ENGLAND enter Tuesday's start to their one-day series against New Zealand attempting to put their opponents into a similar depression to the one they suffered less than a year ago.
Only last July, England were calling crisis meetings to formulate their one-day strategy after they lost all six matches in the triangular series against Pakistan and Australia as part of a miserable run of 11 successive defeats.
It prompted the selectors to clear out experienced players like Alec Stewart, Robert Croft, Mark Ealham and Alan Mullally, and introduce promising youngsters such as Paul Collingwood, Matthew Hoggard and Michael Vaughan.
Now they will enter the opening day-night match against New Zealand having lost just three of their last 11 matches.
Confidence is high, particularly after winning the last two games in India to level that series at 3-3, while New Zealand's tired and jaded squad have just suffered five successive defeats during their triangular series against Australia and South Africa.
To further undermine the hosts, key fast bowler Shane Bond has been withdrawn from the opening match and possibly the remainder of England's tour with a suspected stress fracture of his left foot - giving the tourists further encouragement that they could expose the Kiwis' fragile mindset.
"New Zealand deserve credit for the way they played in Australia, but they are on a little bit of a downer," claimed England captain Nasser Hussain.
"Both sides will also be a bit tired after the amount of cricket they've played and will be looking at each other in that first game. We'll be sparring up to each other and those two games will be very important."
Hussain, though, has seen too many disappointments during his 56-match one-day career with England to even begin to believe they are now ready to challenge Australia for their World Cup crown in South Africa next year.
"I'm pleased with the way we're gelling as a team, I'm pleased with the way we're showing character and fight but there's a lot more we've got to learn about one-day cricket," he stressed.
"You don't go from where we were ranked in the world to becoming world champions just in 11 one-day internationals and we're going to have to progress very slowly.
"We're very happy with some of the games we've played, but some parts still need a lot of improvement. That won't happen just in a five-match series in New Zealand, it takes a long time with consistency of selection and some fighting and character - that's how you bring people together.
"We need to improve our fielding, our intensity, our fighting in tense situations, our batting in the first 15 overs and our bowling at the death.
"They have all improved but they haven't got it right and with a young side there will be times when the wheels come off but the important thing is for us not to over-react."
That will mean England sticking to a virtually unchanged side for the opening match of the series, with returning all-rounder Craig White likely to be the only new face from the line-up that won back-to-back matches in India to level the series at 3-3.
England will train under the lights at the Jade Stadium for the first time tomorrow, although Ben Hollioake is still ruled out with the knee injury which has sidelined him for over a week.
Yet despite the differing form of the two sides, England insist they remain underdogs and expect another tough series against a side who are rated in the top four in the world in the current ratings.
"It's going to be a very close series," added coach Duncan Fletcher. "New Zealand are playing at home, they're very competitive and I'm sure they're keen to beat England.
"They always seem to lift their game when they're playing against England and there are two similar sides playing each other.
"They have a lot of energy which is very important in one-day cricket and they look to be a tight unit."


Former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy has said that he finds the commercial side of new dance music “repellent” and that he is not excited by new music at all right now.
Murphy, who yesterday (February 27) revealed plans to release LCD Soundsystem’s final gig on vinyl for Record Store Day, made his comments about the current state of dance music at by:Larm festival in Norway (via MusicWeek).
‘The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live At Madison Square Garden’ will come out as a five-LP set on April 19, with a wider vinyl and digital release set for May 19. The recording will be an unabridged version of the band’s final gig, coming in at almost four hours long. The show, which took place on April 2, 2011 in New York, was documented by the film Shut Up And Play The Hits.
Murphy recently made his coffee line available to buy online. Murphy’s brand of hot beverages, which are sold under the banner House Of Good, were made in collaboration with coffee company Blue Bottle. They are now selling a pound bag of the coffee on their official website for $26 (£15.50) each.
Earlier this week (February 24), Murphy also revealed a brief preview of his plan to turn the New York subway into a multi-station symphony. The producer wants to make every subway station in the US city have its own music, so that people will later associate the place with that sound.


The slowing housing market and looming oversupply are weighing on the $1.2 billion a year self-storage sector, with operators forced to discount rates to maintain occupancy levels and average per-metre revenues.
While Perth has been the worst-performing market, the malaise is clearly evident in Sydney and Melbourne although the trends are inconsistent on a suburb-by-suburb basis.
The fast-growing sector is vulnerable not so much to declining property prices, but the resulting slow-down in housing turnover that results in fewer residents temporarily parking their goods in storage units.
“The observations from the field ... are that competition is biting hard and aggressive pricing is becoming commonplace,” said Kennards Self Storage CEO Sam Kennard.
National Storage CEO Andrew Catsoulis said the softness was driven “predominantly” by Sydney and Melbourne, but off a high activity base.
“You can’t take $13 billion of housing sales activity out of any market and expect to see no impact,” he said, adding that no market had “fallen off a cliff” entirely.
Mr Kennard said the Sydney market was subdued but patchy, with discounting of up to 20 per cent for new customers in one location. “We have several others where street rates are down between 10 per cent and 15 per cent,” he said.
However, Mr Kennard disputed competitor suggestions the company had experienced 3 percentage point occupancy declines. He said Kennards' like-for-like Sydney occupancies had fallen an average 1.3 per cent, while the company’s NSW revenue per available metre (revpam) was stable.
In Victoria, Kennards’ occupancies rose 0.2 per cent while revpam lifted 4 per cent.
In its recent half-year results, the listed National Storage reported overall stable occupancies of 80.4 per cent, but with revpam declining 2.3 per cent to $215.
The revpam decline largely reflected the increase in discounting such as ‘first month free’ sign-on offers.
Mr Catsoulis said National Storage had responded quickly to the downturn by increasing its digital marketing, including focusing on retirement villages and customer ‘life events’ such as downsizing.
“This business differs to retail. It’s a much less discretionary spend,” he said.
The company has also been targeting SMEs, including small e-commerce providers using self storage as the ‘last mile’ in the delivery chain.
National Storage is Australia’s biggest self-storage operator with 146 centres valued at $1.6 billion.
The weaker trends are also reflected in the latest sector report from property consultancy Urbis, which shows outer Sydney and outer Brisbane leading occupancy declines, of 5 per cent and 5.33 per cent respectively.
Overall, average storage fees grew by 1.89 per cent, a slower growth rate than in recent years.
In the difficult Perth market, occupancy rates and storage fees declined 1.77 per cent and 1.12 per cent respectively. However the inner Sydney market bucks the trend with increased utilisation.
According to Urbis, national occupancy rates vary from 70.4 per cent in Perth to 89.95 per cent in inner Melbourne, with greater Sydney occupancies averaging 82.35 per cent.
Despite the “dubious economics’’ of many proposed self-storage projects, Mr Kennard said investors were still showing keen interest in the sector.
Urbis data suggests the housing downturn is failing to dent supply, with 41 “proposed and future” facilities as of the end of 2018. In addition, 13 new facilities were opened in the second half of the year.


Choosing just the right gift.
Getting the gift – either shopping for or making it.
Wrapping it in festive paper and with ribbons, bows, glitter and stickers.
Making a card to go with it.
Presenting the gift and seeing the joy it brings.
In a sense, it’s a present for them as well. What greater gift can we give our kids than the experience of bringing joy to someone else? It’s a powerful feeling.
Besides family, who can children give gifts to? And what gifts can they give? Many kids want to give something to their teacher. After all, they spend hours every week with her. It’s only natural that they want to give her a gift during this giving season. It doesn’t need to be expensive. In fact, the school may even have guidelines. Ask! It’s important to respect them. The point of this gift is to engage your child in giving, to show the teacher how much you appreciate what she does all year long and to express a sense of caring.
Here are some suggestions for teacher gifts. But don’t limit yourself to these. They are simply ideas. Also, talk with your child. After all, it’s his gift to his teacher.
A gift of cookies, homemade jellies, jams or salsa packaged in holiday wrapping with a card written by the student is always appreciated.
It’s easy and fun to take photos, make and decorate a cardboard frame, put names and dates on the back, and give to the teacher to enjoy.
A small plant or good luck bamboo in a small vase brightens up her desk and the classroom for the rest of the year.
A mug full of nuts or an individual pack of hot chocolate mix. Add a candy cane for a special mint hot chocolate treat. If the teacher has been in the business for fifteen years, she may already have a zillion mugs, but a new teacher may be just starting her collection.
If you know of a special interest the teacher has, shop for an ornament or box of note cards that reflects it.
Wrap any gift in festive paper and help your child write a note to go with the gift. If she is too young to write, have her color the message part of the card and “sign” her name. Before the day gets started at school or after school, go with your child to see the teacher and help her give the gift. That way you can share the experience and joy of giving together.


To fully understand the position of the new 6-series GT in the BMW line-up you need to look to the past and to the future. The past because the 6 GT takes the place of the old and somewhat confused 5-series Gran Turismo, albeit with a new badge to denote its elevated status. So far, so logical, until that is you note how it muddies the existing 6-series range, which until now has been reserved for more sporting two-door coupé and cabriolets, and the rather lovely four-door Gran Coupé. That’s where the future comes in, because some time in 2018 those cars will be phased out in favour of the 8-series, at which point the positioning of the 6 GT will at last make sense. But what exactly is it?
We’ll turn to BMW for the answer to that, which says its GT models are the true definition of a “crossover”, providing the boot space of an estate and the elevated driving position of an SUV in a car the size of a saloon that has been styled to look like a coupé. Sounds more like a mish-mash to us.
What can’t be denied is that the design is more cohesive than the old 5 GT. Not the toughest of tasks, admittedly, but you might at least now choose this car over a 5-series on aesthetic grounds as well as practical ones, the improvements wrought largely from it being 2cm lower than the 5 GT, with a boot lid height dropped by 6cm.
Its platform borrows elements of 7-series and 5-series, with a 3-metre-long wheelbase to match the former. This means rear legroom is particularly generous, and although the seats themselves lack the full range of adjustment you’ll find in a 7-series, they still offer electrically reclining backrests and those pillowy soft headrests BMW is so good at. Open the doors at night and you also get the full “light carpet” effect from the 7-series, which is about as elegant a way to avoid treading in dog excrement as there can be.
The whole “bigger than an estate car” premise is valid, too, with the hatchback opening to reveal 610 litres of space, making the GT second only in BMW’s range to the X5. It also comfortably trumps the Audi A7 Sportback and Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake. Practicality is extended thanks to 40:20:40 split folding rear seats and a parcel shelf that can be stored under the boot floor - perfect for those camping trips where you’ve loaded your £50,000 BMW to the gunwales with tents and saucepans.
That price makes the 6 GT about £4,000 more expensive than a 5-series Touring with the same engine and trim, although BMW says that the 6 GT also comes with much more standard equipment. In fact, to add items such as the digital cockpit, adaptive LED headlights, reversing camera and powered tailgate to a 5-series would take it up to a similar price.
That comparison is slightly disingenuous, however, for it ignores the fact you can’t have a 6 GT with a 2.0-litre diesel engine, which in turn rules out the best value 5-series you can buy. Instead the 6 GT starts with the four-cylinder 630i petrol before moving through a pair of straight-sixes in the petrol 640i and diesel 630d, the former with xDrive four-wheel drive as standard and the latter with it as an option.
All come with an eight-speed automatic gearbox, and the range of trims is as simple as SE or the £3,600 more expensive M Sport, with its bigger wheels and brakes, and a panoramic roof. It is predicted that 85 per cent of customers in the UK will choose the latter, although we are an admittedly small market for this car, which has really been designed with an eye on China and South Korea.
Climbing into the 6 GT is very much like getting into a 5-series, only with a smaller gap between your posterior and the car’s 6cm raised driving position. So it’s taller, but still far from an SUV.
The dashboard layout basically mirrors what you’ll find in a high-spec 5-series and is thus hi-tech, tasteful and of superb quality. The centrepiece is a 10.2-inch touchscreen that can also be operated by the traditional BMW iDrive rotary controller. For its combination of functionality and ease of use it’s hard to beat, although we’d swipe the optional and not very good gesture control to one side.
We tried the 640i petrol first which is quiet but needs some revs to really feel brisk. In truth like all big BMWs the 6 GT is a car that suits the stronger mid-range pull of a diesel. Thankfully the 3.0-litre Twinpower turbo unit is a peach, with a creamy 457lb ft of torque (versus 332lb ft in the 640i) for effortless surge, plus a muted yet meaty soundtrack and an easy 500 miles from a full tank.
BMW says that the 6 GT provides the boot space of an estate and the elevated driving position of an SUV in a car the size of a saloon that has been styled to look like a coupé. Got that?
The test cars all rode on £1,670 worth of air suspension which cushions occupants superbly, even on 19-inch wheels, and tyre roar is suitably contained on all but the worst of road surfaces. What the car is like on the standard adaptive dampers (you still get air suspension at the rear) we’ll have to wait and see.
The increased ride height and about 180kg more weight mean the handling suffers compared with a 5-series, both in the way the car responds to steering inputs, the amount of body lean (or at least the perceived amount due to the higher driving position) and the speed it can be made to change direction, but it’s still at the more dynamically capable end of the spectrum for a machine that weighs 1,800kg before you fill it with passengers.
More important is how smooth the GT’s drivetrain feels. Don’t underestimate the contribution the ZF-sourced automatic gearbox makes here with a calibration as slick as the runniest of honeys.
This is not, however, a car that shrinks around you, and the view out of the back is as tricky as you’d expect given the rear three-quarter profile. The same, mind, can be said of its rivals, which is why all come with a full range of parking sensors, cameras and blind spot monitors.
Some of this technology is included as standard on the BMW, but for other bits you pay a king’s ransom, or at least it feels like it. That’s because much of it is grouped into packages that look like temptingly good value at perhaps £2,000 each, but can soon see you add another 20 per cent to the list price.
So it’s expensive. Who’d have thought it? More important is that as a package the 6 GT is a vast improvement on the 5-series GT it replaces, and sits at ease with its newfound promotion in the BMW range. Whether or not that makes it better than a well specified 5-series however, I’m still not entirely convinced.
FUEL ECONOMY 47.8mpg (EU Combined). On test 35mpg.
VERDICT Whether you step up to a 6 GT from a 5-series or down to it from a 7-series, you’re unlikely to be disappointed. The styling is still an acquired taste, however, and although well equipped as standard the price of options can still add up with frightening ease.
Audi’s sleek A7 makes great use of V6 diesel power to produce a smooth and sophisticated four-door coupe. Not nearly as roomy as the BMW, but the interior feels hi-tech and it handles with surprising verve for a big Audi. The flagship RS7 with its twin-turbo V8 is silly but in a good way.
At the bottom of the range you pay more money for a worse engine than in the BMW and Audi, but it’ll come in a car that looks as though it’s been coachbuilt. It’s worth upgrading to the diesel V6 to be in keeping with the CLS’s grand touring potential, but even then you’ll need steely discipline to stay away from the corner of the showroom where the bigger, more advanced and cheaper E-class Estate resides.


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Florida man who bought dilapidated houses in Cuyahoga County and sold them using forged documents to make a quick buck was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison.
Blaine Murphy, who prosecutors said presided over his housing-flipping scheme from his $1.2 million house in Naples, Fla., also was ordered to pay restitution of $1 million, a portion of which has already been paid, and fines totaling $100,000.
Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle said if Murphy is released early from prison he must serve the remainder of his term under house arrest in Cleveland's foreclosure-ravaged Slavic Village neighborhood.
The two-hour sentencing hearing came after McMonagle and lawyers in the case drove past three of the homes that Murphy owns on the city's East Side.
According to prosecutors, Murphy bought hundreds of rundown houses sight-unseen from banks. Then, instead of fixing them up, he would sell, or "flip," them to another buyer at a profit. In doing so, he would ignore code violations and fail to pay taxes.
Murphy pleaded guilty in April to 10 counts of tampering with records including deeds that he signed with the pseudonym Bryce Peters. He also pleaded guilty to one count of telecommunications fraud.
Murphy's use of a fake name hampered efforts by cities to determine who was responsible for fixing up dilapidated houses.
"He bought homes and sold homes with reckless abandon," Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Greg Mussman said. "And it was for greed."
Murphy, who was extradited from Florida early last year, told McMonagle on Thursday that he never intended to hurt anyone.
"The remorse I have is on a daily basis," he said.
Several Cleveland residents and local contractors testified at the sentencing hearing about recent efforts Murphy has made to rehab or demolish homes he still owns in the city.
Mussman, however, portrayed Murphy as a callous criminal, who was able to afford a yacht while the cities where he flipped properties crumbled.
Cleveland City Council members Anthony Brancatelli and Mamie Mitchell testified to the harm they believe Murphy's actions have created in their wards.
Mitchell said some senior citizens living in her ward are "almost penniless" because the blighted conditions around them have reduced the value of their homes.
Murphy's lawyers argued their client isn't to blame for the blighted neighborhoods, but rather Wall Street banks are at fault for the high-interest loans they made to unqualified buyerswho later defaulted on their loans.


The “Station 19” cast is growing.
Dermot Mulroney has been cast in a multiple-episode arc for Season 2 of the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, an ABC spokesperson told TheWrap. Mulroney will play Ryan Tanner (Alberto Frezza)’s father in the firefighter drama.
Mulroney will be joining Frezza in addition to “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Jason George, as well as Jaina Lee Ortiz, Grey Damon, Barrett Doss, Jay Hayden, Okieriete Onaodowan, Danielle Savre and Miguel Sandoval.
“Station 19” is produced by ABC Studios. Showrunner Stacy McKee executive produces with Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. Paris Barclay is producing director and also executive produces.
“Station 19” returns to ABC for Season 2 on Thursday, Oct. 4.
With the Season 14 finale signaling the exit of Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) after years on the show, we're prepping ourselves to say goodbye to the fan favorite characters. Here's a look back at the hardest goodbyes from the series.
Long before he was bashing people's heads in with a barbed-wire covered bat named Lucille on "The Walking Dead," Jeffrey Dean Morgan played the impossibly romantic -- and dying -- Denny Duquette on "Grey's Anatomy." Denny's charm won over viewers, and Izzy Stevens (Katherine Heigl), and when he eventually died it was heartbreaking.
George (T. R. Knight) was the sweetest intern, even if he was a little bumbling at times. He was always there for his fellow doctors, even when they spent plenty of time teasing him. He even died in sacrifice by saving a woman from getting hit by a bus, only to be hit himself. RIP George.
Meredith's half-little sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh) was a little annoying to be honest when she first appeared in Season 3. But it didn't take long for her to win our hearts, and when she died the infamous plane crash episode we were just as devastated as Mark.
Mark initially survives the plane crash, but returns to the hospital in bad condition -- so bad, in fact, that he's on life support. The rest of the doctors have to deal with the fact that he specifies in his will that after 30 days, he is to be taken off life support.
Saying goodbye to Meredith's person felt just as painful as saying goodbye to our own person after 10 years of watching the best friends. In the Season 10 finale, Cristina (Sandra Oh) leaves the hospital for good to go work in Zurich. Our one consoling fact is that Cristina wasn't killed off.
After everything that Mer and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) have been through together, watching the machines keeping Derek alive turned off one by one with a super-sad rendition of "Chasing Cars" playing in the background -- oh, not to mention the flashback of their relationship -- broke us. It didn't break Mer, though. "It's okay," she tells him. "You go. We'll be fine."


More than 1.2 million migrants have come to Europe in the past year – most of them from Syria.
One year after the ‘long summer of migration‘ in 2015, Europe is still facing two severe problems: first, the lists of safe countries of origin differ in many states of the EU and secondly, further large-scale deaths by drowning of migrants and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean.
The reintroduction of the Nansen passport – an ID card for refugees guaranteeing asylum – at the European level might be a useful and even necessary instrument to solve this legal uncertainty for refugees and to promote a common migration policy.
The recognition of migrants as refugees very much depends on their country of origin.
As Eurostat reported recently, almost all Syrians get asylum status in the EU, but only 29 per cent with Malian citizenship do. People coming from West Balkan countries have almost no chance of getting asylum.
German politics in particular centres on a steadily increasing list of ‘safe countries of origin’. To know where refugees come from, asylum seekers must either show their passport or identification card or the officials ask the named country if it has information about this person.
Since most of the asylum seekers come from conflict areas in which bureaucracies do not work properly, this procedure is very difficult.
Thus, the list of ‘safe countries of origin’ and, indeed, the whole process of identifying refugees are criticised by NGOs such as Human Rights Watch. The political and legal hotchpotch makes it evident that the right to remain heavily depends on the passport of a refugee.
The increasing number of deaths in the Mediterranean has heightened attention to the refugee issue in Europe after a boat shipwrecked offf the coast of Lampedusa and caused the death of approximately 350 people in October 2013.
Afterwards, the Italian government started the Marine and Coast Guard mission ‘Mare Nostrum’ to rescue migrants. In autumn 2014, the EU started the Frontex mission ‘Triton’ to help out, but its capacity was minor in comparison to the ‘Mare Nostrum’.
However, the deaths in the Mediterranean have not stopped, far from it. In 2016 more than 3,000 people have died so far.
This humanitarian catastrophe, in my view, could be solved by introducing the Nansen passport providing safe and legal migration to EU member states.
The UN Refugee Convention from 1951 and the protocol relating to the status of refugees from 1967 state that equal treatment of all refugees should be provided, safe from any discrimination on grounds of nationality, gender, race etc.
The origins of the Refugee Convention and the related protocol were built on the work of Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). The Norwegian scientist and later diplomat in the League of Nations strongly lobbied for the rights of minority groups. Nansen was one of the leading figures in dealing with and helping refugees fleeing from the Soviet Union during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922).
Besides his commitment on behalf of an official organisation devoted to this challenge – nowadays the UNHCR – he strongly advocated for a secure international legal status for refugees.
Based on a conference in July 1922, 51 states signed an international agreement creating a certificate to provide such a legal status.
The Nansen passport was especially created for migrants who became stateless while fleeing from their countries of origin and in need of travel documents.
This passport provided people with international recognised travel documents whatever their national citizenship or status.
The Nansen passport existed until 1942 and helped approximately over 450,000 people.
These achievements culminated in the Nansen International Office for Refugees. As a result of his breakthrough, Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 and in 1938 the Prize was awarded to the office bearing his name.
In light of the confusing national regulations around recognition rates and ‘safe countries of origin’, the reintroduction of the Nansen passport in the EU could be the cornerstone of a common migration and refugee policy which is often called for but hardly put into effect.
Establishing the passport at supranational level, the EU-Nansen passport could serve as a EU-wide ID card guaranteeing asylum seekers residence in a EU member state.
Since the EU refugee relocation plan is hardly working, a free-choice option for refugees might be the most appropriate solution.
The passport would guarantee equal treatment for all potential refugees in Europe, because it is valid beyond national passport regulations, beyond debates about ‘safe countries of origin’ and beyond different national regulations in the EU.
Politically, this could be achieved if the European Commission and the European Parliament were to promote such a policy.
If they were supported by a strong coalition, led by Sweden, Germany and Italy in the Council the prospects for establishing EU-Nansen passport through a qualified majority vote might not be unrealistic.
Introducing the EU-Nansen passport would also shift the focus of a common EU migration policy from security and border control to providing the right to remain and literally creating a refuge for human beings.
In a pilot, the EU-Nansen passport could be handed out to people, for instance to Syrians, preventing them from being forced to cross the sea.
Offices in the main refugee camps of the UNHCR in this area could be established to hand out these passports to Syrians.
If nobody has to traverse the sea illegally, the smugglers’ business would dry up and people would no longer have to risk their lives. This would be an efficient measure against human trafficking and death.
Moreover, the EU-Nansen passport could create a common legal framework to provide a safe haven for current and future refugees.
It would create a secure environment especially for the large numbers of unaccompanied minors in Europe. Establishing a safe status would help young people to settle in and cope with their experiences.
Then, one thing is for sure: In times of crisis in the Middle East, in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, the ‘long summer of migration’ in 2015 will not be the end of migration flows to Europe.
A humanitarian plan is necessary to show refugees solidarity and to deepen cooperation in EU refugee and migration policy.
The EU-Nansen passport could be a first step in this direction.
Stefan Wallaschek is a PhD fellow at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), University of Bremen, Germany.
This piece, originally published on 5 August, was republished with the permission of Social Europe.
Many young Africans make the journey to the EU by themselves, travelling across vast deserts at peril of being exploited by smugglers.
Italy now receives more asylum seekers than Greece, UN figures show, following the EU deal to send back migrants coming from Turkey.
Investing one euro in refugee assistance could yield nearly two euros in economic benefits within five years, notes a report by the Tent Foundation.


Caribbean Airlines director killed over debt?
Trinidadian police are investigating reports that slain Caribbean Airlines Ltd director, Azad Niamat had gone to collect TT$150,000 owed to him when he was killed.
Its understood that when Niamat went missing on January 29 he had gone to collect money from a man who lives in East Trinidad.
A source told the Trinidad Express that Niamat was owed the money from the sale of two vehicles – a Mercedes Benz and a seven-seater – which were sold last year.
Niamat reportedly told someone close to him he was going to collect the money the day he vanished.
His body was found on Monday in Brazil Village less than three kilometres from where his Toyota Prado was discovered the day after he was reported missing.


When you and your colleagues in IT hear the CEO talking about the Internet of Things, the excitement in the CEO's voice means only one thing: You're unlikely to be home in time for dinner for quite some time. Boards and CEOs see all of the potential benefits of this all-inclusive toasters-and-vacuum-cleaners-connected-to-the-Internet scenario and think little of the nightmarish risks.
I mean, what could possibly go wrong when you have dozens of household appliances and devices being controlled by any seemingly authenticated person on the other side of an Ethernet connection?
For starters, you could point out to the higher-ups that the Internet of Things has the potential to introduce millions of new backdoors into networks, putting proprietary information at risk. But you know what they'll tell you: "Well, it's your job to make sure that doesn't happen. Take care of it." If you spin up more elaborate threats -- such as someone taking over your oven, turning on the gas and turning off the pilot lights and blowing you up -- they'll likely say that you've been watching too many bad movies.
But being responsible for the information and device security of all of these things is only half the nightmare. How about handling the oceans of new data that you'll be responsible for managing, protecting and analyzing? You thought mobile data avalanches were bad? Wait until every car, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner is sending you files. And while you're dealing with all that, who in your company is keeping the alarming privacy threats of the Internet of Things in check?
If you think this all sounds silly, take a look at Google's purchase of Nest, a sophisticated household thermostat. Talk about data potential. What do you think is going to happen when you give a company that makes its money from advertising a window into your temperature settings? If you're someone who is always cranking up the heat, Google might send you an offer for 20% off electric blankets, firewood or two weeks in the Caribbean.
Does that not seem all that intrusive to you? (Excuse me; I meant helpful.) Well, then, let's say that your Nest thermostat has recorded a long history of you keeping the thermostat at 71 degrees during the winter months but you suddenly start to set it at 66. Google's algorithms take note, make some calculations and conclude that you are in dire financial straits. Now you're getting offers for low-interest loans or selling your gold jewelry for cash now. Maybe your neighbor doesn't realize that you've been laid off, but Google does.
But this isn't just about Google wanting to know all about you -- though heaven knows its appetite for information about everyone on the planet is ravenous. Lots of companies want to get into this game, all in the name of making life easier for you, though somehow it manages to fall to their advantage. Consider the vacuum cleaner. Now consider a young man who owns a networked vacuum, which notes that the young man goes from hardly ever running the vacuum to using it every few days. Result: Young man is inundated with offers of discounts on flowers, candy boxes and dinners for two. He can only hope Google, Amazon or whoever is behind those offers doesn't spill the beans to Mom before he has a chance.
Then there's the grand poobah of household appliances, from an advertising perspective: the networked refrigerator. By scanning the barcodes of its contents and monitoring containers' weight, the smart fridge can keep you informed about expiration dates and an impending exhaustion of supplies. ("Your milk is two days past its expiration date, and you have only two cold beers left.") Makers of those products are going to love having a new and compelling way to nudge consumers to buy more stuff.
Meanwhile, back in the IT data center, all of that data, from all kinds of appliances, will be pouring in, on top of the steadily increasing mobile datalanche you've been seeing for the last year or so.
And you still have to deal with those potential backdoors that you warned the CEO about, the ones he told you are your problem. You are not being overly paranoid about that. We have precedents. Remember when printers and scanners started getting network access and some rudimentary intelligence? IT was thrilled, until it realized that printers had become highly insecure backdoors into corporate networks.
That security threat was obscured by all of the cool things these devices could potentially do. Because who is going to deny that it's cool when your printer can recognize that your 228-page print job can't be completed because it has only 100 sheets of paper loaded, and that printer also has the smarts to send your job to a printer with 250 sheets loaded? Then that second printer realizes that those 250 sheets don't have the letterhead you need for this job, so it finds another printer better equipped for your needs. And the third printer assesses the sensitivity of what you plan to print and sends your job to a printer that has enough paper with the proper letterhead that is located behind a locked door. And it lets you know where to pick up your job and advises you that, since you lack the clearance to get into that room, you are going to need to get someone to let you in. You respond that you need this printout for a meeting at 2 p.m. in conference room 4660, and it calculates when it needs to start the print job and finds yet another printer that meets all your criteria and is located just steps from that conference room. I mean, all of that is very cool!
And so is the Internet of Things. But like those printers, the Internet of Things comes with some serious risks that you and your IT teams will need to clean up. But CEOs tend to get obsessed with all of the good things that a new initiative can do and assume that someone else has their back to ward off any potential dangers. That would be you. So get ready for a lot of new work, because the advantages of the Internet of Things are far too powerful to stop.


On February 14, 2004, MARION E. TAYLOR, beloved husband of Ann E. Taylor; loving father of the late Leroy Taylor and the late Joyce Warthen; father-in-law of Donald Warthen; grandfather of Danny and his wife Sandy, and Karen; "POP-POP" of Chad, Taylor, Cole and Brooke; brother of Vernon L. Taylor and his wife Mary Frances and Mildred Karth. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 1328 Sulphur Spring Road, Arbutus, on Wednesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where a service will be held on Thursday at the funeral hour of 10 A.M. Interment to immediately follow at Loudon Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Violetville United Methodist Church, 3648 Coolidge Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229.


Morris Chestnut is set to star as the new male lead in NBC drama pilot The Enemy Within. The pilot is executive produced by Ken Woodruff, who also served as executive producer of Gotham and NBC executive-turned-producer Vernon Sanders and Universal TV.
The Enemy Within is a character-driven investigative thriller set in the world of counterintelligence. It centers on former CIA agent Erica Wolfe (Played by Jennifer Carpenter), the most infamous traitor in modern who is brought out of a federal prison by the FBI to assist in halting some of the most treacherous acts of espionage threatening the United States today.
Chestnut’s co-star, Jennifer Carpenter, is known for her roles as Debra Morgan on Showtime’s thriller Dexter and Rebecca Harris on CBS’ Limitless. She was most recently be seen in S. Craig Zahler’s Brawl In Cell Block 99.
Chestnut starred in the title role of Fox’s Rosewood and most recently did a season-long stint on the upcoming second season of Amazon’s Goliath. He also is known for his series regular role as Dr. Prentiss in the last two seasons of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie. In film, he has starred in Boyz in the Hood, The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday, and many others.


NPC Chairman Kathy Kabell said, “It was determined that the mission of the NPC could be bolstered by this move of services to MSU."
The new year will start a new chapter for the Nonprofit Center of Texoma.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, the NPC will transition to MSU Texas.
NPC Chairman of the Board Kathy Kabell said in a written release, “After much discussion and reviewing options for a community partner, it was determined that the mission of the NPC could be bolstered by this move of services to MSU Texas’ Dillard College of Business Administration.
Through the support of The Priddy Foundation, MSU Texas is set to offer a nonprofit management minor beginning in 2019.
The minor, available to all majors, builds financial and organization skills needed in the nonprofit sector.
“Our new curriculum and our strategic plan to engage with our community fully align with this transition,” said MSU Texas President Suzanne Shipley.
The Dillard College of Business Administration will host the new nonprofit minor and Nonprofit Center at MSU Texas.
The college is currently interviewing candidates for a professor to lead the nonprofit program and is beginning the process to hire an assistant director for the center.
The NPC in the Texoma area began in 1981 at the North Texas Area United Way.
The center was a collaboration between Levi Strauss (who provided initial funding), the Junior League of Wichita Falls and MSU, which provide a meeting space and professors to teach and facilitate classes on campus.
In 1999, the Meadows Foundation made grants to mid-sized towns in Texas to start nonprofit centers and Wichita Falls received funding to establish a center.
In 2001, the NPC separated from the United Way to become its own 501(c) (3) organization with Carol Wagner serving as its first executive director.
Other NPC directors include Saundra Heffington, Dee Decker and Stewart Harvey.
Many area donors have been instrumental to NPC’s operation through the years including: The Meadows Foundation, The Priddy Foundation, J.S. Bridwell Foundation, Fain Foundation, McCoy Foundation, Bryant Edwards Foundation, Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation, Howmet/Arconic Foundation and The Hogan Foundation.


OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. — One Mississippi high school senior had to quickly discard her crown after being named homecoming queen — and put on a football helmet.
She then put on her football uniform and kicked the winning extra point to lead her team to a 13-12 victory over George County High School, local news outlets reported.
Primarily a soccer player, Foster has been kicking with the football varsity since she was a sophomore. She’s been a member of the homecoming court for four years.


New Delhi: Talent and skills development company NIIT on Tuesday said its consolidated net profit has jumped 350% to Rs19.7 crore for the December 2017 quarter on the back of strong growth in corporate learning business.
NIIT’s net profit stood at Rs4.4 crore in the year-ago period. Its net revenue was up 4% to Rs209.4 crore in the third quarter of 2017-18, from Rs202 crore in the year- ago period.
“A robust and continuing growth in Corporate Learning Group (CLG) coupled with strong operational controls in other businesses, resulted in 8% year-on-year growth in go-forward business in constant currency terms, and a 69% y-o-y growth in EBITDA, despite it being the weakest seasonal quarter," NIIT CEO Sapnesh Lalla said.
CLG recorded net revenue of Rs129.4 crore in the said quarter, up 14% year-on-year in constant currency terms.
Skills and Careers Group (SNC) recorded net revenue of Rs69.1 crore, while MindChampion Learning Systems (MLSL) posted a net revenue of Rs9.2 crore during the quarter.
The company renewed a marquee MTS contract, resulting in revenue visibility of $199 million. At the end of the December 2017 quarter, NIIT had 3,741 employees.


A US Steel Factory Is Making People Sick, Health Experts Say. Politicians Are More Worried About Jobs.
Air pollution has triggered sky-high asthma rates near Pittsburgh. With politicians unwilling to confront US Steel after a factory fire, a county health agency is pushing unprecedented penalties against the $14 billion company.
CLAIRTON, Pennsylvania — Here in the steep hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, politicians are struggling to weigh the lives of sick children and elderly people against desperately needed jobs. And mostly, they're choosing the jobs.
Ever since a factory fire in late December, pollution alerts have steadily gone out to communities near two US Steel plants — one that bakes coal in massive, 2,000-degree ovens, and another that flares sulfur-laden gas day and night from a nearby hillside. Steam clouds loft from the smokestacks there in a valley where the asthma rates are nearly triple the national average.
Many towns are facing public health consequences of fossil fuels. But Clairton’s pollution crisis has unique political stakes — pitting the behemoth US Steel, a chief beneficiary of President Trump’s steel tariffs, against environmentalists and local health officials. In this part of the country, politicians of both parties know that the way to win elections is to win the steel and coal workers. That means that Republicans — and even some big-name Democrats — seem unwilling to do much about the long-running pollution problem, which is disproportionately hitting young and elderly people, particularly in black communities.
Doreen Johnson at her home in Clairton.
Take Doreen Johnson, 61, who’s lived in or near Clairton her entire life. Every weekday morning, she wakes up at 5:30 a.m. so she can drive to her daughter’s house and help get her grandkids off to school. Her daughter needs to catch a 6 a.m. bus to get to work in Pittsburgh, about 15 miles away, and can’t stay with the kids.
Before heading out the door, Johnson always looks at her phone to check the air quality outside. Allegheny County, where this faded town is perched on a hillside above the Monongahela River, has some of the dirtiest air in the US.
But that’s not so unusual in Clairton, where the childhood asthma rate is above 22%, more than twice the state average and nearly three times the national average. The town’s air quality has for years fallen below EPA safety standards for sulfur and fine particulate soot, both linked to asthma and other respiratory diseases.
Johnson herself has sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that attacks the lungs and lymph nodes, and carries a plastic bag filled with medicine bottles everywhere she goes. “I haven’t been feeling well at all since this has started,” she said.
She’s talking about the Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton Coking Facility, the plant owned by US Steel that turns coal into coke, a kind of charcoal that fuels the blast furnaces that make steel. The mammoth plant has long been a hotbed of pollution, but the fire made it dramatically worse, spewing outbursts of air pollution that have recurred for months over this town of 6,600 and 22 other small towns nearby.
And yet, few people in power are willing to do anything about it. As US Steel racks up pollution violations, the most high-profile young politician in the Keystone State, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, has stood in front of the Clairton plant backed by hard-hatted union workers to voice support for keeping it running — and exceeding pollution limits — while it is repaired.
With both state and federal regulators absent, environmental groups intend to file a lawsuit against US Steel. And the Allegheny County Health Department has imposed heavy fines and called for shuttering leaking ovens — unprecedented tactics to keep the $14 billion company in check. “Not only were they violating the standards, they were grossly violating the standards,” ACHD Deputy Director Jim Kelly told BuzzFeed News.
Just last week, the ACHD fined US Steel $700,000 for continued pollution from its three Mon Valley factories. That was in addition to two fines last year before the fire: a $600,000 fine in October, and a $1 million fine last summer — the largest penalty the county has ever assessed on the company over decades of regulation.
US Steel has appealed the June and October fines, claiming in December that fixes could cost $400 million, and calling the penalties “arbitrary and capricious.” This was all before the Christmas Eve fire, which wiped out sulfur pollution controls there. Since then, the company has continued running the coke works, even with pollution controls knocked out, leaving many residents and progressive local politicians pessimistic that their air — in the top 2% for cancer risk from air pollution nationwide — will ever get better.
In the early morning on Christmas Eve, around 4:15 a.m., a worker at US Steel’s Clairton Coking Facility, just down the hill from Clairton, was running a few minutes late to inspect the plant’s No. 2 Control Room.
“If he had been on time, he probably would have died in the fire,” said Don Furko, president of Steelworkers Local 1557 in Clairton, which represents about 1,200 workers at the plant.
Coke making is a hot and dirty business: At the plant, coal is baked in 10 metal “batteries” to around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, distilling chemicals such as benzene and toluene, 35 tons of sulfur, and 145,000 gallons of crude coal tar every day. It also releases 215 million cubic feet a day of “coke gas,” a mixture of hydrogen, methane, and other contaminants, some of which is normally burned to heat the batteries.
A slide from US Steel showing some of the damage to the Number 2 Control Room at Clariton Works.
On Christmas Eve, it got even hotter than normal. An inferno had started in the Number 2 Control Room, a football field–sized building filled with equipment used to filter coke oven gases, most notably sulfur dioxide emissions. Early news reports said the fire had been contained, but in reality, the blaze had destroyed much of the equipment and its roof. The fire burned for five hours.
US Steel filed a short accident report, but kept the plant running despite health department pollution monitors recording sulfur dioxide levels topping federal safety standards. The company filed a Jan. 7 repair plan detailing how US Steel was extending the coke oven baking times in order to dilute the sulfur released from the plant. It also started burning excess coke gas from hilltop flares at a downriver plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, “for better dispersion” of the sulfur-laden gas. The flares burn all day and light up the sky around the valley at night. Right now the company is flaring more than 60% of the coke gas at its three plants that would typically be burned instead.
Flares that US Steel uses to vent pollutants while they fix Clairton Coke Works seen from the nearby Irvin Works.
Footage of the nearby Irvin Works flares shot by a FLIR camera that is specially calibrated to detect methane and other VOCs.
Despite the flares, monitors kept recording excessive sulfur readings (“exceedances” in legal jargon), and on Jan. 9, the ACHD released a warning telling the young, elderly, and people with health conditions in the county “to limit outdoor activities until further notice.” The warning noted six violations of federal air quality standards for sulfur dioxide in the weeks since the fire.
On the health agency’s Facebook page, residents reacted angrily to the first public warning coming so late.
They weren’t the only ones surprised. The mayor of Clairton and the city council weren’t informed about the problem until Jan. 8, Mayor Richard Lattanzi told BuzzFeed News by email.
But Allegheny Hospital pediatrician Deborah Gentile, a respiratory disease expert who runs mobile asthma treatment clinics for children in the region, had already figured out something was wrong. In the first part of the school year, she had treated severe cases of asthma in 15 children at Clairton Elementary School. Two weeks after the fire, she returned to the school to find 5 of those kids back in her clinic, their medication not sufficient. Three of them needed oral steroids to fix their breathing. Another one of the 15 was home, too sick to go to school.
“I can only tell you the effects on the health of the children I see,” Gentile told BuzzFeed News. “On that basis, I can’t see why they are still running the coke works.” Children she saw in Hazelwood, Pennsylvania, a similar town with identical weather conditions about 20 miles away, had asthma symptoms still perfectly under control, unlike Clairton. The type of fine particulate matter pollution detected by ACHD monitors, she noted, also worsens heart disease and breathing disorders.
Based on census data for the 127,000 people in the 22 towns under the air quality advisory, there are roughly 2,000 kids and 7,000 adults with asthma, as well as 10,000 with heart disease and 7,500 with chronic lung disease.
Just upriver from Clairton, about 10 miles away, is the town of Donora, Pennsylvania, where smog deaths from steel and zinc factories in 1948 sparked the first US regulation of air pollution. For five days around Halloween of that year, a thick yellow smoke belched from those factories, encasing the town and killing about 20 people. It was the worst air pollution disaster in US history. An investigation led to the first US air pollution conference, and eventually the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act.
That law is the reason why the air in the Mon Valley is much cleaner today, though still among the worst in the country. Which is why the news of the Christmas Eve fire made people angry. The uproar that resulted from ACHD’s first warning led to a community meeting on Jan. 22, hosted by the city of Clairton. US Steel’s Chris Masciantonio spoke first, noting that the Clairton plant fed two steel mills in the area, employing 3,000 people in total. These were “good-paying, steel-making jobs that have been the pride of the Pittsburgh region for generations,” Masciantonio said.
For the meeting, US Steel launched a website to update Mon Valley residents on repairs. It also argued against “hot idling” the coke works, where the ovens are kept warm to prevent damage to them but no coke is produced. A hot idle of the plant would lead to more pollution being released than keeping the damaged plant running, the company maintained.
ACHD director Karen Hacker said at the meeting that it was “not surprising” that some children with asthma reported problems after the excess sulfur releases, since it was an irritant to the lungs. Still, the health department had not seen increased emergency room visits for asthma at local hospitals in the two weeks after the fire, she said.
All the while, the network of smaller monitors — known as RAMP sensors — run by Presto of Carnegie Mellon and his colleagues continued to pick up air quality problems in and around Clairton.
A VOC monitor installed at Melanie Meade's home in Clairton.
At the end of January, US Steel reported profits of $1.15 billion for 2018, almost tripling the number from the previous year. That was actually less than Wall Street had hoped for, and its stock price dropped on the news. The company has estimated it would spend $40 million on repairs at the Clairton plant in the first quarter of 2019, with contractors working around the clock to replace the damaged desulfurization machines. A mechanical failure near a compressor filled with flammable gas likely sparked the blaze, the company has suggested. Now there are so many repair contractors that the steelworkers union had to put a sign up on its parking lot next to the plant telling them to park elsewhere, Furko said.
February began with air monitors at Clairton’s high school registering excess amounts of fine particulate matter for three days in a row. “We did some analysis and it looks like that last violation was coming from the flaring of the coke gas,” ACHD Deputy Director Jim Kelly told BuzzFeed News.
At another meeting in Clairton, this time with Democratic state lawmakers called by Rep. Davis, US Steel again apologized, but continued to resist any suggestion to hot idle the coke works until repairs were completed, pointing to those 3,000 jobs in the Mon Valley.
The meeting was filled with steelworkers waving “Jobs Worth Fighting For” and “Steel Strong” signs. “Simply put, if US Steel ends up idling batteries, our members will lose their jobs,” Furko, the union local head, said at the hearing.
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat who has garnered national attention for championing both union workers and gay marriage (and because he is a 6’8”, bald, tattooed white dude), toured the Clairton plant a week later, calling for it to remain open. “It’s done the best anyone could expect,” he told reporters, standing in front of the plant, surrounded by steelworkers. Fetterman and his family live in a former car dealership across the street from one of US Steel’s other Mon Valley plants.
“You’re never going to hear me calling for the elimination of the union way of life for 3,000 families,” Fetterman told New York magazine about the Clairton plant. Building support from union workers and black voters was the key to preventing Trump from winning Pennsylvania in the 2020 election, he said in the same interview. Fetterman now uses the photo of himself standing in front of the Clairton coke works amid steel workers as the main image on his Twitter page.
“Our party is supposed to be pro-environment, but it is Democrats you hear talking about going along with US Steel,” Democratic state Rep. Summer Lee, who represents nearby Braddock, Pennsylvania, told BuzzFeed News. "We are like Flint, Michigan — this is just part of a larger pattern of environmental racism you can see when you step back and look at this from a wider perspective."
At the end of February, the county health department, which is charged with enforcing EPA pollution limits, told US Steel to cut its sulfur emissions from all three of its Mon Valley facilities below federal limits by extending coking times, reducing the amount of coal in its ovens, or hot idling as many of its batteries as needed.
In response, US Steel said it was accelerating completion of all repairs from mid-May to April 15, due to early delivery of specially fabricated parts. “We are committed to correcting the damage caused by the fire and completing equipment repairs,” the company said in a statement.
Melanie Meade, a clean air activist, at her home in Clairton.
Meade’s 2-year-old grandson has asthma, needing medication twice daily. Her 9-year-old son has severe allergies. Her brother died of heart disease in 2011, her parents in 2013; her sister died of lung cancer two years after that.
Although Allegheny County is one of Pennsylvania’s most prosperous counties, the towns along the Mon Valley like Braddock and Clairton suffer from high unemployment, with poverty rates ranging from 29% to 40%. Forty percent of Clairton’s residents are black, and black people make up 76% of Braddock’s population. Towns of a few thousand people near the factories are not where the bulk of the voters are in the county of 1.2 million people, 80% of whom are white.
The geography of the Mon Valley plays a role in poor air quality there, with steep hills trapping smokestack air, particularly on days with so-called weather inversions, where cold air in the shadowed valley hugs the ground, capped by warmer air above, “like a lid,” said Kelly, whose health agency sends out email alerts about these inversions.
Yard signs at Melanie Meade's home.
“When you stand at the top of the hill, it’s about 300 feet higher than the bottom,” said Presto of Carnegie Mellon. “The stacks don’t quite clear the top of the valley.” Like sugar trapped at the bottom of a coffee cup, the bad air will stagnate in the valley unless stirred up by strong winds. The air is much cleaner in the Mon Valley today than it was decades ago, he noted, even if the county is still out of compliance with the Clean Air Act.
Furko, the union local leader, told BuzzFeed News he wishes more people from Clairton worked at the plant, if nothing else because they would have an easy time making it to the facility in bad weather or emergencies. Past cost-cutting efforts at US Steel have hurt maintenance at the coke works, Furko said, and have ended past charitable support for local schools. At least 75% of the plant’s workers live in zip codes within 25 miles of the plant, he added.
A plume from the Clairton Coke Works.
In the latest twist, on March 28, the ACHD reported that US Steel had again violated national sulfur standards, when a monitor at Clairton’s high school detected the 10th sulfur dioxide exceedance in the Mon Valley since the Christmas Eve fire.
On April 4, the health department announced that it had been notified by U.S. Steel that the sulfur pollution equipment was “back online and is fully operational” at the Clairton Coke Works facility. “Throughout this process, the safety of our workforce and the surrounding community has been a top priority. While the fire was an unfortunate setback, we remain committed to improving our shared environment,’ US Steel said in a statement.
Once, Clairton was a steelworkers town, where people walked to work past theaters and bowling alleys and a beautiful park with an Olympic-size swimming pool. Now, because of the long, slow death of the steel industry (although bustling for the moment because of Trump’s steel tariffs), only the park is left.
In her driveway, Meade has parked an air monitor that connects to the network that feeds the app Doreen Johnson checks every morning. The monitor is downwind of the US Steel plant flares one hillside away.
Albert Presto's first name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.


The 5-5 seasons posted by Oakland and Miami have been largely defined by injuries and inconsistent quarterback play, and that trend looks to continue on Sunday when the teams face off out west.
Both teams look likely to make changes from their week 11 starters under center.
For Oakland, Bruce Gradkowski has twice come on in the middle of games after Jason Campbell benchings, and both have struggled with injuries this year, but it appears that Campbell has again lost the job.
According to ProFootballTalk, Gradkowski has taken the majority of first-team reps this week, and when Tom Cable was asked about Campbell's role, he said, "We talk about a lot of things all the time [and] he is OK with where we’re going and what we’re doing. … He understands it’s the job. It comes with it."
Still, Mike Florio speculates that Gradkowski is given the nod despite Al Davis preferring Campbell because Davis is trying to let Cable dig his own grave as coach.
In Miami, Tony Sparano appears to be leaning towards letting Chad Henne return from his knee injury, but the health and efficacy of his offensive line is making the choice somewhat more difficult. Still, it will likely be the inconsistent Henne over the career 1-11 Tyler Thigpen on Sunday.
Thigpen's lone career win, however, did come in Oakland.


Salisbury, MA - Mary (Carlin) Herlihy of Salisbury and Amesbury passed away peacefully at the Port Healthcare Center on January 23, 2019, at the age of 72. Mary was born in Newburyport on December 3, 1946, and was the devoted daughter of Thomas A. and Ada S. (Hunt) Carlin.
Mary is a 1964 graduate of Newburyport High School and Fazio's Hairdressing School in Lawrence. She worked at Western Electric, Riverview Restaurant and for the last 22 years, David's Fish Market in Salisbury where she had a great affection for her co-workers and customers alike.
Mary is survived by her devoted husband of 51 years, Ronald "Brian" Herlihy and her beloved son Brian T. Herlihy of Plaistow, N.H., siblings Virginia (Evans) Adams of Salisbury, Mabel (Evans) Mills and Husband Robert of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Donna (Carlin) Lauzon and husband Raymond of Salisbury. She was predeceased by two brothers, William T. and James H. Evans. She leaves many nieces, nephews and cousins and an incredible circle of dear friends.
Mary will be remembered most for her loving spirit and her devotion to her family and friends. She touched many lives with her warm smile, ready conversation and her natural ability to make friends.
At the request of the family there will be no calling hours.
So sorry to hear. I will always remember the good times with Mary and the Salisbury gang. Brian and family so sorry for your loss.
So sorry Brian she was a sweet heart R.I.P. Mary you will be miss.


Heralding the coming of spring and marking the legend of triumph of good over evil, Holi saw people spill out onto the streets hurling coloured powder and coloured water - and even mud - at each other.
The neighbourhoods of the capital erupted in celebrations in the morning. Elders hugged, smeared gulal on each other's faces and exchanged sweets, especially the traditional gujiya, and drank 'thandai' -- a cooling drink made with dried fruits and milk.
Shouting "Holi hai", children, armed with water guns or pitchkaris, did what they do best -- played pranks by spraying coloured water and hurling water-filled balloons on passers by from the safety of rooftops and balconies of their houses.
Families played Holi in their front lawns or gardens, splashing buckets of water on each other to whoops of joy, and screams from the unsuspecting victims as the cold water caught them unawares.
"I joined the celebrations in my colony. It was fun, we smeared gulal on each other," said Akshay, a 14-year-old in a south Delhi colony.
The festivities began Saturday night. Bonfires were lit as 'Holika Dahan' or 'Chhoti Holi' (little Holi) is marked a day before the festival. It invokes the legend of Prahlad, whose devotion to Lord Vishnu angered his father the demon king Hiranyakashipu. In the end, Prahlad survives while the king perishes.
Holi also showcases Indian traditions of communal harmony as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs play it in large numbers with their Hindu brethren.
In Lucknow, hundreds of Hindus and Muslims celebrated together by taking out the decades-old procession 'Holi Baraat' -- to send out a message of peace and brotherhood. Accompanied by decorated horse chariots, the revellers danced to the beats of drums amidst ecstatic shouts of 'Holi Hai!'.
"Holi Baraat is one of the oldest processions in the city. It's just not a procession but a festive mix of communities to spread the message of brotherhood," Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharma told reporters.
Vivek Tangri, a Lucknow resident said: "For 42 years we have celebrated Holi in this manner. You can say it has become a tradition. Muslims shower petals on us. In response, we garland them."
In Mumbai, it was a colourful but subdued Holi due to ongoing school and college exams.
The exams dampened the Holi plans of many youngsters. To avoid disturbing the students, many housing complexes and societies refrained from playing loud music.
Film stars, celebrities, business personalities, politicians and others enjoyed the festival with gatherings at their homes in and around Mumbai.
However on the political front, the fanfare was missing in Delhi. Politicians from Bihar like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also did not celebrate.
Authorities in the capital said no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the capital till Sunday evening as police had urged people to celebrate the festival with "sensitivity towards others".
"Nothing happened so far. It is absolutely peaceful," a Delhi Police spokesperson told IANS, adding that barricades had been set up at many places to check trouble.
Traffic policemen were deployed in large numbers on Delhi's roads to keep an eye on drunken driving.


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it calls an "eminent agriculturist," but whom we remember as a bitter enemy of the labourers, asserting that England is fast 'becoming a meat-producing country, that grass will supersede corn, and that we must have great supplies of artificial manures, and. nobody knows where they are to come from. If the popu- lation increases, and no further addition be made to our supply of meat, the farmer alone would stand between the country and famine. Meat is not needed to prevent a famine, as there are countries' where meat is not eaten, and the men are still healthy, but we will set that aside. What stops our importing live cattle AES well as corn? We do import them from Ireland, and why not _from America, North and South, and fatten them here for the butcher ? Science will give us ships fitted for conveying cattle —we do not doubt Mr. Reed could design one now, though he is playing fast and loose with Hull, saying one day he is independent, and another that he shall follow Mr. Gladstone— and science will yet utilise out of city sewage a supply of manure ample for our limited space. That England -will be driven to meat-growing is, we think, true, as nothing can seriously bring up agricultural wages except a considerable emigration of labonrers.


A newly published research paper suggests that Facebook's ad delivery system discriminates along racial and gender lines, even when advertisers target their content to a wide audience.
Researchers spent $8,500 on ads, and found that housing and job ads were shown to different demographics even though they were set to be targeted at identical audiences.
This comes on the heels of US housing officials' recent charge that Facebook enables housing discrimination.
A new research paper published on Wednesday has revealed that Facebook's ad targeting can discriminate by race and gender, even when advertisers request that their ads are shown to a broad audience.
The paper was put together by six researchers from Boston's Northeastern University, the University of Southern California, and policy group Upturn.
The researchers spent $8,500 running dozens of ads on the platform to determine whether Facebook's ad targeting was skewing certain ads towards or away from certain groups.
In one case, they put together ads for houses up for sale or rent in North Carolina.
They found that ads for houses on sale were delivered to an audience that was 75% white users. Ads for houses for rent were shown to a more mixed demographic.
They also ran identical ads for houses while varying the image: in one case an advert contained a white family, in the other a black family. The ad when run with the white family was served to 85% white users, while the same ad with the black family was served to an audience of 73% white users. This is despite the fact the researchers set the ads to be targeted identically.
The researchers also ran job ads, and found that the kind of job they were advertising affected who was targeted. Ads for jobs in the lumber industry reached users who were 72% white and 90% men. Supermarket cashier jobs were delivered at to an audience of 85% women, while jobs with taxi companies went to a 75% black audience.
The issue at the heart of the findings is not that Facebook is deliberately skewing ad results along racial and gender lines, but rather that its ad-targeting systems could be doing so automatically.
The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, although The Economist showed it to six experts in the field who said the research appeared solid.
The research comes at an awkward time for Facebook, as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last month charged Facebook with "encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination." This came after Facebook announced it was taking steps to prevent housing discrimination on the platform.
"We stand against discrimination in any form. We've announced important changes to our ad targeting tools and know that this is only a first step. We've been looking at our ad delivery system and have engaged industry leaders, academics, and civil rights experts on this very topic — and we're exploring more changes."


Calvin Harris reveals that he has quit singing in favour of producing.
Calvin Harris has revealed that he will not sing on any of his future tracks.
The hit producer and DJ, who sang on his first two studio sets I Created Disco and Ready For The Weekend, said he will not sing on future albums because he is "not cut out for that role".
"I've stopped the live shows. I'm going to focus more on production and DJing and zero per cent of my time will go on singing," he told the Herald Sun.
"I'll do tracks with people who can sing well - proper artists, proper performers. I can focus on what I'm much better at, which is making music. I'm just not cut out for that role.
"I kind of fell into it a few years ago - the live show had to happen, I had to be the frontman because I was doing the vocals on the songs. It went all right. I spent a few years trying to get it really properly good, but it dawned on me it wasn't going to get much better. I've taken the singing thing as far as I can."
Harris also revealed that he plans to release songs intermittently, rather than putting out another full album.
He explained: "The priority is making good songs and getting them out there, not making anybody wait, especially me. The next thing will have a featured vocalist and it's dead exciting because these are proper artists. It's a new lease of life for the sort of music I make."


Kanga-logoâd Qantas is angling to be the most stylish airline in the sky. For the job, they’ve retained design icon Marc Newson.
Native son Newson dabbled with the idea by designing the upper class Skybed seats â complete with built-in shoebox and adapter-free power outlets – in 2003. So successful were they, that now the airline has effectively surrendered its entire image,from flatware to the color of the floors in its lounges to – yep – Newson.
Judging by the first examples of the mashup, the relationship is a happy one — the new First Class lounge at Sydney airport reinvents the concept. Itâs a modish, retro place â the departures are indicated on clackety old-fashioned boards instead of flashing computer screens â with swirling, Star Trekky oak dividers, square Poltrona Frau sofas and a leather-floored library area. Thereâs even a so-called âvertical gardenâ, with plants growing in the walls; it runs through the free, onsite spa, so every treatment room has one wall made entirely of greenery (best one to book for that gratis massage is room 3, the largest).
Next up, Newson will mastermind new business lounges, before his take on the Airbus A380 jumbo debuts next summer.


As the ambassador for 2 Gingers Irish whiskey, Kieran Folliard makes introductions glass by glass, bar by bar.
Kieran Folliard, the high-profile Twin Cities pub master and whiskey entrepreneur, is in the midst of a YOLO (you only live once) moment.
Fresh from a gig in Denver to promote his 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey, Folliard celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in his adopted Twin Cities Monday and then dashed off for a series of stops in St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, all in the name of the amber liquor he commissioned and introduced in Minnesota three years ago this week.
It’s been a whirlwind two months for the irrepressible native of Ireland as he’s crisscrossed the United States on behalf of 2 Gingers and Beam Inc., the multinational spirits giant that purchased the label from Folliard in late 2012.
“No one is going to outwork us,” Folliard said in an interview Sunday while sitting in a custom-fitted Airstream trailer emblazoned on the outside with the 2 Gingers label and decorated on the inside like an Irish pub.
“This is not something coming from a Madison Avenue ad agency. This whiskey is a living, breathing thing that was born inside a pub,” Folliard said.
Folliard’s timing with 2 Gingers is fortuitous. The Irish whiskey market is hot these days. According to Nielsen, the market research bible, U.S. demand for Irish whiskey grew 17 percent in the last year.
Folliard is bringing his whiskey to the masses via an Airstream trailer bearing a logo depicting his red-haired mother and aunt.
“It’s on fire,” said Jack Farrell, the CEO of Haskell’s Wine and Spirits in the Twin Cities about the Irish whiskey market. “It’s something new. When I got in the business 40 years ago, we didn’t hardly sell any at all.
While fabled Irish brands like Jameson and Bushmills still dominate the category, an upstart like 2 Gingers, with the marketing power of the Jim Beam family behind it, showed some staying power, too, with year-over-year sales up by 41 percent, according to Nielsen.
The taste of Irish whiskey is “less peaty and smoother” than Scotch whisky, Farrell said. Folliard said Irish whiskey is smoother than U.S. whiskey, too. “It doesn’t have the burn,” Folliard said.
Two Gingers — named in honor of Folliard’s redheaded mother and aunt whose faces adorn the bottle’s label — was born in 2011 when Folliard teamed up with the Kilbeggan Distilling Co. in Ireland to produce the whiskey for his pubs. To comply with Minnesota liquor laws, Folliard eventually was required to sell his dining and drinking establishments.
In January 2012, Folliard began selling and distributing 2 Gingers beyond his pubs into parts of Minnesota and surrounding states.
Almost immediately, he became locked in a legal dispute with Jameson’s, which had been the primary whiskey sold in Folliard’s four establishments — Kieran’s, the Local, the Liffey and Cooper Pub. At issue was the name of the signature drink of the pubs: the Big Ginger (Irish whiskey and ginger ale with slices of lemon and lime). The lawsuit ultimately was settled and Folliard retained the right to pour the Big Ginger and its diet ginger ale cousin, the Skinny Ginger.
In December 2012, 2 Gingers was sold to Beam and Folliard was retained as the brand’s official ambassador. In August 2013, the footprint of 2 Gingers was expanded beyond the Midwest into nine additional states. Last month 2 Gingers became available throughout the United State.
With Beam’s pending acquisition by the Japanese company Suntory, the marketing muscle for Beam’s other brands, including 2 Gingers, is expected to become stronger.
Since February, Folliard has been on the road, touting his Irish whiskey. He’s been to Milwaukee, Chicago, New Jersey, New Orleans, Dallas and San Diego. Last week he got word that the 700-store CVS pharmacy chain in California is going to stock his product.
“Our marketing campaign is about hand-to-hand selling, sampling in liquor stores and bars,” Folliard said.
In each city and town, including Geneva, Minn. (population 555), Folliard meets with liquor distributors, bar owners and liquor store employees to explain the 2 Gingers story, describe the distillery in Ireland where it is produced and the thinking behind the finished whiskey.


So Commissioner Tony Gurley moved to scotch the original deal, and after some discussion, the board unanimously voted not to go ahead with the purchase.
Besides the title issues, some board members had earlier said they thought the price for the property was too high, and the site too small for a traditional school.
RALEIGH North Carolina’s public school classrooms continue to lead the nation with the most teachers certified by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, according to results released Tuesday.
The state now has 19,799 National Board-certified teachers, accounting for almost one-fifth of the country’s total. More than 20 percent of the state’s teachers have this certification, which is considered the highest credential in the teaching profession.
Wake County is the top district in the nation, with 2,299 National Board-certified teachers. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system is third with 1,897.
Across the nation, there are 102,237 National Board-certified teachers.
The Wake County school board appointed the new head of special education last week.
Karen Hamilton was named assistant superintendent for special education services with a salary of $120,000. She has been senior director of counseling and student services since 2007.
Hamilton was also principal of Longview School, an alternative school in Raleigh, and worked in central office as a program specialist and later director of special education services.


Greenwich continued its strong start to the season, defeating Trinity Catholic, 148-203 in an FCIAC boys matchup held at Griffith E. Harris Golf Course on Wednesday.
The win moved the Cardinals’ record to 5-0. Jackson Fretty shot a 2-under-par 34 to lead GHS and earn medalist honors. Jake Moses carded an even-par 36, while Billy Nail posted a 1-over-par 37 to also pace Greenwich.
Ben Ropiak also helped lead the Cards to their latest win, finishing with a 41. Greenwich is back in action Thursday, as it will compete in the Brunswick Invitational Tournament at Round Hill Club at 1 p.m.
A pair of decisive victories raised the Gators’ record to 5-0. Greenwich Academy posted a 17-6 win over host Williston Northampton School, then topped Phillips Andover Academy, 13-8.
Against Williston Northampton, Kayla Yelensky paced the Gators, recording nine goals, five assists and five steals. Borden Wahl added five goals, seven assists and four steals, while goalie Neli Mintcheva made nine saves for the victors.
Annabelle Raine scored her first goal of the season, while Camille Daigle and Ashlyn Wahl each added one goal in the win.
In their win against Phillips Andover, Wahl scored eight goals and added three assists and five steals. Yelensky had five goals, five assists and eight steals, while Mintcheva made five saves.
GA plays Hotchkiss School Saturday at Brunswick School.
The Cardinals’ mark stands at 5-0-1 after they defeated Danbury at Innis Arden Golf Club. Freshman Sydney Nethercott shot a 39, while senior Ashley Feighery carded a 44 for Greenwich.
Gracie Sunoo finished with a 44 and Amanda Yu shot a 52 for Greenwich. Nethercott needed only 12 putts to finish her round.
The Gators dropped a 4-1 decision to Hotchkiss School and lost to Taft School, 5-0, at Round Hill Club.
Daphne Chao of Hotchkiss defeated Grace Zhao at the No. 1 spot, 3 and 1. Emmy Sammons of GA halved her match against Courtney Breen at No. 2, while Stephanie Lane (GA) halved her matchup against Amanda King (No. 2).
Sami Thomas was a 2-up winner over Greenwich Academy’s Nicole Windreich at the fourth position, while Helena Park edged GA’s Lizzie Schmidt, 1-up.
Against Taft, Sammons was lost a close match, 1-up, as did Lizzie Schmidt. Lane lost her match, 2-up.


If you see lights moving around inside London's Tate Britain late at night this summer, don't be alarmed -- it's just a wandering robot. From August 13, visitors will be able to browse the gallery's 500-year-old collection online using remotely controlled UAVs (unmanned art-viewing vehicles). "People around the world will be able to go online, take control of a robot and explore the gallery," explains designer David Di Duca, 30. Created by London studio The Workers -- consisting of Di Duca and cofounders Ross Cairns and Tommaso Lanza -- the After Dark project is "about seeing the artworks in a different light -- literally,"says Cairns, 32.
Visitors will have five minutes at the controls; a feed from each robot's webcam will be simultaneously broadcast online.
According to Lanza, the aim isn't to replace the experience of visiting a gallery but to bring art to a wider audience. "It's going somewhere you're not normally allowed to go, on the other side of the world. It's voyeuristic."


What might you read in the long nights in a cancer ward, when your mind wanders briefly from family and friends? When the deeper reaches of the harbour city glow with neon islands in the dark, when the distant roads seem empty, and no jets fly over the briefly sleeping metropolis?
The other night, for this curious patient, it was two reports on New Atlas, both by David Szondy. The longer, Calling all Aliens: What’s the best way to contact our galactic neighbours? sets up the logical, and to an extent confronting sequel Are We alone?
The arguments within each will be well known to many science researchers and curious lay readers but I cannot recollect them having been previously reported so lucidly or compellingly, and usefully.
They also helped fill the current void in industry news likely to be of interest to most readers of this site.
New Atlas manages to often combine longform, thoroughly researched journalism with the parched landscape of on-line publishing. For this avid reader, and former longform or classic school reporter, its survival is much hoped for.


Voters at two polling places in Allentown Tuesday evening expressed disgust with the negativity of this year's midterm election.
Stephanie Petner, 32, a registered independent, voted for Republican Pat Toomey for the U.S. Senate, but Democrat John Callahan for U.S. Congress. But, she said she nearly stayed home this year.
She said she ultimately voted for Toomey because of the television commercials that featured his family, saying she liked his message that he was concerned about his children's future. She voted for Callahan because she thinks he's done a good job as mayor of Bethlehem.
Duane Tolson, a registered Democrat from Allentown, also said he almost did not vote because he feels candidates from both political parties fail to give straight answers and their ads are "overboard." In the end, he cast a vote for Democrat Joe Sestak for U.S. Senate.
Brad Gerhart, 49, a registered Republican, cast his ballot for Toomey, saying he made up his mind this election season by asking himself whether he was better off than he was in 2008. He decided he was not.
Jeff Bodack, 54, a registered Democrat who has been voting for Republicans since the Ronald Reagan-era, said he wants Toomey in Washington because he wants "change," and said his vote felt "urgent."
Harking to Obama's 2008 campaign mantra, Bodack said Toomey is a vote to, "change the change."
Just wanted to give you a shout from the valley of the sun, great information. Much appreciated.


Pip Furlong (Chase Jeffels) and Everett L. North (Aiden Burke) are aspiring Broadway tunesmiths working in a rundown Manhattan loft, fretting at their inability to string a verse together, much less a song.
Frustration at their lack of inspiration is abated by the appearance of a Canadian “adventuress” Venice Drake (Jasmine Zyp) and her “companion” Allure Potemkin (Zia Mizera), both dressed in their slips due to reasons too complicated to get into here.
Since this is a Stewart Lemoine musical (first staged in 1986), you can be sure of a few things: the dialogue will be fast and witty, the musical numbers (written by Gary Lloyd and R.J. Smart) catchy and upbeat, and in the tradition of every ’30s musical ever written, there will be romance. Aside from some cheesy synths subbing in for strings in the pre-recorded music, there really isn’t anything to knock in this remount. It’s light, breezy and amusing, all four of the leads acquit themselves very well as actors and singers, and it all clocks in at a snappy 45 minutes.
Pip Furlong and Everett L. North, Broadway tunesmiths attempting to knock out their next big hit in a barren Manhattan loft, have their work interrupted in a manner both alarming and inspiring. Songs! Food! Lingerie! Stewart Lemoine’s hit musical What Gives? returns to the Fringe with a fresh new cast!


Bad teams try to FOOL each other. Average teams get FRUSTRATED with each other. Great teams FORGIVE each other! Moving FORWARD matters!
The Harvard QB has thrown three picks and my mom doesn't get my Ryan Fitzpatrick jokes.
Tony Romo announcing the Cowboys game is interesting. Is he going to call out their plays?


While the Ethereum platform is surging, interest in Bitcoin is declining.
Periodically, for the past three years, I've written about the blockchain technologies of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The motivation for doing so was the conceptual introduction of the need for a blockchain technology other than Bitcoin; which I discussed in the column, "Ethereum Is a True Game-Changer."
As Ethereum moved from concept to development and application during the past few years, I intermittently wrote columns concerning its negative implications for the commercial viability of Bitcoin.
The 2016 columns "Bitcoin Is Dead, Long Live the Blockchain" and "Performing an Autopsy on the Bitcoin" elicited a lot of comments, mostly disagreeing with my belief that Ethereum would displace Bitcoin completely in the commercial space.
Even though I haven't written about the subject in over a year, I still receive queries and challenges to those columns almost daily. When I'm speaking at a conference, I am also asked about the issue even if it's not a part of the subject matter being presented.
The booleanized version of my response is to buy Ethereum-related technology and Ether, and avoid Bitcoin altogether.
That was my message three years ago and is still my message.
About a year after I first wrote about the concept of Ethereum, its cryptocurrency, Ether, became available at $1.35 per Ether unit. It was about $8 at the beginning of this year and is now about $80.
That's a staggering performance for 19 months and naturally leads to questions about whether it's overdone.
Although a correction is obviously possible for any number of reasons, I continue to believe the Ethereum technology will displace Bitcoin entirely and that it is still in the very early phases of its adoption, expansion and value increase.
The inertia behind the recent investor interest in Ethereum is due to the increased commercial application of the technology, especially by the financial sector, and the commensurate disinterest in pursuing Bitcoin.
This is evidenced in the creation of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance just a few months ago, and the even more recent announcement by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) that it is going to terminate its relationship with the group that was pursuing Bitcoin technology as the principal commercial application technology.
What's most interesting about this is that it is all occurring as Bitcoin continues to reach new record highs almost daily.
That increase has led many to tell me Bitcoin is still the preferred technology.
Since Ether was introduced in September 2015, its price has increased about 6,000%. During the same time period, Bitcoin has increased by about 650%.
As good as Bitcoin's performance has been, the performance of Ether should give investors pause in considering the relative potential of the two.
Earlier this year, the SEC decided not to allow a Bitcoin ETF to be listed. It is considering the same issue for Ether and I think there is a greater chance of it being approved than there was for Bitcoin.
If that happens, the inertia pushing Ethereum to displace Bitcoin will increase and accelerate.
Even if it doesn't, though, I believe the shift by the largest technology and financial firms to Ethereum and away from Bitcoin will continue.
The safest way to speculate on the trajectory I've written about playing out, beyond purchasing Ether, is to take positions in those firms participating in the Ethereum Alliance: Microsoft (MSFT) , Intel (INTC) , JPMorgan Chase and UBS Group (UBS) .
At the time of publication, Arnold had no positions in the stocks mentioned.


Vitamin B3, also known as niacin, is a food supplement with tremendous health benefits when taken in prescribed quantities. Vitamin B3 is one of the constituents of the multivitamin B-complex.
The primary health benefit of vitamin B3 is a significant decrease in heart disease.
It helps lower the level of bad cholesterol.
Studies have shown that a key health benefit of vitamin B3 is the elevation of good (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, sufficient quantities of the vitamin must be ingested for the required benefits.
Other health benefits of vitamin B3 include a reduction in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, osteoarthritis, and type-1 diabetes.
Scientific studies have shown that vitamin B3 assists in the energy production of cells. It is beneficial for a healthy nervous system and a well-functioning digestive system. The minimum amount of vitamin B3 required for healthy living varies with age. Children require 2-16 mg of vitamin B3, while pregnant women require 18 mg of the vitamin.
Intake of vitamin B3 can sometimes cause an stomach upset. It is advisable to take the vitamin with food. Vitamin B3 can cause harmless flushing when used for the first time. The benefits of vitamin B3 can be offset by liver problems, muscle damage, low blood pressure, and changes in heart rhythm during the intake of a high dose. The benefits of vitamin B3 far outweigh the possible negative effects, when taken under medical supervision.
Vitamin B3 is a naturally occurring substance found in meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and green vegetables. Vitamin B3 deficiency may cause pellagra, a disorder of the digestive and nervous system.
The benefits of vitamins B3 can be obtained by consuming small amounts based on recommended dietary intake. One should eat enough fruits, vegetables, and other healthy food. Since most adults do not eat these kinds of food, the National Academies of Science (NAS) recommends that adults over the age of 50 take vitamin B supplements to prevent possible deficiencies.


Russian women are known to be tough, but what about the female soldiers?.. It’s time to find out: Ahead of Women’s Day in Russia, the military has held a competition to test the servicewomen’s abilities.
The contest was called “make-up beneath the camouflage” and saw 60 participants showing what they are capable of in a series of tactical, technical, firearm, and physical strength tests.
The competitions had precise, real life-like scripts: For instance, on the signal “chemical attack alert,” the servicewomen had to carry out the urgent protection measures against radiation, as well as chemical and biological substances.
The tough military women also tested their capabilities in using weapons: The competition involved shooting a Kalashnikov, piling and unpiling the gun, and grenade-throwing!
Apart from strictly military things, the women took part in creative, culinary, and intellectual contests too.
The competition took place at the educational military base in central Russia, in the town of Pereslavl-Zalessky.


AN INCREASE in bluebottle sightings on Fraser Coast beaches has prompted Hervey Bay's Surf Life Saving Club to issue a safety warning for residents.
Dozens of marine stingers have been sighted along the region's beaches over the past few days, including Torquay Beach.
The Chronicle understands several people have required treatment after being stung by the animals.
Hervey Bay Surf Club president and Fraser Coast councillor Darren Everard said residents needed to be mindful where they stepped when they visited the beach.
He said big tides and light northerly winds were the reason more bluebottles were being spotted but said they were "not in plague proportions".
"People just need to be aware they're around," Cr Everard said.
If you are stung by a bluebottle, carefully remove any remaining tentacles by washing the area in sea water and picking them off.
Immerse the sting area in hot water (about 45 degrees) for about 20 minutes.
Do not use vinegar to wash the sting area.


This is a big week for Eli Roth. Just yesterday, the Knock Knock and The Green Inferno director became attached to direct Paramount’s remake of Death Wish, a project that’s had quite a few directors, most notably Joe Carnahan (The Grey), split from the Bruce Willis-led film over the years. Only a day later, news has come out that Roth will direct Jim Carrey in an adaptation of Steve Niles‘ (“3o Days of Night”) comic book “Aleister Arcane,” which was illustrated by Breehn Burns.
Below, learn more about Aleister Arcane.
Under the weathered skies of America’s heartland, and in the wounded hearts of every family in one tiny rural town, a terrible secret has been kept for too many years. Now, a young boy named Trevor must try to keep his younger brother Will from falling victim to the worst fears of a troubled town that can’t begin to understand the tragic secret that binds its families together. Some folks would call Trevor’s brother a monster. But to Trevor, Will is just another kid trapped in a dark reality he can’t comprehend. When the situation moves from bad to worse, and their father threatens to do away with Will, Trevor learns that they’re not alone – that “freak” children were born to other families in Gristlewood Valley. Against all odds, and with nothing but love for his brother in his heart, Trevor is going to do whatever he can to get the freak children out of harm’s way, if it’s not already too late.


by Free Britney at February 13, 2017 6:52 am .
Everyone’s favorite robot musicians were back, with an assist from The Weeknd, at the 2017 Grammy Awards on Sunday night in L.A.
It's not easy to follow an act like the show-opening Adele 2017 Grammy performance, but someone had to, and they were up to the task.
Both appear on the latest Weeknd album, Starboy.
As you'd expect from the mysterious helmeted duo, the performance was complete with lasers, futuristic scenery and ... sci-fi attire.
We didn't see too many in our rundown of 2017 Grammy fashion from the red carpet, but we hear the cape is making a comeback.
For Daft Punk, it was their first performance was the duo’s first live performance since the 2014 Grammy Awards, a banner night for them.
This year, the Weeknd took the place of Pharrell, and while Daft Punk was not among the '17 Grammy nominees, they stole the show.
After Paris Jackson introduced the performance, the duo emerged in robes along with the singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye.
There were a lot of lights.
There was a ton of fog.
And of course, there were Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, rocking their trademark robot space suits, on stage.
Despite the Grammy-dominating Random Access Memories, they did not tour to support that album, making this a rare live TV appearance.
As for The Weeknd, Starboy was released after the Grammy deadline, so he wasn't up for any awards pertaining to that record either.
They were only there to entertain us, and while it may not get the buzz of Beyonce's Grammy performance, they certainly did just that.