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The J. Edgar Hoover Building, the headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington
A former FBI agent who leaked internal documents showing how the agency used racial profiling in counter-terror investigations was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday.
In the third case this week to underscore the Trump administration´s determined crackdown on media leaks, Terry Albury, a 17-year FBI veteran and son of an Ethiopian refugee, was ordered to prison for 48 months by a Minnesota judge after pleading guilty in the case.
"We are conducting perhaps the most aggressive campaign against leaks in department history," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement.
"Crimes like the one committed by the defendant in this case will not be tolerated -- they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and punished."
Albury was a special agent in the FBI Minneapolis field office in 2016 and 2017 when he leaked the agency's Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide to The Intercept.
The guide showed how the agency can use racial and religious profiling to target investigations, bend rules to infiltrate activist groups, and spy on journalists.
Albury's lawyers said that, as the only black field agent in the Minneapolis office, he took note of racist attitudes inside his squad and how these made it more difficult to gain the trust of the large Somali-American community in the area -- which had sent a number of young men to join jihadist groups Al-Shabab and Islamic State as fighters.
Albury's lawyer insisted that he was not seeking to divulge secrets but to advance discourse "about how to maintain the delicate balance between freedom and security."
"He was endeavoring to resolve what for him became an insurmountable moral conflict between his role as an FBI agent sworn to uphold the written law and his personal commitment to social justice and human rights," they said.
Prosecutors however suggested that Albury had a vendetta against his employers and would have continued to leak secret documents.
The sentence was handed down one day after federal agents announced the arrest of a Treasury official for leaking documents to BuzzFeed, an Intercept competitor, on money transfers involving key figures in the Russia election collusion probe.
And on Monday, a US Senate staffer arrested this year over alleged leaks of classified information to his reporter girlfriend pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents.
His leaks, too, involved matters related to the Russia collusion investigation, which has seen several former aides of President Donald Trump convicted or plead guilty.
Nearly one year ago Sessions said the Justice Department had 27 open leak investigations. | 1,500 |
Prosecutors in the case against James Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora movie theater massacre, believe that the University of Colorado Police Department opened a file on him prior to the July 20 shootings.
The revelation comes in a newly released ruling by Judge William Sylvester, ordering that prosecutors be allowed access to numerous documents from Holmes’ time in a neuroscience program at CU.
In deciding whether to release any police records or police intelligence files that CU had on Holmes, Sylvester wrote, “The People acknowledge that they ‘probably have campus police records, but [they] don’t know that for sure.’ “
Prosecutors have previously alleged that Holmes made a threat to a CU professor. And Holmes’ one-time psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, testified at a hearing in the case that she approached a CU police officer about a patient around the same time as her last meeting with Holmes.
Sylvester ruled that police records on Holmes should be released to prosecutors except those that detail contacts Holmes had with Fenton, as that information would be protected by doctor-patient confidentiality.
“If the University of Colorado Police Department has a law enforcement investigation file about Defendant, that information is likely relevant,” Sylvester ruled.
Sylvester also ordered that prosecutors be given access to certain parts of Holmes’ application to CU, his transcript, records detailing his academic performance and reasons for withdrawing from the university. Sylvester denied, however, access to Holmes’ class schedule and documents concerning an undescribed voice-mail message and a “database note.”
Dan Meyers, a spokesman for CU Denver’s school of medicine, which oversees the neuroscience program, said he could not comment on the records because of a gag order in the case.
Holmes began withdrawing from CU in June. The following month, he is accused of opening fire inside a movie theater during the premiere of the new Batman movie. Twelve people were killed and another 58 injured. He faces 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges.
His next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25, but his attorneys — who are expected to argue at that hearing that prosecutors should be sanctioned for leaks to the media over a notebook Holmes mailed to Fenton — have asked to postpone it so they can have more time to prepare.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, [email protected] or twitter.com/john_ingold | 1,501 |
THIS IS A GUIDE TO CORPUS, THE MOST BROKEN, BALLEST GOAT IN THE GAME. HIS ACHIEVEMENTS INCLUDE BEING THE PATRON OF THE LONG QUA DYNASTY, BEING THE MOST BADASS GOAT THE WORLD'S EVER SEEN AND BEING DOWNRIGHT SWAG. NOTHING ELSE, NOT EVEN THE GREAT CATHERINE HAS ANYTHING ON THIS GUY, OKAY? LET'S GO
THAT'S ALL YOU NEED. CORPUS DOES NOT NEED POTIONS. CORPUS DOES NOT NEED FLARES. CORPUS IS LOVE, CORPUS IS LIFE AND YOU ARE CORPUS. YOU DESTROY EARLY GAME. YOU ARE A GOD. GORDON RAMSAY WON'T BE ABLE TO BUTCHER YOU FOR BECAUSE THAT'S HOW BALLER-ISH YOU ARE. YOU ARE CORPUS. NEVER FORGET.
"GO YOURSELF"
"SAVE YOUR ALLIES SO THAT THEY CAN THANK YOU AND LOOK LIKE LITTLE *****ES."
CORPUS IS A NEW CHARACTER. YOU ARE IN DOUBT. YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PLAY HIM. YOU TURN TO VG FOR GUIDES BUT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM DOES NOT TELL YOU HOW TO BRING OUT YOUR TRUE NATURE OF ABSOLUTE GODLIKE STATUS. SO WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU ASK CORPUS. REMEMBER, CORPUS IS GOD. HE IS EVERYTHING. AND WHAT DOES CORPUS SAY?THAT'S RIGHT, YOU LITTLE *****. YOU AIN'T NEARLY HARDY ENOUGH TO TAKE ON THE GOD THAT IS CORPUS. SO YOU PRACTICE. YOU PRACTICE TILL YOU ACHIEVE A FRACTION OF HIS GODLY BEING. AND THEN FINALLY HE GIVES YOU ADVICE.THIS IS DEEP, CONFUCIOUS-STYLE PHILOSOPHY RIGHT HERE YOU GUYS. SO WHAT DO YOU DO? BUY FOUNTAIN. SAVE THOSE PATHETIC ALLIES OF YOURS. BUT DO NOT FORGET. YOU ARE CORPUS. YOU ARE A ONE MAN ARMY. YOU KILL THEM ALL. THEY ARE NOT ALLIES. THEY ARE MERELY UNBELIEVERS THAT HAPPENED TO WITNESS YOUR GLORY. YOU ARE CORPUS. | 1,502 |
Increase to £157.50 has extra potency as over-75s must start paying fee from this summer
The cost of a TV licence will increase from £154.50 to £157.50 in April, the BBC has said, as ministers consider whether to decriminalise non-payment of the fee as part of a broader attack on the corporation.
The BBC’s licence fee deal includes annual price rises in line with inflation, meaning the £3 price rise had been expected. But confirmation of the increase has extra potency this year, as most over-75s will have to start paying for their licence fees from this summer onwards.
The culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, will give a speech on Wednesday on the future of media and broadcasting, in which she is expected to launch a consultation on whether to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee.
Compliance with the fee is currently enforced through the criminal court system. The last time the government looked at turning non-payment into a civil matter – similar to non-payment of an electricity bill, enforced by bailiffs – it concluded that the change would cost the BBC hundreds of millions of pounds.
The corporation is already facing an editorial boycott from the government, with ministers refusing to appear on leading shows such as Radio 4’s Today programme, in protest at the corporation’s news coverage during the general election.
Spending plans agreed in 2015 are only just making themselves felt in the form of cuts to the BBC’s news output announced last week, and any further reduction in spending would be likely to harm the corporation even further.
Hostile politicians, cuts and controversy: why the BBC has never been so vulnerable Read more
The number of active television licences in the UK fell slightly last year for the first time in decades, suggesting a small number of households could be choosing to stop paying.
The BBC emphasises that although the £13.13 monthly cost is more than the price of commercial services such as Netflix, it provides a wider range of public service universal services including nine national TV channels; 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations, plus the BBC website.
Despite this, there are growing calls for reform of the system, including from some of the BBC’s highest-profile presenters. Last week Gary Lineker told the Guardian he backed decriminalisation. The Match of the Day presenter is paid £1.75m a year by the corporation – the equivalent of 7p a year from every household that pays the licence fee. | 1,503 |
Over 82 percent of respondents feel affection for newly enthroned Emperor Naruhito, while nearly 80 percent said they would support allowing females to ascend to the imperial throne, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday.
In the two-day nationwide opinion poll conducted after Emperor Naruhito’s accession on Wednesday following the 30-year reign of his father, 82.5 percent said they feel affection for the 59-year-old emperor, while 11.3 percent did not.
The support rate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet remained nearly flat at 51.9 percent, compared with 52.8 percent in the previous survey in April. The disapproval rate stood at 31.3 percent, slightly down from 32.4 percent.
The survey covered 743 randomly selected households with eligible voters as well as 1,238 mobile phone users, obtaining responses from 516 and 518 people, respectively.
Amid lingering concern over the stability of Japan’s imperial succession that only allows male heirs on the father’s side to reign as emperors, 79.6 percent said they would support a woman ascending to the throne in the future, while 13.3 percent would not.
The conservative governments led by Abe, including his first time in office between 2006 and 2007, have expressed caution about changing the male line of succession, while apparently recognizing the need to address the dwindling number of imperial family members.
There are currently three heirs among the 18 members of the imperial family — the emperor’s younger brother Crown Prince Akishino, 53, his son Prince Hisahito, 12, and the emperor’s uncle Prince Hitachi, 83. The only child born to Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako is their daughter Aiko, 17.
Emperor Naruhito ascended to the throne after his father, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 85, abdicated Tuesday due to concern over his advanced age, the first Japanese monarch to do so in 202 years.
In his first speech after the enthronement on Wednesday, Emperor Naruhito pledged to stand with his people following the example set by his father and to fulfill his symbolic, nonpolitical role in accordance with the post-World War II Constitution.
“In acceding to the throne, I swear that I will reflect deeply on the course followed by his majesty the emperor emeritus and bear in mind the path trodden by past emperors, and will devote myself to self-improvement,” he said. | 1,504 |
said.
In the long term, Nugent hopes to help link up the North Branch Trail with the existing Sauganash/Valley Line Trail and Lincolnwood's Union Pacific Recreation Path, aka the Weber Spur Trail.
Andre Vasquez, 40th Ward
It was a sign of the times when Vasquez, a Democratic Socialist and former battle rapper, defeated 36-year incumbent and Vrdolyak 29 member Patrick O'Connor, a symbol of the old Chicago machine. One of the alderman's top priorities is encouraging transit-oriented development (TOD) around the recently funded Edgewater Metra station, slated for Peterson and Ravenswood Avenues, according to ward policy director Geoffrey Cubbage.
But after witnessing the high-end TOD boom along Milwaukee Avenue, which has been blamed for accelerating the displacement of longtime Logan Square residents, "We want to maintain affordability and make sure that residents and businesses that have been in the community for years are able to remain in the neighborhood," Cubbage said.
Vasquez will also be overseeing CDOT's plan to improve Lawrence Avenue from Western to the Chicago River—which includes wider sidewalks and upgraded bike lanes—scheduled for construction next year.
Matt Martin, 47th Ward
In the contest to replace outgoing alderman Ameya Pawar, civil rights lawyer Martin faced off against Emanuel ally Michael Negron. (That meant that when you added an "i" to the end of either candidate's surname, you got the name of a classic gin cocktail.)
Pawar pioneered the city's first "neighborhood greenway" on Berteau Avenue, and Martin said he wants to build more of these traffic-calmed side-street bike routes, as well as protected bike lanes on business streets.
On a macro scale, Martin said, "Chicago needs to step up its game and roll out many more miles of dedicated bus lanes." While he said he'd be happy to get bus lanes on Western in his relatively affluent ward, "we would support prioritizing such lanes to improve connectivity and access to downtown jobs and economic opportunities for our city's most marginalized communities first."
Likewise, while Martin supports bringing more TOD to the area, he wants it to be affordable rather than upscale. "Because transportation has become a commodity marketed to wealthier residents in this city, we must ensure, through zoning stewardship in our own ward as well as through citywide policies, that Chicago's most marginalized residents are the first to benefit from expanded access to transportation." v | 1,505 |
Clear Creek ISD voters OK $487 million bond proposal
The $487 million bond proposal approved by Clear Creek ISD voters will include funds to provide playground makeovers at 20 district elementary schools. The $487 million bond proposal approved by Clear Creek ISD voters will include funds to provide playground makeovers at 20 district elementary schools. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Clear Creek ISD voters OK $487 million bond proposal 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Clear Creek Independent School voters have authorized a $487 million bond package aimed at addressing enrollment growth, aging campuses, technological needs and safety improvements.
In unofficial results from the May 6 election, the bond won support of more than 63 percent of voters.
"We are appreciative of the community's support of our schools, our teachers and our students," Superintendent Greg Smith said in a press release. "I would like to first and foremost thank the CCISD Facility Advisory Committee who worked tirelessly over the course of many months to put together a bond package that reflected the community's priorities. We are ready to get to work on these important projects that will undoubtedly improve the learning and working environment for teachers and students across this great school district."
Approval of the bond allows the district to build new schools, increase the capacity of crowded campuses and rebuild and renovate schools that are between 40 and 50 years old. It also will provide funds to renovate or replace aging elementary school playgrounds, purchase new buses and build a second magnet campus to expand enrollment. The district's security systems and other technological systems, such as computer labs, would be updated.
"This school bond program will give us the ability to stay competitive in education and the ability to support the children of CCISD today and decades into the future," district board president Laura DuPont said in a press release. "As a school board we appreciate the community's support of this bond package and we will ensure these funds will be used solely for the purposes we outlined to the public."
The district's tax rate is $140 per $100 valuation. The bond package is projected to result in a 3.7 cent increase in the rate, which could mean around $6 more monthly in taxes on a home with the median value of $223,635.
There was opposition to the bond proposal from one group, Citizens for CCISD, a political action committee, which questioned whether the district was overspending. In March, the Galveston County Republican Party approved a resolution which called for the district to postpone the bond election until November. | 1,506 |
10 times and submitted to a polygraph test before he was permitted to return home. (The Wehelies, through their lawyer, declined to comment.)
In 2007, Kenyan authorities arrested Amir Meshal, of New Jersey, and New Hampshire-raised Daniel Maldonado after they sought refuge in Kenya when Ethiopia invaded Somalia and displaced its Islamist government. (Both men claim they went to Somalia, which was comparatively stable before the Ethiopian invasion, only for the experience of living in an Islamic country.) Maldonado has since taken a plea deal and is serving a 10-year sentence for receiving training from Al Qaeda. But Meshal has not been charged with a crime. Backed by the ACLU, he is suing the government (PDF), claiming that FBI agents violated his rights by interrogating him in a series of African prisons without access to a lawyer.
“There are still probably other people out there that are being tortured like I was.”
Human rights advocates believe many more Americans may have been subjected to proxy detention but have not come forward for fear of retaliation or prosecution; some may still be secretly imprisoned. As Gulet Mohamed declared when he arrived back in the US: “There are still probably other people out there that are being tortured like I was. My voice has been heard, but their voices are not being heard.”
During his detention in Kuwait, one of Mohamed’s fellow prisoners had given him access to a smuggled cell phone. He called his family, who contacted a lawyer; eventually Mohamed used the phone to describe his plight to the New York Times‘ Mark Mazzetti. The story made headlines, embarrassing the Obama administration and raising questions about its track record on civil liberties and human rights. An irate US Embassy official later visited Mohamed’s cell with a highlighted copy of the Times story. “You didn’t cooperate with the FBI,” he said, according to Mohamed. “That is why you didn’t leave. You went public. We need to calm this down.”
At a press conference when Mohamed finally did return home, his lawyer, Gadeir Abbas, addressed the scrum of reporters. “What’s great about being an American citizen traveling abroad is that you have the full power and privilege of the most powerful country in the world at your back,” he said. “But in this situation, it doesn’t look like Gulet had those powers and privileges that are routinely granted to other American citizens.” | 1,507 |
A judge ruled on Friday that Tesla committed a series of violations of the National Labor Relations Act in 2017, according to Bloomberg. And, surprisingly, this ruling didn't even have anything to do with forcing people to build cars in tents.
Rather, administrative law judge Amita Baman Tracy found that Tesla illegally threatened and retaliated against its employees.
And among the key pieces of evidence in making the determination was - you guessed it - Elon Musk's Twitter account. Musk Tweeted in May of 2018, suggesting that employees would surrender company-paid stock options if they chose to join a union.
Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2018
The judge's order now calls for Tesla to offer both reinstatement and back-pay to a fired, pro-union employee. It also calls for the company to revoke a warning issued to another pro-union employee.
But here's the best part: the ruling also says that Musk must hold a meeting at the company's Fremont assembly plant, and that either Musk or an agent with the labor board must read a notice to employees informing them that the NLRB concluded the company broke the law.
If that doesn't trigger Elon, we're not sure what will. We desperately hope that video of this mea culpa, especially if delivered by Musk, leaks. And why wouldn't it - everything else seems to be leaking from the company lately?
While the NLRB can't hold executives personally liable, nor can it assess punitive damages, the ruling will embolden UAW supporters who have been trying to tie EV subsidies to companies' workplace practices.
The ruling can be appealed to NLRB members who are presidential appointees in Washington and both sides have concluded that an appeal is already a foregone conclusion.
“This will be appealed no matter what I decide,” the Judge said last year during the trial.
Meanwhile, Tesla continues to fall back to the perfunctory and impotent defense that everyone in the world is out to get their visionary boy genius leader.
“This entire trial is an infomercial in an effort to place Mr. Musk and the company in a negative light,” Tesla's attorney said at the start of the trial in June 2018. | 1,508 |
From Shakespeare to Hitchcock, mistaken identity makes for a powerful narrative.
A police officer who’s proud of his reputation for getting along with black officers, and for teaching cadets to avoid racial profiling, feels maligned to be cast as a racist white Boston cop.
Image Maureen Dowd Credit... Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
A famous professor who studies identity and summers in Martha’s Vineyard feels maligned to be cast as a black burglar with backpack and crowbar.
Race, class and testosterone will always be a combustible brew. Our first African-American president will try to make the peace with Gates (who supported Hillary) and Crowley (whose father voted for Obama).
I tracked down Gates by phone at J.F.K. on Friday after he had talked to the president and agreed to go to the White House for a symbolic beer with the man he labeled “a rogue policeman.” Gates, coughing from a cold he picked up in China, said he wondered if perhaps “fate and history chose me for this event.” He was pleased with the thousands of empathetic e-mail notes he’s getting, material for a PBS documentary on racial profiling.
He says he’s ready for “marriage counseling” from the “Solomon” in the Oval, who wrote in his memoir that the police pulled him over “for no apparent reason.” “If Sgt. Crowley and the president and I meet, it’s clearly not going to be like Judge Joe Brown, OK? ‘You tell your side, you tell your side.’ We have to agree to disagree. But I would be surprised if somebody didn’t say, ‘I’m sorry you were arrested.’ ”
How can they ever reconcile their accounts? Crowley says he asked Gates to come outside and the professor replied, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside.” Gates wryly suggests Crowley got the line from watching “Good Times” as a child.
“Does it sound logical that I would talk about the mother of a big white guy with a gun?” he asked. “I’m 5-7 and 150 pounds. I don’t walk on ice, much less (expletive) with some cop in my kitchen. I don’t want another hip replacement.” | 1,509 |
Self-avowed “secularist” John Stossel challenged Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday, arguing that the Factor host was overstating his allegations that Christianity was under attack in the U.S.
“Your ‘war on Christianity,’ you’re just a 10-foot-tall crybaby,” Stossel told O’Reilly. “It’s not so bad. Christians aren’t being killed.”
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“Not yet,” O’Reilly replied.
“Not in America, and they’re not going to be,” Stossel countered.
“They’re verbally being killed,” O’Reilly insisted. Stossel scoffed in response, asking, “So what?”
The exchange came a day after O’Reilly argued that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton already has an advantage in her presidential campaign because it was “open season” on Christians and white men.
“You shouldn’t be diminished because you believe a certain way,” O’Reilly told Stossel. “Aren’t you outraged by that?”
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“What’s diminished?” Stossel asked, before alluding to an ABC News poll saying that 83 percent of Americans identified as Christians. “You are the majority. You’ve won.”
“It’s not a matter of winning,” O’Reilly replied. “It’s a matter of respect.”
O’Reilly then complained that “secularists” were arguing against religion in an attempt to pave the way for “unfettered abortion, gay marriage” and “legalized narcotics.”
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“I’m a secularist, and I don’t want unlimited abortion,” Stossel noted. “I think you paint with too broad a brush. I don’t criticize religion.”
“Not all secularists do,” O’Reilly said. “But you’re not a secular progressive — that’s what I should have said.”
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Watch footage from the discussion, as posted by Media Matters on Tuesday, below. | 1,510 |
At the Essence Festival on Saturday, former first lady Michelle Obama refused to comment on the Kamala Harris-Joe Biden “dust-up.”
“I’ve been doing this rodeo far too long,” Obama responded to interviewer Gayle King’s question about the tiff. “And no comment.”
The former first lady also said she and her husband would not be endorsing any candidate from the crowded field, saying they would support whoever wins the primary.
“Barack and I are going to support whoever wins the primary, so … our primary focus is letting the primary process play out because it’s very early,” she said. “I mean, that’s one of the things that we learned in the campaign. It is early; it’s like trying to figure out who’s winning the World Series on the first seven games. I mean that’s where we are right now, it is so early.”
Biden had said a while back that he asked Barack Obama to not endorse him as it would look like he was “putting his thumb on the scale.” Few believed Biden and saw it as a way for him to claim Obama is endorsing him.
Michelle Obama did insult the man now in the White House.
“The leader of the free world, with a tweet, can start a war, can crush an economy, can change the future of our children,” she said. “It is a real job which requires deep seriousness and focus.”
Actually, Trump hasn’t done that but her husband has.
Then she said Barack made the presidency look easy.
“I fear that sometimes people might have thought that Barack made it look easy, so it must be easy, It’s kind of like, I guess if the black guy can do it, anybody can do it. And that’s not true,” she said to laughs from the mostly African American crowd.
Barack didn’t do anything except drag us closer to socialism. He did start the war in Libya and accelerate others. He also made us live with an anemic recovery, but fortunately, President Trump did have a magic wand.
There is real fear in some quarters that Michelle Obama will jump into the race if the other candidates can’t draw enthusiasm. It’s everyone on the right’s nightmare. | 1,511 |
I am very disappointed that the school district has been portrayed in a way as to bring negative attention to our staff and students when the District took immediate action to investigate and hold those individuals involved accountable.” The entire text of Mitchell’s statement is included below:
On Thursday, December 12th, a message was posted on Twitter along with a video showing an altercation between students on a Hamilton County School District school bus. The incident shown in this tweet actually occurred on Thursday, November 21st, 22 days ago. Since that time the school district has investigated the incident, taken action against the students involved, and turned the information over to the local Sheriff’s office for criminal action. It is implied in the post that the altercation occurred because one of the students involved was wearing a political hat showing support for President Trump. There was no evidence found during the investigation that indicated the student was wearing any of this apparel at the time of the altercation or that his wearing of such apparel on a prior occasion motivated the incident. The incident began with a verbal altercation between two students that escalated when additional students became involved. In addition to the video that was posted online which was recorded by a student, the school district reviewed the bus video which depicted, not only the altercation, but all events prior to the altercation and its conclusion. “We absolutely do not condone the use of physical force between students”, stated Superintendent Rex Mitchell. “This was a very unfortunate incident that we take very seriously as the safety and welfare of the students is always our top priority. Maintaining order on a school bus is a very difficult task. We use as many bus aides as possible to assist with maintaining a safe environment for the students.” This is being treated as an isolated incident and bus video is being monitored with no additional incidents being reported. “I am very disappointed that the school district has been portrayed in a way as to bring negative attention to our staff and students when the District took immediate action to investigate and hold those individuals involved accountable. Hamilton County Schools have made tremendous progress in academic performance and financial stability in the past two years. Staff and students continue to work hard to meet our mission of “Ensuring a Successful Future for Every Student.” This was a very unfortunate incident completely unrelated to any political statements or agendas. However, we will continue to evaluate our safety procedures to prevent a future event and ensure the safety of all students in the Hamilton County School District
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram. | 1,512 |
New Year's Tips for Losers (Like You) • Set goals, not resolutions. For example, make it your goal to not be such a fat disgusting lard. • Be realistic. The surest way to fall short of your goal is to make your goal unattainable. For instance, saying you'll be more involved in the lives of your children by never missing another one of their boring plays or soccer games isn't very realistic. Start with maybe shooting for a 30% appearance rate. • Who says you even have a drinking problem anyway? Them? Well, they sure are all high and mighty, aren't they? Think they're better than you. The bastards. They're not better than shit. Fuuuuuuuck them. • Plan ahead. Decide how you will deal with the temptation to reach for that cigarette or slice of cake. If you find yourself itching to light up, treat yourself to a nice meal instead. If compulsive snacking is your weakness, consider taking up smoking. • Tell your friends and family about your plans to improve yourself. That way, when you fail, you'll suffer not only your own personal disappointment, but the shame that comes from embarrassing yourself in the eyes of others, which you will so richly deserve. • Remember: you will fail, so don't beat yourself up. Unless your resolution was to stop beating yourself up, in which case there won't be any helping it. • Try enlisting the help of a licensed hypnotherapist to help you achieve your goals. If you find yourself in a gym every day making a fool of yourself dancing uncontrollably and singing into a dumbbell at the top of your lungs to that "Meet Me in the Middle" song that comes on the sound system every 30 god damn minutes, you know it's working. • Track your progress with a graph. For example, start a horizontal line outward from January 1st that connects all the days you don't blow a guy you met on Tinder in a seedy hotel followed by one vertical line straight down. • Keep it simple. Instead of setting your goals to high, try achieving them in a piecemeal process. For example, instead of betting on three games on Sunday, only bet on one - unless the Patriots somehow don't cover the spread, in which case naturally you should put money on an afternoon game to cover your loss, followed by a quadruple-or-nothing play Monday night if the fucking Jaguars blow it again. • Honestly, why do you even give a shit, anyway? We'll all be dead soon. | 1,513 |
Picture: Getty Images
Australia’s national curriculum is getting a trim with the scrapping of history and geography as stand-alone subjects and replacing this with 21st century computer coding.
According to the Australian, a new digital technologies curriculum was endorsed by Australia’s education ministers yesterday which would see students as young as early as Year 5 picking up computer coding with students starting to program by Year 7.
The push for young kids and students to take up coding and programming in Australian schools has been gathering momentum especially among the country’s top tech execs such as Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes.
“Technology education in primary and high school is going to be one of our biggest fails as a country in 20 years time if we don’t fix it and it may already be too late if we don’t move very fast,” Cannon-Brookes told Business Insider earlier last month.
“If you look at what other countries are doing, we’re miles and miles behind and I think it’s as critical as maths or English to every single job that’s going to be done in the economy in 20 years time and education takes a long time to flow through.”
Earlier this year, Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne pledged to strengthen Australia’s science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) skills base as well to bolster the digital skills needed to succeed in the highly competitive tech environment of the 21st century.
“We know that as computer driven smart-technology expands into every aspect of our recreational and working lives, there is an ever growing need for highly skilled workers in this global growth industry. All children will need to understand is computational thinking and how it can contribute to their future.
“We are investing in computer coding across different year levels in Australian schools, and STEM education more broadly to ensure young Australians and our nation can grasp the opportunities the high-tech future offers.”
The new curriculum echoes successful programs implemented in the United States such as Code.org and “Hour of Code”, with the support of Google and Microsoft, including the United Kingdom who introduced coding in primary schools last year.
It is estimated that 75% of fast-growing occupations will require STEM skills in science, technology, engineering or maths.
Business Insider Emails & Alerts Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address Join
Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. | 1,514 |
Leah Heyes: Mum 'heartbroken' over teen's 'drug death' Published duration 14 May 2019
image copyright North Yorkshire Police image caption The mother of Leah Heyes, Kerry Roberts (right), paid tribute to a "much loved and thoughtful girl"
The mother of a teenager who died after apparently taking ecstasy in North Yorkshire says she has been left "absolutely heartbroken".
Leah Heyes, 15, collapsed in a car park in Northallerton on Saturday night and died later in hospital.
Police believe she had taken MDMA. They arrested two teenagers on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs, but released them under investigation.
Leah's mum, Kerry Roberts, paid tribute to a "much loved and thoughtful girl".
"Leah was my best friend," she said.
"She was a thoughtful, beautiful girl, who was much loved.
Ms Roberts described her daughter as "fun, bubbly" and said she had "a great sense of humour".
"I'm absolutely heartbroken to have lost my beautiful girl," she said.
"No words can describe how much she will be missed and the enormous gap she has left in our lives.
"She will be truly missed more than words can say. I love you always."
image copyright North Yorkshire Police image caption Miss Heyes, 15, collapsed in a car park on Saturday evening
Emergency services were called to Applegarth car park at 21:30 BST.
Leah, who was from Northallerton, was taken to hospital in Middlesbrough where she later died.
An 18-year-old man was arrested on Monday, after officers detained a 17-year-old boy.
North Yorkshire Police said it had "not ruled out making more arrests".
The force has appealed for anyone who has mobile phone footage taken on the night to come forward.
It said about 20 people were in the Applegarth area on Saturday night and officers needed to "speak to all of them, and anyone else who was passing through".
Det Insp Eamonn Clarke said: "Inquiries also reveal that there may be mobile phone video footage of the events of that tragic evening.
"This footage will be extremely helpful to our investigation."
He said the teenager's family were "devastated and a community left in shock".
"It is vital that people come forward and help us find the answers for Leah's family and friends," he added. | 1,515 |
A statement issued to finder.com.au today by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) confirms its involvement in blockchain technology and the use of cryptocurrency.
A lot of the talk in the cryptocurrency world at present is centred on Ripple. Today it hit an all-time high after a month of rapid growth, and it’s quickly moved into second place only behind Bitcoin in owning the largest share of the cryptocurrency market.
List of exchanges that allow you to buy Ripple
One of Ripple’s features is its ability to function as an alternative to wire transfers and SWIFT payments for customers wishing to exchange money across borders – and to do it much faster and for a fraction of the fees. Earlier this week, Ripple was ruffled by a controversy involving a former employee of the bank, BBVA. The claims, potentially damaging, were that Ripple didn’t actually work as advertised.
Today, we received an official response to the claims from BBVA. As well as putting a torch to the controversy, the statements also identified that the bank was working with other cryptocurrencies. The bank specifically namedropped both Ethereum and the Hyperledger project, with the suggestion being they join Ripple in internal testing.
“BBVA is continuing to work with Ripple,” the statement from a spokesperson in the communications strategy team read, “as well as a number of others working in the blockchain sector such as Ethereum and Hyperledger, as this technology develops and builds out into new solutions." - BBVA spokesperson, communications strategy team
In what capacity BBVA is working with these two cryptocurrencies remains unknown. Perhaps they will never see the light of day; perhaps only one will establish itself as the bank’s new solution. All we know is that Ethereum is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the market, with a goal of evolving blockchain technology and taking it to the next level. Ethereum is also currently enjoying a sustained period of price growth, despite falling behind Ripple in the overall pecking order.
Everything you need to know about Ethereum
Hyperledger is not a specific currency, but instead a project with a range of collaborators focused on evolving cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is also looking to develop solutions for international money transfers, hoping to take care of 60% of all payments in the South Pacific in 2018. The most notable cryptocurrency involved in the Hyperledger project is Stellar, which is up 44% in the last 24 hours.
More details to come as they emerge. | 1,516 |
NEW YORK -- The board of 21st Century Fox met inside Fox News headquarters Thursday, while outside, the National Organization for Women declared the ouster of host Bill O’Reilly isn’t enough.
“We thought it was really important to come out and shed some light and shame the 13 members of the board of directors of 21st Century Fox who’ve allowed this culture to flourish,” said Sonia Ossorio, the president of the organization’s New York chapter.
Federal prosecutors have questions too: A lawyer representing former Fox News co-host Andrea Tantaros, who’s suing former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, says the U.S. Attorney has subpoenaed one of his other clients.
“Well I want to be clear that I don’t know what the nature of the investigation is,” said attorney Judd Burstein.
Judd Burstein CBS News
But Burstein told CBS News the subpoena suggests the investigation relates to the method in which settlements were paid.
“There is a grand jury investigation that it is being conducted by the securities fraud division of the U.S. Attorney’s office. And I do know that when Fox News talked to settle with Andrea Tanteros they wanted to pay the settlement out as salary,” Burstein said.
“The inference I draw from that is there may have been a studied effort to hide the fact that there were all these settlements being paid out by disguising them as salary,” he said.
Fox has announced Tucker Carlson will replace O’Reilly, but of the 50 or so companies that yanked ads from the show, most told CBS News they have not decided whether to move their ads back to the time slot. Viewership has remained steady.
Howard Bragman CBS News
“Viewers are not their problem. Advertisers, yes. They have to go and look at their advertisers, the people that pay for their network, where the profits come from, and say here’s the changes we’ve made and here’s why we’re a safe place for you to put your money,” said public relations specialist Howard Bragman.
Fox News did not respond to CBS News’ questions about the U.S. Attorney’s investigation. On Wednesday, Bill O’Reilly called the allegations against him unfounded and Roger Ailes has denied the allegations against him in the past. | 1,517 |
we think of how they're generated but when it comes down it we're not seeing the signature of supposedly millions of amps of current."
Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI
One very smart picture taken by Juno and released on Thursday showed the ring of dust that surrounds Jupiter. It is not well known that Jupiter has a ring, but it does. What was clever was getting the familiar stars of the Orion constellation to be in on the shot as well.
"This is the first image of Jupiter's ring that has ever been collected from the inside of it looking out," said mission scientist Heidi Becker from Nasa.
"Juno is 3,000 miles from the planet when we took this picture. So, what you're looking at is a ring of dust that's 40,000 miles away and stars that are hundreds of light-years away, all in the same picture."
Image copyright NASA/SWRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran
It is early days in the mission still (it is likely to run for several years yet), but the first gravity sensing data is pointing to some weirdness in respect of Jupiter's centre. Theories had suggested it either had a relatively small rocky core or no core at all (one suggestion was that the planet's gases went all the way down to the centre in an ever more compressed state).
Scientists are now considering something in between - a diffuse core. "It really looks fuzzy," said Dr Bolton. "There may be a core there but it's very big and it may be partially dissolved, and we're studying that."
Dr Bolton flagged up Juno's next pass, on 11 July. This will be dedicated to investigating the Great Red Spot.
Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times more massive
It takes 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun; a 'day' is 10 hours long
In composition it resembles a star; it's mostly hydrogen and helium
Under pressure, the hydrogen assumes a state similar to a metal
This'metallic hydrogen' could be the source of the magnetic field
Most of the visible cloud tops contain ammonia and hydrogen sulphide
Jupiter's low-latitude 'bands' play host to very strong east-west winds
The Great Red Spot is a giant storm vortex twice as wide as Earth
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos | 1,518 |
Second Amendment, but with legislation that would close what’s known as the gun-show loophole and restrict access to certain types of weapons.
It is highly unlikely that either position would do anything to seriously tackle the staggering problem of gun violence in the US. Trump’s position certainly would not. Regulation is necessary and will help – but not solve – the problem.
The real issue here is gun violence in the US does not have one simple cause. It is a complex and multi-causal problem that deserves greater attention – and one that certainly was not going to be covered adequately in such a forum.
Debate all about character
Bryan Cranston, Online Lecturer in Politics, and PhD Candidate in Politics and History, Swinburne University of Technology
The third and final presidential debate passed with few surprises.
There was never any doubt as to who was going to win the debate. The only way Trump could have won would have been if Clinton wasn’t there.
Ironically, Trump only needed to perform slightly better than his two previous debate disasters to be considered as having done a good job. Naturally, any attempt to portray Trump as anything less than the unmitigated winner of the contest will be seen by his campaign and supporters as further evidence of a conspiracy by the mainstream media to deny him the White House.
With their response to the opening question, Clinton and Trump steadfastly staked their claims to their respective party bases. Clinton affirmed her support for abortion rights, marriage equality, and campaign finance reform, while Trump focused on the Second Amendment and gun control. This was less a debate and more about rationalising an appeal to core supporters.
Trump was less than affirmative on his position regarding abortion rights. In fact, he didn’t answer the question, which will no doubt anger many evangelical and religious conservatives.
The debate only got worse for Trump when the topic turned to Russia and national security. In a debate about policy, facts were always going to play a major role, and this is perhaps the most significant deficit in Trump’s campaign. Clinton refuted all of Trump’s attacks by citing evidence, while Trump resorted to rhetoric.
Despite attempts to make it about policy, the final debate was all about character. Each candidate talked about why the other was unfit to serve as president.
It was a nasty, personal demonstration of two people seeking the highest political office in the world. Who won? The winner was overwhelmingly clear, and it wasn’t Trump. | 1,519 |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Police have arrested an "armed and dangerous" man who's accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in Nashville.
Metro Nashville Police officials say 30-year-old Brandon Horton shot and killed 30-year-old Temptress Peebles on Thursday. Horton was arrested Friday at the River Retreat Apartments in Madison.
BREAKING: Juvenile Crime Task Force officers & North Precinct detectives a short time ago arrested accused murderer Brandon Horton, 30, at River Retreat Apts in Madison. He was wanted for Thur afternoon's fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend, Temptress Peebles, on Morena St. pic.twitter.com/KPNfh3ALrI — Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) October 18, 2019
Metro Nashville Police Spokesperson Kris Mumford said the pair had a history of domestic violence. Peebles had been staying at a family members home, but was making trips to and from her home on the 2200 block of Morena Street to pick up personal items for herself and 8-year-old daughter.
On Thursday, she made another trip home, but that's when the shooting took place in the street.
Police said the vehicle door was still open and they don't think she made it inside. Witnesses said they saw the two arguing and Horton chasing her in the street. When officers got there, they found her lying in the road.
Her daughter was present at the time of the incident. She ran to a neighbor’s house. Horton got away in a black SUV.
Horton was wanted for probation violation and on outstanding warrants charging him with domestic assault and burglary of a motor vehicle for a similar attack on Oct. 6. Peebles went home to gather some things and Horton had reportedly attacked her in the street, throwing her down, punching her and pulling her hair.
Horton also had outstanding warrants charging him with aggravated assault and aggravated burglary for a July incident in which Peebles reported that Horton had kicked in the door to her home and pointed a gun at her. A January 2019 domestic assault charge was dismissed in February.
He has convictions for facilitating 2nd degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery and should be considered to be armed and dangerous.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. If you or anyone you know is looking for safety from an abusive relationship, several resources can be found in Nashville. Click here to see them all.
| 1,520 |
The Four Seasons has always been a name synonymous with luxury hotels, but now they can get you to their worldwide locations in style too. The hotel group is introducing the Four Seasons Jet, the industry’s first “fully branded private jet experience.”
The retrofitted Boeing 757 features the hotel’s name prominently on the side, and gorgeous, bespoke interiors inside. The jet will debut this February in 2015 to take discerning travelers to another level. Handcrafted leather flatbed seats, in-flight wifi, global cuisine and concierge service allowing travelers to book spa treatments, excursions that are only available to jet travelers, and even tee times “on the fly!”
Don’t get the idea you can simply book a flight to get aboard this amazing jet. Not a chance, it’s reserved for customers booked on one of the following existing multi-day excursions that make the world very small indeed.
Around the World, February 2015 – Beginning in Los Angeles and concluding with a celebratory dinner in London, this 24-day, 9-destination journey explores dynamic cities, exotic islands, architectural wonders and awe-inspiring natural environments. Highlighted by an only-by-private-jet stop at the Taj Mahal, all accommodations will be at Four Seasons hotels and resorts.
Backstage with the Arts, April 2015 – In the company of like-minded travellers who share a passion for the arts, guests will visit six cities and spend 16 indulgent days filled with backstage visits to Europe’s most stunning museums, outstanding performances at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Estates Theatre in Prague, exquisite dinners and a private gala in the Pavlovsk Palace outside St. Petersburg.
Around the World, August 2015 – “Epic” is the word to describe this globe-circling expedition through nine destinations, including stays in three of the newest Four Seasons hotels, plus the brand’s very first safari lodge in the Serengeti. From the Forbidden City in Beijing to the medina in Marrakech, the pristine waters of the Maldives, the excitement of the world’s largest fish market in Tokyo and a final, glittering dinner in New York, it will be 24 days no one will ever forget.
To learn more visit fourseasons.com/jet and follow the #FSJet hashtag on Twitter and Instagram for the latest news, updates and insider glimpses of the Four Seasons Jet. | 1,521 |
-grade expertise and amenities which gives them a significant plus in hiring.
When you hire dedicated developers from a reputed company, they will work within the professional work methodologies to comply and execute the overall development process with zero error tolerance. To deliver cutting edge software solutions that meet all your business or industry vertices.
Hire dedicated developers or a development team from a company will enable you for bi-directional collaborative communication as well as full control of the development resources to define the exact development sprint and its execution within the given timeline.
In case you hire a dedicated developer, but his/her performance isn’t up to the mark or leaves the organisation, no worries you are secure, and the company is liable to provide the replacement of another expert developer on his/her place for the successful completion of the work.
As you hire dedicated developers or a team from a reputed web and mobile app development company they not only develop and deliver the product but also provides maintenance and support services for the software product as well.
What must be considered before you hire dedicated developers or freelancers
One thing is pretty significant in your project development that it wouldn’t be complete by a single development resource anyway, so by hiring multiple resources from different parts of the globe and keeping them in sync to manage overall development progress a pretty expensive yet hefty task on a day-to-day basis, as all of them are in different geographic locations and time zones. So hiring a company or an agency can offer you a full range of dedicatedly working expert resources within the phases of project development till the deployment is a much viable choice.
Wrapping Up
Still, after reading this article, you are unable to decide whom should you hire for your next web and mobile app project development. We can surely provide consultation and the full range of services for the project development to speed up your hiring procedure and overall development process within the best cost-effective approaches.
Mostly the freelancers quote low prices for the project development, and it seems an eye-candy for you all to hire them for the development that backfires in long terms. If you hire dedicated developers or a team from a top-notch web and mobile app development company, will ensure to provide the best in class web and app solutions that not just deliver values but also enables you for the best performance-driven outcomes of the business in the global marketplace. If you are looking to hire dedicated developers who have the experience yet pocket-friendly, then connect with us today and share your interests. | 1,522 |
A team of American and Israeli astronomers may have uncovered the first-ever proof of the existence of the mysterious “dark matter,” one of the building blocks of the universe, while attempting to detect the earliest stars in the universe through radio wave signals.
The discovery by the team, led by Professor Judd Bowman of Arizona State University, which was published this week in the journal Nature by Professor Rennan Barkana, head of the Department of Astrophysics at Tel Aviv University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, suggests that the signal is proof of interactions between normal matter and dark matter in the early universe.
“Dark matter is the key to unlocking the mystery of what the universe is made of,” said Barkana. “We know quite a bit about the chemical elements that make up the earth, the sun and other stars, but most of the matter in the universe is invisible and known as ‘dark matter.’ ”
Barkana said that while the existence of dark matter is inferred from its strong gravity, astronomers have no idea what kind of substance it actually it is. As such, dark matter is one of the top remaining mysteries of physics.
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However, when the scientists studied the radio signal from the early universe, they found that it had a larger amplitude than predicted, indicating that the primordial gas was colder than expected. This suggests that the gas cooled through the interaction of hydrogen with dark matter.
“I realized that this surprising signal indicates the presence of two actors: the first stars and dark matter,” stated Barkana. “The first stars in the universe turned on the radio signal, while the dark matter collided with the ordinary matter and cooled it down. Extra-cold material naturally explains the strong radio signal.”
Physicists have long expected dark-matter particles to be heavy, but the recent discovery indicates that they are likely low-mass particles, which has the potential to reorient the search for dark matter in the universe.
Based on this, Barkana predicts that dark matter produced a very specific pattern of radio waves that can be detected with large array of radio antennas such as the SKA, the largest radio telescope in the world, which is currently under construction in South Africa.
“Such an observation with the SKA,” said Barkana, “would confirm that the first stars indeed revealed dark matter.” | 1,523 |
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WATCH ABOVE: An assault is caught on camera 50 feet underwater as one scuba diver is accused of ripping off the air supply of another diver. Now authorities are investigating.
TORONTO – A scuba diver found herself in danger last week when another diver rushed towards her ripping out her air supply 50 feet underwater off Hawaii’s Kona coast.
The terrifying incident was caught on camera as Rene Umberger, a coral reef consultant, and fellow divers were documenting damage to coral reefs.
Umberger’s dive party came across a pair of divers, reportedly identified as aquarium fishermen, who didn’t want to be seen on camera.
WATCH: Diver fights off shark after close encounter in Caribbean
The dive became a potentially life threatening situation when one of the men darts towards Umberger ripping out her breathing regulator.
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“This man needs to be arrested. I think this man needs to be arrested immediately for attempted murder,” Umberger told NBC.
Just as she is able to get her regulator back in, the suspect makes a second threatening gesture using his arms.
“I honestly thought he was coming back for a second attack,” said Umberger. “I got up on the boat and I said oh my God, someone just tried to kill me underwater.”
Umberger, who has done more than 10,000 dives, credits her experience with saving her life. She says the average person might have panicked and swam for the surface.
READ MORE: Italian divers explore sunken migrant ship
Coming up too quickly from deep depths can result in a lethal air embolism, where air bubbles cause blockages in the bloodstream.
The video highlights the tension between environmentalists and aquarium fisherman. Collecting reef fish is legal in the state of Hawaii if the diver has a permit, is in a designated area and meets fish size and quantity rules.
The State Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement said it is investigating and will report all information to the county prosecutor’s office.
Umberger says commercial fishing operations are leading to the destruction of Hawaii’s coral reefs.
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“The greater issue is that Hawaii’s reefs are being emptied by these commercial operations,” she said. “Hawaii’s reefs are suffering incredibly from this unlimited collection.” | 1,524 |
foot traffic TIFF will drive to a business, that hasn’t stopped pockets of the city far from the festival from trying to cash in.
Yorkville restaurants still host a sprinkling of TIFF events, despite the festival having vacated the area for the Entertainment District years ago.
And then there’s the case of Grinder Coffee, a Leslieville cafe that in 2018 campaigned on social media for Ryan Gosling to visit while he was at the festival to premiere First Man.
Owner Joelle Murray went so far as to deck out her cafe with a life-size cut-out of the star sipping a coffee emblazoned with the restaurant’s logo.
It worked.
“I was sitting down doing my HST and one of my customers working on his computer at the front of the shop said there’s a really big car outside. By the time I jumped up, (Gosling) was walking through the door, and I went running,” Murray recalled.
“His story was that his mother had seen our campaign and told him to come in. Our joke was that mom had coffee for life.”
The visit, which only lasted 10 minutes, paid dividends for days.
“We had a lot of people coming in and we became a lot of people’s local,” said Murray. “I’ve had visitors from Russia and Taiwan and Thailand and all over the world come and take pictures with me and with the cardboard cut-out.”
The year prior, Murray has set her sights on Idris Elba, who was in town to promote Molly’s Game, fashioning a chalkboard with three reasons why he should visit: “(Murray) promises to stop calling him her boyfriend, he hasn’t lived until he’s shopped Gerrard Square and we have damn fine coffee.”
Elba never showed, but she doesn’t consider it a bust because of the buzz her campaign created without her shelling out big bucks that a small business doesn’t have.
“While I didn’t achieve the ultimate goal, people were talking about it, customers were excited about it and I was having a lot of fun with it... so we’ve achieved success,” she said.
“Now we are going to see if we can get Tom Hanks this year.”
Read more about: | 1,525 |
Dozens of sexual assault survivors were improperly billed for their rape exams by a New York City hospital, the state's attorney general said Tuesday.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that under an agreement with his office, the Brooklyn Hospital Center will reimburse patients who paid out of pocket for a rape kit and will inform rape survivors going forward that under a 2005 New York state law the rape kits can be billed to the state's Office of Victim Services.
Schneiderman said he has also sent letters to 10 other hospitals throughout the state seeking information on how they bill sexual assault survivors and hopes the agreement with Brooklyn Hospital will serve as a model.
"These kits are used on what is undoubtedly one of the worst days of a survivor's life," Schneiderman said. "The absolute last thing they should have to worry about is how they'll pay for their care at the hospital. But we have found contrary to law that way too often they do have to worry."
Schneiderman said a woman contacted his office in January about her experience being treated at Brooklyn Hospital after she was sexually assaulted in 2015.
"After her visit, in complete violation of state law, she was billed seven different times for her rape kit, hundreds of dollars each time," Schneiderman said.
He said that when the woman did not pay the bill, the hospital sent it to a collection agency, which he called "intolerable."
Brooklyn Hospital said in a statement that it regrets "the inadvertent breakdown in our billing processes related to sexual assault victims." Spokeswoman Kim Flodin said the hospital worked with Schneiderman's office to develop protocols "to ensure that these billing issues do not occur again."
Schneiderman said his office investigated and found that in all but one of the 86 forensic rape exams conducted at Brooklyn Hospital between January 2015 and February 2017, the hospital either improperly billed the patient or billed the patient's insurance carrier without advising the patient of the option to bill the state.
Schneiderman said it's unclear how many other hospitals are improperly billing patients for rape kits.
Advocates for sexual assault survivors praised the agreement.
"Think about it for a moment, how traumatic is sexual assault?" said Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, who joined Schneiderman at a news conference at his Manhattan office. "And it's re-traumatizing to have bills arrive in the mail asking you to pay for basically what is collection of evidence of a crime scene." | 1,526 |
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Last month, a widely circulated Reddit post complained a Vancouver liquor store was now asking customers to tip on their purchases. “What’s next, the freaking grocery store??” said writer OutrageousCamel.
Clearly, it’s gut-check time as a country. Tipping, a wildly irrational practice at the best of times, is beginning to enter entirely new frontiers of madness.
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As many as 40 per cent of Canadians want tipping abolished and restaurants such as Earls are beginning to experiment with new “no tipping” policies. Despite this, the practice only seems to get stronger.
And it’s far from a harmless tradition. Below, some hard truths about the state of tipping in modern Canada.
Some tipped workers are staggeringly well paid
In 2014, the Canadian job-finding site Workopolis.com interviewed a former waitress who had once pulled down the after-tax equivalent of $100,000 a year. Kate (her true name was concealed because she had evaded tax on much of those earnings) worked at a hotel bar and was pulling down as much as $6,000 per month in tips. “Sometimes I would make my rent in one shift,” she said. This is an anomaly, but it is not unusual for servers at bars or fine dining establishments to pull in wages much higher than the Canadian median. The University of Guelph’s Bruce McAdams is a restaurant industry veteran who has studied the effects of tipping on Canadian restaurants. His data showed that when tips are accounted for, the average Canadian server is making about $30 an hour — with a select few making the meteoric wages enjoyed by “Kate.” These are wages equivalent to those pulled in by a registered nurse, making serving one of Canada’s most lucrative jobs that can be obtained without post-secondary education. Server wages are particularly high in Canada because tips are often piled on top of high minimum wages. In select U.S. states, the salaries for restaurant workers are as low as $2 per hour, leaving servers almost wholly dependent on tips. But in Canada, the absolute lowest minimum wage is $9.45 in Quebec, with Albertans making as much as $15. | 1,527 |
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Netflix and MGM Announce Multi-Year Premium Pay TV Window Agreement in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Starting In Early 2012, Netflix Members in the UK And Ireland Will Enjoy Instantly Watching High-Quality Films From MGM And Its Distribution Partners
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. today announced a new multi-year licensing agreement that will make Netflix the exclusive subscription streaming service in the UK and Ireland for most first-run feature films from MGM.
MGM titles will be available for Netflix members in the UK and Ireland to watch instantly in the pay TV window on their televisions, tablets, game consoles, computers and mobile phones, for a low monthly price. Netflix announced last month that it would launch its service in the UK and Ireland early in 2012.
Appearing exclusively on Netflix within one year of their theatrical release will be such films as "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" and "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," the highly-anticipated prequels to the Academy Award-winning "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by Peter Jackson, "Zookeeper" starring Kevin James, "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, and "21 Jump Street," featuring Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and Ice Cube.
An extensive selection of great MGM catalogue titles will also be available on Netflix in the UK and Ireland, including "Capote," "Fargo," "The Usual Suspects," "West Side Story" and "The Amityville Horror."
"We are delighted to be entering the UK and Ireland with a legendary studio like MGM at our side," said Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer. "And we are excited to be extending our relationship with MGM from the U.S. to these important markets and proud to be the exclusive home for their films in the traditional Pay TV window."
"We are thrilled to grow our partnership with Netflix as they expand into the UK and Ireland," said MGM Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum.
"Developing this relationship further will help us bring our films, both old and new, into the homes of our loyal audiences with the great ease Netflix offers customers," said Roma Khanna, MGM's President Television Group and Digital. | 1,528 |
Under-fire German judge quits Cambodia tribunal Published duration 10 October 2011
image copyright Reuters image caption Around two million people died in the 1970s after Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia
The German judge at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal says he is resigning over government statements opposing any further prosecutions.
Siegfried Blunk said the statements could "be perceived as attempted interference by government officials".
He said he was resigning so that his independence and the court's integrity could not be doubted.
Mr Blunk has been under fire over his handling of two new cases. Human Rights Watch called for his resignation.
Up to two million Cambodians are thought to have died - from starvation, overwork or execution - during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule.
The genocide tribunal was established to bring the regime's leaders to justice. But so far only one case - against former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch - has been successfully concluded.
Four top leaders including Pol Pot's deputy, Nuon Chea, are due to go on trial in the coming months.
'No hope'
It is the handling of the third and fourth cases - involving five people alleged to have been senior Khmer Rouge commanders - that has caused the current row.
Mr Blunk and his Cambodian counterpart You Bunleng sparked concern among rights groups in April after they closed their investigation into the third case.
Last week, Human Rights Watch called for their resignation, saying they had "failed to conduct genuine, impartial and effective investigations".
The group said that the tribunal had been "subject to frequent politically motivated interference" from the ruling party, many of whom were former Khmer Rouge leaders.
Prime Minister Hun Sen - at one point a mid-ranking Khmer Rouge commander - as well as his information minister and foreign minister have all separately made it clear in recent months that they do not want further prosecutions after the second trial has concluded.
Mr Blunk's resignation statement came through the court.
It said that while he was not influenced by political statements, "his ability to withstand such pressure by government officials to perform his duties independently, could always be called in doubt, and this would also call in doubt the integrity of the whole proceedings" of the two new cases.
Judge Blunk has been a controversial figure since he took over from French judge Marcel Lemonde to investigate cases three and four, the BBC's Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh says. | 1,529 |
A 22-year-old Syrian man who was the subject of a nationwide hunt and is believed to have been preparing a bomb attack was detained Monday, German police said.
Jaber Albakr was detained overnight in Leipzig, police in the eastern state of Saxony tweeted. Albakr, from the Damascus area of Syria, escaped the authorities Saturday during a raid of his apartment in Chemnitz. Investigators said they found “several hundred grams” of volatile explosive hidden in the apartment – enough to cause some significant damage.
Saxony criminal police chief Joerg Michaelis told reporters on Monday that Albakr was suspected of having ISIS contacts and had been on the radar of the country's domestic intelligence agency since last month with "hints" he may have been planning something.
Michaelis said "the behavior and actions of the suspect currently speak for an [ISIS] context."
The weekend raid came after Saxony police were tipped off about Albakr possibly planning an attack. He had been on Germany’s domestic intelligence service’s radar, but it wasn’t clear for how long.
Saturday morning, Albakr was seen leaving his apartment just as police prepared to raid the apartment building. Police fired a warning shot but were unable to stop him from scurrying away.
Experts are trying to determine whether the explosives they found in the apartment were the same ones used in the deadly Nov. 13 attacks in Paris and the March 22 attacks in Brussels. The explosives used in those attacks are known as TATP, or triacetone triperoxide.
TATP has been used in many attacks over the years, and is favored by violent extremists because it's fairly easy to make and detonate.
The explosives were destroyed Saturday in a controlled detonation by bomb squad experts in a pit dug outside the five-story apartment building because they were considered too dangerous to transport.
Germany has been on edge since two attacks this summer claimed by the Islamic State group in which multiple people were injured and both assailants died. Two other attacks unrelated to Islamic extremism, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, have also contributed to fears.
During the manhunt, federal police had increased security around the country, particularly around "critical infrastructure" like train stations and airports.
The authorities said that Albakr had come to Germany in the flood of 890,000 migrants who entered the country in 2015 and had been granted asylum.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 1,530 |
Well, it’s official. That was a blizzard.
In spite of the fact that the snow totals won’t be monumental, the wind and the heavy snow did combine to make this storm a bonafide blizzard in Boston, as well as several other cities and towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
As of 3:00 PM – Providence, New Bedford, MA, Block Island and Westerly have confirmed Blizzard criteria. — NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) February 9, 2017
As of 4:00 PM – We can add Boston, Marshfield and Hyannis to the list that has reached Blizzard criteria. — NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) February 9, 2017
If you are keeping track, this is the first official blizzard in Boston since Jan 27, 2015. — NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) February 9, 2017
The storm is now winding down, and the snow is ending west of Worcester. The snow will continue to fall heaviest south of Boston through the early evening. I expect the final flakes to fall in the city between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.
via GIPHY
As of late Thursday afternoon, the heaviest snow was over southeastern Massachusetts and moving east. Credit: NOAA
Snowfall amounts vary wildly. Thus far, less than six inches of snow has been recorded across the North Shore and parts of the Merrimack Valley, while over a foot has fallen in parts of Worcester County. Most areas will end up with between eight and 15 inches of snow when it’s all over.
Snowfall as of late Thursday afternoon shows the heaviest totals west of Interstate 495. —NOAA
Coastal flooding wasn’t an issue beyond some temporary road closures and minor splash over and beach erosion, and the high tide later this evening shouldn’t be an issue.
Winds will continue to be strong this evening before relaxing a bit overnight. Along the coastline, these winds will be strong enough to add to the scattered power outages, especially during the first part of the evening.
On Friday, highs will stay in the teens and lower 20s, with some blowing snow at times. A weaker system will bring some more snow Friday night and Saturday. Right now, that looks to be only a coating to two inches.
A more substantial storm may impact the region Sunday night and Monday. There are many possible outcomes to this storm, from rain to snow, all with potentially very strong winds. | 1,531 |
would be seen as a fine performance. Patrick Reed is some kind of golfing talent, but the vagaries of a US Open setup make even the most precocious question their execution.
4. Quiet Louis lurks
Remember the 2012 Masters, the one where Charl Schwartzel was the defending champion, and was all set to drape the jacket on good friend Louis Oosthuizen’s shoulders? Yeah, then Bubba hit that hooking wedge from Tarzan’s front porch, and the bromantic ending was scuttled. Over the years, Louis has had opps to add to his major championship total of one, but has yet to sign the check. He had 2nd-place finishes in all four major championships, and tonight, he finds himself the last golfer under par through 54 holes. He sits 4 back of Wolff, really a pittance when an Open is on the line. If Louis brings the repeater that won him the 2010 Open at St. Andrews, he’ll double his majors total on Sunday. Anything less, and another top-five ending awaits.
5. Wherefore art thou, Roryo?
‘Tis the east, and Winged Foot is the sun, right, Bill? On Thursday and Saturday, Rory had two bogeys total. On Friday, ick. Dad Rory is battling to regain the confidence and the ability to close that young Rory possessed in spades, early last decade. McIlroy needs this win more than any other player in the field, or else it will be another chapter in the story of his life, Nice first half of your career. Sure, that’s harsh, but McIlroy is a once-a-decade talent, maybe better. He should win more majors than the six guys ahead of him, but he hasn’t claimed one since 2014, when he won the Open and the PGA. in consecutive months.
Six years is a long time between major titles. Ask Jack. Ask Tiger. Mac won the 2011 US Open at Congressional, but that one didn’t feel like any other Open. Soaked course where players threw darts all week, and he won by a large amount. McIlroy currently sits at +1. If he can get to 3 or 4 under on Sunday, which requires a mid-60s round, he should win the tournament. It’s time to orient the career as you move through your 30s, Roars. The bard has spoken. | 1,532 |
On 15 April, The Caravan carried a report titled, “Modi administration did not consult ICMR-appointed COVID task force before key decisions,” by the journalist Vidya Krishnan. The report noted that despite constituting a 21-member national task force on COVID-19 comprising leading scientists from across the country, the central government did not consult them on key health-policy decisions pertaining to India’s response to the pandemic. The ICMR had not responded to emails and messages seeking their comments well before the story was published, but that afternoon, the organisation tweeted that The Caravan’s report had made “false claims” and “conjectures.” Shortly afterwards, the Press Information Bureau also tweeted from its PIB Fact Check handle on Twitter, claiming that the article was fake news.
That evening, Krishnan wrote an email to Balram Bhargava, the ICMR’s director general, Vinod Paul, the chairperson of the task force, the official PIB Fact Check email address, and Manisha Verma, the assistant director general in the PIB for the health ministry. In it, Krishnan highlighted that her report published by The Caravan was based on four member-scientists of the task force, and that neither the ICMR nor the PIB had offered a response to several questions of grave importance raised by her in the article. She also pointed out that both Bhargava and Paul had been given sufficient time to respond before the article was published, which they had opted not to do. Finally, Krishnan asked several questions of the ICMR and PIB that arose from her report, without answering which it would be difficult for the organisations to characterise the report as false. Given that the ICMR had simply denied the allegations raised by members of the task force without any substantive response to them, Krishnan inquired about what fact-checking process the PIB had conducted before concluding that The Caravan’s report was fake news.
Krishnan asked the recipients to respond to the email by noon on 16 April. At 9:53 am, she received a response from the PIB Fact Check account, noting that the email was being forwarded to Verma for a detailed response, while also acknowledging that she was already marked on the email. At the time this rejoinder was published, Krishnan had not received a response from Bhargava, Paul or Verma. Published below is the full text of Krishnan’s email.
Dear Sirs, | 1,533 |
Press Release
For Immediate Release
(Cincinnati, OH, June 7, 2016) Tri-State Freethinkers recently submitted a censored version of their Genocide & Incest Park billboard to Lamar Advertising. A censored stamp now covers the accurate but “offensive” words genocide and incest, leaving an Ark housing two giraffes and a quote from Genesis 6:13, which states “So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people”. Lisa Guill, General Manager of a Kentucky office, and Jeff Day, Assistant General Manager of the Cincinnati office, informed Tri-State Freethinkers that the design could not be accepted as it violated the followin g policy:
Lamar reserves the right to reject advertising copy for any reason, but rejects copy for the following specific reasons:
The copy is factually inaccurate, misleading, fraudulent or deceptive.
The copy is obscene, offensive or otherwise inconsistent with local community standards.
“We agree with Lamar that the Bible is offensive, misleading, fraudulent and deceptive. We also believe in our First Amendment rights and we find it hard to believe that we can’t even put up a censored version of our billboard” said Jim G. Helton, President of the Tri-State Freethinkers. The organization has raised over $11,000 to put up billboards in the tri-state area of OH, KY and IN drawing attention to the Ark Encounter currently finishing construction in Williamstown, KY.
Since Tri-State Freethinkers are unable to find anyone to put up their billboard, they have decided to put up the censored version, if a company is willing to run it. The uncensored version will be displayed for one day at the protest on July 7th in Williamstown, KY for the grand opening of the Ark Encounter. “Their mission is anti-science, the story is immoral, and they practice discriminatory hiring practices while receiving up to $18 M in state tax incentives. We are making a stand for equal rights and the separation of church and state” said Helton.
More information regarding the Tri-State Freethinkers or the protest on July 7th can be found on the group’s website: www.tri-statefreethinkers.com.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Jim G. Helton
President–Tri-State Freethinkers
[email protected] | 1,534 |
Lopsided policies of earlier governments have caused tribals to lag behind in development, BJP chief Amit Shah said on Friday
New Delhi: Lopsided policies of earlier governments have caused tribals to lag behind in development, BJP chief Amit Shah said on Friday, asserting that the time has come for them to attain "self-rule" in its true sense under the Modi government.
In a blog, he said the BJP government started a welfare scheme for tribals in 2014 and later brought in a law to ensure that 10 percent of royalty on the income made from minerals, which are mostly in areas inhabited by scheduled tribes, is spent on developing these places.
Over Rs 9,100 crore has been deposited in District Mineral Foundation constituted for this purpose, he said, adding the money will be spent on local area development.
In his home state of Gujarat, where the BJP has been in power for over two decades, 14.75 percent of budget is spent on the development of tribals, who are in considerable numbers in 14 districts, he said.
"It is due to the efforts of BJP governments that Gujarat's tribal areas are not behind other regions in any criterion of development," Shah said.
Gujarat is going to polls later this year.
"Tribals, like the rest of the country, got self-rule in 1947 when the British left, but the time has come for them to attain self-rule in the true sense and the BJP and the Modi government are fully committed in this direction," he said.
In this context, Shah mentioned his recent three-day stay in Jharkhand, where he visited the village of tribal legend and freedom fighter Birsa Munda.
The BJP government in the state has prepared a programme for all-round development of villages of martyrs, he said. It is paying tributes to them with its work and not just flowers, he said.
Tribals had been left behind in development as they lived in remote areas and also due to apathy of governments which exploited mines and minerals but did not work to develop those places, he said.
The previous NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee had formed a ministry for the development of tribals, he noted.
The way the Modi government is working, all regions with tribal population, including the Northeast, will have all-round development and they will complete their journey from'swaraj' (self-rule) to'suraj' (good governance), he said. | 1,535 |
Eddie Howe has believes the current pressure surrounding the job of Premier League-winning manager Antonio Conte 'defies belief'.
Chelsea boss Conte was rumoured to be battling dressing-room unrest and close scrutiny from the Blues board owing to three defeats in the first nine games of their title defence.
The Bournemouth boss though, remains bewildered by football's sack culture, and insisted every Premier League boss' job must be on the line if Conte faces an uncertain future.
Antonio Conte has come under fire as his Chelsea side lose ground in their title defence
'Well if that's the case we've all got problems,' Howe said of the rumours that Conte was facing a precarious position ahead of Chelsea's visit to Dean Court on Saturday.
'I don't know where we go from there. That just defies belief really that someone who has done such a fine job at Chelsea can even be talked of in that way.
'But that's the modern way it seems, that's the way the game's gone.
'I don't like to see managers sacked. It makes the profession very delicately poised, at all times.
The Italian has seen his side lose three of their first nine Premier League games this season
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'When you're on a losing run there are always questions about your future.
'I don't think it's good for the profession.'
Howe praised the Italian for his passion and technical nous after spearheading a return to wing-back formations and three centre-backs.
'I find him a really enthralling character, someone who is very passionate, he's as passionate away from the touchline,' Howe added.
'It's fascinating to talk football with him for a period of time.
'I think he's brought a great deal to the Premier League, he's played a massive part of that three-at-the-back revolution.
'He's brought a lot of passion and drive to the touchline. He's intriguing to watch tactically, and with how he motivates his team.' | 1,536 |
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States. However, crippled with a growing number of sexual abuse lawsuit settlements, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.
1. How did BSA begin?
The origins of the BSA go back to London, where in 1909 Chicago publisher William Boyce got lost in the fog and a Boy Scout helped him get to his destination. When the young boy refused payment for doing a good deed, Boyce was inspired to bring the movement to the U.S. He merged several youth organizations, including the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, to form the Boy Scouts of America on Feb. 8, 1910.
2. Name change
The program referred to as Boy Scouts since its founding in 1910, officially changed its name on Feb. 1, 2019, to "Scouts BSA" to reflect the admission of girls. In February 2017, BSA welcomed its first openly transgender member. The organization as a whole -- including other programs like Cub Scouts, Sea Scouts, and Explorers -- is still called "Boy Scouts of America."
3. Female leaders?
Every BSA leadership position is open to females, according to the organization's website. More than one-third of Scout volunteers are girls.
4. Membership decline
Though the organization boasts 2.2 million members, it's had a steady decline since 1973 when they peaked at 4.8 million members. Many of its largest partner organizations ditched the BSA over membership controversies. Some corporations – Intel, UPS and Merk – stopped donating to the BSA after they did not change their policy to allow gay members, but then when they announced a reversal in 2013, several churches and conservative members announced there were boycotting BSA.
Trail Life USA is a faith-based alternative with 30,000 members today. After the most recent BSA changes, including allowing girls and transgender members, several churches replaced their BSA troops with those of Trail Life USA.
5. Famous Eagle Scouts
Some famous Eagle Scouts, the highest attainable rank in the BSA program, include former "Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, astronaut Neil Armstrong, and former President Gerald Ford.
Ford once said, "I can say without hesitation, because of scouting principles, I know I was a better athlete, I was a better naval officer, I was a better congressman, and I was a better prepared president." | 1,537 |
As per usual, Apple accelerated investments in research and development operations over its first fiscal quarter of 2018, spending more than $3.4 billion on new hires and initiatives that will keep the company competitive in a fast-paced tech market.
Apple's $3.4 billion outlay accounted for 4 percent of the company's net sales for the three-month period ending in December, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. That figure represents a $410 million sequential increase, and a $536 million bump on the year.
Apple attributes the year-over-year growth to new hires and expenses related to R&D activities. As expected, the projects are not detailed, but Apple says it focuses investments on the development of "new and updated products and services that are central to the Company's core business strategy."
If the current rate holds, Apple is on track to spend well over $10 billion on its R&D commitment through 2018. The company first broke the $10 billion per year barrier in 2016, when R&D spend accounted for 5 percent of total net sales. By comparison, Apple committed 3 percent of net sales to R&D activities in both 2014 and 2015.
The increased R&D spend implies work on projects that go beyond routine product maintenance. Potential areas of research include an expansion to augmented reality innovations, currently limited to ARKit, that could spawn new hardware categories in the coming months or years.
CEO Tim Cook has expressed enthusiasm for AR technology in past interviews, and continued to tout the technology in Thursday's earnings conference call.
"I see AR as being profound. AR has the ability to amplify human performance instead of isolating humans," Cook said. "I am a huge, huge believer in AR. We put a lot of energy on AR, we're moving very fast."
Other investments include the remnants of "Project Titan," Apple's attempt to build a self-driving car platform from scratch. Refocused into smaller teams, the initiative is now thought to be developing autonomous driving technology using specialized sensor equipment and software installed on Lexus testbeds.
Alongside internal initiatives, Apple continues to invest in outside technology through mergers and acquisitions. On Thursday, CFO Luca Maestri said the company acquired 19 smaller firms over the course of 2017.
In December, Apple snapped up popular song recognition service Shazam for an undisclosed sum. Other reported purchases include AR headset startup Vrvana, wireless charging firm PowerbyProxi and "dark data" specialist Lattice Data. | 1,538 |
two nations caught up in nuclear brinksmanship
Recent Examples on the Web
Johnson’s brinkmanship may yet work and result in a more lasting political fix. Tom Mctague, The Atlantic, "The Great British Humbling," 15 Sep. 2020
Trump and Democrats have been locked in brinkmanship for years but often found ways to reach agreement on spending packages, including four bipartisan coronavirus relief bills in March and April. Anchorage Daily News, "Coronavirus relief talks collapse on Capitol Hill as Trump readies executive actions," 8 Aug. 2020
Our newest podcast tells a tale of nuclear brinkmanship, backroom politics, and science fiction. Washington Post, "SpaceX landing planned for the Gulf of Mexico," 2 Aug. 2020
The two sides have been unable to reach agreement despite an extended game of brinkmanship. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, "Column: UC notches a massive win in its quest to improve the scientific publishing model," 17 June 2020
Officials and analysts in South Korea saw the North as resorting to its characteristic brinkmanship to gain leverage over Washington, rather than giving up dialogue completely. BostonGlobe.com, "In a statement issued a day after bilateral talks broke down in Stockholm on Saturday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that it would not meet with US negotiators again until after Washington took “a substantial step” toward a “complete and irreversible withdrawal of hostile policy.”," 7 Oct. 2019
The prospect seemed real as recently as January, in a week of brinkmanship with Iran that followed the killing of an Iranian general. Dwight Stirling, The Conversation, "Trump treats the military as his own – and the troops could suffer," 2 Mar. 2020
After months of high-profile diplomatic brinkmanship by top Israeli officials, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia pardoned Ms. Issachar in January. Ivan Nechepurenko, New York Times, "Russian Court Further Detains Ex-Marine on Charges His Family Calls False," 25 Feb. 2020
North Korea, meanwhile, appears to be heading back along a path of weapons tests and aggressive brinkmanship. Simon Denyer, Washington Post, "How Trump’s North Korea nuclear talks gambit came undone," 22 Dec. 2019
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'brinkmanship.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback. | 1,539 |
The new menu will include items like tea-infused cheesecake and specialty drinks. View Full Caption The Growling Rabbit
EDGEWATER — Construction delays and inspections have put The Growling Rabbit's transition to Edgewater behind schedule, but when it opens in January the cafe and pub will emerge with a little more food, and a little more maturity, owner Laura Soncrant said.
"You know, it's called the Growling Rabbit, so I'm always reminding myself and others that the tortoise got there first," Soncrant said.
Soncrant said the new location will still exemplify the Growling Rabbit spirit, with green walls and dark accents, but will be a bit more "smooth around the edges," including a newly uncovered decorative tin ceiling.
"There is a difference between Rogers Park and Edgewater," Soncrant said. "We're Rogers Park by heart, we don't want to move to Edgewater and just totally change everything. It's going to be a matured version, a grown-up Growling Rabbit. We're five now, we can be grown up."
Sonscrant said she's also looking forward to working with other upcoming businesses in the area like Income Tax, Mango Pickle and Edge of Sweetness bakery.
The eatery will still be open and operating at its original Rogers Park location, 6981 N. Sheridan Road, until the end of December while the new location at 5938 North Broadway in Edgewater continues its final renovations and gets green lights from the city.
Soncrant said when it opens in early 2017, customers will get to try a few new creations like tea-infused cheesecake and homemade beer caramel from the dessert menu with help from baker Kelly Beaudoin.
"It's been a team effort, it's not just me," she said.
On the supper menu side, Soncrant and Jen Swanteck, heading the kitchen, are still working on putting together a final list of dishes, but said meatloaf, chicken and biscuits and fish tacos will be among them.
The bar list is also still being developed, but will put a "Rabbit twist" on classic cocktails and on tap will be a variety of national and craft vendors like Sketchbook, 5Rabbit and Dovetail.
While the restaurant continues out of its Sheridan Road location, Soncrant said it is taking orders for holiday pies and cinnamon rolls.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here. | 1,540 |
Prime Minister John Key has admitted he misled reporters over Cabinet Office advice about a controversial visit by Justice Minister Judith Collins to a Chinese company associated with her husband while on an official trip to China.
On Monday Key told media the Cabinet Office had cleared Collins of a conflict of interest after translating comments on Oravida's website which stated that she had praised its products.
But today Key's office confirmed that the Cabinet office had only read the English language version on the website, which did not contain those references.
A spokesperson for Key said the Cabinet Office had been asked for guidance on the issue and its advice was clear that there was no conflict of interest and no endorsement.
"As the advice referred to the material on the company's website, the prime minister took that advice to apply to both the English and the Chinese translation."
He had become aware last night, however, that was not the case.
"The Cabinet Office later became aware the Chinese translation differed from the English version, but by then Minister Collins had already asked the company to remove the Chinese version and Cabinet Office considered the appropriate remedy."
However, the Cabinet Office stood by its advice that there was no conflict of interest and Collins had not breached the cabinet manual, which states that ministers must not endorse products in any media.
Collins' husband, David Wang Tung, is a director of the company, which exports milk products to China and has previously donated to the National Party.
Key repeatedly defended Collins last week, refuting claims that she had endorsed Oravida.
When quizzed on Monday about whether he was sure the Cabinet Office had looked at a translation of the Chinese statement which contained the endorsement claims, Key said he was.
"Yes, they looked at the translation."
Labour MP Grant Robertson accused Key of misleading the public.
"John Key has been covering up for Judith Collins for the past week.
He told New Zealanders the Cabinet Office had looked at a translation of the Chinese company's webpage detailing her visit," he said.
"That is simply not true. John Key has been caught out."
Robertson said the Cabinet Office had not looked at "the most important piece of evidence to ascertain whether Judith Collins had a conflict of interest - the Chinese translation which says Judith Collins was 'full of praise' for Oravida's products".
"It is clear to most New Zealanders that Judith Collins endorsed her husband's company while on a taxpayer-funded trip. This is a conflict of interest." | 1,541 |
Jan 3, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) dunks the ball during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. Jordan finishes with 25 points. The Clippers defeated the Mavericks 119-112. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
It’s no secret DeAndre Jordan is one of the best NBA dunkers in the NBA. Combine his hops with his size and you get an intriguing combination at the rim.
But why won’t he take that talent and participate in the Dunk Contest for the 2014 NBA All-Star Game to prove that, not only is he one of the best dunkers in the league, but that he is the best creative dunker also? Well,
DeAndre Jordan wants to be in the All-Star game as a participant, not just as a dunker. So when NBA officials approached the Clippers’ center before Friday’s game about being in the dunk contest, Jordan told them what his true wish was. “I just told them I wanted to see what happens,” Jordan said. “I’m not trying to disrespect them. But I want to be in the All-Star game as a player and not just as a dunker. via Hedo Turkoglu sees opportunity for a title | Los Angeles Times
Don’t shoot the messenger, but if Jordan is serious, he may as well have just declined the dunk contest request. He’s not making the All-Star game. This doesn’t mean Jordan hasn’t been good this season, as he’s averaging a career-high in minutes, points, rebounds, blocks and his defensive rating. He just isn’t good enough. There are too many quality bigs in the Western Conference for DAJ to squeeze in. His teammate Blake Griffin will likely start alongside Houston’s Dwight Howard which leaves NBA coaches to choose from Lamarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love, Andrew Bogut, Serge Ibaka, Zach Randolph, Demarcus Cousins and so on and so forth.
If I was a better I’d put money on Jordan participating. Just being in the dunk contest, let alone winning it, will create a bigger buzz around the fifth year center. If he loses, it won’t kill how people judge him.
In the event that he doesn’t participate, we can just put this on loop until he chooses to do a dunk contest: | 1,542 |
. Senate seat.
Then Rep. Michele Bachmann spoke at a rally against Obama's executive order on immigration on Wed., Dec. 3, 2014 in front of the Capitol. Brett Neely / MPR News 2014
Former Rep. Michelle Bachmann: Bachmann said in January that she hadn't ruled out a run for Senate and that she was still considering her options. But in a radio interview in February she ruled out a run, saying she didn't have any "sense from the Lord" that she should try for the seat.
Minnesota First District Congressman Tim Walz took questions from an overflow crowd of constituents at Rochester Community and Technical College. February 23, 2017. Jerry Olson for MPR News 2017
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz: Walz, a six-term congressman, is currently running for governor of Minnesota.
House district 31A Representative Kurt Daudt stands for applause on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Evan Frost | MPR News 2017
State House Speaker Kurt Daudt: Daudt has been openly considering a bid for governor for months and could be in a good position to switch to a Senate bid.
Emily Larson, mayor of Duluth, talks about the challenges, issues and roles she'll be taking on when she becomes Duluth's mayor on January 4, 2016. Derek Montgomery | MPR 2016
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson: Larson's name was floated by former Duluth Mayor Don Ness in a tweet. "An accomplished leader from Greater Minnesota and one of the most naturally talented elected officials I know. A lot of great options out there — Emily is among the best," Ness wrote.
In this Sept. 9, 2013 photo, Democratic House Majority Leader Erin Murphy addresses the Minnesota House in St. Paul, Minn. Jim Mone| AP 2013
State Rep. Erin Murphy: Like Walz, Murphy is currently campaigning in the governor's race — she was the first to announce candidacy. Murphy has served five terms in the Minnesota House, including stints as majority leader and deputy minority leader.
In this May 31, 2014 photo, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson addresses the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Convention in Duluth, Minn. Jim Mone | AP 2014
Attorney General Lori Swanson: Swanson has kept her 2018 political ambitions quiet, but it was long speculated that she would run for governor — a bid for the Senate seat is also possible.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 1,543 |
House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to label North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, calling for new sanctions as the rogue regime continues to develop its nuclear weapons program.
"It is not a matter of if, but when Kim Jong-Un will be brazen enough to attack one of our allies, or even the United States," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday. "Only by calling our adversaries what they are so they know that America will be steadfast in its defense of freedom and liberty can we have a realistic hope of maintaining peace."
The legislation, which passed 394-1, expresses the House's sense that North Korea meets the criteria for inclusion on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. It would require Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to review the regime's recent behavior and adopt or reject Congress's view within 90 days of the bill becoming law. The legislation, which could lead to the imposition of unilateral U.S. sanctions on North Korea, is advancing just as President Trump prepares to host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a summit designed to induce China's cooperation in curbing the regime.
"We must be honest and forthright abroad, making clear that North Korea's ballistic missile testing is unacceptable and that the Kim regime is worthy of sanctions as it is undoubtedly a state sponsor of terrorism," McCarthy said.
Some foreign policy experts disagree, arguing that it's a blunt instrument that doesn't fit the details of the case against the regime. "[T]he North's behavior, while odious, is not terrorism by any normal definition," the Cato Institute's Doug Bandow wrote at The National Interest. "The North poses a challenge not because it is sponsoring terrorism, but because it is taking many other equally bad, if not worse, actions. While the Kim assassination has captured public attention, developing a nuclear arsenal and long-range missiles poses a much greater threat. Affixing the terrorism label offers no relief."
That's hardly a unanimous view, particularly in light of dictator Kim Jong-un's assassination of his half-brother with a chemical weapon and renewed fears of collaboration between North Korea and Iran. "In 2009 alone, three North Korean arms shipments bound for terrorist groups were interdicted," Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who authored the terrorism designation bill, said on the House floor last week. "North Korean experts have advised both Hezbollah and Hamas in the construction of their terrorist tunnel networks... North Korea's actions have only grown more flagrant since being removed from the terrorism list. Kim's actions threaten our infrastructure, our economy, and ultimately our national security." | 1,544 |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Missiles were fired from the sea at several locations in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on Monday but were intercepted by air defenses, Syrian state media said.
The official SANA news agency said the Technical Industry Institution in the state-controlled city had been targeted. SANA added that it was not immediately known who fired the missiles.
“Air defenses have confronted enemy missiles coming from the sea in the direction of the Latakia city, and intercepted a number of them,” SANA quoted a military source as saying.
State-run Ikhbariya TV said 10 people were injured in the attack. Eight were discharged shortly after being admitted to a nearby hospital.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said huge explosions were heard in the city.
The missiles targeted ammunition depots of the Technical Industry Institution in the eastern outskirts of Latakia, the Observatory said. It was not immediately clear what activities the state institution was engaged in.
A witness in Latakia told Reuters that he spotted four missiles downed by Syrian air defenses.
One of the missiles fell in an open area to the west of central Homs city causing a fire in an orchard, Ikhbariya TV said.
It said electricity was later fully restored to Latakia province, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, after there was partial blackout due to the attack.
The source of the missiles was not immediately clear. Israel has launched frequent attacks in Syria. On Saturday, Syrian air defenses downed several missiles that Israel fired near Damascus airport, state media reported.
When asked for comment about Monday’s attack, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel did not comment on foreign reports.
During the Israeli cabinet weekly meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will “constantly taking action to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry”.
A U.S. Central Command spokesman said the United States did not carry out strikes in that part of Syria on Monday.
Early in September, missiles targeted several positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama, SANA said.
During the more than seven-year conflict in neighboring Syria, Israel has grown deeply alarmed by the expanding clout of its arch enemy Iran - a key ally of Assad.
Israel’s air force has struck scores of targets it describes as Iranian deployments or arms transfers to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in the war. | 1,545 |
CAIRO (Reuters) - Companies owned by Egypt’s military must be allowed to sell shares on the stock exchange alongside other state companies slated for privatization, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday.
FILE PHOTO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan June 29, 2019. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS
Last year, the government said it planned to sell minority stakes in 23 state-owned companies in an initial phase of privatization, part of a plan to raise up to 80 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.97 billion).
The program has been repeatedly delayed due to weak markets, legal hurdles, the readiness of each company’s financial documentation and in the case of some companies a downturn in the business cycle, a government adviser on the share sales said this month.
The sale of minority stakes in two of the state companies are planned by year-end, officials have said.
“The offerings being prepared by the Egyptian state should include a chance (for) the armed forces companies. In this way we will have opened a door for the Egyptian people and society to these companies,” Sisi said at a ceremony to inaugurate two new army chemicals factories in Abu Rawash, west of Cairo.
He gave no details.
Sisi said last year that Egypt plans to offer shares on the stock market of a $1.1 billion cement plant owned by the military, but no steps have yet been announced.
The military has launched numerous projects across the country since Sisi came to power in an election after the armed forces ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.
Some critics complain that such projects represent unfair competition but Sisi sought to reassure the private sector rivals that army enterprises are not targeting them.
“It is important to say that the private sector is welcome to participate in all what we are talking about,” Sisi said, referring to the army projects.
He also said Egypt could dramatically expand the size of its new sovereign wealth fund, formed this year with a paid-in capital of 5 billion pounds and a licensed capital of 200 billion pounds.
The fund could be increased to “more than several trillion pounds,” he said, adding that it “aims to contribute to sustainable economic development through management of its funds and assets”. | 1,546 |
Z Assist
→Android 17 will now appear further forward when near the opponent or the opponent is in hitstun in the air.
→Sped up the move's start-up.
→Increased the number of attacks it can withstand.
→Expanded the types of attacks it can withstand.
→Increased hitstop.
→Reduced the move's stun time.
→Increased opponent knockback.
・Ultimate Z Change
→Changed from Endgame to grounded Barrier Explosion.
◆ Jiren
・Standing Light Attack: Follow-up 1
→Crouching light attack is now used in a Z Combo.
・Standing Heavy Attack
→Sped up the move's start-up.
・Crouching Unique Attack
→When stopping a jumping attack, "Anti-Air!" will be displayed on screen.
→Can now perform a Super Dash cancel with ↓ + unique attack during the camera shift.
・Jumping Medium Attack
→Reduced the amount of hitstop for the first hit of the attack.
・Jumping ↓ + Heavy Attack
→Enlarged the move's hitbox during start-up.
→The camera now shifts when the attack hits an opponent mid-air.
→Fixed an issue in which the opponent would freeze when the attack canceled out the opponent's when held.
・Jumping Unique Attack
→Reduced opponent knockback.
・Colossal Slash
→Fixed an issue in which the attack's initial hitbox would be separate from Jiren's actual position.
◆ Videl
・Z Reflect
→Invicibility to throws has been removed from start-up to make her consistent with other characters.
→Changed sound effect for when invincibility is active.
・Standing Light Attack: Follow-up 2
→Increased throw spacing.
・Standing Medium Attack
→Increased window in which a standing medium attack cancel can be performed on hit.
・Standing/Crouching/Jumping Unique Attack, Jumping ↓ + Unique Attack
→Adjusted timing at which Vanish can be performed.
・Frankensteiner
→Will no longer hit the opponent when Videl is not the main character.
→Adjusted input window in which the button can be held.
→Increased throw spacing when the opponent is being damaged. | 1,547 |
Skip The Spoon: Babies May Eat Better When They Feed Themselves
Enlarge this image toggle caption iStockphoto.com iStockphoto.com
Spooning strained peas into a baby is the traditional way to start solid food. But babies might be better off feeding themselves.
That's the surprising result of a new study that compared the food preferences and weight of babies who fed themselves finger food with those who were spoon-fed.
Both groups of children had equal exposure to snack foods. But the babies who fed themselves preferred carbohydrates like toast, pasta or potatoes, while the spoon-fed children went for sweets when given a choice.
You'd think the children who controlled their own eating would be heavier, but not so. The spoon-fed crew was the one that was more likely to be obese as toddlers. Eight of the 63 spoon-fed children became obese, while none of the 63 self-feeding children were.
"That was interesting," says Ellen Townsend, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham in England, who led the study. "Maybe with spoon feeding, if you've lovingly prepared a delicious portion, and you might want to get that portion into that child. There may be a temptation to try to get in an extra spoonful or two."
The "self-weaning babies" might like carbs because they're easier to chew and tend to have nice textures, the researchers say. They want to do further research to see if breast-feeding and picky eating play a role.
The study, which was published in the journal BMJ Open, was small, and based on parents' recollections. But Townsend says it should reassure parents that it's OK to let the child take care of food choices, as long as the parents are providing nutritious options like fruits and vegetables, proteins, and iron-rich foods like hard-boiled eggs or strips of meat.
The good news is that most of the children were of a healthy weight, regardless of how they were fed as babies.
As for Townsend, she was holding her 9-month-old daughter when I called her in England today. What's that baby eating for dinner?
"She'll sit down with us tonight and have pork chops, string beans, some baby sweet corn, and probably some potatoes," Townsend says.
Like many parents with more than one child, she doesn't have the time to cook up special baby food. And her children seem perfectly happy to eat what's on the family table. | 1,548 |
The CBI order is being challenged on several grounds, one of them being the delay of more than six years in recording the victims’ statements
Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Moday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging a special CBI court’s verdict sentencing him to 20 years in prison for raping two disciples.
The CBI court in Panchkula on August 28 had sentenced Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison after his conviction.
“We have filed an appeal today in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Through this, we have challenged the order of the CBI court,” defence counsel Vishal Garg Narwana said here.
He said the CBI verdict has been challenged on several grounds.
“One of the grounds was that there was a delay of more than six years in recording the statements of the women (victims) by the CBI after the incident,” the defence counsel said.
The CBI had claimed that the two women followers were sexually exploited in 1999 and the agency recorded their statement in 2005, Garg said. He alleged that the CBI had also concealed some portion of the victims’ statement.
Ram Rahim was convicted by the special CBI court on August 25, following which violence and arson had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa districts which left 41 people dead and scores injured.
The judge pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two rapes that date back to 2002.
The controversial sect head is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak district of Panchkula.
In April 2002, an anonymous letter was written to the then chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, complaining about the alleged sexual exploitation of woman followers at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa.
In May 2002, the high court directed the Sirsa district and session judge to probe the allegations in the letter. In September 2002, the high court handed over the matter to the CBI after the district court indicated the possibility of sexual exploitation
In December 2002, the CBI registered a case of rape, criminal intimidation against Ram Rahim.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against the Dera head in Ambala court in July 2007. The charge sheet mentioned the sexual exploitation of two ‘sadhvis’ between 1999 and 2001.
In September 2008, the special CBI court framed charges of rape and criminal intimidation against Ram Rahim. | 1,549 |
involving Mary’s treatment of Kick, Robert’s daughter from his first marriage.
Vi siting her father three weekends a month Kick seemed to lose something at the end of each stay, once it was a plane ticket another time her wallet disappeared.
After being chided by her father, Kick confided to him that she thought Mary was stealing from her.
Robert immediately dismissed the suggestion.
'She looked me in the eye and said, ''No, Daddy, Mary hates me.''
'A few weeks later, looking for something in Mary’s bureau, I found a collection of Kick’s lost items concealed beneath a layer of Mary’s clothing,' Robert recalls in the documents.
According to the affidavit, it was the first time that Robert considered divorce although, on the surface at least, he brushed the incident aside.
Tragic ending: Two years after Robert filed for divorce, Mary was found dead in the family estate's barn. Depressed, in debt and fearing losing custody of her children permanently Mary hanged herself. She was 52
Five years later, the affidavit states, Robert ‘learned from Kick and many others who had witnessed Mary’s conduct, the heartbreaking story of Mary’s long campaign of cruelty and abuse directed toward Kick.'
Kick said that her step-mother would take her into a closed room where she would berate her for her apparent faults, Robert alleges.
On one occasion Mary slapped Kick for arguing with one of the other children, the affidavit says.
Remaining stoically composed after the deaths of his brothers, Michael and David, Robert broke down crying when he discovered Mary's body hanging from the rafters in a barn at her estate on May 16.
Before Mary's death, he had taken to appearing at public events with their four children, who he had full temporary custody of, and his new girlfriend, 46-year-old actress Cheryl Hines.
Documents showed Mary was facing a $32,000 lawsuit from American Express, though this was dropped following her death.
Speaking after Mary's funeral, her old school friend Kerry Kennedy said that Mary had suffered from mental illness the entire 37 years they had known one another.
'She struggled so hard, for so long, with mental illness, which so many Americans suffer with,' Kerry Kennedy said after her death. 'She fought with dignity, and in the end, the demons won.'
| 1,550 |
Announcing the Support Program for Kotlin User Groups and Events
Posted on by
Today we are launching a new Community section on our website!
It will provide you with the guidelines to organize Kotlin related events, and the description of support managed by JetBrains. We have also formalized the support process for User Groups and Events around Kotlin.
It is exciting to see that about 150,000 developers all over the world tried Kotlin in 2016. We now have an amazing community! This lets us hold Kotlin-dedicated talks and meetups. We have also held two Kotlin Nights: the first one was in San-Francisco and the other one was in London. What is even more fantastic, the community is starting to organize these events, and we are here to help. It is also great to see people wanting more Kotlin Nights.
We offer the following programs:
We appreciate what you do and would love to help you find partners and speakers for your meetups, as well as to help promote your events. We can give you swag and share helpful tips and tricks. Please fill in the form for your user group or feel free to email Alina Dolgikh.
We encourage everyone who wants to organize a Kotlin Nights event to do so. We can provide support in terms of merchandise, and promote your event via our media channels. We have a Kotlin Night Kit available for you to use, which includes the guidelines, branding materials, and swag for speakers and attendees. If you need help reaching out to potential partners or with any other steps, again, feel free to ping Alina.
If you are a speaker, let us know about your upcoming event, and we will send you a T-shirt and stickers for the attendees. By the way, they are available online for everyone at Stickermule and Apparel Store. Check out the New Events web page and submit your talk to show up on the global Kotlin activities map.
JUGs and GDGs are also encouraged to participate! If you have Kotlin-related talks or specially dedicated meetups, submit them, and we will figure out an optimal support plan for you.
Finally, we have a standard JetBrains Community Support Program for user groups related to software development, as well as community-driven events, and not just Kotlin-related ones. You can easily apply here.
If you have any questions, please ping Alina, who will be more than happy to help you! | 1,551 |
“I think I was very nervous when I started, and I'm more confident now. I think the character was more nervous than he is now. I mean, I have crossbows and compound bows and shoot them now. When I started, I was living in Chinatown, and I was terrified of bugs. Now I have tick bites all over me and I'll just, whatever. So, yeah, there's certain similarities.”
"[Riding] through these little two-lane roads with cows going by and the sun coming up or going down. And it's really great, you know?"
, out of necessity, is a series about being tough and learning to live off the land with no homestead and little stability. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that some of the actors who play in the series now live similar lifestyles. Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl on AMC’s hit series, recently admitted that he lives in the woods, now. Because obviously.Reedus recently talkedwith GQ, noting that his living habits and general outlook have totally changed due to AMC’s zombie-based series. Once upon a time he was a city guy without any outdoorsy habits, but now his lifestyle has become a lot more like Daryl’s off-screen.has become a way of life for the actor, which is interesting because his gig playing Daryl was initially supposed to only be a short part. However, his popularity on the series has kept him around, allowing him to live in the woods with the bugs. He also says motorcycle journeys on backroads are a frequent occurrence.Daryl’s always been kind of an enigma on. He’s a tough guy that can win any fight, but he often buries his feelings and can also be extremely awkward in romantic terms. He’s a man who is not particularly afraid of anything or anyone, but he’s also guarded and keeps his feelings close to his chest.Reedus obviously isn’t that guy. He’s not Daryl, exactly, and I don’t think his fans would want him to be. But it’s still kind of nice to think of the actor messing around in the woods with just himself and his crossbow, utterly unworried about ticks.Norman Reedus will appear as Daryl in the fifth season of, which kicks off on AMC on Sunday, October 12 at 9 p.m. EST. You can check out the rest of the fall premiere dates, here | 1,552 |
The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted through a resolution establishing a framework for a global pact for the environment, an initiative put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron last September.
The resolution asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to create a working group that is to identify, assess and come up with potential remedies for possible gaps in existing international environmental law. Its report is due to be presented to the General Assembly session starting in September.
The global pact is intended to be the first international legally binding agreement to gather and harmonize all environmental laws in one document, according to the French permanent mission to the UN.
The accord has as its objective "to be an essential tool for governments to help them implement environmental rules and principles in their own country," a statement on the mission's website says.
Read more: When nature harms itself: Five scary climate feedback loops
Need to 'act decisively'
Speaking ahead of the vote, the French ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, told the assembly that "the unprecedented deterioration of our environment is already causing hundreds of thousands of deaths due to planetary warming, water and air pollution and the deterioration of biodiversity and soils."
"If we don't act decisively, we are exposing ourselves to dire consequences: The exhaustion of natural resources, migrations and an upsurge in conflicts," he added.
Read more: To accelerate climate action, citizens are suing governments
US not joining in
Although 143 of the UN's 193 member states backed the resolution, five nations opposed it — the United States, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the Philippines — while seven abstained, including Iran.
China, one of the world's two biggest polluters along with the US, was among the countries in favor of the measure.
The US opposition was expected in view of President Donald Trump's announcement last June that his country would withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement on fighting climate change, which the global pact is designed to complement.
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said it was not in the US interest to join the pact.
"When international bodies attempt to force America into vague environmental commitments, it's a sure sign that American citizens and businesses will get stuck paying a large bill without getting large benefits," she said.
Read more:Trump's growing cabinet of climate deniers
tj/ng (AP, AFP)Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. | 1,553 |
involved.
"It's environmentally friendly. It has no effect on any other species," Trivellato says.
An informal survey of a handful of residents in the area where the mosquitoes are being released in Piracicaba found mixed reaction. Some residents share Ferraz's fears. Others are glad the mosquitoes are being released.
Elder Santin, a chemist at a local paper company, says he has a grandson who was hospitalized because of dengue and a daughter-in-law who's pregnant, which makes him worry about Zika.
"People think, 'Oh, I don't have a pregnant person in the family.' But as soon as you do have a pregnant person in the family it's an immense worry," he says.
Santin admits it took time for him to get used to having genetically engineered mosquitoes buzzing his house.
"Normally, when you have insects in your house the first thing that you do is spray insecticide. You pulverize them. But not in this case. You don't pulverize them. You leave them," he says. "So it's weird because of that."
Oxitec's mosquito production facility in Campinas produces thousands of the genetically engineered insects every week.
Thousands of genetically engineered female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are kept in plastic and canvas cages, where they mate with males to produce eggs. The eggs are hatched in trays containing fish food to nourish them and tetracycline. Tetracycline is normally used as an antibiotic but in this case keeps the insects alive by suppressing the self-destruct gene.
"It's an artificial lethal gene that produces a protein that blocks cells from working properly," Tepedino says. "So they die if they don't receive tetracycline, which is the antidote."
Technicians use strainers to separate the immature genetically engineered males from the females — males are smaller and float through the strainers to the top. They are then placed on those plastic pots to emerge as flying insects for release.
Technicians regularly sample the immature insects to make sure no females are accidentally being released. In addition, they routinely examine mosquitoes captured in the field to gauge the impact of the releases. They do that by looking for a fluorescent gene that the mosquitoes were also engineered to carry.
Oxitec plans to open a bigger mosquito breeding facility in Piracicaba to expand its mosquito suppression program to the entire city of more than 60,000 residents. | 1,554 |
$250 per ounce to $1,900 per ounce, a gain of about 900% in that twelve-year span. Since then, gold prices fell in a 50% retracement (using the 1999 base) and bottomed at around $1,050 per ounce in December 2015.
Secular bull and bear market tops and bottoms are difficult to see in real time, but they become apparent with hindsight. Gold gained over 23% in 2016-2017. From the perspective of early 2018, it is clear than the gold bear market ended over two years ago and a new multi-year secular bull market has begun.
Silver is not only along for the ride, it is showing even better performance than gold, albeit with greater volatility. Both the gold and silver rallies are based on a combination of supply/demand fundamentals, geopolitical pressures creating safe haven demand, and increasing inflation expectations as confidence in central banking and fiat money erodes.
In addition, silver has an excellent technical set-up right now. Precious metals analyst Samson Li writing in Thomson Reuters on January 2, 2018 offers this insight in the current technical trading position for silver:
Technically, silver is ripe for a major breakout to the upside in 2018. The CFTC figures Managed Money positions show that COMEX silver has been in a net short for three straight weeks since 12th December. This is not unheard of but is relatively rare for silver; the last time COMEX silver was net short was between the end of June and the first week of August 2015. As investment sentiment can swing from one extreme to another, and given silver’s innate volatility, this net short position should point to the possibility of a sharp short-covering rally. Looking back at the corresponding period in 2015, silver price was trading at $15.61/oz on the 7th July, and it was the third consecutive week recording a net short position. Approximately a year later, silver was trading over $20/oz in July 2016… [T]he current poor sentiment does suggest that silver could be one of the better performing precious metals in 2018, barring any crisis that could trump most of the commodities but gold.
The good news is that this secular rally in silver is in its early days. Recent gains will be sustained and amplified in the months and years to come.
Silver will outperform gold in the short-run, and shares in well-managed silver mining companies will do even better than silver.
Regards,
Jim Rickards
for The Daily Reckoning | 1,555 |
My wife jumped like crazy when she saw that HUGE pile of snacks! 3,5 kilogramms! 90% of that we don't have in russian shops and 80% we even didn't heard of. Look at those crazy eyes! Can you see mixture of joy and excitment in them? I even don't have to write anything. It's beter than any words. Thank you, santa from Florida! Thank you 1000 times! You made our day! Hell, what im i saying? Not a day, but it's something we will never forget for a long time! Bold statment, yes, but it have changed us. We too want to make someone as happy as we are now. Can't thank you enough!
But if want to know details, here they are:
Tootsie rolls: Like chewing Nesquik or some kind cocoa drink. They are great!
Russell Stover Pecan Delight: Caramel, chocolate and light taste of pecan nuts! Delight, indeed!
Fruit Roll-ups (strawberry): What these are made of?! It's like nectar of the gods of other gods. We can't live without Roll-ups! We need them now! MORE!!! Bye-bye sanity, hello diabetes!
Atomic Fire Ball: My mouth been in hell and back! And in hell and back again! What am i doing?! I can't stop! Wife thinks that my eyes will come out of sockets if i'll eat second one. She might be right, but i'll do it anyway. I have my needs!
Cow tales (caramel apple): In Russia caramel apples are not in common. We have apples, plenty, but somehow we eat them without caramel. What for? They tasty enough already, yes? No, if they taste like this treat. Wife approves!
Here & Now chews: Tried only strawberry flavoured. It taste like dried apples but with strawberry %) Good stuff.
Mary Jane: Chews with strange flavour of sunflower seeds! We have something like that but not chews!
Hot tamales fierce cinnamon: Identical to Jelly Belly Sizzling Cinnamon. Another war in my mouth that i can't and won't stop!
That's all we could try before we go to sleep. Maybe it's for the good that we don't have all this snacks? Otherwise we'll have only sugar instead of blood. Thank you again, our dear snack santa! | 1,556 |
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with a range of establishment conservatives in Silicon Valley on Wednesday to discuss the reported suppression of conservative content.
There were reportedly 16 attendees at the meeting, which included:
Glenn Beck, founder of the The Blaze
Barry Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump
Jim DeMint, former GOP Senator from South Carolina
Robert Bluey, editor in chief of the The Daily Signal
Dana Perino, host at Fox News
Alex Skatell, founder of the Independent Journal Review
Mary Katharine Ham, Hot Air Editor at Large
S.E. Cupp, CNN political commentator
Jenny Beth Martin, CEO of the Tea Party Patriots
Brent Bozell, President of Media Research Center
Zac Moffatt, part of Mitt Romney’s campaign
Arthur Brooks, American Entreprise Institute
Representatives from Breitbart were asked to attend but declined the invitation, as did American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp.
Cupp posted on Twitter after the meeting to say “it had been very productive.”
Meanwhile Fox News host Dana Perino told The Blaze that the meeting was “overall positive,” adding that Zuckerburg had a “genuine desire” to fix Facebook’s rift with conservatives.
President of Media Research Brent Bozell also talked positively of the meeting, saying that “Facebook understands there is a problem” and that they also “have a genuine desire to correct it.”
Zuckerberg himself posted on Facebook shortly after the meeting to say “I know many conservatives don’t trust that our platform surfaces content without a political bias.”
“I wanted to hear their concerns personally and have an open conversation about how we can build trust,” he claimed. “I want to do everything I can to make sure our teams uphold the integrity of our products.”
Meanwhile Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos was critical of the meeting and the image it portrayed, saying that it merely assisted Facebook in its marketing efforts and that “extreme stupidity” was the only explanation for the participants’ attendance.
Facebook have also confirmed they are aware of Yiannopoulos’s invitation to debate Mark Zuckerburg one on one over the issue of censorship of conservative media.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected] | 1,557 |
The White House on Monday tamped down on suggestions the administration could offer Edward Snowden amnesty.
There has been talk that the former contractor for the National Security Agency could get amnesty in exchange for returning documents outlining the government's top-secret surveillance programs.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney said at his press briefing that the administration's position on Snowden's need to return home to face justice had not changed "at all."
"Mr. Snowden has been accused of leaking classified information and he faces felony charges here in the United States," Carney said.
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"He should be returned to the United States as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process and protections in our system. So that's our position and it has not changed."Richard Ledgett, who heads an NSA task force handling unauthorized disclosures, suggested in a "60 Minutes" interview the government should consider such a deal.“My personal view is, yes, it’s worth having a conversation about,” Ledgett said in the interview that aired on Sunday. “I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high. It would be more than just an assertion on his part.”Ledgett is expected to take over as deputy director of the spy agency in January, following the retirement of John “Chris” Inglis. He was previously director of the NSA's Threat Operations Center and director for collection/national intelligence manager for cyber at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.But Carney said Ledgett was merely expressing "his personal opinion.""These decisions are made by the Department of Justice, and I would refer you there for more," Carney said. "But there's been no change in our position."Separately, Carney said the White House had received an outside review commissioned by the president examining the NSA’s surveillance program against privacy considerations. The report includes more than 40 recommendations in light of the Snowden disclosures, which the administration is now evaluating."I think the president has made clear that in the reviews that he has asked for, that we are looking at the entire system of intelligence gathering and evaluating it through the lens of whether we are doing everything that we can and should in order to protect Americans and protect the United States and our allies, or are we doing — more than that, are we doing things just because we can, because we have the tools and capabilities to do that. So that process remains underway," Carney said. | 1,558 |
by Alex Weprin, February 15, 2019
CBS is reevaluating some of its over-the-top streaming video strategy, while also raising expectations for the success of its digital subscription products.
CBS currently offers two subscription streaming video services: CBS All Access and Showtime.
Last summer, the company said those services had about five million subscribers, split about evenly between the two services. In the company’s quarterly earnings report Thursday evening, the company said it has passed eight million subscribers between the two services.
Perhaps more significantly, CBS now says it expects to have 25 million subscribers by 2022 -- up from a projection of 16 million last summer.
Meanwhile, the company is also rethinking its windowing and syndication strategy for CBS All Access originals. Right now, CBS All Access has exclusive shows such as “Star Trek: Discovery,” and “The Good Fight,” which CBS may also sell in International markets.
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Moving forward, however, some of those shows may go on the CBS broadcast network after an exclusive All Access window.
Noting that “The Good Fight” has seen a few million viewers on All Access, CBS CEO Joe Ianniello asked analysts Thursday evening: “What if we took Season One of ‘The Good Fight’ and put it on the CBS broadcast network to drive subscribers back to CBS All Access?”
“So, we're really thinking about that going forward and obviously that has an effect of reducing costs, because it would reduce development cost across the company,” he added.
At the same time, the company is significantly increasing its programming output, with Showtime alone increasing its original programming output by 30%.
Meanwhile, the company is leveraging the data gathered from All Access and Showtime to sell more targeted advertising, and to develop more relevant programming for the services.
“[Thanks to] the data that we're getting, we're really starting to sell beyond demographics. And I think that is really proving to be extremely valuable to our advertising clients, but also to the content creators as hopefully, we can make shows that speak to our audiences as we learn more and more about them,” Ianniello said. “Showtime has been in the subscription business since inception, but never had any of the data on the subscribers, because the third-party distributors had a hold on that. Now we have that for the first time and we're getting smarter and smarter with all that.” | 1,559 |
At Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, Ms. Jones told the woman who runs the food pantry how much they produced last year, and the woman wrapped her arm around Ms. Jones.
“Hey, hey! We could use your help,” the woman said.
Ms. Jones was excited and she discussed a plan to provide food for the pantry or encourage community members to come by the farm to get some. “It’s going to be great,” Ms. Jones said. “In the neighborhood, it’s all about love.”
But when Ms. Jones returned to Mount Carmel later that day to speak with the pastor, the Rev. Marvin R. Youmans, he was cautious.
Dr. Youmans, who lives in the suburbs but has been doing community work in the North End since 1977, remembers plenty of promises from foundations and the government that yielded no lasting good. He remembers the uneasiness that floated about the community when the farm volunteers first came there two years ago, without consulting residents, who asked who they were and how they got their land. The farming initiative still had work to do, Dr. Youmans concluded, to convince residents that it would be a force of good for the community.
“People have been doing things on the North End for years and years and years, and nobody knows about it,” Dr. Youmans said. The residents, he added, are “skeptical of people because they have not reaped the benefits.”
There was a time when Inell Byrd felt as if people were trying to take advantage of her. That was last year, when, overwhelmed by her family’s precarious finances, she put her home up for sale for $100,000. But after getting only lowball offers mostly from white buyers, she said, she decided not to sell.
But this is a city whose mammoth struggles are an inherent part of one’s daily life, and for Ms. Byrd this means ambivalence. One morning in late March, with dawn about to break, she slipped into her warm Chevy Malibu, ready to transport herself to a different world. She closed her eyes, whispered a prayer and cranked up the Yolanda Adams morning gospel show on the radio. Then she was off to her job helping an elderly couple in West Bloomfield, a suburb of strip malls and office parks. The trip provided a seductive glimpse of what else was out there. | 1,560 |
The annual bonus FedEx nixed for higher-up employees this past financial year is not expected to return for 2020, the Memphis logistics giant said Tuesday.
“Given the current challenging business environment, we unfortunately do not expect the level of operating income in FY20 to be enough to fund an Annual Incentive Compensation payout at the end of the fiscal year,” FedEx said in a statement.
Payouts from FedEx’s annual incentive compensation plan are determined by company objectives and calculated as a percentage of base salary.
The 2020 AIC target payout for founder and CEO Fred Smith is 165% of his base salary, per FedEx’s annual proxy statement. A handful of other top executives have a 120% target payout.
HEALTH CARE:FedEx shaking up its employee benefits as it battles rising health care costs
But the program reaches beyond top brass at FedEx as it “generally provides an annual cash bonus opportunity to many of our salaried employees on an enterprise-wide basis,” the company said in the proxy statement.
The payout is based on achieving financial objectives, which apply equally to all participants, and individual objectives, it said.
“The primary objective of our AIC program is to motivate our people to achieve our annual financial goals and other business objectives and reward them accordingly,” FedEx said.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE:FedEx and UPS differ in e-commerce strategy, analysts say. Which approach will win out?
MEMPHIS HUB:FedEx Express files $200 million building permit; here's what's planned
FedEx has struggled over the past year, blaming a slowing global economy for battering its largest company, FedEx Express. The company has rolled out several cost-cutting initiatives, including employee buyouts, to cushion the blows.
In June, FedEx revealed no company officers or staff directors would receive a 2019 AIC payout due to “challenging business conditions.” FedEx’s board of directors removed executives from the plan after recommendation from its compensation committee.
FedEx also said Tuesday it has implemented a 2% cost-of-living salary increase in the U.S. across most of its employee groups and operating companies, but didn't disclose further details.
Max Garland covers FedEx, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at [email protected] or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @MaxGarlandTypes. | 1,561 |
TRENTON — It just got easier to enjoy more brewski in New Jersey.
Gov. Chris Christie today signed a law expanding the amount of suds a New Jersey microbrewery can produce, sell and offer for samples. It also gives brew companies the chance to increase the number of sites they open.
Long complaining they’d been held back by the liquor lobby, microbrewers in the Garden State pushed for the chance to move New Jersey from 32d in the country in craft beer production, compared to neighboring states of Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware, which rank second, seventh and 17th, respectively.
The new law, which takes effect immediately, allows brew pubs to increase their annual production from 3,000 barrels annually to 10,000. They will be able to distribute their product to liquor stores and restaurants wholesale, rather than continue to be restricted to only selling their beer in a restaurant immediately adjacent to the brewery.
No longer held to opening up to two brewpubs, a company now can open as many as 10 in New Jersey. Brewpubs will be able to offer samples of their suds not only at the brewery, as previously allowed, but also offsite, such as at fairs or charity events, as long as they have a permit from the state Alcohol Beverage Control director.
They will also be allowed to sell their beer on premises as part of a brewery tour. Customers taking the beer to go would be limited to 15.5 gallons (half a keg) each. The law also cuts the fee from $625 to $250 for production of every 1,000 barrels over their first 1,000 barrels.
“By making these changes to our brewing laws, we can help better promote New Jersey’s existing breweries and attract new brewers looking to make their mark on the world of craft beer,” said Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), a sponsor.
Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), another sponsor, said the law is a boon for the brewing industry and the state.
“New Jersey brewpubs and microbreweries make some of the best craft beer around,” he said. “With the growing popularity of our brews, we have the potential to become a national leader in terms of production.”
Follow @starledger
Related coverage:
• Small N.J. brewers push for changes to state law
• Beer Here: Now open for business | 1,562 |
Much to drone company DJI’s delight, a new FAA-commissioned report assures us that we have nothing to fear when it comes to drones. The new findings come from the Alliance for Safety System of UAS through Research Excellence, or ASSURE, which concludes that “small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are far more safe to operate around people than earlier models had assumed.” So while that doesn’t necessarily mean you should be flying your quadcopters into your friends’ faces, you don’t have to ensure that they’re behind plexiglass when you’re taking your drone out for a spin.
As per the ASSURE report, which was prepared on behalf of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in order to identify criteria for safe drone operations in the presence of people, today’s drones feature “unique aerodynamic and structural properties that mitigate the force involved in a collision.”
For example, if a DJI Phantom 3 drone were to fall on your head, you’d have a 0.03 percent chance or less of sustaining a head injury. In comparison, if a block of steel or wood with the same weight were to come down on your noggin, you’d have a 99 percent risk of injury. So what’s the difference? The report claims that a DJI drone absorbs much of the energy in the case of a collision, which means less energy is transferred to your head.
“ASSURE’s report is the first thorough scientific study of the risk drones pose to people on the ground, and we are pleased that it validates our own findings that earlier measurement standards grossly overstate the risks of injury from a drone,” said Brendan Schulman, DJI’s vice president of policy and legal affairs. “ASSURE’s work provides a deeper scientific understanding of the kinetic and aerodynamic factors which make drones far safer than some had thought. We look forward to more detailed research that will ensure drone safety requirements and regulations are based on measurable risk, not on fear, misunderstandings, or outdated standards.”
Dr. Walter Stockwell, DJI’s director of technical standards, echoed these sentiments, noting, “This report represents groundbreaking work to understand how drone impacts would occur in the real world. This will be an important guide as the industry works to make standards for drones that fly over and near people.”
Editors' Recommendations | 1,563 |
Aksys Games today announced that Little Dragons Café, a new game from Yasuhiro Wada, will be coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 in late summer 2018.
Wada is most well-known for creating the popular Bokujō Monogatari series (published under the names Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons outside of Japan) as well as Birthdays the Beginning. Over his twenty years in the game industry, he has also collaborated with other designers on titles such as Deadly Premonition.
The story opens with a twin brother and sister learning to cook and manage a small café under their mother’s tutelage. All was peaceful and routine until one morning when the twins discover that their mother has fallen into a deep sleep and won’t wake up. Suddenly, a strange old man appears to inform them that they must raise a dragon in order to save her. Working together with three quirky café employees, the two siblings must figure out how to a wrangle a dragon and manage the family business while finding a way to save their mother.
Features
Dragon Husbandry
Embrace your parental instincts and raise your very own dragon! Through wise decisions, proper nutrition, and empathetic nurturing show the world the true potential of your dragon companion!
Embrace your parental instincts and raise your very own dragon! Through wise decisions, proper nutrition, and empathetic nurturing show the world the true potential of your dragon companion! Culinary Capitalism
Learn new recipes and master the art of cooking while running your very own café. Explore the world, discover new ingredients, and expand your menu (and your restaurant) while catering to the whims of your customers.
Learn new recipes and master the art of cooking while running your very own café. Explore the world, discover new ingredients, and expand your menu (and your restaurant) while catering to the whims of your customers. Grow Your Own
The tastiest dishes use the freshest ingredients, and the best way to insure that is to grow your own produce. Till the land and fish the rivers to gather the most flavorful fixings for your signature dishes.
The tastiest dishes use the freshest ingredients, and the best way to insure that is to grow your own produce. Till the land and fish the rivers to gather the most flavorful fixings for your signature dishes. Serve the People
Feeding is nurturing, so you not only cook for your neighbors, but also help them with their problems to increase your popularity and the general happiness of everyone around you. | 1,564 |
ENCODE (Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements), a massive database cataloging the human genome’s functional elements, including genes, RNA transcripts, and other products, has been created by an international team of researchers, with principal investigators at Penn State University and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.
ENCODE is being made available as an open resource to the scientific community, classrooms, science writers, and the public. It provides an overview of the team’s ongoing efforts to interpret the human genome sequence, as well as a user’s guide for accessign the vast amounts of data and resources produced so far by the project.
ENCODE comes on the heels of the now-complete Human Genome Project, the 13-year effort aimed at identifying all the approximately 20,000 to 25,000 genes in human DNA, which used open-source data sharing to further scientific discovery and public understanding of science.
Scientists with the ENCODE Project are applying up to 20 different tests in 108 commonly used cell lines to compile the data. The ENCODE User’s Guide also explains how to apply the data to interpret the human genome.
The ENCODE project adds data such as where RNA is produced from our DNA, where proteins bind to DNA, and where parts of our DNA are augmented by additional chemical markers. These proteins and chemical additions are keys to understanding how different cells within our bodies are interpreting the language of DNA.
The researchers say that the ENCODE data can be immediately useful in interpreting associations between disease and DNA sequences that can vary from person to person (single nucleotide polymorphisms). For example, scientists know that DNA variants located upstream of a gene called MYC are associated with multiple cancers, but until recently the mechanism behind this association was a mystery.
“Very few proteins and other DNA products differ in any fundamental way between humans and chimps,” says principal investigator Ross Hardison. “The important difference between us and our close cousins lies in gene expression — the basic level at which genes give rise to traits such as eye color, height, and susceptibility to a particular disease. ENCODE is helping to map the very proteins involved in gene regulation and gene expression. The User’s Guide not only explains how to find the data, but also explains how to apply the data to interpret the human genome.”
Ref.: Peter B. Becker, Academic Editor, A User’s Guide to the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE), PLoS Biology (open access), April 19, 2011 | 1,565 |
before SOMEONE had a chance to book his snippity-snip appointment (still not booked BTW)!
Six weeks ago I saw my doctor once again. We went over my list of concerns, what I had found out about the side effects of Mirena, and what I wanted to do about it. She insisted on ordering another laundry list of blood tests, which all came back completely and utterly normal, and a week later at another appointment I finally had the offending little piece of plastic removed from my body.
I have to say, I feel better without it. Whether this is a placebo effect or real relief from the side effects, I don't know for sure. I do know that there have been no more excruciating cramping and bloating, I haven't had a migraine in five weeks, and the 'I can't even keep my eyes open while driving' extreme fatigue is gone. Oh, and that little problem with my libido... that seems to be gone too, which is making someone else around here very happy!
This week for the first time in over four years, dear Aunt Flo came for a REAL visit. To honour this occasion, I took another step in the direction of living a more natural life and invested in my first ever Diva Cup.
So what is the moral of the story here?
Mirena may sound like the perfect birth control solution and for some women it may well be... BUT please be aware of ALL of the side effects, and what can happen to you while on this medication. Do some research, ask around, and make sure that this is the birth control method that really is for you. There are whole blogs and websites dedicated to the stories and cases of women's lives with and then after Mirena and some of them are pretty scary. And while these may be some extreme cases, they made me pause and re-evaluate the role that Mirena has played in my life and convinced me to have it removed.
I really wish I had known more about this sooner and had stuck to my guns a year ago with my GP and had it taken out then. But here I am now, I know better, and I now have one less foreign object and synthetic chemical substance in my body.
And that is a good thing.
Natasha~
Have you used Mirena? What has your experience been?
UPDATE: One year post Mirena. Here is my follow up post a year after I had the Mirena IUD removed. | 1,566 |
Seventy-one people have been killed and a further 124 injured in two blasts that tore through a bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, police officials said.
The explosions took place as several hundred commuters were boarding buses to Abuja. Police spokesman Frank Mba told AP that 16 luxury coaches and 24 minibuses were destroyed.
Police say they believe that secondary explosions were triggered by the first one.
"There was only believed to be one blast with secondary explosions as vehicle fuel tanks ignited and burned," Mba said.
“I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion then smoke,” eyewitness Mimi Daniels who works in the capital, told Reuters. “People were running around in panic.”
While there were initially thought to have been multiple explosions, subsequent blasts were found to have been “secondary” as fuel tanks in the vehicles ignited.
Dead bodies were scattered around the scene of the attack, and ambulances arrived in the area to take the dead and injured to hospitals.
“Rescue teams are already on ground. There were so many people there at that time, so we think there must have been some injuries,” Manzo Ezekiel of the National Emergency Management Agency told AFP shortly after the blast before details of the death toll were confirmed.
Local correspondents have suggested that Islamist militant group Boho Haram may have been responsible for the attack.
At least 1,500 people have been killed by Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria this year, according to Amnesty International. The group have targets schools and military installations. In 2011, the group hit the UN building in Abuja.
Boko Haram had been threatening to carry out an attack on the capital. They are suspected of being behind the most recent terrorist attack in Nigeria, in the northeast of the country, which resulted in some 60 deaths.
On Sunday, armed militants besieged Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, near the border with Cameroon.
“The attackers, who are no doubt Boko Haram insurgents, attacked Amchaka and nearby villages this morning, hurling IEDs [improvised explosive devices] into homes and setting them on fire,” local government administrator Baba Shehu Gulumba told AFP.
“They then went on a shooting spree, opening fire on confused residents as they tried to flee, killing 60 people and injuring several others,” he said. | 1,567 |
By Captain Pyke | July 29, 2013 - 9:24 pm
Hey Kids, looks like there's a Groupon deal that allows you to buy a single day pass to Creation Entertainment's Star Trek Las Vegas Convention at half off. You have the choice of any of the four days starting Thursday, August 8th for $17.50. Friday is also $17.50 with Saturday and Sunday for $20 each. The downside is that you can only get one day at the discounted rate. You have the option of buying two additional days as gifts. If you're going for just one day or you have a group of 4 buddies that can buy each other "gift" days, it could be a good deal (that may or may not work...your mileage may vary).
Details:
A Star Trek convention gives fans a chance to dress up like their favorite characters, such as Spock from the original series, Kirk from The Wrath of Khan, or Scotty from his crossover role as "Ewok Baby No. 2" in Return of the Jedi. Celebrate all things Trek with this Groupon. Choose from Four Options - $17.50 for admission for one to Creation Entertainment's 12th annual official Star Trek convention on Thursday, August 8 (a $35 value)
- $17.50 for admission for one to Creation Entertainment's 12th annual official Star Trek convention on Friday, August 9 (a $35 value)
- $20 for admission for one to Creation Entertainment's 12th annual official Star Trek convention on Saturday, August 10 (a $40 value)
- $20 for admission for one to Creation Entertainment's 12th annual official Star Trek convention on Sunday, August 11 (a $40 value) Held at the Rio Suites Hotel, the 12th annual convention includes auctions of Star Trek collectibles, a costume parade, and a karaoke party. Avery Brooks, William Shatner, and George Takei are among the many stars scheduled to appear. The hotel's main theater is large enough that all attendees can find seating.
Scotty as an Ewok... I see what you did there.
As always, we'll be in Vegas with our collective Spocks out. Also, I hear there are some special posters that will be available at the show from a certain poster purveyor... More news on that to come later this week.
In the meantime, head on over to Groupon to get a deal on Vegas Khhaaan! admission. | 1,568 |
We often take blogs for granted, but they remain a wonderful resource for users and an essential, easy-to-use tool for communication. By now, you’re probably familiar with Google Analytics and how to use it to keep tabs on your blog stats and tracking metrics, like unique and returning visitors, time on site and bounce/exit rates.
But, while services like Google Analytics are incredibly useful for analyzing and dissecting traffic patterns, they only provide a partial view at user behavior.
When a visitor comes to your blog, how much time does she spend reading a post? Are readers leaving comments or sharing links to Facebook or Twitter? Are they writing about and linking back to your original piece? The answers to these questions offer insight into the community you’re building and the people you are trying to engage.
These things matter as much, if not more, than your general traffic statistics because they offer quantitative information about the quality of your engagement. Engagement is key to growing your audience, increasing your project or brand awareness and nurturing a sense of community.
One useful tool to help you get to your real engagement metrics is PostRank. PostRank is a service that helps track the sort of metrics that aren’t included in most major analytic tool sets. Once you’ve signed up and entered your blog feed URL and other requested data, PostRank will return feedback on how users are interacting with your content. PostRank offers data on pageviews and time on site, along with the number of comments and trackbacks, social media shares and engagement “points.” Ultimately, it tallies up all your information into a score based on the number of engagement events. Take a look at one of our popular Sunlight posts –
From here, you can click through the title of an individual post to will see an engagement time line, an assigned “value” to your post, the bounce rate and unique visitors. You’ll also see what your readers are saying on sites like Twitter. The score of 9.9 in the top left corner indicates that the post was well received by our audience.
When viewed in the context of your other posts, you begin to see site engagement in a bigger picture. You can draw conclusions about which types of posts are popular and drive interaction, which posts are most shared on their social networks, where people are talking about your content and what they are saying. With these realizations you can decide what to focus on, what site tweaks are needed and how to better engage your audience. | 1,569 |
future of the party is working class, and I think that what I represent and perhaps senator Sanders, senator Warren, a lot of working class champions in the democratic party, and I think that's the future. So the word socialism is used all the time. We should save that conversation for another time because I think Meghan and I would have different opinions. This is about you today, and what you did was really amazing. You're -- obviously I come from a different world view on how to approach problems, but your campaign video was so fantastic. Yes. I wish we could have shown some of it. Thank you. It was inspiring, it was real, and relatable. I think that message -- that is universal. We can debate how you go about solving the problems, but I think you should be really proud, and your mom I know is here too. Yeah, she is. I was so proud of the fact that you have -- right there. Right there is mom. That's an inspiration for so many -- so many women, and not only just women in general, but women of color. So you should be -- you should be very, very proud of that. Thank you. So I hear though that you potentially want to run for president one day. Is that true? I don't know. I don't know. My mom tells me I used to say that as a kid. I used to say that stuff. It's so hard to run for congress. I cannot even imagine. I can't even imagine how focused Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders had to be to run for president. It was exhausting running for the bronx and queens. If trump can do it, anybody can do it. Don't stop there if you don't want to. People are excited on the heels of your win because there is a hopeful, aspirational message you have. There have been a lot of trump wins this week. He got his travel ban, and the retirement of justice Kennedy. What power do Democrats have right now? Yeah. What I like to kind of think about is power in a much broader sense instead of just who the incumbents in the party are, and what they are capable of. I come as an educator and an organizer. I believe that our power, as a party, is organizing people. A mass movement of people, and when we organize people, when we win hearts and minds, then we impact what happens in those chambers and that's where I think our power can really come
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. | 1,570 |
It has been almost a month and a half since the last time that I talked about our progress in fighting sync IPC issues. So I figured it's time to prepare another Sync IPC Analysis report. Again, unfortunately only the latest data is available in the spreadsheet. But here are screenshot of the C++ and JS IPC message pie charts:
As you can see, as we have made even more progress in fixing more sync IPC issues, now the document.cookie issue is even a larger relative share of the pie, at 60%. That is followed by some JS IPC, PAPZCTreeManager::Msg_ReceiveMouseInputEvent (which is a fast sync IPC message used by the async pan zoom component which would be hard to replace), followed by more JS IPC, followed by PContent::Msg_GetBlocklistState which is recently fixed, followed by PBrowser::Msg_NotifyIMEFocus, followed by more JS IPC and CPOW overhead before we get to the longer tail. If you look at the JS sync IPC chart, you will see that almost all the overhead there is due to add-ons. Hopefully none of this will be an issue after Firefox 57 with the new out of process WebExtensions for Windows users. The only message in this chart stemming from our code that shows up in the data is contextmenu.
The rate of progress here has been really great to see, and this is thanks to the hard work of many people across many different teams. Some of these issues have required heroic efforts to fix, and it's really great to see this much progress made in so little time.
The development of Firefox 56 in coming to a close rapidly. Firefox 57 branches off on Aug 2, and we have about 9 weeks from now until Firefox 57 rides the trains to beta. So far, according to our burn-down chart, we have closed around 224 [qf:p1] bugs and have yet 110 more to fix. Fortunately Quantum Flow is not one of those projects that needs all of those bugs to be fixed, because we may not end up having enough time to fix these bugs for the final release, especially since we usually keep adding new bugs to the list in our weekly triage sessions. Soon we will probably need to reassess the priority of some of these bugs as the eventual deadline approaches.
It is now time for me to acknowledge the great work of everyone who helped by contributing performance improvements over the past two weeks. As usual, I hope I'm not forgetting any names! | 1,571 |
Over 10,000 cars busted for fumes
Police and anti-pollution experts of the Department of Land Transport measure just how bad the smoke emissions from this city bus is. (Bangkok Post file photo)
More than 10,000 vehicles have been busted over the past 12 days for emitting black exhaust fumes that exceed the safety limit, says the Department of Land Transport (DLT).
Somchai Ratkaew, an inspector with the DLT's Land Transport Supervision Division, said Thursday that 13 exhaust smoke inspection checkpoints, jointly run by the DLT and traffic police, were set up and have been operational in Bangkok and surrounding provinces since Jan 27.
"Until now, more than 10,000 vehicles have failed exhaust smoke tests," Mr Somchai said.
Thursday morning, a bus and 10 cars were impounded for spewing out black smoke that exceeded the safety limit at a checkpoint on Lat Krabang Road, said Mr Somchai, who was at the site.
The bus owner will face a fine of between 5,000 baht and 50,000 baht, he said. Regarding the owners of the impounded cars, traffic police fined them 1,000 baht each, Mr Somchai noted.
As for criticism by some busted motorists that their vehicles had passed exhaust smoke tests at the DLT, Mr Somchai said the test devices used by both the DLT and officers manning the checkpoints are the same and the officers also use the same threshold.
However, some of the vehicles might have been carrying more weight during the latter inspection which could have accounted for the difference, he said.
Meanwhile, Thai authorities have reportedly asked their Myanmar counterparts to seek cooperation from locals in Phayatongsu town, opposite Sangkhla Buri district in Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, to stop forest burning to prevent dust from the sites blowing over the border.
The request was made during a meeting of the Township Border Committee in Phayatongsu on Thursday.
Myanmar officers agreed to deal with the issue, saying they have already rolled out regulations and sought cooperation from local people to refrain from burning forested land to hunt animals or clear it for farming, according to a source who attended the meeting.
In Kanchanaburi, governor Jirakiat Phumsawat presided over the start of a campaign to encourage people to stop burning land in sugarcane plantations. Farmers there are known to use slash-and-burn techniques. | 1,572 |
india
Updated: Sep 07, 2019 05:47 IST
The heavy rains yet again didn’t succeed in breaking the spirits of Mumbaikars as they welcomed beloved Lord Ganesh and serenaded him gracefully this Ganesh Chaturthi. Despite the hash downpour and flooding, Mumbaikars celebrated the onset of the festival with great passion as they waited to offer their prayers to Lord Ganesha.
With bustling personal commitments and round-the-clock work life, it’s not too easy for people to keep on with the tradition and follow the celebrations, which then becomes a weekend affair. Most of the Mumbaikars miss out on mahurat hours to attend the Ganesh aarti, and to help make it a little easy, Hindustan Times, the second most-read English daily in Mumbai, has come up with a unique initiative.
It is estimated that over 7.5 million Mumbaikars commute through Mumbai locals daily. To fill out the gap, Hindustan Times has decided to put multiple groups of ‘Aarti Mandali’ team together to add a festive touch to Mumbaikar’s every day local train journey.
Mumbaikars can now chant the Ganesh aarti with Hindustan Times ‘Aarti Madali’ and offer their prayers to Lord Ganesha during the auspicious period of the day, every day. These groups will perform aarti on Central Railways and Western Railways during the morning peak hours 8 am to 12 pm and in the evening from 4 pm to 6 pm.
Keeping the needs and sentiments of Mumbaikars in mind, Hindustan Times has attempted to bring joy and unity while offering praise to Lord Ganesha in local trains this Ganesh Chaturthi. Even in this harsh, difficult weather, Mumbaikars can experience positive vibes, divine chants and togetherness.
Hindustan Times is also running a contest for Ganesh Chaturthi on digital platform. In order to participate and have a chance at winning, people have to click a picture of the Ganesh Aarti and upload it online. 15 lucky winners of this contest will get to enjoy an aerial view of the Ganpati Visarjan from a helicopter on 6th and 12th September.
Let’s all come together this Ganesh Chaturthi and make it an even bigger celebration. | 1,573 |
1.3 billion)
⁃ Middle East: 1160 (910 HC, 250 grass)
Australia/Oceania – 3330 (all HC)
Miscellaneous Information
• Week with most points available to winners: Week 23 (Second week of Wimbledon. 2485 points available.)
• Week with the least points available: Week 47 (80 points available at Maia Challenger)
• First event of the year: Brisbane (by a few hours over Doha and Pune)
• Last tournament of the year: Davis Cup Finals by a few hours over Maia)
• Earliest tournament of the day (tournament closest to the left side of the international date line): Auckland ATP 250
• Latest tournament of the day (tournament closest to the right side of the international date line): Vancouver CH 100
Conclusion
Gonna try to keep it short due to the inappropriate length of this article.
Europe had almost half of the total tournaments worldwide and about half of the points available were in Europe. It is clay dominant, with 60 of the 85 clay tournaments worldwide. 54% of all ATP tournaments were played on European soil, and 46% of all challengers.
North America had the second most tournaments overall. The U.S. had the most tournaments overall of any country (37 tournaments overall; France second at 22) and the most harcourt tournaments of any country.
South America needs more tournaments.
India has one tournament for every 466,666,667 people (3 total, for a population of 1.4 billion).
The entire continent of Africa has two (2!!!) tournaments: the lowest tier ATP and the lowest tier Challenger. Total of 330 points available on the entire continent in 2019. That has to get better.
Germany stuck out to me as being perhaps the most diverse, having 7 clay, 2 grass, 2 hardcourt, and 2 carpet tournaments.
When the Tour Finals leave London after next year, exactly 80 non-grass points will be up for grabs on UK soil if nothing else changes.
Italy loves them some clay. 90% of all points up for grabs in Italia are on the red stuff.
Greece needs a tournament.
And finally, Hawaii needs a damn tournament! Mahalo and aloha 🤙🏼
Sunset on the Big Island
By: Judson Wall (Tennis in Aloha, @jwallmizzou) | 1,574 |
About Expert SEO Company Dubai
Expert SEO Dubai is all about the best SEO services at the most affordable quotes possible. We understand that marketing activities increase in volume and get more budget as the business gradually grows. Our organization helps companies and businesses to gain maximum profit from the internet. Investing a huge sum of money on advertising and promotion is not really the best path to proceed upon in the current market scenario. However, using internet resources and proper SEO consulting, your company can spread its wings far beyond your present reach and can provide maximum business leads. This is why people look so ardently for the most affordable and the best SEO Company. Dubai has us to ensure that this need is always satisfied.
Our success lies in the 5 fundamental principles we never divert from
Experts
We believe that talent has a price, and if we have to manage first grade SEO consulting, we need the first-grade consultants. With careful references and selective recruitment, we ensure that all our employees who work on your website are experts in SEO.
Planning
Most of our clients feel that the strategy and planning of our company is the key which makes us the best SEO company in Dubai. Without proper planning and homework, we cannot just put up a website and expect great profits! It all needs to be carefully managed, and we have the right team for the job which makes us one of the top SEO companies in Dubai.
Money Matters
Without fund management, managing a website efficiently is impossible. It all depends on the client’s budget. If he or she wants to have a budget package, we can easily arrange that by customizing one of our SEO packages, if not, the sky is the limit!
Flexibility
A good SEO consulting firm is always ready to be flexible and willing to offer customized packages to the clients. This is the key to our success which makes us able to compete with top SEO companies in Dubai. Dubai based businesses can also benefit a great deal from such flexible marketing plans and budgets.
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SEO consulting is about optimizing your brand, hence it is, in fact, conventional marketing on an unconventional platform. Without our innovation, Experts SEO Dubai would not be as renowned as it is. Our unique and effective consulting ensures maximum gain from website promotion.
As the value of Dubai as a global commerce landmark grows, we are also ready to make good on our promise as a world-class SEO Company. Dubai is on the rise, and SEO consulting is our area of expertise in this terrific progress. | 1,575 |
Nikki Haley dismissed speculation that she could replace Vice President Mike Pence on the presidential ticket in 2020, decrying "false rumors" in a tweet on Wednesday. The former U.N. ambassador has previously assured the public that she would not challenge President Trump in a primary in 2020, and this latest tweet comes after Mr. Trump affirmed that he intends to keep Pence on the ticket.
"Enough of the false rumors. Vice President Pence has been a dear friend of mine for years. He has been a loyal and trustworthy VP to the President. He has my complete support," Haley wrote in what appeared to be an unprompted tweet. The tweet included a picture of her and Pence at the United Nations.
Enough of the false rumors. Vice President Pence has been a dear friend of mine for years. He has been a loyal and trustworthy VP to the President. He has my complete support. ❤️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/waPyQjC8Eb — Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) August 21, 2019
Rumors have circulated in the past that Haley might replace Pence on the ticket. Haley left the administration last year.
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Mr. Trump told reporters this week that he was "very happy" with Pence and called him an "outstanding VP."
"I think that he has been incredible in terms of the love that a lot of people, especially if you look at the evangelicals and so many the others, they really have a great respect for the vice president, and so do I. And so do I think most people," Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday. He also said that speculation about changing vice presidents was "standard" for any administration.
"Everybody thought that President Obama was going to change Biden. They thought second term, he was going to change that. Everybody thought that, but he didn't do that. But no, I'm very happy with Mike Pence," Mr. Trump continued.
Mr. Trump addressed rumors that Haley could replace Pence in an interview with Fox Business Network in June.
"I love Nikki. She's endorsed me. She's my friend. She's part of my campaign, but Mike has been a great vice president," Mr. Trump said. "I love Nikki and there are places for Nikki, and Nikki's future is great, but Mike Pence is the person, 100%. We won together. We have tremendous evangelical support. You can't break up a team like that." | 1,576 |
Daredevil Nik Wallenda is preparing for a tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon. The stuntman plans to use the Navajo Nation as the backdrop for one of his most ambitious feats to date — walking a high wire 1,500 feet in the air.
On Sunday evening, users can watch Wallenda’s Grand Canyon walk live online. The ambitious attempt comes just one year after Wallenda crossed Niagra Falls, earning a seventh Guinness world record.
While Wallenda will be using the same two-inch thick cable he had last year, he won’t be wearing a safety harness this time. The Discovery Channel will broadcast Wallenda’s Grand Canyon walk live on television, starting at 8 pm EDT Sunday. The broadcast will include a 10-second delay.
Along with television, a few outlets will be broadcasting Wallenda’s daredevil stunt live online. The broadcast is expected to last about two hours as the high-wire walker crosses the quarter mile cable. Wallenda will wear two cameras for the performance. One will look down on the mostly dry Little Colorado River bed. The other will face straight ahead, giving watchers the same perspective as Nik.
Nik is a seventh-generation high-wire artist, whose family is no stranger to tragedy on the tightrope. While the “Flying Wallendas” circus family has achieved death-defying feats, they have also lost several members to accidents. Nik’s great-grandfather is one.
Karl Wallenda fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died. Several other family members, including a cousin and an uncle of Nik’s, have died while attempting stunts on the high wire. And Sunday’s performance isn’t without its deadly risks. Among those is the fact that Wallenda won’t have a safety harness.
As wind could be an issue in the Grand Canyon, Nik Wallenda has plans to hold onto the tightrope should the winds reach 30 mph or more. But the daredevil has trained through much worse. Along with walking in 52 mph wind gusts during Tropical Storm Andrea, Wallenda has also trained with wind machines that simulated 45-55 mph wind gusts.
The only thing that will halt Sunday’s performance is lightning within a 50-mile radius of the steel rope. Other than that, Nik Wallenda has said he is ready.
Will you watch live online as Nik Wallenda attempts to walk across the Grand Canyon?
[Image via Facebook] | 1,577 |
Fire service at the scene of a suspected chemical spill at Palmerston North Hospital.
Palmerston North Hospital's main entrance was cordoned off after an unidentified chemical was brought to the front doors by contaminated workers.
Fire service assistant area commander Rodger Calder said three workers had reported feeling a "burning" sensation before driving themselves to hospital about 3.30pm on Monday.
They had been working on a transformer board that was removed in Kimbolton when they contaminated their clothing with an unidentified chemical, he said.
Calder said the men had driven themselves to hospital, leaving the board in the back of the ute, after they started to have a reaction to the chemical.
No one was evacuated from the hospital but the three workers were admitted to the emergency department with some form of chemical contamination.
Calder said firefighters ensured the area was safe before they flushed out the area and decontaminated their staff.
A MidCentral District Health Board spokesman said the three people had been treated for minor to moderate injuries following normal hospital procedure.
The fire service were called to handle the vehicle that contained the chemical contamination, which required a portion of the carpark to be cordoned off.
The hospital continued to operate as normal and the carpark reopened a few hours after the incident.
Two vehicles were contaminated with the chemical and Crash Services was called in to tow them away for decontamination.
Treena Hardman said she had been on the fourth floor of the hospital visiting her son when she saw the commotion from upstairs.
"We saw everyone crowded around the window looking down. Four guys in hazmat suits all around a white [vehicle].
"They went into the carpark and picked something up and put it in a bucket.
"Then they went hosing down the carpark with a fire hose."
Hardman said when they tried to get information not a lot of people seemed to know what was going on.
"The nurses didn't even know what was going on.
"We asked [the] security guard and she said she couldn't tell us, we weren't allowed to know."
Hardman said her car was still in the carpark as they had not been able to access it when she was leaving.
"It's a paid carpark so I'm hoping [they] don't ping everyone for it.
"I'll just be taking my receipt out and saying I'm not paying that." | 1,578 |
presidency: Woodward book Former national economic council director: I agree with 50 percent of House Democrats' HEROES Act MORE work to thwart Trump’s wishes.
Bannon argues that Woodward’s reporting supports his view that a cabal within the administration has been undermining the president.
“You basically have…a coup,” Bannon said, referring sarcastically to “the Committee to Save America, which was that group of [Rex] Tillerson and [James] Mattis and [John] Kelly and [Gary] Cohn.”
Bannon no longer speaks directly with Trump, even though he remains connected to others in the president’s circle.
Detractors will see the movie as part of an effort to put himself back into Trump’s good graces.
The same goes for the outside group he is now spearheading, Citizens of the American Republic. Bannon claims the group has a 25-person “war room” and is already ramping up its efforts, animated by his belief that Trump faces near-certain impeachment if Democrats take the House.
“The White House, to be honest, on the political side I think is a little slow off the mark. I don’t see the sense of urgency at the campaign, I don’t see the sense of urgency at the White House, and I think there is a huge sense of urgency,” he said.
Having once predicted that the GOP could lose more than 50 seats in the House, Bannon has recently been expressing greater confidence.
But he also says there are crucial differences that make success in the midterms a steeper climb than was the case even in Trump’s White House bid.
Referring to Democrat Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonDemocratic groups using Bloomberg money to launch M in Spanish language ads in Florida The Hill's Campaign Report: Presidential polls tighten weeks out from Election Day More than 50 Latino faith leaders endorse Biden MORE’s 2016 campaign, Bannon said, “One of the biggest advantages we had [was that] they didn’t take us seriously. They thought Trump was a clown. One of the biggest things we had was the ability to sneak up on them.
“That’s not happening now,” he added. “This thing won’t be stolen from anybody, You won’t steal a march. You’ll have to grind it out.”
-Updated 8:25 p.m. | 1,579 |
Queen Elizabeth II has always tried to remain politically neutral all these years. However, some fans can’t help but speculate on whether or not members of the royal family, such as Prince Charles or Prince William, might be eligible for the UK government’s top post, the Prime Minister.
Based on the responses given to a similar question posted on Quora, it appears that royal family fans have different thoughts about the topic. For example, some believe that it’s possible for royals — even William — to gun for the PM post should they wish to do so.
“In short yes, Prince William (or anyone else) could technically become Prime Minister; if he managed to convince two Liberal Democrats and his Gran he would make a good one,” Thomas Wilson wrote on Quora.
However, another Quora user contradicted Wilson’s response by saying that William can’t become the PM. “William is one of the very few people who probably couldn’t. His brother, Harry, could though,” Mark Harrison wrote on the Q&A site.
The Quora user then went on to explain why the other royals, aside from Queen Elizabeth, just can’t become the Prime Minister. “The people who couldn’t are the Sovereign, and those who are realistically going to be King/Queen (Charles, William, George),” Harrison elaborated.
ANDREW PARSONS/AFP/Getty Images
Indeed, there’s nothing that can officially stop Harry from running for the office as he passes all the requirements. “People wishing to stand as an MP must be over 18 years of age, be a British citizen or citizen of a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland,” Express wrote.
But even if Harry can become the Prime Minister, someone within the family will likely dissuade him from doing it. “Harry could legally, but in practice wouldn’t, and his gran (The Queen) would almost certainly try to talk him out of it,” Harrison added.
Even palace insiders don’t think that Harry will participate in politics. “It’s very unlikely, the reason being since Prince Charles the royals don’t get involves in politics, for obvious reasons,” royal butler Grant Harrold told Express. “He would never run for prime minister, I wouldn’t think so.”
Thomas Toti/Flickr | 1,580 |
It looks as if the Ripple ecosystem has gotten even more recognition recently. SAP For banking recently tweeted about BBVA is completing its first cross-border payment. This payment was made using Ripple’s blockchain technology. It is a major validation for Ripple’s technology, to say the least. It will be quite interesting to see how things evolve moving forward.
For the longest time, people have been wondering what BBVA would do. More specifically, the bank has shown a keen interest in blockchain technology for quite some time. It was believed the company was working on a proprietary solution. That does not appear to be the case after all. Instead, they just completed a cross-border payment using Ripple’s technology. This is a major validation for the Ripple team, to say the least.
BBVA Goes All-in on Ripple Technology
Contrary to popular belief, BBVA is not using Hyperledger. Nor are they using R3’s project, either. This latter part is not surprising, considering R3 never intended to use blockchain technology in any case. All they did was share the illusion of doing so. Hyperledger has been quite a popular blockchain solution among financial institutions as well. However, Ripple seems to check all of the right boxes for BBVA, use his not all that surprising.
.@BBVA completes its 1st cross-border payment using blockchain technology of @Ripple + new banking system https://t.co/0iyt6Wr9au pic.twitter.com/Nj6QhWCgot — SAP for Banking (@SAPforBanking) June 19, 2017
The bigger question is whether or not BBVA will use the XRP asset as well. Any bank in the world can embrace Ripple technology without using the native token. To make payments faster and cheaper, using XRP is certainly worth considering, though. Having BBVA on board with Ripple is major exposure for the blockchain project. It is evident some people will continue to doubt Ripple, whereas others are more than happy to embrace this concept.
It is interesting to note this project has been in the works since April of this year. It has taken a while to implement the proper technology, by the look of things. Moreover, it appears BBVA has sued Ripple in combination with their own “new banking system”. It is unclear what this latter part means, though. It will be interesting to see if this news has any impact on the XRP price moving forward.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock | 1,581 |
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(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, collects her th... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, looks to the ce... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, collects her th... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, collects her th... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, talks with the... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, talks with the... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, talks with the... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, talks with the... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, collects her th... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, closes her eyes... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, with her attorn... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, talks with her... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, looks into he a... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, left, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, closes he... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, right, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, hugs sup... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, is illuminated... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, stands in front... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, smiles as she l... (Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) McKenna Denson, right, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the LDS church, consoles... | 1,582 |
Trailing in Polls, Republican Downplays Horrific Anti-LGBT Measure
McCrory says #HB2 is now “irrelevant” because Supreme Court will now decide transgender bathroom issue. #ncpol https://t.co/ZnAe5XD1Wr — Colin Campbell (@RaleighReporter) September 1, 2016
Â
Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared Thursday that the state’s anti-LGBT House Bill 2, which has cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, is “actually irrelevant.”Â
McCrory, who has championed the discriminatory law, made the statement in the wake of a recent poll that showed him trailing Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who opposes the measure, by nine points in his bid for re-election, The Washington Blade reports. The same poll found that seven in 10 North Carolina voters believe the bill has harmed the state’s reputation nationally.Â
“HB2 is actually irrelevant now because the Obama administration has given a directive through EEOC, through the Justice Department and to our universities basically saying if you do not recognize the concept of gender identity, the redefining of sex from the 1964 Civil Rights Act, you could lose your funding,†McCrory said.
“This is all going to the Supreme Court, so when the media keeps talking about HB2, HB2’s irrelevant because now 21 other states are suing the federal government along with the state of North Carolina,†he added.
McCrory went on to accuse the media of overreacting to the law in response to a “planned and strategic” effort from the Human Rights Campaign. But he stood behind the principle of requiring trans people to use restrooms based on the sex they were assigned at birth.Â
“The Obama administration with support of Attorney General Roy Cooper believe there must be a mandate on all of our schools and universities to allow a person who believes they’re of the other gender, but they still have the anatomy of one gender, to able be to use the restroom, shower and locker room of their choice as opposed to what we’ve been doing in the past making reasonable accommodations,†McCrory said.
In other HB2 news, a trial in the federal lawsuits challenging the bill has been pushed back from November until May, the Associated Press reports.
 | 1,583 |
A controlled voting system can help a community manage resources sustainably so that future generations can still enjoy them, according to a study published today in Nature1 and re-enacted in this Nature Video. Having empirical support for the long-held view that people are mostly cooperative could help to design better public policies aimed at preserving shared resources, such as clean air or fish stocks.
There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that people are not purely self-interested. But although economists have long studied how people cooperate in groups, they have not looked specifically at whether individuals are happy to share resources with future generations, who cannot return the favour.
Evolutionary dynamicist Martin Nowak at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his team wanted to test whether groups of people could sustain a resource over several ‘generations’ of players. They used the online platform Amazon Mechanical Turk to recruit volunteers. Each generation had five players and a pool of 100 units of a virtual resource to split among them or leave for future generations. If more than half was left, the resource was renewed to 100 for the next group.
Different teams played different versions of the game to see which strategy was best for preserving resources. In the first version of the game, the players were told to take as many units as they liked, to a maximum of 20. The pool quickly depleted, and rarely lasted to the next generation. In the second version, the five players voted on what each should take. Here the resource was sustainable — sometimes out to 14 generations. “In general, people are willing to do the right or fair thing even at some cost for themselves,” says co-author David Rand at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
But voting only works if the outcome is binding. In another version of the game, where three players voted and two took what they liked, only 30% of the resource pools were passed on to another generation, as opposed to 100% in the full voting condition. The authors think that a binding vote works best because the majority of cooperators can restrain the selfish minority, and everyone is reassured that they won’t lose out.
The team hopes that discussions on how to reduce carbon emissions or prevent overfishing could benefit from their insight. But they recognize that real life is messier than a simple online game.
Nonetheless, empirical evidence that people’s altruistic nature can be harnessed is a useful start. “The possibility is there, they just have to be used,” says Nowak. | 1,584 |
On this day in 1941, the last remaining wooden whale ship in the world made her permanent home in Mystic, Connecticut. The Charles W. Morgan, a massive vessel with a deck measuring over 110 feet in length and a main mast rising 110 feet into the air, once numbered among a combined fleet of 2,700 active whaling ships in the mid-to-late 19th century when the American whaling industry was at its peak.
Built in New Bedford, Massachuetts, and launched in July 1841, the Charles W. Morgan (named after its original owner) was an active whaling ship for 80 years, undertaking a total of 37 commercial whaling voyages. Most of these voyages lasted for years at a time, and brought the Morgan to every corner of the world’s oceans in search of lucrative whalebone and whale oil. During those 80 years, the crew of the Morgan survived countless storms and hurricanes at sea, treacherous icebergs in the Arctic, and even an attack from cannibalistic natives in the South Pacific.
The Charles W. Morgan under full sail on its 38th voyage in 2014, following a multi-million-dollar restoration that made the historic vessel fully seaworthy once again. (Mystic Seaport)
As synthetic and cheaper substitutes for whale oil became more widespread in the early 20th century, the American whaling industry experienced a sharp decline, and by the 1920s, the Morgan had retired from the business and was displayed in Dartmouth, Massachusetts until 1941, when the Marine Historical Association (better known today as Mystic Seaport, America’s largest maritime museum) offered to purchase the ship from its private owners. On November 8, 1941 — one hundred years after it first set sail — the Charles W. Morgan arrived at Mystic Seaport, having been towed and escorted by a small fleet of boats including a Coast Guard cutter. The handsome vessel has served as the centerpiece of the Mystic Seaport maritime museum ever since, having welcomed over twenty million visitors on board to tour the floating historical exhibit. A national treasure found its new home in welcoming waters — on this day in Connecticut history.
Further Reading
“Charles W. Morgan: The Last Wooden Whaleship in the World,” Mystic Seaport
Sara Brown, “Last of Her Kind, Whaleship Charles W. Morgan Has Strong Ties to the Vineyard,” Vineyard Gazette
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One of the most unsavory aspects of globalization and a growing economy is the aspect of white-collar crime. In every industry, and in every aspect of the business world, there is the potential for a financial fraud to be carried out. Whether it is the P2P (Procure-to-Pay) or the Expense Reimbursement or the Payroll System, every accounting process can have control weaknesses. An insider or even a knowledgeable outside with a strong enough motive and opportunity can attempt to defraud the company.
Transaction Data Analysis
Transaction dumps can be analyzed using data models and hypothetical fraud scenarios to detect anomalies and suspicious transactions. Using advanced fraud detection techniques such as Benford's Law, and in consultation with audit teams we analyze historical data. With the help of tools such as IDEA and advanced data selection queries, macro-based models can be built to analyze the given set of data, as well as to provide the client with an easy-to-use set of functions for fraud analysis.
Risk Analysis & Fraud Scenarios
Double payments or payments for duplicate invoices
Forgotton or understated receivables, double credit notes, etc.
Ficitious, inflated, or duplicated payables
Irregularities in cash and bank transactions detrimental to the company
Possibility to hack into the ERP or accounting systems and change the data
Any other control deficiency which could result in a financial damage
Once the risks have been identified either through a study or through an in-depth fraud investigation, we will work with the organization to fix the issues and implement the controls. Typically, any successful fraud exposes a number of control weaknesses in the financial processes. Controls should be of preventive as well as detective nature. We should be able to answer the key questions - how do we make sure this never happens again, and how would we know if somethign like this is taking place?Our expertise in this area stems from our close association with one of the country's leading fraud experts - Mr. Chetan Dalal a Chartered Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Information & Systems Auditor & Certified Internal Auditor. Mr. Dalal has vast experience in Fraud Detection, Forensic Accounting & Anti-Fraud Controls Implementation. We have carried out numerous assignments jointly combining the expertise of financial fraud investigation with digital forensics to recover trails that have been attempted to be wiped out by the perpetrators of the fraud. Previous assignments have covered financial institutions, automobile companies, telecom companies, engineering and pharmaceutical companies. | 1,586 |
About
"Like Skyrim With Guns" is a memorable quote by Adam Kovic of the Machinima YouTube channel comparing the open world first-person shooter game Far Cry 3 with the action role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which was widely mocked by the online gaming community.
Origin
At the Gamescom conference in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany held in August 2012, Machinima host Adam Kovic interviewed Far Cry 3 producer Dan Hay, saying the game was "like Skyrim with guns."
Adam Kovic: I didn't realize what you guys were demoing and it's open world… and I've already told you this, but it feels like Skyrim with guns.
Spread
On August 17th, 2012, Kovic tweeted that he hoped Ubisoft used his "Skyrim with guns" quote on the Far Cry 3 game box.
Far Cry 3 so far was my biggest surprise of the show. Hopefully Ubisoft uses my quote "…it's Skyrim with guns" on the box. — Adam Kovic (@adamkovic) August 17, 2012
On November 13th, IGN Forums member Shaggy_Drew posted a thread questioning why the Machinima quote "Like Skyrim with guns" was featured in advertisements for the game Far Cry 3 (shown below). On November 29th, the game developer Ubisoft released Far Cry 3 for the Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.
On November 30th, Machinima's Adam Kovic posted a video defending his "Skyrim with guns" quote (shown below). In the first two years, the video garnered upwards of 190,000 views and 2,100 comments.
On December 6th, Redditor ronasd4 submitted a promotional image for the 2008 roleplaying game Fallout 3 titled "This is the original 'Skyrim With Guns'" to the /r/gaming subreddit (shown below, left). On December 12th, 2012, redditor "thedz" submitted a screenshot of a Far Cry 3 character walking up the side of a mountain titled "Wow, Far Cry 3 really IS Skyrim With Guns" to the r/gaming subreddit (shown below, right).
On June 6th, 2013, YouTuber Peckett uploaded footage of a modded Skyrim game which allows the player to dual wield revolvers as functional weapons within the game (shown below).
Search Interest
Know Your Meme Store
External References | 1,587 |
An original drawing used for the first published "Tintin" cover was sold at auction for $1.12 million.
An original drawing used for the first published "Tintin" cover was sold at auction on Saturday in Dallas for $1.12 million, the Heritage Auctions house told AFP.
The identities of seller and buyer have not been released.
The illustration, by Tintin creator Herge (the pseudonym of Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi), shows the plucky young reporter sitting on a tree stump carving a makeshift propeller for his plane after the original was damaged in a rough landing somewhere in the Soviet Union. His faithful dog Snowy (Milou in the original French) sits and watches, bandaged from tail to nose.
The beloved Tintin books have been translated into more than 70 languages, but in 1929, 22-year-old Herge was still telling the young journalist's story in the pages of Le Petit Vingtieme (The Little Twentieth), a kids' supplement to the Belgian daily Le Vingtieme Siecle (The Twentieth Century).
The serialized Tintin stories proved so popular that soon Le Petit Vingtieme published them in 16-page installments instead of the original eight, and on February 13, 1930, Tintin made the cover.
It was only a few months later that the first book in what was to be a series of two dozen -- "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" -- was published. More than 200 million Tintin books have now been sold worldwide.
Most of the old Tintin cover illustrations are on display at the Herge museum in the Belgian town of Louvain-la-Neuve, according to a text in the Heritage Auctions catalogue by Philippe Goddin, who has written several books about Tintin and Herge, including a seven-volume chronology.
The drawing sold Saturday, in India ink and gouache, was signed by Herge. A Heritage Auctions spokesman told AFP the illustration, which turned up in Brussels, was one of the "rare cover illustrations signed by Herge in private hands," as well as the oldest.
The author and artist -- who often set his Tintin tales in the most exotic of locales -- rarely left Belgium in his lifetime. He died in 1983.
Other Tintin works have also drawn big paydays at auction, with some surpassing $1.5 million. | 1,588 |
Manchester Arena attack inquests could 'embarrass' security services Published duration 29 July 2019 Related Topics Manchester Arena attack
image copyright Various image caption Twenty-two people were killed in the attack in May 2017
Lawyers representing the families of the Manchester Arena attack victims have "embarrassing" evidence highlighting the "shortcomings" of the security services, a court has heard.
John Cooper QC told a pre-inquest hearing "full transparency" was required at the inquests into the deaths of the 22 people killed.
He asked the coroner not to confuse "national security" with "national or personal embarrassment".
The inquests are due to begin in April.
'Significant material'
Coroner Sir John Saunders said a decision on what evidence is heard in public and what is kept private would be deferred until later in the year.
Mr Cooper told the coroner documents had already been disclosed to him with "significant material, which is, if I may put it this way, of embarrassment to the security services, potentially to the police and certainly to the medical emergency services."
He said: "National security is a very defined concept; it shouldn't wittingly or unwittingly be used to restrain material which may further expand upon the failings of the security services, emergency services and the failings of others.
"We already have significant material which exposes shortcomings of the security services, of the emergency services and others.
"If I can put it inelegantly, the cat is already out of the bag."
The pre-inquest review was attended by some of the families of those killed when Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017.
The coroner told the hearing at Manchester Town Hall the timetable for criminal proceedings against the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, meant it was "extremely unlikely" evidence will be heard before the trial ends.
The 22-year-old has been charged with murder and attempted murder.
The court heard that Mr Abedi denies helping his brother carry out the attack.
He was extradited from Libya to the UK last week.
Sir John told the families that "as far as possible" nothing should delay the inquests, scheduled to begin on 2 April next year.
The hearing was told that the inquests will be held in a specially converted courtroom at Manchester Magistrates' Court complex.
A further pre-inquest hearing will be held on 6 September. | 1,589 |
to be the manly person. ‘How dare you even consider being gay?’ That, mixed with the Catholic identity — I just wasn’t comfortable being out to my family.” When he moved to New York in 2010, he continued to go to Mass every Sunday, always alone, keeping his sexuality to himself. But last year, a man he was dating told him about Out at St. Paul, an LGBT group that meets at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan and whose members attend services together. It’s one of dozens of LGBT groups operating in Catholic churches across the country. “I thought, ‘What? There’s no way that there’s a Catholic church with an LGBT group,’” Olivares says. They asked him to be part of an “It Gets Better” video that the group was producing as part of an outreach effort to other LGBT Catholics, and they were looking for a Latino perspective. He admits being gay and Catholic can be conflicting. He says, “I think the older I’ve gotten, I’ve begun to realize how to separate the Catholic Church with a capital C, the political entity that needs to adhere to the harsh rhetoric that you’re hearing from the Vatican. I think that’s because they’re trying to appease the politics side of what it means to be Catholic. I just let it be what it is and think, ‘I’m not having a conversation with you. I’m having a conversation with God.’” Olivares points to the moment his group heard that the pope had met with Kim Davis — a county clerk in Tennessee who took a stance against same-sex marriage — as particularly “shattering.” It took days for the Vatican to clarify that the meeting was not private and that Davis was invited to a group meeting by the ultraconservative papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. The meeting was an example of the battle between the liberal Francis and the conservative bishops, 60 percent of whom are said to oppose his views, according to a report in The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper. According to Sister Kate Kuenstler, a canon lawyer who fights cases at the Vatican’s courts, “for 30-something years, conservatism had full range to do whatever they wanted. All of a sudden, the deck chairs got shifted. In fact, the ship got shifted, and the ship is going in a different direction.” | 1,590 |
In Taipei, Apple is putting the finishing touches on its second official Taiwanese retail store. After opening its first location on the island in 2017 at Taipei 101, Apple is expanding outdoors with an open pavilion at street level in the Xinyi District of Taipei. Overnight, promotional graphics were installed on the building teasing its imminent arrival and name: Apple Xinyi A13.
10 minutes from Taipei 101 on foot is the Far Eastern Group’s Xinyi A13 shopping mall, a massive new retail endeavor that has been under construction since 2016 and in planning for many years longer. The mall is scheduled to open later this year. At the foot of the mall, Apple has constructed a low profile, transparent store with curved glass corners anchored by two stone pillars and topped by a wood-lined ceiling. The store’s layout and design should offer the closest experience to the interior of Apple Park Visitor Center outside of the United States.
No opening day or time has been posted on the building, but a formal announcement should be made soon. Graphics on the building combine Apple’s logo with Chinese characters to read “Apple Taipei.”
Adjacent to the store is a tree lined plaza with public seating that guides shoppers between Apple’s space and the rest of the mall. The Xinyi District is known for its premium shopping selection, and the store will enjoy high visibility on a busy street corner. Visitors to the Taipei 101 Observatory will also be able to catch a bird’s-eye view of the store’s roof from the skyscraper’s 88th floor, where a polished Apple logo lets sightseers know what lies below.
Another view of Apple Xinyi A13 courtesy of reader David.
Like all new Apple stores, Taiwan’s second location aligns with Apple’s goal of creating community spaces to expand the reach of Today at Apple. With presumably a greater Forum than found at Taipei 101 and direct access to the city, Apple will likely redouble efforts to line up exclusive sessions and performances at its latest store.
If you attend a store opening, spot something interesting, or attend a great Today at Apple session, we’d love to see your photos. Follow 9to5Mac’s retail guide for in-depth coverage of the latest Apple Store news.
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Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: | 1,591 |
With many good examples available, the beer panel recently convened to taste 20 American lagers. Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Chase Rabenn, bar and hospitality manager for Colicchio & Sons in Chelsea, and Matthew Pene, beer director for Eleven Madison Park.
We all agreed signs pointed toward a lager renaissance. “It’s just a cool time for lagers,” Chase said. Why now?
Aside from an initial distaste for diving into the style that epitomized industrial brewing, many early craft brewers had other reasons for avoiding lagers, one of the two major forms of beer, along with ales. Minimalist lagers, in general, are more difficult to produce than fruity, complex ales. They are subtle, demanding more precision and more specialized equipment. Ales, by contrast, tend to be more forgiving of errors.
It’s a little like the syndicated-television landscape painter Bob Ross, who would earnestly advise turning an accidental blob of paint on canvas into “another happy tree.” That works for ales, but with minimalist lagers, that ugly blob stands out as a flaw.
Not that all craft brewers avoided the style. Some of the biggest names in the 1970s and ’80s specialized in lagers, like Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Brooklyn Lager and Anchor Steam Beer. Anchor now also makes California Lager, a crisp, bracing, refreshing brew that would be a wonderful ballpark companion. It was our No. 2 beer.
Brooklyn Lager was right behind at No. 3, amber to Anchor’s golden color with a more pronounced malt flavor, yet lively and juicy. Samuel Adams Boston Lager was No. 8, crisp and bitter with a slightly briny quality. This beer has saved me in many an airport lounge around the country.
Defining “American lager” was difficult. American brewers like nothing better than bending and twisting beer styles, so vague terms like American lager bleed into more specific forms of lager like, say, pilsner. Our solution was to include golden and amber lagers, equivalent to German styles like Helles and Dortmunder, while excluding beers labeled pilsner. We also tried, not entirely successfully, to exclude lagers that used cereal adjuncts in the industrial style. As I said, it’s hard to be precise. Almost all were 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent alcohol. | 1,592 |
Within hours of the prime minister's defence of him, Pamela Nash - a Labour politician about whom Young made lewd comments - calls for his dismissal. Row reaches the Commons With parliament back in session, Labour secures permission to publicly question the government over Young's appointment. The universities minister, Jo Johnson, issues a robust defence. Young resigns Less than 24 hours after Johnson's statement to the Commons insisting the free schools champion is the right man for the job, Young resigns.
Since the controversy Young has kept an uncharacteristically low public profile. Statements put out by the NSN attributed quotes to a “spokesperson” rather than Young himself. The NSN’s board has restricted its remarks to a single comment, issued in January, that it “has complete confidence in Toby Young as NSN’s director.”
The controversy over the appointment thrust Young’s past statements about women, teachers and genetics into the spotlight, and caused Young to step down not only from the OfS board but also as a director of the Fulbright Commission that oversees student scholarship programmes between British and US universities.
The initial reaction to Young’s appointment to the OfS board centred on his track record of lewd comments about womens’ breasts and other sexually charged comments about women.
Young acknowledged what he called “sophomoric and silly” comments he had posted on Twitter and shortly after – following a storm of criticism – he appeared to delete about 40,000 tweets from his personal account.
But the controversy soon widened to include a string of statements from his years as a provocative columnist for the Spectator and other publications.
The controversy even engulfed Theresa May, when the prime minister publicly upbraided Young for his past comments.
Play Video 1:03 Theresa May on Toby Young: 'I'm not impressed by those comments' – video
But there was further concern when it emerged that Young had made published remarks in favour of something he described as “progressive eugenics”, and it was later revealed that he has attended a secret conference on eugenics and intelligence at University College London in 2017.
Young defended his presence at the conference in London as research for a speech he was planning to give at a separate event.
Young took over as head of the NSN in 2016, replacing Nick Timothy, the special adviser to May. He had briefly held the role in 2015 until May became prime minister and Timothy became one of her chiefs of staff. | 1,593 |
no mistake we will do what is right for unionism and for Northern Ireland."
Mr Hamilton shared a platform with Sinn Féin at a cross-community event in Derry last night, and said he does not doubt the party's commitment to the peace process.
It was the first time he had publicly met with Sinn Féin since the police service said members of the Provisional IRA were involved in the murder of Mr McGuigan.
Mr Hamilton said that, while he believed the IRA still exists, he did not believe it was involved in paramilitary activity.
It is almost 20 years since the Provisional IRA's last ceasefire and a decade on from the supposed decommissioning of its weapons.
The UUP's one minister in an administration made up of 13 ministers and two junior ministers will resign next week if Mr Nesbitt's recommendation is supported by the party's ruling executive on Saturday - an endorsement that is widely expected.
Creighton calls for Adams to step down
Renua Ireland leader Lucinda Creighton has called for Mr Adams to step down unless he can provide definitive evidence that "Sinn Féin or its Provisional wing" are not involved in crime.
In a statement, Ms Creighton said "In a functioning democracy there can be no association between political parties and organized crime. If politics is not to fall into disrepute there must not even be the hint of such a link."
The statement added that Sinn Féin have not managed to break the perceived link between the party and its former paramilitary wing.
Analysis: Northern Editor Tommie Gorman
If the DUP brings up a motion in the Stormont Assembly to exclude Sinn Féin it would need cross-community support to do so, which means Sinn Féin would need to vote to exclude itself – I can’t see that happening.
The DUP could see if the British government would intervene – but I don’t think that will happen.
In those circumstances Jeffrey Donaldson is signalling that the DUP is prepared to walk away from the executive. He said if the place had to be closed down for a while to sort matters out then so be it.
For me, this marks an escalation of this growing political crisis.
It should be said, DUP leader Peter Robinson is still on holidays so no big decisions will made without his involvement and leadership.
But Donaldson’s comments this morning certainly mark a ramping up of this pressure in this situation. | 1,594 |
Erdogan’s leadership, the state has become a revisionist power with imperial ambitions that include re-creating a version of the Ottoman Empire based on the Muslim Brotherhood model. In this sense, he has far more in common with Vladimir Putin, who seeks to redraw the map of Europe in the service of his vision of “Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok,” as Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, called it.
Erdogan isn’t subtle about his preferences. Whenever he has seen an opportunity to exploit the weakness of a U.S. ally, he has taken advantage, whether it was supporting the Muslim Brotherhood against the Egyptian people or siding with Qatar when the Gulf States had isolated the kingdom. He is downright hostile to Greece and Cyprus, even as he cozies up to Russia, Iran, and China. And, of course, he remains a vocal and major financial supporter of Hamas and never misses an opportunity to liken Israelis to Nazis as he vies for leadership of the Middle East’s anti-Israel powers.
In that sense it isn’t just the thought of the F-35 and the S-400 parked together in a Turkish hangar that should have Washington worried; it’s everything about the U.S.-Turkish relationship. Erdogan’s drift away from NATO’s core values has become an unobstructed stampede toward brutish authoritarianism. He now behaves as an amateur Mafia boss demanding protection money for the damages he causes. The recent episode with Pastor Brunson is just par for the course, not an aberration or passing episode. Moreover, it is rather illustrative: A true ally such as Israel accedes to a U.S. request even when it receives little in return. Reneging on a hostage negotiation while openly courting America’s enemies is adversarial behavior.
So a reevaluation of the relationship is long overdue, and Washington should take the time now to get it right. As long as Turkey continues to prioritize its temporary alliances with Russia and Iran over its relationship with NATO, the U.S. should downgrade its ties and take its own punitive measures. That means the F-35 should be off the table for the foreseeable future and a cost, perhaps in additional sanctions, should be associated with Turkey’s decision to purchase the S-400. We cannot afford to reward Ankara’s bad behavior, nor to risk the security of America’s allies and the delicate balance of power that exists over Syria. | 1,595 |
COLOGNE, Germany — The Cabinet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday approved an extension of global military missions, including an uptick of forces for Afghanistan. The move would bring an end to the training of Kurdish peshmerga battling the Islamic State group in favor of what officials said would be a broader stabilization effort.
The German parliament has yet to approve the new mandates, which analysts say is likely. Notably, an Iraq mission extension comes with an end date of Oct. 31, 2018. The Afghanistan mandate would end March 31, 2019.
The upper limit for Berlin’s Afghanistan contingent is set to swell from 980 troops to 1,300; Iraq is slated to see of a reduction from 1,200 to 800 forces.
Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the plan for Iraq represents a “new quality” despite the nominal reduction. After the “great success” of enabling the peshmerga to defeat ISIS in northern Iraq, as von der Leyen described it, that mission is considered over.
German defense chief denounces Trump-era focus on militarism German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen opened the Munich Security conference here today admonishing the United States, without mentioning Washington by name, for dialing back its spending on foreign development.
The Bundeswehr’s focus would now shift to providing training throughout the country, with detachments in Baghdad and Erbil, and helping the central government build a functioning administration, she added.
German soldiers also are slated to teach Iraqi forces to disable improvised explosive devices, which continue to make cities regained from ISIS control unsafe for civilians.
In Afghanistan, von der Leyen said local forces still need international support to counter al-Qaida and the Taliban. As part of the new mandate, Bundeswehr troops would return to the Kunduz area in the country’s north, where German soldiers were stationed until 2013.
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The Cabinet’s renewal of German military commitments comes as the Defence Ministry is under pressure for serious equipment shortfalls in the Bundeswehr. They affect virtually all major weapon systems, including tanks, helicopters, ships and submarines.
Critics have questioned how the military could shoulder a more demanding mission in Iraq, in particular when vital military hardware is in short supply. | 1,596 |
Canadian Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured Guantanamo Bay interrogators were told to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify on detainee treatment, a military lawyer alleges. The lawyer, Lt-Cmdr William Kuebler, said the instructions were contained in a Pentagon operations manual. He said this apparent destruction of evidence at the prison camp stopped him from challenging alleged confessions in the case of his client, Omar Khadr. He would use the document to seek a dismissal of the charges, he said. Mr Khadr - a Canadian - is the only Westerner still held at the jail. The 21-year-old is accused of killing a US soldier and wounding another during a battle in Afghanistan in 2002. Mr Khadr was 15 when he was captured during the firefight at a suspected al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. Two weeks ago, Canada's Supreme Court ruled the Canadian government had acted illegally by handing over documents from an interview with the suspect by its own intelligence services a year after his capture. 'Crucial to the case' The manual on "Standard Operating Procedures" which reportedly contained the instructions was obtained by Lt-Cmdr Kuebler from prosecutors last week as part of a pre-trial review of evidence, he said. Keeping the number of documents with interrogation information to a minimum can minimise certain legal issues
Pentagon manual, according to Lt-Cmdr William Kuebler The lawyer said the evidence was crucial to the case as prosecutors were relying on evidence extracted at Afghanistan's Bagram air base and Guantanamo. "The mission has legal and political issues that may lead to interrogators being called to testify, keeping the number of documents with interrogation information to a minimum can minimise certain legal issues," Lt-Cmdr Kuebler quoted the document as saying in a signed affidavit. Correspondents say the document could support challenges by other detainees to the use of confessions as evidence. Last week the trial by military tribunal of five Guantanamo inmates began at the camp. They face charges relating to the 9/11 attacks on the US. The trials have already raised questions about not just the treatment of detainees, but also the legitimacy of American military commissions. Later this month, the US Supreme Court is to rule on the rights of prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, threatening a possible delay or even halt to the proceedings.
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Ever since its introduction, Microsoft's Teams—a collaboration tool for chatting, sharing documents, video, and voice calling—has had one major competitor: Slack. Teams was clearly built as a response to Slack's growing enterprise presence, with its model of IRC-style chatrooms winning hearts and minds.
Thus far, Microsoft has pushed Teams' extensive integration with the company's other products—Office, Skype, SharePoint—as its major distinguishing feature, but Slack has had one important capability that Teams has lacked. The starting price for Slack is free. The free version has all sorts of limitations—only 5GB of files can be saved, only 10,000 lines of chat can be viewed, and integrations with other applications are restricted—but it's enough to get a sense of how the product works and how it can fit in an organization. The free version also means that Slack has found a role in various non-paying spheres, such as open source development, serving a similar role to the one once served by IRC.
Today, Microsoft is offering a free version of Teams that anyone can sign up to and use. Like the free Slack tier, there are limitations to the free Teams, but Microsoft has picked a very different set of restrictions than Slack's. There's no 10,000 message limit—even free users can access and search all their chat history—and the data limits are substantially higher, at 10GB plus 2GB per person. Free Teams supports group voice and video calling, too; Slack's free tier is restricted to 1:1 video calls. Application integrations are unrestricted, and Microsoft is of course continuing to promote the tie-ins with the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
On the other hand, the free Teams is limited to 300 people. Slack, in contrast, has no such limit.
Microsoft is also promoting some new features for all Teams users, both paid and unpaid. Coming later this year is a background blur feature for video chatting. If this works as well as it appeared to work in a brief demo, it will be a welcome addition for those of us that work from home, as it should do a fine job of masking the messy living rooms and misbehaving cats that so often conspire to make home workers look a little less than professional.
Microsoft is also integrating its translation technology to improve collaboration between multi-language teams (available now for paid users, later in the year for free ones). For paying users only, the company has also added automatic recording and transcription of video calls. | 1,598 |
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Cleveland police were searching Saturday for suspects who opened fire on a group of teens, killing a 12-year-old boy and wounding five teenagers.
A preliminary investigation into the Friday night shooting indicated that three to four suspects opened fire on a group of teenagers shortly before 7:30 p.m., said Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams and the police department.
At one point, a 40-year-old store owner and his 12-year-old son went outside to investigate the noise, and the boy was struck in the torso before the suspects fled on foot, police said.
The pair retreated back inside and discovered the boy had been shot. He died at the scene, NBC affiliate WKYC reported. The station identified the boy as Abdel Latif Bashiti.
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Shooting on Cleveland's east side on Nov. 24, 2017. Dorsena Drakeford / WKYC
The other children hit by the gunfire were ages 14 to 16. Williams said the suspects are believed to be juveniles as well.
"We don't know exactly what spurred this or what happened, but you know, definitely our hearts go out to the family of the victims here," Williams said. "All we have are juveniles on foot. They fired shots and they took off running."
One of the victims was shot in the head and was being treated at University Hospital, police said. The others suffered gunshot wounds to the groin, leg or torso.
No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, and Williams said there was no immediate indication the shooting was gang related. WKYC said the suspects were wearing either black- or dark-colored hoodies.
Local activists planned to hold a vigil and a rally for peace Saturday night in the intersection where the shooting occurred.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson encouraged anyone with information about to call Crime Stoppers.
"We know that as things happen out on the street there's a lot of conversation," he said. "We'd like to have as much information as we can get in order to find who did this."
More than 135 people were killed in Ohio's second-largest city in 2016, making it Cleveland's deadliest year in a decade, WKYC reported. The city has topped 100 homicides so far in 2017. | 1,599 |
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