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Two days after being acquitted by Senate Republicans in his impeachment trial, Donald Trump started crossing names off his enemies list. On Friday afternoon, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was removed from his White House job, as was Vindman's brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, an Army officer who also worked on the National Security Council staff.
A day later, Trump publicly questioned Alexander Vindman's military service -- notwithstanding the fact that the president dodged the draft and Vindman is a decorated war hero.
And yesterday, Trump went so far as to suggest the military should consider disciplinary action against Vindman.
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"We sent him on his way to a much different location, and the military can handle him any way they want," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. [...] Asked by reporters whether Vindman should face disciplinary action, Trump said: "That's going to be up to the military. We'll have to see. But if you look at what happened, they're going to certainly -- I would imagine -- take a look at that."
In case this isn't already painfully obvious, Vindman did nothing wrong. He acted honorably, told the truth, and followed the rules. There's nothing for military leaders to "handle," the president's vitriol notwithstanding.
At a certain level, it's likely that all of this seems quite predictable. Trump is whom he appears to be: a small, vindictive man, too weak to tolerate anything but sycophantic loyalty from those around him.
What surprises me, however, is the extent to which the president's Republican allies keep suggesting otherwise. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) told Politico, "Things have a short shelf life around here. I think the president, like all of us, is going to be ready to move on."
In theory, this sounded great. In practice, it was hard not to wonder whether Thune has ever actually met Donald Trump.
He's not ready to move on, because he's never ready to move on. The president doesn't just remain preoccupied with Vindman, he also spent some time yesterday whining about what a "disgrace" Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is.
Those waiting for Trump to shift his focus to his governing responsibilities will be waiting for a very long time. | 1,200 |
Granite vs. Engineered Stone – Which One Would You Choose?
Renovating your kitchen? Well, then you might want some new and innovative ideas for countertop that is not just beautiful but durable at the same time!
Before you decide on the new look of your kitchen, choose the countertop material for the project. It is very important to be aware of the fact that there are better choices than granite – engineered stone is the new choice.
Whilst granite is forever the first perpetual choice, engineered stone in Mandurah, Australia has come up in a big way. Experts have designed high quality engineered stones to ensure durability and versatility of your kitchen countertops. When you see the wide range of engineered stones, making a decision becomes easier with respect to the hue, design and decor of your kitchen.
However, is it right to say that engineered stone in Mandurah is more preferred over granite, or better? Well, only when you know the pros and cons of both, can you decide.
Properties of Engineered Stone and Granite
• Appearance:Granite is formed naturally. It is sourced from the crust of the earth. Obviously, granite was the only choice we had for our kitchen for many years. The uniqueness and stunning appearance of granite slabs made it a pre-decided factor. However, pattern, colour, irregularities and flaws were also present. When polished, granite achieves a certain amount of lustre and glossiness. So, for the ones who prefer something unique, granite is perfect.
However, modern kitchens are sleek and uniform. So, if you want your countertops to be consistent and uniform, engineered stones can be a better choice. It mimics natural stone and its beauty, though it lacks unique patterns.
• Durability: Both granite and engineered stones are durable, touch and resilient. Both materials are resistant to scratches and stains. While granite may crack, engineered stone does not crack. However, granite is heat-resistant, while engineered stone does not have higher heat resistance capacity.
• Cleaning and Maintenance: Both granite and engineered stone are easy to clean, maintain and handle. However, granite is definitely more porous compared to engineered stone, which makes it prone to stains. As such, engineered stone is a better choice considering that it is stain resistant; even oils and acids cannot leave stains on engineered stones.
For a wide variety of engineered stone in Mandurah, feel free to visit Brenton’s Cabinets in Australia. | 1,201 |
Though it lacks a head, fur, whiskers and a miaow-ing sound, the ‘cheetah-cub robot’, developed by researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, has unmistakably been modeled on a cat. The name’s a bit of a giveaway, too.
The aim of the ongoing project, which is being run by EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory (Biorob), is to build a robot which is small, light and fast, with researchers turning to the animal kingdom for inspiration.
The Biorob team hopes its work will encourage further research in the field of biomechanics. The technology, designed to give robots speed, agility and stability, could be used to build similar machines for search and rescue missions.
Speedy
“The sum of morphology and control enables us to run this robot very fast, up to 1.4 meters per second (3.1 mph), which is about seven body lengths per second,” Biorob’s Alexander Sproewitz said.
That’s pretty fast, though admittedly sounds rather sluggish when compared to the Usain Bolt of the robot world, the 29-mph Cheetah – another cat-inspired creation – built by Massachusetts-based robot specialist Boston Dynamics. Engineers working on the Cheetah believe it has the potential to reach speeds of 40 mph.
EPFL says its smaller creation is “based on the meticulous observation and faithful reproduction of the feline leg.” Each of the cheetah-cub robot’s legs is made up of three segments, with power generated by springs and actuators instead of muscles.
“This morphology gives the robot the mechanical properties from which cats benefit, that’s to say a marked running ability and elasticity in the right spots, to ensure stability,” Sproewitz explained. “The robot is thus naturally more autonomous.”
Biorob director Auke Ijspeert said the long-term goal of the cheetah-cub robot is “to develop fast, agile, ground-hugging machines for use in exploration, for example for search and rescue in natural disaster situations.”
You can check out its cat-like movement in the video below.
[via engadget]
Editors' Recommendations | 1,202 |
(Photo : REUTERS) Police with riot gear guard a checkpoint on a road near a courthouse where ethnic Uighur academic Ilham Tohti's trial is taking place in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Forty rioters were killed on September 21 in China's Xinjiang region as confirmed Thursday by Tianshan, the news portal of Xinjiang, due to synchronized explosions detonated at the market, two police stations, and a shop entrance.
The four explosions were set off on Sunday evening at the Luntai county of Xinjiang leaving 54 civilians injured, 32 of which were mostly from the Muslim Uighur minority while the other 22 were identified as Han Chinese.
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According to reports from the state media, 40 rioters may have blown themselves up or were shot by the police however, these speculations have not yet been confirmed.
Two rioters were captured following the attack and the main suspect, identified as Mamat Tursun, was shot dead, reports Tianshan.
Tursun was said to be the agitator of the attacks and had been part of an extremist group against China since 2003. Reportedly, he had been calling on other people in their region to join the terrorist group he started.
Due to the CPC strictly enforcing limited access to the region, facts and numbers were not confirmed immediately, causing the nation's state media to previously report that only two had died in the attacks.
The attack came two days after Uighur professor, Ilham Tothi, was sentenced to life in prison. Critics had warned that the recent ruling regarding Tothi's case might add tension to the region.
In the past year, the violence carried out by rebels took more than 200 innocent lives. A mass stabbing attack at a train station in Kumming in March left 29 dead, while another assault at a market in Urumqi had a death toll of 30. Conflicts inside the region have also claimed lives due to the battle between the locals and security officials.
On Sunday, the supreme court of China set new guidelines regarding terrorism-related cases. Xinhua news agency noted that the making and showing of banners and other materials presenting extremism would be criminalized.
TagsUighurs, Xinjian, 40 Rioters, Killed, synchronized explosions, 54 civilians injured, Rebels, Ilham Tothi, sentenced, life in prison, blast, Explosion, rioters | 1,203 |
Siemens (SIEGY) shares hit a record high on Wednesday after the German engineering group posted better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and lifted its 2017 forecasts.
Siemens said it expects a 2017 profit margin in the 11% to 12% range, a 50-basis-point improvement at the top end, and earnings per share for the full year in the range of €7.20 to €7.70, up from a previous forecast of €6.80 to €7.20.
"With a strong first quarter and a considerably raised outlook for fiscal 2017, we are sending a clear signal," said CEO Joe Kaeser. "I am proud of my global Siemens team that has been working hard and has delivered convincing success. We will continue to rigorously execute our strategy program Vision 2020 to even further strengthen our innovation power and customer proximity."
Siemens shares rose 4.4% in early Frankfurt trading to change hands at an all-time high of €121.60 each, extending the three-month gain to more than 17%.
Siemens said profits at the industrial group level came in at €2.51 billion for the three months ending in December, its fiscal first quarter, well ahead of the Thomson Reuters forecast of €2.14 billion. The bottom line offset a 14% drop in orders, to €19.6 billion, as the group booked fewer larger contracts. Revenue grew 1% from the same period last year, the company said, to €19.1 billion
"We anticipate increasing headwinds for macroeconomic growth and investment sentiment in our markets due to the complex geopolitical environment," the company said. "Therefore, we continue to expect modest growth in revenue, net of effects from currency translation and portfolio transactions. We further continue to anticipate that orders will exceed revenue for a book-to-bill ratio above 1.02."
The reference to politics was fleshed out by Kaeser ahead of the company's AGM Wednesday in Munich in which the CEO said he was "worried" about developments in the United States.
"The new American president has a style that's different from what we're accustomed to," Kaeser said. "It worries us, what we see. But it's a great country."
"The country has a tradition of openness, freedom, integration," Kaeser added. "It would be a terrible shame if... one would give this up only because one thinks one would guarantee security." | 1,204 |
DJ Khaled planning monster lawsuit against Billboard Chart
DJ Khaled is poised to hit the Billboard Chart with a monster lawsuit alleging the organization unfairly disqualified more than 100,000 sales of “Father of Asahd,” robbing him of the No. 1 spot.
Khaled was furious when his album came in at No. 2 to Tyler, the Creator’s “IGOR,” after Billboard allegedly discounted downloads sold by the DJ and producer as part of a “bundle deal” with an energy drink. Bundle deals, which offer album downloads alongside merchandise, are a standard but controversial industry practice to boost sales.
We’re told Billboard had agreed it would count downloads from Khaled’s energy drink package, which sources in the artist’s camp say amounted to more than 100,000. Billboard later backtracked, disqualifying Khaled’s entire sales from the promotion, arguing there were “anomalies” in his figures. Page Six has exclusively learned that lawyers for Khaled have fired off a letter to Silvio Pietroluongo, SVP of charts and data development at Billboard.
A DJ Khaled source said, “When Khaled’s team tried to appeal, Billboard refused to budge.” The source said the situation was all the more unjust because Tyler, the Creator’s bundle deal figures were included in his total sales. On May 30, Billboard announced Tyler debuted at No. 1 with 165,000 albums sold, with Khaled at No. 2 at 137,000. Not fair, argues Khaled’s team.
Page Six exclusively reported a few days ago that Khaled had a tense meeting with Sylvia Rhone, chairman and CEO of his label Epic, over the matter. The source explained, “Khaled was frustrated his label didn’t fight harder for his bundle sales to be included.”
A Billboard source disputed that 100,000 DJ Khaled sales were disqualified but admitted an undisclosed number of his sales were ruled out because “there were strange anomalies in the data,” adding that the decision was based on chart rules following talks with Khaled’s management, Sony Records and Nielsen. Billboard announced it has reviewed its rules allowing artists to bundle albums with merch and will outline a new policy for 2020.
Reps for DJ Khaled didn’t comment, and Billboard also declined to comment.
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There will be plenty of familiar faces when Thor: Ragnarok graces the big screen, with one notable absence.
This time around there Lady Sif's Jaimie Alexander will not be part of the festivities, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
“I was asked, but the timing of when they were going to shoot and when Blindspot was gonna shoot — it was pretty much the same time,” Alexander told Yahoo. “So there was a conflict there.”
Things might have worked out though if Marvel had given her more lead time. “I was hoping for more of a notice from [the studio] so I could make it work, but it was a short notice thing," Alexander said. "They called and said, ‘Hey, by the way, would you come do this?’ I said there is no way I can make that work that fast.”
Alexander did try, but ultimately “It couldn’t happen. They were on a different continent!” For reference, Thor: Ragnarok was filmed in Australia.
“So it was sad,” Alexander said. “I was bummed about it.”
Despite not being involved, she is still quite excited to see Taika Waititi's vision for the franchise.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing it,” Alexander said. “It will be nice to see all those great people in that movie. I’m super excited for it. I also heard that it’s incredibly funny which makes me really happy.”
Sif isn't the only character on the sidelines for Ragnarok, though most of the others are earthbound humans. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) also do not make appearances.
Still, she is very much open to reprising her role in the future.
“Oh, sure,” Alexander said. “I love Marvel. I’d be happy to do other projects with them at any time. They’re a great company — I love all the guys and girls over there — they always are able to get a really fun cast for almost every project they have, which is often. And, of course, who doesn’t want to be a superhero?”
Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on November 3. | 1,206 |
PASSENGERS using Basingstoke train station are set to benefit from free Wi-Fi being rolled out by South West Trains.
Basingstoke is one of five stations to receive the service from South West Trains, which is due to be introduced in September.
The Wi-Fi will be provided by Sky Cloud and is jointly funded by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, Hampshire County Council (HCC) and Surrey County Council, following successful bidding to the Department for Transport as part of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
Free Wi-Fi is also now available on more than half of all South West Trains services, helping to keep passengers connected during their train journey.
There are plans to roll out free on-board Wi-Fi across more train services this year.
Arthur Pretorius, customer service director for South West Trains, said: "Our on-board Wi-Fi has proved really popular with passengers, and we're very pleased to be taking the next step of introducing free Wi-Fi at a number of our busy stations.
"We'd like to thank the Enterprise M3 LEP, HCC and Surrey County Council for their financial contributions and support in making these improvements for our passengers.
"More than 26 million passenger journeys are made from these five stations every year, we're sure this will significantly enhance the travel experience of our passengers."
Councillor Rob Humby, executive member for environment and transport at HCC, said: "Train travel is vital to many Hampshire residents, commuters and visitors to the county. Free Wi-Fi at Hampshire’s busiest train stations provides a real benefit, by helping them to utilise travel time more effectively.
"Our support and investment in this area is another example of HCC's willingness to act, using its size and capacity to benefit local people and businesses."
Geoff French, chairman of Enterprise M3 LEP, added: "Funding free Wi-Fi at the busiest stations in the Enterprise M3 area directly supports the Enterprise M3 LEP’s economic growth aspirations and provides a real benefit to our local businesses, enhancing travel choices and helping them to utilise their travel time more effectively."
More than £50million is being invested by South West Trains to improve services offered to passengers. Other improvements include 100 new customer ambassadors to provide a more personalised service at stations, and state-of-the-art ticket machines linked to a new dedicated 24/7 customer contact centre. | 1,207 |
Last updated on.From the section Cardiff
Tributes to Sala were left outside the Cardiff City Stadium
Cardiff City are set to claim the deal to buy Emiliano Sala from Nantes for £15m was not legally binding.
The Bluebirds are refusing to make interim payments for the striker, who died in a plane crash on 21 January.
Cardiff will tell world football's governing body Fifa that Nantes' conditions for completion of the deal were not fulfilled and Sala was not registered as a Premier League player.
Nantes claim the required paperwork was completed.
The French club referred the matter to Fifa, who want Cardiff to submit their evidence by 3 April.
Sala, 28, was Cardiff's record signing, announced on Saturday, 19 January.
The Argentine died when an aircraft piloted by David Ibbotson, who is still missing, crashed into the English Channel near Guernsey.
The club was due to pay a first instalment on 20 February.
A Cardiff source said the transfer agreement stipulated - at the request of Nantes - that the Football Association of Wales and France's Ligue de Football Professional had to confirm the registration to both clubs by 22 January, along with confirmation of the international transfer certificate being released.
The Premier League also had to clear the registration.
The Bluebirds insist the terms of the contract maintains that if any parts of that arrangement were not confirmed, then the deal would be null and void.
They claim:
Ligue de Football Professionel had not contacted Cardiff either before or after 22 January.
The FAW did not confirm with Nantes.
The Ligue de Football Professional did not confirm with Nantes until 25 January.
It is thought the notifications clause was inserted because if the deal fell through, both Cardiff and Nantes would have had time to seek a new player before the January transfer window closed on 31 January.
BBC Sport has also learned arrangements for a signing-on fee did not meet Premier League rules and so had been rejected by the league.
A Cardiff spokesman would not comment on specific details but said: ''The club is aware of Fifa's request for a response by 3 April and is processing that accordingly. We have no further comment at this stage.''
Nantes say they completed all the necessary paperwork and have pointed out Fifa registered the international transfer certificate on 21 January.
They say they have been fully compliant with Fifa's rules. | 1,208 |
A NEW report paints a devastating picture of Muslim unemployment in Australia and links workplace discrimination to terrorist attacks such as the Bali bombings.
The report says that reducing the deep-seated hostility toward Muslims by a minority of Australians was hard to achieve in an atmosphere created by an open-ended war on terror.
The Newcastle University report was completed last year and quietly released on the Immigration Department's website.
Using Census data, it found that the jobless rate for Muslim men was more than double the national average and that only 57 per cent of Muslim males aged 15 and older had jobs compared with 68 per cent of all working-age men.
Suburbs with high Muslim concentrations such as Broadmeadows and Dallas had jobless rates of more than 15 per cent in 2006, said the report.
"In total, 58 per cent of Muslims earned less than $400 per week compared to 41 per cent of the Australian population," it said.
The seven-person research team, led by Prof Terry Lovat, said that Muslims faced workplace barriers including poor English proficiency, difficulty having overseas qualifications recognised and cultural and religious issues.
But they said that Muslims were also viewed as "others" by employers, and they suffered rising discrimination in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings.
"Muslim men have expressed concern that the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media may have a detrimental effect on the self-esteem of Muslim youth and also result in children being bullied at school," said the report.
Social researcher and Islamic Council of Victoria executive member Mohamad Tabbaa said he was disappointed but not surprised by the report's findings.
Mr Tabbaa said some discrimination was subtle, such as employers being hesitant to hire hijab-wearing Muslim women because they feared losing customers.
"There is a lot of discrimination against Muslims, and not just in employment.
"Since the terrorist attacks Islamophobia is on the rise in Western countries, including Australia," he said.
The report's authors called for a long-term concerted campaign to change societal attitudes that are reflected in workplace discrimination.
john.masanauskas@news.com.au
National unemployment rates in selected religious groups
Lutheran 4 per cent
Baptist 4.8 per cent
Orthodox 4.9 per cent
Buddist 9.6 per cent
Muslim 13.4 per cent
| 1,209 |
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Nottingham Forest are still hopeful of completing the signing of Karim Ansarifard, as it would be "good for everyone", says Aitor Karanka.
The Reds boss says he is happy to remain patient as the club work to secure a work permit for the Iranian international, who has been left in limbo since having his contract terminated at Olympiacos in the summer in order to facilitate a move to the City Ground.
Since featuring in Olympiacos’s Europa League win over Burnley in August, Ansarifard’s only action has come playing for his country, in wins over Uzbekistan and Bolivia.
Forest agreed terms with the 28-year-old, who Karanka believes will add significant quality to his forward options, months ago but have had to battle through significant red tape to get his move to the Championship club sanctioned.
But the club hope that Ansarifard, who scored a respectable 17 goals for Olympiacos last season, will get the green light to begin the next chapter of his career, in the near future.
“Yes (I am still hopeful), because I think it would be good for everyone,” said Karanka.
“Again, we knew at the beginning – and he knew – what the situation was. We knew we might have to wait.
“Let’s see what is happening. I am patient.”
Karanka will again prepare for this weekend’s clash with Sheffield United without Ansarifard in his plans.
But he hopes that will not be the case for long.
“I am preparing for the game without him, because we do not know anything yet,” said Karanka.
(Image: PA)
“But if Karim or Daryl (Murphy) are not on the bench or if Soudani is not available, I have another 20-plus players who are desperate to play.”
Hilal Soudani will miss the game with a knee injury but Daryl Murphy has a chance of being involved, as he continues to recover from a virus.
The situation has been made slightly less urgent by the form of Lewis Grabban, who bagged his ninth goal of the campaign after coming off the bench against Burton in midweek. | 1,210 |
A video posted to Facebook shows a plainclothes Vancouver police officer allegedly punching a detained man in the face 2:41 Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer says he supports the officer who was convicted of assault and defended the decision to keep him on as a patrol officer
Palmer said Const. Ismail Bhabha — who was convicted Tuesday for assaulting a cyclist in 2013 — should be judged on the totality of his record.
"He's a good police officer and he's highly regarded by his co-workers and a decorated officer. And, just recently, he saved somebody's life," Palmer said on CKNW.
Palmer was referring to a 10-hour armed stand-off in the lobby of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel with a deranged, suicidal man that ended with officers using a stun grenade and Taser to take him into custody.
About a year later, Bhabha was commended for his work that day, along with 70 other officers who received a Chief Constable Unit Citation for defusing the tense situation.
Bhabha joined the Vancouver police in 2008 after emigrating from London.
Before he left Britain, he received an award of excellence from the British Transport Police Federation for coming to the rescue of a woman and her daughter who were being harassed by a mentally ill man at King's Cross station in London in 2007.
Vancouver Chief Adam Palmer defended Const. Ismail Bhabha, saying he is a highly regarded and decorated officer who should be judged on the totality of his record. (CBC)
He was off-duty at the time, but Bhabha confronted the assailant. During the ensuing struggle he was bitten in the cheek and required surgery to repair the wound.
Since word of Bhabha's conviction in the Vancouver incident, there's been a deluge of calls on social media for him to be fired.
Still, Palmer defended the police officer.
"People may make a mistake on a certain day, but I don't think they should be judged for their entire career on just one thing," said Palmer.
"We're not talking about a situation of an officer who has been in trouble before. This is a one-off thing and I look at the totality of the circumstances and I support this officer."
A police investigation into the case involving the cyclist has been reopened and Bhabha is scheduled to be sentenced in November.
Legal experts say most likely he'll get a discharge so he won't have a criminal record. | 1,211 |
Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), center, speaks while U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, listen during a briefing at the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
WASHINGTON — Congress is looking for answers on how to respond to the coronavirus. The administration is short on them. And it all adds up to a massive federal government working to solve a problem it doesn't quite understand.
This notion was clear as U.S. health officials leading the coronavirus response were grilled Tuesday in a hearing on the illness held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Questions ranged from how quickly the U.S. will be able to deploy a vaccine (answer: that will take a while), what percentage of people traveling from Canada are being screened for the virus (unclear) and how far germs from the virus spread on a plane (a few rows). Most of the testimony was caveated, and some of it was met with skepticism.
"Do you really believe that one million tests will be available by the end of this week?" Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn. Hahn had said in prepared remarks at the onset of the hearing that the administration would be able to achieve that objective.
Murray, whose state has seen nine people die from the illness, is one of many lawmakers who blamed limited testing supplies on allowing the illness to proliferate.
In response to Murray, Hahn later clarified he expects "up to a million tests." He walked the panel through what would need to happen to achieve that goal.
"The company we are working with this have the capacity to develop enough test kits to send out... and this is a dynamic process — every day I'm hearing from different manufacturers that they can do this — 2,500 test kits by the end of the week. That should give us the capacity in hands of laboratories — once they validate — to perform up to a million tests," he said.
Lawmakers pressed the officials about the potential of drug shortages, given the large portion of the country's supply chain coming from overseas. Hahn said he did not know whether India's decision earlier in the day to limit 10% of its export capacity affected the U.S. supply chain, including essential drugs. | 1,212 |
.5mm headphone jack
Two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack Battery: 10 hours
Despite being updated in early 2020, 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar doesn't offer a great deal more than the MacBook Air now, but of course it can be configured with a higher specification. The Pro does also gives you the Touch Bar, of course, as well as support for the P3 Colour Space on the display.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro boasts quad-core Core i5 processors as standard across the range. By default, these are clocked at 1.4 or 2.0Ghz respectively.
The chips used 8th generation on the bottom two models and 10th generation chips on the top two versions - there are four standard versions of the 13-inch MacBook Pro now. You can also configure up to 10th generation Core i7 at 2.3GHz with maximum Turbo Boost speeds lof 4.1Ghz. The MacBook Pro 13-inch is available in Silver or Space Gray.
squirrel_widget_171234
Dimensions: 358 x 246 x 16.2mm, 2.0kg
358 x 246 x 16.2mm, 2.0kg Display: 16-inches, 3072 x 1920 resolution (226ppi), 500nits brightness, True Tone
16-inches, 3072 x 1920 resolution (226ppi), 500nits brightness, True Tone Connections: Four Thunderbolt 3 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack
Four Thunderbolt 3 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack Battery: 11 hours
Our final Macbook is one of the most powerful machines Apple has ever produced, an absolute powerhouse that, in all honesty, is overkill for most people.
It's got Apple's biggest ever laptop battery, its biggest-ever laptop screen with beautiful colour range and crisp detail, an all-new and amazingly satisfying keyboard, and processing power that will crunch through any task.
That said, it's also massively, hugely expensive, and that chunky battery doesn't stop the huge display from absolutely eating up its power, struggling in our experience to get near the 11 hours Apple's claiming. It's also, obviously, not the most portable laptop given its size. Still, if you want the absolute maximum in power that Apple can offer, it's a bit of a monster.
Writing by Britta O'Boyle and Dan Grabham. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills. | 1,213 |
disk of dust and gas left behind after the birth of their star or stars. After jostling one another for the most stable orbit, these first-generation planets can potentially survive until the end of the lifetime of one of their suns. One example is Kepler-16b, the first confirmed circumbinary world.
But when one sun dies, the system changes drastically. The dying star can either explode in a supernova or shed its exterior material, occasionally leaving behind a small dim core known as a white dwarf, a city-sized object more massive than the sun. The dense companion can pull material from the other star in the pair.
Most planets aren't expected to survive the violent end of their stars' evolution. But there have been reports of several planets orbiting double stars where the white dwarf is sucking material from its companion.
"Such planets, if real, are either the remnants of the original planetary system that survived the violent evolution of the stars or [bodies that] formed after the interaction," Bonavita said, cautioning that the reported worlds remained unconfirmed.
Like the mythological phoenixes, secondary worlds would rise from the ashes — in this case, the dust and gas — left behind by the death of the star.
According to past studies, if binary planets commonly survived the death of one parent star, they would be plentiful around debris-sharing stars, Bonavita said. Since such planets aren't frequently observed, that suggests that it is more likely for them to have formed from the ashes after one of the stars blew out to form a white dwarf.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that terrestrial worlds like the fictional Tatooine may be common. Like the phoenix of old, it would be rare for habitable worlds to emerge around these stars.
"A second-generation, Earth-sized planet would be harder to form, because of the lack of heavy elements," Bonavita said, referring to worlds created after one of their stars had died.
If a rocky "phoenix" world did manage to form from the ashes of a star, it would experience extreme radiation from the bodies it orbited, making habitability tricky.
"It would definitely be harder for a second generation planet to be habitable, because any atmosphere would be stripped away during the common envelope phase," she said.
Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTRedd or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. | 1,214 |
Adhia had called a meeting of officials from states and union territories on December 9 to discuss ways to boost tax revenues.
Following this meeting, the GST Council had met on December 16 to approve an early implementation of e-way bill system. The Council decided on a rollout of the e-way bill system on a voluntary basis for use by trade and transporters from January 16 along with approving February 1, 2018, as the date for mandatory rollout for inter-state movement of goods, as against the earlier approved date of April 1.
For both inter-state and intra-state movement of goods under the e-way bill system, the Council approved the deadline of June 1, with states having the provision to choose their own deadlines for implementation of e-way bill for intra-state movement of goods before June 1, 2018.
Under the system, tax officials will have powers to check the e-way bill at any point during the transit to check tax evasion. According to the notified e-way bill rules, the permits issued would be valid for one day for movement of goods for 100 km and in same proportion for following days. The e-way bill rules specify that every registered supplier will require a prior online registration on GSTN portal for movement of goods valuing more than Rs 50,000.
The GST Council has exempted 154 common use items such as meat, fish, curd, vegetables, some cereals, human blood, LPG for households and kerosene for PDS from the e-way bill system. Also, the system will not be applicable on goods being transported by non-motorised conveyance and where goods are transported from the port, airport, air cargo complex and land customs station to an inland container depot or a container freight station for Customs clearance.
The government had cited deferment of the implementation of some of the main features of GST, such as matching of returns, e-way bill and reverse charge mechanism, as the reasons for low compliance under the new indirect tax regime. The early implementation of the e-way bill system is, therefore, being seen by the government as a way to curtail the slide in GST revenue, which slipped to Rs 80,808 crore (as on December 25) for November, the lowest since the July 1 implementation of the indirect tax regime.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App. | 1,215 |
its debt by selling assets.
That leaves us with tax revenue (and monetary inflation) as our only reliable means of dealing with debt.
Causes for Concern
When we make a revenue-based comparison, we find that the US is, in fact, a world leader in debt among wealthy nations. Moreover, a cause for concern is the fact that any attempt to raise taxes would likely disrupt an already shaky and lackluster economy. If the Federal Reserve is too afraid to even raise the target rate to 0.75 percent, it would seem unwise to raise taxes to address the national debt.
If the US can't raise taxes, and it can't sell off assets, what can it do?
In theory, of course, the US can maintain a large debt indefinitely. Nowadays, interest on the debt is "only" six percent of the federal budget. But, what happens when interest rates must increase? Unfortunately, the low-interest situation is not likely to last forever, and foreign governments are already selling off US debt, suggesting a slow decline in interest for US debt. All things being equal, this would mean the US will eventually have to pay more in interest on its debt to attract investors. When that happens — and a larger share of the US federal budget must then go to interest payments — what federal programs will be abandoned so the US can devote greater portions of the budget to interest payments? Politicians and their constituents won't want to abandon any of them.
That's where the central bank comes in.
Rather than cut back on its commitments to holders of US debt, social security recipients and others on the US dole, the US will simply inflate the money supply to make all its payments in devalued currency. Many taxpayers won't understand what is happening — and the politicians know this — which is why policymakers prefer monetary inflation to raising tax rates.
With a debt load already many times larger than its revenue stream, the US faces a choice: repudiate the debt or make massive cutbacks in government programs. With baby boomers retiring and demanding their welfare programs more than ever, few will bet on the latter.
Instead, the US will repudiate its debt by continuing to pay off its debt in devalued currency. The process has already begun and is likely to continue.
Ryan McMaken is the editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian. He is the author of Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre. Contact: email; twitter. | 1,216 |
(Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Michigan cannot ban "straight-ticket" voting, allowing voters to choose all a party's candidates with just one bubble on a ballot, saying the law prohibiting the practice was racially discriminatory.
The ruling permanently blocks what U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain called a politically motivated move by the Republican-controlled state legislature in a state that backed President Donald Trump in 2016 after twice choosing Democratic former President Barack Obama.
The ban did not affect the November 2016 election as a temporary order had blocked the state from enforcing it.
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Drain cited research finding African-American voters are more likely than voters of other races to cast a straight-ticket ballot and are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican.
"The goal of ending the Democratic Party's success with straight-ticket voters, therefore, was achieved at the expense of African-Americans' access to the ballot," Drain wrote in a 103-page ruling.
A spokesman for Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, declined immediate comment on the merits of the decision.
Voter access has become a politically charged issue, with Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to suppress minority votes by making it more difficult to register to vote or to cast ballots. Republicans defend the moves as necessary to prevent the casting of fraudulent ballots.
Michigan will be an important contest in the November midterm elections, where Democrats aim to flip 23 seats in the U.S. House and one in the Senate to recapture the majority and have a chance at blocking Trump's agenda. One of the state's Democratic U.S. Senators, Debbie Stabenow, is up for reelection this year.
Michigan is one of just nine states where voters are allowed to pick all a party's candidates for office with just one ballot mark. No states prohibit voters from individually choosing all candidates from one party.
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State Republican Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof said he was "disappointed" in the ruling.
"The straight-ticket option is antiquated and does not reflect the independent nature of most voters," Meekhof spokeswoman Amber McCann told the Detroit News on Wednesday. McCann could not be reached for immediate comment.
Government watchdog group Common Cause called the ruling "a big win for Michigan voters."
"Judge Drain's decision makes clear that the Michigan legislature intentionally discriminated against African Americans for partisan political purposes," the group's president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said in a statement. | 1,217 |
The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Trump does not need to release his tax returns in order to appear on the California 2020 primary ballot.
The California Supreme Court ruling cannot be appealed. Case closed.
“Lawmakers didn’t even take into account the conflicts it may have with the state constitution,” the SacBee reported Chairwoman of the Republican party Jessica Patterson said of the struck down law. “This is a pretty direct example that California Democrats here have been completely arrogant and their overreach knows no bounds. This was a solution in search of a problem.”
Some justices questioned whether lawmakers considered the state constitution as it drafted the bill, while others worried it could pave the way for a “laundry list of requirements.” TRENDING: BREAKING: Multiple Injuries After Car Plows Through Crowd of Trump Supporters in Yorba Linda, California (VIDEO) “We’ve searched the record to determine whether or not the California Legislature even considered the California constitution in the drafting of SB 27. We didn’t find anything. Did you?” asked Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye. The justices also highlighted arguments former Gov. Jerry Brown articulated when he vetoed a similar bill in 2017, saying such a proposal could set a “slippery slope precedent.” “Where does it end?” added Justice Ming Chin. “Do we get all high school report cards?”
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch previously filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of four California voters to prevent the state from implementing a new law requiring all presidential candidates to publicly disclose their tax returns in order to appear on the primary ballot.
The lawsuit argued that the law is politically motivated and unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was in response to a new law signed by far left California Governor Gavin Newsom requiring presidential candidates to publicly release the last five years of their tax returns in order to appear on the primary ballot.
The California Supreme court ruled the added requirement for tax returns “is in conflict with the (state) constitution’s specification of an inclusive open presidential primary ballot.”
Obviously this law was aimed at keeping Trump off of the 2020 primary ballot since he refuses to publicly release his tax returns.
There are 10 other states with similar bills to California’s and the state’s Supreme Court ruling on Thursday will no doubt have an affect on the other states’ efforts to keep Trump off primary ballots. | 1,218 |
Lil Wayne is the father of at least a few children, but he says none of them are named Dwayne Brown, a 15-year-old boy whose mother Keiotia Watson believes the Young Money boss fathered him almost 16 years ago. Now, Weezy's demanding a new trial in the paternity suit filed by Watson.
According to The Blast, Watson filed the paternity suit against Weezy back in 2015. She says she had sex with him back in June 2001, and as a result, got pregnant with her son Dwayne, whom the site reports she named after Weezy's government name, Dwayne Carter.
In August 2015, Watson went to court and demanded both a legal document stating that Weezy was Dwayne's legal father and child support payments from the rapper. Apparently, Weezy never responded to the case, and she filed for a default judgment a couple months later in October of that same year.
From there, a judge granted Watson's motion and ordered Weezy to pay $5,000 of support a month, while also covering the teen's medical insurance. These payments were set to begin in January 2016.
Now, in some newly filed documents, Wayne claims he was never served with any legal papers, so he never showed up for any of his court dates. He also says Watson secured her judgment through fraud and that the allegations are false and don't prove he's the father of her son.
Weezy is asking the court for a paternity test and to have his payments put aside until the results are confirmed.
In a signed declaration, Weezy says that, although he was living in New Orleans 16 years ago, he never had sex with Watson in June 2001, or at any other point in time. He says his business across the country made it impossible for him to have fathered Dwayne Brown. “I did not engage in a sexual relationship with Keiotia Watson in June of 2001 or at any other time
"I have never acknowledged Dwayne Brown as my son, nor was I ever made aware of his birth until I was served with the petition” that was filed this past August. Weezy adds that he is, “the loving father of four (4) children, all of whom I provided support for since birth. Up until now, I have never been involved in a child support case.”
The judge set a hearing for next month and has ordered Watson herself to show up and explain why, exactly, he should grant her motion. | 1,219 |
Eight people were able to get out of a house in Brampton safely early Monday after a fire broke out in the basement, but damage to the home is expected to be extensive, firefighters say.
No one was injured, according to Acting Platoon Chief Mark Evans of Brampton Fire and Emergency Services.
Heavy smoke from the fire on Inwood Place, near Bovaird Drive East and Fernforest Drive, prompted emergency crews to evacuate two neighbouring homes.
Two next door neighbours at home at the time, one on either side, were forced to leave.
'Family is safe'
People in the home that caught fire included three children, two women and two men. Evans said he did not know if they were all related.
Peel Regional Paramedic Services said in a tweet that the "family is safe."
House Fire at 6 Inwood Pl Brampton, <a href="https://twitter.com/BramptonFireES?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BramptonFireES</a> working the fire, currently no patients, the family is safe <a href="https://t.co/Q8kBzxhgDs">pic.twitter.com/Q8kBzxhgDs</a> —@Peel_Paramedics No one was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and an ambulance was on the street as standby, according to Brad Bowie, spokesperson for Peel paramedics.
When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found all occupants of the house outside, Evans said.
"Everybody was out upon arrival," Evans said.
Brampton Fire was alerted about the residential fire at about 8:30 a.m. Firefighters are still on scene and expected to be there for a few more hours to put out hot spots, he said.
The fire spread from the basement to the main floor then reached the second floor. Evans said damage to the home is significant but he was unable to provide an estimate.
Cause of fire not known
More than 40 firefighters fought the blaze at its peak.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Const. Bancroft Wright, spokesperson for Peel Regional Police, said police blocked off Inwood Place after receiving a call about the fire to allow crews to bring the blaze under control.
Police closed Bovaird Drive East, between Fernforest Drive and Bramalea Road, but the road has since been reopened. | 1,220 |
The next time you’re out of liquor at a party or can’t bear to get up from the couch to go buy beer, and you’re in certain parts of Seattle, Amazon wants to help.
The online retailer has added alcohol to a growing number of items its Prime Now members can order for one-hour delivery, but only in the company’s hometown of Seattle.
Here’s how it works: If you pay $99 a year to be an Amazon Prime member (which includes free two-day shipping, video streaming, etc.), then you can download the Prime Now app for Android and iPhone. The app includes a number of items for delivery, including beer, wine and liquor, milk, ice cream and toilet paper. Because you never know when you’re going to need an emergency ice cream sundae and a bottle of wine. Plus, if your big-screen TV breaks during an important game, you can have one of those delivered in an hour or less too.
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FOR THE RECORD
9:52 a.m.: An earlier version of this article stated that Amazon prime costs $99 a month. It costs $99 a year.
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If you use the app for two-hour delivery, the service is free. Want that bottle of tequila at your door in an hour or less? It will cost you an extra $7.99. In a nod to the limits of convenience, you can also only use this magical service from 8 a.m. to midnight.
The alcohol delivery service is available in a number of select Seattle ZIP Codes, but the company said it is expanding rapidly to more areas.
Prime Now, without alcohol delivery, is available in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Chicago; Dallas; Indianapolis; Miami and New York. All the same rates apply.
If you’re in Los Angeles and need a bottle of gin now, there’s an app for that, it’s just not Prime Now: Saucey, Thirstie and Drizly all deliver to select areas in less than an hour.
Oh, is it time for a cocktail? Follow me on Twitter @Jenn_Harris_
ALSO:
Robots that serve beer? Thanks MIT
This robot bartender is like a Keurig for idiot-proof cocktails
Drizly, the app that delivers booze to your doorstep, has launched in L.A. | 1,221 |
pressing its legal claims within UNCLOS guidelines. In the near future, the United States should build on its activities by including military vessels from other countries in the region in its next round of challenges, especially ships and aircraft from Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. These real-world challenges should accompany a concerted, multilateral diplomatic and legal effort to deal with the outcome of these operations and to reach a long-term solution through resource sharing agreements, clear articulations of disputes, agreements for independent arbitration, and an updated code-of-conduct that binds all parties to the pursuit of non-violent solutions. While the issue may be bogged down in talks for years, it is much better to hash it out at the negotiating table than at the barrel of a gun at sea.
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Most importantly, it is critical that the United States demonstrate an enduring commitment to the law by ratifying the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. For too long, the Senate has allowed narrow domestic interests to overcome the broader moral and strategic obligation for the United States to play by the same rules as everyone else. Until the U.S. participates fully in the legal framework, it will have diminished credibility in dealing with states who are parties to the Convention but who refuse to abide by its terms. Once the Obama Administration completes its effort to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Law of the Sea Convention should be its next foreign policy goal in the Senate.
The United States is the only actor in the region with the power, resources, and relationships necessary to diffuse tensions and bring about an enduring solution. Above all, this solution must be grounded in international law that provides clear guidance and boundaries for all states, including the U.S. As it moves to apply its various instruments of power, the United States must demonstrate an abiding commitment to that law by couching its actions in legal terms and engaging China and its neighbors in diplomatic efforts to clarify and enforce existing law. Most importantly, however, the U.S. should start by shoring up its own legal standing by ratifying UNCLOS. Until that step occurs, China has little reason to listen to American lectures about following the rules.
Douglas Gates is a former active duty naval officer who worked on the Navy’s Freedom of Navigation program in East Asia in 2010-2011. His most recent assignment was to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis as an instructor of Political Science. | 1,222 |
Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the contract was canceled Sunday afternoon.
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. -- The CEO of a company that received a highly scrutinized contract to restore power to Puerto Rico was born and raised in Baldwinsville.
Andrew Techmanski's company, Whitefish Energy Holdings in Montana, was recently awarded a $300 million contract for restoration of Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
On Sunday, though, the head of Puerto Rico's power company said the agency will cancel the contract.
The contract drew scrutiny because the company had only two employees when it was awarded and is headquartered in the hometown of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. (The company has since rapidly hired 300 more employees.)
Techmanski's LinkedIn profile shows that he attended the Utica branch of Mohawk Valley Community College. He's been identified as a Baldwinsville native in a report about the contract from Buzzfeed and in social media posts.
He attended the Baldwinsville Central School District, according to The Post-Standard news reports at the time.
Since graduating in Utica, Techmanski's profile lists many leadership positions at companies in Denver, Canada, the United Kingdom and San Diego. He went on to become CEO of Whitefish two years ago.
Earlier Sunday, Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rossello, asked the governing board of Puerto Rico's power authority to immediately cancel its contract.
Two days ago, officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency expressed "significant concerns" about how Techmanski's company won the contract and are investigating.
The Puerto Rican power company's, Ricardo Ramos, has said that Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority reached a deal with Whitefish just days before the hurricane struck, saying that he spoke with at least five other companies that demanded similar rates, in addition to a down payment the agency did not have.
Ramos also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved of the deal, something the agency has denied.
Techmanski also told The New York Times this month his company won the contract because he maintained better communication with the power authority than other companies. He also flew to Puerto Rico in a "leap of faith" in hopes of getting the contract.
Whitefish Energy Holdings is based in Whitefish, Montana. Zinke, a former Montana congressman, knows Techmanski, and Zinke's son also had a summer job at a Whitefish construction site. | 1,223 |
Moss
Distrohoppers’ Digest Episode 006 was a rollicking good time, I hope our listeners enjoy it as much as we did.
I installed Endeavour OS on my T430. A few issues, easily solved, and everything else installed. I had everything except Mumble & Audacity. Then I noticed it kept creating copies of boot records — my boot was a mass of multiple selections of the same distros. I used Grub Customizer to clean them up, and at next boot it created more. I reported the issue. It has now come off my T430.
I still wanted to have something to review for October, and so decided to try a SINGLE INSTALL (what a concept!) on the IdeaPad. I attempted to install OpenMandriva, but got nowhere, it failed to create a partition. I got my GPartEd disk out and redid the disk, with a small Swap partition and a large Primary. I installed OpenMandriva Lx 4 just fine, and rebooted. No boot. It didn’t write Grub properly or whatever, I’ve had this issue before. So I tried Manjaro, and it wouldn’t even find my wifi. I’m using SuperGrub2 on a CD to boot, then going into OM4. There is supposed to be a way to use SuperGrub2 to write Grub but it isn’t obvious, got more reading to do.
I have some items for sale from my earlier inheritance. See my eBay listings (moss23) and talk to me if you’re interested in any of them. I did sell the Hackintosh, did not really get fair value for it. I now have $95 saved up towards the new laptop; eBay sales go towards that as well. I have also started a Sponsus for Distrohoppers, but you’re all welcome to join in. http://sponsus.org/zaivala
My job has gone sideways. I still have it, and finally am working part time, but my wonderful manager got demoted and moved for no reason, and the new manager just isn’t the same. I had wanted 4 days per week, I’m getting 3. I’m looking for work again. Some employees have not stopped crying about the change, and it was 3 weeks ago. Another result of the change is I’m making even less income. | 1,224 |
Michael Griesbach, assistant district attorney in Manitowoc County and author of two books on the Steven Avery saga, brought forth all kinds of reactions with his recent USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin guest column that ran with the headline Kathleen Zellner out for fortune, fame in Steven Avery case.
Among the points he makes in the piece, published last week, is that "an imperfect investigation doesn't add up to a wrongful conviction." The evidence against Avery was overwhelming, he writes, and it proved guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt.
MORE:Dassey wins in federal appeals court
MORE:Column: Zellner out for fortune, fame
Those arguments caught the attention of many (the piece had nearly 250 comments as of Wednesday afternoon) and included in those responding — in a more elaborate form —is Kenosha criminal defense lawyer and author Michael D. Cicchini.
Cicchini published a reply to Griesbach over at the Wisconsin Law Journal. He lays out reasons why Griesbach's claims don't hold up.
"Unlike prosecutors, I don't pretend to 'know' what really happened in the Avery case," he writes. "But I do know this: The legal deck was stacked before the trial even started. Wisconsin prosecutors should therefore quietly accept the gift the jury gave them, and hope the federal courts don't reverse yet another one of their convictions."
You can read the whole column here.
Everyone's watching
When news broke last week that a federal appeals court backed the overturned conviction of Brendan Dassey, the word spread fast. As a sign of just how much hunger remains for this story 18 months since "Making a Murderer" landed on Netflix, just take a look at the media outlets reporting (or parroting reports) on the Dassey news: Time, People, CNN, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA TODAY, Us Weekly, Rolling Stone and Spin were all getting the word out to their readers.
Hoping the story just goes away? You're in for a lot of disappointment.
Dassey update
And speaking of last week's Dassey ruling, there's been a little more happening since those initial breaking news alerts. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter Alison Dirr has the story of Dassey's attorneys' response to the appeals court's decision.
Shane Nyman: 920-996-7239, snyman@postcrescent.com or on Twitter @shanenyman | 1,225 |
After a confrontation between Covington Catholic High School students, a Native American veteran and black activists went viral last weekend, a man in a "Make America Great Again" hat and a Native American man had a very different interaction at a rally in Covington, Kentucky.
Guy Jones says after he gave an interview at the rally in Covington, a man in a MAGA hat with "watery eyes" approached him and shook his hand. Facebook/Guy Jones
At the rally outside the Covington diocese, a Native American named Guy Jones spoke to reporters, saying: "You have all these young kids saying, 'Let's make America great.' Well yeah, let's do that. Let's stop the hate."
Jones, a Hunkpapa Lakota Native American from the Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota, said he currently lives in Dayton, Ohio. "What made America great is the fact that everybody contributed to this nation," he said.
After the interview, a Trump supporter approached Jones. "A Trump supporter wearing his MAGA hat came to me with watery eyes and wanted to know if I meant everything I said," Jones wrote on Facebook. "When I told him 'yes' he embraced me and wanted to shake my hand."
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The interaction between Jones and the unidentified man in the "MAGA" hat was captured on video.
"I'm telling you right now, Donald Trump would love to talk to you. He would love to sit down," the man said.
"I have a lot to talk to him about," Jones replied.
"Let's sit down and have a cup of coffee or buy a meal and let's just figure this out. It has to be done in this country, we're in trouble," the man in the "MAGA" hat told Jones.
Jones agreed. "This is our country. And it's the people. The people need to take back this country," Jones told him.
"Amen. Amen. And we'll work together to do it," the Trump supporter said. "I'm gonna call [you], let's talk, sit down, figure out what we can do. American movement."
"Let's take our country back," Jones replied.
At the end of their conversation, the two men agreed to further discuss the issue together. "We're having dinner soon, he's buying me dinner," Jones wrote on Facebook. | 1,226 |
After years of witnessing and hearing about the massive amount of animal deaths that are occurring across the globe, the mere thought of another precious resource dying off is a scary though to swallow, however this is exactly what we are facing on a global scale.
Trees all across the world are sprouting fungus and dying in massive numbers. From cold climates, to warm climates one of our most valued resources could be sliming down. Considering we are living in the end times spoken of in Biblical prophecy, I do believe this is just another piece of the puzzle.
Here is the breaking report…
For More Information See:
Waking Times- http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/07/30/massive-tree-die-off-linked-to-geoengineering/
Outside Live Bravely News- http://www.outsideonline.com/1805296/massive-tree-die-rockies
Vinemount- http://m.hamiltonnews.com/community-story/5783284-vinemount-swamp-trees-suffer-second-massive-die-off-#!
Sierra Nevada- http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article19642632.html
NASA Rain- http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/16/new-nasa-studies-show-how-the-world-is-running-out-of-water/
Dane Wiginton- http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/over-3-trillion-trees-have-perished-from-our-planet-since-the-dawn-of-man/#more-26978
Lisa Haven is an independent Christian news analysis and one of the top contributors on www.BeforeItsNews.com. She is also author of www.LisaHavenNews.net and runs her own youtube channel (Lisa Haven) with tens-of-thousands of views per day. Digging deep and finding truth is what she lives for. Her passion is to spread truth no matter where it lies. She covers everything from martial law, to FEMA camps, to end time bible prophecy, to government documents and much more! Before launching her journalism career, she wrote many bible studies and lead women ministries for a number of years. She will also complete her ministry degree at International School of Ministry this year. | 1,227 |
CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving is prepared to make a most memorable pass.
Cleveland’s star point guard said he’s going to give his diamond NBA championship ring to his father, Drederick. Irving, whose 3-pointer in the final two minutes of Game 7 helped the Cavs complete their historic comeback over Golden State in the finals, said following Saturday’s practice that he intends to give the keepsake to his dad.
“I give my dad almost everything,” he said. “So, every accomplishment, every MVP award, every trophy that I’ve had since I was probably about 13 or 12, I’ve given to my dad.”
Irving and his father, who was playing professionally in Australia, where the point guard was born, have an exceptionally tight bond. Kyrie’s mom died when he was young, pulling him closer to his dad.
The Cavs will receive their rings before Tuesday’s home opener against the New York Knicks. That’s also the night the Indians, who play next door to Quicken Loans Arena in Progressive Field, will host Game 1 of the World Series.
With the championship banner for any Cleveland team since 1964 also being raised, the Cavs moved the starting time up to 7:30 so fans would be able to watch the ceremony before the Indians play.
Earlier this week, superstar LeBron James and Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said they expect the ceremony to be emotional. Irving, too, said it will be great to reflect on the team’s accomplishment before beginning a new season.
“There definitely is a special aspect to it,” he said. “You don’t want to shy away from that, but it also is the start of a new journey. So you just try to find a middle ground between that and just try not to get too high or too low. The crowd will be very enthused, not only for us getting our rings but the world series is starting, which is unbelievable. So, I just try to stay even keel with it, not get too high or too low. I’m excited to give my dad the ring and really gift it to him, and now it will be time to turn over a new leaf.”
Irving is expected to play in the opener. On Tuesday, he left an exhibition in Columbus with a tight left calf but said he’s better. | 1,228 |
My old colleague Ross Douthat is mystified that Star Wars: The Forces Awakens has wowed nearly every single critic its come up against:
This film has a 95 percent “Fresh” rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. 95 percent. (That’s higher than the audience rating, right now, which is only 92 percent. The wisdom of crowds!) If you want to be kind to the movie, I think it deserves, at best, the 65-70 percent earned by the last two “Hunger Games” movies — and frankly those were a lot more original and interesting than anything in “The Force Awakens.” But no: 95 percent. Not from audiences; from critics.
Over at Vox, David Roberts is right in sync with the idea that The Force Awakens is getting an easy ride. I think this assessment doesn’t spend enough time considering three very important phrases. Those phrases are: Episode I, Episode II and Episode III.
However one feels about The Force Awakens, it is—in fact—a film. The aims of the heroes are coherent and accessible. The acting is good. (I really liked Ridley and Boyega.) And the pacing is well-managed. I’m an old man, so I thought the film was too loud. And I thought the film overplayed certain things, that it should have underplayed—the critical scene where Kylo Ren solidifies his place with the Dark Side (for now, at least) is interminable.
But The Force Awakens is a film—something that the last three offerings from Lucas were not. Indeed, I walked out of the movie theater amazed that I now actually thought less of the prequels, then when I walked in. Everything—save special effects—is wrong the last three iterations of Star Wars. The plotting is indecipherable. The dialogue is painful. Otherwise good actors struggle under Lucas’s direction. Also, Jar-Jar Binks. (What? Ain’t no more.) That this horribleness was strapped to an incredible hype machine only made matters worse.
Now it’s true that Abrams didn’t invent much and that he borrowed quite a bit. But he understood what was good about the Star Wars universe, and what was not. He took that expertise and made something that critics, and fans, have been waiting on for over thirty years—a decent Star Wars film, and arguably the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back. | 1,229 |
Tuesday’s preliminary Nielsen ratings returned to normal after last week’s anomalous election.
NBC’s “This Is Us” continued to dominate, drawing a 2.6 in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and 9.5 million viewers. That was up three tenths of a point from its Nov. 1 airing, but even better, it’s pulling in a 1.7 rating in the 18-34 demographic, head and shoulders above everything else airing on the night, including “The Voice” (2.1 18-49 demo rating, 9.66 million viewers). “Chicago Fire,” its lead-out, drew a 1.5 in the demo and 6.94 million viewers.
CBS had its reliable stable of procedurals. “NCIS” came in with a 1.7 in the demo and 14.61 million viewers. “Bull” drew a 1.5 and 11.79 million viewers. “NCIS: New Orleans” brought in a 1.2 and 9.06 million viewers.
ABC’s Tuesday comedies returned around the same as their previous airings. “The Middle” started off with a 1.6 and 6.16 million viewers. “American Housewife” followed with a 1.6 and 5.24 million. “Fresh Off the Boat” pulled in a 1.3 and 4.26 million. “The Real O’Neals” drew a 1.1 and 3.56 million. A one-off David Blaine special, “David Blaine: Beyond Magic,” capped off the night and won the hour in the demo for ABC with a 1.6 and an average audience of 5.13 million.
On Fox, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “New Girl” both drew a 0.9 in the demo. “Brooklyn” had the slight edge in viewers, with 2.21 million, while “New Girl” came in with 1.96 million. “Scream Queens” drew a 0.6 and just 1.44 million viewers.
On The CW, “The Flash” ticked back up to a 1.2 in the demo and 3 million viewers. “No Tomorrow” continues to struggle, though, with a 0.3 demo rating and 855,000 viewers. | 1,230 |
Syrian rebels have abducted four UN peacekeepers monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, a UN peacekeeping spokesman has said.
A Syrian rebel group identified as the “Yarmouk martyrs brigade” claimed responsibility for the act, saying the peacekeepers had been detained for their own safety after clashes erupted in the separation zone between Syria and Golan, Reuters reports. They further said the presence of Syrian government forces threatened the safety of the peacekeepers, as well as “criminal elements” in the area.
The rebel group made the announcement via their Facebook page, which was accompanied by a picture of four peacekeepers wearing the signature light-blue UN flak jackets marked “Philippines.”
The peacekeepers were seized while on patrol near the Syrian village of Jamla, the same area where 21 Filipino observers were taken and held for three days in March, a UN spokesperson said. The Yarmouk martyrs brigade was also responsible for the March abductions.
The rebel unit has suspected UN peacekeepers of shielding Syrian government troops, who the armed fighters accused of killing civilians during an army sweep of Wadi Raqat, a town in southern Syria, AP reports.
Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the UN, said “efforts are underway to secure their release now.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the detention of the four peacekeepers and called for their immediate release. The UN chief called on all parties “to respect UNDOF’s freedom of movement and safety and security,” as quoted by his spokesman.
The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) consists of some 1,000 troops and is only equipped with light arms, though the UN deployed additional armored personal carriers, security equipment and ambulances following the March incident.
UN peacekeeping forces have been in the Golan Heights since 1974.
Israel first captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 war. The country agreed to return the land to Syria in return for a peace agreement that was rejected by the Arab world.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syrian forces crossed the ceasefire line into the Golan Heights in an attempt to retake the territory. Syria's troops were repelled by Israeli forces.
Israel annexed the Golan in 1981, though they returned about 5 percent of the territory to Syria. The land was merged into a demilitarized zone. | 1,231 |
Pu appeared Sunday before the 2nd Beijing Intermediate People's Court in a case that international rights groups have criticized as political persecution.
He is a public figure in China and was instrumental in pushing for the eventual abolishment of the labor camp system, which allowed police to jail people for up to four years without a trial.
"Pu's trial is extremely important - he's the ultimate canary in the coal mine," Maya Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch said. "If they decide to be harsh against him, I'd say it'll signify a further escalation of hostility towards human rights activism."
His case revolves around a number of posts on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo that questioned the ruling Communist Party's policies toward the Tibetan and Uighur ethnic minorities in the Tibet and Xinjiang regions, and mocked political figures.
If convicted, Pu faces up to eight years in prison.
Police forcefully barred observers - including diplomats, journalists and supporters - from entering the courtroom. Some 40 well-wishers gathered outside the courthouse and chanted slogans to show solidarity with the accused.
"Pu Zhiqiang is not a criminal. He will be judged by history," Qu Biao, a 53-year-old teacher from the northern Shaanxi province, told the Reuters news agency. "The Chinese constitution protects freedom of speech, so putting him on trial is unjust and shameless. If Pu Zhiqiang is guilty, then we are all guilty."
A woman is caught in a scuffle on a spring day in 1989. Later that night, the 38th army would open fire on unarmed civilians in one of the bloodiest crackdowns of the 20th century
Arrested at illegal commemoration of 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
China routinely prosecutes activists and dissidents under a law forbidding "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" and dismisses any criticism of its rights record.
Beijing has launched a crackdown on online rumors over the past two years, detained hundreds of human rights lawyers in a nationwide sweep and jailed a reporter on a charge of leaking state secrets.
The 50-year-old attorney was taken into custody in May 2014 after he attended a meeting in a private home to commemorate the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on the capital's Tiananmen Square. Pu, who had participated in the protests, had vowed to commemorate the anniversary every year in memory of the hundreds killed by security services.
jar/gsw (AP, Reuters) | 1,232 |
Image copyright Courtesy Peter White/Parks Canada Image caption A mother bison and her calf will stay close together for the first year of its life
A national park in Canada has welcomed some newcomers this year - three new bison babies.
The trio was born in the backcountry of Banff National Park in the western province of Alberta, the first bison conceived in the park in 140 years.
Bison were only recently reintroduced to the region and so conservation staff have dubbed the newborns the "made in Banff" bison babies.
Up to six more calves are expected in the coming weeks.
A herd of 16 plains bison, including 10 pregnant females, was successfully reintroduced to the park in February 2017, and the first calves born in the park in April of that year are now yearlings.
Image copyright Courtesy Peter White/Parks Canada Image caption A calf takes its first steps watched by its mother
Calves are born with light reddish fur - they are nicknamed "little reds" - before they take on the dark brown colouring of their parents.
The bison are being kept under observation in a soft-release enclosed pasture of the park in the foothills of the Rockies until later this summer.
The births, along with the park's natural barriers and wildlife fencing, will stop the bison from wandering astray when they are fully released into the wilderness.
Image copyright Courtesy Peter White/Parks Canada Image caption Bison mothers nuzzles their calves
Bison tend to return to the same areas to calve each spring, according to park conservation staff.
Banff's resource conservation manager Bill Hunt told the BBC that all 10 bison born in 2017 survived the year and are now almost the size of adults.
The herd is being reintroduced as a "keystone" species in the park and will contribute to the ecosystem in many ways.
Mr Hunt says that includes shedding thick winter coats in the spring. Songbirds use "big long strands of woolly bison fur" as insulation for their nests.
A baby bird is protected and "tucked away in a little wool blanket" in the sometimes harsh spring weather, he said.
There used to be some 30 million bison in Canada until they were hunted almost to extinction in the 1800s.
About a quarter of a million remain on a sliver of government-controlled land and on private farms where they are bred as show herds or for meat. | 1,233 |
Aww you deleted our conversations guess I should of rebloged it. I was going to see if I can figure out more about the case and you brought a rather interesting point of view to it.
Sorry about that, I just got really tired of the whole thing since, other than your very civil and respectful debates, which opened my eyes to a lot of facts and possible scenarios, every other note or reblog I’ve gotten since this case started has been angry trash-talkers. (excluding ones from friends, of course)
And while the analysis of this case had advanced and things were reconsidered, the others just continue to send hateful responses to outdated posts, with all of their ignorant assumptions and blind, “if one person is wrong the other must be a hero” attitude.
A flaw of tumblr’s reblog-based structure, I guess. New posts go completely unnoticed under the weight of the most heated ones. I suspect the hate-mail will continue coming in until they all forget about this incident entirely (and going by tumblr’s short attention span when it comes to social justice, I’m guessing it will be.. 6/20)
Anyways, my final conclusion on the quadcopter assault case is that I concede that Andrea Mears is an awful person who deserves the misdemeanor assault charge and is in need of the anger management they will surely sentence her with in addition to her fine, BUT I still think it’s really sketchy how big of a deal Austin Haughwout made over it and I still think he was trying to garner attention and pity-donations for personal gain. (We’ll see if he actually refunds the indiegogo money as he claims to intend to)
In addition, I also choose to not like the guy simply because of the great majority of the people who have supported him so fervently, both here on tumblr and on youtube. Rape-Apologists, MRAs, people proudly declaring violent intent towards not just Andrea but ALL women, and malicious bullies who deem it their mission to harass both the person who is already going to be punished for what she did, and anyone who dares question their beloved white-boy hero.
If I was Austin, I’d feel sick just knowing people like that made up the majority of my supporters…. then again, their comments aren’t the ones he’s chosen to remove from his youtube videos, so take that as you will. | 1,234 |
Lucca Ravioli Company’s parking lot at 22nd and Valencia Street, which went on the market in August, quietly sold in October for around $3 million — and now plans are in the works to develop it into a five-story residential building.
The parking lot’s new owner — M3 LLC — filed a preliminary application with the city in mid-December. The plans for 1120 Valencia St. envision a five-story, 18-unit building with around 1,171 square feet of ground-floor retail and a rooftop deck. Two of the units will be below-market-rate, and the building will include 18 bicycle spaces but no car parking.
The project’s estimated cost is $4.8 million.
The owner of M3 LLC could not be reached for comment, as his or her identity could not be confirmed. Planning documents list the owner’s address as the Garaventa Accountancy Corporation on Church Street.
Michael Feno, the longtime owner of the deli, listed the property for $2.995 million in late August, hoping that the would-be buyer would develop the property into housing. At the time, he said his intention was to “take care of the middle class” by adding to the neighborhood’s housing stock.
“As long as you’re short on housing, what are you going to have is every house with a multi-millionaire,” he said.
Local Reporting takes reporters on the ground. It’s not free. Support Mission Local today
Yet, he told Mission Local in August that any sale would be contingent on a developer including parking in the new development. With no car parking in the plans, that sticking point was apparently nixed from the deal. Feno has not yet responded to questions for this article.
Feno’s family has run Lucca on the corner of 22nd and Valencia since 1925, eventually buying the corner building as well as the adjacent apartment building and the parking lot next door. If and when the new building is complete, it will be the tallest on the block, outsizing its neighbors, including the sprawling four-story City College of San Francisco Mission Campus across the street.
Valencia seems to be a hot place to develop small housing projects: Less than block away, on Valencia between 21st and 22nd street, a six-story, 25-unit building is proposed to replace the San Francisco Auto Works garage. | 1,235 |
Huntington Beach Public Library Central Branch offers a seed lending program
Post Date:02/15/2016 11:00 AM
The Huntington Beach Public Library, 7111 Talbert Ave, HB, CA 92648, is partnering with Garden Pool and is offering a seed lending program. The Seed Library is stored in a hand-crafted card catalog on the first floor of the Central Library. Any Huntington Beach Public Library card holder can check out up to three seed packets per month, plant, and donate seeds back to the Seed Library at the end of the growing season.
The Huntington Beach Public Library is only one of a few libraries in California to offer a seed lending program. This movement has been spreading throughout the United States to create a sustainable and diverse stock of seeds for households and communities to freely access.
“Seed Libraries provide the public with access to free seeds for their garden to grow nutritious food.” Garden Pool President, Dennis McClung said. “Garden Pool feels that the partnership with Huntington Beach Public Library will prove to be a very popular feature at this amazing library. Garden Pool wanted to bring a public seed library to Orange County, but we needed the right place with volunteers. That’s where Huntington Beach Public Library stepped in. We are all very excited for the ribbon cutting ceremony on March 19th at 2:30 p.m. at the Central Branch and home of the new Seed Library.”
The Seed Library will focus on edible plants that are well suited for the Southern California climate and terrain. There will be future free classes at the Library on seed starting, seed saving and how to cook from your garden.
Patrons can access the Seed Library during regular Library hours Monday from 1 p.m. through 9 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Library is closed on Sunday.
The Seed Library is run entirely on volunteers. To volunteer or to learn more about Garden Pool, visit: GardenPool.org/volunteer or call (480)532-5821. To learn more about the Huntington Beach public Library, visit: HBPL.org or call (714) 842-4481.
-30-
Feb. 15, 2016
Garden Pool
Contact: Dennis McClung
Tel. 480-532-5821
support@gardenpool.org | 1,236 |
I had a novel idea when I was out choosing my review beer for this week. I was at Old Town Wine & Spirits yesterday (and I totally ousted some dude named Steven Greenleaf as the Mayor on Foursquare...but I digress) and I saw a bottle of New Albanian Solidarity Baltic Porter in the cooler. The idea immediately came to me that I would buy this 22oz bottle, bring it to work today, and share it with my co-workers as, wait for it....a sign of solidarity. My plan was virtually foiled by one co-worker who has apparently given up alcohol for Lent and another who was getting ready to rush out the door for his wife's baby doctor appointment. Luckily the latter stuck around to at least share a glass with me so that I could preserve my journalistic brilliance.
Solidarity pours a very dark, dark reddish brown color, and this one had virtually no head to be spoken of. I had let it set for a while already; so it was warm enough to let the flavor out immediately. I love Porters and this Baltic Porter was no exception. It has a delicious, malty backbone with not a lot of hop character. I picked out nice caramel flavor with a slight alcohol bite on the very end. There is soft carbonation and this beer isn't as heavy as one might assume initially. If you try it, you're going to notice some chocolate, coffee, and maybe even some dark fruit flavor hiding in there as well.
At 8.5% ABV this is certainly a beer that I'm glad my co-worker shared with me so that I wasn't stumbling around like I would have been had I finished the entire bottle alone. Throw in 30 IBUs and you have very little to worry about as far as hop bitterness, but they're there. The ladies and gents contributing to Ratebeer.com and Beeradvocate.com give Solidarity ratings of 94 and 81 respectively. So here's what you do...go grab a bottle or two, get a group of friends who you enjoy sitting around and drinking with, and bask in the fact that, in that moment, you are standing up for what you believe in...good beer.
I'll share some solidarity with you...no, not the beer, do you think I have enough money to buy everyone beer?? I mean on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and NOW even Pinterest through Lville Beer. So lets all stand together and say it loud...I like beer and I'm proud! | 1,237 |
Although the cause of MS is not known, more is being learned about environmental factors that contribute to the risk of developing MS. There is no single risk factor that provokes MS, but several factors are believed to contribute to the overall risk.
Geographic gradient
MS is known to occur more frequently in areas that are farther from the equator. Epidemiologists — scientists who study disease patterns in large groups of people— are looking at variations in geography, demographics (age, gender and ethnic background), genetics, infectious causes and migration patterns in an effort to understand why.
Studies have shown that people born in an area with a low risk of MS who then move — or migrate — to an area with a higher risk before the age of 15 assume the risk of their new area. Such data suggest that exposure to some environmental agent before puberty may predispose a person to develop MS later on.
MS “clusters” — the perception that very high numbers of cases of MS have occurred in a specific time period or location — may provide clues to environmental or genetic risk for the disease. So far, cluster studies in MS have not produced clear evidence for the existence of any causative or triggering factor or factors in MS.
Vitamin D
Growing evidence suggests that vitamin D plays an important role in MS. Low vitamin D levels in the blood have been identified as a risk factor for the development of MS. Some researchers believe that sun exposure (the natural source of Vitamin D) may help to explain the north-south distribution of MS. People who live closer to the equator are exposed to greater amounts of sunlight year-round. As a result, they tend to have higher levels of naturally-produced vitamin D, which is thought to support immune function and may help protect against immune-mediated diseases like MS.
Smoking
The evidence is also growing that smoking plays an important role in MS. Studies have shown that smoking increases a person’s risk of developing MS and is associated with more severe disease and more rapid disease progression. Fortunately, the evidence also suggests that stopping smoking — whether before or after the onset of MS — is associated with a slower progression of disability.
Obesity
Several studies have shown that obesity in childhood and adolescence, particularly in girls, increased the risk of later developing MS. Other studies have shown that obesity in early adulthood may also contribute to an increased risk of developing MS. Also, obesity may contribute to inflammation and more MS activity in those already diagnosed with MS. | 1,238 |
Shelter report finds a growing number of private renters at risk of homelessness as a result of housing benefit freeze and squeeze on social housing
Rising rents, a housing benefit freeze and shortage of social housing are causing a perfect storm in the private rented sector, according to housing body Shelter.
In fact, the charity’s latest report finds more than one million private renters are at risk of homelessness by 2020.
The biggest problem ahead is the increasingly commonplace shortfall between housing benefit and the cost of private renting.
Among the one million households across the UK identified by Shelter as vulnerable to hardship, 375,000 have one person in work.
Shelter has called for the freeze on housing benefit levels to be lifted.
“As the social rented sector contracts, private housing may have replaced it as the main tenure for people in housing need,” the report states.
“But the market’s limitations mean that significant government intervention is needed if it is to play an expanded role in preventing homelessness and housing people on low incomes.”
Multiple moves, the repeated costs of fees, deposits and rent in advance can pull them further into debt
The shortfall in rent is causing many people to fall into debt. And although the government has now pledge to ban letting fees, many are struggling to cope with fees and large rental deposits as they try to move move elsewhere.
“For households experiencing multiple moves, the repeated costs of fees, deposits and rent in advance can pull them further into debt,” according to Shelter. “Our advice services tell us that private landlords are increasingly asking for guarantors, who can be difficult for low-income households to secure.”
Lord John Bird said the government should treat the housing crisis as “the nation’s biggest issue.” He recommended all government owned surplus land being used for a new generation of social housing to ease pressure on the private rental market.
“I wouldn’t allow the NHS, councils or the army to sell its surplus property – I would say it has to go to social housing,” he said. “I would also appoint a dedicated secretary of state for housing, not someone who has 10 other portfolios, so that social housing is not left to the vagaries of local authorities.
“There’s a lot of interesting stuff done in Finland where you can put a house together for £30,000 – a kind of much improved prefab.” | 1,239 |
Middle Eastern airlines are set to cut losses to $1 billion next year, down from $1.5 billion in 2019, as they continue a restructuring process, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
IATA said announced schedules point to a substantial slowdown in regional capacity growth for 2020.
"After very weak economic growth in 2019, which limited local traffic, some rebound is expected in 2020. Restructuring and stronger growth will boost performance," the aviation authority said in a statement, adding: "But this will take time and a loss is expected for a third consecutive year."
Middle East carriers are forecast to make a $4.48 loss per departing passenger compared to the average net profit globally of $6.20.
Globally, IATA forecast that the global airline industry will produce a net profit of $29.3 billion in 2020, improved over a net profit of $25.9 billion expected in 2019.
If achieved, 2020 will mark the industry’s 11th consecutive year in the black.
Net profit margins are forecast at 3.4 percent while overall industry revenues are forecast to reach $872 billion, up 4 percent on $838 billion in 2019. Passenger numbers are expected to reach 4.72 billion, up 4 percent, while freight tonnes carried are expected to recover to 62.4 million, a 2 percent increase over 61.2 million tonnes carried in 2019, which was the lowest figure in three years.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO, said: “Slowing economic growth, trade wars, geopolitical tensions and social unrest, plus continuing uncertainty over Brexit all came together to create a tougher than anticipated business environment for airlines. Yet the industry managed to achieve a decade in the black, as restructuring and cost-cutting continued to pay dividends.
"It appears that 2019 will be the bottom of the current economic cycle and the forecast for 2020 is somewhat brighter. The big question for 2020 is how capacity will develop, particularly when, as expected, the grounded 737 MAX aircraft return to service and delayed deliveries arrive,” he added.
The regional profit picture is mixed in both 2019 and 2020. Africa, Middle East and Latin America are all expected to lose money in 2019, with carriers in Latin America returning to profit in 2020 as regional economies strengthen.
Airlines in North America continue to lead on financial performance, accounting for 65 percent of industry profits in 2019 and around 56 percent of aggregate earnings in 2020. | 1,240 |
Donald Trump decided to reverse himself on leaving Afghanistan, and is now pushing for a renewed troop build-up in the war torn region after being shown a 1970s photo of women in miniskirts in the country.
Donald Trump made the decision to increase the number of troops in combat in Afghanistan after being shown a photo of women in miniskirts in the country from the 1970s.
Call it the Miniskirt Doctrine.
The Washington Post reports that national security adviser H.R. McMaster "presented Trump with a black-and-white snapshot from 1972 of Afghan women in miniskirts walking through Kabul" as part of his effort to persuade Trump to keep the military in the region, arguing that it is possible to erode support for Islamic fundamentalism.
Trump then announced his decision to flip-flop on Afghanistan, ordering a renewed military build-up there. He won't publicly give specifics, but members of Congress have said that they were told by Trump officials that 4,000 more Americans will be called to serve in addition to the 8,500 already in-country.
Previously, Trump said America was "wasting our money" in Afghanistan, that it is "time to get out of Afghanistan," and described the country as "a total disaster."
After President Barack Obama announced that he would be significantly reducing troops in Afghanistan, pulling out over 34,000 of them by the end of 2013, Trump even agreed with him. He wrote, "I agree with Pres. Obama on Afghanistan. We should have a speedy withdrawal."
Now, after being shown a photo of women in miniskirts, that has all been thrown out the window. Trump's long history of ogling, insulting, and boasting about assaulting women is infamous. Even from the White House, Trump has insulted and degraded women. He fumed about MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski having a "low I.Q." and said she was "bleeding badly" from a face-lift after she made fun of him.
It was an appeal to his well-known misogynistic world that persuaded Trump to reverse Obama's plan to disengage from the longest war in American history. The decision puts the military in harm's way for an indeterminate length of time, for goals Trump could not define during his address on Monday night, beyond "killing terrorists."
Despite his prior criticisms of our involvement in Afghanistan, now that Trump has seen miniskirts, he appears to believe the sacrifice of blood and treasure is worth it. | 1,241 |
Sembawang MP Praises Inmates For Taking A-Levels
Friday (22 Feb) must have been a nervy day for most students collecting their A-Levels results.
But this was especially so for 34 students from Tanah Merah Prison School, who also obtained their A-Level results.
Source
In the end, majority of the students fared pretty well. The top scorer of the group even scored an impressive 5 As and 1 B.
Sembawang MP Amrin Amin visited the group and took to Facebook on the same day to offer praise.
Here’s his post in full:
Source
Never-say-die attitude is commendable
According to Mr Amin’s post, 21 of the 34 students will now be able to further their studies, after obtaining their A-Level results.
Of the 21, 5 qualify to apply for full-time local university courses, while the remaining 16 can still apply for polytechnic and private degree courses.
Mr Amin praised the group of students for their tremendous effort and determination, which to him, is far more important than the results they achieved.
In his words,
All winners. Results matter, but what matters more is their fantastic effort and never-say-die attitude.
Regardless of their results, Mr Amin is extremely proud of the students for attempting the A-Level examinations as it brought out the spirit and character in them.
He also tagged the Captains of Lives Facebook page in his post, presumably to thank them for their part in preparing the students for their examinations.
Flood of congratulatory messages
Their group’s admirable effort also drew praise from netizens on Facebook.
Most netizens offered congratulatory messages to the group of students.
Source
Other netizens also praised the rehabilitation programmes that gave these students the chance to better themselves academically.
Source
One netizen hopes that the top scorer from the group will go on to read law and follow in the footsteps of top Singapore lawyer, Subhas Anandan.
Source
Hope this inspires other inmates
Hearty congratulations from all of us at MS News to all 34 Tanah Merah Prison School students who collected their A-Level results.
We hope this inspires other inmates to pick up new skills to help them find better jobs and opportunities after they’re done serving their sentences.
Featured image from Facebook. | 1,242 |
2nd East Bay highway shooting in 3 days injures 1
A man died Thursday night after stepping into the path of a car on Interstate 80 in Vallejo, triggering a chain reaction crash. A man died Thursday night after stepping into the path of a car on Interstate 80 in Vallejo, triggering a chain reaction crash. Photo: California Highway Patrol / Photo: California Highway Patrol / Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 2nd East Bay highway shooting in 3 days injures 1 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
The driver of a black El Camino opened fire on another vehicle on Interstate 80 in Hercules on Tuesday night, striking a person in the leg, police said. The incident is the latest in a string of roughly 20 highway shootings that have taken place in the Bay Area since November.
California Highway Patrol officials said the driver of a black Chevrolet El Camino with dark tinted windows opened fire on eastbound Interstate 80, west of Highway 4, at 9:16 p.m. A person in a nearby car was hit in the leg by the gunfire, and another vehicle’s windows were shattered by the shots.
The wounded victim was reportedly taken to the hospital, but it was unclear what condition the person was in.
Officials said an investigation is ongoing and that they will release further details as they become available.
Contra Costa County’s Highway 4 corridor has been the scene of nearly 10 similar shootings since June, prompting Pittsburg officials to have surveillance cameras installed along the highway in hopes of catching shooters. Leaders from at least four other nearby cities, including Hercules, plan to ask for state funding to install cameras on other highways.
Tuesday night’s shooting follows a late-afternoon highway shooting Sunday, in which a man opened fire on another driver during a road-rage incident on westbound Interstate 580 in Richmond before fleeing the scene, crashing into a pole and leaving his bumper behind with the license plate still attached.
That car was described as a gray 2005 Volvo S60 with license plate number is 7ENK356. No injuries were reported in that incident and no arrests have been made.
Last week, a woman was killed and a man was injured in a shooting on Highway 4 in Pittsburg.
CHP officials are asking anyone with information on any of the shootings to call them at (800) 835-5247.
Kevin Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: KevinEdSchultz | 1,243 |
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A 25-year-old man who had been allowed to stay in the U.S. because he was brought illegally into the country as a child was detained Sunday by immigration agents, activists said.
Francisco J. Rodriguez Dominguez was picked up at his home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, immigration lawyer Stephen Manning said. The leader of an immigrant rights group said the agency detained him because he has a misdemeanor for DUI, but officials with the agency did not return a newspaper's call for comment.
Rodriguez Dominguez arrived in the U.S. from Mexico when he was 5 years old, the Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. He has lived in the Portland area since then, the ACLU said.
Rodriguez Dominguez helps run a food pantry at the Latino Network, a community organization, and coaches a soccer team at an elementary school, the ACLU said.
"Everyone loves Francisco. I don't know how we will tell the kids, families, and school staff he works with about this. They are going to be heartbroken to hear he has been taken away," said Carmen Rubio, executive director of the Latino Network.
Rodriguez Dominguez participates in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, policy, which grants two years of permission to work and protection from deportation to certain immigrants in the country illegally who came to the U.S. as children, the ACLU said. These immigrants are known as "Dreamers."
Rodriguez Dominguez has a misdemeanor for DUI, the ACLU said. In December, Rodriguez Dominguez entered a DUI diversion program and completed nearly all of the requirement, including going to court hearings and attending required meetings.
"Despite Francisco's best efforts to make good on his mistake, ICE has taken the position that even a misdemeanor DUI eligible for diversion is enough to end DACA status. This policy is tearing apart his family, our communities, and does nothing to keep us safer." said Andrea Williams, executive director of Causa Oregon, an Oregon immigrant rights organization.
The Oregonian/Oregonlive reported that Immigrations and Custom Enforcement officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
In February, authorities in Seattle took into custody a 23-year-old Dreamer named Daniel Ramirez Medina. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says he is an admitted gang member, but he denies the allegation. He is being held at a detention center in Tacoma. | 1,244 |
national anthem saying ‘Long to reign over us, God Save The Queen.’
3 The Queen Wears Her Crown All The Time.
Her Majesty has an array of headdress for every occasion. However she only has one crown that is commonly used and even then that crown has only one – possibly two – uses a year. I am of course talking about the Imperial State Crown, that crown is only used once a year at the State Opening of Parliament to symbolize the Queen’s power as sovereign. It is extremely heavy so the Queen avoids wearing it wherever she can and in the run up to the State Opening she wears it for a few days before the event to get used to its weight. Prince Charles once said that one of his most vivid childhood memories was The Queen as bath time coming up and washing him wearing the crown preparing for state opening week. He says he found this most amusing.
2 “We Are Not Amused.”
Queen Victoria was, without doubt, one of the most popular Queens ever. She is often credited with many trends and inventions, including the worldwide trend of wearing a white wedding gown, but one thing’s for sure – she almost certainly didn’t use the famous phrase ‘We Are Not Amused.’ It is actually more likely to have been said by one of her ladies-in-waiting. In statements where Queen Victoria is credited as saying it, it is often said that she said it alone, referring purely to herself. Although it may seem strange to refer to oneself as We but for Kings and Queens, it’s not unusual. For centuries the ‘Royal We’ or Majestic Plural has been used to denote the sovereign’s power and might as being the excellent leader.
1 Charles Isn’t Going to Be King
No, no, no and no. It is constitutionally impossible for Prince Charles to just say ‘well, I’m not needed here’ and let William be King. While it may be said William’s now more popular – Charles has prepared for this role for over sixty years and is not going to give it up at the drop of a hat. The only way William could get to be King before Charles dies is if Charles abdicates and seeing as Charles’ Great-uncle King Edward VIII was the only monarch to do this voluntarily in living memory, it’s hard to see him following that route with so many bad connotations. | 1,245 |
How to Treat Your Technicians
A pharmacist’s guide to being decent.
Image Source: The Balance
I would say it’s 50%. Half of us have common sense and the other half, not so much. If you’ve ever worked alone in the pharmacy, you know exactly how valuable a pharmacy technician is. They are the Yin to our Yang. They are the milk to our cookies. We have different and complimentary job descriptions that allow the pharmacy to function optimally and efficiently. If we so obviously need them, then why do I still hear about the mistreatment of technicians? Here’s my guess.
1. Ego
This is the worst one. Why would we complain about a doctor’s ego, and then be egotistical to our team? We think going to pharmacy school or having a fatter paycheck means we’re more valuable. First of all, some technicians get paid more than we do. They are in demand, not us. Secondly, pharmacy school is not as big a deal as we think. The solution is to work a couple shifts in an understaffed pharmacy. Then, we will see how much we need our technicians.
2. Ignorance
Some of us are just oblivious. We speak before we think — and that’s if we think at all. The solution to that is to think before we speak, obviously.
3. Stress
It’s also possible that we’re just stressed. Trying to handle everything in the pharmacy can be hectic. For that reason, I can imagine how some of us can sound rude or insensitive at times. I’m not trying to find an excuse, but that should count for something. Unfortunately, everyone manages stress differently therefore I can only speak for myself. I find taking mental breaks to be very useful. Doing repetitive and mindless tasks like filing or cleaning can help me relax even in the most stressful of times. Oh — and your boss and techs will love you.
Image Source: Ktek
There you have it. A short list of why I think pharmacists treat technicians poorly sometimes. It’s short because there should be no reason in the first place. Our technicians are experts in things we are weakest in. Together, we form the perfect team for the pharmacy and we should value them as we value our arms and legs. So the moral of this article is to treat them to coffee and donuts every Friday. | 1,246 |
Hey PlayStation Blog readers. On behalf of our entire CCP Newcastle crew, I’m excited to announce that we are partnering with Sony Interactive Entertainment to publish EVE: Valkyrie as a physical retail disc for the launch of PlayStation VR on 13th October, 2016.
This means in addition to a day-one digital download release on PlayStation Store, we’ll also be hitting your favourite online or high street retailer with boxed copies of the game for PlayStation VR. No matter how you choose to buy EVE: Valkyrie on 13th October, either digitally or on disc, you’ll get the same great content at launch:
EVE: Valkyrie, the game that’s been called the “killer app” for virtual reality by press around the world.
Along with the EVE: Valkyrie PlayStation VR Founder’s Pack content, which contains:
Legendary ‘S4 Wraith’ Fighter
PlayStation-only ‘Cobalt’ Flight Suit
Official EVE: Valkyrie Founder’s Avatar
Limited Edition ‘Founder’s Pilot’ Forum Tag on evevalkyrie.com
War Chest of 2,500 Gold
All updates to the game released since its launch on PC in March, including the explosive Carrier Assault mode.
Additional free content will be made available to all owners of EVE: Valkyrie throughout the game’s lifetime, and we’re already planning our first free post-launch update to the game (spoiler: it will involve spaceships).
In case you’ve missed it, we’ve teamed up with our friends at PlayStation to produce blogs, videos and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks – you can catch it all right here and get a special, in-depth look into the world of the Valkyrie. There you can hear from Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica; Riddick; Longmire), who brings our main character, Rán Kavik, to life. You’ll learn what makes her band of immortal space pirates tick. And you’ll find out how EVE: Valkyrie revolutionises space combat by creating gameplay made possible for the first time by VR tech.
If you’d like to know even more about the game or meet our team of VR developers, head to evevalkyrie.com and join the conversation on our forums, or follow EVE: Valkyrie on Twitter. Thanks for reading, and we hope to fly alongside you soon! | 1,247 |
manner of jobs, the people said. With the technology returning results almost at random, Amazon shut down the project, they said.
Slideshow ( 6 images )
THE PROBLEM, OR THE CURE?
Other companies are forging ahead, underscoring the eagerness of employers to harness AI for hiring.
Kevin Parker, chief executive of HireVue, a startup near Salt Lake City, said automation is helping firms look beyond the same recruiting networks upon which they have long relied. His firm analyzes candidates’ speech and facial expressions in video interviews to reduce reliance on resumes.
"You weren’t going back to the same old places; you weren’t going back to just Ivy League schools," Parker said. His company's customers include Unilever PLC ULVR.L and Hilton.
Goldman Sachs has created its own resume analysis tool that tries to match candidates with the division where they would be the “best fit,” the company said.
Microsoft Corp's MSFT.O LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, has gone further. It offers employers algorithmic rankings of candidates based on their fit for job postings on its site.
Still, John Jersin, vice president of LinkedIn Talent Solutions, said the service is not a replacement for traditional recruiters.
“I certainly would not trust any AI system today to make a hiring decision on its own,” he said. “The technology is just not ready yet.”
Some activists say they are concerned about transparency in AI. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently challenging a law that allows criminal prosecution of researchers and journalists who test hiring websites’ algorithms for discrimination.
“We are increasingly focusing on algorithmic fairness as an issue,” said Rachel Goodman, a staff attorney with the Racial Justice Program at the ACLU.
Still, Goodman and other critics of AI acknowledged it could be exceedingly difficult to sue an employer over automated hiring: Job candidates might never know it was being used.
As for Amazon, the company managed to salvage some of what it learned from its failed AI experiment. It now uses a “much-watered down version” of the recruiting engine to help with some rudimentary chores, including culling duplicate candidate profiles from databases, one of the people familiar with the project said.
Another said a new team in Edinburgh has been formed to give automated employment screening another try, this time with a focus on diversity. | 1,248 |
The patent system of United States is very liberal in nature. It is occasionally claimed that anything under the sun is patentable in U.S. This has created a problem for U.S. patent systems where patent trolls are exploiting it for their benefits.
Patent trolls can affect the competition and the whole purpose of granting the patent is defeated. Patent trolls usually have no intention to manufacture or market the patented invention and their sole purpose is to make some quick money through cease and desist orders and Patents infringement litigations. Now even in India this practice has begun to surface.
However, compared to U.S. this menace has not affected India much. But U.S. need to take immediate action in this regard and realising this condition the Obama Administration will announce a set of executive actions on Tuesday that would regulate the acts of patent trolls in U.S.
As per media reports, President Obama will instruct the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to initiate a rule-making process that would require patent holders to disclose the owner of a patent. Obama would announce five executive actions and seven proposed legislative changes, including asking Congress for legislation that would sanction litigants who file lawsuits deemed abusive by the courts.
The sole objective of patent trolls is to extract licensing fees from other companies rather than make products based on the patents they hold. They achieve this through threats of patent violation and corresponding litigations in this regard. Such lawsuits have increased tremendously in the past in U.S.
In 2011, Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which changed the U.S. patent system into a “first-to-file” patent system as opposed to a “first-to-invent system”. The USPTO previously awarded patents based on when inventors had the idea, instead of when they filed a patent application.
However, this has put the entrepreneurs and individuals at risk at the hands of software patent holders who try to exploit them. High profile IP litigations involving Microsoft, Apple, etc have also been in limelight. Mozilla had also issued a cease and desist notice to Gamma International for maliciously using its brand and reputation. Kim Dotcom has also accused Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc of violating his two step authentication patent.
It seems the Obama administration is trying to bring some order in the otherwise chaotic situation. Some guidance from India can be taken in this regard where public interest still prevails against commercial interests. | 1,249 |
Amsterdam: The International Criminal Court opened an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, thrusting it into one of the world`s most chronic, heated conflicts and opening a path to possible charges against Israelis or Palestinians.
In a statement on Friday, prosecutors said they would examine "in full independence and impartiality" crimes that may have occurred since June 13 last year. This allows the court to delve into the war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza in July-August 2014 during which more than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians - whose peace talks with Israel have collapsed - will formally become an ICC member on April 1 at their request, a move strongly opposed by Israel and the United States.
"The case is now in the hands of the court," said Nabil Abuznaid, head of the Palestinian delegation in The Hague. "It is a legal matter now and we have faith in the court system."
Prosecutors will assess evidence of alleged crimes and determine if they are of sufficient gravity and scale to warrant charges against individuals on either side.
The investigation was branded as "outrageous" by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. "The court, which after more than 200,000 killed in Syria did not see fit to intervene... finds it necessary to `examine` the most moral army in the world," Lieberman said in a statement. "We will act in the international arena in order to bring an end to this court."
The ICC has been criticised for focusing on Africa while being unable to intervene in some of the world`s bloodiest and most intractable conflicts.
An initial inquiry could lead to war crimes charges against Israel, whether relating to the recent Gaza war or its 47-year-long occupation of the West Bank. It also occupied Gaza from 1967-2005. Palestinians seek statehood in the two territories.
ICC membership also exposes the Palestinians to prosecution, possibly for rocket attacks on Israel by militant groups operating out of Gaza.
The ICC, the world`s first permanent war crimes tribunal, is the court of last resort for its 122 member states, aiming to hold the powerful accountable for the most heinous crimes when national authorities are unable or unwilling to act.
But the ICC has struggled over its first decade, completing just three cases and securing two convictions. Critics say it has been vulnerable to political pressure and opposition from non-members the United States, China and Russia. | 1,250 |
Microsoft will let loose a new operating system, Windows Cloud, at the company’s annual developer conference later this month.
Boss Steve Ballmer announced Redmond’s plans at a Software plus Services partner event in London this lunchtime.
He playfully gave the OS the temporary name of Windows Cloud. Apparently, we’ll learn more from Microsoft about the platform at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, which takes place at the end of October.
“We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it for the purposes of today ‘Windows Cloud’,” said Ballmer.
“Just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server.”
Ballmer also hinted at what would be built into the new OS, including geo replication, how to design apps intended to commingle [we think he means appeasing regulators by providing more interoperability], management modelling and an SOA model, to effectively create a new platform.
“We’re not driving an agenda towards being service providers but we’ve gotta build a service that is Windows in the cloud,” admitted Ballmer.
He also hit out at internet kingpin and pesky rival Google.
“If you talk to Google they’ll say it's thin client computing but then they’ll issue a new browser that’s basically a big fat operating system designed to compete with Windows but running on top of it,” he said.
“Steve Ballmer observation," machine gunned the fragrant CEO.
Ballmer also acknowledged that Midori - which many have speculated will be a post-Windows operating system from MS - lives, at least in incubation form, that is.
The firm has no plans to bring Midori to market - yet. It's merely a research project, he added.
"Our big problem is there’s just no secret that gets kept in Microsoft. The guy in the office next door to somebody working on Midori is not supposed to know about Midori," he said. "The last thing we want is for somebody else to obsolete us, if we’re gonna get obseleted [sic] we better do it to ourselves." ® | 1,251 |
UPDATE: Microsoft has confirmed to Eurogamer that the Warzone mode found lurking with Gears of War: Judgment is a slice of code leftover from Gears of War 3.
There are no current plans to release the mode - free or otherwise.
"There is a text string and a bit of leftover code within TDM from Warzone," a Microsoft spokesperson told us. "We don't have any current plans to release Warzone. But, we will be releasing Execution, a very similar mode, for free as an update on April 2 via Xbox Live."
ORIGINAL STORY: A playable version of game mode Warzone has been discovered on the Gears of War: Judgment disc.
Players have been able to access and play it using a simple button combination entered on one of the game's menu screens.
Warzone exists as a multiplayer mode in Gears 1, Gears 2 and Gears 3, but was left out of Judgment.
Warzone can be accessed using the following method (and there are numerous video walkthroughs on YouTube):
After booting the game, choose Private Match and highlight Team Death Match, and press A. At the next prompt press the A and B buttons simultaneously. When it says "You are about to start a match. Continue?", press A again.
Gamers who discovered Warzone have been left wondering whether the hidden mode is intended as paid DLC. But an employee of developer Epic Games has suggested its inclusion was simply a mistake - a remnant of game code being ported over from Gears of War 3.
"Thanks for the heads up, was easier to leave Warzone refs than rip out," said senior multiplayer programmer Peter Knepley in response to a fan on Twitter.
"It's not the polished Execution of April 2nd," Kneply continued, referencing another mode due for release. "I'd never say never, but Execution is way more popular than Warzone."
An image posted on NeoGAF appears to show information for a number of extra maps, too. These haven't been proven to exist in playable form on the disc and may just be placeholder entries for future content.
The additional maps are Mausoleum (likely a re-make of the Gears 1 map of the same name), Hospital, Museum, Capitol and Haven.
The latter two have already been announced for release next week as part of a free, Maxim-sponsored download alongside Execution.
Eurogamer has asked Microsoft for comment. We'll update when we hear back. | 1,252 |
PUTRAJAYA: The Registrar of Societies (RoS) has ordered Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi) to temporarily disband for 30 days.
RoS director-general Surayati Ibrahim said Pribumi has failed to fulfil the RoS’ Feb 28 notice requesting for documents and details regarding the party.
Speaking at a press conference here, she said the RoS served Pribumi with the temporary disbandment notice under Section 14 of the Societies Act 1966 at 12.30pm on Thursday (April 5).
Pribumi, co-founded by former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is not allowed to use its logo or conduct any party activity during its disbandment with immediate effect.
“Pribumi is not allowed to conduct any activities during the 30 days. The RoS will take further action if it infringes upon the order,” Surayati said, declining to comment on what further action the RoS will take.
It has 30 days to fulfil the RoS’ request for more documents, failing which, the party will be permanently disbanded.
The Pakatan Harapan component party can lodge an appeal within the 30 days.
Surayati also declined to comment on allegations that it is a political ploy to bar Pribumi from contesting in the general election. She said the RoS was acting on complaints from party members.
The disbandment came as Pakatan filed a judicial review on Feb 21 in its bid to obtain a court order to compel the RoS to respond to its letter to become a registered coalition.
In its affidavit, Pakatan stated that it wrote a letter on July 28 last year to the RoS director-general to register the coalition and again on Aug 21 and most recently Feb 6, 2018, asking for a response.
Pakatan claimed that it did not get a reply and is seeking a mandamus order for the respondent to register it as a coalition under the Societies Act 1966.
The Home Ministry had earlier said ongoing investigations into Pribumi due to complaints received over its AGM is holding up Pakatan’s registration as a formal coalition.
Without RoS’ approval of its registration, Pakatan will not be able to use its official logo to contest in the polls. It will likely use PKR's logo to contest in the general election.
Pakatan comprises PKR, DAP, Pribumi and Amanah. | 1,253 |
Alien Robots
Tesla “hired” its first robots back in 2014 to be used as part of a dedicated production center for the Model S. These robots, developed by German industrial manufacturer Kuka Robotics, are also responsible for the Model X and Tesla’s energy product line. Now, photos leaked by someone who claims they work as a Field Service Engineer at Kuka Robotics posted by a user in SoutheastTraders forum show an army of Kuka robots ready to be shipped out.
These new Kuka robots —quirkily named after X-Men superheroes — will be responsible for several Model 3 production line duties, including: spot welding, laser welding, handling, and loading materials, and various other tasks. The Kuka robots are part of what CEO Elon Musk previously called an “alien dreadnought” that will be tasked with building the Model 3. According to the person who posted the photos, the robots will be at the Tesla factory for the next 7 weeks to “help set up and commission 467 robots and 21 KL slides.”
Tesla users who toured the factory confirmed sightings of these “alien” robots. “[T]here is an enormous area of the factory where the Model 3 assembly line is being built,” said an owner from the Tesla Motors Club (Engle). “There are Kuka robots all over the place waiting to be installed.”
Bringing EVs To More People
Tesla and Musk have long seen the value of automation in its factory production lines. As Tesla’s highly-anticipated Model 3 electric vehicle is slated to begin low volume production by July, these robots — which cost between $50,000 to $500,000 — will be essential. Supposedly, Tesla spent more than $50 million on them — and the additional $1.4B capital raised in March certainly helped cover the cost.
The Model 3 will be Tesla’s cheapest EV yet, priced at $35,000. It’s expected to have the latest Autopilot software, an entirely unique display system, Tesla’s solar roof technology, as well as a number of features found in preexisting Tesla models.
As a less costly EV, the Model 3 is Tesla’s attempt to bring autonomous and green vehicles within the reach of more people. Research has indicated that autonomous vehicles are already saving lives, and helping the environment. Now it’s just a matter of getting them on the road. | 1,254 |
Ratings:
Overall:
Value:
Lather:
Scent:
Moisturising:
Overall:
Images of a soda or a refreshing dessert comes to mind when you first think of Taylor of Old Bond Street Lemon & Lime shaving cream. At least it did for me, and being fresh off the heels of my love for the TOBS Avocado scent, I thought I would take the plunge hoping for an equally pleasant surprise, from an nontraditional scent for shaving cream, as I received with the Avocado blend.
Naturally as soon as I received it I twisted it open to take a smell, and unlike my experience with the Avocado cream, this was definitely Lemon & Lime. Describing it beyond that is a bit difficult, it is refreshing out of its tub, maybe a bit too refreshing – at least as a first impression. If you are a fan of Sprite then you will definitely enjoy the scent from this soap. I wouldn’t go so far as saying that it smells like pop – but there is no getting around the smell of Lemon & Lime. One thing I will say is that it does NOT in any way remind me of cleaning products, which is always a risk when using these scents. One thing for certain it is not your stereotypical manly scent.
As with the TOBS Avocado cream lathering of the Lemon & Lime cream was an easy affair requiring little water and effort while producing an excellent lather. The lather from the Taylor of Old Bond Street is thicker than what you would achieve from a hard soap, and I find that painting it on your face is a better option than circular motions. The performance of the Lemon & Lime cream was, as expected, excellent providing a layer of slickness resulting in a great shaving surface. The scent while shaving was less intense than when smelling it out of the container, perhaps due to the water. One nice thing was that I only had to load the brush a single time, it held enough of the cream to last me three passes. In the future I will try to load up less to avoid waste.
If you are interested in a shaving cream with a ‘manly’ smell this is not for you. If you want a refreshing scent to your shave cream the Taylor of Old Bond Street Lemon & Lime is probably a good choice, varying from the Avocado blend I mentioned earlier by having a bit more of a clean feel to it in addition to the refreshing feeling you get with the Avocado tub. | 1,255 |
Donald Trump disagrees with Ted Cruz on the use of waterboarding. | AP Photo Donald Trump calls Ted Cruz the P word
At a rally on Monday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, Donald Trump repeated a woman’s shouted remark that Ted Cruz was a “pussy” for his comments about waterboarding during Saturday’s Republican debate.
The moment came when Trump, recounting that exchange, heard a shout from a woman in the audience, pointed to her and said, “She just said a terrible thing.”
“You know what she said? Shout it out because I don’t want to say it,” Trump continued, smirking. “OK, you’re not allowed to say and I never expect to hear that from you again. I never expect to hear that from you again. She said he’s a pussy.”
The crowd roared and Trump threw up his hands.
“That’s terrible,” Trump said.
During Saturday night's debate, Cruz was asked by moderator David Muir whether he thought waterboarding was torture.
“Well, under the definition of torture, no, it’s not,” Cruz said.
Would he bring it back as president?
“I would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use,” Cruz said.
Trump, seeing an opportunity to draw a contrast, said he would: “I would bring back waterboarding and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding."
Also on Monday, Trump's son Eric said on Fox News’ "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren that waterboarding was “quite frankly no different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses every day.”
Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Cruz, called the comments, "Just the latest episode of the reality TV show that Donald has made the 2016 campaign — let’s not forget who whipped who in Iowa."
Amanda Carpenter, a former Cruz aide, tweeted, “How classy for Trump to call Cruz a “pussy” for not cheerleading torture. Does Trump know Ted’s dad was tortured?”
Donald Trump is leading the polls in New Hampshire and is widely expected to win Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary.
This article tagged under: 2016 Elections | 1,256 |
MEDIA RELEASE
HONOLULU — The Coast Guard Captain of the Port set port condition Whiskey for Hawaii, Maui and Honolulu County ports as of 8 a.m. Saturday in advance of Hurricane Olivia.
Commercial ports are:
Hilo Harbor and Kawaihae Harbor, Big Island
Kahului, Maui
Barber’s Point Harbor, Honolulu Harbor, Kalaeloa, and Kewalo Basin, Oahu
During Port heavy weather condition WHISKEY, gale force winds 39 mph are predicted to arrive within 72 hours. Ports Status is open to all commercial and recreational traffic.
The Coast Guard reminds the public when hurricane or tropical storm force winds are present to stay off the water and clear of beaches. The Coast Guard’s search and rescue capabilities degrade as storm conditions strengthen. This may delay help. Heed weather watches, warnings, and small craft advisories. Evacuate as necessary. Coast Guard personnel and other emergency responders may not be able to evacuate or rescue those in danger during the storm.
The public should monitor the progress and strength of the storm through local television, radio, and the Internet. Boaters can track its progress on VHF radio channel 16. Information is also available through small craft advisories and warnings on VHF radio channel 16.
For information on Hurricane Olivia’s progress and hurricane preparedness, please visit the National Hurricane Center’s webpage.
The Port Conditions are:
Condition Hurricane Season Preparedness (V): Seasonal readiness, 1 June – 30 Nov.
Condition Whiskey (IV): The ALERT condition in which winds above 39 mph are expected within 72 hours.
Condition X-Ray (III): The READINESS condition in which winds above 39 mph are expected within 48 hours.
Condition Yankee (II): The WARNING condition in which winds above 39 mph are expected within 24 hours.
Condition Zulu (I): The DANGER condition in which winds above 39 mph are expected within 12 hours and until the storm has passed and is no longer a threat.
The Coast Guard will continue to Broadcast Notice to Mariners and send out a Marine Safety Information Bulletin to notify the maritime community of port condition changes.
All maritime users are requested to monitor the progress of this hurricane and make preparations accordingly.
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Silke Sommerfeld and Rolf Oetter are driving their Tesla Model X across Canada from Vancouver to Newfoundland. They began their 6,000 mile journey on June 11 and expect to be on the road for 3 months. “We originally thought we would do it in a motor home, but then we switched to a model X, an electric car,” say Silke. “All of a sudden, driving a motor home across Canada with all the gas involved didn’t feel right anymore. So we thought of alternatives.”
The couple will be towing a specially modified travel trailer behind their Model X. Rolf, an engineer, says, “This trailer is designed to be never plugged in because we need the plug for the car. I installed 800 watts of solar panels and just over five kilowatt hours of lithium ion batteries similar to the ones that are actually in the car.” He says the power in the batteries mounted in the trailer can add 30 to 40 kilometers to the range of the Model X.
Rolf and Silke say a journey across Canada towing a camping trailer with an electric car has never been attempted before. The trip has been in the planning stages for more than 10 years — long before the first Tesla automobiles went on sale. “It’s not so much about one particular brand It’s about electric cars in general,” Sommerfeld says. “It’s a good way to combine something that we always wanted to do, with something that we want to do now,” she adds.
Raising public awareness about sustainable energy and transportation is part of the reason for the journey. “I’m looking forward to going places I’ve never been before, I’m curious what all of that will be like,” she says. “I think meeting people will be very, very interesting. I just love Canada.”
The couple is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tesla Motors. “This trip is our idea,” says Silke. “All we want is to raise awareness and bring electric cars closer to as many people as possible.” They will blog throughout their trip and will also answer questions through social media. “We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts. You have a question? Send it our way and we will try our best to answer it,” she adds.
Source: Vancouver Island News Photo credit: Instagram | 1,258 |
Wisconsin's economy is slowly transitioning to high-skilled, higher-paying jobs, according to a Forward Analytics report on employment, pay and education.
Despite rhetoric that the state's job growth is at the lower end of the economic ladder where fewer skills are required, the report — which spanned 2012 to 2018 — finds the kinds of jobs that have been growing in the last six years demand more education and often pay more.
But convincing some Wisconsin families their children should continue education beyond high school can be a challenge.
University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Timothy Smeeding travels to different parts of the state, where he gives talks on upward mobility and stresses how important education is. School counselors and students are receptive to the message. But sometimes parents are't, he said.
"High school is good enough for me. Why isn’t it for Johnny?" Smeeding said, repeating a sentiment he hears from parents.
In general, he said he thinks this worldview no longer holds true.
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"We have to have the mindset that (young people) have to do something beyond high school. It doesn't always have to be a four-year degree, it can be career and technical education. That's just the way it is," said Smeeding, also a professor with the La Follette School of Public Affairs. He wasn't involved in the report by Forward Analytics, the Wisconsin Counties Association’s research arm.
The analysis showed jobs requiring a bachelors degree or associates degree grew almost 12 percent from 2012 to 2018. Those that require only a high school diploma or less grew 6 percent or less.
"This has been talked about nationally for a long time that this is where the country is headed and it hasn't shown up as much in Wisconsin as it has in other states. But that appears to be turning around," said Dale Knapp, the report's author.
Communities around the country have set up education savings accounts for children. Thirty-four states across the U.S. have local or state-run savings programs, according to the LaFollette School, which looked at one savings program being considered by Richland County.
In Wisconsin, the state-run post-secondary education savings plan is called Edvest. Richland County officials hope to motivate enrollment in the 529 savings plan by giving a one-time contribution of $100 to each child born at the Richland Hospital. | 1,259 |
Last night, The Recording Academy revealed that nominations for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards would be announced on November 28th. In addition, the organization established a series of new amendments to the voting process, including the introduction of online voting, the recognition of songwriters in the Album of the Year category, and new review committees for the rap, contemporary instrumental, and New Age fields.
In an interview with Variety, Recording Academy SVP Bill Freimuth broke down the rule changes in more detail. First, he addressed online voting, explaining that not only will it provide greater flexibility for touring artists and thus increase participation for all voters, it should prevent incorrectly filled out ballots, and allow for more informed voting.
“Paper ballots would often be filled out incorrectly — people would vote in categories they weren’t [authorized to vote in] and things like that — and this way the software will not let them submit incorrectly,” he stated. “Finally, on the same site, voters will be able to listen to or watch all of the nominated recordings or videos, or look at the nominees for package design.”
The change allowing songwriters to be recognized in the Album of the Year category — provided they are credited with at least 33 percent or more playing time on the winning album — was in response to a proposal from “very highly regarded” songwriters. “We formed a subcommittee, which met throughout the year and heard from more people, and it became obvious that it was something we should do,” Freimuth explained.
Perhaps the most crucial amendment is the creation of new review committees, particularly in the rap field. The committees are dedicated groups designed to eliminate popularity bias that disadvantages emerging artists, independent music, and late-year releases. “For Rap, and the other categories to a degree, a lot of their argument was kind of similar — it was going more to big-name folks and felt like more of a popularity contest,” stated Freimuth. “That’s not to say that someone who’s very famous can’t put out a fantastic track or album, but maybe some younger up-and-coming folks deserve that spotlight.”
Last year, The Academy amended its eligibility rules to include streaming-only releases, giving Chance the Rapper the opportunity to win the Best Rap Album award for Coloring Book. The Grammy Awards return to Madison Square Garden on January 28th, 2018, with James Corden serving as master of ceremonies. | 1,260 |
their MPs were hurt in the scuffle while trying to intervene.
Mbete ruling
Thursday’s sitting was extraordinary from the first minute, as Mbete announced a unilateral decision to change the programme of the day, which she deemed too long. This despite a programme committee having agreed earlier that day on the programme.
After a series of objections from opposition MPs, who remained on their feet, howling to make themselves heard over the shouting of ANC MPs, she finally gave in and reversed her ruling when Sizani sided with the opposition.
In another extraordinary and clearly filibustering tactic, opposition parties – mainly the DA and EFF – tabled a record number of motions – 166 notices of motions and 41 motions without notice. This took over three-and-a-half hours.
Generally, motions take up less than 20 minutes, but there is no time limit stated in the rules.
The House then moved to the much-anticipated debate on the multimillion-rand security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s private home.
As expected, it was a heated debate, with the ANC and all parties – barring two opposition parties – supporting a report produced by a parliamentary committee. The report absolves Zuma of any wrongdoing.
While the House was in session, minister and ANC MP Lindiwe Zulu was involved in a brawl with an EFF MP in the corridor outside.
The debate on the treaty on the Grand Inga hydropower project started at 10.19pm, and the sergeant-at-arms was called at 10.49pm to remove Mashabela.
Parliament’s presiding officers were expected to address the media about the incident on Friday morning.
Here’s what some Twitter users had to say about the scuffle in Parliament last night:
I was proud with EFF and other political MPs in #Parliament we really need a united [email protected] — Ayanda (@ayandabili) November 14, 2014
#parliament RT @Poplak: The men with guns bring momentary order, and usher in lasting chaos. This is an inviolable historical fact. — Duduetsang (@dumo24) November 14, 2014
@SakinaKamwendo, What happened last night must never be forgotten by any sober-minded voter! pic.twitter.com/rhd6rLU4Cw — Vukile (@Vuksido) November 14, 2014 | 1,261 |
Mr. Manafort began working in Ukraine after the popular uprising in the winter of 2004-5 that became known as the Orange Revolution. Mr. Yanukovych, then prime minister, was declared the winner of a presidential election in 2004 that was marred by fraud and overturned by the country’s highest court after weeks of protests in favor of his pro-Western rival, Viktor A. Yushchenko.
Mr. Yanukovych had relied disastrously on Russian political advisers who underestimated voter frustration. After his defeat, he turned to American experts.
Mr. Manafort had begun working for one of Ukraine’s richest men, Rinat Akhmetov, to improve the image of his companies. Mr. Akhmetov was also a prominent sponsor of Mr. Yanukovych’s party, the Party of Regions, and he introduced the two men.
With Mr. Manafort’s advice, Mr. Yanukovych began a comeback, with the Party of Regions winning the biggest bloc in parliamentary elections in 2006 and again in 2007, returning him to the post of prime minister. At the time, Mr. Manafort called Mr. Yanukovych, a former coal trucking director who was twice convicted of assault as a young man, an outstanding leader who had been badly misunderstood in the West.
According to State Department cables at the time and later released by WikiLeaks, Mr. Manafort and his colleagues Phil Griffin and Catherine Barnes frequently pressed American diplomats in Ukraine to treat Mr. Yanukovych and his supporters equally so as not to risk being seen as favoring his opponents in the new elections. With Mr. Manafort’s help, the party was “working to change its image from that of a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party,” the American ambassador at the time, John E. Herbst, wrote.
During this time, lucrative side deals opened for Mr. Manafort.
In 2008, he and the developer Arthur G. Cohen negotiated a deal to buy the site of the Drake Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan. One partner was Dmytro Firtash, an oligarch who made billions as a middleman for Gazprom, the Russian natural gas giant, and who was known for funneling the money into the campaigns of pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, including Mr. Yanukovych. The three men intended to reopen the site as a mall and spa called Bulgari Tower, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan by Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine. In the end, though, the project unraveled. | 1,262 |
exposing his troubling emails. But after prosecutors contended that the pornographic emails had no relevance to the criminal case, Demchick-Alloy, who presided over the trial, barred Kane from making that charge in court.
Still, before the trial, Kane publicly criticized Fina and District Attorney Williams, sparking a political crisis for Williams after six years in office. She helped drum up sustained public criticism of the district attorney for his decision to stand by Fina and other former prosecutors on his staff who had been implicated in what inevitably came to be called Porngate in Harrisburg. This summer, Fina, after years as a federal, state and city prosecutor, quit Williams' staff.
While Kane and Fina battled, the Attorney General's Office has been in turmoil. Kane has gone through a string of spokesmen and top aides. High-profile cases have unraveled, a sullen staff has had to endure multiple investigations, and ex-prosecutors and supervisors have filed a blizzard of lawsuits against Kane. So far, taxpayers have shelled out nearly $600,000 to cover expenses settling or fighting those suits.
During her trial, no fewer than five former or current Kane aides provided damaging testimony against her. One, David Peifer, the office's head of special investigations, testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution, as did Morrow.
In the spring, though, Kane finally bowed to the political realities: a depleted campaign fund, $1.6 million owed to her husband (whom she is divorcing) from her last race, and negatives in polling.
The onetime star among Pennsylvania Democrats, the woman who pundits had said was destined for the U.S. Senate or even higher office, announced that she would not seek reelection.
She pledged to fight on in court, though. As Wolf, a fellow Democrat, and others pushed for her to step down, she stayed on - even after the state Supreme Court suspended her law license after she was criminally charged.
"A resignation would be an admission of guilt, and I'm not guilty," Kane said.
Prosecutor Henry had a different view. After the verdict, she said, "There are great men and women that work in the Office of Attorney General - great prosecutors, great agents, great support staff. They have had to suffer through what this defendant has done, not just to them, but to the citizens of this commonwealth. I am glad that the end is finally in sight." | 1,263 |
Unveiling ceremony of poet Yun Dong-ju’s memory and reconciliation. October. 30, 2017 07:52. by Won-Jae Jang peacechaos@donga.com.
“We are here together to remember the absurd history that we committed in the past. Let us look at the sky and think about poet Yun Dong-ju, who looked at the heaven above until the day he died.”
At 11 a.m. on Saturday, around 150 citizens, who gathered at the Uiji riverside, Uji, Kyoto, Japan, looked up into the sky as Pastor Hayase Gasuto at Uji Church finished his words. Professor Yun In-seok of Sungkyunkwan University continued by reading aloud the poem “New Road” encrypted on the memorial monument.
At this place, the unveiling ceremony for “Memorial Monument of Poet Yun Dong-ju’s Memory and Reconciliation” was held. This memorial monument was established in commemoration of the poet’s 100th birthday and it is the third one to be built in Japan. The monument, which is 2 meters in height and 1.4 meters in width, was created in a form where two granite columns, which stand for Japan and the Korean Peninsula, supports a circular cylinder, symbolizing Poet Yun Dong-ju. “My uncle (Yun Dong-ju) would be delighted to see this memorial monument being built at this meaningful place,” said Professor Yun.
“I am pleased to be able to establish a monument at a place where the poet spent his ravishing moments of youth,” said President Anjai Ikuro of the Committee of Establishing a Memorial Monument for Poet Yun Dong-ju. Baek Yeong-seo, the dean of Yonsei University’s School of Liberal Arts, participated at the unveiling ceremony, representing Yonsei University, which is the university Poet Yun Dong-ju’s studied, also said, “It is deeply inspiring.”
Currently, there are memorial monuments in Doshisha University in Kyoto, where Poet Yun used to study, and where there used to be a boarding house (nowadays the Kyoto University of Art and Design). It is known that more than 20,000 Koreans visit the Doshisha University to see the memorial monument. The Uiji monument, is the first of its kind to be built in a place other than a university. | 1,264 |
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Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone insists he is not alarmed by the sport's declining television audience and sees no need to revamp its social media approach.
Amid viewership drops in key markets such as Italy and Germany, there have been calls for F1 to make the most of opportunities offered by new media channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
F1 needs to wake up to new media world
But Ecclestone remains unmoved, and doubts the social media boom will last.
"It matters obviously, but when you say it is falling, it is changing," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT about falling TV figures.
"But I think the change that is currently taking place is very shortlived, as these social media people are starting to think it is not as good as they thought."
When asked if he believed F1 needed to change its approach, and officially embrace social media like other sports have done, he said: "No. We're commercial... If they find people to pay us [to do that] then I will be happy."
HEMBERY: UNDERSTANDING AUDIENCES IS KEY
Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery believes understanding what fans want from the sport is one of the biggest issues facing F1.
"We're a technical partner but we're also a sponsor," he said.
"We look at how many people are watching the sport and what they think of the current F1. Viewing figures so far this year are extremely disappointing - there's no doubt about that."
But with BBC figures suggesting that iPlayer growth was 33 per cent last year, and live radio audiences jumping by 53 per cent, there is a growing view that the way people consume F1 is changing dramatically.
"We've been looking at some studies done by Premier League and Sky, and they've seen a very increased take-up on the iPad viewing and not watching on TV. That's certainly a way many people are going," said Hembery.
"You see telephone companies wanting to create their own digital content as well. We've seen Movistar come into Formula 1 for example with that objective.
"We're seeing the world change and it's not just Formula 1, it's the whole way people follow their sports and get their entertainment.
"That's something FOM is working on and hopefully we'll see the results of that in the near future." | 1,265 |
Bumper pay rises for England players could be signed off at a meeting between the Professional Cricketers' Association hierarchy and county representatives on Friday.
The new central contracts, which are scheduled to run from October 1, form part of the county partnership agreement - a financial framework using the £1.1billion television deal that will underpin the sport in this country for the next five years.
The increase in remuneration is particularly significant for limited-overs internationals, who will move onto deals similar to their Test counterparts.
England players could be in for bumper pay rises as part of the county partnership agreement
Those currently on white-ball contracts receive £60,000 annually from the ECB, with their income supplemented by the contracts they hold with their clubs. From 2019-20, however, the entire wage will be paid by the governing body.
The retainer has risen to £75,000 and players will receive up to £250,000 extra per year depending on a banding relating to performance, behaviour and seniority, plus match fees. It means those who play all formats could earn seven figures for the first time.
While agreement on central contracts was reached some time ago - negotiated separately by the Team England Player Partnership arm of the PCA - other aspects of the CPA are yet to be rubber-stamped.
The PCA believe they may be in a position to conclude things when they meet with the 18 representatives at a Birmingham hotel (Edgbaston is out of bounds due to its use as a World Cup venue) to hear feedback from the 400-strong membership.
The new central contracts for England players are scheduled to run from October 1
However, it will require three-quarters of the county squads to vote it through, and it is known that some are particularly agitated by aspects of the CPA such as the requirement for those involved in the Hundred to reimburse their counties with 12.5% of their annual wage, as exclusively revealed by Sportsmail earlier this year.
The PCA have remained insistent that'most of the headline figures will not change' but the reps have a chance to delay the process if there is sufficient resistance to the 100-ball competition levy.
They are also certain to want to see a breakdown of exactly how the 26.5% player share of the ECB revenue breaks down. It is split between the England men, women and the county game.
During the most recent negotiations in Australian cricket, the players took a share in excess of 27%. | 1,266 |
The acceleration of the trend toward miniaturization of electronic components has been propelled by the arrival of nanotechnologies. Processors are now measured in nanometers, a mere 22 in the case of Intel’s Core i3/i5/i7 series, and have shrunk to a point where researchers have begun to propose quantum computers. These machines operate on the principle that their fundamental unit of computation, the “qubit”, is no longer limited to the value of 1 or 0, but instead exists in many simultaneous states. As qubits are added the number of possible states rises exponentially to unleash phenomenal powers of calculation.
Another non-negligible development, based on prevailing processor technology, is the arrival of open-source solutions such as the credit-card-sized computer Raspberry Pi. With sales of around one thousand devices a second, $35 now buys hobbyists the power to construct their own robots and places various vocations within the grasp of future generations.
As for connectivity, we’ve only just begun to explore the possibilities of a permanently networked world. Wi-Fi, 4G, WiMax, Bluetooth, and RFID are among the protocols from which innovators will weave the intelligent objects of the future. Some robots have been adapted to exploit the resources made available through the widespread diffusion of smartphones. One example is a bionic arm controlled by a downloadable application, while another is a robot that mimics the movements of users holding an Android-powered handset (video).
The rise of the Internet has profoundly altered our relationship to information and is shaking up old habits. We are permanently connected and form part of an information ecosystem that we simultaneously consume and construct. Aided by ever more powerful robot forms we in turn process larger chunks of data and are creating a sort of omniscient intelligence—many would hold up Google as an example—that could one day be introduced to the human body through the means of an electronic chip. The face of humanity’s future could be thus …
The emergence of the loosely defined Transhumanist movement encourages a belief in a technological future that is expanding exponentially. The suggestion is that society’s only hope of keeping pace is to make peace with the notion of enhancements of the type that could one day lead to the creation of a hybrid form of humanity. Of course, certain assumptions have been made about possible paths toward the future of technological innovation suggesting the need for a far-reaching ethical discussion and a healthy dose of prudence as we advance toward an unknown world. | 1,267 |
Roger Stone, former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, waves Tuesday as he arrives at federal court in Washington for a hearing. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
WASHINGTON (CN) – Vying to prosecute Roger Stone on obstruction charges, the government told a federal judge that the motion to dismiss from the garrulous Trump ally garbles the U.S. Constitution.
“To establish the defendant’s guilt of the crimes with which he is charged, the government is not required to prove the existence of a conspiracy with the Russian government to interfere in the U.S. presidential election,” U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu wrote in a Friday response brief.
Stone advised President Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election and was indicted this past January on charges that he lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during their investigation of the suspected coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Stone moved to dismiss the charges against him on April 12, telling the court, among other things, that he could not be charged with obstructing a congressional proceeding without Congress’ referral.
Prosecutor Liu unraveled this argument Friday.
“This claim misunderstands the Constitution’s allocation of prosecutorial decision making to the Executive Branch, and Stone provides no basis to believe that this prosecution unconstitutionally impedes Congress,” Liu’s response brief states.
A month after his arrest, Stone drew the wrath of his presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, by posting a picture of her to the internet with crosshairs over her face.
After the post led Jackson to tighten a gag order in the case, Stone tested the judge again by re-releasing his book, “The Myth of Russian Collusion,” without prior court approval.
The book has faced lackluster sales.
Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to Congress and obstruction related to his effort to obtain information about efforts by WikiLeaks to publish Democratic Party emails ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump has been publicly supportive of Stone.
“If Roger Stone was indicted for lying to Congress, what about the lying done by Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Lisa Page & lover, Baker and soooo many others?,” the president tweeted in late January. “What about Hillary to FBI and her 33,000 deleted Emails? What about Lisa & Peter’s deleted texts & Wiener’s laptop? Much more!” | 1,268 |
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has met Vice President Mike Pence in a behind-closed-doors encounter at his residence in Washington.
In a break with protocol, Mr Pence's officials barred media from the traditional St Patrick's event at his Naval Observatory residence in the US capital.
The move came after Mr Varadkar stated he was going to raise the issue of LGBT rights with the socially conservative vice president who has faced criticism for his stance on the issue.
Media were only permitted to capture the arrival of the Taoiseach this morning. As the politicians exchanged greetings, Mr Pence ignored questions from reporters as to why the engagement was private.
Yesterday, Mr Varadkar expressed disappointment at the media ban.
He said he would have preferred if the cameras were allowed in to document their comments, but the Taoiseach added: "It allows us maybe to have a frank conversation that's easier to have without the media present."
This morning's encounter took place amid a controversy over an Irish golf course owned by President Donald Trump.
The row centres on an intervention the Taoiseach made on a planning decision linked to Mr Trump's Co Clare course at Doonbeg.
The furore flared when Mr Varadkar, in an unscripted anecdote during a St Patrick's lunch on Capitol Hill yesterday, outlined details of a phone call he received from the high-profile businessman four years ago.
Mr Trump told Mr Varadkar, then tourism minister, he was unhappy about a planned wind farm in view of the course.
With the president looking on, Mr Varadkar told Speaker Paul Ryan's lunch event that upon taking the call he contacted the local county council and "endeavoured to do what I could do about it".
The planning permission was later declined, he added.
"I do think it probably would have been refused anyway but I am very happy to take credit for it if the president is going to offer it to me," said the Taoiseach.
The Fine Gael leader's remarks prompted a wave of criticism from opposition parties here, with TDs demanding urgent clarity on the extent of Mr Varadkar's intervention.
The picture was further clouded when Clare County Council issued a statement last night saying it had no record of a representation made by the then tourism minister.
Mr Varadkar's spokesman has moved to clarify his remarks, insisting he did not act inappropriately and had only enquired about the application.
- PA | 1,269 |
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You see it on bumper stickers every day: “Jesus is Lord”. “King of Kings”. “Lord of All.” Were people voting with their bumpers, Jesus would win by a landslide.
But when the American right speaks of religion in politics, they are referring to Christianity. When they fight for more religion in the courts and schools, they mean more of their religion..
But the time is coming when fundamental Islamic madrasahs are going to start popping up next to their Christian schools. A time when protesting Muslims, using the legal victories of the Christian right, will have Sharia Law enshrined in the courts next to the Ten Commandments.
What the evangelicals don’t get (and what will come back to bite them in a generation’s time) is that freedom for one means freedom for all. Every law they pass to allow more of their religion into the government will also allow every other religion in. There will come a day when Congress and kindergartners will have to break for Islamic prayer, whether they are Islamic or not.
In fact, anyone with a religion will be able to exert power over the status quo, begging the indulgence of school boards and State funds to make sure their religion is as respected and included under the law as Christianity. And yes, the hardcore anti-Western imams with their hate speech will, in time, be protected under the very freedoms that they are trying to destroy.
There’s nothing fanciful in this. It’s a direct cause-and-effect of the legal precedents that the Christian right are pursuing. Religious inclusion for one sect will be applied to all, and you can bet that the extremists are watching this very closely, allowing the Pentecostals and evangelicals to do the hard work for them.
It bears repeating: freedom of religion must also mean freedom from religion. Only by separating religion and government will we be able to maintain the objectivity and freedom that the West has enjoyed for so long.
Written by Wm. Hopper, http://www.heathensguide.com.
‘The Heathen’s Guide to Christmas’.
A Field Manual in the War on Christmas.
Available just in time for Christmas dinner with your in-laws.
The Heathen’s Guide to Christmas
www.heathensguide.com
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iddling universities, what is the loss? These non-students will receive lower wages, cost society less money, learn to make fewer demands, and be less trouble to Britain’s leading economic sectors. They are downgrading British society to new lower status in the “global auction,” a competition at all skill levels that puts downward pressure on everyone’s wages. Rather than receive high wages for their high skills, graduates will, in this late-capitalist framework, receive low wages for them. Tories appear simply to have conceded the point, accepted that the “high-skill/low wage” bargain is the best Britain can do, and decided to limit current taxpayer outlays for a losing university bargain. Of course this means accepting a Britain that is both less qualified and less affluent, that is in fact post-middle class. This defeatism is at the heart of the government’s higher education plan: there is and shall be no collective betterment, and thus no need for collective investment.
I don’t want to come to an overly simplistic conclusion that distracts attention from the richness of detail in McGettigan’s book or from the complexity of these Tory changes’ effects. I am not clairvoyant about where they will lead. But I have spent years watching the public university systems of the United States and the United Kingdom — and of France and Germany — struggle to tread water without a buoyant definition of their value as public goods. The result has been the status quo for some, floundering for most, and a general sinking of public confidence that universities are on the public’s side.
The inconvenient truth is that a public-good higher education would mean and will mean increasing enrollments, rising quality, and increasing development for a country’s economy and society. The Tory’s instituted private system will mean lower enrollments, rationed quality, and reduced overall development. Unless the university sector can define its mission as “a quality commitment to the population defined as whoever can benefit,” unless it can make clear the connection between its public good status and democratic economic hope, Tory-like counterreformations will prevail throughout the West. McGettigan’s book shows that this outcome would be contrived, imposed, artificial, and devastating.
¤
Christopher Newfield is the author of Unmaking the Public University: The 40-Year Assault on the Middle Class (Harvard UP, 2008) and the blog Remaking the University. | 1,272 |
Pity the poor engineers at Sony. They’re labouring to make ever-better gaming technology – PS4 Pro, PS VR – and what do the gaming public do? Wet their collective knickers over retro returns of Sonic The Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot. Haven’t you seen Jurassic Park? No good will come of resurrecting things better left in museums.
Those classic games were great in their day; their title characters are icons for a reason. But as someone who remembers when games were in black-and-white, I reckon looking backwards is the wrong thing to do. We’d still be playing Pong with that attitude. Games are simply better now, and we should revel in what today’s hardware is capable of.
Games are more believable, more immersive, now. Seeing, the old cliché has it, is believing. We’re about to be hit with the most realistic-looking racers ever (you can almost detect that ‘new car smell’ wafting off GT Sport). Last year, Trico reduced hardened gamers to tears with his realistic recalcitrance, plaintive cries, and pleading eyes, he was so lifelike. You couldn’t do that with 64 bits. We can wander round Los Santos, Tamriel, or the whole galaxy with a freedom noughties gamers could only dream of, and we can play with people on the other side of the world.
I’m not saying we should give up on old characters, but let’s give them the games they always deserved, rather than the ones they got. Crystal Dynamics got that right with Rise Of The Tomb Raider, using current technology to allow us to enter Lara Croft’s world in a way we never could before. Croft Manor is a revelation in PS VR.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus looks like continuing BJ Blazkowicz’s transformation in humorous, action-packed style – after seeing just one trailer, only an idiot would say they’d have preferred Bethesda to simply remaster the ’80s bricky Wolfenstein and leave all that ‘plot’ stuff out. Crash got ‘fur-K’ graphics, but what more could he have had if set completely free from his old games? So let’s stop all this remaster nonsense. Bring on the future.
This article originally appeared in Official PlayStation Magazine. For more great PlayStation coverage, you can subscribe here. | 1,273 |
is wrong and that privacy is at risk," Vance said.
"Because Apple and Google refuse to reconsider their approach, I believe the only answer is federal legislation ensuring lawful access," he added. "Tech goliaths have shown time and again they have no business policing themselves."
Downside of Lawful Access
There can be hangups, however, with the "lawful access" Vance and others seek.
"The U.S. government can require an American company to install backdoors, but they can't require people to use those backdoored services," the Cato Institute's Sanchez pointed out.
"There are already widely available open source encryption tools with no backdoors, which sophisticated users can switch to if they no longer trust compromised encryption," he continued, "and competing tech companies outside U.S. jurisdiction are sure to eagerly promote their products as an uncompromised, more secure alternative."
In either case, the big loser would be Facebook.
"People utilize WhatsApp because of the encryption," Constellation's Miller observed. "If you take that away, a lot of people will leave the platform, and they'll begin to question whether they want to do business with Facebook."
Support of encryption backdoors by global governments has the security community concerned, observed Kevin Bocek, vice president for security strategy and threat intelligence at Salt Lake City-based Venafi, maker of a platform to protect digital keys and certificates.
"This is not rocket science. Backdoors inevitably create vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cyberattackers. It's understandable that so many security and privacy professionals are concerned. Backdoors are especially appealing to hostile and abusive attackers," he told TechNewsWorld.
"This is a tense moment for technology professionals because they know backdoors make our critical infrastructure and devices more vulnerable. We know that attackers don't abide by restrictions. They don't follow the rules or buy products in controlled markets," Bocek continued.
"Countries that enact these restrictions harm law-abiding businesses and court economic damage," he warned, "as well as intrusions focused on sovereign government processes."
John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.
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MUMBAI: Cow vigilantism has reached the Maximum City. And the issue is not about skinning a cow or even possession of beef, but carrying a leather bag that apparently looks like it has been made of cow hide.A creative director with a production house was harassed by a group of self-proclaimed “cow protectors” over a leather bag he was carrying while commuting to work in an autorickshaw in Mumbai’s Andheri (West) on Friday.Barun Kashyap’s Facebook post, in which he described his ordeal, drew hundreds of reactions from outraged Mumbaikars who said such bullying had no place in the city. He approached cops, who filed a non-cognizable complaint (NC) against three men on Saturday. Asked why just an NC, a police officer said it was because “there was no physical harm done to Kashyap”.Recounting his experience, Kashyap, who has lived in Mumbai for the past two-and-half years, said, “I hailed an auto outside my Andheri building to go to work (in the same suburb) around 11-11.30am, planning to stop at a bank on the way to deposit cash.”“The auto driver peered at me curiously... He asked me in English where I was from and I replied Assam... after a while, he asked if the state was located near Bangladesh.” After Kashyap said yes, the auto driver started to drive.At a traffic signal, the driver told Kashyap that his leather bag was stinking. “I told him it happens in the monsoon when the bag gets wet. He wasn’t convinced and touched the bag when I wasn’t looking. He then said the bag was made of cow hide. I told him it was camel leather. But the answer did not satisfy him and he argued.”While passing a temple, he stopped the vehicle and gestured at a couple of men. “One of the men then poked his head into the auto and touched my bag. All this while, I was protesting...” Kashyap said. Eventually, the auto driver started driving. “I had glanced at four digits on the vehicle number plate and made a mental note of it when the driver said, ‘Aaj toh bach gaye (you were saved today)’,” Kashyap added.He approached the police on Saturday. | 1,275 |
win a game. He doesn’t have Jonas Gray and the offensive line the New England Patriots do where they can run for 250 yards in a game. … I don’t think anybody bears the weight of the organization on their shoulders week in and week out more than Andrew Luck.”
And what about Roethlisberger ranking above Brady? It gets a little … interesting.
“Well, look, Roethlisberger, his stats are phenomenal, he’s a great down-the-field thrower,” Simms said. “Ben Roethlisberger really until this year has never had a running game, since maybe his rookie year with Jerome Bettis, he’s never had an offensive line, and I think this is the first year he has weapons at receiver in a long time. … Are you guys going to sit there and tell me that Santonio Holmes is some superstar going for him? So, now he’s got a little talent around him, he’s still a baller, he doesn’t always do it the way that maybe a prototypical quarterback does, but he’s very hard to defend, he stands in the pocket all day, he has tremendous size, which is a talent, and he’s one of the better throwers of the football that the game has to offer.”
Simms’ final word on Brady: “When Tom Brady was back in the mid-2000’s there, 2005, 2004, when you guys were winning Super Bowls, he was awesome. He had one of the best arms in football. He was one of the best throwers of the football down the field. He was elite, there’s no doubt about it. He’s still really freaking good, don’t get me wrong. … Sorry, yeah, it’s just at this point in his career, I can’t put [Brady and Manning] in those top two or three quarterback [spots] when guys like Aaron Rodgers, who are maybe the most talented guys the league has ever seen at the quarterback position, are still here and are in their prime.”
You can listen to the entire discussion below:
MORE PATRIOTS COVERAGE FROM CBS BOSTON
[display-posts category=”patriots” wrapper=”ul” posts_per_page=”4?”] | 1,276 |
and accident insurance, among other things. The truth or falsity of these assertions is completely independent of the soundness of Hayek’s theory of cultural group selection or the current state of the theory. In arguing here that the evidence generated by contemporary cultural group selections theorists supports Hayek I mean only to suggest that it sustains Hayek’s cultural group selection theory, not everything Hayek asserted. At the same time, though, I do believe that the current state of cultural group selection theory and the empirical evidence it has generated provide generous support for Hayek against certain criticisms. To take another well-known example, the libertarian Larry Sechrest (1998) has argued that the rational or ethical egoism of Ayn Rand is superior to Hayek’s evolutionary approach, that Hayek’s views are wanting because Hayek “is not a consistent methodological individualist” (1998:57), and that “Hayek’s rejection of reason in favor of traditions and customs is a grievous error” (1998:54). I believe that at this point the evidence gathered by group selection theorists vindicates Hayek on these counts and that Sechrest and those who share his views are misguided. We are exquisitely social beings and anyone who seeks to understand our species by denying that fact and by seeking to ground the study of humans in rational egoism is doomed to failure. Individual reason is certainly real but it is always limited by historical and cultural context and it can not exist without cumulative human culture binding individuals. As Hayek stressed, however, human sociability depends as much on human differences as it does on what binds us. In the words of Matt Ridley—a devotee of both Darwin and Hayek—sometime in the last 200,000 years “Human beings had started to do something to and with each other that in effect began to build collective intelligence. They started, for the first time, to exchange things between unrelated, unmarried individuals; to share, swap, barter and trade”(2010:56). There is no master mind or central planning agency but there is collective intelligence in the form of dispersed, specialized knowledge made possible by the division of labor and exchange, just as Hayek argued. Better than anyone else, Hayek described the distinct human capacities basic to our sociability, some allowing shared norms and common culture, others making market coordinated self-interested, yet mutually beneficial, activities possible. The isolated and independent human individual, devoid of social interest and mutual dependence, is a fanciful fiction. | 1,277 |
The Abyss Announces Partnership with Changelly
The Abyss, the next generation digital distribution platform, officially announces partnership with Changelly, an instant cryptocurrency exchange service providing the fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto options.
Partnership with Changelly follows the strategy of The Abyss to deliver the most convenient and accessible service to its customers. After Changelly’s integration to The Abyss platform, gamers will be able to buy ABYSS tokens for USD/EURO using a bank (credit/debit) card without leaving The Abyss.
Changelly also supports crypto-to-crypto transactions, allowing gamers and developers to convert ABYSS tokens to Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies, including stable USDT (Tether) cryptocurrency. The service picks up the best rate from various exchanges.
The Abyss is excited to provide this smart and easy-to-use service to its customers. For many of them the integration of Changelly tools would be one of the quickest ways to step into the cryptoworld. Those who have never in their lives interacted with cryptocurrencies, will have the best and the easiest crypto experience.
“The video game industry is showing a great potential, and we would like to reveal it to full extent by bringing all the advantages of cryptocurrencies to billions of gamers and game developers globally. That is why we have chosen The Abyss, and are happy to announce signing the pre-agreement with the platform.”
— Konstantin Gladych, CEO & Co-Founder at Changelly.
“We are delighted to work with Changelly, an excellent exchange service on the market. The integration of fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto service will boost the development of The Abyss project, while being beneficial to Changelly as well. It will make ABYSS tokens easy to get and even more available to the vast gamer and gamedev community. With all that, an access to The Abyss and its services will be simplified. The possibility of buying tokens for USD/EURO using an ordinary credit/debit bank card will result in the increase of active users inflow to The Abyss.”
— Konstantin Boyko-Romanovsky, Founder of The Abyss.
ABYSS tokens will be available for purchase on Changelly within a week, after unlock scheduled for June 7, 11:00 UTC.
Other updates will follow soon. Stay tuned!
Best,
The Abyss Team | 1,278 |
Now signing up 1.5 million users each week in the U.S., Android Pay, Google’s payment platform and mobile wallet for Android devices and apps, is coming to the UK, with dozens of partners including banks, physical retailers, apps and payment platforms in tow. Google is not giving an exact date for the launch except to note that it will be “in the next few months.” This is Google’s first market in Europe, and it looks like it’s the second outside of the U.S., after Google announced the launch of Android Pay in Australia in December (where it has yet to go live).
Meanwhile, over in the U.S., Google is adding more retailers and kicking off a new loyalty program for Android Pay users, in partnership with Plenti — a card-based rewards program from American Express. Users of Android Pay who sign up to Plenti can now pick up loyalty points and redeem rewards when they shop at participating retailers. Considering that one of the issues with mobile payments is that in many cases people cannot find enough of a reason to switch from using existing payment methods like physical cards, it’s integrations like this with loyalty programs that can potentially help make services more “sticky” and potentially more useful.
For context on the UK announcement, Apple Pay launched in the UK in July last year, and Samsung has said that its own-brand mobile wallet will be coming to the UK this year. People had been noticing hints of Android Pay’s imminent UK plans, but this is the first official confirmation from Google of the service.
In a sense, considering that Apple made an earlier move to turn on Apple Pay here, and individual banks like Barclays have put in legwork to build their own mobile wallets and contactless payment apps, Google is somewhat late — or at least took its time bringing Android Pay to this market.
One of the reasons may have been that it was trying to get a sufficient number of partners on board to enter with a splash. Today, that seems one of the main themes of its announcement.
Included are eight big banks — but not all of them, with some of the biggies left out including Barclays and TSB. (Notably, when Apple Pay launched people pointed out that it, too, was missing some major names — which then got in the months following.) Google’s Pali Bhat, a product management senior director at Android Pay, notes that more banks are still getting added. | 1,279 |
CARLTON'S Mitch Robinson, Richmond's Steven Morris and Melbourne's Neville Jetta are facing suspensions following the Match Review Panel's scrutiny of round 15.
Robinson is facing the heftiest ban after being offered a two-match suspension for striking Collingwood midfielder Taylor Adams.
But Gold Coast's Jarrod Harbrow, Blues onballer Dale Thomas and Magpies star Dayne Beams are off the hook, despite all attracting the attention of the MRP.
Harbrow can accept a reprimand and 70.31 carryover points for striking Hawthorn's Luke Breust.
Contact Thomas made with former teammate Dayne Beams was considered below the force required to be reportable, while the match-day report laid against Beams for punching Ed Curnow in the midriff was thrown out.
Robinson was cited for striking Adams in the head during the first quarter of Sunday night's clash at the MCG.
The incident was graded as intentional, low impact and high contact.
Robinson's poor record means that even if he pleads guilty, he cannot escape a two-match ban.
Morris was booked for two rough conduct offences, the first against St Kilda's Sean Dempster and the second against Jack Steven.
He was offered two reprimands, but the rules state that such penalties must be added together.
If he pleads guilty to both offences, he will be banned for one match.
Jetta was cited for the high bump he laid against Western Bulldog Fletcher Roberts during the third quarter of the Demons' narrow loss on Sunday.
The initial penalty was a two-match suspension, but he can have it reduced to one game if he pleads guilty.
Four St Kilda and Richmond players are facing fines after being booked for taking part in a melee during the Saturday afternoon match at Etihad Stadium.
Saints youngster Jimmy Webster copped the most severe penalty. He has been offered an $1800 fine for starting the fracas and a $1200 fine for participating in it.
Webster's teammate Seb Ross was the other St Kilda player fined, while Richmond's Dustin Martin ($2100, due to it being a second offence) and Anthony Miles ($1200) are also likely to have lighter wallets by the end of the week. | 1,280 |
Just when you think they've hit rock bottom in their hatred of poor people and stupidity comes this gem:
Members of the state affairs committee are approving a bill that limits the amount of junk food that can be purchased with food stamp benefits
"This bill does not allow for Wisconsinites who are utilizing the FoodShare program to purchase sharp cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, shredded cheese or reduced sodium cheeses," said State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa, D-Milwaukee. (an opponent of the measure) "And I just want to indicate again how that hurts not just those individuals, those Wisconsinites using the FoodShare program.....but it hurts our dairy farmers."
(information in italics is my addition)
Note that what we call "fake cheese" around here, like Velveeta and other "processed cheese products", isn't mentioned.
Did they forget that Wisconsin is the nations Dairy State and that cheese is a dairy product? Did they forget that cheese has so much nutritional value it's one of the primary foods on the WIC program that serves pregnant women and children? Did they forget that we love cheese so much that we wear plastic replicas of Swiss Cheese wedges on our heads at sporting events?
No, they didn't forget. They just hate poor people and put this in a bill that seriously limits what people can buy with food stamps. They're sticking it to poor people again and likely catering to those makers of the real junk food "processed cheese product" cheese like Kraft. Yup, these guys haven't met a large corporation they don't love.
People getting food stamps have a hard time avoiding hunger as it is. Limiting their choices certainly doesn't help in a country where they are routinely smeared as "moochers". Food stamps are not welfare, they're used by families and seniors whose income qualifies them. And that's what's really wrong. Nobody who works should ever be poor, or hungry, or homeless.
Of course, outside of Madison, this hasn't gotten any media mention. Our GOP loving media follows the advice their mothers gave them with a twist:
If you don't have anything nice to say about Republicans, just keep your mouth shut.
Yeah, that strategy is working really well (for Republicans).
PS: It was really really hard to find any media reporting on this. Found the article I linked online at a Madison television station. It's not in any of the newspapers here.
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They’ll be a huge hit at birthday parties, bake sales and anywhere you’d usually bring your favorite kind of cookies. They look adorable and everyone will “ooh” and “ahh” when they realize there’s a real Snickers bar baked into each cup!
ENJOY! 🙂
More Easy Desserts
Continue to Content Yield: 48 cookie cups Snickers Cookie Cups Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 10 minutes Total Time 25 minutes Pin Print Easy Snickers Cookie Cups made with refrigerated cookie dough and candy bars. Take the extra step and make the caramel frosting, so worth it!! Ingredients For the Cookies: 1 roll (32 oz) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
48 mini snickers candy, or about 6 full size snickers bars, chopped into 8 pieces For the Frosting: 3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp caramel sauce
1/2 cup peanuts
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips Instructions Preheat oven to 350F. Cut cookie dough into 48 pieces. Drop each piece into a mini muffin tin. Bake in oven for about 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Immediately press candy into center. Allow to cool in pan about 15 minutes. Remove and cool completely on wire rack. For the frosting, beat powdered sugar with butter, milk and caramel sauce for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Pipe onto cooled cookie cups, and immediately sprinkle with peanuts and chocolate chips. Nutrition Information: Yield: 48 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 377 Total Fat: 18g Saturated Fat: 7g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 8g Cholesterol: 14mg Sodium: 165mg Carbohydrates: 48g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 40g Protein: 5g *Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice. Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram
Today’s Snicker’s Cookie Cups recipe was originally published on Shugary Sweets on September 7, 2015.
These Snickers Cookie Cups are cookies AND candy all in one easy to make treat! Bake up a batch of these bars to share today–just be sure to set aside a few all for yourself. Trust me on this one! You deserve it. | 1,282 |
Canonical just managed to squeeze it in before the end of the month, but the long-awaited latest edition of Ubuntu Linux is now online and available for free download.
Ubuntu has worked hard to gain a reputation as a friendly and easy-to-use Linux distribution which anyone can use - from the experienced computer hacker to the home hobbyist to the student, child or grandmother who just needs to send e-mail, surf the web and view photos.
Ubuntu is well known too for its clockwork release schedule, with new editions hitting the Internet every six months, in April and October. It is this schedule which gives Ubuntu its version numbering. Version 10.04 is the 2010 April (04) release. Similarly, it can be stated now with certainty the next edition of Ubuntu will be version 10.10, being the October (10) 2010 release.
Ubuntu is also famous for its alternate naming schedule with attributes assigned to animals that somehow reflect the theme of the release.
This time around Ubuntu 10.04 is codenamed Lucid Lynx, representing the developer's ideals that it be smooth, sound and agile.
This general smoothness is also reflected in the LTS designation that has been ascribed to it. LTS stands for 'Long Term Support' and means that anyone interested in running a Linux distro which is going to be maintained for years to come would do well to consider Lucid Lynx.
As always, you can download Ubuntu in a rich variety of formats and means. There are ISO images and torrents available for desktop, netbook and server releases. For those who like their Ubuntu a bit different there are Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu and Mythbuntu variations too.
Positive features of the new face of Linux include vastly improved support for nVidia graphics cards, expanded built-in social networking tools, a faster boot time, the DRM-free Ubuntu One Music Store iPod, iPad and iPhone support and cloud integration, among many others.
Of course, all is not without controversy. During the six months leading up to today there were surprises and consternation afoot as Canonical announced The GIMP would be dropped and that the window control buttons would switch from right to left.
Check it out; today Ubuntu 10.04 is the newest and most up-to-date operating system on the planet. Whether you're an old hand at Linux or have never touched it before, Lucid Lynx is certain to please. | 1,283 |
TEL AVIV – A majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza oppose the Palestinian leadership’s sight-unseen rejection of the Trump-administration’s peace plan and would prefer a “wait-and-see” approach, according to a new poll by the Palestine Center for Public Opinion led by Dr. Nabil Kukali.
The poll, cited by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last week, found that only a third of Palestinians felt that the PA should “reject the plan now so as to maintain our position.”
Around a quarter of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians responded that the Palestinian Authority “should not reject the plan, so Israel won’t be able to take advantage of the rejection” and a further quarter maintained that “the PA should look at the plan when it is officially released, before taking any position on it.”
In June, a $50 billion economic portion of the Trump administration’s peace plan was unveiled at an economic peace conference in Bahrain that was snubbed by the Palestinians.
According to the poll, half the respondents thought the conference was “a bad idea.”
Only 30% of respondents from Gaza, and 14% in the West Bank, thought the event was “a good idea.”
“But an extraordinarily high 40% of West Bankers, and 19% of Gazans, say they haven’t heard or read enough about the Bahrain workshop to offer an opinion about it — perhaps, at least in some cases, because they are reluctant to contradict the official PA and Hamas opposition to it,” according to the Washington Institute.
An overwhelming majority of Palestinians believed Arab states should be involved in the peace process.
Eighty-six percent of Gazans and 61% of West Bankers agreed with the following statement: “Arab states should take a more active role in Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking, offering both sides incentive to take more moderate positions.”
“Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman gets a good rating from 22% of West Bankers and 38% of Gazans. And Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads the pack by far: a remarkable three-quarters of Palestinian respondents in both territories credit him with a favorable rating,” the Washington Institute said.
The poll also showed that nearly nine out of ten Palestinians held a negative view of US President Donald Trump. | 1,284 |
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign chief Kevin Sheekey defended the former New York City mayor’s decision to skip early nominating states after his late entry into the crowded primary field.
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“Mike is getting in this race because he thinks that Donald Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE is an existential crisis and he thinks he’s on a path to victory and he’s getting in to alter that dynamic,” Sheekey said Monday in an interview with CNN.
Sheekey said the general election is only about six states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona.
“That’s the whole general election. And right now Donald Trump is winning, he is winning that election. It’s very tough for people who don't live in New York or California to understand that, but that is what’s happening,” Sheekey said.
Sheekey pointed to a set of New York Times and Siena College polls released earlier this month that showed Trump beating leading Democratic candidates in some of the six states he mentioned.
The polls showed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) defeating Trump only in Arizona; Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersSirota reacts to report of harassment, doxing by Harris supporters Republicans not immune to the malady that hobbled Democrats The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Republicans lawmakers rebuke Trump on election MORE (I-Vt.) doing so in three of the states and former Vice President Joe Biden doing so in four. All of the Democrats lost to Trump in North Carolina, which former President Obama carried narrowly in 2008.
Sheekey also pushed back on criticism over Bloomberg’s decision to skip the first four nominating states, which typically serve as an indicator of which candidate will be the chosen as the nominee.
“You can say it’s never been done before, but you also have to say no one's ever tried it before,” he said, on skipping early primary states.
Sheekey called the strategy a focus on a “national political campaign.” He said Bloomberg will be speaking to “everyone in the country at once” with a focus on voters needed in swing states. | 1,285 |
A Miami Heat executive is under federal investigation, suspected of taking $13.4 million in sponsorship money from the Sacramento Kings, his former employer.
The Heat suspended Jeffrey R. David after learning federal prosecutors suspect he ran a money-laundering operation that sent $9 million of money from the Golden 1 Credit Union and another $4.4 million from the Kaiser Permanente Foundation into his account instead of the team’s.
The Sacramento Bee reported the investigation on Thursday. Sources told the newspaper David bought beachfront property in Southern California with the money.
David, 44, served as the chief revenue officer for the Kings until June 1, when the team eliminated his job. In July, he joined the Heat in the same capacity.
The Kings reported the alleged theft to federal investigators last week. No charges have been filed.
Federal officials would not answer questions about the subject. The Kings, however, confirmed the investigation on Thursday to The Bee.
“Last week, we alerted federal law enforcement to suspicious financial transactions involving a former Kings employee, Jeff David,” the team said. “That investigation is underway and on Monday, U.S. Department of Justice authorities began the formal process of recovering and seizing the properties involved in the investigation.”
The team attorney, William Portanova, said the assets are being recovered.
“This was an amazing response by the FBI and the U.S. attorney,” Portanova said. “It’s rare to be able to identify the culprit and return the diverted assets as quickly as the FBI has.”
David, a former NBA executive, negotiated advertising and corporate partnerships for Sacramento. The credit union signed a 20-year, $120 million naming rights contract for Golden 1 Center in 2015.
The Heat issued a statement on Thursday.
“We are aware of the investigation of Jeff David, which focuses on events that took place prior to his joining our team,” according to the statement. “We are fully cooperating with the authorities. Jeff David is on leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.”
At the time of his hiring on July 9, Eric Woolworth, president of the Heat group’s business operations, said in a statement, “Jeff is supremely qualified to help us grow our business. He’s a fantastic addition to our executive staff and we welcome him with open arms to our family.”
--Field Level Media | 1,286 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles won approval from U.S. and California regulators on Friday to sell 2017 diesel vehicles after it came under scrutiny for alleged excess emissions in older diesel vehicles.
A sign marks Clark Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership in Methuen, Massachusetts, U.S. January 25, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Fiat Chrysler hopes to use updated emissions software in the 2017 vehicles as the basis of a fix to address agencies’ concerns over 2014-2016 Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles after the Justice Department sued the automaker in May, alleging excess emissions.
Regulators contended the older vehicles had undisclosed emissions controls that allowed vehicles to emit excess pollution in normal driving.
Reuters on Thursday reported the planned approvals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board.
In May, the Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler, accusing it of illegally using software to bypass emission controls in 104,000 diesel Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Ram 1500 trucks sold since 2014.
Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne said in a statement announcing the approvals on Friday that the company was eager to update the emissions control software in its earlier model-year vehicles. The company had been seeking permission for months to begin selling 2017 diesel vehicles.
Fiat Chrysler had begun assembling diesel trucks this month in anticipation of approval. The software update will have no effect on the fuel economy ratings or vehicle performance, the automaker said.
The company has denied any wrongdoing, saying there was never an attempt to create software to cheat emissions rules.
The EPA said on Friday that it had subjected these and many other vehicles to additional scrutiny with tests to prevent the use of illegal devices.
The EPA and California first accused Fiat Chrysler in January of using undisclosed software to allow excess diesel emissions in 104,000 U.S. 2014-2016 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Ram 1500 trucks.
Reuters reported on Thursday that it could take weeks or months for regulators to sign off on testing and then approving Fiat Chrysler’s plan to use the software in 2017 diesels to update older vehicles.
The January notice of violation was the result of a probe that arose out of regulators' investigation of rival Volkswagen AG's VOWG_p.DE excess emissions.
Regulators are also investigating emissions in Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles, but have yet to take any action. The German automaker withdrew its request for approval to sell 2017 U.S. Mercedes-Benz diesels in May. | 1,287 |
Strong Left Bias
This article has strong left bias with a bias score of -82.56 from our political bias detecting A.I.
Opinion Article
This is an opinion article. As such, the content below expresses the viewpoint of the author, not our site as a whole.
Janet Ybarra Democrat Former Washington Journalist Contributor on The Bipartisan Press
Former White House national security adviser John Bolton, unceremoniously tossed overboard just a few short months ago by Donald Trump, may now be in a position to exact his revenge.
Bolton announced Monday that he would be willing to testify under subpoena at Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. Bolton, of course, famously described Trump’s hold-up of military aid to Ukraine in exchange for an announcement from the Ukrainian leader of an investigation into American Democrat Joe Biden as a “drug deal,” and wisely wanted no part of it.
Of course, the catch is that Bolton said he would testify by subpoena. Given that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already declared that he is actively working with the White House on the impeachment trial, he certainly isn’t interested by himself in issuing such a subpoena.
However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding the articles of impeachment until such time as McConnell can guarantee a fair trial.
Moreover, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took to the Senate floor to seek subpoenas for Bolton and other key witnesses. Schumer is right to say that anything less would be a cover-up.
“To Senate Republicans, Make no mistake: There will be votes on whether to subpoena the documents we’ve identified and to call the four witnesses we’ve proposed: Mulvaney, Bolton, Duffey, and Blair. Will you support a fair trial, or a Senate-sponsored cover-up? pic.twitter.com/uO2ZC6Ha42 — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 7, 2020
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has already expressed her discomfort with McConnell’s cozy approach with Trump.
If Murkowski can lead a few more wayward Republican senators with her, particularly those who are vulnerable for reelection this year, there may be no choice but to issue the needed subpoenas.
And maybe we can get the answers and fair justice that the American people deserve.
Content from The Bipartisan Press. All Rights Reserved. | 1,288 |
Data shows that 74% of all nodes on the Bitcoin network are located in only 10 countries, with the United States leading the pack, followed by countries in Europe and China.
Data from cryptocurrency analytics platform Data Light shows that in the US alone, there are 2,625 nodes. The American lead if followed by Germany, where there are 2016, and by France where there are 698. These three countries alone have over 50% of the nodes on the flagship cryptocurrency’s network.
The Netherlands, China, and Canada followed suit, with countries like Ukraine, Brazil and Lithuania still being included in the top 20, having over 86 nodes. Countries that aren’t in the top 20 notably account for only 1,441 nodes.
We all know where the most of #Bitcoin is mined, but what countries have the highest number of Bitcoin nodes? Let's find out! pic.twitter.com/UkulYnofdb — DataLight (@DataLightMe) February 26, 2019
China is a country to look further into. While the majority of the network’s hashrate is located in the country – thanks to access to cheap energy sources – it only has 411 nodes. As The Next Web noted, China has, according to research, the power to potentially “derail Bitcoin and illicitly influence its network” thanks to the miners in the country.
Singapore and the Netherlands are also located in the top 20. These two countries are relatively small, and as such represent the greatest Bitcoin nodes per capita density, at 17,700 and 32,000 citizens per node, respectively.
The US, on the other hand, has 120,000 citizens per Bitcoin node. These nodes, according to Bitcoin.org, help validate transactions on the network.
A full node is a program that fully validates transactions and blocks. Almost all full nodes also help the network by accepting transactions and blocks from other full nodes, validating those transactions and blocks, and then relaying them to further full nodes.
Various cryptocurrency enthusiasts encourage users to run full nodes, in a bid to help decentralize the cryptocurrency and avoid the existence of a single point of failure. Famously, the first person whose identity is known to run a Bitcoin node was Hal Finney.
Hal was on the receiving end of the first-ever Bitcoin transaction, as he received 10 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto himself. For users in certain countries running a Bitcoin node could spell trouble, as using the flagship cryptocurrency is prohibited in some countries. | 1,289 |
British shoppers seem to be discovering a taste for gin, lactose-free drinks and bike helmets.
The Office for National Statistics on Tuesday updated its representative ‘basket of goods’ for measuring consumer price inflation, adding half-chocolate coated biscuits, flavoured water, gin and cycle helmets and ditching mentholated cigarettes, mobile phone handsets and single drainer sinks.
The ONS said that in 2017, 16 new items were added the basket, which is updated each year to make sure it accurately reflects British consumer spending patterns. Eleven were removed and eight were modified.
Consumer price inflation is the rate at which the prices of goods and services bought by households rises or falls. The ONS uses the metaphorical shopping basket to collect a sample of prices for a selection of goods and services that they deem representative in a range of UK retail locations including the internet.
That way it aims to “avoid potential biases that might otherwise develop over time, for example, due to the development of entirely new goods and services, or the tendency for consumers to move away from buying goods and services which have risen relatively rapidly in price and to goods and services whose prices have fallen”.
Other new additions in 2017 include non-dairy milk drinks, a four-pack of apple cider, men’s base layer tops, the average council bill in Britain, cough liquid, a child’s scooter and a jigsaw.
Items ditched from the basket include spirit-based drinks, brake pads, a child’s swing and the fee for stopping a cheque, which the ONS said reflects a fall in cheque usage.
Basket of goods: what's in and what's out?
In: Almond Milk
Non-dairy milk drinks have been added reflecting the distinct and growing market for ‘Free From’ foods (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Out: Bottled apple cider
Bottled apple cider has been replaced by two items: canned apple cider and bottled flavoured cider (Rex)
In: Child's scooter
The addition aimed to address 'to improve coverage of outdoor play equipment in the winter months' (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Out: Child's swing
The change reflected poor availability in winter months (Getty/iStock)
In: Bike helmet
Added due to the growing popularity of cycling (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Out: Brake pads | 1,290 |
In a press conference on Monday, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett laid gun violence in the city at the feet of Governor Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers. Barrett called for policy action in the wake of a Sunday tragedy, in which an unknown suspect shot and killed a man and a teenager at the site of a traffic accident.
Police said 40-year-old Archie Brown Jr. and 15-year-old Rasheed Chiles were killed after Brown stopped to render assistance to a toddler who ran into the street, and was fatally struck by Brown’s van. Chiles and the toddler, identified as Damani T. Terry, were attending a birthday party at a house nearby.
“It started out as a tragedy, as an accident,” Barrett said. “But the total loss of control, the total inability to control oneself in that setting, led to two more tragic deaths,” Barrett said.
The Democratic mayor called for policy action, in the form of more state resources to combat gun crime in Milwaukee. “I don’t want to lock up more people who are carrying a nickel bag of marijuana, but I do want to lock up more people who get involved in gunfights in parks, on streets, outside taverns,” the mayor said.
Barrett singled out Walker, the Republican gun-rights champion. “The governor went to the NRA convention and just knelt before that altar. And you don’t see any of them involved in the urban violence that we see, the slow motion mass murders. They just totally wash their hands of it.”
The shootings of Brown and Chiles and a second, unrelated, fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man brought Milwaukee’s homicide total to 39 for the year, up from 14 at the same time last year. Barrett said that trend is similar in the nation’s other large cities.
“It is time for the legislature, for the governor to focus on the violence that we have here. It’s time that we have all the elements of our criminal justice system recognize the seriousness of this problem, because it’s only April,” Barrett said. He noted that Milwaukee police officers have taken 628 guns off the streets so far this year.”
“No increase in police staffing levels would have prevented the horrific tragedy on 48th Street yesterday. None. So there has to be something else and another way for us to deal with these issues.” | 1,291 |
just asking to get blown out.
Brand, Without Fear (created by Jawbone Greatsword) – Now 6FF (was 7FF)
New Rating: 4.5 (previously 4.0)
There really isn’t much to say about this change. The card was already great, and the reduction in the cost of Brand is a nice buff, since the difference between 6 and 7 power could easily mean coming down 3~4 turns earlier.
Ijin’s Choice – Now fast (was slow)
New Rating: 3.5 (unchanged)
This card got slightly better, since now you can use it to bluff a combat trick and hold it up to activate at the end of your opponent’s turn to “play” around sabotage from Back Alley Delinquent. However, in all honesty, this change is extremely minor, and is similarly reflected by no changes in the card’s ratings.
Shadowstalker – Now 3SS (was 4SS)
New Rating: 3.0 (previously 2.0)
Shadowstalker was previously understated for it’s cost, and only really worth playing if you have multiple nightfall cards. Now, its a 3 power 3/3, which is the expected rate for a 3 drop. Moreover, it represents the threat of 6 unblockable damage for every subsequent nightfall trigger, and the threat itself can often force your opponent to start chump blocking early or waste a silence on it (even if you don’t have nightfall in your deck).
The card also gets better in Nightfall decks because it’s tribute also becomes much more relevant. Nightfall decks are a real thing in this format, and this card is a great early pick since it does fine without Night, and becomes pretty busted in a Nightfall-centric deck.
Closing Thoughts
All in all, most of these changes are relatively minor, especially since they are all on Uncommons or higher rarity. This tallies well with my experiences that draft is currently in a pretty great spot and the balance between factions feels pretty even. I really think that DWD has done extremely well with the curated packs and the draft experience has been great. What are your thoughts about the balance patch? As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the reddit thread!
#HatDidNothingWrong
Flash2351
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| 1,292 |
clocked and just generally a high-end video card makes for some higher power draw numbers, but really the draw we get out of these HD 7000 and GTX 600 cards are quite impressive.
Final Thoughts
One of the biggest concerns for Sapphire I had testing the HD 7970 GHz Edition Vapor-X 3GB wasn't how good it would look and work, but more that it would make the more expensive TOXIC 6GB version look bad if it was able to achieve an overclock that lined up with the more expensive TOXIC version.
Today, though, you can see what we're able to get out of the Vapor-X 3GB is performance that matches the TOXIC 6GB video card when it's pulled out of the box. The good news is that if you want even more performance, the TOXIC is able to take us to another level again with an even stronger core and memory clock being available.
Sapphire as always has put together a really nice video card that ticks all the right boxes. Out of the box you're going to get some strong performance with the default GHz Edition clocks and with a simple push of a button, you can bump that core by a further 50MHz.
The bundle in typical Sapphire fashion is strong and there's no reason you should find yourself disappointed with what's going on in that department. Of course we don't need any Mini-DP to DP connector due to the fact we've got a full size DisplayPort connector on the card itself, so that's not a concern.
One of the brightest parts of the video card, though, in typical fashion, is the Vapor-X cooler, which does a fantastic job. You can see it not only helps us achieve an excellent overclock, but manages to keep the core running at a reasonable heat level, while noise levels also stay extremely attractive.
At $469.99 we're not talking about a cheap video card here, but we are talking about a good quality one. You can see AMD continue to do extremely well when it comes to high resolution benchmarking and if that's what you're going to be gaming at, then this is a video card you should be looking at over the GTX 680.
If this is the kind of money you want to spend it is safe to say you're not going to be disappointed with what AMD and Sapphire is offering here. If you're after some serious power under the $500 mark, then this is a video card you need to be keeping an eye on. | 1,293 |
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By Safia Samee Ali and The Associated Press
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a $40 million civil rights lawsuit that alleged police used excessive force against protesters in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown.
In a 74-page ruling, Judge Henry Autry sided with Missouri law enforcement saying the protesters “have completely failed to present any credible evidence that any of the actions taken by these individuals were taken with malice or were committed in bad faith.”
The lawsuit, which was filed by nine individuals, alleged that local police unlawfully arrested, beat, tear-gassed and shot rubber bullets at them during the Ferguson riots.
Police officers react to violent protesters during a second night of protests in Ferguson, Missouri November 25, 2014. LUCAS JACKSON / Reuters file
The Morning Rundown Get a head start on the morning's top stories. This site is protected by recaptcha
The judge did not agree, instead saying protest participants “were advised to disperse” but ignored “repeated warnings.”
Read More: Darren Seals, Ferguson Protest Leader, Found Fatally Shot in Burning Vehicle
He also granted immunity to the officers from the lawsuit.
“The decision was unfair and not consistent with applicable law,” Gregory Lattimer, one of the attorneys representing the protesters, told NBC News Monday evening. Lattimer said he felt "disappointment and frustration,” upon reading the judge's decision.
The local chapter of the NAACP expressed similar sentiments. “We are disappointed in the end result that plaintiffs’ didn’t get what they wanted,” said Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP.
Mass race-infused protests broke out throughout the streets of Ferguson in the wake of the 2014 killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot by officer Darren Wilson, who is white.
Read More: The Killing of an Unarmed Teen: What We Know About Brown's Death
Wilson later resigned from the force after dodging an indictment by a grand jury.
But Lattimer says he has already filed a notice of appeal in the the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This is a battle we will keep fighting,” he said. “We will end it in the right way and get justice for these people.” | 1,294 |
Nick Chubb saw four or fewer carries in each of his first six games with the Cleveland Browns in his debut NFL season, as the team’s’ previous coaching regime stowed the second-round back behind the (not so) great Carlos Hyde to start the year. Hyde was then traded away, coaches were fired and out of the ashes rose Chubb. And he’s been every bit of the phoenix the analogy implies.
Going from 17 total carries to 136 in just six games, Chubb has taken the league by storm. The former Georgia standout now leads all NFL backs with 250-plus offensive snaps in overall grade (88.2) and ranks second behind Los Angeles Chargers’ Melvin Gordon II (90.7) in rushing grade.
Chubb’s ability to create yards for himself through forced missed tackles and yards after contact, is quite literally, some of the best PFF has ever seen. His 4.59 yards after contact per attempt average is the highest we’ve ever charted for a back with 100-plus attempts in a single season in the PFF era (2006-Present). Forcing 33 missed tackles across 131 attempts, Chubb and his 0.25 forced missed tackles per attempt average also ranks fifth among the same group of backs.
And Chubb has done so with next to no help from his big men up front.
Through Week 13, Chubb has gained just 13.4% of his rushing yards before first contact and averaged 0.71 yards before first contact per attempt, both figures ranking inside the bottom-10 among the 591 instances a back has had 100-plus attempts in a season in the PFF era.
Furthering the narrative, Chubb has been contacted at or behind the line of scrimmage on 67 of his 131 carries in 2018, and on said attempts, he’s averaged an NFL-high 3.7 yards after contact per attempt.
Chubb draws an even deeper line in the sand between himself and other NFL backs when compared to other rookie backs. His 4.59 yards after contact per attempt average is 0.76 yards higher than any other rookie running back in the PFF era, and his 0.25 forced missed tackles per attempt average also leads the same group of rookie runners.
Only Adrian Peterson (90.8; 2007) and Alfred Morris (90.4; 2012) have earned a higher rushing grade than Chubb in their respective rookie seasons, and Chubb still has four games to go. | 1,295 |
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Marriages itself have a lot’s of Question? And find out the answer of the question is tough for the people who are married or the once who are not. For the married people the question is that how to make marriage life beautiful and happier? And the Once who are yet unmarried for them the Question is that how would be my marriage life? How will my partner? Is my partner will love me or not? And many more Question. If you are having any of the situations then should take Love Marriage astrology consultation to know about the marriage life.
फेसबुक पेज को लाइक जरूर करे – Expert Astrology Solution | 1,296 |
Internal Squabbles Could Steer Romney Campaign Off Course Internal Squabbles Could Steer Romney Campaign Off Course
September 17, 2012 -- Here's what this week could have been about: Fresh Gallup tracking numbers show President Obama convention bounce fading from 7 percentage points last week to just 3 percentage points today. He now leads Mitt Romney, 48 percent to 45 percent nationally.
Recall that the Romney campaign characterized the polling bump as a "sugar high" last week. However, note that Obama's job approval rating remains at 50 percent (job approval has historically served as better judge of future success than the ballot test.)
Here's what this week will be about instead: Campaign infighting.
That's thanks to a report from Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei that exposed deep internal rifts within Team Romney focused on a person the reporting duo calls Romney's "mercurial campaign muse" -- top strategist Stuart Stevens.
"Viewed warily by conservatives, known for his impulsiveness and described by a colleague as a 'tortured artist,' Stevens has become the leading staff scapegoat for a campaign that suddenly is behind in a race that had been expected to stay neck and neck through Nov. 6," Allen and VandeHei write in the piece that notes Romney "has allowed seven distinct power centers to flourish inside his campaign."
One person quoted anonymously in the story, who the reporters describe as a "longtime Romney friend" complained: "The campaign has utterly failed to switch from a primary mind-set to a general-election mind-set, and did not come up with a compelling, policy-backed argument for credible change."
Much of the story centered on Stevens' heavy-handed involvement in the drafting of Romney and running mate Paul Ryan's Republican National Convention speeches.
Speaking to ABC's David Muir, Stevens responded to today's Politico article, saying "they got my quotes right." And responding to the criticism from voices on the right about how the Romney campaign is being run, he said: "I never get mad at people who criticize."
In the interview with Muir, Stevens continued to reiterate how President Obama's convention bump is evaporating, saying "the President had a terrible week last week."
It's not the first time members of the Romney campaign have thrown one of their own under the bus, but it comes at an extremely precarious time for the campaign. And as they push their message against President Obama this week, they'll have to stay on damage control too. | 1,297 |
Nicotine. By Gregor Hens. Translated by Jen Calleja. Other Press; 176 pages; $16.95. Fitzcarraldo Editions; £12.99.
“I REALLY shouldn’t be writing this book. It’s too much of a risk,” notes Gregor Hens, a German author and an accomplished translator, at the start of his memoir about smoking. Yet write it he does, disguised as a quest to understand why: why did he do it? And, though this is a modest book concerned only with the memories and motivations of its author, why, by extension, does anyone?
The fact is, as every smoker knows but few admit, nicotine is easy enough to kick. The physiological addiction can be overcome with patches, with hypnosis, with self-help books, with good old-fashioned will power. Nicotine is the least of any smoker’s problems. The truth is that every ex-smoker is and always will be a smoker. This book is, he admits, “a continuation of my addiction via other means.”
Why do smokers do it? Because, as Mr Hens writes, “every cigarette that I’ve ever smoked served a purpose—they were a signal, medication, a stimulant or a sedative, they were a plaything, an accessory, a fetish object, something to help pass the time, a memory aid, a communication tool or an object of meditation. Sometimes…all at once.” Cigarettes represent youth, rebellion, wilful disregard for sensible advice.
They function as punctuation for life. They make it coherent and add drama, inserting commas and semi-colons and ellipses (and, in the end, an inarguable and often premature full stop). “Whether I actually smoke or not, my personality is a smoker’s personality,” Mr Hens writes. To stop smoking isn’t just to give up the intake of that toxic, redeeming air into your lungs. It is to cease being yourself. That is why quitting is so hard.
Readers and smokers and especially readers who smoke will be grateful that Mr Hens wrote “Nicotine” despite the risk of relapse. It is that rare book on addiction: neither preaching nor self-loathing, lapsing only occasionally into romanticism. And like the best cigarettes, it is over too soon. Though any more would probably be too much. | 1,298 |
Dani spent 9 months slow cooking a little bundle of Facebook irritation. Her little angel’s day of birth marked the happiest day of her life, and the day she became an ISIS-grade Facebook terrorist. “Dani added a new life event: had a child”. An ominous prelude to the tidal wave of baby shit that was going to smear your social media Huggies.
Dani’s baby related
Facebook carpet-bombing started off as a light assault on your care levels. A few posts a week showing her precious angel rolling around and acting disturbingly similar to how you conduct yourself while in the grips of some heinous hangover. This was the infant calm before the baby storm. On a bleak Friday afternoon, Dani loses her fucking mind and posts a picture of her little munchkin's shit stained nappy, “Oops little bubba made a mess haha xoxo #blessed ”. Lord have mercy.Everyone elses childling is a bald headed little piss pot, but Dani’s bubba is a supermodel, actor and comedian all rolled into one ray of sunshine that insists on glaring out your eyeballs while you try to drive down the road of patience. After the shit-gate incident, Dani tones it down a bit and posts a video of her sprog crying like a teenage girl at Justin Beiber’s coming out party, “oh mr grumpy bum is grumpy! haha xoxox #NewBornThingz ”. Watching the video is as enjoyable as having breaky with your Tinder date’s family after a night of un-lubricated love making.Months bang on and Dani’s Facebook posts starts to turn sinister, “LISTEN, whether I vaccinate my child is MY CHOICE and anyone who says otherwise can suck eggs - feeling angry :@ :@ :@”. It is unclear whether the update was born in the pits of self righteousness or plain ignorance, nevertheless, Dani has read some articles and by virtue of procreation is an expert on the subject. She argues mercilessly with everyone who comments on her post. Turns out churning out a placenta is tantamount to education these days.The winds of temperament change as fast as they gust, and within 2 hours Dani is back to sharing "totes hilar" baby memes from the cutest bowels of Facebook. If you want to experience the pains of childbirth, reading Dani’s page is a good start. | 1,299 |
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