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Is Procter & Gamble a Millionaire-Maker Stock? | The recipe for generating massive long-term shareholder returns is simple, if not a little boring. Just invest in companies with durable competitive advantages and hold on for decades. Your gains are frequently supercharged by dividend reinvestment with stocks that regularly boost their payouts, so a seven-figure portfolio is achievable over a typical investing lifetime. Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) seems to check all of those important boxes. It owns a collection of some of the most dominant consumer product franchises around, and its dividend growth streak, at over 60 years, is one of the longest on the market. But those impressive assets don't necessarily ensure market-beating investor gains, as shareholders have learned over the last few years. A person measures out laundry detergent in front of a washing machine. More Image source: Getty Images. A multiyear funk P&G's operating strategy involves using its premium positioning in consumer staples niches like diapers, paper towels, and razors to outgrow the wider industry. Its global scale and world-class supply chain, meanwhile, help produce even faster profit growth. Combine these trends with rising cash returns in the form of dividends and stock buybacks, and you have the potential for modest, but persistently strong total returns that can snowball into life-changing gains for investors over decades. That formula has broken down in recent years, though. P&G missed its growth targets in each of the last two fiscal years, even after having wrapped up a portfolio reboot that saw it remove 100 weaker brands from its operations. Sure, cost cuts and restructuring initiatives have kept earnings rising lately, and cash returns have soared. But without that fundamental market-share boost, the stock has lagged the broader market for most of the last decade. Signs of a rebound The good news is the tide could finally be turning back toward accelerating growth. P&G recently posted its fastest organic sales pace in years, with revenue rising 4% after accounting for foreign currency shifts and brand divestments. That result outpaced peers like Kimberly Clark (NYSE: KMB) by a wide margin. It was driven by a healthy balance of rising sales volumes and higher pricing, too, which implies plenty of room for additional gains ahead. Still, P&G has gone through optimistic periods like this in the recent past only to disappoint investors by reducing its growth forecast because of demand struggles in franchises like Gillette razors. That's why it's critical that the company meet its fiscal 2019 prediction of sales gains that range between 2% and 3% to at least double the prior year's expansion pace. P&G's return to market darling status would have to start with management demonstrating that it has a good reading on its growth opportunities, and that those gains can come in the context of steadily rising prices. Bottom line Assuming the business can get back on track in terms of growth, P&G has all the right firepower to ensure that earnings keep climbing and that shareholders are richly rewarded for their patience. The company's 20% operating margin makes it an industry leader with respect to profitability, and it remains one of the most efficient stocks on the market at converting profits into free cash flow. That financial prowess, in turn, gives management plenty of funds it can direct toward growth initiatives and those direct shareholder cash returns. | Procter & Gamble is one of the most successful companies on the market. The consumer products giant has been in a slump for the last few years. P&G is showing signs of a rebound, but it has a long way to go before it's a millionaire stock. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/procter-gamble-millionaire-maker-stock-233200182.html | 0.178425 |
Should live mascots be banned from sporting events? | A near disaster at the Sugar Bowl between Bevo and Uga, the live mascots for Texas and Georgia respectively, called into question the necessity of having living mascots at all. Some want the practice to end because it puts unnecessary stress on animals in a loud, chaotic environment. Others think live mascots are cute, treated well and worshiped by millions of fans. PERSPECTIVES As cute as live mascots are, the stress they go through dealing with thousands of screaming fans at athletic events is something they should not have to endure. The incident between Bevo and Uga was a warning. Any further escalation and animals are getting hurt. Here is PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange with more: It's indefensible to subject animals to the stress of being packed up, carted from state to state, and paraded in front of a stadium full of screaming fans. It's no surprise that a skittish steer would react to a perceived threat by charging, and PETA is calling on the University of Texas and the University of Georgia to learn from this dangerous incident, retire their live-animal mascots, and stick to the talented costumed mascots who can lead cheers, react to the crowd, and pump up the team. Animal rights activists need to save their outrage for issues that are actually problems. Live mascots are harmless traditions and these beloved animals get the care they need to be happy and healthy. There is no need to end the practice when lovable animals bring joy to millions of fans. Live mascots are great ambassadors for their respective schools and they should be allowed to be honored at games. Top 25 live animal mascots in college football The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | PETA calls for end to live mascots at sporting events. Live mascots are great ambassadors for their respective schools. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2019/01/should_live_mascots_be_banned.html | 0.166846 |
Should live mascots be banned from sporting events? | A near disaster at the Sugar Bowl between Bevo and Uga, the live mascots for Texas and Georgia respectively, called into question the necessity of having living mascots at all. Some want the practice to end because it puts unnecessary stress on animals in a loud, chaotic environment. Others think live mascots are cute, treated well and worshiped by millions of fans. PERSPECTIVES As cute as live mascots are, the stress they go through dealing with thousands of screaming fans at athletic events is something they should not have to endure. The incident between Bevo and Uga was a warning. Any further escalation and animals are getting hurt. Here is PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange with more: It's indefensible to subject animals to the stress of being packed up, carted from state to state, and paraded in front of a stadium full of screaming fans. It's no surprise that a skittish steer would react to a perceived threat by charging, and PETA is calling on the University of Texas and the University of Georgia to learn from this dangerous incident, retire their live-animal mascots, and stick to the talented costumed mascots who can lead cheers, react to the crowd, and pump up the team. Animal rights activists need to save their outrage for issues that are actually problems. Live mascots are harmless traditions and these beloved animals get the care they need to be happy and healthy. There is no need to end the practice when lovable animals bring joy to millions of fans. Live mascots are great ambassadors for their respective schools and they should be allowed to be honored at games. Top 25 live animal mascots in college football The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | PETA calls for end to live mascots at sporting events. Live mascots are great ambassadors for their respective schools and they should be allowed to be honored at games. The incident between Bevo and Uga was a warning, PETA says. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2019/01/should_live_mascots_be_banned.html | 0.243977 |
Should live mascots be banned from sporting events? | A near disaster at the Sugar Bowl between Bevo and Uga, the live mascots for Texas and Georgia respectively, called into question the necessity of having living mascots at all. Some want the practice to end because it puts unnecessary stress on animals in a loud, chaotic environment. Others think live mascots are cute, treated well and worshiped by millions of fans. PERSPECTIVES As cute as live mascots are, the stress they go through dealing with thousands of screaming fans at athletic events is something they should not have to endure. The incident between Bevo and Uga was a warning. Any further escalation and animals are getting hurt. Here is PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange with more: It's indefensible to subject animals to the stress of being packed up, carted from state to state, and paraded in front of a stadium full of screaming fans. It's no surprise that a skittish steer would react to a perceived threat by charging, and PETA is calling on the University of Texas and the University of Georgia to learn from this dangerous incident, retire their live-animal mascots, and stick to the talented costumed mascots who can lead cheers, react to the crowd, and pump up the team. Animal rights activists need to save their outrage for issues that are actually problems. Live mascots are harmless traditions and these beloved animals get the care they need to be happy and healthy. There is no need to end the practice when lovable animals bring joy to millions of fans. Live mascots are great ambassadors for their respective schools and they should be allowed to be honored at games. Top 25 live animal mascots in college football The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | PETA calls for end to live mascots at sporting events. Live mascots are great ambassadors for their respective schools and they should be allowed to be honored at games. The incident between Bevo and Uga was a warning and animals are getting hurt, PETA says. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2019/01/should_live_mascots_be_banned.html | 0.262709 |
Why Are We Still Using Keyword Searches Half A Century Later? | One of the most remarkable but forgotten stories of the digital revolution is that for all the incredible change wrought by the digital world and the incredible transformation of the computing world from the early room-sized primitive calculator machines of old to our mobile supercomputers of today, at the end of it all, we still access the world around us through the lowly keyword search. More than half a century after the widespread introduction of keyword search of large textual databases, we are still forced to wrangle our complex questions into strings of simplistic keywords that we repeatedly plug into search engines, find no results, refine, try again and finally either give up or find some links of interest. As I noted in my 2015 NFAIS keynote address, it was just over half a century ago that keyword search as we know it today came into being. The earliest origins of the Dialog system coalesced in 1966, following in the footsteps of Doug Englebarts work at SRI two years prior and related developments at MIT, Harvard, SDC and elsewhere. It was an exciting moment in computing history as the idea of what a computer could be was rapidly transforming into the human-centered metaphors we know today. What makes this story so amazing is that other than better interfaces, faster results and larger indexes, the world of search today is little changed from that of its predecessors half a century prior. After more than 50 years we are still using keywords to interact with the worlds information. After a quarter century of the modern web in which more and more of the worlds information is available online and our past is increasingly being digitized into internet existence, we still access all of this information by keyword. Finding a video on YouTube, a movie on Netflix, a painting on Google Images, a doormat on Amazon, a meme on Twitter, an article on CNN or a page on the web, everything we do revolves around keyword searches. Of course, beneath that venerable keyword lies an array of hidden improvements. Modern search engines can leverage knowledge graphs and language models to reach beyond our exact keywords closer towards what we mean, while search histories, location tracking, the search histories of others and other external knowledge can be brought to bear on a search session to help the machine better understand what were looking for. Yet, despite all this power, machines are little better at understanding us today than they were half a century ago. Beyond the parlor tricks of voice search, templated bots and creative interfaces, machines still operate at the level of words rather than ideas. Synonyms and knowledge graphs can help connect slight word differences and dictionary relations, but even the most powerful AI systems of today are a far cry from systems that can truly understand information in the way we do, abstracting from words to the ideas, events and emotions they convey. Even as our world becomes increasingly visual, we access our newfound riches of imagery, audio and video through the same familiar interface of textual keywords. Amidst a deep learning revolution, we still largely access the non-textual world through the metaphor of text, rendering it into searchable captions, index keywords, tags and metadata. This is also perhaps the area with the greatest potential for improvement from deep learning. Todays algorithms are capable of robust cataloging of visual information into textual topical tags and transcriptions of audio into searchable captioning. Yet, here again deep learning is used merely to automate the process of rendering the visual world into the textual. Instead of searching for cooking images using predefined topics like broccoli and frying pan we could ask for images depicting vegetables being prepared a certain way and let the machine make the leap towards identifying precisely which image is most relevant to our needs for that search, even if it has no topics relating specifically to our query. Even our much-vaunted smart home assistants with their voice interfaces can still only answer the most basic of questions that have been predefined and templated by their creators. Change your question by just a word or two and your formerly loquacious assistant is suddenly stymied. Outside of their handful of built-in answers, even these bleeding edge examples of applied deep learning are still dependent on that historic keyword to find the answer to your question. The idea of unnaturally expressing our informational needs into the keyword language of machines has become so ingrained in society over half a century that it is almost difficult to imagine a world in which we can converse so fluently with machines that the keyword becomes an obsolete relic of the bygone era from whence it came. In the end, it is truly remarkable that half a century after its widespread introduction, we are still using keywords to navigate the digital revolution. Despite incredible deep learning systems capable of making sense of images and audio for the first time, we use these new tools merely to render the audiovisual world back into the familiar world of text so they can be keyword searched. As voice interfaces gradually supplant the keyboard, the keyword itself remains. | It was just over half a century ago that keyword search as we know it today came into being. Today we are still using keywords to interact with the worlds information. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/01/09/why-are-we-still-using-keyword-searches-half-a-century-later/ | 0.133147 |
Why Are We Still Using Keyword Searches Half A Century Later? | One of the most remarkable but forgotten stories of the digital revolution is that for all the incredible change wrought by the digital world and the incredible transformation of the computing world from the early room-sized primitive calculator machines of old to our mobile supercomputers of today, at the end of it all, we still access the world around us through the lowly keyword search. More than half a century after the widespread introduction of keyword search of large textual databases, we are still forced to wrangle our complex questions into strings of simplistic keywords that we repeatedly plug into search engines, find no results, refine, try again and finally either give up or find some links of interest. As I noted in my 2015 NFAIS keynote address, it was just over half a century ago that keyword search as we know it today came into being. The earliest origins of the Dialog system coalesced in 1966, following in the footsteps of Doug Englebarts work at SRI two years prior and related developments at MIT, Harvard, SDC and elsewhere. It was an exciting moment in computing history as the idea of what a computer could be was rapidly transforming into the human-centered metaphors we know today. What makes this story so amazing is that other than better interfaces, faster results and larger indexes, the world of search today is little changed from that of its predecessors half a century prior. After more than 50 years we are still using keywords to interact with the worlds information. After a quarter century of the modern web in which more and more of the worlds information is available online and our past is increasingly being digitized into internet existence, we still access all of this information by keyword. Finding a video on YouTube, a movie on Netflix, a painting on Google Images, a doormat on Amazon, a meme on Twitter, an article on CNN or a page on the web, everything we do revolves around keyword searches. Of course, beneath that venerable keyword lies an array of hidden improvements. Modern search engines can leverage knowledge graphs and language models to reach beyond our exact keywords closer towards what we mean, while search histories, location tracking, the search histories of others and other external knowledge can be brought to bear on a search session to help the machine better understand what were looking for. Yet, despite all this power, machines are little better at understanding us today than they were half a century ago. Beyond the parlor tricks of voice search, templated bots and creative interfaces, machines still operate at the level of words rather than ideas. Synonyms and knowledge graphs can help connect slight word differences and dictionary relations, but even the most powerful AI systems of today are a far cry from systems that can truly understand information in the way we do, abstracting from words to the ideas, events and emotions they convey. Even as our world becomes increasingly visual, we access our newfound riches of imagery, audio and video through the same familiar interface of textual keywords. Amidst a deep learning revolution, we still largely access the non-textual world through the metaphor of text, rendering it into searchable captions, index keywords, tags and metadata. This is also perhaps the area with the greatest potential for improvement from deep learning. Todays algorithms are capable of robust cataloging of visual information into textual topical tags and transcriptions of audio into searchable captioning. Yet, here again deep learning is used merely to automate the process of rendering the visual world into the textual. Instead of searching for cooking images using predefined topics like broccoli and frying pan we could ask for images depicting vegetables being prepared a certain way and let the machine make the leap towards identifying precisely which image is most relevant to our needs for that search, even if it has no topics relating specifically to our query. Even our much-vaunted smart home assistants with their voice interfaces can still only answer the most basic of questions that have been predefined and templated by their creators. Change your question by just a word or two and your formerly loquacious assistant is suddenly stymied. Outside of their handful of built-in answers, even these bleeding edge examples of applied deep learning are still dependent on that historic keyword to find the answer to your question. The idea of unnaturally expressing our informational needs into the keyword language of machines has become so ingrained in society over half a century that it is almost difficult to imagine a world in which we can converse so fluently with machines that the keyword becomes an obsolete relic of the bygone era from whence it came. In the end, it is truly remarkable that half a century after its widespread introduction, we are still using keywords to navigate the digital revolution. Despite incredible deep learning systems capable of making sense of images and audio for the first time, we use these new tools merely to render the audiovisual world back into the familiar world of text so they can be keyword searched. As voice interfaces gradually supplant the keyboard, the keyword itself remains. | It was just over half a century ago that keyword search as we know it today came into being. After more than 50 years we are still using keywords to interact with the worlds information. Even as our world becomes increasingly visual, we access our newfound riches of imagery, audio and video through the familiar interface of textual keywords. | bart | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/01/09/why-are-we-still-using-keyword-searches-half-a-century-later/ | 0.432935 |
Why is Canada continuing to fight for fossil fuels? | First nation mood tense following standoff, Jan. 9 We have had plenty of bad news lately, but news that the might of the Canadian state is being brought to bear against these pipeline protesters gave me a sense of despair, and brought tears to my eyes. It is so simple, really. If humanity worldwide produces more carbon dioxide than nature can absorb, we face disaster. And yet we are burning more, not less, fossil fuel. We are already at the point where unstoppable feedback loops are taking over. And yet, the Canadian government seems to want to produce and export as much fossil fuel as we can. For money, most of which will go to people who already have too much. We can use the workers involved to help build our sustainable world. Even the traditional resistance to environmental destruction by Canadas Aboriginal people is beginning to erode, as money is dangled in before their eyes. | If humanity produces more carbon dioxide than nature can absorb, we face disaster. The Canadian government seems to want to produce and export as much fossil fuel as we can. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/01/09/why-is-canada-continuing-to-fight-for-fossil-fuels.html | 0.113889 |
Why is Canada continuing to fight for fossil fuels? | First nation mood tense following standoff, Jan. 9 We have had plenty of bad news lately, but news that the might of the Canadian state is being brought to bear against these pipeline protesters gave me a sense of despair, and brought tears to my eyes. It is so simple, really. If humanity worldwide produces more carbon dioxide than nature can absorb, we face disaster. And yet we are burning more, not less, fossil fuel. We are already at the point where unstoppable feedback loops are taking over. And yet, the Canadian government seems to want to produce and export as much fossil fuel as we can. For money, most of which will go to people who already have too much. We can use the workers involved to help build our sustainable world. Even the traditional resistance to environmental destruction by Canadas Aboriginal people is beginning to erode, as money is dangled in before their eyes. | If humanity produces more carbon dioxide than nature can absorb, we face disaster. And yet we are burning more, not less, fossil fuel. The Canadian government seems to want to produce and export as much fossil fuel as we can. For money, most of which will go to people who already have too much. | bart | 2 | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/01/09/why-is-canada-continuing-to-fight-for-fossil-fuels.html | 0.184018 |
Why did Secret Escapes say it hadnt received my booking? | I spoke to the company on the phone, but they told me they had no record of the reservation We booked a holiday to Iceland with Secret Escapes and paid with Barclaycard. We received an emailed confirmation of the itinerary. Three months later, we called with a question about the holiday and were told there was no booking in our name and that no payment had been made. We contacted Secret Escapes multiple times asking what was being done and had to relay the events every time as no information was showing on its system. Every time we were told someone would ring back but they never did. I began pricing up alternative packages to Iceland only to find they were either a lot more expensive or fully booked. YS, Grantham Secret Escapes says that yours is a unique case because the booking was made over the phone rather than online, and the agent misheard the email address and so entered it incorrectly. This, explains the company, meant that the booking was not visible in your account. Tracking this down took a little time and, as a result of this case, we have made changes to our call-handling, it says. This does not explain how the company was able to email the confirmation to the correct address. You have since been refunded after raising a dispute with Barclaycard which retrieved the money from Secret Escapes. The company has now added 100 in goodwill and says it wanted to provide you with complimentary tours of Iceland to make amends, but you have booked a holiday elsewhere with another provider. If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission subject to our terms and conditions | Secret Escapes told us they had no record of the reservation. We contacted the company multiple times asking what was being done. The company has since refunded us the money. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/10/secret-escapes-iceland-booking-lost | 0.274076 |
Why did Secret Escapes say it hadnt received my booking? | I spoke to the company on the phone, but they told me they had no record of the reservation We booked a holiday to Iceland with Secret Escapes and paid with Barclaycard. We received an emailed confirmation of the itinerary. Three months later, we called with a question about the holiday and were told there was no booking in our name and that no payment had been made. We contacted Secret Escapes multiple times asking what was being done and had to relay the events every time as no information was showing on its system. Every time we were told someone would ring back but they never did. I began pricing up alternative packages to Iceland only to find they were either a lot more expensive or fully booked. YS, Grantham Secret Escapes says that yours is a unique case because the booking was made over the phone rather than online, and the agent misheard the email address and so entered it incorrectly. This, explains the company, meant that the booking was not visible in your account. Tracking this down took a little time and, as a result of this case, we have made changes to our call-handling, it says. This does not explain how the company was able to email the confirmation to the correct address. You have since been refunded after raising a dispute with Barclaycard which retrieved the money from Secret Escapes. The company has now added 100 in goodwill and says it wanted to provide you with complimentary tours of Iceland to make amends, but you have booked a holiday elsewhere with another provider. If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission subject to our terms and conditions | Secret Escapes told us they had no record of the reservation. We contacted the company multiple times asking what was being done. The company has since refunded us the money we paid for the holiday. We are happy to help you out with your problems at Your Problems. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/10/secret-escapes-iceland-booking-lost | 0.339667 |
Will Matt Reeves' The Batman save DC's cinematic universe? | With so many past often flawed takes on the Dark Knight, no wonder fans are nervous about meeting his next incarnation A lot is riding on Matt Reeves The Batman, which a new report suggests is due to begin shooting in November - with or without Ben Affleck as the tortured Dark Knight. Warner Bros struggling DC extended universe of superhero movies currently lacks a central pivot, despite decent enough solo outings for Wonder Woman and Aquaman. The studio would love to see Reeves somehow come up with a movie that repositions the caped crusader at the heart of the DC world. And yet it is difficult to see how the main creative thrust behind the successful Planet of the Apes remake trilogy can carve out his own vision without taking Batman out of the Justice League, and potentially the DCEU itself, altogether. Bruce Wayne surely needs to be given the chance to breathe the foul Gotham City air once again, free of responsibility for fending off attacks from bad CGI alien interlopers or resurrecting Superman due to his own foolhardy behaviour. Everything weve heard about Reeves plans suggests he will take a back-to-basics approach, restoring the furrow-browed superhero to his roots as a sleuth-some Gotham City vigilante. This has to be a good thing. For the last three years, ever since Zack Snyders ill-fated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice failed to wow anyone outside a hardcore of DC fans, Warner has been trying and failing to convince the world that Batfleck was a good idea poorly managed. It did this by tweaking the movies sequels and spin-offs to rid them of the worst knuckleheaded excesses of Snyders films. But the truth is that casting Affleck was a terrible idea carried out terribly, and no amount of shoehorned comedy one-liners was going to save films such as Justice League from being roundly dismissed. The temptation must surely be for Reeves to make with the Lazarus Pit, and resurrect a new and more workable Batman preferably played by anyone but Affleck. Perhaps DC needs two cinematic universes: one based on the grimy Gotham underworld and its cavalcade of leering freaks and deviants; the other filled with sci-fi-tinged superheroes who wouldnt look out of place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the Flash. For the Batman of Christopher Nolans Dark Knight trilogy, or the TV series Gotham, has often seemed about as likely to meet Superman or the other members of the Justice League as Luke Skywalker is to encounter Genghis Khan. It is quite possible to imagine the worst big-screen caped crusaders, George Clooney or Val Kilmer, meeting just about anyone in the DC verse even the buffoonish Shazam! Thats because there is nothing stylistically singular about them at all, unless one is counting the Batnipples. Where other superheroes seem to grow as part of the ensemble, Batman certainly based on our experience with the last few DC movies only seems to diminish. Perhaps Gothams dark knight is simply too weird, too idiosyncratic a superhero to ever play nicely with others. The only question is why DC wasnt well aware of this, given that its own Lego Batman Movie mined Bruce Waynes extreme narcissism and inelegant misanthropy for comedy gold so successfully. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Narcissist The Lego Batman Movie, 2017. Its possible Warner simply doesnt have the confidence in its own plans, particularly after the lukewarm reactions to Justice League, to manage the movie in any other way. Its entire approach to the DCEU seems to have been a case of one step forward, six tentative steps back, so were about as likely to see a considered, Marvel-style route to world-building at this late stage as we are to see the Joker giving up his life of crime and embarking on a new career as a supermarket shelf stacker. Perhaps this is for the best. If Warner Bros is not naturally tuned to the the slow-burn, producer-led cinematic universe frequency, the studio would be well-advised to avoid hamfistedly trying to keep on fitting square pegs into round holes. In that case, the only solution is to take the whole thing one movie at a time. Maybe, just maybe, we need to take a long hard look at Reeves solo Batman outing before anyone can really imagine what shape the wider DC universe should be. | A lot is riding on Matt Reeves' The Batman, which is due to begin shooting in November. But it is difficult to see how the director can carve out his own vision without taking Batman out of the Justice League, and potentially the DCEU itself, altogether. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/10/will-matt-reeves-the-batman-save-dc-cinematic-universe | 0.101496 |
Whos Afraid of Automation? | People are worried that robots will take our jobs. Some 60% of American adults think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk, even though expert predictions about job losses are all over the map. These fears are a rare example of bipartisan agreement about the labor market concerns cross demographic and geographic lines, according to a September 2018 Indeed survey of 2000 American adults. People who say they are pessimistic about Americas economic future tend to be more concerned about automation. So are people with less education and rightly so since their jobs are more at risk. At the same time though, young working-age adults and women are worried about automation even though theyre less vulnerable than other groups. Support for many labor market policies runs hotter for people more concerned about automation. Surprisingly, the policy that automation worriers lean toward most strongly is restricting legal immigration even though todays immigrants often work in professional and technical occupations that arent especially at risk from automation. Other policies, like worker training or a universal basic income, might help those affected by automation more directly. Automation worries are widespread Three out of five adults who responded to our survey think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk. These concerns are far more widespread than worries about other factors only half as many adults think environmental regulations, legal immigration, or trade hurts jobs. Furthermore, worries about automation cross partisan lines. Among both Democrats and Republicans, 60% think these technologies will put many jobs at risk. In contrast, Republicans are more concerned than Democrats that environmental regulations, legal immigration, and trade will hurt jobs. Worries about robots and AI are bipartisan More Still, automation worries some people more than others. Two-thirds of people with a high-school degree or less agree that these technologies will threaten many jobs, compared with half of those with at least a bachelors degree. Younger prime-working-age adults, 25 to 44, are more concerned than 18 to 24 year-olds and older adults. Women are more concerned than men, as are people who are more pessimistic about national economic conditions today. But as well see in the next section, those most worried about automation arent always those most at risk. Automation worries higher among less-educated More Even people not personally at risk are worried about automation Although worries about automation are widespread, the pain is likely to be more concentrated. The types of jobs potentially most at risk from automation and AI are routine expressed as a set of rules and therefore potentially replaced by algorithms. These include manufacturing and other goods-producing jobs, as well as sales and clerical roles. Professional, technical, and personal-service jobs are less vulnerable. According to Census data, 62% of people with only a high-school degree work in routine jobs, versus just 28% of those with a bachelors and 11% of graduate-degree holders. The education gaps in whose jobs are at risk are much wider than the gaps in how worried people are about automation. Workers in routine occupations, by education More | 60% of American adults think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk. | bart | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/afraid-automation-073403454.html | 0.174974 |
Whos Afraid of Automation? | People are worried that robots will take our jobs. Some 60% of American adults think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk, even though expert predictions about job losses are all over the map. These fears are a rare example of bipartisan agreement about the labor market concerns cross demographic and geographic lines, according to a September 2018 Indeed survey of 2000 American adults. People who say they are pessimistic about Americas economic future tend to be more concerned about automation. So are people with less education and rightly so since their jobs are more at risk. At the same time though, young working-age adults and women are worried about automation even though theyre less vulnerable than other groups. Support for many labor market policies runs hotter for people more concerned about automation. Surprisingly, the policy that automation worriers lean toward most strongly is restricting legal immigration even though todays immigrants often work in professional and technical occupations that arent especially at risk from automation. Other policies, like worker training or a universal basic income, might help those affected by automation more directly. Automation worries are widespread Three out of five adults who responded to our survey think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk. These concerns are far more widespread than worries about other factors only half as many adults think environmental regulations, legal immigration, or trade hurts jobs. Furthermore, worries about automation cross partisan lines. Among both Democrats and Republicans, 60% think these technologies will put many jobs at risk. In contrast, Republicans are more concerned than Democrats that environmental regulations, legal immigration, and trade will hurt jobs. Worries about robots and AI are bipartisan More Still, automation worries some people more than others. Two-thirds of people with a high-school degree or less agree that these technologies will threaten many jobs, compared with half of those with at least a bachelors degree. Younger prime-working-age adults, 25 to 44, are more concerned than 18 to 24 year-olds and older adults. Women are more concerned than men, as are people who are more pessimistic about national economic conditions today. But as well see in the next section, those most worried about automation arent always those most at risk. Automation worries higher among less-educated More Even people not personally at risk are worried about automation Although worries about automation are widespread, the pain is likely to be more concentrated. The types of jobs potentially most at risk from automation and AI are routine expressed as a set of rules and therefore potentially replaced by algorithms. These include manufacturing and other goods-producing jobs, as well as sales and clerical roles. Professional, technical, and personal-service jobs are less vulnerable. According to Census data, 62% of people with only a high-school degree work in routine jobs, versus just 28% of those with a bachelors and 11% of graduate-degree holders. The education gaps in whose jobs are at risk are much wider than the gaps in how worried people are about automation. Workers in routine occupations, by education More | 60% of American adults think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk. These fears are a rare example of bipartisan agreement about the labor market. Support for labor market policies runs hotter for people more concerned about automation. | bart | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/afraid-automation-073403454.html | 0.212203 |
Whos Afraid of Automation? | People are worried that robots will take our jobs. Some 60% of American adults think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk, even though expert predictions about job losses are all over the map. These fears are a rare example of bipartisan agreement about the labor market concerns cross demographic and geographic lines, according to a September 2018 Indeed survey of 2000 American adults. People who say they are pessimistic about Americas economic future tend to be more concerned about automation. So are people with less education and rightly so since their jobs are more at risk. At the same time though, young working-age adults and women are worried about automation even though theyre less vulnerable than other groups. Support for many labor market policies runs hotter for people more concerned about automation. Surprisingly, the policy that automation worriers lean toward most strongly is restricting legal immigration even though todays immigrants often work in professional and technical occupations that arent especially at risk from automation. Other policies, like worker training or a universal basic income, might help those affected by automation more directly. Automation worries are widespread Three out of five adults who responded to our survey think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk. These concerns are far more widespread than worries about other factors only half as many adults think environmental regulations, legal immigration, or trade hurts jobs. Furthermore, worries about automation cross partisan lines. Among both Democrats and Republicans, 60% think these technologies will put many jobs at risk. In contrast, Republicans are more concerned than Democrats that environmental regulations, legal immigration, and trade will hurt jobs. Worries about robots and AI are bipartisan More Still, automation worries some people more than others. Two-thirds of people with a high-school degree or less agree that these technologies will threaten many jobs, compared with half of those with at least a bachelors degree. Younger prime-working-age adults, 25 to 44, are more concerned than 18 to 24 year-olds and older adults. Women are more concerned than men, as are people who are more pessimistic about national economic conditions today. But as well see in the next section, those most worried about automation arent always those most at risk. Automation worries higher among less-educated More Even people not personally at risk are worried about automation Although worries about automation are widespread, the pain is likely to be more concentrated. The types of jobs potentially most at risk from automation and AI are routine expressed as a set of rules and therefore potentially replaced by algorithms. These include manufacturing and other goods-producing jobs, as well as sales and clerical roles. Professional, technical, and personal-service jobs are less vulnerable. According to Census data, 62% of people with only a high-school degree work in routine jobs, versus just 28% of those with a bachelors and 11% of graduate-degree holders. The education gaps in whose jobs are at risk are much wider than the gaps in how worried people are about automation. Workers in routine occupations, by education More | Survey: 60% of American adults think robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will put many jobs at risk. Worries about automation cross partisan lines, with Republicans more concerned than Democrats about the impact of these technologies on jobs. But those most worried about automation aren't always those most at risk, as we'll see in the next section. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/afraid-automation-073403454.html | 0.228226 |
Why did it take Susan Zirinsky 46 years to become president of CBS News? | It didn't take Zirinsky 46 years to become qualified. The news industry needs to recognize and promote female leaders before they reach retirement age. Susan Zirinsky (Photo: John Paul Filo/CBS) When producer Susan Zirinsky was tapped as the new president of beleaguered CBS News, the media industry cheered. I was doing the happy dance. She is a badass in every sense of the word, announced a gleeful Gayle King on CBS This Morning. Zirinsky, the first woman ever to head up CBS News, is 66 years old. She has been working at the network for 46 years which means she started a year before the executive shes replacing, David Rhodes, was born. While its great news that CBS finally chose a woman, Im frankly bewildered by why she wasnt handed the reins long ago. Or why none of the other immensely talented women at the network were given a shot. Read more commentary: #MeToo next step: We owe it to our daughters to raise them as warriors Gretchen Carlson: To succeed, #MeToo must target America's laws, not just a few powerful men Slow #MeToo down: Julie Chen Moonves isn't accountable for her husband Perhaps I shouldnt have been surprised. The news industry, for all of its admirable reporting on the #MeToo allegations that felled these and other men, has been woefully lacking in female leadership. And way too slow to understand its own shortcomings. The Times has had a single female leader in its 167-year history; The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal are at zero. Television is no better. Zirinsky told The Times that she had never sought the job before, though it had been offered. NBC News and Fox News have each had one female news leader, with Foxs Suzanne Scott named recently after the networks own #MeToo scandals. (USA TODAY has had three female top editors, including myself and current Editor in Chief Nicole Carroll). All-male media leadership creates blind spots The industrys overwhelmingly male leadership has repercussions well beyond the newsroom. It infects what we believe is important, which issues we dismiss as trivial, and whom we consider powerful and authoritative. A British analysis concluded that more than 75 percent of experts quoted in digital news accounts are male. In America, more than 70 percent of Sunday morning politics and policy talk show guests are male. Just one example: Think about how you first learned, four or so years ago, that Bill Cosby had allegedly drugged and sexually abused dozens of women. Most likely you saw it in a tabloid, or heard about it from late-night comics. Yes, there was some serious reporting on the case, but for the most part it was considered a salacious diversion from real news. It wasnt until the Harvey Weinstein allegations several years later that the #MeToo movement exploded, and the news media belatedly realized that sexual harassment is a systemic problem infecting society, not a juicy scandal about a lone pervert. Yet in its contours, the Weinstein saga was identical to the Cosby story: a powerful man accused of sexually abusing dozens of women while being protected by his industry and his influence. In short, we in the news media blew it. Cosby, like Weinstein, was a symptom of a far larger societal crisis impacting millions of women. We should have known better and perhaps with a few more women in news leadership roles, we would have. CBS News is in precarious shape Its a heavy burden to expect that Zirinsky, or any one newsroom leader of any gender, can correct all of these ills. But another piece of research gives us a hint of what Zirinsky is up against. It turns out that women are far more likely to get the top job when an organization is in precarious shape and if they cant turn it around they are marched right off the dreaded glass cliff, a phrase coined by University of Exeter researchers Michelle K. Ryan and S. Alexander Haslam. CBS News certainly fits the precarious bill: In addition to its string of #MeToo dismissals, it has suffered ratings declines at "CBS This Morning," "Face the Nation" and "CBS Evening News" over the past year. Coverage of Zirinsky, especially given that she is the first woman in the role, isnt likely to make her job any easier. The news industry itself treats female leaders far more harshly than male leaders. A Rockefeller Foundation study found that when a company is in crisis, 80 percent of news reports will blame a female CEO but if the CEO is a man, only a minority of news reports will blame him. There is a solution to this, and a fairly straightforward one: Bring more women into news leadership. Identify promising women in media. Develop them. Promote them. And recognize when they have earned the right to ascend to the top job. Certainly, it didnt take Susan Zirinsky a full 46 years to become qualified for the presidency of CBS News. And just as surely, there are other women waiting in the wings with the potential to lead. Lets find them, and not wait until they hit retirement age to acknowledge their talents, their skill and their vision to lead the news industry into the future. Joanne Lipman, author of "That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together," is a former editor in chief of USA TODAY and chief content officer of Gannett. Follow her on Twitter: @joannelipman You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/01/10/news-media-more-women-leaders-susan-zirinsky-cbs-news-president-column/2523913002/ | Susan Zirinsky is the first woman ever to head up CBS News. She has been working at the network for 46 years, starting a year before David Rhodes. The news industry needs to recognize and promote female leaders before they reach retirement age. | bart | 1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/01/10/news-media-more-women-leaders-susan-zirinsky-cbs-news-president-column/2523913002/ | 0.170537 |
Why did it take Susan Zirinsky 46 years to become president of CBS News? | It didn't take Zirinsky 46 years to become qualified. The news industry needs to recognize and promote female leaders before they reach retirement age. Susan Zirinsky (Photo: John Paul Filo/CBS) When producer Susan Zirinsky was tapped as the new president of beleaguered CBS News, the media industry cheered. I was doing the happy dance. She is a badass in every sense of the word, announced a gleeful Gayle King on CBS This Morning. Zirinsky, the first woman ever to head up CBS News, is 66 years old. She has been working at the network for 46 years which means she started a year before the executive shes replacing, David Rhodes, was born. While its great news that CBS finally chose a woman, Im frankly bewildered by why she wasnt handed the reins long ago. Or why none of the other immensely talented women at the network were given a shot. Read more commentary: #MeToo next step: We owe it to our daughters to raise them as warriors Gretchen Carlson: To succeed, #MeToo must target America's laws, not just a few powerful men Slow #MeToo down: Julie Chen Moonves isn't accountable for her husband Perhaps I shouldnt have been surprised. The news industry, for all of its admirable reporting on the #MeToo allegations that felled these and other men, has been woefully lacking in female leadership. And way too slow to understand its own shortcomings. The Times has had a single female leader in its 167-year history; The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal are at zero. Television is no better. Zirinsky told The Times that she had never sought the job before, though it had been offered. NBC News and Fox News have each had one female news leader, with Foxs Suzanne Scott named recently after the networks own #MeToo scandals. (USA TODAY has had three female top editors, including myself and current Editor in Chief Nicole Carroll). All-male media leadership creates blind spots The industrys overwhelmingly male leadership has repercussions well beyond the newsroom. It infects what we believe is important, which issues we dismiss as trivial, and whom we consider powerful and authoritative. A British analysis concluded that more than 75 percent of experts quoted in digital news accounts are male. In America, more than 70 percent of Sunday morning politics and policy talk show guests are male. Just one example: Think about how you first learned, four or so years ago, that Bill Cosby had allegedly drugged and sexually abused dozens of women. Most likely you saw it in a tabloid, or heard about it from late-night comics. Yes, there was some serious reporting on the case, but for the most part it was considered a salacious diversion from real news. It wasnt until the Harvey Weinstein allegations several years later that the #MeToo movement exploded, and the news media belatedly realized that sexual harassment is a systemic problem infecting society, not a juicy scandal about a lone pervert. Yet in its contours, the Weinstein saga was identical to the Cosby story: a powerful man accused of sexually abusing dozens of women while being protected by his industry and his influence. In short, we in the news media blew it. Cosby, like Weinstein, was a symptom of a far larger societal crisis impacting millions of women. We should have known better and perhaps with a few more women in news leadership roles, we would have. CBS News is in precarious shape Its a heavy burden to expect that Zirinsky, or any one newsroom leader of any gender, can correct all of these ills. But another piece of research gives us a hint of what Zirinsky is up against. It turns out that women are far more likely to get the top job when an organization is in precarious shape and if they cant turn it around they are marched right off the dreaded glass cliff, a phrase coined by University of Exeter researchers Michelle K. Ryan and S. Alexander Haslam. CBS News certainly fits the precarious bill: In addition to its string of #MeToo dismissals, it has suffered ratings declines at "CBS This Morning," "Face the Nation" and "CBS Evening News" over the past year. Coverage of Zirinsky, especially given that she is the first woman in the role, isnt likely to make her job any easier. The news industry itself treats female leaders far more harshly than male leaders. A Rockefeller Foundation study found that when a company is in crisis, 80 percent of news reports will blame a female CEO but if the CEO is a man, only a minority of news reports will blame him. There is a solution to this, and a fairly straightforward one: Bring more women into news leadership. Identify promising women in media. Develop them. Promote them. And recognize when they have earned the right to ascend to the top job. Certainly, it didnt take Susan Zirinsky a full 46 years to become qualified for the presidency of CBS News. And just as surely, there are other women waiting in the wings with the potential to lead. Lets find them, and not wait until they hit retirement age to acknowledge their talents, their skill and their vision to lead the news industry into the future. Joanne Lipman, author of "That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together," is a former editor in chief of USA TODAY and chief content officer of Gannett. Follow her on Twitter: @joannelipman You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/01/10/news-media-more-women-leaders-susan-zirinsky-cbs-news-president-column/2523913002/ | Susan Zirinsky is the first woman ever to head up CBS News. She has worked at the network for 46 years and is 66 years old. The news industry needs to recognize and promote female leaders before they reach retirement age, she says. She says the industry's overwhelmingly male leadership has repercussions well beyond the newsroom. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/01/10/news-media-more-women-leaders-susan-zirinsky-cbs-news-president-column/2523913002/ | 0.325111 |
Can Private Industry Solve Our Climate Crisis Where Governments Fail? | Extreme weather. Drought. Massive fires in California. The effects of climate change are on the rise and California is front and center. Climate change has been a remarkably difficult challenge for people because the psychology is so different from what we've evolved to cope with as threats. We respond to immediate threats and to threats with a face. Climate change is just too diffuse, too slow and too large it covers the whole world. Its like fighting with air. Since governments havent done a great deal - global carbon emissions are still increasing - perhaps private industry can facilitate people stepping in themselves. There are many companies that are trying to figure out how to do just that. Some are well-known and established, like Lockheed and Tesla, or brand new ones, like Beyond Meat that had a recent IPO filing or Impossible Foods, both as a way to decrease the large emissions from Americas obsession with eating meat. Airbus designed its A380 passenger aircraft to be the most ecofriendly in the industry. For the energy sector, there are two end members to addressing climate change: replace fossil fuels with non-fossil fuels become more efficient and conserve energy as much as possible The first strategy seems to be undermined by the fact that we have more fossil fuels than ever before and its gotten even cheaper to get them out of the ground. Our carbon emissions began climbing again after a 25-year low in 2015.This Administration has also decided they dont care about climate change, so are no help there. The second strategy is where companies like OhmConnect come in increasing efficiency, emplacing a smart grid, and balancing the grid overall to make the most out of the growing chunk of renewables. It was founded in 2014 in California to take advantage of their huge build-out of solar energy and the necessity for smart usage strategies. But its now spreading to markets like Texas and Toronto. This is possible because Californias state energy authority prefers to pay people to save energy instead of paying power plants to produce more. The huge amount of solar that the state has installed is causing some major issues with their grid and with reliability. The states commitment to achieving 100% clean energy use in the coming decades will not be possible without some clever strategies and without everyone being on board. So incentivizing people to act locally is essential. OhmConnect does this by enabling hundreds of thousands of energy customers to earn weekly payments for timely, smarter, home energy use when its cleanest (non-fossil) and reward them for not using energy when its dirty (fossil). Anyone who uses any of the three major California energy suppliers -- Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric -- can sign up for free. Coordinated through smart meter data, the service encourages households and small businesses owners and renters to take specifically targeted OhmHours without energy use, enabling individual users to move as a coordinated group to balance the grid in real time. This removes the need for inefficient or dirty fossil power plants to fire up intermittently. OhmConnect contacts the user when power from fossil plants are dominating the grid. The user can manually or automatically reduce their energy use, e.g., not charge their electric vehicle, dont wash their clothes, turn off their water heater for a few hours. Many users have connected their smart home devices to OhmConnect, including wifi thermostats, electric vehicles, and smart plugs, in order to automate their participation. The users are paid with cash for saving energy during those peak times, and the reductions are sold into the grid. Thats a strong driver. The grid generates just enough power to meet the demand of all its users. Every user on the grid has a forecasted consumption profile, which is calculated by averaging their energy consumption during the previous 10 similar days on an hourly basis. For instance, a users forecast for 5 to 6 PM on a Tuesday would be calculated by averaging their energy use from 5 to 6 PM on Monday, Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, etc. For the weekends, the previous 4 weekend days are used to forecast use. Occasionally, the sum total of these baselines doesnt give a complete picture of expected demand and additional power plants need to fire up. Turning these marginal power plants on is expensive and can increase the wholesale cost of energy from four cents to a dollar per kWh. These power plants are called peaker plants and typically emit two to three times the CO2 emissions as other power plants using the same fuel. The social cost, both economic and environmental, is lower to pay users to reduce their usage instead of paying a dirty power plant to fire up to meet unforecasted demand. Thats how Ohmconnect works. The energy savings are purchased in the California ISO, just as a power plants electricity generation would be purchased. When a user signs up for OhmConnect, they connect their utility account, so we can have access to their smart meter data. Users are then paid for the participation, depending upon how much energy they individually save. During the companys recent summer challenge campaign, for example, when temperatures in the state were at their highest, OhmConnect paid customers $2.5 million for their energy saving tactics, with users saving a total of 500,000 kWhs of power in the three month period. The U.S. Market certainly justifies this strategy - 140 million homes, 80 million smart meters, 28 million Connected Energy Devices (smart thermostats, smart plus, etc.) totaling about $500 billion. Worldwide it could total over $2 trillion. But its this magnitude of effort thats needed to address such a global issue. | Climate change has been a remarkably difficult challenge for people because the psychology is so different from what we've evolved to cope with as threats. Private industry is trying to figure out how to help people step in and help solve the climate crisis where governments have not done a great deal. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/01/10/can-private-industry-solve-our-climate-crisis-where-governments-fail/ | 0.424392 |
Is 'The Drake Curse' real? | Before the national championship, superstar rapper Drake was seen rocking an Alabama sweatshirt. The game did not go well. The Crimson Tide was blown out by Clemson, making Alabama the latest in a long line of teams to fall after getting a nod from Drizzy. Many are saying the Drake Curse is a real thing and a death sentence for teams and athletes. Others don't think any negativity should be attached to Drake's name. PERSPECTIVES Much like a plague, a Drake endorsement haunts teams and athletes with a lethal dose of L's. Every squad he has repped (Alabama, Conor McGregor, the Toronto Raptors, Kentucky and Serena Williams) have taken a beating in their respective sports after his ringing endorsement. Dizzy may be king of the charts, but he's a curse in sports. The 'Drake curse' continues after Alabama's loss to Clemson Put some respeck on Drake's name. This is one of the best rappers of this generation. He should not be associated with anything nearly as negative as a curse. It's not his fault the teams or athletes he supports can't handle their businesses on the court. He is no Kardashian. There is no such thing as the Drake Curse. There's no drake curse lol clemson just a little better on both sides -- Bmb (@bmb_honesty) January 8, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | The 'Drake curse' continues after Alabama's loss to Clemson. Many are saying the Drake Curse is a real thing and a death sentence for teams. Others don't think any negativity should be attached to Drake's name. | bart | 1 | https://www.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/01/is_the_drake_curse_real.html | 0.246536 |
Is 'The Drake Curse' real? | Before the national championship, superstar rapper Drake was seen rocking an Alabama sweatshirt. The game did not go well. The Crimson Tide was blown out by Clemson, making Alabama the latest in a long line of teams to fall after getting a nod from Drizzy. Many are saying the Drake Curse is a real thing and a death sentence for teams and athletes. Others don't think any negativity should be attached to Drake's name. PERSPECTIVES Much like a plague, a Drake endorsement haunts teams and athletes with a lethal dose of L's. Every squad he has repped (Alabama, Conor McGregor, the Toronto Raptors, Kentucky and Serena Williams) have taken a beating in their respective sports after his ringing endorsement. Dizzy may be king of the charts, but he's a curse in sports. The 'Drake curse' continues after Alabama's loss to Clemson Put some respeck on Drake's name. This is one of the best rappers of this generation. He should not be associated with anything nearly as negative as a curse. It's not his fault the teams or athletes he supports can't handle their businesses on the court. He is no Kardashian. There is no such thing as the Drake Curse. There's no drake curse lol clemson just a little better on both sides -- Bmb (@bmb_honesty) January 8, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | The 'Drake curse' continues after Alabama's loss to Clemson. Many are saying the Drake Curse is a real thing and a death sentence for teams and athletes. Others don't think any negativity should be attached to Drake's name. It's not his fault the teams he supports can't handle their businesses on the court. | bart | 2 | https://www.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/01/is_the_drake_curse_real.html | 0.337051 |
Are we in for a bumpy 2019 in Sacramento real estate? | After seven years of price increases, Sacramentos housing market hit a plateau in 2018. Prices flattened in the second half of the year. The number of homes on the market decreased. Those that were on the market took longer to sell. Our team: Dean Wehrli is an analyst for John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Erin Stumpf is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker. Greg Paquin heads The Gregory Group, a real estate research and data firm. Pat Shea is president of Lyon Real Estate. And Ryan Lundquist is an appraiser and author of the Sacramento Appraisal Blog. Digital Access for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. (We edited their comments for brevity and to avoid duplication.) Lundquist: In one word, the market has been in a slump. Sales volume was down 11 percent from the last year. There have been (homes) on the market that havent sold. Prices have been more flat. We had the lowest December in sales volume in the last 11 years. Stumpf: I think the market was just so crazy in the spring of 2018 that many buyers gave up after being beaten out in competitive offer situations. Interest rates ticked up slightly though they have fallen back a bit now so buyers could not afford quite as much as before. Paquin: Even though we have a strong economy that includes wages beginning to increase more significantly, there has been a faster increase in home values as compared to incomes. (Since late) 2011 new-home values have increased 71 percent and median incomes have increased approximately 15 percent. Shea: Trade war commotion, elections, interest rate movements, tax considerations and market fatigue all likely contributed to sales tapering off at year end. Wehrli: Construction and labor costs continue to push pricing (up) in the new home sector. This exacerbated already-high prices which are probably the biggest reason for the slowdown. Stock fluctuations havent helped, particularly for buyers with jobs based in the Bay Area. Many potential home buyers figured prices were at a peak, or about to peak. These buyers are trying to time the market. They ... are willing to wait to see how low sellers can go. Stumpf: I believe Sacramento will see a slight increase in home prices in 2019. I foresee a balanced market between buyers and sellers, and that is great news as far as I am concerned. The number of homes available on the market will be slightly higher than in past years, and homes will take slightly longer to sell on average. Appealing homes that are appropriately priced ... will still see competitive multiple offers and sell quickly. Wehrli: Home prices are likely to be pretty stable, rising modestly by year end. I expect a decent spring selling season, particularly if mortgage rates remain lower as they have been very recently. Inventory is likely to rise a bit, but, remember, we are coming from a few years now of extraordinarily low levels of inventory. Shea: Look for a very predictable sales pattern once again in 2019. One can expect (house price) appreciation to (be in) the 4 percent to 6 percent range. Continued job growth and upward pressure on employee compensation appear to remain in play for the foreseeable future in Northern California. Mortgage rates remain incredibly favorable. Lundquist: If buyers put their foot back on the gas pedal, with mortgages rates going down now, there is room in the market to see values increase. It all boils down right now to what buyers are going to do. Its a blank canvas. Paquin: We are optimistic for sales and pricing in 2019. There is a real possibility that sales will equal and perhaps exceed 2018 numbers. (Newly constructed homes) should see a modest increase of between 2 percent and 3.5 percent. All five experts: No Wehrli: The factors that led to a bubble last time easy money boosting demand artificially and very high levels of supply are not present now. That is not to say we are not in for a slowdown when the economy cools, but it should be nothing like last time. Shea: A respectable number of homes in greater Sacramento are free and clear, and the majority with mortgages have significant equity. Payments are very manageable, due to low interest rates and salary escalations. Stumpf: Previous buyers (a decade-plus ago) hyper-extended themselves and could not actually afford those homes, and when the market declined many had to short sell or were foreclosed. We just do not have those lending products anymore, and buyers have to qualify for loans. Your average buyer today cannot get a loan without a skin in the game down payment, good credit, and verifiable income and employment. Paquin: As compared to the last housing boom-bust cycle of 2008, there has not been the rapid or significant price increases, the artificial lending that helped facilitate the rapid price increases and lenders have become much more diligent in who can or cannot receive a new-home loan. Wehrli: Be patient. Buyers can wait for great offers, but maybe have to be more realistic at times. The same goes for sellers. The market is what it is and no buyer cares that your costs have gone up or what you paid for your home. But there is still not a lot of inventory out there so sellers have not lost all leverage. Lundquist: I say to anyone not to get trapped into thinking buying is about where prices are at. Just know the market, be in tune with interest rates, the neighborhood and the schools. For anyone considering selling, if youre are going to buy again, prices are also high. Thats the struggle many people face. Be aware the rental market has been tight, so if they plan on renting, they better line up a rental in advance. Stumpf: Sellers should be carefully reviewing the most recent, relevant, like-kind comparable nearby home sales and set their listing prices in line with those properties. If a home sits on the market with no offers after a few weeks, your price is probably too high. Sellers should also carefully consider pre-listing repairs, cosmetic improvements, and staging to present their properties in the best possible light. Buyers should get pre-approved for their home financing, and stay in touch with their lender and Realtor in case there are any changes in interest rates. And while overall buyers may have a little more time on their side for decision-making, the good properties will go quickly, so be prepared to pounce. Paquin: We have seen a strong influence of Bay Area buyers to Sacramento that has been increasing during the past 12 to 24 months, with some projects (depending on the location) achieving between 40 percent and 60 percent of their buyers from the Bay Area. (Paquins data shows that, in 2003, new home prices in the Sacramento area were 64 percent of Bay Area prices. Now theyre just 49 percent of Bay prices.) Sacramento provides a significant opportunity for Bay Area refuges who desire to stay close and connected to the coast, but choose a more affordable and, perhaps, better quality of life. Stumpf: I get inquiries from people wanting to relocate to Sacramento from the Bay Area every week, fueled by the desires for a better quality of life and more affordable housing costs. This additional demand is part of the reason why I just do not see any real estate bubble in Sacramentos immediate future. I think many of those households will look to relocate to the greater Sacramento area. Lundquist: This is not a new phenomenon. Weve always been less expensive. Weve been getting cooler lately and getting more notice. There will be heightened focus on our market. (But) we dont have a market where rich cash buyers are buying everything up. Shea: Those with equity (in the Bay Area) can sell and find tremendous home values in our region. They can often place a nice chunk of residual equity in other investments for a more secure retirement. Many, many others must simply find employment in Sacramento, commute, tele-commute, etc. to have any opportunity for home ownership in Northern California. They are priced out of their current housing markets and that will not change. The population is certain to grow in the Greater Sacramento region and housing will not be able to keep up thus, prices will continue to rise. Lundquist: I think the market is poised for buyers to gain more power than sellers. But not total control. Buyers are making the mistake that sellers were making. Sellers thought they could command whatever price they want. Buyers are making an equal mistake of saying I can offer whatever I want. Wehrli: Smart home technology is going to continue to grow. It will become less something to impress a potential buyer and more something a potential buyer expects. Google Home and Amazon Echo will be in more homes, but it will also be smart locks and smart security and, yes, smart toilets, but, no, I dont want to go into details on that. Also, factory-built homes will gradually become a bigger part of the market though maybe more over the next five or 10 years than the next year. Factory-built can cut costs and time lines. Shea: Upper end sales, $750,000 and above, have increased measurably over the last few years. Look for that trend to continue considering the persistent migration patterns from our coastal regions. Paquin: There are several developers that are trying to provide more affordable housing in the Sacramento Region. These homes are generally smaller, situated on smaller lots and offer basic features and amenities; however, sales have been strong at pricing that is generally less than $450,000. Secondly, there is a lot of conversation about ... development of single-family homes as rental units. It is worth keeping an eye on, as it provides a way for people to live in single-family homes without the added costs (down payments, taxes, etc.). Stumpf: Gov. Gavin Newsom has some lofty goals for housing production during his administration. I would like to think that the legislature will take up housing as a key issue during this session, and we should hopefully see some new policy that enables builders to build, creates zoning that permits dense housing construction near transit, allows more existing property owners to construct accessory dwelling units, and creates funding mechanisms to finance affordable housing. | Three real estate experts weigh in on the state of the Sacramento real estate market. They say the market has been in a slump, but prices are likely to rise in 2019. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article224041900.html | 0.427289 |
Are we in for a bumpy 2019 in Sacramento real estate? | After seven years of price increases, Sacramentos housing market hit a plateau in 2018. Prices flattened in the second half of the year. The number of homes on the market decreased. Those that were on the market took longer to sell. Our team: Dean Wehrli is an analyst for John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Erin Stumpf is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker. Greg Paquin heads The Gregory Group, a real estate research and data firm. Pat Shea is president of Lyon Real Estate. And Ryan Lundquist is an appraiser and author of the Sacramento Appraisal Blog. Digital Access for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. (We edited their comments for brevity and to avoid duplication.) Lundquist: In one word, the market has been in a slump. Sales volume was down 11 percent from the last year. There have been (homes) on the market that havent sold. Prices have been more flat. We had the lowest December in sales volume in the last 11 years. Stumpf: I think the market was just so crazy in the spring of 2018 that many buyers gave up after being beaten out in competitive offer situations. Interest rates ticked up slightly though they have fallen back a bit now so buyers could not afford quite as much as before. Paquin: Even though we have a strong economy that includes wages beginning to increase more significantly, there has been a faster increase in home values as compared to incomes. (Since late) 2011 new-home values have increased 71 percent and median incomes have increased approximately 15 percent. Shea: Trade war commotion, elections, interest rate movements, tax considerations and market fatigue all likely contributed to sales tapering off at year end. Wehrli: Construction and labor costs continue to push pricing (up) in the new home sector. This exacerbated already-high prices which are probably the biggest reason for the slowdown. Stock fluctuations havent helped, particularly for buyers with jobs based in the Bay Area. Many potential home buyers figured prices were at a peak, or about to peak. These buyers are trying to time the market. They ... are willing to wait to see how low sellers can go. Stumpf: I believe Sacramento will see a slight increase in home prices in 2019. I foresee a balanced market between buyers and sellers, and that is great news as far as I am concerned. The number of homes available on the market will be slightly higher than in past years, and homes will take slightly longer to sell on average. Appealing homes that are appropriately priced ... will still see competitive multiple offers and sell quickly. Wehrli: Home prices are likely to be pretty stable, rising modestly by year end. I expect a decent spring selling season, particularly if mortgage rates remain lower as they have been very recently. Inventory is likely to rise a bit, but, remember, we are coming from a few years now of extraordinarily low levels of inventory. Shea: Look for a very predictable sales pattern once again in 2019. One can expect (house price) appreciation to (be in) the 4 percent to 6 percent range. Continued job growth and upward pressure on employee compensation appear to remain in play for the foreseeable future in Northern California. Mortgage rates remain incredibly favorable. Lundquist: If buyers put their foot back on the gas pedal, with mortgages rates going down now, there is room in the market to see values increase. It all boils down right now to what buyers are going to do. Its a blank canvas. Paquin: We are optimistic for sales and pricing in 2019. There is a real possibility that sales will equal and perhaps exceed 2018 numbers. (Newly constructed homes) should see a modest increase of between 2 percent and 3.5 percent. All five experts: No Wehrli: The factors that led to a bubble last time easy money boosting demand artificially and very high levels of supply are not present now. That is not to say we are not in for a slowdown when the economy cools, but it should be nothing like last time. Shea: A respectable number of homes in greater Sacramento are free and clear, and the majority with mortgages have significant equity. Payments are very manageable, due to low interest rates and salary escalations. Stumpf: Previous buyers (a decade-plus ago) hyper-extended themselves and could not actually afford those homes, and when the market declined many had to short sell or were foreclosed. We just do not have those lending products anymore, and buyers have to qualify for loans. Your average buyer today cannot get a loan without a skin in the game down payment, good credit, and verifiable income and employment. Paquin: As compared to the last housing boom-bust cycle of 2008, there has not been the rapid or significant price increases, the artificial lending that helped facilitate the rapid price increases and lenders have become much more diligent in who can or cannot receive a new-home loan. Wehrli: Be patient. Buyers can wait for great offers, but maybe have to be more realistic at times. The same goes for sellers. The market is what it is and no buyer cares that your costs have gone up or what you paid for your home. But there is still not a lot of inventory out there so sellers have not lost all leverage. Lundquist: I say to anyone not to get trapped into thinking buying is about where prices are at. Just know the market, be in tune with interest rates, the neighborhood and the schools. For anyone considering selling, if youre are going to buy again, prices are also high. Thats the struggle many people face. Be aware the rental market has been tight, so if they plan on renting, they better line up a rental in advance. Stumpf: Sellers should be carefully reviewing the most recent, relevant, like-kind comparable nearby home sales and set their listing prices in line with those properties. If a home sits on the market with no offers after a few weeks, your price is probably too high. Sellers should also carefully consider pre-listing repairs, cosmetic improvements, and staging to present their properties in the best possible light. Buyers should get pre-approved for their home financing, and stay in touch with their lender and Realtor in case there are any changes in interest rates. And while overall buyers may have a little more time on their side for decision-making, the good properties will go quickly, so be prepared to pounce. Paquin: We have seen a strong influence of Bay Area buyers to Sacramento that has been increasing during the past 12 to 24 months, with some projects (depending on the location) achieving between 40 percent and 60 percent of their buyers from the Bay Area. (Paquins data shows that, in 2003, new home prices in the Sacramento area were 64 percent of Bay Area prices. Now theyre just 49 percent of Bay prices.) Sacramento provides a significant opportunity for Bay Area refuges who desire to stay close and connected to the coast, but choose a more affordable and, perhaps, better quality of life. Stumpf: I get inquiries from people wanting to relocate to Sacramento from the Bay Area every week, fueled by the desires for a better quality of life and more affordable housing costs. This additional demand is part of the reason why I just do not see any real estate bubble in Sacramentos immediate future. I think many of those households will look to relocate to the greater Sacramento area. Lundquist: This is not a new phenomenon. Weve always been less expensive. Weve been getting cooler lately and getting more notice. There will be heightened focus on our market. (But) we dont have a market where rich cash buyers are buying everything up. Shea: Those with equity (in the Bay Area) can sell and find tremendous home values in our region. They can often place a nice chunk of residual equity in other investments for a more secure retirement. Many, many others must simply find employment in Sacramento, commute, tele-commute, etc. to have any opportunity for home ownership in Northern California. They are priced out of their current housing markets and that will not change. The population is certain to grow in the Greater Sacramento region and housing will not be able to keep up thus, prices will continue to rise. Lundquist: I think the market is poised for buyers to gain more power than sellers. But not total control. Buyers are making the mistake that sellers were making. Sellers thought they could command whatever price they want. Buyers are making an equal mistake of saying I can offer whatever I want. Wehrli: Smart home technology is going to continue to grow. It will become less something to impress a potential buyer and more something a potential buyer expects. Google Home and Amazon Echo will be in more homes, but it will also be smart locks and smart security and, yes, smart toilets, but, no, I dont want to go into details on that. Also, factory-built homes will gradually become a bigger part of the market though maybe more over the next five or 10 years than the next year. Factory-built can cut costs and time lines. Shea: Upper end sales, $750,000 and above, have increased measurably over the last few years. Look for that trend to continue considering the persistent migration patterns from our coastal regions. Paquin: There are several developers that are trying to provide more affordable housing in the Sacramento Region. These homes are generally smaller, situated on smaller lots and offer basic features and amenities; however, sales have been strong at pricing that is generally less than $450,000. Secondly, there is a lot of conversation about ... development of single-family homes as rental units. It is worth keeping an eye on, as it provides a way for people to live in single-family homes without the added costs (down payments, taxes, etc.). Stumpf: Gov. Gavin Newsom has some lofty goals for housing production during his administration. I would like to think that the legislature will take up housing as a key issue during this session, and we should hopefully see some new policy that enables builders to build, creates zoning that permits dense housing construction near transit, allows more existing property owners to construct accessory dwelling units, and creates funding mechanisms to finance affordable housing. | Three real estate experts weigh in on the state of the Sacramento real estate market. They say the market has been in a slump, but prices are likely to rise modestly in 2019. The experts also say they are optimistic for sales and pricing in the next few months. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article224041900.html | 0.445005 |
What If Huge NASA Mars Rover Crashes Sunday Night? | If NASA's newest Mars rover doesn't touch down safely Sunday night (Aug. 5), the future of Red Planet exploration could be thrown into serious doubt. The 1-ton Curiosity rover's main goal is to determine if Mars can, or ever could, support microbial life. But the huge robot is also carrying the hopes and dreams of NASA's venerable Mars program on its back to some extent, so a crash Sunday night could be devastating. "It could take the entire Mars program down with it," Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, which pushes for human settlement of the Red Planet, told SPACE.com's Leonard David. "It is victory or death." Big funding cuts President Barack Obama's 2013 federal budget request, which was released in February, slashes NASA's planetary science program funding from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion, with further cuts expected in the coming years. Much of the money will come out of NASA's robotic Mars exploration program, which has enjoyed a string of successes in the past decade. After landing in January 2004, for example, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity discovered plenty of evidence that Mars was once warmer and wetter than it is today. And the Phoenix lander found subsurface water ice near the planet's north pole in 2008. Nevertheless, the White House budget proposal cuts NASA's Mars funding from $587 million this year to $360 million in 2013, and then to just $189 million in 2015. [NASA's 2013 Budget: What Will It Buy?] As a result, NASA was forced to drop of out the European-led ExoMars mission, which aims to deliver an orbiter and a rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively. And the agency is fundamentally restructuring and downscaling its Mars program, in an attempt to figure out how to make the most out of every precious dollar. But NASA planetary science officials still hold out hope for a funding comeback, with the help of Curiosity. They think the rover's discoveries could loosen politicians' pursestrings and reinvigorate the agency's robotic exploration efforts. "What a tremendous opportunity it is for us," Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said at a conference in March. "I believe [Curiosity] will open up that new era of discovery that will compel this nation to invest more in planetary science." Sticking the landing So a successful landing on Sunday night is of paramount importance to the space agency, officials have said. Curiosity's touchdown "could arguably be the most important event most significant event in the history of planetary exploration," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said last month. But success is not a given. Landing a robot on another planet is never an easy task, and Curiosity's touchdown will perhaps involve more hand-wringing than usual. Because it's so heavy, engineers had to devise an entirely new landing method for the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane will lower Curiosity to the Martian surface on cables, then fly off to intentionally crash-land a short distance away. Such a maneuver has never before been tried on another world. If success over the course of the mission could bring great dividends to NASA's Mars program, then failure Sunday night could have a chilling effect. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)] "I think if we are fatal on landing, that will have a very negative influence," said Caltech's John Grotzinger, lead scientist for Curiosity's $2.5 billion mission, which is officially called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). "It's going to force people to look back and ask if it's possible to achieve these very complex, more demanding missions from a technological perspective," Grotzinger told SPACE.com. "How can you talk about sample-return if you can't do MSL first?" Keeping the program vital NASA has one more Mars mission firmly on the books beyond MSL, an atmosphere-studying orbiter called Maven that's due to launch next year. The agency plans to launch another mission in 2018 or 2020, partly to keep the program vital. But a Curiosity crash could persuade some talented scientists and engineers that there's not much of a future at Mars, at least not for a while, researchers say. "If this thing were to fail, I think a lot of people would trickle away and do other things," said Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. Edgett is principal investigator for Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager instrument, or MAHLI. He added that a crash might spark discussions within NASA about shifting resources from Mars to other promising destinations, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, which harbors a liquid-water ocean beneath its icy shell. "I don't like that either-or scenario, but I think that's where we're headed," Edgett told SPACE.com in April. Mars keeps calling us Edgett stressed, however, that he didn't think a landing mishap would be the end of the Mars program. Other experts echo that viewpoint, saying that Mars will continue to hold our interest and draw our scientific explorers back. "It's one of the most scientifically compelling objects in the solar system perhaps in terms of ease to get to, the most compelling," said Scott Hubbard of Stanford University. "And it's the place, ultimately, for human exploration. So I think Mars exploration will continue." Hubbard speaks from experience. He's the former "Mars Czar" who restructured NASA's Red Planet program after the agency's Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter both failed in 1999. Still, success would definitely be preferable for those who care about Red Planet exploration. A strong showing by Curiosity could lead to bigger things down the road at Mars, Hubbard said. "There's a window, I feel, with a successful mission particularly if it finds evidence of organics to give the scientific community even more stimulus and ammunition to ask for a re-look at the budget," Hubbard said. SPACE.com columnist Leonard David contributed to this story. Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of NASA's Mars rover landing Sunday. Follow senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. | NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is scheduled to touch down Sunday night (Aug. 5) The huge robot is also carrying the hopes and dreams of NASA's venerable Mars program on its back. A crash Sunday night could be devastating for the Mars program. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/science/what-if-huge-nasa-mars-rover-crashes-sunday-night | 0.327289 |
What If Huge NASA Mars Rover Crashes Sunday Night? | If NASA's newest Mars rover doesn't touch down safely Sunday night (Aug. 5), the future of Red Planet exploration could be thrown into serious doubt. The 1-ton Curiosity rover's main goal is to determine if Mars can, or ever could, support microbial life. But the huge robot is also carrying the hopes and dreams of NASA's venerable Mars program on its back to some extent, so a crash Sunday night could be devastating. "It could take the entire Mars program down with it," Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, which pushes for human settlement of the Red Planet, told SPACE.com's Leonard David. "It is victory or death." Big funding cuts President Barack Obama's 2013 federal budget request, which was released in February, slashes NASA's planetary science program funding from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion, with further cuts expected in the coming years. Much of the money will come out of NASA's robotic Mars exploration program, which has enjoyed a string of successes in the past decade. After landing in January 2004, for example, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity discovered plenty of evidence that Mars was once warmer and wetter than it is today. And the Phoenix lander found subsurface water ice near the planet's north pole in 2008. Nevertheless, the White House budget proposal cuts NASA's Mars funding from $587 million this year to $360 million in 2013, and then to just $189 million in 2015. [NASA's 2013 Budget: What Will It Buy?] As a result, NASA was forced to drop of out the European-led ExoMars mission, which aims to deliver an orbiter and a rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively. And the agency is fundamentally restructuring and downscaling its Mars program, in an attempt to figure out how to make the most out of every precious dollar. But NASA planetary science officials still hold out hope for a funding comeback, with the help of Curiosity. They think the rover's discoveries could loosen politicians' pursestrings and reinvigorate the agency's robotic exploration efforts. "What a tremendous opportunity it is for us," Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said at a conference in March. "I believe [Curiosity] will open up that new era of discovery that will compel this nation to invest more in planetary science." Sticking the landing So a successful landing on Sunday night is of paramount importance to the space agency, officials have said. Curiosity's touchdown "could arguably be the most important event most significant event in the history of planetary exploration," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said last month. But success is not a given. Landing a robot on another planet is never an easy task, and Curiosity's touchdown will perhaps involve more hand-wringing than usual. Because it's so heavy, engineers had to devise an entirely new landing method for the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane will lower Curiosity to the Martian surface on cables, then fly off to intentionally crash-land a short distance away. Such a maneuver has never before been tried on another world. If success over the course of the mission could bring great dividends to NASA's Mars program, then failure Sunday night could have a chilling effect. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)] "I think if we are fatal on landing, that will have a very negative influence," said Caltech's John Grotzinger, lead scientist for Curiosity's $2.5 billion mission, which is officially called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). "It's going to force people to look back and ask if it's possible to achieve these very complex, more demanding missions from a technological perspective," Grotzinger told SPACE.com. "How can you talk about sample-return if you can't do MSL first?" Keeping the program vital NASA has one more Mars mission firmly on the books beyond MSL, an atmosphere-studying orbiter called Maven that's due to launch next year. The agency plans to launch another mission in 2018 or 2020, partly to keep the program vital. But a Curiosity crash could persuade some talented scientists and engineers that there's not much of a future at Mars, at least not for a while, researchers say. "If this thing were to fail, I think a lot of people would trickle away and do other things," said Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. Edgett is principal investigator for Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager instrument, or MAHLI. He added that a crash might spark discussions within NASA about shifting resources from Mars to other promising destinations, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, which harbors a liquid-water ocean beneath its icy shell. "I don't like that either-or scenario, but I think that's where we're headed," Edgett told SPACE.com in April. Mars keeps calling us Edgett stressed, however, that he didn't think a landing mishap would be the end of the Mars program. Other experts echo that viewpoint, saying that Mars will continue to hold our interest and draw our scientific explorers back. "It's one of the most scientifically compelling objects in the solar system perhaps in terms of ease to get to, the most compelling," said Scott Hubbard of Stanford University. "And it's the place, ultimately, for human exploration. So I think Mars exploration will continue." Hubbard speaks from experience. He's the former "Mars Czar" who restructured NASA's Red Planet program after the agency's Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter both failed in 1999. Still, success would definitely be preferable for those who care about Red Planet exploration. A strong showing by Curiosity could lead to bigger things down the road at Mars, Hubbard said. "There's a window, I feel, with a successful mission particularly if it finds evidence of organics to give the scientific community even more stimulus and ammunition to ask for a re-look at the budget," Hubbard said. SPACE.com columnist Leonard David contributed to this story. Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of NASA's Mars rover landing Sunday. Follow senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. | NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is scheduled to touch down Sunday night (Aug. 5) The huge robot is also carrying the hopes and dreams of NASA's venerable Mars program on its back. A crash Sunday night could be devastating for the agency's Mars exploration program, experts say. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.foxnews.com/science/what-if-huge-nasa-mars-rover-crashes-sunday-night | 0.317592 |
Will Berkeley take back Marine snub? | This is a rush transcript from "The Big Story With John Gibson and Heather Nauert," February 12, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. JOHN GIBSON, CO-HOST: New developments now in a big outrage. Many of us could not believe it when we heard a city in our own country elected to vote against our United States Marines. The liberal Mecca of Berkeley, California, send a note to members of our Armed Forces last month, telling them they were, quote, "Uninvited and unwelcome intruders" in Berkeley if they tried to enlist citizens in that city. KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, GUEST CO-HOST: It's shocking all right. Tonight: Berkeley's is reconsidering it the anti-Marines stance after the brazen snob ignited an outcry across the nation. BIG STORY correspondent, Douglas Kennedy has been following this controversy closely and he joins us now with the very latest. DOUGLAS KENNEDY, BIG STORY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John and Kimberly, the city council will decide tonight whether the Marines are welcome or not welcome. It's a controversy that has sparked a major controversy across the country. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KENNEDY (voice over): In 2006, Navy SEAL, Mark Lee lost his life while fighting in Iraq. DEBBIE LEE, MOTHER OF FALLEN NAVY SEAL: He did that to save his buddies. He did that for you and for me. KENNEDY: But his mom says, Mark's ultimate sacrifice is now being dishonored by the city of Berkeley, which recently told the Marines, they're recruiting office was not welcome within city limits. D. LEE: For years, you know, the city of Berkeley and the crowd here have been saying that our troops are not welcome in Iraq, that they don't belong there. That's disgusting. KENNEDY: The city council is now reconsidering that controversial proclamation that called the Marines, quote, "Unwelcome intruders". They put the bayside city once again at ground zero in a war between pro-war and anti-war ideologies. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm against war but I think, if we didn't have any Marines, we'd probably all be speaking German. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a symbolic representation of a criminal and illegitimate war. And we're saying that it actually needs to leave and the whole war needs to stop. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Marines you can get out of Berkeley now. We don't need you anymore. KENNEDY: California's anti-war group, CodePink wants Berkeley to go even further, prohibiting any military recruitment offices near schools or residential areas. Still, the group maintains the controversy has sparked a much-needed debate. MEDEA BENJAMIN: We're delighted. We're excited about the whole thing. It just shines a much-needed light on the issue of the war. KENNEDY: Debbie Lee says, debate is fine, her problem, she says is with the government group going after the very people who are protecting the government. D. LEE: So, I'm here today to confront the city council, to stand in honor of our troops and that they also need to publicly apologize to our troops, to the Marine recruiting office here and to all our men and women who have served in the military. (END VIDEOTAPE) KENNEDY: The vote tonight will remove the language about unwelcome intruders, at the same time, it will say that the city of Berkeley emphatically opposes the war in Iraq. So, clearly, John and Kimberly, they are trying to walk a fine line. GIBSON: All right. KENNEDY: Obviously, they think so, because they wouldn't be taking a second vote. But you know, clearly, if you oppose the war in Iraq, you should not be going after the Marines, you should be going after the decision makers. The Marines are out fighting for our country. They're dying. They're just following orders. I think they realize they made a mistake. GIBSON: We will follow this and see what happens tonight. Douglas Kennedy, thank you, Douglas. Content and Programming Copyright 2008 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation. | Berkeley, California, recently told Marines they're not welcome within city limits. The city council is now reconsidering that controversial proclamation. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.foxnews.com/story/will-berkeley-take-back-marine-snub | 0.171951 |
Will Berkeley take back Marine snub? | This is a rush transcript from "The Big Story With John Gibson and Heather Nauert," February 12, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. JOHN GIBSON, CO-HOST: New developments now in a big outrage. Many of us could not believe it when we heard a city in our own country elected to vote against our United States Marines. The liberal Mecca of Berkeley, California, send a note to members of our Armed Forces last month, telling them they were, quote, "Uninvited and unwelcome intruders" in Berkeley if they tried to enlist citizens in that city. KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, GUEST CO-HOST: It's shocking all right. Tonight: Berkeley's is reconsidering it the anti-Marines stance after the brazen snob ignited an outcry across the nation. BIG STORY correspondent, Douglas Kennedy has been following this controversy closely and he joins us now with the very latest. DOUGLAS KENNEDY, BIG STORY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John and Kimberly, the city council will decide tonight whether the Marines are welcome or not welcome. It's a controversy that has sparked a major controversy across the country. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KENNEDY (voice over): In 2006, Navy SEAL, Mark Lee lost his life while fighting in Iraq. DEBBIE LEE, MOTHER OF FALLEN NAVY SEAL: He did that to save his buddies. He did that for you and for me. KENNEDY: But his mom says, Mark's ultimate sacrifice is now being dishonored by the city of Berkeley, which recently told the Marines, they're recruiting office was not welcome within city limits. D. LEE: For years, you know, the city of Berkeley and the crowd here have been saying that our troops are not welcome in Iraq, that they don't belong there. That's disgusting. KENNEDY: The city council is now reconsidering that controversial proclamation that called the Marines, quote, "Unwelcome intruders". They put the bayside city once again at ground zero in a war between pro-war and anti-war ideologies. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm against war but I think, if we didn't have any Marines, we'd probably all be speaking German. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a symbolic representation of a criminal and illegitimate war. And we're saying that it actually needs to leave and the whole war needs to stop. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Marines you can get out of Berkeley now. We don't need you anymore. KENNEDY: California's anti-war group, CodePink wants Berkeley to go even further, prohibiting any military recruitment offices near schools or residential areas. Still, the group maintains the controversy has sparked a much-needed debate. MEDEA BENJAMIN: We're delighted. We're excited about the whole thing. It just shines a much-needed light on the issue of the war. KENNEDY: Debbie Lee says, debate is fine, her problem, she says is with the government group going after the very people who are protecting the government. D. LEE: So, I'm here today to confront the city council, to stand in honor of our troops and that they also need to publicly apologize to our troops, to the Marine recruiting office here and to all our men and women who have served in the military. (END VIDEOTAPE) KENNEDY: The vote tonight will remove the language about unwelcome intruders, at the same time, it will say that the city of Berkeley emphatically opposes the war in Iraq. So, clearly, John and Kimberly, they are trying to walk a fine line. GIBSON: All right. KENNEDY: Obviously, they think so, because they wouldn't be taking a second vote. But you know, clearly, if you oppose the war in Iraq, you should not be going after the Marines, you should be going after the decision makers. The Marines are out fighting for our country. They're dying. They're just following orders. I think they realize they made a mistake. GIBSON: We will follow this and see what happens tonight. Douglas Kennedy, thank you, Douglas. Content and Programming Copyright 2008 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation. | Berkeley, California, recently told Marines they're not welcome within city limits. The city council is now reconsidering that controversial proclamation. Anti-war group wants Berkeley to go even further, prohibiting military recruitment offices. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/story/will-berkeley-take-back-marine-snub | 0.227789 |
Will Berkeley take back Marine snub? | This is a rush transcript from "The Big Story With John Gibson and Heather Nauert," February 12, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. JOHN GIBSON, CO-HOST: New developments now in a big outrage. Many of us could not believe it when we heard a city in our own country elected to vote against our United States Marines. The liberal Mecca of Berkeley, California, send a note to members of our Armed Forces last month, telling them they were, quote, "Uninvited and unwelcome intruders" in Berkeley if they tried to enlist citizens in that city. KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, GUEST CO-HOST: It's shocking all right. Tonight: Berkeley's is reconsidering it the anti-Marines stance after the brazen snob ignited an outcry across the nation. BIG STORY correspondent, Douglas Kennedy has been following this controversy closely and he joins us now with the very latest. DOUGLAS KENNEDY, BIG STORY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John and Kimberly, the city council will decide tonight whether the Marines are welcome or not welcome. It's a controversy that has sparked a major controversy across the country. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KENNEDY (voice over): In 2006, Navy SEAL, Mark Lee lost his life while fighting in Iraq. DEBBIE LEE, MOTHER OF FALLEN NAVY SEAL: He did that to save his buddies. He did that for you and for me. KENNEDY: But his mom says, Mark's ultimate sacrifice is now being dishonored by the city of Berkeley, which recently told the Marines, they're recruiting office was not welcome within city limits. D. LEE: For years, you know, the city of Berkeley and the crowd here have been saying that our troops are not welcome in Iraq, that they don't belong there. That's disgusting. KENNEDY: The city council is now reconsidering that controversial proclamation that called the Marines, quote, "Unwelcome intruders". They put the bayside city once again at ground zero in a war between pro-war and anti-war ideologies. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm against war but I think, if we didn't have any Marines, we'd probably all be speaking German. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a symbolic representation of a criminal and illegitimate war. And we're saying that it actually needs to leave and the whole war needs to stop. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Marines you can get out of Berkeley now. We don't need you anymore. KENNEDY: California's anti-war group, CodePink wants Berkeley to go even further, prohibiting any military recruitment offices near schools or residential areas. Still, the group maintains the controversy has sparked a much-needed debate. MEDEA BENJAMIN: We're delighted. We're excited about the whole thing. It just shines a much-needed light on the issue of the war. KENNEDY: Debbie Lee says, debate is fine, her problem, she says is with the government group going after the very people who are protecting the government. D. LEE: So, I'm here today to confront the city council, to stand in honor of our troops and that they also need to publicly apologize to our troops, to the Marine recruiting office here and to all our men and women who have served in the military. (END VIDEOTAPE) KENNEDY: The vote tonight will remove the language about unwelcome intruders, at the same time, it will say that the city of Berkeley emphatically opposes the war in Iraq. So, clearly, John and Kimberly, they are trying to walk a fine line. GIBSON: All right. KENNEDY: Obviously, they think so, because they wouldn't be taking a second vote. But you know, clearly, if you oppose the war in Iraq, you should not be going after the Marines, you should be going after the decision makers. The Marines are out fighting for our country. They're dying. They're just following orders. I think they realize they made a mistake. GIBSON: We will follow this and see what happens tonight. Douglas Kennedy, thank you, Douglas. Content and Programming Copyright 2008 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2008 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation. | Berkeley, California, sent a note to members of our Armed Forces last month, telling them they were, quote, "Uninvited and unwelcome intruders" in Berkeley if they tried to enlist citizens in that city. Berkeley's is reconsidering the anti-Marines stance after the brazen snob ignited an outcry. | bart | 2 | https://www.foxnews.com/story/will-berkeley-take-back-marine-snub | 0.213712 |
How Are Senior Care Communities Caring For Couples? | Senior housing developers and designers are working to expand the housing and care options enjoyed by the oldest Americans, including couples. Demographics explain why. Only about 100,000 Americans lived to be 85 or older in 1900. Projections indicate there will be more than 19 million Americans 85 and older by 2050. People 85 and older will make up 24% of older adults and 5% of the overall American population. Providing couples multiple options and approaches within the same senior living community is important. Thats because many couples have acuity and other challenges that make it difficult if not impossible to remain living together in the same quarters. Among the companies at the forefront in affording different alternatives are Pathway to Living, CA Senior Living and KTGY Architecture and Planning. Different needs, different times At Pathway to Living communities, couples can share assisted living apartments. They can opt to each have their own assisted living apartment at the same community. They can have individual assisted living apartments in a companion suite. Or one spouse can remain in assisted living in the same community where another is in memory care. Couples have different needs and often at different times, so we try to offer as many flexible options and alternatives as possible to help them choose the right home for them, said Maria Oliva, COO of Chicago, Ill.-based Pathway to Living, with 32 Midwestern senior living communities. Often, spouses also have widely different socialization and activity needs, and these too can be accommodated at Pathway to Living communities. A case in point is provided by Anne Schmid and her husband Allan, who recently celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. The Schmids live in separate assisted living apartments connected within a companion suite at Pathway to Living-operated Alexian Village in Elk Grove Village, Ill. Our family thought it would be smart for us to live somewhere with medical staff on site, Anne says. The community is great for us because Im very social and Allan is a hermit. Ive met a lot of new friends, enjoy all the music programs, go on the outings and attend the exercise classes every morning. Allan likes to watch TV and rest in his apartment, and prefers to come down mainly for meals. Duplex cottage option Keeping couples together is a priority at CA Senior Living, the senior housing investment and development division of Chicago-based CA Ventures, with 22 U.S. senior communities operating or under construction. CA Senior Living offers traditional independent living, assisted living and memory care studios. In its communities in Lynwood, Wash. and Mayfield Heights, Oh. it also offers a new duplex cottage option. Togetherness for couples has been proven to boost quality of life, in part through the alleviation of stress associated with separation, said CA Senior Living president Ben Burke. While many couples want to continue living together, they often require varying levels of care, which prevents some from even considering alternative housing options despite the health benefits they provide. Weve made it our mission to educate older couples and in many cases their adult children about the various options that allow couples to live in the same community and, whenever possible, the same unit. Staying together through rehab The life plan communities (LPCs) designed by KTGY Architecture + Planning are expressly laid out to enable spouses to remain together as long as possible in the same place, surrounded by the same familiar friends. In the event of one spouse requiring rehabilitation, the designs enable movement between independent and assisted living areas. After the rehab is concluded, couples can reunite in their independent living apartments. The soon-to-open, KTGY Architecture + Planning-designed Reata Glen in South Orange County, Calif., for instance, will permit residents to transition from independent living to memory care and skilled nursing on the same site. | Senior housing developers and designers are working to expand the housing and care options enjoyed by the oldest Americans. Couples have different needs and often at different times, so we try to offer as many flexible options and alternatives as possible. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffsteele/2019/01/10/how-are-senior-care-communities-caring-for-couples/ | 0.305491 |
How Are Senior Care Communities Caring For Couples? | Senior housing developers and designers are working to expand the housing and care options enjoyed by the oldest Americans, including couples. Demographics explain why. Only about 100,000 Americans lived to be 85 or older in 1900. Projections indicate there will be more than 19 million Americans 85 and older by 2050. People 85 and older will make up 24% of older adults and 5% of the overall American population. Providing couples multiple options and approaches within the same senior living community is important. Thats because many couples have acuity and other challenges that make it difficult if not impossible to remain living together in the same quarters. Among the companies at the forefront in affording different alternatives are Pathway to Living, CA Senior Living and KTGY Architecture and Planning. Different needs, different times At Pathway to Living communities, couples can share assisted living apartments. They can opt to each have their own assisted living apartment at the same community. They can have individual assisted living apartments in a companion suite. Or one spouse can remain in assisted living in the same community where another is in memory care. Couples have different needs and often at different times, so we try to offer as many flexible options and alternatives as possible to help them choose the right home for them, said Maria Oliva, COO of Chicago, Ill.-based Pathway to Living, with 32 Midwestern senior living communities. Often, spouses also have widely different socialization and activity needs, and these too can be accommodated at Pathway to Living communities. A case in point is provided by Anne Schmid and her husband Allan, who recently celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. The Schmids live in separate assisted living apartments connected within a companion suite at Pathway to Living-operated Alexian Village in Elk Grove Village, Ill. Our family thought it would be smart for us to live somewhere with medical staff on site, Anne says. The community is great for us because Im very social and Allan is a hermit. Ive met a lot of new friends, enjoy all the music programs, go on the outings and attend the exercise classes every morning. Allan likes to watch TV and rest in his apartment, and prefers to come down mainly for meals. Duplex cottage option Keeping couples together is a priority at CA Senior Living, the senior housing investment and development division of Chicago-based CA Ventures, with 22 U.S. senior communities operating or under construction. CA Senior Living offers traditional independent living, assisted living and memory care studios. In its communities in Lynwood, Wash. and Mayfield Heights, Oh. it also offers a new duplex cottage option. Togetherness for couples has been proven to boost quality of life, in part through the alleviation of stress associated with separation, said CA Senior Living president Ben Burke. While many couples want to continue living together, they often require varying levels of care, which prevents some from even considering alternative housing options despite the health benefits they provide. Weve made it our mission to educate older couples and in many cases their adult children about the various options that allow couples to live in the same community and, whenever possible, the same unit. Staying together through rehab The life plan communities (LPCs) designed by KTGY Architecture + Planning are expressly laid out to enable spouses to remain together as long as possible in the same place, surrounded by the same familiar friends. In the event of one spouse requiring rehabilitation, the designs enable movement between independent and assisted living areas. After the rehab is concluded, couples can reunite in their independent living apartments. The soon-to-open, KTGY Architecture + Planning-designed Reata Glen in South Orange County, Calif., for instance, will permit residents to transition from independent living to memory care and skilled nursing on the same site. | Many couples have acuity and other challenges that make it difficult to remain living together in the same quarters. At Pathway to Living communities, couples can share assisted living apartments. They can opt to each have their own assisted living apartment at the same community. Or one spouse can remain in assisted living in the same community where another is in memory care. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffsteele/2019/01/10/how-are-senior-care-communities-caring-for-couples/ | 0.382326 |
Can Science Save the Tasmanian Devil? | The Tasmanian devil is known for its powerful jaws, frightening screeches and foul temper. Lately, though, it has earned a more dubious claim to fame: A strange and devastating disease is ravaging its population, pushing the world's largest meat-eating marsupials to the edge of extinction. Now, an international team of scientists has sequenced the Tasmanian devil genome. The results of their study appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tasmanian devils once roamed Australia, but died out across most of their territory at least 400 years ago, probably due to changing local weather conditions and the spread of the dingo. Today the creatures survive only on the south Australian island of Tasmania -- for now. Since 1996, a new disease has decimated the devil population. As a result, Australia deemed the devil an endangered species in 2008. Known as DFTD, devil facial tumor disease causes cancerous tumors to sprout on the animals' mouths and heads. DFTD is no ordinary cancer. Unlike almost all other forms of cancer, DFTD is highly contagious. Deadly tumor cells are passed from animal to animal when they come together to mate or fight. Over the last 15 years the disease has spread across Tasmania. In the hardest-hit areas it has claimed as much as 90 percent of the devil population, according to Australian government estimates. "If nothing is done, the species will easily be wiped out within the next 10 years," said Stephan Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and a co-author of the new study. Schuster and colleagues deciphered the full genomes of two Tasmanian devils: a female that contracted DFTD in the wild, and a male that proved resistant to two strains of the cancer before dying from a third strain last year. The researchers also reviewed the DNA of 175 other devils to find out how much variation exists from animal to animal. They confirmed that genetic diversity was extremely low. "They're highly inbred," said Webb Miller, co-author of the study and professor of biology and computer science engineering at Penn State. That makes it all the more important to get a handle on the devils' genetic heritage, he said. The Australian government has already begun breeding healthy devils in captivity, keeping them in "protective custody" while the disease burns through the wild population. "Once there are no more carriers in the wild, you could repopulate Tasmania from this breeding stock," Schuster said. But instead of randomly choosing animals for protective custody, Schuster and Miller say, conservationists should test animals' genes to ensure the captive population contains as much diversity as possible. The more genetic diversity there is in the population, Miller said, the better the animals will withstand new diseases and other new threats in the future. George Amato, a conservation geneticist at the American Museum of Natural History, notes that it's not necessary to sequence an entire genome to preserve genetic diversity. Identifying key gene sequences -- rather than decoding the entire DNA of an endangered species -- is typically a better use of conservation dollars, Amato said. "Just because you can sequence a whole genome doesn't mean you should," Amato said. On the other hand, Amato said, the Tasmanian devil and its bizarre cancer are a special case. Having its entire genome sequence will be valuable for scientists working to understand DFTD. In fact, Miller said, his team has already identified spots on the genome that might be involved in resistance to DFTD. "We have lots of clues," he said. Genetics offers a powerful tool for understanding endangered animals and preserving their diversity. "In almost every case in conservation, there's an important role for genetics," Amato said. | Scientists have sequenced the genome of a Tasmanian devil. The species is threatened by a cancer that has decimated its population. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.foxnews.com/science/can-science-save-the-tasmanian-devil | 0.177151 |
Can Science Save the Tasmanian Devil? | The Tasmanian devil is known for its powerful jaws, frightening screeches and foul temper. Lately, though, it has earned a more dubious claim to fame: A strange and devastating disease is ravaging its population, pushing the world's largest meat-eating marsupials to the edge of extinction. Now, an international team of scientists has sequenced the Tasmanian devil genome. The results of their study appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tasmanian devils once roamed Australia, but died out across most of their territory at least 400 years ago, probably due to changing local weather conditions and the spread of the dingo. Today the creatures survive only on the south Australian island of Tasmania -- for now. Since 1996, a new disease has decimated the devil population. As a result, Australia deemed the devil an endangered species in 2008. Known as DFTD, devil facial tumor disease causes cancerous tumors to sprout on the animals' mouths and heads. DFTD is no ordinary cancer. Unlike almost all other forms of cancer, DFTD is highly contagious. Deadly tumor cells are passed from animal to animal when they come together to mate or fight. Over the last 15 years the disease has spread across Tasmania. In the hardest-hit areas it has claimed as much as 90 percent of the devil population, according to Australian government estimates. "If nothing is done, the species will easily be wiped out within the next 10 years," said Stephan Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and a co-author of the new study. Schuster and colleagues deciphered the full genomes of two Tasmanian devils: a female that contracted DFTD in the wild, and a male that proved resistant to two strains of the cancer before dying from a third strain last year. The researchers also reviewed the DNA of 175 other devils to find out how much variation exists from animal to animal. They confirmed that genetic diversity was extremely low. "They're highly inbred," said Webb Miller, co-author of the study and professor of biology and computer science engineering at Penn State. That makes it all the more important to get a handle on the devils' genetic heritage, he said. The Australian government has already begun breeding healthy devils in captivity, keeping them in "protective custody" while the disease burns through the wild population. "Once there are no more carriers in the wild, you could repopulate Tasmania from this breeding stock," Schuster said. But instead of randomly choosing animals for protective custody, Schuster and Miller say, conservationists should test animals' genes to ensure the captive population contains as much diversity as possible. The more genetic diversity there is in the population, Miller said, the better the animals will withstand new diseases and other new threats in the future. George Amato, a conservation geneticist at the American Museum of Natural History, notes that it's not necessary to sequence an entire genome to preserve genetic diversity. Identifying key gene sequences -- rather than decoding the entire DNA of an endangered species -- is typically a better use of conservation dollars, Amato said. "Just because you can sequence a whole genome doesn't mean you should," Amato said. On the other hand, Amato said, the Tasmanian devil and its bizarre cancer are a special case. Having its entire genome sequence will be valuable for scientists working to understand DFTD. In fact, Miller said, his team has already identified spots on the genome that might be involved in resistance to DFTD. "We have lots of clues," he said. Genetics offers a powerful tool for understanding endangered animals and preserving their diversity. "In almost every case in conservation, there's an important role for genetics," Amato said. | Scientists have sequenced the genome of a Tasmanian devil. The species is threatened by a deadly cancer that has decimated its population. Conservationists are breeding healthy devils in captivity to repopulate Tasmania. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/science/can-science-save-the-tasmanian-devil | 0.235815 |
Can Science Save the Tasmanian Devil? | The Tasmanian devil is known for its powerful jaws, frightening screeches and foul temper. Lately, though, it has earned a more dubious claim to fame: A strange and devastating disease is ravaging its population, pushing the world's largest meat-eating marsupials to the edge of extinction. Now, an international team of scientists has sequenced the Tasmanian devil genome. The results of their study appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tasmanian devils once roamed Australia, but died out across most of their territory at least 400 years ago, probably due to changing local weather conditions and the spread of the dingo. Today the creatures survive only on the south Australian island of Tasmania -- for now. Since 1996, a new disease has decimated the devil population. As a result, Australia deemed the devil an endangered species in 2008. Known as DFTD, devil facial tumor disease causes cancerous tumors to sprout on the animals' mouths and heads. DFTD is no ordinary cancer. Unlike almost all other forms of cancer, DFTD is highly contagious. Deadly tumor cells are passed from animal to animal when they come together to mate or fight. Over the last 15 years the disease has spread across Tasmania. In the hardest-hit areas it has claimed as much as 90 percent of the devil population, according to Australian government estimates. "If nothing is done, the species will easily be wiped out within the next 10 years," said Stephan Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and a co-author of the new study. Schuster and colleagues deciphered the full genomes of two Tasmanian devils: a female that contracted DFTD in the wild, and a male that proved resistant to two strains of the cancer before dying from a third strain last year. The researchers also reviewed the DNA of 175 other devils to find out how much variation exists from animal to animal. They confirmed that genetic diversity was extremely low. "They're highly inbred," said Webb Miller, co-author of the study and professor of biology and computer science engineering at Penn State. That makes it all the more important to get a handle on the devils' genetic heritage, he said. The Australian government has already begun breeding healthy devils in captivity, keeping them in "protective custody" while the disease burns through the wild population. "Once there are no more carriers in the wild, you could repopulate Tasmania from this breeding stock," Schuster said. But instead of randomly choosing animals for protective custody, Schuster and Miller say, conservationists should test animals' genes to ensure the captive population contains as much diversity as possible. The more genetic diversity there is in the population, Miller said, the better the animals will withstand new diseases and other new threats in the future. George Amato, a conservation geneticist at the American Museum of Natural History, notes that it's not necessary to sequence an entire genome to preserve genetic diversity. Identifying key gene sequences -- rather than decoding the entire DNA of an endangered species -- is typically a better use of conservation dollars, Amato said. "Just because you can sequence a whole genome doesn't mean you should," Amato said. On the other hand, Amato said, the Tasmanian devil and its bizarre cancer are a special case. Having its entire genome sequence will be valuable for scientists working to understand DFTD. In fact, Miller said, his team has already identified spots on the genome that might be involved in resistance to DFTD. "We have lots of clues," he said. Genetics offers a powerful tool for understanding endangered animals and preserving their diversity. "In almost every case in conservation, there's an important role for genetics," Amato said. | Scientists have sequenced the genome of a Tasmanian devil. The species is threatened by a deadly cancer that has decimated its population. Conservationists are breeding healthy devils in captivity to try to repopulate the wild population of the creatures, which are highly inbred. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.foxnews.com/science/can-science-save-the-tasmanian-devil | 0.249926 |
Is the hype about CBD, or cannabidiol, real? | You're not alone. Not that long ago, I would not have been able to tell you what the acronym CBD stood for, let alone what it was used for. CBD, or cannabidiol, is most commonly extracted from hemp, but it can also come from marijuana plants, which is why it is sometimes confused with its trippy chemical cousin THC. Unlike CBD, THC produces a high when smoked or eaten. Today, we are living in a CBD world, with tinctures, ointments and vaping oils popping up everywhere. Celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Willie Nelson are CBD believers, and if you frequent the right coffee shops, you can even get a shot of cannabidiol in your latte. In my small North Carolina town, a flier at the local convenience store exhorts me to experience the phenomenon of CBD products, promising it can provide relief from diabetes, alcoholism, schizophrenia, back and knee pain, and other conditions. Everybody who buys the product comes back and raves about it including my mother, the enthusiastic checkout clerk says. And, I must add, including me. I am now taking a CBD tincture daily. After all the hype, I wanted to see whether it might have a positive impact on my lifelong struggle against depression. (To be clear, the tincture I use is based on hemp-derived CBD, which contains less than 0.3 percent THC, which is short for tetrahydrocannabinol. Thats not enough to get high even if I drank the entire bottle, several experts explained.) A rapidly growing industry Despite the growing popularity of CBD, the science supporting the claims remains pretty slim at this point. Id say hype, hope and big bucks. To date, the Food and Drug Administration has approved only one drug containing CBD, Epidiolex, for previously uncontrollable pediatric seizures. (To get the FDAs OK, a new drug must be rigorously studied in clinical trials.) The Hemp Business Journal estimates that the hemp CBD market totaled $190 million last year in a category that didnt exist five years ago. By 2022, the Brightfield Group, a cannabis and CBD market research firm, says sales are expected to reach $22 billion. The December passage of the 2018 farm bill will certainly help; the measure amended the term marihuana to exempt hemp as a controlled substance as long as it contains no more than 0.3 percent THC. Laura Freeman, chief executive of Homestead Alternatives, a Kentucky maker of CBD products, told me that this is the first bright spot weve had in farming in a long time. We finally have a crop that has potential. With that kind of enthusiasm, as one CBD-user asked me, Whats the harm? The research so far Thats an excellent question, says Donald Abrams, an oncologist and professor of clinical medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. In fact, he says, we really dont know anything about CBDs. Abrams is a member of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee that issued the most comprehensive report to date on the evidence related to the health benefits of cannabis and cannabinoids. That report did not include hemp-based CBD; it covered only CBD products that included THC derived from marijuana, also known as medical marijuana. (Remember: its the THC that makes users high and its why medical marijuana is still illegal in many states.) Abrams says, however, that in vitro and animal studies do suggest many potential therapeutic applications for hemp-based CBD. Several studies have found CBD to be harmless, which is to say safe, but thats very different from proving its effectiveness. Abrams told me there have been only five randomized clinical trials that have looked at CBD, until the Epidiolex studies. The largest of those studies was a 24-person trial. Yep, thats small. A need for transparency Even if there were more evidence that CBD works wonders, we would still have the question of what CBD-based products actually contain. Not all states require CBD manufacturers to accurately label their products. With scant regulation, consumers should be skeptical. The source matters, too, since heavy metals or other contaminants have been found in some hemp grown in China or Eastern Europe. People who are buying them on Amazon, or at their local health food store, are really working without a (safety) net, says Michael Backes, author of Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana. In a 2017 study, Marcel Bonn-Miller, an adjunct assistant professor in the psychiatry department at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine, said his team found that nearly 70 percent of CBD products they analyzedwere mislabeled. About 40 percent of the 84 items were under-labeled, meaning they had significantly more CBD than indicated. In addition, approximately a quarter were over-labeled, meaning consumers not only are paying good money for an ingredient they are not getting but also may not be getting a large enough dose to achieve any potential therapeutic benefit. The recommended serving size on my bottle of CBD tincture is 1 milliliter a day. I think I speak for most consumers when I say serving size is the way to measure chocolates, not medicines. But the FDA wont allow CBD producers to make any marketing claims which includes recommended doses. Other brands may recommend a greater or smaller daily dose because doses arent standardized and because CBD products come in different strengths. As Abrams told me, its really the wild west out there. A lot of promise Despite these concerns, Ziva Cooper, an associate professor of clinical neurobiology at Columbia Universitys Irving Medical Center, who is doing research with CBD, says based on animal studies, there seems to be a lot of promise for a number of disease states, including its potential effects on inflammation, which could make it effective against multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders and addiction. More important, she told me, CBD may be therapeutic for ailments for which there arent necessarily great medicines such as those pediatric seizure disorders and many others. About three months ago, I added a CBD tincture to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medication I take for depression. My psychopharmacologist told me there was no specific contraindication or reason against taking both, but stressed that theres no data on how the two behave together. There are some known contraindications with other medications, including Warfarin, codeine and oxycodone, but not SSRIs. Its not that theres no contraindication, Cooper said. We just dont know. Taking Bonn-Millers advice, I found the batch number on the bottle of my tincture and called the manufacturer in Kentucky to verify whats in it. Fortunately, the label was exactly on the mark in terms of CBD content. The testing lab also confirmed there were no heavy metals in my product. The answer: We wouldnt. Since Ive been using CBD, my mood has been significantly elevated and stable, although I understand my experience proves nothing. The placebo effect can be strong, especially for health symptoms modulated by the brain. Cooper encouraged me to continue talking with my doctor because these powerful stories, as well as evidence from preclinical or animal studies, help drive the basis for rigorous studies. Such rigor is whats needed to prove or disprove the anecdotal information about CBD. A market this size, with such enormous health consequences, should be based on more than hype and hope. | CBD, or cannabidiol, is most commonly extracted from hemp, but it can also come from marijuana plants. Despite the growing popularity of CBD, the science supporting the claims remains pretty slim at this point, says CNN's John Sutter. Sutter: There's a lot of hype, hope and big bucks surrounding CBD. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.seattletimes.com/explore/shop-northwest/is-the-hype-about-cbd-or-cannabidiol-real/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 0.19455 |
Why the rush to name a New Orleans police chief? | With the sudden departure of New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison, Mayor LaToya Cantrell will finally get the chance to name her own top cop, which is likely what she wanted all along. Be careful what you wish for. There is nothing unusual or wrong with Cantrell wanting to name her own police chief. In most cities, its the most important and high-profile appointment that a mayor makes, sending a message about a commitment to public safety and taking ownership of the crime stats. But after the sudden announcement Monday (Jan. 7) of Harrisons resignation, Cantrell appears to be rushing to fill the gap with little or no public input or transparency. The process painfully brings to mind Cantrells still inexplicable decision to hire former NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley as the citys director of public safety and homeland security. She backed down reluctantly only after what she called an uptick in community resistance from those who criticized Rileys leadership following Hurricane Katrina and questioned his diligence in investigating accusations of police violence, including the shooting deaths of unarmed citizens after the storm. Searching for motives in the NOPD chiefs disappearance Naming a new police chief could be a defining moment for Cantrell. It could be argued that the greatest success of Mayor Marc Morials two terms was the hiring of Richard Pennington in October 1994 to take over an NOPD riddled with corruption and incompetence. New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the country 424 homicides in 1994 alone and the highest rate of civil rights complaints against officers when Pennington took charge. Five years later, the number of murders was down to 158 and Pennington had instituted policies to clean up the internal malfeasance and to begin restoring public confidence in the force. Nothing would have redeemed Ray Nagins criminally dysfunctional time in office, but the performance of his NOPD superintendents, Eddie Compass and Riley, certainly didnt help. Compass lost control of the NOPD during the Katrina disaster and Rileys tenure was marred by continued chaos. Mayor Mitch Landrieus first choice for superintendent, Ronal Serpas, stepped down in the midst of controversy over a two-day delay in publicly disclosing an officer-involved shooting during an Algiers traffic stop. An inspector generals report also had criticized his department for the widespread misclassification of sexual assault reports. That led to the rise of Harrison, who is widely praised for boosting morale within the department and increasing confidence with the public in guiding the NOPD under a federal consent decree. He also is leaving after New Orleans made it through 2018 with 146 murders, the lowest number of homicides in the city since the early 1970s. But Cantrell never seemed to fully embrace Harrison. Throughout her campaign, she said she would mount a national search for a new chief and coldly allowed that Harrison could apply if he was so inclined. Even when she reversed course and kept him on, Cantrell said Harrison would be evaluated quarterly by a set of metrics she never made public. We may never know. The question now is how Cantrell moves forward. She has said she will announce her new chief Monday, just a week after the job came open. Perhaps she was prepared for this moment, either because she knew he was leaving or was planning to replace him. This Louisiana Republican could face tough votes in shutdown battle Either way, it would help if the public were better informed by how the decision was being made and an assurance that the candidate has been properly vetted. Act in haste, repent at leisure rarely works in politics or public policy. Sometimes you are fortunate to land a Pennington (think Sean Payton) and sometimes you get a Compass or a Riley (think Mike Ditka or Hank Stram). Tim Morris is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write to Tim at tmorris@nola.com. | New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell wants to name her own police chief. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.nola.com/opinions/2019/01/why-the-rush-to-name-a-new-orleans-police-chief.html | 0.158895 |
Why the rush to name a New Orleans police chief? | With the sudden departure of New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison, Mayor LaToya Cantrell will finally get the chance to name her own top cop, which is likely what she wanted all along. Be careful what you wish for. There is nothing unusual or wrong with Cantrell wanting to name her own police chief. In most cities, its the most important and high-profile appointment that a mayor makes, sending a message about a commitment to public safety and taking ownership of the crime stats. But after the sudden announcement Monday (Jan. 7) of Harrisons resignation, Cantrell appears to be rushing to fill the gap with little or no public input or transparency. The process painfully brings to mind Cantrells still inexplicable decision to hire former NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley as the citys director of public safety and homeland security. She backed down reluctantly only after what she called an uptick in community resistance from those who criticized Rileys leadership following Hurricane Katrina and questioned his diligence in investigating accusations of police violence, including the shooting deaths of unarmed citizens after the storm. Searching for motives in the NOPD chiefs disappearance Naming a new police chief could be a defining moment for Cantrell. It could be argued that the greatest success of Mayor Marc Morials two terms was the hiring of Richard Pennington in October 1994 to take over an NOPD riddled with corruption and incompetence. New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the country 424 homicides in 1994 alone and the highest rate of civil rights complaints against officers when Pennington took charge. Five years later, the number of murders was down to 158 and Pennington had instituted policies to clean up the internal malfeasance and to begin restoring public confidence in the force. Nothing would have redeemed Ray Nagins criminally dysfunctional time in office, but the performance of his NOPD superintendents, Eddie Compass and Riley, certainly didnt help. Compass lost control of the NOPD during the Katrina disaster and Rileys tenure was marred by continued chaos. Mayor Mitch Landrieus first choice for superintendent, Ronal Serpas, stepped down in the midst of controversy over a two-day delay in publicly disclosing an officer-involved shooting during an Algiers traffic stop. An inspector generals report also had criticized his department for the widespread misclassification of sexual assault reports. That led to the rise of Harrison, who is widely praised for boosting morale within the department and increasing confidence with the public in guiding the NOPD under a federal consent decree. He also is leaving after New Orleans made it through 2018 with 146 murders, the lowest number of homicides in the city since the early 1970s. But Cantrell never seemed to fully embrace Harrison. Throughout her campaign, she said she would mount a national search for a new chief and coldly allowed that Harrison could apply if he was so inclined. Even when she reversed course and kept him on, Cantrell said Harrison would be evaluated quarterly by a set of metrics she never made public. We may never know. The question now is how Cantrell moves forward. She has said she will announce her new chief Monday, just a week after the job came open. Perhaps she was prepared for this moment, either because she knew he was leaving or was planning to replace him. This Louisiana Republican could face tough votes in shutdown battle Either way, it would help if the public were better informed by how the decision was being made and an assurance that the candidate has been properly vetted. Act in haste, repent at leisure rarely works in politics or public policy. Sometimes you are fortunate to land a Pennington (think Sean Payton) and sometimes you get a Compass or a Riley (think Mike Ditka or Hank Stram). Tim Morris is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write to Tim at tmorris@nola.com. | New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell wants to name her own police chief. John Sutter: Cantrell seems to be rushing to fill the gap with little or no public input. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nola.com/opinions/2019/01/why-the-rush-to-name-a-new-orleans-police-chief.html | 0.234948 |
Why the rush to name a New Orleans police chief? | With the sudden departure of New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison, Mayor LaToya Cantrell will finally get the chance to name her own top cop, which is likely what she wanted all along. Be careful what you wish for. There is nothing unusual or wrong with Cantrell wanting to name her own police chief. In most cities, its the most important and high-profile appointment that a mayor makes, sending a message about a commitment to public safety and taking ownership of the crime stats. But after the sudden announcement Monday (Jan. 7) of Harrisons resignation, Cantrell appears to be rushing to fill the gap with little or no public input or transparency. The process painfully brings to mind Cantrells still inexplicable decision to hire former NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley as the citys director of public safety and homeland security. She backed down reluctantly only after what she called an uptick in community resistance from those who criticized Rileys leadership following Hurricane Katrina and questioned his diligence in investigating accusations of police violence, including the shooting deaths of unarmed citizens after the storm. Searching for motives in the NOPD chiefs disappearance Naming a new police chief could be a defining moment for Cantrell. It could be argued that the greatest success of Mayor Marc Morials two terms was the hiring of Richard Pennington in October 1994 to take over an NOPD riddled with corruption and incompetence. New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the country 424 homicides in 1994 alone and the highest rate of civil rights complaints against officers when Pennington took charge. Five years later, the number of murders was down to 158 and Pennington had instituted policies to clean up the internal malfeasance and to begin restoring public confidence in the force. Nothing would have redeemed Ray Nagins criminally dysfunctional time in office, but the performance of his NOPD superintendents, Eddie Compass and Riley, certainly didnt help. Compass lost control of the NOPD during the Katrina disaster and Rileys tenure was marred by continued chaos. Mayor Mitch Landrieus first choice for superintendent, Ronal Serpas, stepped down in the midst of controversy over a two-day delay in publicly disclosing an officer-involved shooting during an Algiers traffic stop. An inspector generals report also had criticized his department for the widespread misclassification of sexual assault reports. That led to the rise of Harrison, who is widely praised for boosting morale within the department and increasing confidence with the public in guiding the NOPD under a federal consent decree. He also is leaving after New Orleans made it through 2018 with 146 murders, the lowest number of homicides in the city since the early 1970s. But Cantrell never seemed to fully embrace Harrison. Throughout her campaign, she said she would mount a national search for a new chief and coldly allowed that Harrison could apply if he was so inclined. Even when she reversed course and kept him on, Cantrell said Harrison would be evaluated quarterly by a set of metrics she never made public. We may never know. The question now is how Cantrell moves forward. She has said she will announce her new chief Monday, just a week after the job came open. Perhaps she was prepared for this moment, either because she knew he was leaving or was planning to replace him. This Louisiana Republican could face tough votes in shutdown battle Either way, it would help if the public were better informed by how the decision was being made and an assurance that the candidate has been properly vetted. Act in haste, repent at leisure rarely works in politics or public policy. Sometimes you are fortunate to land a Pennington (think Sean Payton) and sometimes you get a Compass or a Riley (think Mike Ditka or Hank Stram). Tim Morris is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write to Tim at tmorris@nola.com. | New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell wants to name her own police chief. John Sutter: Cantrell seems to be rushing to fill the gap with little or no public input or transparency. He says the process painfully brings to mind Cantrell's still inexplicable decision to hire former NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nola.com/opinions/2019/01/why-the-rush-to-name-a-new-orleans-police-chief.html | 0.299178 |
Why Did AT&T Shares Lose 22% in 2018? | AT&T (NYSE: T) faces a fairly hostile and highly competitive market for its wireless, broadband, and pay-television services. The company has not lost ground in all of those segments, but it's struggled as DirecTV has cast a shadow over the entire company. What happened While AT&T has added wireless customers and its overall outlook remains positive, the company has no answer for stemming the declines in its satellite television business. In the third quarter alone, DirecTV lost 359,000 customers while its DirecTV Now streaming service added 49,000 and AT&T U-verse increased by 13,000. That's not an AT&T problem but, rather, a satellite television one. Satellite used to be the main competitor to traditional wired cable. Now, with streaming services and cord-cutting as lower-cost options, consumers have no reason to opt for satellite. In addition, DirecTV does not offer bundled broadband service and AT&T's U-verse (which does) lost 23,000 video customers in the third quarter. Again, that's due to customers shifting away from phone company-based internet preferring cable-based service and not a problem specific to AT&T. A person pointing a remote control at a television. More Cord-cutting and customers dropping satellite have become a problem for AT&T. Image source: Getty Images. So what AT&T faces problems with DirecTV and pay television in general that it has no answers for. The company will continue to lose satellite customers in large number,s and it's not going to make that up in streaming customers. It should, however, remain a strong player in wireless, but it will face pricing challenges in that market assuming the Sprint and T-Mobile merger gets approved. Concerns over the pay-television business were a drag on the shares of the company in 2018. After closing 2017 at $36.11 before closing the year at $28.07, a 22% drop, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Now what It's really a question of how AT&T manages its declines in satellite television and how it leverages its various assets. CEO Randall Stephenson understands that ongoing success will involve more than just providing services. "We are well positioned for success as the lines between entertainment and communications continue to blur," he said in a press release. "If you're a media company, you can no longer rely exclusively on wholesale distribution models. You must develop a direct relationship with your viewers. And if you're a communications company, you can no longer rely exclusively on oversized bundles of content." AT&T, of course, owns content through its acquisition of Time Warner. In theory, that content could be used to entice more customers to buy DirecTV Now or some sort of streaming service using the company's programming library. That's a possible but very challenging proposition for a company that's facing significant competition and changing consumer demand. More From The Motley Fool Daniel B. Kline has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | AT&T shares closed 2018 at $28.07, a 22% drop. DirecTV lost 359,000 customers in the third quarter alone. The company will continue to lose satellite customers in large number,s. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/why-did-t-shares-lose-150500442.html | 0.16322 |
Why Did AT&T Shares Lose 22% in 2018? | AT&T (NYSE: T) faces a fairly hostile and highly competitive market for its wireless, broadband, and pay-television services. The company has not lost ground in all of those segments, but it's struggled as DirecTV has cast a shadow over the entire company. What happened While AT&T has added wireless customers and its overall outlook remains positive, the company has no answer for stemming the declines in its satellite television business. In the third quarter alone, DirecTV lost 359,000 customers while its DirecTV Now streaming service added 49,000 and AT&T U-verse increased by 13,000. That's not an AT&T problem but, rather, a satellite television one. Satellite used to be the main competitor to traditional wired cable. Now, with streaming services and cord-cutting as lower-cost options, consumers have no reason to opt for satellite. In addition, DirecTV does not offer bundled broadband service and AT&T's U-verse (which does) lost 23,000 video customers in the third quarter. Again, that's due to customers shifting away from phone company-based internet preferring cable-based service and not a problem specific to AT&T. A person pointing a remote control at a television. More Cord-cutting and customers dropping satellite have become a problem for AT&T. Image source: Getty Images. So what AT&T faces problems with DirecTV and pay television in general that it has no answers for. The company will continue to lose satellite customers in large number,s and it's not going to make that up in streaming customers. It should, however, remain a strong player in wireless, but it will face pricing challenges in that market assuming the Sprint and T-Mobile merger gets approved. Concerns over the pay-television business were a drag on the shares of the company in 2018. After closing 2017 at $36.11 before closing the year at $28.07, a 22% drop, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Now what It's really a question of how AT&T manages its declines in satellite television and how it leverages its various assets. CEO Randall Stephenson understands that ongoing success will involve more than just providing services. "We are well positioned for success as the lines between entertainment and communications continue to blur," he said in a press release. "If you're a media company, you can no longer rely exclusively on wholesale distribution models. You must develop a direct relationship with your viewers. And if you're a communications company, you can no longer rely exclusively on oversized bundles of content." AT&T, of course, owns content through its acquisition of Time Warner. In theory, that content could be used to entice more customers to buy DirecTV Now or some sort of streaming service using the company's programming library. That's a possible but very challenging proposition for a company that's facing significant competition and changing consumer demand. More From The Motley Fool Daniel B. Kline has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | AT&T shares closed 2018 at $28.07, a 22% drop. DirecTV lost 359,000 customers in the third quarter alone. The company will continue to lose satellite customers in large number,s and it won't make that up in streaming customers. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/why-did-t-shares-lose-150500442.html | 0.630267 |
Will Delta (DAL) Retain its Beat Streak in Q4 Earnings? | Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2018 results on Jan 15, before the market opens. The company delivered a positive earnings surprise in the last reported quarter. In fact, it boasts an impressive earnings history, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 4.2%. Things seem to be looking up for the company this soon-to-be-reported quarter as well with the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings being revised 2.5% upward over the last 60 days. Our proven model shows that Delta is likely to beat on earnings in the fourth quarter of 2018 as well because it has the perfect combination of the following two key ingredients. Earnings ESP: Delta has an Earnings ESP of +1.26%, representing the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate (poised at $1.27 cents per share) and the Zacks Consensus Estimate (pegged lower at $1.25). You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Zacks Rank: Delta currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Note that the stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 have a significantly higher chance of beating estimates. Conversely, the Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is witnessing negative estimate revisions. Thus, the above combination makes us reasonably confident of a likely earnings surprise in the impending reporting cycle. Delta Air Lines, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Delta Air Lines, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Delta Air Lines, Inc. Quote Factors Likely at Play The current law, which cuts the corporate tax rate significantly, is anticipated to aid Deltas bottom-line growth in the fourth quarter. Notably, the carrier expects earnings per share between $1.25 and $1.30 in the period to be reported, much higher than 96 cents in the fourth quarter of 2017. Additionally, high passenger revenues owing to solid demand for air travel are anticipated to boost the companys top line. Delta expects total revenues to grow approximately 7% excluding third-party refinery sales in the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue growth is pegged at 5.7%. Additionally, the pre-tax margin is predicted between 10% and 11%. Moreover, total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM: a key measure of unit revenue) is envisioned to increase approximately 3% on a year-over-year basis. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter TRASM stands at 17.22 cents compared with 16.40 reported in the third quarter of 2018. Notably, the company has been reporting a healthy TRASM growth over the past few quarters. On another positive note, non-fuel unit costs are likely to slip approximately 0.5% in the to-be-reported quarter. This is another catalyst for bottom-line growth. However, high fuel expenses might partly offset earnings growth in the quarter. Fuel prices, although at a low level since the past few months, is still much higher when compared with the year-ago figure. The company forecasts fourth-quarter fuel cost per gallon in the range of $2.38-$2.43, much higher than $1.93 in the year-ago period. Other Stocks to Consider Investors interested in the broader Transportation sector may also consider American Airlines Group, Inc. AAL, ArcBest Corporation ARCB and JetBlue Airways Corporation JBLU as these stocks too possess the right mix of elements to beat on earnings in the next releases. American Airlines has an Earnings ESP of +6.73% and a Zacks Rank of 2. The company is expected to release fourth-quarter earnings on Jan 24. ArcBest has an Earnings ESP of +0.14% and a Zacks Rank of 1. The company will report its fourth-quarter financial numbers on Jan 30. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. JetBlue has an Earnings ESP of +2.86% and is a Zacks #2 Ranked stock. The company is expected to announce fourth-quarter results on Jan 24. Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> | Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2018 results on Jan 15. The company delivered a positive earnings surprise in the last reported quarter. Delta is likely to beat on earnings in the fourth quarter of 2018 as well because it has the perfect combination of the following two key ingredients. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/delta-dal-retain-beat-streak-145302994.html | 0.349599 |
Is China scouting for inter-planetary fuel on the far side of the moon? | China landed a probe on the far side of the moon on Thursday with remarkably little fanfare, yet the feat is one giant leap for a nation thats long been regarded as an also-ran in the space race. With Elon Musk tweeting pictures of starships and NASA targeting a manned mission to the Mars one day in the distant future, the moon might seem a less exciting destination. But space experts quickly applauded Chinas technical mastery in the probe landing, and said that while short-term opportunities to mine the moon for minerals might be minimal, long-term implications for space exploration are real. China thinks in decades, said Clive Neal, a lunar expert at the University of Notre Dame. The U.S. thinks in presidential terms. Last year, for the first time, China passed the U.S. in orbital launches, most of them for satellites. With the moon landing, its now positioned as a contender for exploration, communications and space commerce. The stated goal for the Change-4 sitting on the dark side: Collect samples and identify what minerals are there. Space observers said humanity was more likely to find gold, silver, iridium and platinum on asteroids. That doesnt rule out a moon-mining endeavor in the far future that could serve as a lunar gas station to the stars. The primary material on the moon is helium-3, which for now is too expensive to haul back to Earth. In theory, the non-radioactive isotope could be used as fuel for the next generations of spacecraft to explore deeper into space. Imagine driving from NYC to L.A. without gas stations along the way, said Peter Diamandis, the entrepreneur who founded the XPrize to encourage private spaceships. If you can get the fuel from space, it reduces the cost. As for those whod mine asteroids, the moon may be the better option if materials are discovered under the surface. Alex Ellery, of Carleton University, says the moons treasures are easier to retrieve because it has gravity and is close to Earth. The next step is bringing mankind back to the moon. Theres debate in the U.S. over whether to do a direct landing as soon as possible, or build a lunar base that takes longer. NASAs top administrator has committed to the latter option. Some people in the U.S. are saying, We want to get humans back there before China, according to David Todd, of space research firm Seradata. Other people are saying weve already run that race, and America needs to be careful of rushing up alleys. Todd said he expects there will be a genuine market for space tourism, and that the moon may win out. Elon Musk senses there could be government money involved and commercial opportunity, Todd said. I can see people going to the moon on a two-week holiday, but not to spend two years on Mars. China may be testing its ability for more sophisticated missions, according to Neal of Notre Dame. That poses the question of why China chose its particular landing place, at one of the moons oldest and deepest craters. The answer could be simple, he said. From the far side of the moon, Chinese scientists can see farther into space because Earths radio waves cant get in the way. | China's Chang'e-4 probe landed on the far side of the moon on Thursday. Experts say it could be used to mine the moon for helium-3, which can be used as fuel for the next generations of spacecraft. The next step is bringing mankind back to the moon. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://nationalpost.com/news/world/is-china-scouting-for-inter-planetary-fuel-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon | 0.290174 |
Why Is the National Enquirer So Obsessed With Jeff Bezos? | Read: Saturday Night Lives confusing celebration of Jeff Bezos Then, a few hours later, in barges the National Enquirer, asserting that Bezos had a long-running affair with Lauren Sanchez, which they knew because they tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates, and quality time in hidden love nests. Somehow, they claim to have come into the possession of messages that Bezos sent to Sanchez. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail claims that a source close to the Bezos family says that his relationship with Sanchez began after the couples separation. Entertainment Tonight claims two sources who say the same of Sanchez and her marriage to the Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell. The different versions are all grimly believable. It is a celebrity divorce, with the gleeful crowd and toxic cloud that entails. But it is the 2010s, and the National Enquirer is not just any old news outlet. And Jeff Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post, which frequently draws ire from Donald Trump, who dislikes its coverage of his presidency. Theres more. American Media, the Enquirers parent company, under its CEO, David Pecker, admitted that it worked with the Trump campaign to pay Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story about an affair with Donald Trump, which it then killed. At times, it seemed like the Enquirer operated as a de facto arm of the campaign, wrote Gabriel Sherman in Vanity Fair. So, its not surprising that the MSNBC host Chris Hayes pointed out another angle on Twitter. Given everything we know about how Peckers National Enquirer has functioned as essentially an arm of Trumpworld, [the story] prompts some questions, Hayes tweeted. The implication, it would seem, is that Trump or Trumps team hit Bezos, a perceived rival, through his longtime friends paper, the National Enquirer. Which: Who knows, and I wont speculate. But lets just say that it is not outside the long-established character of the National Enquirer to attempt to out a possibly cheating celebrity. Read: The other way the National Enquirer helped elect Trump In Leon Neyfakhs Slow Burn podcast series on how Watergate happened, his sixth episode traces how conspiratorial thinking came to dominate the early 70s. The details of Nixons downfall made Americans more suspicious than theyve ever been and more desperate to uncover the secrets their government was keeping from them, Neyfakh says. Basically, Watergate turned everyone into a conspiracy theorist. In our times, the same disease has taken hold, but through the million muted post horns of the internet. For every theory thats spittle flecked with Alex Jones conspiracism, theres another one that connects it to an extended diagram of the Mueller investigation. Not even a dirtbag celebrity tabloid can publish regular dirtbag celebrity things without somehow touching a federal investigation. | The National Enquirer published a story alleging that Jeff Bezos had an affair with Lauren Sanchez. | bart | 0 | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/anatomy-of-a-gross-media-moment/579967/?utm_source=feed | 0.25633 |
Why Is the National Enquirer So Obsessed With Jeff Bezos? | Read: Saturday Night Lives confusing celebration of Jeff Bezos Then, a few hours later, in barges the National Enquirer, asserting that Bezos had a long-running affair with Lauren Sanchez, which they knew because they tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates, and quality time in hidden love nests. Somehow, they claim to have come into the possession of messages that Bezos sent to Sanchez. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail claims that a source close to the Bezos family says that his relationship with Sanchez began after the couples separation. Entertainment Tonight claims two sources who say the same of Sanchez and her marriage to the Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell. The different versions are all grimly believable. It is a celebrity divorce, with the gleeful crowd and toxic cloud that entails. But it is the 2010s, and the National Enquirer is not just any old news outlet. And Jeff Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post, which frequently draws ire from Donald Trump, who dislikes its coverage of his presidency. Theres more. American Media, the Enquirers parent company, under its CEO, David Pecker, admitted that it worked with the Trump campaign to pay Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story about an affair with Donald Trump, which it then killed. At times, it seemed like the Enquirer operated as a de facto arm of the campaign, wrote Gabriel Sherman in Vanity Fair. So, its not surprising that the MSNBC host Chris Hayes pointed out another angle on Twitter. Given everything we know about how Peckers National Enquirer has functioned as essentially an arm of Trumpworld, [the story] prompts some questions, Hayes tweeted. The implication, it would seem, is that Trump or Trumps team hit Bezos, a perceived rival, through his longtime friends paper, the National Enquirer. Which: Who knows, and I wont speculate. But lets just say that it is not outside the long-established character of the National Enquirer to attempt to out a possibly cheating celebrity. Read: The other way the National Enquirer helped elect Trump In Leon Neyfakhs Slow Burn podcast series on how Watergate happened, his sixth episode traces how conspiratorial thinking came to dominate the early 70s. The details of Nixons downfall made Americans more suspicious than theyve ever been and more desperate to uncover the secrets their government was keeping from them, Neyfakh says. Basically, Watergate turned everyone into a conspiracy theorist. In our times, the same disease has taken hold, but through the million muted post horns of the internet. For every theory thats spittle flecked with Alex Jones conspiracism, theres another one that connects it to an extended diagram of the Mueller investigation. Not even a dirtbag celebrity tabloid can publish regular dirtbag celebrity things without somehow touching a federal investigation. | The National Enquirer published a story alleging that Jeff Bezos had an affair with Lauren Sanchez. Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post, which frequently draws ire from Donald Trump, who dislikes its coverage of his presidency. | bart | 1 | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/anatomy-of-a-gross-media-moment/579967/?utm_source=feed | 0.278395 |
Why Is the National Enquirer So Obsessed With Jeff Bezos? | Read: Saturday Night Lives confusing celebration of Jeff Bezos Then, a few hours later, in barges the National Enquirer, asserting that Bezos had a long-running affair with Lauren Sanchez, which they knew because they tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates, and quality time in hidden love nests. Somehow, they claim to have come into the possession of messages that Bezos sent to Sanchez. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail claims that a source close to the Bezos family says that his relationship with Sanchez began after the couples separation. Entertainment Tonight claims two sources who say the same of Sanchez and her marriage to the Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell. The different versions are all grimly believable. It is a celebrity divorce, with the gleeful crowd and toxic cloud that entails. But it is the 2010s, and the National Enquirer is not just any old news outlet. And Jeff Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post, which frequently draws ire from Donald Trump, who dislikes its coverage of his presidency. Theres more. American Media, the Enquirers parent company, under its CEO, David Pecker, admitted that it worked with the Trump campaign to pay Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story about an affair with Donald Trump, which it then killed. At times, it seemed like the Enquirer operated as a de facto arm of the campaign, wrote Gabriel Sherman in Vanity Fair. So, its not surprising that the MSNBC host Chris Hayes pointed out another angle on Twitter. Given everything we know about how Peckers National Enquirer has functioned as essentially an arm of Trumpworld, [the story] prompts some questions, Hayes tweeted. The implication, it would seem, is that Trump or Trumps team hit Bezos, a perceived rival, through his longtime friends paper, the National Enquirer. Which: Who knows, and I wont speculate. But lets just say that it is not outside the long-established character of the National Enquirer to attempt to out a possibly cheating celebrity. Read: The other way the National Enquirer helped elect Trump In Leon Neyfakhs Slow Burn podcast series on how Watergate happened, his sixth episode traces how conspiratorial thinking came to dominate the early 70s. The details of Nixons downfall made Americans more suspicious than theyve ever been and more desperate to uncover the secrets their government was keeping from them, Neyfakh says. Basically, Watergate turned everyone into a conspiracy theorist. In our times, the same disease has taken hold, but through the million muted post horns of the internet. For every theory thats spittle flecked with Alex Jones conspiracism, theres another one that connects it to an extended diagram of the Mueller investigation. Not even a dirtbag celebrity tabloid can publish regular dirtbag celebrity things without somehow touching a federal investigation. | The National Enquirer published a story alleging that Jeff Bezos had an affair with Lauren Sanchez. The story has raised questions about whether the tabloid is an arm of the Trump campaign. It is not outside the long-established character of the National Enquerr to attempt to out a possibly cheating celebrity. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/anatomy-of-a-gross-media-moment/579967/?utm_source=feed | 0.291572 |
Do Costco's December Comps Indicate a Solid Run in 2019? | Favorable job scenario, increasing disposable income and improved consumer confidence are responsible for a favorable retail environment. And Costco Wholesale Corporation COST has been a beneficiary of the same. Certainly, the companys better price management, strong membership trends and increasing penetration of e-commerce business are also leading to impressive comparable sales (comps) run that may continue in 2019. This operator of membership warehouses reported comps for the month of December. The metric increased 6.1% for the five-week period ended Jan 6, 2019. This follows an increase of 9.2% in November, 8.6% in October, 8.4% in September, 9.2% in August and 8.3% in July. Comps for December reflect an increase of 7.5%, 2% and 2.8% in the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, gasoline prices and accounting change concerning revenue recognition (ASC 606), comps for the month rose 7%, while the same increased 7.1%, 8.1% and 5.7% in the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Meanwhile, net sales improved 7.8% to $15.42 billion in the month under review, following an increase of 9.8%, 10.6%, 10.3%, 12.2%, and 10.1% in November, October, September, August and July, respectively. For the 18 weeks ended Jan 6, 2019, net sales came in at $52.99 billion, up about 9.5% from $48.39 billion reported in the year-ago period. Comps for the period grew 7.9%, while the same increased 10%, 2.1% and 3.3% in the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Costco is also steadily expanding e-commerce capabilities in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea and Taiwan. E-commerce comparable sales rose 13.6%, 46.1%, 20%, 28.6%, 23.8% and 20.9% in the months of December, November, October, September, August and July, respectively. Costco, which shares space with Walmart WMT, Target TGT and Ross Stores ROST, continues to be one of the dominant warehouse retailers based on the breadth and quality of merchandise offered. In fact, its strategy of selling products at heavily discounted prices has helped it to remain on growth track. In a year, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have increased 10.8%, outperforming the industrys rise of 9.3%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Target Corporation (TGT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | Costco Wholesale Corporation COST has been a beneficiary of a favorable retail environment. The company's December comparable sales (comps) increased 6.1% for the five-week period. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/costcos-december-comps-indicate-solid-161304639.html | 0.123564 |
Do Costco's December Comps Indicate a Solid Run in 2019? | Favorable job scenario, increasing disposable income and improved consumer confidence are responsible for a favorable retail environment. And Costco Wholesale Corporation COST has been a beneficiary of the same. Certainly, the companys better price management, strong membership trends and increasing penetration of e-commerce business are also leading to impressive comparable sales (comps) run that may continue in 2019. This operator of membership warehouses reported comps for the month of December. The metric increased 6.1% for the five-week period ended Jan 6, 2019. This follows an increase of 9.2% in November, 8.6% in October, 8.4% in September, 9.2% in August and 8.3% in July. Comps for December reflect an increase of 7.5%, 2% and 2.8% in the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, gasoline prices and accounting change concerning revenue recognition (ASC 606), comps for the month rose 7%, while the same increased 7.1%, 8.1% and 5.7% in the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Meanwhile, net sales improved 7.8% to $15.42 billion in the month under review, following an increase of 9.8%, 10.6%, 10.3%, 12.2%, and 10.1% in November, October, September, August and July, respectively. For the 18 weeks ended Jan 6, 2019, net sales came in at $52.99 billion, up about 9.5% from $48.39 billion reported in the year-ago period. Comps for the period grew 7.9%, while the same increased 10%, 2.1% and 3.3% in the United States, Canada and Other International locations, respectively. Costco is also steadily expanding e-commerce capabilities in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea and Taiwan. E-commerce comparable sales rose 13.6%, 46.1%, 20%, 28.6%, 23.8% and 20.9% in the months of December, November, October, September, August and July, respectively. Costco, which shares space with Walmart WMT, Target TGT and Ross Stores ROST, continues to be one of the dominant warehouse retailers based on the breadth and quality of merchandise offered. In fact, its strategy of selling products at heavily discounted prices has helped it to remain on growth track. In a year, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have increased 10.8%, outperforming the industrys rise of 9.3%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Target Corporation (TGT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research | Costco Wholesale Corporation COST has been a beneficiary of a favorable retail environment. The company's December comparable sales (comps) increased 6.1% for the five-week period ended Jan 6, 2019. Costco is also steadily expanding e-commerce capabilities in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea and Taiwan. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/costcos-december-comps-indicate-solid-161304639.html | 0.538056 |
Should Hyping Edible Bugs Focus On The Experience Instead Of The Environment? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Oliver Brachat/for NPR Oliver Brachat/for NPR Farming insects may be more sustainable than raising meat, but so far that hasn't been quite enough to convince most Westerners to eat them. That might do the trick. The global demand for meat drives environmental decline, from forest depletion and soil erosion to increased water use and the release of greenhouse gases. Insect farming is easier on the environment, says Joost Van Itterbeeck, visiting scientist at Rikkyo University in Tokyo and co-author of the book Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security. And, he adds, "The nutritional benefits are very obvious in terms of proteins, minerals and vitamins." But as nice as that all sounds, Westerners are just plain disgusted by bugs on the dinner plate. And save-the-planet discussions don't seem to be changing their minds. Current marketing tactics for eating insects tend to point out environmental and health benefits. But a new study published in Frontiers in Nutrition suggests it might be better to focus on taste and experience, such as highlighting how much dragonflies taste like soft-shelled crabs. Hiding crickets in cookies This doesn't come as a surprise to Kathy Rolin, who knows something about getting people to try edible insects. She and her husband, James, originally started their business, Cowboy Cricket Farms, to sell whole frozen crickets to food manufacturers. After finding that more first-time bug eaters opt for cookies baked with cricket flour instead of a whole cricket, they decided to expand their business to sell Chocolate Chirp Cookies directly to consumers. They found the Chocolate Chirps had better profit margins. "We mainly market the cookies, because who doesn't like a chocolate cookie?" says Kathy Rolin. There have been calls to appeal to consumers' tastes before, but now there is evidence that appealing to the senses might actually work. The study shows that a willingness to try edible insects in this case, a chocolate-covered mealworm depends on what advertisement a person reads before deciding whether to eat it. When the ad focused on taste and experience, rather than environmental or health claims, more people would try the worms. In the study, 180 volunteers reviewed informational flyers on an edible insect start-up company. The wording differed only in one sentence: "Eating meat has never been so _______," meat referring to the meaty part of the insect in this case. The sentence ended with either "good for the environment," "good for the body," "exotic" or "delicious." The latter two were considered by the researchers as hedonic marketing that appealed to the senses. After reflecting on the ad, participants were then given the option to try a chocolate mealworm truffle, which contained whole and visible worms. Participants who read the hedonic marketing claims were more likely to try the truffle, which the researchers attributed to higher-quality expectations suggested by the advertisements. Fighting disgust Promoting taste may convince more people to try insects because it veers our reaction away from disgust. "It's not a rational response," says Val Curtis, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of the book Don't Look, Don't Touch, the Science Behind Revulsion. "We have an innate response to things that might make us sick by feeling disgusted and, therefore, don't want to consume them." Disgust can be easily generalized, and bugs on the dinner plate trigger the "ick" reaction because we associate them with the cockroach scurrying across the floor. A ruined appetite. Telling people to eat insects for the sake of the planet, the researchers argue, won't convince a stomach that has already said "no." "Saving the planet is not something we've evolved to do," notes Curtis. Instead, the researchers suggest that hedonic advertising is a better way to entice would-be diners to eat bugs, because it helps prevent the disgust response. The cockroach rises If we can clear that hurdle, insects could potentially become as common as lobster which was once referred to as the "cockroach of the sea" and fed to prisoners and servants. But when railways began to spread across America and lobster was served to unsuspecting travelers who didn't know that the crustaceans were considered "trash food" the passengers took a liking to the taste, and lobster began to soar in popularity. A related story surrounds sushi, which didn't start gaining widespread acceptance in the U.S. until the mid-'60s. When high-end restaurants started serving raw fish, it went from unpalatable to popular. Now, both lobster and sushi are considered delicacies, a trend that was propelled by another effective form of advertising: status appeal. Rolin thinks insects could follow the same trend. "We've noticed that there's been quite a few celebrities that have endorsed the idea of [eating] insects." Recently, actress Nicole Kidman revealed her "secret talent" of bug consumption in a Vanity Fair video by eating a four-course insect meal complete with fried grasshopper dessert, and singer Justin Timberlake served up bug dishes at a recent album release party. Marketing campaigns that focus on a favorable bug-eating experience, perhaps by showing celebrities eating them, might be enough to distract people from the disgust response long enough to get them to try it. Reframing the bug "I would say if you're going to market insects, you take them as far away from anything slimy or crawling or creepy or too leggy," says Curtis. "Meat is sold as a tasty product, and all pictures of animals have been taken off the packaging. I would say just do exactly the same with insects." One way to do this is by changing the name of the dish. We've done this with other foods: We eat pork, not pig; and beef, not cow. When serving ant larvae, it may be better to use their alternative food name: escamoles, a delicacy served in Mexico City. While taste and experience may prove to be a good way to promote eating insects, that shouldn't discount environmental claims. Eco-friendly campaigns do get people to think more about food sustainability; they're just not quite enough to get most people to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. It just might. Berly McCoy is a freelance science writer living in Northwest Montana. Follow her on Twitter: @travlinscientst | Insect farming is easier on the environment, says Joost Van Itterbeeck. But Westerners are just plain disgusted by bugs on the dinner plate. A new study suggests it might be better to focus on taste and experience. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/10/677826823/should-hyping-edible-bugs-focus-on-the-experience-instead-of-the-environment?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr | 0.101772 |
Should Hyping Edible Bugs Focus On The Experience Instead Of The Environment? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Oliver Brachat/for NPR Oliver Brachat/for NPR Farming insects may be more sustainable than raising meat, but so far that hasn't been quite enough to convince most Westerners to eat them. That might do the trick. The global demand for meat drives environmental decline, from forest depletion and soil erosion to increased water use and the release of greenhouse gases. Insect farming is easier on the environment, says Joost Van Itterbeeck, visiting scientist at Rikkyo University in Tokyo and co-author of the book Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security. And, he adds, "The nutritional benefits are very obvious in terms of proteins, minerals and vitamins." But as nice as that all sounds, Westerners are just plain disgusted by bugs on the dinner plate. And save-the-planet discussions don't seem to be changing their minds. Current marketing tactics for eating insects tend to point out environmental and health benefits. But a new study published in Frontiers in Nutrition suggests it might be better to focus on taste and experience, such as highlighting how much dragonflies taste like soft-shelled crabs. Hiding crickets in cookies This doesn't come as a surprise to Kathy Rolin, who knows something about getting people to try edible insects. She and her husband, James, originally started their business, Cowboy Cricket Farms, to sell whole frozen crickets to food manufacturers. After finding that more first-time bug eaters opt for cookies baked with cricket flour instead of a whole cricket, they decided to expand their business to sell Chocolate Chirp Cookies directly to consumers. They found the Chocolate Chirps had better profit margins. "We mainly market the cookies, because who doesn't like a chocolate cookie?" says Kathy Rolin. There have been calls to appeal to consumers' tastes before, but now there is evidence that appealing to the senses might actually work. The study shows that a willingness to try edible insects in this case, a chocolate-covered mealworm depends on what advertisement a person reads before deciding whether to eat it. When the ad focused on taste and experience, rather than environmental or health claims, more people would try the worms. In the study, 180 volunteers reviewed informational flyers on an edible insect start-up company. The wording differed only in one sentence: "Eating meat has never been so _______," meat referring to the meaty part of the insect in this case. The sentence ended with either "good for the environment," "good for the body," "exotic" or "delicious." The latter two were considered by the researchers as hedonic marketing that appealed to the senses. After reflecting on the ad, participants were then given the option to try a chocolate mealworm truffle, which contained whole and visible worms. Participants who read the hedonic marketing claims were more likely to try the truffle, which the researchers attributed to higher-quality expectations suggested by the advertisements. Fighting disgust Promoting taste may convince more people to try insects because it veers our reaction away from disgust. "It's not a rational response," says Val Curtis, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of the book Don't Look, Don't Touch, the Science Behind Revulsion. "We have an innate response to things that might make us sick by feeling disgusted and, therefore, don't want to consume them." Disgust can be easily generalized, and bugs on the dinner plate trigger the "ick" reaction because we associate them with the cockroach scurrying across the floor. A ruined appetite. Telling people to eat insects for the sake of the planet, the researchers argue, won't convince a stomach that has already said "no." "Saving the planet is not something we've evolved to do," notes Curtis. Instead, the researchers suggest that hedonic advertising is a better way to entice would-be diners to eat bugs, because it helps prevent the disgust response. The cockroach rises If we can clear that hurdle, insects could potentially become as common as lobster which was once referred to as the "cockroach of the sea" and fed to prisoners and servants. But when railways began to spread across America and lobster was served to unsuspecting travelers who didn't know that the crustaceans were considered "trash food" the passengers took a liking to the taste, and lobster began to soar in popularity. A related story surrounds sushi, which didn't start gaining widespread acceptance in the U.S. until the mid-'60s. When high-end restaurants started serving raw fish, it went from unpalatable to popular. Now, both lobster and sushi are considered delicacies, a trend that was propelled by another effective form of advertising: status appeal. Rolin thinks insects could follow the same trend. "We've noticed that there's been quite a few celebrities that have endorsed the idea of [eating] insects." Recently, actress Nicole Kidman revealed her "secret talent" of bug consumption in a Vanity Fair video by eating a four-course insect meal complete with fried grasshopper dessert, and singer Justin Timberlake served up bug dishes at a recent album release party. Marketing campaigns that focus on a favorable bug-eating experience, perhaps by showing celebrities eating them, might be enough to distract people from the disgust response long enough to get them to try it. Reframing the bug "I would say if you're going to market insects, you take them as far away from anything slimy or crawling or creepy or too leggy," says Curtis. "Meat is sold as a tasty product, and all pictures of animals have been taken off the packaging. I would say just do exactly the same with insects." One way to do this is by changing the name of the dish. We've done this with other foods: We eat pork, not pig; and beef, not cow. When serving ant larvae, it may be better to use their alternative food name: escamoles, a delicacy served in Mexico City. While taste and experience may prove to be a good way to promote eating insects, that shouldn't discount environmental claims. Eco-friendly campaigns do get people to think more about food sustainability; they're just not quite enough to get most people to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. It just might. Berly McCoy is a freelance science writer living in Northwest Montana. Follow her on Twitter: @travlinscientst | Insect farming is easier on the environment, says Joost Van Itterbeeck. But Westerners are just plain disgusted by bugs on the dinner plate. A new study suggests it might be better to focus on taste and experience. Promoting taste may convince more people to try insects. | bart | 2 | https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/10/677826823/should-hyping-edible-bugs-focus-on-the-experience-instead-of-the-environment?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr | 0.200567 |
Will Swedish furniture retailer IKEA be able to operate iconic business model in New Zealand? | IKEA is known for its enormous store footprints, huge car parks and endless options of furniture but that may not be the case for its New Zealand presence. While there are locations that can house such stores, such as Westgate or South Auckland, New Zealand's population size means it is unclear whether the Swedish furniture retailer will replicate its big-box stores, albeit what Kiwis are expecting. Later this morning, IKEA will reveal details of its planned entrance into the New Zealand market. RCG associate director Andy Florkowski said Kiwis would be expecting IKEA to launch its classic big-box style stores. Advertisement "There is a lot of expectation around their arrival so they need to ensure that customers expectations are met, while ensuring that their entry is commercially viable within an already competitive market," Florkowski said. "This may mean a smaller concept model that is tailored to the New Zealand market, whilst providing access to a much larger range of goods - making effective use of their digital channels. "This would definitely open up a lot more opportunities with locations, and would be more risk-adverse for them to test the waters - although may not be what Kiwis would be anticipating." Both are critical to a successful entry into the market, Florkowski said. "There are a large number of expats and travelled Kiwis who are already brand champions for IKEA, and whom will be the percentage looking for the replicated model in New Zealand with the food hall and all. However, a large number of new customers for IKEA here, will not have had this exposure, so simply offering furniture at competitive price points, albeit with a smaller flavour of the larger model, may be enough to convert them." John Polkinghorne, another associate director at RCG, said he believed there was space for IKEA to operate its big-box style stores in New Zealand. The retailer's stores in Europe and North America are hundreds of square metres in size and most house an in-store restaurant. "There's definitely a big enough market for IKEA to succeed with a large format store here, even notwithstanding that they are several times bigger than most Warehouse stores - double the size of even the largest ones," Polkinghorne said. IKEA has three types of store: big-box, mid-range and the small concept store. Auckland is touted for the first IKEA store, with analysts split between West or South Auckland for first the location. "The market size in Auckland is definitely comparable to some of the markets they operate in Australia so that's a good entry to New Zealand," Polkinghorne said. "It's good timing in terms of we've got strong population growth and housing growth and those are all things that relate back to them from a furniture and homeware perspective." Long term, Polkinghorne believes IKEA would introduce "click and collect points" which it already operates across the Tasman. "It's a good way for them to get access to towns that are too small for a store. Across Australia, they have 10 stores and 40 'click and collect' points." IKEA global CEO Jesper Brodin during the IKEA launch in India in August. Photo / AP Retail analyst Chris Wilkinson said he believed IKEA would enter New Zealand with a large format store. "A large format store would need to anchor their entry. And it won't necessarily need to be in a traditional location either," Wilkinson said. "There's been a lot of speculation that it will be in one centre because that area is already populated with retail but the reality is that IKEA overseas has been able to establish themselves pretty much anywhere there are good road connections." South Auckland was the most logical location for its first store because of its reach to the Waikato market and within a comfortable driving time of the Bay of Plenty, Wilkinson said. "IKEA will be a destination in its own right and you will find that those people from the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga drive across." Wilkinson said he expected IKEA to bring its restaurant feature to New Zealand stores. IKEA global CEO Jesper Brodin will announce the first details on the arrival of IKEA to New Zealand at 9.30 this morning. | IKEA will reveal details of its planned entrance into the New Zealand market. New Zealand's population size means it is unclear whether the Swedish furniture retailer will replicate its big-box stores. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12188207&ref=rss | 0.21666 |
Will Swedish furniture retailer IKEA be able to operate iconic business model in New Zealand? | IKEA is known for its enormous store footprints, huge car parks and endless options of furniture but that may not be the case for its New Zealand presence. While there are locations that can house such stores, such as Westgate or South Auckland, New Zealand's population size means it is unclear whether the Swedish furniture retailer will replicate its big-box stores, albeit what Kiwis are expecting. Later this morning, IKEA will reveal details of its planned entrance into the New Zealand market. RCG associate director Andy Florkowski said Kiwis would be expecting IKEA to launch its classic big-box style stores. Advertisement "There is a lot of expectation around their arrival so they need to ensure that customers expectations are met, while ensuring that their entry is commercially viable within an already competitive market," Florkowski said. "This may mean a smaller concept model that is tailored to the New Zealand market, whilst providing access to a much larger range of goods - making effective use of their digital channels. "This would definitely open up a lot more opportunities with locations, and would be more risk-adverse for them to test the waters - although may not be what Kiwis would be anticipating." Both are critical to a successful entry into the market, Florkowski said. "There are a large number of expats and travelled Kiwis who are already brand champions for IKEA, and whom will be the percentage looking for the replicated model in New Zealand with the food hall and all. However, a large number of new customers for IKEA here, will not have had this exposure, so simply offering furniture at competitive price points, albeit with a smaller flavour of the larger model, may be enough to convert them." John Polkinghorne, another associate director at RCG, said he believed there was space for IKEA to operate its big-box style stores in New Zealand. The retailer's stores in Europe and North America are hundreds of square metres in size and most house an in-store restaurant. "There's definitely a big enough market for IKEA to succeed with a large format store here, even notwithstanding that they are several times bigger than most Warehouse stores - double the size of even the largest ones," Polkinghorne said. IKEA has three types of store: big-box, mid-range and the small concept store. Auckland is touted for the first IKEA store, with analysts split between West or South Auckland for first the location. "The market size in Auckland is definitely comparable to some of the markets they operate in Australia so that's a good entry to New Zealand," Polkinghorne said. "It's good timing in terms of we've got strong population growth and housing growth and those are all things that relate back to them from a furniture and homeware perspective." Long term, Polkinghorne believes IKEA would introduce "click and collect points" which it already operates across the Tasman. "It's a good way for them to get access to towns that are too small for a store. Across Australia, they have 10 stores and 40 'click and collect' points." IKEA global CEO Jesper Brodin during the IKEA launch in India in August. Photo / AP Retail analyst Chris Wilkinson said he believed IKEA would enter New Zealand with a large format store. "A large format store would need to anchor their entry. And it won't necessarily need to be in a traditional location either," Wilkinson said. "There's been a lot of speculation that it will be in one centre because that area is already populated with retail but the reality is that IKEA overseas has been able to establish themselves pretty much anywhere there are good road connections." South Auckland was the most logical location for its first store because of its reach to the Waikato market and within a comfortable driving time of the Bay of Plenty, Wilkinson said. "IKEA will be a destination in its own right and you will find that those people from the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga drive across." Wilkinson said he expected IKEA to bring its restaurant feature to New Zealand stores. IKEA global CEO Jesper Brodin will announce the first details on the arrival of IKEA to New Zealand at 9.30 this morning. | IKEA will reveal details of its planned entrance into the New Zealand market. New Zealand's population size means it is unclear whether the Swedish furniture retailer will replicate its big-box stores. Auckland is touted for the first IKEA store, with analysts split between West or South Auckland for first the location. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12188207&ref=rss | 0.295085 |
What was hold-up in playing Justise Winslow at point guard? | The weekly Miami Herald Heat mailbag is here to answer your questions. If you werent able to ask a question this time, send your questions for future mailbags via Twitter (@Anthony_Chiang). You can also email me at achiang@miamiherald.com. Anthony Chiang: Because the Heat also has Goran Dragic, who was an All-Star last season. It took an injury to Dragic, who is Miamis usual starting point guard, for Winslow to get extended court time at the one. Yes, Winslow was also playing some minutes at point guard before Dragics right knee became an issue, but it wasnt for extended stretches like he is now. Plus, there were also moments that Dwyane Wade, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson and James Johnson initiated offense with Dragic on the bench. Digital Access For Only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. But with Dragic out until the mid-February All-Star break, its allowed Winslow to play as the Heats primary point guard and hes excelled in the role. Hes averaging 14.1 points on 45.9 percent shooting from the field and 37.5 percent shooting from three-point range, 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.4 steals in 17 games since the start of December. Its undoubtedly the best stretch of Winslows career. Remember, Winslow is only 22 years old. Hes in his fourth NBA season, but its almost like his third because his second was ended early after just 18 games due to a shoulder injury. Winslow is still learning and growing his game, and the Heat is still learning how to use him. Anthony: With Waiters at 27 years old, sure. But to be considered a part of the Heats young core, he has to stay healthy and remain a part of the teams long-term plans. For so long, Waiters was unavailable because of ankle surgery. For so long, we saw this team without Waiters in the picture because of his injury. Theres still a question of how he fits in after recently returning from a year-long absence. Waiters has a chance to reestablish himself as a part of the Heats future, though, with his contract running until the end of the 2020-21 season. Only thing I can figure. Anthony: I mean, theres something to that with others now incorporating three-point shooting into their games. But it also just has to do with the Heats crowded rotation. Erik Spoelstra can only play so many guys, and Waiters return adds another option who needs minutes. Last season, Waiters was unavailable, Derrick Jones Jr. wasnt as good and Rodney McGruder missed a huge chunk of games. There are just more players to play this year. Ellington still has a unique skill set thats useful, so I wouldnt be surprised to see him play in spots moving forward. | Justise Winslow has excelled at point guard since Goran Dragic's injury. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article224220070.html | 0.108278 |
What was hold-up in playing Justise Winslow at point guard? | The weekly Miami Herald Heat mailbag is here to answer your questions. If you werent able to ask a question this time, send your questions for future mailbags via Twitter (@Anthony_Chiang). You can also email me at achiang@miamiherald.com. Anthony Chiang: Because the Heat also has Goran Dragic, who was an All-Star last season. It took an injury to Dragic, who is Miamis usual starting point guard, for Winslow to get extended court time at the one. Yes, Winslow was also playing some minutes at point guard before Dragics right knee became an issue, but it wasnt for extended stretches like he is now. Plus, there were also moments that Dwyane Wade, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson and James Johnson initiated offense with Dragic on the bench. Digital Access For Only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. But with Dragic out until the mid-February All-Star break, its allowed Winslow to play as the Heats primary point guard and hes excelled in the role. Hes averaging 14.1 points on 45.9 percent shooting from the field and 37.5 percent shooting from three-point range, 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.4 steals in 17 games since the start of December. Its undoubtedly the best stretch of Winslows career. Remember, Winslow is only 22 years old. Hes in his fourth NBA season, but its almost like his third because his second was ended early after just 18 games due to a shoulder injury. Winslow is still learning and growing his game, and the Heat is still learning how to use him. Anthony: With Waiters at 27 years old, sure. But to be considered a part of the Heats young core, he has to stay healthy and remain a part of the teams long-term plans. For so long, Waiters was unavailable because of ankle surgery. For so long, we saw this team without Waiters in the picture because of his injury. Theres still a question of how he fits in after recently returning from a year-long absence. Waiters has a chance to reestablish himself as a part of the Heats future, though, with his contract running until the end of the 2020-21 season. Only thing I can figure. Anthony: I mean, theres something to that with others now incorporating three-point shooting into their games. But it also just has to do with the Heats crowded rotation. Erik Spoelstra can only play so many guys, and Waiters return adds another option who needs minutes. Last season, Waiters was unavailable, Derrick Jones Jr. wasnt as good and Rodney McGruder missed a huge chunk of games. There are just more players to play this year. Ellington still has a unique skill set thats useful, so I wouldnt be surprised to see him play in spots moving forward. | Goran Dragic is out until the mid-February All-Star break. That's allowed Justise Winslow to play as the Heats primary point guard. | bart | 1 | https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article224220070.html | 0.174257 |
What was hold-up in playing Justise Winslow at point guard? | The weekly Miami Herald Heat mailbag is here to answer your questions. If you werent able to ask a question this time, send your questions for future mailbags via Twitter (@Anthony_Chiang). You can also email me at achiang@miamiherald.com. Anthony Chiang: Because the Heat also has Goran Dragic, who was an All-Star last season. It took an injury to Dragic, who is Miamis usual starting point guard, for Winslow to get extended court time at the one. Yes, Winslow was also playing some minutes at point guard before Dragics right knee became an issue, but it wasnt for extended stretches like he is now. Plus, there were also moments that Dwyane Wade, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson and James Johnson initiated offense with Dragic on the bench. Digital Access For Only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. But with Dragic out until the mid-February All-Star break, its allowed Winslow to play as the Heats primary point guard and hes excelled in the role. Hes averaging 14.1 points on 45.9 percent shooting from the field and 37.5 percent shooting from three-point range, 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.4 steals in 17 games since the start of December. Its undoubtedly the best stretch of Winslows career. Remember, Winslow is only 22 years old. Hes in his fourth NBA season, but its almost like his third because his second was ended early after just 18 games due to a shoulder injury. Winslow is still learning and growing his game, and the Heat is still learning how to use him. Anthony: With Waiters at 27 years old, sure. But to be considered a part of the Heats young core, he has to stay healthy and remain a part of the teams long-term plans. For so long, Waiters was unavailable because of ankle surgery. For so long, we saw this team without Waiters in the picture because of his injury. Theres still a question of how he fits in after recently returning from a year-long absence. Waiters has a chance to reestablish himself as a part of the Heats future, though, with his contract running until the end of the 2020-21 season. Only thing I can figure. Anthony: I mean, theres something to that with others now incorporating three-point shooting into their games. But it also just has to do with the Heats crowded rotation. Erik Spoelstra can only play so many guys, and Waiters return adds another option who needs minutes. Last season, Waiters was unavailable, Derrick Jones Jr. wasnt as good and Rodney McGruder missed a huge chunk of games. There are just more players to play this year. Ellington still has a unique skill set thats useful, so I wouldnt be surprised to see him play in spots moving forward. | Goran Dragic is out until the mid-February All-Star break. That has allowed Justise Winslow to play as the Heats primary point guard. Winslow is averaging 14.1 points on 45.9 percent shooting from the field and 37.5 percent from three-point range. | bart | 2 | https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article224220070.html | 0.165639 |
Will Yasmani Grandal lose big after turning down $60 million offer? | The Milwaukee Brewers found a bargain Wednesday night, and in the process landed the best catcher available on the open market. Yasmani Grandal, the switch-hitting veteran who slugged 73 home runs over the last three seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, reached a one-year agreement to join the defending National League Central champions. Scroll to continue with content Ad As Yahoo Sports Tim Brown first reported, the deal is worth $18.25 million. Grandal deal with Brewers worth $18.25m. One year. Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) January 10, 2019 Its no small chunk of change by any stretch. However, it represents a steep decline in Grandals market value just in the last few weeks. On Dec. 28, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reported that Grandal turned down a four-year, $60 million contract from the New York Mets earlier in the offseason. His deal with Milwaukee does barely exceed the $17.9 million qualifying offer he turned down from the Dodgers, which we suppose is a silver lining. If nothing else, its rare under the circumstances. On Grandal's $18.25 mil with Brewers, very few players have rejected QO and then gotten more than QO in a one-year deal. Bautista and Kuroda come to mind. Grandal may be only one to get more on a one-year deal with new team. Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) January 10, 2019 But it is fair to question if Grandals decision during a time when teams are taking a more tight-pocketed approach to free agency will end up costing him. The potential upside of Yasmani Grandals decision Story continues Theres no way to sugarcoat it: Grandals market didnt develop as he anticipated. There would be no shame in admitting that either, because no one on the outside looking in figured hed end up with a one-year deal. However, that doesnt necessarily mean hell lose big. The gamble he took on himself could still pay off, but that could largely hinge on his production in Milwaukee. On the plus side, the opportunity will be there. The recently turned 30-year-old will serve as a notable offensive upgrade for a Brewers team that relied on a Manny Pina and Erik Kratz platoon last season. Over the last three seasons, Grandals averaged a .239/.332/.467 slashline. More importantly, hes averaged 24 homers and 21 doubles. Thats excellent pop from the catchers position. Something the Brewers havent had since trading Jonathan Lucroy in 2016, and something that will make it easier for Milwaukee to overlook his at times sloppy defense. More on that later. A strong season could find Grandal right back on the market staring at several multiple-year offers. The big difference next winter would be the lack of a qualifying offer attached to his name. To sign Grandal this winter, the Brewers are giving up a compensatory draft pick. Its well worth it to them considering they are postseason contenders. Other teams were surely more reluctant to spend the money and part with a draft pick. All Grandal would need next winter is a three-year offer worth around $14 million per season to make up the reported Mets offer in full. Its not unreasonable to think he could surpass that with an All-Star caliber season and a handful more teams involved. After passing up $60 million offer from the Mets, free agent catcher Yasmani Grandal signs one-year, $18.25 million deal with Brewers. (AP) The potential downside of Yasmani Grandals decision Its baseball. Nothing is guaranteed. Injuries happen. Performance declines, sometimes quickly and without warning. A good bet on ones self today can look completely different one week from now. Beyond that, Grandal isnt without his flaws. While he provides top-level power and run production from his position, and while hes viewed as one of baseballs best pitch framers, there are still moments when his defense is a liability. Then there are moments when his defense is a disaster, which was displayed during the last postseason. Grandal led the league in passed balls during the 2017 season. He allowed nine more in the 2018 regular season, and then an additional three in National League Championship Series alone. The Dodgers managed to overcome it, and while the Brewers had a front row seat for the meltdown, they clearly werent spooked by it. Grandals offense should still trump the defensive concerns next winter. That is, unless he continues bottoming out in October. His career playoff batting average sits at .107 after he went 4-for-29 during the 2018 postseason. The poor postseason performance could give potential suitors reason for pause. What Yasmani Grandals deal says about baseball When we look back at the free agent signings from this offseason a few months down the line, Grandals contract could be the most interesting to examine. It may also be the most telling in regard to a free agent system that is clearly crumbling more each year. Yes, Grandal left a lot of money on the table. That was his call, and it could end up costing him a lot of money. But its still difficult to understand or justify the top free agent at any position, let alone a top-10 free agent on nearly everyones board, having to navigate such a limited market. More from Yahoo Sports: Cowboys owner spends more for yacht than he did for team Florida man arrested after late superfans family threatened Driver in hockey tragedy pleads guilty Cardinals hiring move: What is pro football coming to? | Yasmani Grandal signed a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday. Grandal's market value has plummeted in the last few weeks after he turned down a four-year, $60 million contract from the New York Mets. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://sports.yahoo.com/will-yasmani-grandal-lose-big-turning-60-million-offer-060107945.html?src=rss | 0.200266 |
Will Yasmani Grandal lose big after turning down $60 million offer? | The Milwaukee Brewers found a bargain Wednesday night, and in the process landed the best catcher available on the open market. Yasmani Grandal, the switch-hitting veteran who slugged 73 home runs over the last three seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, reached a one-year agreement to join the defending National League Central champions. Scroll to continue with content Ad As Yahoo Sports Tim Brown first reported, the deal is worth $18.25 million. Grandal deal with Brewers worth $18.25m. One year. Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) January 10, 2019 Its no small chunk of change by any stretch. However, it represents a steep decline in Grandals market value just in the last few weeks. On Dec. 28, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reported that Grandal turned down a four-year, $60 million contract from the New York Mets earlier in the offseason. His deal with Milwaukee does barely exceed the $17.9 million qualifying offer he turned down from the Dodgers, which we suppose is a silver lining. If nothing else, its rare under the circumstances. On Grandal's $18.25 mil with Brewers, very few players have rejected QO and then gotten more than QO in a one-year deal. Bautista and Kuroda come to mind. Grandal may be only one to get more on a one-year deal with new team. Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) January 10, 2019 But it is fair to question if Grandals decision during a time when teams are taking a more tight-pocketed approach to free agency will end up costing him. The potential upside of Yasmani Grandals decision Story continues Theres no way to sugarcoat it: Grandals market didnt develop as he anticipated. There would be no shame in admitting that either, because no one on the outside looking in figured hed end up with a one-year deal. However, that doesnt necessarily mean hell lose big. The gamble he took on himself could still pay off, but that could largely hinge on his production in Milwaukee. On the plus side, the opportunity will be there. The recently turned 30-year-old will serve as a notable offensive upgrade for a Brewers team that relied on a Manny Pina and Erik Kratz platoon last season. Over the last three seasons, Grandals averaged a .239/.332/.467 slashline. More importantly, hes averaged 24 homers and 21 doubles. Thats excellent pop from the catchers position. Something the Brewers havent had since trading Jonathan Lucroy in 2016, and something that will make it easier for Milwaukee to overlook his at times sloppy defense. More on that later. A strong season could find Grandal right back on the market staring at several multiple-year offers. The big difference next winter would be the lack of a qualifying offer attached to his name. To sign Grandal this winter, the Brewers are giving up a compensatory draft pick. Its well worth it to them considering they are postseason contenders. Other teams were surely more reluctant to spend the money and part with a draft pick. All Grandal would need next winter is a three-year offer worth around $14 million per season to make up the reported Mets offer in full. Its not unreasonable to think he could surpass that with an All-Star caliber season and a handful more teams involved. After passing up $60 million offer from the Mets, free agent catcher Yasmani Grandal signs one-year, $18.25 million deal with Brewers. (AP) The potential downside of Yasmani Grandals decision Its baseball. Nothing is guaranteed. Injuries happen. Performance declines, sometimes quickly and without warning. A good bet on ones self today can look completely different one week from now. Beyond that, Grandal isnt without his flaws. While he provides top-level power and run production from his position, and while hes viewed as one of baseballs best pitch framers, there are still moments when his defense is a liability. Then there are moments when his defense is a disaster, which was displayed during the last postseason. Grandal led the league in passed balls during the 2017 season. He allowed nine more in the 2018 regular season, and then an additional three in National League Championship Series alone. The Dodgers managed to overcome it, and while the Brewers had a front row seat for the meltdown, they clearly werent spooked by it. Grandals offense should still trump the defensive concerns next winter. That is, unless he continues bottoming out in October. His career playoff batting average sits at .107 after he went 4-for-29 during the 2018 postseason. The poor postseason performance could give potential suitors reason for pause. What Yasmani Grandals deal says about baseball When we look back at the free agent signings from this offseason a few months down the line, Grandals contract could be the most interesting to examine. It may also be the most telling in regard to a free agent system that is clearly crumbling more each year. Yes, Grandal left a lot of money on the table. That was his call, and it could end up costing him a lot of money. But its still difficult to understand or justify the top free agent at any position, let alone a top-10 free agent on nearly everyones board, having to navigate such a limited market. More from Yahoo Sports: Cowboys owner spends more for yacht than he did for team Florida man arrested after late superfans family threatened Driver in hockey tragedy pleads guilty Cardinals hiring move: What is pro football coming to? | Yasmani Grandal signed a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday. The deal is reportedly worth $18.25 million. Grandal turned down a four-year, $60 million contract from the New York Mets. The switch-hitting veteran hit 73 home runs over the last three seasons with the Dodgers. | bart | 2 | https://sports.yahoo.com/will-yasmani-grandal-lose-big-turning-60-million-offer-060107945.html?src=rss | 0.12673 |
Will Apple Succeed In The Video Streaming Business? | With sales of iPhones and other hardware cooling off, Apple has been turning to its Services business to drive growth. The company is expected to launch its own streaming video service this year, taking on the likes of Netflix and others. In this note, we take a look at what the service could mean for the company. We have created an interactive dashboard analysis on Breaking Down Apples Services Revenue. You can modify the various drivers to arrive at your own estimates for Services revenue. Services Business Has Largely Been Commission-Driven Thus Far While Apples Services business has recently been the biggest driver of the companys growth, growing at about 20% over the last few years, we estimate that about two-thirds of Services revenues come in the form of commissions from third parties, for app sales, licensing and other services. However, this business faces some challenges as some developers and digital service providers are pushing back on the cut Apple takes. For instance, Netflix indicated that it would be stopping in-app subscriptions on Apple devices, as it looks to bypass the commission that Apple charges on subscriptions made via iOS apps (related: How Much Does Apple Stand To Lose As Netflix Stops In-App Subscriptions?). Apple typically takes a 30% commission from subscriptions initiated on its platform over the first year, with the number dropping to 15% from the second year onward. The company takes a 30% cut on app sales. While we dont see a decline in these commission-based revenues, Apple could be looking to hedge its bets by providing more of its own services along the lines of iCloud and Apple Music. Content Will Determine The Uptake Of The Service While Apple has a large installed base and the technology required to drive its streaming foray, the quality of content will ultimately decide the uptake of the new service. Competition in the streaming market has been heating up; while over half of U.S. households have a Netflix subscription, Disney has plans for its own streaming service and AT&T is also prepping to launch its own offering. These companies are likely to significantly outspend Apple in terms of content. Netflix spent upwards of $8 billion over the first 9 months of 2018, compared to Apples estimated $1 billion in content spending last year. However, Apple is apparently looking to create a niche for itself, sticking to family-oriented fare, focusing on high-quality shows with a broad appeal. While original content could make up a large part of the titles, we believe that Apple may have to leverage programming from other media players as well. For instance, the company could buy content from the likes of MGM, Paramount or Lionsgate. Apple Is Opening Up To Providing Its Services On Other Platforms Apple has shown some signs that it was open to expanding its Services business via partnerships over the last few months. In November, the company announced that its Apple Music service would be available on Amazons Echo devices. The company also recently said that Samsung would start including an iTunes app in its Smart TVs, allowing users to buy and rent movies and videos. These moves could indicate that the company is setting the stage for its streaming business, which could be hampered if it were limited to just the Apple TV device, which still has relatively low penetration. Its not clear what business model Apple will follow for the streaming service. While its most likely that the company will make it a paid service with a monthly subscription, we also believe that Apple may begin by offering it as a free perk that comes with its devices or with Apple Music subscription. Apple could also opt for an ad-supported model, although this is less likely. To be sure, it could take a few years for the service to scale up meaningfully. If we assume that the company is able to garner 50 million subscribers (under 5% of its total device installed base) who pay on average about $7.50 per month, the streaming service could add about $4.5 billion to the companys top line by 2022. | Apple is expected to launch its own streaming video service this year, taking on the likes of Netflix and others. We take a look at what the service could mean for the company. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/01/10/will-apple-succeed-in-the-video-streaming-business/ | 0.103512 |
Will Apple Succeed In The Video Streaming Business? | With sales of iPhones and other hardware cooling off, Apple has been turning to its Services business to drive growth. The company is expected to launch its own streaming video service this year, taking on the likes of Netflix and others. In this note, we take a look at what the service could mean for the company. We have created an interactive dashboard analysis on Breaking Down Apples Services Revenue. You can modify the various drivers to arrive at your own estimates for Services revenue. Services Business Has Largely Been Commission-Driven Thus Far While Apples Services business has recently been the biggest driver of the companys growth, growing at about 20% over the last few years, we estimate that about two-thirds of Services revenues come in the form of commissions from third parties, for app sales, licensing and other services. However, this business faces some challenges as some developers and digital service providers are pushing back on the cut Apple takes. For instance, Netflix indicated that it would be stopping in-app subscriptions on Apple devices, as it looks to bypass the commission that Apple charges on subscriptions made via iOS apps (related: How Much Does Apple Stand To Lose As Netflix Stops In-App Subscriptions?). Apple typically takes a 30% commission from subscriptions initiated on its platform over the first year, with the number dropping to 15% from the second year onward. The company takes a 30% cut on app sales. While we dont see a decline in these commission-based revenues, Apple could be looking to hedge its bets by providing more of its own services along the lines of iCloud and Apple Music. Content Will Determine The Uptake Of The Service While Apple has a large installed base and the technology required to drive its streaming foray, the quality of content will ultimately decide the uptake of the new service. Competition in the streaming market has been heating up; while over half of U.S. households have a Netflix subscription, Disney has plans for its own streaming service and AT&T is also prepping to launch its own offering. These companies are likely to significantly outspend Apple in terms of content. Netflix spent upwards of $8 billion over the first 9 months of 2018, compared to Apples estimated $1 billion in content spending last year. However, Apple is apparently looking to create a niche for itself, sticking to family-oriented fare, focusing on high-quality shows with a broad appeal. While original content could make up a large part of the titles, we believe that Apple may have to leverage programming from other media players as well. For instance, the company could buy content from the likes of MGM, Paramount or Lionsgate. Apple Is Opening Up To Providing Its Services On Other Platforms Apple has shown some signs that it was open to expanding its Services business via partnerships over the last few months. In November, the company announced that its Apple Music service would be available on Amazons Echo devices. The company also recently said that Samsung would start including an iTunes app in its Smart TVs, allowing users to buy and rent movies and videos. These moves could indicate that the company is setting the stage for its streaming business, which could be hampered if it were limited to just the Apple TV device, which still has relatively low penetration. Its not clear what business model Apple will follow for the streaming service. While its most likely that the company will make it a paid service with a monthly subscription, we also believe that Apple may begin by offering it as a free perk that comes with its devices or with Apple Music subscription. Apple could also opt for an ad-supported model, although this is less likely. To be sure, it could take a few years for the service to scale up meaningfully. If we assume that the company is able to garner 50 million subscribers (under 5% of its total device installed base) who pay on average about $7.50 per month, the streaming service could add about $4.5 billion to the companys top line by 2022. | Apple is expected to launch its own streaming video service this year. Apple typically takes a 30% commission from subscriptions initiated on its platform over the first year, with the number dropping to 15% from the second year onward. Apple has shown some signs that it was open to expanding its Services business via partnerships over the last few months. | bart | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/01/10/will-apple-succeed-in-the-video-streaming-business/ | 0.121663 |
Can Federal Workers Collect Unemployment During the Shutdown? | As the government shutdown wanes on, federal employees that have been furloughed are dealing with their first missed paycheck. While for some that might not be a tremendous problem, for others that money is much needed to cover their mortgage, electricity, food, and other household bills. Now, some federal workers are filing for unemployment as a way to make ends meet. Around 380,000 federal workers are currently furloughed, and 420,000 employees are working as essential personnel without pay. While only a small percentage of those workers have filed for unemployment thus far, the number is expected to grow as the shutdown continues. For instance, in D.C, 3,745 federal workers and an estimated 822 federal contractors have applied for benefits, and in Maryland 1,328 workers have filed an unemployment claim, The Huffington Post reports. CNBC says that more than 4,700 federal employees filed for unemployment in the last week of December, compared with 929 the week prior. But not everyone qualifies. In order to qualify for unemployment, a federal employee has to be one of the 380,000 employees that are currently furloughed, not one of the 420,000 working without pay. Those working without pay are still considered employed even though they arent seeing a paycheck. And workers who do receive unemployment will be required to pay that unemployment back when theyre granted backpay after the shutdown. If they dont, their future wages could even be garnished. And to receive unemployment federal employees have to prove theyre applying for jobs while theyre receiving payments, jobs that they theoretically dont need or want. | Some federal workers are filing for unemployment as a way to make ends meet during the government shutdown. The number is expected to grow as the shutdown continues, with more than 4,700 federal workers filing for benefits in the last week of December. | ctrlsum | 1 | http://fortune.com/2019/01/10/can-federal-workers-collect-unemployment-during-the-shutdown-some-of-them/ | 0.564151 |
Can Federal Workers Collect Unemployment During the Shutdown? | As the government shutdown wanes on, federal employees that have been furloughed are dealing with their first missed paycheck. While for some that might not be a tremendous problem, for others that money is much needed to cover their mortgage, electricity, food, and other household bills. Now, some federal workers are filing for unemployment as a way to make ends meet. Around 380,000 federal workers are currently furloughed, and 420,000 employees are working as essential personnel without pay. While only a small percentage of those workers have filed for unemployment thus far, the number is expected to grow as the shutdown continues. For instance, in D.C, 3,745 federal workers and an estimated 822 federal contractors have applied for benefits, and in Maryland 1,328 workers have filed an unemployment claim, The Huffington Post reports. CNBC says that more than 4,700 federal employees filed for unemployment in the last week of December, compared with 929 the week prior. But not everyone qualifies. In order to qualify for unemployment, a federal employee has to be one of the 380,000 employees that are currently furloughed, not one of the 420,000 working without pay. Those working without pay are still considered employed even though they arent seeing a paycheck. And workers who do receive unemployment will be required to pay that unemployment back when theyre granted backpay after the shutdown. If they dont, their future wages could even be garnished. And to receive unemployment federal employees have to prove theyre applying for jobs while theyre receiving payments, jobs that they theoretically dont need or want. | Some federal workers are filing for unemployment as a way to make ends meet during the government shutdown. The number is expected to grow as the shutdown continues, with more than 4,700 federal workers filing for benefits in the last week of December. But not everyone qualifies for unemployment. | ctrlsum | 2 | http://fortune.com/2019/01/10/can-federal-workers-collect-unemployment-during-the-shutdown-some-of-them/ | 0.509736 |
Is Saudi Arabia on the road to ending child marriage? | BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations, but loopholes are leaving young girls in the deeply conservative kingdom unprotected, campaigners said on Thursday. The Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, approved regulations on Wednesday to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15, and those under 18 will need approval from a specialized court, according to council member Lina Almaeena. Currently, the conservative Muslim country does not have a minimum legal age for marriage, and women live under a guardianship system where they must have permission from a male relative to marry, work and travel. Almaeena said the approval by the council, which does not have legislative powers but can propose laws to the king and the cabinet, is a great accomplishment for the kingdom in protecting its young citizens. There were no marriage limitations before, so for this to be passed and prohibit marriage for a child under 15 is a huge accomplishment because you will be protecting young boys and girls, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. Globally, 12 million girls marry before age 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides, a coalition working to end child marriage. The United Nations regards the practice as a human rights violation. Heather Hamilton, deputy director of Girls Not Brides, said it is encouraging that the kingdom is setting age limits for marriage, but the rules are a far cry from protecting children under 18, who can still marry with court approval. Girls are still at risk of being forced into marriage if their parents can persuade a court to agree, she said in an emailed statement. We know that even in countries like the U.S. and U.K., courts offer little protection to girls who dont want to marry but risk alienation or retribution from their families if they tell court officials their real feelings. Child marriage - defined internationally as marriage under 18 - remains legal in Britain. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teenagers can wed at 16 with parental consent. In Scotland, they do not need consent. The majority of U.S. states do not lay out a minimum age for marriage if statutory exceptions are met, such as parental or judicial consent or in case of pregnancy. Campaigners say children married young are more likely to leave school, get divorced, experience domestic abuse and mental health problems and live in poverty than those who marry later. There needs to be a complete ban on child marriage - with no exceptions. You have to make it clear to society that this is a negative social phenomenon and it should be stopped, said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. | Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations. The Shura Council approved regulations to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15. | bart | 0 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-child-marriage/is-saudi-arabia-on-the-road-to-ending-child-marriage-idUSKCN1P42CW | 0.373278 |
Is Saudi Arabia on the road to ending child marriage? | BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations, but loopholes are leaving young girls in the deeply conservative kingdom unprotected, campaigners said on Thursday. The Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, approved regulations on Wednesday to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15, and those under 18 will need approval from a specialized court, according to council member Lina Almaeena. Currently, the conservative Muslim country does not have a minimum legal age for marriage, and women live under a guardianship system where they must have permission from a male relative to marry, work and travel. Almaeena said the approval by the council, which does not have legislative powers but can propose laws to the king and the cabinet, is a great accomplishment for the kingdom in protecting its young citizens. There were no marriage limitations before, so for this to be passed and prohibit marriage for a child under 15 is a huge accomplishment because you will be protecting young boys and girls, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. Globally, 12 million girls marry before age 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides, a coalition working to end child marriage. The United Nations regards the practice as a human rights violation. Heather Hamilton, deputy director of Girls Not Brides, said it is encouraging that the kingdom is setting age limits for marriage, but the rules are a far cry from protecting children under 18, who can still marry with court approval. Girls are still at risk of being forced into marriage if their parents can persuade a court to agree, she said in an emailed statement. We know that even in countries like the U.S. and U.K., courts offer little protection to girls who dont want to marry but risk alienation or retribution from their families if they tell court officials their real feelings. Child marriage - defined internationally as marriage under 18 - remains legal in Britain. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teenagers can wed at 16 with parental consent. In Scotland, they do not need consent. The majority of U.S. states do not lay out a minimum age for marriage if statutory exceptions are met, such as parental or judicial consent or in case of pregnancy. Campaigners say children married young are more likely to leave school, get divorced, experience domestic abuse and mental health problems and live in poverty than those who marry later. There needs to be a complete ban on child marriage - with no exceptions. You have to make it clear to society that this is a negative social phenomenon and it should be stopped, said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. | Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations. The Shura Council approved regulations to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15. Currently, the conservative Muslim country does not have a minimum legal age for marriage. | bart | 1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-child-marriage/is-saudi-arabia-on-the-road-to-ending-child-marriage-idUSKCN1P42CW | 0.410644 |
Is Saudi Arabia on the road to ending child marriage? | BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations, but loopholes are leaving young girls in the deeply conservative kingdom unprotected, campaigners said on Thursday. The Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, approved regulations on Wednesday to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15, and those under 18 will need approval from a specialized court, according to council member Lina Almaeena. Currently, the conservative Muslim country does not have a minimum legal age for marriage, and women live under a guardianship system where they must have permission from a male relative to marry, work and travel. Almaeena said the approval by the council, which does not have legislative powers but can propose laws to the king and the cabinet, is a great accomplishment for the kingdom in protecting its young citizens. There were no marriage limitations before, so for this to be passed and prohibit marriage for a child under 15 is a huge accomplishment because you will be protecting young boys and girls, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. Globally, 12 million girls marry before age 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides, a coalition working to end child marriage. The United Nations regards the practice as a human rights violation. Heather Hamilton, deputy director of Girls Not Brides, said it is encouraging that the kingdom is setting age limits for marriage, but the rules are a far cry from protecting children under 18, who can still marry with court approval. Girls are still at risk of being forced into marriage if their parents can persuade a court to agree, she said in an emailed statement. We know that even in countries like the U.S. and U.K., courts offer little protection to girls who dont want to marry but risk alienation or retribution from their families if they tell court officials their real feelings. Child marriage - defined internationally as marriage under 18 - remains legal in Britain. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teenagers can wed at 16 with parental consent. In Scotland, they do not need consent. The majority of U.S. states do not lay out a minimum age for marriage if statutory exceptions are met, such as parental or judicial consent or in case of pregnancy. Campaigners say children married young are more likely to leave school, get divorced, experience domestic abuse and mental health problems and live in poverty than those who marry later. There needs to be a complete ban on child marriage - with no exceptions. You have to make it clear to society that this is a negative social phenomenon and it should be stopped, said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. | Saudi Arabia is trying to ban child marriage through new regulations. The Shura Council approved regulations to prohibit marriage for girls and boys under 15. Currently, the conservative Muslim country does not have a minimum legal age for marriage. 12 million girls marry before age 18 every year, according to Girls Not Brides. | bart | 2 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-child-marriage/is-saudi-arabia-on-the-road-to-ending-child-marriage-idUSKCN1P42CW | 0.430896 |
Is a disgruntled third party biggest concern of Jimmy Butler-Brett Brown drama? | originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com Now that Sixers swingman Jimmy Butler and coach Brett Brown both had the chance to respond to a story about a supposed confrontation between the two, it's probably safe to say whatever happened wasn't quite on the level of Latrell Sprewell choking P.J. Carlesimo - though, that is one way to get coach to call more pick-and-rolls. If nothing else, Butler and Brown did a nice job downplaying any discord, and in all honesty, I believed them about the nature of the infamous film session. Their version sounds like a healthy dialogue between a coach and star veteran still finding his role in a new offense with a new team, nothing more. It's legitimately concerning, and not just because Butler could leave marks around Brown's neck for team photo day. It's concerning because it might reveal potential issues in the Sixers locker room if either A) some players don't feel comfortable challenging an authority figure and/or B) somebody has a problem with or feels threatened by Butler's presence. A is obviously a lot less sinister than B, and plausible given the relative youth of the roster. No doubt, J.J. Redick, Wilson Chandler and Amir Johnson have seen some things as 10-plus-year vets - as Butler said, basketball is still a job, and people do occasionally disagree with their bosses in the real world, too. The rest of the guys, most of whom have never played anywhere else in the NBA or started careers in any field, may not feel comfortable being as vocal yet. Story continues That would be a relatively minor problem, assuming there was any validity to the idea at all. It's only a guess, but would be preferable to the other possibility. Somebody in that locker room or building simply doesn't care very much for Butler. It's difficult to envision how anybody benefits from this story leaking, and even Brown insisted it wasn't planted. Fine, nobody is actively trying to sow dissension within the Sixers. Regardless, somebody felt Butler was being disrespectful, to the point it became discussion-worthy around the league. Sounds like there might be an ax to grind there. If I'm the Sixers, I'm more worried about who got annoyed and started running their mouth about Butler than I am about Brown's throat. Between this, the complicated Joel Embiid-Ben Simmons dynamic and the Markelle Fultz saga, infighting might be a bigger threat to the team's short-term and long-term success than Butler's antics. Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device. More on the Sixers | Sixers coach Brett Brown and Jimmy Butler reportedly had a confrontation. Brown and Butler both denied any discord between the two. Infighting could be a bigger threat to the team's short-term and long-term success than Butler's antics. | pegasus | 1 | https://sports.yahoo.com/disgruntled-third-party-biggest-concern-161657974.html?src=rss | 0.135911 |
Is a disgruntled third party biggest concern of Jimmy Butler-Brett Brown drama? | originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com Now that Sixers swingman Jimmy Butler and coach Brett Brown both had the chance to respond to a story about a supposed confrontation between the two, it's probably safe to say whatever happened wasn't quite on the level of Latrell Sprewell choking P.J. Carlesimo - though, that is one way to get coach to call more pick-and-rolls. If nothing else, Butler and Brown did a nice job downplaying any discord, and in all honesty, I believed them about the nature of the infamous film session. Their version sounds like a healthy dialogue between a coach and star veteran still finding his role in a new offense with a new team, nothing more. It's legitimately concerning, and not just because Butler could leave marks around Brown's neck for team photo day. It's concerning because it might reveal potential issues in the Sixers locker room if either A) some players don't feel comfortable challenging an authority figure and/or B) somebody has a problem with or feels threatened by Butler's presence. A is obviously a lot less sinister than B, and plausible given the relative youth of the roster. No doubt, J.J. Redick, Wilson Chandler and Amir Johnson have seen some things as 10-plus-year vets - as Butler said, basketball is still a job, and people do occasionally disagree with their bosses in the real world, too. The rest of the guys, most of whom have never played anywhere else in the NBA or started careers in any field, may not feel comfortable being as vocal yet. Story continues That would be a relatively minor problem, assuming there was any validity to the idea at all. It's only a guess, but would be preferable to the other possibility. Somebody in that locker room or building simply doesn't care very much for Butler. It's difficult to envision how anybody benefits from this story leaking, and even Brown insisted it wasn't planted. Fine, nobody is actively trying to sow dissension within the Sixers. Regardless, somebody felt Butler was being disrespectful, to the point it became discussion-worthy around the league. Sounds like there might be an ax to grind there. If I'm the Sixers, I'm more worried about who got annoyed and started running their mouth about Butler than I am about Brown's throat. Between this, the complicated Joel Embiid-Ben Simmons dynamic and the Markelle Fultz saga, infighting might be a bigger threat to the team's short-term and long-term success than Butler's antics. Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device. More on the Sixers | Sixers swingman Jimmy Butler and coach Brett Brown both had the chance to respond to a story about a supposed confrontation between the two. It's legitimately concerning, and not just because Butler could leave marks around Brown's neck for team photo day. It might reveal potential issues in the Sixers locker room if some players don't feel comfortable challenging an authority figure. | bart | 2 | https://sports.yahoo.com/disgruntled-third-party-biggest-concern-161657974.html?src=rss | 0.143219 |
Why Was The QWERTY Keyboard Layout Invented? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Brian Roemmele, Founder + Editor at Read Multiplex, on Quora: It was almost the QWE.TY keyboard layout. The three primary confluences that motivated the QWERTY layout and the primary reasons are surprising. A New Way To Write The typewriter was heralded as a new way to write with greater speed, fluency and readability. This idea of the typewriter predates the office use that ultimately made it a standard business machine. Like many things in history, the QWERTY layout had fundamental contributing elements that became obscured across the span of time. The rise of the industrial age to the office age in the United States closely aligns with the rise of the typewriter. Although the typewriter has a history that predates the QWERTY layout, it was a confluence of elements that gave rise to Remington winning the early typewriter standard. The QWERTY Keyboard Business Model In November, 1868 Christopher Latham Sholes [0] and his colleagues, Carlos Glidden, Samuel Willard Soul, and James Densmore, in Milwaukee shipped out their first 28 key piano style keyboard-like typewriter [1] to Porters Telegraph College in Chicago, primarily to transcribe telegraph messages. By April, 1870 Matthias Schwalbach helped Sholes design a new typewriter with 38 keys [2], which consisted of capitals, numerals 2 to 9, hyphen, comma, period, and question mark. According to typewritten letters and patents of Sholes, the keyboard consisted of four rows, nearly in alphabetical order, but the u was next to o. But it would be his next versions that had a close version of todays QWERTY keyboard layout. The Sholes 28 key piano style keyboard-like typewriter. The most popular theory posits [3] that the inventors designed the QWERTY keyboard system to prevent the mechanical lock up of the strikers due to the close succession of adjacent often used keys that were high on the Bigram Frequency [4] of usage. The keys were actuated by the type bar connecting the keys and the letter plate, which formed a circle beneath the paper feed system. It is important to differentiate between the typewriters keyboard rows and the type bars. There were just two rows of type bars in Sholes design. The Remington QWERTY type bar connecting the keys and the letter plate. The striker lockup came when a typist quickly typed a succession of letters on the same type bars and the strikers were adjacent to each other. There was a higher possibility for the keys to become jammed if the sequence was not perfectly timed. The theory presents that Sholes redesigned the type bar so as to separate the most common sequences of letters: th, he and others from causing a jam. Bigram Frequency usage of letter pairs in the english language. If this theory was correct, the QWERTY keyboard system should create the maximum separation of the common letter pairings. However er, the fourth most common and re, the sixth most common letter pairing in the English language begins to break down this theory as they turn out to be the most used key combinations, surpassing th. Additionally, the Sholes typewriter prototypes had a different keyboard layout that was only changed just before he filed the QWERTY patent. If it had been put into production we would have been talking about the QWE.TY keyboard. The reason for the last minute change of moving the r next to the e has baffled many historians who have assumed the Bigram Frequency of key combinations influenced the key placement. Additionally, there was no direct mention of why the keys were placed in QWERTY layout in the patent. The claim that it would cause less striker lockups would have been a primary attribute of the patent. Finally, at the time that Sholes patented the QWERTY layout there were no touch typists , the only popular method on record was hunt and peck with visual feedback. The typewriter was just too new of an instrument for anyone to imagine memorization of the keyboard layout. With no touch typing, with no fingers on the home keys, there was not the speed nor the multiple finger combinations that would have caused high striker lockup. That problem only came years later after there were touch typists that had memorized the keyboard layout. Consider the placement of er and/or re. It was not unknown to Sholes that these were the most popular key parings when both combinations were added together. It has been argued that he got the educator and brother of his early partner, Amos Densmore to prepare a frequency study of letter-pairs in the English language using the Bigram Frequency of usage technique. But this turns out to not quite correct with history. Densmore was not an educator the in 1860's when it was suggested he conducted this study. He owned the Densmore Oil Company and manufactured train cars for transporting petroleum and did not have time or resources to conduct this research. Finally, the obvious and logical sequential alphabetical placement of the keys actually are spaced almost as well as QWERTY for key striker lock up, yet Sholes abandoned this layout as he abandoned others. The QWERTY Conflict Thus we are left with a conflict. Some argue the QWERTY layout was a compromise between the mechanical needs of the typewriter and the needs of the typist to have common letters under fingers. The concept of touch typing was not invented at this time so that is simply not valid. Most certainly Sholes was mindful of the placement of the keys on his keyboard from a mechanical standpoint to minimize potential key striker lockup, but he was also looking for an edge that may very well reach beyond engineering. Sholes did not have the resources to manufacture typewriters at the scale he had hoped the market would demand as the industrial revolution was predicted to create a torrent of typewritten pages. He needed a manufacturing partner. That partner was the E. Remington and Sons [5] that had began making guns and rifles and moved to sewing machines. In March 1886 they acquired the patents for Sholes typewriter. Sholes stayed on with Remington for a while and met the marketing men, William O. Wykoff, Clarence W. Seamans and Henry H. Benedict. They saw the problem from a perspective that no other typewriter company saw. They saw it as an education issue that could allow the company to command large shares of the market. With the release of Remington typewriter No. 2, the primary customers were not telegraphers, but mostly shorthanders in office environments. As soon as Model No. 2 was released, William Ozmun Wyckoff of Ithaca, New York, began to teach his six-finger typing method, using first to third fingers of both hands, to his shorthand pupils at Phonographic Institute. In August, 1882 Remington entered into an exclusive selling agreement of typewriters with Wyckoff and established a new company, Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict to teach touch typing. Model No. 2 slightly shifted some letters from the original Sholes patents, M was moved next to N, and C was exchanged with X for a number of patent reasons. By August, 1882, Elizabeth Margaret Vater Longley presented her eight-finger typing method, using first to fourth fingers of both hands on the home keys and it was ultimately adopted by Wyckoff in his touch typing courses. Let Me Train You To Type The Remington course plan was to offer free or discounted typewriters with a ready made touch typing course to private business collages, universities, and The World Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). The YWCA was a place where women were able to learn a new trade for the expanding office and secretarial job market. Prior to touch typing most typing was via the hunt and peck sight method with no home keys. The touch type course used the QWERTY keyboard layout and required the typist to not look at the keyboard and to memorize the keys. This memorization piece had an incredible effect on the typist. It also allowed the typewriter to mechanically have a higher slope angle of Model No. 2 for faster finger movement as there is less need to actually see the keys. Those so trained would find it almost impossible to use any other keyboard layout. They literally programmed the QWERTY layout into the head (like software, if you will) of the typist. Moving to another non- QWERTY layout would cause the words per minute to go down by about 80% according to Remington at the time. They posited that it requires about 400 hours of practice to achieve the reflexes to become a skilled typist and another 600 to be an expert with touch typing using the home keys method, which as far as the research goes, is the fastest technique. The plan worked so well they opened Remington Typing Schools throughout Europe a few years later. It was established quite early on, for many reason I will not cover here, that typing was primarily performed by women. In fact in 1874 less than 4% of clerical workers in the United States were women and by 1900, the number had increased to approximately 75%. Before his death, Sholes said "I do feel that I have done something for the women who have always had to work so hard. This will enable them more easily to earn a living. The plan Remington created was simple yet one of the most powerful ways to insure the QWERTY keyboard was the preferred standard. By training typists on the new concept of memorized touch typing they did a number of things: Got the typists to move from hunt and peck typing to the memorized key layout of the QWERTY keyboard and thereby increased the speed of Remington typists. Insured that the majority of typists moving to the expanding office typing pools were QWERTY trained and demanded/requested Remington typewriters. Shifted the marketing and sales to the user rather than the buyer of the business products. By March, 1893, WS&B and a new partner, Charles Newell Fowler of the Equitable Mortgage Company, founded the Union Typewriter Company as the shareholder of five leading typewriter companies, Remington, Caligraph, Yost, Densmore, and Smith-Premier, to form the Typewriter Trust later known as Standard Typewriter Manufacturing Company, Inc only later to adopt the Remington Typewriter Company name again. The five companies adopted QWERTY on their typewriters and by June, 1898, QWERTY became the de facto standard, with over 70% market share of typewriter sales. The Remington touch typing courses were one of the fundamental reasons for the shift to QWERTY. Competitors did not understand the tactics that were at play until it was too late. By 1901 half of all the US higher education schools had standardized on the Remington touch typing method. It took years for the next major brands to catch up, but all ultimately had to shift to the QWERTY keyboard layout. By 1915 high schools began occupational skill training using Remingtons courses. The Remington course and its variants were standard High School training up until the mid 1970s in the U.S., as ironically the personal computer just started to become popularly known. Watch How Fast I Can Do This There was one more thing that Remington used as a sort of icing on the cake, so to speak. Sholes originally was going to patent the QWE.TY keyboard layout, but at the last minute he changed his mind. History has lost who came up with the idea, but I suspect it was Sholes, he moved the "e" to the former . position for one hidden fundamental reason. The demonstrations for sales of his new invention, to prove it was faster, years before formal touch typing and memorization. The early sales presentations of the Sholes typewriter started with the representative typing TYPEWRITER or TYPE-WRITER [6] very fast in almost a single motion. It was so fast that it fascinated potential customers. Later on this secret was adopted by Remington and it was practiced by the sales people with contests for the fastest delivery of TYPEWRITER. Sholes took the letters for the word TYPEWRITER and put them on a single line. After many tests, long before there was memorized home key touch typing this was the ideal place for the eyes to see the keys while typing. Thus, we have a rather rich story of how the QWERTY keyboard layout came about. I know that this information conflicts with the folktales of mechanical keys locking up because of the Bigram Frequency of key pairs. The fact is that it was very easy to cause keys to lock up for most of the history of the typewriter up until the IBM selectric ball system. One can argue that many other keyboard and type bar layouts could actually cause less key striker lock up. We can also argue other keyboard layouts were more practical, like the sequential alphabetical or later the Dvorak layout. But by the time these concepts came around or were reintroduced, it was too late, thousands of trained touch typists already memorized the QWERTY keyboard and the network effect and momentum were impossible to reverse. So to recap the confluence of reasons: Patented designs - There were nearly 100 patents around the idea of typing, Sholes needed something unique. - There were nearly 100 patents around the idea of typing, Sholes needed something unique. Proprietary QWERTY Training courses - No one had organized on a large scale the training of typists. Remington cornered the training market. - No one had organized on a large scale the training of typists. Remington cornered the training market. Sales people and effective marketing - By training some of the most aggressive and flamboyant sales people typing out TYPEWRITER in one motion demonstrations they wowed the potential customers. - By training some of the most aggressive and flamboyant sales people typing out TYPEWRITER in one motion demonstrations they wowed the potential customers. Mechanical considerations - the dual type bars and key placement did have some QWERTY minor impact on lowering key striker lockup. Today, since the rise of the teletype keyboard that influenced Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs on the first TV Typewriter Apple 1 [7], on through the influence of the IBM Selectric on PC keyboards, on to the complete de-evolution of typing with thumbs on glass simulated keyboards, QWERTY is still with us. We learn it in a way that is at best, variations of hunt and peck with memorization of the QWERTY layout. We have assimilated the QWERTY layout so much to memory that it is very, very hard to conceive of the keyboard in any other layout. In fact, moving just a few keys on a QWERTY keyboard causes noticeable trauma to the typists in some research tests. It is hard to conduct research for an alternative layout. In the late 1950s a study was conducted with school children in Alaska using a sequential alphabetical keyboard on a modified Remington, they equaled the efficiency and speed of QWERTY typists. The tests had to stop when parents discovered their children were damaged and could not type QWERTY easily and it took some a year to deprogram the keyboard they memorized. Recent studies have also proven that using all of your fingers does not necessarily make you a very fast typist, some do very well with two fingers. So even the concept of some touch typing courses may be somewhat invalid. The QWERTY keyboard has also had a very deep and lasting impact across a number of very non intuitive areas. This is called the QWERTY effect [8], [9], [10] and the Right Side Ratio/Bias (RSR). This has been studied in depth and posits that essentially the mechanical load and cognitive load to reach certain keys, primarily the left hand keys, make humans disfavor using those keys and there is robust and compelling evidence that everything from baby names [11] to how highly we rate products on Amazon or movies on Netflix has a RSR bias [9]. This means that a significant part of our everyday life is deeply tied and biased to the QWERTY keyboard layout that was invented in the 1860s and was cobbled together to more or less sell more typewriters. Additionally, the mostly serial letter by letter process of typing has slowed down and perhaps curtailed the brains ability to present information meant to be spoken but lost because of the slow process of painstakingly typing each letter to the words and sentences you have already formed in your head. It is also important to note that with the recent shift to using primarily our thumbs on smartphones and tablets, we are rewiring our brains in such a way that it may have a deeply lasting impact [9.5]. Some have said that history shows that market share and technical superiority are rarely related. There is the likelihood of "lock-in" to inferior standards. The Beta and VHS competition as well as some others are an example as perhaps MS-DOS. But perhaps the QWERTY keyboard, some state, was designed purely for a marketing premise and not a premise that would actually create higher productivity. It can even be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica as evidence of how human inertia can result in the choice of an inferior product. The story can be found in two very successful economics books written by Robert Frank and Philip Cook's: The Winner-Take-All Society and Paul Krugman's Peddling Prosperity, where an entire chapter is devoted to the "economics of QWERTY. The examples of how QWERTY became a standard usually overlooks the sequence of events of history and how markets really are formed and react and act. Indeed, the software lock-in of QWERTY hardware by the brain memorizing the keyboard layout was brilliant and not widely known even today. The economic theory that somehow winner-takes-all capitalism (perhaps the a typewriter monopoly) in and of itself created the single reason for the rise of QWERTY is quite flawed. It was the brilliant idea to train the typist to memorize a particular keyboard layout that fundamentally made QWERTY a standard for better or worse. Without the front loading of the Remington touch typing classes there would be not QWERTY standard. I have used this example over the last few decades as a deep example to many founders of start-ups. There is much to learn from the QWERTY story and the economic impact, but this would take another longer posting. Cognitive Load And Mechanical Load Of Typing Today we use the technology of the keyboard and the QWERTY keyboard layout on a scale unlike any other technology. If Sholes returned to see his invention in use at this scale I am certain it would fascinate him and perhaps give him pause and a chuckle. The cause and effect the relatively new concept of typing has had on society is of course mostly positive. We get to interact with computers using this technologically ancient method. However, I see this as a stop over point to what I call the Voice First revolution [12]. The human thinking and communication work product is speech. We talk in words and sentences not serially in letters. This is the byproduct of millions of years of evolution and perhaps 500,000 years of vocalizations. Typing and the QWERTY keyboard literally has changed the way we think. Humans have been talking for a very long time. You are talking to yourself as you read this as well as I am talking to myself as I try to type this (this part I did not dictate using Siri). The only reason we did not talk to the typewriter or the early computers that copied the typewriters is because they obviously did not have the technology to understand us. And some may argue that talking to a computer has been around for a while and it is not very useful. I would agree. There is much more to the Voice First revolution then simulating what we do when we type. I know this, long before evolution self selects humans for better typing abilities without impacting thinking functions, we will have long ago moved on to using our voice. Giving us more power because of the machine? Indeed this is why humans build machines. However, the use of the keyboard will not instantly disappear, nor did the bicycle. It will be supplanted by new technology. The bicycle exists in the scooter and self driving car world. But it is a relic from the mechanical age. We will move from the mechanical age of of using our fingers and perhaps just our thumbs to filter our knowledge to the true software age of using our voice, it is how we are designed. Along the way we will be tied to the typewriter QWERTY keyboard that was designed for an era that has long past. We have QWERTY stuck in our memoriesfor now. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch... [1] http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Doc... [2] http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Doc... [3] https://amzn.to/2E1Bv10 [4] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.... [6] https://amzn.to/2KW6zAB [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV... [8] http://neuro.imm.dtu.dk/wiki/The... [9] https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.02287 [9.5] https://www.researchgate.net/pub... [10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc... [11] http://www.casasanto.com/papers/... [12] http://VoiceFirst.Expert This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented in 1868 by Christopher Latham Sholes. There were three main confluences that motivated the layout. The layout was designed to prevent jams due to the close succession of adjacent often used keys that were high on the Bigram Frequency of usage. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/01/10/why-was-the-qwerty-keyboard-layout-invented/ | 0.662188 |
How Much Is Grab Worth? | Grab is a Singapore-based company which offers ride hailing, ride sharing and food delivery services via its mobile app in Southeast Asia. In addition to Singapore, the companys services are available in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. In March 2018 Grab acquired Ubers operations in Southeast Asia and Uber now holds a 28% stake in Grab. This deal is likely to drive significant growth for Grab which already dominates the Southeast Asian ride hailing market with reportedly more than 60% market share in the region. Grab was valued at $10 billion in its most recent funding round, where it raised $2 billion for future growth. The company expects to double its revenues in 2019, as it integrates Ubers operations and forays into bike sharing and digital payments. Our interactive dashboard Estimating The Valuation Of Grab looks at Grabs key value drivers and the likely upside in its valuation if the target of 100% growth in revenues is met in 2019. Grab has witnessed significant growth in rides booked via the companys app over the last two years. Its number of users nearly doubled between 2017 and 2018, and average daily rides have increased significantly from around 2.5 3.5 million in 2017 to 6 million in 2018. For 2019, as the company benefits from the acquisition of Uber in the region, expands its bike sharing initiatives and builds further on its dominant market position in Southeast Asia, we expect significant growth in the companys number of users. This will drive growth in the total number of annual rides and boost revenue growth. Growth In Riders, Fares Based on limited data available for the total number of rides and total revenues, we estimate the average gross revenue per ride for the company to be around $2.50 in 2018. We forecast this number to increase to $3 in 2019, as the company establishes its dominance in Southeast Asia (post-acquisition of Ubers business) and sees increased demand for longer rides. With reduced competition, Grab can also look to withdraw discounts, leading to higher revenues. Grab charges a 20% commission from its drivers and we expect this number to remain steady over the next few years. Based on its most recent valuation and expected revenues for 2018, Grab commands an estimated revenue multiple of around 10x. This is higher than Ubers revenue multiple of about 5x based on its most recent valuation of $76 billion in August 2018 and Didi Chuxings valuation multiple of around 7.5x. If the company is able to achieve net revenues of around $2 billion in 2019 (per its own target), its valuation could potentially reach $16 billion with a lower revenue multiple of around 7x (lower than its current multiple as growth is likely to slow down in future years). Grab is focusing on growth initiatives and has an ambitious goal of becoming an everyday app and the company is diversifying into areas such as online grocery, food delivery and payments. However, regulatory hurdles and competition from local players are likely to be its key challenges, and the companys ability to navigate these will be critical for future growth. While Grab is not profitable yet, its market dominance, high volumes and expansion into food delivery and other areas should lead to economies of scale, driving profitability in the future. We believe Grab still has strong growth potential, and is likely to see some upside in its valuation in the near term even if multiples decline. | Grab was valued at $10 billion in its most recent funding round. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/01/10/how-much-is-grab-worth/ | 0.375021 |
How Much Is Grab Worth? | Grab is a Singapore-based company which offers ride hailing, ride sharing and food delivery services via its mobile app in Southeast Asia. In addition to Singapore, the companys services are available in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. In March 2018 Grab acquired Ubers operations in Southeast Asia and Uber now holds a 28% stake in Grab. This deal is likely to drive significant growth for Grab which already dominates the Southeast Asian ride hailing market with reportedly more than 60% market share in the region. Grab was valued at $10 billion in its most recent funding round, where it raised $2 billion for future growth. The company expects to double its revenues in 2019, as it integrates Ubers operations and forays into bike sharing and digital payments. Our interactive dashboard Estimating The Valuation Of Grab looks at Grabs key value drivers and the likely upside in its valuation if the target of 100% growth in revenues is met in 2019. Grab has witnessed significant growth in rides booked via the companys app over the last two years. Its number of users nearly doubled between 2017 and 2018, and average daily rides have increased significantly from around 2.5 3.5 million in 2017 to 6 million in 2018. For 2019, as the company benefits from the acquisition of Uber in the region, expands its bike sharing initiatives and builds further on its dominant market position in Southeast Asia, we expect significant growth in the companys number of users. This will drive growth in the total number of annual rides and boost revenue growth. Growth In Riders, Fares Based on limited data available for the total number of rides and total revenues, we estimate the average gross revenue per ride for the company to be around $2.50 in 2018. We forecast this number to increase to $3 in 2019, as the company establishes its dominance in Southeast Asia (post-acquisition of Ubers business) and sees increased demand for longer rides. With reduced competition, Grab can also look to withdraw discounts, leading to higher revenues. Grab charges a 20% commission from its drivers and we expect this number to remain steady over the next few years. Based on its most recent valuation and expected revenues for 2018, Grab commands an estimated revenue multiple of around 10x. This is higher than Ubers revenue multiple of about 5x based on its most recent valuation of $76 billion in August 2018 and Didi Chuxings valuation multiple of around 7.5x. If the company is able to achieve net revenues of around $2 billion in 2019 (per its own target), its valuation could potentially reach $16 billion with a lower revenue multiple of around 7x (lower than its current multiple as growth is likely to slow down in future years). Grab is focusing on growth initiatives and has an ambitious goal of becoming an everyday app and the company is diversifying into areas such as online grocery, food delivery and payments. However, regulatory hurdles and competition from local players are likely to be its key challenges, and the companys ability to navigate these will be critical for future growth. While Grab is not profitable yet, its market dominance, high volumes and expansion into food delivery and other areas should lead to economies of scale, driving profitability in the future. We believe Grab still has strong growth potential, and is likely to see some upside in its valuation in the near term even if multiples decline. | Grab was valued at $10 billion in its most recent funding round, where it raised $2 billion for future growth. The company expects to double its revenues in 2019, as it integrates Ubers operations. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/01/10/how-much-is-grab-worth/ | 0.255101 |
How Much Is Grab Worth? | Grab is a Singapore-based company which offers ride hailing, ride sharing and food delivery services via its mobile app in Southeast Asia. In addition to Singapore, the companys services are available in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. In March 2018 Grab acquired Ubers operations in Southeast Asia and Uber now holds a 28% stake in Grab. This deal is likely to drive significant growth for Grab which already dominates the Southeast Asian ride hailing market with reportedly more than 60% market share in the region. Grab was valued at $10 billion in its most recent funding round, where it raised $2 billion for future growth. The company expects to double its revenues in 2019, as it integrates Ubers operations and forays into bike sharing and digital payments. Our interactive dashboard Estimating The Valuation Of Grab looks at Grabs key value drivers and the likely upside in its valuation if the target of 100% growth in revenues is met in 2019. Grab has witnessed significant growth in rides booked via the companys app over the last two years. Its number of users nearly doubled between 2017 and 2018, and average daily rides have increased significantly from around 2.5 3.5 million in 2017 to 6 million in 2018. For 2019, as the company benefits from the acquisition of Uber in the region, expands its bike sharing initiatives and builds further on its dominant market position in Southeast Asia, we expect significant growth in the companys number of users. This will drive growth in the total number of annual rides and boost revenue growth. Growth In Riders, Fares Based on limited data available for the total number of rides and total revenues, we estimate the average gross revenue per ride for the company to be around $2.50 in 2018. We forecast this number to increase to $3 in 2019, as the company establishes its dominance in Southeast Asia (post-acquisition of Ubers business) and sees increased demand for longer rides. With reduced competition, Grab can also look to withdraw discounts, leading to higher revenues. Grab charges a 20% commission from its drivers and we expect this number to remain steady over the next few years. Based on its most recent valuation and expected revenues for 2018, Grab commands an estimated revenue multiple of around 10x. This is higher than Ubers revenue multiple of about 5x based on its most recent valuation of $76 billion in August 2018 and Didi Chuxings valuation multiple of around 7.5x. If the company is able to achieve net revenues of around $2 billion in 2019 (per its own target), its valuation could potentially reach $16 billion with a lower revenue multiple of around 7x (lower than its current multiple as growth is likely to slow down in future years). Grab is focusing on growth initiatives and has an ambitious goal of becoming an everyday app and the company is diversifying into areas such as online grocery, food delivery and payments. However, regulatory hurdles and competition from local players are likely to be its key challenges, and the companys ability to navigate these will be critical for future growth. While Grab is not profitable yet, its market dominance, high volumes and expansion into food delivery and other areas should lead to economies of scale, driving profitability in the future. We believe Grab still has strong growth potential, and is likely to see some upside in its valuation in the near term even if multiples decline. | Grab was valued at $10 billion in its most recent funding round, where it raised $2 billion for future growth. The company expects to double its revenues in 2019, as it integrates Ubers operations and forays into bike sharing and digital payments. | bart | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/01/10/how-much-is-grab-worth/ | 0.249814 |
Can Elon Musk Actually Make A Flying Tesla Car? | Elon Musk turned a few heads on Twitter yesterday, January 9 when he claimed that an upcoming Tesla car might have the ability to fly. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO certainly hasnt left us wanting with his somewhat outlandish schemes before. Weve seen everything from a flamethrower to plans to start a Mars colony. Now it appears hes going to add thrusters to a new version of the Tesla Roadster car, claiming it will give it the ability to fly. The new Roadster will actually do something like this, Musk said in response to a tweet showing a picture of the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future. He added: Im not [joking]. Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats. This isnt the first time Musk has alluded to a flying Tesla. Back in June 2018, he said that an option package for the new Tesla Roadster would include 10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around the car. These would apparently improve its acceleration, speed, and handling. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly he added. To find out, I spoke to a couple of automotive engineers. And while they didnt doubt Musks ability to surprise us, they were a little skeptical. Of course you can install that in a car and make some fancy things, Dr. Markus Lienkamp from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany. If he recharges the system with air pressure and some liquid fuel it might be able to work permanently. Musk had alluded to this in another tweet last year, saying you could use an electric pump to replenish the air in the pressure vessel. But Dr. Lienkamp was not convinced. In my opinion [it is] just a showcase, he said. The system will be pretty heavy and costly. Dr. John Allport from the University of Huddersfield in the UK, meanwhile, was equally unsure. He cited the huge energy costs of the system as being a major problem, and noted that even if the thrusters did work as planned, youd probably only be able to lift the car off the ground for a few seconds. Technically theres nothing impossible about what hes proposing, he said. But the amount of energy to just lift a car off the ground, where is all the energy going to come from? Another issue is that the air from the thrusters would escape quickly. Hovercraft overcome this problem by having a rubber cushion around their base, which contains the air pressure. Without such a skirt around the Tesla to seal the air in, getting it to hover for more than a few seconds is likely to be extremely difficult. Once you get above a millimeter or so, your air loss is going to be so big that you soon run out of air, said Dr. Allport. What might be more feasible, however, is using the thrusters to improve the performance of the car. Many modern ships use thrusters to improve their turning capability, and a similar method could be employed here, firing a thruster to turn the Tesla into a corner and take it more tightly, or get a boost when accelerating. But the weight of the system needed to do this might negate the reason for doing it in the first place. Sports car designers typically try and get as much weight out of the car as possible, so having heavy equipment to provide thrusts of air could end up being self-defeating unless Musk has some tricks up his sleeve. Whats more clear, however, is that the dreams of a true flying Tesla might be a little far-fetched. True, it does seem as if the car would be able to hover off the ground for a few seconds. But sustaining flight for anything longer than that might prove difficult. If anything, it would be a hover rather than flight, said Dr. Allport. It really just comes down to a case of how much energy is needed, and how much energy can you store physically within the volume of the car. Still, Musk has proved us wrong before. And lets not get away from the fact that even a hovering car, if just for a few seconds, would be pretty incredible. You might not be taking to the skies any time soon, but a little hop off the ground would still be rather impressive. Well have to wait and see what Tesla has in store. | Elon Musk claims a new version of the Tesla Roadster will be able to fly. | bart | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/01/10/can-elon-musk-actually-make-a-flying-tesla-car/ | 0.204974 |
Can Elon Musk Actually Make A Flying Tesla Car? | Elon Musk turned a few heads on Twitter yesterday, January 9 when he claimed that an upcoming Tesla car might have the ability to fly. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO certainly hasnt left us wanting with his somewhat outlandish schemes before. Weve seen everything from a flamethrower to plans to start a Mars colony. Now it appears hes going to add thrusters to a new version of the Tesla Roadster car, claiming it will give it the ability to fly. The new Roadster will actually do something like this, Musk said in response to a tweet showing a picture of the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future. He added: Im not [joking]. Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats. This isnt the first time Musk has alluded to a flying Tesla. Back in June 2018, he said that an option package for the new Tesla Roadster would include 10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around the car. These would apparently improve its acceleration, speed, and handling. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly he added. To find out, I spoke to a couple of automotive engineers. And while they didnt doubt Musks ability to surprise us, they were a little skeptical. Of course you can install that in a car and make some fancy things, Dr. Markus Lienkamp from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany. If he recharges the system with air pressure and some liquid fuel it might be able to work permanently. Musk had alluded to this in another tweet last year, saying you could use an electric pump to replenish the air in the pressure vessel. But Dr. Lienkamp was not convinced. In my opinion [it is] just a showcase, he said. The system will be pretty heavy and costly. Dr. John Allport from the University of Huddersfield in the UK, meanwhile, was equally unsure. He cited the huge energy costs of the system as being a major problem, and noted that even if the thrusters did work as planned, youd probably only be able to lift the car off the ground for a few seconds. Technically theres nothing impossible about what hes proposing, he said. But the amount of energy to just lift a car off the ground, where is all the energy going to come from? Another issue is that the air from the thrusters would escape quickly. Hovercraft overcome this problem by having a rubber cushion around their base, which contains the air pressure. Without such a skirt around the Tesla to seal the air in, getting it to hover for more than a few seconds is likely to be extremely difficult. Once you get above a millimeter or so, your air loss is going to be so big that you soon run out of air, said Dr. Allport. What might be more feasible, however, is using the thrusters to improve the performance of the car. Many modern ships use thrusters to improve their turning capability, and a similar method could be employed here, firing a thruster to turn the Tesla into a corner and take it more tightly, or get a boost when accelerating. But the weight of the system needed to do this might negate the reason for doing it in the first place. Sports car designers typically try and get as much weight out of the car as possible, so having heavy equipment to provide thrusts of air could end up being self-defeating unless Musk has some tricks up his sleeve. Whats more clear, however, is that the dreams of a true flying Tesla might be a little far-fetched. True, it does seem as if the car would be able to hover off the ground for a few seconds. But sustaining flight for anything longer than that might prove difficult. If anything, it would be a hover rather than flight, said Dr. Allport. It really just comes down to a case of how much energy is needed, and how much energy can you store physically within the volume of the car. Still, Musk has proved us wrong before. And lets not get away from the fact that even a hovering car, if just for a few seconds, would be pretty incredible. You might not be taking to the skies any time soon, but a little hop off the ground would still be rather impressive. Well have to wait and see what Tesla has in store. | Elon Musk has claimed that an upcoming Tesla car might have the ability to fly. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO turned a few heads on Twitter yesterday. He said that an option package for the new Tesla Roadster would include 10 small rocket thrusters. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/01/10/can-elon-musk-actually-make-a-flying-tesla-car/ | 0.261825 |
Can Elon Musk Actually Make A Flying Tesla Car? | Elon Musk turned a few heads on Twitter yesterday, January 9 when he claimed that an upcoming Tesla car might have the ability to fly. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO certainly hasnt left us wanting with his somewhat outlandish schemes before. Weve seen everything from a flamethrower to plans to start a Mars colony. Now it appears hes going to add thrusters to a new version of the Tesla Roadster car, claiming it will give it the ability to fly. The new Roadster will actually do something like this, Musk said in response to a tweet showing a picture of the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future. He added: Im not [joking]. Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats. This isnt the first time Musk has alluded to a flying Tesla. Back in June 2018, he said that an option package for the new Tesla Roadster would include 10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around the car. These would apparently improve its acceleration, speed, and handling. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly he added. To find out, I spoke to a couple of automotive engineers. And while they didnt doubt Musks ability to surprise us, they were a little skeptical. Of course you can install that in a car and make some fancy things, Dr. Markus Lienkamp from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany. If he recharges the system with air pressure and some liquid fuel it might be able to work permanently. Musk had alluded to this in another tweet last year, saying you could use an electric pump to replenish the air in the pressure vessel. But Dr. Lienkamp was not convinced. In my opinion [it is] just a showcase, he said. The system will be pretty heavy and costly. Dr. John Allport from the University of Huddersfield in the UK, meanwhile, was equally unsure. He cited the huge energy costs of the system as being a major problem, and noted that even if the thrusters did work as planned, youd probably only be able to lift the car off the ground for a few seconds. Technically theres nothing impossible about what hes proposing, he said. But the amount of energy to just lift a car off the ground, where is all the energy going to come from? Another issue is that the air from the thrusters would escape quickly. Hovercraft overcome this problem by having a rubber cushion around their base, which contains the air pressure. Without such a skirt around the Tesla to seal the air in, getting it to hover for more than a few seconds is likely to be extremely difficult. Once you get above a millimeter or so, your air loss is going to be so big that you soon run out of air, said Dr. Allport. What might be more feasible, however, is using the thrusters to improve the performance of the car. Many modern ships use thrusters to improve their turning capability, and a similar method could be employed here, firing a thruster to turn the Tesla into a corner and take it more tightly, or get a boost when accelerating. But the weight of the system needed to do this might negate the reason for doing it in the first place. Sports car designers typically try and get as much weight out of the car as possible, so having heavy equipment to provide thrusts of air could end up being self-defeating unless Musk has some tricks up his sleeve. Whats more clear, however, is that the dreams of a true flying Tesla might be a little far-fetched. True, it does seem as if the car would be able to hover off the ground for a few seconds. But sustaining flight for anything longer than that might prove difficult. If anything, it would be a hover rather than flight, said Dr. Allport. It really just comes down to a case of how much energy is needed, and how much energy can you store physically within the volume of the car. Still, Musk has proved us wrong before. And lets not get away from the fact that even a hovering car, if just for a few seconds, would be pretty incredible. You might not be taking to the skies any time soon, but a little hop off the ground would still be rather impressive. Well have to wait and see what Tesla has in store. | Elon Musk has claimed that an upcoming Tesla car might have the ability to fly. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO turned a few heads on Twitter yesterday. He said that an option package for the new Tesla Roadster would include 10 small rocket thrusters. These would apparently improve its acceleration, speed, and handling. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/01/10/can-elon-musk-actually-make-a-flying-tesla-car/ | 0.299157 |
Why do video games use stronger security than some Canadian banks? | Ian Paterson is the CEO of Plurilock, a Victoria-based cybersecurity firm, and is a member of the Council of Canadian Innovators. I spent one of my holiday afternoons this year at a bank, with two tellers and a manager, having my debit card reissued and access to my accounts restored. All of this because my top Canadian bank lacked tools that are commonplace today in video games. Story continues below advertisement It was a late morning in December when I made a simple mistake, adding my bank details to a budgeting app. In todays cloud-centric world, logging in from somewhere or something new shouldnt be an issue but in this case it was. An automated process froze my account. When I called to have it unfrozen, I was told to visit town, find a branch office and confirm my identity in person. Oh, and to do this during holiday hours. On one level, I understand why my bank locked me out. Simply put, theyll lose customers if they arent perceived as secure. A recent PwC study showed that 85 per cent of consumers wont do business with a company whose security practices they doubt. From the banks perspective, a malicious attacker may have taken my login details, using them to empty out my accounts and, at the very least, interrupt my growing Starbucks habit. But Ill be blunt: Securely authenticating users digital identities without trips to the bank is a solved problem. Current best practices involve the use of multifactor authentication, which combines elements of something you know (such as a password), something you are (such as biometrics or your behavior) and something you have (such as a debit card). When Google mandated two-factor authentication across the company, the account-hijacking rate was reportedly reduced to zero. What my bank did wasnt a best practice; they simply lacked the modern tools to properly protect my account. And because they didnt have the infrastructure to step up to a second form of authentication, their only option was to go nuclear by blocking me and issuing a new card. They should know better. Most standards bodies today offer guidance on exactly how to remain secure. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a global leader in this area, issues guidelines on digital identity. These recommend two-factor authentication rather than reliance on SMS messages, complicated password rules and security questions as tools for protection. Complex password rules, security questions and premature block-outs impose burdens that consumers today, each with dozens of accounts, struggle to meet. Yet most companies employ exactly these strategies. Worse, these strategies are not particularly secure, as NIST understands. Thats is why all of this user frustration hasnt helped to reduce skyrocketing breach rates. When consumers face frequent password changes, draconian password rules and lockouts for forgotten passwords, they simply write their passwords down or pick short, familiar words theyre sure theyll remember. This makes password theft easy, particularly when automated hacking tools can guess even a completely random 10-letter password in a matter of hours. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement This isnt idle speculation on my part; I speak from experience. Im the chief executive of Plurilock Security Solutions, a cybersecurity company thats served the U.S. Army, power plants and hedge funds and that has industry veterans such as the former director of the U.S. National Security Agency on its board. We use human behavior as a transparent form of authentication, preventing damage from phishing and other online attacks invisibly. I began by mentioning video games because game companies are ahead of the curve here. Most games currently offer better, more reasonable security measures than my bank does as a matter of course. Massively popular Fortnite is a good example its free to play, yet offers two-factor authentication to everyone. Im not the only one to recognize that banks need to complete their digital transformation. Entire companies, such as Vancouvers FI.SPAN have sprung up to reimagine business banking. Strong authentication that solves the problems Ive outlined not only exists, but it is eminently affordable. So, in honor of my unexpected holiday trip to a bank office to present an old-fashioned ID card that itself is easily forged, Id like to make a modest proposal. For too long, companies have responded to consumer demand for real security with inconveniences that merely imply it. This isnt a good solution. In 2019, lets agree to move beyond security theatre and to implement tried-and-true solutions that are both effective and already on the market solutions that provide real security without matching levels of inconvenience. At the very least, I and my bank teller will thank you for it. | Ian Paterson is the CEO of Plurilock Security Solutions, a cybersecurity firm. Paterson says video games use stronger security than some Canadian banks. He says banks are losing customers if they aren't perceived as secure. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-why-do-video-games-use-stronger-security-than-some-canadian-banks/ | 0.255196 |
Why do video games use stronger security than some Canadian banks? | Ian Paterson is the CEO of Plurilock, a Victoria-based cybersecurity firm, and is a member of the Council of Canadian Innovators. I spent one of my holiday afternoons this year at a bank, with two tellers and a manager, having my debit card reissued and access to my accounts restored. All of this because my top Canadian bank lacked tools that are commonplace today in video games. Story continues below advertisement It was a late morning in December when I made a simple mistake, adding my bank details to a budgeting app. In todays cloud-centric world, logging in from somewhere or something new shouldnt be an issue but in this case it was. An automated process froze my account. When I called to have it unfrozen, I was told to visit town, find a branch office and confirm my identity in person. Oh, and to do this during holiday hours. On one level, I understand why my bank locked me out. Simply put, theyll lose customers if they arent perceived as secure. A recent PwC study showed that 85 per cent of consumers wont do business with a company whose security practices they doubt. From the banks perspective, a malicious attacker may have taken my login details, using them to empty out my accounts and, at the very least, interrupt my growing Starbucks habit. But Ill be blunt: Securely authenticating users digital identities without trips to the bank is a solved problem. Current best practices involve the use of multifactor authentication, which combines elements of something you know (such as a password), something you are (such as biometrics or your behavior) and something you have (such as a debit card). When Google mandated two-factor authentication across the company, the account-hijacking rate was reportedly reduced to zero. What my bank did wasnt a best practice; they simply lacked the modern tools to properly protect my account. And because they didnt have the infrastructure to step up to a second form of authentication, their only option was to go nuclear by blocking me and issuing a new card. They should know better. Most standards bodies today offer guidance on exactly how to remain secure. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a global leader in this area, issues guidelines on digital identity. These recommend two-factor authentication rather than reliance on SMS messages, complicated password rules and security questions as tools for protection. Complex password rules, security questions and premature block-outs impose burdens that consumers today, each with dozens of accounts, struggle to meet. Yet most companies employ exactly these strategies. Worse, these strategies are not particularly secure, as NIST understands. Thats is why all of this user frustration hasnt helped to reduce skyrocketing breach rates. When consumers face frequent password changes, draconian password rules and lockouts for forgotten passwords, they simply write their passwords down or pick short, familiar words theyre sure theyll remember. This makes password theft easy, particularly when automated hacking tools can guess even a completely random 10-letter password in a matter of hours. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement This isnt idle speculation on my part; I speak from experience. Im the chief executive of Plurilock Security Solutions, a cybersecurity company thats served the U.S. Army, power plants and hedge funds and that has industry veterans such as the former director of the U.S. National Security Agency on its board. We use human behavior as a transparent form of authentication, preventing damage from phishing and other online attacks invisibly. I began by mentioning video games because game companies are ahead of the curve here. Most games currently offer better, more reasonable security measures than my bank does as a matter of course. Massively popular Fortnite is a good example its free to play, yet offers two-factor authentication to everyone. Im not the only one to recognize that banks need to complete their digital transformation. Entire companies, such as Vancouvers FI.SPAN have sprung up to reimagine business banking. Strong authentication that solves the problems Ive outlined not only exists, but it is eminently affordable. So, in honor of my unexpected holiday trip to a bank office to present an old-fashioned ID card that itself is easily forged, Id like to make a modest proposal. For too long, companies have responded to consumer demand for real security with inconveniences that merely imply it. This isnt a good solution. In 2019, lets agree to move beyond security theatre and to implement tried-and-true solutions that are both effective and already on the market solutions that provide real security without matching levels of inconvenience. At the very least, I and my bank teller will thank you for it. | Ian Paterson is the CEO of Plurilock Security Solutions, a cybersecurity firm. Paterson says video games use stronger security than some Canadian banks. He says banks are losing customers if they aren't perceived to be secure. He believes the problem of authenticating digital identities is a solved problem. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-why-do-video-games-use-stronger-security-than-some-canadian-banks/ | 0.503932 |
Is Red Robin (RRGB) Fated to Witness a Terrible 2019 Too? | In 2018, the Retail-Restaurant industry gained 6.23% compared with the S&P 500s decline of 4.3%. However, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. RRGB, which belongs to the same industry, had a forgettable year. In the same time frame, the stock witnessed a sharp decline of 52.7%. The downside can be primarily attributed to soft comparable restaurant sales, weakness in dine-in traffic and decline in margin. The company has also been witnessing soft earnings and revenues trend lately. In the third quarter of 2018, the bottom line declined 23.8% year over year. Subsequently, the company lowered its EPS guidance for 2018. It anticipates earnings of $1.60-$1.80 per share, down from $1.80-$2.20 mentioned earlier. In the quarter, Red Robins revenues missed estimates for the third straight quarter. The company has been bearing the brunt of increased costs, which are hurting margins. In the third quarter of 2018, restaurant-level operating profit margin contracted 180 basis points (bps) to 16.8%. The decline was due to 120 bps rise in other restaurant operating expenses and a surge of 60 bps in occupancy costs. The rise in other operating costs was due to increases in technology costs, repairs and maintenance expenses, third-party delivery fees, higher utility costs and supplies. In order to drive traffic, Red Robin has been undertaking initiatives that have improved its restaurants seating efficiency and lowered guests waiting times. The company has rolled out its Kitchen Display System (KDS) that is linked to table management software. This is expected to result in annual sales growth of approximately $50 million as kitchens can handle higher peak volumes. It should also significantly improve guest experience by lowering ticket times and improving the quality of food at tableside. The digital wave has hit the U.S. fast casual restaurant space, as more and more restaurants are deploying technology to enhance the guest experience. In line with this, Red Robin too has been investing more in technology and data infrastructure. The company is set to grow its off-premise, online-ordering business via carry-out, delivery and catering. Despite the aforementioned efforts, analysts are still not optimistic about the Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) companys future earnings growth potential. In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in 2019 has declined 3.8% to $1.79. Per the consensus estimate, revenues in 2019 are likely to decline 0.3% to $1.34 billion. Key Picks Better-ranked stocks worth considering in the same space include Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. TAST, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. CBRL and Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI. All these stocks have a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Carrols Restaurant Group has an impressive long-term earnings growth rate of 20%. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has reported better-than-expected earnings in the trailing three out of four quarters, average being 0.7%. Darden Restaurants earnings in the current year is likely to witness a growth of 17.9%. Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> | Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. RRGB had a forgettable year. In the same time frame, the stock witnessed a sharp decline of 52.7%. The downside can be primarily attributed to soft comparable restaurant sales, weakness in dine-in traffic and decline in margin. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/red-robin-rrgb-fated-witness-202508788.html | 0.148919 |
What Kind of Populist Is Elizabeth Warren? | Six months ago, with the 2020 Presidential race barely within view, Elizabeth Warren mentioned a new political theme on which she intended to concentrate. Opposing corruption, she told a reporter, is becoming a much more defining part of my work. Corruption has a common-sense definition, one that is quite stark: The seizure of governmental authority by special interests at the expense of the general welfare, as Richard L. McCormick, a historian of political corruption in America and a former president of Rutgers University, put it to me this week. By early fall, when Warren introduced the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act in the Senate, she seemed to have something broader in mind. In a speech at the National Press Club, Warren said, Our government systematically favors the rich over the poor, the donor class over the working class, the well connected over the disconnected. This is deliberate, and we need to call this what it iscorruption, plain and simple. Populists, even radical populists, often deploy the passive voice, speaking of inequality or a rigged game. Warrens talk about corruption was bracing and direct. Someone was to blame. At the National Press Club, Warren mentioned Mick Mulvaney, the former Republican congressman from South Carolina who is now the acting White House chief of staff. Warren said, After he left Congress, Mulvaney told a roomful of bankers that he had a rule in his office: if a lobbyist didnt give him money, the lobbyist didnt get a meeting. Warren went on to tell the story of Billy Tauzin, the former Republican congressman from Louisiana. From within Congress, Tauzin helped to engineer the passage of Medicare Part D, which authorized the government to pay more than a hundred billion dollars in prescription-drug costs. He then got hired to lead the pharmaceutical lobby in Washington. Billy delivered, Warren said. She continued, Sometimes the payoff comes upfront. Goldman Sachs handed Gary Cohn over a quarter of a billion dollars on his way out the door to become the head of President Trumps National Economic Council. A quarter of a billion dollars to help quarterback a tax package that included giveaways worth just over a quarter of a billion to Goldmanin the first quarter of 2018 alone. The Trump Administration, Warren said, has given us the most nakedly corrupt leadership this nation has seen in our lifetimes. But they are not the cause of the rottheyre just the biggest, stinkiest example of it. She had recently introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, a bill to reform the largest American companies, in part by requiring that forty per cent of the seats on their boards of directors be selected by employees. In business, as in government, she had noticed a pervasive culture of soft corruption that colors virtually every important decision in Washington. From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth, Richard McCormick, the historian, noted, anti-corruption was a theme of every major political movement. During the financial crisis of 2008, it returned, with the Occupy movement, and, during the 2016 election, Donald Trumps swamp and Bernie Sanderss rigged game rapidly brought it to the center of American political life. Warren, a Harvard bankruptcy scholar and the engineer of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has the habits and authority of an expert; even so, for her, the idea of corruption seems to hold broad explanatory power. Last Wednesday, appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, Warren mentioned the word corruption or alluded to it seven times. When asked how she saw the President, Warren replied, I see him as what happens when corruption invades a system. Two days later, when she arrived in Iowa to advance her case for the Presidency, she also seemed to introduce a new approach to American populism. Warrens tour of Iowa last weekend began in Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from William Jennings Bryans old political base, in Nebraska. The crowd was overflowing, as it would be at her other events, and she mentioned the President only in passing. Warren dwelled instead on her childhood, in Oklahoma, not poor but not steady either, and the moment when she saw her mother, past fifty and a lifelong homemaker, pacing her bedroom, her one fancy dress laid out on the bed, preparing for an interview for a minimum-wage job and repeating to herself, We will not lose this house. She got the job, minimum wage was enough, and the house was saved. Warren said that she had long understood this as a story about the tenacity of ordinary people but had come to see that it was a story about government, about what it had once made possible. The popular take on Warren when she began her political career was that she was awkward on stage, uncomfortable with the performative parts of the job. The solution turned out to be projecting grit, wielding her awkwardness as a signal of her determination. Her stage presence is full of punctuations: the left fist thrust upward, the ostentatious woo-hoo! While the Sanders and Trump campaigns shared a certain shagginess, a Warren event is a clockwork operation. The candidate arrives and leaves as scheduled. Her Presidential stump speech, which she dbuted, in Iowa, this week, lands at fifteen minutes, with only a few seconds of variation. The biographical section, with which she opens, takes almost exactly five minutes. A staffer or friend, pulling ticket numbers from a bucket, selects audience members to ask questions. After each event, there was a line to take a selfie with the senator, at the end of which you handed your phone to an aide, who passed it to a second aide, who held it over her head and snapped a half-dozen photos before handing it to a third aide, who gave it back to you. The Warren campaign is a populist undertaking, in that it seeks to organize rage at Washington and the elites, but it does so with expert efficiency. A woman of about sixty, with long hair and a slightly ethereal bearing, had her number called, and she walked up to the microphone and read her question from a phone. Her name was Catherine Nicholson, and she said that, even though she is a conservative, she supports Warren, whose advocacy on behalf of families she admires. Her son had recently died of brain cancer, at twenty-two, and the event had sharpened her sense of the frustrations of the health-care system. The atmosphere between the two women was inexplicably tense. Catherine and I know one another, Warren said. Nicholson, it turned out, had been a student and research assistant of Warrens, at the University of Texas School of Law, and later worked for her, before converting to Catholicism and homeschooling her children. Nicholson kept going. In this part of the country, she said, too many people who might otherwise find Warren appealing would write her off because she was pro-choice. (Nicholson had a point: last May, Iowas governor had signed one of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in the nation, the so-called fetal-heartbeat law.) Nicholson urged her old professor to rethink her position on abortion, suggesting that it might win her the support of conservatives. There was a quiet moment, and then Warren said, to a burst of applause, that the role of government is to back out and allow women the right to choose. I found Nicholson after the event. She said that, of course, she hadnt really expected Warren to become pro-life, but that any sensitivity would be most welcome. Nicholson is now a caregiver for her mother, who has Alzheimers; she spends her days listening to Fox News, her mothers preference, and her nights speaking with friends. Some of them have dismissed Warren with one word, Pocahontas, and Nicholson urges them to take another view. She seemed to have in mind the person she had known, rather than the more partisan figure on the stage in Council Bluffs. When Warren was asked, by a reporter, how she might appeal to Trump voters in Iowa, she said evenly that she was not a professional politician. She mentioned that, of her three ex-military brothers, just one was a Democrat, and she let that hang in the air. Nicholson had wondered, in part, how the cultural gap between her old friend and her new ones could be bridged. But conservatives seemed far from Warrens mind. | Elizabeth Warren has made fighting corruption a central part of her career. Julian Zelizer: Warren is a populist, but she has a different way of talking about it. Zelizer says Warren's talk about corruption is bracing and direct. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-kind-of-populist-is-elizabeth-warren | 0.179246 |
What Kind of Populist Is Elizabeth Warren? | Six months ago, with the 2020 Presidential race barely within view, Elizabeth Warren mentioned a new political theme on which she intended to concentrate. Opposing corruption, she told a reporter, is becoming a much more defining part of my work. Corruption has a common-sense definition, one that is quite stark: The seizure of governmental authority by special interests at the expense of the general welfare, as Richard L. McCormick, a historian of political corruption in America and a former president of Rutgers University, put it to me this week. By early fall, when Warren introduced the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act in the Senate, she seemed to have something broader in mind. In a speech at the National Press Club, Warren said, Our government systematically favors the rich over the poor, the donor class over the working class, the well connected over the disconnected. This is deliberate, and we need to call this what it iscorruption, plain and simple. Populists, even radical populists, often deploy the passive voice, speaking of inequality or a rigged game. Warrens talk about corruption was bracing and direct. Someone was to blame. At the National Press Club, Warren mentioned Mick Mulvaney, the former Republican congressman from South Carolina who is now the acting White House chief of staff. Warren said, After he left Congress, Mulvaney told a roomful of bankers that he had a rule in his office: if a lobbyist didnt give him money, the lobbyist didnt get a meeting. Warren went on to tell the story of Billy Tauzin, the former Republican congressman from Louisiana. From within Congress, Tauzin helped to engineer the passage of Medicare Part D, which authorized the government to pay more than a hundred billion dollars in prescription-drug costs. He then got hired to lead the pharmaceutical lobby in Washington. Billy delivered, Warren said. She continued, Sometimes the payoff comes upfront. Goldman Sachs handed Gary Cohn over a quarter of a billion dollars on his way out the door to become the head of President Trumps National Economic Council. A quarter of a billion dollars to help quarterback a tax package that included giveaways worth just over a quarter of a billion to Goldmanin the first quarter of 2018 alone. The Trump Administration, Warren said, has given us the most nakedly corrupt leadership this nation has seen in our lifetimes. But they are not the cause of the rottheyre just the biggest, stinkiest example of it. She had recently introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, a bill to reform the largest American companies, in part by requiring that forty per cent of the seats on their boards of directors be selected by employees. In business, as in government, she had noticed a pervasive culture of soft corruption that colors virtually every important decision in Washington. From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth, Richard McCormick, the historian, noted, anti-corruption was a theme of every major political movement. During the financial crisis of 2008, it returned, with the Occupy movement, and, during the 2016 election, Donald Trumps swamp and Bernie Sanderss rigged game rapidly brought it to the center of American political life. Warren, a Harvard bankruptcy scholar and the engineer of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has the habits and authority of an expert; even so, for her, the idea of corruption seems to hold broad explanatory power. Last Wednesday, appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, Warren mentioned the word corruption or alluded to it seven times. When asked how she saw the President, Warren replied, I see him as what happens when corruption invades a system. Two days later, when she arrived in Iowa to advance her case for the Presidency, she also seemed to introduce a new approach to American populism. Warrens tour of Iowa last weekend began in Council Bluffs, just across the Missouri River from William Jennings Bryans old political base, in Nebraska. The crowd was overflowing, as it would be at her other events, and she mentioned the President only in passing. Warren dwelled instead on her childhood, in Oklahoma, not poor but not steady either, and the moment when she saw her mother, past fifty and a lifelong homemaker, pacing her bedroom, her one fancy dress laid out on the bed, preparing for an interview for a minimum-wage job and repeating to herself, We will not lose this house. She got the job, minimum wage was enough, and the house was saved. Warren said that she had long understood this as a story about the tenacity of ordinary people but had come to see that it was a story about government, about what it had once made possible. The popular take on Warren when she began her political career was that she was awkward on stage, uncomfortable with the performative parts of the job. The solution turned out to be projecting grit, wielding her awkwardness as a signal of her determination. Her stage presence is full of punctuations: the left fist thrust upward, the ostentatious woo-hoo! While the Sanders and Trump campaigns shared a certain shagginess, a Warren event is a clockwork operation. The candidate arrives and leaves as scheduled. Her Presidential stump speech, which she dbuted, in Iowa, this week, lands at fifteen minutes, with only a few seconds of variation. The biographical section, with which she opens, takes almost exactly five minutes. A staffer or friend, pulling ticket numbers from a bucket, selects audience members to ask questions. After each event, there was a line to take a selfie with the senator, at the end of which you handed your phone to an aide, who passed it to a second aide, who held it over her head and snapped a half-dozen photos before handing it to a third aide, who gave it back to you. The Warren campaign is a populist undertaking, in that it seeks to organize rage at Washington and the elites, but it does so with expert efficiency. A woman of about sixty, with long hair and a slightly ethereal bearing, had her number called, and she walked up to the microphone and read her question from a phone. Her name was Catherine Nicholson, and she said that, even though she is a conservative, she supports Warren, whose advocacy on behalf of families she admires. Her son had recently died of brain cancer, at twenty-two, and the event had sharpened her sense of the frustrations of the health-care system. The atmosphere between the two women was inexplicably tense. Catherine and I know one another, Warren said. Nicholson, it turned out, had been a student and research assistant of Warrens, at the University of Texas School of Law, and later worked for her, before converting to Catholicism and homeschooling her children. Nicholson kept going. In this part of the country, she said, too many people who might otherwise find Warren appealing would write her off because she was pro-choice. (Nicholson had a point: last May, Iowas governor had signed one of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in the nation, the so-called fetal-heartbeat law.) Nicholson urged her old professor to rethink her position on abortion, suggesting that it might win her the support of conservatives. There was a quiet moment, and then Warren said, to a burst of applause, that the role of government is to back out and allow women the right to choose. I found Nicholson after the event. She said that, of course, she hadnt really expected Warren to become pro-life, but that any sensitivity would be most welcome. Nicholson is now a caregiver for her mother, who has Alzheimers; she spends her days listening to Fox News, her mothers preference, and her nights speaking with friends. Some of them have dismissed Warren with one word, Pocahontas, and Nicholson urges them to take another view. She seemed to have in mind the person she had known, rather than the more partisan figure on the stage in Council Bluffs. When Warren was asked, by a reporter, how she might appeal to Trump voters in Iowa, she said evenly that she was not a professional politician. She mentioned that, of her three ex-military brothers, just one was a Democrat, and she let that hang in the air. Nicholson had wondered, in part, how the cultural gap between her old friend and her new ones could be bridged. But conservatives seemed far from Warrens mind. | Elizabeth Warren has made fighting corruption a central part of her career. Julian Zelizer: Warren is a populist, but she has a different way of talking about it. Zelizer says Warren's talk about corruption is bracing and direct; it's deliberate, and we need to call it what it is. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-kind-of-populist-is-elizabeth-warren | 0.22823 |
Can the All-New 2020 Ford Explorer Reverse the Automaker's Sales Decline? | Ford Motor (NYSE: F) revealed its all-new 2020 Explorer SUV at an event in Detroit on Wednesday evening. The popular three-row crossover has been completely redesigned on a new rear-wheel-drive architecture, with more room and more towing capacity. The new Explorer is a big deal. The Explorer has been a huge seller for Ford for years, generating hearty profits especially in upscale trims, but sales (and profits) sagged last year as newer rivals stole sales. The company is betting that the all-new Explorer will reverse those trends when it begins arriving at U.S. dealers this summer. Here's what we know. A blue 2020 Ford Explorer, a midsize crossover SUV, parked in a wooded setting. More Ford said that its all-new 2020 Explorer will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer. Image source: Ford Motor. What's new about the 2020 Explorer: Everything While it looks a lot like the current model, the all-new Explorer really is all-new. It's built on a new rear-wheel-drive architecture that gives it a distinctive look, as well as more towing capacity and more room inside. (The new Lincoln Aviator SUV is built on the same architecture.) That question contains one of the answers: It's a competitive differentiator. These days, rear-wheel drive is associated with luxury vehicles. But there are practical advantages as well: In addition to the added towing capacity, the new architecture will give four-wheel-drive versions of the new Explorer improved rough-weather and off-road capabilities. But while the new Explorer has a bit more "truck" added to its feature set, it's a far cry from the truck-based Explorers of old. This new Explorer should be quite refined on the road, thanks to its unibody construction, a new 10-speed automatic transmission, and a long list of standard comfort and convenience features. The dashboard of a 2020 Ford Explorer Platinum, showing a large touchscreen above the center stack. More In Platinum trim, the new Explorer features a big centrally located touchscreen. Image source: Ford Motor. The current Explorer isn't exactly cramped, but the new model is roomier inside. Notably, it's a bit wider -- with the seats folded down, it can carry a 4- by 8-foot sheet of plywood, a feat the outgoing model can't manage. The new Explorer comes standard with Ford's well-regarded 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine, which will make 300 horsepower and 310 pounds-feet of torque in this application. With an optional trailer-towing package, Explorers with the 2.3-liter engine will have 5,300 pounds of towing capacity, up from just 3,000 pounds in current base-model Explorers. | The all-new 2020 Ford Explorer SUV will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer. Ford is betting that the new Explorer will reverse the automaker's sales decline. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/2020-ford-explorer-reverse-automaker-230500731.html | 0.244645 |
Can the All-New 2020 Ford Explorer Reverse the Automaker's Sales Decline? | Ford Motor (NYSE: F) revealed its all-new 2020 Explorer SUV at an event in Detroit on Wednesday evening. The popular three-row crossover has been completely redesigned on a new rear-wheel-drive architecture, with more room and more towing capacity. The new Explorer is a big deal. The Explorer has been a huge seller for Ford for years, generating hearty profits especially in upscale trims, but sales (and profits) sagged last year as newer rivals stole sales. The company is betting that the all-new Explorer will reverse those trends when it begins arriving at U.S. dealers this summer. Here's what we know. A blue 2020 Ford Explorer, a midsize crossover SUV, parked in a wooded setting. More Ford said that its all-new 2020 Explorer will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer. Image source: Ford Motor. What's new about the 2020 Explorer: Everything While it looks a lot like the current model, the all-new Explorer really is all-new. It's built on a new rear-wheel-drive architecture that gives it a distinctive look, as well as more towing capacity and more room inside. (The new Lincoln Aviator SUV is built on the same architecture.) That question contains one of the answers: It's a competitive differentiator. These days, rear-wheel drive is associated with luxury vehicles. But there are practical advantages as well: In addition to the added towing capacity, the new architecture will give four-wheel-drive versions of the new Explorer improved rough-weather and off-road capabilities. But while the new Explorer has a bit more "truck" added to its feature set, it's a far cry from the truck-based Explorers of old. This new Explorer should be quite refined on the road, thanks to its unibody construction, a new 10-speed automatic transmission, and a long list of standard comfort and convenience features. The dashboard of a 2020 Ford Explorer Platinum, showing a large touchscreen above the center stack. More In Platinum trim, the new Explorer features a big centrally located touchscreen. Image source: Ford Motor. The current Explorer isn't exactly cramped, but the new model is roomier inside. Notably, it's a bit wider -- with the seats folded down, it can carry a 4- by 8-foot sheet of plywood, a feat the outgoing model can't manage. The new Explorer comes standard with Ford's well-regarded 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine, which will make 300 horsepower and 310 pounds-feet of torque in this application. With an optional trailer-towing package, Explorers with the 2.3-liter engine will have 5,300 pounds of towing capacity, up from just 3,000 pounds in current base-model Explorers. | The all-new 2020 Ford Explorer SUV will arrive at U.S. dealers this summer. Ford is betting that the new Explorer will reverse the automaker's sales decline. The new Explorer has a new rear-wheel-drive architecture that gives it a distinctive look. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/2020-ford-explorer-reverse-automaker-230500731.html | 0.365859 |
Should Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray play football or baseball? | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft to try his hand at professional football. After being awarded the top honor in college football, this seems like a no-brainer. However, Murray was already a first-round MLB draft pick. In the interest of his long-term health and financial success, many feel he should choose baseball over football as his professional calling. PERSPECTIVES Murray proved he could hang with the big boys in college football, winning the Heisman Trophy and quarterbacking the most productive offense in the sport. While he might be smaller than your average quarterback, he showed he can get gaudy numbers that could translate at the pro-level. Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and others have show that there is a future for Murray in pro football. Murray is almost assured to be picked in the first round, where his rookie contract will overshadow every rookie contract in baseball -- a sport where even the best players have to cut their teeth in the minors for a few years. Once he proves he can play at the pro-level, Murray could be one of the highest-paid players in the league. The smart money would be to be pursue pro football. Kyler Murray will reportedly enter the NFL draft. @MJ_Baumann explained why that would be a completely logical financial decision: https://t.co/mejK1x0zp1 -- The Ringer (@ringer) January 10, 2019 If Murray wants to be paid fully-guaranteed money, while saving his brain from being scrambled, baseball is the only choice. Unless you are one of the top quarterbacks in the league, you are not making anywhere near what you could in baseball. The median salary in MLB is $1.5 million, while the NFL has a median salary of $860,000. At least with MLB, you're getting all of that money. In the NFL, you're subject to incentives or being cut and losing money on your contract. Aside from the money, baseball is a much safer sport, especially when it comes to head injuries. Football has become synonymous with concussions and concussion-related ailments that cause brain trauma. If Murray values his life, he should choose baseball. Kyler Murray throwing away easy guaranteed baseball money to go to the NFL makes zero sense -- Chris August (@august_chris_) January 10, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft. Many feel he should choose baseball over football as his professional calling. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.nola.com/interact/2019/01/should_heisman_trophy_winner_k.html | 0.444838 |
Should Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray play football or baseball? | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft to try his hand at professional football. After being awarded the top honor in college football, this seems like a no-brainer. However, Murray was already a first-round MLB draft pick. In the interest of his long-term health and financial success, many feel he should choose baseball over football as his professional calling. PERSPECTIVES Murray proved he could hang with the big boys in college football, winning the Heisman Trophy and quarterbacking the most productive offense in the sport. While he might be smaller than your average quarterback, he showed he can get gaudy numbers that could translate at the pro-level. Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and others have show that there is a future for Murray in pro football. Murray is almost assured to be picked in the first round, where his rookie contract will overshadow every rookie contract in baseball -- a sport where even the best players have to cut their teeth in the minors for a few years. Once he proves he can play at the pro-level, Murray could be one of the highest-paid players in the league. The smart money would be to be pursue pro football. Kyler Murray will reportedly enter the NFL draft. @MJ_Baumann explained why that would be a completely logical financial decision: https://t.co/mejK1x0zp1 -- The Ringer (@ringer) January 10, 2019 If Murray wants to be paid fully-guaranteed money, while saving his brain from being scrambled, baseball is the only choice. Unless you are one of the top quarterbacks in the league, you are not making anywhere near what you could in baseball. The median salary in MLB is $1.5 million, while the NFL has a median salary of $860,000. At least with MLB, you're getting all of that money. In the NFL, you're subject to incentives or being cut and losing money on your contract. Aside from the money, baseball is a much safer sport, especially when it comes to head injuries. Football has become synonymous with concussions and concussion-related ailments that cause brain trauma. If Murray values his life, he should choose baseball. Kyler Murray throwing away easy guaranteed baseball money to go to the NFL makes zero sense -- Chris August (@august_chris_) January 10, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft. Murray was already a first-round MLB draft pick. Baseball is a much safer sport for Murray's brain than football. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nola.com/interact/2019/01/should_heisman_trophy_winner_k.html | 0.575288 |
Should Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray play football or baseball? | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft to try his hand at professional football. After being awarded the top honor in college football, this seems like a no-brainer. However, Murray was already a first-round MLB draft pick. In the interest of his long-term health and financial success, many feel he should choose baseball over football as his professional calling. PERSPECTIVES Murray proved he could hang with the big boys in college football, winning the Heisman Trophy and quarterbacking the most productive offense in the sport. While he might be smaller than your average quarterback, he showed he can get gaudy numbers that could translate at the pro-level. Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and others have show that there is a future for Murray in pro football. Murray is almost assured to be picked in the first round, where his rookie contract will overshadow every rookie contract in baseball -- a sport where even the best players have to cut their teeth in the minors for a few years. Once he proves he can play at the pro-level, Murray could be one of the highest-paid players in the league. The smart money would be to be pursue pro football. Kyler Murray will reportedly enter the NFL draft. @MJ_Baumann explained why that would be a completely logical financial decision: https://t.co/mejK1x0zp1 -- The Ringer (@ringer) January 10, 2019 If Murray wants to be paid fully-guaranteed money, while saving his brain from being scrambled, baseball is the only choice. Unless you are one of the top quarterbacks in the league, you are not making anywhere near what you could in baseball. The median salary in MLB is $1.5 million, while the NFL has a median salary of $860,000. At least with MLB, you're getting all of that money. In the NFL, you're subject to incentives or being cut and losing money on your contract. Aside from the money, baseball is a much safer sport, especially when it comes to head injuries. Football has become synonymous with concussions and concussion-related ailments that cause brain trauma. If Murray values his life, he should choose baseball. Kyler Murray throwing away easy guaranteed baseball money to go to the NFL makes zero sense -- Chris August (@august_chris_) January 10, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is expected to enter the NFL Draft. Many feel he should choose baseball over football as his professional calling. Baseball is a safer sport, while the NFL has a much higher median salary than the MLB, which is $1.5 million. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nola.com/interact/2019/01/should_heisman_trophy_winner_k.html | 0.646657 |
Could an on-fire Alexis Griggsby help snap the Huskies five-game losing streak? | The Huskies are still looking for a consistent offensive threat to complement Amber Melgoza. Lately, Alexis Griggsby appears to have stepped up her game, and her deadly perimeter shooting could be huge for UW against Colorado on Friday. Weeks ago, Jody Wynn struggled to find any positives following one of the most lopsided losses in the 45-year history of the Washington womens basketball team. After sifting through the debris of a 103-56 defeat to No. 4 Mississippi State, Wynn singled out Alexis Griggsby, a sophomore reserve who piled up a team-high 11 points mostly in garbage time. It was good to see Lexi play the way that (she) did, Wynn said. That will hopefully continue to encourage (her) to keep working and getting in the gym and keep believing that (she) can be a good piece to our family. [UW WBB | Starting lineups, scouting reports against Colorado] The next game, Griggsby didnt attempt a shot during a scoreless, 12-minute performance against Washington State. Nonetheless, Wynn never lost confidence and remembered the 5-foot-9 guard was one of the best players during preseason workouts before an ankle injury forced her to miss a few weeks and the first two games of the season. Needing a spark to jump start an offense that ranks near the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring (69.5 points per game) and three-point shooting (28.9 percent), Wynn gave Griggsby her first start of the season and fifth in her career last week at No. 5 Oregon. Were searching for consistent performers and I thought it was her turn to get that start, Wynn said. And she ran with it. During an 84-71 loss, Griggsby responded with a personal best 26-point performance that matched her season total through 11 games. She also converted 6 of 11 three-pointers and 10 of 16 field goals both career highs in 26 minutes. Two days later, Griggsby knocked down 5 of 7 three-pointers for 15 points in a 78-67 defeat at No. 11 Oregon State. My teammates just trusting in me and believing in me to make the shots, Griggsby said. Coaches believing in me to make shots. My teammates screening to get me open to get the shots off. Its an all-around collective effort for me to get my shots off. Griggsbys offensive fireworks couldnt have come at a better time for Washington (7-8, 0-3 Pac-12), which has lost five straight heading into Fridays 7 p.m. matchup against Colorado (10-4, 0-3) at Alaska Airlines Arena. Since Wynns arrival last season, the Huskies have desperately searched for consistent scorers to support all-Pac-12 guard Amber Melgoza, who ranks fifth in the conference with a 19.5 scoring average. Melgoza has led Washington in scoring in 13 of 15 games and no other UW player averages more than 10 points per game. This cant be just the Amber show, Wynn said earlier this season. Weve been looking for 1, 2 or 3 more players to get a little more consistent (scoring) so teams cant just load up on Amber. I dont know who its going to be. At times its been Missy (Peterson). Jenna (Moser) has had some nice games. And Hannah (Johnson) and Mai-Loni (Henson). It could be anybody and weve seen that. Last week, it was Griggsby. Admittedly, she wasnt ready to contribute much last season. That mental game that you have a freshman, you kind of feel like sometimes you dont belong, said Griggsby, who averaged 5.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 17.7 minutes last season. Youre doing the little things, but you feel like the little things dont get noticed as much. And an ankle injury ruined what had been a promising performance in preseason practices. In the month of October she was an outright starter, Wynn said. She was one of our most consistent performers. And it went away after the ankle sprain. Pretty bad ankle sprain sat her out for a few weeks and just really never got her groove back. Lost confidence and just battled through the confidence struggle throughout November and December. You knew it was there, it was just hidden under a few layers. Griggsby said: When shooters cant get that shot to fall it kinda of just puts you in a little rut. But I was able to get out of it. After tallying 52 points against UWs three ranked opponents, Griggsby deflects the extra attention shes garnered for her offensive exploits. Im just coming out here to play and do the best for our team, she said. Im not a person that needs all the praise. However, Griggsby will likely land on opposing teams scouting reports considering shes connected on 11 of 18 3-pointers (61.1 percent) against Pac-12 opponents. Its nice to have her energy and her confidence, Wynn said. She might not be the fastest, she might not be the biggest, she might not be the strongest and she might not be the most athletic, but shes going to do little things for us that helps us on both sides of the ball. | Alexis Griggsby has scored 26 points in her last two games. Washington has lost five straight games. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-basketball/could-an-on-fire-alexis-griggsby-help-snap-the-huskies-five-game-losing-streak/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 0.231193 |
Could an on-fire Alexis Griggsby help snap the Huskies five-game losing streak? | The Huskies are still looking for a consistent offensive threat to complement Amber Melgoza. Lately, Alexis Griggsby appears to have stepped up her game, and her deadly perimeter shooting could be huge for UW against Colorado on Friday. Weeks ago, Jody Wynn struggled to find any positives following one of the most lopsided losses in the 45-year history of the Washington womens basketball team. After sifting through the debris of a 103-56 defeat to No. 4 Mississippi State, Wynn singled out Alexis Griggsby, a sophomore reserve who piled up a team-high 11 points mostly in garbage time. It was good to see Lexi play the way that (she) did, Wynn said. That will hopefully continue to encourage (her) to keep working and getting in the gym and keep believing that (she) can be a good piece to our family. [UW WBB | Starting lineups, scouting reports against Colorado] The next game, Griggsby didnt attempt a shot during a scoreless, 12-minute performance against Washington State. Nonetheless, Wynn never lost confidence and remembered the 5-foot-9 guard was one of the best players during preseason workouts before an ankle injury forced her to miss a few weeks and the first two games of the season. Needing a spark to jump start an offense that ranks near the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring (69.5 points per game) and three-point shooting (28.9 percent), Wynn gave Griggsby her first start of the season and fifth in her career last week at No. 5 Oregon. Were searching for consistent performers and I thought it was her turn to get that start, Wynn said. And she ran with it. During an 84-71 loss, Griggsby responded with a personal best 26-point performance that matched her season total through 11 games. She also converted 6 of 11 three-pointers and 10 of 16 field goals both career highs in 26 minutes. Two days later, Griggsby knocked down 5 of 7 three-pointers for 15 points in a 78-67 defeat at No. 11 Oregon State. My teammates just trusting in me and believing in me to make the shots, Griggsby said. Coaches believing in me to make shots. My teammates screening to get me open to get the shots off. Its an all-around collective effort for me to get my shots off. Griggsbys offensive fireworks couldnt have come at a better time for Washington (7-8, 0-3 Pac-12), which has lost five straight heading into Fridays 7 p.m. matchup against Colorado (10-4, 0-3) at Alaska Airlines Arena. Since Wynns arrival last season, the Huskies have desperately searched for consistent scorers to support all-Pac-12 guard Amber Melgoza, who ranks fifth in the conference with a 19.5 scoring average. Melgoza has led Washington in scoring in 13 of 15 games and no other UW player averages more than 10 points per game. This cant be just the Amber show, Wynn said earlier this season. Weve been looking for 1, 2 or 3 more players to get a little more consistent (scoring) so teams cant just load up on Amber. I dont know who its going to be. At times its been Missy (Peterson). Jenna (Moser) has had some nice games. And Hannah (Johnson) and Mai-Loni (Henson). It could be anybody and weve seen that. Last week, it was Griggsby. Admittedly, she wasnt ready to contribute much last season. That mental game that you have a freshman, you kind of feel like sometimes you dont belong, said Griggsby, who averaged 5.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 17.7 minutes last season. Youre doing the little things, but you feel like the little things dont get noticed as much. And an ankle injury ruined what had been a promising performance in preseason practices. In the month of October she was an outright starter, Wynn said. She was one of our most consistent performers. And it went away after the ankle sprain. Pretty bad ankle sprain sat her out for a few weeks and just really never got her groove back. Lost confidence and just battled through the confidence struggle throughout November and December. You knew it was there, it was just hidden under a few layers. Griggsby said: When shooters cant get that shot to fall it kinda of just puts you in a little rut. But I was able to get out of it. After tallying 52 points against UWs three ranked opponents, Griggsby deflects the extra attention shes garnered for her offensive exploits. Im just coming out here to play and do the best for our team, she said. Im not a person that needs all the praise. However, Griggsby will likely land on opposing teams scouting reports considering shes connected on 11 of 18 3-pointers (61.1 percent) against Pac-12 opponents. Its nice to have her energy and her confidence, Wynn said. She might not be the fastest, she might not be the biggest, she might not be the strongest and she might not be the most athletic, but shes going to do little things for us that helps us on both sides of the ball. | Alexis Griggsby has scored 26 points in her last two games for Washington. The Huskies have lost five straight games and sit in the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring and three-point shooting. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-basketball/could-an-on-fire-alexis-griggsby-help-snap-the-huskies-five-game-losing-streak/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 0.287332 |
Could an on-fire Alexis Griggsby help snap the Huskies five-game losing streak? | The Huskies are still looking for a consistent offensive threat to complement Amber Melgoza. Lately, Alexis Griggsby appears to have stepped up her game, and her deadly perimeter shooting could be huge for UW against Colorado on Friday. Weeks ago, Jody Wynn struggled to find any positives following one of the most lopsided losses in the 45-year history of the Washington womens basketball team. After sifting through the debris of a 103-56 defeat to No. 4 Mississippi State, Wynn singled out Alexis Griggsby, a sophomore reserve who piled up a team-high 11 points mostly in garbage time. It was good to see Lexi play the way that (she) did, Wynn said. That will hopefully continue to encourage (her) to keep working and getting in the gym and keep believing that (she) can be a good piece to our family. [UW WBB | Starting lineups, scouting reports against Colorado] The next game, Griggsby didnt attempt a shot during a scoreless, 12-minute performance against Washington State. Nonetheless, Wynn never lost confidence and remembered the 5-foot-9 guard was one of the best players during preseason workouts before an ankle injury forced her to miss a few weeks and the first two games of the season. Needing a spark to jump start an offense that ranks near the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring (69.5 points per game) and three-point shooting (28.9 percent), Wynn gave Griggsby her first start of the season and fifth in her career last week at No. 5 Oregon. Were searching for consistent performers and I thought it was her turn to get that start, Wynn said. And she ran with it. During an 84-71 loss, Griggsby responded with a personal best 26-point performance that matched her season total through 11 games. She also converted 6 of 11 three-pointers and 10 of 16 field goals both career highs in 26 minutes. Two days later, Griggsby knocked down 5 of 7 three-pointers for 15 points in a 78-67 defeat at No. 11 Oregon State. My teammates just trusting in me and believing in me to make the shots, Griggsby said. Coaches believing in me to make shots. My teammates screening to get me open to get the shots off. Its an all-around collective effort for me to get my shots off. Griggsbys offensive fireworks couldnt have come at a better time for Washington (7-8, 0-3 Pac-12), which has lost five straight heading into Fridays 7 p.m. matchup against Colorado (10-4, 0-3) at Alaska Airlines Arena. Since Wynns arrival last season, the Huskies have desperately searched for consistent scorers to support all-Pac-12 guard Amber Melgoza, who ranks fifth in the conference with a 19.5 scoring average. Melgoza has led Washington in scoring in 13 of 15 games and no other UW player averages more than 10 points per game. This cant be just the Amber show, Wynn said earlier this season. Weve been looking for 1, 2 or 3 more players to get a little more consistent (scoring) so teams cant just load up on Amber. I dont know who its going to be. At times its been Missy (Peterson). Jenna (Moser) has had some nice games. And Hannah (Johnson) and Mai-Loni (Henson). It could be anybody and weve seen that. Last week, it was Griggsby. Admittedly, she wasnt ready to contribute much last season. That mental game that you have a freshman, you kind of feel like sometimes you dont belong, said Griggsby, who averaged 5.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 17.7 minutes last season. Youre doing the little things, but you feel like the little things dont get noticed as much. And an ankle injury ruined what had been a promising performance in preseason practices. In the month of October she was an outright starter, Wynn said. She was one of our most consistent performers. And it went away after the ankle sprain. Pretty bad ankle sprain sat her out for a few weeks and just really never got her groove back. Lost confidence and just battled through the confidence struggle throughout November and December. You knew it was there, it was just hidden under a few layers. Griggsby said: When shooters cant get that shot to fall it kinda of just puts you in a little rut. But I was able to get out of it. After tallying 52 points against UWs three ranked opponents, Griggsby deflects the extra attention shes garnered for her offensive exploits. Im just coming out here to play and do the best for our team, she said. Im not a person that needs all the praise. However, Griggsby will likely land on opposing teams scouting reports considering shes connected on 11 of 18 3-pointers (61.1 percent) against Pac-12 opponents. Its nice to have her energy and her confidence, Wynn said. She might not be the fastest, she might not be the biggest, she might not be the strongest and she might not be the most athletic, but shes going to do little things for us that helps us on both sides of the ball. | Alexis Griggsby has scored 26 points in her last two games for Washington. The Huskies have lost five straight games and sit in the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring and three-point shooting. Washington faces Colorado on Friday night at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-basketball/could-an-on-fire-alexis-griggsby-help-snap-the-huskies-five-game-losing-streak/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 0.355617 |
Will Oklahoma's Kyler Murray enter the 2019 NFL Draft? | CLOSE Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy following a 50-plus touchdown effort that helped the Sooners earn a College Football Playoff berth. USA TODAY Kyler Murray has an uncommon decision for a highly-successful, Heisman Trophy-winning underclassman. Murray's decision has at least three likely answers. He can play baseball all year with the Oakland A's organization, play until late July and return to Oklahoma for his senior season or forgo baseball altogether and enter in the NFL Draft. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that the A's expect Murray to enter into the NFL Draft. Murray's rookie contract with the A's is worth $4.66 million. Entering the draft would not immediately cancel Murray's baseball deal, but it would be a substantiated sign that he wants to play. The Chronicle reported that the A's would have to get approval from MLB to allow Murray to go to the NFL Scouting Combine. If he does decide to continue on to the NFL, Murray would have to pay back his signing bonus. He would also be far from the first player to flirt (or outright play) with playing both professional football and baseball. CLOSE The Athletics and Oklahoma's Kyler Murray have agreed to a deal that guarantees him almost $5 million and allows him to play football for the Sooners for one year, reports FRS Baseball's Jon Heyman. Time Others who have flirted with the NFL and pro baseball John Elway Elway played short-season rookie ball in the Yankees in 1982, then played his final football season at Stanford and finished second in Heisman Trophy balloting. Elway was the No. 1 overall pick and leveraged that with his baseball career. The Colts traded him to Denver and the rest is Hall of Fame history. Deion Sanders Sanders was a world-class athlete who was a top football recruit and a sixth-round pick by the Kansas City Royals. He decided to play and star in both sports at Florida State. Sanders once called baseball his mistress, so as it were, baseball came and went in Sanders' life. He was drafted in the 30th round by the Yankees in 1989 and made his MLB debut that same season. He was a key cog of the Braves' teams in the early 90s as he switched between the NFL's Falcons and the MLB's Braves in the fall. He'd play for three more MLB teams while he starred with the Falcons, 49ers and Cowboys. Brian Jordan Jordan worked his way up through the St. Louis Cardinals' organization as he starred as as a safety with the Atlanta Falcons. As he got closer to the majors, a decision was going to have to be made. The Cardinals gave Jordan a bonus to quit playing football as he moved up to the MLB level. John Lynch Lynch was a junior at Stanford when coach Dennis Green headed to the Minnesota Vikings. He was then drafted in the second round of the 1992 MLB Draft by the Florida Marlins as a pitcher. But new Cardinal coach Bill Walsh convinced him to play minor league baseball for a season before returning to Stanford for a final season in college football. He was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft in 1993 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is a member of both the Buccaneers and Broncos hall of honors and will be a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist next month. Russell Wilson Wilson's case is the most recent. He starred as a two-sport athlete at NC State and played minor league baseball with the Colorado organization in between his junior and senior years of college football. Wilson struggled in minor league ball, transferred to Wisconsin and had a stellar senior season on the gridiron. Now, he is one of the league's top quarterbacks. 2019 NFL DRAFT ORDER:Titans pick 19th; Cardinals are No. 1 | Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy. He can play baseball all year with the Oakland A's organization, play until late July or forgo baseball altogether and enter in the NFL Draft. Murray's rookie contract with the A's is worth $4.66 million. | bart | 2 | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/01/10/kyler-murray-enter-2019-nfl-draft-oklahoma-heisman/2537508002/ | 0.116564 |
Is it time for the Maple Leafs to trade Jake Gardiner? | Maybe its time for the Maple Leafs to trade Jake Gardiner. And if Kasperi Kapanen has to go as well as the Leafs deal with a tighter salary cap, then its up to general manager Kyle Dubas to make it all fit for a playoff run now while looking to keep the core together for playoff runs to come. Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner will become an unrestricted free agent July 1, and whether or not the organization will be able to afford him remains a topic of discussion. ( Rick Madonik / Toronto Star file photo ) But such talk may fly in the face of logic given Gardiner is an important part of the Maple Leafs, a team that finally can say it has Stanley Cup aspirations and is respected around the league. But the defencemans future with the team is tenuous. Hell be an unrestricted free agent July 1, able to command a salary in the $6-million to $7-million range, a price tag that would appear too high for the Leafs. Because by the time Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews get news deals, most of the teams pending $26 million in salary cap money will be gone, and there will be others to sign. Article Continued Below Logic would suggest keeping Gardiner an Own Rental is the term in the NHL these days to keep the team intact and see how it fares in the playoffs. The Leafs did a similar thing last season with James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov. They didnt make it out of the first round, and all three left as unrestricted free agents in the summer, signing lucrative deals elsewhere. Now consider what the most valuable of those players van Riemsdyk, the scorer might have fetched at the trade deadline last year. San Jose gave up a first-rounder, a fourth-rounder and a prospect for Evander Kane, who was a pending UFA, like van Riemsdyk. Ditto Paul Stastny, worth a first-round pick and other considerations to the Winnipeg Jets to acquire him from the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs appear headed for another No. 2 vs. No. 3 showdown with the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division playoffs. If Toronto turns the tables on a team that has owned them recently, next up would be the No. 1 Tampa Bay Lightning. As they say, anything can happen. But if anything can happen with Gardiner, then anything can happen without him too. In the long term, moving Gardiner would seem to be a positive. Presuming the Leafs get a first-round pick, that player will almost certainly be a contributor in a year or two. And for the first three seasons hed be a cheap addition on an entry-level deal, something the Leafs will be starving for. Combined with their own first-round pick, the Leafs would be well-positioned to provide support players for Matthews and Marner. Article Continued Below In the short-term, the here and now, moving Gardiner wouldnt make much of a difference. Either Dermott or Nikita Zaitsev can take over the second power-play unit. If Martin Marincin and/or Justin Holl start getting minutes, or if Calle Rosen gets that long-awaited call up, the Leafs will probably not have surrendered much in the present to secure a more solid future. And whatever might be lost defensively by trading Gardiner could be tempered by a Kapanen deal, because moving Gardiner would not preclude the Leafs from shoring up the right side of their defence, their biggest deficiency. To get a good right-side player will cost them a young stud. Dubas has already promised William Nylander he wont be traded, so its doubtful hed go back on his word. At least not this quickly. Kapanen is probably the most tradable, and his appearance on the teams first power-play unit only adds to his resume. Kapanen appears destined for a third-line role, behind Marner and Nylander, making somewhere around $2.5 million a season. Another team might see Kapanen as more valuable than that, perhaps even at the $4-million level. The compensation the Leafs would get on a $4-million offer sheet to Kapanen also a restricted free agent July 1 would only be a second-round pick, something Dubas would have to be aware of. The Carolina Hurricanes could be a potential trade partner, as they boast a slew of right-handed defencemen. Brett Pesces name keeps coming up; his cap hit is $4.025 million a season until 2024 and hes just 24. Kapanens speed and scoring ability would shine on Connor McDavids wing. And his ability to kill penalties and be a force in his own zone would be a match for coach Ken Hitchcocks system. Larsson is 26. And there are bigger fish to be caught: Theres Alex Pietrangelo of the Blues, currently out with an injury to his right hand. Though its hard to see how his $6.5-million hit next season would be a fit for the Leafs. But the 28-year-old would be a difference maker in the short-term. His price tag would be higher than Kapanen, maybe Timothy Liljegren or Rasmus Sandin as well. No matter what Dubas chooses to do, theres risk. The safe route is to stay the course, maybe add a rental. But Dubas doesnt want to be like previous GMs, and more likely will break with the tradition of how things had been done. Kevin McGran is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @kevin_mcgran Read more about: | Jake Gardiner will become an unrestricted free agent July 1. Gardiner is an important part of the Maple Leafs, but his future with the team is tenuous. In the long term, moving Gardiner would seem to be a positive for the Leafs, as he would be a cheap addition on an entry-level deal. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/analysis/2019/01/10/is-it-time-for-the-maple-leafs-to-trade-jake-gardiner.html | 0.127947 |
Will NVIDIA's New Automotive Platform Widen Its Moat Against Intel? | NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) recently introduced Drive AutoPilot, a new reference platform that lets automakers add automated driving features to their vehicles, at CES 2019. The platform improves current advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) with features that bridge the gap between semi-autonomous vehicles and fully autonomous ones. These features include lane changes, highway merging, pedestrian and cyclist detection, parking assistance, and personal mapping features. Inside the vehicle, it provides driver monitoring features and AI copilot capabilities. It also allows updates to its software over the air -- a feature most major automakers (except Tesla) -- haven't adopted yet. The platform is powered by NVIDIA's Xavier AI-focused SoC, which can process over 30 trillion operations per second. A woman sits in a driverless car. More Image source: Getty Images. Drive AutoPilot isn't a fully driverless platform like NVIDIA's Drive PX series of onboard computers (a version of which powers Tesla's similarly named Autopilot feature). Instead, Drive AutoPilot seems squarely aimed at Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) Mobileye, which provides ADAS platforms for over 90% of the world's automakers. Understanding NVIDIA's automotive ambitions NVIDIA's Tegra series of ARM-based CPUs form the foundation of its driverless business. NVIDIA originally tried to market the Tegra as an application processor for smartphones, but it was pushed out of the market by Qualcomm. But instead of abandoning the chipset, NVIDIA pivoted the Tegra toward other markets -- including game consoles (like the Switch), drones, and navigation and infotainment systems for connected cars. NVIDIA's early foothold in the connected car market led to the launch of Drive PX in 2015. The second version, Drive PX 2, was introduced in 2016. In 2017, NVIDIA introduced Drive PX Xavier and Drive PX Pegasus -- two platforms that were designed for fully autonomous vehicles. Last September, it launched Drive AGX Xavier, a scalable platform for autonomous machines, robots, healthcare devices, and self-driving cars. NVIDIA currently has over 370 Drive partners, including Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, and various service providers and auto suppliers. Those companies support the growth of its Automotive revenue, which accounted for 5% of its top line during the third quarter. | NVIDIA introduced Drive AutoPilot, a new reference platform that lets automakers add automated driving features to their vehicles. The platform is powered by NVIDIA's Xavier AI-focused SoC, which can process over 30 trillion operations per second. It's aimed at Intel's Mobileye, which provides ADAS platforms for over 90% of the world's automakers. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/nvidia-apos-automotive-platform-widen-013000792.html | 0.146262 |
Should people with pot convictions be able to supply in a legal cannabis market? | People with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis and, if recreational use became legal, be offered a clean slate, Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says. But the National Party say only "fit and proper persons" should manufacture legal cannabis. Swarbrick's comments follow an email exchange - released to the National Party under the Official Information Act - showing that the Greens had asked Ministry of Health officials to look at proposals for the medicinal cannabis legislation, including one that would "allow individuals with previous drug convictions to manufacture cannabis". The Greens' proposal never came before the House, but that door has not closed. Advertisement Who should be eligible to supply medicinal cannabis will be a key aspect of the Government's new regulatory framework, which will be in place by the end of the year following public consultation. National's associate health spokesman Shane Reti said medicinal cannabis manufacturers and employees should be "fit and proper persons". National has proposed clean slate legislation requiring no terms of imprisonment and no convictions for seven years for employees, and even tougher standards for licence holders including no associations with gangs. "The industry was adamant that it understood the need to be absolutely squeaky clean in this new industry and they were up for that," Reti said. "The Greens have listened to one version of the pleadings from East Coast-based Hikurangi Enterprises (which has a licence for medicinal cannabis) and ignored the rest of the industry, who were completely behind the fit-and-proper-persons requirements." He called the Greens "soft on drugs" but Swarbrick, the Green Party's spokeswoman for drug law reform, dismissed this as "classic National Party hysteria". "If you're convicted of something while it is illegal, you serve your time," Swarbrick told the Herald. "If that substance then becomes legal and regulated and you jump through the same hoops that everyone else does, why shouldn't you equitably be able to engage in that market?" The people who have been disproportionately penalised by the war on drugs shouldn't be excluded from participating in a legal market, she said. She had visited Hikurangi and spoken with people taking a course at the Eastern Institute of Technology's Ruatoria Regional Learning Centre on experimental hemp production. "Some of them have gone away for that substance and have served their time and are now they're looking to use their skills and invest in their community. And this is a massive economic opportunity for them." It was Green Party policy to have regard for equity and social justice in drug law reform, but she said it was not yet party policy to allow those with previous cannabis convictions to work in the medicinal cannabis market. "I guarantee we will have discussions on that point [during the Government's public consultation process] and it's something that should be discussed with maturity." Currently, licences for medicinal cannabis are only issued for medical or scientific research. The Government's medicinal cannabis law was passed last month and the regulatory framework, such as rules around licences and quality standards, will be drawn up after public consultation. A binding referendum on legalising cannabis for personal use will take place at the 2020 election. Canada's legal cannabis regime started in October last year and includes a pardon for convictions for carrying 30g or less of marijuana, but not for other crimes such as supplying cannabis. The Canadian Government has been criticised for not expunging cannabis convictions, which would remove any record of a criminal conviction; a pardon seals the record but does not erase it. | Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says people with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis. | bart | 0 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12188844 | 0.226001 |
Should people with pot convictions be able to supply in a legal cannabis market? | People with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis and, if recreational use became legal, be offered a clean slate, Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says. But the National Party say only "fit and proper persons" should manufacture legal cannabis. Swarbrick's comments follow an email exchange - released to the National Party under the Official Information Act - showing that the Greens had asked Ministry of Health officials to look at proposals for the medicinal cannabis legislation, including one that would "allow individuals with previous drug convictions to manufacture cannabis". The Greens' proposal never came before the House, but that door has not closed. Advertisement Who should be eligible to supply medicinal cannabis will be a key aspect of the Government's new regulatory framework, which will be in place by the end of the year following public consultation. National's associate health spokesman Shane Reti said medicinal cannabis manufacturers and employees should be "fit and proper persons". National has proposed clean slate legislation requiring no terms of imprisonment and no convictions for seven years for employees, and even tougher standards for licence holders including no associations with gangs. "The industry was adamant that it understood the need to be absolutely squeaky clean in this new industry and they were up for that," Reti said. "The Greens have listened to one version of the pleadings from East Coast-based Hikurangi Enterprises (which has a licence for medicinal cannabis) and ignored the rest of the industry, who were completely behind the fit-and-proper-persons requirements." He called the Greens "soft on drugs" but Swarbrick, the Green Party's spokeswoman for drug law reform, dismissed this as "classic National Party hysteria". "If you're convicted of something while it is illegal, you serve your time," Swarbrick told the Herald. "If that substance then becomes legal and regulated and you jump through the same hoops that everyone else does, why shouldn't you equitably be able to engage in that market?" The people who have been disproportionately penalised by the war on drugs shouldn't be excluded from participating in a legal market, she said. She had visited Hikurangi and spoken with people taking a course at the Eastern Institute of Technology's Ruatoria Regional Learning Centre on experimental hemp production. "Some of them have gone away for that substance and have served their time and are now they're looking to use their skills and invest in their community. And this is a massive economic opportunity for them." It was Green Party policy to have regard for equity and social justice in drug law reform, but she said it was not yet party policy to allow those with previous cannabis convictions to work in the medicinal cannabis market. "I guarantee we will have discussions on that point [during the Government's public consultation process] and it's something that should be discussed with maturity." Currently, licences for medicinal cannabis are only issued for medical or scientific research. The Government's medicinal cannabis law was passed last month and the regulatory framework, such as rules around licences and quality standards, will be drawn up after public consultation. A binding referendum on legalising cannabis for personal use will take place at the 2020 election. Canada's legal cannabis regime started in October last year and includes a pardon for convictions for carrying 30g or less of marijuana, but not for other crimes such as supplying cannabis. The Canadian Government has been criticised for not expunging cannabis convictions, which would remove any record of a criminal conviction; a pardon seals the record but does not erase it. | Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says people with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis. But the National Party say only "fit and proper persons" should manufacture legal cannabis. | bart | 1 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12188844 | 0.326638 |
Should people with pot convictions be able to supply in a legal cannabis market? | People with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis and, if recreational use became legal, be offered a clean slate, Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says. But the National Party say only "fit and proper persons" should manufacture legal cannabis. Swarbrick's comments follow an email exchange - released to the National Party under the Official Information Act - showing that the Greens had asked Ministry of Health officials to look at proposals for the medicinal cannabis legislation, including one that would "allow individuals with previous drug convictions to manufacture cannabis". The Greens' proposal never came before the House, but that door has not closed. Advertisement Who should be eligible to supply medicinal cannabis will be a key aspect of the Government's new regulatory framework, which will be in place by the end of the year following public consultation. National's associate health spokesman Shane Reti said medicinal cannabis manufacturers and employees should be "fit and proper persons". National has proposed clean slate legislation requiring no terms of imprisonment and no convictions for seven years for employees, and even tougher standards for licence holders including no associations with gangs. "The industry was adamant that it understood the need to be absolutely squeaky clean in this new industry and they were up for that," Reti said. "The Greens have listened to one version of the pleadings from East Coast-based Hikurangi Enterprises (which has a licence for medicinal cannabis) and ignored the rest of the industry, who were completely behind the fit-and-proper-persons requirements." He called the Greens "soft on drugs" but Swarbrick, the Green Party's spokeswoman for drug law reform, dismissed this as "classic National Party hysteria". "If you're convicted of something while it is illegal, you serve your time," Swarbrick told the Herald. "If that substance then becomes legal and regulated and you jump through the same hoops that everyone else does, why shouldn't you equitably be able to engage in that market?" The people who have been disproportionately penalised by the war on drugs shouldn't be excluded from participating in a legal market, she said. She had visited Hikurangi and spoken with people taking a course at the Eastern Institute of Technology's Ruatoria Regional Learning Centre on experimental hemp production. "Some of them have gone away for that substance and have served their time and are now they're looking to use their skills and invest in their community. And this is a massive economic opportunity for them." It was Green Party policy to have regard for equity and social justice in drug law reform, but she said it was not yet party policy to allow those with previous cannabis convictions to work in the medicinal cannabis market. "I guarantee we will have discussions on that point [during the Government's public consultation process] and it's something that should be discussed with maturity." Currently, licences for medicinal cannabis are only issued for medical or scientific research. The Government's medicinal cannabis law was passed last month and the regulatory framework, such as rules around licences and quality standards, will be drawn up after public consultation. A binding referendum on legalising cannabis for personal use will take place at the 2020 election. Canada's legal cannabis regime started in October last year and includes a pardon for convictions for carrying 30g or less of marijuana, but not for other crimes such as supplying cannabis. The Canadian Government has been criticised for not expunging cannabis convictions, which would remove any record of a criminal conviction; a pardon seals the record but does not erase it. | Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says people with previous cannabis convictions should be able to supply legal medicinal cannabis. But the National Party say only "fit and proper persons" should manufacture legal cannabis. Who should be eligible to supply medicinal cannabis will be a key aspect of the Government's new regulatory framework. | bart | 2 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12188844 | 0.354387 |
Will Intel Reform Bill Make Us Safer? | This is a partial transcript of "The Big Story With John Gibson," Dec. 17, 2004, that has been edited for clarity. Watch "The Big Story With John Gibson" weeknights at 5 p.m. ET! JOHN GIBSON, HOST: It's been a long road to the signing of the Intel Reform Bill today. I'm joined by former Speaker of the House, FOX News Political Analyst Newt Gingrich (search). Newt, the only reason any of us care about this is the idea that we do need to be made safer. NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, I think this is a step in the right direction. It doesn't do it by itself. The intelligence budget is way too small; we have far too little emphasis on human intelligence; we don't have enough assets in places like Syria or Iran or North Korea. So it's going to take a lot of work to really strengthen the intelligence community and to make it effective over time. This bill is a start, but nobody should relax and think that this bill does the job. GIBSON: Mr. Speaker, bills are also something that sometimes make most Americans' eyes glaze over. Walk us through it. GINGRICH: Well, the most important driving thrust of this bill is that there should be a coordinated effort where all the different intelligence services talk to each other, where the information flows to the president and to other decision-makers and to the military in a timely way, and where there's some kind of overall coordination, which is what we've not had; we've had a series of disparate agencies doing things. But I just want to emphasize, while this is a very useful step, I very much supported passing this bill, unless the budgets are adequate, unless we recruit enough people, unless Congress changes its attitude about human intelligence and the problems involved in asking people to go out and risk their lives for this country in difficult places like Syria and Iran and North Korea, this bill by itself will just add a new layer of bureaucracy. So, there's a lot more that has to be done than just this bill. GINGRICH: Well, first of all, nobody should assume ever that we're 100 percent safe or that any kind of intelligence preparation is going to make us 100 percent safe. We're up against smart opponents. They're going to study us every day, they're going to try every day to get through. They only have to get through once to cause a disaster. Whereas, we could stop them 50 or 100 times and some of them will come back again. So, I think this is a step in the right direction, but it's not going to guarantee that you and I can go to sleep tonight and be sure that the United States is safe. What it will do is it'll create a much more integrated picture of where our resources go; what we're trying to accomplish. Having a National Counterterrorism Center gives us a much greater ability to integrate the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (search), the Border Patrol, Customs, the people involved in actual CIA and other kind of spying; the National Security Agency (search), which does most of our electronic intercepts. There are a lot of different assets out there that are working to make America safe. And historically, they haven't talked to each other very well; they very often have hidden secrets from each other; and I think we're trying to get to a system where the user can pull forward all of the information. And the obligation is on the intelligence agency to actively share that information, not to hide it from other American agencies. GINGRICH: Yes, I think it makes an enormous difference because the person who sees the president the first thing every day is the effective deliverer and describer of intelligence on America. If that person sees the president say, 280 days a year and they're with the president for a half hour 280 times a year, their relative influence on the president, their ability to win bureaucratic arguments is going to be dramatic. So, whoever you'll know where the real power is by who gets to actually walk in the Oval Office and brief the president. GIBSON: I've got to sort of, move us over one click in this discussion, and that is this because we're going to talk about it later in the show at much greater length, but I do want to know what you think about this there's this whole sudden discussion about whether Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, should stay or should go. And his critics are, this time, not coming from the left, but from the right. GINGRICH: Well, I think it's totally wrong to focus on Secretary Rumsfeld. The American military did a great job in Afghanistan; the American military did a great job in Iraq; the American military's doing a great job in the global war on terror. It is the State Department which has failed to cut off Iran and Syria; it is the State Department which has failed through the Agency for International Development to create jobs in Iraq. The Congress gave $18 billion to the Coalition Provisional Authority (search) and they couldn't spend the money. The bureaucracy couldn't deliver. So, I think it's really wrong for people to focus on the Defense Department as the problem, when most of the problems, frankly, are in the civilian side of national security, and in bureaucracies that aren't able to deliver. GIBSON: Right. But Mr. Speaker, this particular discussion is centered on a moment when Mr. Rumsfeld was asked a question by a soldier, and he said something, and I think everybody agrees is true: "You go to war with the army you got, not the one you wish you had." But nonetheless, it seems most people, or a lot of people, think he was being insensitive to the soldiers who were out there riding in those vehicles that aren't armored up. GINGRICH: Look, Don Rumsfeld has had the characteristic for four years of telling the truth to the American people and telling the truth to the men and women he leads in the Defense Department. I think what he said that day he believes. And I think he said it as directly and as candidly as he could. I find it amazing that politicians, including people who have pretty regularly voted against appropriations for defense and people who have pretty regularly voted against doing what we need to strengthen our country, in terms of these kinds of things, decide to jump on Don Rumsfeld for what they think is insensitivity. This is a man who has done everything he could for three and a half years so our young men and women could have the best equipment, despite the Congress, so our young men and women could have the best support, despite some of these people in Congress. And I find it a little ironic that some of the people, who voted no on spending the money, now want to say that it's Donald Rumsfeld who's somehow insensitive. GIBSON: A ringing endorsement of the Secretary of Defense. Former Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Mr. Gingrich, thanks a lot. Appreciate it. GINGRICH: Good to be with you. Content and Programming Copyright 2004 Fox News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2004 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C. 's and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation. | Newt Gingrich: Intel Reform Bill is a step in the right direction. Gingrich: It's going to take a lot of work to really strengthen the intelligence community. Gingrich: It's not going to guarantee that you and I can go to sleep tonight and be sure that the United States is safe. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.foxnews.com/story/will-intel-reform-bill-make-us-safer | 0.137716 |
Can the Cleveland Indians, Francisco Lindor and Trevor Bauer avoid going to arbitration? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Indians will find out Friday if they are able to reach deals with shortstop Francisco Lindor and right-hander Trevor Bauer. Friday is the deadline for exchanging salary figures for 2019 for arbitration. This is the first time Lindor has been eligible for arbitration. MLBtradeumors.com projects he could earn a salary of $10.2 million. He made $623,200 last year. Bauer beat the Indians in arbitration last year. He received a salary of $6.525 million while the Indians offered $5.3 million. Hes projected to receive $11.6 million this year. Chris Antonetti, Indians president of baseball operations, wouldnt comment on negotiations with Lindor or Bauer, but added, our hope is always to work towards an agreement rather than have value decided in a hearing. Lindor and Bauer, should they go to an arbitration hearing and win, could walk away with the biggest arbitration awards in franchise history. Last year the Indians took a file and trial approach with Bauer, their only player to go to arbitration. After the two sides failed to reach an agreement before exchanging numbers, the Indians stopped negotiating and waited to argue their case in a hearing before three arbitrations. Bauer was the first Indians player to win an arbitration case since Greg Swindell in 1991. Antonetti would not comment if the Indians will take the same file-and-trial approach this year. Lindor has played just over three years in the big leagues. Hes been to three All-Star games and helped the Indians win three straight AL Central titles. Its been speculated that he could break Kris Bryants record salary of $10.85 million for a player eligible for arbitration for the first time. Bauer went to his first All-Star Game last year. He went 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA in 28 games, including 27 starts. He struck out 221 batters in 175 1/3 innings. Arbitration hearings start Feb. 1. | Friday is the deadline for exchanging salary figures for 2019 for arbitration. Trevor Bauer beat the Indians in arbitration last year. Lindor has been to three All-Star games and helped the Indians win three straight titles. | bart | 1 | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/01/can-the-cleveland-indians-francisco-lindor-and-trevor-bauer-avoid-going-to-arbitration.html | 0.111069 |
Can the Cleveland Indians, Francisco Lindor and Trevor Bauer avoid going to arbitration? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Indians will find out Friday if they are able to reach deals with shortstop Francisco Lindor and right-hander Trevor Bauer. Friday is the deadline for exchanging salary figures for 2019 for arbitration. This is the first time Lindor has been eligible for arbitration. MLBtradeumors.com projects he could earn a salary of $10.2 million. He made $623,200 last year. Bauer beat the Indians in arbitration last year. He received a salary of $6.525 million while the Indians offered $5.3 million. Hes projected to receive $11.6 million this year. Chris Antonetti, Indians president of baseball operations, wouldnt comment on negotiations with Lindor or Bauer, but added, our hope is always to work towards an agreement rather than have value decided in a hearing. Lindor and Bauer, should they go to an arbitration hearing and win, could walk away with the biggest arbitration awards in franchise history. Last year the Indians took a file and trial approach with Bauer, their only player to go to arbitration. After the two sides failed to reach an agreement before exchanging numbers, the Indians stopped negotiating and waited to argue their case in a hearing before three arbitrations. Bauer was the first Indians player to win an arbitration case since Greg Swindell in 1991. Antonetti would not comment if the Indians will take the same file-and-trial approach this year. Lindor has played just over three years in the big leagues. Hes been to three All-Star games and helped the Indians win three straight AL Central titles. Its been speculated that he could break Kris Bryants record salary of $10.85 million for a player eligible for arbitration for the first time. Bauer went to his first All-Star Game last year. He went 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA in 28 games, including 27 starts. He struck out 221 batters in 175 1/3 innings. Arbitration hearings start Feb. 1. | Friday is the deadline for exchanging salary figures for 2019 for arbitration. This is the first time shortstop Francisco Lindor has been eligible. Right-hander Trevor Bauer beat the Indians in arbitration last year. Bauer received a salary of $6.525 million while the Indians offered $5.3 million. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/01/can-the-cleveland-indians-francisco-lindor-and-trevor-bauer-avoid-going-to-arbitration.html | 0.142716 |
Who's more compassionate, Republicans or Democrats? | (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Democrats want to know how Republicans can support President Trumps policy of separating babies from refugee families. Republicans want to know how Democrats can sanction abortion. In my research into the publics support for a variety of government policies, I ask questions about how compassionate someone is, such as how concerned they are about others in need. These questions are integral to understanding how people feel about who in America deserves government support. Some people are more compassionate than others. But that doesnt break simply along party lines. I find that Democratic and Republican Party voters are similar, on average, busting up the clich of bleeding heart liberals and uncaring conservatives. And then there are Trump voters. Beyond partisan stereotypes Compassion is defined by many psychology researchers as concern for others in need and a desire to see others welfare improved. The similarity in compassion among voters of both parties contrasts with other measures of personality and worldview that increasingly divide Republicans and Democrats, such as values about race and morality. Republicans are not less compassionate than Democrats, but my research also shows that there is a stark divide between parties in how relevant an individuals compassion is to his or her politics. Public opinion surveys show that you can predict what kind of policies a more compassionate person would like, such as more government assistance for the poor or opposition to the death penalty. But for most political issues, the conclusion for Republicans is that their compassion does not predict what policies they favor. Support for more government assistance to the poor or sick, or opinions about the death penalty, for example, are unrelated to how compassionate a Republican voter is. In my work, I find that the primary policy area where compassion is consistently correlated to specific policies for conservatives is abortion, where more compassionate conservatives are more likely to say they are pro-life. Democrats predictable When Democratic voters say they are compassionate, you can predict their views on policies. Theyre more supportive of immigration, in favor of social services to the poor and opposed to capital punishment. Yet, while Democrats may be more likely to vote with their heart, there isnt evidence that theyre more compassionate than Republicans in their daily life. When it comes to volunteering or donating money, for example, compassion works the same way for Republicans and Democrats: More compassionate voters of either party donate and volunteer more. The real difference My research suggests that voter attitudes about the role of compassion in politics are shaped not only by personal philosophy, but by party leaders. Political speeches by Republican and Democratic leaders vary in the amount of compassionate language they use. For instance, political leaders can draw attention to the needs of others in their campaign speeches and speeches on the House or Senate floor. They may talk about the need to care for certain people in need or implore people to have a heart for the plight of others. Often, leaders allude to the deserving nature of the recipients of government help, outlining how circumstances are beyond their control. Democratic politicians use compassionate rhetoric much more often than their Republican counterparts and for many more groups in American society than Republican leaders do. When their leaders use compassionate political language, such as drawing attention to other peoples suffering and unmet needs as well as the worthiness of the groups in need, Republicans in experiments are actually moved to be more welcoming to immigrants and to support state help for the disabled. This explains how Republican voters responded positively to Republican Sen. Robert Doles campaign for the rights of the disabled in 1989. It also explains the success of presidential candidate George W. Bushs compassionate conservatism in 2000, which one Washington Post columnist wrote won George W. Bush the White House in 2000. It also suggests that its not necessarily the public, but the party leaders, who differ so significantly in how relevant they believe compassion should be to politics. Trump supporters the exception Despite political rhetoric that places them at opposite ends of the spectrum, Republican and Democratic voters appear to be similarly compassionate. Democrats view compassion as a political value while Republicans will integrate compassion into their politics when their leaders make it part of an explicit message. There is a caveat to this: I asked these survey questions about personal feelings of compassion in a 2016 online survey that also asked about choice of president. The survey was conducted a few days after Republican presidential primary candidates Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio had dropped out of the race, making Donald Trump the only viable Republican candidate for the nomination. In their responses to the survey, a large percentage of Republican voters said they would rather vote for someone other than Trump, even though he was the unofficial nominee at that point. The Republican voters who didnt support Trump were similar to Democrats on the survey with respect to their answers about compassion. Their average scores on the compassion items were the same. This is in line with the other survey data showing that liberals and conservatives, and Republicans and Democrats, are largely similar in these personality measures of compassion. But Trump supporters answers were not in line with these findings. Instead, their average responses to the broad compassion questions were significantly lower. These answers showed that Trump supporters were lower in personal compassion. While a lot of the Republican voters in the sample may well have gone on to support Trump in the general election, the survey respondents who were early adopters of candidate Trump might continue to be his most steadfast supporters today. We know that public officials rhetoric can influence public opinion on political issues. The research indicates that appeals to compassion if made by trusted leaders should work for voters of both parties. But it also indicates that if such messages are absent, compassion is less likely to be seen as important in politics and the positions people and parties take. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/whos-more-compassionate-republicans-or-democrats-99730. | John Avlon: Compassion is a measure of a person's concern for others in need. Avlon says Republicans are not less compassionate than Democrats, but there is a stark divide. Democrats are more likely to vote with their heart, he says, but Republicans are more compassionate in their daily life. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Who-s-more-compassionate-Republicans-or-13522989.php | 0.484023 |
Why cant I get a refund on my 500 deposit for a help-to-buy home? | I paid a 500 deposit on a new-build flat using the help-to-buy scheme. The development was supposed to be completed three months later, but nine months on there was still no handover date, so I withdrew. But the agent, Claremont Property Group, says the deposit is non-refundable. DE, Swindon Completion delays can cost a fortune if a house sale is tied to a purchase and buyers have to fork out for rental accommodation while they await their new keys. The Consumer Code for Home Builders, which all developers who sign up to help to buy are obliged to follow, requires deposits to be refunded if delays are unreasonable. This timescale is not specified but over six months would generally qualify. Claremont Property Group does not explain why you were refused, but confirms it has issued the 500. If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission subject to our terms and conditions | I paid a 500 deposit on a new-build flat using the help-to-buy scheme. The development was supposed to be completed three months later. But nine months on there was still no handover date, so I withdrew. But the agent, Claremont Property Group, says the deposit is non-refundable. | bart | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/11/help-to-buy-new-build-delay-completion-deposit | 0.180777 |
Who is Ali Bongo, president of Gabon? | Image copyright Getty Images Gabon's President Ali Bongo is a man of many faces. To some, he is a spoilt, playboy prince who sees ruling the oil-rich Gabon as his birthright; a one-time funk singer who stepped into his father's shoes to continue his family's 50-year rule. To others, he is a reformer - a man who, they would argue, was voted into power democratically by the masses. But his recent ill health has pushed tensions to the surface in this country of just more than two million people. On 7 January, a group of soldiers tried - and apparently failed - to take control. Among their stated reasons was an attempt to "restore democracy" following the 2016 election, which Mr Bongo narrowly won amid accusations of fraud and acts of violence. Gabon's outsider Ali Bongo was born Alain Bernard Bongo in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville in February 1959. But even his birth was controversial. Rumours, which he has always denied, have persisted for years that he was adopted from the Nigerian south-east at the time of the Biafran war. The young Alain Bernard was still in primary school when his father Omar Bongo took control of Gabon in 1967. Already, however, the groundwork was being laid for criticisms which would haunt him later in life. "He wasn't born in the presidential palace, but almost. He was about eight when his father became president," Franois Gaulme, a French historian and author on Gabonese politics, told the BBC. "The fact that he went to the best schools in Libreville and didn't learn local languages was something he would get criticised for later on." At the age of nine, Ali Bongo was sent to a private school in the upmarket Paris suburb of Neuilly, and later, to the Sorbonne where he studied law. This international upbringing led many in Gabon to view him as an outsider. Image copyright Sylvia Bongo Ondimba/ Instagram Image caption Ali Bongo is married to French-born Sylvia, pictured here with their four children Alain Bernard became Ali and his father Omar in 1973, after converting to Islam - the only members of their family to do so. The decision was widely seen a way to attract investment from Muslim countries. But the elder Bongo, who was previously an animist and not baptised in the Christian faith, also evoked spiritual reasons for his conversion. Funk music and freemasonry It was never all about politics for the young Ali Bongo, however. He showed an early passion for football and music - something inherited from his mother, the Gabonese singer Patience Dabany. A reputation for being a playboy during his youth was cemented with the release of his 1977 album A Brand New Man, produced by funk legend James Brown's manager, Charles Bobbit. "Let me be your darling, Your everything, 'til the end of time," Bongo crooned on the title track: Whether his love of funk has remained is unknown. In his more recent years as president, Ali Bongo is said to enjoy jazz, bossa nova and classical music. Within four years of the album release, he had turned his attention to politics. Ali Bongo served in his father's government as minister of defence, a role he held for 10 years. Before that his first appointment, as Gabon's foreign minister in 1989, ended after three years because of a constitutional change requiring ministers to be over the age of 35. He was 32 at the time. However, it seems he wasn't immediately seen as a natural successor to his father. "In the beginning, the Gabonese people didn't see [Ali Bongo] as a serious candidate," said Mr Gaulme. "But in the end, he has been more thoughtful than he seemed. The first time people saw he could be serious was when he restructured the army." Image copyright Steve Jordan/AFP/Getty Images Image caption Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi visited Gabon in 2015 when construction began on a new international football stadium Gabon's voters were still apparently unconvinced by the time of his father's death in 2009. But Ali Bongo re-emerged as a more reserved figure, attempting to dress down and travelling to campaign in the provinces. "His father was a populist but he was a privileged kid, it didn't really stick," said Mr Gaulme. In the end, Ali Bongo was elected, winning 42% of votes. "I won my place, it didn't fall in my lap," he said of his election victory. But throughout his entire time in office, President Bongo's legitimacy has been questioned by his opponents. The claims would resurface in 2016, when the main challenger in the presidential election was Jean Ping, the former African Union chairman and father to two of Mr Bongo's sister's children. Mr Ping alleged fraud in one of the president's main strongholds, Haut-Ogoou province, where Mr Bongo won 95% of the vote on a turnout of 99.9%. He won overall by the slimmest of margins - just 6,000 votes. Civil society backed up the allegations of rigging, which were denied by the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Corruption allegations It is not the only criticism of Mr Bongo's rule from rights groups. They allege the Bongo family turned Gabon into a "kleptocratic regime", looting its natural resources, oil wealth and rainforests, while members of Gabon's political opposition have long accused family members of embezzling public money and running the country as their private property. Pictures of Real Madrid fan President Bongo driving Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi around the capital in a flashy car made headlines in 2017. A seven-year corruption investigation by French police into the Bongo family, which revealed assets including 39 properties in France and nine luxury cars, was dropped in 2017. There had been insufficient evidence of alleged "ill-gotten gains" to charge any of the family members, reported French news agency AFP. The family strongly denies all the allegations. However, according to Mr Gaulme, President Ali Bongo does "have a tendency to see himself as an heir, to think Gabon belongs to him". Journalists have also pointed to the close and personal links between Gabon's elite families as evidence of powerful networks of patronage. African news site Jeune Afrique (in French) has branded them "fiefdoms". Mr Bongo has also been criticised over his prominent role in the Freemasons - a society whose Gabonese chapter he led, as lodge master. He is one of a handful of recent and present Francophone African presidents whose Freemason membership has been out in the open - the others being Congo-Brazzaville's Denis Sassou Nguesso, Chad's Idriss Dby, and former President Franois Boziz of the Central African Republic, according to French author Vincent Hugeux. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Ali Bongo's bitter rival Jean Ping had two children with President Bongo's sister However, his supporters point to his role in attempting to diversify Gabon's oil-dependent economy, in the face of declining oil reserves. Gabon's oil sector has accounted for 80% of exports, 45% of GDP, and 60% of fiscal revenue over the past five years, according to World Bank data. Analyst Paul Melly of the British think-tank Chatham House told The Guardian that Ali Bongo was "very sharp and he could see that the difficulty with producing raw materials was that it doesn't create many jobs. "His goal has been to move Gabon to a higher-tech, skilled economy." Alongside this, there have been new investments in mining and a "serious effort to develop a more environmentally sustainable approach to use of the rainforest", Mr Melly told the BBC. All of which, he added, is "certainly significant within the constraints imposed by Gabon's small population and a cost base that is high by African standards". President Bongo has also used his own contacts to press harder for a stronger economy, travelling the world to find new investors and partners in countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while still keeping close ties with France. It was during a visit to Saudi Arabia for an investment conference in October 2018 that he was first admitted to hospital. He eventually left for Morocco at the end of November, where he remains. Frustration over the lack of information surrounding his illness is thought to be one of the triggers behind January's attempted coup. It certainly suggests that some in Gabon - a country where a third of people live below the poverty line - would like to see change. For the moment, however, it seems power still lies with the president and his allies. | Ali Bongo is the president of Gabon, which has been ruled by his family for 50 years. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46074728 | 0.2849 |
Who is Ali Bongo, president of Gabon? | Image copyright Getty Images Gabon's President Ali Bongo is a man of many faces. To some, he is a spoilt, playboy prince who sees ruling the oil-rich Gabon as his birthright; a one-time funk singer who stepped into his father's shoes to continue his family's 50-year rule. To others, he is a reformer - a man who, they would argue, was voted into power democratically by the masses. But his recent ill health has pushed tensions to the surface in this country of just more than two million people. On 7 January, a group of soldiers tried - and apparently failed - to take control. Among their stated reasons was an attempt to "restore democracy" following the 2016 election, which Mr Bongo narrowly won amid accusations of fraud and acts of violence. Gabon's outsider Ali Bongo was born Alain Bernard Bongo in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville in February 1959. But even his birth was controversial. Rumours, which he has always denied, have persisted for years that he was adopted from the Nigerian south-east at the time of the Biafran war. The young Alain Bernard was still in primary school when his father Omar Bongo took control of Gabon in 1967. Already, however, the groundwork was being laid for criticisms which would haunt him later in life. "He wasn't born in the presidential palace, but almost. He was about eight when his father became president," Franois Gaulme, a French historian and author on Gabonese politics, told the BBC. "The fact that he went to the best schools in Libreville and didn't learn local languages was something he would get criticised for later on." At the age of nine, Ali Bongo was sent to a private school in the upmarket Paris suburb of Neuilly, and later, to the Sorbonne where he studied law. This international upbringing led many in Gabon to view him as an outsider. Image copyright Sylvia Bongo Ondimba/ Instagram Image caption Ali Bongo is married to French-born Sylvia, pictured here with their four children Alain Bernard became Ali and his father Omar in 1973, after converting to Islam - the only members of their family to do so. The decision was widely seen a way to attract investment from Muslim countries. But the elder Bongo, who was previously an animist and not baptised in the Christian faith, also evoked spiritual reasons for his conversion. Funk music and freemasonry It was never all about politics for the young Ali Bongo, however. He showed an early passion for football and music - something inherited from his mother, the Gabonese singer Patience Dabany. A reputation for being a playboy during his youth was cemented with the release of his 1977 album A Brand New Man, produced by funk legend James Brown's manager, Charles Bobbit. "Let me be your darling, Your everything, 'til the end of time," Bongo crooned on the title track: Whether his love of funk has remained is unknown. In his more recent years as president, Ali Bongo is said to enjoy jazz, bossa nova and classical music. Within four years of the album release, he had turned his attention to politics. Ali Bongo served in his father's government as minister of defence, a role he held for 10 years. Before that his first appointment, as Gabon's foreign minister in 1989, ended after three years because of a constitutional change requiring ministers to be over the age of 35. He was 32 at the time. However, it seems he wasn't immediately seen as a natural successor to his father. "In the beginning, the Gabonese people didn't see [Ali Bongo] as a serious candidate," said Mr Gaulme. "But in the end, he has been more thoughtful than he seemed. The first time people saw he could be serious was when he restructured the army." Image copyright Steve Jordan/AFP/Getty Images Image caption Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi visited Gabon in 2015 when construction began on a new international football stadium Gabon's voters were still apparently unconvinced by the time of his father's death in 2009. But Ali Bongo re-emerged as a more reserved figure, attempting to dress down and travelling to campaign in the provinces. "His father was a populist but he was a privileged kid, it didn't really stick," said Mr Gaulme. In the end, Ali Bongo was elected, winning 42% of votes. "I won my place, it didn't fall in my lap," he said of his election victory. But throughout his entire time in office, President Bongo's legitimacy has been questioned by his opponents. The claims would resurface in 2016, when the main challenger in the presidential election was Jean Ping, the former African Union chairman and father to two of Mr Bongo's sister's children. Mr Ping alleged fraud in one of the president's main strongholds, Haut-Ogoou province, where Mr Bongo won 95% of the vote on a turnout of 99.9%. He won overall by the slimmest of margins - just 6,000 votes. Civil society backed up the allegations of rigging, which were denied by the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Corruption allegations It is not the only criticism of Mr Bongo's rule from rights groups. They allege the Bongo family turned Gabon into a "kleptocratic regime", looting its natural resources, oil wealth and rainforests, while members of Gabon's political opposition have long accused family members of embezzling public money and running the country as their private property. Pictures of Real Madrid fan President Bongo driving Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi around the capital in a flashy car made headlines in 2017. A seven-year corruption investigation by French police into the Bongo family, which revealed assets including 39 properties in France and nine luxury cars, was dropped in 2017. There had been insufficient evidence of alleged "ill-gotten gains" to charge any of the family members, reported French news agency AFP. The family strongly denies all the allegations. However, according to Mr Gaulme, President Ali Bongo does "have a tendency to see himself as an heir, to think Gabon belongs to him". Journalists have also pointed to the close and personal links between Gabon's elite families as evidence of powerful networks of patronage. African news site Jeune Afrique (in French) has branded them "fiefdoms". Mr Bongo has also been criticised over his prominent role in the Freemasons - a society whose Gabonese chapter he led, as lodge master. He is one of a handful of recent and present Francophone African presidents whose Freemason membership has been out in the open - the others being Congo-Brazzaville's Denis Sassou Nguesso, Chad's Idriss Dby, and former President Franois Boziz of the Central African Republic, according to French author Vincent Hugeux. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Ali Bongo's bitter rival Jean Ping had two children with President Bongo's sister However, his supporters point to his role in attempting to diversify Gabon's oil-dependent economy, in the face of declining oil reserves. Gabon's oil sector has accounted for 80% of exports, 45% of GDP, and 60% of fiscal revenue over the past five years, according to World Bank data. Analyst Paul Melly of the British think-tank Chatham House told The Guardian that Ali Bongo was "very sharp and he could see that the difficulty with producing raw materials was that it doesn't create many jobs. "His goal has been to move Gabon to a higher-tech, skilled economy." Alongside this, there have been new investments in mining and a "serious effort to develop a more environmentally sustainable approach to use of the rainforest", Mr Melly told the BBC. All of which, he added, is "certainly significant within the constraints imposed by Gabon's small population and a cost base that is high by African standards". President Bongo has also used his own contacts to press harder for a stronger economy, travelling the world to find new investors and partners in countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while still keeping close ties with France. It was during a visit to Saudi Arabia for an investment conference in October 2018 that he was first admitted to hospital. He eventually left for Morocco at the end of November, where he remains. Frustration over the lack of information surrounding his illness is thought to be one of the triggers behind January's attempted coup. It certainly suggests that some in Gabon - a country where a third of people live below the poverty line - would like to see change. For the moment, however, it seems power still lies with the president and his allies. | Ali Bongo is the president of Gabon, which has been ruled by his family for 50 years. He was born in 1959, but grew up in Paris and studied at the Sorbonne. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46074728 | 0.206123 |
Who is Ali Bongo, president of Gabon? | Image copyright Getty Images Gabon's President Ali Bongo is a man of many faces. To some, he is a spoilt, playboy prince who sees ruling the oil-rich Gabon as his birthright; a one-time funk singer who stepped into his father's shoes to continue his family's 50-year rule. To others, he is a reformer - a man who, they would argue, was voted into power democratically by the masses. But his recent ill health has pushed tensions to the surface in this country of just more than two million people. On 7 January, a group of soldiers tried - and apparently failed - to take control. Among their stated reasons was an attempt to "restore democracy" following the 2016 election, which Mr Bongo narrowly won amid accusations of fraud and acts of violence. Gabon's outsider Ali Bongo was born Alain Bernard Bongo in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville in February 1959. But even his birth was controversial. Rumours, which he has always denied, have persisted for years that he was adopted from the Nigerian south-east at the time of the Biafran war. The young Alain Bernard was still in primary school when his father Omar Bongo took control of Gabon in 1967. Already, however, the groundwork was being laid for criticisms which would haunt him later in life. "He wasn't born in the presidential palace, but almost. He was about eight when his father became president," Franois Gaulme, a French historian and author on Gabonese politics, told the BBC. "The fact that he went to the best schools in Libreville and didn't learn local languages was something he would get criticised for later on." At the age of nine, Ali Bongo was sent to a private school in the upmarket Paris suburb of Neuilly, and later, to the Sorbonne where he studied law. This international upbringing led many in Gabon to view him as an outsider. Image copyright Sylvia Bongo Ondimba/ Instagram Image caption Ali Bongo is married to French-born Sylvia, pictured here with their four children Alain Bernard became Ali and his father Omar in 1973, after converting to Islam - the only members of their family to do so. The decision was widely seen a way to attract investment from Muslim countries. But the elder Bongo, who was previously an animist and not baptised in the Christian faith, also evoked spiritual reasons for his conversion. Funk music and freemasonry It was never all about politics for the young Ali Bongo, however. He showed an early passion for football and music - something inherited from his mother, the Gabonese singer Patience Dabany. A reputation for being a playboy during his youth was cemented with the release of his 1977 album A Brand New Man, produced by funk legend James Brown's manager, Charles Bobbit. "Let me be your darling, Your everything, 'til the end of time," Bongo crooned on the title track: Whether his love of funk has remained is unknown. In his more recent years as president, Ali Bongo is said to enjoy jazz, bossa nova and classical music. Within four years of the album release, he had turned his attention to politics. Ali Bongo served in his father's government as minister of defence, a role he held for 10 years. Before that his first appointment, as Gabon's foreign minister in 1989, ended after three years because of a constitutional change requiring ministers to be over the age of 35. He was 32 at the time. However, it seems he wasn't immediately seen as a natural successor to his father. "In the beginning, the Gabonese people didn't see [Ali Bongo] as a serious candidate," said Mr Gaulme. "But in the end, he has been more thoughtful than he seemed. The first time people saw he could be serious was when he restructured the army." Image copyright Steve Jordan/AFP/Getty Images Image caption Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi visited Gabon in 2015 when construction began on a new international football stadium Gabon's voters were still apparently unconvinced by the time of his father's death in 2009. But Ali Bongo re-emerged as a more reserved figure, attempting to dress down and travelling to campaign in the provinces. "His father was a populist but he was a privileged kid, it didn't really stick," said Mr Gaulme. In the end, Ali Bongo was elected, winning 42% of votes. "I won my place, it didn't fall in my lap," he said of his election victory. But throughout his entire time in office, President Bongo's legitimacy has been questioned by his opponents. The claims would resurface in 2016, when the main challenger in the presidential election was Jean Ping, the former African Union chairman and father to two of Mr Bongo's sister's children. Mr Ping alleged fraud in one of the president's main strongholds, Haut-Ogoou province, where Mr Bongo won 95% of the vote on a turnout of 99.9%. He won overall by the slimmest of margins - just 6,000 votes. Civil society backed up the allegations of rigging, which were denied by the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Corruption allegations It is not the only criticism of Mr Bongo's rule from rights groups. They allege the Bongo family turned Gabon into a "kleptocratic regime", looting its natural resources, oil wealth and rainforests, while members of Gabon's political opposition have long accused family members of embezzling public money and running the country as their private property. Pictures of Real Madrid fan President Bongo driving Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi around the capital in a flashy car made headlines in 2017. A seven-year corruption investigation by French police into the Bongo family, which revealed assets including 39 properties in France and nine luxury cars, was dropped in 2017. There had been insufficient evidence of alleged "ill-gotten gains" to charge any of the family members, reported French news agency AFP. The family strongly denies all the allegations. However, according to Mr Gaulme, President Ali Bongo does "have a tendency to see himself as an heir, to think Gabon belongs to him". Journalists have also pointed to the close and personal links between Gabon's elite families as evidence of powerful networks of patronage. African news site Jeune Afrique (in French) has branded them "fiefdoms". Mr Bongo has also been criticised over his prominent role in the Freemasons - a society whose Gabonese chapter he led, as lodge master. He is one of a handful of recent and present Francophone African presidents whose Freemason membership has been out in the open - the others being Congo-Brazzaville's Denis Sassou Nguesso, Chad's Idriss Dby, and former President Franois Boziz of the Central African Republic, according to French author Vincent Hugeux. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Ali Bongo's bitter rival Jean Ping had two children with President Bongo's sister However, his supporters point to his role in attempting to diversify Gabon's oil-dependent economy, in the face of declining oil reserves. Gabon's oil sector has accounted for 80% of exports, 45% of GDP, and 60% of fiscal revenue over the past five years, according to World Bank data. Analyst Paul Melly of the British think-tank Chatham House told The Guardian that Ali Bongo was "very sharp and he could see that the difficulty with producing raw materials was that it doesn't create many jobs. "His goal has been to move Gabon to a higher-tech, skilled economy." Alongside this, there have been new investments in mining and a "serious effort to develop a more environmentally sustainable approach to use of the rainforest", Mr Melly told the BBC. All of which, he added, is "certainly significant within the constraints imposed by Gabon's small population and a cost base that is high by African standards". President Bongo has also used his own contacts to press harder for a stronger economy, travelling the world to find new investors and partners in countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while still keeping close ties with France. It was during a visit to Saudi Arabia for an investment conference in October 2018 that he was first admitted to hospital. He eventually left for Morocco at the end of November, where he remains. Frustration over the lack of information surrounding his illness is thought to be one of the triggers behind January's attempted coup. It certainly suggests that some in Gabon - a country where a third of people live below the poverty line - would like to see change. For the moment, however, it seems power still lies with the president and his allies. | Ali Bongo is the president of Gabon, which has been ruled by his family for 50 years. He was born in 1959, but grew up in Paris and studied at the Sorbonne. He converted to Islam at the age of eight, but many in Gabon saw him as an outsider. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46074728 | 0.283126 |
Will the Raptors end Toronto's difficult relationship with winning? | Its January and no NBA team has won more games than the revamped Raptors. In Toronto, its the hope that kills you. Its a sports-mad place boasting competitive teams across a multitude of codes but lots of chaos and a dearth of success. And even when the citys franchises manage to get a taste of it, the fizz is fleeting. Baseballs Blue Jays claimed back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, and then didnt reach the playoffs for 21 years. The Maple Leafs have won more Stanley Cups than all but two NHL clubs, but none in more than 50 years. As recently as 2012, they were voted the most embarrassing team to support. Toronto FC bounced from one humiliating episode to the next before their MLS Cup triumph in 2017. But following the pattern of self-destruction, the joy was short-lived and they failed to qualify for the postseason earlier this year. Canadas largest city has a difficult relationship with winning. It doesnt happen very often and on the rare occasions when it does, it doesnt really know what to do with it. And thats why there remains an unshakable spectre overhanging the Toronto Raptors this season. After a seismic summer defined by splashy transactions, the team has transitioned impressively and remains well in contention to finish at the top of the Eastern Conference for the second successive year. The Raptors are not a side accustomed to drama and conflict so, considering the offseason saw the firing of long-time coach Dwane Casey and the trade of the legendary DeMar DeRozan, thats no small feat. The recriminations and finger-pointing still linger but going by the performances so far this term, theres no scar tissue. The players seem invested in Nick Nurse, who was brought on by Casey as an assistant back in 2013 before sliding into the lead role in June. And despite the trauma of the DeRozan trade, the gamble of bringing in Kahwi Leonard as his replacement has worked a treat. Many wondered which Leonard would show up in Toronto. Hed been immense for San Antonio and was voted MVP when the Spurs beat Miami in the 2014 finals. There were back-to-back All-NBA first team appearances in 2016 and 2017, too. But things ended bitterly last season when a quad injury led to a prolonged absence and tension regarding best treatment. His relationship with Gregg Popovich broke down and he looked for a way out. But, when Toronto was first mooted as a possible destination, it was claimed that Leonard was underwhelmed, had no desire in going there and much preferred a switch to his hometown of Los Angeles. Still, with some pressure on his shoulders, hes smiled, stepped up and, most importantly, delivered in the big games. Hes poured in 30 or more points on 13 occasions, including a career-high 45-point haul against Utah on New Years Day. And when he was mercilessly booed and kept quiet on his much-vaunted return to San Antonio two days later, there was no moodiness. When he stepped to the free throw line during the second quarter and thousands of home fans screamed traitor relentlessly, there was no reaction. And when the game was done, there was a laugh, a joke and warm embrace with Popovich. Anyone expecting Leonard to kick up a fuss and spark a war in the Raptors locker-room has been left waiting. Of course, it hasnt all been about him. Kyle Lowry, Danny Green and Pascal Siakam have excelled and, quite rightly, much has been made of the rosters depth. With the Eastern Conference seldom as wide open, its not outlandish to look at the Raptors as favorites to reach their first NBA finals and genuine championship contenders. However, you cant shake the past: Toronto have been here very recently. The was last seasons record-breaking campaign: 59 wins and the conferences No 1 seed entering the playoffs for the first time in club history. Then it all came crashing down when they were whitewashed by LeBron James and the Cavaliers for a second straight year. It was a humiliating end to a season that had been bursting with promise. In 2017, team president Masai Ujiri spoke of a culture reset. Alas, nothing had changed. Despite all the talk, all the hype, all of those Atlantic Division titles, there was still a valley of emptiness when it mattered most. For Ujiri, it seemed that mindset was a big problem under Casey, who had performed small miracles to transform the Raptors from persistent punchline to Eastern Conference heavyweights. Though they had clearly blossomed throughout Caseys seven years in charge, there seemed little belief within the team as they headed into high-profile matchups against LeBron. So Ujiri rolled the dice. Its the hardest thing Ive done in my life, he later told reporters of his decision to fire Casey, who was voted Coach of the Year by his peers two days earlier and whod go on to be named NBA Coach of the Year too. But, Ujiri made sure to add that it was a very difficult but necessary step. When the DeRozan trade followed in mid-summer, it was representative of the Raptors new era: ruthless, business-oriented and cold-blooded. Moving on the teams biggest star and bringing in Leonard was a bold decision. Again, certainly not what the Raptors were known for. Pushing out both Casey and DeRozan seven- and nine-year veterans of the organization, respectively was hardly coincidental. Gone was that cliche Canadian niceness. In Ujiris eyes, there was little space for emotion if the Raptors were going to push hard for a championship. But it has been tough for fans to properly park the nostalgia and embrace the new version of the side. Caseys future had been a frequent sports-bar discussion ever since the 2018 playoff series with the Cavs took a familiar turn. He contributed so much to the teams development and immersed himself in the city. Most difficult of all was that Casey, as Lowry once opined, was just a nice fucking man. Fans were also peeved by the fact that DeRozan was blindsided by the trade to San Antonio. However, not every meaningful or impactful relationship was intended to last forever. Leonard becomes a free agent at the end of the season and Ujiri would do well to persuade him to stick around. Nurse is a rookie NBA coach, plucked from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBAs developmental G League and previously a two-time coach of the year in the British Basketball League. But, crucially, his players like him. Last month, he was fined $15,000 after criticizing officials for not protecting Leonard enough during a loss in Denver. The support wasnt lost on Leonard, who spoke afterwards about Nurse having his back. And the coachs passion wasnt lost on fans either. The Raptors are dealing with some newfound anxiety this season. Given the commitment to their radical change in approach, theres an expectation and anticipation now, which hasnt always settled well with Toronto sports teams. And while the regular season has been a big success, the playoffs will offer plenty of nerves, particularly with LeBron not around to get in their heads this time. On paper, theyre in a much stronger position than last year. But considering the investment in the short term, there seems immense pressure on the team doing something special in 2019. Then again, perhaps the new-era Raptors, who are intent on looking to the future rather than the past, wont care too much. | Toronto Raptors have won more games than any other NBA team this season. But the city has a difficult relationship with winning. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/11/raptors-nba-kawhi-leonard-success | 0.107736 |
Will the Raptors end Toronto's difficult relationship with winning? | Its January and no NBA team has won more games than the revamped Raptors. In Toronto, its the hope that kills you. Its a sports-mad place boasting competitive teams across a multitude of codes but lots of chaos and a dearth of success. And even when the citys franchises manage to get a taste of it, the fizz is fleeting. Baseballs Blue Jays claimed back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, and then didnt reach the playoffs for 21 years. The Maple Leafs have won more Stanley Cups than all but two NHL clubs, but none in more than 50 years. As recently as 2012, they were voted the most embarrassing team to support. Toronto FC bounced from one humiliating episode to the next before their MLS Cup triumph in 2017. But following the pattern of self-destruction, the joy was short-lived and they failed to qualify for the postseason earlier this year. Canadas largest city has a difficult relationship with winning. It doesnt happen very often and on the rare occasions when it does, it doesnt really know what to do with it. And thats why there remains an unshakable spectre overhanging the Toronto Raptors this season. After a seismic summer defined by splashy transactions, the team has transitioned impressively and remains well in contention to finish at the top of the Eastern Conference for the second successive year. The Raptors are not a side accustomed to drama and conflict so, considering the offseason saw the firing of long-time coach Dwane Casey and the trade of the legendary DeMar DeRozan, thats no small feat. The recriminations and finger-pointing still linger but going by the performances so far this term, theres no scar tissue. The players seem invested in Nick Nurse, who was brought on by Casey as an assistant back in 2013 before sliding into the lead role in June. And despite the trauma of the DeRozan trade, the gamble of bringing in Kahwi Leonard as his replacement has worked a treat. Many wondered which Leonard would show up in Toronto. Hed been immense for San Antonio and was voted MVP when the Spurs beat Miami in the 2014 finals. There were back-to-back All-NBA first team appearances in 2016 and 2017, too. But things ended bitterly last season when a quad injury led to a prolonged absence and tension regarding best treatment. His relationship with Gregg Popovich broke down and he looked for a way out. But, when Toronto was first mooted as a possible destination, it was claimed that Leonard was underwhelmed, had no desire in going there and much preferred a switch to his hometown of Los Angeles. Still, with some pressure on his shoulders, hes smiled, stepped up and, most importantly, delivered in the big games. Hes poured in 30 or more points on 13 occasions, including a career-high 45-point haul against Utah on New Years Day. And when he was mercilessly booed and kept quiet on his much-vaunted return to San Antonio two days later, there was no moodiness. When he stepped to the free throw line during the second quarter and thousands of home fans screamed traitor relentlessly, there was no reaction. And when the game was done, there was a laugh, a joke and warm embrace with Popovich. Anyone expecting Leonard to kick up a fuss and spark a war in the Raptors locker-room has been left waiting. Of course, it hasnt all been about him. Kyle Lowry, Danny Green and Pascal Siakam have excelled and, quite rightly, much has been made of the rosters depth. With the Eastern Conference seldom as wide open, its not outlandish to look at the Raptors as favorites to reach their first NBA finals and genuine championship contenders. However, you cant shake the past: Toronto have been here very recently. The was last seasons record-breaking campaign: 59 wins and the conferences No 1 seed entering the playoffs for the first time in club history. Then it all came crashing down when they were whitewashed by LeBron James and the Cavaliers for a second straight year. It was a humiliating end to a season that had been bursting with promise. In 2017, team president Masai Ujiri spoke of a culture reset. Alas, nothing had changed. Despite all the talk, all the hype, all of those Atlantic Division titles, there was still a valley of emptiness when it mattered most. For Ujiri, it seemed that mindset was a big problem under Casey, who had performed small miracles to transform the Raptors from persistent punchline to Eastern Conference heavyweights. Though they had clearly blossomed throughout Caseys seven years in charge, there seemed little belief within the team as they headed into high-profile matchups against LeBron. So Ujiri rolled the dice. Its the hardest thing Ive done in my life, he later told reporters of his decision to fire Casey, who was voted Coach of the Year by his peers two days earlier and whod go on to be named NBA Coach of the Year too. But, Ujiri made sure to add that it was a very difficult but necessary step. When the DeRozan trade followed in mid-summer, it was representative of the Raptors new era: ruthless, business-oriented and cold-blooded. Moving on the teams biggest star and bringing in Leonard was a bold decision. Again, certainly not what the Raptors were known for. Pushing out both Casey and DeRozan seven- and nine-year veterans of the organization, respectively was hardly coincidental. Gone was that cliche Canadian niceness. In Ujiris eyes, there was little space for emotion if the Raptors were going to push hard for a championship. But it has been tough for fans to properly park the nostalgia and embrace the new version of the side. Caseys future had been a frequent sports-bar discussion ever since the 2018 playoff series with the Cavs took a familiar turn. He contributed so much to the teams development and immersed himself in the city. Most difficult of all was that Casey, as Lowry once opined, was just a nice fucking man. Fans were also peeved by the fact that DeRozan was blindsided by the trade to San Antonio. However, not every meaningful or impactful relationship was intended to last forever. Leonard becomes a free agent at the end of the season and Ujiri would do well to persuade him to stick around. Nurse is a rookie NBA coach, plucked from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBAs developmental G League and previously a two-time coach of the year in the British Basketball League. But, crucially, his players like him. Last month, he was fined $15,000 after criticizing officials for not protecting Leonard enough during a loss in Denver. The support wasnt lost on Leonard, who spoke afterwards about Nurse having his back. And the coachs passion wasnt lost on fans either. The Raptors are dealing with some newfound anxiety this season. Given the commitment to their radical change in approach, theres an expectation and anticipation now, which hasnt always settled well with Toronto sports teams. And while the regular season has been a big success, the playoffs will offer plenty of nerves, particularly with LeBron not around to get in their heads this time. On paper, theyre in a much stronger position than last year. But considering the investment in the short term, there seems immense pressure on the team doing something special in 2019. Then again, perhaps the new-era Raptors, who are intent on looking to the future rather than the past, wont care too much. | Toronto Raptors have won more games than any other NBA team this season. The Raptors are currently top of the Eastern Conference. Toronto has a difficult relationship with winning and often fails to achieve it. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/11/raptors-nba-kawhi-leonard-success | 0.236489 |
Will the Raptors end Toronto's difficult relationship with winning? | Its January and no NBA team has won more games than the revamped Raptors. In Toronto, its the hope that kills you. Its a sports-mad place boasting competitive teams across a multitude of codes but lots of chaos and a dearth of success. And even when the citys franchises manage to get a taste of it, the fizz is fleeting. Baseballs Blue Jays claimed back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, and then didnt reach the playoffs for 21 years. The Maple Leafs have won more Stanley Cups than all but two NHL clubs, but none in more than 50 years. As recently as 2012, they were voted the most embarrassing team to support. Toronto FC bounced from one humiliating episode to the next before their MLS Cup triumph in 2017. But following the pattern of self-destruction, the joy was short-lived and they failed to qualify for the postseason earlier this year. Canadas largest city has a difficult relationship with winning. It doesnt happen very often and on the rare occasions when it does, it doesnt really know what to do with it. And thats why there remains an unshakable spectre overhanging the Toronto Raptors this season. After a seismic summer defined by splashy transactions, the team has transitioned impressively and remains well in contention to finish at the top of the Eastern Conference for the second successive year. The Raptors are not a side accustomed to drama and conflict so, considering the offseason saw the firing of long-time coach Dwane Casey and the trade of the legendary DeMar DeRozan, thats no small feat. The recriminations and finger-pointing still linger but going by the performances so far this term, theres no scar tissue. The players seem invested in Nick Nurse, who was brought on by Casey as an assistant back in 2013 before sliding into the lead role in June. And despite the trauma of the DeRozan trade, the gamble of bringing in Kahwi Leonard as his replacement has worked a treat. Many wondered which Leonard would show up in Toronto. Hed been immense for San Antonio and was voted MVP when the Spurs beat Miami in the 2014 finals. There were back-to-back All-NBA first team appearances in 2016 and 2017, too. But things ended bitterly last season when a quad injury led to a prolonged absence and tension regarding best treatment. His relationship with Gregg Popovich broke down and he looked for a way out. But, when Toronto was first mooted as a possible destination, it was claimed that Leonard was underwhelmed, had no desire in going there and much preferred a switch to his hometown of Los Angeles. Still, with some pressure on his shoulders, hes smiled, stepped up and, most importantly, delivered in the big games. Hes poured in 30 or more points on 13 occasions, including a career-high 45-point haul against Utah on New Years Day. And when he was mercilessly booed and kept quiet on his much-vaunted return to San Antonio two days later, there was no moodiness. When he stepped to the free throw line during the second quarter and thousands of home fans screamed traitor relentlessly, there was no reaction. And when the game was done, there was a laugh, a joke and warm embrace with Popovich. Anyone expecting Leonard to kick up a fuss and spark a war in the Raptors locker-room has been left waiting. Of course, it hasnt all been about him. Kyle Lowry, Danny Green and Pascal Siakam have excelled and, quite rightly, much has been made of the rosters depth. With the Eastern Conference seldom as wide open, its not outlandish to look at the Raptors as favorites to reach their first NBA finals and genuine championship contenders. However, you cant shake the past: Toronto have been here very recently. The was last seasons record-breaking campaign: 59 wins and the conferences No 1 seed entering the playoffs for the first time in club history. Then it all came crashing down when they were whitewashed by LeBron James and the Cavaliers for a second straight year. It was a humiliating end to a season that had been bursting with promise. In 2017, team president Masai Ujiri spoke of a culture reset. Alas, nothing had changed. Despite all the talk, all the hype, all of those Atlantic Division titles, there was still a valley of emptiness when it mattered most. For Ujiri, it seemed that mindset was a big problem under Casey, who had performed small miracles to transform the Raptors from persistent punchline to Eastern Conference heavyweights. Though they had clearly blossomed throughout Caseys seven years in charge, there seemed little belief within the team as they headed into high-profile matchups against LeBron. So Ujiri rolled the dice. Its the hardest thing Ive done in my life, he later told reporters of his decision to fire Casey, who was voted Coach of the Year by his peers two days earlier and whod go on to be named NBA Coach of the Year too. But, Ujiri made sure to add that it was a very difficult but necessary step. When the DeRozan trade followed in mid-summer, it was representative of the Raptors new era: ruthless, business-oriented and cold-blooded. Moving on the teams biggest star and bringing in Leonard was a bold decision. Again, certainly not what the Raptors were known for. Pushing out both Casey and DeRozan seven- and nine-year veterans of the organization, respectively was hardly coincidental. Gone was that cliche Canadian niceness. In Ujiris eyes, there was little space for emotion if the Raptors were going to push hard for a championship. But it has been tough for fans to properly park the nostalgia and embrace the new version of the side. Caseys future had been a frequent sports-bar discussion ever since the 2018 playoff series with the Cavs took a familiar turn. He contributed so much to the teams development and immersed himself in the city. Most difficult of all was that Casey, as Lowry once opined, was just a nice fucking man. Fans were also peeved by the fact that DeRozan was blindsided by the trade to San Antonio. However, not every meaningful or impactful relationship was intended to last forever. Leonard becomes a free agent at the end of the season and Ujiri would do well to persuade him to stick around. Nurse is a rookie NBA coach, plucked from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBAs developmental G League and previously a two-time coach of the year in the British Basketball League. But, crucially, his players like him. Last month, he was fined $15,000 after criticizing officials for not protecting Leonard enough during a loss in Denver. The support wasnt lost on Leonard, who spoke afterwards about Nurse having his back. And the coachs passion wasnt lost on fans either. The Raptors are dealing with some newfound anxiety this season. Given the commitment to their radical change in approach, theres an expectation and anticipation now, which hasnt always settled well with Toronto sports teams. And while the regular season has been a big success, the playoffs will offer plenty of nerves, particularly with LeBron not around to get in their heads this time. On paper, theyre in a much stronger position than last year. But considering the investment in the short term, there seems immense pressure on the team doing something special in 2019. Then again, perhaps the new-era Raptors, who are intent on looking to the future rather than the past, wont care too much. | Toronto Raptors have won more games than any other NBA team this season. The Raptors are currently top of the Eastern Conference. Toronto has a difficult relationship with winning, with the Blue Jays and Maple Leafs having failed to reach the playoffs for 21 years. But the Raptors are on the right track this season after a summer of upheaval. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/11/raptors-nba-kawhi-leonard-success | 0.37055 |
When Are Taxes Due in 2019? | The 2019 tax season is bound to be an interesting one, since it's the first following the massive overhaul that came into play for 2018. And the sooner you mark this year's filing deadline on your calendar, the sooner you'll be motivated to get your paperwork in order and start working on that return. Without further ado, this year's tax filing deadline is April 15, 2019. Now this news isn't particularly surprising, since April 15 has long been the date on which taxes are due. For the past two years, however, the tax filing deadline has been pushed back several days because April 15 fell out over a weekend and the following weekday conflicted with Emancipation Day, a legal Washington, D.C. holiday. As such, there could be lingering confusion over when taxes are due this year. Now that that's out of the way, it pays to get moving on your taxes well in advance of that April 15 deadline. The sooner you do, the better a financial position you'll be in, regardless of whether you're due a refund or owe the IRS money. Pen hovering over tax form that also has a calculator resting on it More IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Don't wait till the last minute to do your taxes Many of us tend to put off our taxes because, well, dealing with them isn't exactly fun. But the more you delay that return, the more you stand to lose out. For one thing, if you're due a refund from the IRS, you'll be blocked from getting it until your return is submitted. Secondly, if it turns out you owe the IRS money, it'll help to know sooner rather than later. This way, you'll buy yourself some time to scrounge up that cash, as opposed to having to scramble at the last minute (or, worse yet, miss the April 15 deadline and start accruing interest on your unpaid balance). Now keep in mind that to do your taxes, you'll need a few key forms that might not reach you until early February. If you're a salaried employee, you'll need your W-2, and employers have until January 31 to send those out. If you're a contract worker, you'll need however many 1099 forms pertain to you, and again, the deadline for employers to submit them is January 31. Once those come in, however, there's no excuse to procrastinate. Find yourself a good tax preparer. Changes to the tax code in 2018 might make this tax season more confusing than it's been in years past, so if your return is at all complicated, it might pay to enlist the help of a professional. Tax preparers, however, are generally swamped between February and April, and seeing as how they're all navigating the new laws for the first time, you might have a harder time than ever getting the assistance you need -- so don't delay. While it might seem like you have plenty of time to file your taxes before the deadline, the truth is that it never hurts to just get them over with. So while you technically have until April 15 to submit your return, you're better off carving out some time in February or March to tackle it. More From The Motley Fool The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | This year's tax filing deadline is April 15, 2019. The sooner you do your taxes, the better a financial position you'll be in. | pegasus | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/taxes-due-2019-111800453.html | 0.509096 |
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