The Secret Ingredient For Better Schools: Integration : NPR Ed Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation argues that it's time to take a closer look at integration.
"Millions of poor, disadvantaged students are trapped in failing schools."
So said President Trump at the White House recently. It's a familiar lament across the political spectrum, so much so that you could almost give it its own acronym : PKTIFS (Poor Kids Trapped In Failing Schools).
Where there's no consensus, however, is on the proper remedy for PKTIFS.
The Obama administration's signature proposal was the School Improvement Grant. This was a $7 billion attempt to turn around struggling schools with some combination of replacing personnel, overhauling the curriculum, renewed teacher support and other practices.
It was one of the largest federal education grant programs ever created. There was just one problem. As a department-commissioned independent review concluded just as Obama was leaving office, it didn't work. "Overall, across all grades, we found ... no significant impacts on math or reading test scores, high school graduation, or college enrollment."
President Trump, and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, are largely focused on the T for "trapped" part of the problem. They talk about creating escape routes, largely by expanding charter and voucher programs.
Richard Kahlenberg has spent decades stumping for a third way. His idea: Create public schools that are more integrated. He helped innovate the use of social and economic indicators to do that — instead of race and ethnicity, the use of which is prohibited by a 2007 Supreme Court decision.
His strategy could be summed up as: Give poor kids the opportunity to attend school with not-so-poor kids.
The organization where he's a senior fellow, the Century Foundation, keeps track of 100 districts and charter schools around the country that are currently trying various integration strategies. The foundation recently released a paper with nine case studies: New York; Chicago; Dallas; Hartford and Stamford, Conn.; Jefferson County, Ky.; Eden Prairie, Minn.; Champaign, Ill.; and Cambridge, Mass.
Though it may seem quixotic, Kahlenberg says there's reason to be optimistic about integration policies. After all, we've tried everything else.
"On one level I understand that," he continues. "Even in segregated environments, there are positive things you can do for kids. Yet, it seemed to be taking off the table this really powerful tool that 50 years of research suggest can make a big difference in students' lives."
NPR Ed talked to Kahlenberg about this body of research. First, about the case for creating schools that are both economically and racially integrated, and second, on how to go about that.
What's the educational case for integration?
There are three reasons: the kids, the parents and the teachers.
Kids who have big dreams and are expecting to go on to college are less likely to cause disruption, cut classes and are more likely to be academically engaged.
On average, those peers are found more often in economically mixed than in high-poverty schools.
It's also an advantage to be in a classroom where your peers are high-achieving. For example, children of professionals have bigger vocabularies on average than low-income students, and that will rub off.
As for the parents, again, not attaching any blame, but middle-class parents are more likely to be PTA members and volunteer in class. That parental involvement benefits every child in a school.
And finally, the teachers deemed more effective are more likely to be found in economically mixed schools. That has to do with those first two factors. It's easier to teach in a school with fewer discipline issues and with parents who are there to help out.
OK, but what about the middle-class students? Is there evidence that it won't hurt them to attend a more diverse school?
Yes, the research shows that middle-class students tend to do as well academically in economically mixed schools. But more than that, there's emerging research to suggest that, indeed, middle-class students benefit from both economic and racial diversity. As we become a majority-minority nation, more millennial parents are recognizing that it's a skill to thrive in diverse environments, and employers are looking for people who can get along with individuals from all different backgrounds.
That said, most of the criteria we use to judge school performance, like test scores, are tightly correlated with class. How do you get parents who are privileged to choose an economically mixed school?
I think it's an exciting moment for magnet schools. When magnet schools offer different themes and pedagogical approaches, they're providing things that are popular with enough parents that it opens the door to the reality of school integration in a way that's politically palatable.
[DeVos spoke recently at the Magnet Schools of America conference, where she highlighted the role of magnet schools in reducing segregation. This recent review of research on magnet schools shows both positive and null results on academic performance, although most studies support higher graduation rates at magnet schools.
In New York City, where I live, as your report notes, 77 percent of students live in poverty. How do you create economically mixed schools if there aren't enough middle-class kids to go around?
I worked with Chicago Public Schools on their socioeconomic integration plan. The district is 85 percent low-income. My recommendation was not to ensure that every school was 85 percent low-income, because high-poverty schools are bad for students. In Chicago what they've done is to begin with magnet and selective-enrollment schools. You want to create a virtuous cycle where people can see examples of success.
It almost sounds like a chemistry experiment — you have to control the conditions very carefully and titrate your mixture until it hits that tipping point.
The long-term aspiration is that, as you develop more socioeconomically integrated schools, that the overall demographics of the public school system could shift. We saw that in Cambridge: Over time, more middle-class and white people came back into the district, stopped using private schools and stopped moving away once their kids got to be a certain age.
How good are the chances of seeing more districts try integration in this policy climate?
Most of the focus around choice has been on charter schools, and I think now, maybe after an election that revealed these tremendous divisions by race, class and gender, there's an opportunity to harness the interest in choice for a program that will actually bring kids of different backgrounds together, and heal some of those divisions that we saw come out during the election.
Now, at a programmatic level, there's lots of reasons for someone like me to be depressed, because DeVos and Trump haven't talked [much] about the benefits of school integration. But you can see lots of progress on the issue of school integration that isn't directed by the feds. ... So, rather than continuing to pound our heads against the wall in finding new ways to make separate but equal work, we could rediscover this other approach that actually is having really strong results.


How to Determine a Body's Time of Death. When someone dies and foul play is suspected, time of death is crucial to finding the person's killer. Determine a body's time of death by checking for discoloration, temperature and rigor. Only professionals can accurately determine a time of death, but here are the things they look for.
Check the stomach for signs of digestion. Most meals leave the stomach and enter the large intestine within three or four hours. This method is not entirely accurate for determining time of death though, as many things can have a factor in food digestion such as exercise after eating.
Determine the body's temperature, or algor mortis by inserting a special thermometer into the chest cavity. When you are alive, your body maintains its temperature of 98.6 degrees. Once you have died, your body is no longer able to do that. The body cools at a rate of one to one and a half degrees per hour until you meet the temperature of your surroundings. Again, several factors can influence the accuracy of this test, such as it being a very cold causing the body to cool much quicker.
Look for signs of discoloration, or livor mortis. This is the purplish coloring of the body's lowest parts. It's caused by the heart no longer pumping blood and gravity pulling it down. This begins about two hours post mortem and is fixed at about ten hours.
Find the degree of rigor mortis. The body enters rigor mortis within fifteen minutes after death and continues to stiffen for up to fifteen hours. Only professionals can really detect the degree of rigor mortis in a body.
See how decomposed or decayed the body is. The longer a person has been dead, the more decayed it is.
Is BMI an Effective Measure of Fitness?


The kid cooks are coming back to FOX, and they can stand the heat. MasterChef Junior, season five, premieres on FOX Thursday, February 9, 2017 at 9:00pm ET/PT. In the fifth season premiere, 40 talented junior home cooks will face off for a spot in the top 20. Watch a first-look preview, below.
Judges Chef Gordon Ramsay and Chef Christina Tosi are returning for season five of MasterChef Junior. The young culinary geniuses will cook for guest judge Mayim Bialik, as well as Julie Bowen and Muppets Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef. The grand prize includes the MasterChef Junior trophy and a $100,000.00 cash prize.
The kids are back for Season Five of the hit culinary competition series MASTERCHEF JUNIOR, premiering Thursday, Feb. 9 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Judges Chef Gordon Ramsay and Chef Christina Tosi welcome the latest crop of junior home cooks to the MASTERCHEF JUNIOR kitchen, where they will compete for the MASTERCHEF JUNIOR trophy and the $100,000 grand prize.
After a nationwide search, 40 of the best junior home cooks between the ages of eight and thirteen have been chosen for their final test – a culinary battle in the MASTERCHEF JUNIOR kitchen in front of Chefs Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi. Only the 20 best chef-testants who prove they have the chops to take home the trophy will move forward and earn a MASTERCHEF JUNIOR white apron.
This season, the kids will face exciting challenges, including completing a challenge from First Lady Michelle Obama; cooking a meal for more than 50 first responders; MASTERCHEF JUNIOR’s first-ever vegan challenge, from guest judge Mayim Bialik (“The Big Bang Theory”); and cooking for other VIPs, including Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”) and Muppets “Miss Piggy” and “Swedish Chef,” until one talented kid is named America’s next MASTERCHEF JUNIOR, taking home the MASTERCHEF JUNIOR trophy and $100,000 grand prize.
In the season premiere episode, “The Quest for an Apron Part 1,” 40 junior home cooks come to Los Angeles ready to compete for a MASTERCHEF JUNIOR apron. In each culinary showdown, four chefs receive a unique challenge – from steak, to scallops to cupcakes. Two lucky winners from each group earn an apron and a chance to move on, while two head back home. The competition is tougher than ever as Gordon and Christina separate the best junior chefs from all the rest. All Top 20 contestants will be revealed in the following episode, “The Quest for an Apron Part 2,” airing Thursday, Feb. 16 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the MasterChef Junior TV show? Do you plan to tune in for the fifth season on FOX? Tell us.
More about: FOX TV shows: canceled or renewed?, MasterChef Junior, MasterChef Junior: canceled or renewed?, Modern Family, Modern Family: canceled or renewed?, The Muppets, The Muppets: canceled or renewed?


The City of Jackson has been directed to close four more bridges do to structural problems.
Jackson has been directed to close four more bridges because of structural problems.
The Office of State Aid Road Construction, as part of federally mandated annual bridge inspections, told Jackson officials to close the bridges. Issues were found with timber piles, headwalls, and/or other timber components on each bridge. These closures are in addition to three bridges closed last week.
Hawthorne Drive between Sherwood Drive and Robin Drive (Eubanks Creek bridge). Detour route: Sherwood Drive/Mohawk Avenue to Council Circle to Chickasaw Avenue.
Cavalier Drive between Old Canton Road and Wood Dale Drive (Eubanks Creek Tributary bridge). Detour route: Old Canton Road to Ridge Drive/Wood Dale Drive.
Woodway Drive between State Street and Manhattan Road (Hanging Moss Creek Tributary bridge). Detour route: Manhattan Road to Cedars of Lebanon Road to State Street.
Beasley Road between Livingston Road and Northwest Industrial Parkway (Hanging Moss Creek bridge). Detour route: Livingston Road or Watkins Drive to West County Line Road to Northwest Industrial Pkwy.
Because of the number of bridges ordered closed this week, city crews closed Hawthorne and Cavalier at noon Thursday. Beasley, Ford and Woodway will be closed on by noon Friday.
Colonial Circle (Adkins Boulevard) between Orchardview Drive and Old Canton Road (Purple Creek bridge).
Raymond Road between Siwell Road and Hidden Valley Lane (Big Creek bridge).
Henderson Road approximately 200 feet south of McCleur Road (Trahon Creek bridge).
The issues found with the timber components of each bridge are such that state inspectors have determined the bridges cannot carry federal minimum weight loads for cars (3 tons gross weight). The city's Department of Public Works is reviewing each bridge inspection report to determine repair or replacement options and funding sources for each. These closures could last anywhere from six to 18 months depending on the work needed on each bridge.
In addition, the Ford Avenue entrance to Hawkins Field will be reduced to one lane because of issues found with the timber piles found under the westbound lane. Inspectors found that the eastbound lane did not have similar issues. The eastbound lane will be open for traffic in both directions yielding to each other. The bridge will continue to have a posted weight limit of 5 tons.
Drivers and residents are advised to obey the closure signage and use detour routes.


Wicked Lasers has unveiled its latest product called the Flashtorch. This isn’t a laser like we typically see from the company; rather this is a flashlight that has a massive 4100 lumens of light output. The light that the Flashtorch produces is white in color and the light is bright enough to do all sorts of things you could never do with a normal flashlight.
An aluminum anodized body makes the Flashtorch strong enough to survive use in harsh conditions. It uses a halogen headlamp with an expected life of 2000 hours. An adjustable reflector and heat resistant lens allows the light to be used in a narrow searchlight pattern or a wide floodlight pattern.
Wicked Lasers gives the device three power modes and power for the light comes from an internal rechargeable battery. Recharging can be performed without removing the battery and it has a lockout mode to prevent accidental usage.
Wicked Lasers says that the light produced by the Flashtorch is powerful enough to be used for starting campfires or even frying up an egg for breakfast. The device is available right now for $199.95 and certainly doesn’t sound like something you would want to give a kid. The 18650 mAh battery is good for 10-40 minutes of use per charge depending on the power setting.


When Bikes And Cars Collide, Who's More Likely To Be At Fault? : Shots - Health News On the surface, cars seem more likely to collide with bikers than the other way around. But when Shots looked at data from the few states where it's available, cyclists seem almost as likely to cause accidents as motorists.
When Bikes And Cars Collide, Who's More Likely To Be At Fault?
A bicyclist on the move in San Francisco.
Many of us here on NPR's Science Desk bike to work, and not just on Bike To Work Day. And like bike commuters everywhere, we delight in grumbling about the cars, trucks and buses that cut us off, drift into our lanes and honk at us.
But we'll also, mind you, tut tut at the cheeky fellow bikers who swoosh recklessly through red lights, speed down sidewalks and block crosswalks.
The tension between bikes and vehicles is evident on the streets of Washington, D.C., every day, and as bike-sharing programs allow more riders to take to city streets, more angry — and injurious — confrontations seem inevitable.
Cycling is still a relatively dangerous activity, after all. There were 630 fatalities and 51,000 injuries from bike-motor vehicle traffic crashes in the U.S. in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
But who is really more likely to be at fault when bikes and vehicles collide?
The federal government, for one, doesn't know. "Fault is difficult to determine," a spokeswoman for the Federal Highway Administration tells Shots. Her office has never produced national data answering this question.
Cars do seem the more likely culprit since they're bigger, more powerful, and sometimes at a disadvantage spotting the spindly cyclists who dart around city streets, where most accidents happen. But when we looked at data from the few states where it's available, cyclists seem almost as likely to cause an accident as motorists.
Ed Beighe, who mans the Arizona bike blog Azbikelaw, crunched some numbers on fault from his state and found that 44 percent of fatalities from bike-car crashes in 2009 were determined to be the fault of the cyclist, while 56 percent were the fault of a motor vehicle driver. The most common collision was when a driver struck a cyclist from behind.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety published data on contributing factors in bike-car crashes. It found that in 2009, cyclists were at fault in 49 percent of crashes, while drivers were at fault in 51 percent. Failing to yield to right of way was the most frequent cause of the snarls.
And the Washington Post recently mentioned a 2004 report from DC showing cyclists more likely than motorists to be at fault in a crash.
But a older study from Hawaii had a different conclusion. Using police-reported crash data from 1986 to 1991, researchers found that motorists were at fault in approximately 83.5 percent of incidents, whereas bicyclists were at fault in only 16.5 percent of incidents.
Cities and states vary greatly in terms of their infrastructure, topography and bike friendliness, Libby Thomas, with the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, tells Shots. So in the end it's pretty hard to draw any big conclusions about who ultimately errs more.
Still, both drivers and bikers could stand to take a few more safety precautions on the road. We highly recommend Bicycling's graphic of the 5 most common bike-car collisions as a refresher on what to be wary of, whether you're behind the wheel or the handle bars.


Close, who worked at Chicago's Second City and 'SNL,' trained many of comedy's great talents including Myers, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.
In a new film called Del, Mike Myers will portray one of his own mentors, Del Close, an early influencer of improv comedy who also was known for training many notable comic actors.
Betty Thomas (Private Parts, 28 Days) will direct the comedy, in which Myers plays the legendary teacher notorious for pushing his students to their limit. Close takes an aspiring comedian under his wing, and the relationship, which is first disastrous, eventually transforms each of them.
in the 1970s, Close coached many aspiring comedians at the Chicago improv powerhouse Second City, and in the early 1980s he served as "house metaphysician" at NBC's Saturday Night Live. Over the years, a significant number of the show's cast have been Close protégés, including Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Tina Fey and many others. Close spent the mid- to late 1980s and 1990s teaching improv at Yes, And Productions and the ImprovOlympic Theater before his death in 1999.
Nick Torokvei wrote the screenplay for the film, which will be produced by Covert Media CEO Paul Hanson alongside Thomas, Second City’s Diane Alexander, Robert Teitel of State Street Pictures and Thruline Entertainment’s Ron West. Andrew Alexander, Covert’s Elissa Friedman, Media Content Capital’s Sasha Shapiro and Anton Lessine and Thruline's Chris Henze will executive produce.
Covert is fully financing the project, and will launch worldwide sales in Berlin.
"Mike Myers is a comedy genius and the perfect actor to inhabit this complicated, funny, poignant character," said Hanson. "A pioneer of his craft, Close has passed his knowledge of humor and improv to the group of comedians that everyone knows today and this hilarious script examines that intimate relationship with his students that has made them so successful."
Myers got his start at Second City before becoming a featured performer on SNL, where he earned an Emmy for outstanding writing. He has starred in Wayne’s World, the Austin Powers series and the Shrek films, and will next be seen in the film Terminal with Margot Robbie. Meyers is repped by WME and Untitled Entertainment.
Thomas' other directorial efforts have included Doctor Dolittle, John Tucker Must Die and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. She is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham.
The deals were negotiated on behalf of Covert by Chet Devaskar, executive vp legal and business affairs.


Multi-sided, user-facing IT platforms, such as those deployed inside Google, eBay, Uber and Xbox, are becoming more strategic tools for enterprises all the time.
While they have been used publicly for more than two decades, a lot of people still don’t recognize what a multi-sided platform is. It is defined as any type of platform that creates value by facilitating the exchange of goods or services among multiple parties. Examples of this include on-demand companies such as Lyft, crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, commerce platforms Shopify or Amazon, travel and hospitality services like OpenTable, and social networks, such as Facebook.
For example, the more people that use Google search, the more data the company has, and that data is the raw material for refining its search results further. Subsequently, the greater its market share in search, the more advertisers wants their ads placed on Google to reach the largest audience. That, in turn, solidifies Google’s position as the dominant ad market, and strengthens its pricing power.
“There are several positive feedback loops in this business, and they are particularly powerful,” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once said.
With this background in mind, eWEEK offers this Data Point article, based on industry information from online payment and multi-platform toolmaker Stripe, on best practices for the use and deployment of multi-sided digital platforms.
Data Point No. 1: CIOs must build for communities, not for products.
Multi-sided platforms face a chicken-and-egg problem when it comes to building a thriving ecosystem. For example, a ride-sharing platform must retain drivers in order to serve more riders. A commerce platform needs merchants in order to attract buyers. With IT teams strapped for resources, they’re forced to prioritize and juggle a dichotomy of needs while making it seamless for all interested users to plug into the platform.
Stripe, in a recent research report, found that it is advantageous for multi-sided platforms to first prioritize the experience of the workers who provide the services/goods -- at least, in the short-term. Over a two-year span, worker retention was associated with 10X increase in revenue than consumer retention.
Data Point No. 2: Multi-sided platforms require an API-centric architecture.
At their heart, multi-sided platforms are composed of multiple systems that grow increasingly complex as they bring continuous value to their users. For example: Forrester reports that workers are the most satisfied with platforms that provide multiple services, such as facilitating customer support and getting customers to reliably pay them.
CIOs now need to design platforms so they can be readily integrated across a variety of partners and services. Building an API-centric (application programming interface) architecture allows platforms to scale with the evolving needs of users and overall growth. APIs maintain an accessible environment that facilitates the necessary flow of information across internal and external systems, and foster a programmable environment that can easily integrate with future services/systems and extend the platform’s reach to new channels.
Data Point No. 3: Demand for mobile equals demand for deeper organizational collaboration.
According to Nielsen, five of the top nine types of multi-sided platforms are primarily accessed via mobile apps. This increasingly pushes CIOs to drive collaboration among mobile, front end and back end teams. Straddling the server-side and user-side, mobile applications need CIOs who are hands-on with the full-stack -- integration to security to future-proofing, when they’re asking to support the next mobile device (such as wearables or voice-powered smart devices). However, this also creates more opportunity for CIOs to provide a leadership role for their organization, because they must deeply understand and help to shape the platform’s business goals and objectives.
Data Point No. 4: CIOs are increasingly contributing to the governance of platforms.
IT is increasingly responsible for building infrastructure that facilitates the governance of platforms. This can be far-reaching--from on-boarding legitimate workers to protecting the data of consumers. In fact, according to a new study by Nielsen, 94 percent of consumers said it is “absolutely essential” that their contact information is safe when using a multi-sided platform.
A platform will greatly benefit from a CIO's deep knowledge of building infrastructure that facilitates policies and standards that are critical to the company's bottom-line.
Data Point No. 5: Multi-sided platforms demand personalized experiences, which shape the future of data.
The value of a multi-sided platform is increasingly dependent on its ability to provide personalized experiences. For example: 74 percent of people use platforms because they help them find products or services that they wouldn’t have found otherwise (Nielsen).
Personalized experiences can be greatly enriched by using contextual, real-time data. A commerce platform can offer more precise recommendations based on real-time signals. A ride-sharing app can understand current conditions for their drivers, improving real-time support.
Successful platforms will harness real-time data to evolve their platforms to be more responsive to real-world changes. CIOs must navigate the distributive nature of platforms: data is coming from disparate devices, locations, multiple types of users and spikes in usage. This places higher priority on technologies such as edge computing and real-time data processing.
Data Point No. 6: Platforms are driving new integrations for IoT.
At its core, IoT connects services and data, which presents ripe business opportunity for multi-sided platforms that seek to similarly connect users with services and goods. By integrating with connected devices, platforms can boost their potential to reach more users and offer convenient experiences.
Supporting the growing ecosystem of connected devices also comes with a new set of business challenges. Integrating payments is only one example. The rise of digital wallets--40 percent of people prefer to use other payment methods than credit cards or debit cards (Nielsen)--increase the need for ease-of-integration and security measures. APIs, such as Stripe’s, enable businesses to quickly integrate with IoT devices and support all payment methods including any future ones that might arise.
By opting to build with APIs vs. building custom technology, CIOs can accelerate time-to-market and deliver immediate results for their businesses.


The husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords spent 20 minutes believing his wife was dead after she was shot in Tucson earlier this month, he has revealed.
Mark Kelly believed he had been widowed after seeing an incorrect news report until Congresswoman Giffords’ mother told him the politician had survived being shot in the head.
Six people were shot and 13, including Congresswoman Giffords, were injured when a gunman opened fire as the Democrat member of Congress held a meet-and-greet with constituents.
Jared Loughner, 22, was arrested shortly after the incident and is being held in federal custody charged as the lone gunman in the attack.
Speaking as his wife’s condition continued to improve, Mr Kelly told of the horrifying moment he saw a news broadcast that claimed Congresswoman Giffords had been killed.
After a procedure to remove her from a ventilator was completed successfully, Congresswoman Giffords’ condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.
Her NASA astronaut husband has been at her bedside constantly since the shooting, only leaving her to attend last Wednesday's memorial service with President Obama and the funeral for nine-year-old gun victim Christina Green the following day.
Doctors at the University Medical Centre in Tucson, Arizona, have been pleased with the speed of Congresswoman Giffords’ recovery but said she remains mostly uncommunicative since the shooting.
However, Mr Kelly says he is certain his wife recognises him and has demonstrated so with minute gestures.
‘If I hold her hand, she'll play with my wedding ring,’ he told ABC News in his first television interview since his wife was gravely wounded.
‘She'll move (the ring) up and down my finger. She'll take it off. ... She'll put it on her own finger. She'll move it to her thumb. And then she can put it back on my finger,’ he said.
Mr Kelly's full interview aired last night on a special edition of the prime-time programme "20/20." ABC News released excerpts in advance.
Portions also aired on ABC's Good Morning America, World News with Diane Sawyer and Nightline broadcasts.
Mr Kelly acknowledged that his wife still has a difficult road ahead of her but called her a ‘really, really tough woman’.


South Asian Games gold medallist shooter Nasir Uddin Jonny died of cardiac arrest in Florida, USA on Monday. He was 52.
Jonny, who has been living in USA since 1999, left behind his shooter wife Sharmin Rahman Sagar, one son, two daughters and a host of well-wishers to mourn his death.
Teaming up with GM A Haider and Kamrul Islam, Jonny bagged gold medal in the team event of 50m air rifle three position event during the Dhaka SAF Games [Now SA Games) in 1993 before winning individual gold medal in 50m air rifle prone during the Madras SAF Games in 1995.
Jonny, along with GM A Haider and Saiful Alam Rinky, grabbed gold medal in 50m air rifle three position event in the same meet.
Rinky confirmed the demise of the former national shooter.


Airtel is offering a cashback of up to Rs 2,000 on purchase of select Nokia 4G smartphones for its prepaid customers.
Currently, Jio is offering a cashback offer of up to Rs 2,200 on new 4G smartphones.
In a bid to counter each other, telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular frequently come up with new offers. Currently, Jio is offering a cashback offer of up to Rs 2,200 on new 4G smartphones. Airtel is also offering a cashback of up to Rs 2,000 on purchase of select Nokia 4G smartphones for its prepaid customers. Idea Cellular is offering a cashback of up to Rs 2,000 on purchase of new 4G smartphones appearing for the first time on Idea's network.
Airtel is offering a cashback of up to Rs. 2,000 on purchase of select Nokia 4G smartphones for its prepaid customers. According to an announcement by the company, Nokia 2 and Nokia 3 smartphones will come bundled with Airtel's Rs. 169 prepaid recharge plan offering 1GB of 4G per day data for a period of 28 days. Also, Airtel's Rs 169 prepaid plan will offer unlimited local, STD and roaming calls and 100 per day free SMSes for the validity period. Airtel's cashback offer will be available in two installments on purchase of these smartphones and using Rs169 recharge plan.
Subscribers will have to recharge their SIM cards with a minimum amount of Rs. 3,500 for the first 18 months, after which they will get the first installment of cashback worth Rs. 500. After another recharge of Rs. 3,500 in the period of 19-36 months from the purchase of smartphones, subscribers will get remaining Rs. 1,500 cashback. Nokia 2 is currently available in India at a price of Rs. 6,999, while Nokia 3 is priced at Rs. 9,499.


Washington quarterback Jake Browning (3) scores on the last drive of the second quarter against Oregon in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in Eugene, Ore.
Jackson did not accumulate a single yard or touchdown in week six. Instead, his Louisville Cardinals took a bye week following a heartbreaking loss to Clemson on Oct. 1. Even with a blemish on his team’s record, Jackson’s 2016 has been phenomenal. The sophomore ranks 19th in the nation in passing yards, 10th in rushing yards (first among quarterbacks) and has only played five games.
Jackson has created himself a habitat in end zones, leading the nation with 14 rushing touchdowns—the next closest is 10. The Heisman frontrunner will captain the top-ranked Louisville offense—58 points per game—against Duke this Friday.
Peppers has been the epitome of versatility this season. In Michigan’s 78-0 annihilation of Rutgers, Peppers shined with two tackles, 74 rushing yards and two touchdowns. In the early stages of the demolition, Peppers returned one of Rutgers’ 16 punts 44 yards for another score, but it was negated due to a penalty. Even with that score wiped, the junior playmaker still leads the nation in punt return yardage.
He has two sacks and plays a steady role in a Michigan defense that allows a nation-best 10.3 points per contest.
As one of the few that makes an impact on offense, defense and special teams, Peppers is writing a solid résumé to become the first defensive Heisman winner since fellow Wolverine Charles Woodson in 1997.
Watson earned a trip to New York for the ceremony in 2015, but got off to a rocky start this season.
But with a statement victory over then-No. 3 Louisville, Watson has fired himself into college football’s elite once again.
The junior passed for a season-high 306 yards, rushed for 91 yards and scored five touchdowns in week five against the Cardinals and followed through against Boston College last Thursday night. In the 56-10 win over the Eagles, Watson produced 270 passing yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
This Saturday, he will face a rising North Carolina State squad, the same team he threw for 383 yards and five touchdowns against in 2015.
The sophomore torched the Pac-12 frontrunners of yesteryear in his last two games, beating Stanford and Oregon by a combined score of 114-27. In these contests, Browning threw nine touchdowns (six against Oregon) and zero interceptions. His impressive decision-making skills contribute to his 23-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
His Huskies average a 49.5 points per game, the fifth-best mark in the nation, and are the clear Pac-12 favorites at midseason. Browning does not take the field again until a week eight matchup with Oregon State.


So rather than just writing a check for the next company in a category that seems to be taking off, Lewis and Stromberg are looking for startups that buck the trends. (For example, Lewis told me he sees bike-sharing as a “narrative mirage” where only one or two startups are likely to be successful.) And they’ve raised a first fund of $122 million to make those investments.
The pair has worked together before at Oyster, where Stromberg was co-founder and CEO, and which Lewis backed as a partner at Founders Fund. (The startup was acqui-hired by Google in 2015.) Before starting Bedrock, Stromberg was making angel investments in startups including Hubble Contacts, Built Robotics and Lattice, while Lewis’ investments at Founders Fund included Lyft, Wish, Nubank and Canva.
At Bedrock, Lewis and Stromberg are focused on writing Series A checks between of $5 million and $10 million, though they also plan to make follow-on investments from the fund. The firm has already backed three companies: HQ Trivia, RigUp (a marketplace for oil and gas-related work) and another marketplace company that’s still in stealth.
The firm is based in New York, with Lewis splitting his time between Silicon Valley and NYC. But the pair said they’re looking to invest beyond those cities (RigUp, for example, is based in Austin), and they’re also hoping to back non-traditional founders.
Against all odds, a few brave entrepreneurs violating the narrative today will come to define profound new truths tomorrow. We’re on a mission to find them.


A design student from Temple, with a May 2014 graduation date, Stephanie Vanicek served as Associate Comics Editor in Spring 2013, Comic Artist from Spring 2012 Fall 2012. Stephanie always had a great taste in music.
The Daily Texan Comics dept. speaks with comic artist Shannon Wheeler about her newest book Too Much Coffee Man: Cutie Island.


Is a filmmaking "third coast" one step closer to happening?
On Jan. 1, Wisconsin's new 25% tax credits for the film, television and video game industries kicked in, putting the state on competitive footing with many other leading film-incentive states.
But the state is taking its push to attract films to the next level by offering a guarantee that any movie shot in Wisconsin will receive theatrical exhibition.
Wisconsin-based Marcus Theatres has made an arrangement with Film Wisconsin, the state's film office, to offer its almost 600 screens in six Midwestern states to filmmakers as a way to help build a film economy in the state.
"Marcus Theatres will provide the foundation bookings that may lead to multiple playdates from other theater circuits in major markets across the Midwest and U.S.," Marcus president Bruce Olson wrote in a letter to Film Wisconsin. "The number and playdates will be determined by the final quality and appeal of the production."
Marcus retains the right to refuse to screen a film, but Olson said it "will make all reasonable efforts to accommodate the filmmakers' request for bookings" on films receiving a G, PG, PG-13 or R rating.
Film Wisconsin executive director Scott Robbe said the biggest impact of the commitment will be felt by independent filmmakers.
"The hardest thing for an indie filmmaker is to go to an investor and say, 'We have a guarantee to be in a theater,' " Robbe said. "With this deal, it makes investors more likely to give you money. It immediately increases the value of a project."
Wisconsin hopes the double combo of incentives and theater run, along with working with the nearby Chicago and Illinois film offices, will help establish an alternative to the Los Angeles and New York film scenes.
The incentives already are having their desired effect. Michael Mann, planning a Chicago shoot for his Depression-era Johnny Depp gangster film "Public Enemies," has been scouting the Milwaukee area for 1930s period banks, prisons and street scenes.
"The synergy we're creating is on its way to making the idea of an affordable film-friendly third coast a reality," Robbe said.


NO 35 3-W. Lutz kicks 65 yards, touchback.
1 and 10 - DAL 25 15:00 21-E. Elliott rush for 4 yards.
2 and 6 - DAL 29 14:27 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 5 yards.
3 and 1 - DAL 34 13:52 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
1 and 10 - DAL 36 13:09 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 11-C. Beasley.
2 and 10 - DAL 36 13:05 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
3 and 8 - DAL 39 12:25 4-D. Prescott pass to 13-M. Gallup for 13 yards. PENALTY on New Orleans, Defensive Pass Interference (declined).
1 and 10 - NO 48 11:57 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
2 and 8 - NO 46 11:25 4-D. Prescott pass to 13-M. Gallup for 40 yards.
1 and 6 - NO 6 10:38 21-E. Elliott rush for 1 yard.
2 and 5 - NO 5 10:15 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 86-D. Schultz.
3 and 5 - NO 5 10:09 4-D. Prescott, sacked for 3 yards (93-D. Onyemata).
4 and 8 - NO 8 9:27 2-B. Maher 26 yard field goal is GOOD.
DAL 35 2-B. Maher kicks 70 yards, 7-T. Hill returns for 27 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 22 9:16 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 18-K. Kirkwood.
2 and 10 - NO 22 9:11 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 13-M. Thomas.
3 and 10 - NO 22 9:06 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 41-A. Kamara.
4 and 10 - NO 22 9:01 6-T. Morstead punts 57 yards, 11-C. Beasley returns for 8 yards.
1 and 10 - DAL 29 8:49 4-D. Prescott pass to 21-E. Elliott for 8 yards.
2 and 2 - DAL 37 8:13 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards. PENALTY on Dallas, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at DAL 37 - No play.
2 and 12 - DAL 27 8:01 21-E. Elliott rush for 6 yards.
3 and 6 - DAL 33 7:23 4-D. Prescott, sacked for 9 yards (93-D. Onyemata).
4 and 15 - DAL 24 6:44 6-C. Jones punts 51 yards, 41-A. Kamara returns for 1 yard.
1 and 10 - NO 26 6:34 41-A. Kamara rush for 4 yards.
2 and 6 - NO 30 6:00 22-M. Ingram II rush for no gain.
3 and 6 - NO 30 5:22 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 13-M. Thomas. New Orleans challenged the ruling, and the play was UPHELD.
4 and 6 - NO 30 5:15 6-T. Morstead punts 55 yards, fair catch by 11-C. Beasley.
1 and 10 - DAL 15 5:07 21-E. Elliott rush for 7 yards.
2 and 3 - DAL 22 4:33 4-D. Prescott pass to 13-M. Gallup for 14 yards. PENALTY on New Orleans, Defensive Holding (declined).
1 and 10 - DAL 36 4:02 4-D. Prescott pass to 85-N. Brown for 9 yards.
2 and 1 - DAL 45 3:19 21-E. Elliott rush for 6 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 49 2:33 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 14 yards, forced out of bounds.
1 and 10 - NO 35 2:07 4-D. Prescott pass to 21-E. Elliott for 15 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 20 1:35 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 11-C. Beasley. PENALTY on New Orleans, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at NO 20 - No play.
1 and 10 - NO 15 1:30 45-R. Smith rush for -1 yard, forced out of bounds.
2 and 11 - NO 16 1:05 4-D. Prescott pass to 21-E. Elliott for 16 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
2-B. Maher extra point is GOOD.
DAL 35 2-B. Maher kicks 67 yards, 7-T. Hill returns for 20 yards. PENALTY on New Orleans, Offensive Holding, 9 yards, enforced at NO 18.
1 and 10 - NO 9 0:48 41-A. Kamara rush for 7 yards.
2 and 3 - NO 16 0:12 9-D. Brees pass to 85-D. Arnold for 5 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 21 15:00 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 22-M. Ingram II.
2 and 10 - NO 21 14:55 41-A. Kamara rush for 1 yard.
3 and 9 - NO 22 14:10 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 4 yards.
4 and 5 - NO 26 13:39 6-T. Morstead punts 52 yards, out of bounds. PENALTY on New Orleans, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at DAL 22.
1 and 10 - DAL 32 13:32 21-E. Elliott rush for 1 yard.
2 and 9 - DAL 33 13:01 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 5 yards, fumble by 19-A. Cooper (forced fumble by 23-M. Lattimore), RECOVERED by 23-M. Lattimore returned for no gain.
1 and 10 - DAL 39 12:53 9-D. Brees pass to 13-M. Thomas for 4 yards.
2 and 6 - DAL 35 12:19 22-M. Ingram II rush for 13 yards, forced out of bounds.
1 and 10 - DAL 22 11:46 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 85-D. Arnold. New Orleans challenged the ruling, and the play was REVERSED, 9-D. Brees pass to 85-D. Arnold for 18 yards, fumble by 85-D. Arnold (forced fumble by 25-X. Woods), RECOVERED by 13-M. Thomas returned for no gain.
1 and 7 - DAL 7 11:31 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 10-T. Smith.
2 and 7 - DAL 7 11:27 22-M. Ingram II rush for 3 yards.
3 and 4 - DAL 4 10:48 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 3 yards.
4 and 1 - DAL 1 10:04 41-A. Kamara rush for no gain.
1 and 10 - DAL 2 10:00 21-E. Elliott rush for 4 yards.
2 and 6 - DAL 6 9:17 4-D. Prescott, sacked for 1 yard (94-C. Jordan).
3 and 7 - DAL 5 8:33 4-D. Prescott pass to 89-B. Jarwin for 12 yards, forced out of bounds.
1 and 10 - DAL 17 7:56 21-E. Elliott rush for 4 yards.
2 and 6 - DAL 21 7:20 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 19 yards, forced out of bounds.
1 and 10 - DAL 40 6:43 21-E. Elliott rush for -3 yards.
2 and 13 - DAL 37 6:01 4-D. Prescott rush for 15 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 48 5:17 4-D. Prescott pass to 21-E. Elliott for 9 yards, forced out of bounds.
2 and 1 - NO 39 4:37 21-E. Elliott rush for 3 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 36 3:53 45-R. Smith rush for 2 yards.
2 and 8 - NO 34 3:10 45-R. Smith rush for 1 yard.
3 and 7 - NO 33 3:04 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 11 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 22 2:39 21-E. Elliott rush for -1 yard.
2 and 11 - NO 23 2:00 4-D. Prescott pass to 11-C. Beasley for 4 yards.
3 and 7 - NO 19 1:39 4-D. Prescott, sacked for 7 yards (93-D. Onyemata), fumble by 4-D. Prescott (forced fumble by 93-D. Onyemata), RECOVERED by 4-D. Prescott returned for no gain.
4 and 15 - NO 27 1:39 2-B. Maher 46 yard field goal is GOOD.
DAL 35 2-B. Maher kicks 65 yards, touchback.
1 and 10 - NO 25 0:51 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 3 yards, forced out of bounds.
2 and 7 - NO 28 0:45 9-D. Brees, sacked for 8 yards (90-D. Lawrence), fumble by 9-D. Brees (forced fumble by 90-D. Lawrence), RECOVERED by 9-D. Brees returned for no gain.
3 and 15 - NO 20 0:07 95-T. Davison pass to 41-A. Kamara for 5 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 25 15:00 41-A. Kamara rush for 4 yards, forced out of bounds.
2 and 6 - NO 29 14:20 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 5 yards, forced out of bounds.
3 and 1 - NO 34 13:46 9-D. Brees rush for 2 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 36 13:13 9-D. Brees pass to 13-M. Thomas for 11 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 47 12:30 22-M. Ingram II rush for 7 yards.
2 and 3 - DAL 46 11:45 9-D. Brees pass to 13-M. Thomas for 9 yards. PENALTY on Dallas, Face Mask, 15 yards, enforced at DAL 37.
1 and 10 - DAL 22 11:18 41-A. Kamara rush for 2 yards, ran out of bounds.
2 and 8 - DAL 20 10:46 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 13-M. Thomas.
3 and 8 - DAL 20 10:42 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 5 yards.
4 and 3 - DAL 15 10:03 3-W. Lutz 33 yard field goal is GOOD.
1 and 10 - DAL 25 10:00 4-D. Prescott pass to 86-D. Schultz for 7 yards.
2 and 3 - DAL 32 9:27 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
3 and 1 - DAL 34 8:41 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
1 and 10 - DAL 36 8:02 4-D. Prescott, sacked for 9 yards (53-A. Klein).
2 and 19 - DAL 27 7:14 21-E. Elliott rush for no gain.
3 and 19 - DAL 27 6:34 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 9 yards.
4 and 10 - DAL 36 5:56 6-C. Jones punts 47 yards, muffed catch by 41-A. Kamara, ball out of bounds.
1 and 10 - NO 12 5:47 41-A. Kamara rush for 5 yards, forced out of bounds.
2 and 5 - NO 17 5:13 PENALTY on Dallas, Encroachment, 4 yards, enforced at NO 17 - No play.
2 and 1 - NO 21 4:52 22-M. Ingram II rush for 2 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 23 4:29 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 13-M. Thomas. PENALTY on Dallas, Defensive Pass Interference, 17 yards, enforced at NO 23 - No play.
1 and 10 - NO 40 4:21 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 18-K. Kirkwood.
2 and 10 - NO 40 4:16 9-D. Brees pass to 22-M. Ingram II for no gain. PENALTY on New Orleans, Offensive Holding (declined).
3 and 10 - NO 40 3:51 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 13-M. Thomas. PENALTY on Dallas, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at NO 40 - No play.
1 and 10 - NO 45 3:45 41-A. Kamara rush for 5 yards.
2 and 5 - 50 3:12 41-A. Kamara rush for 3 yards.
3 and 2 - DAL 47 2:33 22-M. Ingram II rush for -1 yard.
4 and 3 - DAL 48 1:58 6-T. Morstead punts 36 yards, fair catch by 11-C. Beasley. PENALTY on Dallas, Roughing the Kicker, 15 yards, enforced at DAL 48 - No play.
1 and 10 - DAL 33 1:51 22-M. Ingram II rush for 3 yards.
2 and 7 - DAL 30 1:19 9-D. Brees pass incomplete to 41-A. Kamara.
3 and 7 - DAL 30 1:15 9-D. Brees pass to 18-K. Kirkwood for 30 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
3-W. Lutz extra point is GOOD.
1 and 10 - DAL 25 1:08 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 5 yards, forced out of bounds.
2 and 5 - DAL 30 0:37 21-E. Elliott rush for -1 yard. PENALTY on Dallas, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at DAL 30 - No play.
2 and 15 - DAL 20 0:22 4-D. Prescott pass to 21-E. Elliott for 2 yards.
3 and 13 - DAL 22 15:00 4-D. Prescott pass to 21-E. Elliott for 10 yards.
4 and 3 - DAL 32 14:17 6-C. Jones punts 50 yards, 41-A. Kamara returns for 16 yards, forced out of bounds.
1 and 10 - NO 34 14:05 9-D. Brees pass to 13-M. Thomas for 11 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 45 13:29 41-A. Kamara rush for 2 yards.
2 and 8 - NO 47 12:53 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 3 yards.
3 and 5 - 50 12:13 9-D. Brees, sacked for 8 yards (90-D. Lawrence), fumble by 9-D. Brees (forced fumble by 90-D. Lawrence), RECOVERED by 98-T. Crawford returned for no gain. PENALTY on Dallas, Defensive Offside, 4 yards, enforced at 50 - No play.
3 and 1 - DAL 45 12:04 41-A. Kamara rush for 3 yards.
1 and 10 - DAL 43 11:25 9-D. Brees, sacked for 8 yards (30-A. Brown).
2 and 18 - NO 49 10:40 9-D. Brees pass to 22-M. Ingram II for 1 yard.
3 and 17 - 50 9:59 9-D. Brees pass to 41-A. Kamara for 8 yards.
4 and 9 - DAL 42 9:19 6-T. Morstead punts 41 yards, downed by 27-D. Washington. Dallas challenged the ruling, and the play was REVERSED, 6-T. Morstead punts 42 yards, touchback.
1 and 10 - DAL 20 9:15 21-E. Elliott rush for 7 yards.
2 and 3 - DAL 27 8:42 4-D. Prescott pass to 19-A. Cooper for 7 yards, forced out of bounds.
1 and 10 - DAL 34 8:08 21-E. Elliott rush for no gain.
2 and 10 - DAL 34 7:28 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 13-M. Gallup.
3 and 10 - DAL 34 7:22 4-D. Prescott rush for 11 yards.
1 and 10 - DAL 45 6:39 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 13-M. Gallup.
2 and 10 - DAL 45 6:32 4-D. Prescott pass to 13-M. Gallup for 5 yards.
3 and 5 - 50 5:54 4-D. Prescott pass to 11-C. Beasley for 5 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 45 5:07 21-E. Elliott rush for 21 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 24 4:22 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
2 and 8 - NO 22 3:44 4-D. Prescott, sacked for no gain (76-T. Stallworth).
3 and 8 - NO 22 3:38 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 19-A. Cooper. PENALTY on New Orleans, Roughing the Passer, 11 yards, enforced at NO 22 - No play.
1 and 10 - NO 11 3:31 21-E. Elliott rush for 1 yard.
2 and 9 - NO 10 3:25 4-D. Prescott pass to 13-M. Gallup for 4 yards.
3 and 5 - NO 6 2:42 4-D. Prescott, sacked for 9 yards (94-C. Jordan), fumble by 4-D. Prescott (forced fumble by 94-C. Jordan), RECOVERED by 94-C. Jordan returned for no gain. PENALTY on Dallas, Offensive Holding (declined).
1 and 10 - NO 15 2:35 9-D. Brees pass to 13-M. Thomas for 5 yards.
2 and 5 - NO 20 2:08 9-D. Brees pass intended for 41-A. Kamara, INTERCEPTED by 27-J. Lewis at NO 23, returned for 7 yards.
1 and 10 - NO 16 2:08 21-E. Elliott rush for 2 yards.
2 and 8 - NO 14 2:03 4-D. Prescott pass incomplete to 19-A. Cooper. PENALTY on New Orleans, Defensive Pass Interference, 13 yards, enforced at NO 14 - No play.
1 and 1 - NO 1 1:58 4-D. Prescott kneels for -1 yard.
2 and 2 - NO 2 1:20 4-D. Prescott kneels for -2 yards.
3 and 4 - NO 4 0:42 4-D. Prescott kneels for -1 yard.


The greatest challenge for any learning system is not the impartation of knowledge, but the use of it to change human attitudes and behaviour. That's why web-based e-learning has been criticised in this column for lacking the power to help people modify their work habits, by showing them one-on-one how to put what is learned into practice.
However, web development company MassMedia Studios and vehicle leasing and management services company Custom Fleet may have found the answer in online business games. For 15 minutes of paid work-time per day, 430 employees have been encouraged to play online games, teaching them about their company and, more importantly, its clients.
MassMedia managing director Steve Fanale is pioneering the approach, which uses the corporate intranet, turning it into a business games platform. So far, Custom Fleet has taken delivery of three different types of game.
"The first game was a mesh between a Trivial Pursuit-type game and a Monopoly-type game," Fanale says. "People land on different clients and are then given the option to `own' those clients through multiple-choice questions. If you score the highest score, then you own the contract. The one with the most contracts at the end of the month is the winner."
The game was developed as part of Custom Fleet's Revolution 2003 sales drive, with money set aside for the company's celebration of its 25th year in business. Originally, the idea was to combine the virtual business gaming world with what their sales people achieved in real life, by multiplying scores in the game by actual results on the ground. However, the blend proved too complex, with the positive effect of allowing the games to be opened up to all employees. For directly or indirectly, sales is everyone's game.
Since the sales program was supposed to last all year, two more business games were deployed to keep up the momentum.
"One game was based on something like Wheel of Fortune and the other was an arcade game," Fanale says. "The idea was to increase the amount of information consumed and information retention. If you look at how people learn, the level of retention increases to its highest as they simulate tasks. With Flash technology, you can simulate the actual work environment."
Sometimes corporate training is compulsory, but of course learning itself is a purely voluntary activity. However, being game-based, Custom Fleet enjoyed more than 80 per cent of employees volunteering for the first game. Interesting dynamics within the company and the game contributed to this high e-learning participation rate.
Being team-based, the Australian division could not allow itself to be beaten by New Zealand or Britain. Everyone had to pitch in to stop the rot. But when management used the system's administrative tools to mandate internationally mixed teams, the corporate culture started to change.
According to Custom Fleet's global marketing and communications manager, Alene Kieser, the game has fostered new levels of international collaboration between divisions.
"They had counterparts in other countries they could speak with by phone," she says. "That's because the game had international referrals. We used to be a company in Australia, a company in New Zealand and a company in the UK. That change was worth the investment by itself."
In the game, when a client had a major affiliation overseas, extra points were scored by sending the referral to the overseas division. As a result of this behaviour being reinforced, international referrals increased in real-life business activity. Although quantitative sales results are not available, these games are believed to be one of the factors behind the company achieving its sales target.
"We found groups were working together over the weekend," Kieser says. "They did this themselves. We never promoted it."
The experience of running an online business gaming environment is also interesting. The games execute in a browser using Macromedia Flash, which communicates with MassMedia's content management database. This is used to track game usage, deploy the next round or to change point-scoring questions. Back-end functions include updating client names, user names for logins, plus image upload resource management. Kieser finds certain types of business games require different levels of such back-end support.
"If you have an interactive business game using the stock exchange, you have to input figures and issue warnings," she says. "You have to interact with the users. So the administrative back end is just as important as the game's front end."
The level of collaboration the games fostered around Custom Fleet also took its game administrators by surprise.
"In the second game, a lot of people worked in a group for half an hour to solve the phrases," Kieser says. "But we initially thought they would take a couple of days for each individual to solve. So we were constantly entering the new phrases into the system."
MassMedia is also learning valuable lessons from this bold e-learning experiment.
"We got feedback from users," Fanale says. "They liked the competitions. What they didn't like was the speed behind the game, where they had only 10 seconds to answer each question. That was the main gripe of the first game."
Kieser says people are learning new things through osmosis, without even being aware of what they are learning. However, the participation rate in the last game has fallen to only around 50 per cent.
"The third one favours male participation because it's eye-hand co-ordination, and men tend to be better at it," she says. "We will take this experience we have gained, so next time we won't make the games so hard."
Striking the right balance here is something all games developers grapple with.
"It's got to be not too difficult and not too easy, or people get bored with it," Fanale says. "It's a fine line between complexity and simplicity."
This new genre of online business games is still in its infancy. Custom Fleet and MassMedia have taken perhaps the first successful few steps.
The cost of building such games varies with functionality, but companies should expect to pay between $20,000 and $80,000 each. In many situations, this could be the most cost-effective way of enhancing or changing a corporate culture, simulating the dynamics of business in a fun way.


ISLAMABAD Dec06 (APP): Rotary Club of Islamabad Renaissance observed “International Day of Persons with Disability (PWDs)” by conferring “High Achievers Awards” to those PWDs who have made outstanding performance, shown excellency and have high achievements in life. Rotary Club President Khawaja Mohammad Ali presented awards to PWDs and conferred upon with “Lifetime Achievement Award” to Ms. Saima Saleem who is visually impaired Foreign Service officer working as Dy. Secy in Prime Minister’s secretariat. High Achievers Award was presented to polio affected Raja Imran Hussain who is Chairperson of International Cricket Council of Physically Challenged People. Awareness walk of PWDs with Rotary Club members was conducted. A dinner at Marriott Hotel Islamabad was hosted in honor of Persons with Disability having high achievements in life.


Modeled after offshore oil drilling platforms, the floating design would be automatically cooled by the surrounding seawater.
Neither the earthquake nor the tsunami caused the subsequent contamination at Fukushima Daiichi. Most of the damage came from a lack of cooling for the reactor cores when all the power was shut down. Now, MIT researchers have come up with a floating design that uses seawater for coolant, and it could help avoid such disasters in the future.
Modeled after platforms used for offshore oil drilling, the floating power plant will be located five to seven miles at sea and, in emergencies, could be automatically cooled by the surrounding water -- preventing fuel rods from melting and radioactive material from escaping.
The plant could be built in a shipyard, then towed to its offshore destination. There, it’ll be anchored to the seafloor (over 300 feet deep) and connected to land via an underwater electric transmission line. It'll include living quarters and a helipad, and when the time comes to decommission the plant, it can simply be towed away to a central facility, the way Navy carriers and submarine reactors are now.
Overheating and potential meltdown -- the biggest issues faced by Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island -- would be virtually impossible at sea. The ocean, MIT’s Jacopo Buongiorno explains in a news release, “is essentially an infinite heat sink.” The light-water nuclear reactor will be located underwater, and its containment vessel will be surrounded by a compartment flooded with seawater. This allows for passive cooling with no intervention, even during worst case scenarios.
Building on existing technologies and designs minimizes technological risks. Although the concept of a floating nuclear plant is not unique -- Russia is building a barge moored at the shore -- none are located far enough offshore to be able to ride out a tsunami. For this new design, “the biggest selling point is the enhanced safety,” according to Buongiorno. The distance means the floating platform would be unaffected by the motions of a tsunami, and earthquakes would have no direct effect at all: The ocean shields the seismic waves, Wired explains, and tsunami waves in relatively deep water are not big.
Another advantage, Buongiorno adds: “The ocean is inexpensive real estate.” To provide cooling water, new sites for future nuclear plants must all be next to an ocean, lake, river, or other such desirable shorefront property. Offshore plants can be out of sight of land, but still adjacent to the population centers they’d serve. And in the event of an accident, people wouldn’t be forced to evacuate.
There are also no particular limits to the size of these floating plants, which can range from small, 50-megawatt plants to 1,000-megawatt plants like today’s largest facilities. Buongiorno sees a market in places like Japan, Indonesia, or Chile -- countries with high tsunami risks, but also rapidly growing needs for new power sources. The team's industry partners include Chicago Bridge and Iron.
The concept was presented at the Small Modular Reactors Symposium hosted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers last week.


Spanish researchers believe using a thermographic camera can tell objectively whether a person is in love and say the technology could be developed in mobile phones.
GRANADA, Spain (Reuters) - This student is in love. University of Granada psychology researchers can tell.
Not because she said so, nor by studying her body language. They just looked at thermographic images of her writing hand.
While staring at photos of their partner, 60 volunteers in new relationships put their dominant hand in freezing water for two minutes.
Thermal images of the hand taken before and after were then examined.
"There is a faster recovery of the hand. You can see the temperature here (on the side), so when you compare this image with the image that we have seen with (her looking at) friends this recovery is faster," said Mr Alex Moline, a researcher at the University of Granada.
Being in love increased the temperature of volunteers' cheeks, nose, forehead, and hands, by two deg C.
A control group who looked at photos of friends experienced no temperature change.
Mr Francisco Tornay, a professor of experimental psychology at the university, said, "The temperature is related to the state of the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nervous systems, and how you feel and how excited you are, and it's very sensitive and very simple to detect and measure the working of the peripheral nervous system."
Earlier research saw volunteers stripped to the waist having their temperature tested while telling lies. A "Pinocchio effect" showed that the temperature of people's noses changes when untruthful.
The team believes the technology could be integrated into cellphones.
"We think that if we really go on to analyse thermographical images in a more detailed way, pixel by pixel and frame by frame, in short videos we can use machine learning algorithms and we think we can detect or predict to some extent the emotional state of people just by taking a video of them," said Professor Tornay.
Next month the world's first thermal imaging phone, the Cat S60, goes on sale, aimed at tradespeople.
Future models might one day let you test anything from your loved ones' feelings to the truthfulness of your employees. It's enough to make some people's blood run cold.


Three adults and six children perished in a South Memphis house fire early Monday morning in what officials called the city’s deadliest fire in nearly a century.
One other child pulled from the home in the 1100 block of Severson was clinging to life late Monday at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
Family members identified the adult victims as Carol Collier, 56; LaKisha Ward, 27; and Eloise Futrell, 61. They identified the children as Angel Mitchell, 17; Ernest Jett III, 9; Diamond Jett, 8, Alonzo Ward, 7; Kierra Jett, 5; and Precious Rose Jett, 2 or 3. Cameron Hollingsworth, who is 7 or 8, is the child at Le Bonheur.
“They got him on the life support. They said they need to give him some rest,” said Ernest Jett Sr., grandfather to all seven children. Jett got a call from his son while firefighters were still battling the blaze, and immediately drove up from Port Gibson, Mississippi.
This tragedy began at 1:23 a.m., when someone in the home used a cell phone to call 911, officials said. The first units from the Memphis Fire Department arrived on the scene four minutes later to find light smoke seeping from the small, one-story brick building.
Firefighters had to break a security door to get into the home, where they were confronted with heavy smoke. Most of the windows on the home had bars over them, apparently as a security measure.
But by the time firefighters made their way inside, there was little they could do to save lives. They pulled 10 people from the house, but all three adults and four of the children were pronounced dead at the scene. The three other children were rushed to Le Bonheur, but two died there. The fire was brought under control at 1:42 a.m., 19 minutes after the first call.
“I broke down crying. Those are my brothers and sisters. That was everything,” said 16-year-old sibling Brandon King, who lives elsewhere.
Neighbors said firefighters pulled victims from the house and laid them on the front lawn. The bodies were covered with a tarp.
MFD Director Gina Sweat said most of the victims appeared to have suffered from smoke inhalation, but that some were also burned.
MFD inspectors later determined that the home had a working smoke detector, and that the blaze was sparked by a malfunctioning power cord to an air-conditioning unit.
Sweat said it’s uncertain if the security bars prevented anyone from trying to escape out of the windows. While Sweat said that firefighters are trained to quickly remove such bars, she added that they do create a danger for people trying to escape a fire. She recommended a quick-release device that can be installed on windows.
According to family members on the scene, Ward — mother to one of the children — ironed their clothes for school the next day, then got ready for bed. Jett Jr. left to go to the store, family members said, but when he returned, he was confronted with the horrific scene.
A few hours after the fire, a large red toy truck and part of a bike on the porch remained undamaged. Friends and relatives ignored crime-scene tape and went inside the home to see the devastation.
“I’ve seen some hard things where we lost family members back-to-back, but never in a group like this. This is by far the hardest and most devastating thing ever,” said Jerry Brack, Futrell’s cousin.
Veronica Trammell, Ward’s mother and grandmother to Alonzo Ward, drove more than four hours from Fayette, Mississippi, to get to the scene.
Mary Whitmore, Collier’s sister, stood on the sidewalk outside the house crying Monday morning.
Futrell was the grandmother to all of the children who died.
Cummings Elementary School principal Key Coleman sent a message to parents at the school, informing them of the tragedy.
Futrell’s family walked around the burned house and saw glass knocked out of a back bedroom window, which didn’t have security bars like some of the others. Sofa cushions were stacked on the ground outside the window.
By early afternoon, people had started coming by the house offering prayer, condolences and food to family members.
Sweat said nothing in their training could prepare firefighters for such a heartbreaking event.
“It is times like these we are reminded of how precious, important and short our lives can be,” she added.
The fire was the most deadly blaze in Memphis since 1921, when 10 people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion involving a railroad tank car near Front Street and Mill Avenue.


Archives|STRAIGHT AND CROOKED THINKING. By Robert H. Thouless. 261 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $2.
STRAIGHT AND CROOKED THINKING. By Robert H. Thouless. 261 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $2.


Parliament’s committees have thrown their weight behind the review of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) agreement of 2002 so that it can support development, industrialisation and economic diversification of the member economies.
The agreement - between Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland - in its current form does not enable industrial development as intended, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies explained to the portfolio committee on trade and industry and the standing committee on finance on Tuesday.
The committees were briefed by the minister as well as Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene on the status of the agreement and its shortcomings. The resolution of review will go to the National Assembly for consideration.
There are six priorities that the SA government wants the review to address, when it consults with member states. SA wants the SACU establishment to continue and wants it to allow for the free movement of goods across the union through intra-regional trade.
SA also wants the current revenue sharing model between the member States to be reviewed.
A pressing matter is the current tariff setting architecture, which is not efficient, according to Davies.
Davies explained that there are differing policy perspectives when it comes to tariffs. Currently, SA views tariffs as an instrument of industrial policy – while other governments rely on tariffs as a source of revenue.
In his address Nene showed that SA’s reliance on tariffs for revenue is only 3% of the country’s total revenue collections between 2014/15 and 2018/19. While the remaining countries rely heavily on the tariffs for revenue. For example, tariffs account for 45% of Swaziland's total revenue.
SA will also put forward that the agreement focuses on national development. “The focus should be on industrial development. But not one brass cent has been used on development,” said Davies.
The ministers approached Parliament as it appears that consultations among member nations have reached a stalemate, with some member nations wanting the agreement to be implemented as is.
Parliament’s backing of SA’s arguments could possibly bolster its position during negotiations.


Samara Lynn ITNinja ITNinja is a site for IT professionals and a perfect arena for sharing knowledge and networking with peers. Product not yet reviewed by PCMag editors.
Great knowledge resource for IT. Free to use. Interactive and entertaining site.
Lots of content to sift through finding answers.
ITNinja is a site for IT professionals and a perfect arena for sharing knowledge and networking with peers. Product not yet reviewed by PCMag editors.
ITNinja is a free-to-use new web site that assists IT professionals in finding the answers they need when running into issues deploying the thousands of applications that are typically in business environments. It is the reincarnation of the popular site AppDeploy.com. ITNinja is the result of last year's acquisition by Dell of KACE, a company specializing in IT management. The AppDeploy site was owned by KACE. Now, Dell's software group has overhauled AppDeploy and created ITNinja, a site that is bound to excite many in the IT community.
ITNinja is an IT community resource website for software deployment best practices. The site carries over the more than 450,000 monthly unique visitors from AppDeploy. With the site, IT Professionals have an online community for networking with their peers and finding answers about deploying all kinds of software. Users can ask and answer questions, contribute to or find deployment tips, as well as share links and blog posts.
A consistently growing database featuring topics on hundreds of thousands of software applications.
A new activity feed highlighting users' contributions and providing a customized view of all software topics, contributors and blogs that they follow.
A user reputation management system, which rewards users with points and prizes for contributions (even ones carried over from AppDeploy). Points determine users' "belt" levels, which are attached to their identities on the site.
A new Q&A system that includes allows crowdsourcing for technical problem resolutions.
Integration with Dell KACE appliances allows KACE customers to access the same information directly through the interface of heir KACE Systems Management Appliance Console.
If you already have an AppDeploy account, you can use that to sign into ITNinja. Otherwise, it's just a matter of creating a new account.
Once logged in, you can browse the site to follow specific topics, users, or software to begin to establish a custom activity feed. You get a listing of featured and most recent blog posts, Q&As, and shared links. Everything posted has accompanying tags, so on the right side of the page there's a list of tags on various subjects that you can quickly navigate to.
You can search either by tags or keywords. Searching the tag "Hyper-V" pulled up 39 results. Searching the same term as a keyword pulled up over 300 results. The technical level of content can vary from simpler subjects like a question on problems with templates in Microsoft FrontPage to questions about very specific error codes related to virtualized environments.
What's really handy is the listing of software. You can find just about any software that gets installed on business machines. When you click open the page of a particular software, you can view the setup type, for example: Windows Installer, MSI, etc.
or you can select the setup type yourself from a drop down list and contribute information about this software. You can also see how others rated the setup process on a scale from very easy to very difficult and can view even more information about that particular software. From this page you can also post a question about this software, or write an associated blog post or share a link.
ITNinja is an extremely useful site for IT professionals. It's not only useful but it's fun to use. There's the element of social networking that most have become comfortable with. Of course, the site integrates with the major social media platforms out there like Facebook and LinkedIn.
There is a lot of content on ITNinja. While it may not be ideal for a quick, technical answer in an emergency situationthat type of turnaround time usually involves a harried Google search it is a great way to problem solve issues that are not so time-sensitive, or problems that you just cannot find a solution to by performing a search on Google.
ITNinja is a great way to better familiarize yourself as an IT worker with the products you need to support on a day-to-day basis. It's also a perfect arena for sharing knowledge you have gained and for networking with peers. Being in IT means never ceasing to learn, and ITNinja is a great tool for learning and developing an as IT professional.
Bottom Line: ITNinja is a site for IT professionals and a perfect arena for sharing knowledge and networking with peers. Product not yet reviewed by PCMag editors.


RIYADH: The Riyadh-based King Fahad National Library (KFNL) was picked as the best architectural work in 2015 by global A+Award program, according to an online report.
KFNL ranked atop seven buildings selected by program officials as the best new innovative architectural buildings in 2015.
The KFNL also said that a famous architect, Eckhard Gerber’s book, “Eckhard Gerber Baukunst: Buildings and Projects 1966-2013,” highlights images of KFNL and various areas that feature the uniqueness of the structure.
The author who designed the largest library in the Middle East also designed and oversaw the design of buildings and projects in Europe, Asia and Arab countries.
According to its website, the jury picked the winning buildings in accordance with new international standards for environment-friendly structures and that meet the challenges of climate change.
The officials explained that it was the flexibility and innovation factor, and the fact that the building does not need to consume large amounts of energy, that put the building atop arbitration standards.
The officials added that all the winning features of KFNL include materials that help in the negative cooling of the building using Teflon panels and perforated materials. They help to provide thermal comfort for visitors inside the building with the help of the air and natural lighting in place without consuming much energy.
The library consists of steel cables working as a layer of insulation to prevent the walls of the building from absorbing the sun’s heat, and also promotes passive cooling in all floors of the building.


Can Congress accomplish anything in short, pre-election session?
Health care celebration? Celebrate what?


EAST LOS ANGELES — A man was shot and killed in East Los Angeles Tuesday morning.
Deputies responded about 12:40 a.m. to a call of a gunshot victim on the 6100 block of Whittier Boulevard and located a man between 25 and 30 years old suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, according to Deputy Tracy Koerner of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, Koerner said.
A description of the suspect or vehicle was not immediately available, and it was unclear if the shooting was gang-related, he said.
Anyone with information about this shooting was asked to call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.


“Infinity Falls will be the centerpiece of a newly themed surrounding area, fully immersing guests in a rainforest canopy,” the park said in making the announcement. The village will also offer interactive experiences that will educate park guests about freshwater ecosystems and encounters with animals native to South America.
“We developed Infinity Falls to tell new stories that showcase the beauty and sheer power of water and the amazing wildlife that lives in it,” said Brian Morrow, vice president of Theme Park Design Experience.
The ride’s story line is that a drone exploring a jungle in South America discovered previously uncharted structures in a remote area along the banks of a freshwater river. Explorers and scientists set up base camp nearby, fell in love with the river, and set up a sustainable camp so others could learn about the jungle and the river.
The new ride should also help SeaWorld’s bottom line. While Disney and Universal have reported increased revenue and gate attendance in the last few years, SeaWorld’s numbers have dropped, largely due to the controversy over its killer whale shows.
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment announced a year ago that it was ending its orca breeding program and would phase out its theatrical whale shows in favor of natural orca encounters and educational programs at all three of its parks.
Since then it has opened Orlando’s tallest roller coaster, Mako, which has a 200-foot drop, and said this summer it will add virtual reality goggles to Kraken, an older coaster, that will take riders on a journey under the sea. SeaWorld also announced new rides to be built at its parks in San Diego and San Antonio.
The opening of the new ride is planned for the summer of 2018.


Energy drink giant Red Bull has been showing increasing interest in the dancehall culture by carrying its Culture Clash series across the globe and by helping to spread the genre through other avenues.
In one such move, Blacka Di Danca was signed last year as an athletic ambassador for the brand.
"It's been amazing so far. It's actually been non-stop since then," he told Dancers' Paradise. "The company is falling more deeply in love with dancehall, so now I've been invited to speak more on it, than dance it."
According to the Red Bull dancehall ambassador, the brand has been engaging in deeper conversation about the culture, so much so that he has been invited to be a dancehall motivational speaker. He has even been invited to conduct dancehall classes at a number of Ivy League colleges.
Just this week, Blacka Di Danca was busy in Boston, where he led pop-up dancehall classes at Harvard University, Boston University, MIT and Berkeley.
"I sit down and have in-depth conversations with [Red Bull]. They all want to know what dancehall is and where it comes from. So I have to explain that it's more than dance and more than music that dancehall is representing a struggle and a voice," he said.
Last August, Blacka Di Danca was flown to Santa Monica, Los Angeles, along with 15 athletes in various areas of sport and fitness and social influencers. "I was the only person doing dancehall," he explained.
While in LA, the 15 influencers filmed a video for Red Bull called The Fitness Machine, which captured them all demonstrating their specialities from cycling to weightlifting.
Blacka Di Danca told Dancers' Paradise that he did many Jamaican dances for the video, showing off moves like Fling by Kool Ravers and Foot Action which was created by Elite Team. For The Fitness Machine, which is now available for viewing online on the Red Bull channel, Blacka's segment was selected as the video closer.
Three weeks ago, the dancer was also flown to Baltimore to be a participant in the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy. Red Bull Amaphiko was launched in support of those using their talents to solve social problems and make a change in their communities.
"I taught them a class, and I picked dances that had a more social meaning, like Tek Weh Yuhself, Nuh Linga. Dances like that where you can inject it into the grammar they use by involving it in the natural conversation of global people. So they can say 'take myself away' and get it," he said.


Two international hotel operators separately said they plan to expand in the Middle East and Africa over the next five years, as part of strategies to build their regional development pipelines.
Marriott International plans to add 100 new hotels, totalling around 26,000 rooms, across the region by 2023, while Hilton expects to open another 100 hotels in the next five years.
“This region continues to present us with opportunities to further grow and enhance our portfolio across new and established markets,” said Jerome Briet, chief development officer, Middle East and Africa, at Marriott International, in a statement to the company on Monday.
Year-to-date, the company has opened five new properties in the region and is expected to add 14 more this year, bringing its portfolio across MEA to nearly 270 properties and 60,000 rooms by the end of 2019 – a 45 per cent increase in its regional portfolio with estimated investment of $8 billion from property owners.
The 2019 openings include four planned premium hotels, including the Autograph Collection’s Sankara debut in Nairobi, Kenya; Marriott Executive Apartments in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, following a hotel opening in Riyadh earlier this year; and a second property in Algeria.
The company also plans to upgrade its Sheraton hotel brand globally, with renovations planned for the Sheraton Jeddah and Sheraton Grand Dubai, it said.
New York-listed Hilton, meanwhile, plans to open 100 hotels mainly in markets such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt in the next five years.
The plans equate to around $9bn of investment by Hilton’s development partners, including four new signings. These are, the Hampton by Hilton Kuwait Salmiya; Canopy by Hilton Al Khobar the Avenues; Embassy Suites by Hilton Dubai Business Bay, and Hilton Gardern Inn Dubai Business Bay.
Hilton currently operates 64 hotels across the Middle East and North Africa and expects to see continued demand for its brands, with a particular focus on the mid-market segment, it said on Monday.
In addition, Hilton will open a Waldorf Astoria in Dubai later this year, and three new properties in Ras Al Khaimah.


Look: We all have bills to pay, and so do our favorite TV shows. Despite the many faults of the worst elements of its fanbase, Rick And Morty is a brilliant TV show, and if shilling some deodorant ensures another season or two of tightly written comedy and impressively nerdy sci-fi world-building, so be it. Still, you have to commend them for this deodorant ad, in which they both totally phone it in—calling the whole thing out as a sell-out move off the bat, impassively reading the deodorant’s selling-points off a sheet of paper, fecklessly counting the money at the end—and also pack a weird amount of variety into its execution. The three spray-on deodorant monsters have a ball torturing the poor Butter Bot, who memorably never even wanted to exist in the first place.
And, in classic Rick And Morty fashion, it’s also an elaborate in-joke, mimicking the exact structure of a previous sell-out move.
Morty sure has grown in the intervening years, hasn’t he?
The Dodge Dart Is Doing Its Best To Hang On, Okay?


Taylor Swift has canceled a sold-out concert in Thailand, which came under military rule last week after a coup d'etat.
Concert promoter BEC-Tero announced Tuesday on its website that the concert was canceled "due to recent events in Thailand." It didn't elaborate but called the move "a difficult decision for all parties."
The concert in Bangkok would have been the night of June 9. The country is under a nighttime curfew though it's loosely enforced.
"I'm sending my love to the fans in Thailand," Swift tweeted." I'm so sad about the concert being canceled."
The American singer-songwriter has other performances throughout Asia during her current Red Tour. She'll soon stop in China, Japan and the Philippines.
Several other international performers have canceled or postponed appearances in Thailand during the recent months of political protests and the coup carried out last Thursday.


ANTONIO CONTE reckons Diego Costa is the strongest striker in the world.
The Spaniard has been heavily linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge in recent weeks with Atletico Madrid pursuing him.
But Conte has confirmed he will be part of his plans and he says he is enjoying working with the forward.
He said: “He is working very hard. He is very happy to work with team-mates and me in a new idea of football.
“The most important thing is that Diego Costa is a Chelsea player.
“He showed that he is very, very strong.
“The best in the world for me. I am sure that also when he gets into this idea of football he can score a lot of goals.
“In football, in my experience I learned that 100 per cent never exists because you don’t know what can happen in life.
“In general, in my experience as a footballer and as a manager, I learned that 100 per cent is very, very difficult to tell.
“I am sure and I am very happy to train Diego and I know that he is our player and he is an important player for me, for his team-mates, for the fans, for all of the people in Chelsea.
Chelsea take on RZ Pellets in the final match of their pre-season tour of Austria tomorrow.


State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer says his recent comments about the GOP acronym, at the Texas Democratic Convention, must be considered in context.
SAN ANTONIO —Two Democratic members of the Texas House on Thursday declared their intentions to run for the Texas Senate seat being vacated by Leticia Van de Putte for her just-announced mayoral bid.
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a longtime ally of Van de Putte, issued a statement saying he will seek the Texas Senate District 26 seat that the new mayoral candiate has held since 1999.
Van de Putte is notifying Gov. Rick Perry today that she’s stepping down to run for mayor, which will force a special election.The legislative session starting Jan. 13.
Also Thursday, the Quorum Report reported that state Rep. Jose Menendez, also D-San Antonio, confirmed he would compete for the District 26 seat.
Menendez, who’s served in the House along with Martinez Fischer since 2001, hass been considering the race for several weeks.
See expressnews.com or Friday's print edition for complete coverage of the San Antonio delegation shake up.


Arizona State on Saturday dropped its final non-conference contest, 52-45 at Texas Tech. ASU is 1-2 for the first time since 1999. Let's review.
Arizona State on Saturday dropped its final non-conference contest, 52-45 at Texas Tech. The Sun Devils are 1-2 for the first time since 1999.
1. ASU showed something. For most of the first half, the Sun Devils looked like they were on their way to getting routed. They had snapping issues, tackling breakdowns and a head-scratching special-teams mistake. They trailed 21-3, 35-17 and 42-24. Yet, somehow they pulled themselves together and gave themselves a chance. Yes, only wins matter. But Saturday's comeback was the season's most positive development. That's why it's relevant.
2. The offensive line still has issues. ASU made the expected changes. Sophomore Cohl Cabral started at center and sophomore Zach Robertson started at left tackle. In some ways, it backfired. Cabral’s poor snap in the first quarter led to a Texas Tech touchdown and a 21-3 deficit. ASU quickly went back to previous starter A.J. McCollum – and his first snap nearly went over the quarterback's head. Overall, the Sun Devils were better up front, but the sooner they can find a trustworthy five, particularly at center, the better off they'll be.
3. The Sun Devils need good news with Koron Crump. Midway through the first quarter, the senior rush linebacker was hit while rushing out to defend a pass play. Crump’s left foot appeared to stick in the turf while he got pushed back. He didn’t return. In his first season out of junior college, Crump last season was an All-Pac-12 second-team performer. An extended absence would hurt a defense that needs all the help it can get.
Overall, this was ASU’s best’s performance of the season. The Sun Devils put up season highs in points (45), rushing yards (168) and total yards (494). They had seven plays of 20-plus yards. Junior QB Manny Wilkins completed 27 of 41 for 326 yards and three TDs. Through three weeks, he’s one of only three quarterbacks in the nation to have 100-plus pass attempts without an interception. … For the first time, it seemed ASU made it a priority to get N’Keal Harry involved. The sophomore receiver had a career-best 13 catches for 148 yards and a TD. With Wilkins throwing a block, Harry also picked up 17 yards on a reverse. Overall, Harry’s 24 receptions rank ninth nationally. … Sophomore WR Kyle Williams was a force as well, hauling in seven catches for 111 yards and two TDs. He also had a couple nice blocks. ... Wilkins and senior WR Ryan Jenkins miscommunicated on a short route in the second quarter that could’ve turned into a big play. Wilkins threw a poor pass, leading Jenkins too far, but Jenkins didn't seem to be expecting the ball at all. He was wide open. ... Robertson had two false starts, one on ASU's failed final drive.
Texas Tech will move the ball on just about everyone, but ASU made it too easy for the Red Raiders. They totaled 615 yards, averaging 7.8 per play, and had eight plays of 20-plus yards. With the game on the line, Texas Tech drove 90 yards in 12 plays for the go-ahead score. A big moment: Letting Texas Tech convert third and 8 with 5 minutes left. Overall, Texas Tech converted seven of 15 third downs. Through three weeks, ASU’s 54.55 defensive third-down conversion rate is worst in the country. … ASU’s tackling was awful in the first half. The ball pursuit was OK; the Sun Devils just didn’t finish (see video above). The corners also appeared to struggle shedding blocks. ASU was better in the second half. … In the third quarter, junior Demonte King replaced junior Dasmond Tautalatasi at down (strong) safety and played well, possibly earning himself more time this week.
For the second week in a row, ASU gift-wrapped points to the opponent before halftime. Against San Diego State, the Sun Devils shanked a punt, giving the Aztecs a short field. Against Texas Tech, they lined up in a spread formation – three players split wide on each side, four around the ball. Texas Tech used just a three-man rush and Ja’Deion High broke through untouched to block Michael Sleep-Dalton's punt. Texas Tech scored five plays later to take a 35-17 halftime lead. I asked Graham about ASU's formation. "We were running a spread punt to – we run it all the time," Graham said. Actually, it was the first time ASU had lined up that way in a game all season. And on this night, it cost the Sun Devils. … Freshman Brandon Ruiz missed a 41-yard FG but otherwise had a solid night. He later made a 44-yard field goal. Ruiz also produced touchbacks on all eight kickoffs. Considering ASU gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown against San Diego State, that was significant. … After missing the first two games with a quad injury, sophomore Ryan Newsome returned a punt for 11 yards. ... Sleep-Dalton punted with his right (dominant) leg. He had punted with his left the past two weeks. He punted twice, averaging 45.5 yards, dropping one inside the 20.
As expected, sophomore WR John Humphrey (knee) did not play. … Senior RB Demario Richard returned from a leg injury and looked good, rushing for 53 yards and a TD. ... Senior DE Alani Latu initially shifted to rush linebacker after Crump left the game, but defensive coordinator Phil Bennett rotated in players throughout the contest. Junior DT Renell Wren, freshman DT Shannon Forman and sophomore DT George Lea all saw action. Junior Abraham Thompson (rush linebacker) and redshirt-freshman Chase Lucas (corner) played most of the second half. … Sophomore LB Malik Lawal replaced junior LB Christian Sam in the second quarter after Sam got banged up. (Sam returned.) … Sophomore Terrell Chatman had his first career catch. ... Junior RG Alex Losoya got snaps at right guard in the first half.
ASU opens Pac-12 action Saturday against Oregon. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Sun Devil Stadium. The Ducks (3-0) are coming off Saturday’s 49-13 win at Wyoming.
Contact Doug Haller at 602-444-4949 or at doug.haller@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/DougHaller. Download the ASU Pick Six Podcast, available on iTunes.


Two nights after tying a school record with 19 threes, DePaul (10-4, 2-0 Big East) used a big second quarter run and a solid defensive outing to fend off a surging St John’s (7-6, 1-1 Big East) squad to hold on for a 76-67 victory at McGrath-Phillips Arena Saturday night.
Two nights after recording the fourth triple double in DePaul women’s basketball history, sophomore Kelly Campbell nearly did it for the second consecutive night with 10 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists. After achieving one of her career goals, Campbell was intent on following that up with another good game focusing on the little details like rebounding.
After weathering a hot start from the Red Storm, the Blue Demons held the visitors to just two points in the final five minutes of the opening quarter to emerge with a six-point edge after the opening 10 minutes.
Similar to Thursday’s win over Seton Hall, the Blue Demons then used a big second quarter outscoring the Red Storm 29-13 to open up a 49-27 lead at the break. The Blue Demons did their damage both inside and outside shooting 58 percent in the first half, while knocking down seven threes. DePaul head coach Doug Bruno looked at the game as a tale of three games.
After starting the game hot shooting close to 60 percent in the first five minutes, the Red Storm went cold and were held to just 37 percent in the first half. This included holding St John’s Alisha Kebbe scoreless in the first half, after she led the team with 16 points two nights earlier against Marquette.
Amarah Coleman scored 8 points Saturday against St. Johns.
On the other hand, it was a better night for DePaul senior guard Amarah Coleman who finished with nine points and eight rebounds after playing just six minutes in the win over Seton Hall due to foul trouble. After the game, her coach was pleased with the way she bounced back and was able to stay out of foul trouble.
The Red Storm were not going away quietly however closing within eight after opening the third quarter on a 17-3 run, in which the Blue Demons went almost nine minutes without a field goal. Campbell credited the Red Storm with playing better on ball defense that disrupted a normally high-scoring Blue Demon offense.
The Blue Demons got the momentum back 8-0 run to close the quarter that featured a layup from Lauren Prochaska and a four-point play from junior forward Mart’e Grays to end the quarter. The Blue Demons extended the run to 19-6 run in the first four minutes of the quarter opening up a 21 point lead they would not surrender despite the best efforts of the Red Storm who closed back within nine.
Grays who finished with a team high 18 points, sensed her four-point play gave the team a confidence boost heading into the fourth quarter on a positive note.
The Blue Demons now head on the road for the first of three straight away games when they take on Marquette Thursday night. In what has been a unique schedule all year, the Blue Demons will then play two straight at Wintrust before returning to face Marquette at McGrath-Phillips Arena in late January.


After seven years with West Lafayette Community School Corp., Rocky Killion has been selected the 2015 superintendent of the year for District 4 by the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents.
He is one of eight district winners. District 4 consists of Benton, Clay, Fountain, Greene, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Vermillion, Vigo and Warren counties. Administrators from the surrounding counties consider the qualifications and accomplishments of area colleagues and their instructional leadership.
Killion also stood out because of his financial crisis resolution.
Killion assumed his role in 2007 after working as superintendent of Lake Central School Corp. At the time, the West Lafayette district had been in deficit spending. A reduction in state funding in 2009 added to the urgency.
With help from the West Lafayette Community Foundation, the district created the Save Our School campaign. The one-time fundraiser garnered $217,000 and saved five teaching positions. A general fund referendum was passed in May 2010.
The superintendents group noted that Killion also helped produce “Rise Above the Mark,” a documentary that examines issues confronting public education.
Killion has been published in a number of education journals and serves on several community boards and organizations.
“I hope I can continue to make a difference to ensure all children, regardless of where they live, have a world-class education system,” he said.