London, Sept. 13 (CNA) Eight Taiwan universities have been listed in the 2019 Graduate Employability Rankings that were released Wednesday, with National Taiwan University (NTU) gaining the highest place among the eight at 81st.
Rising from its ranking between 101st and 110th last year, NTU make it back into the top-100 among the 497 institutions in the world that were rated as best at producing employable graduates, according to the list released by the British QS education network.
Meanwhile, National Yang-Ming University made the list for the first time this year, ranking between 301st and 500th, in the same range as National Central University and National Tsing Hua University.
Among the other five, National Chiao Tung University rose to the 141st-150th range this year after ranking between 161st and 170th last year.
Three of the Taiwan schools maintained their standing from 2017, namely National Sun Yat-sen University in the 251st-300th range, and National Central University and National Tsing Hua University, which both ranked between 301st and 500th.
National Cheng Kung University fell to between 171st and 180th this year from the 161st to 170th last year, and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) tumbled to between 201st and 250th, after ranking 171st-180th last year.
American universities continued to dominate the rankings, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology taking over the top spot from Stanford University, which shared second place with University of California, Los Angeles.
Rounding out the top 10 were Harvard University, the University of Sydney; the University of Melbourne; University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley; Tsinghua University in Beijing; and University of Oxford.
The rankings are based on five indicators -- employer reputation, partnerships with employers, alumni outcomes, employers' presence on campus, and the graduate employment rate.
Among the Taiwanese universities, NTU, with its overall ranking of 81st, was top in the category of alumni outcomes, while Taiwan Tech had the highest graduate employment rate.


While Ingram's move is flat out consolidation in a difficult environment, the Tech Data and Avnet move is more about performance of the two businesses with Tech obviously getting bigger and Avnet moving back to its roots as a component distributor.
About 15 years ago, The Channel Company did a research project around distribution where we asked vendors what they wanted out of their distributors.
Remarkably, the results showed that the suppliers wanted the ’value-added distributors,’ as we called them back then, to look more like the ’broadline’ players. The value-added players were Avnet and Arrow and others like them, and the broadline players were Ingram, Tech Data and Synnex.
But what was even more remarkable was that the very same suppliers wanted the broadline players to look more like the value-added distributors. In the end, what everyone was after was a world where the best attributes of both were combined into a company that left behind all the less attractive attributes.
More likely, the driving force was the vendors wanted to deal with as few distributors as possible, and if they all looked the same you could pick two or three instead of six or eight. I only bring this up because distributors are influenced and are pushed to make business investments by their suppliers while attempting to be most attractive to the ultimate customer, the solution provider.
So what has largely happened over the ensuing 15 years is the supplier community got what it desired—a more homogenous distribution channel with less differentiation. That may be what the vendors wanted, but it isn't necessarily what the market wanted or what was best for the distributors themselves.
So we come to today, where there are some distributors like Arrow that have been able to make the new model work, and there are others like Avnet that are going back to its roots.
The bigger discussion here is what makes sense for the market. I believe in the future we are going to need and ultimately see many more highly specialized distributors that will organize more around verticals and business process solutions.
The Internet of Things is coming on fast, and with it comes all sorts of different needs for solution providers that are going to be connecting billions of devices we never imagined would be attached to a network. In its simplest form, attaching light bulbs to a network as part of an energy management system that includes smart thermostats along with the networking gear means a very different product set will be sitting in the distributor's warehouse.
ScanSource is an example of a highly profitable distributor that has focused on a few areas where it is highly specialized in the products it carries and its expertise. For many years, when you thought of point-of-sale solutions, ScanSource was the natural choice. More recently, ScanSource acquired Intelisys, expanding further into communications and broadening its specialties.
Synnex and Ingram, but they won't be any less important.


Google will not allow face recognition on its Glass wearable computer for now, until there are strong privacy protections.
“We’ve been listening closely to you, and many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass,” the company’s Project Glass wrote in a post on Google+ on Saturday.
The Project added that in line with Google’s policy for several years, it won’t add facial recognition features to its products “without having strong privacy protections in place.” The company said it won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time. Glassware are Web-based services that interact with Google Glass.
Google Glass has already come in for criticism on privacy and other issues. Eight members of the U.S. Congress wrote to Google CEO Larry Page last month, asking for information on the privacy protections Google plans for the wearable computer. It reminded Google that in 2010 it was discovered that the company was collecting information across the world from unencrypted wireless networks. “When using Google Glass, is it true that this product would be able to use Facial Recognition Technology to unveil personal information about whomever and even some inanimate objects that the user is viewing ?” the members of the Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus asked.
A bill was also introduced in the West Virginia Legislature to make it an offense to operate a motor vehicle using a wearable computer with a head-mounted display. Casinos in Las Vegas and some bars are also considering banning the devices due to privacy concerns, according to reports. Lambda Labs, a startup in San Francisco, has offered a face-recognition application programming interface for Glass.
In response to concerns that Glass users may take video without the people around them knowing about it, Google has also told users not to turn off or disable the display when using the camera. “The display must become active when taking a picture and stay active during a video recording as part of your application,” it added.


The shift to scale out architectures and an app-centric culture has turned out well for Docker and its lightweight open-source “container” technology designed for developers to quickly move code to the cloud.
That’s evident in today’s news that the company has raised $15 million in a Series B round led by Greylock Partners, with minority participation from Insight Venture Partners and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Trinity Ventures. Also participating is Yahoo! Co-Founder Jerry Yang, who has participated in previous rounds.
Docker will use the funding to push toward the general availability of the Docker environment, develop commercial services that pair with the open-source technology and build a team to support the growing community.
The technology path is similar to the one VMware followed in its early days when IT managed their corporate-owned infrastructure. These were state-of-the-art data centers that had to be optimized to run enterprise software. For these IT managers, VMware became a critical part of the equation so multiple virtual machines could run on its hypervisor and server environment. VMware is lauded for the excellent job it did in managing its technology so the end-user was not impacted and the IT manager could manage the infrastructure effectively.
The similarity to VMware in its early days and the excitement that Docker has generated made it an attractive investment, said Jerry Chen, a general partner at Greylock who joined the venture capital firm in August. It is Chen’s first investment since joining Greylock.
Docker also can be scaled from scratch. It can grow to multiple apps or be used on public or private servers, Chen said. And it can be scaled out in seconds, moved anywhere and all done without having to re-configure all over again.
“Docker is the right tech to fit the rapid updates,” Chen said.
Docker faces the challenge of making its technology easy-to-use with features that make it effective for a developer or a DevOps professional. For this new DevOps pro, Docker has to consider the management and orchestration of apps that are continuously updated using the Docker environment. For example, Docker will develop both public and private registries for developers to store their containers. It also plans to build management and orchestration tools that are needed as people and their organizations manage more and more Docker containers.
And then there is the community, which continues to grow at scale. Docker is now one of the world’s fastest-growing, open-source efforts. There have been more than 9,000 stars given to Docker on GitHub as well as more than 1,320 forks. To manage that growing community will take investment that the company will need to manage with product development.
It’s that community that helped Docker gain acceptance with Red Hat, which is integrating it into OpenShift, its PaaS environment. It has also been adopted by Google Compute Engine. eBay, Yandex and a host of other companies are using Docker in production environments.
Docker is the result of a pivot led by Solomon Hykes, who originally launched the company as DotCloud in 2009.
Originally designed as a platform as a service (PaaS), Docker showed promise for its flexible capabilities in providing developers with a service that supported multiple programming languages. But the competition from companies like Heroku and VMware’s Cloud Foundry made for a challenging market, further exacerbated by the lack of a widespread market acceptance for the benefits that PaaS providers offered.
But developers did need a way to move their code to cloud services in a lightweight way without the tax of heavy virtual machines that were difficult to move and required a degree of manual integration. The problem stemmed from the virtualization technology itself, which sits below the operating system. It virtualizes the server, not the app. And because of that, the operating system has to move in order to run the app wherever it might be transported. Once delivered, it has to be booted up and configured to run with the database and the rest of the stack that it depends on.
With Docker, the container sits on top of the operating system. The only thing that moves is the code. The developer does not have to boot and config. Instead, the container syncs with the cloud service.
Hykes launched the open-source effort last spring and the acceptance has been almost unprecedented.
There really are no equivalents to Docker. There are alternatives to it but as a Linux container it is the most widely used in the market. Its deepest competition will stem from VMware and virtualization providers that market to developers. And that’s not it. Cloud Foundry has its own form of a Linux container, which raises a question about how Docker fulfills its promise as a technology platform. The container is one part of the puzzle. It’s the foundation, but there are tool developers who can seize the opportunity to develop technologies that compete with Docker while also participating in its ecosystem.


The letter Z is seen painted on a hill by the freeway between Monterrey and Torreón, in the Mexican state of Coahuila in March 2010. The Z refers to the Zetas drug cartel.
The accusations made in three Texas courtrooms were staggering. Witness after witness described how a notorious drug cartel pumped money into Mexican electoral campaigns and paid off individual politicians and policemen in the border state of Coahuila to look the other way as hundreds of people were massacred or forcibly disappeared.
The Texas court testimonies – gathered in a report released this week by the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law and Fray Juan de Larios Diocesan Human Rights Centre in Coahuila – give one of the most complete accounts so far of how organized crime has attempted to capture the institutions of democracy in Mexico’s regions.
The report prompted outrage among activists who have worked with victims of violence. But the accusations were met with sharp denials from Mexican politicians and a pointed lack of interest from judicial officials.
The Mexican public, meanwhile, mostly shrugged, even as the country endures its most violent year on record and the crackdown on organised crime seems unlikely to end anytime soon.
“The lack of action from government is to be expected,” said Jorge Kawas, a security analyst in the city of Monterrey. “But the lack of outrage by Mexicans is just disheartening.
Allegations that Mexican politicians have acted in cahoots with drugs cartels have been common for decades, though such accusations have seldom resulted in thorough investigations, let alone criminal convictions. Even after sworn testimony in US courts has described corruption, Mexican officials appear unwilling to act.
“For Mexicans, it’s always sad to hear that the real investigations against crime and corruption in Mexico have to be done elsewhere in order for them to actually mean something or obtain a result,” said Esteban Illades, editor of the magazine Nexos.
Mexico’s militarized crackdown on drug cartels over the past decade has cost more than 200,000 lives and left more than 30,000 missing. But by its own terms, it has been a failure: 2017 is shaping up to be the country’s the most violent year on record.
Los Zetas, a band of elite soldiers who became cartel enforcers and then established their own criminal empire, have been weakened in recent years after their senior leaders were kidnapped or killed and the group split into rival factions.
But from 2006 to 2014 the group terrorised swaths of north-eastern Mexico. In Coahuila, an arid state butting up against Texas, Los Zetas killed hundreds of people and burned their bodies before scattering the ashes in the desert.
The cartel carried out a string of massacres, including a 2011 rampage through the town of Allende which left about 300 dead.
They also spent millions on bribery, according to testimony gathered in this week’s report and given in separate criminal trials between 2013 and 2016.
“The Zetas paid bribes and integrated police officers into their hierarchy to ensure the cartel would be able to continue their illicit operations without resistance,” it said.
The report also quoted explosive accusations made in US courts that Los Zetas paid off a pair of Coahuila state governors and pumped millions into state elections elsewhere in the country.
Some observers urged caution, saying witness statements alone – especially from those cooperating the authorities – were not enough to establish guilt.
“These guys clearly have a motive to blame others, to incriminate others. Whatever they’re saying should be read within this context,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst.


On paper, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair was the perfect commander – a trained paratrooper in the Army for 27 years, a Ranger and the 82nd Airborne Division’s deputy commanding general for support.
But Sinclair, 50 and married, was leading a secret life.
Prosecutors say Sinclair engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior that began in 2007, involving four subordinates and a civilian, that took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany, as well as Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort Hood, Texas.
An election that returned President Obama to the White House, left Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans running the House could end up hurting your wallet and career.
With campaign rhetoric behind them and serious financial problems ahead if an agreement isn’t reached to control spending, early discussions are underway for a potential deficit-reduction package that could include a $10 billion to $20 billion annual reduction in planned defense spending.
Get all the details in this week’s Army Times, on sale now.
Nine Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will be part of the freshman class in the House of Representatives.
But the overall number of veterans in Congress will decline in January.
In the Senate, the number of veterans will drop to 20 from 26 when the 113th Congress convenes. Retirements are the chief reason for the drop, although, of the four incumbent veterans up for re-election Nov. 6, one of them lost. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., a member of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs committees who had deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 as an Army National Guardsman, was defeated by Democratic Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren.


They were the classic “good news, bad news” headlines.
The good news came from economists at Wells Fargo Securities, reported the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
The Florida labor market is hot — all but one of the state’s 24 metro areas posted year-over-year job gains. Only Panama City lost jobs, and that was largely due to Hurricane Michael.
The current expansion will reach the 10-year mark in June; as Baker pointed out, that’s the longest period without a recession in recorded history.
This is a bad idea that voters were spared from voting on last November when it was removed from the ballot.


Yap produced a voicemail transcription application for smartphones, but discontinued the service on Oct. 20. In September, Yap merged with Dion Acquisition Sub Inc., according to an SEC filing obtained by The Atlantic. The interesting thing about this acquisition is that Amazon and the surviving corporation from the Yap merger share one trait: they both have the same address, 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, Washington.
What could be Amazon’s next move?
Amazon might be using Yap's technology to build a speech recognition service for mobile devices, at least that's the theory anyway. With Apple's Siri capturing so much attention recently, speculation is centering around Amazon building a similar service for future devices. Amazon's purported acquisition may also be an attempt to create a speech-to-text engine used in search or dictation. Or the technology could end up as a research project with Amazon's lab126 that never sees the light of day.
Amazon is certainly getting more serious about mobile devices, so perhaps it's no surprise the company would want to develop its own voice recognition service. The company launched its Appstore for Android in March and the Kindle Fire media tablet in September, along with a revamped line of Kindle devices. There are also reports that Amazon may be working on an 8- or 10-inch tablet for release in 2012.
The Yap-Amazon link was first reported by the Charlotte-based CTL Blog.


The U.S. Army Central (USARCENT) Public Affairs Office coordinates community outreach activities by connecting Army leaders with the local community and developing relationships with organizations, businesses, teams and individuals who support our Soldiers, Families and Veterans.
To request a guest speaker, subject-matter expert, or other USARCENT asset, please complete a Community Relations Request Form and submit via email no less than 30 days prior to your event.
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Who holds the keys to your data?
As readers of ITProPortal are aware, cloud adoption is becoming mainstream across organisations of all sizes.
The days of keeping 100 per cent of your data in your own on-premises datacentre are coming to a close as organisations see the cloud as a more flexible, affordable, and effective option for storage, compute, networking and more.
Even enterprises in regulated industries are using external cloud services, such as file sync and share or endpoint backup. The move doesn’t necessarily mean that these organisations lose sight and control of their data, but remain secure and private in an age of daily cyber threats and exponential growth requires organisations to actively investigate ways sensitive information can be compromised. The following highlights the types of considerations needed to prevent corporate data loss or leakage.
The issue of data sovereignty has gone to the forefront as cloud services have become more popular, and was the main driver behind the European Court of Justice declaring the Safe Harbour agreement invalid in October.
Each EU country now will decide whether companies storing its citizens’ data in the U.S. is safe practice. Germany has already have enacted strict measures toward data sovereignty and protection. The Safe Harbour ruling is expected to have a significant impact on European and US companies operating in Europe, and accelerate the deployment of “in-country” clouds.
You also should consider that if data is stored in your own country, but the provider hosting it is a company subject to foreign laws, your data may be accessible to foreign governments under various laws of information disclosure, or it may be disclosed to certain parties in case of a lawsuit. The U.S. Patriot Act, for example, stipulates that the U.S. government may collect data from U.S.-based cloud companies regardless of the data's physical location.
Even as cloud providers today deliver compliance to the highest security standards, including state-of-the art physical protection of hosting facilities, electronic surveillance and ISO 27001 certifications, they offer no defense against government data requests, blind subpoenas or clandestine spying. Check your service provider's legal status if it's important to you not to have your data exposed to such disclosures.
A Virtual Private Cloud, or VPC, hosted within a public cloud is as secure as your own private datacentre environment. Even if access control mechanisms fail, your data can never be mixed with other data. By contrast, the multi-tenant model of the public cloud is stored in the same logical system, or “bucket,” with other organisations’ data, and access to it is governed by access control mechanisms.
A VPC also enables you – and not your cloud services provider – to encrypt your data with your own encryption keys, and control every aspect of encryption policy.
Once eschewed by corporate IT types, consumer-simple SaaS file sharing services have proliferated the enterprise as user demand increased for easy, convenient productivity tools. These services still pose a huge risk to sensitive data and may ultimately have severe impact on your company's business.
Many SaaS providers will tell you that it matters less where the data is physically located, and more where the encryption keys are managed. Several public cloud file services providers have announced support for enterprise key management (EKM), which enables customer-only management of encryption keys, to nudge security-conscious, cloud-averse organisations into cloud adoption. While at first this may seem like a good approach to data security, it's neither sufficient nor comprehensive.
Wasn't instructed by the government to install an auditing device, responsible for tapping and recording ALL of your data, metadata, encryption keys and user identities.
Won't impersonate your user accounts to access their data.
Won't generate links or collaboration shares to data on behalf of your users.
Doesn't cache the keys that are used to encrypt your files.
Furthermore, EKM, whether cloud-based or on-prem, provides a 'post-mortem' solution for preventing data arriving at unwanted hands. What can you do about the data compromised between the time the security breach started until the time you received the notice and decided to retract the access on your EKM server? And after doing so, your entire file service is now inaccessible to your corporate users.
The bottom line? Don’t hand over the keys to corporate data security and privacy to someone else. Cloud providers are not responsible for your data – you are. Invest in a system that allows you to apply your corporate policies and meet critical business needs for data governance, security, integrity, sovereignty, and compliance.


By age 3, she was reading. By 7, she began to play her mother's harp. At 9, she had already performed in front of hundreds.
"Oh, that was our mistake; we put her crib next to the piano," Cameron Huster Beck's mother Penny said.
Such a joke was typical among the Husters, who, despite a deep appreciation for music, didn't have any other children who took to it with Cameron's intensity.
Beck sought to ignite her spark for music in others through her orchestral performances and through teaching students anywhere from 7 to 70.
When Cameron Huster Beck died at 28 on Feb. 2 of leukemia, she had accumulated seven harps. They ranged in size from 22 to 48 strings, the kind that sit in a player's lap all the way to her concert grand harp.
"It's seen a lot of miles," Huster said of her concert grand harp. "It's gone to a lot of places."
In pursuit of performance or lesson opportunities, Beck traveled to Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, London.
When she was younger and the family went on vacations that didn't necessitate a large harp in tow, Beck — donning her classic "I'm going to do this no matter what" outlook — did the next best thing.
She played air harp. She studied sheet music, took to airport pianos, attended orchestras with her parents.
In her childhood home, Beck started her day at 5 a.m. so that she could fit in practice on the piano and harp in addition to her studies.
"I never had to say, 'Oh, you need to go practice,'" Huster said. "From when she was little, she could organize her time so she could do school and music."
Academically, she was a gifted student, evidenced as early as kindergarten, when she read "Little Women" and skipped to first grade halfway through the school year.
In similar fashion, she transferred during her junior year of high school to Florida State University. She worked in the Barnes & Noble music department while she earned her master's of harp performance from Mannes College The New School for Music, in New York.
Though she had been accepted into two other schools, Beck decided to attend the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins so that she could be treated for leukemia while attaining her doctorate.
Beck completed her course load and sent the cancer into remission, then returned to her hometown. There, she married music teacher Benjamin Beck, whom she met through a mutual friend while visiting from school.
He remembers thinking that she was a nerd just like him. He invited her out for coffee the next day. Their conversation — about music, composers, theatre, academia — lasted hours.
She offered private harp lessons and taught as an adjunct professor at Stetson while she wrote her thesis in DeLand. As announced on its website, Cameron Huster Beck's Graduate Performance Diploma in Harp will be honored this May during Stetson's spring commencement.
In addition to her mother, Penny, and her husband, Benjamin, Cameron Huster Beck is survived by her father, Dr. Richard Huster of DeLand; sisters Katherine Terrell of Cary, N.C., Sandra Stanton of Mount Juliet, Tenn., and Tasha Johnson of Nashville, Tenn.; and brothers Ken Huster of Harrisburg, N.C., and Jim Huster of Jacksonville.
Lankford Funeral Home & Crematory, DeLand, handled arrangements.


CITY HALL — A female police lieutenant who says she endured years of on-the-job discrimination is the latest officer to file a lawsuit against the Glendale Police Department.
Police Lt. Susan Hayn is the eighth officer known to have filed a discrimination suit this year against the Police Department.
All the plaintiffs, including Hayn, are represented by Santa Monica-based attorney Carney Shegerian.
Hayn, who has worked for the city since 1985, alleges years of gender discrimination and harassment by her male colleagues, according to the lawsuit. The complaint singles out multiple police officers and city officials, including City Manager Jim Starbird, former Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams and multiple captains.
In her lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Hayn claimed that she was repeatedly denied transfer requests while less senior male sergeants had theirs signed off on. She was also told she had "hit the glass ceiling," according to federal court records.
Hayn also says she was falsely accused of having an affair with someone within the department after being promoted to sergeant in 2003.
She recently left her role as West Area Commander for a position in another unit, a change that is not mentioned in the lawsuit.
City Atty. Scott Howard said the city had not been served with the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday, and could not yet comment on the merit of Hayn's allegations.
"If we determine there is merit to any of those allegations, we are going to address those appropriately," he said. "If they are without merit, we will aggressively defend the case."
Hayn's filing comes about seven months after four Armenian officers and a former officer filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the police department — setting off a series of complaints alleging repeated on-the-job discrimination and harassment.
In May, Officer Marc Mendoza filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that he was moved from detective to patrol officer because of his friendship with Sgt. Vahak Mardikian, one of the five plaintiffs in the other case.
In 2007, Mardikian filed a lawsuit in state court alleging he was denied several promotions and the right to return to work as a full-duty officer after a knee injury because of his race, but dropped the case shortly before filing the federal lawsuit.
Within weeks of Mendoza's filing, Officer Tyrone Hunter, who is black, filed a federal lawsuit alleging that he endured racial slurs and was unfairly taken off a top narcotics investigative assignment and put back on patrol.
City officials have said the allegations are without merit.


Prashant Suryakumar is a Social Media Engagement Manager at Mu Sigma and is currently focused on social media analytics. This post was co-authored by Dhiraj Rajaram, the founder and CEO of Mu Sigma.
Social media has come of age. Marketers now have the ability to augment their traditional marketing approaches with rich behavioral and activity-based targeting that should increase marketing ROI significantly.
However, businesses are facing an uncomfortable truth: There are no “best practices” for measuring a successful social media campaign. Crowd behavior is dynamic and context-specific, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to build a “one size fits all” solution.
A structured approach to capturing, measuring, analyzing and refining marketing strategies in near real time is essential to executing a successful social campaign. Initially, however, companies need to invest in infrastructure to make such a learning cycle possible.
Measuring the impact of social media campaigns is systemically different from that of traditional marketing campaigns. Since the medium touches all the aspects of the customer purchase cycle, a holistic measurement of awareness, transactions and brand impact is essential.
Additionally, social media is a two-way communication medium and businesses need to invest in listening capabilities that capture the activities of their existing or potential customers online. Several paid and "freemium" tools that monitor online chatter can be found online.
A typical online conversation has a life span of about one to two days. As a result, it is imperative for companies to respond to conversations in nearly real time. During this short window, they not only need to understand the context and content of the conversation, but also create an effective response mechanism. All of this underscores the need for real-time monitoring and analysis.
Companies like Dell and Best Buy are adopting different strategies for listening to Internet chatter. These investments help keep a finger on the pulse of every conversation active on the networks.
Text mining and sentiment analysis are the flavor of the season for social media analytics and a common complaint is that the current tools are not able to classify a high percentage of the comments about your brand.
Step back and think about a conversation you had in the last 30 minutes. How many statements in that conversation were unambiguously positive or negative. Not many, right? Getting a 20% sentiment mapping for individual comments is a very high number.
On the other hand, think about the same conversation; Was the overall sentiment of the conversation positive or negative? That is far easier to cognitively classify. If businesses shift their focus to a conversation-based, rather than a comment-based sentiment analysis, they will be able to get a far better read on the aggregate sentiment of online chatter.
The need for improvisation and identification of new metrics is high. Currently, three categories of metrics need to be developed to enhance our understanding of social activities.
Metrics that help in measuring holistic impact of social media activities on the business.
Measuring the impact of increased chatter for your brand might not always translate to more revenue for the business. Measuring cause and effect between buzz, branding and sales might show different dynamics for different product groups. For example, the Old Spice social media campaign saw an 800% increase in Facebook interaction and a 107% increase in sales. The numbers are related, but not necessarily 1:1.
Social media is a fertile testing ground, and businesses need to appreciate the importance of a robust testing protocol for social media-based actions. Having a mechanism to measure the effectiveness of comments will ensure that businesses can learn quickly and adapt to the social dynamics.
A key point to remember is that the instance and context of the test is as important as the test itself due to the temporal nature of conversations.
Who are the right “influencers” to target for a particular product or service?
What is the right time to message these influencers?
What is the impact of competition activity on our buzz?
What is the impact of traditional marketing on social media and vice versa?
What are the type of comments that work for selling a product?
What are the type of comments that work for selling a service?
What are the right pricing strategies?
How should the business tap into current affairs?
Behavioral targeting dramatically changed with online advertising, and now social media can take this effectiveness to new heights. Activity-based segmentation is far different from traditional demographic segmentation, and this is typically driven by a difference between the purchasers and the consumers of a product. Businesses can draw parallels from traditional marketing (targeting kids so that they can influence their parents) and build a unique social targeting mechanism.
Businesses have tried to artificially stimulate a conversation by meddling in their own communities or creating artificial hype. This approach usually fails miserably. They need to understand that social networks emulate real-world interactions, and excessive policing of user generated content can be detrimental to the natural growth patterns of a network.
Math, business technology and behavioral sciences are the key ingredients for good decision making. Understanding organizational dynamics, flock behavior and complex adaptive systems are all directly applicable to social media. Integrating analytics with a deep understanding of how humans interact in a sociographic and psychographic sense can help a business stimulate a conversation within a community, or trigger flock behavior amongst customers.
Once companies understand the impact of lead indicators, like buzz, on transactional metrics, like revenue, they can include such metrics into their forecasting models and predict short-term revenue with greater accuracy. Additionally, since a good social media campaign will improve the brand health, the long-term impact of these campaigns can be assessed.
While every business wants to understand the impact of its social media spend, it might not be so easy to integrate that into a media mix model. A good social media campaign might manifest itself in increased brand scores or customer loyalty and will impact the lifetime value of the customers more than the immediate transactional metrics. Including indirect metrics like buzz or sentiment might be one way to capture social behavior.
Social media can be a direct line of communication with the end user of your products. Businesses can leverage this very effectively in product design by soliciting input from the end user on what features they prefer in the product. Getting feature specific intelligence from the customer can help in building a product that caters to most of the population and also helps in building a sense of loyalty among the user base. Good examples of this include Ideastorm, Vitamin Water and Fiat.
The framework above is the first step in helping companies understand the who, what, when and where of social targeting. The obvious next step is to integrate all this knowledge into traditional marketing and CRM.


Just like every year, this year too Diwali turned out to be a big celebration for Bollywood superstars. The celebs were in a festive mode and were all decked up in their best traditional avatars. From Karisma Kapoor to Ranveer Singh, here's a look at how the Bollywood stars celebrated Diwali in style.


A Banksy artwork that was controversially removed from its original position on a parking lot wall in Liverpool, England, has reportedly been replaced, in peculiar circumstances.
"Love Plane" is a 15-feet-tall spray painting of a aircraft with a smoke trail in the shape of a heart.
It was painted in 2011 and partially removed in 2016, purportedly to form part of a new street art museum in the city.
That museum has not yet opened and the whereabouts of the original Love Plane has remained a puzzle, but locals believe that the elusive street artist himself has returned to the site to replace it.
Dave Green, who works at the Western Approaches museum directly opposite the site, told CNN that he was standing at reception on Wednesday afternoon when he noticed a man in a blue hoody "messing about on the wall."
Green described how the man screwed a large board covered in a black plastic bag into the wall, before stripping off the plastic and walking away.
"We were standing inside laughing and joking: 'imagine that's Banksy,'" Green told CNN via telephone.
He then went over to take a closer look and said that it's almost the same picture as before in the exact same position.
Pictures of the artwork show the plane now trailing a black banner reading "I'm back."
The authenticity of the new artwork has not been confirmed by Banksy, who usually posts his work on social media to prevent copycats.
"It certainly looks pretty authentic but it's hard to tell," said Emma Stringfellow, operations director at the Western Approaches, who said that there were unlikely to be any other witnesses to the alleged sighting of the elusive artist.
"It's a very quiet street," said Stringfellow, who did not see the hooded man herself. "Whether or not anyone else saw him I don't know."
In 2016, the Love Plane was removed by Sincura Arts, a company which describes itself as a world leading expert in Banksy artworks.
The Sincura Arts website says that the Liverpool car park site was due for redevelopment and the Love Plane was "salvaged, restored and will be put into the new Liverpool Street Art Museum." Sincura Arts has not so far responded to CNN's request for comment.
Plans for a street art museum in Liverpool feed into a wider battle over what should be done with works that are made in public places.
In November 2018, US artist Ron English vowed to whitewash a Banksy that he bought for $730,000, in protest of the market in street art.
"This is a blow for street art. It shouldn't be bought and sold," English -- who is a street artist himself -- told the UK's Press Association agency at the time.
And Banksy himself has also sabotaged the sale of his work, famously shredding "Girl With Balloon" as it was auctioned for $1.4 million at Sotheby's in October 2018.
While the artwork was only partially destroyed, Banksy later posted a video which suggested that it was supposed to end up completely shredded.


Stewing in a shutdown of his own doing, Donald Trump spent Christmas, not in sunny Florida, but in a deserted Washington buttoned up in the White House. The same for New Year’s. No Mar-a-Lago to ring in 2019.
The old man’s tweets about closing the Mexican border unless he gets his Wall are less threats than pathetic cry-babying.
His fellow Republicans, defeated in the House, have given up. The shutdown will be for the Democrats to deal with starting at noon on Jan. 3.
And as for those 800,000 paycheck-less federal workers, your President has now ruined Christmas and New Year’s for your families.


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Court hearings will resume Thursday in lawsuits against radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Several families from the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre are suing Jones for defamation over his claims the school shooting was a hoax. A man who Jones' website misidentified as the gunman in the Parkland school shooting has also filed a defamation suit against him.
Jones' attorney argues that his client's past comments are protected by free speech and the suits should be dismissed, reports CBS News' Tony Dokoupil. Although Jones now admits the Sandy Hook shooting was real, he stands by the message he has been spreading to his estimated 5 million listeners.
Jones was not in the Texas courtroom on Wednesday where his attorneys tried to dismiss the first of at least three defamation lawsuits against the radio host. Instead, Jones was at his Austin-based Infowars headquarters addressing – among other things – his ongoing legal fight.
The parents of six-year-old Noah Pozner, who was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, say Jones' followers have tormented them with death threats, forcing them to move seven times. They're seeking more than $1 million in damages.
"They've continuously been harassed by a number of different people believing that Sandy Hook was all pre-planned and it was there to kind of shock the public into supporting restrictions to the 2nd Amendment," said attorney Bill Ogden, who represents Noah Pozner's parents.
The court battle coincides with Spotify's decision to remove several episodes of Jones' podcast for violating the music streaming service's hate speech policy. Last week, Facebook and YouTube removed eight of Jones' videos for violating similar policies.
"Tech companies now have to make a decision about whether they're going to acknowledge the fact that some of these people spreading misinformation are going to do it for as long as Facebook and Google and Spotify will let them," said Casey Newton, who covers Silicon Valley for The Verge.
In addition to asking for the cases to be dismissed, Jones also wants Pozner's family to pay him more than $100,000 in court fees. A state district judge has a month to decide whether to let the lawsuit involving Jones and Pozner's parents continue. Jones' attorney has not responded to CBS News' request for comment.


What are the consequences if START ratification fails?
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that President Obama’s strategic arms-control treaty with Russia will be eventually ratified by the Senate, with a smattering of reluctant GOP votes. But what if that doesn’t happen?
The possibility of the treaty being rejected or stalled indefinitely is a real one. The center of gravity on the Senate side is around Sens. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, and John McCain, R-AZ, neither of whom has revealed yet which way they will vote. Interested but less-involved senators like Bob Corker, R-TN, are likely to follow their lead.
It’s been reported that Kyl is in negotiations now, bargaining for concessions, such as more money for nuclear modernization or guarantees that missile defense won’t fall victim to the treaty. But in the end, there’s no assurance he will vote yes, and the treaty could be voted down or pulled from consideration. That would be a huge setback for U.S. credibility abroad and the Obama administration’s entire arms-control agenda, according to experts, former officials, and foreign diplomats.
"If this were to go down, the ripple effect consequences around the world would be the worst possible outcome we’ve seen since World War II," said former Sen. Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican who currently co-chair’s Obama’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. "It would set in motion the disintegration of any confidence in the leadership of the two major nuclear powers to deal with this and it would set in motion a disintegration of any structural boundaries and capacities to deal with this. This would devastating not just for arms control but for security interests worldwide."
While New START is a deal between the U.S. and Russia, which account for approximately 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, its defeat would harm international efforts to later bring other nuclear powers into an arms-control regime, according to former Democratic Senator Gary Hart.
"The two of us have the greatest burden, but sooner or later we want to bring in China and our European allies that have nuclear arsenals and see how far we can go," Hart said. "But it must begin with us and the Russians, and if we turn our back… it’s a giant step backward and it would set back our diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security in serious ways."
Meanwhile, European allies are growing frustrated with the slow pace of the Obama administration’s arms-control agenda. Several European diplomats have told The Cable they are aware of the difficulties of Senate ratification but nevertheless feel they were given assurances by the administration and are looking to Obama to get it done.
"From the European point of view, nobody can understand why the START treaty has not been ratified," said France’s Ambassador to Washington Pierre Vimont, "When we send cables back home saying that START might not be ratified, they ask us ‘What have you been drinking?’"
Arms-control advocates are concerned that the basic agreement that was struck between nuclear and non-nuclear countries in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — that the "have nots" would forgo building nukes if the "haves" promised to move toward eliminating their stockpiles — is in jeopardy.
Some, like treaty supporter Sen. Richard Lugar, R-IN, argue that the basic idea of getting to zero nuclear weapons is so controversial, it shouldn’t even be part of the START sales pitch.
"I don’t fault … President Obama for talking about a world without nuclear weapons, but neither do I think it is a particularly good idea to express the process in that way," Lugar said. "Talk of ‘no nukes’ also invites opposition from those who see it as a sign of weakness in those who lack the backbone to face the world as it is. I don’t think that criticism is fair, but it’s out there."
A failure to ratify New START would not only risk the NPT and the goal of eliminating nukes, advocates of passage say, it would also spell trouble for the rest of the Obama administration’s arms-control agenda, including the president’s promise to seek ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and then pursue a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would seek to end the production of weapons grade nuclear material.
When the Senate last voted on CTBT in 1999, which was also the last time the Senate had a contentious debate over arms control, its defeat was a huge blow for the Clinton administration and no arms-control debates have been see on the Senate floor since.
"The alternative [to ratification] is no START treaty, no verification, a clear setback to U.S.-Russian relations and widespread questioning of U.S. ability to carry forth international agreements if we can’t get this treaty through," said John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World.
He said that CTBT would be a difficult treaty to ratify in any case, and after the November elections, the potential presence of more GOP senators will make it that much harder.
"The ultimate lesson of New START is that nothing’s easy," he said.


James Ellsworth On Why He Wasn't On SmackDown 1000, Rey Mysterio Talks WWE World Cup, Mongo - Wrestling Inc.
- As noted, Rey Mysterio made his WWE return at last night's SmackDown 1000 event and qualified for the November 2 WWE World Cup tournament by winning a non-title match over WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Rey will now face Nakamura with the title at the WWE Starrcade live event on November 24. Above is post-match video of Rey talking to the WWE cameras.
Rey said he's truly humbled and thankful for the support & the generosity from the fans as they never forgot about him. Regarding the World Cup tournament at WWE Crown Jewel, Rey said this is special and he loves to do battle at the best. Rey said he's ready to win the tournament and prove he's the best in the world. Rey also talked about how WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero left a lasting impression and how he's still with us. Rey said he still feels Eddie's presence when he steps in the ring.
- Former WCW United States Champion Steve "Mongo" McMichael turns 61 years old today while wrestling legend Baron von Raschke turns 78.
- It was reported earlier this week that James Ellsworth would be appearing at SmackDown 1000 last night but that did not happen. Ellsworth, who made his Impact Wrestling debut at their Bound For Glory pay-per-view on Sunday, was backstage for SmackDown last night in Washington, DC. He interrupts and rants to Mike Rome in this post-show video.
"I'm a SmackDown Legend, I should've been on this show," Ellsworth said. "I showed up, ready to go. I brought my gear bag and Paige said, 'what are you doing here, James? I fired you on SmackDown episode 988.' That's not fair, I should've been on SmackDown 1000. As a matter of fact, I should be on SmackDown 1001, 1003, 1003, SmackDown 1004, SmackDown 1005, SmackDown 1006, SmackDown 1007, SmackDown 1008, 1009, 1010, 1011, 1012, 1013, 1014, 1015..."


Better Business Bureau Serving Acadiana is alerting residents it has recently received numerous calls concerning phone calls and text messages designed to scam residents out of credit card and Personal Identification Numbers (PINs).
In the latest version of this scam, several callers reported to BBB they received phone calls claiming to be from Chase Bank informing them their immediate attention was needed and to “press 1” on their phone for the ‘security department”.
The automated robo-call informed them their debit or credit card were “blocked” and they needed to confirm the credit card number and pin number to clear up a discrepancy.
Often, these messages will imply or state there will be negative consequences if you don't respond. This is an attempt to scare consumers into providing personal or account information. The ultimate goal of the scam is to steal credit card and personal information to be used for identity theft.
Start with Trust®. Contact BBB if you receive a suspicious call or text asking for banking information.
Do not respond to any calls or messages threatening to suspend or close an account. Always check with your bank directly by looking up the number of a local branch or call the number on the back of the card.
Protect your banking information. Never give account numbers or PINs for a credit/debit card over the phone unless you call or go to the bank.
Tear up or shred unwanted receipts, credit offers, account statements, expired cards, etc., to prevent dumpster divers from stealing your personal information.
Store personal information, including bank statements, in a safe place. Don't leave it lying around.
Don't respond to unsolicited requests for personal information in the mail, over the phone or online.
Check your credit report once a year. Check it more frequently if you suspect someone has gotten access to your account information.


“My alarm goes off at 2:30 a.m., so I need a really good concealer. The Shape Tape hides all the dark circles and makes me look like I had eight hours of sleep, which I normally don’t.” $25.
Ulta Beauty, 3301 Southwest 22nd Street, Miami; 305-704-6811; ulta.com.
“I love Jaimie Nicole’s starburst necklaces. If you’re hanging out or going to dinner or going to a gala, you will find a piece that fits that occasion.” $120.
Jaimie Nicole, 4649 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Suite 305, Coral Gables; 305-600-2644; jaimienicole.com.
El Grito, 1766 Bay Road, Miami Beach; 786-773-3139; elgritomiami.com.
Nadeau, 4196 Southwest 74th Court, Miami; 305-261-9003; furniturewithasoul.com.
“I like to splurge on shoes, and of all the high-end shoes, Yves Saint Laurent shoes are the most comfortable. They look nice, you feel like a million bucks, and you’re not killing your feet.” $895.
Nordstrom at Aventura Mall, 19507 Biscayne Boulevard, Aventura; 305-356-6900; nordstrom.com.
The Miami Flea, 1440 North Miami Avenue, Miami; aedistrictmiami.com.
Pilates on the Beach, 712 West 51st Street, Miami Beach; 305-538-5300; pilatesonthebeach.com.
Cowshed Spa at Soho Beach House, 4385 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach; 786-507-7900; sohobeachhouse.com/cowshed-spa.


The Ohio State Buckeyes saw three defensive linemen drafted in the first round this year and, through one game at least, seem as strong as ever at that position.
Although Ohio State’s defense had a number of breakdowns Saturday in a season-opening 77-31 victory against Oregon State, it would be hard to fault the pass rush. The Buckeyes compiled five sacks for a loss of 43 yards and hit the quarterbacks three more times.
Defensive end Nick Bosa earned most of the headlines with one of the best performances in the nation: two sacks, two fumble recoveries and a touchdown. However, defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones was just as dominant.
In his 24th career start, the redshirt junior Jones proved why he should be a high draft pick in 2019.
When Ohio State’s defensive line is hot, Jones said, no one can block them. The depth of the line means players will have a hard time building big numbers, but compiling sacks and tackles is a goal for Jones.
According to the players, it was the same, old Meyer on the turf field outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.


The couple are already parents to two daughters, Dulcie and Elva.
Oct. 8 (UPI) -- British actor Jamie Dornan is going to be a dad of three.
The 36-year-old star's rep confirmed Sunday to People that Dornan is expecting a third child with his wife, actress and musician Amelia Warner.
The Sunday Times first reported the news in a profile about Dornan. The actor is parent to two daughters, 4-year-old Dulcie and 2-year-old Elva, with Warner.
"Being a dad is the best," he said in the interview. "I feel a healthy and lovely duty to provide for my kids, and I really like it. It suits me. Making my kids happy is a good thing for my wife and me to be driven by."
Dornan and Warner, who has appeared in such films as Mansfield Park, Quills and Aeon Flux, married in April 2013. Dornan said he's only had one argument with the actress during their nine-year relationship.
"We get frustrated at times, usually when traveling with the kids, but we'd never let anything boil and become a thing," he said. "We know couples who are plate-throwers, but that's just not us. I'm glad it's not us -- plates are expensive."
Dornan is known for playing Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades movies, which co-star Dakota Johnson. He will star in the new film Robin Hood and the HBO movie My Dinner with Hervé.


Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, pictured after facing each other in the Champions League for Manchester City and Roma, will be reunited at Derby County.
Ashley Cole has signed for Derby County until the end of the 2018/19 season.
The 38-year-old former Arsenal, Chelsea and Roma star has spent the last three years in the MLS with Los Angeles Galaxy and signs as a free agent to give the Rams cover in the left-back position.
And Rams boss Frank Lampard, a former team-mate of Cole's with Chelsea and England, was delighted to have him on board.
He said: "I’m delighted that we’ve been able to secure Ashley’s services for the rest of the season.
“He’s a fantastic player, a quality left-back, and he also brings great experience to the dressing room.
“I know him very well from our time together at Chelsea, and with England, and I also know what he can bring to the group and the influence he will have.
“Ashley is in good shape, which doesn’t surprise me because he’s an excellent professional, and he will compete for a place in the side like every other player here.
For Cole, it was an easy decision to make the move.
He said: "I had a conversation with Frank a couple of months ago and it was a general chat about how things were going, but he asked if I might be interested in coming here as Max Lowe wanted to go back on loan to Aberdeen.
"For me it was a no brainer. I've stayed in touch with Lamps and followed Derby's progress and how well they've been playing and it was a chance to come and be part of this great environment and help the team get promotion.
"It's going to be a challenge. I've not played in England for five years now and coming from the MLS and a different culture and environment will need some adjustment given factors like the weather and that there are strong players in a tough league.
"I could have stayed in the MLS and relaxed but I wanted to come here and fight for a good cause. Promotion would be great for the club.
"It'll probably be the last time I'll be able to call the manager 'Frank' but he's my boss now and with me also knowing Jody Morris, Chris Jones and Shay Given it'll be good to have friends here but I have to respect them too, get my head down and work hard and train hard. I've also worked with Scott Carson, David Nugent, Tom Huddlestone as part of the England setup."
Cole says he's admired Derby in the games he's seen this season.
He added: "They play good football and are definitely in the top three teams in terms of style and philosophy and have a good mix of young and older players. Frank has brought fighting qualities to Derby and I look forward to being part of that.
"It's great to be back in England. There aren't many teams I'd have come back to but having spoken to Lamps it's him I've come back for and I look forward to the challenge."
At the weekend, and prior to a deal being done with Cole, Lampard had spoken of what kind of influence the experienced defender would bring to Pride Park.


Chris Hughton wants Brighton to keep their Premier League fate in their own hands and not have to rely on results elsewhere.
Albion are seven points clear of third-from-bottom Southampton with five games to play but have a tough finish to the season.
The Seagulls host Tottenham tonight before matches with Burnley, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. Hughton said: "The run-in is challenging but that is something we knew. What we have to have is a group of players that look forward to the challenge.
"We want it to be in our own hands, that's always the best way. Going into this group of games, we will need to get some points. What we don't want to be doing is continually looking over our shoulder and relying on other results to go our way.
"It's always best if it's in your own hands. They are tough games but we've also looked at some of the results we've seen, West Brom on Sunday, our result at home against Arsenal, so you can't afford to go in to any game whether it be against any of the top six or any game with a defeatist attitude.
"We need to make sure we have a team and a group of players that will look forward to playing in every game."
Hughton does not feel his side are feeling the pressure of battling to stay in the Premier League and said: "My feeling is they're not.
"This is territory that most of them wouldn't have been in before. They would have been in this situation but in another league the season before when we almost went up automatically and last season where there was a little bit more pressure.
"They would have been in situations that need calmer heads and for them to be focusing but my feeling is they've been fine.
"But the pressures of this stage of the season are things they have to be able to cope with. They would certainly rather be in these circumstances than worse circumstances."
Hughton added the squad have quickly put Saturday's defeat to Crystal Palace behind them and said: "One thing I'd have to say which has been really good all season is the feel amongst the players.
"Straight after the game, it's quite obvious the players are down a bit because of the first half performance but also because we got very close and had some good chances to get a result. That's normal.
"But generally the feel around here has been good and upbeat. It's the feeling of a group of players that know things are going to go against us at times and we're not always going to get the results we want.
"The best way to cope with that is to look to bounce back in the next game."


ALEX VATANKA is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Making of Iranian Foreign Policy.
Today, the latest round of UN-brokered Syria peace talks begins in Geneva, with the goal of bringing President Bashar al-Assad and various armed opposition factions  to a political settlement that could put an end to half a decade of civil war in the country.
The Geneva talks come one week after another set of Syria talks, this time in Sochi. The November 22 gathering, which included some of the conflict’s key remaining players—Iran, Turkey, and Russia—was supposed to be a turning point in the issue of Syria’s future. At least that had been Tehran’s hope. Instead, the talks highlighted emerging fissures between Assad’s two main foreign backers, Iran and Russia, and even divisions within Iran between the civilian government of President Hassan Rouhani and the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) .
In short, the IRGC, which over the last seven years has established a strong presence in Syria through its various militias and local proxies, is anxious to preserve its gains  against pushback from Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. This stance might soon bring it into open conflict with Russia and other actors, including Rouhani, who might be more open to a multilateral political settlement to end the Syrian war. Specifically, the IRGC wishes not only to secure Iranian influence  in postwar Syria, but also to transform its allied Syrian militias into an institutionalized military-political force in its own image, one which could become its local abettor similar to the role Hezbollah plays in Lebanon.
In Sochi, the Iranians, Russians, and Turks ostensibly agreed on one key point: that all parties should respect Syria’s territorial integrity. Other issues were discussed, including how to continue to uphold the process of de-confliction in the zones that had been agreed upon at Astana in May. Sochi was above all a summit intended as a demonstration of the ascendancy of the Iranian-Russian-Turkish partnership  on Syria.


A man was taken to a hospital in unknown condition after a shooting Monday morning outside a night club in north Houston.
The man was taken in a private car to Houston Northwest Medical Center. Meanwhile, investigators with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office haven't been able to identify any suspects, Metro Video reported.
Metro Video reported several males were involved in a shooting at the night club around 2 a.m. In the aftermath, dozens of shell casings littered the parking lot, but only one man was shot.


Most of these guys are retired or out of the service, but they still answer the call — for a different kind of duty.
Two teams of 27 volleyball players from all over the country will represent the Air Force later this month in a pair of masters division teams at the U.S. Open Volleyball Championships in Louisville, Ky.
“Living so far away from each other now, we do not get the chance to practice together,” said James Garrido, the teams’ representative and former staff sergeant who hails from Savannah, Ga.
“Most of us have played together on past Air Force teams, so like riding a bike, once we get together everything comes rushing back and we fall right back in line like we’ve been together all this time,” he said.
Garrido, who plays in the 40-over division, said being selected to the All Air Force team is like wearing a badge of honor that all the team members share.
“I compare it to the boys and girls you are deployed with for long stretches. You may not remember all of them when you return, but you will remember some of them for the rest of your life,” he said.
For him, the alumni team is just the beginning. Garrido hopes they can convince some of the other service members to start their own service teams to play at the championships.
“I foresee a time when we can all get together at the Open and replay some of the great Air Force vs. Army clashes of the 80s and Air Force vs. Navy games of the 90s…this time around we not only meet as competitors, but as brothers and friends,” he said.
The volleyball championships will take place May 24-29. There are 30 different male and female divisions with around 500 teams and more than 4,000 players.
The Air Force alumni teams — competing in the 40-over and 50-over divisions — will be playing in the first session May 24 to 26.


A STORY I heard tells of a man in the United States during the depression years who did very well selling doughnuts by the roadside. He put his son through college hoping that the son would help to expand the business. The result, however, wasn't quite what the man had expected. On the completion of his studies, the son briefed his father about the depressed economy. After he listened intently to what the son told him--to the man's dismay--sales plummeted. He wisely detected the cause, however, and dismissed the discouragement and fear that had come with all he had heard about the Depression. Once his natural confidence in good returned, his business prospered again.
``As he thinketh in his heart, so is he,'' says Proverbs (23:7). Doesn't this tell us that our thinking forms our experience? This would be an intolerable burden if we had to depend on our own personal ability to think good thoughts. But good isn't a product of our efforts; it comes from our creator, God. Turning our thought to God fills our thinking with good. Wrong thinking has no place in our thoughts, and is destroyed by the reality of God-given good.
When we wake to the truth of Spirit, God, and His spiritual creation, our experience directly conforms to our improved thought. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, explains this in her Miscellaneous Writings. She writes, ``Holding the right idea of man in my mind, I can improve my own, and other people's individuality, health, and morals; whereas, the opposite image of man, a sinner, kept constantly in mind, can no more improve health or morals, than holding in thought the form of a boa-constrictor can aid an artist in painting a landscape'' (p. 62).
Salespersons are always advised to have enthusiasm and confidence, as these qualities achieve sales. While this is good advice, as far as it goes, we need to dig deeper into an understanding of the spiritual qualities that have their source in God, divine Mind, who is the supplier of all right ideas. If we always bring good thoughts--godlike thoughts --to our work, business naturally becomes a blessing to all.
God, who is maneveryonetrue Mind, does not play favorites with His creation. If thoughts are good, their source is God. If not, they are illusions belonging to no one. Business recession, for example, is the result of recess of business confidence. But it is not an inevitable cycle. Our thought patterns mold the economy, as it is the mirror of our thinking, and we can discipline ourselves through regular prayer to ensure that all our thoughts have their source in divine Mind. Christ Jesus understood right thinking to be the core of one's living. He said, Luke's Gospel tells us, ``Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom'' (6:38). Isn't this the way to revitalize a sluggish economy?
I had an experience while working as a salesman of outdoor furniture that showed me how effective turning our thoughts to God in prayer is in improving our experience. One day I was assigned to work inside the shop. Business was very quiet that day and I was tempted to be depressed. At midday I decided to go out and telephone a fellow Christian Scientist to pray for me. My friend agreed to pray and quoted a verse from Zechariah: ``Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts'' (4:6) This was referring to the Christ, which Jesus lived triumphantly, and he assured us that we could follow his footsteps. I began to see that the world can experience greater economic progress as the true concept of the Christ is more fully accepted in business. God-impelled thinking results in honest deals and service that benefit both buyer and seller. Not long after I returned to the shop, a good prospect walked straight to me. I showed her around, and we were able to supply what she needed.
Right thinking is a standard requirement for everyone who would demonstrate the healing message of Christian Science. It is not mere positive thinking, but is spiritual thinking entirely based on the Bible. As we order our thinking, we order our living. As we think in our hearts, so will our life be.


In the last seven days, we've seen Oregon fans get terrorized by the Buckeye faithful and Draymond Green resort to a food fight with Seahawks fans. For more drunken hijinks—including the No. 1 spot—check out the video above. This is This Week in Sports Fan Fuckery.


The leader of Lincolnshire County Council, Martin Hill, has expressed his delight at the appointment of Keith Ireland as the new chief executive.
Mr Hill said: “Keith Ireland was the committee’s choice from an excellent selection of candidates.
“He has outstanding abilities and will build on the work already taking place to move the county council forward.
“His track record of sound commercial acumen and capacity for innovation will see us in good stead as we continue to adapt to falling budgets without letting standards slip.
Mr Ireland, who is also managing director at the City of Wolverhampton Council, specialises in transforming local government services into high-performing organisations.
Commenting on his new post, Mr Ireland said: “I’m delighted to have been successful and to be able to take up this new opportunity in Lincolnshire and another really exciting personal challenge for me in my local government career.
• It is intended that Mr Ireland will take up his appointment at Lincolnshire County Council in the near future.


This was probably the worst time to have had to abandon a take-off.
The Qatar Airways plane came to a sudden halt during the launch of a new route from the United States to Doha.
A video showed the plane automatically hitting its brakes on Thursday after things didn’t quite go to plan, with invited media guests watching the drama on screens from their seats.
The reason? The 11,000-foot runway at JFK International Airport, in New York, was too short, according to the plane’s onboard computers.
That’s according to journalist Zach Honig, who was invited to the premier flight to Qatar of the airline’s A350 plane.
He was so scared he had to call his mother, which he wrote about in his Travel Massive blog.
‘As you can see in the video, about 18 seconds after we began rolling down JFK’s runway 22R, the aircraft self-aborted, bringing us from more than 100mph to a loud, screeching halt in roughly 15 seconds,’ he wrote.
After some reassurance from his mother, Mr Honig agreed to fly and the plane successfully took-off 40 minutes later.
He was the one who filmed the incident.


KOLKATA: A mobility study carried out countrywide has Kolkata poised favourably among metro cities with commuters giving a thumbs up to the public transport infrastructure here for its diversity, affordability and , cleanliness. Days before Ola Mobility Institute releases India’s first Ease of Moving Index, a sneak-peek into the results of the study that had 43,000 respondents shows that Kolkata has topped the charts in these three areas while finishing third in usage and safety on public transport.
The city bagged top marks for travel choice with the country’s first Metro, only tram service, a large fleet of government and private buses, ferries, cabs, autorickshaws and rickshaws. “There is no dearth of choice when it comes to travelling in Kolkata. Even when the rest of the city shuts down owing to a political rally, the Metro keeps it moving. It is also the only city to sport a green and clean public transport system like the tramways,” remarked mobility expert S M Ghosh.
Respondents also rooted for Kolkata’s affordable travel network, but transport experts pointed out that it was a double-edged sword with low fares proving a challenge in maintaining services. With the minimum fare for Metro at Rs 5 and buses at Rs 7, it is nearly half that of other metros.
The new fleet of government buses has also had an impact on commuter perception with Kolkata beating other cities in the cleanliness index, a change from the grime-coated fleet that operated till a decade ago.
In safety, Kolkata has finished third behind Delhi and Bengaluru, the former proving a surprise and scoring points for its well-networked Metro that has hugely altered public transport in Delhi. Kolkata has also finished third in the index for public transport usage behind Chennai and Hyderabad. The only reason why Kolkata hasn’t topped in this criteria is the large number of people who either walk or use cycles. Private vehicle usage in Kolkata is the least among metros.
A study by Centre for Science and Environment released earlier this year had pegged Kolkata’s public transport the best among metros in terms of low-carbon mobility. “Among Indian megacities, Kolkata emits least due to high usage of public transport and walking. Kolkata also has short travel distances due to its compact form,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director-research and advocacy, CSE.


Shares in a tiny US soft drinks firm, Long Island Iced Tea Corp, have quadrupled in value in just one day after it changed its name to Long Blockchain Corporation, the latest move by a string of obscure companies rebranding themselves in an attempt to ride the bitcoin bubble.
The small business, which produces a range of soft drinks on Long Island, said it was still going to continue making the iced tea-based drinks but was “shifting its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology”.
Blockchain is the ledger technology upon which bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions are lodged. Bitcoin has soared in value by more than 1,600% so far this year, surging towards $20,000 at the start of this week and trading at about $15,600 on Thursday.
Long Island Iced Tea Corp’s shares – which rose by as much as 432% at one point – appear to have spiked on the back of the name change alone, as Long Blockchain has not actually invested in or partnered with any firms involved in cryptocurrencies. The company said it had reserved the web domain longblockchain.com.
Other companies which previously focused on making sofas, sports bras and mining for gold have also changed their names and image to include references to bitcoin. Long Island Iced Tea is not even the first soft drinks company to also do so.
This week shares in a company formerly known as SkyPeople Fruit Juice jumped by more than 200% after a popular TV finance reporter pointed out that it had changed its name to Future FinTech and said its future lay in bitcoin technology.
Philip Thomas, Long Island Ice Tea Corp’s chief executive, said: “We view advances in blockchain technology as a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and have made the decision to pivot our business strategy in order to pursue opportunities in this evolving industry.
Thomas went on to reassure the firm’s existing suppliers and customers that while the company was “pivoting” towards blockchain technology it would still be producing Long Island iced tea.
“Your support over the years has helped to drive our growth and elevate our brand, and we remain committed to maintaining and fostering these relationships,” he said.


Hi, and welcome to SouthBendTribune.com. Here's your first look at tomorrow's top stories. A South Bend police officer shot yesterday is recovering at home today. Cpl. Kelly Waite, a four-year veteran of the department, was grazed in the head yesterday when a man shot at him following a confrontation. It happened on South Main Street, as Waite and another officer were patrolling some vacant houses. Check this website and tomorrow's Tribune for more on the story. You've already seen Engineer Company B's homecoming. Tomorrow, meet Marvin Heimann, a Marine in the local unit. In January, he was wounded by sniper fire. Today, he received the Purple Heart. Also today, a war-related protest took place at Notre Dame. Midwestern members of the Catholic Worker movement were protesting the fact that Notre Dame has an ROTC program, which they say contradicts Catholic teaching. More on that tomorrow. And in Sports, catch up with the Fighting Irish, as we bring you an update on spring football. For the South Bend Tribune, I'm Joshua Stowe.
City worker reduction is a good thing -- or is it?


Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee seemingly endorsed "biblical" slavery over the modern prison system on Wednesday's edition of "Mickelson in the Morning," ThinkProgress' Scott Keyes reports.
In Huckabee's defense, host Jan Mickelson was firing ideas at the long-shot for the GOP candidacy, and many of those ideas were couched in familiar biblical phrases that would incline Huckabee to agree with them content-be-damned, so it's entirely possible that he simply didn't understand what he was endorsing.
Mickelson argued that "the criminal justice system has been taken over by progressives," and that only way to counter their pernicious influence on it is to return to biblical principles, such as those outlined in Exodus. "It says, if a person steals, they have to pay it back two-fold, four-fold," Mickelson said.
"If they don't have anything, we're supposed to take them down and sell them," he added. "We indenture them and they have to spend their time not sitting on their stump in a jail cell, they’re supposed to be working off the debt -- wouldn't that be a better choice?"
Huckabee responded immediately, but in much the same way that an undergraduate does when called out by a teacher for not paying attention. "Well, it really would be," he said, betraying no real understanding of what the antecedent of "it" was.
"Sometimes the best way to deal with a nonviolent criminal behavior is what you just suggested" -- which was, of course, biblical slavery.
Listen to the entire conversation below via ThinkProgress.


PARIS (AFP) - Unheralded Spanish left-hander Albert Ramos-Vinolas reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final on Sunday with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic.
In the women's event, Garbine Muguruza of Spain blazed into the last eight for the third straight year, defeating former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-4.
The 22-year-old Venezuelan-born fourth seed will next play the winner of the tie between Shelby Rogers of the United States and Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania for a place in the semi-finals.
Ramos-Vinolas, 28, had never got beyond the second round of any major before this Roland Garros and had failed to win a match at the tournament since 2011.
But the world No. 55, who is only his country's ninth best player, ensured a left-hander from Spain would be in the last eight after the injury-enforced withdrawal of nine-time champion Rafael Nadal.
"I had lost four times in a row here so I am very happy," said the shock winner who had also won just four matches in his entire career at the majors before coming to Paris.
"I played a great match. I think the cloudy conditions helped me as they made the court slower.
"It was a great day. I played solid and put a lot of first serves in. These are very good days." His reward is a clash against either defending champion Stan Wawrinka or Serbia's Viktor Troicki for a place in the semi-finals.
He trails third seed Wawrinka 6-0 in career meetings including last week in Geneva where he won just two games.
Ramos-Vinolas beat Troicki in their only meeting at Indian Wells last year.
Raonic had been bothered by a left hip injury in the last round and the 25-year-old was obviously under-powered on Court Suzanne Lenglen on Sunday.
With John McEnroe, who has agreed to work with him on his Wimbledon campaign, watching from the stands, Raonic was broken twice in the first set.
He was a break to the good at 2-0 in the second but Ramos-Vinolas roared back to claim a two-sets lead.
The Spaniard had only ever defeated one other top 10 player before Sunday and that was the impressive scalp of Roger Federer in Shanghai in 2015.
But he was soon to make it two when he broke Raonic for a 5-4 lead in the third set and claimed the tie on a third match point in a seven-minute 10th game.
The Spaniard finished with just 13 unforced errors compared to 38 for the big Canadian.
Muguruza said of veteran Kuznetsova: "At the end it is always very tough. She is a player with a lot of experience and I just had to be there.
"Quarter-finals is a great run and I am looking forward to improving my result here."
Muguruza is seen as one of the new stars of the women's game after a breakthrough season in 2015 when she was runner-up to Serena Williams at Wimbledon and made the semis at the WTA Finals.
But in 30-year-old Kuznetsova, she was up against one of the wiliest and experienced players on the women's circuit with two Grand Slam titles - the 2004 US Open and the 2009 French Open.
Both players had early break points on a sparsely filled Philippe Chatrier centre court in a match of high quality.
And it was the Spaniard who struck first in the eighth game powering in a fine backhand return past the Russian to move 5-3 up. She then served out comfortably for the set in 46 minutes.
Muguruza kept up the pressure and broke Kuznetsova's serve twice at the start of the second set, although she dropped her own in between. The Russian pulled back to level at 4-4, but it was Muguruza who rose to the occasion taking the next two games and clinching the win on her fifth match point.
Later on Sunday, Andy Murray takes a 5-0 career lead over John Isner into their last-16 clash as both men seek to set new national landmarks in Paris.
Second seed Murray is bidding to move ahead of Fred Perry, who was a five-time quarter-finalist, for the most Roland Garros last eights reached by a British man.
Isner, the 15th seed, is aiming to become the first American man to reach the last eight since Andre Agassi in 2003.
Murray has won all of the pair's five meetings but they have never met on clay.
Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori has a 6-2 record over French ninth seed Richard Gasquet ahead of their last-16 tie.
Two of those wins came during the European clay-court swing this year in Madrid and Rome, both in straight sets.
Nishikori is trying to make the last eight in Paris for the second successive year while Gasquet, the last French player remaining in either the men's or women's singles, has yet to reach the quarter-finals.


Jay Z has a verse on the latest DJ Khaled track, which may or may not include a diss aimed at Drake (in response to that whole fondue plate thing): "Haters wanna ball, let me tighten up my drawstring / Wrong sport, boy, you know you soft as a lacrosse team." But instead of drawing Drake's ire, Jay's line has gotten the bros who run Major League Lacrosse all riled up.
"Lacrosse is often called the fastest sport on two feet. Players are on the field dodging and shooting balls at over 100 miles per hour," a MLL spokesperson told MTV News in a written statement issued on Tuesday (April 29).
"With that said we don't think Jay-Z knows what he's talking about when he calls Lacrosse 'soft' I can guarantee you it is anything but a 'soft' sport," the statement continued.
To top it all off, MLL issues a challenge to the battle-tested MC. "Mr. Carter would not last one minute on a lacrosse field during a match and he is more than welcome to come to any of our games and try," the statement read in closing.
OK, lax bros, we get it. Your sport is super tough and cool. We are all taking this spirited defense to heart while making sure that you cannot see our dismissive wanking.


LAS VEGAS — A father took to social media to thank a stranger for his kindness at the airport in Las Vegas.
The interaction between the little girl and Joseph lasted about 45 minutes.
“Watching them in that moment, I couldn’t help but think, different genders, different races, different generations, and the best of friends. This is the world I want for her,” Armentrout wrote.
“In a country that is continuously fed that it’s so deeply divided by beliefs, I want her life to be filled with moments like this… not liberal or conservative republican or democrat, socialist or capitalist, just HUMAN,” he continued.
As of Friday afternoon, Armentrout’s Facebook post has been liked more than 445,000 times and shared more than 175,000 times.
Armentrout is a Marine Corps combat veteran who now works as a writer, speaker, master trainer and nutritionist, according to his biography.


The perpetual white and gray landscape around Denali is either breathtaking or stark, depending on your perspective and reason for being there.
For the Sheldon family, the children and grandchildren of Don and Roberta Sheldon, the environment — and its features — are simply part of a larger home away from home.
I wrote about the Sheldons and their commitment to preserving the family legacy in 2016 when Siblings Kate and Robert were preparing for the construction of Sheldon Chalet, a building on the slice of rock that was the site of the tiny Sheldon Mountain House, a cabin built by their father in 1966.
The Mountain House was legendary among climbers, pilots, public figures and curious outdoor enthusiasts who flew to Ruth Glacier and the Don Sheldon Amphitheater at nearly 6,000 feet.
Even then, Don and Roberta had bigger plans for the tower of rock known as a nunatak that juts from the glacier's icy flanks. Don, a pilot who pioneered the technique of glacier landings on Denali, bought the five-acre property prior to Denali National Park and Preserve's expansion and flew up materials and carpenters to create the 200-square-foot hexagonal cabin.
But he didn't want to stop there. He had big plans to introduce Denali, glaciers, mountains and adventure to the world. A lofty goal? Perhaps, but to a guy like Don Sheldon — and now, his children — lofty goals are challenges that merely require ingenuity and grit to meet.
The Sheldon Chalet was completed a few weeks ago and sits at the far end of the nunatak, larger than its predecessor and with more panache than the humble Mountain House. It's a luxury experience for those who can afford to stay there, but this story isn't about that.
My curiosity about the Mountain House, and now the Chalet, stems from conversations I had with the family over the past year about the concept of "place."
It's a word that has come into parenting vogue, but its meaning is anything but. In essence, "place" is defined as our relationship with someplace, including the qualities that make it special to us and us alone.
I only have to close my eyes and recall the Montana ranch where my mother grew up. I can smell the drying hay, hear the wind blowing through pine trees and feel the chill of a creek running through the pasture. I am rooted to the people and landscape of this place forever, as will be my children, and theirs.
Having a place helps create a sense of human attachment and belonging. In the case of the Sheldon kids and grandkids, place translates to a connection with Don, a father and grandfather none of them had the chance to know.
Robert Sheldon sent me a photo from 1974. The black-and-white is grainy after almost 50 years, but in it Don Sheldon stands tall in a down jacket and flannel shirt, a plane in the background, and his hand on 3-year-old Robert's head. Don died of cancer when Robert was 4.
Robert and his wife Marne are parents to three sons: Taylor, 20; Ryan, 18; and Cameron, 16. As the boys grew up on a diet of tales about their grandfather and great-grandfather (Roberta Sheldon's father was noted aviation pioneer Bob Reeve), it became clear the nunatak was to become more than a place to welcome visitors. It would become an anchor to the family's story.
"The importance of knowing your heritage is paramount to me," Robert said as we sat in the Sheldon Chalet living room a few weeks ago, Denali's profile evident from every window.
"For my three boys, the first multiple Sheldon sons in a long time, I wanted them to know me and who went before them. If you don't know where you are from, you'll have a hard time knowing with confidence where you are going."
Building the Sheldon Chalet was a family affair from the day Robert and Kate started sketching plans to carry forward what their parents started. It continued with Robert's teen-aged sons helping with the construction, feet planted firmly upon the rocky surface, breathing the same air and viewing the same scenery their grandfather did.
"This is what my mom and dad wanted," Robert said. "Fulfilling my parents' vision while my sons worked alongside me these past three years allowed us to experience a common effort that literally transcends generations."
Cameron Sheldon is the next-to-youngest grandchild (his cousin, Reeve, daughter of Kate Sheldon, is 8). He has his mother's reddish hair and a quick smile that he gets from both of his parents.
Cameron spent days chipping away at the nunatak with his dad and brother Ryan and nights sleeping on the glacier in a tent. The work was hard, he said, but fulfilling. I asked him what being on the nunatak meant to him.
"I always wished we could meet," he said. "The first time I went to the Mountain House, it was hard to take in, the views and where we were."
"… The Mountain House and Chalet, they'll be there forever. It's a place my brothers and I can bring our own kids."
He looked around the living room of his family's expansive home in Anchorage, where we talked.
"This is just a house," he said. "It's not as important as up there."
Kate Sheldon and her family lives in Vail, Colorado, but she frequently visits Talkeetna, where she and Robert grew up. Kate was 6 when her father died.
Reeve rides around Talkeetna on her cousins' outgrown bikes, stopping at her favorite haunts, picking berries and learning skills far different from her more urban lifestyle in Vail. Talkeetna and the nunatak are places the youngster can connect to her mother and grandmother, "Grammy" Roberta, who died in 2014.
"As a child I enjoyed sleeping out in the snow during the winter, under a big evergreen tree in the yard," Kate said. "Mom would set out tarps and my siblings and I would burrow into our sleeping bags but I always remember the feeling of snowflakes gently falling on my face. It was a different time, and I want Reeve to experience that here."
Helping children connect to a place can establish a personal identity and sense of values. For Robert and Kate, who were so young when their father died, being able to be physically present on the nunatak with their own children helps weave together every story and lesson they may not remember from their father's voice, but which are present in the evidence he left behind.
"This is not just the fulfillment of my parents' legacy," Robert said. "It is fulfillment of sons knowing their father in hopes that tradition, work ethic, integrity and honor are advanced to the next generation."
I asked Cameron how he thinks his grandfather would react to the new Sheldon Chalet.
"He'd walk in with a huge smile on his face," he said, and then, "I think he'd be super proud of my dad."
Erin Kirkland is author of the Alaska On the Go guidebook series and publishes the website AKontheGO.com.