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Dairy Queen | You never really know what kind of magical things can happen when you walk around New York City.
Sometimes, you might experience something you never saw coming, like the queen of sweet treats – the Dairy Queen® brand – giving away savory, oven-hot snacks.
That's just what happened when the Dairy Queen® brand and Mashable planned a surprise pop-up giveaway in Union Square last week to introduce the first-ever, oven hot DQ Bakes!® Snacks Menu.
Thousands of unsuspecting Dairy Queen fans were able to stop by the pop-up to indulge with two of these new savory snacks. Many who visited the event never thought that the brand — well-known for frozen favorites like Dilly Bars and Blizzard Treats — would ever break into the hot snacks world.
Image: BRITTANY HERBERT
At the event, local foodies got acquainted with the new DQ Bakes!® offerings: soft pretzels with zesty queso dipping sauce and potato skins, also featuring the zesty queso, topped with bacon bits and cheddar cheese. In addition to tasting the new snacks, New Yorkers made themselves into “snackable content” by creating snack-themed GIFs to share out with friends.
The new oven-hot Snack Menu also includes buffalo chicken and chicken bacon BBQ "snack melts." All three of these new menu items start at under $2 at participating locations.
Image: brittany herbert
"People are snacking more and more every day and aren't able to always get three meals in, particularly millennials," said Michelle Forcier, Director of Marketing for American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ), while taking a break from helping her team hand out the oven-hot snacks. " We wanted to provide a great tasting, craveable product that fits in a snacking price point."
One of the event's pleasantly surprised gourmands praised the quality of the snacks, saying, “This is the kind of thing I would get at a nice, sit-down restaurant." This snack menu, that's been four years in the making, is the first of its kind offered by a quick service restaurant, or QSR.
In addition to munching on these savory new treats, visitors had a lot of fun with the on-site GIF booth creating dozens of GIFs; some of the best ones are featured in this article. Fans were dancing, posing and, of course, eating the DQ Bakes!® Snacks in the snackable GIFs, which were frequently shared on social media.
On top of everything, the GIFs were also projected onto a big screen TV at the pop-up, which gave a lot of participants a delicious 15 seconds of fame.
For more information about where you can pick up some of the new DQ Bakes!® Snacks Menu, visit DairyQueen.com and share your favorite using #SnackMeDQ.
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Tobias Salinger | Sheila Paras/Getty Images/Flickr RF An Aussie driver convicted of mowing down two motorists at the same intersection in crashes seven years apart is pushing to get back on the road, according to reports.
An Australian farmer who killed two men in different crashes seven years apart at the same rural intersection keeps trying to get back on the road, according to reports.
Michelle Thiele was convicted in the April 2000 death of another driver and pleaded guilty in the June 2007 death of a motorcyclist near Mannum, Australia, ABC News of Australia reported.
She allegedly failed to yield to oncoming traffic and rammed into both motorists at Thiele Road and Mannum Road. Investigators branded her an incompetent driver, according to ABC.
But her lawyer is pushing for her to be allowed to get her learner’s permit, ABC reported Monday. Thiele, whose license had been canceled, sued when the Registrar of Motor Vehicles refused her the permit in 2013.
The farmer, from the town of Pompoota, paid a AU$300 fine (about $220) in the 2000 accident and avoided an eight-month jail term on a good behavior bond after admitting to driving without due care in the 2007 incident, according to ABC. She lost her license in 2010, a year after her second trial.
Driver involved in 2 fatal crashes is "such a risk" shouldn't be given learners permit, trial told @abcnewsAdelaide pic.twitter.com/jvvllfjEzm — James Hancock (@jameshancockABC) July 21, 2015
A review board upheld the Registrar’s denial of her permit, but Thiele didn’t receive “procedural fairness,” her lawyer, Joana Fuller told a court Monday.
“Both the Registrar and the review committee have held and continue to hold an intractable view that Ms. Thiele should never drive again.” Fuller said. “The Registrar is intent on ensuring that Mrs. Thiele does not ever drive again, even pursuant to a learner's permit.”
The Registrar’s attorney, Anthony Keane, said Thiele may well pass a driving test. But, he added, “It has to be quantifiable ... when you're alone in a vehicle in two years, three years, seven years down the track that you will not break the road rules.”
Follow on Twitter @tobysalkc
tsalinger@nydailynews.com
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Gary Myers | Bill Wippert/AP Rueben Randle proves to be effective a week after the Giants cut Preston Parker.
Anything short of Tom Brady having his four-game suspension reinstated for Deflategate and Aaron Rodgers then getting four games for Inflategate — he admits he likes his footballs over the PSI limit — the Giants and Jets won’t be playing each other in the Trolley Car Super Bowl just outside San Francisco in February,
Even so, considering the slop the Giants and Jets put on the field the last few years, it’s a huge bonus they’ve made it through the first quarter of the season and they’re still relevant.
The Jets are 3-1 and alone in second place in the AFC East behind the 3-0 Patriots after Sunday’s 27-14 victory over the Dolphins at Wembley Stadium.
MYERS’ BOOK REVEALS UNTOLD STORY OF BRADY VS. MANNING
New York Daily News A date with the Bills is just what the Giants needed to get back in the groove.
Rex Ryan may have moved his act to Western New York, but he’s still the little brother after the Giants beat the Bills 24-10 to get to 2-2 after their 0-2 start. “It shows we got grit,” Tom Coughlin said.
The Giants reached the quarter-pole in a three-way tie for first with Dallas and Washington, with the Cowboys falling to New Orleans in overtime Sunday night.
The Jets won four games in Ryan’s sixth season in 2014. They’re almost there with rookie coach Todd Bowles — with 12 games left to play. At this time last year, the Jets were in the midst of an eight-game losing streak after opening the season with a victory. “This gives us a chance to start the second quarter of the season with a good note,” Bowles said. “Through four games, I’m happy — 16 games, we’ll see.”
MEHTA: JETS' IVORY TOWERS OVER DOLPHINS IN LONDON
The Giants will try to avoid the road they travelled last year when they lost their first two games, won their next three, then lost seven in a row.
“The guys played hard,” Coughlin said after beating the Bills. “We do play hard.”
So far, here’s what I like about the Jets:
1. The daily drama is gone. Bowles doesn’t have any patience for stupidity leading to calamity — that’s why Geno Smith hasn’t put on his helmet yet on game day — and has the respect of his players.
2. Chris Ivory and Brandon Marshall give the offense an identity. Ivory is a violent runner, Marshall’s catching radius is so wide he makes Ryan Fitzpatrick look accurate.
3. The defense, which will be the Jets’ strength over the long four-month season, will get even better when Sheldon Richardson rejoins the team Tuesday following his drug suspension. He has two weeks to get back in football shape before the Jets play again Oct. 18. Bowles should get him a designated driver: Can you imagine him going 143 mph on the Jersey Turnpike?
Matt Dunham/AP Todd Bowles provides a calming presence as the Jets are off to a 3-1 start.
So far, here’s what I don’t like about the Jets:
1. Antonio Cromartie is vulnerable. Darrelle Revis on the other side and Buster Skrine in the slot are not, which means a lot of balls will be coming Cro’s way.
2. Fitzpatrick can’t throw deep. His 58-yarder to Marshall on the Jets’ first play against the Dolphins was underthrown and should have been a 73-yard touchdown.
3. Rookie Devin Smith must step up as the third receiving option behind Marshall and Eric Decker. His camp injury prevented him from establishing chemistry with Fitzpatrick.
He returned last week and has been targeted 14 times in two games with only five catches for 53 yards.
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Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images Odell Beckham Jr. hasn't even really got going yet and the Giants are still 2-2 with position to improve.
So far, here’s what I like about the Giants:
1. Eli Manning has seven TDs and only one INT even though Odell Beckham Jr. has had just one signature game. When OBJ gets going and if Victor Cruz gets back, the offense will be explosive.
2. Shane Vereen gives Manning an option out of the backfield he hasn’t had since Tiki Barber.
3. The defense is still learning Steve Spagnuolo’s system and has given up a respectable 82 points. In Spags’ first four games in his first time as Giants defensive coordinator in 2007 they gave up 100 points, including 80 in the first two games.
VACCHIANO: SUDDENLY, JPP IS FORGOTTEN MAN
So far, here’s what I don’t like about the Giants:
1. The fourth quarter still makes Big Blue Nation nervous. The Giants really could use JPP’s pass rush when teams start throwing the ball to come from behind.
2. They are the first team in NFL history to blow 10-point fourth quarter leads in each of their first two games and lose. They easily could be 4-0.
3. Why did Coughlin endorse Manning throwing on second and third down from the Buffalo 8 with just under four minutes left and the Giants up by 14? A field goal would have made it an insurmountable three-score game. Manning threw his first pick of the season, briefly giving life to a beaten team.
Paul Childs/REUTERS Brandon Marshall is having a major impact on the Jets offense.
The next quarter of the semester:
-Jets: After the bye, they get Washington at home. But the big one is Oct. 25 at Foxborough, then games at Oakland and home against the Jags. They should go 3-1 in the second quarter. It’s too much to expect them to beat the Pats on the road with Brady on his revenge tour.
-Giants: They get an easy one next Sunday night at home against the 49ers, then at Philly on a Monday night, the Cowboys at home, without Tony Romo and Dez Bryant, then at New Orleans. A 4-0 sweep is not inconceivable. They should do no worse than 3-1.
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Felix Allen | Oscar Clare's mum Kellie Marie Allen turned round and saw he had wedged the £5 Asda potty firmly around his neck
THIS is the moment a two-year-old boy was rescued by firefighters after he got a toilet training seat stuck over his head.
Little Oscar Clare was in the bathroom when mum Kellie Marie Allen, 27, turned round and saw he had wedged the £5 Asda potty firmly around his neck.
SWNS 5 Little Oscar Clare, two, is helped by firefighters after getting a toilet training seat stuck round his neck
SWNS 5 Kellie Marie tried water, oil and butter to free Oscar before taking him to the fire station
Kellie desperately tried to free the toddler by wetting his hair and even poured oil and butter over his neck but it was stuck fast.
She was eventually forced to drive him to her local fire station where firefighters cut Oscar free from the plastic seat.
The bizarre accident unfolded at 8am on Sunday while Kellie was looking after Oscar at their home in Telford, Shrops.
Single mum Kellie said: “We were in the bathroom and he’s got a habit of sticking it on his head.
“I told him to get it off and instead he pulled it further down.
“I tried to get it off and I realised it was stuck. I took him to the front room and sat him down and was trying to pin his ears back and pull it off.
SWNS 5 Firemen let Oscar Clare sit in the fire engine after using metal cutters to free him from the potty seat
SWNS 5 Kellie Marie Allen at home with her toddler son Oscar Clare after his rescue
SWNS 5 Oscar slipped the training seat over his head and it got stuck fast and had to be cut off
“I had butter and oil on his ears and water and nothing would work.
“At first he thought it was funny but then when he realised it wouldn’t come off he started screaming.
“Luckily I managed to get hold of his granddad who lives around the corner and he came and drove us to the fire station.
“We knocked on the door and showed the firefighters Oscar and they were like ‘oh that’s an unusual start to the day’.
“They tried to pull it over his ears but he was screaming and it obviously wasn’t going to come off.
“In the end they used some snippers they usually use to cut little bits of metal and got it off.
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“They were really good with him and one of them was talking to him and holding his neck while the other cut it off.
“Afterwards they let him sit in a fire engine and gave him a little tour.”
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service re-tweeted a picture of Oscar being rescued on their Wellington Fire Station twitter page.
They tweeted: “Unusual start to the day! 2 year old with a toilet seat stuck over his head. Crews used small gear to remove. The things we do as children.”
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Louis Columbus | The five highest performing cloud computing stocks year-to-date on the Cloud Computing Index are Qualys Qualys (NASDAQ: QYLS), Juniper Networks Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), Riverbed Technology Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ:RVBD), Workday (NYSE:WDAY), and VMWare (NYSE:VMW). A $10K investment in Qualys shares made on January 2th of 2014 is worth $12,305.00 as of market close Friday, and $10K invested in Workday shares are worth $11,310.00. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP share prices are included for comparison.
The following graphic compares how $10,000 invested on January 2nd of this year in the highest performing cloud computing stocks, in addition to IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are valued today.
Please see the full Cloud Computing Index for market caps, average volumes, 52-week high and low share prices, Earnings per Share, Price/Earnings Ratio, and Beta. I am using the Google Finance Portfolio option to track the performance of these stocks. For information on how this index was created, see the description at the end of this post. I do not hold equity positions or work for any of the companies mentioned in this blog post or included in the Cloud Computing Index and this post is not meant to provide investment advice. It is simply a glimpse into the performance of these company’s stock prices over time. Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.
Best Performing Cloud Computing Stocks, January 13 to January 17, 2014
Worst Performing Cloud Computing Stocks, January 13 to January 17, 2014
Best Performing Cloud Computing Stocks In 2014
Worst Performing Cloud Computing Stocks In 2014
Comparing Cumulative Stock Performance
Performance of the Cloud Computing Index over the last year is compared to NetSuite, Salesforce, IBM, Oracle and SAP is below. This index has been up 22.98% over the last year, with NetSuite (NYSE:N) up 60.89%, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) up 38.11%, IBM (NYSE:IBM) down 2.24%, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) up 9.60% and SAP (NYSE:SAP) up .66%. Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.
Specifics on the Cloud Computing Stock Index
I used The Cloud Times 100 as the basis of the index, selecting twenty companies all of which are publically traded. The latest edition of the Cloud Computing Index is shown here. The filter applied to these companies is that 50% or more of their revenues are generated from cloud-based applications, infrastructure and services.
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Chris Powers | Score one for the Swedish.
In a good old-fashioned game of tug-of-war, it was an American-made truck vs. a Swedish-made station wagon in the video above. ‘Merica.. cased closed. Right?
WRONG!
So wrong in fact, this video left me pleading with the Volvo v70 station wagon, “Stop! Stop! He’s already deeeaddddd!!!”
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I want to call it an upset of epic proportions, but the station wagon dismantled the truck. The only thing upset here are readers who own a Chevy Truck, hoping no one with a Volvo presents them with a similar challenge.
Justin Mikell via YouTube Today is a sad day for American-made trucks everywhere.
In the ultimate mano e mano, you vs. me, let’s see what ya got – game, the truck never even stood a chance. I even looked up the definition of tug-of-war to make sense of all this, and one of the meanings read - “a situation in which two evenly matched foes are striving to keep or obtain the same thing.”
If that’s the case, we may not be able to define this as a tug-of –war, because the matchup was clearly by no means even. This was peak Tiger Woods vs. the field, New England Patriots vs. the Cleveland Browns, Led Zeppelin vs. Winger, Leo DiCaprio vs. Ashton Kutcher!
Alright, that’s enough. Again.. the truck has a family. Let’s all go eat cheeseburgers, drink Budweiser, watch baseball and forget this video ever happened.
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Chris Cillizza | Ed Gillespie's decision to run against Sen. Mark Warner in Virginia this fall is the latest piece of evidence that Republicans have learned well from the recruitment strategy of Senate Democrats in 2012.
Gillespie is not a favorite in the race. He probably has less than a 30 percent chance of winning. But, he is a serious candidate who will raise money and run a real campaign against Warner, and, if the national environment collapses for Democrats or the incumbent makes a major mistake, will be positioned to win in a swing state.
In short, Virginia is now a race in play -- an expansion of the playing field on which the fight for the Senate majority will take place. Republicans are up to something similar in New Hampshire where former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown certainly seems to be moving in the direction of challenging Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) this fall. Say what you will about Brown -- carpetbagger, lost his last race etc. -- but with him the race is on the map and without him it, well, isn't. Republicans have set a similar course in Michigan where former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land continues to post very impressive numbers in the Democratic-leaning open seat being vacated by Sen. Carl Levin (D).
The GOP's 2014 strategy might ring a bell. That's because it's the exact strategy that Democrats put in place in 2012 to hold the Senate.
Facing daunting raw numbers -- 21 Democratic seats were up as compared to just nine Republican ones -- as well as a slew of Democratic retirements in difficult states (Wisconsin, Virginia and North Dakota), Senate Democrats did everything they could to widen the playing field. Take Indiana and North Dakota.
In Indiana, then Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) decided to run for the Senate under the belief that if Sen. Dick Lugar lost in the Republican primary the race might be winnable. Lugar lost and Donnelly won -- despite the fact that President Obama only took 44 percent of the vote in the state. In North Dakota, former state Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp (D) decided to run despite the Republican lean of the state. She ran a great campaign, her heavily touted Republican opponent did not and she now sits in the Senate.
What Republicans then are trying to do is to give themselves the sort of margin for error in 2014 that Democrats didn't allow them in 2012. Let's do the math.
Republicans need to win six seats to re-take the majority. In West Virginia, South Dakota and Arkansas, Republicans recruited their strongest candidate into the race and are, at worst, even odds to take those Democrats seats. That gets Republicans halfway to their goal.
The key to the Republican strategy is making that next tier of seats (and recruits) as big as possible since a few of the candidates will flame out, some of the incumbents will prove tougher to beat than they appear now and the national political environment could well shift several times between now and November. By our count, Republicans now have seven Democratic seats in this second tier: Alaska, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Virginia.(Some Republicans would throw Minnesota into that mix due to self funder Mike McFadden's candidacy but we remain skeptical.) In some of those seven states, Republicans have a solid candidate in a tough primary (Alaska with Dan Sullivan, Louisiana with Bill Cassidy). In others they have an unproven field (North Carolina, Montana, Michigan). In still others, it remains to be seen whether the Democratic incumbent is genuinely vulnerable (New Hampshire, Virginia).
But, in all cases, there is a credible Republican in the race who can raise the money needed to compete against the incumbent and has a real chance at being the party's nominee. That means that Republicans need only to win three of these seven second-tier races -- assuming they win Arkansas, South Dakota and West Virginia and don't lose their own seats in Kentucky and Georgia -- to re-take the majority.
At the moment, Senate Republicans have two major holes in their "expand the map" strategy: Colorado and Iowa. Colorado has moved toward Democrats in the last two presidential elections buts remains a place where Republicans need to be able to compete. At the moment, the Republican field is led by Ken Buck who lost a very winnable race for Senate in 2010. In Iowa, the retirement of Sen. Tom Harkin (D) should have made for a sterling pickup opportunity for Republicans but their field -- at least at the moment -- is a mish-mash of sort-of-knowns and unknowns, none of which have broken from the pack as of yet.
Keep an eye on those two states over the next few months. (The filing deadline in Iowa is March 14; in Colorado it's April 15.) Adding one of those two -- or maybe even Minnesota making it into that second tier -- would further expand Republicans' paths to a majority.
One thing's for sure: If they make it over the top this November, Senate Republicans should send their Democratic counterparts a nice thank you gift for showing them the way.
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Andy Greenberg | Somewhere in the $164 million worth of bitcoins held by the U.S. government, there’s a chunk of the cryptocurrency that until very recently belonged to Peter Ward, a British self-described “cybertechnohippy” and dealer in drug paraphernalia like bongs, marijuana seeds, and rolling papers. Now Ward wants his bitcoins back, and he’s willing to create a thorny legal mess to get them.
On Thursday, Ward began the process of retaining a lawyer to file a claim for what he says were 100 bitcoins–worth around $95,000 at current exchange rates–seized by the FBI in the takedown of the Silk Road online black market for drugs last October. Unlike most of Silk Road’s sellers, Ward says he earned his bitcoins through entirely legal means, offering the same merchandise that he advertises on the public Internet from his head shop Planet Pluto in Devon, England.
“I’m probably in a unique position in that I can prove my coins came from selling legal items,” says Ward, who argues his wares included only drug accessories and UK-legal substances like salvia and the morphine-like kratom. “I sold on Silk Road because it had a large user base that matched my target customers. Where better to sell king-size rolling papers?”
Earlier this month the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced that a judge had signed off on a forfeiture order that will allow it to sell around 29,000 of the seized Silk Road’s bitcoins–the other 144,000 taken by the government are still being claimed by Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of the now-defunct black market.
But Ward, who describes himself on his Twitter feed as an “aging psychonaut” who “enjoys exposing hypocrisy and bullshit and taking back the interweb from the suits,” says the FBI failed to consider his claim on a small fraction of the market’s 29,000 coins. And he hopes to use that claim to delay the sell-off of the government’s stash until he’s been charged and brought to trial. “I think they forgot about little old me,” he writes to me in an email. “It will be cool if an old hippy can throw a spanner in the big FBI machine.”
On October 2nd–also Ward’s 52nd birthday–he says British agents broke down his unlocked door, arrested him, and seized all of his electronic devices, as well as a collection of his drug-related merchandise. (They took his personal stash of cocaine and marijuana, too, he admits. “The coke was on the mirror ready for my birthday line when I returned from the post office,” Ward writes.)
In the questioning that followed, Ward says he told agents of the UK’s National Crime Agency that despite his active presence on the Silk Road, his bitcoins were earned legally. He says he was then released on bail and has yet to be charged with anything.
All of that means the FBI, who were in communication with the NCA, should have considered Ward’s claim to some of the Silk Road bitcoins, according to Steven L. Kessler, an asset forfeiture lawyer who Ward is in the process of retaining. “The statute requires that if the government of the United States has knowledge of an individual with an asset subject to forfeiture, the owner has to get notice,” says Kessler. “Clearly after you’ve arrested a person, you have direct knowledge.”
Just because most of the items listed for sale on the Silk Road were contraband doesn’t mean Ward should be painted with the same brush, Kessler argues. He uses an analogy familiar to fans of the show “Breaking Bad.” ”Laundromats that are fronts for illegal activities still have washers and dryers,” he says. “The operation of the washing and drying machines, barring another argument, isn’t illegal. Whirlpool isn’t going to be charged with illegal activity because they’re supplying the equipment.”
I’ve contacted the FBI for comment on whether it failed to consider Ward’s claim for his bitcoins, and I’ll update this post if I hear back.
In the mean time, Ward says he’s asking for Bitcoin donations to fund his legal battle, and says he hopes it ends with the return of what he claims are his legal earnings. But if his efforts result instead in a protracted showdown that delays the sale of the Silk Road’s bitcoins, he tells me he’d be just as happy. “They are my coins and I don’t want the FBI to use them for their nefarious purposes,” he says. “But who wouldn’t want to stick it to the man if they had the chance?”
With reporting contributed by Runa Sandvik in Washington, DC.
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Follow me on Twitter, email me, anonymously send me sensitive documents or tips, and check out the new paperback edition of my book, This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers.
See also on Forbes:
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Jacob Steinberg | 3.00pm BST
Who’s ready for another season of Alan Pardew? No doubt Manuel Pellegrini can’t wait to renew acquaintances with the grown man who called him a “fucking old cunt” when they last met. Let’s hope Pards has calmed down since that fateful January afternoon, although he probably has now that he’s got that and his desire to headbutt David Meyler out of his system. He’s going to be a changed man this season.
And wouldn’t Newcastle like a season of calm? To be fair, they did all right at times last year, especially before Christmas, but then it all went pear-shaped after they surrendered meekly in the third round of the FA Cup and sold Yohan Cabaye. It was a sign of Mike Ashley’s lack of ambition and then they went and told supporters that they can’t be expected to try to win trophies because it’s a proven FACT, that’s right, a FACT that simply cannot be countered by logic or reason, that doing so would inevitably lead to relegation, another Police Academy film and the end of the universe. Winning stuff? No, no, no, you’ve got it all wrong chaps, it’s the bottom line you want to be concerned about.
But Newcastle have - get this - made some interesting signings this summer, Siem De Jong, Remy Cabella and Daryl Janmaat standing out in particular, and should give Manchester City a good game today. They will be encouraged by the way that City dozed through last week’s Community Shield, not that that really told us much, and the mess they made the last time they tried to defend their title. But that was when Roberto Mancini was in charge and the atmosphere was rather more febrile than it is now under Pellegrini. City have improved in key areas, they have given Yaya Toure his birthday cake and they still have the strongest squad - and what’s more, they’ve won their last 10 matches against Newcastle and haven’t lost to them since 2005.
Kick-off: 4pm.
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Tricia Duryee | Los Angeles-based HelloTech, which wants to be the Uber of tech support, has raised $12.5 million in a first round of capital.
The company, which was co-founded and led by Richard Wolpert, the former chief strategy officer of RealNetworks, uses college students to help fix common tech problems around the home, ranging from WiFi connectivity issues to sluggish computers.
The round was led by Seattle’s Madrona Venture Group, with participation from all existing institutional investors, including Upfront Ventures, CrossCut Ventures and Accel Partners. To date, the company has raised $17 million in total.
Madrona Venture Group managing director Len Jordan, who will join the company’s board, worked together with Wolpert when they were both at RealNetworks.
After launching in May, HelloTech now serves a population of 3 million people around the Los Angeles area, who can summon a tech support within 24 hours by logging into their computer, a smartphone or making a phone call. In some cases, a person can show up on the same day.
Like many other on-demand companies, HelloTech has a workforce of independent contractors. In this case, it’s leveraging mostly college students who work about 5 to 12 hours a week. The company conducts both criminal and DMV background checks on the students, but also screen them to make sure they are capable of fixing more than 60 different tech issues.
Visits are billed at $79 an hour. In a very small percent of the cases, the company says they’ve had to send in a tech with more experience. No refunds have been requested to date.
With the additional funding HelloTech plans to expand into other major metropolitan markets. First up is Orange County with a list of undisclosed cities coming soon.
“It’s clear that HelloTech has struck a chord with our consumers and investors as technology in the home has become as important as common utilities such as electricity, water and telephone service,” Wolpert said, in a release. “Everyone has had the experience of something new and cool just not working and almost everyone in the technology industry has been called in to help fix tech issues for someone else, usually their parents or grandparents.”
In addition to fixing a customer’s tech problems, HelloTech also wants to sell customers the latest smart devices for the home, including wireless music systems, Internet controlled thermostats, digital door locks, and video surveillance systems. The company already partners with technology companies such as Sonos, Nest, Belkin, Linksys, WeMo, Ring, Lifelock, and iDrive.
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Owen Jarus | The jug with treasure was found just to the north of a "massive structure," as the researchers call it, which may be a tower overlooking a valley.Robert Mullins/Azusa Pacific University
A jug containing silver earrings and ingots has been discovered at the ancient biblical city of Abel Beth Maacah in Israel.
Found to the north of a massive structure that may be a tower, the jug and its treasure appear to date back to about 3,200 years ago, long before minted coins were invented, archaeologists said. Curiously, they found no sign that the treasure was hidden, and no one appears to have gone back for it, they added.
"We found it in a small jug leaning against a wall, apparently on a dirt floor," said researchers Robert Mullins, Nava Panitz-Cohen and Ruhama Bonfil in an email to Live Science. "It didn't seem to have been deliberately hidden in a niche or any other hidey-hole."
Panitz-Cohen and Mullins are co-directors of an excavation at the ancient city in Israel that found the treasure last summer, and Bonfil is the excavation surveyor and researcher. They published their initial findings recently in the journal Strata. [See Photos of Biblical City and Silver Treasure]
Why the treasure was not retrieved, and apparently not even hidden, is a mystery. "Perhaps the family needed to leave their home suddenly and hoped to return to retrieve this jug and its contents, but were unable to," the researchers said. Afterward, "this area was covered by accumulating debris and earth over the centuries, [and] no one knew that the treasure was there," they added.
The "massive structure," as the researchers called it in their journal article, may be a tower that overlooked the Huleh Valley. At some point, the structure fell out of use, and the area to the north of it was used for homes. The treasure may date to that time.
The site, now called Tell Abil el-Qameh,was first identified as Abel Beth Maacah in the 19th century based on its location and historical accounts, although little excavation has been done there until now.
Silver treasure
When the treasure was discovered, the silver was bunched together in what looked like a big ball. After conservator Mimi Lavi, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology, cleaned the ancient silver, the team saw that it consisted of five hoop earrings.
They also found an enigmatic silver object that looks like a twisted knot, as well as several ingots or scrap pieces of silver that would have been used for monetary transactions. At the time, the treasure was abandoned, minted coins had not been invented and the pieces of silver would have been used for trade.
The earrings could have been worn by men as well as women, the researchers noted. "We know from ancient iconography and from burials that men also wore jewelry, so it is possible that these were not just female ornaments," the researchers said.
A period of collapse
The period around 3,200 years ago was a time when many cities were destroyed and some civilizations collapsed. Ancient records indicate an enigmatic group called the "Sea People" descended on the Middle East, leading to chaos in the region, although they do not appear to have settled in the area of Abel Beth Maacah.
Archaeologists are unsure how these events affected Abel Beth Maacah or if they have any bearing on the silver treasure. [Photos: The 7 Ancient Wonders of the World]
"It seems most likely that Canaanites were 'in charge' or at least were the main inhabitants" of Abel Beth Maacah, the researchers said. If the city did suffer any destruction, it could have been abandoned for a time and perhaps repopulated by returning Canaanites or by Israelite tribes. "Hopefully, next season, we will be closer to some answers," the researchers said of their forthcoming dig at the site.
Biblical city
The city was used for a long period of time after the silver treasure was abandoned and is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible.
According to scripture, a Benjaminite named Sheba ben Bichri, who was rebelling against King David, took refuge in the city. A man named Joab pursued him there and laid siege. A "wise woman," as the text calls her, protested this action, saying Abel Beth Maacah is part of Israel.
"We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the Lord's inheritance?" (From 2 Samuel 20:14-22, New International Version)
The siege ended when the city's inhabitants killed the rebel and threw his head from the wall. Some scholars believe that King David would have lived about 3,000 years ago, roughly two centuries after the silver treasure was abandoned. While the biblical story doesn't shed light on why the treasure was abandoned, it illustrates the importance of the city in the time to come.
Mullins is also a professor at Azusa Pacific University, and Panitz-Cohen and Bonfil are with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology.
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Tim Chester | LONDON — Next time you use a wet wipe, do nature a favour and put it in the bin.
The common tendency to flush wet wipes down the toilet is based in the mistaken belief that they easily disintegrate, but in reality, they are causing an influx of the wipes on Britain's beaches, according to a new report from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).
In fact, the number discovered on beaches grew by more than 50% in 2014, per the report, and averaged out at more than 35 wipes per kilometre of beach. Pretty rank.
More than 5,000 volunteers combed 301 beaches in the UK between Sept. 12 and Sept. 22 last year, collecting 2,457 bits of litter per kilometre, which was an increase of 6.4% compared to 2013.
They found all sorts of garbage dotted across the beaches, including fishing nets and cigarette butts — as well as a variety of items that started their journeys in toilet bowls, such a sanitary towels and panty liners.
Some of the more bizarre items included a colostomy bag, a plastic hand, a piping gun nozzle and a bra strap.
Image: Marine Conservation Society
The report stated the common misconception that wet wipes, including face wipes and makeup removal wipes, are flushable. But they don't break down like toilet tissue because they're made of tougher fibres. Some even contain plastic such as polyester.
"They can cause blockages in our sewers, and then, everything else that has been flushed down the loo can either back up into people's homes, or overflow into rivers and seas," MCS beach watch officer Charlotte Coombes told the BBC. "Overflows also happen during excessive rainfall or if the plumbing hasn't been connected up properly, meaning the wrong pipes head straight to the sea. That's when we find sewage-related debris, including wet wipes, on the beach."
It's not just Brits who contribute to these sandy trash pits; rubbish was collected from Holland, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and as far afield as Japan, China and Russia.
The report also found that Wales is particularly guilty of waste; the amount of litter per kilometre there is more than 2.5 times that of the UK as a whole, and most of that comes from fishing.
A spokeswoman for Keep Britain Tidy offered a simple guide for anyone struggling to work out what a toilet is for.
“There’s three things that should go into a toilet. Putting it crudely, they are pee, poo and paper."
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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Hannah Crouch | David Stark was banned for three years after CCTV captured the moment a group of mothers grappled him
A BOOZED up man who stopped from driving by a mob of mums who wrestled car keys out of his hands has been banned from the roads.
David Stark, 59, who was was caught on CCTV staggering into his car, received a three-year ban after he was found to be nearly three times the drink driving limit.
SWNS:South West News Service 9 David Stark, 59, has been banned for three years for drink driving after he was found be three times the driving limit
SWNS:South West News Service 9 A group of mothers were caught on CCTV grappling with Stark and wrestling his car keys out of his hands
SWNS:South West News Service 9 A mum who has been watching him walks up to the car, having noticed Clark could be unfit to drive
SWNS:South West News Service 9 She is captured speaking with him as she apparently tries to dissuade him from driving in his alleged state
Stark, of Cleethorpes, North East Lincs, was also fined £350 with costs of £85 and a surcharge of £35.
Grimsby Magistrates’ Court heard that Stark had been to his allotment and drank a can of lager and part of a second can before going to the shop.
A group of quick-thinking mothers were caught on CCTV grappling with Stark.
He is pictured approaching his car and taking his time opening the door - at this point a women who has been watching him walks over and holds the car door open so he cannot close it.
Another woman joins her and they both grab for his keys.
It looks as though they do not manage to obtain the car keys the first time around, as he climbs out of the car, locks the door and walks away.
Moments later he is seen to walk back to the car from the other direction and tries to get in, but is blocked by one of the women.
He eventually opens the door and gets in the car again, but more people join in and can be seen trying to reason with him to get hold of the keys.
SWNS:South West News Service 9 More mums come over to the car to help and they try to get the keys from his hand
SWNS:South West News Service 9
The crowd grows as they decide to force him to give up the keys and be unable to drive
SWNS:South West News Service 9 The scene on Wollaston Rd Cleethorpes where police recovered a car after a group of women stopped the driver who they suspected of being drunk
After grappling with the women, Clark loses his keys and walks off.
This all happened at the same time the nearby Havelock Academy in Cleethorpes, North East Lincs, was closing for the day and children would have been walking home.
Humberside Police were called to the incident and seized the car.
A nearby shopkeeper, who also helped stopped the man from driving off, said: "If he had driven off and hit a child, bearing in mind it was near school closing time - how could you live with your conscience?
"If it had not been for the other mums we would not have stopped him - all I could think of was what could happen if he drove off."
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I will be getting them some chocolates for what they did."
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Photographer Carl Leslie, who arrived later at the scene, said: "When I first turned up I could see all the women trying to stop him.
"There were some workmen across the road who said the police had been alerted."
Carl added: "The women deserve the credit for trying to stop him - they succeeded in getting the keys."
A Humberside police spokesman said: "We have the public's full support in preventing such incidents, as it puts everyone's life at risk.
SWNS:South West News Service 9 CCTV footage shows a group of concerned women taking action when they suspected a man was trying to drive a vehicle when it appeared he was "unfit" to do so
SWNS:South West News Service 9 Police recover the car after the man accused of drink driving was stopped from being able to use the vehicle
"This incident shows how the public can work with the police to ensure suspected unfit drivers don't drive their vehicles and therefore protect pedestrians, cyclist and other road users."
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Peter High | Gartner just concluded its Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013 in Orlando, gathering tens of thousands of IT executives. Among the most anticipated aspects of the gathering are the ruminations from the Gartner pontificators regarding IT trends. Among several trends shared were the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014. Here is a summary of those trends:
Mobile Device Diversity and Management
Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable. The unintended consequence of bring your own device (BYOD) programs has been to render much more complex (by two or three times, Gartner estimates) the size of the mobile workforce, straining both the information technology and the finance organizations. It is recommended that companies better define expectations for employee-owned hardware to balance flexibility with confidentiality and privacy requirements.
Mobile Apps and Applications
Gartner predicts that through 2014, improved JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5 and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application development environment. As a consequence, it was suggested that developers focus on expanding user interface models including richer voice and video that can connect people in new and different ways. Apps will grow and applications will shrink, continuing a trend that has been documented for a while now. The market for creating apps continues to be very fragmented (Gartner estimates that there are over 100 potential tool vendors), and consolidation is not likely to happen in earnest for a while. It is suggested that ‘the next evolution in user experience will be to leverage intent, inferred from emotion and actions, to motivate changes in end-user behavior.”
In Pictures: Gartner’s 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2013
The Internet of Everything
The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. The problem is that most enterprises and technology vendors have yet to explore the possibilities of an expanded Internet and are not operationally or organizationally ready. Gartner identifies four basic usage models that are emerging:
Manage
Monetize
Operate
Extend
These can be applied to people, things, information, and places, and therefore the so called “Internet of Things” will be succeeded by the “Internet of Everything.”
Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker
Gartner suggests that bringing together personal clouds and external private cloud services is essential. Enterprises should design private cloud services with a hybrid future in mind and make sure future integration/interoperability is possible. Early hybrid cloud services will likely be more static, engineered compositions, and Gartner suggests that more deployment compositions will emerge as cloud service brokerages evolve.
Cloud/Client Architecture
As the power and capability of many mobile devices increases, the increased demand on networks, the cost of networks, and the need to manage bandwidth use “creates incentives, in some cases, to minimize the cloud application computing and storage footprint, and to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device.” Gartner also notes that as mobile users continue to demand more complex uses of their mobile technologies, it will drive a need for higher levels of server-side computing and storage capacity.
The Era of Personal Cloud
The push for more personal cloud technologies will lead to a shift toward services and away from devices. The type of device one has will be less important, as the personal cloud takes over some of the role that the device has traditionally had with multiple devices accessing the personal cloud.
Software Defined Anything
Software-defined anything (SDx) is defined by “improved standards for infrastructure programmability and data center interoperability driven by automation inherent to cloud computing, DevOps and fast infrastructure provisioning.” Dominant vendors in a given sector of an infrastructure-type may elect not to follow standards that increase competition and lower margins, but end-customer will benefit from simplicity, cost reduction opportunities, and the possibility for consolidation.
Web-Scale IT
Large cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com, and the like are re-inventing the way in which IT services can be delivered. Gartner points out that the capabilities of these companies exceed the “scale in terms of sheer size to also include scale as it pertains to speed and agility.” The suggestion is that IT organizations should align with and emulate the processes, architectures, and practices of these leading cloud providers. The combination of the aforementioned three among others is how Gartner defines “Web-scale IT.”
Smart Machines
Gartner suggests that the “the smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.” These will include the proliferation of
contextually aware, intelligent personal assistants
smart advisors (e.g., IBM IBM
advanced global industrial systems
autonomous vehicles
The company also projects that smart machines will strengthen the forces of consumerization after enterprise buying commences in earnest.
3-D Printing
The growth of 3-D printers is projected to be 75 percent in the coming year, and 200 percent in 2015. Gartner suggests that “the consumer market hype has made organizations aware of the fact 3-D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.”
Also on Forbes: Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Tech Trends For 2013
Peter High is the President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He is also the author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs, and the moderator of the Forum on World Class IT podcast series. To read his series on CIO-pluses, visit this link. To read his series profiling CIOs who have risen beyond that role, visit this link. Follow him on Twitter @WorldClassIT.
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Kathy Ehrich Dowd | A relic from the past turned into a modern-day hassle for thousands of Germans on Christmas morning.
About 54,000 residents of the southern city of Augsburg were forced from their homes Sunday morning following the discovery of a 1.8-ton bomb during construction of an underground parking garage, CNN reports.
The antique explosive is believed to be a bomb the British dropped on the city during World War II, the site reports.
Although the bomb was discovered last week, officials chose to detonate it on Christmas morning — a day deemed less difficult than a regular working day — after it was determined that the bomb was not an immediate threat, the BBC reports.
Germans generally celebrate the holiday on Christmas Eve, so Sunday was deemed to be a less disruptive day, according to reports.
About 32,000 households were required to evacuate while the bomb was being detonated, and the city opened local schools and gymnasiums for locals to seek shelter during the disruption.
Residents were reportedly allowed back into the homes just after 7 p.m., with the city announcing on its official Facebook page that the bomb had been successfully detonated.
“Aircraft bomb disarmed — these brave men are the real heroes of this historical day. Thank you deep down from the heart,” Augsburg’s mayor, Kurt Gribl, also wrote in German on his Twitter account.
#Fliegerbombe entschärft – diese mutigen Männer sind die wahren Helden dieses geschichtsträchtigen Tages. Von Herzen: Danke. pic.twitter.com/9mxrWnKHR9 — Kurt Gribl (@politikurt) December 25, 2016
World War II-era bombs have caused problems in Germany for decades. Last year, a construction worker died after his vehicle hit an unexploded bomb in Euskirchen, the BBC reports. Last year, approximately 20,000 people were temporarily forced from their homes after a bomb was discovered in Cologne.
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Todd Spangler | Yahoo has flunked out of Greendale Community College. Its failure to forge a business from the revival of Dan Harmon’s cult comedy “Community” and two other scripted series is emblematic of the once-mighty Internet company’s muddled biz strategy overall.
The botched run at programming at primetime-level costs, which was supposed to draw on marketers’ TV budgets to reach Yahoo’s billion-user global base, is another black eye for CEO Marissa Mayer. While investors aren’t clamoring for her head yet, the clock is ticking for Yahoo to prove its ability to grow profitably.
Mayer and chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt — the lieutenant who oversaw Yahoo’s content efforts until quitting last month to join independent studio STX Entertainment — had ballyhooed “Community” as anchoring a bold new premium-content strategy to round out its live and short-form video pillars.
But viewers, and the ad bucks to support the shows, weren’t materializing at the pace Yahoo had hoped, especially considering the seven-year horizon laid out to recoup the cost of the productions. On its third-quarter earnings call last week, the company revealed that it took a $42 million write-down on “Community,” basketball comedy “Sin City Saints” and “Other Space,” a sci-fi spoof from Paul Feig.
“We thought long and hard about it, and what we concluded is … we couldn’t see a way to make money over time,” chief financial officer Ken Goldman told analysts concerning the three series.
With Yahoo’s change in strategy, it has dropped plans for twentysomething comedy “The Pursuit,” from exec producers Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark, and director-exec producer Beth McCarthy Miller.
Yahoo isn’t officially calling it quits on big-budget originals. But “we are taking a pause on long-form scripted content,” said Lisa Utzschneider, Yahoo’s chief revenue officer, adding that the company has no plans to order additional content for “Community,” produced by Sony Pictures TV.
Yahoo didn’t spend much to market the shows, largely counting on “Community” fans to rally after NBC axed the sitcom. Meanwhile, Yahoo fronted a relatively small lineup amid an intensely crowded market for high-caliber TV content, and it simply doesn’t have a brand people associate with lean-back entertainment. “TV is not their core competency,” said John Blackledge, senior Internet analyst at Cowen & Co. “They don’t have the budget to go after the best content against Netflix, Amazon, Hulu or the networks.”
Ultimately, Yahoo didn’t have the time — or the willingness to make long-term investments — reach the scale to make ad-supported TV shows work, lacking subscription revenue or pay-TV fees the traditional ecosystem relies on. The dilemma is that if Yahoo had acquired additional shows, the endeavor might have been an even costlier debacle.
“On the one hand, Yahoo’s been the only digital-first media company to meaningfully pursue television (advertising) dollars,” said Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group. “But the reason nobody else has done it is because the economics are terrible.”
If Yahoo’s entertainment woes invoke a sense of deja vu, that’s because this isn’t its first failure in that arena; when former Warner Bros. CEO Terry Semel ran the company 10 years ago, ambitions to be more like TV were similarly thwarted.
And Yahoo appears to have had another money-losing fumble on its hands with the free livestream of the NFL’s Oct. 25 Bills-Jaguars game from London. Yahoo reportedly paid the NFL at least $15 million for streaming rights, and the companies claim to have garnered 15.2 million unique viewers worldwide.
But exactly how long those users watched the game on average was unclear, given that Yahoo auto-played the livestream on several destinations. Factoring in production and streaming costs, “There was no way for them to make back” the investment, said streaming-industry expert Dan Rayburn.
The $42 million charge for the three shows contributed to another disappointing quarter for Yahoo. It reported Q3 revenue of $1.23 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 15¢, vs. Wall Street expectations of $1.26 billion in sales and EPS of 17¢.
Worse, the company cut its fourth-quarter revenue forecast to between $1.16 billion and $1.2 billion, compared with average analyst expectations of $1.33 billion.
“The core business is decaying faster than they think,” Blackledge said.
The poor results and outlook led Mayer to promise that the company will focus on fewer products in 2016. Compounding her headaches, Yahoo has seen several recent high-level exec departures. In addition to Savitt’s exit, last week Jackie Reses, formerly Yahoo’s chief development officer, left to run the business-financing group of Jack Dorsey’s Square, while product senior VP Mike Kerns joined Chernin Group.
The departure of Savitt may have helped prompt Mayer, in triage mode with Yahoo’s larger financial woes and still struggling to prove the value of its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, to pull the plug on the scripted-originals strategy. Yahoo now has put Martha Nelson, previously a longtime Time Inc. senior editorial executive, in charge of its overall media strategy, including video.
There’s urgency for Mayer to demonstrate a clear and credible path forward. Yahoo’s spinoff of the remaining 15% stake it owns in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, previously expected to close in Q4, may be delayed until January.
Once that happens, investors will fully focus on Yahoo’s business metrics, and the strategy (or lack thereof) to fix them.
It’s unclear just how the fast-growing digital video space will figure in to Yahoo’s business going forward. “We’ll continue to invest in short-form video content, which is strategic for us,” Utzschneider said. Yahoo earlier had hinted it might pick up another season of “Community”; sources said Sony TV still has a film adaptation in play.
“They were sort of dabbling in long-form originals,” said VideoNuze analyst Will Richmond of Yahoo. “They’re dabbling in news with Katie Couric, and dabbling in sports with the NFL game. But it’s hard to do any one of those things well unless you’re all-in.”
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Howard Kurtz | Al-Jazeera America launched with plenty of lofty rhetoric about covering the world in a deeper way without the ideological baggage of the main channel in Qatar.
The new outfit hired a number of big-name journalists from such outlets as CNN, MSNBC and PBS, and hoped to establish a foothold in America with a global focus.
But the Al-Jazeera enterprise here just lost a chunk of its credibility, in my view, for the way its sister network, al-Jazeera English, has chosen to describe terrorism. Al-Jazeera English is the translated version of the Arab network based in Doha.
National Review has obtained an internal e-mail that speaks volumes about the channel’s approach to the issue. It’s an order to journalists not to use such terms as “terrorist,” “Islamist” and “jihad.”
Carlos Van Meek, a top executive, wrote to the Washington and New York newsrooms about words that trip them up. And I found this sentence chilling in its acceptance of immorality:
“One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.”
I understand the linguistic debate in, say, a civil war, where each side might be accused of killing civilians. But we all know what terrorists are: They are mass murderers who deliberately target innocent people in the service of some cause, often a religious one.
The people who behead journalists on camera are terrorists, not freedom fighters.
The people who killed the staff of Charlie Hedbo are terrorists, not freedom fighters.
The people who slaughtered Americans on 9/11 and Brits on 7/7 are terrorists, not freedom fighters.
But not to al-Jazeera English. Van Meek says the network should use “fighters” and “militants” instead: “For example, we can use the term [militant] to describe Norwegian mass-killer Andres Behring Breivik or Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.”
Got that? McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, but he was just a militant.
Extremist is verboten because al-Jazeera should “avoid characterizing people. Often their actions do the work for the viewer.” I’m sorry, journalists characterize people, and their motives, for a living.
“Do not use” the term Islamist, Van Meek said, because it’s “a simplistic label.”
Oh, and “strictly speaking, jihad means an inner spiritual struggle, not a holy war.”
This is the worst kind of political correctness, an effort to avoid calling out crimes against humanity in the name of linguistic neutrality.
When al-Jazeera America launched in 2013, its biggest challenge were the memories of its parent network appearing to have a cozy relationship with Al Qaeda, back in the days when it was a conduit for those Usama bin Laden videos threatening America. This al-Jazeera English memo reinforces the notion that a channel financed by the Qatari government is not truly independent of the Arab world’s prejudices.
It’s not like the network has been a commercial success since taking over the slot occupied by Al Gore’s Current. Al-Jazeera America has laid off staff and recently canceled its morning programming, to be replaced with canned stuff from Doha. As of last fall, the channel was averaging 14,000 viewers in daytime and 18,000 in primetime—almost a rounding error.
Now the independence of these English-language spinoffs are suspect as well.
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John Cook | Amazon.com senior vice president Jeff Wilke — like all top execs at the online retailing powerhouse — spends a lot of time reading.
As part of the company’s unusual culture, meetings at Amazon start with about 20 people in the room reading 6-page documents known as “narratives.” These documents lay out the details of what’s to come in the meeting, and staffers spend as much as 45 minutes reading them in silence. That style of meeting stands in stark contrast to other companies.
In 2014, Wilke read over 2,000 pages of single-spaced text — including 236 pages of press releases, nearly 800 pages of staff meetings, 707 pages of operating plans and over 500 pages of quarterly business reviews.
That’s a lot of text. So what are the most common terms and words that pop up in the documents that Wilke is reading?
At a talk Tuesday night at Seattle University about Amazon’s peculiar leadership principles, Wilke shared the top words in his “narratives.”
“I didn’t know how it would turn out,” said Wilke, who joined Amazon in 1999 and leads the company’s powerful consumer business. “I was delighted that ‘will’ implies a promise and that ‘customers’ is the second word. Whew!”
You can see all of the words above, which provide a bit of a roadmap of what’s on the minds of Amazon employees. Wilke said he was proud that “Prime” made it in the top 10, and he also noted that many of the words show up throughout the company’s 14 leadership principles.
Interestingly, during the question and answer portion of Wilke’s talk, an Amazon.com shareholder pressed the executive on why the word “mobile” was not higher on the list. Here’s what he said in response to the question:
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Juan Williams | When Richard Nixon made a show of quitting politics in 1962 he famously taunted his liberal critics in the media saying “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”
The question on my mind today is: what are conservatives going to do now that they don’t have Eric Holder to kick around anymore?
Holder announced Thursday that he will step down as the Attorney General of the United States as soon as his successor is confirmed. Given the poisonous politics in Congress these days and the prospect of a Republican takeover of the Senate next year, finding a successor who can win confirmation could take quite a while.
To my eyes Holder’s tenure is the latest episode of a much bigger political nightmare that has been going on for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Here’s how the first line of The New York Times story about the Holder resignation read: “Replacing Mr. Holder, who provoked the ire of Republicans as President Obama's chief liberal warrior, could be a political nightmare.”
To my eyes Holder’s tenure is the latest episode of a much bigger political nightmare that has been going on for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The Justice Department has devolved into the heart of Washington darkness, the absolute pit of modern political polarization in my lifetime.
In the last 20 years there is a direct line of partisan political attacks on the Justice Department from Waco to “Torture Memos” to the “Fast and Furious” episode. The GOP House hit bottom with its historically sad decision to hold this attorney general in contempt of Congress.
The truth is that Holder deserves to be celebrated as the attorney general who rebuilt a broken federal agency and restored its reputation.
Recall that it was the Bush Justice Department that gave us the U.S. Attorney scandals where federal prosecutors were encouraged to go after Democratic officials and political opponents of the president. It was also the Bush-era DOJ that gutted the Civil Rights Division which historically policed violations of civil rights and voting rights.
Holder, with the help of Thomas Perez, the former head of the civil right division and currently the labor secretary, restored that division’s integrity from the wreckage they inherited.
For Holder, civil rights issues were deeply personal. He is the brother-in-law of the late Vivian Malone, one of the African American students blocked from entering the University of Alabama by Governor George Wallace.
Unlike his predecessors, he aggressively pursued violations of Americans’ voting rights and asserted the Department’s power under the preclearance provision of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
When GOP governors and state legislatures tried to disenfranchise, young people, the poor and especially minority voters – central components of the Democratic coalition -- by ending early voting, purging voter rolls and requiring photo identification, Holder pushed back. That was not a political act. He stood up because anyone representing the Constitution has an obligation to defend every American’s right to vote.
As the nation’s first African American Attorney General, Holder gave conservatives heartburn when he said that in many respects, the U.S. had been “a nation of cowards” when it came to race. Holder’s words are important to maintaining trust in the nation’s system of justice among people of all races as the nation reaches new heights of racial diversity.
And note that he won support from conservatives like Senator Rand Paul , R-Ky. and Texas Governor Rick Perry in pushing for changes to mandatory minimums for low-level drug offenses that contribute to high rates of jail time for people of color.
Instead of supporting Holder in those efforts, the Republican House of Representatives took the unprecedented step of voting to hold him in contempt of Congress over the “Fast and Furious” operation. What the Republicans conveniently forgot is that the Justice Department’s first duty is as a law enforcement agency. Republican and Democratic prosecutors agree the documents supposedly being “withheld” were required for prosecution of criminals and would have been useless in court if they became political fodder.
Also, the GOP scandal mongers conveniently forgot that the “gun-walking” program started under the Bush administration and it was Holder who ended the program.
As with so many of the “controversies” Republicans attacked Holder over, the criticism said more about the critics than it did Holder.
But the larger problem for our government – politicization of the attorney general's role – neither began nor ended with Eric Holder.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy famously raised eyebrows by appointing his brother Bobby Kennedy as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. This put RFK in a position to cover JFK’s political back as the two brothers worked to advance what was, at the time, a very progressive agenda - especially on civil rights.
Republican Richard Nixon appointed one of his closest friends and campaign advisors, John Mitchell as Attorney General. Mitchell is widely regarded as the most corrupt Attorney General in U.S. history because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal and CREEP (the Committee to Re-elect the President). Mitchell served 19 months in prison because of the crimes he committed as Nixon’s A.G.
Republican Ronald Reagan was similarly criticized for appointed Edwin Meese as his attorney general. Meese had been one of Reagan’s closest friends and political advisers, having served as his chief of staff when he was governor of California. Meese was said to be instrumental in protecting Reagan from the political fallout of the Iran Contra Affair. Meese resigned as attorney general when he came under investigation from a special prosecutor.
In the modern era, President Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno became a lightning rod for controversy and criticism for Republicans in Congress. Reno is best remembered for botched federal raid of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993 and the return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba in 1999.
President George W. Bush appointed John Ashcroft as attorney general, a fierce right-wing partisan who had served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. Ashcroft and his successor Alberto Gonzalez were instrumental in providing the legal justification for the most extreme anti-terrorism actions of the Bush administration. For Ashcroft, it was the USA PATRIOT ACT. For Gonzalez, it was the so-called “Torture Memos” which the Bush administration relied on for its coerced interrogations and waterboarding of terror suspects.
My point in relaying this abridged history of the recent attorneys generals is to show that the Justice Department was deeply politicized before Holder ever arrived.
It used to be that being an experienced, skilled legal mind was enough for that job. Now, nominees have to be a good politician as well.
Have we forgotten that the attorney general is supposed to be an independent, non-partisan law enforcement officer?
You can bet that the next attorney general – whether he or she is appointed by President Hillary Clinton or President Ted Cruz – will be another lightning rod for all the political hate and division in our country.
History will soon write that Holder’s tenure was a light of hope during a dreadful era of political games at the Department of Justice.
Juan Williams is a co-host of FNC's "The Five," where he is one of seven rotating Fox personalities. Additionally, he serves as FNC's political analyst, a regular panelist on "Fox News Sunday" and "Special Report with Bret Baier" and is a regular substitute host for "The O'Reilly Factor." He joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 1997 as a contributor. Click here for more information on Juan Williams.
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Colin | An enormous bomb leveled a luxury hotel in Aleppo, Syria that government soldiers were using as a base on Thursday, reportedly causing many casualties, though exact numbers are unknown.
The blast demolished the Carlton Hotel, according to the Associated Press. The hotel was located on government-held turf but sat on the dividing line between the area state forces control and territory run by the rebels. A British organization called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the AP that at least 14 government soldiers died in the explosion, but Syria's largest rebel faction, the Islamic Front, claimed responsibility for the blast and said it killed 50 troops.
Rebels allegedly carved out tunnels underneath the hotel, packed them with explosives and detonated the bomb remotely. A shorter video of the blast is below.
Video: YouTube, The Islamic Front
This is the second time the Syrian Islamic Front has used bomb-stuffed tunnels to attack the Carlton. They first had success in February when they caused the building to partially collapse, and they've used tunnels in assaults on government positions in other regions of the country. Below is the full video of the Aleppo blast.
The blow to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military comes just a day after they had won a major symbolic victory. Rebel forces had evacuated the city of Homs on Wednesday under a case-fire agreement brokered by the United Nations. Homs is just one of several key battlegrounds in the country, but especially significant because it is known as the "capital of the revolution."
Fighting in Syria's civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and large swaths of several major cities have been reduced to rubble in the three-year-long battle between government forces and several rebel groups.
Despite the brief truce in Homs, citizens and fighters in Aleppo are experiencing no such calm. Syria's largest city, like many others, is split between rebel and government troops and has been that way since rebels first attacked there back in 2012.
Assad's forces and rebel fighters have bombed and launched mortars at each other over the past few months, according to the AP. Rebels have reportedly killed dozens by setting off car bombs in residential districts.
Though the Islamic Front has not been designated a terrorist group by the United States, many Western groups consider it to be an extremist organization. This notion is believed to be why Western nations such as the United States have decided to not support rebel forces.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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John Cook | Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is trying to give away his fortune. But he may have to try a little bit harder.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gates added $7 billion to his net worth during 2012, making him the second richest person in the world and the richest American tech billionaire.
The rise in Gates’ net worth comes even as Microsoft’s stock, which accounts for less than 20 percent of the billionaire’s fortune, rose just 2.9 percent last year.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos also saw his net worth rise, driven largely by the 45 percent gains in the online retailer’s stock in 2012. That means Bezos is worth more than the Google co-founders, and ranked 20th on the list.
Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecommunications mogul, was the richest person on the planet with an estimated net worth of $76.4 billion, according to the report. (Full list here). In total, those on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index added $241 billion during 2012, and just 16 of the 100 people on the list saw their net worth decline in 2012.
Previously on GeekWire: The top tech stocks of 2012: Shares of Expedia take off
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Blair Hanley Frank | Rhapsody subscribers, get ready to samba.
Through a partnership with Latin American carrier Telefónica, Rhapsody will be extending the reach of its Napster brand to Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Mexico. As a part of the partnership, Telefónica will be shutting down its Sonora streaming service, which is run through a subsidiary, and extending Rhapsody subscription offers to its mobile phone users.
In addition, Telefónica is the first carrier to release a Firefox OS-based smartphone, which means that Rhapsody will have a presence on the Firefox OS in addition to its apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.
“At Rhapsody, we have a rich history of providing music lovers instant, anywhere, anytime access to an unlimited catalog of music,” Rhapsody senior vice president and global head of product Paul Springer said in a press release. “We value product innovation and partnerships, and you’ll see both through this Telefonica relationship. As global smartphone usage continues to rise, particularly in Latin America, we are thrilled to put more music in the hands of music fans across the globe.”
It’s a big move for Rhapsody, which just last month laid off 15 percent of its staff as president Jon Irwin stepped down from the company’s board, while Columbus Nova Technology partners took up an equity stake in the company.
Previously on GeekWire: Shakeup: Rhapsody cuts 15% of workforce, president out as new investor arrives
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Josh Dickey | Seth Meyers told jokes at the Emmys, because Seth Meyers tells jokes.
Meyers did not sing or dance, because he doesn't do either of those things. (Jimmy Fallon does those things). He didn't embarrass celebrities to their faces, because he doesn't do that, either. (Jimmy Kimmel does that.)
See also: 18 Weirdest Moments at the 2014 Emmy Awards
Meyers writes and tells jokes about current events. That's where we set the bar — and on Monday night, he cleared it by telling jokes about the most current event of the moment: the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, held on a Monday night for the first time since 1976.
Come to think of it, Meyers got a lot of mileage out of the Monday thing: "Welcome to the Emmy awards. This year we're doing it on a Monday in August, which if I understand television, means the Emmys are about to get canceled."
If Meyers had attempted a stunty skit or a song-and-dance routine, he would have caught hell for it. So he stuck to the jokes.
Seth Meyers, totally acceptable Emmys host. Image: NBC
Meyers continued:
HBO is like the kid you grew up with who ended up doing way better than you expected. 99 nominations. When I first met HBO all he had was Grease 2 and Fraggle Rock. I wish I was nicer to him. 'You guys want to watch Poltergeist?' 'We watched it yesterday HBO, how many times do you think people want to watch the same movie?' 'One day I’m going to make a show about dragons.' 'OK buddy, best of luck.'
If Meyers had tried to rib Matthew McConaughey in his seat, it would have been really awkward. So he let Kimmel do that instead.
Sure, he's willing to elbow you a little...
I’d like to take a minute to congratulate the writers in the room tonight, but their seats are too far away to hear me.
He's willing to give you a little friendly grief...
Streaming made a huge impact this year with Netflix getting nominated for 31 Emmys. And no one is happier to see streaming services take nominations away from cable than network television. Not very nice when someone younger comes along, is it cable?
And maybe even outright make fun of those he doesn't quite agree with politically.
Game of Thrones was the most pirated show, and Duck Dynasty was the most VHS-taped show.
But most of the time, when Meyers is poking fun at someone, he's balancing it out by poking fun at himself:
We're doing it on a Monday in part because MTV aired the Video Music Awards. Yes, MTV still has an award for music videos, even though they no longer show music videos. That's like networks holding an award show and giving all the trophies to cable and Netflix. That would be crazy! Why would they do that?
Sigh, there's that Monday thing again.
When Meyers does lower the boom on something, it's usually an easy target:
We had comedies that made you laugh and comedies that made you cry, because they were dramas submitted as comedies. There has been some controversy over which category which shows were submitted in. Orange Is the New Black was submitted as a comedy rather than a drama. True Detective was submitted as a drama rather than a miniseries. And Bachelor in Paradise was submitted.
Seth Meyers meeting expectations alongside Billy Eichner at the Emmys. Image: Mark Davis/NBC
There was, however, a really funny bit on the street with Billy Eichner! Of course, that was all Billy Eichner (and the segment had nothing to do with TV, really). Meyers was kind of just a prop.
Back to the jokes — which, come to think of it, aren't quite jokes, per se. More like clever observations and syllogisms:
That’s what I love about television. She doesn’t pay hard to get. She doesn’t demand your full attention. Television has always been the booty-call friend of entertainment. You don’t ever have to ask TV 'You Up?’ TV is always up. She will happily entertain you will you cook dinner or wrap your Christmas presents. She’s not like that high-maintenance diva movies who expects you to put on pants, drive all the way over to her house and buy $40 worth of soda. So thanks anyway movies, I’m sticking with TV.
And look, that's not a bad thing. That's just Seth Meyers being Seth Meyers, and we love him for it. Right down to the last "Monday" crack:
Thank you and goodnight everybody! Have a great evening — only four days until the weekend!
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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Gersh Kuntzman | No disrespect to the jury in the Erin Andrews case, but I can't breathe.
The Fox Sports reporter just got a $55 million award for the pain and suffering of being videotaped naked in a Nashville hotel room in 2008.
ERIN ANDREWS TELLS JURY SHE VOMITED BEFORE SEEING NUDE VIDEO
Fifty five million dollars because people got to see Erin Andrews naked on the Internet.
But Erin Andrews is still alive and, as the defendants in the case argued, is certainly thriving. She's free to go on "Dancing with the Stars" or schmooze with NFL players. But a jury felt her pain — and treated the symptoms with cash. America, what a country.
Saxon/AP ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, with her attorney Marshall Grossman, broke down in tears after facing her convicted stalker Michael Barrett for the first time.
Such a huge jury verdict makes a mockery of real pain and genuine suffering.
Eric Garner, 43, was choked to death by an NYPD cop on a city street. The medical examiner ruled it a homicide. His family got $5.9 million.
ERIN ANDREWS SEEKING $75 MILLION IN NAKED HOTEL VID CASE
The family of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, killed in that "rough ride" in a Baltimore police van in 2015, got $6.4 million.
Cleveland police shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice — and his mother had to fight for an apology. And she got hit with an ambulance bill.
I'm not comparing the value of lives taken by the state to a celebrity's embarrassment at being seen naked — because there's simply no comparison. Juries are notorious for reacting with emotion and treating the judicial system like a big cash register — but at least in the recent $72 million ruling against Johnson & Johnson, the jury was reacting to a woman's death, supposedly from the company's talc.
Sam Costanza for New York Daily News Eric Garner died while being arrested by police in Staten Island on Thursday, July 17, 2014. His family recieved $5.9 million for his death. Enlarge Jamiea Speller Freddie Gray, seen here in an image taken by his fiance Jamiea Speller in the summer of 2013, died on April 19th while in police custody in Baltimore, MD. Gray's family recieved $6.4 million. Enlarge No disrespect to the jury in the Erin Andrews case, but the deaths of Eric Garner and Freddie Grey did not recieve nearly as much compensation.
By no means am I saying that Erin Andrews shouldn't be compensated for what happened to her. And we need juries to punish wrongdoing, including Marriott's failure to provide Andrews with a secure room.
But there has to be a better way to put a value on human life — and not mistake it for embarrassment.
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Felix Allen | EDWARD SNOWDEN has demonstrated how easy it is to hack into an electronic voting machine still used in several states where voters go to the polls today.
He showed his 2.4 million Twitter followers a video in which experts were able to change the number of votes for each candidate in the computer memory – and also alter the paper-trail backup.
6 Security experts were easily able to hack into a Sequoia AVC Edge voting machine and change results
YouTube / Cylance Inc. 6 Cylance researchers used a modified flash memory card costing £24 to tamper with the machine
He said hacking individual machines would be easy, but election officials would probably be able to detect fraud after polling day – which could be crucial if the result is contested.
Snowden said: “Researchers just demonstrated how to hack the official vote count with a $30 card.
“Little time to patch this vuln(erability), but can still forbid use of this model, run statistical analysis after polls close on rest to ID outliers.”
He added: “Hacking voting machines: not that difficult. Hiding a secret deviation in votes from after-the-fact statistical analysis: nearly impossible.”
Hacking voting machines: not that difficult. Hiding a secret deviation in votes from after-the-fact statistical analysis: nearly impossible. — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 7, 2016
The revelation comes as millions of Americans vote for their president today after the ugliest campaign in living memory – including claims by Donald Trump that the election is rigged.
In many US states voters record their choice by pressing a button or a computer touchscreen.
Now researchers at security firm Cylance have exploited a shocking vulnerability in one popular model of voting machine, the Sequoia AVC Edge Mk1.
It was widely used in 2008, and this year will still be used to tally votes in 13 states including swing battlegrounds Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A video shows how the experts were able to hack into the machine using a PC memory card costing £24.
YouTube / Cylance Inc. 6 The cyber experts were able to change voting numbers, candidates details and the location of the polling district
YouTube / Cylance Inc. 6 A printout appears to confirm the forged voting data in the test
In a few steps they were able to make votes for one candidate count as votes for a rival.
They also easily changed names of candidates and other details.
Then they inserted a modified PCMCIA flash memory card into the machine and restarted it.
The altered and false data was retained in the system on relaunch and was also transferred to a printed paper version at the click of a button, making the results appear genuine.
Cylance said: “With access to the physical machine, we were able to produce a forged update with false voting data.”
The company’s chief executive Stuart McClure said it was not only this model that was vulnerable but “anything that uses a touchscreen and compact flash model.”
Asked about the likelihood of such an attack on election day, he said: “We don’t have the threat intelligence to say it is going to happen, but we know it is quite easy and possible to do.”
6 The Sequoia AVC Edge voting machine was widely used in 2008 and is still used in 13 US states
Another security firm, Symantec, has previously revealed similar vulnerabilities in the AccuVote machine, used in Alaska, Utah and Georgia and in precincts in more than 15 other states.
They reprogrammed a PCMCIA flash storage card, the kind used to set up machines by election officials via a slot on the side.
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Security expert Brian Varner said he was able to reset the card to allow an individual to vote multiple times, and also managed to program the card itself to cast multiple votes.
He said: “Anyone who knows how to program a chip card and purchases a simple $15 Raspberry Pi-like device, could secretly reactivate their voter card while inside the privacy of a voting booth.
“There is a real issue in play here. The idea that every vote counts is at the heart of our democracy, so relying on outdated technology to count those votes can undermine confidence in the process that is central to our system of government.”
6 In many US states, voters touch a screen to cast their ballot in presidential and local elections and to choose officials such as judges
Republican candidate Donald Trump has been claiming for months the election is “rigged” and warned supporters polling fraud could keep him out of the White House.
Trump has said threatened he will not accept the result unless he wins.
His supporters have vowed to patrol outside polling stations to “check” for fraud – leading to fears of voter intimidation in districts with poor and ethnic minority electorates.
Pollsters have said the race for the White House is on a knife edge with fears of recriminations and even street violence if results are close.
In 2000 the result of the presidential election was delayed for weeks amid legal battles over recounts in the swing state of Florida.
It was finally settled in George W Bush’s favour, and he took the state by 537 votes – giving the majority to become president.
Follow our U.S. election live blog for all the latest news and results.
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Jason Abbruzzese | An extra zero or maybe a misplaced period — that's how small the error could be that led to a new nationwide Internet outage for Time Warner Cable customers.
TWC announced on Wednesday evening that its recent issues were due to a single mistake. The company's statement is full of jargon, but take a look for yourself:
See also: 9 Absolutely Petrifying Places on the Internet
During an overnight network maintenance activity in which we were managing IP addresses, an erroneous configuration was propagated throughout our national backbone, resulting in a network outage. We immediately identified and corrected the root cause of the issue and restored service by 7:30 a.m. ET. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused our customers. A failure of this size is very serious and we are taking the necessary steps to improve our processes with the objective of making sure this doesn’t happen again.
Here's what we know: Time Warner Cable was performing maintenance on its system. At some point, an IP address — a number that identifies a different device on a network — was changed that ended up causing a major problem.
Dan Rayburn, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, likened IP addressed to home addresses. If someone at Time Warner Cable accidentally entered the wrong IP address in an important place, it could end up causing a major outage like the one seen this week by trying to send data to the wrong device or even one that does not exist.
"Let's say you're having a party and everybody is coming to your house and you live at 10 Main Street, but you accidentally told everybody you live at 100 Main Street," he said.
Rayburn said it could be as simple as a worker accidentally mistyping an IP address that then ends up affecting the entire system.
TWC acknowledged that the outage was due to an internal error and was not the work of an outside actor.
It is important to note that no reports suggest the outage affected customers outside of the TWC network. The U.S. Internet infrastructure is complex, with numerous companies that provide a variety of services such as connectivity, website hosting, and content delivery.
TWC is what is known as a "last mile" provider, connecting users to the broader Internet.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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Melissa Chan | Fallen Olympic figure skater and doctor Debi Thomas is now living in a bed bug-infested trailer park where she's penniless and begging former fans for money, she revealed in a new interview.
The 48-year-old former athlete has hit rock bottom nearly 30 years after becoming the first African American to win the women's title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she told Iyanla Vanzant on the relationship expert's "Fix My Life" series.
"(I feel) frustrated," the once-trailblazing Thomas says before breaking down in tears in the emotional episode that aired Saturday on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
The two-time U.S. national champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist turned to the renowned life coach after "crippling life challenges" from two divorces left her family broke and forced her to shut down her medical practice in Virginia.
A desperate GoFundMe page she started about 10 months ago failed to raise even a quarter of what she had hoped.
Jonathan Fickies/Getty Images for Stargames Debi Thomas skates during The Caesars Tribute in 2010 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Enlarge JEROME DELAY/AFP/Getty Images Debi Thomas performs at the women's competition in 1988 in Calgary at the Winter Olympic Games. Enlarge Debi Thomas skates during The Caesars Tribute in 2010 in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the photo on the left. She performs at the women's competition in 1988 in Calgary at the Winter Olympic Games in the photo on the right.
Thomas is now living in a run-down mobile home in the Appalachian Mountains with her fiancé, who has admitted to having alcohol and anger issues, and his two children. She lost custody of her 13-year-old son.
"You got to a point where you couldn't afford to do anything other than live in a trailer. Is that what I'm hearing you say?" Vanzant asks before ripping into Thomas for only feeling "frustrated" at her heartbreaking circumstances.
"Not sad, not angry, not ashamed?" the TV host asks.
"No," Thomas responds.
Oprah Fallen Olympic skater Debi Thomas breaks down as she asks life coach Iyanla Vanzant to help turn her life around.
"Not guilty that you've got a man, two kids and a bedbug infestation in a trailer," Vanzant says. "Frustration is what you feel? Nothing else?"
Thomas starts to cry and shakes her head as Vanzant digs deeper, according to a short clip.
"This is what I know: You're living in a trailer in the Appalachian Mountains and your son ain't with you!" she shouts. "You're raising somebody else's children! So, you can tell me whatever you want to tell me. Telling yourself the truth is important."
The Poughkeepsie, New York native pursued a medical degree after graduating from Stanford University in 1991 and soon after became an orthopedic surgeon.
Debi Thomas/via GoFundMe Debi Thomas and her fiance, Jamie Looney, started a GoFundMe page to ask fans for help fixing their financial struggles.
Thomas lays out a list of ambitious prospective projects she had hoped to complete in the fundraising page that collected about $2,000 out of the $10,000 goal. One of her plans was to star in a reality TV show.
"What we need now is help keeping our heads above water until we can make our dreams a reality," she pleads in a video posted on the GoFundMe page.
The episode is aired on Saturday at 9 p.m.
mchan@nydailynews.com
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Christina Careaga | It's hard to forget Anne Hathaway's emotional Oscars acceptance speech in 2013.
As the actress recently revealed in an interview with The Guardian, however, those emotions might not have been what we thought they were.
”It’s an obvious thing," Hathaway explained, "You win an Oscar and you’re supposed to be happy. I didn’t feel that way."
SEE ALSO: 7 weird things you might not know about the Oscars
"I felt very uncomfortable," she continued, "I kind of lost my mind doing that movie and it hadn’t come back yet. Then I had to stand up in front of people and feel something I don’t feel which is uncomplicated happiness.”
Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Fantine in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables.
In her acceptance speech, Hathaway said, “Here’s hoping that someday...the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and nevermore in real life.” Of this, she told The Guardian,"I felt wrong...winning an award for portraying pain that still felt very much a part of our collective experience as human beings.”
"That’s the truth and that’s what happened," she continued, "It sucks. But what you learn from it is that you only feel like you can die from embarrassment, you don’t actually die.”
Watch her Oscars accpetance speech below.
Oh, Anne.
BONUS: Harry Potter but with hamsters.
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Monica Nickelsburg | Seattle’s rising rent prices lead to a lot of housing turnover — which leads to a lot of extra work for landlords. That’s fine for property management companies with the resources to focus on their rentals full-time. But for mom-and-pop landlords, the hot housing market can be daunting.
Renticity wants to take some of the hassle out that process for smaller-scale landlords. The Seattle startup recently launched an online platform homeowners can use to list, screen, and lease their properties.
“Yes, the same landlord you’re probably thinking of who requires paper checks and thinks Tinder is an app for finding firewood is now able to move like a millennial when it comes to their rental process,” said Mateo Moore, Renticity brand manager. “Renticity is a simple, intuitive website for landlords to list their rental, accept rental applications, review background checks, and as of Feb. 1, have a lease e-signed from a phone, tablet or computer.”
We caught up with Moore for this Startup Spotlight, a regular GeekWire feature.
Explain what you do so our parents can understand it: “Renticity makes it easy for anyone to become a landlord. Accept rental applications, conduct background checks on renters, and get a lease signed, all from one place.”
Inspiration hit us when: “It all started back in 2011, when our founder, Jon Rinker, placed the family getaway on the rental market to help offset the cost of putting his kids through college. It was hard. He was stressed. He remembers saying, ‘there must be an easier way for someone like me to do this’ and hasn’t looked back since.”
VC, Angel or Bootstrap: “Like many startups, Renticity’s initial funding was bootstrapped by a core group of friends and family. As the platform developed and matured, a wider circle of individual investors with real estate backgrounds became investors. As the company and product evolve so will our financing. We’re currently exploring VC options in 2016.”
Our ‘secret sauce’ is: “We’re a one-stop-shop services company. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional property management firm or some guy named Gus who lives in Wallingford with a room to rent. Our users can navigate the entire leasing process from one online resource.”
The smartest move we’ve made so far: “Building a great team and giving them meaningful roles dictating the direction of this company. Everyone is all-in and it shows. Well, that and not calling the company YOLO (Your Online Leasing Office).”
The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: “Spending too much time early on over-developing, over-analyzing, perfecting, and never releasing. We learned so much once we went live with the product and started interacting with customers. From that point on we were able to collect feedback and make decisions that mattered to our customers. We tend to call the first two years of this company as ‘the dark ages.’ It was a dark time, with not enough execution, despite efforts.”
Would you rather have Gates, Zuckerberg or Bezos in your corner: “We’ve never heard of these people. Joking — in all seriousness it would be an honor to be associated with any of the three, but if we were forced to choose we’d probably go with Bezos. We try to make things as easy as possible for our end user and Amazon’s approach to its core business aligns with that brand of thinking.”
Our favorite team-building activity is: “We’re situated right on Lake Union so we’re out on the water as much as possible. But as far as actual team-building we don’t have any structured activities — we just genuinely listen to each other and know how hard everyone around us is pushing to make this company work. That’s team building in our eyes. Staying until 9 p.m. on a Friday talking about user flows and marketing automation because you’re excited about it is team-building in itself.”
The biggest thing we look for when hiring is: “Renticity is a culture of collaboration, iteration, and execution. We are looking for people that stand out as problem solvers, people that get things done — plain and simple. That all said, the biggest thing we look for when hiring is pure talent and character. What is that unique thing you bring to the mix to light a spark and deliver results at a really high level?”
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out: “Look for and be accepting of criticism and turn that into productivity. Be annoying. Be persistent. Stay up late and wake up semi-early. Oh, and make sure you have enough money for health insurance. Maybe drive Uber a few nights a week or pick up a shift at a bar.”
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Vic Marks | Here was an illustration of the frustrations of an England selector. The search is on for some batsmen. When England roll up here for the first Test match against Sri Lanka on 12 June there will be no Kevin Pietersen, no Jonathan Trott and, unless I'm reading the runes very badly, no Michael Carberry.
On Sunday both Yorkshire and Middlesex boasted batsmen earmarked for the Test match, some with ink, others with a pale pencil, but none could prevail. Opportunity knocks but it does so on the devious green carpets of April. Now that the clouds have returned batting is not a straightforward business. None of the batsmen in the selectors' thoughts could prosper at Lord's. It was a bowler's day. Even the best batting – from Liam Plunkett – came from a bowler.
So disappointment all round, but especially for Joe Root, returning to first-class cricket after his broken thumb as Yorkshire's captain. He acknowledged that "it was a really proud moment but it hasn't quite gone according to plan". Such is Root's standing that Andrew Gale, Yorkshire's club captain, dropped himself to allow his return. Just imagine Brian – "I can play him all right, lad, but you might struggle" – Close leaving himself out, or Geoffrey Boycott. Or Raymond Illingworth coming to the conclusion, "I think Birky's bowling a bit better than me at moment".
Yorkshire's latest captain called incorrectly at the toss; his side were inserted and by lunchtime Root, batting at four, was back in the pavilion having been dismissed for a duck by Steven Finn, who provided the selectors with some silver lining on a cloudy day by taking 4-50. Finn is not quite back to his best yet but he already has 19 Championship wickets this season. So some good news for the selectors.
For Root the season is just beginning. The assumption is that he will bat at three for England in the Test matches, since Ian Bell has been batting like a prince at four in his outings for Warwickshire this season (even so Root was willing to share that "ideally I would like to bat at four"). But his recall should only be an assumption. With all the theatrical exits Root somehow seems like a Test banker but the simple fact is that he was not selected for England's last game in Sydney.
Gary Ballance made his Test debut in that match and he has started the season well. Here he was the likeliest of Yorkshire's Test hopefuls – the highly-rated Alex Lees did not last long – batting with composure for an hour and half for 20. He looked a man in form, waiting and watching the ball rather than looking for it as seemed to be the case with Root. He did not miss it often.
One quibble was that Ballance appeared eager to score square of the wicket, which is dangerous on seaming early-season pitches. In April and in Test matches, where the bowling is generally quicker and of a higher standard, the straighter the better. It is dangerous to play with an open face of the bat, which contributed to his dismissal, caught in the gully. It is his calm competence rather than his charisma that impresses.
Middlesex's Sam Robson has also prospered this season, but not on Sunday . In some ways he is an old-fashioned batsman in that he sets his store to occupy the crease rather than batter the boundary. But he is modern in his stiff-legged, stiff-armed stance. Here he could not occupy the crease for long, becoming the second victim of a jubilant Jack Brooks, who celebrates each wicket with a mini-marathon.
Yes, it was a bowler's day. Finn looked far more likely to hit the stumps at the batsman's end rather than the bowler's, which is an advance. He is back to his long run-up; he does not appear to be straining for pace and his control, while not perfect, is much improved. Currently he is more a match-winner than a liability. Requests to talk to him after the day were politely declined. He is still in rehabilitation mode but that seems to be going well.
James Harris, Brooks and Tim Murtagh, revelling in the ECB's recent schedules which have so much Championship cricket in April, all impressed as they lovingly caressed the wine-dark Duke cricket balls that tormented the batsmen of both sides. The solitary half-century came from Plunkett – 56 from 55 balls with 10 boundaries – which may be a critical contribution in an absorbing, tight contest.
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Andrew Freedman | Large offshore wind turbine arrays may help protect vulnerable coastal areas from the worst impacts of landfalling hurricanes, according to a new study, in addition to producing renewable energy.
The research, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that large turbine arrays producing at least 300 gigawatts of electricity — far more than any offshore wind project in service today worldwide — can significantly reduce a hurricane’s maximum surface winds as well as its deadly storm surge.
The study, from researchers at Stanford University and the University of Delaware, showed that if a large offshore wind turbine array had been in place off the southeast coast of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina came ashore in 2005, it would have slashed the storm’s wind speeds by up to 79 mph at 15 feet above the surface in a region downwind from the turbines. It also would have reduced the maximum storm surge by up to 80%.
The wind speed and storm surge reduction benefits would depend on the exact locations of the turbines relative to the storm’s path, according to the study.
It comes in an era of increasing damage costs from hurricanes due to increased coastal development and sea level rise related to manmade global warming. Hurricane Sandy alone caused at least $80 billion in damage, the study found, much of it from the storm’s record high wall of water that swept across the New Jersey shore as well as parts of New York City.
The study, which used a sophisticated computer model that can estimate the 3D interactions among hurricanes, the ocean surface and wind turbines reaching up to 330 feet in height, found that hurricanes would transfer some of their kinetic energy to the turbines beginning when the outer areas of strong winds reached them. This would set off a chain reaction involving the forces that help strengthen or weaken a storm, resulting in a temporarily weaker hurricane.
“The hurricanes themselves were weakened, their winds were weaker, their pressure was higher with turbines than without,” Cristina Archer, a co-author of the study, told Mashable.
Reduced wind speeds, for example, would lower the wave heights, and smaller waves would lower the force of friction at the surface. This would slightly alter the path of the air rushing toward the center of the storm; instead of moving inward toward the eye, air would move around it, raising the central air pressure at the storm’s core. In general, the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm, so a higher air pressure means the storm would be less intense.
Hurricane Sandy, for example, set a record for the lowest air pressure reading on record north of Cape Hatteras, N.C. But according to the study, if Sandy had passed over a massive offshore wind installation before making landfall, its minimum central air pressure would have risen, its storm surge would have lessened, and its winds would have decreased in intensity.
Specifically, computer model simulations showed that the turbine arrays reduced Sandy’s maximum storm surge by up to 34%, and Sandy’s winds by up to 87 mph at a height of 15 feet. The entire storm would not have been far weaker, but at least the area downwind of the turbines would have experienced less severe winds and waves, the study found.
Life cycle of Hurricane Sandy: Surface Wind Speeds. Credit: UCAR.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of the study is that no energy company is currently seriously contemplating building offshore wind turbine arrays nearly as large as the ones used in the research, said Mark Jacobson, an engineering professor at Stanford and co-author of the study. In fact, efforts to build offshore wind turbines have been met with regulatory hurdles and local "not in my backyard" opposition. The 300 gigawatt arrays would involve up to 400,000 turbines. For comparison, the Cape Wind project, which is under construction off of Cape Cod, Mass., will only involve 130 turbines.
“That is really a social, economic, and political question,” Jacobson told Mashable.
There are also questions regarding whether turbines can withstand the onslaught of a high-end hurricane like Katrina. Some experts maintain they would be the first infrastructure to get destroyed by a storm. According to the study, though, the turbines would reduce the winds enough that most would survive.
Not a weather modification scheme
Archer and Jacobson, the co-authors, were careful to distinguish between using wind turbines for energy, with the side benefit of storm reduction, and past attempts at altering storms to protect coastlines.
The U.S. has a long history of trying to alter the power of storms, particularly hurricanes. The federal government, for example, pursued a program known as Project Stormfury between 1962 and 1983, which unsuccessfully sought to use cloud seeding techniques, which involved flying into storms to spray them with silver iodide, to reduce hurricane intensity. More recently, some have proposed using ocean pumps to pull warm water from the surface of the sea, which hurricanes feed from, and replace it with cooler water from deeper ocean depths.
Jacobson said the wind turbine approach is far simpler than weather modification ideas. “This doesn’t require going out and trying to spread something over the entire hurricane, it just requires the turbines to be in a specific location near a city," he said.
Archer and Jacobson added that they are not advocating for another weather modification scheme, but rather proving yet another reason why pursuing offshore wind energy would be beneficial. “It’s not like we’re trying to weaken the hurricane, we get that as a secondary benefit,” Archer said.
According to the study, once hurricane-related benefits are taken into account, offshore wind energy installations would be even cheaper compared to land-based fossil fuel plants. In addition, they would have far more benefits than building new storm surge barriers, such as sea walls, which don’t generate electricity on the side. A potential sea wall constructed to protect much of New York City against another Sandy-magnitude surge could cost up to $29 billion, according to the study.
While the greatest reductions in storm strength were associated with the largest turbine arrays, Archer said smaller installations also had measurable effects on simulated hurricanes. “We still saw benefits in terms of wind field reduction and storm surge reductions,” she said. “I think this is absolutely an option to protect coastal communities.”
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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Nancy Dillon | Alo Ceballos/GC Images Despite a Radar Online report suggesting Joe Giudice was hanging out with another woman at a bar while Teresa languishes in jail, a source close to the family says the Jersey businessman has been calling his wife every day.
A new photo of Joe Giudice with a mystery woman at a New Jersey bar is "completely innocent," a family source told the Daily News Friday.
The picture published by Radar Online shows the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" hubby wearing sunglasses at an outdoor table at Daddy O Hotel on Long Beach Island in New Jersey.
He's seated next to the unidentified woman and across from another couple with a cocktail glass on the table.
"That was Wednesday night. It was an alcohol distribution event for Fedway. He was just doing stuff with friends and the company," the source said.
"This is honestly nothing to be worried about. I was down at the shore with him. It was completely innocent," the source continued.
JAXN/JAXN/AKM-GSI "He has four daughters on him all the time. It's nothing to be worried about," a source the Daily News.
The family source said the outing was an event for Tito's Vodka, and that wife Teresa Giudice is aware of her husband's promotional engagements while she's locked up on her federal fraud conviction.
"She's very aware," the source said of Teresa. "He emails (her) every day. And he has four daughters on him all the time. It's nothing to be worried about."
Teresa, 43, is behind bars serving a 15-month federal prison sentence for concealing income and lying during bankruptcy proceedings.
Joe is set to begin a longer 41-month prison term related to the case when she gets out.
ndillon@nydailynews.com
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Bahar Gholipour | SpongeBob SquarePants was recently spotted in an unusual place.
In a recent medical case, doctors saw the image of SpongeBob, the sea-dwelling character of children's cartoons, while looking at an X-ray of a 16-month-old boy. The toddler in Saudi Arabia had been brought to a hospital because he appeared to have swallowed an object. But his doctors were surprised to look at the X-ray and see SpongeBob looking right back at them, with a big smile on his face and his tongue sticking out.
It turned out that the hapless SpongeBob was a pendant that belonged to the toddler's sister, said Dr. Ghofran Ageely, a radiology resident at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The first X-ray that Ageely looked at was one that showed the child's body from the side, and all she could tell was that there was a thin object in the child's esophagus, Ageely told Live Science in an email. She thought the object was a pin or hair accessory.
"Then I opened the frontal view and was shocked. 'SpongeBob,' I screamed!!! I was amazed by the visible details. You can see his freckles, shoes and fingers…AMAZING," Ageely wrote in an email to Live Science. [16 Oddest Medical Case Reports]
Doctors freed the stuck pendant from the boy's esophagus without any complications, and the boy went home. Ageely later shared the X-rays of SpongeBob's adventure on Radiopaedia.org, a Wikipedia-type forum where radiologists and medical students present and discuss medical cases such as foreign body ingestions.
"We see a lot of amazing X-rays on our site, but this one is particularly amazing," said Dr. Andrew Dixon, the managing editor of Radiopaedia, and a radiologist at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
The detail in SpongeBob's face is strikingly visible on the scans because his face was not only painted on the pendant, but rather is also made of tiny ridges in the metal, Dixon explained.
Although seeing SpongeBob's smiley face was a surprise, the case is only one example of a far too common problem -- children swallowing or even inhaling small objects, especially toddlers between 1 and 3 years old.
"As a father, I know kids put things in their mouth all the time. But as radiologist, we see this not infrequently," Dixon said.
Sometimes the object passes through the child's digestive system without a problem, but other times, it gets stuck and requires a trip to the emergency room. X-rays are a helpful tool when parents suspect their kids have swallowed something but they are not quite sure, Dixon said.
Parents who suspect their child might have swallowed an object should watch the child for symptoms such as vomiting, gagging, drooling, stomach pain, coughing or wheezing, and call a health care provider or local emergency number, such as 911, the National Institutes of Health advises. If a child has obvious breathing problems, he or she needs to be taken to the emergency room immediately.
Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Angela Monaghan | 07:51
Birds fly past the Acropolis in Athens on February 19, 2015 Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
Good morning.
There have been a string of crucial days for the future of Greece and the wider eurozone and today is no exception.
Eurogroup finance ministers, led by president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, will meet in Brussels at 3pm (2pm UK time) to decide whether or not to accept the bailout extension plans put forward by Greece on Thursday.
We will bring you live coverage of events from our reporters in Brussels, Athens and London, including all the build up, the outcome of the meeting, and reaction.
— Jeroen Dijsselbloem (@J_Dijsselbloem) #Eurogroup Friday in Brussels as of 15.00.
The proposals included a six-month extension and a number of concessions which were interpreted as a Greek climbdown.
In one of the most significant concessions, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said in a letter to Dijsselbloem that Athens would be willing to remain under the supervision of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – the unpopular troika that the Syriza-led government had insisted it would throw off.
Germany however threw a major spanner in the works by publicly rejecting the deal put forward by Greece, describing it as “not a substantial solution”.
Read our story on Thursday’s developments here.
Setting the scene for the talks, the Guardian’s economics editor Larry Elliott says that Germany is offering Greece a Carthaginian peace.
There is a phrase for what Germany is seeking to do to Greece: a Carthaginian peace. It dates back to the Punic wars when Rome emerged victorious in its long struggle with Carthage but refused to allow its opponent the chance of an honourable surrender. Instead, it enforced a brutal settlement, burning Carthage to the ground and enslaving those inhabitants it did not massacre. A Carthaginian peace is what is being offered to Alexis Tsipras. On Thursday, the Greek prime minister made it clear that he was willing to see the white flag of surrender flutter over Athens. He accepted that he would have to swallow most of the conditions demanded of him by Greece’s eurozone partners but asked for a few concessions to sugar the pill. Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany’s finance minister, immediately slapped Tsipras down. What Greece was proposing was unacceptable, Schaeuble said. Unless the Germans are bluffing, and there’s nothing to suggest that they are, it leaves Greece with a binary choice: abject surrender or going nuclear.
Abject surrender means that Tsipras would have to explain to the Greek people why he was abandoning the policies on which he won the election less than a month ago. Going nuclear would involve capital controls, fresh elections on a “who governs Greece” basis and possible exit from the single currency.
Read Larry’s full blog here.
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Alan Boyle | Three years after its founding, Seattle’s Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence is racking up recognition in the field of AI research – and some of its research will have an impact on the burgeoning AI market.
The institute, known as AI2, was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2014 with longtime computer science researcher Oren Etzioni as its CEO. Since its founding, AI2 has spawned two spin-offs: Kitt.ai, which was created a little more than a year ago; and Xnor.ai, which made its debut this month.
AI2 has built its workforce up to 75 people, which Etzioni says makes it the largest nonprofit AI research center in North America. And AI2 is building up its street cred as well:
Etzioni said the institute is sharpening its focus on the moonshot challenges that artificial intelligence can address. “You can think of us as Seattle’s version of Google X, the nonprofit version,” he said.
AI2’s sweet spot is natural language processing: making sense out of data sets in ways that could be understood by an eighth-grader, or using the Semantic Scholar AI platform to organize tens of millions of scientific papers into a coherent web of knowledge.
Semantic Scholar started out as a smart search tool for computer science papers. Then it was expanded to neuroscience. Now its scope is being widened to encompass all of the biomedical literature in the PubMed database.
“We have what’s become quite a popular search engine, with millions of users – but for science,” Etzioni said. “We’re not trying to monetize it in any way.”
Etzioni said that the combined AI2-UW team created under Farhadi’s leadership is providing a great model for cross-pollination in AI research. “Together he’s built a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.
The work that’s going into Xnor.ai represents yet another frontier. The idea is to do the data-crunching for deep learning on your mobile device, instead of in the cloud.
“If you feel more comfortable having the data locally, then with current technology, you have a major problem,” Etzioni said. “That’s one of the major advantages of Xnor.ai: It enables you to do deep learning with the data stored locally and under your control.”
Today, AI2 has a lot of company in the field of artificial intelligence – ranging from the commercial research operations at Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon to other nonprofit organizations as OpenAI and the Partnership on AI. But Etzioni insists that AI2 stands out from the crowd.
“I do think that we have quite a unique niche, because we’re very focused on natural language, natural language understanding, tying natural language with vision, science and scientific patterns,” he said. “Often when we look at techniques that other people are using, and apply them in our domain, they don’t work nearly as well.”
One of Etzioni’s big campaigns is to get across the message that artificial intelligence is not inherently evil, but can bring substantial benefits to society – as long as it’s managed correctly.
“I don’t view AI through rose-colored glasses,” he said. “There is a very genuine concern about job displacement due to software in general, and AI in particular. I just feel like the ‘Terminator’ scenario is a distraction from the real concerns.”
So when will the fruits of AI2’s research start popping up in commercial products? It’s worth noting that Amazon’s Alexa Fund is among the investors in the Kitt.ai spin-off. Will we see the institute’s natural-language tricks of the trade show up in the way Alexa responds to our questions? Or is it Alexa that’ll be teaching AI2 some new tricks?
“On that,” Etzioni replied, “let me just say, stay tuned.”
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John Cook | Limeade has pulled in $5 million in fresh capital from TVC Capital, money that the six-year-old Bellevue company will use to more than double its staff of 35 people in the coming year.
Led by former Intuit marketing vet Henry Albrecht, Limeade develops online corporate wellness programs designed to maker employees healthier and happier. Employers pay a few dollars per month for the service, which is designed to cut down on health care costs.
“Companies are using Limeade to assess the health and well-being of their workforces, and then engage them in fun, social, mobile improvement programs,” explains Albrecht. “And increasingly, employers are using Limeade to align the financial incentives of employers and employees. We have found that employers who commit to programs like this can have 90 percent of their employees participate, and they can save millions on missed work and healthcare costs.”
Limeade is similar to EveryMove, a graduate of TechStars Seattle that earlier this year raised cash for what co-founder Russell Benaroya described as a “mileage rewards program for health.”
Both use game mechanics to encourage employees to engage in a healthier lifestyle, from exercise to a proper diet.
Albrecht said that they’ve had success adding customers because they bring an irreverent and game-like approach to what “has typically been a very dry, clinical and even antagonistic insurance-focused market.”
“Employers want simple, engaging programs that reflect and amplify their unique cultures, vibes and strategies — not just one-size-fits-all approaches,” he said. “They also want to know that the innovation will be there next month and next year.”
Customers using Limeade include Jamba Juice, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and REI. It has achieved more than 100 percent revenue growth in each of the past three years.
As a result of the latest funding round, TVC Capital’s Steven Hamerslag has joined the board of Limeade. Total funding in the company now stands at $8.5 million.
Previously on GeekWire: Limeade lands deal with Swedish hospital for wellness program
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Tom Krazit | Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced Thursday afternoon that Eric Schmidt, who has played an outsized role in Google’s transformation from grad school science project to one of the most powerful companies in the world, will be stepping back from his executive chairman role.
Schmidt will remain on Alphabet’s board and in January will become a “technical advisor” to a group of folks that have some pretty strong tech experience. He joined Google in 2001 as CEO at the behest of the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, with the goal of providing a little “adult supervision” to the young founders, as they joked in a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose after Schmidt’s arrival.
Page took over as CEO in 2011, with Schmidt becoming the chairman of Google’s board of directors. He then became executive chairman of Alphabet in 2015 when Google decided to become just one of many businesses in Page and Brin’s toybox.
Schmidt said in a statement that he planned to spend more time “on science and technology issues, and philanthropy,” which is more or less what he’s been doing anyway since the creation of Alphabet. Alphabet expects the board to pick an independent chairman to replace Schmidt.
It’s long been rumored that Schmidt has political aspirations, although those rumors were more prevalent in a very different kind of political climate. In June, he told a group of attendees at a tech conference in Paris that “I’ve come to believe that science and critical thinking really do matter. Even more so now in the political world that we have in the United States and in other areas of the world.”
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Jon Lockett | The new changes will also mean more £50m plus mega jackpot prizes
THE cost of playing the EuroMillions lottery game is to increase by 50p to £2.50 a line in a bid to create more UK jackpot winners.
In new changes announced today, players must pick an extra number which will decrease the odds of winning the jackpot but promise bigger prizes and DOUBLE the number of UK millionaires.
Alamy 1 The changes will also see a massive £100m jackpot
Camelot announced the price will go up from September to “reflect all of the community-wide and UK-only enhancements” and up to Euros 2.50 elsewhere.
Players will still pick five main numbers from one to 50 and two lucky stars, now from one to 12 rather than 11.
The extra lucky star will lessen the chance of winning the jackpot from approximately one in 117 million – it’s currently one in 140 million.
Camelot said the overall odds of winning any prize on Euromillions stayed at 1 in 13.
It said the changes would lead to more mega jackpot wins starting at around £14 million and more than twice as many jackpots of more than £50 million a year.
Related Stories What a waste Piles of rubbish and graffiti... This is the trashed mansion Lotto lout Mickey Carroll sold at a £600k loss caught red handed Shop assistant stole £6k worth of lotto scratch cards from friend's corner shop WAS IT YOU? One winner scoops mega £14.6m National Lottery Lotto jackpot on Saturday Bra-vo Lotto gran who falsely tried to claim £33million prize says she has had offers to pose as a LINGERIE MODEL RAGS TO PITCHES Lotto winner spends £2million on sports tickets across the world EVERY LITTLE HELPS Team of bakers discover £1 million lotto win a month later — because they forgot to check the ticket!
There would also be bigger promotional draws offering jackpots of around £100 million and new “must-be-won” ‘European Millionaire Maker’ events.
The first of these new draws is expected to take place at the end of October with the creation of 25 extra millionaires, reports the Daily Telegraph.
UK “enhancements” will include at least two guaranteed UK millionaires in every draw through the UK Millionaire Maker, making double the current number of guaranteed UK millionaires a year at 208.
Camelot consumer and retail director Sally Cowdry said: “Euromillions has always captured the UK public’s imagination with its exhilarating jackpots and numerous multimillion-pound winners – boosting returns to Good Causes in the process.
“It’s now time to re-energise the game and take it to the next level and these fantastic enhancements will do just that, helping us to deliver even more for our players and UK Good Causes in the years to come.”
Tickets for the first new Euromillions draw on September 27 will go on sale on September 24.
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Jessica Ritz | Photo
As a late summer downpour passes through New Orleans, Amelia Bird leans over a hulking platen press inside Baskerville Studio. An embossed plastic label that reads “Beulah, Born 1901″ identifies the apparatus, one of three, each weighing thousands of pounds, at the nonprofit printing collective located in the city’s up-and-coming Bywater neighborhood. Bird spins a wheel of the antique machine with weary pleasure, then rolls out yellow ink and puts down sheets of paper one at a time. She’s producing a poster concept by the fellow Baskerville member Jeffrey Goodman that uses digitally designed polymer plates and metal type. The end product will be distributed as a souvenir during the film exhibitor Shotgun Cinema’s upcoming screening of the Talking Heads’s 1984 documentary “Stop Making Sense” held at the nearby Marigny Opera House.
Photo
Though New Orleans is an art-friendly place, “letterpress and book arts are not music or painting” in terms of visibility or access, observes Kathryn Wollan, a cofounder of Baskerville. To help revive these crafts, she, Bird, Tyler Harwood and the printmaker Miriam Stassi joined forces this past February in a one-room workshop tucked inside a weathered, red two-story building. All have full-time jobs — Wollan works for FEMA on the post-Katrina recovery effort, Bird at the New Orleans outpost of Alice Waters’s Edible Schoolyard program — but wanted a platform for their passion for printing, as well as a place to stash their personal collections of tools and gear. The studio’s retro resources are ideal for spreading the word about goings-on the old-fashioned way. Baskerville has also started a series of broadsides in collaboration with local poets, and hosts workshops and classes. “Collaborative opportunities have happily found us,” Wollan says. “It seems like a genuine outgrowth of a dynamic and creative local community. People just seem to get really fired up at the possibility of printing their words and images on real paper with this old mechanical equipment.”
baskervillestudio.com
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Stan Schroeder | The Israeli police have arrested a man connected to the hacking of Madonna's computer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The 39-year-old Tel Aviv resident was arrested Wednesday after a month-long investigation. Lahav 433, a crime-fighting, FBI-like organization within the Israeli Police, said in a statement the suspect “broke into the personal computers of several international artists over the past few months and stole promotional final-cut singles which have yet to be released and traded them online for a fee."
The attacker on Madonna's computer stole several songs from the artist's upcoming album, Rebel Heart. The songs were leaked online, which Madonna called "artistic rape" and a "form of terrorism." Following the leak in Dec. 2014, Madonna released six songs from the album on iTunes.
X-mas is coming early! Pre order my album and download 6 tracks! Happy Holidays! ❤️#rebelheart pic.twitter.com/YBiJccfQQ4 — Madonna (@Madonna) December 20, 2014
While the suspect's identity has been withheld, Ynetnews.com and other Israeli outlets report that he has appeared on a popular reality TV show.
The news comes shortly after a number of arrests tied to high profile cybercrime cases. Last week, the UK police arrested an 18-year-old man in connection to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live DoS (denial of service) attacks, and another man, allegedly a member of the hacker group Lizard Squad and tied to the same attacks, has been arrested on Dec. 31, 2014.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
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The Associated Press | NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Fyvush Finkel, the plastic-faced Emmy Award-winning character actor whose career in stage and screen started in Yiddish theater and led to memorable roles in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway and on TV in Boston Public and Picket Fences has died, his son said Monday. He was 93.
Finkel, who was known for his mischievous smile and an ability to prop his ears at an angle for optimum comic effect, died early Sunday in Manhattan, said his son, Ian. He said his father had suffered heart problems for months.
He was a comedian, a singer, a stage actor, a film actor and a noted TV performer, from Fantasy Island to Blue Bloods. He celebrated his 80th birthday on the set of Boston Public, playing history teacher Harvey Lipschultz.
"He did everything," Ian Finkel said. "That seems to be a trait of the old-time performers. They could all sing and dance and act and everything. It's so wonderful."
Finkel's long career began at age 9 in 1930 when a production in his Brooklyn neighborhood was looking for a boy to sing "Oh, Promise Me." Recalled Finkel in a 2002 interview: "I stopped that show cold. They gave me a dollar a night."
In the vibrant Yiddish theater of the period, a solid performer could find steady work. Finkel studied singing, dancing and acting at a $1-a-week school. But his parents insisted he learn a trade just in case showbiz didn't pan out.
A stint as a furrier was over quick. "I ruined about $500 worth of material," he said.
He found himself back onstage when his new, mature voice settled in. He took a job with Yiddish theater in Pittsburgh just shy of his 18th birthday. "I thought, 'This is where I belong.' And I've been in the theater ever since."
In 1964, as Yiddish theater was dying, he was hired for the touring company of the Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof. He later said: "I went to do 'Fiddler' for less money than I was getting in Yiddish theater, but I had to make the move. And it was the best move I ever made."
In Fiddler on the Roof, he played Mordcha, and he took on the role of Tevye the milkman in a national touring production in 1981. In his last appearance on Broadway in 1989's Cafe Crown, Finkel earned a Drama Desk Award nomination.
At age 60, after 12 years with various productions of Fiddler on the Roof, he was cast in the off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors. That opened up movies and TV for him, including Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), Q&A (1990) and Nixon (1995).
"If you retire, you shrivel up. No doubt about it," he said in 2002.
Finkel won a supporting actor Emmy in 1994 for playing Douglas Wambaugh on Picket Fences — he was also nominated the year before — and earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role in 1995. He also earned three Screen Actor Guild Awards, one for Nixon and two for Picket Fences.
Finkel was married to Trudi Lieberman for 61 years until her death in 2008. His survivors include his two sons: Ian, a musical arranger and xylophone virtuoso, and Elliot, a concert pianist; and five grandchildren.
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James Risley |
Outlook for iOS just keeps getting better. An update Microsoft posted today now lets you open Word, PowerPoint and Excel files directly in their respective apps instead of sending you to a simplified viewer.
Next time someone emails you a file, you’ll see a new “Open in” text below Office-compatible files if you have the corresponding app installed. Tapping the file brings you to that app and when you’re done making changes, you can just hit the back button; the file will save and you’ll be taken to Outlook, where a reply email is already started with the file attached.
The Outlook update and another set of updates to the iOS Office apps brings easier email sharing to Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well. Now when you hit the share button, you’ll now see the option to “Send with Outlook,” which brings up an Outlook-styled email composer within the app and your document already attached.
If you don’t have the other Office apps installed, Outlook still shows you previews in its simple viewer, with suggestion to download the free apps. You can also download all the Office apps through Microsoft’s site. The app updates actually went live a week ago, but Microsoft just outlined the changes in a blog post today.
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Alex Stedman | Frank Scotti, a 90-year-old ex-NBC employee, is the latest to go public with stories of Bill Cosby’s past.
Scotti, who worked as a facilities manager for the Brooklyn NBC Studio where “Cosby Show” was filmed, told the New York Daily News that he arranged for monthly payments and more for eight women during “The Cosby Show’s” run from 1984-1992. He claimed some women would receive as much as $2,000 at a time.
“He had everybody fooled,” Scotti said to the Daily News. “Nobody suspected.”
Scotti provided copies of money orders to four women to the Daily News and said Cosby asked him to put his own name on them.
“He was covering himself by having my name on it,” he said. “It was a coverup. I realized it later.”
One woman, Shawn Thompson, reportedly received more than $100,000 after their alleged affair started in 1974. Thompson’s daughter, Autumn Jackson, has claimed Cosby is her father, which Cosby has denied.
One woman whose name is on the receipts reached out to the Daily News and said the payments funded her son’s private school tuition. Scotti is confident that he was sexually involved with the women receiving payments, and came forward now because he “felt sorry for the women.”
“Why else would he be sending money?” Scotti asked. “He was sending these women $2,000 a month. What else could I think?”
The story also includes a quote from Cosby’s attorney Martin Singer denying Scotti’s allegations.
“What evidence does he have of Mr. Cosby’s involvement?” Singer said. “How would Scotti know if a woman was a model or a secretary? It appears that his story is pure speculation so that he can get his 15 minutes of fame.”
NBC declined comment on the story.
Cosby now has claims against him from at least 15 women with varying charges of sexual assault. Since the allegations resurfaced, NBC has pulled a project with him, Netflix postponed a stand-up special it was going to stream and TV Land has stopped airing re-runs of “The Cosby Show.”
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Mark Curry | When you consider where American technology innovation is happening in the United States, places like Silicon Valley or big cities on the east and west coasts might come to mind. As a fintech entrepreneur providing services to online lenders, my experience has found a thriving business community in places you might not think to look: American Indian Reservations.
Many American Indian tribes have been enormously successful launching sustainable businesses in high-growth industries. These tribes owe their success to the creation of well-fueled economic development processes. Indeed, some tribes are so singularly focused on business creation that once an enterprise is running, they bring on business partners to help with operations so the tribe can remain focused on the creation of their next new business.
Emerging entrepreneurs can learn a great deal from these tribes’ economic development efforts. Here are my Top 5:
1. Vet every opportunity . Here’s a story we’ve all heard before: Your research shows you have a great idea for a business. You’re confident it will make you the next Elon Musk. You pitch a trusted friend and she agrees: You are a visionary. You go for it. You launch your business, which folds months later.
As sovereign governments, Indian tribes don’t have the luxury of simply “going for it.” They are required to perform extensive diligence and research on an industry, the market, competition, risks, the regulatory environment, and their business partners. They build layers of institutional checks and balances in their economic development processes. After all of that, many tribes also require their members to vote approval to launch a new enterprise. The knowledge attained during this vetting process is priceless.
2. Disrupt… For examples of business disruptors who have changed an industry, look no further than Southwest Airlines, Spotify and Uber…or what American Indian tribes did in the gaming industry during the 1980s. They began offering new, convenient, safe, local gaming facilities to consumers whose demand for that type of entertainment was not being met by casinos in Las Vegas or in-home card games. Although it began as just a few tribes operating bingo halls for locals, tribal gaming today is a $30 billion industry, with over 350 tribal casinos operating on tribal land in 28 states. Find a way to re-invent or re-imagine a product or service, or fill an unmet need.
3. …but expect opposition . Disruption can be polarizing, and disruptors often find both passionate supporters on one side and stiff resistance on the other.
As sovereign governments, Indian tribes don’t have the luxury of simply “going for it.” They are required to perform extensive diligence and research on an industry, the market, competition, risks, the regulatory environment, and their business partners.
Detractors lined up when the Cabazon, two small California tribes, started offering bingo and poker games on their reservation land. The state government sued the Cabazon and the case landed in the Supreme Court of the United States. The Cabazon won the case and formed the bedrock for American Indian gaming, a huge industry that now supports hundreds of thousands of Indian and non-Indian families by creating jobs and funding needed social programs on reservations. Would Indian country gaming be where it is today, but for the Cabazon’s willingness to stand up to the state’s desire to preserve the status quo? Likely not.
4. Find strength in numbers . The idea of working hand-in-hand with your competitors may seem counterintuitive. However, there is a place for cooperation among competitors. American Indian tribes come together through trade associations to share best practices, educate the public and lawmakers about their products, and work cooperatively to ensure the sustainability of the industries in which they participate. The tribes have established thriving associations to help drive economic development and business creation – The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development and best practices in the fintech arena with the Native American Financial Services Association.
5. Work around, not against limitations . Understanding your limitations, and knowing how to be successful in spite of them, is critical for small- to medium-sized business owners. While it is the inclination of many entrepreneurs to believe they can do anything, successful business owners acknowledge their limitations and work with them. Financial limitations change the amount you can invest in your business. Geographic limitations can influence everything from your hiring pool to shipping costs to rent. As you build your business plan, identify your limitations and figure out ways to succeed with them, not in spite of them.
In recent years, some geographically-isolated American Indian tribes, recognizing that the location of their reservations created physical limitations to economic development, started looking at opportunities in online financial services. The Internet has leveled the playing field for these tribes. They are successfully competing with mainstream financial service providers, participating in a multi-billion dollar industry and providing access to credit for the 71 million underbanked consumers in the United States.
In Indian Country, necessity breeds invention and, increasingly, innovation. Unlike your local government, which uses your tax dollars to maintain roads and hire teachers, tribes do not collect taxes. Many have found other ways to create revenue to fund their government. One hundred percent of profits from tribes’ businesses fund infrastructure improvements, affordable housing, education, senior care, health care and many other needed programs that are critical to the social welfare of the tribe’s most vulnerable members.
The culture and structure of Native American tribes has created a unique model of business excellence that offers a fresh perspective for businesses here and around the globe.
Mark Curry is the founder and CEO of MacFarlane Group which provides back-office support for Internet-based financial services companies. He is also the founder of ReformOnlineLending.org, a program to identify and bring to justice scammers who take advantage of consumers of the online financial services industry.
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John Cook | Who knew that being a real estate agent entailed so many odd encounters. But thanks to Redfin we are now getting a closer peek into this strange and — at least what appears to be — wild world.
Earlier this week, the Seattle online real estate company unveiled a new Twitter feed @REConfidential. Like the name suggests, these Tweets expose things you don’t typically see in the marketing materials of homes.
Here are a couple doozies just to give you a sense of the tone:
It’s actually quite humorous stuff, and it is part of an ongoing attempt by Redfin to expose more information (in this case dirty laundry, literally and figuratively) about the real estate business. Redfin has gotten in hot water with the NWMLS in the past about its attempts to write blog posts about individual properties, oftentimes showcasing the negative.
The Twitter feed doesn’t quite serve the same goal, instead offering a fun read for those who want the inside poop. (Yes, you’ll see that mentioned in some Tweets too).
“Real estate has a weird side, and we at Redfin think it’s about time the public had a glimpse into it,” Redfin’s Matt Wakefield writes in a blog post titled “What Happens on a Home Tour Doesn’t Always Stay on a Home Tour.”
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Dave Quinn | It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Kanye West.
He was hospitalized for exhaustion, cancelled his tour, and has been working to conquer his mental health issues after what sources called “a mental breakdown.”
But the 39-year-old rapper was all smiles on Friday night, as he attended the private opening of Rick Owens: Furniture at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles.
A cheerful West was spotted speaking with the artist Michele Lamy, who organized the show for the Paris-based fashion and furniture designer.
West wore a white long-sleeve shirt with black jogger pants and a matching sneakers. He accessorized the look with gold jewelry, covering his new blond ‘do with a black baseball cap.
Also spotted at the event was British singer (and Robert Pattinson’s fiancée) FKA Twigs.
RELATED VIDEO: Kanye West Resurfaces as a Blond Following Hospitalization
Notably absent from West’s side was wife Kim Kardashian West.
The 36-year-old Keeping Up with the Kardashians star has remained out of the spotlight since she was held at gunpoint and robbed of millions of dollars worth of jewelry in her Paris hotel room on Oct. 3.
While the robbery has been an “added stress” to their relationship, a source previously told PEOPLE that there is “no truth behind [the] divorce rumors.”
“Splitting is not even a point of discussion,” the source added. “He had a breakdown, but it does not pertain to them not getting along… it’s not something she would divorce him over.”
Immediately following West’s release from the hospital, the couple were living in separate households for medical reasons, but they are “together now” and are planning to spend the holidays together with their two children — North, 3½, and Saint, 1 — a source previously told PEOPLE.
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Associated Press In Sana'A | A suspected US drone strike in Yemen killed nine alleged al-Qaida militants early on Saturday, a security official said, as authorities continue their search for an American photojournalist held by the extremists.
The drone struck at dawn in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant hideout, the official said. The official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to brief journalists.
At least six suspected militants were killed in an air strike in the same province in November. Tribal leaders on Saturday said they saw helicopters flying over an area called Wadi Abdan in Shabwa province.
There was no immediate comment from US officials. American authorities rarely discuss their drone strike campaign in Yemen. The strikes are incredibly unpopular in Yemen due to civilian casualties, legitimising for many the attacks on American interests.
It was not immediately clear whether the strikes had anything to do with the abduction of Luke Somers, 33, taken in September 2013 in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.
Yemen’s local al-Qaida branch, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a video on Thursday showing Somers and threatening to kill him in if the United States did not meet the group’s demands.
In a statement on Thursday the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, acknowledged for the first time that a US raid last month had sought to rescue Somers but that he turned out not to be at the site.
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Candace Amos | Chris McKay/Getty Images Mike Epps brought some unwanted attention to his Twitter timeline after he was busted by his wife for flirting.
Hasn't he learned anything from Anthony Weiner?
Comedian Mike Epps just exhibited the wrong way to use Twitter to his more than 2 million followers.
The married actor and father of 4, committed a cardinal social media sin when he coerced a female follower to send him a direct message.
The public conversation began when Epps, 44, said "hey" to user @CeciCitra and inquired the reason why she quit Instagram.
"Not anymore. Wasn't getting the likes I deserve," she replied.
Epps tried to move the conversation over to his personal inbox, but his wife of nine years, Mechelle Epps, interjected with a surprise tweet using the curious eyeballs emoji.
MechelleEpps via twitter Mike Epps was caught flirting on Twitter by his wife, Mechelle Epps.
An hour later the woman shared a screenshot of Epps' profile, showcasing that she had been blocked by the actor. "I. Am. Weak," she tweeted.
The Twitter audience responded uproariously to the whole exchange.
Mike Epps wife swooped in like pic.twitter.com/YYm0makk39 — AndrewDias (@KanyeHasAnStd) August 18, 2015
Why didn’t Mike Epps just DM the girl instead of saying “DM ME” ? — Chelly Romo (@ChelsIsRight) August 18, 2015
wait, yall didn't tell me Mike Epps wife actually TWEETED "👀" to him & the girl. I am crying. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 — Chrissy (@imchristine) August 18, 2015
😂😂😂😂 Mike Epps wife swooped in like: pic.twitter.com/NKYX2tXgnc — Rae Cole (@sweetbabyrae) August 18, 2015
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
camos@nydailynews.com
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Char Adams | Sia is known for her envelope-pushing music videos with powerful messages. And her latest project is no different.
In a moving video for “The Greatest,” released on Monday, the 40-year-old singer once again teamed up with Dance Moms (and PEOPLE Ones to Watch) alum Maddie Ziegler, who has starred in the Aussie pop star’s clips for “Chandelier,” “Elastic Heart,” “Big Girls Cry” and most recently “Cheap Thrills.” But this time, Ziegler wasn’t alone.
The chilling video for the Kendrick Lamar-assisted track finds Ziegler roaming the halls of a run-down building, tears streaming down her rainbow-painted cheeks before leading a group of 48 other children in a dance routine.
“I’m free to be the greatest, I’m alive / I’m free to be the greatest here tonight / The greatest, the greatest / The greatest alive, the greatest, the greatest alive,” Sia sings.
Then, in one of the final scenes of the clip, Ziegler and the young troupe are dancing joyfully in a club-like room with rainbow disco lights before all the young performers fall to the ground at once, exposing what appear to be bullet holes in the wall behind them.
The imagery seems to honor the victims of the Orlando shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse, which claimed the lives of 49 people in June.
Although Sia has not revealed the meaning of the video, one boy who claimed to be a dancer In the video uploaded an Instagram video , writing that he is “humbled to be a part” of the project.
“Thank you [Sia] 49 beautiful lives lost,” he wrote. “This is for you #WeAreYourChildren.”
WATCH: Ever Wondered What SIA Looks Like Without the Wig?
Ziegler’s mother, Melissa Gisoni, uploaded a shot from the video to Instagram, writing, “49 kids and @maddieziegler #weareyourchildren.”
To pen the track, Sia collaborated with longtime pal, producer-songwriter Greg Kurstin, and called two other frequent collaborators – choreographer Ryan Heffington and director Daniel Askill – to make its haunting accompanying video.
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Shaun King | In the 1950s and 60s, civil rights leaders learned a powerful lesson and put it to good, painful work. It changed our country immeasurably and ultimately ushered in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On streets, on buses, at lunch counters, at train stops and even on the doorsteps of elementary, middle and high schools — people, particularly young people, quietly and peacefully protested inequity, injustice and inhumane segregation. The protests were orderly and dignified. Students were consistently respectable and peaceful.
The plan was to show the world that the spirit of white supremacy, which served as the foundation of Jim Crow segregation and oppression, would act out with horrific ugliness if its limits were tested even a little bit. Their hypothesis was proven right.
Peaceful, beautiful protestors, ranging from children to old women, were beaten with sticks and clubs as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. They were violently sprayed with full strength fire hoses and bitten by vicious police dogs under the direction of Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor. Four little girls had their bodies blown to bits by a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church. In Greensboro and Nashville, mean-spirited whites would smile and laugh as they dumped milkshakes on the heads of protestors quietly sitting at the segregated Woolworth's lunch counters. Tax-paying black folk who built up the nerve to go and vote would be told to recite the Constitution or guess how many bubbles were in a bar of soap.
KING: NFL players, take a knee with Kaepernick to affect change
When the family of 6-year-old Ruby Bridges honored the request of the NAACP for her to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana, what happened next defied all logic. White families began removing their kids from the school. Only one teacher, a transplant from Boston, would agree to teach her and ended up being forced to teach her in a classroom all by herself.
Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana. (anonymous/AP)
Protesters consistently showed up to yell and scream obscenities at the little girl. She began praying every day as armed security escorted her through the hateful mob. One woman threatened to poison Ruby — forcing the child to only eat and drink food she bought from home. Another woman brought a black baby doll in a coffin to the protests. Her father lost his job. Her family was banned from the local grocery store. Her grandparents were kicked off of the land where they were sharecroppers.
All of this — because a little, bitty black girl attended a local elementary school.
I could write a book of these brave, but horrible stories. Ultimately, a mirror was put up close to the face of America and its ugliness was exposed for the whole world to see.
Santa Clara police reverse field on working 49ers games
This weekend, children as young as 11 and 12 years old, inspired by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision to take a knee during “The Star Spangled Banner” as a protest against continued injustice and police brutality in America, decided to take their own knee to protest the injustice that has troubled them in America.
Colin Kaepernick (c.) made a statement by kneeling during the national anthem before an NFL preseason football game between the San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers. (Chris Carlson/AP)
The Beaumont Bulls are a team of elementary and middle school-age boys from Beaumont, Texas. On Saturday morning, before their game, every player and coach decided to take a knee in solidarity with Kaepernick and the growing list of NFL players who have done the same thing. Within hours of the news breaking locally, parents say, death threats and racial slurs began pouring in.
April Parkerson, whose son plays on the team said, "Our children are receiving death threats from people saying things like hang those monkeys, they should've died on 9/11, and they're going to kill each other anyway."
Remember, these are little boys who took a knee at a youth football game.
Talk is cheap when networks play ads instead of airing anthem
For other children, the hate and bigotry came even quicker.
Rodney Axson says he took a knee after hearing teammates use a racial slur before a game. (Courtesy of Axson Family)
Rodney Axson, 16, of Brunswick, Ohio, claims he overheard two teammates using the "N-word" in the locker room before a Sept. 2 game. For him, it was the deciding factor that he would take a knee during the national anthem. Doing so brought immediate hate not from anonymous trolls, but his own white teammates who he says called him the N-word to his face during the game. A Snapchat post surfaced showing a handwritten note about lynching.
Soon he received a note saying that he would be lynched. The district superintendent released a statement saying he was "saddened," and that school officials are cooperating with law enforcement.
Any student who threatened to lynch this young man shouldn't just receive a simple suspension, they should be prosecuted.
In a gut-wrenching video interview, Rodney Axson's father said that his son, much like Rub Dee 56 years ago, decided to pray during his moment of bravery, but that the hate he has received because of his peaceful protest has been vile.
Te'Ron Brown of the West Orange-Stark High School football team in Texas was the target of a racist social media posted by members of a rival football team from Bridge City. (KTRK)
"I thought moving to a community like Brunswick, we would be safe … Keep away from gun violence, then you have to come out here and deal with racial things," the father said.
This is the struggle for black folk all over the country. In pursuit of a quality education and basic safety, families move out of the city to the burbs, but then end up being subjected to exactly what Rodney Axson is dealing with now.
Te'Ron Brown, the star high school senior for the defending state champion West Orange-Stark High School in Texas, was the subject of a racist social media post by two players from the opposing Bridge City team. Brown and West Orange won the game 55-0. The school district has not yet announced how they've handled the bigotry, but Brown's mother said she would still like a formal apology for the offense.
These racist attacks on young children are no different than what Kaepernick and the other 13 NFL players who've physically demonstrated by kneeling, sitting, or raising a black power fist have experienced. Any quick, cursory scan of the internet will produce thousands of death threats, racial slurs and calls for them to each "move back to Africa."
It seems, then, that these peaceful, quiet, dignified protests are working. Like those of the Civil Rights Movement, they are exposing the violent and racist heart and soul of this nation for what it truly is. With every day that passes, the protests seem more and more justified and the heroes seem increasingly obvious.
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Alex Heigl | It’s rare that a credit card fraud alert will result in a positive life-changing experience, but for Christina Grady, that’s exactly what happened.
Grady was having one of those stretches of weeks where it feels like life’s just grinding you down under its heel like a cigarette butt: Her fiancé broke up with her, she had to find a new place to live and, while in the middle of purchasing new furniture for her post-breakup living space, her credit card was shut down due to “suspicious activity.”
The 36-year-old dutifully called up Capital One to straighten out the situation, but ended up getting so much more than a reactivated credit card. She ended up pouring out her feelings to the woman on the other end of the line, a customer service rep known only as “Tonya KYY905,” and an unexpected moment of bonding occurred.
“We really just started joking with each other, and she just said, ‘Girl! I’m going to give you 4,500 miles,’ ” Grady told BuzzFeed News. Tonya then told Grady to take a vacation and go on an accompanying Instagram spree.
But that wasn’t the end of Tonya’s involvement in Grady’s life: Five days later, Grady got a text from her ex noting that someone had sent flowers to their house.
“I’m glad we had a chance to speak recently. Please know that you are in my thoughts and I hope that these can brighten your day! Best wishes, Tonya, KYY905, Capital One,” the note attached to the flowers read.
• Need a little inspiration? Click here to subscribe to the Daily Smile Newsletter for uplifting, feel-good stories that brighten up your inbox.
“I just started crying!” Grady recalled. “It’s nice when someone takes the time to be kind and bring out your strength,” she said. “And that’s what Tonya did for me.” She said she’s planning on using the miles to go on her planned wedding trip to Belize.
“Before, I was thinking I’d go on this depressing trip where everyone’s going to try and make me happy,” Grady said. “Now, the plan is, I’m going to use the miles, bring my wedding dress, put it on, take a bunch of pictures of me marrying pizza, and I asked Capital One if they would send Tonya.” (Capital One has not responded to the offer yet.)
Thank you Tonya KYY905 for restoring our faith in the people on the other end of the line. Christina, best of luck on your upcoming nuptials to pizza (we’re jealous!) and enjoy your trip to Belize. We’re off to call our credit card company and connect with someone.
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Marcella Bernhard | Bam! Bang! Pow!
After years of disappointing returns and massive spending on expansion, Blockbuster is delivering the goods to parent company Viacom .
Viacom’s decision not to spin off its 82.3% stake in Blockbuster has at least a little to do with the weak market, but it really speaks more to Blockbuster’s strength. As profits dip at Viacom’s other businesses, Blockbuster continues to live up to its name. Viacom may need the rental chain more than it needs Viacom.
Indeed, the technological revolution that dampened investor confidence in Blockbuster is far from being a reality. The so-called “video-on-demand” system delivered with DSL technology was expected to put rental chains out of business by letting movie-lovers select from millions of movies, download them and view any movie from the comfort of their homes.
But that never happened. Then Time Warner and Bell Atlantic conducted early trials and discovered it was prohibitively expensive for users. What they got was “near” video-on-demand–an overpriced selection of bad pay-per-view movies. Plus, with pay-per-view you can’t pause movies to run to the kitchen.
It will be several years before the promise of video-on-demand becomes a reality, analysts predict. “Companies are getting real about what customers demand. They want true VCR functionality,” says David Riedel, an analyst with Solomon Smith Barney in New York.
Meanwhile, customers are still renting videos and DVDs. In fact, DVD rentals are a growing and higher-profit-margin area of Blockbuster’s business. The chain typically charges more for DVD rentals than for videos, and DVDs have a longer lifespan. DVD rentals accounted for 10% of Blockbuster’s revenue last year and could grow to 20% or more of sales revenue this year.
Blockbuster’s massive expansion to 7,700 stores throughout Europe, Asia, North America and Australia is paying off seven years after Viacom bought the chain in 1994 for about $8 billion. Blockbuster generated $534.8 million last year on revenue of $4.96 billion, and analysts say the video chain is expected to have even better news this year–earnings of $582 million on revenue of $5.36 billion. By comparison, in 1997 it made $207.9 million on revenue of $3.3 billion
Poor market conditions also play into Viacom’s decision not to spin off its majority stake. The 17.7% of publicly traded Blockbuster stock has had a bumpy ride this year. Though it’s bounced up from a low of $6.88 in October, Blockbuster still trades under the $15 it priced at when Viacom took the minority stake public in August 1999.
But despite Blockbuster’s uneven stock performance, the video retailer still offers benefits for Viacom. While lagging ad sales continue to hurt Viacom companies like CBS and cable network MTV , Blockbuster remains a retailing powerhouse with 36% of the entertainment rental market. Every day the chain attracts 3 million customers. Want a good example of Blockbuster’s selling power? After entering an agreement with DirecTV to sell its satellite television system in Blockbuster outlets, Blockbuster peddled 100,000 of the systems from September to December of last year.
And the company continues to beef up its retail might. Radio Shack will unroll 300 stores within Blockbuster outlets starting this summer. The stores-within-a-store will sell entertainment-related products from batteries to DVD players in return for paying Blockbuster a licensing fee and an undisclosed cut of profits.
Meanwhile, Blockbuster says it will continue to work on its own video-on-demand system, though it recently cancelled a partnership to work on development with Enron Broadband to deliver Blockbuster movies over an Enron network. While the technology is not viable business right now, Blockbuster says its well-known brand will be ready to pounce if the technology pans out.
But for now, Blockbuster looks more like the real-life drama Erin Brockovich than a futurist gambit like Blade Runner.
Blockbuster At A Glance
Blockbuster (nyse: BBI)
Dallas
(214) 854-3000
www.blockbuster.com
CEO: John F. Antioco
Revenue: $4.96 billion
Losses: $75.9 million
Recent Price: $14.71
P/E: N/A
All data for calendar year 2000
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Kenneth Roth | News that US intelligence services tapped the phones of allied leaders has generated understandable outrage in Europe. But far more significant is the American government's practice of monitoring the communications of millions of ordinary people, who have no legal redress in the United States because they are foreigners.
Electronic surveillance has become easy. Authorities can reconstruct someone's life with a simple request to their mobile phone provider, while the costs of storing and processing massive amounts of data have declined dramatically. We already live much of our lives through digital communications, and the trend will only accelerate, so we need swift reform, or the problems will escalate. The issue is not just our emails and mobile phones but also our calendars, address books and medical and banking records. Governments and corporations are increasingly able to track people's location, associations and communications.
Existing legal frameworks were devised in an analogue age, when cross-border communication was rare and online communication and social media were unheard of. In that pre-internet age, surveillance techniques were labour-intensive and time-consuming, which helped to constrain arbitrary and abusive practices. The law has to catch up.
A good place to start would be a set of principles unveiled in September by a coalition of non-governmental groups and technology experts aimed at keeping communications surveillance lawful, necessary, proportionate, and subject to adequate safeguards against abuse.
The EU is sensitive to data protection by private actors, and has set the global standard in regulations to ensure people have control over what data they give to companies and how those companies use it. But lawmakers and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have much more to do.
When it comes to European governments' demands for access to data, which companies must retain for a substantial period, oversight standards are quite relaxed. The US, in turn, has left data privacy regulation to its 50 states, resulting in a cacophony of rules.
It's time for governments to come clean about their practices, and not wait for the newest revelations. All should acknowledge a global obligation to protect everyone's privacy, clarify the limits on their own surveillance practices (including surveillance of people outside their own borders), and ensure they don't trade mass surveillance data to evade their own obligations. Of course it is important to protect security, but western allies should agree that mass, rather than narrowly targeted, surveillance is never a normal or proportionate measure in a democracy.
Washington is finally grappling with the Snowden revelations, holding hearings and considering legislation that might help to rein in the NSA's seemingly unconstrained power. Some of these bills would limit or end bulk data collection, institute greater transparency, and give the secret court that oversees surveillance requests a more adversarial character. These are important proposals, but none include protection for non-Americans abroad. The US has the capacity to routinely invade the digital lives of people the world over, but it barely recognises any privacy interest of those outside the US.
Every country thus has an interest in seeing the US rein in the NSA and oversee its surveillance operations effectively. And as one revelation after another shows that the data of US-based internet companies is not secure from NSA prying, they too face an imperative to restore consumer trust by pressing for stronger privacy protections. If Washington won't listen to foreigners, at least it might listen to its own companies, who risk severe damage to their overseas businesses.
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Martta Kelly | Men age 40 and younger who are enlisted in the U.S. military are three times more likely to have erectile dysfunction (ED) than civilian men of similar age, but few military men report receiving treatment, according to a new study.
The study, one of the first assessments of sexual-functioning problems among male military personnel, included 367 enlisted men, ages 21 to 40. Participants completed an online sexual-functioning survey during an eight-week period in October and November in 2013.
The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of sexual function problems in male military personnel, examine its effects on their quality of life and evaluate barriers for seeking treatment, said Sherrie L. Wilcox, research assistant professor at the University of Southern California's School of Social Work in Los Angeles, and one of the authors of the study.
The researchers found that ED was common, with more than 30 percent of the relatively healthy young servicemen in the study reporting having it.
"The overall rate of erectile dysfunction in our sample is three times higher than the rate of ED in civilian males of similar age, and 10 percent more than civilian men over the age of 40," Wilcox told Live Science. "The most alarming data, however, is the rate of ED in the 36- to 40-year age group, which is nearly twice the rate of civilian men over 40."
There was a clear relationship between sexual-function problems and quality of life and happiness, she said. Only 12 of the men affected, however, reported receiving treatment for their problems, according to the study. [10 Surprising Sex Statistics]
"Many of the reasons cited for not seeking treatment were related to social factors and concerns about what others would think," Wilcox said.
Wilcox said the high rates of sexual problems among men in the military could be due to exposure to traumatic events during deployment, mental and physical health issues, and relationship problems with their spouses or significant others. "Sexual-functioning problems are typically associated with increasing age, but those exposed to traumatic events and physical injuries are at risk for developing them, regardless of age," she said.
The study is published in the July issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Wilcox said she hopes to do a longitudinal study in the future, with a larger sample size and perhaps one that focuses on women as well. "This study is important in that it raises awareness for this problem and puts it on the radar of professionals who work with military personnel and their families," she said. "Sexual dysfunction in young military personnel is both an understudied and underreported problem, but it is not unique to the current generation of enlisted men."
Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Associated Press In Salt Lake City | Insurance underwriters involved in a legal battle with the Rolling Stones over a $12.7m claim have won permission to seek evidence in Utah about the mental health of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend before she took her life in March.
A federal judge in Utah last month allowed the 12 underwriters to gather testimony and documents from Randall Bambrough of Ogden, the brother of L’Wren Scott.
She was a fashion designer and Utah native whose suicide prompted the rock group to postpone a concert tour of Australia and New Zealand and then file a $12.7mclaim for losses due to its postponement.
Jagger was “diagnosed as suffering from acute traumatic stress disorder” after Scott’s death and was advised by doctors not to perform for at least 30 days, according to documents filed in the court case in Utah.
Before the tour, the group took out a $23.9m policy to be paid in the event shows were canceled due to the death of family members or others, including Scott.
In denying the claim, underwriters said Scott might have been suffering from a pre-existing mental illness and her death might not be covered under the policy.
Underwriters are seeking information from Bambrough about possible illnesses, treatments and the circumstances of her death, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Bambrough said Thursday he did not know about the federal court case naming him and had not received a subpoena to provide testimony and documents about his sister. He declined further comment.
The Rolling Stones’ Los Angeles public relations firm and the underwriters’ Utah attorney did not respond to emails seeking comment.
After underwriters denied the claim, the Stones sued them in London.
The same underwriters petitioned a federal court in New York seeking similar information from Scott’s former personal assistant, Brittany Penebre, and from the executor of Scott’s estate, Adam Glassman.
Scott was adopted by Mormon parents and raised in Roy, Utah, which had a population of less than 10,000 at the time. She left home as a teenager to become a model in Paris, then a top Hollywood stylist and finally a high-end fashion designer .
Scott, whose elegant designs in lush fabrics were favored by celebrities like Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Oprah Winfrey, Penelope Cruz and first lady Michelle Obama, met the Stones frontman in 2001. On red carpets, the striking 6ft 3 designer towered over her famous 5ft 10 boyfriend.
An autopsy completed on the body of the 49-year-old Scott found she died of hanging in her New York City apartment.
The underwriters filed a petition in federal court in Utah on 10 October, and US Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells granted their request a week later to gather evidence from her brother, The Tribune reported.
The Stones began a new tour of Australia and New Zealand in late October.
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Amy Kellogg | On a weekend night you can't escape the roar of race car engines along the coastal roads here in the Qatari capital. It must be a bit of a culture shock for the five Taliban detainees sprung from Guantanamo Bay last week in exchange for the freedom of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.
There has been an outcry from critics of the prisoner swap, who worry that these men with blood on their hands are getting off far too easily. Qatar's citizens are the richest in the world, per capita, but only a minority of residents here are actually citizens and the Taliban five are not among them.
We do know their families are coming here to live with the former prisoners in some sort of residential compound.
Sources here say they are likely to live in "5 star villas" along with more than a few of their compatriots who are already living in the Qatari capital at the expense of this gas-rich Emirate.
Qataris have a different relationship with the Taliban than does the U.S.
Afghanistan is not their war. These men and their families are fellow Muslims. And Qatar sees the latest prisoner swap as a humanitarian gesture. That is pretty much all Doha is saying.
The terms of the former Guantanamo prisoners' existence here have not been publicly spelled out either. One source says they won't even be using the phone while here.
They are officially banned from fundraising and political organizing. It is not clear how much that can be monitored. Washington has said it is leaving the monitoring up to Doha. But some here say it is hard to believe the Americans won't be watching them, too.
At least one of the former captives, according to a relative, plans to return to the battlefield after his year of loose house arrest in Qatar is up. Former regional governor and military commander Noorullah Noori is also wanted by the U.N. for war crimes in connection with the massacre of Afghan shi'ites.
Most of the "Taliban dream team," as one former Afghan official put it, either had very close ties with Taliban leader in exile Mullah Omar or with Al Qaeda. That said, some have suggested they are "grey beards", well past their prime and a little out of touch.
One Afghan journalist I have spoken to says actually their value has gone up rather than down, as the timing of their release is very sensitive, with the U.S. troop withdrawal coming up. He said it makes the Afghan people question the commitment to their security, but adds that Afghans do understand American concerns about getting a soldier home.
Qatar's track record for keeping track of militants in its custody has not been stellar. Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed slipped through here in 1996 when Washington thought Doha was keeping tabs on him, and another Gitmo prisoner transferred here a few years ago, Jarallah al-Marri, was supposed to be confined to Qatar but managed to turn up in London, where he was arrested. This time, U.S. officials say they are confident that the Taliban five will be kept in this country for the term of the deal and as such, their threat will be mitigated.
Amy Kellogg currently serves as a Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent based in the London bureau. She joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 1999 as a Moscow-based correspondent. Follow her on Twitter: @kellogglondon
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Hollie Mckay | When ISIS laid siege to the Yazidi villages that dot Iraq’s Mount Sinjar in 2014, members of the religious minority soon learned neighbors they’d known for generations were not their friends after all, according to one woman who was recently rescued after more than a year in the terrorist army’s clutches.
From the very first days of the August 2014 siege, the Yazidi community began to lose hope as they descended from their mountain home into a nightmare of misery and death. Muslim families they had lived side-by-side with for generations turned on them, “Zana,” a 32-year-old Yazidi woman whose freedom was purchased from ISIS in March, told FoxNews.com in a Skype interview from the Kurdish-run camp where she now lives.
Related Image Expand / Contract "Zana," whose face is obscured to protect her identity, spent more than a year as an ISIS sex slave.
“When ISIS came they said they didn’t want to fight us, they told us to give them our weapons,” Zana said. “We gave them everything we had – these were our Muslim neighbors. But so many of them had become ISIS and we didn’t know.”
In a story similar to that told by dozens of Yazidis, Zana recalled the day ISIS assaulted her village at the foot of Mount Sinjar. The elderly were summarily executed where they were found, she recalled. Men and women were separated, with older men dragged off to mosques where they were killed and females – including girls as young as 8 -- loaded onto cars and trucks bound for Mosul.
“ISIS took me, my sister, my brother’s wife and my little sister,” Zana recalled, her eyes filling with tears. “For 13 days, we were put in a school – we didn’t know what would happen. There were about 50 people – women and children – squashed into a room. There was no water for us to wash ourselves, the children were sick.”
Her nightmare was just starting.
Zana lied to her captors that she was married, thinking somehow it might spare her from their evil intentions. Her captors were unmoved, and she and dozens of others were taken to a well-guarded building in the Iraqi city of Telafar. Yazidi girls under the age of 14 were taken away to be sold at auction. The remaining women were soon introduced to ISIS fighters and told they were now their property and would accompany them to Syria.
ISIS justifies killing, raping and enslaving Yazidis by calling them “devil worshippers,” as their very ancient religion blends elements from all the Abrahamic faiths. Yazidi are ethnically Kurds, but follow a pre-Islamic faith. Of the 500,000 Yazidi in Iraq, more than 200,000 have been displaced or killed since the rise of ISIS, according to the United Nations.
Zana told FoxNews.com she managed to escape her quarters in the dead of the night, and related how she knocked on a stranger’s door to beg for help.
“I asked them, ‘Please give me a phone to call my relatives, I don’t need anything from you. I just want to call my relatives,’” she said.
The family refused to help her contact relatives, but made her work in their home for nearly a week, she said. Then, they turned her back over to her tormentors, she said.
“They called and said, ‘There is a girl who wants to escape, she is with us, come and take her,’” Zana said. “So ISIS came. And I cried.”
Her angry captors put her in a prison cell while an investigation was conducted into how she was able to escape. Days later, she was transferred to another facility in Telafar and forced to convert to Islam under threat of death, she said. She witnessed a dozen fellow Yazidi captives’ executions, punishment for their own escape attempts, she said.
Zana and another woman were given to a jihadist and sent to live with him in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.
“He took me to his place, they were flats. Small tourist flats. It was a tourist community,” Zana said, her eyes cast down.
It was there, Zana said, that she was raped for the first time. For the next five months, she remained inside Mosul, handed off to another militant who locked her in a small room.
“I cooked for him, I washed his clothes, and I cleaned the house. I did everything,” Zana said. “But he became very aggressive if I didn’t do something just as wanted, and he would attack me.
“I told him that they might be killing our people now, but one day we will get to take our revenge,” she said.
In the ensuing months, Zana was passed along by a string of ISIS fighters from different Arab countries, and shuffled from city to city, including the ISIS capital of Raqqa, Syria. When she was sent to Iraq’s Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, she managed to lock eyes with a civilian woman.
“I whispered my number to her and said, ‘Please call me family,’” Zana recounted. “She told me not to worry. They knew a guy who could help rescue me.”
But rescue missions don’t come cheap, as rescuers often need to pay off local tribesmen or hatch elaborate plans to buy girls back from their captors. Scores of Yazidi families have gone into tremendous debt selling what little they have to liberate their stolen loved ones, but have received some assistance from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the northern part of Iraq.
In Zana’s case, thousands of dollars were scrambled together and she was “bought” by a rescuer known to her family. On March 22, 2016, she was freed.
Now living in a sprawling camp for displaced Yazidi in the northern Iraq city of Duhok, which is part of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, Zana feels the pain of loss and the scars of her ordeal. Both of her parents died at the hands of ISIS and her sisters were taken.
“It’s a tough situation,” she said. “But I’m still here.”
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Todd Bishop | The observation deck of Seattle’s Space Needle offers sweeping views of the city and region. But for the 50th anniversary of the Seattle landmark, organizers are thinking much bigger — and higher.
The Space Needle this morning announced an elaborate sweepstakes and competition that will ultimately send one lucky winner on a suborbital spaceflight, through the Space Adventures space tourism company.
Anyone can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to become one of 1,000 people eligible to compete for the grand prize.
They’re calling it the “Space Race 2012.”
“The Space Needle was built when our country was in a global space race,” says Ron Sevart, president of the Space Needle LLC, in a news release. “With space travel moving to the private sector, a new race has begun that focuses on the best of what the Space Needle has become a symbol of the aspirations of today’s world of technology and science. What better way than sending a person from our midst into space to mark our first 50 years and look into the exciting future that lies ahead.”
The sweepstakes will award other prizes along the way. After the 1,000 people are chosen at random for a chance at the grand prize, it turns into a competition that will require contestants to submit short videos and participate in challenges, with the public narrowing down the field and a panel making the final decision.
The winner will be announced in April 2012, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Space Needle, according to this KING-5 report.
For more info, see the full contest rules.
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Sam Laird | NFL star Adrian Peterson's 2-year-old son died Friday after allegedly being beaten by the boyfriend of the woman with whom Peterson fathered the child.
Peterson's son, who has not been identified by name, was allegedly beaten by the man Wednesday in South Dakota, where they lived. Early reports speculated that the boy was Adrian Peterson, Jr., with whom the Minnesota Vikings running back is often photographed, but it was later learned that the deceased child was another of Peterson's sons.
Friday afternoon's news led to an outpouring of sympathy online for Peterson from all corners of the sports world. Peterson himself even took to Twitter to offer his own thanks for the support:
Thank you to my family, my fans and fans of other teams for their support. — Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) October 11, 2013
The NFL is a fraternity of brothers and I am thankful for the tweets, phone calls and text messages from my fellow players. — Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) October 11, 2013
God Bless everyone and thank u so much. — Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) October 11, 2013
Joseph Robert Patterson was arrested Friday and held on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery of an infant before the child died, according to ESPN.
Fans, media and some of the biggest names in the NFL and other pro sports expressed shock at the tragedy and offered Peterson condolences. The volume of support for one athlete from across sports was remarkable, as the hashtag #PrayForAP quickly became a worldwide trend.
Here are some of the tweets of support from around the web:
So Damn sad man! Makes no sense at all. Innocent kid with dreams gets taking away by a coward with no dreams at all! Smh #SickForAP — LeBron James (@KingJames) October 11, 2013
Can't express how much sadness we are feeling for Adrian Peterson. Our deepest condolences go out to him as he deals with this tragic loss — Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) October 11, 2013
Thoughts are with you and your family @AdrianPeterson — JJ Watt (@JJWatt) October 11, 2013
Man this is crazy man, prayers up to Adrian Peterson and his family — Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) October 11, 2013
Praying for @AdrianPeterson and his family that they stay strong and encouraged through this trying time. — Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) October 11, 2013
You and your family are in our prayers @AdrianPeterson — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) October 11, 2013
Absolutely sick over this.. Prayers out to Adrian Peterson and his family.. Hard to imagine what they are going thru during this time — Kyle Williams (@KyleWilliams_10) October 11, 2013
Thoughts & prayers go out 2 Adrian Peterson & his family! As a father I don't knw what I would do in this situation. God be with him — Isaiah Thomas (@Isaiah_Thomas2) October 11, 2013
Image: Harry Engels/Getty Images
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