In response to the realities of a deteriorating economy, we’re taking important steps to realign Microsoft’s business. I want to tell you about what we’re doing and why.
Today we announced second quarter revenue of $16.6 billion. This number is an increase of just 2 percent compared with the second quarter of last year and it is approximately $900 million below our earlier expectations.
The fact that we are growing at all during the worst recession in two generations reflects our strong business fundamentals and is a testament to your hard work. Our products provide great value to our customers. Our financial position is solid. We have made long-term investments that continue to pay off.
But it is also clear that we are not immune to the effects of the economy. Consumers and businesses have reined in spending, which is affecting PC shipments and IT expenditures.
Our response to this environment must combine a commitment to long-term investments in innovation with prompt action to reduce our costs.
During the second quarter we started down the right path. As the economy deteriorated, we acted quickly. As a result, we reduced operating expenses during the quarter by $600 million. I appreciate the agility you have shown in enabling us to achieve this result.
Now we need to do more. We must make adjustments to ensure that our investments are tightly aligned with current and future revenue opportunities. The current environment requires that we continue to increase our efficiency.
As part of the process of adjustments, we will eliminate up to 5,000 positions in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, LCA, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, of which 1,400 will occur today. We’ll also open new positions to support key investment areas during this same period of time. Our net headcount in these functions will decline by 2,000 to 3,000 over the next 18 months. In addition, our workforce in support, consulting, operations, billing, manufacturing, and data center operations will continue to change in direct response to customer needs.
Our leaders all have specific goals to manage costs prudently and thoughtfully. They have the flexibility to adjust the size of their teams so they are appropriately matched to revenue potential, to add headcount where they need to increase investments in order to ensure future success, and to drive efficiency.
To increase efficiency, we’re taking a series of aggressive steps. We’ll cut travel expenditures 20 percent and make significant reductions in spending on vendors and contingent staff. We’ve scaled back Puget Sound campus expansion and reduced marketing budgets. We’ll also reduce costs by eliminating merit increases for FY10 that would have taken effect in September of this calendar year.
Each of these steps will be difficult. Our priority remains doing right by our customers and our employees. For employees who are directly affected, I know this will be a difficult time for you and I want to assure you that we will provide help and support during this transition. We have established an outplacement center in the Puget Sound region and we’ll provide outplacement services in many other locations to help you find new jobs. Some of you may find jobs internally. For those who don’t, we will also offer severance pay and other benefits.
The decision to eliminate jobs is a very difficult one. Our people are the foundation of everything we have achieved and we place the highest value on the commitment and hard work that you have dedicated to building this company. But we believe these job eliminations are crucial to our ability to adjust the company’s cost structure so that we have the resources to drive future profitable growth. I encourage you to attend tomorrow’s Town Hall at 9am PST in Café 34 or watch the webcast .
While this is the most challenging economic climate we have ever faced, I want to reiterate my confidence in the strength of our competitive position and soundness of our approach.
With these changes in place, I feel confident that we will have the resources we need to continue to invest in long-term computing trends that offer the greatest opportunity to deliver value to our customers and shareholders, benefit to society, and growth for Microsoft.
With our approach to investing for the long term and managing our expenses, I know Microsoft will emerge an even stronger industry leader than it is today.
Thank you for your continued commitment and hard work.
Microsoft's CEO writes, "it is clear that we are not immune to the effects of the economy."


Underneath its idyllic façade, the bucolic town of Brokenwood, New Zealand harbors simmering passions that often erupt into grisly crimes. In four new feature-length episodes, Detectives Mike Shepherd (Neill Rea) and Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland) contend with the disturbing deaths of a skydiver and the owner of a Victorian reenactment village, among other perplexing crimes that set their small town reeling. 6 hours on 4 Discs. SDH.


Memphis band The Passport has only been together for four months, but don't let that fool you! Their advanced sound, stage presence and songwriting has made them a fast favorite in the Bluff City, selling out shows and performing at major local events like Rock for Love and the upcoming St. Jude Marathon. They've just released their first single "Trigger." It is available on iTunes, Spotify and other major platforms. To learn more about the band and where you can see them live, visit their website.


Find & apply for the latest graduate law jobs on the Guardian Jobs website. Get jobs in law sent to you the day they are posted by signing up for jobs by email. Visit our graduate section to discover more graduate jobs.


Trim ends of zucchini and slice each zucchini lengthwise just under 1/4-inch thick. In a large, shallow dish, combine oil and zucchini slices, coating slices well.
Place a large ridged griddle or ridged cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. When griddle is hot, add zucchini slices in a single layer. Cook, turning frequently, until soft and scorched with a crisscross pattern of griddle marks. Transfer to a large plate and repeat with any remaining zucchini.
To serve, sprinkle zucchini with lemon juice and salt to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Featured in: At My Table; A Carnivore Finds Joy, Meatlessly.


The headteachers of the Pele Trust schools.
A Multi Academy Trust (MAT) of schools in Ponteland is now official.
Ponteland High and Ponteland Primary School, along with Darras Hall, Belsay, Heddon St Andrew’s CofE Primary Schools and Richard Coates CofE School, operated as Pele Trust from the start of the month.
They carried out concurrent stakeholder consultations in May and June 2017, after which the governing bodies of each school made a decision to move towards academy conversion.
However, the formation of Pele Trust was delayed due to a number of issues outside of their control – most notably the re-tendering of the new school and leisure complex in Ponteland.
The agreed purpose of the MAT is as follows: ‘To build a learning community, brought together by choice, that enables our schools to support and challenge each other to provide consistently outstanding education, whilst offering a stable pathway for students, parents and staff.
The directors have committed to formally reviewing the trust-wide admissions policy later this academic year.
During the consultations, it was proposed that parents who have a child in a Pele Trust primary school would be guaranteed a secondary place for their child at the Ponteland 11 to 18 school, should they wish to accept it.
Ponteland High School headteacher Kieran McGrane said: “It has taken longer than we would have liked, but in some ways this has been a blessing because it has allowed the schools involved to work together on some key issues and start forming the required relationships as a group of schools moving forward.
“We will be able to work more closely between the primary and secondary sectors to enable a smooth transition for pupils between the two, although we will ensure that each school’s own unique ethos and identity is protected.


Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, the Saudi woman who captured the world’s attention by barricading herself in a Thai hotel room after fleeing abuse in her own country, has said she hopes to inspire other Saudi women to be “brave and free”.
Speaking in her first interview after being given asylum in Canada, and landing in Toronto on Saturday, Qunun, told the ABC Australia her case might be the “agent for change” in Saudi Arabia, a country where women are denied basic freedoms and are not allowed to work, marry and travel without the permission of a male guardian.
Qunun, who was in her first year of university, described how her desire to be independent and to escape abuse inflicted by her father and brother had driven her to make the drastic decision to flee her family during a visit to Kuwait, and head for Australia, with a stopover in Bangkok. She had a visa for Australia but at Bangkok airport she was detained by the Thai immigration authorities, who then placed her in a hotel room ready to be deported back to Saudi Arabia.
After barricading herself in the room and refusing to leave for six nights, Qunun said she had expected the authorities to “enter the room and kidnap me” and had contemplated taking her own life.
“That’s why I wrote a goodbye letter. I decided that I would end my life, before I was forced back to Saudi Arabia,” she said. However, as she used Twitter to publicise her plight, abuse and her decision to renounce Islam, her campaign for asylum quickly gathered momentum and support around the world.
Qunun’s father, who is a governor in Saudi Arabia, and brother had travelled to Bangkok following her escape in an attempt to bring her back with them. After news of her successful asylum in Canada, the family released a statement on Monday saying they had disowned Qunun and described her as “mentally unstable”.


Prime location across the street from Boyne Highlands. . . 100 acres: bring your imagination! Residential development, private hunting lodge. Buyer/Buyers agent to verify all information with Pleasantview Twp and Emmet County.


A stoppage-time goal saved the Union from another road loss as the club escaped Toronto with a 1-1 draw.
Jack McInerney, the reigning MLS Player of the Month, scored his league-leading 10th goal to secure the draw. He came into the game with five game-winning scores, tops in MLS. McInerney has 22 goals in 74 matches in a Union jersey.
"Every single game, he just finds a way to get on the board," manager John Hackworth said of McInerney. "We didn't play our best soccer and I don't think Jack was in the best form early in the game and he was getting frustrated, but he kept his nose down and waited for his opportunity and he just continues to score."
The Union are right back at it Wednesday with a huge contest at PPL Park against the Columbus Crew. After that, the club goes on international break.
McInerney leads Major League Soccer with 10 goals.


Excited newly-released iPhone X customers at a Mac City Apple Reseller Store in One Utama shopping mall on November 24, 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Good morning. A tussle this week between prominent investors and Apple Inc. over iPhone use by young people comes amid a nascent re-evaluation of the smartphone’s social consequences within the industry that spawned it, writes WSJ's Tripp Mickle.
The smartphone has fueled much of Silicon Valley’s soaring profits over the past decade, enriching companies in sectors from social media to gaming to payments. But over the past year or so, a number of key industry figures, including executives at Apple and Facebook, have voiced concerns about the downsides of the technology’s ubiquity.
Those are the kinds of concerns spotlighted in a letter to Apple on Saturday from Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or Calstrs, which control about $2 billion of Apple shares. The letter urged the tech giant to develop new software tools that would help parents control and limit phone use more easily, and to study the impact of overuse on mental health.
Apple late Monday issued a statement defending its parental controls and other protections for children who use its iPhones, noting that it started offering some of them as early as 2008. It said many of those tools can be found in the settings section of its devices.
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is due to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. ET on combating money laundering and other forms of illicit finance.
Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business, introducing the Huawei Mate 10 smartphone in Munich, Germany in October.
Huawei boomed despite U.S. warnings of possible spy threat. Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. has positioned itself to dominate future global telecom networks by providing stiffening competition to incumbents Nokia Corp. and Ericsson AB. Now Washington is warning anew about the company’s alleged spy threat as U.S. telecoms embark on a $275 billion 5G network build-out.
Meanwhile, AT&T has walked away from a deal to sell smartphones made by Huawei. The Chinese company has been essentially shut out of the U.S. market after a 2012 Congressional reporter raised concerns about state-sponsored spying related to equipment made by Huawei.
Jeff Bezos net worth eclipses high set by Bill Gates. Jeff Bezos's net worth reached $105.1 billion on Monday on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as Amazon.com shares rallied. The Amazon founder's fortune is now above the high set by Microsoft Bill Gates in 1999, according to Bloomberg.
Two suits catch Google in middle of gender debate. Former Google female employees last week sued the company, a unit of Alphabet, for allegedly discriminating against women, while former male employees on Monday filed a suit for allegedly discriminating against conservative white men.
Wal-Mart de Mexico’s sales growth slowed in 2017. Sales at Wal-Mart de Mexico SA, Mexico’s biggest retailer, slowed in 2017 after two consecutive years of double-digit growth.
Viacom buys influencer marketing company Whosay. Viacom Inc., the owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, said it has agreed to acquire influencer marketing shop Whosay Inc., joining the long list of media companies investing in advertising services.
Tenet Healthcare increases job cuts. Tenet Healthcare Corp. isn’t waiting to replace its chief executive to revamp its business. Tenant unveiled plans to cut jobs and squeeze $250 million from its costs as one of the nation’s largest hospital companies responds to pressure from activist shareholders.
GoPro to cut 20% of workforce. GoPro Inc. is cutting more than one-fifth of its workforce and exiting the drone market as part of the action-camera company’s latest attempt to turn itself around.
Leucadia weighs sale of meat processor. Leucadia National Corp. is exploring a sale of part or all of its stake in its National Beef Packing Co. unit, one of the biggest U.S. meat-processing companies, people familiar with the matter said.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan speaks at a November White House event, as U.S. President Donald Trump listens.
Chinese smartphone makers raise concerns about mega chip deal. Two large Chinese smartphone manufacturers said they are against the potential merger of chip giants Boardcom Ltd. and Qualcomm, fearing it could squeeze the mobile companies’ profit margins and benefit large global rivals to their detriment.
French prosecutor launches probe into Apple's planned obsolescence. A French prosecutor has launched a preliminary investigation of Apple Inc. over alleged deception and planned obsolescence of its products following a complaint by a consumer organization, according to Reuters.
Federal regulators rule against Trump administration on power plants. Federal energy regulators Monday rejected a Trump administration proposal aimed at shoring up struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
Banks seek government help to track money laundering. Efforts to overhaul U.S. anti-money-laundering laws are gathering steam, as large banks, anticorruption groups and law-enforcement authorities coalesce around the idea of creating a national database of corporations and their true owners.
Shoppers accustomed to getting e-commerce orders in two days or less are adding to the pile at airport cargo terminals.
Air cargo shipments soar. Global airfreight traffic climbed almost 9% year-over-year in November as a jump in e-commerce orders supercharged the holiday rush, according to cargo data provider WorldACD. Rates for airfreight were up 17% annually that month.
Trump tells farmers he wants a better Nafta. President Donald Trump told a gathering of farmers Monday that he is seeking a better trade deal with Canada and Mexico that will benefit both the agricultural industry and manufacturing, but he didn’t reiterate previous warnings on withdrawing from the North American Trade Agreement.
Fed officials encourage reassessment of inflation target. Two Federal Reserve officials said Monday the U.S. central bank should consider changes in its inflation-targeting framework to create more ammunition to respond to future downturns.
U.S. consumer credit surged in November. U.S. consumer borrowing posted the largest monthly gain in 16 years, climbing by $27.95 billion in November from the prior month, buoyed by increased consumer confidence in the economy.


Skateboarding is the classic pastime of suburban teen malcontents for good reason: By defying the intended use of public space, it appeals to young people who question broader cultural expectations. Reassessing concrete surroundings leads to skepticism about the prescribed conventions of growing up. For Matt Berry, San Ramon native and twenty-year-old bandleader of Happy Diving, skateboarding pivoted him away from suburban malaise and toward the Big World.
The title of Happy Diving's confident debut — Big World — is scrawled beneath a black-and-white photo of some goofy-spooky silhouettes. It's in quotation marks, emphasizing the ambiguity: Is "Big World" ironic grandstanding, youthful naivety, or a hopeful prediction?
The music has all three qualities. Torrents of feedback get sharpened into mightily indulgent guitar leads and copious solos, which Berry casually described as "dumb" and "masturbatory." In these guitar-weary times, displaying proficiency is likely to attract such slights. Preempting them forces the question of whether the guitar playing on canonical records by Dinosaur Jr. is "masturbatory." Basically, it is. In the context of balanced songwriting, it's also wonderful. For Happy Diving, owning showy guitar playing makes it elevated and dignified.
Happy Diving's similarity to Dinosaur Jr. threatens to engulf the whole project. It doesn't, however, because impeccably executed homage has its own charm. Big World's strength also lies in its production. The low-end feels guttural, the sweltering guitar noise is intoxicating, and a deliberate recording error lends it a sense of constant inflation.
Jack Shirley, who recorded Big World, said that Happy Diving requested what recording engineers call "pumping and breathing." Extreme compression and distortion can exacerbate the punchy low-end of a recording, but it also causes drop-outs and inconsistency in the high range. Most engineers consider it a mistake and others employ it sparingly, but Happy Diving insisted on it for the entire album. The perpetually swelling effect evokes a band growing out of its own style. Likewise, it evokes the restlessness of Berry's teen epoch.
Recently, Berry walked in to 1-2-3-4 Go! Records, where Happy Diving's record release show will occur next Wednesday. He had no money because he didn't bring a wallet (it would've fallen through the holes in his pockets). He idly looked at records, lamented their cost, and noted personal connections.
"When I was eighteen, I got into Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill, and Pavement," he said. A detached tone made it seem like that was more than two years ago. All of Berry's reflections were like that, every distinct period of his teens chopped into tiny increments of a year or a grade. He made high school seem like a lifetime of reinvention.
Berry grew up in a religious household in San Ramon. For Christmas when he was twelve, Berry received a beat-making computer program and commandeered his brother's present, a toy keyboard with a microphone attached. He picked up a guitar around this time as well, and attended youth group and Christian metalcore concerts.
"Looking back, they were so bad, but twelve-year-old me was all about it," he said. Then, he rejected the faith-based music scene. "It actually put a bad taste in my mouth for guitar music."
Skateboarding dominated the next phase. He mostly sought out music to complement the activity and made "dumb electro" on his computer to amuse friends. Through skateboarding, he also rediscovered rock. "Dinosaur Jr. was the reason I started playing guitar again," he said. "I saw this skate video called Mind Field and it had three of their songs."
"I wrote [Big World's] songs when I was nineteen and twenty," Berry said. "In that time, I became involved with a music scene, met all of these people, and my world sort of blew up." Indeed, Happy Diving shared bills with Wild Moth, played with Molina earlier this year at South by Southwest, and recently toured the West Coast. Jessi Frick, whose Father/Daughter record label is releasing Big World, noted a budding regional trend: Guitar-centric, 1990s-indebted rock bands from the Bay Area are beginning to reach broader audiences.
Berry still lives with his family in San Ramon and works at the local movie theater. He still skates, but with more caution. Pain tends to linger for longer than when he was in high school. "My friends and I were just talking about the skate park closing," he said. "Without that place to hang out, it's like a certain kind of San Ramon teen won't exist anymore."
That's probably not true. San Ramon's restless teens will just entrench themselves elsewhere and — after what feels to them like an eternity — quickly won't be teens anymore and the world will open up. "It's the suburbs and it's awful," Berry said. "Happy Diving is my ticket out in a way."
A day in the life of Toner's Samuelito Cruz, West End punk writing downcast pop.


The third Aretha catalog exploitation of the fall is the first from Sony/BMG, which has long since deleted the Eighties and Nineties Aretha albums where half of its sixteen tracks first appeared, and it’s also the best. But this isn’t to accuse it of coherence or anything. Some of it has been previously recycled — ;the Annie Lennox so endlessly we need not name it here, the Keith Richards “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” as a bonus cut for a greatest-hits collection initially baited with the merely adequate Bonnie Raitt-Gloria Estefan “Natural Woman.” Some of it is lively if expedient (George Michael, Elton John). Some of it is bland (George Benson) or dismal (Frank Sinatra, though only his part). And there are three “newly recordeds,” the prize featuring not Mary J. Blige or John Legend but Fantasia, whom the Queen indulges as the naive young thing she is — and who will never make one of these in her life.


The National Alliance on Mental Health is offering free Family to Family classes for residents of Schuylkill County. The 12-week course, for which sessions go at 6 p.m. Thursdays through April 25, is for family members and caregivers, 18 and older, of people living with a mental health condition. The sessions are held in Conference Room B at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Schuylkill S. Jackson Street. The effort, according to a release, is an opportunity for families to gain information, insight, understanding and empowerment. All material is provided free. For more information or to register, call 570-527-0002 or 267-414-4870.
The Shenandoah Valley High School Student Council is conducting a drive to provide members of the United States military with various items that would not necessarily be available at their deployment locations around the world. The collection drive is sponsored by “Operation Gratitude,” a nonprofit group that ships more than 200,000 care packages to men and women currently serving in the military, according to a release from Robert C. Yudinsky, school district public relations director. The students assume the responsibility for the collection, packaging and shipment of the items collected. They call the project “Helping Our Heroes” and are collecting items not only for currently deployed military members, but also for their families, wounded and discharged veterans and first responders. Anyone wishing to help can do so by dropping off any of the listed items to various collection spots located throughout the community. Items being sought include all-purpose wipes (single and 30-count packs or less), batteries (AA and/or AAA), deodorant (travel size, non-aerosol), drink mix (individual serving packets), gum, hand warmers, jerky (individual bags), lip balm, pencils (mechanical preferred size), playing cards, powder (travel size), puzzle books (7-by-10-inch), socks (black crew length), sunscreen (travel size, non-aerosol). Dropoff sites include the Shenandoah Senior Living Community, Vernalis’ Restaurant, the four Shenandoah banks (BB&T, Santander, First National and M&T), the Shenandoah Valley High School and elementary administrative offices, Kowalonek’s Kielbasy Shop, The Pizza Shop, Jean’s News Stand, Lucky’s Deli, the Downtown Shenandoah Inc. office and, in Pottsville, the Schuylkill Transportation System terminal at Union Station. Donations will be accepted until the end of February, when items collected will be packaged and mailed to Operation Gratitude. Any financial contributions will be used to offset the cost of shipping. Checks should be made payable to: SV Student Council. For more information, call Anthony Pytko, student council adviser, at 570-462-1957.
Fitness and safety are the focuses of programs on the spring agenda at the Tamaqua Salvation Army building, 150 W. Broad St. Fall prevention workshops will measure a participant’s fall risk through a variety of screenings and show people what they can do to reduce risks. The program, which will be from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 15 and 18, has no fee and includes a course booklet. To register in advance by April 12, call 570-624-3017.
Grand slam bingo is set for 5 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Tremont Firehouse to benefit the Pine Grove Area Lady Cardinals Softball Team. Tickets are $35 each. There will be 20 games of bingo, specials and raffles. For tickets or more information, call 570-449-7949.


NBC Storm Team 5 meteorologist Andy Avalos has your latest forecast update.
Several schools in the Chicago area announced closings, early dismissals or canceled activities on Tuesday as life-threatening cold began to descend on the region.
Schools began reporting late openings or full closures Monday afternoon, hours before a Wind Chill Advisory took effect.
Click here for a full list of school closings and cancellations.


Brevard Public Schools released results from its survey about arming staff.
Teachers and students are opposed to a program that would arm school employees, while parents narrowly support the program, according to a survey by the Brevard County School District.
As part of the survey, students, teachers, employees and parents were asked to answer "yes" or "no" to the following question: Do you support or oppose arming and training school administrators and support employees to serve as guardians who could respond with deadly force to campus shooters?
The survey was shared with every Brevard Public Schools employee and family with an email address on file twice over a period of 10 days. A link to the survey was also posted on Facebook. District staff acknowledged that the survey could be taken multiple times from the same computer.
-Of the 2,228 school district employees who responded, 57 percent said they oppose the program, while 36 percent said they support it and 7 percent said they were not sure.
-Of the 1,195 teachers who took the survey, 59 percent said they oppose the program, while 34 percent said they support it.
-Of the 281 students who took the survey, 72 percent said they oppose the program, while 28 percent said they support it.
-Of the 9,750 parents who took the survey, 50 percent said they support the program, 47 percent they oppose it and 3 percent said they were not sure. However, the school district also filtered results to eliminate duplicate responses. By that calculation of 6,960 respondents, 56 percent of parents said they support the program, 40 percent said they oppose it and 4 percent were not sure.
-Overall, of the 12,385 community members who took the survey, 47 percent said they support the program, 49 percent said they oppose it and 4 percent were not sure.
Some residents have complained that the survey is not reliable because it was shared on Facebook pages where anyone could access it, and users could take the survey multiple times if they wanted to.
"Again, this was not a scientific, random-sample survey. It was a questionnaire sent to about 71,000 BPS staff and households over 10 days to give the highest possible number of stakeholders a voice on this issue," district spokesman Matt Reed said in an email. "BPS took several steps to monitor and test our results and have only shared findings in which we have confidence."
In his analysis of the survey findings, Reed pointed out that support for the S.T.O.M.P. proposal is strongest in the northern parts of the county, where 61 percent of residents support the program. However, support is weakest in the south beaches and southeast mainland, where 60 percent of resident oppose the program.
A previous poll by the school district asked employees if they would be willing to volunteer for the program. Out of the 700 non-teacher employees who took the survey, 267 said they were willing to volunteer as marshals. About nine percent of the respondents said they have previously worked in law enforcement or in the military.
School employees who volunteer for S.T.O.M.P. would go through 176 hours of training with the Brevard Sheriff's Office and have to pass psychological screenings, background checks, drug tests and interviews. They would be armed and allowed to carry a gun at school. Their identities would be known by school administrators and first-responders but not by parents or students. Teachers would not be eligible for the program.
The program was devised by Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey, however, Ivey has since recommended the school board table the program and focus on hiring school resource officers.
A new law put in place after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 people were killed requires either an SRO, school marshal or private security personnel at every school by the start of the upcoming school year.
The School Board is set to decide whether to adopt the program at its meeting Tuesday night and will also discuss another option to hire full-time School Safety and Security Specialists, who would undergo the same training under the S.T.O.M.P. but whose identities would be known to the public.


Moeen Ali played three County Championship games for Worcestershire in 2016.
Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes is happy to change a winning team to accommodate England all-rounder Moeen Ali.
Moeen is available for the County Championship Division Two match against Northamptonshire, starting on Friday.
And, despite last weekend's eight-wicket win over Glamorgan, Rhodes has confirmed that Moeen, 29, will play.
"Whoever misses out, it's special circumstances. They understand that," Rhodes told BBC Hereford & Worcester.
"We love having Mo in our side - he's a wonderful character. His attitude is brilliant when he comes back to play for us."
As well as his one-off Championship appearance against Northants, Moeen has been made available by the England and Wales Cricket Board for Worcestershire's first three One-Day Cup matches - against Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northants.
"We've got good young players who have played quite a bit now so hopefully we can all gel together this year and surprise a few people. And they've made a good start," said Moeen.
"The Championship game is very important from a Worcestershire point of view. And also from a personal point of view to get some form and bat some time.
"But the three one-dayers are also something I'm definitely looking forward to, and hopefully opening the batting again."
Moeen played three early season Championship matches for Worcestershire last summer, scoring 273 runs at an average of 91, but he took only one wicket with his off-spin.
It will be his first Worcestershire appearance since making 81 in the the nine-wicket One-Day Cup quarter-final defeat by Somerset at Taunton last August.


The fashion-peddling first daughter is getting an office in the West Wing, while the wonky former first daughter will accept an award from Variety.
Be honest: Six months ago, if someone had told you that Ivanka Trump, fashion-peddling, glamour-gal scion of the Trump real-estate and branding dynasty, would be moving into her own West Wing Office, getting special security clearance which will allow her to view classified info, trying on the role of policy maven, and even receiving her own “government-issued devices,” you’d have thought they were bonkers, or baked, or both.
Now consider that, on Monday, Variety magazine announced that Ivanka’s long-time gal pal Chelsea Clinton—the earnest, wonky, mediaphobic scion of the Clinton political dynasty—has been chosen as one of its Lifetime Impact Honorees for her humanitarian work. Clinton will be feted at a gala luncheon in Manhattan next month, along with actors Blake Lively, Jessica Chastain, and Audra McDonald, the morning show host and Oprah BFF Gayle King, and the media executive Shari Redstone. The six women will grace the cover of the next issue of Variety, which hits newsstands in mid-April.
Chelsea Clinton is getting swept up in a shiny ball of glitzy, self-congratulatory Hollywood/New York feel-goodery, while Ivanka Trump tries to morph into Hillary Clinton circa 1993. It’s a through-the-looking-glass moment, and there is every indication that things are only going to get weirder.
Take Ivanka’s burgeoning role in her dad’s administration. Already, she’s sitting in on high-level meetings with world leaders, Cabinet secretaries, and business muckety-mucks. She’s offering policy advice. She keeps talking with people about her child-care plan as though it’s actually going somewhere in this congressional atmosphere, and she has expressed a desire to tackle other issues dealing with women in the workplace.
To clarify, Ivanka’s is not a formal advisory position. That would require her to follow certain protocols and abide by certain ethics rules. But do not fret; Gorelick insists that Ivanka will voluntarily abide by all the same rules that apply to ordinary government officials. Not that anyone should be surprised. The entire Trump family clearly prefers to keep these things more freewheeling. Ethics guidelines can be so limiting, so intrusive, so common.
That makes sense. Thus far, Chelsea’s greatest accomplishment is surviving her eternally needy parents’ raging ambition while making solid use of the near-countless advantages their wealth and power have conferred upon her. To be fair, this puts her way ahead of many celebrity offspring. But it’s not like she’s got her own office in the West Wing or anything like that.
And so the bizarreness of this political season grinds on, reaching down a generation to shuffle the public’s expectations about even Chelsea and Ivanka. At this rate, Chelsea will soon roll out her new eponymous line of fragrances while Ivanka is announced as her dad’s new chief of staff.


MANILA, Philippines—As an 11-year-old in 1979, Toym Leon Imao felt the heavy hand of the Marcos dictatorship when his favorite TV cartoon series “Voltes V” was unceremoniously taken off the air.
The hugely popular Japanese series, about a super robot and its five pilots defending Earth from Boazanian beast fighters, was banned during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos for its supposedly rebellious messages. The plug was pulled when the series was down to its last four episodes—in which the Voltes team finally overthrows the tyrannical emperor from Planet Boazan.
The piece is currently on exhibit at Palma Hall of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, in line with campus activities commemorating Marcos’ declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972.
“I felt so bad when ‘Voltes V’ was banned. For the first time, the reality of martial law was felt by children my age. As a child, I knew what it was but I had a vague idea about it. But when he banned ‘Voltes V,’ Marcos became the villain in our lives,” Imao said in an Inquirer interview on Tuesday.
This would explain why, at the center of Imao’s complex work, a bust of the late strongman sports two long horns to resemble the Boazanian flagship “Sky Rook.” The horns are tipped with the muzzle of M-16 rifles as symbols of militarization.
Above the bust, Imao pays homage to Fernando Amorsolo’s “Marca Demonyo” logo that the National Artist made for a popular brand of gin, showing the Archangel Michael slaying the Devil. In Imao’s version, however, Michael is wearing Voltes V’s armor and wielding the robot’s famous “Laser Sword,” while the Devil is incarnated as a riot policeman.
On the day it was set up at UP, the installation included an image of a boy in a Voltes V helmet, which Imao said was a reference to the slain anti-Marcos student leader Lean Alejandro.


Dear Namco Bandai, you should probably pay more attention to the Windows Phone platform, if only to make sure people don't get confused about Pac-Man continuity.
Yes, one of this week's top free games is Pacman 8. Not Pac-Man 8, but Pacman 8. That's an important distinction. It also bears noting that there is also a paid version of Pacman 8. which means the folks at SimpleisBeautiful.com are making a buck or two off of that iconic yellow disc.
I'm sure Namco Bandai gave its blessing. Probably.
Angry Birds without the Star Wars should be called Sad Birds.
Because we can't trust our big buck hunting to amateurs, now can we?
The staying power of this stupid little game is astounding.
Those cracking sands just aren't cracking as much as they used to.
This one's been burning its way up the charts for a bit. Last week it was number 11. This week it counts!
Slowly extracting itself from the top ten list.
People love snowboarding games. Well, I love snowboarding games, and I am people.
Hey, I'm just glad this game is on the charts at all.
Asphalt 5 isn't always on the Windows Phone charts, but when it is, it's in the number 9 slot.
Halloween's morbid fascination with zombies and healthy teeth brough PvZ back from the dead.
Hey kids, want some free games on your Windows Phone? Don't laugh, that's how some of these next ten were marketed.
Roller coaster... of love. (Say what?) Roller coaster. A hoo-hoo-hoo.
A new batch of Windows phones means a fresh batch of Xbox Live account linking and such.
Oh come on, it's Skee Ball! Seriously?
Throw me the knife, I'll throw you the statuette.
Putting together these charts is pretty much the same thing as playing this game.
It's amazing the sort of shady stuff you can push out when you're an indie developer not charging money for your games.
Incredibly lucky fishing if you ask me.
This one wasn't so lucky.
Minesweeper is one of the greatest free games of all time.
No one really loves this game, they just keep it hanging on.
Another week down, only all of them left to go! Join me next week, when the theme will be top Windows Phone games.


Park Honan, who has died aged 86, will be known to posterity chiefly as the American author (co-author in one case) of five outstanding biographies of classic English writers; but to his friends he will also remain one of the most memorable individuals they ever encountered. Even his first name was unforgettable. Park is a common name in Korea, and readers who knew him only from his books often assumed that he was part Korean. In fact it was the surname of his father’s best friend, which he preferred to his other given names, Leonard Hobart.
Park was born in Utica, New York. His father, William, a surgeon who commanded a military field hospital in the first world war, was much older than his mother, Annette (nee Neudecker), and died when Park was seven. Saving his mother tuition fees, Park won a scholarship to Deep Springs, an unconventional college in the Californian desert which prepared a select group of students for life with a combination of academic courses and hard manual work. From there he won another scholarship to Chicago University, which he left with a master’s, and ambitions to be a writer.
In New York, he met Jeannette Colin, a vivacious French Fulbright scholar, and they married in 1952. But he was soon in danger of being sent to prison when the Draft Board rejected his claim to be a conscientious objector, while Jeannette was in France with their young baby and likely to be refused re-entry into the US. It all ended happily, however, when Park accepted the draft in return for non-combatant status and was conveniently posted to south-western France.
He used the grant to which he was entitled after his military service to obtain a PhD at University College London, where as a younger postgraduate student I first met him. I was captivated by his life story, the exotic distinctiveness of his manners and speech, his prolific invention of nicknames for everyone he knew, and his gift for hyperbole in expressing likes and dislikes. The easy-going style of supervision at UCL suited him better than regimented American graduate programmes, and he found time to write prose fiction and perform in his own plays, as well as a completing a thesis on the poetry of Robert Browning.
Back in the US, Park taught for some years at Connecticut College and later Brown University, Rhode Island, but in 1968, he returned with his family to live permanently in Britain, as lecturer, senior lecturer and eventually reader in the English department at Birmingham University, and from 1984 as professor of English and American literature at the University of Leeds.
Park’s first book was a revised version of his thesis, published by Yale in 1961 as Browning’s Characters, a close analytical study of the dramatic monologues, focused on details as minute as punctuation, and for a time he applied a similar critical method to prose fiction. But when his friend William Irving, a distinguished Browning scholar, died leaving an unfinished biography of the poet and a wish that Park should complete it, he accepted the task and brought it to the UK with him. It was published as The Ring, the Book and the Poet in 1974, and it marked a radical change of direction in his work. His frustrated desire to be a published novelist found an outlet in biographical narrative, and helped him to achieve something he called “historical presentness” – the effect, for the reader, of accompanying the biographical subject as she or he moves through time and space.
Surprisingly his was the first comprehensive biography of Arnold to be written, but his next subject, Jane Austen, was a greater challenge, since there were already many biographies in existence. But Park discovered a previously unsuspected cache of Austen family papers, and in Jane Austen: Her Life (1987) explored parts of the novelist’s life that other biographies had neglected: for instance, what she would have learned from her ambitious and adventurous brothers at a time of momentous historical events. This fresh look at “dear Jane” delighted many readers.
But even Park’s admirers doubted the wisdom of his next choice of subject – Shakespeare, first because the Elizabethan period demands quite different research skills from those appropriate to the 19th century, and second because it was generally agreed that there was nothing new to be discovered or said about Shakespeare’s sparsely documented life. Again he triumphed over the doubters by widening the focus of his study to take in all kinds of data about the social, historical, familial and topographical context of the playwright’s life, from which a more rounded portrait than the received one could be inferred. Shakespeare: A Life (1998) was highly praised by well-qualified reviewers and nominated by some as their Book of the Year. The same method was successfully applied in Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy (2005).
Park’s last project, one he had long nourished, was a life of TS Eliot, which had become more feasible with the publication of two volumes of the poet’s letters and the promise of more to come. But with poignant symmetry his distinguished career as biographer, which began with the completion of another scholar’s unfinished book, ended sadly with the interruption of his own work-in-progress by mortal illness.
Jeannette died in 2009. Park is survived by his daughters, Corinna and Natasha, and a son, Matthew.


Boston College may be one of the most hypocritical colleges in America. Constantly calling for its students to be “men and women for others,” BC fails to live up to its own hype, actively discarding its marginalized students in favor of prestige and arbitrary tradition.
Here’s just a small sample of the ways BC’s hypocrisy shines: We still do not have an LGBTQ+ resource center, which is a huge slap in the face to the entire BC queer community. We have more students from the top 1 percent than we do from the bottom 60 percent, which is a disgrace given our $2.2 billion endowment and supposed support of America’s poor and working class. Just last week, it was discovered that some of the braille on campus is printed onto the signs. Let me repeat that. BC braille is printed on so that you cannot feel it. What a terribly poetic metaphor. One of the only aides to the blind and visually impaired students on campus is a cheap facade, nothing more than worthless lip service (but is honestly nothing new in the long history of BC doing relatively little to accommodate people with disabilities on campus).
I could write about this every week. Well, I practically do. Thankfully, this isn’t to be yet another look-how-hypocritical-BC-is pieces, one of those unproductive columns just adding useless noise to The Heights. While it’s important to continually point out BC’s insincerity, the more pressing issue is finding solutions.
How do we change BC then? How do we recognize BC’s hypocrisy and respond in turn, using our four years here to leave BC a little better than we entered?
Well, it’s not easy. BC changes slowly. Like really slowly. I’ve had multiple conversations with faculty and administrators where they’ve lamented how difficult it is to enact any meaningful change here given the conservative administrative climate and the incredibly restrictive bureaucracy. And while it’s hard for faculty to make changes here, it’s even harder for students to make a difference, especially given our fleeting time, demanding schedules, and lack of experience.
Sometimes it can feel hopeless at BC, that the common-sense reforms we want like an LGBTQ+ resource center are too “progressive” for this place. We shouldn’t despair, though. We truly have the power to change BC into the vibrant, welcoming campus we envision.
The first reason why is that we’re students. Sometimes I think we forget how integral we are in changing the world. Young people have always been on the forefront of social and political movements. College students were instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement, African Apartheid Divestment Movement, in Standing Rock and resisting the Keystone Pipeline, and in the Queer Liberation Movement, just to name a few. I mean, Alexander Hamilton was 21 when he helped free our country from British tyranny. Lest we forget, we are the future, and we determine what sort of world we will live in tomorrow.
Filled with endless energy and passion, we can work tirelessly toward any cause if we put our minds to it. Just take a look at O’Neill at 3 a.m. if you need proof. This cynical world of ours can break us down and turn us into tired, pessimistic adults if we let it. The internship rat race and looming student debt does its fair share toward this end. But we should never, ever forget that we are the youth of our nation, of our world, and we hold the future in our eyes and hearts. Remember our history and realize our incredible power as students.
Secondly, we have changed this campus. BC has come a long way since its early days as an Irish Catholic boys club. In 1939 and 1940, BC acquiesced in benching its first black player against Southern schools, including in the Cotton Bowl, because he was black and it would have offended the segregated colleges we were playing. BC only allowed women into all of its programs in 1970. Throughout its entire history, BC has historically had a complex relationship with its LGBTQ+ students, offering them relatively little accommodation and recognition. Yet, despite this oppressive history, marginalized students have persisted, and among the student body, we have a more inclusive culture than ever. It is far from perfect, and there are still issues of inclusivity among us, but we have made giant strides since the days when gay students received bricks through their windows.
The truth is, campus activism works. It may seem like those pesky protests on O’Neill Plaza are just photo-ops for #woke students’ Instagrams, but they can be truly transformative events that change the campus culture, inspiring hundreds of small conversations that improve the campus one student at a time. In my three years at BC, activist groups such as Climate Justice BC and Eradicate BC Racism have gone from being radical fringe groups to central parts of campus culture, focal points of social justice and student involvement. More students are organizing each day, putting in countless hours in addition to the intense work load of classes and extracurriculars to ensure that each and every student is welcome here.
The UGBC presidency of Akosua Achampong and Tt King is the epitome of this diametric shift and a symbol of the hope to come, the hope of a better BC that represents all students. Untold numbers of brave student activists have paved the way for this reality, opening BC up enough to elect the first all-woman executive team composed of a black woman and a lesbian. We need to work to ensure that this trend continues and that the BC of tomorrow is even more inclusive, engaged, and truly ready to set the world aflame.
We still have a long way to go before all of the braille on campus is more than just facade, before we have more students from the bottom 60 percent, before LGBTQ+ students feel truly welcome. But if we keep organizing, BC’s culture will continue to change, bringing about Achampong’s and King’s, more CJBC’s and Eradicate’s, more “men and women for others.” Then, maybe, just maybe, BC’s insanely slow bureaucracy might just catch up to us.


At least 1.4 million of Catalans have filled the streets of Barcelona, calling for secession from Spain, as the region prepares to go to the polls in what local politicians say will serve as a proxy vote for independence.
The massive pro-independence rally, called under the title “Gateway to the Catalan Republic” (Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana) is taking place in Barcelona, the regional capital, on Catalonia’s national Day, September 11.
About 500,000 people registered on social networks to participate in the pro-independence event, Jordi Sanchez, the president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), told Sputnik news agency on Friday. However, photos and videos from the scene suggest that many more people had flooded into the streets of Barcelona.
Sanchez said he believed the rally will be one of the largest in Catalonia’s history.
The rally, carried out under the slogan “Let’s start building a new country” saw people coming to Barcelona from all parts of Catalonia by car, buses and rail.
The rally has stretched along one of the city’s main avenues the Meridiana, which starts from the outskirts of the city, heading to the Parc de la Ciutadella. People waving national flags, “estelada” in the Catalan language, are moving towards the parliament building in the park.
Catalonia Flag T-shirt... Buy New $26.00 (as of 10:35 EDT - Details) The demonstration is taking place on the same day as the kick off of an electoral campaign that has been framed as a de facto vote on the region’s secession from the rest of Spain. Catalonia’s regional election is to take place on September 27.
The “Together for Yes” (‘Junts pel Sí’) coalition is expected to win a majority of at least 68 seats in the 135-seat regional assembly.
Catalan President Artur Mas said on Friday that he would rather count “votes instead of seats,” but “all attempts to organize a referendum have been blocked” by the Spanish government, the Catalan news agency reported.
Mas, who is running with “Together for Yes,” said the election is the “only legal option” left to Catalonia to find out how many people are in favor of independence.
“If we win, if we have a majority of MPs, we will be open to negotiate with Madrid, Brussels and all European capitals in order to get an Secession as an Intern... Best Price: $24.28 Buy New $29.95 (as of 03:15 EDT - Details) agreement. We’ll have a positive attitude,” he said.
The organizers said Friday’s rally is an attempt to show the will of the vast majority of the Catalan people and a last plea for a referendum on independence from Spain. The demonstration is “to be the last one with a vindicatory purpose,” said Carme Forcadell, former president of the ANC.
Historically Catalonia has been one of Spain’s better-off regions, accounting for one-fifth of the country’s economic output. The local population has been dissatisfied with their taxes being used by Madrid to support poorer areas of the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said that Catalonia’s secession would be illegal, while EU officials have warned Catalonia that it would have to leave the bloc if it seceded.


In Brief: Very few people have seen Stanley Kubrick's feature directorial debut Fear and Desire (1953), and for good reason — the director hated this early work so much that he tried to have every print destroyed. Luckily for us, he failed. While it's by no means a great film, Kubrick's criticism of his own work was unduly harsh. Elements of what would become his auteurial signature were already in place despite his extreme youth (Kubrick was only 24 when production began), and I've always been of the opinion that he was just upset that he didn't come out of the gate with something equal to Citizen Kane, which Orson Welles directed at a similar age. Kubrick's gripes aside, there's plenty of interesting material to be found in his story of four military pilots of indiscriminate nationality in an unspecified conflict who crash behind enemy lines and must make there way back to safety. There are some intriguing metaphysical overtones and anti-war sentiments that Kubrick would revisit in later films, albeit in a less obtrusive light, and many of his visual flourishes were evident from the very beginning. Remembered today mostly as a curiosity for Kubrick completists, I've always felt that Fear and Desire deserves a critical reevaluation.
The Asheville Film Society will screen Fear and Desire on Tuesday, Aug. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at The Grail Moviehouse, hosted by Xpress movie critic Scott Douglas.


REPUBLICAN candidates are already elbow-to-elbow in the early battleground states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Bill Clinton is busy looking presidential as Democratic strategists plot his reelection run. As the race for the presidency begins in earnest, a big question remains unanswered: Will an independent candidate make run for the White House in 1996?
Ross Perot was a major factor the last time around, after all. His backers are now holding meetings around the country to measure interest in another third-party try. Committees to draft retired Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell -- enormously popular in national polls -- into an independent bid have also sprung up.
Mr. Perot didn't exactly have a wonderful time the last time he ran, however, and he may just be coyly acting the kingmaker. General Powell could be a formidable political presence, but his spokesman has indicated that the presidency is not something he has aspired to, and at this point an independent race on his part would be an enormous logistical challenge.
''It's a huge amount of work, and time's a'wasting,'' notes Susan Estrich, a University of Southern California law professor who managed Michael Dukakis's campaign in 1988.
A third party bid in '96 would likely be fueled by the same attitude that moved Perot voters in 1992: seething discontent.
According to a just-released bipartisan poll, voters' continued frustration and cynicism is shown by the fact that 23 percent still trust neither party.
This disenchantment is particularly strong in the south-central and Rocky Mountain states, notes the poll, which was conducted by the Tarrance Group, a GOP firm, and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. Self-described Democrats tend to be among the most disenchanted.
''Voters remain frustrated with Congress and angry with politicans of both parties, and their loyalties are shallow,'' concludes the poll.
Conventional political wisdom holds that last time around, Perot's candidacy helped send George Bush down to defeat by attracting Republicans in disproportionate numbers. This belief has driven GOP leaders to try and publicly discourage Perot from making another run.
Last week House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) of Georgia said in a broadcast interview that ''the only person helped by a third party is President Clinton and the liberal Democrats.'' He was responding, in particular, to reports that the grassroots group founded by Perot, United We Stand America, has been holding meetings around the country to poll members on another third party run.
The group's director Russell Verney hit back at what he called GOP ''fear tactics.'' There are indications that a Perot bid might be a wash, in terms of drawing votes away from the major parties.
According to the Tarrance-Lake poll, adding Perot to a match-up between President Clinton and GOP frontrunner Sen. Bob Dole ''does little to change the equation.'' Clinton and Dole both drop 2 to 3 points, with Dole winning, 42 to 40 percent. Perot, in this poll, draws 11 percent of the voters.
Poll numbers this far in advance of the election may be only a general indication of trends. Many experts continue to believe that Perot, if he runs, would once again siphon primarily from the GOP.
Pressure from the media obviously irritated Perot in 1988, and he may not be willing to undergo such scrutiny again. He could be simply positioning himself to throw his still-considerable support to whichever party courts him the hardest. But there's little question he remains attractive to a large slice of the voting public.
''What happens if there's a third party? There's a great celebration at the White House, unless Colin Powell is at the head of it,'' says Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington.
Powell an unknown quantity of American politics. Ideologically ambiguous, he appeals to voters who crave to have confidence in government again, Wayne says.
PERHAPS the most tantalizing political statement Powell has made came earlier this month in a talk at a Massachusetts college: ''I've checked the Constitution very carefully and you do not have to belong to a political party'' to run for president.
However, USA Today on Thursday said that Powell recently met with Republican Senator Dole and agreed to be Dole's foreign policy advisor. Republicans have long coveted Powell as a vice-presidential candidate for their '96 ticket.
The harsh scrutiny of the media and loss of military-like control over his daily life would be only part of Powell's problem. If he ran outside the structure of the major political parties, Powell would have to raise tens of millions of dollars on his own.
Lacking the institutional structure of the Democrats, Republicans, and even United We Stand America, the retired general would have to cobble together a semblance of a political organization.
''To run for president, you not only have to have a thick skin, you almost have to have been planning to do it all your life,'' professor Estrich says.


A daily low dose of aspirin won’t help healthy older people stay alive any longer, suggests new research published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. It might even raise their risk of dying early of certain things, like cancer.
The disappointing findings come from an extensive, randomized, and controlled study that first began in 2010, known as the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial.
Over the next four years, nearly 20,000 people mostly over the age of 70 in both the U.S. and Australia were recruited for the trial. Black and Hispanic volunteers between 65 and 70 were included as well, since these groups have a higher risk of heart disease and dementia. All of the volunteers had no history of cardiovascular disease, dementia, or other major health problems. Half of them were asked to take 100 milligrams of aspirin a day, while the other half took a placebo.
The trial was scheduled to conclude at the end of 2017, but it was ended six months early, in June, because the results were already clear. After a median length of 4.7 years, the team found, people who took aspirin were just as likely to die than those who took a placebo. Specifically, 9.7 percent of the aspirin group had died of any cause, compared to 9.5 percent of the placebo group.
Other studies have long shown that aspirin use can help prevent heart attacks and stroke in people who already have heart disease. But there’s been a more contentious debate about whether preventative aspirin could help relatively healthy people avoid heart problems.
“This study shows why it is so important to conduct this type of research, so that we can gain a fuller picture of aspirin’s benefits and risks among healthy older persons,” Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute of Aging, which helped fund the trial, said in a statement.
The lack of any positive benefit wasn’t the only major finding from the ASPREE trial. Aspirin is known to increase the risk of bleeding. And in a separate paper, the authors reported that people who took daily aspirin were more likely to have an episode of major bleeding: 3.8 percent of aspirin-takers had a major hemorrhage, compared to 2.8 percent of people on placebo.
But less expected was the effect the drug seemed to have on cancer death rates. In a third paper, they reported that 3.1 percent of people died from cancer in the aspirin group, compared to 2.3 percent of people in the placebo group. These extra cancer deaths explained the slightly higher mortality rate seen overall in the aspirin group.
At this point, though, it’s unclear whether this finding actually means something. There were fewer than 600 cancer-related deaths in total, with only 66 deaths separating the two groups. So it’s possible the results could be chance. It also flies in the face of other major research showing that aspirin can prevent cancer, particularly in the colon and gut.
“Analysis of all the cancer-related data from the trial is under way and until we have additional data, these findings should be interpreted with caution,” said Leslie Ford, associate director for clinical research at the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Prevention.
The ASPREE trial is unlikely to be the final word on whether preventative aspirin is worthwhile. Aspirin might still help some middle-aged people younger than 65, or it could have longer-reaching benefits for the elderly that would take more years to pay off, such as preventing dementia (in the current study, though, there was no difference in the dementia rate).
They plan to continue analyzing data from the ASPREE trial, and hope to keep track of their volunteers in the years to come.


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Synack senior security researcher Wesley Wineberg has received US$25,000 from Microsoft for quietly disclosing a bug that allows any Hotmail account to be hijacked.
The cross-site request forgery vulnerability means that any user visiting a malicious page can have their accounts hijacked without further interaction.
The since-patched hole existed in Microsoft Live.com and could have been spun into a dangerous worm, Wineberg says.
"With IMAP and contact book access, a worm could easily email all of a user’s contacts - or at least the ones who use Hotmail, Outlook.com - with something enticing, ILOVEYOU virus -style, and spread to every user who clicks the link," Wineberg says.
"The only prerequisite was that the victim was logged in and had a valid session token in their cookie.
"This CSRF lets me bypass the user interaction step of the OAuth authentication system."
Wineberg created a proof-of-concept application that could hijack sessions and showcased it in a video.
He says the vulnerability is merely a "classic" cross-site request forgery that happens to exist in a critical authentication area.


China to dominate in 2030? Maybe not.
FORTUNE -- Now that Japan has been knocked out by China as the world's second-biggest economy, the next question is: When will it dominate the U.S.? The Asian powerhouse could unseat the U.S. from the top spot as early as 2030, experts say, reconfirming China's growing influence on economies in every corner of the globe.
But a lot could happen over the next 20 years. Japan has been the world's second-largest economy for most of the past four decades. At one point, there was even speculation that Japan would eventually unseat the United States -- in the 1980s, Japan edged very close, but not close enough.
But unlike Japan, which has an older, smaller population and an economy that saw lackluster growth for more than a decade, China has plenty more room to grow. Its potential lies in the fact that about one-fifth of the world lives there and virtually every major company looking to increase market share, from General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) to Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), has a strategy to somehow reach those consumers.
But what does it really mean for China to be the No. 2 economy in the world, let alone the No. 1? And what could practically stand in the way of China eventually becoming the world's biggest economy?
For one, says Nicholas Lardy, senior fellow with the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, China's demographics are vastly changing, potentially constraining its supply of workers. Although its population is about four to five times bigger than the U.S., its prime working age population of 20 to 35 year-olds is beginning to shrink as the country continues enforcing its policy limiting couples to one child. What's more, the vast majority of the population living in rural areas is either very old or very young. The huge cost of growth is predicted to only continue to go up as demand rises for everything from cleaner air and water.
The fact that China's economy is driven so heavily on investments and exports will eventually catch up with the country's leaders sooner rather than later. While China's exports have remained strong amid uncertainties of the global economy -- in July, exports rose 38.1% to $145.5 billion, and the trade surplus with the U.S. widened by 46% to $28.7 billion -- demand for Chinese goods will likely drop off considerably with lackluster U.S. growth and debt problems in parts of Europe.
And if we look at the value of China's GDP, it's clear that the country isn't necessarily richer. It's just a lot bigger. For the three months ending in June, Japan's economy was valued at $1.29 trillion. China came in higher at $1.34 trillion. But they are still dwarfed by the U.S. economy, which had a GDP of $3.5 during the same period.
Yet citizens of the U.S. and Japan are still the richest in the world. America boasted an income per capita of $42,240 last year, while Japan came close at $37,800. For its size, China has made incredible strides in raising individual incomes, but it lags far behind at nearly $3,600. Even if China trumps the U.S. economy in the next two decades, income per capita will definitely still trail behind.
This is not to downplay China's progress or its huge rising global influence. China reaches far, wide and, in some cases, deep into many places and many sectors. Parts of Africa and Latin America, including Colombia and Peru, have seen commodity prices surge on demand from China for its natural resources. Even developed nations, such as Australia and Canada, have seen steady growth from China's appetite for everything from coal to oil. It also holds huge amounts of foreign reserves and a large chunk of U.S. debt.
The International Monetary Fund predicts China will grow steadily in the foreseeable future -- 10.5% in 2010 and 9.6% in 2011. The great debate (if only other nations were so lucky) is whether it will continue to grow at around 10% or will it drift down to 8%.
Whether or not China surpasses the U.S. economy may not be the point of the country's extraordinary growth story. Indeed, milestones are memorable, but how China grows will be the far bigger story than who it overtakes.
Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly compared the U.S.'s 2009 GDP of $14.6 trillion with the GDP of China and Japan during the second quarter. The correct comparison is with the U.S.'s second-quarter GDP of $3.5 trillion.


To boycott Rolling Stone's cover story is to say that we are unwilling, as a society, to cope with difficult questions.
The knee jerk boycotts in response to this week’s Rolling Stone cover story about Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar ‘Jahar’ Tsarnaev, are helping no one. If we want to break the cycle of mass homicide and terror, we need to face the personal histories of men like the Tsarnaev brothers in all their discomfiting complexity and horror, and this includes not only putting up with attractive photos but also giving more subtle thought to their circumstances. The anguished reaction to the article—”I just want to throw up,” proclaimed conservative commentator Michelle Malkin on Fox News— taps a deep vein of revulsion in American culture toward the possibility that mass murder can in any way be explainable. It feels distasteful and outrageous to seek “answers” to something as awful as mass terror. But to understand the terror is not to forgive or forget it.
When we distance ourselves from our shared humanity and treat mass murderers as removed from our daily lives, we don’t have to examine the more prosaic factors that can contribute to the violence in our midst: bad genes, child neglect, untreated mental illness, too-easy access to assault weapons, political and religious indoctrination, and the like. Of course, the great majority of people in depressing circumstances do not become a mass murderer, but few mass murderers don’t have a laundry list of extenuating circumstances or grievances. We can abhor them, but we can’t completely ignore them.
Some have suggested that the Rolling Stone editors simply wanted to boost sales. This misses the point. The cover photo, a self-portrait that had actually been in circulation for months, strikes a nerve precisely because there was no trick, no deception to either white-wash or glorify the murders. On the contrary, the story was written to reveal, not conceal, the true nightmare of April 15th. Normalcy is part of the story of the Boston Marathon bombers; we can’t run away from that. Dzhokhar was a young man who took pictures of himself, just like millions of teenagers. There was some genuine goodness in his heart, according to reasonable people who knew him best, and he experienced pain and trauma in his young life too. Acknowledging these facts doesn’t automatically label a person a love struck ‘fan’ or a disgrace to humanity.
It shouldn’t be un-American to confront these issues, and defacto censorship – which is what companies like CVS are doing by refusing to sell the issue – is actually disrespectful to the victims and their families. To push the story away is to say that we are unwilling, as a society, to cope with difficult questions. It’s an admission that we are simply afraid to know too much, afraid, literally, to see too much. It’s a public declaration that we can deal with a demon like Osama Bin Laden, whose middle aged, sickly face was plastered on magazine covers for years, because he wasn’t actually ‘one of us.’ But to chronicle the life of a homegrown kid, buffeted by parental abandonment, financial debt, increasing cultural isolation and despair? That cuts close to the bone.
That’s a hard comparison to stomach if you are a Bostonian, but we need to get over our nausea. We can’t wipe out terror by removing magazines that might offend us from our shelves. Many of the post-9/11 terrorist plots and attacks have been planned and executed by citizens of Western countries on Western soil. This is our reality and probably our future, too. Stories like Dzhokhar’s can give us powerful insights into the mind of these disaffected young people straddling two very different identities and ways of life. We should read as much as we can about them.


For Sherman Oaks-based designer Karen Tandy, interior and exterior design work together in creating an inviting home base.
"They work hand in hand," Tandy says. "People need to look at a home's architecture when they landscape."
So, when a Toluca Lake couple hired Tandy to help them with their lawn-to-drought-garden makeover, Tandy carefully considered the home's Tudor style.
Cactus, for instance, would not suit the home's pitched roofs and storybook details.
"That would look strange," she says. "It isn't compatible with the house."
How to transform a thirsty lawn into a low-water, yet lush English garden?
The couple wanted to reduce their water bill and create a pretty, low-maintenance yard but were afraid it would "look like the desert," Tandy says.
In the designer's mind, however, the yard needed more than just a drought-tolerant update.
"It was a boring front yard," she says. "You couldn't tell where the door was. The approach to the house was bad."
Tandy solved this by removing a brick wall and three bushes that hid the front door. This opened up the landscape and created a front porch seating area. It also made the house more accessible for the homeowners as they age.
After she removed the lawn and installed a barrier and pea gravel, Tandy created a flagstone pathway and softened it with creeping thyme ground cover, lavender, dwarf sweat peas and Chinese sedum.
Drought-tolerant flowering cherry trees add texture and give the garden a pop of color against the home's gray palette. So do flowering plums along the side of the yard, blueberry bushes close to the house, pretty purple Mexican sage and Chinese fringe, all of which require little water.
"It's all about plant selection and color palette," says Tandy. "We kept to a green palette, not an arid-looking palette."
Tandy estimates the project cost about $15,000, and the homeowners received a $5,000 turf removal rebate. (Note: The Metropolitan Water District closed the program to new applications in July 2015 after money was fully allocated).
This price tag included boulders, trees and hiring a stone mason to update the front porch. "Trees can become a secondary source of the budget," Tandy says. "If you're willing to wait, you can plant one gallon plants. Pinch things back as they grow; it forces them to grow fuller and more rapidly. That's one way to cut cost."
In the end, the homeowners got the pretty English garden they wanted, without the high maintenance and water bills, which they say dropped by about $100. A significant portion of the landscape is, in fact, not planted. "The key to drought-tolerant landscaping is to mix your plantings with the right amount of hardscaping and permeable hardscaping," Tandy says. "Anyone can do it. It just takes a little research."


Scholarships from Westland Rotary will make attending college this fall easier for some Wayne-Westland graduates.
“This is always a great day in Rotary,” said Rotarian Mark McConnell, a Westland district court judge who presented club scholarships at a recent luncheon at Joy Manor in Westland. Family members and educators joined the winners, sharing their pride at reaching this milestone.
• Caroline Mahalak, a John Glenn High graduate and daughter of Gerard and Jocelyn Mahalak. She’ll study engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
• Ashlyn Barnes, a Wayne Memorial High graduate and daughter of Michael Barnes and Rhonda Jones. She’ll study psychology at Western Michigan University.
• Brianna Nolasco, a John Glenn High and William D. Ford Career Technical Center graduate and daughter of Maria Nolasco. She’ll study film at Wayne State University.
• Summer Madison, a John Glenn High graduate and daughter of Ron and Sally Madison. She’ll study occupational therapy at Eastern Michigan University. She received her scholarship through Rotarian Don Douglass in memory of his late wife Arlene, a Wayne-Westland elementary teacher.
• Desmond Wheeler, a Tinkham Alternative High School graduate and son of Felicia Benson. He’ll study culinary arts at Schoolcraft College.
• Dazon Adams-Chambers, a Tinkham Alternative High School graduate and son of Madelyn Chambers. He’ll study at Henry Ford Community College in pursuit of a nursing career.
“This is one of Westland Rotary’s proudest days,” said club President Lou Toarmina who also thanked the educators at the luncheon for their efforts on behalf of young people.
“You make young people’s lives better,” Toarmina said.
In presenting the scholarships, McConnell gave overviews of each teen’s school activities, such as clubs and sports, as well as their jobs and accomplishments. David Ingham, John Glenn principal and a Rotarian, noted the class of 2015 really stands out as special.
“They’re just a great group of kids,” Ingham said.
Parents, grandparents and educators shared their pride in the students and best wishes for their futures. They also thanked the club for its ongoing support of young people through fundraising for scholarships.


Siem Reap’s queen of yoga, Heidi DeWald, is leaving town after four years of teaching devoted followers how to torque themselves into Nirvana.
Seeking instead to apply her business skills in an NGO capacity, she moved to Siem Reap four years ago to work at the Angkor Hospital for Children under Jon Morgan. After six months at the hospital she moved on and began doing consulting work for NGOs around Siem Reap.
Yoga has always been her true passion though. “Even my holidays back in Sydney were meditation or yoga retreats with no cell phones or computers,” she said.
Along with her consulting work, Heidi has been teaching Ashtanga yoga at the Singing Tree/Peace Café since her arrival in town. One of the things she’ll miss most about Siem Reap is her yogi disciples.
She’s moving to back to Australia – to Burleigh Heads, near Byron Bay – to study Ayurvedic medicine. “I’m looking forward to being by the ocean again, and there’s a big yoga community there,” she said with a smile.


The United States in April banned American firms from selling parts and software to Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp for seven years for violating the sanctions against Iran.
Apple supplier Skyworks Solutions Inc forecast current-quarter revenue below estimates on Thursday as global smartphone demand slows and U.S. restrictions on customer ZTE weigh, overshadowing better-than-expected second-quarter results. Skyworks, whose radio frequency chips are used in Apple Inc’s iPhone, joins a long list of global suppliers to warn of smartphone weakness that had fueled fears of waning demand for iPhones. However, Apple reported resilient iPhone sales on Tuesday. Piper Jaffray analyst Harsh Kumar said the company’s forecast miss is mostly because of the action against ZTE. The hit on revenue from ZTE of about $25 million to $30 million was included in the guidance, Chief Executive Officer Liam Griffin said on a conference call with analysts. The United States in April banned American firms from selling parts and software to Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp for seven years for violating the sanctions against Iran.
Skyworks said it expects third-quarter revenue in the range of $875 million to $900 million, while analysts were expecting $931.8 million. Analyst Kumar said the guidance was “really not that bad” as investors expected much worse because of soft trends at Apple. CEO Griffin said he expected meaningful sequential growth into the fourth quarter and into December following a traditional seasonal pattern for mobile and smartphones. Strong demand for chips used in network gear, connected devices and automobiles helped Skyworks top estimates for second-quarter profit and revenue. The company’s net income rose to $276 million, or $1.50 per share, in the three months ended March 30 from $224.9 million, or $1.20 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding certain items, Skyworks earned $1.64 per share, above estimates of $1.60. Revenue rose to $913.4 million from $851.7 million, beating estimate of $910.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of the Woburn, Massachusetts-based company were marginally lower at $91.83 after the bell.


AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Maine students entering seventh and twelfth grade must now prove they are vaccinated against meningococcal disease.
The new law requires students to get the meningococcal vaccine starting this school year. All students entering seventh grade must receive one dose, while two doses are required for students entering their senior year.
Meningococcal vaccines are a school requirement in more than 20 states. The law also applies to transfer students.
Meningococcal disease can cause meningitis and sepsis and can first appear as a flu-like illness. The rare though dangerous disease can be treated with antibiotics but about 10 to 15 percent of people who get sick will die even with treatment.
The disease spreads easily in large groups, and teens and young adults are at highest risk for getting this disease.


LYKENS, Pa. — Pieces of history are going to be preserved in Dauphin County. County Commissioners along with state and local officials are preserving the former Lykens Hotel and Israel building in Lykens borough.
Those buildings are at the crossroads of Main and Market Streets. Officials plan to restore the historical section of downtown Lykens.
One official says this work has been a long time coming.
The developer, Home Leasing, will be in charge of renovations.


A CAR was seen crashing into a house at a high speed causing serious damage and then driving off.
Police received reports of a “dark coloured” Fiat 500 speeding down Southover Street in Brighton at about 5am this morning.
It crashed into an unoccupied home cracking the walls and causing damage.
Firefighters were called to check for structural damage to the building.
Police are asking for any witnesses to this incident to contact them.
A police spokesman said: “At 5.13am today police received a report of a black Fiat 500 car having collided with an unoccupied house in Southover Street, Brighton, before making off.
“The impact created a crack in a wall and firefighters attended to check for structural damage.


There are no publicly traded companies headquartered in Central Louisiana. That may change.
The holding company for Alexandra-based Red River Bank has registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of its stock.
Red River Bancshares Inc. has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "RRBI."
An estimated price per share in the IPO was not included in the S-1 form filed with the SEC on Wednesday. A proposed maximum offering of $30 million was listed. The information provided in the S-1 filing is preliminary and could change.
An IPO is the first sale of stock to the public in a previously privately held company. To this point, shares in Red River Bancshares have only been sold privately.
According to the S-1 filing, Red River Bancshares currently has more than 500 shareholders. The company has raised more than $40 million in five previous private stock offerings. A portion of the shares in the IPO will be issued and sold by the company and a portion will be sold by certain shareholders.
Pineville-based Cleco Corp. was Central Louisiana's only publicly traded company, but a private investment group bought out shareholders in 2016.
According to the S-1 filing, Red River Bancshares is proceeding with the IPO "because we believe that it will allow us to better execute our growth strategy." Proceeds will be used for "general corporate purposes and investment" in Red River Bank, which could include acquisition of other financial institutions and repayment of debt.
Red River Bank marked its 20th anniversary in January. As of December, it was the fifth-largest financial institution headquartered in Louisiana based on assets, with total assets of $1.86 billion, and the eighth-largest based on deposits.
The bank operates 23 banking centers in the state, in markets including Alexandria, Shreveport, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge. Earlier this year, President and CEO Blake Chatelain said he envisioned Red River Bank expanding into every major market in Louisiana.


The MLB is about to take a giant step forward with the new proposed contract between players and owners as they come to agreement on HGH testing. That’s the report out of the New York Times in Michael Schmidt’s piece, New Contract Will Enable Baseball to Test for H.G.H.
As far as I’m concerned, this places Major League Baseball leaps ahead of the NFL’s washrag-type attitude where they can’t seem to finalize their plans to test for this substance. They just can’t seem to get it right yet.
Depicted in my last piece, California Representative Henry Waxman Calls Into Question NFL Union “Delay” Tactics Regarding HGH Testing, I discuss the NFL’s inability to have the guts to make a real commitment to testing for Human Growth Hormone. Oh sure, they can come up with a plan, but follow through on it, nah, maybe next year!!!
And questioning the validity of the test (the players union’s reasoning for not moving forward) holds absolutely no water whatsoever. Funny how the test seems valid for the Olympics (being used at that level for almost 10 years) and for Major League Baseball. No matter that scientists are saying it’s valid, the NFL players union just…isn’t so sure. I suppose they know something no one else does. Wonder what that is???
Significant as well is the reported 50-game suspension for a positive test, almost a third of the MLB season. That consequence definitely has some bite to it; however, I wonder if that comes with some financial penalty as well?
Me, I would make the first offense half the season and include financial punitive action as well. Second time, you’re done as a professional baseball player. Everything (possible fame, fortune, lifestyle, etc.) gone!!!
I commend baseball on its move forward and hope they continue to press hard against cheats. The NFL, well, let’s just keep an eye on them and see how all this plays out.
Technically it is illegal, because in the MLB if you use steroids, and you are found you can actually be brought before a federal court. Remember Mark McGuire? Congress held hearings on his steroid use at the time. So that tells me it is illegal and of course it is a banned substance. So I think testing the players (from the official standpoint) is only being done to abide by the various laws and regulations in place. Also there is the fact that the players should not have an added advantage which is cheating if it gives you a leg up on the competition.
As far as the players go, I can see what they are referring to. The players don't want to be tested because many players don't use HGH. Think of it this way. If you were a player, and you were demanded to be tested, and you were not using or abusing illegal substances, then you would most likely feel violated. Why? Simply because its not fair to you, to be tested for something you haven't done. Its like being tested for a disease. Why do it, if you know that you don't have a family history of a certian disease? The players have valid points here. I think many feel it is a breach of their privacy, and I many don't want to take the fall for a few players who are making bad choices.
Thanks for the response. Yes it is illegal to use PED's, but it is also unethical. It destroys the integrity of the game, any game, and it forces those not interested in that path to have to consider it as a possibility in order to stay competitive. And let’s face it, sports are competitive.
Regarding your last point. I would not mind at all, in fact I would probably volunteer, to take a blood test for HGH or any other illegal substance. I would not feel violated in any way and understand the greater good that this would represent.
There are jobs where drug testing is mandatory even for those who are not using. I, as an educator, would have no problem being tested for any illegal substance, if that is what they required of me.
Personally, based on what is going on, I DON'T believe the players have valid points at all. I am of the opinion that they don't want to be tested because they (the ones not wanting to be tested) are concerned about getting caught and they are afraid they won't be able to compete at the level they want without HGH - or any other PED.
Lastly, again, based on what is actually going on, the message pro sports is sending to our youth with the use of PED's, the fact that it puts pressure on honest, hardworking athletes to use in order to keep up, because it enhances the chances for a level playing field, and because it is for the greater good of all, it behooves us to make PED and HGH testing in professional and elite level sports mandatory.
That is my 2 cents!!!


Launching an employee wellness program and watching it take flight doesn't always mean you'll knock it out of the park. To have a measurable impact on health and well-being — and boost the bottom line — you need to sustain engagement for years. You also need to broaden your focus beyond just physical wellness.
Truly engaging your workforce and helping them make sustainable changes in their lives goes beyond increasing physical activity or improving diet -- it begins with an employee's total quality of life. Do your programs support the other aspects of their lives -- their emotional, social, and financial health, for example?
Representing more than 200 employers and over 1 million employees, Virgin Pulse has helped organizations across a variety of industries and working environments sustain employee engagement and drive long-term healthy behavior change. we've helped hundreds of companies apply strategies that tightly align with their company cultures.
The results? Healthier, happier, more productive employees, and lower healthcare costs.


Turkey challenges the US with stun gun "Wattozz"
Discussion in 'Turkish Defence Forum' started by Bismarck, Dec 6, 2018.
The energy weapon of Turkey "Wattozz" produced all around by domestic means demands the "Taser" from the USA. Unlike Taser, Wattozz is wireless. Turkey's miracle weapon is also referred to as the best non-lethal weapon in the world. The domestic energy weapon produced by the Albayraklar group after a four-year working life does not harm human health with a range of 8 meters. Electroshock kills the person. The only competitor of the weapon, which will be mainly used by the security forces, is the "Taser" from the USA. Unlike "Taser" "Wattozz" is equipped with better high-tech. Next month you will start mass production. More than 70 thousand orders from 60 countries have already been received.
The energy weapon of Turkey "Wattozz" produced all around by domestic means demands the "Taser" from the USA. Unlike Taser, Wattozz is wireless. Turkey's miracle weapon is also referred to as the best non-lethal weapon in the world. The domestic energy weapon produced by the Albayraklar group after a four-year working life does not harm human health with a range of 8 meters. Electroshock kills the person. The only competitor of the weapon, which will be mainly used by the security forces, is the "Taser" from the USA. Unlike "Taser" "Wattozz" is equipped with better high-tech. Next month you will start mass production. More than 70 thousand orders from 60 countries have already been received. The energy weapon of Turkey "Wattozz", produced entirely by domestic means, demands the "Taser" from the USA. Unlike Taser, Wattozz is wireless. Turkey's miracle weapon is also referred to as the best non-lethal weapon in the world. The domestic energy weapon produced by the Albayraklar group after a four-year working life does not harm human health with a range of 8 meters. Electroshock kills the person. The only competitor of the weapon, which will be mainly used by the security forces, is the "Taser" from the USA. Unlike "Taser" "Wattozz" is equipped with better high-tech. Next month you will start mass production. Already, more than 70 thousand orders have been received from 60 countries.
It may be better with deleting the repeated part.
Axon's (former TASER International Inc.) revenue for 2017 was $343 Million USD.
Wattozz is wireless, has more features (laser and camera) and is cheaper than the standart Taser.
But they need to promote it better, that Video was a joke.
They should hire better marketing and PR specialists cuz that was one of the cringiest videos I have ever seen.
High aims, low cost ads.
This is the worst ad I have ever seen.
are Guns to be blamed for the Shootings in the US?


Remember 2000? Everybody was very happy with the fact that Y2K had passed without nary a glitch, and the e-commerce revolution was in full flower. Most of the attention went to e-commerce startups, but IT-oriented people my age and older also recall that many larger firms were attempting to embrace e-commerce. While I was only on the fringes of that movement, in many cases a consultant or academic like me would be brought in to help a company strategize about this important new capability.
It feels like that again now, and this time the focus is on Big Data. A lot of companies are aware that Big Data and analytics offer them considerable opportunity for competitive advantage or parity. They glance sideways at Google Inc. or eBay or Facebook Inc. and say, “Are they going to take over my business?” They peek at GE, and say, “Should I be making a similarly bold investment in data and analytics?” Many organizations are now trying to familiarize their executives with the Big Data possibilities, and to develop a strategy for how to proceed with it.
What kinds of activities and decisions should a company pursue as it wrestles with its Big Data strategy? I see two major decisions at first, and then several others that follow from them. I’ll use Monsanto as an example, since it is a company that is clearly moving from being a provider of seeds and herbicides to one that provides data and analytics-based products and services.
The first two involve data and business opportunity: at their intersection lie the activities to turn data into money. Whenever I ask successful Big Data users whether they start with the data they have on hand, or the business needs that they have, they always say “yes.” So you need to jointly evaluate these two issues, and hope that they meet in the middle.
The data question involves a quick inventory of what data resources a company has on hand, and what other related, important ones it could get access to. At Monsanto, for example, the company already had lots of data on plant hybrids and their growth under various conditions; it had been accumulating that data for decades, and it was well-stored and well-understood. What the company lacked was detailed, highly granular data on soil and weather—the other factors necessary for plant growth. Monsanto found a good source of field-level weather data in a Bay Area startup called The Climate Corporation. Managers bit the bullet and bought the company for $930 million last year. You might guess that if there were a similar company in the soil space, Monsanto would probably buy it too. Indeed, it did that in purchasing the soil monitoring business of Solum Inc. this past February.
The business need involves the key issues that a company or its customers are facing that might be addressed with data and analysis. The business need at Monsanto is to help their traditional customer—large farmers—become more productive. They saw the opportunity to help growers with “predictive planting”—the exact combination of moisture, seed, soil composition, seed depth and density, and planting and harvesting time to optimize crop yields. Agriculture has become a complex and precise business, and farmers need help with it. The strategy seems like a great idea, although it’s early to know whether and how much farmers will pay for such advice.
Many other aspects of a Big Data strategy flow from the answers to those two questions. How should you organize the resources to meet those business needs with the identified data? Monsanto felt that it would be easier and more effective to move all existing data and analytical products into the Climate Corp. organization than to try to build the new capabilities within its St. Louis headquarters. It’s also probably easier to find new data scientist talent in the Bay Area. The soil composition acquisition was also moved into Climate Corp.
The right technologies to adopt also often flow from data and business need decisions. Perhaps not surprisingly, Monsanto felt that the volume and speed of data processing necessary to succeed would come primarily through Hadoop. One crop in one season in one country generates 20 billion data records, and yield monitoring sensors generate another 14 billion—so some considerable parallel processing horsepower was necessary. Climate Corp. already had expertise in Hadoop, so continuing to use it was not a tough decision.
There will be many other ongoing decisions that companies like Monsanto have to make in fleshing out and executing on their Big Data strategy. But many of the key components seem to be in place. Other companies might decide to build the necessary capabilities internally rather than acquiring them, but that would take much more time.
It will be interesting to see how Big Data strategy decisions work out over time in comparison to e-commerce programs. I think most established companies got value from putting an e-commerce strategy in place. In e-commerce and in Big Data, the only big mistake seems to be to do nothing.