit detail to other killers serving life.
Sutcliffe, from Bradford, West Yorks, feared for his life after being sent to Frankland – regarded as one of Britain’s toughest jails.
(Image: GETTY)
It is home to serial killers and some of the country’s most violent offenders.
Four years ago, child rapist Mitchell Harrison, 23, was disembowelled by two lags inside the Co Durham unit.
Sutcliffe, convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more, lost his fight to remain in Broadmoor secure hospital this summer.
His move to Frankland will save taxpayers about £250,000 a year. | 1,269,062 |
The SFSS was no stranger to consolidation, but on its own terms. For once innovation was absent and it was the Scots who were slowly being forced onto the back foot. The sector was beginning to follow trends, not set them. Those trends suggested that financial markets were being integrated on a global scale. The Scottish institutions saw this and recognised the trend
should be embraced.
In the 1990s the Charlotte Square mob began to disband as companies made their way to more modern and practical buildings. In 1993 Aegon of the Netherlands bought a 40% stake in Scottish Equitable, and took complete control in 1998. In 1997 The Prudential bought Scottish Amicable for nearly £3bn. Two of Scotland's most powerful institutions were no longer Scottish-owned. As the new millennium dawned it was questionable whether a standalone SFSS needed or wanted to survive.
It is a supreme irony that Charlotte Square now houses Scotland's first minister. Alex Salmond's claims about the contribution the sector makes to the Scottish economy seem out of kilter with the reality of the underlying economic structure.
The analysis shows that the 15 biggest Scottish-registered companies accounted for 97% of all UK sales generated by Scottish-registered companies. But 10 of those companies are owned either overseas or in England.
The SFSS is already fully integrated into the global financial system. Scotland, like the rest of the world, is dominated by a decreasing number of global players.
It is perhaps significant that two of the largest pure Scottish companies, Standard Life and Alliance Trust, have both said they will explore setting up English-registered companies in the event of a yes vote. This is perhaps not a comment on political independence, but a recognition that financial independence is no longer practical in an integrated international financial market.
It is also significant that the three Scottish banks empowered to issue banknotes are no longer independent. Royal Bank of Scotland is controlled by the British government, Bank of Scotland is owned by Lloyds and Clydesdale by National Australia Bank.
It has been acknowledged that there is a great financial interdependence between Scotland and the rest of the UK. Ninety percent of the customers of Scottish institutions are based outside Scotland, 80% of pensions and 70% of ISAs owned by Scots are provided by non-Scottish companies.
That interdependence has created a top heavy sector with the biggest players totally dominant. Seventy-nine of the 147 pure Scottish companies were so small that they are not required to produce
a profit and loss account. Of the next 28 medium-sized companies, not one had annual UK sales in excess of £10m. Meanwhile 30 of the 40 Scottish-registered companies controlled in England or overseas had turnover above £10m and 17 in excess of £100m. Only seven pure Scottish companies had UK sales in excess of £100m.
The analysis suggests that financial institutions based in Scotland are powerful global, not Scottish, organisations. Times have changed, and the days when just being Scottish counted for a lot in the financial sector have passed. | 1,269,063 |
Investing in Colombian emeralds is becoming more popular, due to their unique characteristics, beauty and scarcity. There are more than USD 10 billion in Colombian emeralds in the market. Currently, 5 to 10% of the yearly production is used for investment purposes, with an expectation of growth in this aspect of 50% in the upcoming 10 years.
Colombian emerald production is a multimillion dollar industry, thanks to the outstanding quality of these gemstones and their international fame. For instance, in the scale of tonality, Colombian emeralds, according to experts and gemologists, are the most balanced, which means they are not very dark nor very light; in other words, they have a perfect saturation. Also, they stand out for their deep clarity and often extraordinary size.
Emeralds are excellent as a store of value due to a set of different factors: physical attributes, scarcity and even the historical background.
All these attributes make Colombian emeralds a desired precious gemstone, whose demand has been growing day by day and whose value has not decreased in the latest years. Plus, there are very few mines; new ones have not been discovered in a long time, which means they are a scarce asset, with unique qualities, that make them an attractive and profitable investment.
Emeralds are excellent as a store of value due to a set of different factors: physical attributes, scarcity and even the historical background. The most famous come from Colombia, which has dominated the international trade for almost five centuries. Although there are other lead producers, such as Zambia and Brazil, the unique characteristics of the Colombian emeralds are an important differentiation, which makes them the most desired in the world.
The secret resides in the millenary recipe of elements, including aluminum, silicate oxide, chromium, iron and vanadium, which initiated the eons-long formation process of the emeralds starting 30–38 million years ago, during the development of the Andean mountains.
On the other hand, Colombia hosts inside its mountains the most important emerald mines in the world, such as Cunas (a partner of GEMERA’s) and Muzo. Both produce the best, rarest and most expensive emeralds in the world.
GIA Interviews Edwin Molina, Member of the Board of Advisors at GEMERA
Edwin Molina, Leader of the Emerald Industry in Colombia and Member of GEMERA’s Board of Advisors
For more information about Colombian emeralds potential, check this interview (goo.gl/vkBEQa) that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) made to Edwin Molina, member of the Board of Advisors at GEMERA and President at Colombian Emerald Producers Association (Aprecol), where he talks about his experience as a CEO of the greatest emerald mine in the world, how North American companies are making huge investments in Colombian emerald projects and why the demand of these gemstones have been growing. | 1,269,064 |
Last updated on.From the section Football
Jonathan Kodjia has scored 17 goals for Villa this season
Jonathan Kodjia scored twice as a depleted Aston Villa beat 10-man Sheffield Wednesday to claim their fourth win in five games.
Villa had a number of key players out and lost Henri Lansbury in the warm-up before Nathan Baker limped off injured.
Kodjia headed the hosts in front before Vincent Sasso was sent off for a challenge on Conor Hourihane.
Owls boss Carlos Carvalhal was sent to the stands for his subsequent protest before Kodjia fired in his second.
Wednesday started brightly and looked more likely to open the scoring with Sam Winnall twice going close, first firing wide from 25 yards before seeing another attempt on goal saved by Sam Johnstone.
Sasso then had a goal ruled out for offside before Villa took the lead as Kodjia headed in from Conor Hourihane's cross.
Defender Sasso was given a red card just three minutes after the break for fouling Hourihane which led to strong protests from Owls boss Carvalhal, who was also sent off by referee Lee Probert.
Wednesday had a strong appeal for a penalty turned down after Jack Hunt was brought down in the box by Neil Taylor.
And, after Jordan Rhodes fired high and wide, Kodjia then doubled the lead with his 17th goal of the season as he latched onto an Albert Adomah through-ball before rounding Keiren Westwood.
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce told BBC WM: "We have to be better with the ball, than what we showed but we've turned a horrible run into a decent situation now, we're down to the bare bones, another two injuries today, 11 missing and the sort of run we're on it's credit to them they've rolled up their sleeves.
"Henri Lansbury has hurt his Achilles in the warm-up, and that disrupted us totally but we've overcome it. I felt we needed more up front to give us something we can hit.
"I've always wanted to see Mile Jedinak playing up there. It was good, a change of formation that worked.
"We'd be in serious trouble without Jonathan's goals, we've created wonderful chances to kill the game off and missed them."
Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal told BBC Radio Sheffield: "I will not talk about the referee decisions, but the red card made an impact. We started very well, had two or three chances to score. They had single opportunities to attack and it was 1-0.
"We tried on the break to score in the second-half but the red card made it harder.
"Even in that situation we had one or two chances to score a goal, we problems with our central defenders, forced to make substitutions but even despite this we had chances to score. With 10 players it was too hard." | 1,269,065 |
(Reuters) - CBS Corp’s board is expected to discuss a merger with Viacom Inc on Thursday, sources told Reuters, a move that could begin a formal process to reunite the companies split by controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone more than a decade ago.
FILE PHOTO - A woman exits the Viacom Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S. on April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
The board will need to decide if the deal is now attractive enough to CBS shareholders to overshadow concerns that scuttled a proposed tie-up pushed by Sumner and his daughter Shari Redstone in 2016.
The CBS board meeting is regularly scheduled and no announcement may come out of it, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media.
Viacom and CBS spokespeople declined to comment.
Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish and CBS CEO Leslie Moonves talked about the potential merger earlier this month, Reuters reported.
Viacom’s Nickelodeon and MTV networks and Paramount films could help broadcast-focused CBS’ All Access streaming service become more competitive, and the combined company could also better negotiate with cable and satellite distributors.
“They might be better able to develop more robust OTT offerings faster as a combined entity,” said Michael Nathanson, analyst with Moffett Nathanson, referring to “over the top” streaming.
Some could argue Viacom’s international presence is now more important for CBS given the rapid decline in U.S. cable subscriptions, some analysts have noted.
Walt Disney Co’s recent deal to buy Twenty-First Century Fox Inc assets has stoked a fresh push from Shari Redstone to rejoin the companies her father split in 2006.
Bakish has improved distributor relations, found financing for Paramount Pictures after Chinese investors dropped out and shuffled programming since taking over Viacom in late 2016.
But Viacom shares trade around $33, below a $35 to $38.80 range when the merger was last on the table, potentially making a deal more feasible.
CBS and Viacom last explored merging at the urging of ailing media mogul Sumner Redstone, 94, and Shari Redstone, who control both through privately held National Amusements.
Moonves and CBS’ board had concerns over corporate governance and the deal’s financial rationale, and the Redstones called off the effort in December 2016.
For CBS, which owns the CBS network, local broadcasters and Showtime, taking on cable networks could mean a difficult integration and tough negotiations, said Tim Nollen, analyst with Macquarie Research.
Merging for size alone may not make sense in the long term, and CBS could be better off on its own, some analysts cautioned.
Viacom shares were down 0.4 percent in afternoon trade. CBS shares fell 1.8 percent. | 1,269,066 |
: International Committee of the Red Cross
1943: prize not handed out
1942: prize not handed out
1941: prize not handed out
1940: prize not handed out
1939: prize not handed out
1938: Nansen International Office for Refugees
1937: Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (Britain)
1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Argentina)
1935: Carl von Ossietzky (Germany)
1934: Arthur Henderson (Britain)
1933: Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) (Britain)
1932: prize not handed out
1931: Jane Addams (US) and Nicholas Murray Butler (US)
1930: Nathan Soederblom (Sweden)
1929: Frank Billings Kellogg (US)
1928: prize not handed out
1927: Ferdinand Buisson (France) and Ludwig Quidde (Germany)
1926: Aristide Briand (France) and Gustav Stresemann (Germany)
1925: Sir Austen Chamberlain (Britain) and Charles Gates Dawes (US)
1924: prize not handed out
1923: prize not handed out
1922: Fridtjof Nansen (Norway)
1921: Karl Hjalmar Branting (Sweden) and Christian Lous Lange (Norway)
1920: Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (France)
1919: Thomas Woodrow Wilson (US)
1918: Prize not handed out
1917: International Committee of the Red Cross
1916: Prize not handed out
1915: Prize not handed out
1914: Prize not handed out
1913: Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)
1912: Elihu Root (US)
1911: Tobias Michael Carel Asser (The Netherlands) and Alfred Hermann Fried (Austria)
1910: Permanent International Peace Bureau
1909: Auguste Marie François Beernaert (Belgium) and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)
1908: Klas Pontus Arnoldson (Sweden) and Fredrik Bajer (Denmark)
1907: Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (Italy) and Louis Renault (France)
1906: Theodore Roosevelt (US)
1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner (Austria)
1904: Institute of International Law
1903: William Randal Cremer (Britain)
1902: Elie Ducommun (Switzerland) and Charles Albert Gobat (Switzerland)
1901: Jean Henri Dunant (Switzerland) and Frederic Passy (France) | 1,269,067 |
Jubilant photos (above) from last week, of the European Union’s (EU) grand plans for forced migration quotas spinning into action were indeed arranged by, and funded by the European Commission, in a propaganda effort that clearly went awry. The relocation of migrants from Italy to Sweden was very nearly abandoned after most of the migrants tried to run off.
The original plan, to move 33 Eritreans from Italy to Sweden, saw 14 of them abscond, and the remaining 19 moved and then kept “under lock and key” in the lead up to the publicity stunt.
Regardless, a Commission report handed to EU leaders last night, seen by The Times, hailed the pantomime as “an important symbolic moment which marked the start of a new European approach to the way we treat asylum applications”.
They added: “However, beyond symbolism, relocations now need to become systematic, routine business in Italy and in Greece.”
This is unlikely, as the very feasibility of a forced relocation scheme within the Schengen area is now beginning to be called into question, as Greece and Italy have completely given up trying to send migrants to Luxembourg because so many of them demand to go to their preferred destination of Germany.
“The quotas are not so people can go asylum shopping,” one EU diplomat told The Times. “If you say you are escaping war, you can’t refuse to go to Luxembourg. It is making a joke out of the whole quota system.”
The newspaper also reported that the attempted relocation of more than 30 migrants to Luxembourg – one of the continent’s richest nations – has been completely abandoned because “very many” demanded Germany instead.
Unsurprisingly there have also been problems trying to get migrants to go to Estonia, which resisted the quota system, as authorities in Greece and Italy are reluctant to force migrants to do so.
“Very many refugees are not keen to come to Luxembourg,” confessed Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission and architect of the quota scheme, whose home country is Luxembourg.
“It should not be a challenge for people fleeing their country of origin to ask them to come to Luxembourg,” he said, briefing MEPs on Wednesday evening, expressing his naive, or forced, surprise.
The quota scheme, which proposes to relocate 120,000 migrants into nation, was forced through the European Parliament in September, against the will of Eastern nations, Portugal and the UK, using a shady and undemocratic mechanism called qualified majority voting.
As of now, just six EU countries – Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden and Spain – have declared themselves ready to actually accept any.
“The first relocations of people in clear need of protection have taken place, but much work is still needed to ensure that a substantial flow of several hundreds of relocations per month quickly follows,” said a Commission report handed out last night. | 1,269,068 |
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Google Huddle Chat Taken Down
Just two days after the release, Google removed their main sample application for the new Google App Engine. HuddleChat.com is now showing the following message:
Hi, a couple of our colleagues wrote Huddle Chat in their spare time as a sample application for other developers to demonstrate the power and flexibility of Google App Engine. We’ve heard some complaints from the developer community about it and because of that we’ve decided to take it down. If you’d like to see more sample applications written on Google App Engine please check out our documentation and our App Gallery.
Thanks,
The Google App Engine Team
Someone who identifies himself as Google App Product Manager in a ReadWriteWeb comment adds, “We’ve heard some complaints from the developer community... so rather than divert attention from Google App Engine itself, we thought it better to just take HuddleChat down.” Huddle Chat allowed you to create web-based chat rooms on the fly. It also allowed you to show-case files in that chat room, or dig through transcripts of other chats. One of those transcript mentioned that apparently, Google developers took 3-4 weeks – apparently in their spare time – to create Huddle Chat. John Gruber of Daring Fireball comments on what might have been wrong with Huddle Chat:
HuddleChat is just a feature-for-feature clone of 37signals’s Campfire. The layout is the same, the tabs at the top of the screen are the same, the right-side sidebar listing participants and file uploads is the same. It even copies Campfire’s trick of formatting a message as “code” if it contains literal newline characters.
Borrowing ideas is fair game, but copying an entire app is wrong. And it’s creepy, in a Microsoft-of-the-’90s way, when it’s a $150 billion company cloning an app from a 10-person company.
Sarah Hatter at Twitter put it more bluntly than that. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch on the other hand comments:
Frankly, the reaction is fairly ridiculous. But this is apparently a fight that Google doesn’t want to be involved in. (...)
I wonder if Darren Delaye, Braden Kowitz, and Kyle Consalus, the Google developers who created HuddleChat, had much of a say in the decision.
And while Michael argues that Huddle Chat wasn’t even an official Google product to begin with, John argues, “Under California law, Google owns the rights to any product created by Google employees.”
Other sample apps of the Google App Engine are still available in the App Gallery.
Please comment in the existing Google App Engine forum thread.
[Hat tip to Mysterius, Ianf and Waxy!]
>> More posts
| 1,269,069 |
While there are 50 to 60 varieties of millet in existence, procuring seeds to grow them all would be nearly impossible, so the team is growing the four most widely available varieties at the school’s Gill Tract Community Farm, an urban farm that is open to the community and gives researchers a place to experiment.
In addition to Proso, the researchers are growing Japanese Barnyard millet, “a beautiful variety that has thick husks but might be difficult to hull,” said Hazra; Pearl millet, the variety most commonly grown in India; and Foxtail millet, also called German millet. (Teff, the grain used to make the Ethiopian flatbread injera, is also a form of millet.)
The Millet Project is also working with six California farmers—some of whom are already food activists in their own right, like Doug Mosel of the Mendocino Grain Project and Mai Nguyen of Ca Phao Farm—north of the Bay Area. Many of the farmers are excited to be growing millet for the first time, with seed provided through the grant. “We can see how it fares in different regions and soils in Northern California, so we can learn what conditions it likes best,” said Bubner.
All the researchers have also gotten a crash course in farming, as they are tending to their own crops at the Gill Tract Farm, and have travelled to the other farms to help out. And even Bubner’s mother was drafted to join in, since she visited her daughter during planting time. “I told her she had it coming, since she’s the one who first introduced me to millet,” said Bubner.
On top of cultivating these unsung varieties, The Millet Project also recently held an exhibit extolling the virtues of the grain. They invited visitors to try foods like bread, crackers, and sausage made with millet, and gluten-free beer brewed from the grain. The hope is to pique the interest of eaters looking to expand their diets and eat more whole grains, and to help increase consumer demand, which could result in more millet grown and consumed in the U.S. in the not-too-distant future.
Speaking like the millet evangelist she is, Bubner recalled a recent visit to an agricultural area of Northern California where it was hot, dry, and all she saw was rice fields and almond trees, two crops known to rely heavily on irrigation. “I thought ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ That could be millet,” she said.
Photos, from top: Community members inspect the Millet Project demo farm at the UC Gill Tract: Millet Project team members Amrita Hazra (left) and Gavin Abreu (right); Four types of millet seeds (for planting) and hulled millet and millet meal (for consumption). All photos by Raquel Moreira. | 1,269,070 |
A 15-year-old girl accused of knocking a classmate's front teeth out in an "unprovoked attack" at a McDonald's store in suburban Adelaide has been denied bail.
Key points: The court heard the alleged attack was in response to a racist Instagram comment
The court heard the alleged attack was in response to a racist Instagram comment The accused girl has no criminal history
The accused girl has no criminal history The court was told she laughed during her interview with police
The Adelaide Youth Court heard the 13-year-old victim was hit multiple times in the fast food outlet on Tuesday and has since undergone surgery for her injuries.
WARNING: This story contains an image that some people may find distressing.
Police prosecutors told the court her alleged attacker — who cannot be identified for legal reasons — made full admissions in a police interview and laughed about the allegations.
The 15-year-old was one of two teenage girls charged with aggravated assault over the incident.
A 14-year-old co-accused was bailed to appear in court in March, but has since been re-arrested and charged with breaching bail over alleged threats made on social media.
Footage of the attack was also shared on social media and the court heard the alleged assault was in response to a racist comment posted on Instagram.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 12 seconds 12 s Video of the incident was posted online.
The Magistrate has ordered a bail report.
"It appears to be an unprovoked attack on the victim," the prosecutor told the court.
"The defendant says that it was in response to a racist comment which was put on Instagram.
The accused girl made 'full admissions'
"The defendant has then proceeded to strike the victim … numerous times which has caused a number of her teeth to be pushed out.
"She did make full admissions.
"And quite concerningly, at some point throughout the record of interview and discussing this information with police, she laughed about the allegations."
The student had her teeth knocked out. ( Supplied: Victim's family )
The court heard she has no criminal history.
Outside court, the girl's father said he was sorry for the injuries inflicted on the victim.
The matter will return to court next week.
Education Minister John Gardner said it was an "absolutely appalling incident".
"I think it's of great concern to our entire community whenever you see distressing footage of this nature," he said.
"Without wanting to make any comments that would jeopardise the police investigation or any further action that would be taken in court … it's a phone call no [parent] ever wants to receive.
"All of our hearts go out to the victim of this, and indeed any other incident like this."
He said the Education Department was supporting students at the school. | 1,269,071 |
The homeowner says he shot the teen after he charged at him with a hammer
A month after a homeowner shot and killed a 16-year-old attempting force entry into his house, the Oklahoma County district attorney has announced charges will not be filed. At 3:41 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, emergency dispatchers received a call that someone who tried to break into a Midwest City home had been shot. The 62-year-old caller said he was at home when he heard noises outside and armed himself with a 12-gauge shotgun as someone continued to try to enter the home. The man told investigators he opened his front door and fired at the teen when the he rushed at him with an object ― later identified as a framing hammer― in a threatening manner. The teen, dressed in dark clothing, ran a short distance before collapsing in the driveway, where he died, investigators say. He was found with a backpack containing a sledgehammer and items from the Community Church at LeJean and Westminster.Investigators say the sledgehammer was taken from a truck bed across the street and the teen burglarized the church before trying to break into the home. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater declined to file charges against the homeowner. “Any person who makes a conscious decision to commit this type of crime should take note that homeowners have the legal right to protect themselves,” Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said. “That’s what happened in this event and the law saved an innocent victim.”
A month after a homeowner shot and killed a 16-year-old attempting force entry into his house, the Oklahoma County district attorney has announced charges will not be filed.
At 3:41 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, emergency dispatchers received a call that someone who tried to break into a Midwest City home had been shot.
The 62-year-old caller said he was at home when he heard noises outside and armed himself with a 12-gauge shotgun as someone continued to try to enter the home. The man told investigators he opened his front door and fired at the teen when the he rushed at him with an object ― later identified as a framing hammer― in a threatening manner.
The teen, dressed in dark clothing, ran a short distance before collapsing in the driveway, where he died, investigators say. He was found with a backpack containing a sledgehammer and items from the Community Church at LeJean and Westminster.
Investigators say the sledgehammer was taken from a truck bed across the street and the teen burglarized the church before trying to break into the home.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater declined to file charges against the homeowner.
“Any person who makes a conscious decision to commit this type of crime should take note that homeowners have the legal right to protect themselves,” Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said. “That’s what happened in this event and the law saved an innocent victim.” | 1,269,072 |
, thought to bring good fortune. For this reason, peasant paintings — a decoration rich in folk imagery — satisfy the imaginations of city-dwellers and foreigners who fetishize the exotic pastoral scenes as a true home for the soul. It is unsurprising that peasant paintings once served as popular government gifts and tourist merchandise.
However, peasant painting’s heavy reliance on government and the consumer market is constricting its development. The amateur status of the artists and the high replicability of the works make peasant paintings less competitive in the nearly saturated market of mass artworks and tourism products.
In addition, the inspiration for works like “Spring Awakening” and “Upward Force” comes entirely from a government that hopes to use the visual arts to illustrate its key theories and policies. As the self-ordained patron of peasant painting, the state commissions art for its own exhibitions and competitions, while replicas color the streets and serve as a vehicle for ideological education and propaganda. The ubiquitous posters for China’s so-called socialist core values are good examples of this.
Peasant paintings already struggle to attract buyers among the general public, and collector enthusiasm is slowing. If the government were to pull its support, therefore, the existence of peasant paintings would likely come under threat.
The crisis is rooted in the fact that peasant painting fails to uphold an essential component of folk art: reflecting the spiritual needs of the people. Nearly all folk art pieces closely connect to ancient beliefs or annual festivals, and they find a rich breeding ground in people’s everyday lives. Prayers for good fortune and fertility are both central components of folk art as well as the secret to its longevity, but peasant paintings lack such a base, as their origins lie in government propaganda and the development of local economies.
Globalization complicates the picture even further, as artists must cater to more diverse aesthetic tastes and compete within a larger market. As peasant paintings cleave ever closer to this market, they — in turn — lose much of their original artistic value. The marketization of culture becomes a powerful force that redefines the value of each artwork solely based on how much money can be made from it.
Under the multitude of external forces, peasant painting somewhat resembles the chimera of Greek mythology — a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake. The ever-shifting interaction of the government, the market, and the people makes it impossible to predict what form it might adopt in the future. Whatever the outcome, the simple, subtle style of peasant painting serves as an excellent reminder of how much China has changed economically, politically, and culturally since 1949.
Translator: Clemens Ruben; editors: Lu Hua and Matthew Walsh.
(Header image: ‘The Mother Returns to her Parents’ Home,’ by Liu Dan (2015), an example of Jilin province’s Dongfeng-style peasant painting. Courtesy of the Folklore Institute at East China Normal University) | 1,269,073 |
Any decision to delay the Summer Olympic Games would need to be made before May, a member of the organising committee's executive board told Japanese broadcaster TBS late on Wednesday.
TOKYO: Any decision to delay the Olympics should be made before May, an organising committee board member told Japanese broadcaster TBS late on Wednesday, as doubts over the Summer Games may grow with the coronavirus now declared a pandemic.
Tokyo 2020 executive board member Haruyuki Takahashi's comments came just hours after its chief, Yoshiro Mori, publicly chided him for remarks he first made to the Wall Street Journal that a delay of one or two years would be the most reasonable option if the coronavirus derailed the Games.
The Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments, local organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have all sought to quash persistent speculation that the Games could be cancelled or postponed.
Mori called Takahashi's suggestion "outrageous", while on Thursday Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she believed cancellation was not an option, although she acknowledged that the pandemic label would affect future discussions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) described the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic for the first time, prompting more countries to announce drastic measures.
The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee said its stance had not changed following the declaration of a pandemic.
"We will continue to coordinate our response with the Government of Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and other stakeholders as we prepare for a safe and secure delivery of the Tokyo 2020 Games in July this year," a representive said via email.
Speaking to TBS after Mori's news conference, Takahashi said: "If you think about the athletes, May would seem too late" to make a decision on any delay, according to the broadcaster. "We need to think about taking the first step, before the IOC."
He added that the organising committee would probably discuss postponement at its next meeting later this month, TBS reported.
Takahashi did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. President Donald Trump suspended travel from Europe, except for the UK, for 30 days starting Friday, and hard-hit Italy tightened its lockdown.
One of the most common strategies to contain the coronavirus is to avoid large gatherings, and major sporting events around the world have been cancelled or held without spectators.
The U.S. National Basketball Association said it was suspending the season after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the virus.
As of Wednesday, Japan had 620 cases and 15 deaths, excluding people on a cruise ship that was quarantined near Yokohama last month, according to the health ministry. Experts say the tally may be deceptively low due to the limited number of tests in Japan compared with many other countries.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Gerry Doyle, Peter Rutherford) | 1,269,074 |
Although the stock market may have hit a new all-time high recently, investors are feeling increasingly worried. According to one metric, fear is at its highest level in roughly 50 years. Will investors flock to alternative assets — like Bitcoin (BTC) — as a result?
For many older investors, the 1987 stock market crash is like recounting a period in Hell. The crash then was the biggest single-day wipeout in history. Worst of all, it came after unprecedented growth — much like today. According to the Leuthold Group, some of the current stock market trends seem to point that we may be soon experiencing a repeat of that dark day.
The conclusion drawn by the Leuthold Group is that investors have never been this worried in the past 50 years.
The Worry Guage
The Leuthold Group believes that one of the most accurate indicators of what it calls “the worry gauge” is the relative price of gold compared to small-cap stocks.
By calculating the ratio of gold’s commodity price index with the relative price of small-cap stocks, one can see clear trends. For example, preceding the 1987 stock market collapse, the ratio was near its all-time high. Today, we are at those same levels.
However, the Leuthold Group is reasonable in its pessimism. In fact, as the analysis points out, the ratio generally lags behind a stock market collapse. For example, the ratio peaked months before the 2008 financial crisis. So, as Leuthold Group concludes, there’s still a chance stocks could stay high for a bit longer.
That also means that, if you agree with these findings, you may have some time to get out.
Investors Looking for Alternative Assets Like Bitcoin
It’s generally known that during times of decreased returns or possible downturn investors look for alternative assets to park their money in so they can make up for losses. Historically, this has been gold, oil, and other precious metals.
However, there’s every indication nowadays that the new alternative may be Bitcoin (BTC). The fact that Bitcoin has effectively bottomed out for months now would make it attractive for investors looking to jump ship from the stock market.
Although it’s still unclear how Bitcoin would respond to an economic meltdown, one should also realize that the flagship cryptocurrency was born from the 2008 collapse. It was conceived of as a hedge against the stock market.
Although there’s a real possibility of a stock market crash like 1987, you may be better off parking your funds in the cryptocurrency market — which has historically been divorced from traditional asset price fluctuations. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies provide investors with an attractive alternative.
Or you could just stuff your cash under the mattress. Your call.
Do you think a coming economic recession would boost Bitcoin prices? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts down below!
[Disclaimer: This article is not intended as financial advice and should not be construed as such.] | 1,269,075 |
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Mets slugger Pete Alonso has hit his 53rd home run of the season, breaking the rookie record Yankees star Aaron Judge set in 2017.
Alonso hit a 93 mph fastball on a 1-2 count from Atlanta starter Mike Foltynewicz just to the right of straightaway center field on Saturday night. A 24-year-old earned extended standing ovations from the adoring crowd of 32,210 at Citi Field during the New York Mets’ 3-0 win over the playoff-bound Atlanta Braves on Saturday night.
As the 415-foot drive landed in the seats, Alonso raised both arms in triumph while running to first base, and Mets teammates came out of the dugout to congratulate the 24-year-old first baseman. Fans at Citi Field gave him a standing ovation, and Alonso raised both arms, tilted his head back and looked skyward as he stood in front of the dugout.
“I was just kind of thinking about all the greats in the game of baseball. I was thinking about guys like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, guys like Aaron Judge,” Alonso said, “and the fact that I’m ahead of those guys as a rookie, it’s mind-blowing.”
Overcome with emotion, Alonso had tears in his eyes when he went to first base in the fourth inning.
“It was like an out of body experience, it was just awesome,” Alonso’s father, Pete told reporters during the game.
“He’s always been passionate. I was certainly bawling in my seat, it was a family cry-fest,” the slugger’s mother, Michelle, said when asked about Alonso’s rare emotional display after the history-making blast.
Alonso has already set franchise records for homers, total bases (347) and extra-base hits (85). He has 120 RBIs and 102 runs, becoming the first Mets rookie to reach triple digits in both categories. The home run was his 11th of September.
MOUND MATTERS:
Steven Matz (11-10) allowed two hits and five walks in six innings, finishing with a winning record for the first time since his first full season in 2016. Jeurys Familia, Brad Brach and Edwin Díaz finished the three-hitter. Diaz struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 26th save in 33 chances, his first save since Aug. 15 — also against the Braves.
UP NEXT:
Mike Soroka (13-4) goes Sunday for the Braves in a tuneup for his playoff start. RHP Noah Syndergaard (10-8) pitches for the Mets in what could be his final start in New York as trade rumors continue to swirl around the inconsistent right-hander.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) | 1,269,076 |
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 4) — The country failed in meeting a United States aid group's standards on rule of law and curbing corruption, which will be used as basis for giving grants to the Philippines.
The Philippines got scores of 0 for control of corruption, -0.01 for rule of law in the scorecard of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The rule of law indicator measures the prevalence of crime and violence, public confidence in the police and judiciary, and the police force's capability to protect the people, among others.
It was the first time in four years that the country failed to meet the rule of law and control of corruption standards required for its income group, data from the MCC show.
In a statement on Friday, Malacañang said it hopes the MCC will take into account President Rodrigo Duterte's efforts to eradicate corruption.
"The President has fired government officials from their posts, including those who were perceived to be close to him, due to reports of corruption," incoming Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said as he enumerated Duterte's accomplishments.
He also said the MCC used old methodologies and the findings "may not completely reflect the reform initiatives of the Duterte administration in the area of fighting corruption and good governance."
The MCC selects countries eligible for aid based primarily on their scorecards, as it requires aid recipients to commit to good governance, economic freedom, and investments in their citizens.
This year, out of 20 indicators, the Philippines failed in eight, including health expenditures, primary education expenditures, and ease of doing business.
It got passing rates for a sound monetary policy, allowing freedom of information, and protecting natural resources, among others.
The MCC was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004 and has since provided more than $10 billion worth of aid for developing countries, including the Philippines.
In 2010, the Philippines received $434 million worth of investments from the MCC, which funded the modernization of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the upgrade of a major highway in Samar, as well as community development projects in some of the poorest areas in the country.
The grant expired in May 2016.
In December 2016, the MCC deferred a vote on giving aid to the Philippines, citing concerns over reports of human rights violations in the government's bloody war on drugs.
Read more: U.S. aid group defers PH grant over human rights concerns
But then Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella announced in August that the MCC has decided to extend assistance to the country.
"While we are happy with this new development, our economic managers would study the conditions set by the MCC if these are aligned with the President's priority agenda," Abella said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has made it clear he does not want any aid with conditions, as he repeatedly lashed out at the European Union for alleged criticisms on the drug war.
CNN Philippines' Claire Jiao contributed to this report. | 1,269,077 |
meeting the standard. It is unlikely that signal strength standards will change much going forward, more that the areas requiring coverage will increase.
With brands starting to mandate BOH coverage in managed hotels to support staff devices, it won’t be long before this is a standard for franchisees.
Link Speed
My favourite analogy is the funnel and water. It’s key to ensure that all parts of the network run at a speed that provides the most benefit. Think of a network bottleneck as the funnel and you can see how quickly our data (water) slows down and backs up.
While over-specifying should be avoided, many brands detail the link speed required based on area or function of the hotel. Most brands now require gigabit speeds everywhere, however, some brands mandate that the uplinks should be 10Gb.
The important consideration with this is the cabling that supports the speeds. Considering the copper and fibre cables used here during hotel construction is key for future-proofing.
A Helping Hand for Hotel Construction
Hopefully, the points above give you some clear pointers on where brand standards for WiFi may go in the coming years.
A favourite subject of mine, and one I am so passionate about, as it’s an easy area to see money wasted by simple mistakes. Taking some time to review the above during your hotel construction could help keep budgets on track, and avoid any wasted time.
This article is part of our new series on Hotel Construction. In this series, we will cover topics such as TV reception, Interactive TV, content casting and IoT to name but a few.
However, the main focus here is how they impact hotel construction and design.
We hope they are of use to anyone involved in hotel construction or even design and development. Subscribe below to be notified first when the articles are available.
Also, if you love IoT, we’ve looked at this not once, but twice before! Read, enjoy, comment and share!
Hotel Construction Services
Here at HotelTCS, we are experts in Hotel Technology and brand standards. If you are involved in hotel construction and want to know how we can help you avoid costly mistakes, contact us now.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing with those you feel may benefit from its content. Subscribe below to get the latest updates on all our posts, including being the first to know about the posts in our Hotel Construction series. As part of this series we will cover topics such as TV Reception, Content Casting, Core networks and IoT. We take a deep dive into all the technology considerations when working with a new build hotel.
You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit for our favourite Hotel Technology content.
You may also enjoy some of our other articles, such as “A Hotel is Just a Building”, “Can Intelligent Hotels find their voice?” and “The Fate of Hotel HSIA”. | 1,269,078 |
Meghan Markle’s father may not attend her wedding, it has emerged, just five days before he was due to walk her down the aisle.
Doubts that Thomas Markle Sr, 73, would give his daughter away on Saturday followed claims by US celebrity website, TMZ, that he was pulling out amid allegations he cooperated with a Los Angeles based photo agency to stage pictures of himself preparing for the wedding day. Markle Sr had suffered a heart attack six days ago, TMZ claimed.
Responding to the report, Kensington Palace said: “This is a deeply personal moment for Ms Markle in the days before her wedding. She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr Markle in this difficult situation.”
Kensington Palace had announced earlier this month that Markle Sr, a retired television lighting engineer who lives in Mexico, would walk his daughter to the altar at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, where she will marry Prince Harry on Saturday in front of 600 guests and an international television audience of millions.
Her mother, Doria Ragland, 61, a social worker and yoga teacher who lives in Los Angeles, is expected to accompany her daughter in the bridal car. Markle was then planning to take her father’s arm on the steps of the chapel.
But TMZ said Markle had “now decided not to go because he doesn’t want to embarrass the royal family or his daughter”.
The development followed a report in the Mail on Sunday which alleged that Markle Sr had helped stage pictures showing him being measured for his wedding suit, working out with weights in a park, reading a book on British history and looking up reports in an internet cafe about the forthcoming wedding. The newspaper printed photographs which it claimed showed Markle and the photographer entering the cafe together.
TMZ reported that Markle Sr meant no harm to his daughter or the royal family when he allowed the photo agency to take the pictures and that he had not been motivated by money.
The website reported Markle had complained that at times over the past year he had been ambushed by paparazzi, often taking unflattering photos of him and that he had turned down offers for interviews of between $50,000 (£37,000) and $100,000. He thought the staged pictures would recast his public image.
TMZ added that Markle said he had suffered a heart attack six days ago, but checked himself out of the hospital so he could attend the wedding.
Earlier on Monday, Meghan’s half sister, Samantha, claimed on television that it was her idea that their father stage the photos.
Prince Harry has yet to meet his future father-in-law. Kensington Palace has previously said Markle’s parents would meet senior members of the royal family, including the Queen, in private this week. But it remained unclear on Monday night whether Markle Sr would be flying to London as planned. | 1,269,079 |
ale, breathe in love, expansion, and joy, and on each exhale, breathe out any tension or fatigue.
Savor the Flavors
Eating slowly gives your body enough time to gear up, stoke the digestive fires, and signal to the gastrointestinal system that it’s time for digestion. Gulping your food down in a hurry is like piling logs in the fireplace and expecting a crackling fire to materialize without striking a match.
I hope you take the time to implement some of these suggestions. You are worth the effort!
If your depression and anxiety are debilitating to the point of interfering with daily functioning, please seek treatment from a licensed professional. Therapy is a gift you can give yourself even if you are not suffering from clinical depression and anxiety. Consider it one hour a week that you do not have to take care anyone but yourself!
In the spirit of the season, we want to gift a member of the Positively Positive community a spot in our 21-Day Mind/Body Cleanse! In the comments section, tell us what you are struggling with, why creating and sustaining a healthy way of life has proved challenging for you, and what you hope this new balance will bring to your life. We will announce the winner in my blog next Friday, December 14th. We want you to ignite a revolution to achieving your resolutions in 2013!
Love Love Love
Terri and Dr. Frank
Terri Cole, founder and CEO of Live Fearless and Free, is a licensed psychotherapist, transformation coach, and an expert at turning fear into freedom. A cornerstone of Terri’s practice, meditation, was the impetus for her recently released guided mediation CD Meditation Transformation. Terri can be found on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.
*Liver-Palooza! A fundraiser for my sister’s liver transplant*
December 15th. 2:00 pm. The Mercedes Club (550 W. 54th, NYC).
An afternoon of amazing people gathering for an amazing cause! Sweat with an Intensati workout from Patricia Moreno…Meditate with DavidJi…Bid on auction items like a seat to Marie Forleo’s B-School, a Personal Fire Starter Session with Danielle LaPorte, a year’s membership to Tara Stiles’ Strala Yoga, a 1-on-1 Session with Kris Carr, a seat to Mama Gena’s Pleasure Bootcamp, just to name a few…Shop for books, CDs, jewelry, and other perfect presents…Enjoy yummy food and giveaways…
*For a list of silent auction items, click here!
We’re still adding, so check back and come prepared on the 15th!
Donate $35 to Tammi’s Liver Transplant. Your receipt is your ticket to entry (PLUS! You get my downloadable meditation CD). Reserve Your Space Now!
*Photo by kelp1966.
| 1,269,080 |
Leaves are falling off trees in the height of summer, railway tracks are buckling, and people are retiring to their beds with deep-frozen hot-water bottles, as much of Australia swelters in its worst-ever heatwave.
On Friday, Melbourne thermometers topped 43C (109.4F) on a third successive day for the first time on record, while even normally mild Tasmania suffered its second-hottest day in a row, as temperatures reached 42.2C. Two days before, Adelaide hit a staggering 45.6C. After a weekend respite, more records are expected to be broken this week.
Ministers are blaming the heat - which follows a record drought - on global warming. Experts worry that Australia, which emits more carbon dioxide per head than any nation on earth, may also be the first to implode under the impact of climate change.
At times last week it seemed as if that was happening already. Chaos ruled in Melbourne on Friday after an electricity substation exploded, shutting down the city's entire train service, trapping people in lifts, and blocking roads as traffic lights failed. Half a million homes and businesses were blacked out, and patients were turned away from hospitals.
More than 20 people have died from the heat, mainly in Adelaide. Trees in Melbourne's parks are dropping leaves to survive, and residents at one of the city's nursing homes have started putting their clothes in the freezer.
"All of this is consistent with climate change, and with what scientists told us would happen," said climate change minister Penny Wong.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox.
Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country's blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as "potentially the most fragile" on earth in the face of the threat.
Many factors put Australia especially at risk. Its climate is already hot, dry and variable. Its vulnerable agriculture plays an unusually important part in the economy. And most people and industry are concentrated on the coast, making it vulnerable to the rising seas and ferocious storms that come with a warmer world.
Most of the south of the country is gripped by unprecedented 12-year drought. The Australian Alps have had their driest three years ever, and the water from the vast Murray-Darling river system now fails to reach the sea 40 per cent of the time. Harvests have fallen sharply.
It will get worse as global warming increases. Even modest temperature rises, now seen as unavoidable, are expected to increase drought by 70 per cent in New South Wales, cut Melbourne's water supplies by more than a third, and dry up the Murray-Darling system by another 25 per cent.
As Professor David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, said last week: "The heat is unusual, but it will become much more like the normal experience in 10 to 20 years." | 1,269,081 |
lude to the main event. I return to the rattan, my favourite implement. I adore its rigid flexibility and the fine lines it leaves behind. When I hold it, it feels part of me, an extension of my hand. The belt surely smarts, but you're about to discover a new level of pain and learn why flagellation is called the 'English vice'.
The flight or fight response is strong. A cascade of hormones wash through your brain and your heart beats like a dreadful war drum in your chest. Everything in your body is telling you to resist, to flee, but the straps hold you to my bed. You cannot run, you cannot fight, all you can do is accept and wait.
You stay in position, knees apart, back beautifully curved, arse up. This is your defiance. You want to show me I can do my worst and you can take it. I gladly accept this challenge.
The cane whooshes through the air and lands across your cheeks with a thrilling report. The sting is instant and acute, causing you to shriek and a welt to form. Very little else is so arousing. My cock strains inside my underwear, eager to be liberated from its cotton prison.
It's so exhilarating, I'm shaking. I breathe deeply to compose myself before delivering the next glorious stroke. Five more follow the first. Every one bites into your flesh with unimagined intensity. Each triggers a rush of dopamine in me and the most exquisite tingling in my limbs, up my spine and across my scalp.
You manage to stay in place for all six cutting strikes, but finally relent. You drop your body down and try to roll your arse from the path of the evil instrument. I cannot allow this. I'm not finished with you.
Paying no attention to your weeping or discomfort, I reposition you flat. Your feet come up in an attempt to protect your wounded derrière, but I move them with little difficulty and hold them down with a foot of my own.
I swing the cane, again and again in rapid haste. All restraint has left me, overcome by Dionysian ritual madness as I thrash you. Your screams and howls, your desperate pleas for mercy are just fuel to my wild frenzy. As efficient as the gag is at muffling sound, these noises cannot be silenced. They emanate from deep within you, from your very core.
Lashes criss cross your buttocks. You can no longer discern them individually. Instead they meld into a stream of agony, searing your skin, as if branding you with a hot iron.
After what feels to you like hours, I blessedly cease my attack. My breathing is heavy and beads of sweat have formed on my forehead as have small droplets of blood from the broken skin on your blighted rear. The beating may have stopped, but the burning remains and you wail uncontrollably into the soft pillows.
| 1,269,082 |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How the Lac-Megantic train disaster unfolded
A Canadian jury has found three former rail workers not guilty of criminal negligence for their connection to the Lac-Megantic disaster five years ago.
On 6 July 2013, a runaway train filled with petroleum crude oil derailed in the small eastern Quebec town.
Forty-seven people were killed in the tragedy and much of Lac-Megantic's downtown core was destroyed.
The trial began on 2 October in a Quebec Superior Court in Sherbrooke, 100km (62 miles) west of Lac-Megantic.
Locomotive engineer Tom Harding, traffic controller Richard Labrie and manager of train operations Jean Demaitre were charged in 2014 with criminal negligence causing the death of 47 people.
Under Canada's criminal code, the charge carries a potential life sentence.
All three pleaded not guilty.
The twelve men and women on the jury began deliberating on 11 January.
On Tuesday, Quebec Superior Court Justice Gaetan Dumas sent them back into deliberations after they told him they were at an impasse.
Up in flames
The tragedy began when a fire broke out in the main locomotive after Mr Harding had parked the train in the village of Nantes and left for the night to sleep.
Firefighters extinguished the flames and turned off the engine, which cut the air brakes. An hour later, the train rolled into downtown Lac-Megantic and derailed, exploding in a huge blaze.
Mr Harding admitted that he only applied seven handbrakes and did not fully test them before leaving the train.
The prosecution argued more handbrakes would have stopped the train from moving.
After he learned of the explosion, Mr Harding helped emergency responders detach the remaining fuel cars from the train.
Long deliberations
When the verdict was finally read, CBC reported that the those in the courtroom let out a loud gasp.
The jurors listened to hours of technical testimony from train specialists, heard audio recordings from the incident and listened to former rail employees testify that the company had no budget for training and placed little importance on safety, according to CBC.
The jury deliberated for eight days, at one point asking the judge for clarification on the concept of "marked difference", which the behaviour of the accused would have to be noticeably different from a colleague in a similar circumstance.
Mr Harding and the other accused waived their right to mount a defence. Instead, their lawyers argued that the prosecutors' case did not meet the burden of proof.
Lawyers for the accused argued that many factors out of their control contributed to the disaster, including a culture at Montreal, Maine and Atlantic railway (MMA) of relaxed standards and insufficient training.
MMA also failed to heed a Transportation Safety Board's report that said the rail line running from Nantes to Lac-Megantic was the second steepest of any stretch of track in Canada.
The Canadian Transportation Agency suspended MMA's licence after the accident. | 1,269,083 |
last season for KU.
Kansas has won five of the last nine Phillips 66 Big 12 Championships with its last being the 2013 title. This year’s event will again be held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, March 9-12 and NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday will be March 13. KU holds the active consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak at 26 beginning in 1990.
Holding down tradition, the 31st Annual Late Night in the Phog is set for Oct. 9, in Allen Fieldhouse.
Kansas Schedule Notables:
–This will mark the fifth-straight year of Big 12 round-robin competition to determine one true champion in men’s basketball. KU went 16-2 in winning the title in 2012, tied Kansas State going 14-4 in 2013 and won it outright each of the last two seasons going 14-4 in 2014 and 13-5 in 2015. The Jayhawks have won 11-straight, 15 Big 12 and NCAA-leading 58 all-time regular-season titles.
–For the 10th-straight year, and the 16th time since the inception of the Big 12, KU will be featured on ESPN’s Big Monday four times: Jan. 4 vs. Oklahoma, Jan. 25 at Iowa State, Feb. 15 vs. Oklahoma State and Feb. 29 at Texas. Kansas is 54-19 all-time on Big Monday (31-1 at home, 23-18 on the road), including 35-11 under head coach Bill Self.
–For the fifth-consecutive, year the Jayhawks will play as part of the Champions Classic when they go up against 2015 Final Four participant Michigan State in Chicago on Nov. 17. Kansas defeated Michigan State, 61-56, in last season’s Orlando Classic title game. Duke will play Kentucky in the other Champions Classic contest.
–In May 2013, the Big 12 and Southeastern Conferences announced an annual men’s basketball challenge that began during the 2013-14 season. KU and Kentucky will meet for the first time in the challenge with this season’s contest in Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 30.
–Kansas is the only school in the Big 12 to have a winning series record against every conference team in men’s basketball.
–Kansas is first in the conference in wins with a 258-54 record in Big 12 regular-season games. Texas is next at 202-110. Including the Big 12 tournament, Kansas is tops at 295-59.
–Big 12 basketball has been ranked among the top five conferences in final RPI (post-NCAA Championship) for eight-straight seasons and 13 of the last 14 years (since 2002). The Big 12 has had No. 1 in overall RPI in each of the last two seasons.
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
| 1,269,084 |
The Chiang Mai Zoo said any speculation in China that Chuang Chuang may have died due to careless feeding, neglect or even some kind of attack had proven unfounded.
Psst! We are giving away movie passes here!
BANGKOK - When a celebrity giant panda died suddenly last month while on loan to Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo, millions of social media users in China demanded to know: "What killed Chuang Chuang?"
On Tuesday (Oct 8), they learnt it was heart failure, according to a Chinese-assisted autopsy on the death of 19-year-old Chuang Chuang, who had been on loan from China since 2003 with his mate Lin Hui.
They were celebrities in Thailand, with media extensively covering their love life - including a "wedding" ceremony in 2005.
Chuang Chuang's relatively early demise sparked mourning among Thai fans and an outcry on Chinese social media, where a hashtag seeming to blame Thailand for the death was viewed 250 million times.
Pandas generally live 14-20 years in the wild but can live up to 30 years in captivity.
The Chiang Mai Zoo said any speculation in China that Chuang Chuang - who was known for being obese - may have died due to careless feeding, neglect or even some kind of attack had proven unfounded.
"The autopsy and analysis by Chinese-Thai experts showed that the nutrition health of Giant Panda Chuang Chuang was good, no external wounds were found and no foreign objects were found in his trachea," the zoo said in a statement on Tuesday.
[[nid:462098]]
"The cause of his death was heart failure, resulting in the lack of oxygen of internal organs and leading to his death."
The zoo confirmed that Thailand would nonetheless pay unspecified compensation to Beijing as outlined in the original loan agreement.
Chuang Chuang's mate, Lin Hui, would stay at the zoo for the time being, it said.
Chuang Chuang famously was put on a diet in 2007 when the zoo was trying to encourage him and Lin Hui to conceive.
The zoo even resorted to "panda porn" videos of other pandas mating to encourage Chuang Chuang, but Lin Hui eventually conceived through artificial insemination.
After Lin Hui gave birth in 2009, their offspring was featured on a 24-hour "Panda Channel" shown on a Thai TV network.
Baby pandas are rarely born in captivity, and the offspring was eventually returned to China.
Soon after Chuang Chuang's death, footage of Lin Hui alone in her enclosure next to her mate's empty pen was aired around the world and a Chinese official said there was talk she may be returned to China amid concerns she would be lonely.
No decision on her future has been made, but the zoo said "in the meantime, Thailand will continue (to) take best care of the remaining panda Lin Hui". | 1,269,085 |
was actually caused by a layer of algae in the lake where it had been swimming
was spotted slinking along the banks of a lake in Kruger National Park
This is the moment a massive crocodile emerged from a lake in South Africa looking even more sinister than usual thanks to a layer of bright green slime covering its body.
The huge reptile was swimming in the Kruger National Park when it emerged from the water caked in a layer of brightly-coloured algae.
South African Armand Grobler took photographs of the crocodile near Lower Sabie rest camp in the popular safari park and was stunned to see it emerge from the water resembling the Incredible Hulk.
Monster: The reptile was swimming in the Kruger National Park when it emerged from the water caked in a layer of brightly-coloured algae
Disguise: The crocodile was spotted after getting out of the water, which is where it picked up its unusual covering of blue-green algae
Covered: The crocodile emerged from a lake in South Africa looking even more sinister than usual thanks to a layer of bright green slime
Mr Grobler's set of photographs shows the crocodile slinking along the banks of the lake after gliding through the water, which is where it picked up its unusual covering of blue-green algae.
Speaking of the crocodile's strange appearance, Mr Grobler said: 'He definitely looks similar to a mythical creature or monster.'
'At first I thought the Hulk could be a good description, but then I thought it could be the Loch Ness Monster,' he added.
The 22-year-old only takes photographs as a hobby, but said he would love to do it full time in the future.
It was by chance while he was at work as a freelance field guide at Mopane Bush Lodge and Kruger National Park that he took these photos.
Great spot: South African Armand Grobler took photographs of the crocodile near Lower Sabie rest camp in Kurger National Park
Fear: Speaking of the crocodile's strange appearance, Armand Grobler said: 'He definitely looks similar to a mythical creature or monster'
Coincidence: The photographer only took the images by chance while he was at working as a freelance field guide in Kruger National Park
The images emerged just one day after photographs that were also taken in South Africa's Kruger National Park showed a hungry crocodile gatecrashing two lions' midnight feast - causing the African killers to clash over the carcass of a dead buffalo.
Photographed by 30-year-old Italian honeymooner Davide Chiossi, the dramatic images show the massive reptile approach a pair of big cats and attempt to muscle in on their dinner.
And despite being outnumbered two to one, the crocodile more than held his own against the pair of adult males, refusing to give up the feast without a fight - albeit getting one of the lion's claws embedded in its head in the process. | 1,269,086 |
50 goals in 50 games is one of those marks that really denotes a legend. Only five players have ever done it and with last year’s scoring leader, Alex Ovechkin, hitting just 53 goals, it’s hard to see that mark being hit again in the modern NHL.
That’s why it was especially notable that Mike Bossy’s 50th goal from his 50-in-50 in the 1980-81 season went up for auction on ebay this year. Jake Jacobson put the puck on eBay, selling it for $6,850 with the note “Sold as is. Chips in puck from actual game use. Same condition as when gifted to me in 1988.”
The New York Post’s David K. Li told the story at the time: Jacobson had worked as a lifeguard in the summer of 1988 in Long Island, where he taught Bossy’s daughter. At the end of the summer, Bossy’s daughter gifted the puck to Jacobson.
For years, according to Jacobson, he tried to give the puck back to Bossy, but “Bossy never followed through,” so Jacobson decided to sell it. It was at that point that Bossy decided he really wanted the puck back.
It turns out that the winner of the auction had the intention of getting the puck back in Bossy’s hands. Gavin Maloof, a former co-owner of the Sacramento Kings, won the auction and has returned the puck to the Islanders legend, according to TMZ Sports.
Maloof told TMZ Sports, “50 goals in 50 games. Only a handful of people have ever done that. I needed to buy this puck. I don’t care how much it costs.” Maloof brought Bossy out to Las Vegas to deliver the puck. “We invited Bossy to Las Vegas, put him up in the Bellagio and are taking him out tonight for a nice steak dinner.”
Maloof said that after getting the puck back, Bossy joked that his daughter was finally “off the hook.”
It’s an important piece of hockey history that was returned. Bossy was only the second player to ever accomplish 50-in-50, following Maurice Richard breaking the seal in the 1944-45 season.
Bossy almost didn’t hit the mark though. He potted the goal with just 1:29 remaining in a January 24, 1981 game against the Quebec Nordiques.
Bossy’s pace slowed after hitting 50, but he still scored an impressive 68 goals in 79 games that season.
Since Bossy hit the mark, three more players have done it: Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, who got his 50 goals in just 39 games and had 61 goals by his 50th game that season.
RELATED: 50 Years Ago in Hockey: Leafs Invite 79 to Camp | 1,269,087 |
After war crimes acquittals, Gallagher cashes in on notoriety with clothing line and endorsements
Former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher models items from his new apparel line, Salty Frog Gear, in this screenshot from the brand's webpage.
Eddie Gallagher, the former Navy SEAL acquitted this summer of murdering an Iraqi captive, is cashing in on his newfound notoriety with an apparel line.
Gallagher in September 2018 faced 10 charges including premeditated and attempted murder based on accusations that he shot at Iraqi civilians and stabbed a captured teenaged Islamic State fighter to death a year earlier.
He was ultimately convicted of one charge, posing with the teenager’s corpse in a photo he sent to friends. Gallagher was reduced in rank after his conviction, a decision President Donald Trump reversed.
Now, the square-jawed, tattooed former chief petty officer poses in photos of a different kind: advertisements for his new clothing line through veteran-owned Nine Line Apparel.
Gallagher briefly met Nine Line’s CEO Tyler Merritt during a deployment. When the news of Gallagher’s prosecution broke, Nine Line reached out to support him and later “came up with the idea of a brand and to create a partnership,” Gallagher said in a statement on the Nine Line website.
The collaboration created Gallagher’s Salty Frog Gear brand under Nine Line. The company describes the apparel as “a coastal lifestyle brand with an edge.”
“SFG provides functional, versatile, and affordable apparel solutions for your next outdoor adventure with specialty garments flexible enough for a fishing trip at sea or a weekend afternoon on the range,” the company wrote on its website.
On the website, Gallagher is seen flexing in T-shirts reading “Unleash the Tempest” and “Stay Salty.”
In another photo, he models a hoodie with a logo featuring a trident, a design similar to the trident pin that SEALs wear, juxtaposed with a star and five stripes. On its right sleeve is a reversed American flag, how service members wear their flag patches in uniform. Its front pocket features a special compartment to hold a beer bottle.
Also available is a $34.99 whiskey glass and $54.99 decanter emblazoned with “SFG” and the trident symbol.
In a promotional video, Gallagher wears Nine Line apparel in a shooting range firing rifles and pistols in slow motion.
The apparel company is not the only product to which Gallagher is lending his endorsement. His social media pages are also dotted with support for other veteran-owned businesses, such as Black Rifle Coffee Co.
In a Dec. 15 post, he posed with an assortment of Redcon1 workout vitamins and supplements with military jargon-inspired names such as Total War and MRE Lite protein powder.
[email protected]
Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos | 1,269,088 |
Bill Withers, the beloved singer-songwriter behind a slew of time-tested R&B/soul classics, passed away on Monday away at the age of 81 due to “heart complications,” according to a statement from his family to the Associated Press.
According to the family’s statement, “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father. A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other. As private a life as he lived close to intimate family and friends, his music forever belongs to the world. In this difficult time, we pray his music offers comfort and entertainment as fans hold tight to loved ones.”
As the AP notes, “His death comes as the public has drawn inspiration from his music during the coronavirus pandemic, with health care workers, choirs, artists and more posting their own renditions on ‘Lean on Me‘ to help get through the difficult times.”
Before he retired from the music business in 1985, Withers’ music helped define the ’70s soul-funk sound. His extensive list of hit songs (like “Lean On Me”, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, “Use Me”, “Just The Two Of Us”, “Grandma’s Hands”, “Just The Two of Us”, “When I’m Kissing My Love”, “Who Is He and What Is He To You”, and more) remain popular to this day.
While many of his most popular songs deal with love and relationships, Withers also penned a number of powerful protest songs about the Vietnam War, race relations, and more. Perhaps the most jarring of these is “I Can’t Write Left Handed”, in which Bill sings from the perspective of a soldier whose right arm was blown off in combat.
Bill Withers – “I Can’t Write Left Handed” (Live at Carnegie Hall)
[Video: Bill Withers]
Withers earned three Grammy wins and seven nominations throughout his relatively short career. In 2015, Withers was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Withers is survived by his wife, Marcia, and his children, Todd and Kori.
As we mourn the loss of Bill Withers today, watch a pair of fantastic, in-studio performances from the early 1970s below:
Bill Withers – BBC In-Studio Concert – 1973 [Full Video]
[Video: BOMBEATS]
Bill Withers – Beat-Club In-Studio – 1972 [Full Video]
[Video: funkyscope]
Rest easy, Bill. You will be missed. | 1,269,089 |
months, they have been sleeping on meagre mattresses in a vast room that lacks any glass on its windows and a lock on the door.
"It's hard to live in a place with no windows. It made sleeping very difficult, because you are thinking about your life," said Kamara.
"Players are in this wild place that is reminiscent of the civil crisis in Liberia when people left their homes and were displaced, [taking shelter] in a makeshift building or auditorium," Bedell, who experienced his country's civil wars of 1989-96 and 1999-2003, told the BBC.
The minors' freedom of movement is restricted by the fact that they became illegal immigrants in March after their visas ran out.
They are hoping to receive work permits but these are unlikely to arrive since all are underage.
Karmo, who insists that he did pay Kamara, admits nine of the 14 Africans do not have work permits but asserts that they have the right documentation to stay in Laos.
"Nobody is illegal. Everybody is legal," he told the BBC.
With the club having held their passports since their arrival, the boys rarely leave the stadium where they both live and train twice a day.
Despite the situation, not everyone wants the minors to leave Laos.
"I don't want him to come back to Liberia until he succeeds in his dream," said Bella Tapeh, the mother of one 17-year-old still in Pakse.
image copyright other image caption The Liberians passed through a refugee camp in Ghana on their way home from Laos
Some of those who have returned to Liberia have told the BBC they were poorly fed, rarely paid and received no medical assistance from the club despite contracting malaria and typhoid because of the conditions.
One also described their existence at Champasak United as akin to "slave work".
"This is a very serious situation," Stephane Burchkalter, a FIFPro official, told the BBC.
"It is shocking to FIFPro that a club from Laos, which - with all due respect - is a very small football country, can lure minor players from Liberia without Fifa noticing."
One NGO, Culture Foot Solidaire, estimates that 15,000 teenage footballers are moved out of West Africa every year - many of them illegally.
FIFPro has also called on Fifa to take action against the Laos Football Federation, which has so far failed to discipline Champasak for its alleged breach of the rules.
Evidence of clubs breaking regulations on signing international players under 18 is rare but European champions Barcelona are currently serving a transfer ban for this very offence.
Meanwhile, the parents of 12 boys found themselves in financial difficulty after taking loans to pay $550 towards the cost of the trip to Laos, with one case currently in the hands of Liberian police.
There are three exceptions to Fifa's rules on the movement of players under the age of 18, but none of them apply in this case. | 1,269,090 |
“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to President Trump.
It reads like a polite request, but like a mother suggesting her child help clear the table, Pelosi isn’t really asking.
AD
AD
The brilliance in her latest move is that nothing will enrage Trump more than having a nationally televised speech where he gets to talk for 45 minutes about himself and his administration’s accomplishments taken away.
(Pelosi did note later that Trump could still give the address in the Oval Office if he wants to.)
Notably, only once before has a State of the Union address been canceled, and that was in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan rescheduled it after the Challenger space shuttle explosion. But this may be the first time a president has been asked by the speaker to reconsider his invite.
Even before the government partially shut down 26 days ago, when Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) had their now-famous, televised Oval Office meeting with the president, Pelosi emerged as the perfect foil to Trump. Unlike Schumer, who sometimes takes Trump’s bait, Pelosi matches Trump’s bluster with a cool calm.
AD
AD
It seems Trump and the White House may have misjudged how Pelosi and the Democrats would respond to their line-in-the-sand refusal to reopen the government without an additional $5.7 billion in border wall funding. Rather than cave to that demand, Pelosi has brought bill after bill to the floor to reopen some or all of the government and put it on the Senate Republicans to act.
Trump also failed in an effort to sow discord in the House Democratic caucus. He thought he could go around Pelosi and invite some rank-and-file House Democrats who won in Trump districts to the White House for a shutdown chat on Tuesday. Pelosi says she gave them her blessing to go (reportedly saying, “They can see what we’ve been dealing with. And they’ll want to make a citizen’s arrest.”) The Democrats rejected Trump’s offer.
Peter Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, wrote in the Atlantic Wednesday that Pelosi’s end game in all of this is “the emasculation of the president.” While there may be room to compromise, Pelosi knows that doing so at this point threatens to divide the Democrats who right now are a united front.
By holding strong and forcing Trump to continue pressing for an idea that is wildly popular with his base, but increasing less so with the public at large, Pelosi is counting on Trump eventually caving to public pressure, Beinart writes. | 1,269,091 |
Allrecipes is turning to Amazon’s Alexa to make cooking a little easier. The popular culinary destination introduced its premiere skill for Amazon Alexa this week, which will allow consumers voice-guided, hands-free access to Allrecipes’ vast collection of best-loved recipes.
Users will be able to access quick dinners, appetizers, creative entrees and more without having to fiddle through devices with sticky fingers. With the skill, home cooks can quickly get recipes to match the desired dish type, available on-hand ingredients, maximum cooking time, and/or preferred cooking method.
Once a recipe is selected, Alexa will guide the cook through each step of preparing the dish; cooks control the pace of their cooking by instructing Alexa to pause, next, repeat, skip or move forward.
“So many of our customers are using their Alexa-enabled devices in the kitchen, and with the addition of Alexa skills like Allrecipes, that experience only gets better,” says Rob Pulciani, Director, Amazon Alexa. “We’re excited to work with Allrecipes to create a cooking experience that leverages the benefit of hands-free Alexa voice technology. Getting meal recommendations and step-by-step recipes – with just your voice – makes putting dinner on the table a little easier for our busy customers.”
“Allrecipes has a long tradition of being first to introduce innovative new experiences that make grocery shopping and home cooking more rewarding, from our beginnings as the first social media food site two decades ago to the seamless integration of our brand into connected kitchen appliances this past year,” says Stan Pavlovsky, President of Meredith Digital. “Our vision is to make Allrecipes’ content and community available wherever and whenever needed, so preparing dishes is as easy as possible for our audience of busy families and passionate food enthusiasts.”
Cooks with Alexa-enabled device like Amazon Echo or Echo Dot can just ask simple questions to get started, A few examples are “what can I make with chicken, bacon and cheddar cheese?,” “Ask Allrecipes for the recipe of the day,” “Ask Allrecipes to find the World’s Best Lasagna recipe,” or simply say “Ask Allrecipes, how much butter is needed for Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies?.”
The Allrecipes Skill for Alexa is now available for free through the Amazon Alexa app available on iOS, Android and Fire tablets, or by simply voice enabling the skill by saying “Alexa, enable the Allrecipes Skill.”
The Allrecipes skill is available for all Alexa-enabled devices, including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV. If you need help choosing the best Amazon Alexa device, Amazon makes it pretty easy. You can find a walkthrough of each device’s features and price-points on Amazon’s official website at Amazon.com/alexa. | 1,269,092 |
Park Geun-hye supporters hold the Korean national flag during a weekly protest held in front of Daehan Gate of Deoksu Palace in downtown Seoul, Feb. 4. / Yonhap
By Chung Hyun-chae
Park Jang-sun, 32, a member of the Korea Youth Foundation, was bothered when he saw the Taegeukgi, Korea's national flag, carried by conservative groups at a recent counter-protest.
"I was worried young people could misunderstand that the national flag represents those holding conservative views," Park said. "Another sad thing is that I saw many flags being stacked on trash cans after rallies."
The conservative group, Park Sa Mo ― literally meaning people who love President Park ― consists of men and women in their 50s or older, mostly from the southeastern part of Korea, the conservative party's home turf. Starting tiny, the presence of Park Sa Mo at the weekly protests has grown over the weeks.
Many, especially young people, echo Park's opinion.
Oh Se-rip, 23, a college student, believed that the national flag cannot be the exclusive property of a certain party or group. "I think some conservative groups hold the Taegeukgi to claim that their behavior is patriotic," Oh said.
Another college student, Oh Gwan-seok, 24, said the national flag has become a victim of national turmoil.
"Even though they had a pure desire to protect the country, their goal seems to have been distorted," the 24-year-old said.
For Kwon Jae-kyung, 19, who graduated from high school in eastern Seoul this month, finds it hard to understand why conservative groups are using the national flag to communicate their point.
"I read in a book written by a Western philosopher that it is shameful to assert one's opinion with the national flag at the head," Kwon said. "I saw conservative group members holding both the Taegeukgi and U.S. flag at a rally, which was beyond my understanding."
U.S. flags started appearing at a Jan. 21 protest, immediately following Donald Trump's inauguration. This has bothered many U.S. expats, as the counter-protesters also carry signs expressing anti-American ideals such as suppressing free speech of artists and the media.
"Someone snatch that flag from them. They're using it wrong,"a U.S. expat said in response.
"We decided to hold the national flag to blow out the candles that have agitated the public against the regime," a member of Park Sa Mo surnamed Lee said. "We will keep doing this to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution."
Rep. Kim Jin-tae of the ruling Saenuri Party also backed the conservative protest on Thursday. "The candles are already blown out by wind," he said urging fellow lawmakers to join the Taegeukgi rally. | 1,269,093 |
Companies shouldn’t worry about the safety and volatility of digital currencies like Bitcoin and instead should focus on the business they might miss out on if they don’t embrace it, Weve's outgoing CEO David Sear has said.
Speaking at The Drum Live, in a session that saw The Drum receive its first subscription payment in Bitcoin, Sear warned that despite the concerns over the risk trading in digital currency throws up, not doing so would prove a bigger problem in the future.
“The risk to you if you don’t embrace digital currencies as they emerge is the risk of not doing business with a slab of world… You’ll see that the people buying this currency is coming out of a relatively closed slab of economies and particularly in China.”
The Chinese central bank recently declared that Bitcoin wasn’t a legal currency, something which Sear said was actually just a “guise of prohibition” to allow the country to deal in it under its own laws around currency in the market.
“The Chinese actually effectively sanctioned the purchase of Bitcoins by the general population and liberalised it in a very interesting way for their own e-commerce and m-commerce access to the rest of the world. [China] with the biggest population in the world, the largest economy in the world, and the most closed in the world is about to open, and one of the ways it does it is through this digital currency. So if you want to sell to China in the next 20 years you better get on board with some kind of digital currency because it’ s going to be the way it happens.”
Sear eschewed fears around the volatility of Bitcoin, which can fluctuate wildly, and said that it is a “normal state of affairs” for any currency.
Eitan Jankelewitz, an intellectual property lawyers at Sheridans, whose company accepts Bitcoin as payment, said that the currency should begin to stabilise as usage of it becomes more widespread.
"It’s unbelievably early, the code has only been out five years… It’s still technically in beta. The infrastructure is just getting into place, stable exchanges are established and the volatility should decrease when the market matures and you have more distribution of the currency.
“It’s important to bear in mind that it isn’t the finished article. It may not be the case it’s the currency that takes off – there could be another currency built on similar lines, which has a different feature set, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t ground-breaking.”
Also speaking on the panel was Wouter Vonk, European marketing manager at BitPay, a Bitcoin service provider, who set up The Drum to accept the currency and Joel Raziel, director of Future Coins, who owns and operates Bitcoin ATMs.
Earlier today online payments company Skrill revealed it has appointed Sear chief commercial officer - a role he will take up next month. | 1,269,094 |
A Tweet about the design of Google's burger emoji has sparked an intense online discussion about how the foodstuff should look, and prompted Google CEO Sundar Pichai to say he would 'drop everything' to fix it. Seriously.
If you've ever doubted the power of social media, the recent development surrounding Google's burger emoji (that's a phrase we never thought we'd have to type) will show you how impactful it can be.
Following a viral Tweet from author and media analyst Thomas Baekdal, which complained about the placement of the cheese in Google's burger emoji, the CEO of the world's leading technology company has vowed to put the emoji's design above everything else. If that's not power we don't know what is.
I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top pic.twitter.com/PgXmCkY3YcOctober 28, 2017
The Tweet might appear pretty innocent on the surface. After all, have you ever seen a burger that places the cheese underneath the meat? Of course not. That would be madness. Such a burger could only exist in a world gone topsy-turvy. Yet, inexplicably, there it is.
This burger bizarreness could explain why, at the time of writing, the Tweet has gained nearly 40,000 retweets and nearly 2,000 comments. Clearly this is an important issue that a lot of people feel strongly about.
And because people who are interested in emojis appear to be anything if not thorough, the full list of burger emojis has been dredged up from emojipedia like a political scandal for us all to gawp at and contemplate.
How did we, as society, let this happen?
One person clearly disturbed by this flagrant disregard for burger etiquette was Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who replied to the public outcry with this placating Tweet:
Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! https://t.co/dXRuZnX1AgOctober 29, 2017
This isn't the only emoji to be publicly shamed, though.
Google's pint of beer emoji has been dragged through the mud like an accessory to murder thanks to its gravity-defying head of foam, which appears to hover above the alcoholic good stuff like a tipsy cloud.
Hmmmm, Google, this is not how beer works pic.twitter.com/rLsmThcLKMOctober 29, 2017
Perhaps they need a new illustrator, some icon design tips, or at least some decent reference images.
There's no word yet on whether or not Google has fixed the placement of cheese on its burger emoji. But with the top technological minds in the world working on it, surely it won't take long to fix?
Related articles: | 1,269,095 |
Chungha talked about her career thus far and hopes for 2019 in a new interview.
On March 29, Chungha participated in the Vietnamese chart program “V Heartbeat Live” at the Hoa Binh Theatre in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. “V Heartbeat” holds weekly and monthly projects as “The Gateway to Asia” and is a music chart created by Naver and the Vietnamese government.
After performing in Taipei, Taiwan, Chungha arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh on the day of the concert to a group of fans who chanted her name while holding up signs and photos of her. During “V Heartbeat Live,” Chungha performed her debut track “Rollercoaster” and latest title “Gotta Go” and thanked the audience for inviting her to Vietnam.
In her interview with Star News prior to her performance, Chungha said with a laugh, “This is my first time visiting Vietnam. When I went on overseas promotions as an I.O.I member, I remember being protected by the managers. But after debuting as a solo artist, I got on airplanes pretty quietly. Arriving at Vietnam after my solo debut, so many people waited for me and took photos of me, so it was cool and I felt grateful.”
She continued, “This was my second trip to Taiwan. It was a difficult schedule, but the fans welcomed me even more, and I don’t feel tired when I’m on stage. After completing all of the scheduled events, I feel proud while thinking, ‘I did a lot of things.'”
Prior to her performances in Taiwan and Vietnam, Chungha joined the lineup at the 2019 SXSW Musical Festival in Texas on March 13 and will continue her international promotions with a fan meeting in Tokyo at the beginning of April.
The singer lived in Dallas, Texas for seven years and returned to her home state a star. “I visited Texas for the first time in 10 years and performed, and I remember the local fans who danced along with me,” said the singer. She added that she met up with her family members currently residing in Texas and said she wants to return to Texas anytime.
About the success of her releases thus far, Chungha said, “I feel more grateful after the promotions rather than during. It’s fascinating when I turn on the TV and ‘Gotta Go’ comes on. I think, ‘People listen to my songs a lot.'”
She concluded the interview with her goals for 2019, stating, “I’ve always come out with a new song in the summer. This summer, I’m also preparing with the goal of releasing a new album. My goal for 2019 is to meet fans through more performances and to see them again with a new appearance and good songs like the successful promotions in 2018.”
Source (1) | 1,269,096 |
In a victory for free speech and open government, the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors Association (SMACNA) has conceded that it will no longer use trumped up copyright claims to try to stop Public.Resource.Org (Public Resource) from publishing safety standards that have been incorporated into law. Thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public.Resource.Org is now free to continue its mission of improving public access to the laws that govern our daily lives.
Public.Resource.Org is a non-profit organization that acquires and makes available online a wide variety of public documents such as fire safety codes, food safety standards, and other regulations that have been incorporated into U.S. and international laws. Such documents are often difficult to access otherwise, meaning the public cannot read them, much less comment on them.
In January, SMACNA demanded that Public.Resource.Org take offline a federally mandated air-duct standard, claiming the posting violated SMACNA’s copyright in the standard. Represented by EFF, Fenwick & West LLP, and David Halperin, Public Resource fought back and asked a federal court to declare that the standards became part of the public domain once they were incorporated into law.
After initially attempting to avoid responding to the lawsuit at all, SMACNA has now surrendered and agreed to publicly affirm that it will no longer claim copyright in the standards.
“Whether it’s the Constitution or a building code, the law is part of the public domain,” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “We’re glad SMACNA is abandoning its effort to undermine that essential principle.”
In today’s technical world, public-safety codes are some of the country’s most important laws. Public access to such codes can be crucial when, for example, there is an industrial accident, a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, or when a homebuyer simply wishes to independently consider whether her house was built to code standards. Publishing the codes online, in a readily-accessible format, also makes it possible for reporters and other interested citizens to search, excerpt, compare, and copy them.
“It’s about time Standards Development Organizations recognized that if a technical standard has been incorporated into federal law, the public has a right to read it, speak it and copy it freely,” said Public.Resource.Org founder Carl Malamud. “We hope SMACNA has finally learned that lesson.”
For the stipulation:
https://www.eff.org/document/smacna-stipulation-and-judgment
For more on Public.Resource.Org vs. SMACNA:
https://www.eff.org/cases/publicresourceorg-v-smacna
Corynne McSherry
Intellectual Property Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
[email protected] | 1,269,097 |
The city of Brampton, Ontario had both their new CeHL and their new NBL-C team unveil their inaugural team logos over the weekend. Yes, it’ll be an interesting fall for sports fans in Brampton as they quickly go from being excited about their two new clubs to reading a footnote in the paper about them ceasing to exist within a few short months of those ceremonial first faceoffs and tipoffs… Sports!
First up, it’s the “Brampton Beast“, Canada’s first entry in the Double-A (or Single-A, depends on who you ask) Central Hockey League, brought into town after the OHL’s Brampton Battalion retreated up to North Bay earlier this month.
The logo is in black, silver, and white – perhaps the latest “hot” colours in sports thanks to those pesky Brooklyn Nets. The logo was designed by Indonesian artist Andreans Endhi (some examples of his other work here). And, how surprisingly refreshing, the logo lacks the customary token maple leaf slapped on to remind everyone what country the team is from (although as the first Canadian team in this league it wouldn’t be that objectionable for it to be in there)… Wait, what’s that? “A red maple leaf will be on the uniform shoulder”? says team owner Gregg Rosen. I’m sure that’ll fit right into that colour scheme… sigh.
At the time of this posting, the Beast’s logo had a fan rating of 6.2 out of 10 on SportsLogos.Net – be sure to give it a rating yourself here.
Moving onto the hardcourt and the National Basketball League of Canada, it’s the Brampton Eh’s!… sorry… Brampton A’s, who also unveiled their inaugural season logo and… yeah, it’s clearly not of the same level of quality as the Beast’s design.
There’s three different fonts (“BRAM_PTON”, “A”, and “‘s”), some sort of half-maple leaf (really, in an all-Canadian league!)/half-basketball thing going on at the bottom, not to mention the head-scratcher of a design for the “A’s” bit of the logo… honestly if I didn’t already know the name of the team I’d have thought they were the Brampton 4’s, Brampton 7’s, or Brampton T’s (With Mr. T as a mascot, now we’re talking).
The A’s become the first team in the NBL-C to use a maple leaf in their primary branding, they also become one of the few teams to NOT use a lightning bolt, so kudos for that. You can check out all the other NBL-C team logos here. | 1,269,098 |
At the end of the day this reviewing business is three things to me: a passion, a hobby and eventually, a job. While others may have the income to supplement their hobbyist ventures, I do not (currently) have this privilege and would rather have my hobby be my income, and so provide content to my readers at a full-time capacity. As opposed to if I were to take on a separate and unrelated full-time (also likely corporate) job, which means measurements and reviews can only be done at my leisure which drastically decreases the rate at which I can create content for my loyal readers.
This ties back to the ethics conversation, wherein my monetisation strategies will heavily influence my biases in future. Currently, my income is diversified into three main components:
General advertising (Google Adsense)
Specialised banner advertising
Patreon
With a fourth component, product collaboration revenue, also on the horizon.
Of the three currently active, the ones that have the least conflict-of-interest would undoubtedly be general advertising and Patreon. In general advertising, I do not manage or control the ads being shown on my website and so is completely unaffected by whether or not my reviews are positive or negative. Patreon is a membership platform that allows my own readers to support me, which is probably the most conflict-of-interest-free way to get money off my content.
The big issue, that many of you have raised, would be in the specialised banner advertising.
As of today (01/02/20) there are three online retailers who pay for specialised banner advertising on my website, namely Headphones.com, Linsoul and HiFiGo. Now, Headphones.com is probably has the least conflict-of-interest out of the three considering that they don’t send me any review units, so the big concern would be Linsoul and HiFiGo who actually provide the majority of my review units (but not the majority of my impressions, that still goes to store demo units by a total landslide). So, consider this as me being completely transparent on my relationship with these two retailers and why I believe it does not affect the integrity of my reviews.
Over the years, I’ve received quite a few review units from many different retailers and manufacturers. As you can tell, I’m not quite “repeat customer” material as my reviews tend to get rather critical and almost scathing at times. Linsoul and HiFiGo were the companies that continue to send me review units despite my numerous negative reviews on previous products, and so I began to trust that they would be acceptable as banner advertisers.
Again I have to stress, the payments that these retailers make to me are purely for banner advertising and nothing else. They have zero say in the content I publish and they have never once asked me to amend or edit any of my reviews of their carried products.
Brands and manufacturers of the products I review will not be accepted as banner advertisers on IEF. | 1,269,099 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.