Datasets:

nixiesearch

/

bfhnd-small

like 0

Follow

Nixiesearch 4

[ "damage to the motor system" ]

[ "causative", "probable cause", "challenge for cause", "proximate cause", "cause an explosion", "What's Up?", "Just Cause", "What a Friend", "Lost Cause", "What's Happening!!", "a motor", "cause and effect", "What's in It for Me", "things are what they are", "cause célèbre", "What If Nothing", "What a Life!", "motorized", "What A Night", "What If It's You", "What Are Words", "What Not to Wear", "What Car?", "what is visible", "What Part of No", "congenital disorder", "What If We", "What So Not", "What a Waste", "What Is a Youth", "panic disorder", "What Tingsamitr" ]

[ "Some of the greatest minds in national security have turned their attention to a classic problem: When there is one dominant power, the rest of the world tries to challenge it. That's what happened to Britain in the 19th century and to the United States today. The same thing is happening in the world of rap. \"The way that rappers compete with each other — this is soft power,\" says Marc Lynch, author of a recent article for Foreign Policy.com comparing world politics to rap feuds. \"This is the way you try and make a reputation, try and get what you want, and you have to do it through this very intricate series of alliances.\" He adds, \"There's rules to follow and, when you break those rules, there's consequences.\" That's because groups of rappers will get together and gang up on other rappers. Lynch, professor at George Washington University and the director of the Institute of Middle East Studies, tells Steve Inskeep he has always been a rap fan and is interested in parallels between rap, political science and international reactions. The Rapper Feud The conflict in question is between established rapper Jay-Z and and up-and-comer known as The Game. Jay-Z has been attacking other rappers for using Auto-Tune software, which corrects pitch while singers record. Auto-Tune is widely used in the industry, but Jay-Z is making a call for authenticity. \"He's saying 'these are the rules of the international system. If you want to be a civilized member of our international society, you have to not pursue nuclear weapons,\"' Lynch says. The Game is using the opportunity to tag Jay-Z as old and irrelevant. There's a history of this in the rap world: 50 Cent rose to power by destroying the career of Ja Rule. Jay-Z did that to a number of people while he was a rising power. \"If you go back to, like, 19th century bounce-power politics, this is how rising powers would make it,\" Lynch says, citing conflicts between Japan and Russian as well as among rising powers in Europe. \"If they wanted to get somewhere, they had to take someone out.\" Relevance On The National Political Scene The difference today is that we're in a uni-polar world with the United States on top. In the rap world, Jay-Z is that guy. The Game is the erratic wildcard. \"He's North Korea; he's Iran,\" Lynch says. \"He might not win, but he can hurt you if he drags you down into this extended occupation, this extended counterinsurgency campaign.\" Why is he doing this? After Jay-Z released \"D.O.A. ('Death of Auto-Tune')\" The Game saw an opportunity to peel off Jay-Z's key alliance partners to form a coalition and undermine Jay-Z's hegemony. Even if he loses the fight with Jay-Z, The Game's stock goes up because he's \"in\" with the big guy. All The Game has to do, Lynch says, is survive. Lynch says that, like the United States, a hegemon like Jay-Z can't afford to get into little battles all the time. \"So Jay-Z, like the United States after the war in Iraq, has got a tough decision to make,\" he says. \"Do you ignore these provocations? But then they might spread — then people might think that you're weak. Do you hit down really hard? You could maybe destroy The Game, but you're going to be exhausted in the process.\" It's like the United States having to fight counterinsurgency campaigns worldwide. The more powerful you are, Lynch says, the more limits there are on your ability to use that power." ]

[ "Can the Grammy Awards rebound from last year's low ratings? Which performances are getting the early buzz? Plus, why is Beyonce raising the ire of the great soul divas? For answers, Tony Cox talks with co-host Allison Samuels. She is also national correspondent for Newsweek magazine. TONY COX, host: I'm Tony Cox, and this is News & Notes. It's Friday, so we get to touch on the lighter side of things today on News & Notes. And to do that, our own maven of the entertainment beat - I like that, I like that - Allison Samuels, here in the studio with me. Hey, Allison. ALLISON SAMUELS: Hi. How're you doing? COX: Big weekend here in town. It's the music industries big night on Sunday, lots of big parties, flash bulbs, red carpets, limos. But the Grammys haven't exactly had huge ratings in recent years. 2008 was one of the worse ever, in fact. Trying to drum up some early buzz this time, though, by announcing the Grammys during a live televised concert. So, do people still care about them? What's up with this? SAMUELS: That's interesting. I don't know if - you know, there so much you can find out on the Internet. There so many - you know, you can go to YouTube and watch some many different kind of performances. I don't think it still has the same, you know, interest level among young kids as it once had. But this year, they're trying to, you know, bringing it up by having people like Jay Z and, you know, Lil Wayne perform. So, I think that might make a little bit of a difference. But I do feel like, you know, there's been a wane of interest over the last couple of years. COX: So, what performances are getting the most early buzz? Which ones do you think we should be looking forward to it? SAMUELS: Well, I always look forward to Lil Wayne, because... COX: Really? SAMUELS: Yes, because Lil Wayne is just very interesting. And I think if he and Jay Z are going to be there together, I mean, what - you know, there's no telling what to expect. So... COX: But he's up for, what, eight nominations? SAMUELS: Yeah, which is really amazing. COX: Did he really call himself the best rapper alive? SAMUELS: Yeah. He calls himself many things, though. So, I'm not surprise about that. I mean, that's Lil Wayne, you know what I mean? He does... COX: Is he the best rapper alive? SAMUELS: He's the best rapper right now. I don't think he's the best - I mean, you know what I mean? Right now on the charts, I think he is the best rapper and most certainly the most dominant rapper right now. COX: The best rapper alive right now on the charts. SAMUELS: Yes. COX: That works for you? SAMUELS: That works for me. I think that works for him, too, probably. (Soundbite of laughter) COX: One of the highlights of last year's Grammy Awards was a little cat fight... SAMUELS: Yes, yes. COX: Between Aretha Franklin, the queen, and Beyonce, the heir to the throne. Refresh our memory about what that little feud was about. SAMUELS: Well, Beyonce referred to Tina Turner as the queen of soul, which is just a no-no, because we know the queen of soul is Aretha Franklin. COX: Yes, we do. SAMUELS: And Aretha didn't take kindly to that, and Aretha sort of let Beyonce know that she didn't really appreciate her saying that. So, it sort of went back and forth, but it died down a little bit. But anybody who knows Aretha, you just don't mess with Aretha like that. COX: All right, so that was last year's version of the feud. SAMUELS: Yeah. COX: We have a new version. SAMUELS: Yes, we do. COX: It seems now that Beyonce has raised the temperature of another soul legend. This time around, it is Etta James. SAMUELS: Yes. COX: The 71-year-old singer blasted Beyonce from the stage in Seattle last week. Here's what she said. (Soundbite of concert, January 28, 2009) Ms. ETTA JAMES (Singer): I can't stand Beyonce. She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever. (Soundbite of applause) COX: Ouch. You know, she said she was kidding later, but she didn't sound like she was kidding to me. SAMUELS: I think - I don't think she was kidding. What I think it is, is that there's - and this is just my estimation - a Beyonce fatigue. Beyonce is sort of everywhere, and I like Beyonce, but I do think there's a point in your career where you have to sort of step back and give other people moment to shine, and I don't think she's really done a lot of that. And I understand, sometimes as a celebrity, you want to capture the moment; you don't want to leave because if you leave, you feel like you can't come back. COX: Right, right. SAMUELS: But people do get a little sick of seeing you, and I really think at this point, Beyonce has sort of worn out her welcome in so many ways, I think, with sort of some of her peers in the industry. COX: Really? SAMUELS: Yeah, I mean, I like her. I think everybody likes her. But I wouldn't - it wouldn't hurt for her to take six months off an", "Awards shows often mirror current events, from politically pointed acceptance speeches to winners whose subject matter feels especially relevant in the moment. The 69th Emmy Awards, held Sunday night, didn't skimp on either, as The Handmaid's Tale, Saturday Night Live and Veep posted strong — even dominant — showings over the course of the night. \"He's the reason I'm probably up here,\" Atlanta star Donald Glover said of President Trump, while accepting an award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Kate McKinnon won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Saturday Night Live, on which she famously played Hillary Clinton; her counterpart, Trump impersonator Alec Baldwin, also won, and took an unsurprising jab at the president in his acceptance speech. Riz Ahmed, winner of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for The Night Of, praised the work of the Innocence Project and South Asian Youth Action in his speech. It was a big night for juggernauts. The evening's final honoree, Outstanding Drama Series winner The Handmaid's Tale, gave star Elisabeth Moss her first Emmy in nine nominations; Ann Dowd also won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Reed Morano took an award for her work as one of the show's directors, and Bruce Miller won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. (The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood even took the stage at the end of the night.) Big Little Lies stormed the Outstanding Limited Series categories in which it was nominated — with wins for actors Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard — and won a directing award for Jean-Marc Vallée. Veep and Atlanta split the major comedy categories. The former took Outstanding Comedy Series, while star Julia Louis-Dreyfus set an Emmy record for her sixth consecutive win playing the same character. (She'd previously tied Candice Bergen, who'd won five in a row as the star of Murphy Brown.) Atlanta took two big awards of its own, both for creator/star Donald Glover: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. But the comedy category's most dramatic win of the night came when Master of None writers and co-stars Lena Waithe and Aziz Ansari won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series — and received a standing ovation. The coming-out story they'd told in Master of None's \"Thanksgiving\" episode was reflected in Waithe's speech, in which she thanked \"my LGBQTIA family,\" of whom she said, \"The things that make us different, those are superpowers. ... [T]he world would not be as beautiful as it is if you weren't in it.\" Host Stephen Colbert opened the show with a musical number, in which he visited actors in character — including cast members from Stranger Things, The Americans and Veep — and made room for a guest verse from Chance the Rapper (!!!), whose words hinted at the political overtones of the telecast to follow: \"I love television, it's a pleasant distraction / But just imagine taking action / I like Brooklyn Nine-Nine; in fact, I'm addicted / But where's the cop show where one gets convicted?\" Elsewhere, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer made a less rapturously received cameo in which he bragged about the size of the Emmys audience. Other winners included Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (for a writing award and Outstanding Variety Talk Series), This Is Us' Sterling K. Brown (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series), The Crown's John Lithgow (Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series), Black Mirror (Outstanding Television Movie and a writing award), and The Voice (Outstanding Reality-Competition Program)." ]

[ "common theme : blame white people for everything. blah blah blah" ]

[ "Modernist literature is the literary form of modernism, it should not be confused with modern literature, which is the history of the modern novel and modern poetry.\\n\\nModernist literature was at its height from 1900 to 1940, and featured such authors as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, H.D., Franz Kafka, Menno ter Braak and Ernest Hemingway.\\n\\nModernist literature has attempted to move from the bonds of realist literature and introduce concepts as disjointed timelines. Modernism was distinguished by emancipatory metanarrative. In the wake of modernism, and post-enlightenment, metanarratives tended to be emancipatory, whereas beforehand this was not a definite. Contemporary metanarratives were failing with World War I, the rise of trade unionism, and a general disconent. Something had to perform a unifying function, and this was the point when culture became politically important.\\n\\nModernist literature is defined by its move away from Romanticism, venturing into subject matter that is traditionally mundane--a prime example being The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. Modernist Literature often features a marked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in Victorian literature. In fact, \"a common motif in modernist fiction is that of an alienated individual--a dysfunctional individual trying in vain to make sense of a predominantly urban and fragmented society\". However, many modernist works like T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land are marked by the absence of a central, heroic figure; in rejecting the solipsism of Romantics like Shelley and Byron, these works reject the subject of Cartesian dualism and collapse narrative and narrator into a collection of disjointed fragments and overlapping voices.\\n\\nModernist literature goes beyond the limitations of the realist novel with its concern for larger factors such as social or historical change; this is largely demonstrated in \"stream of consciousness\" writing. Examples can be seen in Virginia Woolf's Kew Gardens and Mrs Dalloway, James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, Katherine Porter's Flowering Judas, and others.\\n\\nModernism as a literary movement is seen, in large part, as a reaction to the emergence of city life as a central force in society.\\n\\nMany modernist works are studied in schools today, from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, to T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.\\n\\nT.S. Eliot's The Waste Land was a foundational text of modernism. It represented the moment in which imagism moved in to modernism proper. It is a text in which broken, fragmented, and seemingly unrelated images come together. It is an anti-narrative and is disjunctive. The metaphor of seeing and vision is central to the poem. This was central to modernism. We, as readers, are in confusion, we have an inability to see anything except a heap of broken images. However, the narrator (in The Waste Land as well as other texts) promised to show the reader a different meaning; to show the reader how to make meaning from dislocation and from fragments. This construction of an exclusive meaning was essential to modernism.\\n\\n\\nCharacteristics of Modernism: Formal Characteristics:\\n\\nOpen Form \\nFree Verse \\nDiscontinuous narrative \\nJuxtaposition \\nIntertextuality \\nClassical allusions \\nBorrowings from other cultures and languages \\n\\n\\nThematic Characteristics:\\n\\nBreakdown of social norms and cultural sureties \\nAlienation of the individual within their broken and fractured community \\nDislocation of meaning and sense from its normal context \\nValorization of the despairing individual in the force of an unmanagable future \\nRejection of history and the substitution of a mythical past, borrowed without chronology \\nProduct of the metropolis, of cities and urbanscapes", "A literary interpretation is an assesment of a literary work, in which one mentions how they perceived the literature and what they belive the author is trying to portray. Most literary devices mention things such as symbolism, imagery, and themes found in the literature.", "Read the definition below. It is a Latin phrase - not \"coined\" or \"invented\" by any particular individual.\\n\\nLiterally, the phrase is Latin for \"seize the day,\" from carpere (to pluck, harvest, or grab) and the accusative form of die (day). The term refers to a common moral or theme in classical literature that the reader should make the most out of life and should enjoy it before it ends. Poetry or literature that illustrates this moral is often called poetry or literature of the \"carpe diem\" tradition.", "'Romantic language\" refers to its origins in latin. Latin was combined with various celtic languages such as Iberian, Brenton, Gaulian, Goth, etc. There are 4 accepted \"Romantic Languages\": French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.\\n\\nit is just like romantic literature. \"Modern romance\" is your gushy love stories. A \"classic\" or \"true\" romance is an adventure story worthy of pleasing the old Roman gods, such as the battles of Julius Caesar in Gaulia (modern France).", "Children are more exposed to sex on television and music. Children’s books don't seem to have changed that much. The world is a very sexual place and media has relaxed restrictions on what is acceptable and the morals of society have changed because of that, but books for children, no. Adolescents defiantly are dealing with more sex in their literature and lives. With MTV and BET and the music videos, I guess it is right for their books to attempt to educate them and deal with sexual themes.", "Because Nobel decided to give only for important discovery in physics, medicine, chemistry, literature and peace. Later there was added another category: economy. This category could be called a nobel prize for math, because most of modern mathematicians deal with problems in economy.", "Whose presidency?\\n\\nI dunno. I guess the common theme would be that they were elected... and they handled it by showing up for work on the first day.", "The underlying theme is divine intervention according to the director, 'god' is explaining to donnie why he must die and what might happen if he lived. Donnie becomes a modern day Jesus in a way.\\nPersonally I think that's just too heavy and cold, I always like to think he went back to save Grechen...but even then it's because of 'god's will'", "What piece of art or literature are you speaking about? And why is this in the Religion section?", "here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna make my 15 a tropical theme or a fun-rock star theme with a guitar cake!", "Common Slavonic\\nCommon Slavonic was the common language spoken by the Slavs. In the 10th–12th centuries Common Slavonic eventually broke up into the ancestors of the modern Slavic languages.\\n\\nThe Common Slavic language spoken before the 6th century is reconstructed, as there are no documents written in this language, and called Proto-Slavic.\\n\\nOld Church Slavonic can be regarded as a literary variant of Common Slavonic.", "I have to ask you a question. What is the difference between a small business for a minority and a small business for a 'non-minority'? ANY business is okay for a minority.", "Hypotenuse comes from the common Greek root hypo(for under, as in hypodermic -under the skin) and the less common tein or ten, for stretch. This last is the source of our modern word tension. The hypotenuse was the line segment \"stretched under\" the right angle.", "You can write a bibilography which is a comprehensive list of bibliography. You should outline:\\n\\n* author;\\n* subject or title of book;\\n* country or state; \\n* published in a specified period \\n* mentioned in, or relevant to, a particular work.\\n\\nA bibliography of this type, sometimes called a reference list should normally appear at the end of any paper in scientific literature. There is also an analytical biography which subdivides books into descriptive, historical or textual.\\n\\nThe purpose of the bibliography defines its format. Different academic fields have their own requirements. According to the Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, the four most common format styles are those of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the Chicago Manual of Style, and the Council of Science Editors, formerly known as the Council of Biology Editors (CBE) and still referred to as CBE style. \\n\\nThe MLA style is most common in the fields of literature, foreign languages, and other humanities subjects. In research papers that conform to the MLA style, the bibliography is a list of works cited and contains information such as the author, title, and date of publication for the sources used to write the paper.", "Try\\n\\n15th century in literature \\n14th century in literature - Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer \\n13th century in literature \\n12th century in literature \\n11th century in literature \\n10th century in literature \\nEarly Medieval literature \\nAncient literature \\nRetrieved from \"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_years_in_literature\"", "What power does knowledge have if you can't pass it on?\\n\\nTrue literature is knowledge, knowledge is power.", "It depends on the type of contract - many players have split contracts that say something like \"Player X will earn $330,000/yr if on the major league roster and $50,000 if in the minor leagues.\" This is fairly common with players who are early in their career, who are also the only ones who can be sent to the minors without their approval.", "No, it was not. The etymology of butterfly is very straightforward:OE buttor-fleoge, with the first part of the compound meaning exactly what it means today and going back as far as Greek 'boutoron', and the second common Germanic 'fleogan' (to fly), OE 'flyge' or 'fleoge', modern German 'Fliege', all of them meaning 'the fly'. The alleged spoonerism is a myth.", "The book is generally considered to be the dawn of the modern Western literature.\\n\\nWhile eastern civilizations (notably Chinese and Persian) had written records and stories, Odyssey recorded a legend and a fable at a time when not much was recorded and written down other than official state histories.\\n\\nMoreover, the clever use of wit, hyperbole and structure made the work of Homer a truly visionary piece of art.", "Main idea is a statement that summarizes what the entire book is about. Theme is a short statement that gives the overall lesson learned or message. There's only one real main idea (though several ways to state it), but there are many possible themes.", "Studying Physics involves a great deal of thinking. Just by doing questions from textbooks or those set by teachers and lectures are not enough. \\n\\nTheories and concepts in Classical Physics can usually be understood by using common sense. However, common sense doesn't work for modern Phyiscs or Quantum Phyiscs.", "theme is the central idea on which a plot,theory or story etc is based.the story will revolve and rest on this idea.theme is more of what is conveyed to us by means of the story.\\nsubject is the raw material on which we work and develop the story or theory.The subject helps us proceed and arrive at the theme.", "I agree; humans and modern monkeys share a common ancestor. Homosapien sapien (what *we* are) actually directly descended from homo erectus. \\n\\nAll the scientific evidence backs this common descent up, btw. We share a common morphology with chimps as well as a common molecular make up, which indicates that we share a common ancestor. How else would you rationally explian it?\\n\\nFurthermore we share malfunctioning genes. One in particular is a gene that prevents our bodies from producing vitamin C. It seems that far back in our line of descent one of our distant ancestors was able to produce vitamin C. This production was halted by a mutation - a mutation that all modern chimps share with us. This is powerful evidence for a common lineage between chimps and humans because the best explanation is that this mutation was passed on through our evolutionary heritage. \\n\\nThe creationist answer is, quite frankly, retarded. They would have us believe that an all knowing and all benevolent entity created humans and chimps with a gene that produces vitamin C AND a gene that inhibits it's production. An *intelligent* designer would just not have put in the genes for producing vitamin C in the first place!", "That depends on your taste, and the style of the room. If you live in a cold place, and you want to brighten up your room, go with a warm theme like orage/red. If you want a modern/cool look, try light blue/green. Go to your local hardware stores, get sample cards, and use your imagination. You'll find something you like.", "Mr Bill Gates. Thanks to him, we have modern desk tops Microsoft computers. Many now have them in their homes, and they are now as common-place as Biro pens.", "If you have previously downloaded the theme and wish to enable it or switch from your current theme, go to the 'Tools' menu, then select 'Themes' Now click the theme you wish to use, click 'Use Theme'. You will now need to close all Firefox windows and re-open Firefox in order for the new theme to be used.", "Tamil is a classical language and one of the major languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Spoken predominanty by Tamilians in South India and Sri Lanka, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the 18th most spoken language in the world with over 74 million speakers worldwide.\\n\\nAs one of the few living classical languages, Tamil has an unbroken literary tradition of over two millennia. The written language has changed little during this period, with the result that classical literature is as much a part of everyday Tamil as modern literature. Tamil schoolchildren, for example, are still taught the alphabet using the átticúdi, an alphabet rhyme written around the first century A.D..", "The series is still running. However, I don't know the artist's name who wrote the opening theme. I assume this is what you are looking for?\\n\\nHowever, check out this page if you're looking for the theme song:\\n\\nhttp://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Battlestar%20Intro.htm", "No. Literature is the study of written art, in the form of novels, stories, or poetry. Grammar is the study of language, in the form of sentence structure, word selection, and written composition. Grammar is an aspect of literature study, since proper grammar and grammatical choices can offer insight to literature. Grammar, however, is applicable to more than just literature, and is funamental to a proper understanding of language even in everyday discussions or quick e-mails. Grammar should be taught and mastered before literature is carefully examined. Grammar applies to a broader array of fields; literature os a more narrow and advanced topic.", "Out of curiosity, I looked up some of the common heart meds to see whether they can cause back pain. This is what I found:\\n\\nACE inhibitors can cause low back pain in 0.5% cases.\\n\\nBeta-blockers showed small percentage of low back pain and arthralgias, some of it severe (metoprolol).\\n\\nHCTZ has a report about one case of significant myalgias (muscle pain) and muscle spasm. That could happen especially in the setting of inadequate blood potassium level.\\n\\nThese are the most common heart meds and yes, accoridng to literature findings, they can cause low back pain. For what it's worth, though, I have been treating patients with cardiovascular drugs for some years now and have never seen this problem. The literature reports often discuss single cases (like HCTZ) or very small percentages that do not correlate with reality of large populations that well. By the way, all drugs now have websites...plug in your specific med and look for \"Musculoskeletal adverse or side effects\" area. Hope that helps!", "Rathindranath Tagore a very gifted poet of Bengal. I've heard him described as one of the greatest poets of all times. The poet of the east--a master of religion, philosophy, literature, music, painting and education.\"Every woman and man should strive to secure the light of truth, and live simply and wisely for the common good.\" (R.Tagore). All my knowledge of Tagore comes from one short chapter I read in a book. I don't know alot about him but I admire him from what I've read.", "Not sure if this would help you.\\n\\nRoobaroo by Naresh Iyer and ARR \\n\\nAn excellent example of a very simple set of musical themes combined artistically to produce an enjoyable song. For the most part, the lead vocals are repeating the same tones several times. There are just 3 musical themes in the lead vocals (accompanied by varying rhythm patterns and accompaniments). To illustrate, here is what happens in the song: \\n• A simple (and typical) guitar loop repeats throughout. \\n• Naresh’s lead vocals (Theme 1)– (For C major lovers, I think the notes are \\nF A F C …. D F G A) repeatedly. \\n• ARR singing Roobaroo…Roshni. ARR sings only these 6 notes in the entire song \\n• Naresh’s Theme 1 again repeats 5 more times \\n• ARR singing Roobaroo…Roshni \\n• Naresh’s Theme 2 \\n• Naresh’s Theme 3 – My favorite few measures of the song. This is ARR’s genius … carnatic-sounding yet youthful: \\nAandhiyon se jhagad rahi hai lau meri …. \\nAb mashaalon si badh rahi hail au meri \\n• Naresh’s lead vocals (Theme 1)– \\n• ARR singing Roobaroo…Roshni \\n• Theme 2. \\n• Theme 1" ]

[ "Bicarbonate levels are measured to monitor the acidity of the blood and body fluids. The acidity is affected by the function of the kidneys and lungs. 70%-75% of CO2 in the body is converted into carbonic acid (H2CO3) which can quickly turn into bicarbonate. Acidity is also affected by medications and food we ingest. Make sure you're not confusing Bicarbonate (which is naturally produced in the human body by the pancreas) with Sodium Bicarbonate (which is not). Bicarbonat … e (HCO3−) is an alkaline that acts as a buffer to maintain the normal levels of acidity (pH) in blood and other fluids in the body." ]

[ "What is the chemical name for HCO3? Q: What is the oldest historical chart in the United States? Q: What are some Pomo Indian facts for kids? Q: Where does the Leonid meteor shower get its name from?", "What does a wall sit do? What does it do to the lower body muscles? Any benefits?", "Bicarb Vd = (0.4 + 2.6/HCO3-) x Lean body weight. Bicarbonate deficit = Bicarb Vd x (desired [HCO3-] - measured [HCO3-]) Lean body weight defined as usual IBW equations: Estimated ideal body weight in (kg): Males: IBW = 50 kg + 2.3 kg for each inch over 5 feet. Females: IBW = 45.5 kg + 2.3 kg for each inch over 5 feet.", "What does your spleen do for your body. The spleen produces lymphocytes, filters the blood, stores blood cells, and destroys old blood cells. ChaCha for now! [ Source: http://www.chacha.com/question/what-does-your-spleen-do-for-your-body ] More Answers to What does your spleen do for your body.", "Symptoms of Mononucleosis include fatigue, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, headache , skin rash , loss of appetite and fever. [ Source: http://www.chacha.com/question/what-does-mono-do-to-you-and-your-body ] More Answers to What does mono do to you and your body. Symptoms of Mononucleosis include fatigue, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, headache , skin rash , loss of appetite and fever. [ Source: http://www.chacha.com/question/what-does-mono-do-to-you-and-your-body ] More Answers to What does mono do to you and your body. TOP. Prev Question: Why do my butt muscles hurt.", "What are the top vitamin C benefits and what, exactly, does vitamin C do for your body? Learn about ascorbic acid, and what are the best vitamin c foods. What are the top vitamin C benefits and what, exactly, does vitamin C do for your body?", "Estrogen and what it does: Effects on the female body. Muscles of the body: System and how it works. Endocrine system: Hormones and what they do to the body. Development of the female body: From puberty to adulthood.", "Bicarbonate deficit: The amount of bicarbonate req'd to correct a metabolic acidosis can be estimated from the following formula: Volume of distribution (Vd) = Total body weight (kg) x [0.4 + (2.4/[HCO3-]) (Deficit) mEq of NaHCO3 = Vd x target change in [HCO3-]", "What is a throttle body and what does it do? What happens if you continue to drive with a damaged one? My engine light came on and the dealer said they cleaned my throttle body and reset the engine light but if it comes back on then I will have to replace the throttle body. I have a long distance move coming up, is it safe to drive my car on this move? What does a throttle body do anyway?", "What does the heart do and what system is it. The heart pumps blood to the body and consists of left nd right tre nd one ventricle.... What does the lungs do and what system is it from. In the lungs oxygen enters the blood and carbon dioxcide is realised into the air.", "what does the golgi body do? im doing a cell project and i need to know what these following things do Golgi body smooth er and the rough er Source(s): golgi body do: https://shortly.im/4ShYg Anonymous · 2 years ago", "Why does the body sweat when a fever breaks? 4. Ask students: In what other ways does the body self-regulate? 5. Have students do the Body Control Center Web activity. Discuss the following: What is homeostasis? What controls human heart rate? Under what conditions does heart rate change? How is respiration rate controlled? Could you hold your breath indefinitely? What would happen? In what different ways does the body control temperature? How does the body maintain a steady level of sugar in the bloodstream?", "Ever wondered what does coke do to you and your body when you drink it? Here is a timeline of how your body reacts to this popular soda drink. Ever wondered what does coke do to you and your body when you drink it? Here is a timeline of how your body reacts to this popular soda drink. Daily Health Post", "What role does the nervous system play in the functions of the body? It integrate what information is bad and good and sends signals througout the body telling it what to do What are some sources of stimulation that start a nerve impulse?", "What Does Nicotine Do to Your Body? What Does Nicotine Do to Your Body? Nicotine, the active and addictive ingredient of tobacco, is a mild central nervous system stimulant and a stronger cardiovascular system stimulant. It constricts blood vessels, increasing the blood pressure and stimulating the heart, and raises the blood fat levels.", "it seems sometimes to be taken for granted that governance means the same thing as what a governing body does or what it ought to do teachers teach leaders and managers lead and manage governors governt seems sometimes to be taken for granted that governance means the same thing as what a governing body does or what it ought to do teachers teach leaders and managers lead and manage governors govern", "Moves oxygen around in the body What does the Lymphatic system do? Returns leaked fluid back to the circulatory system What is the major transportation of fluid? Blood What is the major transportation system in the body?", "What happens to your body when you use ice? by Nicola Garrett. Ice has been called the most dangerous and destructive drug of our time. But what exactly does it do to your body?", "What parts of the female body do you like the most and why? What part of your body are you the most proud of and why? Is there a part of the human body that does not get cancer? How do hospitals handle bodies? If I had to have any body part amputated, could I legally demand from the hospital to give the amputated body part back to me after amputation...", "What Does Your Body Do to Excess Vitamin B or C That You Might Consume? The Best Foods to Eat to Clean Out Your Colon; The Health Effects of Eating Raw Garlic Daily; Green Chili Health Benefits; What Do Garlic Cloves Do for Your Body?", "What body system does this organ belong to?: Liver ... What body system does this organ belong to?: Tendons ... what system does the liver belong to, What body system does the liver belong tooYour liver cleans your blood and plays an important part in digestion. ...", "3. federal open market committees what is the name of the fed's chief policy making body? and what does it do? Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and it decides what to do with taxes and things related to the economy", "What affect does lack of protein do to your body? Your body has a lot of protein, so if it suddenly decreases, your body will most likely deteriorate, or break down. Edit", "Any hormonal birthcontrol (the patch, the ring, the pill and injections) take over what your body does naturally, and TELLS it what to do instead. When you stop taking birth control, your body has to take back over and re-learn what it should be doing. Time Frame: Diffrent for everyone.", "What kind of surgery does a vet have to do? hello i just wanted to know what types of surgery a vet do because i want to study that but i need to know if they have to open their bodies an do something with their heart or any part of their body. i would like exacly what things i have to do as vet. thanx!", "== From Pisgahchemist: The catch is that there are NO molecules of H2CO3 in aqueous solution. What we call carbonic acid is actually CO2 dissolved in water in equilibrium with H+ and HCO3^-.", "11 Essential Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Needs. We all know vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients the body needs - but what does each vitamin do? And which foods are vitamin powerhouses? Here's the low-down on which letter does what, from A (that is, Vitamin A) to Z (or - zinc). Oct 30, 2013.", "One of the most commonly asked questions about salvia is what does it do and what effects does it cause after it is administered. Salvia is commonly administered by smoking but it can also be chewed.Salvia affects people differently and this is mainly due to each individuals body chemistry, body weight and if it is being taken with other drugs or alcohol. Salvia affects the brain's limbic system, parietal lobe and overall vestibular function.ne of the most commonly asked questions about salvia is what does it do and what effects does it cause after it is administered. Salvia is commonly administered by smoking but it can also be chewed.", "If fertilization does not occur, progesterone prevents the process of more eggs being created and released into the body. What Does Progesterone Do if Conception Occurs? The function that progesterone fulfills in the event of conception is an important one. Progesterone is become the fundamental hormone that facilitates a woman's pregnancy. What does progesterone do for women is listed below: Maintains the thickness the endometrium. Prevents other eggs from maturating.", "Cobalt(2) or cobalt(II) is Co2+, or a cobalt atom with two units of positive charge. Hydrogen carbonate, or bicarbonate ion, is HCO3 -, or HCO3 with one unit of negative charge. Hence two units of hydrogen carbonate ion are needed to balance one unit of cobalt ion. Hence the answer is Co(HCO3)2.", "Contrary to what you read online, sugar does not cause anxiety. Anxiety is a mental health issue, and it's very uncommon for a person's diet to cause anxiety. What sugar does do is create changes in your body that may make your anxiety symptoms worse, or cause feelings that trigger anxiety attacks.nxiety is a mental health issue, and it's very uncommon for a person's diet to cause anxiety. What sugar does do is create changes in your body that may make your anxiety symptoms worse, or cause feelings that trigger anxiety attacks.", "What does it mean to dream of a Corpse? What does it mean to dream of a Corpse? What do corpse dreams mean? Seeing a corpse or dead body in a dream may represent something inside or some aspect of Self that has died but you are reluctant to forget about it or bury it in the past." ]

[ "We talk with MICHAEL CORRIERO author of Judging Children As Children: A Proposal for a Juvenile Justice System. \nSince 1992, Corriero has been the presiding judge in the Youth Part of New York City's adult criminal court. He says, children are developmentally different from adults and the current trend of automatically sending minors charged with violent crimes in adult court is hurting society in the long run. He says judges should be given more leeway to assess whether the young offenders get a 2nd chance and sent down to juvenile court." ]

[ "Officials in Pennsylvania are trying to figure out how to prosecute an 11 year old boy believed to have murdered his father's girlfriend. Law professor Anita Allen explains how she thinks we should deal with kids who may have committed murder. She wrote about this case and ones like it for The Daily Beast. NEAL CONAN, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Officials in Pennsylvania are struggling to handle the case of Jordan Brown, an 11-year-old boy who is believed to have murdered his father's girlfriend last month. In terms of the trial, the law in Pennsylvania, like several other states, leaves no options. If he's charged with murder, he must be tried as an adult, and if he is convicted, treated as an adult - locked up, likely for life, in a state penitentiary. Some states allow trials for violent offenders in juvenile court, which raises another set of issues. Should someone convicted of murder, even a pre-teen, be released when he or she reaches the age of 18? One of the reasons there is no established procedure for pre-teen killers is that there are so very few of them. Nevertheless the consequences of their crimes and punishment are very real. Law Professor Anita Allen says we cannot treat them just like kids who are guilty of lesser offenses, but we also can't pretend that they are the same as adults. If you work in the criminal justice system as judge, lawyer, police or corrections officer on a probation board, how should we deal with kids who kill? 800-989-8255, email us [email protected], and you can join the conversation on our Web site; that's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. Anita Allen writes for The Daily Beast and joins us from a studio in Philadelphia. Nice to have you with us on the program today. Dr. ANITA ALLEN (Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania): Thanks a lot. Glad to be here. CONAN: And we talk about very few - how many kids are we really talking about? Dr. ALLEN: Well, according to FBI numbers, it's something like 10 or 11 kids each year for the last few years. Fewer in the past, more recently, and it seems as though not only is there more pre-teen murder, but there's also more pre-teen larceny, sex offenses, and other serious crimes. CONAN: And then you - as soon as you start talking about these crimes, you start dealing with the psychologists and scientists who say, look, the brains of kids under the age of, well, 13, 15, in around there, they're not the same as the brains of adult people. Dr. ALLEN: Right. So you've got the brain people saying, Look, you know, the visualizations here show that kids' brains don't look like adult brains. And then you have people who never look at brains saying, Just look at moral development patterns. Nobody believes that a 10-year-old has reached the same level of moral sophistication as a 15-year-old or an 18-year-old or a 35-year-old. CONAN: And there you run into the problem. If laws are inflexible, as they appear to be in the state of Pennsylvania, this case that we're just talking about now, for example, the first place the kid was incarcerated, or at least one of the places the kids was incarcerated, awaiting trial, is a jail where adults are. You know, these are criminals and alleged criminals. Dr. ALLEN: Right. So because Jordan Brown was charged as an adult with first degree murder of his father's fiancée and her eight-month-old fetus, he was thrown into adult jail. And because he couldn't be put into the general population, he was put into what was actually a suicide watch cell - a little 8 x 10 room - and left there for days before he was finally transferred first to one juvenile facility and then eventually to another. CONAN: And this was not inexpensive either. That first juvenile facility was charging something like $5,000 a week. Dr. ALLEN: Yeah. I mean it actually only generally costs about $14,000 a week to house a juvenile, but because he was receiving threats of various sorts, they had to have a special armed guard around the perimeter of this first Allencrest facility and that was costing the state a lot of money. CONAN: Anita Allen, I think you misspoke: You said it generally cost 14,000 a week. Dr. ALLEN: Did I say 14,000? I mean 1,400. CONAN: Well, still no trifling amount. Dr. ALLEN: It's a lot of money. But I think in some ways the money issue is a red herring. Of course it's going to cost money to house a person accused of crime, whether he is 11 or 111. And it's a little bit disturbing to me how people resent the fact that it actually costs money to house and protect a child who has committed a crime. CONAN: And there - people say, look we can lose track of the fact that this kid - in this case still allegedly, but in other cases it's been proven - murdered somebody. Dr. ALLEN: Yeah. Now, the reason why I oppose treating children as adults - either charging them or punishing them as adults - is because first of all, we've already talked about this, children are", "In an alley in Little Village on Chicago's West Side, the faint sound of music from a Spanish-speaking radio station wafts in the air and garbage cans are sprayed with gang graffiti. They look like the tattoos on 17-year-old Elias Roman's arms. \"This [alleyway] right here is where I caught my first gun case,\" says Elias, who was born and raised in the neighborhood, home to a large Mexican-American community. Elias was 15 and a gangbanger when he was busted. He tells NPR's Cheryl Corley that like many kids he ran with at the time, he had a gun. Out late one night, the cops picked him up, and he was charged with gun possession. He spent a month in a detention center, and then was put on house arrest. Elias cut off the electronic monitor the Department of Juvenile Justice had placed around his ankle to keep up with him. Four months later, he was picked up again, charged with unlawful use of a weapon. This time, he got a longer stint in the state's juvenile centers. Rethinking The Recidivism Issue His story of trips through the justice system is familiar in Illinois — one of a number of states rethinking how it pursues juvenile justice to make sure kids who've committed a crime once don't end up in a juvenile facility again. Nationally, there were more than 70,000 juvenile in residential placement facilities in 2010, according to Census Bureau data. The number was about 2,200 that same year in Illinois. A damning report [PDF] from the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission called the state youth prison system an expensive failure. Its study showed that \"well over 50 percent of youth\" leaving the state's facilities will go back to juvenile facilities — and others will head to adult corrections system. Some of the juveniles in Illinois' system committed serious offenses, the report shows. But many others are there for lesser crimes and, officials say, would be better served in treatment or educational programs. What Requires Incarceration? George Timberlake, a retired Illinois judge and the report commission's chairman, says the group observed more than 250 prisoner review board hearings and analyzed the files of about 400 young people whose parole was revoked. He says many of the juveniles who ended up back in custody didn't commit new crimes, but instead were found guilty of technical violations of a parole order, such as skipping school and staying out late. \"How many teenagers do you know who are where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there?\" Timberlake says. \"Certainly, they need to be educated that time matters and it affects other people's schedules, but doesn't mean they need to be back in prison because of it.\" Arthur Bishop, director of the Illinois Juvenile Justice Department, has been on the job for less than two years. He began his career as a caseworker in the state's child welfare agency. He says his team is in place to change the way kids in the system are treated. It's pretty simple, Bishop says: Treat kids who commit crimes more like kids, and less like adults. The old model still exists, Bishop says. Parole officers who aren't necessarily trained to work with youth still handle many of the juvenile cases, but a new test model is up and running in the Chicago area. Bishop says as soon as a young person arrives at a youth center, an aftercare specialist will begin to work with him or her, assessing any needs, like mental health issues. They may also have to develop a plan for their release. \"Not only does that aftercare specialist work with the youth, but they also begin to engage with families. And I'm emphasizing these points because that's not historically done,\" Bishop says. \"Families are often put on what I call the 'pay no mind' list because many of the families ... have the same — I'll use my scientific word — 'messed up' backgrounds.\" Shifting The Model While the push to change the culture of Illinois' juvenile justice system may help reduce the number of kids who end up in facilities, it's also tied to the state's deep budget woes. In 2010, the Illinois auditor general said [PDF] that it costs an average of $86,861 a year to keep a juvenile in Illinois' Youth Centers – far more than for community-based strategies. That point is underscored in a 2011 report released by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which shows a dramatic difference nationwide between the average annual cost for housing a juvenile compared with community-based programs and public college tuition. The foundation, which provides financial support to NPR, also says the juvenile incarceration rate is nearly five times higher in the U.S. than in other developed nations. That's despite having \"only marginally higher\" rates of juvenile violent crimes. \"We really only recently have started to take stock of the developmental differences of young people and adults,\" says Nancy Gannon Hornberger, executive director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice. \"And in large measure, our juvenile correction system has been", "It's no secret that sometimes kids commit crimes, but should they go through the same justice system and pay the same price as an adult? In our continuing look at the criminal justice system, Farai Chideya welcomes Carole Shauffer, Executive Director of the Youth Law Center, to help dissect the scenarios where kids end up in court and, eventually, prison. FARAI CHIDEYA, host: I'm Farai Chideya, and this is News and Notes. If a child commits a crime, even a serious one, should they go through the same justice system, and pay the same price as an adult? That's just one of a host of issues surrounding juvenile justice. Today is part of our ongoing series on criminal justice. We look at how kids end up behind bars, and what other options judges have when faced with a young offender. For more, we have Carole Shauffer, executive director of the Youth Law Center. Welcome Carole. Ms. CAROLE SHAUFFER (Executive Director, Youth Law Center): Thank you. Welcome. CHIDEYA: So, let's start with a little scenario. There is a 16 year old and his friend, who go into a convenient store. They ask for money. The clerk says no. The friend shoots the clerk. If the 16-year-old is arrested and charged, what are some of the possible paths that the justice system could take, with the person who was not the shooter, but who was part of this crime? Ms. SHAUFFER: Well, in virtually every state, the shoo - the accomplice will be equally guilty as the shooter, and will be charged the same as the shooter. Because of the - this is a basic criminal justice issue, not a juvenile justice issue, and it is a felony murder rule. So, that's the first point. In different states, the young person will be handled in different ways. In some states, they will automatically be tried as an adult, because of the nature and severity of the crime. In some states, it will be the option of the district attorney, as to whether to charge them as an adult. And in some states, the court will have the option, as to whether to charge them as an adult, or as a juvenile. CHIDEYA: What's the difference between juvenile court and adult court? What makes juvenile court different, in terms of both how it proceeds, and the impact on someone's life? Ms. SHAUFFER: Well, there are lots of differences. The first difference and the major difference is, in many juvenile courts, there's no right to a jury trial. There are other procedural rights that you may not have, like the right to a preliminary hearing. The intent of the juvenile court, is to provide rehabilitative services, or rehabilitative services to juveniles. And the jurisdiction and length of the sentence, is somewhat shorter. So, we feel juvenile court is the more appropriate place for a young offender. They are losing some procedural rights, but they are gaining the right to some kind of service and treatment, and to a limitation of the length of time that they can serve. So... CHIDEYA: And once someone has committed a juvenile crime, and served their time, sometimes the records are sealed. Isn't that correct? Ms. SHAUFFER: Yes. The records can be sealed. They exist. They are confidential. In some places - see again, it is difficult to generalize across the country. In some places, you have access to those records, in some places you don't. But in every place, you can get those records sealed after a certain period of time. CHIDEYA: What do we know about the ways that young offenders are tracked into different types of programs, juvenile detention centers, versus boot camps, versus other alternatives? You know, what kind of options are there, once someone has been sentenced as a juvenile, in terms of where they go? Ms. SHAUFFER: Once you're sentenced as a juvenile, there's a broad array of options. Detention centers are primarily for pre-trial. They're the equivalent of what we think of as a jail, in the adult system. Boot camps, juvenile - the equivalent of juvenile prisons, which are often called training schools, are the most serious options for juveniles, short of being tried and sent to the adult system. But theoretically and in many jurisdictions, there are many less severe options, which are treatment-based options, which could be at home confinement with intensive services. It could be confinement to a group home, or any other kind of rehabilitative program. There - juveniles should have a right to services, because they've given up their right to things like a jury trial, in return for services. Unfortunately, with the attitude in the country that is a get tough on crime and fear of youth attitude, more and more juveniles go into the more severe setting. And of course, and I think, this is very relevant to your show, there is a huge racial disparity, in where children end up. CHIDEYA: Give me a sense of that. Ms. SHAUFFER: Well, the - there in every single state, and the data changes state by state, but in every single state, th", "For more than 20 years, state legislatures have come down increasingly hard on criminal minors, insisting that they do \"adult time for adult crimes.\" But some states are starting to rethink that approach. Texas, for example, enacted a law last year prohibiting juveniles who have not committed murder from being sentenced to life without any chance of parole -- well before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such sentences unconstitutional on Monday. \"In many cases, we believe in second chances for kids,\" says Jerry Madden, a Texas state representative. \"There's still a chance to work with juveniles.\" Madden is a Republican who has worked with Democrats in rewriting state laws regarding juvenile offenders. There's mounting evidence that suggests juveniles should not be held as culpable as adults because their physical and emotional development is not complete. There are also studies showing that minors who are sentenced and incarcerated in adult systems are more likely to commit further crimes -- and more violent crimes -- than those in juvenile systems. As a result, states -- and the Supreme Court -- are starting to move away from ever-more punitive penalties for minors. \"It's happening in Texas,\" says Ana Yanez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a liberal group in Austin. \"And nobody could ever call Texas soft on crime, ever.\" Issues Surrounding Maturity Graham v. Florida represented the first time that the Supreme Court has ruled that an entire category of sentencing -- outside of the death penalty -- violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The case was a sequel, of sorts, to the court's 2005 ruling in Roper v. Simmons that banned the death penalty for juvenile offenders. In both cases, the court pointed to signs that minors are not as responsible for their actions as adults. Advanced brain scans show that the parts of the brain that allow people to think through the likely consequences of an action and weigh the risks and benefits of acting on impulse aren't fully formed until 25 -- much later than had been previously thought. \"A life without parole sentence improperly denies the juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate growth and maturity,\" Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the court's majority opinion. The brain scans have gotten a lot of attention, but other data have probably been more influential among legislators. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that youths who had previously been tried as adults were 34 percent more likely to commit another crime than those who went through the juvenile justice system. And crimes committed by juveniles, as measured by arrests, have been going down consistently for 15 years. States Peel Back Some Penalties A few states have now softened penalties for minors. Like Texas, Colorado has eliminated sentences of life without parole for juveniles, although it still allows mandatory minimum sentences of up to 40 years. At the beginning of this year, Connecticut ended its policy of treating all offenders 16 and older as adults. But there has not been a wholesale shift away from treating violent youths as adults. \"When you're talking about extremely dangerous violent offenses committed by older teens, there's a general trend to treat them as adults in America,\" says Joshua Marquis, district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore. Marquis doesn't think the Supreme Court's ruling will change that. He says that he and other prosecutors \"are not terribly disappointed in this decision,\" precisely because it is fairly limited in scope. The court's decision applies directly only to 129 offenders -- 77 of them in Florida, where the Graham case originated. The decision does not address the question of whether life without parole would be an unconstitutional punishment if given to juveniles who commit murder. And it allows long sentences for nonhomicides, so long as there is a mechanism to review the punishment at some point. \"The number of criminal defendants who were affected was quite small,\" says Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. \"The way in which their sentences were affected takes place in the distant future and doesn't really guarantee any time of release.\" Making A 'Down Payment' Still, Zimring says, \"It's a very important down payment on a more activist Supreme Court limiting what governments can do in the punishment of offenders. This is a down payment on what the court might do two or three judges down the line.\" Other advocates for less onerous juvenile justice laws see the court's willingness to strike down certain types of punishment for juveniles as symptomatic of the broader trend already seen among states. \"In a symbolic sense, it's a strong statement from the court that kids are different,\" says Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a liberal group. \"It just legitimizes the whole perspective that academics and practitione", "The moments inside a courtroom in Orlando in 2007 were quick and consequential for Marquis McKenzie. The 16-year-old stood handcuffed behind a lectern. A juvenile judge announced his charges, then apologized that he could no longer take up the case. \"You're being direct filed,\" he told McKenzie, who was accused of armed robbery over a cellphone and a wallet. \"You understand what I'm saying? You're being charged as an adult now.\" McKenzie remembers his mother wailing from the courtroom benches, begging the judge to reconsider. \"I had never been in that situation. I had gotten in trouble, but I had never gotten arrested,\" he recalls a decade later. \"I just knew it was going to be a hell of a ride from there.\" The juvenile judge's announcement meant that McKenzie was no longer solely subject to the rehabilitative services offered within Florida's juvenile system. He was now facing a 10-year sentence. A judge in one of the state's criminal courts would have the option of sending him two hours away to residential confinement at a youth facility, or to the juvenile section in one of Florida's medium security private prisons. The latter is where McKenzie ended up. That same year, more than 3,600 other kids were direct filed and sent to adult court, too. Across the country, lawmakers, juvenile justice advocates and community groups are shifting away from direct file, and rethinking their approach to handling kids and young adults who commit crimes. Florida, more than other states, has traditionally embraced an aggressive direct file system run by state attorneys who opt to transfer kids out of the juvenile court system and into the adult criminal system. The repercussions are great and the options for navigating the complex system are limited. \"Cruel wake-up call\" Florida was in the thick of its direct file culture when McKenzie's case was transferred to adult court. From 2006 to 2011, more than 15,600 youths passed through the adult criminal court system for violent and nonviolent offenses. \"That was a 'get tough' era in the United States,\" says Florida State University criminologist Carter Hay. \"That was a time when there was a lot of concern about juvenile crime. There was a lot of media attention to the idea that there were these juvenile superpredators who were just a real threat to public safety.\" Behind the trend were state attorneys, to whom Florida's direct file statute grants unfettered discretion to move any juvenile case to adult court without a judge's permission. The statute dates back to juvenile justice reform from the 1950s, when lawmakers were seeking to balance rehabilitation and punishment of youths who had committed heinous crimes. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, the direct file statute became the most used tool for handling children. \"A lot of these juveniles that have been through the system a lot, when they get arrested, their attitude is 'Nothing's going to happen to me. I'm a juvenile,' \" says former 9th Circuit state attorney Jeff Ashton. For more than 30 years he helped prosecute juvenile cases in Orange and Osceola counties, where McKenzie was direct filed. As state attorney, he spent four years having a final say over which cases got sent to adult court. \"When they get direct filed to adult, it's sort of this cruel wake-up call,\" he says. According to Ashton, the direct file statute gives judges a \"bigger toolbox\" for deciding how to deal with youths who have committed crimes. It also allows for more nuances in how prosecutors across Florida's 20 circuits interpret the gravity of crimes and the potential threat a youth offender has on the overall safety of a community, criteria that arguably reflect personal values and interpretations of the law. In a 2011 report, the U.S. Department of Justice identified Florida's direct file rate as disproportionately high compared to other states. The statute is hard to measure and easily classifiable as subjective. Human Rights Watch, in a report on juvenile justice, criticized Florida's direct file statute as an example of disparate treatment of people of color. Its report found that from 2008 to 2013, black boys in Florida were disproportionately sent to prison, whether for first- or second-time offenses. That trend continues with data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice showing that 64 percent of kids sent to adult court in 2016 were black. Measuring direct files across the country Currently, 12 states and the District of Columbia allow prosecutors to make decisions on where kids end up based on a direct file statute. But one major roadblock has been measuring the consistencies and inconsistencies within the statute. \"We have pretty decent estimates of the cases that go through juvenile court, everything from race and ethnicity to age and offense. But in criminal court — the ones that go straight there because the prosecutor said so or the legislator tried to say so — largely we have no clue what those cases are all about,\" says Mel", "In February 2008, 14-year-old Larry King walked up to fellow classmate Brandon McInerney and, as a dare, asked him to be his valentine. A few days later, on Valentine's Day, McInerney shot King twice in the back of the head at school. McInerney is now serving a 21-year sentence. First-time director Marta Cunningham spent four years making the new HBO documentary, Valentine Road, which explores the life and death of Larry King. She tells NPR's Celeste Headlee that her years of research and interviews transformed the way she viewed the crime, the victim and — most surprisingly — the shooter. \"I couldn't help but feel a tremendous amount of empathy for this child,\" Cunningham says, \"and I always felt a tremendous amount of empathy for Larry because of how misunderstood he was.\" Interview Highlights On learning about Larry From what I found out about Larry, it was really a gender expression and gender identity, kind of, exploration that he was going through. Not so much his sexuality, which I didn't know until really much later when I started working with the gay and lesbian center in Los Angeles. ... Two weeks before his death, he was wearing the [school] uniform still, but wearing heels and wearing makeup, doing his hair in a feminine manner with a bow sometimes, earrings, you know, dangly chandelier earrings, which were actually pretty cute. So I felt that that [his being killed for dressing like a girl] was even more shocking to me. That this was something that really was dealing with femininity, and what was so wrong about being feminine? On the shooter, Brandon McInerney Some people still do feel that he's a threat to society, and others understand that he was a boy and therefore should be treated as such. I think it lies somewhere in the middle. I really don't know. I'm not a psychologist, but I can tell you that I talked to [prosecuting attorney] Maeve [Fox] yesterday and one of the things that she repeated to me was, \"If he's doing this at 14, then who is he going to be at 24, 34 and 44?\" Brandon is a self-avowed white supremacist, from what his mother says. But I have to say that, being an African-American woman, even with that, I look at the parenting; I look at his environment; I look at the people that he felt were reaching out and helping him. However twisted it may look like to us, that was his family. And so, you know, we have to look at the environments that these people are coming from, who commit these types of crimes. And we have to understand them. Otherwise we are not going to stop the cycle of violence. It won't end. On the survivors at school At the time, when I met these kids, they were 13 years old, and some of them had witnessed this horrible crime in the classroom and really had no one to talk to. It was unbelievable. They had one day of therapy. It was kind of like this, \"So, how're you doing?\" And most teenagers kind of grunt, and they grunted, and they were going, \"Next!\" The kids later on ... they were the ones who were asking for forgiveness throughout the film. They were the ones who had the regret, and some of the adults really didn't feel that they needed to be forgiven for the way they treated [Larry]. ... You know some of these kids are really invisible, and we have to make sure that that doesn't happen. I mean, that's our responsibility — I think — as adults. On what she hopes for the film The statistics show that more and more kids are coming out earlier, so my goal with this film is to use it as an educational tool, for administration, for teachers. So that they are capable, and you know, managing these types of differences. I mean, if kids are coming out younger, and they're expressing themselves younger, and there are [transgender] prom queens in Huntington Beach, we need to make sure we are having faculty that understand them. CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST: I'm Celeste Headlee and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Michel Martin is away. We cover a number of issues related to sexuality on this program, and the past year has shown progress for the LGBT movement. This month, for example, a transgender teenager was named homecoming queen in Huntington Beach, California. But just five years ago, a couple of hours up the road, a teen died for openly exploring his sexual identity. Here's how Ellen DeGeneres addressed his death on her show. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, \"THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW\") ELLEN DEGENERES: On February 12th, an openly gay 15-year-old boy named Larry, who was an eighth grader in Oxnard, California, was murdered by a fellow eighth grader named Brandon. Larry was killed because he was gay. Days before he was murdered, Larry asked his killer to be his Valentine. I don't want to be political, but this is personal to me. A boy has been killed and a number of lives have been ruined, and somewhere along the line the killer, Brandon, got the message that it's so threatening and so awful and so horrific that Larry would want to be his Valentine, that killing Larry seemed t", "Lawyers and legal advisers defending the African-American men known as the \"Jena 6\" testified before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning. The team was asked about the legal and social circumstances surrounding the allegedly racially motivated attacks in the central Louisiana town. Guest: Charles Ogletree, adviser to the legal team defending the Jena 6; executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University Howard Witt, senior correspondent for The Chicago Tribune NEAL CONAN, host: Charles Ogletree is a professor of law at Harvard University, where he's also the executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. He's an adviser on the legal team defending six African-American young men called the Jena Six. Earlier this morning, he along - he was among those who testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the legal and social circumstances surrounding severally, racially motivated town's - attacks in the Central Louisiana town. One of the central events was after African-American students asked if it would be all right if they sat beneath a tree that had been traditionally used by white students. Well, nooses were hung from the branches of that tree. Charles Ogletree joins us now by cell phone from an airport here in Washington, D.C., where he awaits a flight back to Boston. Charles Ogletree, thanks for being with us today. Professor CHARLES OGLETREE (Professor of Law, Harvard University; Executive Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice): I'm glad to be with you today. CONAN: And we'd like our listeners to weigh in. Should that initial act, the hanging of the nooses from the tree, should that have been considered a hate crime? And Charles Ogletree, I wonder, as you listen to the testimony today before the House committee, what did you think about that point? Prof. OGLETREE: Well, it's clear to me that many errors were made in their original decisions about who's going to be prosecuted, and even the people who testified today made that clear. Here's the problem: a noose is a hate crime, and the way it was used was a hate crime. And the government's response today was, well, they were juveniles, therefore we chose not to prosecute them. Not that they couldn't, they chose not to prosecute them. And that's one of the problems. There's a Louisiana state statute where they could have been prosecuted and they weren't, and there's also federal crimes that could have been prosecuted and they weren't. That's what made people so upset. Why is it that one certain conduct which violates the law with prosecuting another set was handled within the school system? It's a disparity, it's based on race, and it's hard to justify to these circumstances. CONAN: We should point out the subsequent incident was that one of the white students at that school was beaten, and then some of the black students, the Jena Six, were charged with assault and then tempt to make - to charge them as adults for that attack. Prof. OGLETREE: Well, they were charged with attempted second-degree murder, not just assault, and they were subject to, in over 20 years in prison compared to the earlier incident where the students who are recommended for expulsion by the principal and the school board, where the same prosecutor who prosecuted them overruled that and said they should be charged with a minor offense. They had suspension in nine days, in-school suspension, but no prosecution outside the school system. One crime is treated as a school crime; the other is treated as a serious state crime and tried as an adult. And what makes this so appalling is that they prosecuted Mychal Bell, and the court reversed them. He should never been tried as an adult. He should never been in jail for 10 months. And I think that's where the disparity issue comes up. It's not just the noose. It's the combination of different people engaging conduct, being treated to different forms of justice that has generated that enormous amount of response from both sides of the Hill today when we testified. CONAN: The Reverend Al Sharpton is among those following the Jena Six case closely. He testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill today and here's some of what he had to say. Reverend AL SHARPTON (Baptist Minister): I think that the federal government and the Justice Department should review the laws that protect juveniles from hate crime. I've seen where people that have been involved in drug trafficking has gotten around those laws by using kids. Are we now going to have a society, where if you want to hang up a noose or paint a swastika you use somebody underage to do it, and therefore we can permeate society with hate by just playing around this juvenile law? Does the federal government have the same requirement that you have to be grown to commit a hate crime? If it does, we need to visit or revisit whether that law pr", "Two senators — a Democrat and a Republican — introduced a bill Tuesday that aims to overhaul the nation's criminal justice system, slash government spending on prisons and make it easier for nonviolent offenders to find employment. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., both freshmen looking to elevate their national profiles, are teaming up to unveil the REDEEM Act, which stands for Record Expungement Designed to Enhance Employment. \"The legislation will help keep kids who get into trouble out of a lifetime of crime and help adults who commit non-violent crimes become more self-reliant and less likely to commit future crimes,\" the senators said in a joint statement. For juveniles, the bill calls on the handful of states that can try minors as adults to lift the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 18. It also seeks to automatically expunge records of kids who have committed nonviolent crimes before they turn 15 or have those records sealed if the nonviolent offense happened after 15. In addition, the measure calls for the curtailing of juvenile solitary confinement in most cases. For adults, the bill would create a system by which a nonviolent offender can petition a court to have his or her criminal record sealed — which would help shield an offender's record from an employer-requested FBI background check and make it easier to secure employment. \"The biggest impediment to civil rights and employment in our country is a criminal record. Our current system is broken and has trapped tens of thousands of young men and women in a cycle of poverty and incarceration,\" Paul said in a statement. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. makes up 5 percent of the world's population, but has 25 percent of the world's prison population. And it says since 1970, the U.S. prison population has increased by 700 percent. \"The REDEEM Act will ensure that our tax dollars are being used in smarter, more productive ways,\" Booker said via statement. Since being sworn into office last year, Booker has made it a point to reach across the aisle. In April, he worked with South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott on legislation aimed at finding jobs for young minorities. Paul, who is expected to run for the White House in 2016, has been working to make inroads into communities that don't typically vote Republican. And in June, he pushed a bill that sought to restore voting rights in federal elections to felons who committed nonviolent crimes.", "When teenagers in foster care turn 18 and have to leave the system, they are much more likely to become homeless, do drugs and commit crimes. A new transitional housing complex in San Diego hopes to change that by offering kids leaving foster care the stable housing and skills they need as adults.", "A report released Wednesday by the Equal Justice Initiative covers juveniles put in prison for life, without parole. The U.S. is the only country known to condemn 13- and 14-year-olds to imprisonment until death. Bryan Stevenson, executive director for the Equal Justice Initiative, talks with Michele Norris. MICHELE NORRIS, host: I'm Michele Norris. MELISSA BLOCK, host: I'm Melissa Block. And this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. NORRIS: When you think of a lifer, a prisoner condemned to die behind bars, you'll likely imagine that person was sentenced as an adult. A new study found that at least 73 of these so-called lifers were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility for parole for crimes committed when they were younger than 14. The study was conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit advocacy group based in Montgomery, Alabama. It found that the U.S. is the only country in the world that condemns children that young to life without parole. The group also found that mandatory sentencing laws have increasingly led judges to impose the harsher sentences without regard to the offender's age. Bryan Stevenson is the executive director for the Equal Justice Initiative. He joins us from Montgomery, Alabama. Welcome to the program. Mr. BRYAN STEVENSON (Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative): Thank you. NORRIS: Now, these 73 juvenile offenders, where are they serving out their sentences and what kinds of crimes did they commit? Mr. STEVENSON: These 73 kids are being housed in adult prisons in 19 states around the country. About 10 percent are there for crimes like attempted robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault. It was one of the surprising findings that you could - you had children 13 and 14 years of age condemned to die in prison for offenses where no one was killed. NORRIS: And in one case, no one was injured, is that correct? Mr. STEVENSON: That's right. It's a very surprising case out of California involving Antonio Nunez, who was convicted of aggravated kidnapping. He was accused of getting in a car with two older men, one of whom later claimed that he was a kidnap victim. And these men were chased by some undercover police agents and shots were fired. No one was injured, but Mr. Nunez was convicted with an older co-defendant of aggravated kidnapping. And the California law had a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. NORRIS: What impact have these mandatory sentencing laws had on these juvenile offenders and those that are sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole? Mr. STEVENSON: About 75 percent of these children had been condemned to die because the judge did not have discretion to consider their age or their background or any of the circumstances of the offense. Mandatory sentencing laws have played a critical role in seeing these kinds of harsh sentences imposed on kids who are 13 and 14. NORRIS: Now, someone say that there are judges who have exercised judicial discretion, who have stepped outside of these laws and these sentencing guidelines when they see fit. Mr. STEVENSON: Well, mandatory sentencing means that for certain kinds of crimes, the judge doesn't have that discretion. That doesn't mean that discretion is eliminated. What mandatory sentencing has done in most systems is shift discretion from the judge to the prosecutor and to the police. The prosecutor can always choose to not move that a child be tried as an adult or charge differently or prosecute the case differently. And so you will see some disparate results based on who the child is and who the prosecutor is. I mean, it's not a huge surprise to us that two-thirds of these kids are black and brown, that is racial minorities. Almost all of these kids were poor and could not get the kind of legal assistance that we believe they needed. And those factors, along with prosecutorial discretion, is what explains how these kids end up facing judges who can't consider their age or their background. NORRIS: Your report looks at the number of children who are under 14 years old. If you raise that age cap and look at the number of children who are 16 and under, how would those numbers change? Mr. STEVENSON: So there are 2,250 children who are 17 and younger. And so the numbers get considerably higher as you move up the teenage years. NORRIS: The prison industrial complex is huge in this country. So when we talk about 73 people, it seems like a small number. Mr. STEVENSON: Well, that's one of the arguments about why the court should strike this down. It is an unusual sentence. And that's the language of the Eighth Amendment. But, you know, we believe that when you tolerate this kind of sentence for kids this young, you condemn a much bigger percentage of the population for other kinds of offenses. And I think creating some limits, kind of drawing the boundaries of what is cruel and what's excessive, is an important conversation", "Teenagers get in trouble for skipping school, breaking curfew or buying cigarettes, but in one Tennessee county, that can mean jail. Susan Ferriss reported on this for the Center for Public Integrity. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. We're going to spend this part of the program talking about our criminal justice system and how it treats some of the country's most vulnerable citizens. In a few minutes, we'll hear from NPR's Joe Shapiro about his series called \"Guilty And Charged.\" It's about fees and penalties that more and more states are charging poor defendants. And he describes how these fees are not only keeping already poor people in poverty, in some cases, those fees are sending people behind bars. But first, we're going to focus on how some of the youngest defendants can get locked up without benefit of counsel - often for things that aren't technically crimes. In Knox County, Tennessee teenagers who were caught with cigarettes or skipping school can find themselves in handcuffs, facing steep fines and even criminal records, all without being represented by counsel. Joining us to talk about this is Susan Ferriss. She wrote about the issue for the Center for Public Integrity, and she's with us now. Welcome. Thanks for joining us. SUSAN FERRISS: Thank you very much. MARTIN: You say that many of these kids are brought into the system because of something called status offenses. These are things that would not be crimes if they were adults. Can you tell us more about that? FERRISS: That's right. Status offenses are really only committed by children. They are truancy - in most states that's a status offense, not a full-blown delinquency - running away, tobacco possession, in some states alcohol possession, violating curfew. MARTIN: Tell us about one young girl that you profiled for your piece. FERRISS: We spoke with a girl we identified as AG. She's a young woman now. She was 15 years old, and she was accused of truancy. This was a girl who suffered bullying at school and was going through a lot of personal problems. She had a lot of conflict with her family - refusing to go to school in the morning. And she was eventually - her name was referred for prosecution to the District Attorney's Office. She showed up in court for her court date with her mother, and she did not have an attorney. Her parents didn't even think of doing that. She pled guilty, and the judge had her jailed immediately from court. So she spent a night in a detention center. She was shackled and taken in, had to put on a uniform, spent the night in a cell. And the next morning, she was - her parents were told to take her to school. And she had deteriorated so much emotionally, they instead took her to a doctor, and she ended up in a psychiatric facility for about a week. MARTIN: Your reporting suggests these kids routinely go through this and are locked up or plead guilty to offenses without the benefit of legal counsel. Most people who've seen cop shows have seen, you know, you've got the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right, you know - and if you can't afford counsel, it will be appointed for you. You're saying that that doesn't apply in juvenile court? FERRISS: Well, this is a really good question. It does apply juvenile court for crimes. But when kids are accused of status offenses, when they first go into court they have no constitutional right to the appointment of counsel. In other words, if they can afford to hire an attorney, they can bring that attorney with them. Or if they have access to a pro bono counsel - and states vary - some states have taken steps to require that these kids be appointed counsel before they enter a plea. But there is no constitutional right. MARTIN: You pointed out there was one courtroom where the local attorneys had even offered to set up a kind of a pro bono program. Local attorneys would volunteer to assist these kids in these circumstances, and the judge said no. FERRISS: That's correct. In Knox County, Tennessee, a group of attorneys - some of them affiliated with the University of Tennessee - and some local business attorneys offered to set up a pro bono service at the court - in the court lobby, for example - where as children arrive for hearings on truancy with their parents, these attorneys could offer to, for free, represent them or advise them. And the judge chose not to grant permission for that project to be set up. MARTIN: And he's never explained that. FERRISS: The explanation I received from some of the attorneys who tried to personally persuade him was that he didn't think that there was a really serious need for these kids to have counsel from the beginning in court. Now the law is, eventually, if these children go back to court because they continue to commit truancy, or they're put on probation, and they violate it - and when they get to the point where they can b", "For the past two decades, the city of San Francisco has declared itself a \"sanctuary\" city. It's one of about 30 American cities where local officials won't report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. But San Francisco's reputation for liberal tolerance is being tested in a simmering debate among city leaders over how to treat undocumented juveniles suspected of a crime. San Francisco's sanctuary policy dates to the late 1980s, when officials tried to keep Central American war refugees from being deported. Those wars are over, but the policy remains in effect and city Supervisor David Campos says shielding immigrants from deportation benefits other San Franciscans too. \"If you are the victim of a crime and an undocumented person was the witness to that crime, you want that undocumented person to come forward and report what they saw to the police,\" said Campos. \"They're not going to come forward if they're afraid the police will report them to immigration.\" Suspected Criminals Remain On Streets But the sanctuary policy came under fire last year when an illegal immigrant with a juvenile criminal record was accused of murdering a family of three in a deadly drive-by shooting. The alleged shooter had never been reported to immigration authorities because he was a minor at the time of his crimes. If the alleged shooter had been an adult, San Francisco would have reported him to federal authorities. But because he was a minor, immigration was never called. After a public outcry, Mayor Gavin Newsom stiffened the policy and ordered city officials to turn over to the federal authorities all undocumented juveniles accused of a felony. Since last summer, that number has reached more than 160, says the mayor. \"Sanctuary city was never designed to be a framework where people can commit crimes and be shielded,\" said Newsom. \"I mean, that's perverse and absurd and most people I talk to understand that. These are kids that committed felonies.\" Some Innocent May Be Hurt By Stricter Law But immigration advocates say kids who are merely accused of a crime but are ultimately found innocent are being deported. Campos disagrees with Newsom's stance on the issue. \"There is a public safety need to report people who engage in criminal conduct,\" said Campos, \"but at the same time recognize that there is the very basic principle that in this country you are innocent until proven guilty.\" Campos himself is a naturalized citizen who came to this country illegally when he was a teenager. He says undocumented kids accused of a crime should be reported to federal authorities but only after a felony conviction — not before. Campos has the support of a majority of his fellow supervisors. Last week before a cheering crowd of immigration advocates, mothers and high school students, the Board of Supervisors changed the law, in effect, shielding immigrant minors unless they are convicted of a felony. The Battle Continues That set up a showdown with Mayor Newsom, who almost immediately vetoed the new measure. Newsom says it's unenforceable because it violates federal law. And he fears it will invite a legal challenge to the city's sanctuary ordinance. \"I believe in the sanctuary ordinance and I wanted to promote it within the diverse communities that are impacted but we never promoted it, never believed it was a way to shield criminal behavior,\" said Newsom. \"Quite the contrary, once you start doing that you put the whole thing at risk. Terrible mistake — and this board has made that terrible mistake.\" But Campos says San Francisco's liberal legacy is at stake. \"We have been a sanctuary city for 20 years and, in fact, we have stood for protection of civil rights,\" said Campos. \"We have not been afraid to do the right thing even in the face of a legal challenge.\" Campos and the other supervisors will very likely overturn Mayor Newsom's veto next week. Still, Newsom insists he'll ignore the Board of Supervisors, and he has ordered city employees to continue reporting to the feds any undocumented kids arrested for a felony. MICHELE NORRIS, host: San Francisco has long regarded itself as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. It is official policy there not to report people for being in the country illegally. But now city leaders are at odds over what to do about juvenile immigrants who've been accused of serious crimes, as NPR's Richard Gonzales reports. RICHARD GONZALES: San Francisco's sanctuary policy dates back to the late 1980s when officials tried to keep Central American war refugees from being deported. Those wars are over, but the policy remains in effect, and city Supervisor David Campos says shielding immigrants from deportation benefits San Franciscans too. Mr. DAVID CAMPOS (Member, San Francisco Board of Supervisors): If you are the victim of a crime, and an undocumented person was a witness to that crime, you want that undocumented person to come forward and report what they saw to the police. They're not goin", "Twenty-nine-year-old Cyntoia Brown has been locked up in a Tennessee prison for 13 years, after she was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the killing of a man who hired her as a prostitute when she was 16. At trial, Brown's lawyers argued she was a runaway who was raped, abused and forced into prostitution by a man known as \"Kut Throat.\" She will be eligible for parole after she turns 69. Brown's case re-entered the spotlight this month after a group of celebrities including Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna and Snoop Dogg posted their support on social media with the hashtag, #FreeCyntoiaBrown. An online petition urging Tennessee's governor to consider clemency for Brown has garnered more than 4,000 signatures. Renewed attention on Brown's case is shining a light on how the criminal justice system treats child victims of sex trafficking who commit crimes. Each year, more than 1,000 children are arrested for prostitution in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Advocates say that in many cases those children are the true victims, and argue Brown's case should be reconsidered under new \"safe harbor\" laws that protect trafficked minors from criminal charges. Filmmaker Dan Birman, who produced a 2011 PBS documentary about Brown's case, says if Brown were arrested today, her case would have a different outcome than it did in 2004. \"If Cyntoia Brown were arrested today, she would not be charged as a prostitute. She would be considered a young girl who's involved in sex trafficking,\" he tells Here & Now's Robin Young. \"That means that a young girl who in past years might have been considered a prostitute, it isn't so because they're not making that choice, and the laws are reflecting this.\" Birman explains that if Brown were tried as a minor, she would have been released by age 19. Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that mandatory life sentences for juveniles without the possibility of parole or automatic review are unconstitutional, that decision does not apply to Brown. Tennessee law requires an automatic review of life sentences after 51 years. According to The Tennessean, at least 183 people in the state are serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were teenagers. Twenty states have recently passed laws granting trafficked kids immunity for other crimes, such as truancy and underage drinking, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. At least 29 states have laws that clear the criminal records of trafficking victims for other crimes. The prosecutor in Brown's case maintains that the victim is the man she killed. But her defense lawyer, Kathy Sinback, argues Brown should not have been tried as an adult because she was forced into this situation by sexual predators. Brown's lawyers also argue she suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, which disrupted her cognition. \"You are basically taking a kid at age 14 or 15 or 16 and making a decision about the rest of their life based on who they are at that age, and they're not developed human beings at that time,\" Sinback told The Tennessean last year. \"You have kids at their peak of poor judgment, impulsivity and lack of development and we're taking that one thing that they do and locking them into sentences that are going to last for the rest of their lives.\" Brown has never denied murdering 43-year-old Johnny Mitchell Allen, but she claims she did so in self-defense after he brought her to his home for sex. According to court documents, Brown shot Allen with a handgun in her purse after she thought he was reaching for a gun under his bed. Prosecutors claimed she killed Allen in order to rob him because she took his wallet and two guns before leaving his home. Birman says Brown's story is likely returning to the spotlight because more women are feeling compelled to come forward about sexual abuse. He says Brown hopes her case has an impact on how the criminal justice system treats children who are victims of sex trafficking. \"She agreed to do this documentary because at the time when I asked her the question in the very first week that I met her ... why would you want to do this?\" he says, \"her answer has been and continues to be, if I can keep one child from going down the path that I went down, it will be worth it.\"", "Psychologist Richard Weissbourd contends that parents who are obsessed with their children's happiness are ignoring other important values — like goodness, empathy, appreciation and caring — that are necessary to a well-rounded personality. Weissbourd is the author of The Parents We Mean to Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development. A lecturer in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Kennedy School of Government, Weissbourd has founded several interventions for at-risk children, including ReadBoston, WriteBoston and Project ASPIRE. Introduction For many years, as a psychologist and a parent, I have kept my ear tuned to the latest wisdom parents receive about how to raise children who will become caring, strong, and responsible people. I have combed popular articles, tracked politicians' ideas, gathered advice from talk show experts. The basic messages are predictable: single parenthood, peer pressure, and popular culture are destroying our children's moral foundations. Parents and other adults are failing as role models and neglecting to teach children basic moral values and standards. Kids need to know right from wrong. According to a major survey by the organization Public Agenda, more than six in ten American adults identified \"as a very serious problem\" young people's failure to learn fundamental moral values, including honesty, respect, and responsibility for others. There is, to be sure, some truth in these explanations for children's moral troubles. I have seen the powerful influence of peer pressure on my own kids, and my wife and I certainly try to limit their exposure to aspects of popular culture that seem designed to obliterate every particle of their humanity. Children need constructive role models who teach right from wrong. But for anyone who is willing to enter children's worlds and look hard at what shapes their development, there is much about these explanations that is mystifying, if not deeply unsettling. At best they miss the point; at worst they are a kind of massive cover-up and cop-out. Blaming peers and popular culture lets adults off the hook-- and dangerously so. It dodges a fundamental truth that is supported by a mountain of research. Children's moral development is decided by many factors, including not only media and peer influences but their genetic endowment, birth order, gender, and how these different factors interact. Yet we are the primary influence on children's moral lives. The parent-child relationship is at the center of the development of all the most important moral qualities, including honesty, kindness, loyalty, generosity, a commitment to justice, the capacity to think through moral dilemmas, and the ability to sacrifice for important principles. While there's nothing wrong with exhorting adults to be better role models and to teach values, this by itself does nothing to help people actually be and do these things. I don't know any adult who became a better role model simply by being told to be one. Nor do these exhortations reach the heart of what it is to be a person who is an effective parent, a true moral mentor. What I am acutely aware matters most as a parent is not whether my wife and I are \"perfect\" role models or how much we talk about values, but the hundreds of ways — as living, breathing, imperfect human beings-- we influence our children in the complex, messy relationships we have with them day to day. This knowledge came to me gradually in the first years of my children's lives, but there was one specific afternoon when it struck me most sharply. Sunday afternoons were sacrosanct, reserved for family outings. My three kids are three years apart, and it was often hard to find something that was fun for every one. One blustery, sunny Sunday, we went to a park near the ocean. My oldest son, then about seven years old, was withdrawn and seemed listless. The park was not his favorite place. My week had been stressful, and I'd been looking forward to this outing. I lashed out at him for sulking. We had done what he'd wanted to do the Sunday before, I reminded him, and I expected him to rally, to cheerfully participate. It also seemed to me that this was an opportunity to reinforce a basic notion of reciprocity. My wife certainly agreed with me that our son should be expected to engage in activities for the sake of the family. But, she pointed out, he seemed more tired than unhappy, and she reminded me that I, too, could seem less than enthusiastic during family activities I didn't enjoy. She added, gently, that perhaps I should rethink whether the real issue in this case was teaching my son a moral standard. Instead, maybe I'd gotten angry because I'd been expecting this family event to pull me out of my own bad mood. After some grumbling, I came to see that my wife was right. I apologized to my son and explained to him that I had had a rough week. But what dawned on me sudden", "Introduction For many years, as a psychologist and a parent, I have kept my ear tuned to the latest wisdom parents receive about how to raise children who will become caring, strong, and responsible people. I have combed popular articles, tracked politicians' ideas, gathered advice from talk show experts. The basic messages are predictable: single parenthood, peer pressure, and popular culture are destroying our children's moral foundations. Parents and other adults are failing as role models and neglecting to teach children basic moral values and standards. Kids need to know right from wrong. According to a major survey by the organization Public Agenda, more than six in ten American adults identified \"as a very serious problem\" young people's failure to learn fundamental moral values, including honesty, respect, and responsibility for others. There is, to be sure, some truth in these explanations for children's moral troubles. I have seen the powerful influence of peer pressure on my own kids, and my wife and I certainly try to limit their exposure to aspects of popular culture that seem designed to obliterate every particle of their humanity. Children need constructive role models who teach right from wrong. But for anyone who is willing to enter children's worlds and look hard at what shapes their development, there is much about these explanations that is mystifying, if not deeply unsettling. At best they miss the point; at worst they are a kind of massive cover-up and cop-out. Blaming peers and popular culture lets adults off the hook-- and dangerously so. It dodges a fundamental truth that is supported by a mountain of research. Children's moral development is decided by many factors, including not only media and peer influences but their genetic endowment, birth order, gender, and how these different factors interact. Yet we are the primary influence on children's moral lives. The parent-child relationship is at the center of the development of all the most important moral qualities, including honesty, kindness, loyalty, generosity, a commitment to justice, the capacity to think through moral dilemmas, and the ability to sacrifice for important principles. While there's nothing wrong with exhorting adults to be better role models and to teach values, this by itself does nothing to help people actually be and do these things. I don't know any adult who became a better role model simply by being told to be one. Nor do these exhortations reach the heart of what it is to be a person who is an effective parent, a true moral mentor. What I am acutely aware matters most as a parent is not whether my wife and I are \"perfect\" role models or how much we talk about values, but the hundreds of ways — as living, breathing, imperfect human beings-- we influence our children in the complex, messy relationships we have with them day to day. This knowledge came to me gradually in the first years of my children's lives, but there was one specific afternoon when it struck me most sharply. Sunday afternoons were sacrosanct, reserved for family outings. My three kids are three years apart, and it was often hard to find something that was fun for every one. One blustery, sunny Sunday, we went to a park near the ocean. My oldest son, then about seven years old, was withdrawn and seemed listless. The park was not his favorite place. My week had been stressful, and I'd been looking forward to this outing. I lashed out at him for sulking. We had done what he'd wanted to do the Sunday before, I reminded him, and I expected him to rally, to cheerfully participate. It also seemed to me that this was an opportunity to reinforce a basic notion of reciprocity. My wife certainly agreed with me that our son should be expected to engage in activities for the sake of the family. But, she pointed out, he seemed more tired than unhappy, and she reminded me that I, too, could seem less than enthusiastic during family activities I didn't enjoy. She added, gently, that perhaps I should rethink whether the real issue in this case was teaching my son a moral standard. Instead, maybe I'd gotten angry because I'd been expecting this family event to pull me out of my own bad mood. After some grumbling, I came to see that my wife was right. I apologized to my son and explained to him that I had had a rough week. But what dawned on me suddenly was that under the guise of teaching my son a principle, I had made it harder for him to care about how I thought or felt, more self-protective, and perhaps a little less willing to pitch in for the family. What also hit me was that while this single event wouldn't do lasting damage, many times a week we had interactions with our kids in which my wife and I succeeded-- or failed-- in disentangling and balancing our needs and theirs and in enabling them to take other perspectives, and that these interactions, cumulatively, defined their notion of what a relationship is and powerfully shaped their ca", "Thomas O'Donnell's kindergarten kids are all hopped up to read about Twiggle the anthropomorphic Turtle. \"Who can tell me why Twiggle here is sad,\" O'Donnell asks his class at Matthew Henson Elementary School in Baltimore. \"Because he doesn't have no friends,\" a student pipes up. And how do people look when they're sad? \"They look down!\" the whole class screams out. Yeah, Twiggle is lonely. But, eventually, he befriends a hedgehog, a duck and a dog. And along the way, he learns how to play, help and share. These are crucial skills we all need to learn, even in preschool and kindergarten. And common sense — along with a growing body of research — shows that mastering social skills early on can help people stay out of trouble all the way into their adult lives. So shouldn't schools teach kids about emotions and conflict negotiation in the same way they teach math and reading? The creators of Twiggle the Turtle say the answer is yes. Emotional Intelligence 101 Twiggle is part of a program called Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies, or PATHS. It's designed to help young kids recognize and express emotions. Matthew Henson Elementary is one of about 1,500 schools around the country using this program, which was first developed in the 1980s. Every week, students get two 15- to 20-minute lessons on themes like self-control and treating others with respect. Especially for the youngest kids — in kindergarten and first grade — Twiggle often serves as their guide. O'Donnell says his students are really taking to the lessons. They're trained, for example, to \"do the Turtle\" when they're upset. \"That's when they stop and cocoon themselves. They wrap their arms around themselves and they say what the problem is,\" he explains. O'Donnell's kids do the turtle all the time — in the hallway and during class. Right before class starts, for example, one little girl tells her friend, \"I don't like when you touch my hair, because it makes me sad.\" \"Sorry!\" her friend responds. While most kids will eventually figure out such strategies on their own, or with help from their parents, O'Donnell says, the lessons help them learn more quickly. And for some, especially those with troubled home lives, Twiggle is their first and only introduction to healthy self-expression, he says. \"Some of them don't have words to express how they feel before this.\" The Long Game We previously reported on a national study comparing PATHS and other, similar programs showing positive effects in preschool. They are based on research showing that kids who act up a lot in school and at home — even very young kids — are more likely to have mental health problems and commit crimes years later as adults. So Kenneth Dodge, a psychologist at Duke University, asked, \"Could we do something about that to prevent those problems from actually occurring?\" And he has dedicated his career to answering that question. He and his colleagues launched the FastTrack Project to see if they could change students' life trajectory by teaching them what researchers like to call social-emotional intelligence. Back in 1991, they screened 5-year-olds at schools around the country for behavior problems. After interviewing teachers and parents, the researchers identified 900 children who seemed to be most at risk for developing problems later on. Half of these kids went through school as usual — though they had access to free counseling or tutoring. The rest got PATHS lessons, as well as counseling and tutoring, and their parents received training as well — all the way up until the students graduated from high school. By age 25, those who were enrolled in the special program not only had done better in school, but they also had lower rates of arrests and fewer mental health and substance abuse issues. The results of this decades-long study were published in September in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The findings prove, Dodge says, \"In the same way that we can teach reading literacy, we can teach social and emotional literacy.\" Cost Versus Benefit PATHS and FastTrack aren't the only programs of their kind. A social-emotional learning program called RULER, developed at Yale University, has shown promising results, as well. And every year, the Chicago-based Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning rates the top evidence-based emotional intelligence programs around the country. So what's the catch? Why don't all schools offer emotional intelligence lessons? Well, it's expensive. The full, intensive FastTrack program costs around $50,000 per student, over a 10-year period. Schools can also pick and choose elements of the program. For example, the short PATHS lessons about Twiggle at Matthew Henson Elementary cost less — about $600 per classroom to start, plus an additional $100 a year to keep it running. It's pricey, but it does cost less per child than juvenile detention or rehab programs later on, according to Dodge. As a society, we spend a lot on remedial serv", "Adults who ordered children to commit dozens of robberies have been sentenced to jail terms in France, after a court found members of three Croatian Roma families guilty of using the kids to carry out the crimes. The court convicted 26 members of three families for the crimes, handing down sentences of between two and eight years in prison. From the Agence France-Presse: \"Most of the thefts were carried out by children as young as 10. The evidence against the families was based on the tapped phone calls of 120 suspects which police said had revealed a Mafia-style structure in which clan chiefs were supported by a network of subordinate captains and lieutenants, who in turn ran the children at the bottom of the pyramid.\" The news agency adds that the head of the scheme is believed to be a woman, 66, who will face a separate trial. The group was also accused of engaging in human trafficking, but those charges were rejected by the court.", "Getting students to show up is one of the biggest challenges schools face: How can someone learn at school if they're not there in the first place? A new study suggests living in a high-crime area, or simply passing through one on the way to school, can impact how often students show up to class. \"Some kids have a harder time getting to a school than others, not for any fault of their own, but because of the way the transportation system is set up, because of the way crime clusters in particular places,\" explains Julia Burdick-Will, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University and the lead author of the study. \"It might not be huge, or every day, but it adds up.\" She and her team looked at how neighborhood crime in Baltimore affects attendance. The vast majority of students there use public transportation (like many urban school systems, Baltimore City Public Schools don't bus students). Researchers mapped the routes high school freshmen took to and from school — what streets they were walking on, when and where they picked up a bus, when they transferred, etc. Then, researchers applied crime data by location and time of day to see how those findings related to student absences for the year. They discovered \"kids who are supposed to be walking along streets with higher rates of violent crime are more likely to miss school,\" Burdick-Will explains. The Baltimore school district struggles with getting kids to show up: 37 percent of students were chronically absent last school year, meaning they missed at least 10 percent of school. Research shows students who miss that much school are way more likely to fall behind and eventually drop out. Burdick-Will says, \"When we think of attendance we often think of a kid not wanting to be there.\" But this research shows other factors may be at play. The role of school choice As school choice gains popularity, students are going to schools farther and farther away from their homes. And, Burdick-Will explains, \"Getting kids to school is going to have to be something that we pay more attention to as we open up [school] choice options.\" Research by the Urban Institute found that, in cities where school choice is a popular option, black children often travel farther and longer than their white and Latino classmates. In Baltimore, where all high schools run on a school choice system, students spend, on average, more than 35 minutes getting to school, and they have at least one public transit transfer, according to Burdick-Will. And kids who travel through high-crime areas face another challenge: They can't always take the most direct route. \"They know that it's dangerous to go to this bus stop, and so they go in a different direction and they have an extra transfer,\" Burdick-Will says. \"Or they have to rely on a ride that sometimes falls through.\" The rise of absenteeism The latest national numbers suggest that nearly 8 million children in the United States are chronically absent; that means about 1 in 7 students are missing 15 or more days of school each year. External factors, like neighborhood crime, are important, explains Hedy Chang, the executive director of Attendance Works. But, she says, schools still need to be looking inward. \"If we make schools better — safer — more inclusive and trauma-informed, students will want to be there.\" And if students want to be there, Chang says, maybe they'll be more willing to walk those extra blocks to avoid high-crime areas. Perhaps they'll also feel comfortable talking to teachers and staff about the obstacles they face on their way to school. Efforts in Chicago Some cities are experimenting with ways to help students get to school safely. In 2009, Chicago Public Schools started Safe Passage, a program that places adults along highly trafficked routes to schools. The idea was to make those paths safer for students and help boost attendance — and it worked, according to research and data from the district. But Safe Passage has its limits. A lot of Chicago students walk to school, while in Baltimore students are mostly taking public transit and only walking a few blocks to and from a bus stop. That means districts need to be creative when they're looking for solutions. \"The public transit system isn't always designed with students in mind,\" says Burdick-Will of Johns Hopkins. Public transit schedules often revolve around work commute times, and sometimes stops aren't placed in convenient locations to walk to a school. But Burdick-Will's Baltimore data does show high-traffic transfer locations, where students switch from one bus to another. Burdick-Will points to those transfer locations as an opportunity to bring more adults to the school commute. \"Adult supervision matters a lot for kids,\" she says. As her previous research has shown, just having an adult there can go a long way in helping kids feel safer.", "A new study suggests that old notions of Internet predators may be overblown. Madeleine Brand talks to David Finkelhor of the Crimes Against Children Research Center about his research and what parents should really worry about. \"We found that the images that parents and the media have about these crimes are different from what they really are,\" he says. \"It does not look like the Internet is actually the generator of sexual predators.\" The adults use the kids' interest in sex and romance to seduce them, he explains. Typically, the adults admit to being older and interested in sex, he says. This challenges the notion that the Internet is full of old people posing as young people to trick innocents into unwanted activity. ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is DAY TO DAY from NPR New. I'm Alex Chadwick. MADELEINE BRAND, host: And I'm Madeleine Brand. Parents' fears of online sexual predators stalking their young children - well, those fears are overblown and not based on the facts. That's according to a new article in the journal \"American Psychologist.\" It says most worries over children and Internet predators are myths. One of the co-writers of the piece is University of New Hampshire sociology professor Dr. David Finkelhor. He's the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center. Welcome to the program. Dr. DAVID FINKELHOR (University of New Hampshire): Good to be here. BRAND: How did you conduct your study? And we should note in the interest of full disclosure that it was funded mostly by the Department of Justice, but also in part by the Verizon Foundation, which obviously has a stake in downplaying reports of dangers on the Internet. So first of all, does that funding bias your research at all? Dr. FINKELHOR: No. It was a small part of the research, and how we report our findings are what they are. BRAND: And so how did you conduct your study? Dr. FINKELHOR: There were two surveys, each of 1,500 young people between the ages of 10 and 17 about their experiences online. And then there was one national survey of over 600 law enforcement agencies. BRAND: And a lot of parents out there, they think there are sexual predators just waiting to pounce on their children, posing as teenagers or even children. You didn't find that. Dr. FINKELHOR: Essentially what we found is that the images that parents and the media have about these crimes are different from what they really are. The predominant victims of these crimes are teenagers 12-16 years old. They do get victimized by adults. These are serious crimes. But deception does not play a particularly big role. The adults use the kids' interest in sex, romance, excitement to seduce these young people. They typically admit to being older and interested in sex. Kids go to meet them and typically have several sexual contacts. The key thing is that this has different implications than the image that I think a lot of people have about these crimes. BRAND: So it sounds like what you're saying is it's not necessarily a factor of the medium, the Internet per se. Because after all, there have been these relationships, if you want to call them that, before the Internet. Dr. FINKELHOR: For the most part, the dynamics of these crimes look a lot like conventional statutory rape. But also if you track the amount of sex crime against children that's been going on during this period when the Internet has been taking hold, we've actually seen declines in most categories of crime and sex crimes against children. I'm not saying that the Internet is responsible for that. But at least it seems to allay concerns that the Internet is a generator of a lot of new sex criminality. BRAND: So parents listening to this, what should they take away from this conversation? What should they - how should they change the way that they monitor their children's Internet use? Dr. FINKELHOR: It turns out that the young people who are vulnerable to these kinds of crimes, they're going online looking for things they're not getting in their families and in their life. There needs to be information about this that's available on the Web and the places where these young people hang out. It is important for parents to have conversations about Internet safety, but those conversations should probably be less about giving out personal information and more about what to do if somebody starts to talk with them about sex, and how to deal with inclination to post sexy pictures of yourself or information about yourself that suggests an interest in a sexual relationship. BRAND: David Finkelhor is co-author of the article \"Online Predators and Their Victims.\" He's also the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Thanks for joining us. Dr. FINKELHOR: You're very welcome.", "Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York attended an event at a Manhattan synagogue in which he sharply criticized the city for not closing Rikers Island, the city's notorious jail. \"Kids are literally dying because of the policy we have today,\" Cuomo told the assembled crowd. \"These are poor people who are members of minority groups who have long histories of being discriminated against.\" The audience cheered Cuomo at the event for \"raising the age\" — that is, changing state laws so that 16- and 17-year-old offenders are sent into the juvenile justice system instead of trying them and imprisoning them as adults. Raising the age has become one of Cuomo's legislative priorities: New York is one of just two states — North Carolina is the other — that automatically tries 16-year-olds as adults. Critics of the state's current policies point to their stark racial outcomes: in New York City, 9 out of 10 young offenders sentenced to adult prison are black or Latino. (In North Carolina, young black offenders are nine times more likely to be sentenced to adult prison.) Marc Schindler, the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington D.C, put these policies in explicit racial terms. \"If these policies were disproportionately impacting middle and upper class white kids, these policies wouldn't be allowed to exist,\" he said. Schindler said that the outcomes for youth offenders in New York are made even more glaring by what's happening next door: Connecticut is one of seven states that raised the age for trying offenders as adults since 2007, and a study by the Justice Policy Institute showed that the number of young people in that state's juvenile detention centers had fallen. Opponents of raising the age have warned that doing so would lead to an explosion of the juvenile prison population and the \"The outcomes have been so positive that [Connecticut lawmakers] are considering raising the age to 21,\" Schindler said this week. (The study's conclusions found support across the ideological spectrum, from an essay in The American Conservative to the op-ed page of the New York Times.) So why didn't juvenile courts and jails become overwhelmed with new cases? The researchers pointed to a broader ongoing decline in crime over the last decade, and said that opponents of raising the age were often stakeholders invested in the current system, like corrections' officers unions and prosecutors, who the researchers say overestimated the costs of trying and incarcerating young offenders. (Repeated calls to the corrections officers union in New York went unreturned.) The researchers said that states that raised the age also spent more resources on alternatives to incarceration, like probation and outpatient rehabilitation. \"I think while there's a lot of work that we need to do in juvenile systems around the country, at least those systems are making an attempt to do rehabilitative service,\" Schindler said. The researchers found similar results in Illinois and Massachusetts, and found that the declines in juvenile arrests in those states outpaced the declines in the rest of the country. The politics of raising the age in New York State are complicated: both liberals and conservatives broadly support raising the age in principle, but express specific concerns about the proposal put forward by the governor. Advocates for reform say that proposals have left many harsh penalties in place for teenagers as young as 13 arrested for certain violent crimes. Lawmakers worry about where juvenile offenders would be housed to serve their sentences. Prosecutors expressed concern that the raise-the-age legislation proposed by the governor would take away their discretion in assigning cases to different courts and increase the number of sealed records, making it harder to identify repeat offenders. Elias Husamudeen, the president of the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association of New York, said that his union is not opposed to raising the age because relatively few inmates in jails like Rikers are under 18. In 2015, there were about 1,200 inmates at Rikers ages 18-21 out of a total population of about 10,000. \"If you want to not treat them as adults, fine,\" Husamudeen said. \"But is that going to do anything to reduce the crimes we find this particular age group involved in?\" Husamudeen also said that raising the age might make young people more likely to be recruited by gangs to commit crimes, since they would face comparatively light punishment. Proponents for raising the age have cited the growing body of research that strongly suggests that the brains of 16- and 17-year-olds are not done developing — and that young people may not have the same capacity to control their impulses or understand the consequences of their behavior. (Some studies show that young people placed into adult prisons are more likely to re-offend.) Schindler said that trying juveniles as adults stacks the deck against them; w", "It violates the U.S. Constitution's ban against \"cruel and unusual punishment\" for a state to impose a life sentence without parole on a youngster who commits a crime less than homicide, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday. In a five-to-four decision in the case Graham vs. Florida, Justice Anthony Kennedy sided with the court's liberals to overturn a lower court ruling. Writing for the majority, Kennedy said: The Constitution prohibits the imposition of a life with-out parole sentence on a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide. A State need not guarantee the offender eventual release, but if it imposes a sentence of life it must provide him or her with some realistic opportunity too obtain release before the end of that term. The decision could affect dozens of people who were sentenced to life terms without parole for crimes other than homicide. The case involved Terrance Jamar Graham who was 17 at the time he and two older accomplices committed a strong-armed robbery in which Graham, according to testimony, Graham held the gun on the victim. At the time of that robbery, Graham was already under court supervision for another robbery. The trial judge gave Graham a life sentence and because Florida had ended parole, advocates for juvenile offenders argued that his sentence was essentially equivalent to a sentence of \"death in prison.\" Kennedy wrote: Terrance Graham's sentence guarantees he will die in prison without any meaningful opportunity to obtain release, no matter what he might do to demonstrate that the bad acts he committed as a teenager are not representative of his true character, even if he spends the next half century attempting to atone for his crimes and learn from his mistakes. The State has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a non homicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law. This the Eighth Amendment does not permit. Read More >> The Equal Justice Initiative which has advocated on behalf of juveniles who have received life without parole sentences, hailed the court's opinion: \"This is a significant victory for children. The Court recognized that it is cruel to pass a final judgment on children, who have an enormous capacity for change and rehabilitation compared to adults,\" said Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, who represents Joe Sullivan. \"I am very encouraged by the Court's ruling. It's an important win not only for kids who have been condemned to die in prison but for all children who need additional protection and recognition in the criminal justice system.\" We previewed this case last year, noting that some notable people who had been child offenders themselves, actor Charles Dutton and former Sen. Alan Simpson, had urged the court to do what it now has.", "The number of boys locked up for crimes has dropped over the past decade, but the number of young women detained in jails and residential centers has moved in the other direction. Experts say girls make up the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile justice system, with more than 300,000 arrests and criminal charges every year. A new report by the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy says the system isn't doing enough to help those young girls. Most girls who wind up tangled in the justice system have family problems, trauma or a history of abuse, says Georgetown University professor Peter Edelman, who co-authored the report, \"Improving the Juvenile Justice System for Girls.\" More than half of the girls detained these days don't commit big crimes. More often their transgressions are things like skipping school, breaking curfew or running away from home, says Edelman, who has studied justice up close since the 1970s. \"Getting them back into school and getting them back on a path without invoking the sanctions of the juvenile and criminal justice system,\" Edelman says, \"that is so much better in terms of not leaving those wounds and scars and preserving the possibilities for the future.\" A Case In Point Jabriera Handy says she is still living with some of those scars. Four years ago, Handy was locked up in the Baltimore City Detention Center. Her 69-year-old grandmother had died of a heart attack shortly after they had a fight. Handy was charged with second degree murder in the adult system and spent 11 months in the detention center. One day, on the way to school behind bars, the jail was put on lockdown because someone had been stabbed to death. \"I was looking, and I saw the man was just laying there with a limp body,\" she says. She says they continued on to school like nothing had happened. \"So it wasn't like anybody came to us to talk about what [we had] just seen,\" she says. The Georgetown report says no juveniles — girls or boys — belong in adult jails and prisons. It also says prosecutors should never lock up kids on technicalities, like violating probation or other minor offenses. Criticism Of Report That doesn't sound right to longtime prosecutor James Backstrom. \"We're talking about kids that are violating curfew laws, being truant from school [and] violating court orders,\" Backstrom says. \"Do we need the authority to pick those kids up? I think we do.\" Backstrom, the district attorney in Dakota County, Minn., says not all of those juveniles need to be in detention. \"[But] if you ignore the small issue, you might not get to the big issue before it's too late,\" he says. Backstrom says he agrees with Edelman on a key point in the report, that it makes sense to devote resources to kids. \"I've long believed if we're going to reduce crime in America in the long run, we have to start with our kids, with early intervention and prevention efforts,\" he says. Handy, who got out two years ago, says she is doing her part. She wants to become a social worker and is visiting girls at a detention center in Maryland to try to listen and help. RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Let's go to a different kind of problem, proving difficult to solve. While the number of boys who have been locked up as juvenile offenders dropped over the past decades, the number of girls being detained has moved in the other direction. Experts say girls make up the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile justice system, with more than 300,000 arrests and criminal charges every year. And a new report says there isn't enough being done to help these girls in the system. NPR's Carrie Johnson has the story. CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Most girls who wind up tangled in the justice system have family problems, trauma, a history of abuse, says Georgetown University professor Peter Edelman. Edelman, a co-author of the new report, has been studying juvenile justice up close since the 1970s, when he ran a youth unit in New York State. Over half of the girls who are detained these days don't commit big crimes. It's more like skipping school, breaking curfew, running away from home, Edelman says. PETER EDELMAN: Getting them back into school and getting them back on a path without invoking the sanctions of the juvenile and criminal justice system. That is so much better in terms of not leaving those wounds and scars and preserving the possibilities for the future. JOHNSON: Jabriera Handy says she's still living with some of those scars. Four years ago, Handy was locked up in the Baltimore city detention center. Her 69-year-old grandma died of a heart attack shortly after they had a big fight. Handy got charged with second degree murder - in the adult system, and spent 11 months there. One day, on the way to school behind bars, something bad happened, Handy said. JABRIERA HANDY: So as we went through the tunnel, the jail became on lock down. And we had to just, you know, stand there. We were told to turn around and close our eyes, but in jail yo", "The United States is the only country in the world that imprisons juveniles for life without the possibility of parole. That's according to the University of San Francisco Law School, which last week confirmed that the only other country that still did that, Israel, has reversed its policy. In the U.S., there are more than 2,300 \"kid lifers\" in 39 states. Some states have efforts under way to change that — including California, where the legislature is trying to pass a bill that would ban life in prison without parole for juveniles. Judy Campbell reports from member station KQED in San Francisco. SCOTT SIMON, host: This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Coming up how the economy is doing in second life, but first in this life. United States is now the only country in the world that imprisons juveniles for life without the possibility of parole. That's according to the University of San Francisco Law School, which this week confirmed that the only other country that still did that, Israel, has just reversed its policy. Here in the United States, there are still more than 2300 kid-lifers as they're called in 39 states. Some states have efforts underway to change that including California. From member station KQED, Judy Campbell reports. Ms. BONNIE CASTILE (mother of juvenile serving life without parole): That's him there. That's when he was small… Ms. JUDY CAMPBELL (KQED Radio Staff): Bonnie Castile is in her home in Oakland flipping through old pictures of her son, Plymouth. Ms. CASTILE: Yeah, that's him. That's him here and that's him there. (Soundbite of giggles) Ms. CASTILE: He loves to dress. And his daddy… CAMPBELL: In the most recent picture, he's dressed in prison blue. Castile has been in prison for 12 years so far, for a crime he committed when he was 17. Ms. CASTILE: I often think of will I ever be able to just hold him in my arms again and to see my only son, besides seeing behind bars and I can't give up. CAMPBELL: She says Castile and his friends held up a local store and when the clerk fought back, one of Castile's friends shot him dead. Castile was arrested with the others. Ms. CASTILE: They gave him life without parole, as many years as they gave the guy that pulled the trigger and did the killing. CAMPBELL: According to a recent Human Rights Watch study, that's fairly typical. In reviewing most of the juveniles serving life without parole in California, the study found 45 percent were not the trigger person in the murder. That's because they were sentenced under one of California's so called special circumstance laws that allow for life without for parole, for example, when someone is killed in the course of a felony, like a robbery. And in 1990, as part of a national movement toward harsher sentences for juvenile offenders, California voters passed an initiative that allowed life without parole sentences to apply to juveniles 16 and older. Mr. SCOTT THORPE (California Attorney General's Office): What the voters have said to this initiative is we want to give the judges the option, so that they can choose the best sentence for the defendant and the crime. CAMPBELL: That's Scott Thorpe with the state's District Attorney Association. His association in law enforcement groups are opposing a California Senate bill that would ban life in prison without parole for juveniles. Instead, they would get sentences of 25 to life with a chance at parole. At the heart of the argument is whether teenagers should be held responsible in the same way as adults. Ms. ELIZABETH CAUFFMAN (Psychology Professor, University of California, Irvine): Well as any parent knows, kids are much more impulsive, don't think long term. CAMPBELL: U.C. Irvine Psychology Professor Elizabeth Cauffman, specializes in adolescent development and delinquency and she says there's a reason we make stupid decisions when we're young. She says brains develop from back to front. That means the last area to fully form is the frontal lobe. Ms. CAUFFMAN: The front of the brain is where you have the capacity to make your decisions, to regulate your impulses, to think long term. CAMPBELL: Cauffman says brain under development isn't an excuse for heinous crimes, but it does mean that kids are more amenable to rehabilitation than adults. Ms. CAUFFMAN: Kids peak at their criminal behavior at about 17, 18 years of age, and then they start to stop. It's just a decline in criminal behavior. So if we just left kids alone, most kids would stop committing offenses. CAMPBELL: That's no consolation to Maggie Elvy(ph). Ms. MAGGIE ELVY (wife to man murdered by juveniles): My husband's dead. He doesn't get a chance to be rehabilitated or brought back to life. Our life is ruined. CAMPBELL: Elvy's husband was murdered 15 years ago after being robbed and repeatedly beaten over the head with a metal pipe. One of the assailants was 16 years old at the time. He's now serving life in prison without parole for the crime. And El", "In March 2011, Kim Brooks did something that many parents have either done or thought about doing — and it led to a warrant being issued for her arrest. Brooks was rushing to get herself and her two kids to the airport to catch a flight. As she pulled into the Target parking lot to run one last errand, her 4-year-old asked if he could wait in the car. It was a cool day, and so she cracked the windows, child-locked the doors, and ran inside. \"It wasn't something I had done before,\" Brooks says, but \"I had all these memories from my own childhood of waiting in the car for a couple minutes while my parents ran errands.\" She returned promptly to her son — still happily playing on an iPad — but Brooks later learned that a bystander had filmed her leaving the car, and sent that recording to the police. She was charged with \"contributing to the delinquency of a minor.\" The ordeal prompted Brooks to write Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear, in which she grapples with the expectation that children must be under adult supervision at all times. \"There's now the expectation that to be a good parent in this country you have to have your eyes on your children every second — or you have to pay another adult to have eyes on your children every second,\" Brooks says. \"The consequences are that either one of the parents gives up their work ... or you pay someone else ... which is harder and harder.\" Brooks says that in a country where the cost of childcare can be prohibitive, parents are faced with impossible choices. \"I was trying to understand how it was possible that something I had grown up doing so often — waiting in a car in a safe parking lot — how this had become a crime,\" she says. Interview Highlights On whether it's against the law to leave a child in a car There is no specific law in Virginia — or in a lot of states. So, what happens is that it's left up to the discretion of the officer. ... There have been people who've done similar things who are charged with felonies ... child endangerment or child neglect. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is actually a much lesser crime — it was a misdemeanor. ... The defense that we went with was that this was a temporary lapse in judgment — that I was not a neglectful mother; that there was no history of neglect. At one point I said to my lawyer: ... I don't really know that I've done something wrong here. I don't understand why I'm being charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I don't really see how I've committed a crime. On how expectations around adult supervision changed relatively quickly — and in the not-so-distant past I think a lot of this began in the '80s with a lot of very publicized cases of child abduction. ... I learned about something called \"the availability heuristic\" ... when we are trying to assess how risky something is we don't think about statistics. We often don't think about risks rationally. We think about how quickly we can recall an example of something. ... Suddenly it was much easier to recall these examples of child abduction or, much later on, hot car deaths. Suddenly things that had never been thought of as risks or dangers seemed much more dangerous. On what it means to be a \"good parent\" I think that the expectation on parents has changed from giving your children shelter, and love, and support, and guidance, to this idea that observation and structure and sort of watching them all the time — that that's what a good parent does. And if a parent has any time left over to themselves — especially a mother — she must be doing something wrong. ... I think that that's hurtful not only to parents, but for children as well. On what the consequences are for children I think that the easiest way to answer that is to think, well, what would the consequences be for adults? What would the consequences be for you or for me if suddenly we had no freedom? ... [If] we couldn't be in public spaces on our own; We had no time to ourselves — no unsupervised time. I think that what you'd see is what we're seeing with children — which is high rates of depression, anxiety, obesity. ... We're really doing children a disservice when we underestimate what they're capable of. On whether she's angry at the person who reported her to the police I want to stress that I think fear is natural. We often we see these terrible stories on the news — we hear about kids who die in cars, who are abducted ... and it's heart-wrenching when we we hear these stories. So, you know, I understand being afraid both as a bystander and as a parent. I don't think that fear is the problem. I think the problem is that we often don't know what to do with our fear. We don't know how to acknowledge it for what it is — which is a feeling which might be giving us some information about the world, but it's also giving us information about ourselves. On how she is no longer an \"uncritical consumer of anxiety\" I still struggle with fear and with anxiety as a", "It's not just people who go on trial these days. It's their brains. More and more lawyers are arguing that some defendants deserve special consideration because they have brains that are immature or impaired, says Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University who has been studying the use of brain science in court. About 5 percent of murder trials now involve some neuroscience, Farahany says. \"There's a steady increase of defendants seeking to introduce neuroscience to try to reduce the extent to which they're responsible or the extent to which they're punished for a crime,\" she says. Farahany was a featured speaker at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego this week. Also featured were several brain scientists who are uncomfortable with the way courts are using brain research. When lawyers turn to neuroscience, often what's at issue is a defendant's competency, Farahany says. So a defense lawyer might argue that \"you weren't competent to have pled guilty because of some sort of brain injury,\" she says, or that you weren't competent to have confessed to a police officer after being arrested. The approach has been most successful with cases involving teenagers, Farahany says. \"It seems like judges are particularly enamored with the adolescent brain science,\" she says. \"Large pieces of their opinions are dedicated to citing the neuroscientific studies, talking about brain development, and using that as a justification for treating juveniles differently.\" In one recent drug possession case, Farahany says, lawyers argued that a young man's statement to police couldn't be used even though he'd agreed to talk. His lawyers pointed to studies showing that adolescent brains are especially vulnerable to coercion. \"And it worked,\" Farahany says. \"The prosecution had to basically start over in developing evidence against the juvenile because they couldn't use his own statements against him.\" So judges and juries are being swayed by studies showing that adolescent brains don't function the same way adult brains do. One study like that was presented at the neuroscience meeting by Kristina Caudle, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medical College. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, used a technology called functional MRI to look at how the brains of people from 6 to 29 reacted to a threat. \"The typical response — and what you might think is a logical response — is to become less impulsive, to sort of withdraw, to not act when there is threat in the environment,\" Caudle says. \"But what we saw was that adolescents uniquely seemed to be more likely to act. So their performance on this task became more impulsive.\" And Caudle found that in adolescents, an area of the brain involved in regulating emotional responses had to work much harder to prevent an impulsive response. This sort of study is great for understanding adolescent brain development in a general way, Caudle says. \"What it doesn't do is allow us to predict, for example, whether one particular teenager might be likely to be impulsive or to commit criminal behavior,\" she says. And Caudle worries that a study like hers could be used inappropriately in court. \"Jurors tend to really take things like MRI scans as fact, and that gives me great pause,\" she says. A lot of the neuroscience presented in court is simply unnecessary, says Joshua Buckholtz, a psychologist at Harvard. \"Anyone who's every had a teenager would be able to tell you that their decision-making capacities are not comparable to adults,\" he says. And relying on brain science to defend juveniles could have unexpected consequences, Buckholtz says. For example, he says, if a prosecutor used an MRI scan to show that a 16-year-old who committed a capital crime had a very mature brain, \"Would we then insist that we execute that juvenile?\" The task of integrating brain science into the judicial system will in large part be the responsibility of judges, Buckholtz says. And how it works will depend on how well judges understand \"what a scientific study is and what it says and what it doesn't say and can't say,\" he says.", "We generally think of adolescence as ending at about age 18. But Larry Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University, says new brain science is starting to reveal why teenagers seem to stay teenage through their mid-twenties. Steinberg joins Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson to discuss the findings in his latest book, “Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence” (excerpt below) He also explains why the adolescent years are so developmentally crucial, and what parents can do to raise happier and more successful kids. Interview Highlights: Larry Steinberg On adolescence lasting longer  “If we look at the average of age of puberty now in the United States, girls are starting puberty around 11 or 12 years old. If you look at when young women are getting married in the United States, the average age is 27 or 28 years old. So we’re talking about a pretty long span of time and the same time interval lengthwise for boys as for girls. We know that when people go through puberty the sex hormones associated with that affect the brain as well as the rest of the body. We can mark the beginning of adolescence in one way by looking at when that’s happening, so that really is determined when someone goes through puberty. On the other hand, we can look at the end of adolescence in terms of when the brain is not maturing so much anymore and that seems to be going on until people are in their mid-20s or so. Roughly speaking, we can look at this period and bracket it as going from age 10 to age 25.” On how education should change in light of this “One thing that we should do in school is to focus more on what experts are referring to as non-cognitive skills and that would include things like perseverance, determination and grit. If you think about the challenge about becoming an adult now, you need to be able to stay in school for a very long time. You need to be able to stay in school through the completion of a four year college degree to get a decent-paying job, and that requires that we help young people develop the capacity to delay gratification and to persevere, even at tasks that they’re maybe not so crazy about.” On the ‘opportunity’ of adolescents’ malleable brains “One of the main themes of the book is that we’re discovering that the brain during adolescence is very malleable or very plastic. What that means is that the brain has a heightened capacity to change in response to experience. That cuts both ways: on the one hand it means that the brain is especially susceptible to toxic experiences that can harm it, but on the other hand it means that the brain is also susceptible to positive influences that can promote growth. That’s the kind of opportunity that I think we need to think about in relation to adolescence and it’s an opportunity I think we’re squandering.” Book Excerpt: ‘Age Of Opportunity’ By Laurence Steinberg Introduction When a country’s adolescents trail much of the world on measures of school achievement, but are among the world leaders in violence, unwanted pregnancy, STDs, abortion, binge drinking, marijuana use, obesity, and unhappiness, it is time to admit that something is wrong with the way that country is raising its young people. That country is the United States. It is not surprising that so many young people fare poorly in school or suffer from emotional or behavioral problems. Our current approach to raising adolescents reflects a mix of misunderstanding, uncertainty, and contradiction, where we frequently treat them as more mature than they really are, but just as frequently treat them as less so. A society that tries twelve-year-olds who commit serious crimes as adults because they’re mature enough to “know better,” but prohibits twenty-year-olds from buying alcohol because they are too immature to handle it, is deeply confused about how to treat people in this age range. Similarly, a society that lets sixteen-year-olds drive (statistically among the most dangerous activities there is), but doesn’t allow them to see R-rated movies (an innocuous activity if there ever was one) is clueless. The classic stereotype of adolescence is that it is a time characterized by confusion. Adolescence is a confusing time, but it’s not the people in the midst of it who are confused. Indeed, adults are far more bewildered by adolescence than are young people themselves. Some years ago, I received a call one evening from a friend who asked me to watch his ten-year-old son while he dashed out to take care of a problem involving his sixteen-year-old daughter. Stacie had just called to ask her dad to come and pick her up. She had been arrested for shoplifting—she had attempted to steal a bathing suit from one of the department stores that anchored the high-end mall not far from where we lived. She and her two friends, who also had stolen a few small things from the store, were being held at the local police station. My friend’s wife wa", "It's been a tough three years for an already troubled city. When Flint, Mich., switched to using the Flint River for its drinking water as a cost-saving measure, then failed to properly treat it, lead pipes corroded and contaminated the water with lead. But Flint residents are fighters, and many are beginning to see signs of hope for a better future. The most visible are changes are in the city's downtown. There are coffeehouses and restaurants along Saginaw Street where 10 years ago there were almost none. General Manager Ken Laatz says business is thriving at his establishment, the Soggy Bottom Bar, where you'll find good food and good Michigan-brewed beer on tap. \"Almost every night, we have some cool things going on,\" he said. \"We have a jazz night that's really popular; trivia night's always popular.\" Laatz says besides the new eateries, philanthropists with ties to the city are restoring the Capitol Theatre to its former glory. The theatre is next to the renovated, century-old Dryden Building. It used to be a cheap place to rent office space; now, says Laatz, you can't get in. Laatz says Flint residents are happy, but he says the response to the improvements from out-of-towners on social media posts drives him nuts. \"It's always the first comment,\" said Laatz with a grimace. \" 'Don't drink the water.' \" Yeah, it gets old. But if you live in Flint you're well aware of its problems. Most predated the water crisis. General Motors used to employ 80,000 people in Genesee County, most of them in the city. Today, GM has only about 5,000 Flint residents on the payroll. The catastrophic loss of jobs led to high unemployment and rising crime rates. Flint was already notorious for that earlier crisis, made known to the world by a documentary by Michael Moore called Roger and Me. Other problems facing the city include low-performing schools and miles and miles of blighted neighborhoods. But Laatz says improving downtown is a start. Here's what people outside Flint need to understand, he says: \"Flint has a way of making people fall in love with it.\" He adds, \"You know, I love Flint, I love running a business here, I love what it is. And I want all those things to get better, and the education system to be better so that it can be a thriving city again.\" People who run the new Cummings Early Childhood Education Center are determined to make the education system better. The center caters to children up to age 5 who lived in the city during the beginnings of the water crisis. Funding from the state and from foundations ensures that, at least for the next three years, the school is free. The school is partnering with the School of Education at the University of Michigan, Flint. \"In order to revitalize a community, you have to revitalize its education system,\" says School of Education Dean Bob Barnett. \"If we want to lift these kids out of poverty, we have to lift whole families up. So we have adult education here, where the parents on site are getting their GED and their high school diploma, while their kids are getting high-quality early childhood care.\" The school is based on the Reggio Emilia model developed in Italy after World War II to help cities respond to traumatized kids by providing high-quality early childhood care. Kids in Flint have been traumatized, too, say the school's developers. They figure the model's emphasis on natural materials, soothing and uncluttered classrooms, and respect for the autonomy and ability of the child is a natural fit for Flint's children. The university will conduct research at the school and remain involved with the children once they enroll in the public district. The aim is to use the experiences here to try to improve Flint's entire public school district from the bottom up. There are efforts underway to reduce Flint's notorious high crime rate, as well. Flint's police chief, Timothy Johnson, has his officers focus on traffic stops. Those stops can find people driving without a license, he says, and that can lead to finding unregistered guns in the car. \"And believe it not,\" said Johnson, \"When you're taking weapons out of those cars, you're stopping homicides from happening that might have occurred that night.\" Johnson says efforts to improve trust between citizens and police are also helping. Crime tips are way up, he says. \"They [citizens] know who's breaking into so-and-so's house,\" said Johnson. \"They know who committed that murder. Somebody was there; somebody saw it. Without those special tips, we would never be able to solve these crimes.\" But as with all city services, he says he doesn't have enough police officers or resources. Economists says Flint does have some anchor businesses that could help, especially if there are more partnerships like the one between the Cummings Center and the University of Michigan, Flint. Flint has an international airport; it has the university; and it has major medical facilities. But those assets don't often help people living in t", "Eduardo made a mistake 10 days before he turned 18 in New York City. \"Basically every single day, I relive that moment,\" says Eduardo, who is now 32 and still regularly passes by the spot where he was arrested for the first and only time in his life. Police caught him selling cocaine on the sidewalk next to the apartment building he's lived in since he was a kid. His plan, he says, was to make some money to pay for marijuana. Instead, it stalled his college years and landed him a three-years-to-life sentence in an adult prison. He convinced a parole board to let him out early after more than seven months. Still, he came home at 18 years old with a criminal record. \"Shortcuts, they won't get you anywhere, man. Just give you a hard time,\" he says. \"They'll give you a lot of time to think.\" He asked NPR to identify him only by his first name because he's worried a future employer or landlord might find out about his criminal record. He says it's cost him plenty of jobs since he left prison. \"The initial interview would go great, but towards the end when it was time to run that background check, that's when reality hit,\" he explains. \"I've heard the word 'no' so many times. It's hard, man. It's hard to keep telling yourself you're not going to give up.\" But just before the new year, Eduardo finally got the phone call he had been waiting for. One of his attorneys called him late one night to tell him that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was granting him a pardon. It's one of the first pardons in New York state for former offenders who committed a nonviolent crime when they were 16 or 17 and have stayed conviction-free for at least 10 years. Anyone convicted of a sex crime does not qualify, and pardons can be withdrawn if the recipient is re-convicted. Cuomo announced the first group of 101 pardons on Dec. 30, after creating the youth pardon program in late 2015. About 10,000 people could benefit from this program for New York residents, according to an estimate from the governor's office. So far, it's received 260 applications. For Eduardo, receiving the governor's pardon means the conviction record that's haunted him into his early 30s is now sealed from the general public. Some government agencies that require a deeper background check through fingerprinting can still access his rap sheet. Still, sealing his conviction record could help get rid of many of the barriers to jobs and housing Eduardo and thousands of other former teen offenders have faced. \"They serve no good public safety function, and yet they really make it even more difficult for people to readjust to the community once they've completed their prison term,\" says Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project. He says New York's program could serve as a model for other states, including North Carolina. That's the only other state like New York that charges 16- and 17-year-olds for all crimes not as juveniles, but as adults. Mauer adds that records in the adult justice system can be harder to seal than in the juvenile system. In fact, adult records about misdemeanors in New York are never sealed. \"You can be 16 years old, you can hop a turnstile, you can get convicted for theft of services, and that will be on your record the rest of your life,\" says Laurie Parise, executive director of Youth Represent and one of the attorneys who helped Eduardo apply for Cuomo's pardon. While many advocates for criminal justice reform hail the pardon program as an important way to help former teen offenders, they also see the need for pardons as a reminder that New York has one of the country's toughest sentencing laws for teenagers. \"The real solution to this is for New York to raise the age,\" says Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to proposals to change state laws so that 16- and 17-year-olds are tried as juveniles. \"That way kids will be treated as kids and not subjected to the scars of a criminal conviction. They'll be more likely to be able to stand on their own feet.\" Cuomo, a Democrat, supports reform efforts in New York. But lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state Senate have pushed back against recent proposals to raise the age of criminal responsibility, citing concerns about how a change would put more pressure on courts and housing for juvenile offenders. While they wait for a legislative solution, advocates at Youth Represent and other organizations are trying to find more former teen offenders in New York to apply for a second chance in time for the next round of pardons. \"We can't continue to define young people by the worst mistake they ever made,\" Parise, Eduardo's attorney, says. \"We have to give people a chance.\" Eduardo's still waiting for his chance to become a health educator. Since finishing his prison sentence, he's completed his associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees. For now, he's working two jobs to help raise his four-year-old daughter. More than a decade later, memori", "A surveillance camera is said to have recorded it all: a woman in a black t-shirt stepping out of a tan minivan; the lighting of a toilet-paper fuse, the arc of a beer bottle filled with fuel as it was thrown onto the dashboard of an empty police car. That act of vandalism, in the early hours of May 30, is why two Brooklyn lawyers are fighting federal explosives charges and could face as much as life in prison. They had been sitting in a New York jail until Tuesday night, after a government effort to keep them behind bars failed. Federal prosecutors haven't accused Urooj Rahman, 31, or Colinford Mattis, 32, of harming anyone that night. But they have indirectly cast the two defendants as characters in the favored Trump administration narrative that suggests that last month's violent protests weren't just an eruption of anger from peaceful protesters, but rather the work of dedicated extremists. In a recent memo to U.S. Attorneys and department heads, Attorney General William Barr made clear how he expected the department to respond — in the same way it did to organized crime or terrorism \"by disrupting their violent activities and ultimately dismantling their capability to threaten the rule of law.\" Urooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis don't claim to be members of any group; their friends say they aren't people who espouse radical beliefs, but against this backdrop, they have been treated as if they are. \"This is not a case about youthful indiscretion or a crime of passion,\" a government lawyer argued at a recent hearing in the case. \"It is about a calculated, dangerous crime committed by adults who risked the lives of innocent civilians and first responders, who had more Molotov cocktails ready... These were lawyers in particular who had every reason to know what they were doing was wrong and knew the consequences. Committing this crime required a fundamental change in mindset for them.\" Barr has said publicly that the FBI is building cases against \"a witches' brew\" of extremist groups who he claims hijacked the protests. \"When we arrest people and charge them, at this stage anyway, we don't charge them with being a member of Antifa,\" Barr told NPR's Steve Inskeep in an interview on June 25. \"We charge them for throwing a Molotov cocktail, or we charge them for possession of a gun, or gasoline, or things to make bombs with. Those are the kinds of charges that are filed.\" By most accounts Rahman and Mattis were idealistic attorneys hoping to change the world. Government attorneys are trying to make the case that all changed on May 29th when the pair drove to a convenience store to buy beer bottles, gasoline, and toilet paper and built homemade explosives they intended to use. In doing that, they became part of Barr's witches' brew. \"These defendants allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails at NYPD vehicles without regard for the potentially deadly consequences,\" the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, Richard Donoghue, said in a statement when he announced the charges against the two attorneys. \"Such criminal acts should never be confused with legitimate protest. Those who carry out attacks on NYPD officers or vehicles are criminals, and they will be treated as such.\" The police say it is an open-and-shut case — a camera outside the 88th Precinct caught the entire episode; and, if that's true, it is compelling evidence against Rahman and Mattis. What it doesn't explain, though, is why their case has been treated so differently — so much more harshly — than other Molotov cocktail protester cases around the country. Mandatory Minimum Sentences Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York decided to charge Rahman and Mattis federally and the charges read like a domestic terrorism case: arson, conspiracy, use of destructive device, civil disorder, making or possessing a destructive device, and the use of explosives during a crime of violence. That last charge alone – something called 924(c) in the criminal code – carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison. NPR reviewed forty-seven recent federal cases filed against other protesters who threw Molotov cocktails or started fires damaging police property nationwide, and this case was the only instance in which 924(c) appears. (Prosecutors charged another woman, Samantha Shader, alongside Mattis and Rahman. Shader threw a Molotov cocktail at a police van filled with officers in another part of Brooklyn that night. It is unclear why they were charged together.) Most protesters arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails are charged under 844(i) – malicious damage or destruction by fire or explosive. When asked why the Rahman-Mattis case was charged differently, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment. But two federal prosecutors who worked in the Eastern District and know the U.S. Attorney there well say the fact that the two were lawyers and knew better certainly played a role in the decision to level so", "New York's Rikers Island is the second-largest jail in the U.S., and one of the most notorious. But with a single move, Rikers has taken the lead on prison reform on one issue: Last month, the prison banned the use of solitary confinement for inmates under 21 years old. Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel for the ACLU's National Prison Project, says the use of isolation is too widespread and that it's being used for the wrong reasons. Often young people are even isolated for their own protection. \"[Rikers] is known for being abusive, for being dysfunctional and broken,\" Fettig says. \"The fact that it has chosen to move away from abusive policies and practices ... has national significance.\" 'I'm In A Box' Ismael Nazario, from Brooklyn, was 16 when he first landed in Rikers for an assault charge that was later dismissed. Then he got sent back for robbery. While inside, he was accused of inciting a riot, so he was put into solitary confinement. Nazario says he'll never forget his first night in that 6-by-8-foot cell. \"All the different people that's in all the different cells talking, screaming out the windows, screaming on their cell doors [and] time dragging,\" Nazario says. \"There's no clock — you don't have no sense of ... what day is it, what time is it.\" By the third day in isolation, he says, that's when reality really set in. \"Look at me now; I'm in a box. Whoop-de-do,\" he says. \"You know, this is not the plan I have for myself in life. This is not where I should be; I'm a kid.\" To keep occupied, he read everything he could get his hands on. But after a while he'd just stare at the wall. You stare long enough, he says, and you start to see things. Nazario says he started to see \"black dots\" around his cell, to the point where he thought something was wrong with his eyes. When he left Rikers at 19, Nazario says, he had spent around 300 days in isolation. He says he wonders what would happen to parents who locked their 16- or 17-year-old child in a room for 23 hours a day, and slid food in under the door. \"But yet when you commit a crime, it's all right for this to happen to young people because they committed a crime; so this is OK,\" he says. Police: A Necessary Tool Norman Seabrook, president of the city's Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, says solitary confinement, or what he refers to as \"punitive segregation,\" is a necessary tool for officers. He says adolescent inmates, like those in Rikers, are in adult prisons and jails for a reason. \"They made an adult decision when they pulled the trigger and killed a 6-year-old in the schoolyard. They made an adult decision when they sexually assaulted a woman and left her near death,\" Seabrook says. \"They made these adult decisions then, and now you want me to treat them as children. ... You can't commit these crimes in the confines of an institution and expect to be able to get a free pass.\" Seabrook says there's no magic bullet to fix the problem, but asks, \"What do you do with that person that spits a razor blade out of their mouth and slashes another inmate?\" Or, he asks, what do you do with an inmate who assaults a clinical worker in the correction facility? \"If you don't have an answer as to what you do with them, and I'm suggesting to you that punitive segregation be a tool to be used to isolate the problems so that they don't continue, then why am I wrong and everybody else is right?\" he says. But retired Judge Bryanne Hamill, who sits on the New York City Board of Correction, says she hears stories of adolescent inmates getting sent to solitary for minor offenses. For simple horseplay or ignoring a direct order, some can see up to 90 days in solitary, where they sit alone and idle. \"They need to be able to exercise their brains, since their brains are developing,\" Hamill says. \"And they're developing the frontal lobe and executive functioning; they need opportunities to be able to exercise that, so for those reasons it's considered to be extremely harmful.\" Seabrook agrees that using solitary confinement punitively for simple offenses is wrong and must stop. He says it's appalling and ridiculous if young people are being placed in solitary confinement for yelling or cursing. \"But what people have got to refocus themselves on is, 'You did the crime, do the time,' \" he says. \"And while you're in jail, you will abide by the rules and regulations of the facility.\" Seeking Solutions To A Cycle Of Solitary Those adolescents who are in solitary confinement, Hamill argues, spend too much time in isolation. She says she has met many 16-year-olds who have been in solitary for an entire year. One 18-year-old she's worked with has been in solitary for two years. \"More likely than not, once you're there, you're going to continue to break the rules because of the nature of being in solitary and the harm that it's causing you,\" Hamill says. Hamill says part of the solution for eliminating the use of isolation, especially for minor offenses or protection, is", "When and how do children look in the mirror and ascribe race to their identities? As part of News & Notes' month-long series on race, Farai Chideya takes an in-depth look at how kids develop a racial consciousness. For insight, she speaks first with Christia Brown, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky. Then, we hear from Marti Guzman, a mother of two bi-racial children living in Anchorage, Alaska. Plus, independent journalist Sara Catania opens up about her childhood as one of the only whites at a predominantly black Chicago school. FARAI CHIDEYA, host: This is News & Notes. I'm Farai Chideya. Most little kids notice everything, but just because they notice doesn't mean they put the same meaning to them as older people. Imagine babies of different races playing together. Can they even understand the concept of race? By the time they get to elementary school, though, they probably picked up how we adults see the world. As part of this month's series on race, we're going to look at race consciousness in kids. For some background, we have Christia Brown, assistant professor in Psychology at the University of Kentucky. Welcome, Christia. Ms. CHRISTIA BROWN (Assistant Professor in Psychology, University of Kentucky): Hi, how are you? CHIDEYA: So you study the perceptions of race in children. So, when do children start to perceive that there is this thing race, let alone what it really means to most adults? Ms. BROWN: Well, I mean, again, it's noticing the differences versus knowing what the differences really mean. So research with babies, notices the - it shows that kids notice racial differences very, very early - by a year or so. By preschool, they start to talk about racial groups a lot more frequently, but it's really a focus on skin color and noticing that we all come in different shades. But about 5 up, preschool, about 3 to 5 years old, kids start labeling themselves often with racial terms. So using like black and white, which don't actually reflect the actual color, so it shows that they're actually understanding that these categories have labels that have social meaning. But it's really... CHIDEYA: Is there a difference between how kids start to make these assessments and understand what other people are versus what they are? Do kids - I guess what I'm saying is, would a kid say, I'm black, or I'm white, before they would say someone else's - like, oh, he's black, he's white? Or is it all part of the same continuum? Ms. BROWN: They actually start to notice it in other people before they kind of recognize it in themselves. And they also start to recognize things like stereotypes, and kind of attributes that go along with our social groups, in others before they realize that those attributes might be applied to themselves. So it's awhile before that kind of self-knowledge comes up tothe same level as other knowledge. CHIDEYA: What about the nature versus nurture issue? Is separating people into races something that human beings were just built to do biologically or in an evolutionary sense, or is this all culture and how we've developed it? Ms. BROWN: I think now, most of us think they're really pretty socially constructed groups, because it's really arbitrary what the kind of boundaries for racial groups are. They change, we really socially define them. And it doesn't seem as though kids naturally necessarily stereotype and put much importance on race. It's just that they notice that adults seem to use these groups in some kind of meaningful way. And so kids seem to look to the cues that adults are putting in place before they recognize that this is an important group, I better pay attention to it. So I would argue that this really is a very much, a nurture kind of argument, that because we treat the groups as meaningful, kids learn that these groups must be meaningful in some way. CHIDEYA: So then, I presume that how people view race and how kids view race, whether it is something that just exists or whether it's something that has implications like, don't talk to this person, don't be around this person - the kind of weight that you put on race is something that's learned. Ms. BROWN: Yes, and so that's what happens. So, you see preschoolers noticing that we come in different shades, and they actually - they notice it quite a bit because it is a really salient physical difference. But they really don't start learning the kind of rules that go along with how we treat members of racial groups, really until about elementary school. At about 7 or 8 is when you really start to see them becoming aware of tough social status differences and stereotypes, and then that's going to affect their later perceptions. But that comes much later than just noticing that we're groups. CHIDEYA: How about this: Can you socially engineer? If you're a parent who, say, you know, wants your kids to be perfectly, racially harmonious with everyone, can you ", "There's new scrutiny this year on a federal program that's supposed to protect juveniles in the criminal justice system. Senate lawmakers want to pass a bill that would ensure young people are not locked up alongside adult offenders — and they're quietly investigating the use of federal grant money for the program. Whistleblowers like Jill Semmerling are helping to drive the effort. Semmerling loved her job as a federal agent at the inspector general office's in the Justice Department, where she carried a firearm and a badge to work every day. \"We were there as a watchdog to ensure there was no waste, fraud or abuse,\" she recalls. But when Semmerling started digging into allegations that Wisconsin had been cooking the books to get federal grant money, her own troubles began. \"It was pretty awful,\" she says, \"and you know, you didn't know where to turn.\" Here's the issue: A federal law called the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act allocates grant money to states. In return, states are supposed to protect young offenders and make sure they're not housed with adult criminals. But Semmerling had a source who told her Wisconsin had been doing just that: Kids who were abused in foster care and who ran away were being put in jails next to adult criminals. What's more, the source said, the state was collecting federal grant money designed to protect those kids. \"The whole purpose of the act was to keep juveniles out of adult facilities,\" Semmerling says. \"And the whole point is that a kid may act out or may do something wrong, but you don't ultimately want them to become career criminals.\" Tom Devine, the legal director at the Government Accountability Project, is Jill Semmerling's lawyer. \"She became a bloodhound trying to find out who was responsible for mixing domestic violence victims with hardened criminals\" and trying to stop it, Devine says. Semmerling says she uncovered leads that the practice wasn't isolated to Wisconsin. But her bosses allegedly told her not to go there. Eventually, she says, the Justice Department yanked her from the case altogether. \"I ended up with an autoimmune disease, which I really did not know that I had, but the stress that I endured ... exacerbated it,\" she says. She ended up taking medical retirement. But Semmerling refused to give up, and she reached out to the federal office that supports whistleblowers again and again. Her lawyer, Devine, says that office has supported Semmerling's arguments. \"The Office of the Special Counsel found a substantial likelihood she was right about all those charges, and they ordered the attorney general to conduct an independent investigation,\" Devine says. A Justice Department spokesman says it's committed to ensuring young people are protected from harm inside corrections facilities. Meanwhile, someone else is investigating the issue: Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. \"The fact that the Justice Department is not overseeing how juveniles are treated in those instances, and they're still getting the federal dollars, then it's the federal administrators that are at fault, and we obviously want to correct that,\" Grassley says. Grassley has made juvenile justice one of his top priorities this year. He sent a letter to the DOJ this month demanding information about possible fraud in the grant program — not just in Wisconsin, but in four other states. And he's introduced a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention Act. His legislation includes tougher standards to make sure juveniles are not detained with adults behind bars. For her part, Semmerling says it's a relief that someone is finally listening. She says she hopes states and the federal government will become better stewards of taxpayer money — and better protectors of vulnerable young people." ]

[ "It's slang all right, but it's not gibberish. Without seeing the context, it can be roughly translated something like\n\n\n I showed it to a couple of my mates. They were totally stumped.\n\n\n(Note that I am using showed it, as you mentioned a rifle in there).\n\nWord тип, apart from its main meaning type, kind is also used to refer to a person, usually in a somewhat derogatory manner, and usually a man, e.g. подозрительный тип could be translated as twitchy bloke (although word-for-word means suspicious man).\n\nВыпасть с аппарата is one of a large number of slang phrases meaning to be totally stumped. Some other ones you may encounter are выпасть в осадок, офигеть и т д." ]

[ "I've learned that the meaning of \"to abuse\" is to use something for a bad purpose.\n\n\nTo add to chapka's answer, I want to say that it is also sometimes possible to use a in such sentences:\n\n\n I've learned that a meaning of \"to abuse\" is to use something for a bad purpose.\n\n\nHere, we imply that \"to abuse\" has numerous meanings, and one of these meanings is \"to use something for a bad purpose\". \n\nBut since this meaning can cover the smaller meanings of \"abuse\", let's refine:\n\n\n I've learned that the general meaning of \"to abuse\" is to use something for a bad purpose.\n I've also learned that a more specific meaning of \"to abuse\" is \"to take illegal drugs habitually\". \n\n\nHere, we imply that the word \"abuse\" has one general, cover-all meaning (hence the), and two or more subordinate meanings used in different contexts, as \"to abuse liquor\", \"to verbally abuse your spouse\", etc. Since we're disclosing only one of these specific (sub-)meanings in sentence 2, we use the indefinite article a.\n\nNote that we use the preposition of with some words (\"of 'to abuse'\") after \"meaning\" to modify the word \"meaning\". This is called an \"of-phrase\": such phrases often make a noun definite enough to call for the use of the definite article - but not always.", "Just to expand on Jim's comment:\n\nMean[a + b - c] - Mean[a] + Mean[-b] - Mean[-c] //. {\n Mean[Plus[a_, addends__]] :> Mean[a] + Mean[Plus[addends]],\n Mean[-a_] :> -Mean[a]\n }\n\n\nyields 0.", "수상 literally means 'on the water' because 수 means water and 상 means on or above. 수상 is usually used as a prefix meaning maritime or naval. 보안 means security, 간부 means officer, 학교 means school. 보안간부학교, however, was used in mid-20th century North Korea to mean a military school to educate military officers. 수상보안간부학교 then means Naval Academy.", "k-means is called k-means because it needs to compute means.\n\nSo yes, k-means requires coordinate data. Usually, the data should also be continuous and linear scaled for the mean to make sense. Technically you can run k-means on binary data, but the result will not be binary anymore, and may not make much sense.\n\n(And the means must minimize your objective, otherwise it may fail to converge - so your distance function should be sum-of-squared-errors, because that is what the mean minimizes)\n\nFurthermore, a distance matrix is useless for k-means. Because k-means only computes squared Euclidean distances point-to-mean, and not point-to-point.", "The ` you're seeing is the NumberMarks that Mathematica uses to print real numbers in InputForm and FullForm. You can suppress it with one of the following methods:\n\nStringForm[\"Mean `1`\", StandardForm[2.2]]\nStringForm[\"Mean `1`\", Style[2.2, NumberMarks->False]]\n\n\n\n Mean 2.2\n \n Mean 2.2\n\n\nIf you're not married to StringForm, you could also use Row:\n\nRow[{\"Mean \", 2.2}]\n\n\n\n Mean 2.2\n\n\nor StringTemplate:\n\nStringTemplate[\"Mean `a`\"] @ <|\"a\"->2.2|>\n\n\n\n \"Mean 2.2\"", "As you know already\n\n\nC means consonants\nV means vowels\n\n\nAnd\n\n\nX means any phoneme\ns means /s/\nsh means /ʃ/\n() means the phoneme in brackets is optional", "I'm not an expert on clustering, but here's my take below. Note that this is only based on theoretical arguments, I haven't had enough clustering experience to say if this is generally true in practice.\nK-means vs GMM\nK-means has a higher bias than GMM because it is a special case of GMM. K-means specifically assumes the clustering is spherical (meaning each dimension is weighted equally important) and that the clustering problem is a hard clustering problem (each data point can only belong to one label). So, theoretically, K-means should perform equal to GMM (under very specific conditions) or worse. More info\nK-means vs GMM (identity covariance matrix)\nK-means has a higher bias than GMM (identity covariance matrix) because it is also a special case. K-mean specifically assumes the hard clustering problem, but GMM does not. Because of this, GMM has stronger estimates for the mean of the centroids. More specifically,\n\n[GMM] estimates the cluster means as weighted means, not assigning observations in a crisp manner to one of the clusters. In this way it avoids the problem explained above and it will be consistent as ML estimator (in general this is problematic because of issues of degeneration of the covariance matrix, however not if you assume them spherical and equal).\n\n\nIn practice, if you generate observations from a number of Gaussians with same spherical covariance matrix and different means, K-means will therefore overestimate the distances between the means, whereas the ML-estimator for the mixture model will not.\n\nSo, theoretically, K-means should perform equal to GMM (identity covariance matrix) or worse. More info\nK-means vs Spectral clustering\nK-means has a higher bias then spectral clustering because spectral clustering effectively uses K-means after processing more information from the matrices.\n\nSpectral clustering usually is spectral embedding, followed by k-means in the spectral domain.\n\n\nSo yes, it also uses k-means. But not on the original coordinates, but on an embedding that roughly captures connectivity. Instead of minimizing squared errors in the input domain, it minimizes squared errors on the ability to reconstruct neighbors. That is often better.\n\nMore info", "매달리다 means begging somebody. So 매달리지 마 means 'stop begging me'.\n\n와 is an inflectional form of the verb '오다' which means 'come' in English. 오다 can be used in various sentences with slightly different meanings.\n\nBasically, 오다 means \"Someone or something moves and gets closer to the point where I am.\" It can also mean that a specific moment or a season has arrived.\n\nHence, 이제 와 means 'now' or 'at this belated time'. Considering the context of the lyrics, the phrase also means 'eventually' or 'finally. So the sentence of the lyrics means \"Finally, you are crying and begging me but stop it because it's too late to change my mind.\"\n\nAnd I checked the MV of 2NE1 and checked the gesture of Sandara, but I don't find a special meaning from it. As a native Korean, I think it is just a meaningless gesture she made.", "So, you wanted etymology, right? Well, every words you wrote is sino-Korean, which means it is composed with Chinese character.\n\nLet's start with 사원. 사원 is 社員 in Chinese character. 社 means 'to meet', and it is also 사 of 회사. 員 means 'number of people'(인원), and it can be used as meaning of member. (조직원 : gang member)\n\nNext is 주임. At Korean dictionary, it says it means '직장, 단체 따위에서 어떤 일을 주로 담당함. 또는 그런 사람'(rough translation : mostly in charge of some work at job or organization. Or one who do that.). It is 主任 in Chinese character. 主 means 'owner', but it is also used at word 주로, means mostly. 任 means 'assign (some work)', and it also used in 임무, means assignment or duty.\n\n대리 comes next. It is exactly same word with 'substitution', 'deputy', or 'proxy'. 代理 in Chinese character. 代 means 'replace;, and 理 means 'govern' or 'rule', and maybe 'process some work'. At dictionary, it says '은행이나 회사 따위의 집단에서 부장, 지점장, 과장 등의 직무를 대신하는 직위. 또는 그 직위에 있는 사람. 흔히 유사시 과장의 직무를 대신할 수 있는, 과장 바로 아래의 고정된 직위를 이르기도 한다.', roughly translate, it means 'position that can substitute 부장, 점장, 과장's duty at the bank, company, etc. Or one who at that position. Normally, it also means position directly lower than 과장, who can substitute duty of 과장 at emergency'.\n\nNext is 과장. Before we talk about 과장, we have to know what is 과. It is one of department, normally lower than '부' or '실'. 課長 in Chinese character. 課 is 과. (Just for information, it means to study or process.) And 長 normally means 'long', but it also means chief of something. So 과장 means chief of 과.\n\nSame thing with 부장(chief of 부部 : 'group' or 'command'), 실장(chief of 실室: house. Also means chief of organization end with 실 like 연구실.).\n\n차장 is somewhat different. 차 is 次, means 'to be second to'. So it means 'Position that is second to 장. Or one who at that position.'\n\n수석 means 'First place'. 首席, and 首 means 'head', 席 means 'seat'. So 수석부장 is 'highest 부장'.\n\n이사 means 'Executive organization which processes office work of corporate body and takes legal action. Or one who at that position'. 理事 in Chinese character. I talked about 理 at 대리, and 事 means 'work'. I don't know how this became that.\n\n상무 is same with 상무 이사 (or 상무위원 if it is public organization, and I'll skip it.). 상무 itself means 'Everyday work', and 상무 이사 means 'Organization which processes normal works at some organization or company. Or one who does it.' 常務, 常 means 'always', and 務 means 'labor for something'.\n\n전무 means 1. Expertly handles some job. Or one who does it', and 2. '=전무 이사'.(One of 이사 of company. Direct work of company while assist 사장 and 부사장.). 專 or 專務 means 'only', and 務 is same with 상무.\n\n사장 is chief of 사社, which is 회사. Same 사 with 사원.\n\nThen, what is 회장? So I don't think it is just simply 'chief of 회', although Chinese character version means it. 會 is 회 of 회장, means 'to meet', and also 회 of 회자. In Korean dictionary, it says it is 'position higher than 사장. Normally it means chief of corporation, etc.'\n\nSorry for bad English, and there might be wrong translation/wrong description. But if you have any question, please reply.", "Solresol actually reverses the syllable order of a word to denote an opposite meaning, though this occurrence is inconsistent through the creator's published dictionary. For example, fala means good, but lafa means bad, and falaredo means accessible, but dorelafa means inaccessible.", "No, in English those two words are very different in meaning. In some languages, control has a similar meaning to inspect, verify or check, but in English, control in this case only means to exercise control.\n\n\n The police controlled the crowd.\n\n\nMeans that they made the people do what they (the police) wanted them to do.\n\n\n The police inspected the scene.\n\n\nMeans that they investigated the place.\n\nAs you see, the meaning is completely different. You could use one verb instead of the other, but the meaning would be completely different.", "Three types of meanings are typically accepted for Sanskrit words. Here is a discussion of the three types of meanings by Sri Satyanarayana Das Babaji in his commentary on Śrī Jīva Goswami's Bhagavat Sandarbha, Anuccheda 98:\n“All literature, including the Veda, is composed of words. Every Sanskrit word (pada) has a meaning (artha), and there is a relation between the two. A word has a potency by which it conveys its meaning, which is called vṛtti. Primarily the vṛttis of all words can be divided into three groups, called abhidhā (primary or direct), lakṣaṇā (secondary or indicative), and vyañjanā (suggestive). Abhidhā is sometimes also called mukhyā. The meanings conveyed through these three vṛttis are designated with reference to their corresponding vṛtti. For example, the meaning derived through abhidhā-vṛtti is called abhidhārtha or mukhyārtha.\nThe primary, or abhidhā, meaning is that which springs to mind as soon as the word is heard. This is the popular meaning of the word. This meaning is generally found in the dictionary and some- times from learned people. For example, as soon as we hear the word “cow,” we picture an animal with four legs, a tail, two ears and so on, in our minds. This, then, is the primary meaning of the word “cow,” which is conveyed by the abhidhā-vṛtti.\nThe abhidhā-vṛtti is of three types:\n\nYaugikī. When a word’s meaning is derived from the combined potency of its constituent roots and suffixes, the meaning is called yaugikī-abhidhā, and the potency is called yaugikī-abhidhā- vṛtti. For example, the word pācaka, meaning “a cook,” is derived from the verbal root √pac (to cook) combined with the ṇvul suffix (pāṇini 3.1.133, ṇaka according to hnv 5.194), giving it the sense of a noun agent. One who knows the rules of Sanskrit grammar would easily understand the meaning, just as an English speaker would recognize the various possible derivations of the verb “to cook,” such as cook, cooker, cooking, etc.\n\nRūḍhi. When the sense of a word is completely independent of the inherent meaning derived from its constituent roots and suffixes, such a vṛtti is called rūḍhi-vṛtti. For example, the word maṇḍapa means a pavillion or a temporary hall, but the meaning according to its constituent words should be, “one who drinks rice water” (maṇḍaṁ pibati), or, “one who guards ornaments” (maṇḍaṁ bhūṣāṁ pāti). Here, the meaning is not dependent on the combined meaning of the word’s individual constituents, but on another sense that has been attributed by custom.\n\nYoga-rūḍhi. This is a mixture of the two previous vṛttis. Although in this case the meaning of a word is rooted in the power of its constituents, it has become associated with only one specific instance of that meaning. For example, according to its constituent parts, the word paṅkaja means, “that which is born out of mud” (paṅkāj jāyate). Although there are many things that grow or arise in muddy water, the word paṅkaja specifically refers only to the lotus.\n\n\nLakṣaṇā-vṛtti. When the primary meaning, or abhidhā-vṛtti, fails to render the proper meaning of a word in a particular context, it is abandoned, and a secondary meaning is sought that is related to the primary meaning in some way. As is stated in Nyāya-siddhānta- muktāvali, “When the speaker’s intent is not understood through the primary meaning of the words, then the indicative meaning, lakṣaṇā, is taken.” This will be related to the primary meaning. For example: In the statement, “The Jiva Institute is situated on Jiva Road,” certainly the intent of the speaker is not that the Institute is actually on the road, because such a thing is not possible. Therefore, rejecting the primary meaning of “on the road,” one is expected to understand “beside the road.”\nLakṣaṇā-vṛtti has three divisions, called ajahat-svārthā, jahat- svārthā and jahad-ajahat-svārthā. Ajahat-svārtha means without giving up the original meaning of the word, as in the statement kuntāḥ praviśanti, “the spears are entering.” Here kuntāḥ, or spears, refers to the people carrying spears, kunta-dhārī. In this instance, the meaning of the word kunta has not been dropped (ajahat) but extended to refer to those carrying them.\nIn jahat-svārtha, the original meaning of the word is dropped, as in gaṅgāyāṁ ghoṣaḥ, where the word gaṅgā drops its original meaning as the river Ganges and is translated as the bank of the river Ganges.\nIn jahad-ajahat-svārtha, part of the meaning is dropped and another part preserved. The phrase tat tvam asi, “You are That,” is a famous example of jahad-ajahat in Advaitavāda. Here tat refers to Brahman and tvam to an individual being. The two have been equated in the above statement. Yet they cannot be absolutely equal if the literal meaning of the pronouns tat and tvam is taken. The individual being is a conscious entity limited by a material body, whereas Brahman is unlimited consciousness. If the two pronouns that refer respectively to Brahman and the living being are dropped, then what remains is consciousness, and that is what is being equated in this sentence.\nVyañjanā-vṛtti. When the abhidhā-vṛtti and lakṣaṇā-vṛtti have made their respective contributions and yet more meaning is needed to complete the sense, then one looks to the vyañjanā-vṛtti. For example, in the statement about the Jīva Institute, after one has understood its location, further suggested meanings may arise, such as that it is approachable by vehicle. Such a suggested meaning has no relation to the primary meaning of the words themselves. Vyañjanā- vṛtti has thousands of divisions, and it is beyond the scope of this discussion to enter into them. Suffice to say that the two main ones are śābdī, or vyañjanā based on the word, and ārthī, or that based on the meaning.\nOf all the vṛttis, vyañjanā is also the most difficult to comprehend. It is used by most learned Sanskrit scholars in their writings. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, especially the Tenth Canto, is a masterpiece based on vyañjanā-vṛtti.\nSome scholars occasionally count gauṇī-vṛtti as a fourth category, as Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has also done. It is metaphorical in nature, such as siṁho māṇavakaḥ (the lion boy). The boy is not a lion, but has some of a lion’s characteristics, such as courage. In this analysis, which is a more standard one, gauṇī simply forms a part of the lakṣaṇā-vṛtti.\nThe purpose of the above analysis is to provide a background for the following discussion: When deriving the meaning of a word based on abhidhā-vṛtti or mukhyā-vṛtti, one does not have to resort to any other help, such as logic. The meaning comes directly and naturally from the word. Therefore, the meaning conveyed by the abhidhā-vṛtti is self-authoritative. When, however, one takes the meaning based on the lakṣaṇā-vṛtti or vyañjanā-vṛtti, one has to look to something other than the primary meaning of the word. Though such a meaning is not self-authoritative, it does not imply that such interpretations or explanations are without value. Without recourse to them, it would be impossible to understand the intent of the Vedic literature or to reconcile the contradictions found therein.\nLakṣaṇā-vṛtti is used only when the primary meaning fails to convey a proper sense. When, however, a word directly conveys its sense adequately, it is considered a deviation from the author’s or speaker’s intent to put forth a secondary meaning instead.\nAnother crucial point to be borne in mind is that without having a primary meaning, there is no possibility that a word could have a secondary or implied meaning either (i.e., lakṣaṇā-vṛtti or vyañjanā- vṛtti).\nSource: https://bhaktitattva.com/2020/08/10/the-three-types-of-meanings-of-sanskrit-words/", "\"难“ means hard or difficult\n\"得“ means to obtain\n\n\nCombining the two, ”难得“ means something that is hard to come by.\n\n\n\"尤为\" (formal) means especially or particularly\n\n\nPutting all together, \"尤为难得\" means especially hard to come by or a rarity.", "藏 has two meanings:\n\n\nas a verb (cáng), it can mean to hide, to conceal, etc.\nas a noun (zàng), it can mean depository, such as 宝藏 (bǎozàng).\n\n\nOf course the two meanings are related. \n\nTo get an impression what this word means, search for 宝藏 on Google Image search or Baidu Image search.", "You have the estimates of the population means (or can just compute them from the data again if the stats software you used doesn't report them). By definition the group with the larger/higher population mean is the group with the higher mean in the test.\n\nYou shouldn't repeat the test but using a one-sided hypothesis once you know the outcome of the two-sided test. Just compute the sample means for the groups from the data and you have all you need to know with the first $t$ test.\n\nFor example (using R and some dummy data with known different means):\n\nset.seed(1)\ndf <- data.frame(x = rnorm(100, mean = c(-5, 5)),\n grp = factor(rep(c(\"A\", \"B\"), times = 50)))\nt.test(x ~ grp, data = df)\n\n\nIn R we get:\n\n> t.test(x ~ grp, data = df)\n\n Welch Two Sample t-test\n\ndata: x by grp\nt = -54.683, df = 97.885, p-value < 2.2e-16\nalternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0\n95 percent confidence interval:\n -10.183345 -9.470102\nsample estimates:\nmean in group A mean in group B \n -4.804474 5.022249 <------ Group sample means\n\n\nSo we can clearly see which group has the larger mean. But if we didn't get that in the output in whatever stats software we're are using, just proceed by computing the groups means. Here I do it the slow way (better R code is available)\n\nwith(subset(df, grp == \"A\"), mean(x))\nwith(subset(df, grp == \"B\"), mean(x))\n\n> with(subset(df, grp == \"A\"), mean(x))\n[1] -4.804474\n> with(subset(df, grp == \"B\"), mean(x))\n[1] 5.022249\n\n\nSo even if we don't know from the test which group had the higher mean we can always find it from the sample means (estimates of the population means).\n\n\n\n(Nicer R code might include:\n\n> aggregate(x ~ grp, data = df, FUN = mean)\n grp x\n1 A -4.804474\n2 B 5.022249\n\n\n.)", "I am not sure how well this would work for a paper written in English, but as far as Latin goes I would use an ablative of means.\n\nAn ablative of means, like the name suggests, tells the means by which something is accomplished. The noun (the means) is declined into the ablative case, and it does not require any other words to convey its meaning in the sentence.\n\nLet's say you wanted to use dictum as your word for utterance; dicto is how you would decline it for the ablative case, and the normal ablative of means would say that you need nothing other than this to convey your intended meaning (at least for a Latin sentence).\n\nIf you wanted to translate this as \"upon being uttered,\" you would need to use passive voice to convey that meaning. You could use dictatur, or perhaps in dictatur, which means \"being uttered.\"", "Some of these words have multiple meanings, so to reword the phrase in this context:\n\n\"Certain\" means \"some.\"\n\"Issues\" means \"matters.\"\n\"Conscience\" means \"personal conviction or belief.\"\n\nTherefore the sentence means: \"In some (but not all) matters of personal beliefs, she refused to take a partisan stand.\"", "조퇴 means leave early.\n자퇴 means drop out of school. \n참다 means \"endure, withstand\", but used slightly different than English, so that 자퇴는 참아 줘요 means \"endure and don't drop out\".\n\nSo basically it means \"Just go home early today, don't drop out\"", "I see two different problems with that use of meaning. First, there's the issue of its use at the beginning of the sentence. Both of your ideas are good (either make it one sentence, or add a pronoun), but you need a different pronoun in the first suggestion. I'd try, \"This means that...\"\n\nSecond, \"meaning\" or \"This means\" is not really what the author wants to say. In this context, \"meaning\" means something like \"consequence.\" \n\nEx:\nI ran out of flour, meaning/which means I won't be able to bake a cake\nI ran out of flour, consequently I won't be able to bake a cake\n\nSo in this context, it seems like the second sentence should be a consequence of the first sentence:\nTechnology has eliminated the even playing field. Consequentially \n\"no two players who are playing each other are equally the same.\"\n\nBut that's not what the author means. The second sentence is not the consequence of the first. It's an explanation of the first. The author should have written something like:\nHaving advanced technology has made it so that there is no longer an even playing field. What I mean by this is that no two players who are playing each other are equally the same...", "I think you mean \"dai che ce la fai\", meaning \"come on, you'll do it\" or \"come on, you can do it\".\n\nIt could also be \"dai che ce dai\" in Romanesco dialect which in Italian would be written and pronounced \"dai che ci dai\", meaning \"come on, you'll rock\" (\"darci\" meaning to do something very well, better than expected - this is regional though). An alternative interpretation would be \"dai che ce 'e dai\" (in Italian \"dai che ce le dai\"), meaning about the same as above, but the verb is here \"darcela\", \"darcele\" (which can also mean to beat someone!). As often happens, dialects are more dirty than standard Italian and lots of meanings can spring out, apparently from nowhere, the context generally helps to clarify.\n\nPlease explain if you mean something else.", "It seems that gracia comes from latin gratia and this one from gratus which means \"agradable, agradecido\" (pleasant, grateful).\n\nI don't think that those meanings are that opposed. We could find a common root for \"divertido/gracioso\" and \"hermosura\".\n\nIn \"la gracia de una cisne\" it means \"with movements pleasant to see\" (hermosos, bellos, placenteros de ver, etc.).\n\nIn \"Tendría gracia que ...\" means \"it would spark a pleasant feeling on me\" (agradable, placentero).\n\nThe different meanings of \"gracia\" evolved from that \"agradable/placentero\" meaning.", "If you say travel by something, it means you are travelling by the means of transportation. For example, \"I travelled by car\" means that I am travelling using a car for transportation.\n\nIf you say travel in something, it means you are literally travelling while inside a specific vehicle. For example, \"I travelled in a car\" means that you are travelling literally inside a car.", "The term \"IP\" means Internet Protocol. There are two current IPs: IP version 4 and IP version 6. Traditionally, the generic term IP means IPv4, but the original IETF proposal by Lee Howard to sunset IPv4 proposes that the generic term \"IP\" be changed to mean \"IPv6\":\n\n\n The term \"IP,\" without address family specified, is assumed to mean\n \"IPv6.\"\n\n\nI'm not sure why some people use the generic term to mean \"IP address.\" Why would it mean \"IP address\" any more than it means \"IP RFC,\" \"IP version,\" \"IP header,\" \"IP TTL,\" etc.?", "Both are correct, and they have practically the same meaning.\n\nBy themselves, pro and por have quite different meanings. Basically, pro means 'because of' and por means 'for'. \n\nPretty much all the meanings of English for can be expressed with por, with the exception of the meaning of because of: If you want to say \"for that reason\", you have to say \"pro tiu kialo\", not \"por tiu kialo\".\n\nZamenhof used both pro and por after danki, with no recognizable difference in meaning. Both prepositions can be justified after danki: Using pro makes sense, because in a sense what you are thanking for is the cause of your thanking. Using por makes sense despite the fact that por cannot mean 'because of', as por can mean something like 'in exchange for': You can say \"Mi pagis por la biero\" ('I payed for the beer'), and analogously you can say \"Mi dankis por la biero\".\n\nSo both options are equally good, and they mean the same. Which one you choose to use is just a question of personal taste.", "지방 is a homonym.\n지방(脂肪) means fat, but in your context 지방 is 지방(地方) which means outside of Seoul Metropolitan Area.\n지방근무 가능 in the job requirement means that you should be able to work outside of Seoul Metropolitan Area. It means that if you live in Seoul or Gyeonggi, then you may have to relocate.\n잡무 means miscellaneous or trivial work.", "The study of meaning is usually divided into two sub-areas, semantics and pragmatics, where semantics is about literal, denotative meaning (looking only at the linguistic form) and pragmatics is about how non-semantic context and semantics interact to generate the broader meaning / communicative function of an utterance. Connotation is considered to be part of pragmatics. Confusion might arise over different meanings or definitions of \"semantics\", and the fact that sometimes literal semantics is called \"sentence / word meaning\" and pragmatics is called \"speaker meaning\".", "Actually,there is not a statement of 'I mean' in 'That is not what I mean'.\n\nIn Chinese, 'That is not what I mean.' is '那不是我的意思。'.\n\nSo, '我的意思' is just 'what I mean'.", "Volker is right in his comment with his translation: \"off they go\" means pretty much the same.\nNow to the question why ab is used:\nI think the ab is from abgehen in the meaning of sich von etwas lösen/entfernen, but in the idiom the gehen part is ommited. The word abgehen however is nowadays used with several different meanings:\n\n\n\"Hier geht es ab\" means that theres a lot happening\n\"Der Sticker geht ab\" means the sticker is falling off\n\"Ab geht's!\" has pretty much the same meaning as \"Ab (geht) die Post\"", "Interestingly your question is about semantics. You have two problems, or maybe three, which you need to make sure don't mess up the semantics of your sentence.\n\nWhat exactly is meant by "semantics"?\n\nGoogle/Lexico's definition couldn't be more clear:\n\nthe branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning\n\nThat is exactly what semantics is. It is about meaning. So when you talk about the semantics of a passage, you are talking about its meaning. If you are dealing with semantics in general you work in a field that looks exclusively at textual meaning and production of meaning.\n\nNow that we are clear on the meaning of "semantics", is it subsumed under "grammar". If it is then semantics is redundant and unnecessary.\n\nAs per this orthodox answer, "grammar" as a linguistic concept refers to syntax and morphology.\n\nGrammar is syntax and morphology.\nGrammar is not semantics, pragmatics, phonology, orthography, or the lexicon.\n\nSo you are in the clear with that sentence: it makes sense.\n\nBut wait, we are not done yet. The sentence makes sense doesn't mean it means what you intend it to mean. You are asking if you should use semantics or another word, but you are the one writing that line. It's up to you. What do you mean to say with that line? If you indeed intend to say "He didn't care about the meaning." then that line is a go.", "I find the semantics of OP's example a bit odd, so I'll switch to...\n\n\n 1: We won't go to the party if it means we need a babysitter\n 2: We won't go to the party if it means we will need a babysitter\n 3: We won't go to the party if it means we would need a babysitter \n\n\nThose alternatives (given in descending order of popularity) are all valid, and all mean the same.\n\nIf you're doubtful about #3, consider \"...if it means I would have to [do something]\". But also note that in such \"hypothetical\" constructions, \"I wouldn't do this if it meant I would have to do that\" is far more common.\n\n\n\nOP's third example (changing present tense means to future tense will mean) is non-standard.", "Usually $+$ means $\\lor$, \"multiplication\" means $\\land$, and $'$ means $\\lnot$.", "관객 means \"spectator\" and 청중 means \"audience\". 관객 indicates people watching something visual, while 청중 means people listening to something auditory. But I think you don't have to distinguish them because visual contents and sounds are used simultaneously nowadays.\n\n관 in 관객(觀客) means \"see\", and 청 in 청중(聽衆) means \"listen to\"." ]

[ "Report Abuse. 1 Cancel showtime on Amazon prime. 2 It takes patience to find the answers and by then you begin to hate Showtime. 3 Just call them and cancel. If it s through iTunes, it s under your settings 1 - subscriptions. you call your provider." ]

[ "The two major partners in this new initiative are Showtime and Starz, and this new program may have the making of an a la carte cable service taking shape at Amazon. Variety has the report on Starz and Showtime on Amazon, the latter of which will actually be cheaper than a subscription on iTunes or Google Play. If you want Showtime through Amazon, it’ll cost you $8.99, compared to $10.99 at the other services.", "Amazon is now offering premium networks, including Showtime and Starz, to customers who pay $99 a year for its Prime service. Amazon is now offering premium networks, including Showtime and Starz, to customers who pay $99 a year for its Prime service.", "How much does the SHOWTIME streaming service cost? After your 30-day free trial period, $10.99/month is charged to the credit card associated with your iTunes, Roku, Google Play or Amazon account, depending on where you started your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD.", "Amazon Prime members can purchase Channel subscriptions to Showtime, Starz, and other streaming entertainment channels directly through Amazon Video. Channel subscriptions from Amazon Video are paid monthly subscriptions to premium networks (like Showtime and Starz) and other streaming entertainment channels.", "You can now pay to add Showtime and other cable channels to your Amazon Prime subscription. Amazon. Amazon Prime users who want to watch Showtime, Starz and other cable channels can now add them to their existing membership for an extra monthly fee. On Tuesday, Amazon announced a new option dubbed the Streaming Partners Program as a way for Prime members, who pay a $99 annual fee, to expand their viewing choices.", "How can I cancel my SHOWTIME streaming service subscription? If purchased through SHOWTIME.com on your computer or mobile device, please refer to this page. If purchased though Amazon on a Kindle Fire, Fire Tablet and Fire TV, please refer to this page. If purchased through Apple on an iPhone, iPad iPod Touch or Apple TV, please refer to this page.", "In some cases, Amazon is offering discounts on subscriptions to its members. Showtime, for example, will cost $8.99 a month, compared to the $11 a month that the streaming service typically costs.", "If you purchased a subscription through Amazon, Amazon requires that you cancel your subscription through your Amazon account. To cancel your subscription, please turn off the automatic renewal of your subscription through your Amazon account.", "Amazon lets Prime users add Showtime, Starz, and more to their subscription. Amazon just announced the Streaming Partners Program, a subscription program that lets Prime users add distinct video services to their existing Prime package. Nearly 20 services will be available to Prime users for an additional fee, including Showtime, Starz, and Lifetime Movie Club.", "*You will not be charged for the SHOWTIME streaming service during the free trial period. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. To keep your subscription once your trial period is over, you will not have to do anything. © 2017 Showtime Digital Inc.", "For example, an add-on subscription to Showtime costs Amazon users $9 per month instead of the normal $11 per month. The program, in some ways, mirrors a similar offer from Hulu, which also lets users add in a subscription to Showtime for an additional $9 per month.", "(Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Showtime) Amazon’s binge-enabling e-video service has added a “Streaming Partners Program” for Amazon Prime subscribers, who for a fee can now access programming originating with premium networks Showtime and Starz, as well as a slew of lesser cable feeds.", "Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership If you decide to end your Amazon Prime membership, or cancel your free trial, it's easy to do. You can end your Amazon Prime membership, or cancel your free trial to ensure it doesn't convert to a full Amazon Prime membership, in the Settings section of Your Account. To end your Amazon Prime membership or cancel your free trial: Go to Manage Your Prime Membership. Depending on whether you have a paid Amazon Prime membership or are on a free trial, do one of the following: To cancel a paid membership, click End membership, which is the second option on the left-hand side of the page.", "(FILES) This September 28, 2011 file photo shows the Amazon logo during a press conference in New York. Amazon seriously beefed up its video offerings Tuesday, announcing that users will be able to add subscriptions for Showtime, AMC, Starz and other networks to their existing Amazon Prime subscriptions.", "Amazon adds Showtime and Starz to Prime streaming subscription plan. Amazon declined to disclose the number of Prime members, saying only that it was in the tens of millions. Above, the Seattle firm’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif.", "Paull declined to comment on how Amazon plans to split revenue with its new streaming partners. In some cases, Amazon is offering discounts on subscriptions to its members. Showtime, for example, will cost $8.99 a month, compared to the $11 a month that the streaming service typically costs.", "How to Cancel Amazon Prime. When you sign up for Amazon Prime, it will renew your membership every year and automatically bill you. To cancel an Amazon Prime membership, you log in to your Amazon account and go to the Manage Prime Membership page.", "Subs Can Stream HBO Go, Showtime Anytime on Amazon Platform 5/20/2015 2:00 PM Eastern. By: Jeff Baumgartner. Follow @thebauminator. Comcast said its customers can use their TV Everywhere credentials to access two TV Everywhere apps -- HBO Go and Showtime Anytime – on the Amazon Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick (pictured).", "Re: Showtime, Starz, others available through Amazon Prime. I didn't see an existing topic. My apologies if I missed it. You can now get Starz ($9/month), Showtime ($9/month), Comedy Central ($4/month), Acorn TV ($5/month), and a bunch of other lesser-known channels through Amazon. An added fee is required. Free trials available.", "To cancel an Amazon Channel subscription: 1 Go to Manage Your Video Subscriptions. 2 Look under Video Subscriptions to find the subscription you'd like to cancel. 3 Select the Cancel Subscription option and confirm.", "Otherwise, Amazon Video purchases are final. For more information, go to Amazon Video Terms of Use. To cancel an accidental Amazon Video order: 1 Go to Your Digital Orders. 2 Find the accidental order you’d like to cancel. 3 Select Cancel Items. 4 Choose a reason for the cancellation from the drop-down menu, and then click Cancel This Purchase.", "Amazon now is bundling subscriptions to streaming services like Showtime with its existing $99-a-year Prime offering. The Streaming Partners Program, which launched Tuesday, gives Prime members the option to pay extra for access to 30 different over-the-top streaming offerings.", "Starz and Showtime will cost users $8.99 per month (on the iTunes Store and Google Play, Showtime is $10.99). But the discount isn't unheard of for cord-cutters: Hulu is also offering Showtime to its users at the same discounted price as Amazon.", "The year is winding down, but the Great Streaming Wars are still ramping up, and Amazon Prime has fired the next shot: You can now get a Showtime or Starz subscription with your free two-day shipping for an extra $8.99 a month (each).", "You Can Now Watch 'Homeland' And 'Outlander' On Amazon Prime With Starz And Showtime Add-Ons. Premium cable channel Showtime, which airs intelligence thriller Homeland, starring Claire Danes, is now available as an add-on subscription to Amazon Prime customers.", "It appears that JavaScript is disabled in your web browser. To access Showtime, you'll need to enable JavaScript. It appears that JavaScript is disabled in your web browser. To access Showtime, you'll need to enable JavaScript.", "Amazon will try to win over Prime users by offering a variety of benefits with its new program. Users can get a free trial on any subscription. Special Prime member pricing is available. For example, a subscription to Showtime costs $9 a month.", "Calling all Amazon Prime members! Did you know that Prime members can now score a FREE 7-day trial of Showtime? You can watch shows like Bosch, Homeland and Billions, plus movies like Bridge of Spies, Burnt, The Gift and more! You can also score a FREE 7-day trial of Starz and a FREE 7-day trial of HBO!", "To end your Amazon Prime membership: 1 Go to Manage Prime Membership. 2 Do one of the following: To cancel a paid Amazon Prime membership, click End membership. 3 Note: Paid members who haven't placed an Amazon Prime eligible order are eligible for a full refund.o end your Amazon Prime membership: 1 Go to Manage Prime Membership. 2 Do one of the following: To cancel a paid Amazon Prime membership, click End membership. 3 To cancel a paid Amazon Prime membership, click End membership.", "Search for showtimes and purchase tickets for I Can Only Imagine. See the release date and trailer. The Official Showtimes Destination brought to you by Amazon Content Services LLC", "How do you cancel Showtime? I've been looking on my cable provider's website, Cablevision, and on Showtime's website for an hour and I haven't been able to find anything.", "Notes on cancelling Amazon Prime. 1 If you cancel your free trial of Amazon Prime, you will still be able to enjoy the benefits of Amazon Prime until your free trial period expires. 2 If you want to restart your Amazon Prime membership, simply follow steps 1 and 2, but in step 3, click Resume Membership." ]

[ "The Origin of Basketball - Today I Found Out Jan 20, 2012 ... The goal of Dr. Naismith's game would be to throw a soccer ball into a peach ... So he felt by putting it up high, it would prevent some of the potential for ... The thirteen rules used in this original version of basketball were as follows: ... never claimed to have invented the game and further, his grandson, Rick...", "August 25, 2008 ... in \"Lost In Space\" Alpha Centauri The YMCA found his indoor versions of soccer and rugby too violent, so he invented basketball James Naismith;Naismith In...", "The Evolution of Basketball essay, research paper, dissertation ... Sep 30, 2015 ... The game was invented in order to keep football players in shape during the off season when it was too cold to go outside (Swallows). ... outdoor sports rugby and soccer in order to come up with basketball (Davis). ... He did not want to see any of his students injured so he did not allow his players to dribble.", "Dr. James Naismith: Father of Basketball | Edhird's Blog Apr 25, 2010 ... Back then, I had no idea that basketball was invented by James ... To pursue his sports ministry, James Naismith moved to the ... James was asked by another coach Dr Guilick to create an indoor ... By not allowing players to run with the ball, he also eliminated the violent tackling found in rugby and football.", "Jeopary Questions page 1943 - PRESIDENTIAL QUOTES ... POTPOURRI: The YMCA found his indoor versions of soccer & rugby too violent, so he invented basketball MUSICAL JOHNS: After he left the Lovin' Spoonful,..." ]

[ "James Naismith - Wikipedia James Naismith (November 6, 1861 November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, chaplain, sports coach and innovator. He invented the sport of basketball in 1891. ... At Springfield YMCA, Naismith struggled with a rowdy class that was confined to indoor games throughout the harsh New...", "Basketball : a YMCA Invention - World Alliance of YMCAs James Naismith was a Canadian farm boy from Almonte, Ontario, a small town just a ... and was asked to join the faculty in 1891 by Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, the director of ... During a psychology seminar Dr. Gulick challenged his class to invent a new game. Gulick was desperately looking for an indoor activity that would be...", "YMCA International - World Alliance of YMCAs: Basketball : a YMCA ... James Naismith was a Canadian farm boy from Almonte, Ontario, a small town ... Training School in Massachusetts (later to be named Springfield College). ... During a psychology seminar Dr. Gulick challenged his class to invent a new game. .... Naismith continued to control the development of the game and its rules for...", "The Origin of Basketball - Today I Found Out Jan 20, 2012 ... Today I found out the origin of the sport basketball. ... By 1891, Dr. Naismith was teaching physical education in Springfield, MA at the YMCA ... bottoms knocked out, so whenever someone would get the soccer ball in the basket, the game ... As mentioned, the game was first played on December 21, 1891.", "History of American football - Wikipedia The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and .... Rugby Football Union, was drawn up for intercollegiate football games. ...... Arena football, designed to be played indoors inside of hockey or basketball...", "Who Invented Basketball? | Wonderopolis ... in 1891 while working at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. ... The first game was played on December 21, 1891. ... Bouncing the ball along the floor what we call \"dribbling\" today did not become ... Basketball became an official Olympic sport at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.", "February 9th: William G. Morgan Invents a Game Called Mintonette ... Feb 9, 2012 ... February 9th: William G. Morgan Invents a Game Called Mintonette that is ... its similarity to badminton), was played in Holyoke Massachusetts at a YMCA. ... Morgan had become intrigued by the recently invented game of basketball, ... years after being endorsed as an official version of volleyball by FIVB.", "James Naismith Invented Basketball, Football Helmet | Stock News ... Feb 22, 2012 ... James Naismith Invented Basketball, Football Helmet ... Gulick ordered Naismith to create an indoor game that the students would embrace. ... \"This man invented something that became popular around the world,\" Rains said...", "Basketball History: Dr. James Naismith, Basketball Inventor ... Apr 16, 2014 ... James Naismith was the Canadian physical education instructor who ... on to the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in 1891, ... finding a sport that was suitable for play inside during the Massachusetts...", "2012 Summer Olympics - National Geographic Society Feb 10, 2012 ... The modern Olympic Games were created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France. .... the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, created basketball in 1891 .... The 1936 Berlin Olympics featured field handball, which was played outdoors. .... William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, created a...", "Who Invented Basketball? | Wonderopolis Dr. James Naismith was a Canadian physical education instructor who invented the game of basketball in 1891 while working at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.", "The Birthplace of Basketball - Springfield College Athletics Oct 20, 2015 ... (View James Naismith's Original 13 rules) ... International YMCA Training School), located in Springfield, Mass., was a group of restless college...", "Thematic : Basketball on Stamps. - Stamp Community Forum - Page 5 Nov 2, 2015 ... 75th Anniversary of Luxembourg Basketball Federation ... stamps commemorating the 10th World Series of Amateur Baseball, ... teacher at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. While there, Naismith was asked to invent a new sport for young men ... The 100th Anniversary of Basketball", "Springfield College (Massachusetts) - Revolvy Known as the birthplace of basketball , the sport was invented at Springfield College in ... for conferences and meetings, and space for outdoor research and recreation. ... Alumnus William G. Morgan, invented of the game of volleyball. ..... In 1921, Prettyman convinced the college to build an indoor ..... Javascript Version", "Basketball | James Naismith History Basketball, one of the most popular sports in the world and played by over 300 million ... Basket Ball (as originally spelled); created in 1891 in a Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA gymnasium has grown ... and these original rules were published in the Springfield College school newspaper, The Triangle, January 15, 1892.", "James Naismith - Created A New Indoor Sport - Game, University ... At the Y.M.C.A. International Training School in Springfield, Naismith took courses that combined his two chief interests: spiritual and physical development. ... during his second year with the Springfield Y.M.C.A., Naismith found himself in charge ... 1890, Arrives in Springfield, Massachusetts, to take courses in spiritual and...", "basketball | sport | Britannica.com Aug 19, 2016 ... ... which were published in the January 15, 1892, issue of the Triangle, the ... James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first ... Courtesy of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S. ... In The News / Animals ... were at least five sets of rules: collegiate, YMCAAmateur Athletic...", "Basketball Study Sheet.ppt Basketball was invented in Springfield, MA in 1891 by James Naismith. ... he used a soccer ball and a peach basket as the hoop to create the sport. ... If you bounce the ball with 2 hands or stop and re-start your dribble it is called a Double Dribble. ... Bounce, baseball); Rebounding- The recovering of a shot that bounces off...", "James Naismith facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com ... The Canadian-born physical education instructor James Naismith made an ... when he invented the game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, in December 1891. ... Naismith and his siblings then lived in the Upper Canadian village of...", "Sports in Ohio - Wikipedia Ohio is home to major professional sports teams in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and rugby...", "The Origin of the Word Soccer - Today I Found Out Jun 23, 2010 ... Soccer balls were originally painted with the now classic black and white ... at that school, William Webb Ellis picked up the ball in his hands and ran with it over the goal line. .... evolved from a game called Stop-Start Rugby with Padding! ..... wrong here in Brazil everyone says it's football, not soccer", "the Y: History - Founding - YMCA George Williams founded the YMCA in 1844. ... He joined 11 friends to organize the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), a refuge of Bible study and...", "Basketball - Inside Sports Nov 13, 2014 ... On December 1, 1891, in Springfield, Massachusetts, James ... The association leaders wrote to Naismith asking for copies of the rules; they were published in the Triangle, the school newspaper, ... The first official game was played in the YMCA gymnasium in Albany, New York on January 20, 1892 with...", "YMCA National History :: About Us :: Marshfield Area YMCA - the Y ... The Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London, England, on June 6, ... the first YMCA to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets. ... George Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894 for his YMCA work and .... They became known as the \"four fronts\" or \"four platforms\" of Youth Work: a...", "The Origin of Basketball - Today I Found Out Jan 20, 2012 ... It was all started by Dr. James Naismith, the son of two Scottish immigrants to Canada. By 1891, Dr. Naismith was teaching physical education in ... All the other players would then have one rock to throw at the duck each, in order .... not just a fun game to play indoors, but a legitimate sport in its own right.", "British Sports vs American Sports: The Ultimate Guide - The Daily ... Sep 25, 2013 ... Is basketball more skilled than soccer? ... Americans have Football, Baseball, and Basketball, while Brits have Rugby, Soccer and Cricket. ... Here's our definitive (and snarky) guide to British vs American sports: ... Baseball and cricket are pretty similar in that they both involve two teams hitting a ball with a...", "About World YMCA Movement | About YMCA | Hiroshima YMCA World YMCA; Founding of YMCA; YMCA Mission Statement ... The YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) was established in 1844 in ... In 1973, The 6th World Alliance of YMCAs Conference was held in capital city of Kampala, Uganda.", "Rudyard Kipling | Novel Destinations During his time in Vermont, avid golfer Kipling also invented the game of ... lawsuit against his alcoholic brother-in-law, who reportedly threatened to kill him, the ... tub or sit at the desk where the Nobel Prize winner penned his works. ... over the doorbeamed, panelled, with old oak staircase, and all untouched and unfaked.", "OTL: Old College Try - ABC News Aug 27, 2015 ... He invented this planet in high school, brought it with him to the pros, and ... A Nike poster of Darryl Dawkins as \"Chocolate Thunder.\" ... in 1975 -- the first high school player to be drafted and go directly to the NBA, .... jacket no one had seen before, and Dawkins piped up, \"Rook 3 to Pawn 4 ? checkmate.", "YMCA - Wikipedia The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organisation based in Geneva, ... YMCAs continue to be religious organisations; many national or local ..... San Francisco's Golden Gate University traces its roots to the founding of the YMCA Night .... From its early days, the Boston YMCA offered educational classes.", "The Origin of the Word Soccer - Today I Found Out Jun 23, 2010 ... Not only that, but the sport being referred to as Soccer preceded the first ... to make them more visible on black and white TV during the 1970 FIFA World Cup. ... Rugby was also once known as Football and originally had almost ..... We even try to encourage Americans to call it football and not soccer.", "The My Hero Project - James Naismith Jul 16, 2013 ... That is why I consider James Naismith a \"Renaissance Man.\" Dr. James Naismith ... After that from 1897-1907 he was a basketball coach for Kansas(Dr. James Naismith-The Inventor of Basketball). ... Not only did James Naismith create basketball, he is also credited for inventing the first football helmet." ]

[ "Regular 2D movies only need one camera to shoot from a single vantage point/perspective, the only one which the audience will see. ... While shooting a 3D movie uses cameras at two different points to create the dimensions when glasses are added." ]

[ "The only difference between IMAX 2D and IMAX 3D is, well, whether it's in 2D or 3D, that is, whether it's “flat” or provides the illusion of depth. Either format can be shown on IMAX 70mm. The real difference is between IMAX Digital, IMAX with Laser, and IMAX 70mm.", "Difference between 2D and 3D 3D objects have height, width, and depth, while 2D objects only have height and width. ... Computer graphics are all 2D, but can be made to appear 3-dimensional. A graphics processing unit is part of the computer that renders 2D and 3D images, commonly used in gaming.", "As I mentioned before, Spiderman Into the Spider-Verse is a 3D animated film, not 2D. ... They used 3D models and rigs for the characters and backgrounds in the movie. However there were a few innovations they used to make it look different, mostly by adding 2D elements to the 3D assets.", "The 3DS and 3DS XL have stereoscopic, glasses-free 3D screens while the 2DS and 2DS XL are in 2D - the clues are in their names. That's the biggest difference between them. ... The XL models have 4.18-inch lower displays, the 2DS and 3DS gave 3.53-inch displays.", "IMAX 3D: The difference between IMAX 3D and regular 3D is as vast as the difference between an IMAX movie and an ordinary one. 3D requires two images – one for the left eye and one for the right eye – to be projected onto the screen at the same time.", "What is the difference between a 2D array and a 3D array? In terms of meaning of things, a 2D array represents a zero based (x,y) grid, while a 3D array represents a zero based (x,y,z) space.", "The only difference between IMAX 2D and IMAX 3D is, well, whether it's in 2D or 3D, that is, whether it's “flat” or provides the illusion of depth. ... IMAX Digital was introduced in 2008 and uses two aligned digital projectors at 2K resolution, which, for practical purposes, is 1080p HD with a bit of extra width.", "Summary of difference between 2D and 3D A 2D, or two-dimensional, shape has length and height as its dimensions. Also known as plane shapes, they can be plotted in a graph on the x- and y-axes. ... A 3D, or three-dimensional, shape has length, height, and width (depth) as its dimensions.", "2D and 3D Games: Key Differences – 2D games are linear. The character may move in different directions within the screen, but ultimately it's a forward motion that has a start point and an end point. The movement in 3D games is, as a rule, unrestricted, and the character may explore the world in any direction.", "What is the primary difference between 2D and 3D reformation techniques? 3D reformation seeks to represent the entire scan volume in only one image. Unlike 2D displays, 3D techniques manipulate or combine CT values to display image.", "The Mezz: 2D movies from 9-5pm are priced €17.00 and between 5-11pm tickets cost €19.50. 3D movies from 9-5pm are €18.00 and from 5-11pm tickets cost €20.50.", "2D to 3D conversion. 2D to 3D video conversion (also called 2D to stereo 3D conversion and stereo conversion) is the process of transforming 2D (\"flat\") film to 3D form, which in almost all cases is stereo, so it is the process of creating imagery for each eye from one 2D image.", "The Difference between 2D, 3D, and 4D Ultrasounds. ... Where the traditional 2D ultrasound technique gives a grey and blurry image of the baby, the 3D and 4D ultrasound gives a more realistic picture of the infant.", "Q: What is the difference between 2D & 3D? A: 2D seismic lines are single lines of regularly spaced geophone stations (e.g. every 55 feet). ... The same line contains recording cables and geophones as well as source points. 3D seismic programs are generally a uniform and evenly spaced grid of lines.", "What is the difference between MX4D and 3D 4DX Movie and Cinema Experience? ... There is no difference in MX4D & 4DX theatre. Both technologies are equipped with environmental effects such as seat motion, wind, rain, lights, and scents. Only difference is that they are from different owners.", "There are no actual differences. Unity is a 3D engine; \"2D\" is just sprites, which are textures on a flat mesh. But everything is still always in 3D space regardless, there's nothing to choose between.", "There are some subtle differences between IMAX 3D and normal 3D though both are basically the same. An IMAX screen is bigger and curved, so that the image really fills your field of vision. An IMAX screen is usually about 5 stories high! Digital 3D is on a regular sized movie screen.", "They are very different, so “better” only means what is better for you. 2D animation involves drawing, so if you have good drawing skills you may enjoy 2D more. 3D animation can be a lot of fun but it also involves a lot of work that is not exactly animation, like texturing, rigging and modeling.", "Pixar is CGI (Computer Graphics Imagery) meaning their movies are fully rendered computer animated films. Disney did 2D animated films in the past but have done 3D animated films recently (although their 2D films made them famous).", "On average tickets go for kshs650 for 3D movies, and kshs600 for 2D movies.", "The major difference between the 2DS XL and the 3DS XL is that the latter has an option to see 3D graphics without the need for special glasses, while the former has a conventional 2D screen. 3DS XL models are powered by an 804MHz quad-core processor that's paired with a 134MHz chip, says Pocket-Lint.", "2D animation budget vs 3D animation cost. 2D animation is generally considered to be more affordable than 3D because 3D requires more resource-heavy software and hardware, as well as a lengthier creation process.", "2D animation comprises of characters or objects only in height and width. In other words, in X- axis (horizontal dimension) and Y – axis (vertical dimension). 3D animation comprises of objects in height, width, and depth. In other words, characters are going to be more a realistic contrast to 2D characters.", "Major Differences: 2D is a display which is expressed in length and height on flat planes but without any depth. ... Hence, 2D shapes are typically measured in square units like cm2. But, 3D is defined as 3-dimensional drawings or models they described objects with Depth.", "2D and 3D refer to the actual dimensions in a computer workspace. 2D is \"flat\", using the horizontal and vertical (X and Y) dimensions, the image has only two dimensions and if turned to the side becomes a line. 3D adds the depth (Z) dimension.", "The Cinemark XD. auditoriums are able to exhibit the newest movies every week, including 2D and RealD 3D and can show any digital movie on the XD screen (2D, RealD 3D, concerts, Fathom events, live sporting events and more!).", "The Angry Birds Movie 2 releases August 16th 2019 in 3D and 2D.", "The act of making a game varies depending on whether a game is 3D or 2D. 3D games rely on models, 3D shapes designed on the computer, whereas 2D games rely on sprites, 2D drawings on a flat surface. As an example, 3D models can be compared to sculptures whereas 2D sprites are similar to flat drawings.", "The biggest difference between the New 2DS XL and the New 3DS XL is in the name: the New 2DS ditches the stereoscopic 3D gimmick of the 3DS entirely, opting for standard two-dimensional displays. The trade-off is in the price — at $149.99, the New 2DS costs $50 less than the $199.99 New 3DS XL.", "A branch of mathematics which talks about the length, volume or area of different geometric shapes is called Mensuration. These shapes exist in 2 dimension or 3 dimensions. Let's learn the difference between the two. Difference Between 2D and 3D shapes. 2D Shape.", "There is one easy way to explain the difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional design. While the 2D designs have only width and height, a 3D design has three dimensions – width, height and depth. ... On the contrary to this simple art form, 3D is a much more difficult design to create.", "The biggest difference between Standard 3D and IMAX 3D is it's image quality. ... The biggest difference between Standard 3D and IMAX 3D is it's image quality. IMAX has vey sharp and crystal clear image as compared to standard screen. Sound system is also greater than standard cinema." ]

[ "Jerry Nelson" ]

[ "The Girl Who Played with Fire", "Playing with Fire", "Play No Games", "No pass, no play", "Playing in the Shadows", "playing technique", "Power Play", "The Play of Adam", "The Play of the Weather", "Google Play", "The Field of Play", "The Band Played On", "playing cards", "The Who by Numbers", "Play That Song", "Play It Loud", "The Long Play", "the street", "Playing with the Boys", "on the street", "Play Anywhere", "Play Deep", "streets or portions of streets", "playing period", "Streets", "in the streets", "playing the bagpipes", "revenge play", "Playing Possum", "Playing with Knives", "These Streets", "Who You Are" ]

[ "In water, it breaks down into magnesium and sulfate. The theory is that when you soak in an Epsom salt bath, these get into your body through your skin. That hasn't been proven, but just soaking in warm water can help relax muscles and loosen stiff joints." ]

[ "Ingredients in bath bombs, such as Epsom salts, can be good for skin and muscles. Johnson also said that the bombs are easy on your skin since they usually have Epsom salts, which are a key muscle relaxant. In the water, Epsom salts breaks down into magnesium and sulfate.", "Iodized salt is salt (sodium chloride) with iodine added whereas epsom salt is not really a salt at all but magnesium sulfate. Some people put Epsom salt in their bath water to help draw out impurities through their skin's pores and to relieve skin problems, muscle soreness and injury.", "After a few days, you can soak your ankle in a warm bath with Epsom salt. It's important to apply cold during the first few days after an injury. Epsom salt may help soothe sore muscles and connective tissues, and it may help with joint stiffness. Try adding Epsom salts to a warm or somewhat hot bath 1-2 times per day.", "Is all Epsom salt the same? All Epsom salt contains the naturally occurring minerals of magnesium and sulfate. There are different ways of manufacturing and packaging Epsom salt, but chemically, it's all exactly the same. ... For human use, the Epsom Salt Council recommends only Epsom salt with the USP designation.", "6. Take a bath with Epsom salts. Not only will the heat help soothe your cramping, but Epsom salts are often used to help provide pain relief in people with muscle cramps or tension, says Dr. Shepherd, so it might do the same for your uterus.", "Are Dead Sea salts the same as Epsom salts? ... While Dead Sea salts are made up of salt (sodium chloride) and more than 20 minerals, Epsom salts contain no salt at all. Instead, Epsom salts form when high levels of magnesium and sulphate combine in water.", "What is the difference between Epsom salt and bath salts? Epsom salt contains nothing but the naturally occurring minerals magnesium and sulfate. While bath salts may contain other ingredients as part of a proprietary blend, Epsom salt itself does not.", "We don't know how to break this to you, but Epsom salts are bad for your soil and are not recommended unless you have a soil test that says you are deficient in magnesium. Even then, there are better sources of magnesium than your bath salts. Epsom salts contain magnesium sulfate, which is a form of magnesium salt.", "What is an Epsom salt detox? A salt detox isn't the same as pouring table salt into your bathtub. Salt detox baths are usually made of Epsom salt, which allows for minerals to \"draw out\" toxins from the body. Supporters may claim that soaking in an Epsom salt bath can remove harmful toxins and balance the body.", "Epsom salts Another bath-administered relief are Epsom salts. Adding two cups of Epsom salt to a warm bath and then soaking for 20 minutes is both relaxing and itch-relieving.", "Is an Epsom salt fertilizer good for palm trees? ... But if your palm is suffering from a magnesium deficiency, Epsom salt can be a good supplement in addition to regular fertilizer applications. If that's the case, use Epsom salt. Sprinkle 2 to 3 pounds of Epsom salt under the tree's canopy, then water.", "Epsom salt is your savior! ... However, keep in mind that the magnesium in Epsom salt might react with the pigments if your hair is colored. Washing color-treated hair with Epsom salt might cause the color to fade off.", "Use Epsom Salt Taking a bath in Epsom salts is a great way to detox. Kidneys can be over taxed with toxins and Epsoms salts is a great way to give them a boost and improve your health.", "Using Epsom salt for constipation. Consuming Epsom salt increases the amount of water in your intestines, which softens your stool and makes it easier to pass. To treat constipation with Epsom salt, follow dosage guidelines.", "The benefits of Epsom salt for treating acne on the face and body are largely anecdotal. Topical use of Epsom salt is considered safe for most people. However, Epsom salt can leave a drying, uncomfortable residue on your skin, if not washed off completely. It's also possible to be allergic to Epsom salts.", "The Epsom salts for dogs can be helpful for dogs suffering from allergies, for treating open wounds, relieving skin discomfort and relieving aches in muscles. The only thing you should watch over is your dog not to drink water with Epsom salt, because it can disrupt its digestive system.", "Drinking Epsom salt Epsom salt should be dissolved with plenty of water if it is going to be consumed orally. Adding lemon can improve the taste. However, the only benefit of drinking Epsom salt is as a laxative when someone is constipated.", "Rock Salt - Halite more commonly known as Rock salt is a mineral formed from sodium chloride. ... Epsom Salt - Epsom salt, named for a bitter saline spring at Epsom in Surrey, England, is not actually salt but a naturally occurring pure mineral compound of magnesium and sulfate.", "What Is Epsom Salt? Epsom salt is also known as magnesium sulfate. It's a chemical compound made up of magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen.", "Drinking Epsom salt While oral consumption of Epsom salt is safe in very small doses, there is no credible evidence that consuming it has any detoxifying effects. Anyone considering drinking or eating Epsom salt should consult a doctor first. Many medications, including acetaminophen, can interact with Epsom salt.", "There are 2 x 1022 oxygen atoms in 1 g of Epsom salt. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate MgSO4 and the molar mass is...", "Leave the Epsom salt on the carpet overnight. The fleas will eat the salt, which will cause them to dehydrate and die. Epsom salt will only kill the adult fleas.", "Epsom salt bath side effects When used as a soak, Epsom salt is generally considered safe. If you've never had an Epsom salt bath, consider testing a patch of skin with magnesium sulfate and water first.", "Epsom Salt Crystal Materials Epsom salt is another name for magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), but the crystals incorporate water to form magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (MgSO4·7H2O). Epsom salt is an inexpensive, non-toxic salt that is readily available in pharmacies for bath salt and agriculture stores as a soil treatment.", "Epsom salt may help treat athlete's foot and ingrown toenail infections. A person can bathe in a tub with Epsom salt water or soak feet in warm water and Epsom salt to help feet heal faster and relieve itching.", "Jacuzzi® Epsom Salt is intended for use in soaking bathtubs, as well as Jacuzzi® Epsom-salt compatible jetted bathtubs.", "Things to Consider While Using Epsom Salt During a Bath Here are a few things to consider when giving an Epsom salt bath to your toddler: Ensure the salt is fully dissolved before letting your child in the bath. Don't use more than 2 cups of Epsom salt per bath. Give your child an Epsom salt bath only 2-3 times a week.", "All Epsom salt contains the naturally occurring minerals of magnesium and sulfate. There are different ways of manufacturing and packaging Epsom salt, but chemically, it's all exactly the same. There are also different “grades” of Epsom salt for different applications such as human use and agricultural applications.", "Epsom salt paste will soothe itching. You can dissolve the Epsom salt, and then refrigerate the mixture before applying to make it more soothing.", "Epsom salt is an organic compound that is full of beneficial minerals for lawns. Iron in Epsom salt, for example, helps grasses to grow healthy and strong. Meanwhile, the magnesium in Epsom salt balances the PH level in your grasses so that it doesn't become too acidic.", "Share on Pinterest Epsom salt baths can relieve aches and pains during pregnancy. As long as pregnant people do not ingest Epsom salt or overheat in the bathtub, they can use Epsom salt baths to get relief from a variety of symptoms.", "True bath salts are therapeutic bathing products that contain the active ingredient magnesium sulfate, also known as Epsom salts. Epsom salts do not belong to the same chemical family as actual table salt." ]

[ "Starting your own pet sitting business is one of the most rewarding and profitable home businesses you can start. It doesn't take a lot of money to get started, and can be completely free if you use services such as Lodge Your Dog, you just need a love of animals." ]

[ "Pet grooming is a growing industry as people are spending more than ever on their pets. Whether you are considering starting your own small business as a pet groomer, or adding pet grooming services to your existing shop, you need to be aware of pet grooming’s unique business needs.", "Pet-sitting can be a very rewarding and profitable way to earn your income. You will be responsible for caring for the pet while the owner is away, either for the day or for longer periods of time.", "Step by step process of How to start a professional pet photography business, including guidance on choosing equipment, locations to conduct pet photo shoots and how to work with pets to produce great pet portraits for your clients.", "Working as a dog trainer is a great business to start if you like animals. As an added benefit, you’ll get to meet new dog owners and help them bond with their pets.", "Once you have decided that owning a franchise is the preferred method for you to launch your own pet care business and before you hand over your hard earned money for a Home-Based Franchise in the Pet Industry, perform your due diligence and understand the intricacies about the business you are looking to invest in.", "If you love animals and want to be your own boss, you may dream of having a pet store. But you might be confused about how to start a pet store or if it is the right decision for you.", "Having a garden, and/or pets is something a person may do for their own enjoyment, but a petting zoo or small farm is a business venture meant to be shared, usually for a price, with other people.", " Do you have a pet skunk and have no idea where to start? Read on! ", "Are you planning to put up a business? Why not try a bakery? It is profitable, can be started at home and allows the owner to grow the business gradually as his capital, interest and knowledge of the business increases.", " You want to start that child care business in your house?Read on. ", "It is the dream of many aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own retail store business. Well, you can easily start a retailing business with the help of right planning and business strategy.", "Money is an important concern in starting any business and many investors think that a huge investment is required to start a business. But in reality nothing is like that.", "A vacation or business trip can be more relaxing and productive when you know you have a responsible professional looking after your pet. Professional pet sitters are entrusted with entering your residence and caring for an animal that may be stressed or upset due to being home alone.", "Starting a personal training business can be fun and rewarding. A personal training business can be anything from training a few clients one on one to training in a group setting.", "Whether you're bored on a nice summer day, wanting some spending money, or saving up money for something you want, this is a great way to help out pet owners and earn some cash.", "Have you just bought your first home and want to fill it up with adorable pets? Or are you a child and have convinced your parents to let you get one?", "Often as a gesture of courtesy, individuals may volunteer (or are asked) to pet-sit for their friends, co-workers, or relatives when the individual is leaving town.", "When you start your own business, you will be faced with many business expenses, from building a business website to creating marketing materials for your business.", "Being a good dog sitter isn't as simple as turning up and throwing Fido a bone. You have to put in some decent effort to get clients, make the proper arrangements, and keep the doggy and owner(s) in question happy.", "Starting your own business is a big endeavor, and being compliant with the IRS is very important. However, starting a business doesn’t have to be overwhelming.", "Many people dream of starting their own business. The independence of being your own boss is enticing. However, before starting your own business you need an idea.", " If you have to sell your pet, it's useful to know how to write a good advertisement. Here's how! ", "Walking dogs for a living is more than just pulling on a leash and getting some exercise. You need to be a dog-lover who is in tune with the canine ways and ready to run a business.", "Whether you're wanting to run a hobby-level dog bakery or go full steam ahead into a business that focuses on dog food products, a dog bakery can be a great way to fulfill your interest in both dogs and business.", "Everybody is excited when they get a new pet. Before you start in with your new pet, you want to gain its trust first. There is nothing like having your pet trust you and it can lead to a long, successful relationship.", "An entrepreneur may be simply defined as someone who starts a business; However, the word \"entrepreneur\" carries a number of implications that go beyond basic business start-up.", " Pamper your Littlest Pet Shop pets with their own spa. Your littlest pets are bound to love the experience. ", "A business plan is a document that is typically drafted before starting a business that sets forth in detail the way the business will run. A nonprofit is a business just as a for-profit business is and should prepare a comprehensive business plan.", "Hiring a professional pet sitter can be a great way to assure your pets are taken care of while you're away. However, determining a pay rate can be complicated.", "There are not many businesses you can start for free, but marketing start-ups are the exception. If you have the right skills and are willing to do some hard work up front, a marketing business takes little or no start-up costs.", " Now, these helpful tips should help you with this awesome game in every way possible, so sit back and start reading! ", "Starting a convenience store, just like starting any other business, takes money, planning, and time. Convenience stores are in demand all over the world, making them a good business to get into." ]

[ "com October 8, 2004, 11:32 AM PT. This priority retains its ranking at number five as more and more companies deploy Web Services to share business logic, data and processes with each other and with clients." ]

[ "As Labour backs an historic Welsh assembly coalition, Plaid Cymru prepares to make its own decision.", "Miss Kazakhstan said her country is preparing its own movie in response to \"Borat,\" the hit comedy that portrayed the Central Asian nation as bigoted and backward.", "A year before Beijing hosts the Summer Games, the country is feverishly preparing for its chance to show it is ready to take its place among the Great Powers - on its own terms", "(InfoWorld) - AOL has developed a new version of its PC software designed to simplify and enhance how broadband users access online content and services. The product, called OpenRide, consolidates in a single screen with four panes access to a variety of AOL and non-AOL services, with a focus on e-mail, instant messaging, Web search, multimedia and browsing, AOL said Wednesday. OpenRide lets users access AOL and non-AOL e-mail accounts, links up with the company's AIM instant messaging service, and has an integrated Web browser and a media center for viewing videos, calling up photos and playing songs. Until now, AOL took a one-size-fits-all approach with its PC software, but OpenRide represents a departure from this model with a more modular, flexible architecture. Previously, applications design supported AOL's dial-up Internet access business, which AOL has decided to exit. With its focus on broadband users, OpenRide is in sync with AOL's strategy of attracting visitors to its free services and selling online ads, AOL said. As such, OpenRide is the first AOL PC software that is freely available to anyone. Although AOL is to be commended for developing a more customizable version of its PC software, OpenRide still has an entry-level feel to it that will likely turn off sophisticated users, said Joe Laszlo, a Jupiter Research analyst. \"OpenRide aims towards the mainstream, not very advanced end user, which is the classic, stereotypical AOL user,\" he said. Still, the potential exists for building features into OpenRide that will attract more advanced users, because AOL seems to have given the application an open, modular architecture, Laszlo said. Much is riding on OpenRide's adoption, as AOL battles for visitors and advertisers with mighty competitors like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft's MSN and many other players that make money from online ads. The PC software is a key weapon in AOL's arsenal. AOL members make up 36 percent of U.S. monthly unique visitors to the AOL network. But they generate a disproportionate 80 percent of the page views. Central to retaining these people's positive effect on the consumption of AOL online ads is their use of the AOL PC software, which subscribers used to lose access to when they canceled their dial-up accounts, although not anymore. About half the size of the previous, AOL 9.0 version, OpenRide can be downloaded here. It doesn't require any log-in procedure except when users need to access password-protected services.", "Zimbabwe's government preparing to take majority shares in all foreign-owned companies.", "The Japanese government today published a new defence plan, which prepares the way for a transition from the country's longstanding passive defence of its own territory", "Circuit City is phasing out the sale of T-Mobile wireless service as it prepares to focus on launch of Verizon Wireless stores within its own walls.", "Company that owns the rights to \"YMCA\" is preparing to sue after song is combined with footage of Hitler and posted to YouTube.", "The United Nations has airlifted dozens of its own and other agencies' staff out of the main Darfur town of El Fasher and said on Wednesday it was prepared for more evacuations if the already tense situation worsens.", "The United Nations should immediately beef up the African Union force in Darfur with communications, transport and other help in preparation for its own operation, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Tuesday.", "CAIRO -- The guerrilla leader who crafted what became al-Qaeda's guide to jihad is preparing to renounce its extremes, including the killing of innocent civilians, according to his onetime colleagues and his own writings.", "The United States yesterday lost ground in its three-year quest to outlaw cloning for research purposes, as the UN General Assembly prepared to adopt a declaration that allows nations to make their own rules." ]

[ "SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (NEWS10) – The Saratoga YMCA is kicking off its annual campaign to help support community needs.\nThe fundraiser makes sure community members have access to programs and resources that help with youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility.\nThey hope to raise $400,000 this year.\nLearn more about how you can support the Y’s mission, please contact Allison D’Antonio, Mission Advancement Director at 518-583-9622 x104 or [email protected], or visit www.srymca.org/donate for more information." ]

[ "The YMCA of Central East Ontario – Balsillie Family Branch, Peterborough on Aylmer Street is holding a Family Day Celebration on Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.\nMembers will receive free entry to the celebration, with a donation to the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign appreciated, while there will be a $10 entry fee for non-member families.\nActivities include: face painting, bouncy castles, Razberry the Clown, pool games, arts and crafts, interactive games and raffle prizes. There will be a bake sale, popcorn and cotton candy available by donation in support of the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign.\nThe event is being sponsored for the third year in a row by Freedon 55 to provide a day of fun events that families can participate in together, according to a news release from the YMCA.\nThe YMCA will be open on Family Day from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. but no regular programs will be offered. Regular hours and programs will be in effect on Saturday and Sunday.", "The Champaign Family YMCA has announced that pre-season sales of summer-long passes to the city of Urbana’s municipal pool will start on Tuesday, April 18. Earlier this year, the Y and the city reached an agreement to have the local Y manage pool operations in 2017.\nIndividuals who wish to purchase single or family season passes to the pool – located in Melvin Miller Park – can visit the Champaign Family YMCA, 191 Community Drive, 5:30 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays; or 1-4 p.m. Sundays.\nPool Manager Cheryl Wade will be at the annual Healthy Kids Day Celebration on April 22 at Urbana University’s Grimes Center 9 a.m.-noon to discuss the pool’s operations. After the pool season begins on May 27, season and daily pool passes will be available at the pool in Urbana’s Melvin Miller Park, 689 Park Ave.\nPool pass prices are unchanged from 2016:.\nIndividual Season Pass\nAdult $75 (age 18 to 59)\nChild $65 (age 3-17)\nFamily Season Pass\n2-3 persons $140\n4 persons $150\n5 persons $160\n6 persons $170\nAdditional persons $10\nBabysitter / Babysat Child $20\nPool hours\nThe pool season extends from May 27 through Saturday, Aug. 19, and hours are noon to 7 p.m. daily, weather permitting.\nFor additional information, call the Champaign Family YMCA at 937-653-9622.\nThe city of Urbana’s outdoor pool at Melvin Miller Park is set to open May 27. http://urbanacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pool.jpg The city of Urbana’s outdoor pool at Melvin Miller Park is set to open May 27. Submitted photo\nFacility opens May 27\nSubmitted story\nSubmitted by the Champaign Family YMCA.\nSubmitted by the Champaign Family YMCA.", "From there, fiesta-goers had their pick of events, from the Kiwanis Club’s community breakfast and antique car show Saturday to Lanterman House’s summer whites picnic Sunday to YMCA’s annual 1-mile run Monday. Children decked in red, white and blue gawked at fireworks, watched an outdoor movie Saturday night and enjoyed an afternoon in the park on Monday.", "NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — In recognition of the fifth anniversary of the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal are kicking off a week long campaign to honor and recognize the innocent lives lost.\nThe campaign is called “Day of Kindness”, which is to promote community service. The lawmakers have been pushing for federal action on gun violence prevention.\nEsty and Blumenthal will kickoff their campaign Monday at 10:30am at the YMCA on Franklin Square in New Britain.", "Join friends and neighbours this Sunday and work up an appetite as you run (or walk) for a great cause!\nThe Municipality of Central Huron is once again hosting their Healthy Heart Hustle 5 km Run/Walk, starting at 8 a.m. on July 8.\nFollowing the race, participants and community members are invited to enjoy a hearty, homestyle meal at the annual Firefighter’s Breakfast starting at 8:30 a.m. under the Grandstand at the Raceway. The breakfast is being provided with generous support from the Huron County Egg Farmers.\nProceeds from the Healthy Heart Hustle will benefit the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. Registration is $35 and is open until Race Day.\nEVENT SCHEDULE\n7 a.m. - Race Day Check In\n8 a.m. - Race Start\n8:30 a.m. - Breakfast Starts\n9 a.m. - Awards and Presentations\nCONTACT INFORMATION\nName: Municipality of Central Huron c/o Angela Smith\nEmail: [email protected]\nPhone: 519-476-5922\nTo register for the Healthy Heart Hustle online, or for more information and race route map, visit: www.centralhuron.com/5krace", "MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities is rolling out the red carpet for teenagers this summer.\nYoung people in grades nine through 12 will be eligible for a free Summer Membership at 25 YMCA’s in western Wisconsin, Rochester and the Twin Cities.\n“Only 20 percent of teens are reported to have a job in the summer, 20 percent, which is obviously an issue,” said Matt Kjorstad, executive director of Harold Mezile North Community Y. “When you start to looking at young people of color, you see even a bigger disparity.”\nThe Y partnered with The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation to offer more than 6,000 teens free memberships for the summer. Sophomore Serenity Primus was a part of last year’s program.\n“Everybody was trying to help one another, and there was just so much positivity in that one space that you don’t usually get being outside of there, like, because there are so many negative things going on in the world, and so I feel like it was really important to have that space to feel safe,” Primus said.\nStatistics show risky behaviors — like violence, drinking and drug use — increase during the summer.\n“To be able to have an opportunity to go to the Y for free is really important to all of us, and we did feel really safe in that community,” said sophomore Talia McWright.\n“If I wasn’t at the Y, I’d be home, you know, eating chips, soda in my couch, every day on my phone,” said sophomore Rohit Koirala. “And I feel like going to the Y and lifting weights and, you know, swimming, running and working on my endurance, I felt like it really pushed me to be a better version of myself.”\nSign up for the free program starts Friday. Each Y has 250 openings. And once they are gone, your name goes on a waiting list.\nEight YMCA’s across the metro will also offer free lunch to teens along with the free membership.", "MANATEE- Bargain hunters have a new place to shop on the Suncoast. This time it’s going back to the community.\nThey say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” The Nifty Thrifty store in Palmetto makes those words come to life.\nThe YMCA of Manatee County wanted to give more to the community, but couldn’t find the means.\n“There was about $100,000 that we had to cover so we looked at different ways to do that and we decided thrift store would be the best solution,” said Sean Allison, CEO/President of Manatee County YMCA.\nThey opened their doors Thursday as YMCA’s third thrift store in the country.\nAll to help fulfill their mission, “It’s feeding somebody. It’s clothing somebody, it’s giving somebody the upper hand, and letting them understand how important they are,” said Jerry Parrish, Manatee’s YMCA Youth Outreach Coordinator.\nProceeds from the store go directly to YMCA’s various outreach programs to help Manatee County families in need.\nAllison said, “We have reading programs, we have programs to reduce youth gangs, we sports programs in some very low income areas of Manatee County.”\nThe store offers a wide range of products,”Whether it be shoes, whether it be clothes, whether it be furniture, there’s a lot here at the store. So if you’ve got stuff, bring it by because it goes right back into the streets of Manatee County, so it helps people,” said Parrish.\nDonations can be dropped off at the store or any YMCA locations in Bradenton, Parrish, and Lakewood Ranch.\nYMCA members can get an extra 10% off their purchase.\nFor more information on the store.", "The YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities has several tips to help community members renew their commitment to health and wellness in 2017.\nWhile setting a new year’s resolution can be easy, sticking to it is often more challenging. A 2014 YMCA survey found that less than a quarter of respondents kept their resolutions. More than 71 percent stated that they tried, but fell short of their goals – and 40 percent confessed to giving up within weeks.\n“‘Getting healthy’ is not a goal – it’s too broad,” YMCA Senior Director of Fitness Jennifer Menk said in a press release. “You don’t need a dramatic transformation to make a positive impact on your health. Trying to change too many habits at once can easily lead to frustration. Focus on setting multiple, manageable and measurable goals. For example, try adding 10 more minutes of activity per day, then increasing to 20. Make goals achievable so you can accomplish them even on a tough day.”\nBelow are some additional tips Y experts recommend to help 2017 new year’s resolutions stick.\n1. Set realistic wellness goals.\nAvoid putting pressure on yourself to make drastic lifestyle changes.\nMake small and achievable changes to reach your ultimate goal.\n2. Reframe to focus on positivity.\nBe kind to yourself – change is a process. You may experience some missteps, but it is important to avoid getting discouraged by setbacks.\nDon’t be afraid to mix things up if you find yourself bored or hit a plateau – try strength training or a group exercise class for a new challenge.\n3. Pick the right environment.\nChoose a fitness facility that focuses on a holistic approach to health. Before committing to a membership, take a tour to find the best fit for you. Your facility should not be just a gym, but a community that keeps you motivated.\nTeam up with a friend who has similar goals and work together to reach them. Set aside time to check in and catch up while working out.", "Thousands of high school students across the metro-area can hit the gym this summer free of charge thanks to a program aimed at offering young people safe and healthy ways to spend their time when school is not in session.\nThe Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation and the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities have partnered up to offer some 6,000 youth free memberships to 25 YMCA locations scattered throughout the Twin Cities-area, according to information released Wednesday by the YMCA.\nThe organizations’ effort aims to decrease risky behavior such as drinking, drug-use and violence that teens are more apt to engage in during summer months.\nOnly about 20 percent of 16 and 17-year-olds hold a summer job these days, according to research the groups cited from the Pew Research Center. That figure is even lower for teens of color.\nFurther, enrollment in camps or other similar programs has either held steady or fall in recent years, the organizations report.\nIn addition to offering the free memberships, health and well-being classes, leadership and development programs, youth specific fitness challengers and job readiness workshops will all be offered at participating locations.\nSince some teens don’t get healthy meals at home, eight locations also will offer free meals to youth that obtain memberships. Those sites include Blaisdell, Minneapolis, Burnsville, Coon Rapids, East St. Paul, Maplewood, Midway St. Paul, New Hope and West St. Paul.\nAll teens entering ninth grade through 12 are eligible to participate by visiting one of the 25 involved locations beginning June 1 with a valid ID, class schedule or report card along with the permission of an adult.\nAdults can sign registration forms at home and bring them to their YMCA-site or complete the online registration for teens at home.\nEach individual participating location can accommodate up to 250 participants.\nThe program was first offered last year to 4,800 kids. The spots filled in 12 days, meaning this years memberships are likely to go quickly as well, according to YMCA staff.\nThere are wait lists available for any teens who sign up after spots fill.\nThe memberships are valid from June 4 to Aug. 31.\nVisit ymcamn.org/getsummer for more information.", "Local charities have the opportunity to become Queensgate Shopping Centre’s Charity of the Year for 2017-2018.\nEach year, Queensgate partners with a local charity for 12 months, providing support with regular fundraising activities and marketing campaigns.\nThe chosen charity will be able to take advantage of free use of the centre’s commercial space, professional marketing and public relations support, volunteering hours donated by Queensgate’s team, and involvement in the centre’s events to help raise awareness of their cause.\nFor the past 11 months, Queensgate has worked alongside YMCA Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to help raise funds and increase awareness of the work it is doing through several events and activities.\nAt Christmas, the YMCA ran the gift wrapping service and raised close to £6,000.\nTo apply to be Queensgate’s charity partner, call 01733 311666 to request an application form.\nAlternatively, you can email: [email protected].", "SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Springfield residents who benefitted from Springfield’s Dunbar Community Center when they were young, are making certain that young people today enjoy the same opportunity.\nMembers of Forever Dunbar, Inc. today donated $9,000 to help the Springfield YMCA expand its after school programs at the center’s “Big Will” Gymnasium, as well as other programs for young people.\n“It’s phenomenal, it’s going to help us with after school programs, and sports and rec programming here at Dunbar,” Dunbar Executive Director Lamar Click said.\n“I used to play basketball here as a child with Big Will, and I know a lot of people that are familiar with him. It’s just a great community organization,” Tracye Whitfield of Springfield said.\nThe Dunbar Community Center achieved financial stability last year, when the Mount Zion Baptist Church purchased the building. The church now holds its Sunday worship services at the community center.", "Noah's Anchorage Youth Crisis Shelter, a program of the Youth and Family Services YMCA, was recognized as Agency of the Year by Santa Barbara during a recent ceremony held in conjunction with 16th Annual Youth Leadership Awards Ceremony. Noah's Anchorage was selected by the city for its outstanding support to teens in the community, especially those who have fallen on hard times.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Noozhawk.", "The YMCA unveiled plans this week for a new building in Beckley. It’s a new $30 million, two-story YMCA facility that will be on the hill at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex. Plans calls for two pools, a lazy river, basketball and tennis courts, space for exercise classes, weights, two sand volleyball courts outside and more. The YMCA said it has raised $26 million of the $30 million needed so far, and they’re relying on private donations for the rest. Groundbreaking is planned for this October and it will take about a year and a half to finish the project.", "Christine Baker of Laguna Niguel, her daughter Charlotte Baker, 4, and their dog, Bella Boots, run together in the annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday morning, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nGabriel Penix, playing Uncle Sam on stilts, jokingly plays cornhole with park-goers in Crown Valley Park during Laguna Niguel’s annual “Run in the Park” on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nSound The gallery will resume in seconds\nGabriel Penix, playing Uncle Sam on stilts, hands an American flag to Aliza Roseth-Saltz, 4, of Mission Viejo during Laguna Niguel’s annual “Run in the Park” on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nJanet O’Faolain of Laguna Hills, and her dog Lacey, participate in the “most patriotic dog competition” at the 40th annual “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nCarolyn Yatco, left, of Laguna Hills, and her daughter Sarah Yatco of Redondo Beach, both former Laguna Niguel residents, run together in the annual “Run in the Park” 4th of July 5K in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nJanet O’Faolain of Laguna Hills, and her dog Lacey, participate in the “most patriotic dog competition” at the 40th annual “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nNathanial Allenby, dressed as Uncle Sam, entertains kids and other with his juggle tricks at the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nA group of friends arrives at the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” at Crown Valley Park in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nRunners take off for the start of the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel, benefiting the local YMCA’s scholarship program, on Wednesday morning, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nCircus performers dressed as Uncle Sam, Nathanial Allenby, left, and Gabriel Penix entertain athletes at the starting line of the annual “Run in the Park” 5K and 10K in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nCatrina McAlster of San Clemente crosses the finish line, finishing as the first female and fourth overall, at the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nRunners make their way along a trail that connects Crown Valley Park and Laguna Niguel Regional Park during the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks,” benefiting the local YMCA’s scholarship program, in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nBrad and Brigit Marrett of Aliso Viejo run while their kids, Everly and Jack, get a free ride in a stroller as they participate together in the annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nRunners take off for the start of the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel, benefiting the local YMCA’s scholarship program, on Wednesday morning, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nRunners make their way along a trail that connects Crown Valley Park and Laguna Niguel Regional Park during the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks,” benefiting the local YMCA’s scholarship program, in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nTiffany Gunnemann of Mission Viejo carries her dog, Gatsby, as they participate in the annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” at Crown Valley Park in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nRunners cover their hearts during a singing of the National Anthem before the start of the 40th annual “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday morning, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nJuggler Nathanael Allenby, dressed as Uncle Sam, entertains athletes at the starting line of the annual “Run in the Park” 5K and 10K in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nRickey Barnes of Laguna Niguel holds Audrey Kluvo, 2, on his shoulders while they cheer on friends and family members during the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nMaryanne Rose of Laguna Niguel gets her dog, Cali, ready for the “most patriotic dog competition” during the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” on Wednesday morning, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nCarlos De Jesus of San Clemente crosses the finish line to win the 5K at the 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” in Laguna Niguel on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)\nLAGUNA NIGUEL — Patriotic runners, kids and dogs hit the streets Wednesday as the YMCA of Orange County hosted its 40th annual 4th of July “Run in the Parks” event.\n“Run in the Parks” featured a 5K run/walk, 10K run, dog walk and children’s races, which range from 25 yards to a mile-long course. The main course was from the Crown Valley Community Park and to Laguna Niguel Regional Park.\nAll proceeds benefit YMCA’s scholarship program.\nOver the past 39 years, “Run in the Parks” has raised $975,000 and is set to reach $1 million this year.", "The YMCA of Northern BC is giving free teen summer memberships to youth aged 13 to 18.\nAccording to the recently released 2018 ParticipACTION Report Care on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, only 35% five to 17-year-olds are reaching their recommended physical activity levels. Recommended activity levels are outlined in the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guideline for Children and Youth.\nCanadian children were given a D+ letter grade in overall physical activity.\nThe YMCA Teen Summer Membership is valid until August 31st. Teens can sign up at the Prince George Family YMCA with a parent or guardian and photo ID.", "Scott Valazak, the 2016 fundraising campaign chairman, spoke this morning at the United Way’s annual meeting, where the reins were handed to Laurie Kuzneski, the 2017 campaign chairwoman, background. (Tom Peel/Gazette)\nThe United Way of Indiana County raised $679,822.08 during its 2016 campaign, short of the campaign’s goal of $737,000.\nScott Valazak, of Indiana First Bank, chairman of the 2016 campaign, said the annual fund drive is about much more than the monetary total at the end of the campaign. And he said this morning’s annual United Way meeting and awards breakfast at Rustic Lodge was a celebration of the campaign and of the United Way in general.\nThe United Way of Indiana County is observing its 85th year of serving the county and helping support the financial needs of its 15 member agencies. All the money raised for the United Way in Indiana County stays in the county and helps support community projects and initiatives and the many programs offered by the partner agencies that serve county residents.\nValazak told the breakfast audience of more than 180 people that the 2016 campaign in Indiana County was supported by 2,500 donors, including 300 first-time donors.\nLaurie Kuzneski, of Kuzneski Financial Group, was introduced as the chair of the 2017 campaign. She will be assisted by Joe Pittman, chief of staff to Sen. Don White, as this year’s campaign vice chairman.\nKuzneski said her goals for the 2017 campaign — in addition to reaching the financial goal that will be announced in September — are to get more people involved and for everyone to know what the United Way does for Indiana County and its residents.\nDuring the business portion of the meeting, a new slate of officers was elected. They are Aaron Ludwig, of Supinka & Supinka, president; Liz Judge, of Kuzneski & Lockard, vice president; Sandy Gandolfi, of John Gandolfi Accounting, secretary; and Bradley Peterson, of InFirst Advisors, treasurer.\nAnd in a drawing at the breakfast, Susan Nicholson, of S&T Bank, was the winner of the 2016 campaign’s grand prize incentive, an all-inclusive, four-night trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico, sponsored by Colonial Motor Mart, Colonial Toyota and Mark Arbuckle Nissan, and organized by Aztec Travel.\nThe United Way of Indiana County lists as its priorities developing self-sufficiency; supporting vulnerable populations; encouraging healthy life choices; helping children and youth grow and succeed; and building family success.\nThe United Way of Indiana County’s 15 partner agencies are:\n• Alice Paul House\n• American Red Cross\n• accessAbilities\n• Boy Scouts of America / Laurel Highlands Council\n• Camp Orenda\n• Chevy Chase Community Center\n• Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania\n• Indiana County Head Start\n• Indiana County Catholic Charities\n• Indiana County Child Day Care\n• Lifesteps of Indiana County\n• YMCA\n• The Open Door\n• Visiting Nurse Association\n• The Salvation Army\nPHOTO: Scott Valazak, the 2016 fundraising campaign chairman, spoke this morning at the United Way’s annual meeting, where the reins were handed to Laurie Kuzneski, the 2017 campaign chairwoman, background. (Tom Peel/Gazette)", "The 28-year veteran brings experience in all aspects of community banking\nWilliam “Butch” Phillips has joined Santa Barbara Bank & Trust as a private banker.\nA 28-year banking veteran, he has a high level of experience in all aspects of community banking.\nBefore joining SBB&T, Phillips was president and chief operating officer for Los Padres Bank in Solvang and served as president of Harrington West Financial Group, the holding company of Los Padres Bank.\n“Butch has extensive management skills and expertise in a wide array of financial products and services,” said Lisa Watson, executive vice president and community bank regional manager. “He brings an exceptional combination of experience and personal service to the bank. We welcome someone of his caliber to work closely with our clients in Montecito and Santa Ynez.”\nAs a longtime resident in the Santa Ynez Valley, Phillips’ commitment to local civic and charitable organizations continues to distinguish him among the community’s most dedicated residents. He has served as a board member of the Western Independent Bankers Association, the Savings and Loan League Association, the Channel Islands YMCA, the Stuart C. Gildred Family YMCA and the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Society.\nHe serves on the board of the Alisal Ranch Men’s Golf Club, is a member of the Santa Ynez Valley Rotary Club and participates in volunteer and fundraising campaigns with local organizations.\nPhillips is a U.S. Navy veteran and studied accounting at Chico State University.\n— Elizabeth Saghi represents Santa Barbara Bank & Trust.", "Press release:\nBatavia High School seniors will participate in the 19th annual Make a Difference Day community service project in various non-profit agencies throughout the community. Participating agencies include: All Babies Cherished, Arc of Genesee Orleans, Batavia Agri-Business Child Development, Batavia Business Improvement District, Batavia Housing Authority, Batavia Peace Garden, City of Batavia Youth Bureau, Crossroads House, Genesee County Parks, Genesee County Youth Bureau, Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council, Habitat for Humanity, Holland Land Office Museum, NYS Veterans’ Home, Premier Genesee, Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, United Memorial Medical Center, VA WNY Healthcare System of Batavia, YMCA, YWCA Children’s Center, YWCA of Genesee County.\nBatavia City Schools is dedicated to helping their over 170 seniors learn and develop the importance of giving back to their own community while helping to foster civic responsibility. This is an integral part of their Batavia High School academic curriculum, and is a component of their graduation requirements.", "Gas South – with support of SweetWater Brewing Company – awarded the $10,000 donation to YMCA of Metro Atlanta, an organization that empowers healthy living, ensures school readiness, improves academic achievement and inspires civic leadership. Last year, the YMCA of Metro Atlanta served more than 250,000 children and adults.\n\"The stakes were high again this year as the charities competed in the wind and rain,\" said Chris Coan, Gas South vice president and general manager of business and government markets. \"Every year the Charity Cornhole Tournament brings together local nonprofits that are committed to giving back. This is something our team looks forward to on an annual basis, and we are so thrilled to have the opportunity to help to make a positive impact with our local community.\"\nGas South also donated $5,000 to The Giving Kitchen for second place and $2,500 to both The Metro Atlanta Salvation Army and Something New for third and fourth place, respectively. A total of $20,000 in prize money was raised during Gas South's Charity Shindig held at SweetWater Brewery last month, as well as from donations generated from attendees during 420 Fest. SweetWater also contributed to the overall initiative by raising donation funds through raffles and an auction during this year's festival.\n\"The YMCA is so appreciative of Gas South's invitation to participate in their annual Charity Cornhole Tournament again this year, and for their generous gift of $10,000,\" said Russ Davis, chief marketing officer of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta. \"This financial support will allow us to further the great work of the Y in our communities. While the \"Y Team's\" victory was awesome, Gas South's support for our community through this event is even more impactful and we are truly grateful.\"\nGas South is the annual presenting sponsor of Planet 420 Stage at SweetWater 420 Fest. Through its cornhole sponsorship each year, Gas South has raised more than $93,000 for local nonprofits.\nAbout Gas South:\nGas South is a leading provider of natural gas in competitive markets throughout the southeastern U.S. The company serves more than 300,000 residential, business and governmental customers in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. Gas South offers simple and competitively priced rate plans, outstanding local customer service, and a promise to give back 5% of its profits to help children in need. Since 2016, Gas South has been recognized as one of the \"Top Workplaces in Atlanta\" by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gas South is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cobb EMC, one of the country's largest electric cooperatives. For more information, visit www.GasSouth.com.\nAbout SweetWater 420 Festival:\nSweetWater 420 Fest returns to Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, April 20-22, 2018 with three stages hosting a varied lineup of jam, rock, indie rock, bluegrass, alternative, EDM, local artists and comedians. SweetWater Experience will serve unique craft beer samplings, Planet 420 will teach eco-friendly tips while celebrating Earth Day, Lyrics & Laughter will keep you laughing and dancing. For all details and to purchase tickets visit www.sweetwater420fest.com/. Follow on Twitter/Instagram at @420Fest or on Facebook at facebook.com/420fest.\nAbout YMCA of Metro Atlanta:\nThe Y is a powerful association of men, women and children joined together by a shared commitment to nurturing the potential of kids, promoting healthy living and fostering a sense of social responsibility. The Y champions communities were everyone belongs. Every day, we work side-by-side with our neighbors to make sure everyone, regardless of age, income or background, has the opportunity to learn, grow and connect. For more information, visit http://www.ymcaatlanta.org.\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ymca-of-metro-atlanta-awarded-10-000-from-gas-south-annual-charity-cornhole-tournament-300635166.html\nSOURCE Gas South\nRelated Links\nhttp://www.GasSouth.com", "Volunteers set up gymnastics equipment at Century II for a YMCA National Gymnastics Championships. Travis Heying File/The Wichita Eagle", "Jenna Hauck/ The Progress Children help turn the earth during the ground breaking ceremony for the Chilliwack YMCA’s $10-million renovation project on Thursday.\nThe sounds of construction filled the air at the Chilliwack YMCA Thursday, as dignitaries, employees and members celebrated the official groundbreaking of their new building.\nThe $10 million project will include the reconstruction of the main (east) building area, and a massive refurbishing of the pool and daycare areas.\n“For those of you who remember what the inside of the Y looked like, I hope that stays in your memory because it’s pretty much gone now,” said Steve Butz, president and CEO of the YMCA Greater Vancouver. “The building has been gutted and pretty soon this whole side of the building is going to be gone.”\nIt’s a massive project, with the reopening scheduled for sometime in September 2018. He gave credit to everyone in the community who pulled together to make it possible.\n“You’ve heard today how projects like this come to be, and I can’t say enough that when people come together, amazing things that can happen,” Butz said. “It’s amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.”\nThe groundbreaking also brought out Dr. Graydon Meneilly, board chair for the YMCA of Greater Vancouver. He spoke to the YMCA’s importance in a community, and in his own life growing up in Saskatchewan.\n“As a medical practitioner, I know the important role that the Y plays in the health of our communities, families and children,” Meneilly said. “The Y tackles some of our communities’ toughest issues — inactivity, chronic disease, and increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. To face these challenges we need safe spaces and places, social infrastructure that brings all people together and is inclusive to all.”\nHe cited a recent study that suggests loneliness could be the next big public health issue, equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.\n“We’re here to invest in the community for many years to come so that a generation of children and families can reach their full potential,” Meneilly said. “When I came off the farm and first went to the Y… I learned how to swim, which saved my life when I lived in Australia. I learned how to defend myself, which saved my life when I was playing hockey in rural Saskatchewan, and as a counsellor I learned leadership skills that have lasted me a lifetime.”\nThe Chilliwack YMCA announced the project last October, with the City of Chilliwack announcing a $1 million contribution shortly after that. The new centre will be 36,700 square feet, which is 25 per cent bigger than the existing facility.\nREAD: Hocking Centre sets sights on expansion.\n“The Chilliwack YMCA serves more than 6,500 people each year,” said Karen Price, general manager of the Chilliwack YMCA. “But the needs of our city are growing and we need a new centre of community to meet those needs – a place where everyone, regardless of background or financial circumstance, can belong and reach their potential.”\nThursday’s celebration included an exuberant performance by the Chilliwack School of the Performing Arts, and when it came time to shovel the dirt, a handful of young children were there to lend a hand.\nThe facility will be funded through YMCA sources, the City of Chilliwack and a YMCA community campaign. It will allow the staff to offer new programs, including physical literacy programs, more adult group fitness classes, have expanded pool hours and book more swimming lessons.\nIt will include a new, 4,250 sq ft. gymnasium, five multipurpose rooms, a 5,700 sq ft. conditioning floor, a social area, CycleFit studio, family/universal change room, and an outdoor playground outside the childminding area.\nThere will also be major renovations with an expanded lobby and welcome area, group fitness studio, stretching and adaptive space, childminding area, and pool.\nThe Chilliwack YMCA is offering pop-up programming throughout the community during the building’s closure. Visit the Chilliwack YMCA online for more information.\nJenna Hauck/ The Progress Steve Butz, CEO with YMCA of Greater Vancouver, speaks during the ground breaking ceremony for the Chilliwack YMCA’s $10-million renovation project on Thursday.\nJenna Hauck/ The Progress Karen Price, director with the Chilliwack YMCA, speaks during the ground breaking ceremony for the facility’s $10-million renovation project on Thursday.\nJenna Hauck/ The Progress Dr. Graydon Meneilly, YMCA of Greater Vancouver board chair, speaks during the ground breaking ceremony for the Chilliwack YMCA’s $10-million renovation project on Thursday.", "Celebration of Cultures Faire continues series of community events.\nSpread the Word\nListed Under Tags:\n• Northbrook\n• Ymca\n• Diversity Industry:\n• Non-profit Location:\n• Northbrook - Illinois - US\nContact\nCreative Marketing Associates, Inc.\n***@cmacreative.com Creative Marketing Associates, Inc.\nEnd\n-- Plans are well underway for the annual Celebration of Cultures Faire on April 23, an afternoon of live performances, delicious food, and artistic expression that reflect the diverse cultural traditions found in the northern suburbs. The free event, which is expected to draw hundreds of guests, will be another accomplishment in a longstanding partnership between the North Suburban YMCA and Northbrook Community Relations Commission (CRC) to promote conversation, understanding, and appreciation between diverse populations in the broader community.\"Over the years, we've discovered a joint sense of purpose between the Y and the CRC,\" reflects Howard Schultz, NSYMCA President and CEO. \"We share a mission to build stronger communities, and the wide range of events we've presented have connected people in positive, engaging ways.\"The working relationship between the Y and CRC goes back to 2012, when the CRC was looking for a new venue to hold an event for Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. The Y was an appealing option, not just because of the large available space in its gym but also the support of staff members specializing in art, dance, and community outreach.Conversations with the Y evolved into a highly popular Taste of Asia festival, which was repeated each May through 2015. Guests flooded into the Y to enjoy traditional dance performances, specialty cuisine, art demonstrations, and unique items from vendors.The success of Taste of Asia opened the door to other opportunities for collaboration between the CRC and the Y. Beginning in 2013, these included special events for African American History Month, shining a spotlight on the experience of African Americans living in the Northern Chicago suburbs and presenting a panel of guest speakers. 2014 saw a large attendance for \"Journeys: Paths Taken to Chicago and the North Suburbs,\" which featured a variety of speakers sharing inspiring stories of how they overcame discrimination to find success in their personal and professional lives.In 2015, young Little League World Series players from the Jackie Robinson West team were welcomed by an overflow crowd for a presentation on the legacy of Jackie Robinson on baseball and society, complete with a hot dog lunch, videos, and interactive participation with the JRW All-Stars.In 2016, the CRC made the decision to celebrate Northbrook's ethnic heritage by combined efforts to showcase the community's diversity. The result was the first Celebration of Cultures Faire, again held at the Y, which presented a truly global experience showcasing cultural presentations and food from 14 different countries, reflecting the cultural breadth and depth of Northbrook and the rest of Northern Chicago suburbs.For 2017, the CRC has grown the Celebration of Cultures by adding a new partner in the Northbrook Public Library, which is presenting an international film festival as part of the celebration. The NSYMCA'S Community Gallery will also include a photographic display of \"Immigrant Stories,\" personal immigration narratives from local families which will turn into a permanent exhibit at the Northbrook Historical Society.\"The Northbrook Community Relations Commission strives to foster understanding, mutual respect, cooperation, and positive relations among all residents of Northbrook,\"comments CRC board member Dr. Rochelle Singer. \"It has been the CRC's honor to sponsor events each year that provide the opportunity for residents and members of other communities to come together and learn about each other's cultural backgrounds and interact in a setting of camaraderie. It has been a pleasure to hold these events at the NSYMCA, an entity whose mission is parallel to that of the CRC. The partnership with Howard Schultz and his staff has been invaluable and has resulted in positive interactions among the village, local businesses, Northbrook residents, and the members of the surrounding communities. We look forward to continuing to fulfill our mission with the 2017 Celebration of Cultures Faire and film festival.\"\"We are so excited by the evolution of our partnership with the CRC, and by the prospects for future projects,\" notes Schultz. \"Every day at the Y, we experience the diversity of languages and customs that exist in our community. These special events give us a deeper understanding of the rich traditions of our neighbors and build bridges to connect us all.\"The 2017 Celebration of Cultures Faire will be held at the North Suburban YMCA, 2705 Techny Road in Northbrook, on April 23 from 2:00 to 4:00pm. The event is open to the public and free of charge. For more event information, contact Erik Jensen at the Village of Northbrook, [email protected] North Suburban YMCA serves 15 northern suburbs of Chicago, and for over 48 years has provided programs and services that address youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility every day. Working together for good is who we are: An association of people united in a common effort to help individuals become healthier, more connected, and confident. There is no other nonprofit quite like the Y: We have the national and local presence and partnerships to not just promise, but deliver, positive change, making sure that everyone, regardless of age, income or background has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. For more information, visit http://nsymca.org", "The Anniston YMCA on West 14th Street, shown in February 2016. Although modifications have been extensive over the decades, it's the same building the Y has occupied since 1952.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Anniston Star.", "PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Construction is underway on a new state-of-the-art YMCA in Montgomery County.\nThe bulldozers are busy on Davisville Road at the former Willow Grove Day Camp site in Upper Moreland. Shaun Elliott, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA, says the new facility will replace two old and dated locations.\n“Our Abington branch is about 103 years old and our Hatboro area branch is 65 years old,” Elliott said. “We’re combining the two in a new facility and actually the combined facility will be larger than the two Y’s combined.\nThe new the complex will cost more than $30 million and feature several pools, huge gyms and room for more than 20,000 members.\n“This is the new model for the Y, where we have modern amenities,” Elliott said. “And what we’re trying to really do is we want to have a place where people feel comfortable coming and connecting.\nThe Abington and Hatboro properties are being sold.", "Roanoke (WSLS10)– People are kicking off a new work week and the start of 2017 with some big New Year’s Resolutions. Getting in shape is one of the most popular goals and January 2 is National Personal Trainer Awareness Day.\nTrainers can play a major role in helping you reach your fitness and health goals. Cal Buck, the Wellness Director at the Kirk Family YMCA, says in order to be successful with your workout goals– you need to understand what you want to achieve and why you are there.\n“What’s your motivation and what is your goal,” he asks. “With New Year’s Resolutions, sometimes people aren’t sure exactly why they’re here. They know they should be here but they don’t know why they’re here.”\nHere are some workouts you can try at home or take with you to the gym as you start your new year’s resolutions:\nThroughout the month of January, the YMCA is lifting the joining fees– a savings of up to $50 or more depending on your membership plan.", "Stamford Health and New Canaan YMCA will present The Flu & You! What you should know about: history, prevention, symptoms & treatment on Wednesday, Feb. 7 from noon to 1 p.m. at New Canaan YMCA.\nNew Canaan Director of Health, David Reed, MD, will discuss everything you need to know about the flu, as well as answer your questions.\nFor more information, call Anne Goebel, wellness nurse coordinator, at 203-920-1643.\nThis lecture is free and open to the community. Light refreshments will be served.", "A whopping $60,000 was raised this year during the Yamaska Valley Optimist Club’s (YV0) annual financial campaign that culminated with the Walk for Women’s Cancers in TBL this past Sunday.\nSee the story and more photos in the October 3 issue of Brome County News.", "PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging a Rhode Island YMCA would not allow a mother to breastfeed in public has been settled.\nThe American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island on Friday announced the settlement on behalf of Elizabeth Gooding, who sued the Ocean Community YMCA in May.\nGooding is a mother of three who was a part-time employee and member at the YMCA. She alleged employees at the Westerly branch told her in February 2015 and again a month later she couldn’t nurse in public areas at the YMCA.\nThe YMCA said it took “affirmative steps” to address Gooding’s concerns at that time. It said a private area was created for employees who choose to breastfeed.\nFurther details on the settlement haven’t been disclosed. The Ocean Community YMCA’s president and vice president couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday.\nCopyright © 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.", "Phyllis Thompson, center, raises a bottle of water from Beautiful Eagle Creek as she and her fellow Blue Mile representatives Trip Addison, far left, Allen Muldrew, center left, Keely Fennell, center right, and Darron Burnette are sent off in style Monday to the America's Best Communities grand prize ceremony in Denver on April 19 during a ... (more)\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Statesboro Herald.", "ALEA Bridge will be hosting its second annual Jamathon Fitness Fest at the Aloha Stadium field on June 17, 2017 from 3pm – 7pm. The Jamathon is a fun and fit way to raise funds and fight homelessness in Hawaii, and is the latest of our community outreach events to increase awareness and community support for our organization’s mission. All proceeds will be used to provide direct client services to benefit the houseless and at-risk population of Central Oahu, North Shore and neighboring areas.\nThere will be various instructors leading workouts from all around the island specializing in Zumba, U-Jam, Pound, Body Blast, Cardio Blast, and CrossFit. We will also have the UFC Gym and the Leeward YMCA onsite, along with speed, agility, and football clinics for youth and high school students. Health vendors and concessions will be present to complement this high-energy fitness fest. Ticket prices are $15 for general admission and $10 for students (K-12), with discounts for early bird, online registrations…up to 20% off! Keiki under 5 are FREE with general admission. Our target is 500-600 participants. We encourage you and your organization to participate in this event to promote health, wellness and team building! Monetary or in-kind donations for the event are also welcome.\nALEA Bridge is a non-profit agency that was established in January 2016 as a direct response to the expressed concerns of the residents of Central Oahu and the North Shore regarding the growing homelessness issues impacting these neighborhoods. ALEA Bridge is committed to community outreach and connecting those in need with the resources necessary to rebuild a life of Hope, Purpose, and Success. Through comprehensive and collaborative solutions, the organization works together with its partners in the community to Break the Cycle, and Reverse the Trend of homelessness.\nFor more information or tickets visit www.aleabridge.org, call (808) 492-2214 or email [email protected]\nCopyright 2017. Hawaii News Now. All Rights Reserved.", "It’s the first of the year and in many cases, it means you may be fighting for a parking space at the gym.\nHealth experts said in the first three months of the year, many people resolve to get fit and healthy and trainers at the YMCA are hoping to help them stick with their pledges.\nAt the GHS Family YMCA in Simpsonville, trainers said the first step to getting healthy and sticking with it is setting an attainable goal.\nYMCA trainer Leslie Knox said they can help with this at the YMCA. She said it’s important to think of a specific goal, often a number like losing 20 pounds or getting healthy by June.\nExperts there also recommend training with a buddy who will hold you accountable and motivate you to work out or stick to your diet when you’re not feeling up to it.\nTrainer Pete Townley said it’s important to choose a method of exercise that you enjoy doing and not to be afraid to change it up, that way it will be easier to stick with.\nHere’s some more information from the YMCA of Greenville to help you stick to your resolution.\nLearn more at www.ymcagreenville.org\n– The YMCA of Greenville has proven programs overseen by certified wellness professionals that offer positive results for everyone who has decided 2017 will be their year to achieve resolutions of “getting healthier.”\n– The human body was designed for movement, and by exercising regularly and making healthy food choices, we can all look and feel better and become role models for others.\n– The benefits of exercise extend far beyond weight management.\n– The YMCA is a non-profit and charity and does not turn anyone away for their inability to pay. The Y has five locations throughout Greenville County. No better time than now to join and start your health journey to a better quality of life.\n– Now through the end of January, people can save up to $100 off membership when joining the YMCA of Greenville – so get moving today!\n– Better Together Membership: We all know everything is better when shared with friends… moreover, getting healthier together is no exception. The YMCA is offering a Better Together membership so friends can join and both save 20% off their membership fee as long as they both remain members!\n– A healthier 2017 is within reach of everyone. Recent statics shows that 43% of South Carolinians are obese and battling many related health issues. The YMCA of Greenville has proven programs that incorporate professional guidance, motivation, physical movement, and nutrition information, that reduce risk of many diseases and health conditions while improving the overall quality of life.\n– With eight branches serving the Upstate, the YMCA offers a multipronged approach to wellness through its range of exercise classes, specialized health initiatives, and youth programs. These diverse opportunities are what continue to make the Y a “bridge” within the community.\n– On exercise: The folks at the Y understand that personal health is not a one-size. The assorted schedule of group exercise classes are designed to both optimize your available time and target individual needs.\n– Membership provides access to programs that are exclusive to the Y family. Wellness Works is our free signature program that pairs members with American College of Sports Medicine-certified coaches to assess your fitness baseline, customize workout plans, and measure personal progress over a 12-week period.", "I cover the cities of Andover, Blaine and Ramsey. I have worked at ABC Newspapers since August 2007.\nAs the Anoka-Hennepin School District worked toward drumming up community support for a referendum vote on Nov. 7, it met with the Andover YMCA to see if a partnership could lead to re-opening a pool that closed more than 15 years ago. The pool at Oak View Middle School has been closed since the spring of 2002. Multiple attempts have been made to re-open the pool with the latest concept being a partnership between the Anoka-Hennepin School District and the Andover YMCA, but the two sides could not reach an agreement. File photo\nThe potential partnership was not a new idea. In September 2012, parents, students and coaches appeared at a\nSchool Board meeting to ask for the Oak View Middle School pool to re-open. The Andover City Council decided that the city should not devote funds to re-open the pool but instead should be the connecting force in the school district and YMCA working together.\nNothing happened, but the idea of the school district and YMCA forming a partnership did not completely go away. Dickinson informed the Andover City Council at an April 2016 workshop that both sides had expressed interest in re-opening the pool.\nChuck Holden, the school district’s chief operations officer, said staff from the school district, YMCA and the city of Andover met several times over the past few months to see if a solution could be found.\n“There’s no way we could have afforded to open it on our own,” Holden said.\nThe YMCA was interested in having aquatics programming at Oak View Middle School before, during and after school hours. The middle school is a neighbor to the Andover YMCA.\nThe pool has no separate entrance, so swimmers and their families would have needed to check in like any other visitor. This would have included swiping a driver’s license and identifying yourself on camera before being let into the building and getting a visitor’s pass printed.\nHolden said the district would have also wanted these swimmers to be escorted to and from the pool so they would not be walking freely around the building.\nThis created additional expenses that nobody was willing to pay for, according to Holden and Allison Boes, executive director of the Andover YMCA..\n“Logistically at this point we couldn’t work it out,” she said.\nThe busiest times for the YMCA pool during the school year is early morning swim lessons for adults and after school lessons for kids, according to Boes.\nHolden said the school district would have only been interested in re-opening the Oak View Middle School pool if the Andover High School girls’ and boys’ swimming and teams could have used it for practices and competitions, but this would have conflicted with the YMCA’s programming.\nThe pool closed in the spring of 2002 after a school district levy failed in 2001. Andover High School opened in the fall of 2002 so it has never had a home pool.\nAndover’s teams share the Anoka Middle School for the Arts (Fred Moore campus) pool with the Anoka teams. Blaine and Coon Rapids share Northdale Middle School’s pool.\nThe district asked voters in 2002 and 2007 if they would approve a tax increase to re-open closed pools at Oak View Middle School and Coon Rapids Middle School, but the majority of people who showed up gave a thumbs down.\nThe Coon Rapids Middle School pool is no more. It is now used for a cafeteria and gymnasium.\nOn Nov. 7, voters in the Anoka-Hennepin School District are facing two questions. The first question asks for an increase to general education revenue by approximately $9.5 million each year, with authorization to increase annually by the rate of inflation. The second question asks for $249 million that includes construction of two new elementary schools, building additions so portable classrooms are no longer needed and completing construction of secured entrances at all schools.\nHolden said the Fit for the Future Task Force concentrated on classroom needs and re-opening the Oak View Middle School pool or converting it to another use was not recommended by the task force.\nHe believes it would be premature to completely get rid of the pool.\n“It’s a great pool and ideally we’d like to be able to re-open it,” he said.\n[email protected]" ]

[ "(Reuters) - Tropical storm Gert, located about 485 miles (785 km) west-southwest of Bermuda, could strengthen into a hurricane by Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.\nThe storm was becoming better organized over the western Atlantic and packing maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 km/h), the NHC said.\nGert is moving north-northwestward and is expected to be about midway between Bermuda and North Carolina on Tuesday, the Miami-based weather forecaster added." ]

[ "The system formerly known as Tropical Storm Gert has officially strengthened into the second hurricane of 2017 in the Atlantic Ocean basin.\nThat's according to the newest advisory from the National Hurricane Center, which as of 11 p.m. Monday night cites an area of sustained winds inside the storm hitting 75 mph. That's just past the threshold needed for Gert to be declared a hurricane.\nDespite Gert's strengthening over the past six hours the storm remains a non-factor to Southwest Florida's weather. The hurricane is already north of us, and moving north at 8 mph.\nThe official forecast cone from the NHC on Gert remains largely unchanged with the newest data, and that's good news. This system is not expected to be able to make a direct landfall on any point in the United States, Canada, or Bermuda making it essentially a fish storm--one spending its entire lifespan over the water.\nThis isn't to say it will have no impacts whatsoever though to coastal regions of the U.S. Tropical Storm force winds extend more than 100 miles from the center of Gert, and it's been generating some big waves in the Atlantic as well; some even topping 20 feet.\nSwells producing dangerous rip currents in the mid-Atlantic states will be possible as Gert moves by into early Wednesday morning.", "GETTY Storm Gert could cause havoc for the UK's weather\nStorm Gert, which could develop into a hurricane, has baffled experts and left them divided as to the lasting effect on the UK’s weather systems. Some predict the turbulent storm will blow high pressure off course leading to further miserable weather but others are confident an area of low pressure will absorb the worst of the storm. Potentially luring sunshine and warmer weather to the UK.\nForecaster Hannah Findley, The Weather Channel, said that confidence in forecasts for the upcoming week was low because of the possible impact of Tropical Storm Gert. Gert is forecast to develop into a hurricane on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Centre (NHC), based in Miami. The NHC tweeted: “Gert is now forecast to become a hurricane while it recurves away from the United States in a couple of days.”\nUK weather: August is looking like a wet one as yellow weather warning issued Wed, August 9, 2017 With forecasts that up to 3.2in (80mm) of rain could fall across parts of the country over the next 24 hours, the Met Office has warned that more flooding of homes and businesses is possible Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 16 A pedestrian lands on the pavement after trying to leap over a puddle as rain fell in central London\nThe centre added that the swells caused by the storm are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. The UK reportedly suffered its coldest summer holidays for 35 years, with further rain and gales forecast to hit Britain this week. Describing the gloomy week ahead, Met Office forecaster Marco Patagna said: “Britain is in the path of a number of depressions and the next ten days will see continued changeable and unsettled conditions.\n“The wettest and windiest areas will be towards the North and West, while it will be drier and brighter towards the South and East. “Temperatures will remain around the teens and low 20s Celsius although some parts of the South and East could see temperatures as high as 25C (77F) during sunny spells.” Looking ahead the forecast does not get any better for those hoping for a sunny bank holiday weekend.\nMET The predicted path of Storm Gert\nGETTY July was one of the wettest on record which hit UK wheat crops", "Gert became the 7th named storm of 2017 this weekend, and could very well become the season's second hurricane Monday night or Tuesday.\nAs of Monday afternoon, the system has the look of a healthy and strengthening tropical cyclone off the east coast of the U.S. Thankfully, the storm has already started to make it's expected turn out to sea — and it will continue to push away form the U.S. over the next 48 hours.\nMeanwhile, we're also watching an area of low pressure that emerged off of the coast of Africa this weekend. It is tracking quickly westward, and has a medium chance of development over the next 5 days according to the NHC. While there is still plenty of uncertainty with this potential storm, models suggest that this is one that we need to watch closely as we head into next week.\n- App users, click here to see the tropical update video\nCopyright 2017 WBBH/WZVN (Waterman Broadcasting). All rights reserved.", "Tropical Storm Gert trudged on westward in the Atlantic on Monday morning, but forecasters said it would turn away well before reaching the United States.\nTropical Storm Gert, the seventh named storm of the year in the Atlantic, was located about 475 miles west-southwest of Bermuda as of 4 a.m. CDT Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.\nGert is moving to the north-northwest at 9 mph. The hurricane center expects Gert to take a more northward path this morning and then turn to the north-northeast tonight. That track would steer Gert away from the U.S.\nComputer forecast models have consistently kept Gert on that path, and confidence is on the higher side that Gert will not affect the U.S.\nGert had winds of 45 mph early Monday. Forecasters said it could get stronger and become a hurricane by Wednesday.\nHurricane force winds begin at 74 mph.\nFar to the east of Tropical Storm Gert is another tropical wave that's worth watching.\nThat storm system, which has been designated Invest 91L, is being described by the hurricane center as a large and complex area of disturbed weather.\nIt includes a trough of low pressure and a tropical wave. The hurricane center expects those to merge in a few days and continue to develop into what could be a tropical depression.\nThe probability of a depression forming has been steadily rising and was 50 percent as of Monday morning.\nInvest 91L is forecast to continue on a westward path at about 15 mph, which could put it close to the Lesser Antilles by the end of the work week.\nThe Atlantic hurricane season runs until Nov. 30.\nHurricanes that Alabama may never forget", "Tropical Depression Eight (TD8) formed around 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, August 12 about 260 miles northeast of the southeastern Bahamas. By 5 p.m. the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Gert.\nAt 1 p.m. EDT (1700 UTC) on Sunday, August 13, NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression 8 that showed the storm had become better organized. Bands of thunderstorms were spiraling into the center of circulation from the east and the southern quadrants of the storm. NOAA manages the GOES series of satellites. NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland uses the satellite data to create imagery.\nBy 1:36 p.m. EDT (1736 UTC) on August 13, The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible look at Gert. Bands of thunderstorms wrapped around the storm from southeast to northeast.\nThe National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that imagery showed that between the morning and 5 p.m. EDT \"the banding features have become better established during the last several hours, and the system has become less vertically tilted.\"\nOn August 14 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) the center of Tropical Storm Gert was located near 29.7 degrees north latitude and 72.2 degrees west longitude. That's about 475 miles (760 km) west-southwest of Bermuda. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1009 millibars. Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph (75 kph) with higher gusts.\nGert was moving toward the north-northwest near 9 mph (15 kph) and the NHC forecasts a turn toward the north then to north-northeast. On the forecast track, Gert is expected to pass about midway between the United States east coast and Bermuda on Tuesday\nThe NHC said that some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Gert could become a hurricane by Wednesday, August 16.\nFor forecast updates on Gert, visit: http://www. nhc. noaa. gov .\n###", "MIAMI (AP) — Forecasters say Gert has strengthened to become the second hurricane of the season in the Atlantic Ocean.\nThe National Hurricane Center says Gert was about 445 miles (720 kilometers) west of Bermuda late Monday and had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The storm was moving north at 8 mph (13 kph).\nHurricane #Gert Advisory 9: Gert Becomes the Second Hurricane of the 2017 Season. https://t.co/VqHn0uj6EM — NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 15, 2017\nGert is expected to strengthen in the next 48 hours. The forecast calls for it to turn toward the northeast and increase its forward speed Tuesday night.\nSwells generated by Gert will begin to affect portions of Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast — from North Carolina to New York — over the next couple of days.\n#Gert becomes a hurricane as of 11 pm advisory. Should stay away from all land masses. pic.twitter.com/8IFVdHtqYd — 7 Weather (@7Weather) August 15, 2017\nNo coastal watches or warnings are in effect, but the hurricane center says these swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.\nCopyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.", "MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Gert continues to strengthen in the Atlantic Ocean, with swells expected to soon begin affecting portions of the U.S. East Coast.\nThe National Hurricane Center said Gert was centered about 455 miles (735 kilometers) west-southwest of Bermuda Monday evening and had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). It is moving north at 8 mph (13 kph).\nGert is expected to become a hurricane Monday night.\nA gradual turn toward the northeast with an increase in forward speed is forecast for Tuesday night.\nSwells generated by Gert will begin to affect portions of Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast – from North Carolina to New York – over the next couple of days.\nThe Hurricane Center says these swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.\nSTORIES OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON-\n>> BACK TO TOP STORIES", "Tropical Storm Gert continues to strengthen in the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: WECT)\nTropical Storm Gert continues to strengthen in the Atlantic Ocean as of Monday evening.\nThis is the seventh named storm of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season.\nGert has sustained winds at 70 mph and is moving north at 8 mph.\nThe National Hurricane Center is forecasting Gert to remain offshore and will not have a direct threat to the Carolinas or the United States.\nAn East Coast trough will help to steer the storm away from the U.S.\nGert will make an eventual turn to the northeast, heading back out to sea by the middle of the week.\nStay alert as seas will be choppy here in the Carolinas and the rip current risk will be high on Tuesday.\nCopyright 2017 WECT. All rights reserved.", "Aug 14 (Reuters) - Storm Gert has strengthened into the second hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic season, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Monday.\nThe hurricane, now located about 445 miles (720 km) west of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 km/h), is moving toward the north at about 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) at present, the NHC said.\n\"Swells generated by Gert will spread northward along the east coast of the United States from North Carolina northward to Long Island during the next couple of days,\" it added.\n(Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru)", "Tropical storm Gert formed late Sunday afternoon around 500 miles southwest of Bermuda. The storm could strengthen some as it turns north and northeast and away from the southeast coast. The storm stays out the sea and poses no threat to the Coastal Empire and Low Country.\nThere is an area of low pressure producing showers and thunderstorms several hundreds miles WSW of the Cabo Verde Islands. Storm Team 3 is keeping an eye on this area for potential tropical development. The National Hurricane Center says there is low chance of this storm becoming tropical in the next 2 days, but that there is high chance of tropical development in the next 5 days.", "FORT MYERS, Fla. Tropical Storm Gert is moving throughout the Atlantic Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.\nTropical Storm Gert is about 475 miles west-southwest of Bermuda, and has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The system formed late Saturday night.\nThere are no watches or warnings in effect, the National Hurricane Center said.", "(Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ophelia is expected to strengthen gradually over the next two days and become a hurricane by Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Tuesday.\nOphelia is about 780 miles (1,260 km) west-southwest of the Azores with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h), the NHC said.\n(Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru)", "Oct 6 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Nate is strengthening over the northwestern Caribbean sea and hurricane and storm surge warnings have been issued for the northern Gulf Coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.\nThe storm is located about 165 miles (260 km) north-northeast of Isla Guanaja, Honduras with maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (85 km/h), the Miami-based NHC said.\nNate will move into the southern Gulf of Mexico Friday night and move near or over the northern Gulf coast Saturday night or Sunday, the NHC said adding Nate is expected to become hurricane by the time it reaches the northern Gulf of Mexico. (Reporting by Karen Rodrigues and Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru)", "At 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 UTC) on Aug. 13 NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression 8 in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project Tropical Depression Eight (TD8) formed around 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, August 12 about 260 miles northeast of the southeastern Bahamas. By 5 p.m. the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Gert.\nAt 1 p.m. EDT (1700 UTC) on Sunday, August 13, NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression 8 that showed the storm had become better organized. Bands of thunderstorms were spiraling into the center of circulation from the east and the southern quadrants of the storm. NOAA manages the GOES series of satellites. NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland uses the satellite data to create imagery.\nBy 1:36 p.m. EDT (1736 UTC) on August 13, The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible look at Gert. Bands of thunderstorms wrapped around the storm from southeast to northeast.\nThe National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that imagery showed that between the morning and 5 p.m. EDT \"the banding features have become better established during the last several hours, and the system has become less vertically tilted.\"\nOn August 14 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) the center of Tropical Storm Gert was located near 29.7 degrees north latitude and 72.2 degrees west longitude. That's about 475 miles (760 km) west-southwest of Bermuda. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1009 millibars. Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph (75 kph) with higher gusts.\nAt 1:36 p.m. EDT (1736 UTC) on August 13, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible look at Gert. Bands of thunderstorms wrapped around the storm from southeast to northeast. Credit: NOAA/NASA Goddard Rapid Response Team\nGert was moving toward the north-northwest near 9 mph (15 kph) and the NHC forecasts a turn toward the north then to north-northeast. On the forecast track, Gert is expected to pass about midway between the United States east coast and Bermuda on Tuesday\nThe NHC said that some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Gert could become a hurricane by Wednesday, August 16.\nFor forecast updates on Gert, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.\nExplore further: NASA sees Tropical Storm Jova being ripped apart", "MIAMI (AP) - Forecasters say Gert has strengthened to become the second hurricane of the season in the Atlantic Ocean.\nThe National Hurricane Center says Gert was about 445 miles (720 kilometers) west of Bermuda late Monday and had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The storm was moving north at 8 mph (13 kph).\nThe weather advisory says Gert has developed an eye and is expected to strengthen in the next 48 hours. The forecast calls for it to turn northeast and accelerate Tuesday night.\nSwells generated by Gert will begin to affect portions of Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast - from North Carolina to New York - over the next couple of days.\nNo coastal watches or warnings are in effect, but the hurricane center says these swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions in the region.\nHurricane Franklin became the first hurricane of the 2017 season in the Atlantic last week. The storm made landfall on Mexico's Gulf Coast early Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane.", "Monday was a warm and humid day with scattered showers and thunderstorms around. The bulk of the rain will end before sunset and all of the rain should be gone by just after sunset. Temperatures will not drop much overnight with lows by Tuesday morning struggling to drop out of the 80s! In fact, areas near the coast will remain in the 80s, while those along I-10 will reach the upper 70s, and inland areas reach the mid 70s.\nTuesday and Wednesday will not me much different than Monday with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon hours. Temperatures will be quite warm with highs in the low 90s and heat indices in the 102 to 108 range during the heart of the afternoon! Areas that receive rainfall will see some cooling relief, but those without rain will need to use caution during the afternoon.\nBy the end of the week high pressure is expected to take control of our weather and this should limit the number of showers. So for that reason the rain chance will drop to 20% Thursday through Saturday. It is worth noting that there will still be some showers and storms during the afternoon, but they will be much more isolated in nature. With fewer cooling showers it will be hot with highs in the low to mid 90s and heat indices possibly pushing near heat advisory criteria of 108 degrees in some areas!\nThe high will begin to weaken by Sunday and we will see a slight increase in the number of showers. So, the rain chance will return to 30% for Sunday and Monday. Temperatures are not likely to be much different with hot and humid conditions. Typical stuff for the middle of August in Southwest Louisiana!\nIn the tropics, we are closely monitoring Tropical Storm Gert located near Bermuda. Gert is expected to pass between Bermuda and the eastern United States and should pose no threat to any land areas. Gert may become a hurricane before it encounters much cooler waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean. There is a large tropical disturbance near the Cape Verde Islands that may develop with time over the next few days. At this time, there are no tropical threats for us to worry about here in Southwest Louisiana through the upcoming weekend.\nChief Meteorologist Wade Hampton\nCopyright 2017 KPLC. All rights reserved.", "The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) is closely monitoring tropical storm Nate, which is expected to become a Category 1 hurricane by the time it reaches the Gulf of Mexico. The system is currently about 230 miles south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, maintaining maximum sustained winds of 45 MPH and moving to the north-northwest at 14 MPH — a marked increase in forward velocity.\nThe National Hurricane Center (NHC) has posted a hurricane watch from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Mississippi/Alabama border; metropolitan New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain, and Lake Maurepas, and from Punta Herrero to Rio Lagartos, Mexico. Offshore oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf are being evacuated. The storm will move into the southern Gulf of Mexico tonight and approach the northern Gulf Coast on Saturday evening, the NHC said.\n“As a result, the Hurricane Watch Net is now at Alert Level 3 — Standby Mode,” HWN Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, said. “As of now, we are looking at a possible net activation at 1800 UTC on Saturday.”\nThe NHC warns of continued heavy rainfall generated by the storm, with southern Honduras and western Nicaragua predicted to receive 6 to 10 inches (maximum of 15 inches); eastern El Salvador and northern to central Honduras, 3 to 5 inches (maximum of 8 inches), eastern Yucatan and western Cuba, 2 to 4 inches (maximum of 8 inches), eastern Belize and the Cayman Islands, 1 to 3 inches, and the US central Gulf Coast states, 3 to 6 inches (maximum of 12 inches).\n“Heavy rainfall will occur over a wide area, including locations well away from the [storm’s] center along the Pacific coast of Central America,” the NHC said. “Rainfall across all of these areas may produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.\nTropical storm-force winds extend about 90 miles from the storm’s center.", "FORT MYERS, Fla. Tropical Storm Gert was upgraded to a hurricane Monday night.\nThe system is centered 445 miles west of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center said. It had sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving north at 8 mph.\nIt’s expected to arc out to sea and will not pose a threat to Florida.", "Because it's summer, a shower can't be ruled out almost any time this week, but it will be mostly warm and dry for the next few days.\nAccording to the National Weather Service, there is an overall 30 percent chance of showers on Monday. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny and hot with a high in the 90s and a heat index value or \"feels like\" temperature near 102. Winds will be mostly calm.\nThe forecast for most of the week is similar although the rain chance ticks up a bit on Thursday.\nAs the tropics are being monitored, retired NWS meteorologist Jim Lushine says don't worry about the named storms system called Gert, but after that, who knows? Tropical Storm Gert has formed well to our east, and will head harmlessly out to sea over the next few days. The next storm, and possibly the first major hurricane of this year, Harvey, is in its formative stages in the far eastern Atlantic, about 4,000 miles to our east southeast. We will have to watch it carefully for the next 10 days or so.", "In the wake of Gert, another batch of thunderstorms over the central Atlantic Ocean has the potential to develop into a tropical depression and storm this week.\nGert will turn away from North America but has potential to become the second hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic season.\nThousands of miles farther to the southeast, a plume of moisture continues to grow westward from Africa to the south-central Atlantic.\nInterests from the northern islands of the Caribbean to the Bahamas and coastal areas in the southeastern and south-central United States may want to monitor the progress of this area of disturbed weather.\nMost of the inhibitive dust, dry air and strong westerly winds aloft may remain north of the path of the area of concern through this week.\n\"There is the potential for this large area of moisture to spawn a tropical depression or storm this week and perhaps as early as Wednesday,\" according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.\nPart of this moisture plume was responsible for producing flash flooding and mudslides in Sierra Leone at the start of this week. Hundreds were killed, according to the Associated Press.\nAs is often the case this time of the year, \"the area of disturbed weather will move in a general west or slightly north of west path this week,\" Kottlowski said. \"This may bring the feature close to the Leeward Islands this weekend.\"\nUntil the feature develops, future paths of movement this weekend may be very misleading and used with caution at this point, Kottlowski stated.\nThere are a number of factors that could pull the feature to the north on a path similar to Gert or allow a more westward track over the northern Caribbean and perhaps into the Gulf of Mexico.\nThe difference with the setup for Gert versus this new feature is that a path into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico was not a significant options for Gert.\nThe strength of the feature, geography and the position of other weather systems over the eastern United States and the Atlantic Ocean by next week are at the top of this list of factors that may affect movement.\nFor example, a weak feature may have a greater chance of staying on a westerly course for a longer period of time. A well-developed feature, such as a tropical storm or hurricane, may have a greater chance of taking a curved path to the northwest and north much sooner.\nMost westward-moving, well-developed tropical systems tend to pass to the north or south of the Greater Antilles, due to the mountainous terrain.\nMore information on the path and strength of this new feature will become available as the week progresses.\nm", "The barrelling storm is pushing northeast along the coast of Mexico with sustained Category 2 winds of 105mph (165km/h). Hurricane-force winds extend outward from the eye of the storm up to 35 miles (55km) and tropical storm-force winds are reaching up to 175 miles (280km) out. As of 10am on Wednesday, June 4, Hurricane Fabio is about 735 miles (1,180km) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. The hurricane is pushing forward at a pace of 15 mph (24 km/h) which is expected to continue for the next few days.\nOn Tuesday afternoon, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the tropical storm in the Eastern Pacific hours after Fabio strengthened into a hurricane. Initial infrared imagery of the cyclone showed signs of better organisation with colder clouds around the centre of circulation. The higher the cloud tops are the colder and stronger they become and increase the likelihood of heavy rainfall. But the latest National Hurricane Center (NHC) storm forecast predicts some weakening over the coming days. By Thursday afternoon, the storm is expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm and will later weak further to a tropical depression by Saturday afternoon.\nNASA Hurricane Fabio: NASA imagery showed signs of more organisation in the Pacific\nNASA Hurricane Fabio: The NHC expects the cyclone to deteriorate by the weekend\nThe NHC said on Wednesday: “The eye continues to be distinct, but the convective tops are warming and the area is shrinking.\nNHC forecast weakening, and Fabio is anticipated to be a remnant low in three days National Hurricane Center\n“An average of the TAFB and SAB Dvorak T-numbers supports an initial intensity of 90kt. “Fabio’s core is still moving over 26C or 27C waters but the northern circulation is already encountering much cooler waters. “On this basis, NHC forecast weakening, and Fabio is anticipated to be a remnant low in three days when its core moves over 20C waters.” There is no direct threat to land but Fabio could create some larger swells that will affect coastal areas of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico and Southern California.\nNOAA/NHC Hurricane Fabio: The storm is moving along the coast of Mexico\nHurricane Maria: Damage in the Caribbean Wed, September 27, 2017 Latest pictures as Hurricane Maria left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 62 Cars make their way under a partially-collapsed utility pole one week after Hurricane Maria raked the island, in Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands", "Hurricane Nate, still a tropical storm, is expected to strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall somewhere between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle at the weekend. Hurricane Nate path update from NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) show the centre of the storm is moving quickly towards the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsular and the Yucatan Channel. Currently a tropical storm, Nate could develop into a hurricane by the time it reaches the peninsula later today. The Latest NHC advisory said: “On the forecast track, the centre of Nate will move across the northwestern Caribbean Sea this afternoon and move near or over the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula this evening.\nACCUWEATHER Hurricane Nate path update: Latest model shows storm surge warning for Louisiana\n“Nate will then move into the southern Gulf of Mexico tonight, approach the northern Gulf Coast Saturday, and then move near or over the northern Gulf coast Saturday night or Sunday.” AccuWeather said: “The track has slightly shifted to the east and with that track now heading up to the northern Gulf Coast we now have hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings being issued and also a storm surge warning. “Keep up to date on the warnings in your area. It looks like the heaviest will arrive later on Saturday in south-east Louisiana.\n“And, then as Nate moves rapidly inland, not only do we have the surge, heavy rains and flooding and damaging winds, but also the potential for some tornadoes!” At least 22 people have died after Hurricane Nate hit Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, with many more missing and thousands forced to evacuate. Warnings are in place for parts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico and parts of the US Gulf Coast, where Nate is forecast to make landfall as a hurricane this weekend.\nStorm Nate kills 22 people: Latest damage in pictures Fri, October 6, 2017 At least 22 people were killed, 11 of them in Nicaragua, and 10 missing in Central America, as heavy rains brought by tropical storm Nate flooded areas affecting buildings and plantations Play slideshow EPA 1 of 17 Photo shows a vehicle crossing a bridge over a high river due to hard rains in Sabanilla area in Alajuelita, south San Jose, Costa Rica", "Track the Path of Tropical Storm Nate as It Heads Toward the U.S. Gulf Coast\nTropical Storm Nate , which has already been blamed for at least 22 deaths in Central America, is on track to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast as a hurricane over the weekend.\nNate's center is expected to move across the Caribbean Sea on Friday and into the Gulf of Mexico Friday night, according to the National Hurricane Center. Nate is then projected to move near or over the Gulf Coast on Saturday or Sunday, with New Orleans in its path, the NHC said.\nOfficials have already declared a state of emergency in Louisiana , as meteorologists predict Tropical Storm Nate will strengthen into Hurricane Nate before it arrives.\nClick or tap the arrows in the hurricane map below to follow Tropical Storm Nate's path as tracked by the National Hurricane Center.\nThe arrival of Tropical Storm Nate follows back-to-back disasters wrought by hurricanes flattening islands in the Caribbean and parts of the U.S. mainland this year. The NHC said that September 2017 was the most active month on record for tropical systems in the Atlantic Basin.", "(Reuters) - A low pressure area located about 300 miles (480 km) east of the Turks and Caicos Islands has a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.\n\"Environmental conditions, however, are expected to become a little more conducive for development during the next day or two, and this system could become a tropical depression over the weekend,\" the NHC said.", "Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through Nov. 30. Maureen Kenyon/Treasure Coast Newspapers\nForecast of Tropical Storm Nate as of 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. (Photo: National Hurricane Center)\nTropical Storm Nate continues to head away from Central America and toward the Gulf of Mexico as of Friday morning. No major changes in the storm's strength or path have been reported by the National Hurricane Center.\nMore: 8 a.m. advisory: Tropical Storm Nate heads toward the Gulf of Mexico\nNate currently has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and is moving north-northwest at 14 mph. It is expected to become a hurricane by the time it reaches the Gulf.\nHurricane watches remain in effect between Louisiana and the Alabama-Florida border.\nBetween 3 and 6 inches of rain are expected for the central Gulf Coast states, with a maximum of 12 inches possible, NHC reports state.\nAt least 22 deaths have been attributed to heavy rains from Nate in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.\nThe system is expected to strengthen to near-hurricane-force winds before striking Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Friday.\nRead or Share this story: http://www.naplesnews.com/story/weather/2017/10/06/tropical-storm-nate-forecast-become-hurricane-before-striking-gulf-states/738912001/", "Although Tropical Storm Gert is churning hundreds of miles away from the eastern seaboard and poses no direct threat to land, it is expected to generate big waves and potentially dangerous rip currents along the Jersey Shore and other beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.\nGert, which was named on Sunday when a tropical depression strengthened into a tropical storm north of the Bahamas, has been packing sustained winds of 60 mph. As of late Monday morning, the storm's center was about 460 miles southwest of Bermuda and moving north at a pace of 8 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.\nForecasters expect Gert to remain at least 250 miles away from the Atlantic coast, but that's still close enough to produce swelling that will boost wave heights and likely increase the risk of dangerous rip currents along the Jersey Shore, New York City and Long Island beaches, Delaware and the Carolinas, according to AccuWeather and the National Weather Service.\nAtlantic hurricane season 'extremely active'\nBeaches in New Jersey and Delaware have a low risk of dangerous rip currents Monday morning and afternoon, but the risk is expected to rise to \"at least a moderate level\" Monday night through Tuesday night, said Lance Franck, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's regional office in Mount Holly.\nA similar situation is anticipated in New York City and Long Island, although it's not yet part of the official weather service forecast, said John Murray, a meteorologist at the weather service's office in Upton, N.Y.\n\"By mid-week, we'll have some 5-foot waves along the ocean. With the increasing wave heights, we'll have more of an on-shore flow, so we are going to have a little higher risk of rip currents,\" Murray said. \"That's typically what we see when we have a tropical cyclone out in the Atlantic.\"\nAs Gert passes between Bermuda and the outer banks of North Carolina on Tuesday, the roughest surf conditions are anticipated from South Carolina up to the Delmarva Peninsula, according to AccuWeather forecasters.\nEven though Gert will remain far offshore,the southeastern U.S. could face heavy rain and localized flash flooding because of a non-tropical system, AccuWeather said, noting that the Northeast region \"will gradually turn stormier and steamy as the weak progresses.\"\nGert is the seventh named storm of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially kicked off on June 1 and runs through Nov. 30. Last week, the national Climate Prediction Center revised its original projections on how many named storms are likely to develop, saying this hurricane season is becoming \"extremely active.\"\nLen Melisurgo may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality or like him on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.", "Tropical Storm Nate on track towards the USA after killing at least 22 people in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras – Northwest Georgia could see an impact from the storm.\nThe NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) is warning that Nate is expected to hit the central US Gulf Coast as a category 1 hurricane this weekend. After passing the Yucatan peninsula, the storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico to the USA. Tropical Storm Nate was last located about 60 miles (95 km) east-northeast of Isla Guanaja, Honduras, and about 275 miles (445 km) south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico as of 5:30 AM Friday morning.\nThe NHC’s 5am EDT update said: “On the forecast track, the center of Nate will move across the northwestern Caribbean Sea today, and reach the eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula early this evening. “Nate will then move into the southern Gulf of Mexico tonight and approach the northern Gulf coast Saturday evening.” Life-threatening flash floods and mud slides are forecast in parts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize through tonight. The tropical storm could be “near hurricane intensity” by the time it brings destructive winds, storm surge and heavy rainfall to the Yucatan peninsula.\nThe latest map put the eye of the storm on track to make landfall in Louisiana, although the coastline all the way to the Florida Panhandle remains under threat.\nThe track of the storm could bring heavy winds and rain to Northwest Georgia by late Sunday, into the first of next week.\nFrom NOAA/Chattooga 1180", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nForecasters are predicting that temperatures will soar to the mid 20s C by the weekend if a ridge of high pressure takes charge of the UK's weather.\nBut a Tropical Storm called Gert brewing in the Atlantic may still dash hopes of a rare glimpse of summer for sun-starved Brits. Repeated low pressure systems from the north Atlantic have dominated for much of July and August, but there is a glimmer of hope that a high could take control to temporarily banish blustery showers from Britain.\nThe high is expected to build by the weekend and potentially this could lure sunshine and warmer weather to most of the British Isles.\nForecaster Hannah Findley, of The Weather Channel , said that confidence in forecasts for the upcoming week was low because of the possible impact of Tropical Storm Gert.\nAn area of low pressure will absorb the worst of the storm as it moves towards the UK - hopefully leaving the way clear for higher pressure to take charge.\nAfter this low passes, there will be an area of high pressure over the UK from the middle of next week. Differing forecast models dispute the effect it will have on the country’s weather.\nSome predictions indicate the high will be filled with warm tropical air, while other options go for cooler conditions with temperatures and rainfall around normal for the time of year, although this could still change.\nTemperatures could rise to the low 20s C on Saturday and climb towards 25C (77F) in the south-east on Sunday and Monday, according to some forecasters.\n(Image: Weather Channel)\nThe Met Office agreed there was a chance that dry and brighter spells would develop - although its long-range forecast indicated that this was more likely in the south of the country.\nIt stated: “For a time during the week there is a small chance of more settled weather becoming established across the UK with the greatest chance of some warmer spells developing in the south.”\n--------------------------------------------------\nTROPICAL STORM GERT: COULD IT BLOW SUNSHINE HOPES AWAY?\nTropical Storm Gert is currently languishing in the Atlantic but it is unlikely to make landfall. It has been formed from a series of depressions developing into a tropical storm, but it will remain well off the East Coast of America before heading towards Europe.\nHowever it is likely to fizzle out before arriving close to the UK.\nIn the next few days, Gert is set to curl north along the west side of the Bermuda in a high-pressure system, then accelerate northeast before it gets caught up in the jet stream over the north Atlantic.\nVideo Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now\nThe US National Hurricane Centre stated that Gert had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving from the area around Bermuda towards the Florida coast at 10 mph.\nIt is expected to strengthen during the next few days and move further east into the Atlantic after Wednesday. Tropical cyclones normally develop from depressions close to the Equator.\nThese merge into storms and usually drift into areas dominated by westerly winds which blows the system to the east. As they pick up speed, storms can reach 30mph and an average tropical cyclone can travel about 300 to 400 miles a day, or about 3,000 miles before it dies out.\nThe UK is sometimes affected by deep depressions that are the remnants of tropical cyclones which produce winds of a strength equivalent to a tropical cyclone", "The powerful storm is expected to turn toward the north this morning before passing between America’s East Coast and Bermuda on Tuesday, according to the latest storm track.\nFortunately, the storm poses no direct threat to the US, Bahamas or Bermuda because it is projected to bend sharply east without making landfall on the East Coast.\n“Gert will continue to slowly intensify through Tuesday,\" said AccuWeather Meteorologist Steve Travis.\n\"Gert is expected to pass between Bermuda and the Outer Banks of North Carolina early this week with no direct impact to land.”", "Clouds and scattered showers remain in the forecast through mid-week, then we may see a break in the unsettled weather toward the weekend. The eclipse forecast looks like classic summer, with the threat of a pop-up storm and some scattered clouds.\nTonight we’ll see off and on rain with some clearing after midnight. Lows will drop to 67-71 area-wide. Main threats this evening and tonight will be heavy downpours leading to localized flooding.\nTuesday will be partly to mostly cloudy with more scattered showers and storms toward late day. The chance for rain is at about 40-50%, with highs reaching to 89 in the Upstate and 85 in the mountains.\nThe weather pattern settles down a bit toward mid-week with only a slight chance for rain Wednesday through Friday. Highs will get HOT in the low 90s for the Upstate and upper 80s in the mountains. A few storms will be back in the forecast toward Sunday and some of that activity could linger into the Monday eclipse!\nTropical Storm Gert will move between the U.S. and Bermuda and eventually strengthen to a hurricane. It is not expected to have any impact on the U.S. other than some high waves along the Outer Banks.\nCopyright 2017 FOX Carolina (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.", "By Enrique Andres Pretel\nSAN JOSE, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Nate took aim at Caribbean resorts on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on Friday on its way to the U.S. Gulf Coast where it could strike as a hurricane this weekend after killing at least 22 people in Central America.\nNate was blowing maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (72 kmh) and was about 230 miles (370 km) southeast of the Mexican holiday resort island of Cozumel early on Friday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.\nThe storm is expected to reach the eastern edge of the Yucatan peninsula, home to popular vacation destinations such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen, on Friday evening, the NHC said.\nNate will likely strengthen to a hurricane by the time it hits the northern Gulf of Mexico, it added. Oil and natural gas producers began evacuating staff at U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms on Thursday.\nThe storm doused Central America with heavy rains on Thursday, killing at least 11 people in Nicaragua, eight in Costa Rica, two in Honduras and one in El Salvador, local authorities said.\nThousands were forced to evacuate their homes and Costa Rica's government declared a state of emergency, closing schools and all other non-essential services.\nNate is predicted to become a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest category on a five-level scale used by meteorologists, by the time it hits the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday.\nU.S. officials from Florida to Texas told residents on Thursday to prepare for the storm.\nA state of emergency was declared for 29 Florida counties and the city of New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.\nThe NHC has issued a hurricane watch from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain, and Lake Maurepas.\nNate is expected to produce six to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) of rain in parts of Honduras and Nicaragua, two to four inches (5 to 10 cm) of rain in eastern Yucatan and western Cuba and three to six inches (8 to 15 inches) of rain in the U.S. central Gulf Coast.\nOn Friday morning, the storm was moving northwest at 14 miles per hour (23 kmh). (Writing and additional reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Alistair Bell)", "SUMMARY OF 1100 PM EDT...0300 UTC...INFORMATION\n-----------------------------------------------\nLOCATION...31.2N 72.3W\nABOUT 445 MI...720 KM W OF BERMUDA\nMAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...75 MPH...120 KM/H\nPRESENT MOVEMENT...N OR 360 DEGREES AT 8 MPH...13 KM/H\nMINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...986 MB...29.12 INCHES\nWATCHES AND WARNINGS\n--------------------\nThere are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.\nDISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK\n------------------------------\nAt 1100 PM EDT (0300 UTC), the center of Hurricane Gert was located\nnear latitude 31.2 North, longitude 72.3 West. Gert is moving toward\nthe north near 8 mph (13 km/h). A turn toward the northeast with an\nincrease in forward speed is expected late Tuesday or Tuesday night\nMaximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 mph (120 km/h)\nwith higher gusts. Some strengthening is forecast during the next\n48 hours.\nHurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the\ncenter and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles\n(165 km).\nThe estimated minimum central pressure is 986 mb (29.12 inches).\nHAZARDS AFFECTING LAND\n----------------------\nSURF: Swells generated by Gert will spread northward along the\neast coast of the United States from North Carolina northward to\nLong Island during the next couple of days. Swells are also\nexpected to affect Bermuda during the next couple of days. These\nswells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current\nconditions. Please consult products from your local weather office." ]

[ "Johanna Johnson's red-carpet gowns for Hollywood stars such as Mad Men's Christina Hendricks established her as a go-to designer for upscale weddings.\nBut a large tax debt and unpaid entitlements to workers has led a court to order in liquidators.\nMs Johnson has said she is shifting her company's operations to the US.\nShe also provided assurances on her Facebook page that worried brides-to-be would receive their wedding gowns.\nOne Facebook user called on Ms Johnson to be clear if brides would not receive the dresses they had paid for, saying they were \"setting them up for even more disappointment\".\nA comment attributed to JJ & Team said: \"As previously stated the business is still operating under the US company and of course everyone will receive their gowns.\"\nMs Johnson has allegedly failed to pay her employees thousands of dollars in superannuation (pension payments), back pay and other entitlements.\nAlana Teasal, former head of production at Ms Johnson's company, gained an order from the Federal Circuit Court in November for payment of A$35,000 (£18,300; $26,700) in entitlements and penalties.\nWhen Ms Johnson failed to comply with the court's order, Ms Teasal instigated proceedings in the New South Wales Supreme Court to have the company wound up.\nOn 14 April Ms Johnson placed her company into voluntary administration in a bid to avoid liquidation.\nThe administrator later provided an affidavit to the court stating that the company owed more than A$1m to the Australian Tax Office, including A$300,000 in unpaid superannuation.\nMs Johnson and her lawyers have been contacted for comment." ]

[ "Lucia Baratta and John Sessions flew to the islands on Monday for their ceremony but their luggage, including the wedding dress, was lost in transit.\nThe owners of the Kirkwall Hotel in Kirkwall posted an appeal for help on social media.\nResponses to the plea included offers of a total of 12 wedding dresses in the right size.\nMs Baratta was also supplied with petticoats, veils, tiaras and shoes along with makeup and flowers.\nThe couple tied the knot in a ceremony on Tuesday afternoon and the bride was full of praise for all the help she had received.\nShe told BBC Radio Orkney: \"We came to Orkney in a surprise elopement only to find our luggage was lost.\n\"We had no bags and no wedding dress.\n\"The outpouring from the community has been incredible.\"", "4 June 2014 Last updated at 08:05 BST\nThe group of 22 people - including the bride and groom - were posing for pictures and didn't expect the jetty to collapse from under them.\nSome bridesmaids managed to escape, but the rest of the wedding party were soaked.\nBut the celebrations in Minnesota, America, still were able to carry on as planned...", "Brides-to-be Kate Holder and Tara Attis modelled their wedding dresses in a 1ft x 3ft window space in Bude, Cornwall from 11:00 BST on Saturday.\nIt was Ms Holder who emerged as the victor in the bride wars on Monday evening, after clocking up 58.5 hours on show.\nShe said she has bruised hips from sleeping on the wood in the window.\n\"I'm very tired and I probably got about four hours sleep each night,\" she said.\nMs Holder, 27, from Holsworthy, Devon, who said she \"had to win\", is due to get married in February and said her husband-to-be was \"over the moon\".\n\"I had massive support from my family and friends and when I finished I went home and had a glass of wine,\" she said.\nDespite losing, Ms Attis, from St Austell, Cornwall, has reportedly invited Ms Holder to her own wedding.\nShop owner, Emily Benny, said the contest started last year, when the winner remained in the window for 36 hours.\nCompetitors in both years were allowed to take a toilet break every four hours, but had to sleep in the windows.", "The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were among those at the wedding in Canongate Kirk on a sunny Royal Mile.\nHundreds of well-wishers lined the streets for Scotland's first royal wedding in almost 20 years.\nPrince Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Catherine, and Prince Harry were also attending the ceremony and reception at Holyroodhouse.\nThe Reverend Neil Gardner welcomed guests up the Royal Mile, including the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.\nThe bride's dress, an ivory silk and satin gown, was designed by Stewart Parvin, one of the Queen's favourite couturiers. This was accompanied by a veil, tiara and Jimmy Choo shoes.\nThe doors of the Canongate Kirk were closed to the press and public, but hundreds of well-wishers gathered in Edinburgh's Old Town to watch the arrival and departure of the Royal Family.\nAfter the ceremony the couple emerged arm-in-arm, stood on the steps to the entrance to the 17 Century kirk and shared a kiss.\nThe newlyweds arrived back at the palace as the Royal Scots Association pipe band played.\nAmong the crowds who turned out for the day was Jackie Rushton, 48, from Yorkshire, who told BBC Scotland: \"I just love anything to do with the Royal Family, I'm a big fan, I have great respect for them.\"\nAnother well-wisher, Margaret Kittle, 76, travelled from Winona in Canada to see the wedding.\nShe said: \"I've come to all the royal weddings since Princess Anne and Mark Phillips' wedding.\n\"I like to come to the weddings and all the royal occasions that I can, because the Queen is queen of Canada.\"\nZara Phillips is believed to be setting a royal precedent by not taking the surname of Mike Tindall.\nEven when they marry commoners, Royal brides have always adopted the family name of their partners.\nWhen Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, daughter of Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon, wed Daniel Chatto in 1994 she took on his name.\nZara's decision appears to be based on the fact she wants to preserve her sporting persona and business interests.\nThe former equestrian world champion is known throughout the sport as Zara Phillips and she has signed a number of deals which help fund her sporting interests.\nOther guests included Prince Andrew and his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.\nThe private afternoon ceremony will be followed by a reception at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.\nThe couple hosted a pre-wedding party on the royal yacht Britannia, which is moored in Leith, on Friday night.\nThey had previously attended a rehearsal for the ceremony at the kirk with the bride's parents, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.\nPrincess Anne's second marriage, to Timothy Laurence, was the last Scottish royal wedding in 1992.\nZara, 30, will keep her maiden name when she marries. It is understood this is because of her sporting career in equestrianism.\nMr Tindall, from Otley in Yorkshire, plays for club side Gloucester and has been capped more than 60 times for his country.\nHe invited some of England's best-known rugby players to the wedding.\nHe and best man Iain Balshaw were part of England's winning 2003 rugby World Cup squad in Australia, where the couple were introduced by Zara's cousin Prince Harry.\nLothian and Borders Police said they had been working with the Palace and Edinburgh City Council to ensure the event's smooth running.\nSupt Ivor Marshall, who is the Silver Commander responsible for overseeing security arrangements, said the kirk's location, close to both the Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, yet set on the busy tourist hub of the Royal Mile, presented unique challenges.", "Tess Newall, who had worn her great-great grandmother's dress at her wedding in June, posted a plea on Facebook to help find it, which was shared more than 300,000 times.\nLuckily her dress was found but what is the appeal for brides of choosing a dress once worn by a relative? Three women explained why they had ditched trawling the bridal shops for the perfect dress in favour of a borrowed gown.\nKate Ridgway, from Stockport, made the decision to wear her grandmother's wedding dress in 2014.\n\"I remember it from when I was a child,\" said the 27-year-old. \"I always knew nan had kept it and I tried it on for dressing up, but back then I thought it was a horrid lacy thing.\"\nHowever, when she got engaged to her now-husband Stu, Joan Chatfield, known as \"Nanny Chat\", asked if she would like to wear it on her big day.\n\"I was heavily pregnant at the time, so I couldn't try it on,\" said Kate. \"But she had always wanted me to wear it.\"\nThen, three days after Kate's eldest son was born, her nan passed away.\nWhen she travelled down to Sussex for the funeral, her mother handed her the box with the vintage wedding dress from 1951, and everything fell into place.\n\"When I tried it on, it fitted perfectly,\" she said. \"I had it cleaned but I didn't have to do anything else to it.\n\"I had tried on brand new wedding dresses and I had fallen in love with one, but this felt different and so special.\n\"It meant so much to us as a family for me to wear it and, as you can imagine, it made for a very emotional day.\"\nLondon-based digital designer Emily Clark also hopes to start a tradition of her own by using her mother's frock for her wedding this October.\nThe 33-year-old said her mother's dress, which was first worn in 1980, had played a big part in her childhood.\n\"I used to dress in my mum's wedding dress from the age of five or six to - if I'm truthful - until I was 15.\n\"It's one of a kind, it's a dress you wouldn't be able to find now and you wouldn't be able to replicate.\"\nThe dress was bought by her grandfather, who died last year. She said the dress would act as a way of commemorating him at her wedding to fiance Andrew Stewart.\nThe dress is currently being altered, and when she heard that Mrs Newall's had gone missing at the dry cleaners she says she \"did panic\".\nShe added: \"I just think it's wonderful that they've had it returned.\"\nFor Rachel Cohen, from Edinburgh, the discovery of her grandmother's dress in the loft spurred on the idea to go retro.\n\"I knew there were dresses up there amongst a lot of random stuff,\" she said.\n\"I even found one dress which much have been from a previous generation, but it just couldn't have been worn.\"\nHowever, the one Granny Marie Waterston wore in the 1930s was in superb condition and perfect for Rachel's special day.\n\"I had never been the type of person to dream of a big white dress, so when I found it, packed away all neat and tidy in a box, I had the idea to wear it,\" she said.\n\"I had to cut the sleeves off as she had such tiny hands, but otherwise it was the same.\"\nHaving her grandmother's dress meant a lot to Rachel when she married in 2009.\n\"My mother died when I was young and I looked after my grandmother when she was old, so we had a close relationship,\" said Rachel.\n\"It was special to have her dress there, even when she couldn't be.\"\nWhile those three brides opted for the personal touch with their dresses, they join growing numbers of people choosing vintage items more generally.\nLouise Croft, ethical fashion blogger at PaupertoPrincess.com - who will be wearing a 1940s gown for her wedding later this year - said going vintage had many benefits, from following fashion cycles to stopping garments ending up in landfills.\nShe said the growth of online sharing had also led to brides wanting to stand out even more, and going down the classic route often means the dress is one of a kind.\n\"It feels like giving a precious piece of history a moment in the limelight rather than it being in a museum or attic,\" added Louise.\n\"Of course, you always wonder what tales and secrets it holds and if it's from a family member then you are lucky enough to also have all these answers.\"\nKat Williams, editor of Rock 'n Roll Bride, said although dresses have been passed down for many years, a lot more people were putting their own touches to them.\n\"We had one woman in the magazine who wore her grandmother's dress and customised it all to make it more modern,\" she said. \"She shortened it, added a big petticoat and made it more fitted.\n\"It looked great but offered that little bit of family history too.\n\"Even if you buy a dress from a vintage shop, it means you won't see lots of other brides wearing the same thing and a bride wants to feel unique.\"", "Miss Middleton, 33, who is the younger sister of the duchess, married 41-year-old Mr Matthews at St Mark's Church in Englefield, Berkshire.\nThe bride was accompanied by her father, Michael, as they arrived shortly after 11:15 BST for the 45-minute ceremony.\nThe church is a few miles from the Middleton family home in Bucklebury.\nThere was strict security in place on the estate, with villagers being asked to carry ID on the day, and asked not to speak to the press.\nBut the bride received a rousing cheer from around 100 royal fans and residents as she arrived.\nPrince Harry, Princess Eugenie, and Roger Federer and his wife Mirka were among the guests at the church.\nThe heavy downpour that started minutes after the beginning of the service ended a few moments before the church doors opened.\nWedding bells rang out just before 12.30 BST as the new husband and wife walked hand in hand along the church path.\nGuests filed out and walked to nearby Englefield House, where it is believed a champagne reception is being held.\nMiss Middleton wore a bespoke Giles Deacon dress, said to be crafted to create the impression of being seamless.\nThe dress was teamed with a Stephen Jones veil, a Maidenhair Fern tiara, and Manolo Blahnik ivory satin shoes.\nDavid Emanuel, who designed Princess Diana's wedding dress and hosts Say Yes to the Dress UK, called the gown \"simple and pretty\".\n\"I predicted it would be soft and pretty and very English, which it is,\" he said.\nThe bride's nephew and niece, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, were page boy and flower girl.\nActress Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's girlfriend, is also reportedly in the UK but was not seen among the guests at the church.\nPippa Middleton was driven to St Mark's Church alongside her father in a vintage 1951 Jaguar car. They shared a few words and then walked up to the church door to be greeted by the very excited bridesmaids and pageboys which included Princess Charlotte and Prince George.\nA group of local well-wishers were allowed to come close to the church and were able to see all the guests arrive - including tennis star, Roger Federer.\nLess than an hour later, the pair left the church as husband and wife.\nThey posed for photographs before leading their guests - by foot - through the park back to Englefield House for a reception, before carrying on to their party at Pippa's parents' house in Bucklebury.\nThe best man was reality TV star Spencer Matthews, the groom's 28-year-old younger brother.\nMiss Middleton's diamond engagement ring is reported to have cost £250,000 - nearly 10 times the budget for the average wedding day.\nBut details of the couple's wedding bands have not been revealed.\nEnglefield resident Elizabeth Mary Reeves sported a silver wristband with the wedding date 20.05.17 printed on, given exclusively to locals who were let into the private church grounds to get a better look.\nShe said of the bride: \"She stood and waved and looked just lovely. As all brides do, they glow, no matter how expensive their dress is.\n\"She looked absolutely beautiful.\"\nThe 68-year-old, whose daughter and son married at the same church, said the bride and groom looked \"very happy\" as they waved to the small crowd gathered on the church green.\n\"(Prince) George was waving, (Princess) Charlotte was waving and Kate stooped next to them.\n\"I just love it. I think it's so good for the village, so good for the country, and it just gives it a happy mood and we need a happy mood.\"\nAfter the ceremony, guests will celebrate the marriage in a large glass marquee, erected on the Middleton family's property.\nAmong the members of the public who gathered in the village was Meryl Elizabeth Evans, from south Wales.\n\"It's a nice atmosphere, everybody's friendly, it's just a nice country feel to it,\" she said.\n\"We've met people from around the world, and the camera crews are from everywhere. It is the wedding of the year, isn't it?\"\nGet news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning", "Alana MacInnes, of Uist, and Caitlin McNeill, from Colonsay, sought views on Tumblr about whether it was gold and white or blue.\nThe debate was picked up by fashion bloggers, Buzzfeed, the Washington Post and US magazine Wired.\nOn Twitter the debate's hash tag #TheDress was the top trending tag.\nOther tags included #TheDressIsWhiteAndGold and #TheDressBlueAndBlack and the much less popular #TheDressIsBlue.\nWired has even looked at the science behind why people are seeing the dress as gold and white, blue and white, blue and blue or blue and black.\nProfessors have also joined the scientific discussion on Twitter, while celebrities including US singer Taylor Swift, talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, actor Will Smith's son Jaden and reality TV star Kim Kardashian have been tweeting about the debate.\nKardashian said she saw white and gold - but her husband Kanye West saw blue and black.\nOne possible explanation may be down to an optical illusion, stemming from how the human brain processes colours.\nThe brain's perception can be thrown by the colours of nearby objects, and their reflected light falling on the object in focus - in this case the dress.\nProf Stephen Westland, chair of colour science and technology at the University of Leeds, said the way people see colours varies hugely.\nHe said: \"One in 12 men is colour blind. But what people don't know is that even if the rest of us are not colour blind we don't always see colour in the same way.\n\"The surprising thing is that this doesn't happen more often. People think if they take a photo of something, people will see the same thing but of course that is not true.\"\nProf Westland said that the \"strange\" lighting in the picture had probably contributed to the confusion.\nHe said: \"If it hadn't been taken under very strange lighting this probably wouldn't have happened because if you look at the manufacturer's picture, it is indisputably blue and black.\"\nProf Westland explained that the confusion could stem from how we name colours, as there are often blurred lines between how we interpret what colour something is.\nBut he said this is an extreme case as \"there is a huge difference between black and gold, blue and white\".\nHe said: \"It is possible that people could literally be seeing different colours but it's impossible to know what is in someone's head.\"\nBuzzfeed's online story about the dress has been shared more than 20 million times.\nIts post about the story also set a record for the website when 670,000 people went on to the site at the same time.\nDr Paul Coxon, a physicist at Cambridge University, has tweeted that if the dress was combined with social media users' love of cats \"the universe would explode\".\nThe picture of the dress was taken by Ms MacInnes and posted on social media by Ms McNeill.\nMs McNeill asked her followers: \"Guys please help me - is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can't agree and we are freaking... out.\"\nThe women are members of the Gaelic band Canach.\nMs McNeill told Newsbeat that it all started when her friend's mother wore the dress at a wedding.\nShe said: \"Two of my very good friends were getting married and they asked me to put together a band to come and play at the wedding.\n\"This was a wedding on the tiny island that we come from on the west coast of Scotland called Colonsay and about 100 people were there.\n\"A week beforehand the bride had been sent by her mother a picture of the dress she was going to wear and when the bride showed her fiance, they disagreed about what colour it was.\n\"She was like, 'It's white and gold' and he said, 'It's blue and black'.\n\"So they posted it on Facebook to try and see what their friends were saying but that caused carnage on Facebook.\"\nShe said they had forgotten about the dress until the mother of the bride wore it at the wedding, when it was \"obviously blue and black\".\nMs McNeill described the numbers of retweets, messages on Tumblr and celebrity interest in the debate as \"unbelievable\".\nA spokesman for Roman Originals, which is based in Erdington, Birmingham, said the dress was also available in three other colours, including a red and black version.\nHe added: \"It's black and blue but we're definitely looking into a white and gold version.\"", "It's all about #TheDress and whether it's blue and black (#blueandblack) or white and gold (#whiteandgold).\nThe whole debate started when Scottish singer Caitlin McNeill posted a picture of a dress on her Tumblr blog.\nShe asked her followers: \"Guys please help me - is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can't agree and we are freaking... out.\"\nCaitlin told Newsbeat that it all started when her friend's mum wore the dress at a wedding.\n\"Two of my very good friends were getting married and they has asked me to put together a band to come and play at the wedding,\" she says.\n\"This was a wedding on the tiny island that we come from on the west coast of Scotland called Colonsay and about 100 people were there.\n\"A week beforehand the bride had been sent by her mother a picture of the dress she was going to wear and when the bride showed her fiance, they disagreed about what colour it was.\n\"She was like, 'It's white and gold' and he said, 'It's blue and black'.\n\"So they posted it on Facebook to try and see what their friends were saying but that caused carnage on Facebook.\n\"We forgot about it until we saw it at the wedding which the mother of the bride was wearing and it was obviously blue and black.\"\nRead Newsbeat's interview with Caitlin McNeill\nYouTube talent manager Sarah Weichel then spotted it on Tumblr and the rest is Twitter history...\nTurns out a lot of people cared and thousands are still debating the colour of that badly-taken snapshot.\nVarious US news outlets have written stories about how the human eyes see different colours and why some people see blue and black while others see gold and white.\nBuzzFeed's original article has been shared more than 20 million times and tech site Wired explains the science of colour.\nThe prime minster of Singapore liked the bit about science so much, he posted about it on his Facebook page.\nAnd photo experts Adobe got involved as well, sending out this tweet.\nIt got celebrities talking on Twitter.\nAnd then the memes started...\nIt's all great news for the makers of the £50 dress.\nA quick check online shows Roman Women's Lace Detail Bodycon Dress is available in Royal Blue - so blue then...\nAnd the company says it's looking into doing a gold and white version of the dress.\nA spokesman told Newsbeat: \"We're looking into getting it through the approval stages.\n\"We want to do it but it depends on the speed. We're trying to get it done as soon as possible.\n\"We are in contact with the suppliers to establish if we can get it manufactured in white and gold.\"\nFollow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube", "Among the glamorous chandeliers and big mirrors dozens of women are browsing rails of patterned skirts, trying on brightly coloured coats and buying items from the designer collection.\nWomen's fashion chain Bonmarche's flagship store in Uxbridge has had a complete makeover.\nThe aim: to make it as easy as possible for the more mature lady to shop. From easier-to-read price tags and bigger changing rooms to comfy seats for husbands to rest on, this store now feels like Top Shop for the over-50s.\nTrading conditions may be tough on the High Street, but this fashion chain is making quite a comeback. In fact, it is hard to think of another retail business that's turned itself around, from administration, as quickly or as successfully as Bonmarche.\nThe company, and its owner, the fashion chain Peacocks, went under in January 2012 in one of the biggest retail collapses since Woolworths. It buckled under massive debts.\nWhen Bonmarche fell into administration, it had nearly 400 shops. Private investors snapped it up for around £10m.\nIt now has 265 stores across the UK, and is worth more than £100m, having recently floated 40% of its shares on the stock market.\nBeth Butterwick was put in charge of the turnaround as chief executive. In her first interview, she told me she had no doubts about the chain's potential.\n\"I could see the opportunity to really cater for this growing demographic. I could absolutely see that Bonmarche was a gem amongst the High Street, it just needed to be loved,\" Mrs Butterwick says.\nWomen's fashion is hugely competitive, with many chains chasing the younger shopper. Mrs Butterwick decided that the key to Bonmarche's success was to focus solely on older women.\n\"The business before had drifted into catering products for a much younger customer and putting prices up. In other words they had moved away from the core values of our business.\n\"So the low-hanging fruit was to reposition the clothing back to the core customer,\" reflects Mrs Butterwick.\nThe strategy appears to be working. Since this store in Uxbridge re-opened, sales are up a whopping 40%.\n\"We have an amazingly loyal customer base, some 6.5 million customers. And we've made it our mission to cater for the way they want to shop.\n\"We have three different sets of customers spanning three different generations, the late-40s up to the late-80s,\" says Mrs Butterwick.\nAnother ingredient in Bonmarche's success has been celebrity designer David Emanuel, the man who designed Princess Diana's wedding dress (and recent contestant on ITV show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!).\nHis collections for the chain have proved hugely popular. He told me the larger, more mature lady has been neglected by the fashion industry.\n\"Just because women get to a certain age doesn't mean women lose sight of fashion. They want to look fashionable and want to be flattered. Women are now virtually ageless, if they dress well,\" he says.\n\"My challenge as a designer is to provide stylish clothing at affordable prices, season after season. Once the lady grows older, we have to look after her and our customers keep coming back.\"\nDid he worry that Bonmarche might not survive? \"The dark days, I'm delighted to say, have gone. I'm very excited.\"\nHe also believes having a woman at the helm is key.\n\"Now there's a woman in charge who believes in the label, believes in David Emanuel, believes in Bonmarche, believes in her customers and she's done an enormous amount of work,\" he says.\n\"It's a completely different business... it's like chalk and cheese. And that's all down to her. Of course, she's got professional teams around her, she's handpicked key people who love the business with a passion.\n\"She thinks fashion, she feels fashion, she deals with fashion and we're on the same wavelength.\"\nThe turnaround plan involved closing dozens of unprofitable stores. The new management team negotiated new rent deals on many existing stores.\nUnlike most national chains, they're now looking to expand once more, opening new High Street stores. They've opened several shops in garden centres, and they're looking at selling clothes on cruise ships and in care homes. The aim is to go where the customers are.\nAnd it is certainly where the growth is in retail.\n\"The prospects for serving the older consumer in retail are enormous, because if you look over to the next 10 years the vast majority of the growth, well over two-thirds, comes from the plus-55 consumer,\" according to Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at Conlumino.\n\"So any retailer who serves that segment of the market hasn't got success guaranteed but it has got a much greater chance of seeing sales traction than someone serving other demographic groups.\"\nBonmarche doesn't have much in the way of competition on the High Street for now. The question is, for how long?\nIn his studio, Mr Emanuel has finished the Bonmarche spring collection, sprinkled with prints and pinks, and he's already starting to think about next winter's ranges. He knows what the future challenge will be.\n\"Everybody now realises what we're doing, and people are trying to emulate us, which is always very flattering,\" he says. \"We're getting it right, and investors are excited but we need to stay one step ahead.\"", "Tess Newall, of Morham, East Lothian, spoke of being \"distraught\" after discovering the dress, which belonged to her great-great grandmother, was missing.\nIt followed the closure of Kleen Cleaners in St Mary Street, Edinburgh.\nShe posted an update on social media saying the dress was found \"in a crumpled heap\" at the closed shop.\nThe 29-year-old who married Alfred Newall, 30, in East Lothian, in June, told the BBC she was \"absolutely over the moon\" at the discovery, and said the last 24 hours had been \"surreal\".\nThe dress was sent to be dry cleaned in September and the shop shut in October.\nThe business is now being dealt with under Scottish bankruptcy law in a process known as sequestration.\nA post by Mrs Newall, about the loss of her dress, was shared more than 200,000 times on social media.\nShe told the BBC News Channel: \"My parents received a phone call this afternoon from the landlord of the property where the dry cleaners is, whose nephew had read about the dress.\n\"He really searched and he found a pile of old lace which he realised was what he thought was the dress.\n\"My parents went straight there and were just overjoyed and couldn't believe it was the dress, not cleaned, and still with its ticket.\"\nMrs Newall said a representative from sequestrators Wylie & Bisset was also at the dry cleaners shop on Saturday and insisted that for \"procedural reasons\" the dress had to go back to his office in Glasgow.\nShe added: \"This is unbelievable and my mum was beside herself, but they have assured us that it will be delivered safely back to us on Monday.\n\"It's going to be apparently driven from Edinburgh to my mum and dad's house.\"\nThe 29-year-old said she still planned to have the dress cleaned, but probably at a lace specialist in London.\nShe added: \"Somewhere where we can't let it out of our sight.\"", "Kate Holder, from Holsworthy, Devon and Tara Attis, from St Austell, Cornwall have been modelling their wedding dresses in a 1ft x 3ft window space in Bude since 11:00 BST on Saturday.\nThe bride-to-be who remains on the platform the longest will win prizes worth £5,000 towards their wedding day.\nBoth must also sleep in the window.\nThe pair are refusing to quit and at the 54-hour mark, Tara, 32, who is getting married in 2017, said both women were \"quite stubborn\" and she did not see the competition \"ending anytime soon\".\nHer opponent, Kate, 27, is due to be married in February and said winning would add \"an extra bit of sparkle to the day\".\nWin or lose, both women have invited each other to their weddings.\nThe pair are allowed to take a toilet break every four hours.", "Sarah Cawthorne, 32, from Sedgeley, who ran Dudley-based firm A Little Bit of Bling, was sentenced to 12 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday, after she admitted fraudulent trading in March.\nIn all, Cawthorne defrauded more than 100 brides out of at least £30,000, spending much of it on gambling websites, as well as a trip to Disneyland, the court heard.\n\"You get carried away, you just want it to be the perfect day and we were just so worked up,\" said Sarah Broadley, one of several brides to be let down by Cawthorne at the last minute.\n\"I'd tried calling her, messaging her on Facebook and eventually got a message saying she wouldn't be coming. That was 11:30am and we were getting married at 4pm.\"\nLuckily, the wedding venue stepped in to help with the chair covers, table decorations and other touches bought from A Little Bit of Bling.\nMrs Broadley, from Dudley, lost £180, but many couples lost more.\nJade Caddick, from Birmingham, lost more than £1,000 when she paid Cawthorne to provide chair covers, sashes and table runners, among other items.\n\"I got to the hotel the day before and she'd not turned up. Even on the day itself I was getting ready, sitting in my wedding dress and trying to get hold of Sarah,\" she said.\n\"Other brides were also phoning me up. I think I only turned my phone off 45 minutes before the wedding.\n\"On my honeymoon I was being contacted by hundreds of strangers panicking about their weddings.\n\"The whole thing caused rows with my husband and affected my little boy.\n\"Today justice has prevailed.\"\nJust as Facebook had promoted Cawthorne's business, dozens of couples took to the social media site to vent their anger after being let down - setting up a group called Burned Brides to compare experiences.\nDudley Trading Standards, which brought the prosecution, said it had received more than 70 complaints from across the country.\nKamy Poultney, from Cornwall, said she later found out her's was one of four weddings Cawthorne had promised to provide decorations for on 21 June 2014.\n\"I couldn't look forward to my wedding. It was the stress of it all, first trying to find out what was going on and then chasing up my money,\" she said.\n\"I went to the police, I reported it to Action Fraud and then launched a case in the small claims court.\"\nCawthorne insisted on being paid up front, almost immediately, but many brides thought the deals on offer were worth the outlay.\nLouise Bruce, from Rotherham, said she had been on holiday at the time and asked her parents-in-law to transfer the money to Cawthorne's company.\n\"Later I saw a few complaints online and tried to get in touch with Sarah. She said she'd been unwell and had had a breakdown, but told me everything would be ok.\n\"I found out the next few days she'd gone bankrupt.\n\"Luckily I found out in good time.\n\"I'd written off the £319 a long time ago, I never thought we'd get justice.\n\"We celebrated our first anniversary on the day she [Cawthorne] pleaded guilty. It made our day.\"", "The dress will be in the palace's ballroom from 23 July to 3 October during its annual summer opening.\nCurator Caroline de Guitaut said it was \"very fitting\" the exhibition was where the royal wedding reception took place.\nMs Burton said Kate had wanted a dress with \"presence and of historical importance\" with a contemporary feel.\nThe designer, whose identity was a closely guarded secret until the duchess's marriage to Prince William on 29 April, has rarely spoken about the dress.\nIn a film of Ms Burton, which will also be on display alongside the dress in Buckingham Palace, the designer said she had wanted the dress \"to look to the past, yet look to the future as well\".\n\"There were a lot of references to Victorian corsetry, the padded hip, the tiny cinched-in waist, and also to the arts and crafts movement with all of the hand-work on the lace of the dress and also the bustle inside to create the shape of the back of the dress.\n\"It has an essence of Victorian but we cut the dress in a very modern way. It is in a very light fabric. Also the pleats and the folds create a modern feel rather than a historical piece.\n\"I think what we wanted to achieve was something that was incredibly beautiful and intricately worked.\"\nMs Burton also described the dress - which includes six different types of lace - as a \"real feat of engineering\".\nMs de Guitaut said she thinks visitors will be surprised by \"how much detail and how much work\" went into the creation of the dress.\nExplore wedding dress in detail\nWhat they said about the dress\nA history of royal weddings\n\"The beauty really is in the detail,\" she said.\nThe duchess's bridal gown featured lace applique floral detail - which was hand-made by embroiderers at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace - and was made of ivory and white satin gazar.\nThe dress has a series of lace motifs including a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock to represent England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\nEach motif, some as small as a five pence piece, was applied with minute stitches every two to three millimetres.\nThe duchess's veil, tiara, Alexander McQueen bridal shoes and diamond earrings will also form part of the display.\nHer veil, which was made of layers of soft, ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers, was also embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework.\nThe 1936 Cartier \"halo\" tiara was lent to the bride by the Queen, while Kate's diamond earrings were commissioned by the Middleton family as a personal gift to the bride from her parents.\nWilliam and Kate's multi-tiered wedding cake, created by cake designer Fiona Cairns, will be recreated and shown in the state dining room to complement the wedding dress exhibition.\nMs Cairns said the cake, which was covered in cream and white icing and decorated with up to 900 delicate sugar-paste flowers, was a \"very rich, dark traditional fruitcake\".\nMeanwhile it has emerged that the royal couple kept the top two tiers of their eight-tiered wedding cake - a tradition usually undertaken by couples who plan to serve the cake at the christening of their first born.\nMs Burton joined Alexander McQueen's studio in 1996 as an intern, working alongside him on his collections for 12 years, before he took his own life in February 2010.\nShe was named creative director of the Alexander McQueen label the following May.", "For those in the know, China's Guo Pei had already long been compared to some of the late fashion industry greats, such as Alexander McQueen and Coco Chanel.\nBut Chinese fashion design has only recently come of age and, until now, none of its home grown stars had made the leap to becoming an international household name.\nNow the combination of Rihanna in a huge yellow dress, and the subsequent press and social media reaction, have done just that for 48-year-old Ms Guo.\nThe Bajan singer had got in touch with Ms Guo to ask if she could wear the dress to one of the biggest nights in the fashion calendar - New York's Met Gala. The event is organised to raise funds for the city's Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art's Costume Institute.\nThe designer was happy to say \"yes\", but was initially unsure if Rihanna could cope with its substantial weight.\n\"When Rihanna first saw the dress, she said 'it's so beautiful', but I wasn't so sure that she could handle it,\" says Ms Guo.\n\"It was only after she appeared on the red carpet that she sent an email asking how heavy it was. I told her - 25 kg (55lb). I couldn't tell her before because I was afraid she'd say she couldn't wear it.\"\nThankfully the singer was able to bear the weight of the dress - a canary yellow cape creation, trimmed with egg yolk coloured fur, and embroidered with flowers - without a hitch. Although it did take a team of three assistants following behind to carry the garment's giant train.\nWhile fashion commentators and aficionados were agog - Vogue magazine put a photo of Rihanna in the dress on the front cover of its Met Gala special edition - the wider public had a bit of fun.\nWith the dress being compared with a giant omelette, social media memes, amusingly doctored photos of the dress, spread thick and fast on the internet.\nMs Guo says: \"A friend of mine sent me one of the pictures, and said she thought the dress looked like an omelette.\n\"She said she hoped I didn't mind the comment and I said, yes I agree, it does look like an omelette.\"\nOther food-based comparisons saw photo editing software deployed to imaginative effect, such as taking the dress for a pizza base and adorning it with olives and onions.\nMarketing teams even got in on the act, with UK bakers Greggs turning the dress into a meat-filled pasty.\nWhile many other designers with more delicate temperaments may have taken objection to such mockery of something that took a team of people 50,000 hours between them over two years to make by hand, Guo Pei says she didn't mind.\n\"Actually when me and my husband saw some of the photos they gave us an appetite!\" she chuckles.\n\"I felt that if the dress could stimulate people's imagination and make them laugh then it has made entertainment as a result.\"\nGuo Pei was born in Beijing in 1967 and it is here, perhaps, that we can find the inspiration for the love of colour, extravagance and elegance woven into that yellow dress.\n\"The Beijing of my childhood memory is very different from today,\" she says.\n\"It was basically grey. The clothes people wore were mostly grey, there are not many colours.\n\"I remember clearly that I wanted to wear a yellow dress when I was a child, but my grandmother told me that normal people are not allowed to wear yellow.\"\nThe Communist drabness of those days, it seems, fostered in Guo Pei a desire for beauty.\nShe says: \"I loved painting when I was young, I liked to paint people and clothes, but my parents never supported this desire because my father felt it had no potential and no future.\"\nMs Guo's father was a senior Communist Party official, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. She describes a loving, but strict, home environment.\n\"I remember my father tearing up one of my paintings because I hadn't finished my homework.\n\"He said: 'Can you live on painting? Can it support your life?'.\"\nBut in this rather austere atmosphere another passion was being nurtured, born of necessity.\nMs Guo says: \"My mum's eyesight wasn't very good.\n\"The coats we wore in the winter, and our blankets, were sewn by her but because of her eyesight, she couldn't thread a needle.\"\n\"I remember I helped her, even from the age of two and slowly, it became one of my hobbies.\"\nIn 1982, Guo Pei chose to study clothing design and became one of the first such students in a by now rapidly changing China.\n\"When I graduated in 1986, she says, the period of reform and opening up had just begun.\n\"China had become a very different place and you could feel that people had new desires.\n\"They were looking for beautiful things and they were accepting of change. It was a great time to be a designer.\"\nMs Guo became the chief designer of one of China's first independent clothing companies, and through her work she set about painting in all the missing colours from her childhood.\n\"There was one year I remember everyone was wearing red skirts,\" she says. \"They liked to ask what was the popular colour, and then everyone would wear it.\n\"On the way home from work on the bus, everyday, there are at least ten people I could see wearing my designs.\"\nBy 1997 Ms Guo had set up her own haute couture (high fashion) business in Beijing, a move that coincided with the growing affluence in China. She would spend many hours making single dresses for the country's rich, famous and politically well-connected.\nToday, she has a team of 500 employees - designers, embroiderers, pattern-makers and sewers, and a list of clients that include A-list stars from around the world.\nWhile Ms Guo's most prestigious dresses may take months or even years to make, they are profitable because they command prices as high as $800,000 (£500,000) per item.\nYet not everything she makes is so expensive. Ms Guo also designs traditional Chinese wedding dresses, which cost about $8,000, and are very much in demand.\nIt is talking about the wedding dresses that makes her emotional.\n\"One day a mother came to me with her savings [$8,000], and asked me to make a wedding dress for her daughter,\" she says.\n\"I told her that she could [instead] give that money to her daughter, it was not a small amount.\n\"But she said that if she did, it would be nothing more than $8,000, but if she spent the money on the wedding dress it would enlarge her love as a mother, it would carry her blessings, and her love for her daughter.\"\nBy now Gou Pei is fighting back the tears. She adds: \"I will never forget customers like her.\"\nThe designer is now working on a more affordable, much faster to manufacture, \"ready-to-wear\" collection, which is likely to see dresses retail for between $800 and $1,500.\nMs Guo says: \"Many people ask me about my experience designing for celebrities, but they don't know about my real customers. They're the people who really touch me.\"", "Is this dress blue and black or white and gold?\nScottish singer Caitlin McNeill, 21, started the whole debate after posting a picture of #TheDress on her Tumblr blog.\n\"Two of my very good friends were getting married and they asked me to put together a band to come and play at their wedding in Western Scotland,\" she's told Newsbeat.\n\"This was a wedding on the tiny island that we come from on the west coast of Scotland called Colonsay and about 100 people were there.\n\"A week beforehand the bride had been sent, by her mother, a picture of the dress she was going to wear and when the bride showed her fiance, they disagreed about what colour it was.\n\"She was like, 'It's white and gold' and he said, 'It's blue and black'.\n\"So they posted it on Facebook to try and see what their friends were saying but that caused carnage on Facebook.\n\"We forgot about it until we saw it at the wedding, which the mother of the bride was wearing, and it was obviously blue and black.\n\"When I got off the island last night, I was sitting in my hotel room and I thought, 'I'll maybe put the picture to my Tumblr followers.' Sometimes Tumblrs debunk these things and I thought they might have some ideas.\nListen to the full interview on Newsbeat's SoundCloud\n\"I posted it onto Tumblr, it somehow got onto Twitter and then it just went crazy after that.\"\nThat craziness has translated into #TheDress trending around the world.\nAlso trending are #blueandblack and #goldandwhite as well as various other versions of those colours.\nCaitlin says she never expected this reaction after posting the picture on Tumblr.\n\"It's just incredible. I can't comprehend it.\n\"People have been messaging me saying that all their favourite celebrities are tweeting about it. I can't even believe it's real. I feel like I'm dreaming.\"\nEven though Caitlin originally thought the dress was gold and white herself, she says after seeing it in person it's definitely blue and black.\n\"When my friend originally posted this picture on Facebook I thought they were just playing an elaborate prank on me. It took me a very long time to stop thinking that and to realise there was something scientifically amiss here.\n\"When I saw the dress in blue and black I was like, 'There's not much more I can say about that.'\n\"Men seem to see it more commonly in blue and black and women see it more commonly in white and gold, in terms of the people I've spoken to.\n\"But both my brother and my dad saw white and gold.\"\nThere had been suggestions online and on social media that #TheDress was all a publicity stunt designed to promote the company that sells it.\nBut Caitlin says that's not the case.\n\"I hadn't even thought about the dress company,\" she says.\n\"I did post a link to the company online, just because people were wondering where it had come from.\n\"I can't express how we've been scratching our heads and stressing and arguing for the last two weeks about this dress and I just wanted to know some answers.\n\"I didn't know the company until it started blowing up and one of the bridesmaids from the wedding gave me the link to the dress, that's the first I'd heard of it.\n\"It's going to happen. It's not too bad. If that's the worst people are saying, then that's OK.\"\nAnd now she's spoken to almost every media outlet in the US and the UK, she says she just wants a bit of sleep.\n\"Right now I'm going to get some breakfast because I've been on the phone to America all night.\n\"Maybe a I'll get a wee breakfast and a cup of tea. That would be quite great.\n\"I've had calls from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, NBC, CBS, ABC - everyone wants a piece of the dress.\"\nFollow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube", "They were cheered by 500,000 well-wishers who gathered outside the palace, as RAF planes flew past in honour of the new royal couple.\nIn the evening the pair returned to the Palace for a dinner and dance, expected to continue into the early hours.\nThe couple will now be known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.\nPolice estimate a million people lined the procession route from the abbey to the palace following the wedding.\nPrince William later drove his new bride back to Clarence House, following a buffet reception at Buckingham Palace, at the wheel of his father's classic blue Aston Martin, before returning to the palace in the evening.\nThe vehicle was decked in ribbons and balloons with \"Just Wed\" on the number plate.\nThe church service, watched by 1,900 guests, ran smoothly but the prince did struggle to place the wedding ring on the duchess's finger.\nFollowing a long tradition, the ring has been fashioned from Welsh gold given to Prince William by the Queen.\nAfter the couple said their vows - in which the bride did not promise to obey her husband - the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, declared: \"I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.\"\nThey spent a private moment together with their families, as they signed the marriage register.\nPrince William has been given the title of the Duke of Cambridge by the Queen, and Miss Middleton has become Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge on their marriage.\nThe duchess, who managed to keep her wedding dress a secret, wore an ivory and lace gown by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen. The prince wore the red tunic of an Irish Guards colonel - his most senior honorary appointment.\nBy Sarah BellBBC News, in central London\nThe excitement, which had been building throughout the morning, peaked at about 1330 BST when the prince kissed his new bride.\nThe crowd, decked in union jacks, tiaras, and fascinators, reacted with deafening cheers and demands for more.\nMuch neck-craning was required for the best view of the spectacle, which was obscured by a sea of cameras, periscopes and flags.\nSome people had tears in their eyes as they watched the fly-past, with \"amazing\" a common response when asked about the day's events.\nAs one American spectator put it, \"No-one does pageantry like the British - you can't help being infected by the energy and emotion.\"\nFollow Peter Hunt on Twitter\nViews on the dress\nRoyal wedding: Where were you?\nAmong the guests at Westminster Abbey were singer-songwriter Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, and former England football captain David Beckham and his wife Victoria.\nActor Rowan Atkinson, a close friend of Prince Charles, Prince Harry's friend Chelsy Davy and film director Guy Ritchie were also there.\nUK Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha, Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and former British PM Sir John Major were among the politicians present.\nFor those lining the route, large speakers broadcast the wedding service, and hundreds of millions of people were estimated to watch the proceedings worldwide on television.\nRoyal officials said the couple were involved in planning their wedding day, from the music at the ceremony to the flowers and the cake.\nTears and tiaras in the crowd\nInside Westminster Abbey, an avenue of trees lined the red carpet leading up to the altar.\nThe bride walked up the aisle to coronation anthem I Was Glad, by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, from Psalm 122. Her brother James Middleton gave the Lesson, reading Romans 12: 1-2, 9-18.\nClassical compositions by Elgar, Britten and Vaughan Williams featured during the ceremony, alongside the hymn Jerusalem and the English melody Greensleeves.\nA canape reception was held for 650 guests at Buckingham Palace in the afternoon.\nLater, about 300 close friends and relatives were invited to a dinner and disco, hosted by Prince Charles.\nThe couple changed outfits for the event - Prince William was in black tie while his bride wore a strapless white satin gazar evening gown with diamante embroidered detail round the waist, by the same designer, Sarah Burton.\nBut the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh left for a weekend away after hosting the lunchtime reception.\nThey will miss Prince Harry's best man speech and Michael Middleton's father of the bride address.\nDespite predictions of showers, the weather stayed dry for the royal couple. Temperatures in London reached around 18C (64.4F) at 2pm.", "They will provide details of factories they source goods from, which will be inspected within the next nine months.\nFunds will be made available for any safety upgrades needed at the units.\nThe legally-binding code was announced earlier this year after the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh in April killed more than 1,100 people.\nThe eight-storey Rana Plaza building came crashing down on 24 April, a day after cracks had been spotted in the building.\nIt was the deadliest in a series of accidents that have resulted in global attention being focussed on safety standards in Bangladesh's garments export industry, the second biggest in the world after China's.\nSeveral big names, including Sweden's H&M, the biggest buyer of Bangladeshi-made clothes, signed up to the code after the incident.\nIt requires them not just to meet minimum fire and building safety standards, but also to pay for them.\nOther signatories include Inditex, which owns Zara, Benetton, Metro, Carrefour, Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Esprit and Abercrombie & Fitch.\n\"This historic, legally binding accord will effect tangible change on the ground and help make the Bangladeshi garment industry safe and sustainable,\" said Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL, a labour group which played a key role in creating the pact.\nMr Raina added that the factory fires and collapses in Bangladesh over the past few years indicated that efforts by individual retailers had \"proved insufficient\" in addressing the issue.\n\"A profound change is possible only with a strong coalition between trade unions, international brands and retailers, Bangladeshi authorities and employers, and with worker involvement in the workplace with guaranteed freedom of association.\"\nThe International Development Secretary, Justine Greening, said UK companies needed to play their part in helping raise standards: \"British business must be a force for good in the developing world too, so that together we can help end aid dependency through jobs.\"\nShe said she had been talking to business leaders from the retail industry to decide how they could work with the government to improve supply chains, in order to ensure clothes were produced responsibly and conditions were improved.\nLast month, US suspended trade privileges extended to Bangladesh over concerns about dangerous working conditions and labour rights.\nThis decision was taken after a year-long review of labour practices and workplace safety in Bangladesh.", "The firm which owned it, Austin & Co, was placed into administrative receivership last Wednesday.\nThe receiver has now sold the trading side of the business and the store will continue operating as normal.\nThe building, which has a prominent position on the Diamond, is now for sale.\nAustins had been under pressure for some time, posting significant losses in 2011 and 2012.\nThe business was facing a winding-up petition later this month which could have lead to it being liquidated.\nThe Austins directors worked consensually with their bank, AIB, and the receiver to prevent that.\nIt is not clear exactly who now has control of the trading business though it is understood not to be the previous directors, Luke and Declan Hasson.\nThe receiver, Seamas Keating of PKF-FPM accountants, said \"the administrative receivership has resulted in the sale of the trading operation of the company to a new operator.\n\"The administration receiver is continuing to realise company assets. \"\nThe business began in 1830 when Thomas Austin came to Derry opening a drapery shop in the corner of the Diamond.", "Media playback is unsupported on your device\n2 July 2015 Last updated at 17:41 BST\nBorn in London, raised in Zimbabwe and educated in the United States, she has caught the attention of fashion enthusiasts around the world.\nShe has worked with pop star Beyonce and is currently the senior designer for hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj's fashion collection.\nThe designer is now in the UK, as the main attraction at the Zimbabwe Fashion Week in Birmingham which opens on Saturday, 4 July.\nShe spoke to the BBC's Farayi Mungazi, who first asked her about the inspiration behind her clothing line.", "Bronwyn Beale, from Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, plotted to surprise her \"Baggies mad\" partner Peter who supports West Bromwich Albion.\nHer dress incorporated the team's navy and white shirt stripes and featured an embroidered bird perched in a hawthorn bush, taken from the club's emblem.\nThe couple married in Las Vegas last month.\nMrs Beale said the idea for the dress came to her after her husband went down on one knee at his 50th birthday party held at the club's ground, The Hawthorns.\nSee more on this and other Birmingham stories here\n\"None of the men in the wedding party knew about the dress, but the women did. They all liked it,\" she said.\nMr Beale, 51, a former season-ticket holder, wore an Albion tie for the big day.\nMrs Beale said he had a \"massive smile on his face\" when he saw her for the first time, ready to walk down the aisle.\n\"He thought the dress was amazing,\" she added.\n\"She is always surprising me, Mr Beale said.\n\"I never had a clue... I thought it looked very nice. It was my wedding day, so it all just kind of overawes you.\"\nThe 48-year-old shop worker used The Couture Company, in Digbeth, Birmingham, to make the dress.\nDesigner Jo Bromley, said: \"There was a concern that a football kit dress could be tacky but we really got our teeth into it.\n\"The bride accessorised it beautifully and I think it worked really well.\"", "The gallery said it had been involved in discussions about acquiring some items from her wardrobe.\nBut it said it only collected items of \"outstanding aesthetic or technical quality\" and no formal offer was made.\nMore than 300 items will now be sold at auction next month instead. Lady Thatcher died two and a half years ago.\nShe was the longest-serving premier of the 20th Century and Britain's only female prime minister to date.\nThe clothes to be auctioned by Christie's include her blue velvet wedding dress and various power suits worn during her tenure in Downing Street, plus handbags and jewellery.\nA spokesperson for the museum told The Daily Telegraph: \"The V&A politely declined the offer of Baroness Thatcher's clothes, feeling that these records of Britain's political history were best suited to another collection which would focus on their intrinsic social historical value.\n\"The museum is responsible for chronicling fashionable dress and its collecting policy tends to focus on acquiring examples of outstanding aesthetic or technical quality.\"\nThe museum later issued a further statement saying: \"Several years ago, a general discussion took place to explore whether some pieces from the wardrobe of Baroness Thatcher might be added to the V&A's collection.\n\"These conversations did not develop. The V&A would like to make it clear that no formal offer was made for the museum to acquire the collection.\nBusiness Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted: \"Shame the V&A has turned down Thatcher's personal collection. I for one would have loved to see it!\"\nIn recent years the museum, which described itself as \"the world's leading museum of art and design\", has put on crowd-pleasing shows of fashion by designer Alexander McQueen and clothes worn by pop legend David Bowie.", "The Gower Hotel in Bishopston, Swansea, which employed 23 people, closed without warning on New Year's Eve.\nInsolvency specialist Begbies Traynor hosted a meeting of creditors to place the company in voluntary liquidation at its Cardiff office on Wednesday.\nThe venue had bookings for 32 events up until September 2018, including 28 weddings.\nSpeaking after the meeting, Claire Phillips, 38, and Simon Evans, 31, from Swansea said the loss of their money and wedding venue had left them \"stressed and upset\".\nThe couple, who are due to marry in April 2018, lost a £500 deposit they paid in November.\nMs Phillips said: \"We've almost certainly lost all the money we've paid because we're an unsecured creditor.\n\"It does tarnish it and make you paranoid about planning anything.\"\nJazmine Parry, 30, from Swansea, was due to marry Kurt Tracey, 31, at the venue on 27 April.\nShe told the Jason Mohammad programme earlier this month she was \"gutted\" and they had paid £5,000 toward the cost.\nBegbies Traynor said after losing staff and suffering from ill health, the owners were no longer able to run the venue and were \"deeply sorry\".\nConsumer law expert Prof Margaret Griffiths said: \"Unfortunately, of course, people like Jazmine and the other couples involved will be what's termed unsecured creditors, so they will actually be at the end of the line when it comes to paying out for the insolvency of the firm.\"", "He has swooped after Keystone Group, which ran the operation, went into receivership and put the franchise up for sale.\nMr Oliver said he was \"excited\" about bringing the six restaurants back in-house.\nThe TV-chef has 42 restaurants in the UK and more than 25 abroad run under his name.\nFinancial adviser Ferrier Hodgson, which is handling the sale, said Mr Oliver was the preferred bidder and that his return would be the \"ideal outcome\".\nMr Oliver said the Australian restaurants - located in Sydney and nearby Parramatta, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide - were among the best performing of his global chain and that he planned putting more money into them.\n\"This will be a really exciting moment for me personally and I know the guys will be ecstatic to be back in-house,\" he said.\n\"It will allow us to invest even more time and money in people and restaurants, celebrate great Aussie produce and be even more creative.\"\nCollapsed Keystone Group's other venues include a range of pubs, restaurants and hotels across Australia, some of which have already been sold since the firm went into receivership in June after failing to renegotiate loans with its investors.\nIt partly blamed strict alcohol and lock-out laws in Sydney for the failure of some of its ventures.", "The display has been selected to cover the Queen's life and reign, and includes both evening and day wear.\nThe exhibition is one of three entitled Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe.\nA centrepiece is the outfit she wore for the official opening of the Scottish Parliament on 1 July 1999.\nSandra Murray designed the green silk-crepe and lace dress and purple coat, made of a silk-wool blend, which the Queen wore as the Duke of Hamilton presented her with a Scottish crown in front of the 129-member strong assembly.\nA shawl of purple and green Isle of Skye tartan, woven on the Isle of Lewis, and a hat by milliner Philip Somerville, completed her look.\nExhibitions at Buckingham Palace from 23 July and at Windsor Castle from 17 September will follow.\nIn total, more than 150 outfits worn by the Queen will be presented across the three sites, many chosen because of their close association with the location.\nBritish couturier Sir Norman Hartnell, who first worked for the then Princess Elizabeth in the 1940s, produced many evening dresses in her wardrobe.\nAmong the dozens of outfits on display will be a turquoise-blue dress with a matching bolero jacket the Queen wore at the wedding of her sister Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones in May 1960.\nIt is similar to a Hartnell evening gown she wore in 1962 for a gala performance of Rob Roy at the Royal Lyceum during the state visit to Scotland of King Olav of Norway.\nThe exhibition at Buckingham Palace will present outfits worn from the 1920s to the 2010s, from ceremonial and military attire to ensembles worn at family celebrations such as weddings and christenings.\nThe Windsor Castle event will bring together outfits ranging from evening gowns and elegant day wear to fancy-dress costumes worn by the young Princess Elizabeth for wartime family pantomimes.", "What she mainly likes are weddings.\nThis earns her, at the age of 30, between £100,000 and £200,000 a year.\nAnd despite having written about weddings for the past seven years she still does not get bored looking at veils and rings and cake decorations.\n\"I get excited about weddings. I see a couple in love and they're doing something creative and inspiring,\" she says.\n\"I was just obsessed with weddings. And into over-sharing on the internet.\"\nRockNRoll Bride was one of the first blogs in the UK to focus on the lucrative topic of marriage.\nSince then it has drawn in thousands of visitors who want something other than the cookie-cutter weddings in the glossy magazines.\nKat publishes pictures of real weddings that she thinks show originality.\nFor example, the bride who told guests they were invited to a birthday party, but then halfway through the evening changed into a wedding dress and got married.\nThen there was the bride who was wheeled to her wedding (at a cemetery) in a coffin, which Kat says was \"some kind of symbolism involving rebirth\".\nThe blog gets about 600,000 views per month.\nFor potential advertisers, that's a marriage made in heaven - 600,000 pairs of eyes that are immediately contemplating spending a lot of money on a very precise range of products: a dress, a ring, flowers, a holiday, stationery, hairstyling, make up, suits and shoes.\nBut it is not just high visitor numbers that are attracting companies to work with bloggers.\nAdvertisers have identified a big advantage in spreading their message via the friend-next-door, coffee-morning culture of the blogosphere.\nKnown sometimes dismissively as mummy bloggers, there is a growing army of women documenting the humdrum of their everyday lives, attracting readers desperate to know they're not the only ones tackling teething, toddler tantrums or troublesome teens.\nAnd they are writing with humour and personality - siren calls to the marketing men.\n\"Brands of course are dying to get their hands on these women because it's all about authentic voices, native content, storytelling,\" says Susanna Scott, a blogger herself and co-founder of Britmums, an annual conference for parent bloggers.\nAnd the stories don't have to be about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. How to cook fish fingers does just as well, she says.\n\"It's not about being interesting. It's the mundane [things] people want to read about. It's the 'Aha!' moment when you read and think, 'It's not just me!'\"\nDaniel Saynt, chief executive of Socialyte\nMummy bloggers are cottoning on to the growing opportunities afforded by the marketing men - test-drive a new car for a few weeks, tickets to music festivals, meals out, free clothes, cosmetics, toys and travel - simply in exchange for writing a positive review.\nKirstie Pelling, her husband and three children have just been to Dubai and are about to set off for the Philippines and Japan.\nThe couple make a full-time living writing about their adventures on the road, in their blog, The Family Adventure Project.\n\"We make money through sponsored posts and advertising. We also work with brands, delivering material for their website or their campaigns,\" says Kirstie.\nThe Pellings have been to more than 25 countries paid for by Kirstie's blogging.\nBut it's not just writing. These days a successful blogger must post on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook as well as maintaining their original blog site. Where possible they should also be shooting video and maintaining a Youtube channel.\n\"You have to be across absolutely everything,\" says Kirstie Pelling. \"We have to work quite hard.\"\nWomen bloggers like Kat and Kirstie are only likely to increase their money-making muscle, if the US experience is anything to go by.\nThere, the most influential bloggers have become celebrities in their own right, earning $1m (£585,000) a year or more.\nEven lower profile writers can earn several thousand dollars for a single brand collaboration, according to Daniel Saynt, chief executive of Socialyte, a casting agency for bloggers, based in New York, and specialising in the fashion industry.\nThanks to social media, he says, marketers suddenly have many more channels to fill and not enough content.\nAnd women bloggers are often best-placed to supply it. Women tend to control the household budget, choose the family car and the annual holiday, so female readers are the target audience, says Mr Saynt. And women have a higher engagement around social media.\nIn the US, Calvin Klein is currently experiencing a \"viral moment\", says Mr Saynt after asking bloggers (both male and female) to submit pictures of themselves in their underwear with the hashtag #mycalvins.\nAnd last year, after Abercrombie and Fitch was accused online of ignoring larger customers, Socialyte helped them counter the negative talk by hiring dozens of ordinary bloggers, including plus-size women, to write about the brand.\nBut while demand for bloggers is growing, it doesn't mean anyone can do it.\nIt still helps to be young, attractive and wealthy and have a lifestyle that others aspire to. And you have to be prepared to sacrifice your privacy, says Mr Saynt.\n\"You are going into a world where you are a public figure, where people are going to have negative comments.\n\"In a lot of ways [bloggers] have become the reality TV stars of fashion and beauty because they're sharing a very intimate portrait into who they are.\"\nAnd if you want to make the big time, you have to take it seriously.\n\"You have to run it as a business, 100%, not as a hobby,\" he says.\n\"If you approach it as a hobby and think you are going to get somewhere, that's just not the case.\"", "Dozens of factories supplying major Western brands were forced to close after a mass walkout and subsequent demonstrations in the Ashulia district.\nPolice said factories opened on Tuesday with many now back at work, but they also detained several labour leaders.\nLast week, police arrested a journalist well known for his coverage of the garment industry for\" inciting unrest\".\nNazmul Huda stands accused of incorrect reporting and holding secret meetings with union leaders - a charge that has been denied by at least one of his employers.\nHe was the first journalist to report on problems with the structure of the Rana Plaza complex, just a day before it collapsed in 2013, killing more than 1,100 people.\nThe collapse of the building sparked global outrage and put the spotlight on working conditions, low wages and safety standards in a garment sector that manufactured clothes for some major global brands.\nGarment manufacturing makes up the vast majority of Bangladesh's exports and any interruption is likely to have an impact on the economy.\nIt was the sacking of 121 workers that prompted the initial walkout more than a week ago. The workers' protest soon expanded to demand a monthly minimum wage of 16,000 taka (£165; $203). It is currently 5,300 taka (£55; $67).\nBut factories nevertheless resumed operations on Tuesday and that was when hundreds discovered they had lost their jobs, reports say. Union chiefs said police used a controversial law to shut down the protests.\nAshulia is a vast garment production hub used by clothing companies around the world, including Western giants like Zara, Gap and H&M.", "Photos and video of Zoe Anastasi and Will Diggins' big day will be shared live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Periscope.\nThey do not want to say how much they are paying but similar social media packages start from £6,500.\nMiss Anastasi, from Derby, said it was worth the cost.\n\"It's worth spending thousands of pounds because you only get the chance to tell the amazing story of your wedding day once,\" said the bride, who works for a construction company.\n\"You spend so much money on flowers, venue, food, drink. Social media is such a big part of our lives today so it deserves an investment, too.\"\nMr Diggins, a wealth management consultant, said: \"It's a day of pretending to be a celebrity; it's the closest you'll ever get to feeling famous, and who wouldn't like that?\"\nCoverage of the event, from a venue in Beeston, has been organised by a Derby-based social media agency called Status Social.\nIt said a hotel in New York did something similar, but it had not been able to find anyone else in the world who has had this type of professional social media coverage for their wedding.\nMiss Anastasi said it would mean their relatives all over the world - in France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Australia and America - could \"feel part of the wedding even though they can't make it to the actual wedding\".\n\"It's no more intrusive that having your regular photographer and videographer, which we've got as well,\" she added.\nMr Diggins said: \"It's just got people excited; it's got people talking about it on the wedding Facebook group and sharing old photos and things like that.\"", "The wedding reception of Sarah Cummins, 25, had been booked at the plush Ritz Charles in Carmel, Indiana, and was non-refundable.\nSo she contacted homeless shelters in the area and guests were bussed in for Saturday's 170-seat dinner.\nMs Cummins called off the wedding but has not given the reasons.\nShe told the Indy Star: \"It was really devastating, I called everyone, cancelled, apologised, cried, called vendors, cried some more and then I started feeling really sick about just throwing away all the food I ordered for the reception.\"\nShe had been due to marry Logan Araujo, who had footed the largest part of the bill.\nMs Cummins said her ex-fiance, whose mother died recently, had agreed to the solution.\nMr Araujo told the Indy Star: \"I'm happy through my grief and also Sarah's that she was able to make a selfless and very thoughtful decision in such a hard time.\"\nMs Cummins worked with the Ritz Charles' wedding planner on the event and then contacted homeless shelters, arranging for buses to pick up the new guests.\nLocal business helped to donate suits and dresses for the reception, Associated Press reported.\nThe agency quoted one of the attendees, Charlie Allen, as saying: \"I didn't have a sport coat. I think I look pretty nice in it. For a lot of us, this is a good time to show us what we can have. Or to remind us what we had.\"\nSome of Ms Cummins' family joined her at the event, along with three bridesmaids.\nThe menu included chicken breast with artichokes and Chardonnay cream sauce, roasted garlic bruschetta and, of course, wedding cake.\nMs Cummins was scheduled to leave for what was supposed to have been her honeymoon - taking her mother instead of Mr Araujo - in the Dominican Republic on Sunday.", "Tech firm Bijou Commerce believes so. Its platform enables fashion and beauty apps to offer single-image browsing - customers can swipe right if they like a product, and left if they don't.\nWorking with retail companies like Nobody's Child, Bijou is on a mission to make fashion shopping simpler and more engaging for customers.\n\"Most retailers' apps and mobile sites put between four and 12 products on a single screen,\" chief executive Beth Wond tells the BBC.\n\"These images look small on most mobile phones, meaning individual products struggle to stand out.\"\nShe also believes retailers should understand that this Tinder-style swipe technology isn't just a gimmick.\n\"For fashion brands the biggest asset is your image, so single-image browsing is crucial,\" she says.\nThis is just one example of how fashion retailers are responding to the new world of smartphones and social media.\nHow about \"liking\" your way to an outfit choice?\nCharese Embree co-founded a US-born site and app called Fynd, a fashion search engine that lets shoppers \"like\" their way to the look they want.\nSay you search for \"cocktail dresses\" and a wide selection comes up, you can home in on the style and colour you're after by clicking the heart icon on the ones you like. An algorithm narrows down the search for you based on your preferences - \"speed dating for dresses\" as the website describes it.\n\"The like button works because of our familiarity with it,\" says Ms Embree. \"Our concept is just an extension of your Facebook or Instagram page, but helps you find that perfect outfit you've been looking for.\"\nFynd works with department stores such as Bloomingdales to give them the ability to showcase their wares.\n\"We enable retailers to reach social media-savvy consumers much quicker than they can do in store,\" she says.\nTammy Smulders, managing director of online fashion platform Luxhub, believes smartphones have made us into impatient buyers.\n\"We are seeing a shift. It's not that people are more demanding, it's just that the norm is to have everything in an instant,\" she says.\nThere has also been a shift from fashion bloggers not just talking about clothes on social media but also giving followers a chance to buy the outfits instantly.\nPlatforms such as Like To Know It link fashion bloggers' Instagram accounts directly with retailers, so you can shop for the outfits and accessories in the posts you \"like\".\nLuxury fashion group Yoox Net-a-Porter went one step further by creating their own social media app called The Net Set.\n\"The rise of social media and style blogs has shown that people around the world are inspired by each other's style so The Net Set instantly links consumers, designers and brands in real time,\" says Alex Alexander, Net-a-Porter's chief information officer.\nWatchable social content, such as YouTube, hasn't been forgotten either.\nVery, the online clothing brand, teamed up with rappers Rizzle Kicks and former girl band member Rochelle Humes to create the world's first \"shoppable\" music video.\nThe music video allowed viewers to click on any item they liked, from the clothes to home wear, and buy it immediately, using Google's TrueView \"shoppable ad\" functionality.\nJodie Butt at Cake PR, who helped create the video, says: \"Today's consumers are digital natives, socially hungry and brand savvy.\n\"Content is a huge part of their everyday life, but they're are spoilt for choice - which means if a brand can't capture their attention quickly they'll lose them in one click.\"\nThe content helped Very take £1.4m in sales as people switched from viewers to shoppers.\nAnd Tammy Smulders believes this is the way we're heading.\n\"We are moving into a more interactive, real-time way of purchasing goods,\" she says. \"Whether that's taking a picture and purchasing a designer dress at a fashion show or just a cute top we've seen someone wearing on the bus. It's all going to be at our fingertips.\"\nFor example, fashion shopping app Goxip in Hong Kong lets fans point their phones at celebrities and buy what they're wearing.\nAnd the UK's Snap Fashion works much the same way - using image recognition software to match up photos you take with the same or similar clothes online or in a high street store near you.\nAugmented reality firm Blippar already enables you to point your cameraphone at something and receive information about it. Now it has teamed up with card payments giant Visa and designer Henry Holland to develop the first \"instant buy\" fashion show.\nBut if the fashion industry is being taken over by the smartphone, where does this leave the high street?\nMost young shoppers now take their smartphones with them and many use them in-store to research products and compare prices online.\nSimon Richards, partnership director at Blippar, says his firm is working with a number of high street stores to take this element of the app further.\n\"We want to help the high street grow by bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds and making consumers better informed about the things they see around them.\"\n\"By making consumers more knowledgeable about a certain product, such as colour variations, or giving product reviews, it will help the consumer gain more knowledge of the brand or the designer's inspiration behind the collection.\"\nRetailers also gain access to useful data about what their customers are looking at in-store, enabling them to improve stock choices and product placement.\nFashion and phones would appear to be a match made in heaven.\nFollow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter\nClick here for more Technology of Business features", "Where once low-wage workers churned out clothes for export, today a new company has taken up residence that is riding the wave of China's consumer spending boom.\nIn fact Mr Wedding - a small business employing 16 people - is part of an industry that has been booming like few others anywhere in history.\nAccording to state media, China's marriage market - the money spent on ceremonies, catering, honeymoons and hospitality - has grown from almost nothing a couple of decades ago to a whopping annual 800bn yuan ($130bn; £78bn).\nAnd Mr Wedding, from its old factory base, is trying to carve out a little slice of that economy by offering Shanghai's brides-and-grooms-to-be a familiar service with a twist.\n\"People can do a lot of almost impossible postures under water,\" the founder and owner, Tina Liu, tells me.\n\"The sense of losing gravity creates the beauty of floating.\"\nUnderwater wedding: In pictures\nTwo of her customers Lin Enxiao and He Huan introduce themselves by their English names - Lamea and YY.\nThey're not getting married until next year, but like many Chinese couples they've decided to get the wedding photographs out of the way early.\n\"Most of our friends did their photo shoot on dry land,\" YY tells me. \"We wanted something different.\"\n\"When people think about wedding photos it's always grassland, white walls and doves,\" Lamea agrees.\n\"It feels good to change that picture.\"\nChina did not invent the underwater wedding shoot but it has embraced it like nowhere else.\nThere are dozens of studios offering the service in Shanghai alone, and it is a crowded, competitive market.\n\"Some talented people have a good concept and good creativity but they don't make it because they lack persistency,\" Tina says.\nEach individual photo shoot is a painstaking, time-consuming process.\nMr Wedding's team of stylists gives Lamea and YY a full makeover, spending a couple of hours on their hair and make-up.\n\"We suggest that for underwater wedding pictures brides should wear a white wedding dress with a long trail,\" Tina says.\n\"And we use waterproof make-up so it doesn't run in the water.\"\nThen, Lamea and YY, dressed for a full white wedding, are walked not down an aisle but up a small set of steps into the photography tank.\nMeasuring around 12ft by 12 ft (3.6m by 3.6m) - it is full of warm water with a lifeguard on hand to help them climb in and to accompany them throughout their time in the water.\nTina shouts instructions into a microphone from the other side of the tank's glass window and, taking a deep breath, Lamea and YY slip beneath the water and their wedding shoot is underway.\nTina started her business in 2003, at that point doing only traditional wedding photography, with an initial investment of 150,000 yuan.\nShe worked out of a small shop and used Shanghai's picturesque streetscapes as the backdrop for the photos as she had no studio of her own.\nThe decision to move out of the city centre, although it gave her space to expand and to build the water tank, presented a major challenge.\n\"Here, we are quite far away from where most people work so we lost a lot of customers,\" she says.\n\"People used to fight for a vacancy but suddenly our schedule board was blank. I felt depressed and even started to doubt the quality of my work.\n\"But it was useless to stay in that mood so we started addressing the internal problems, getting the teamwork right, and slowly the business came back up again.\"\nWhat is it like to be an entrepreneur in different parts of the world?\nThe BBC's global team are talking to people starting their own businesses around Asia. What battles do they face to make their mark and make money?\nRead more My Business stories\nToday, Tina says, the it brings in a revenue of between 400,000 and 500,000 yuan a month.\nBut like small business owners everywhere she needs to stay constantly on her toes.\n\"The photography industry has reached a peak,\" the China Wedding Trade Association's Secretary General, Shi Kangming, tells me.\n\"Many famous studios have closed,\" he says, \"and fewer young couples want wedding photos nowadays.\"\nIn 2009, he says, his organisation's figures show that around 90% of marrying couples booked the services of a wedding photographer.\nToday the figure is down to just 70% - an extraordinary drop-off that highlights the fast changing pace of the industry.\nBut with more than 10 million couples tying the knot every year there's still plenty of opportunity for those who can adapt.\n\"We're launching a new project we call 'air filming',\" Tina tells me.\nShe describes how they attach a movie camera to a small remote control drone so that aerial shots can be taken of the couple, who remain firmly on the ground.\n\"People will feel the product is beautiful and amazing, and although they might not be sure about it, they'll want to try when they see other people's results,\" she says.\nThe company is also introducing stop-motion animation in the form of a flipbook style photograph album.\nLamea and YY have no hesitation in paying the 2,000 yuan ($325; £200) price tag for their set of 15 underwater wedding photos.\nThey're delighted with the results.\n\"You only get married once in your life,\" Lamea says, \"so you should spend money on what's needed.\"\n\"We started preparing a long time ago,\" YY adds. \"We've been saving half of our income and putting it into our wedding fund for all the necessary things we'll be needing.\"", "Lusea Warner married James Gale at Symondsbury on Wednesday but discovered her ring had been taken when her maid of honour's car was broken into.\nIt had been specially designed by Mrs Warner Gale to match her wedding ring.\nShe has appealed on social media for its return, describing herself as a \"heartbroken bride\".\nMrs Warner Gale, who lives in East Lulworth, said a handbag containing the white gold and simulated diamond ring had been put in the maid of honour's car parked outside the 14th Century church.\nTwo cars were thought to have been broken into sometime after 15:30 BST. The break-ins were reported to police.\nMrs Warner Gale said she \"broke down in tears\" later in the evening at her wedding breakfast when she realised the bag had been taken.\n\"Symondsbury is such an idyllic English country village, which is why we are all so shocked and confused.\"\nShe said the engagement ring had been \"designed to go together\" with her wedding ring as \"they sit into one another and together they represent all that I love - the sea and James\".\nTradition dictates that the wedding and engagement rings are both worn on the fourth finger of the left hand, with the wedding ring \"closest to the heart\". Some brides therefore decide to move their engagement ring to the right hand for the wedding service, while others chose not to wear it during the ceremony.", "So what's gone wrong at the company - and what is it doing about it?" ]

[ "What are some signs of life on other planets?" ]

[ "What's the point of existence of other planets?", "Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and does it have the ability to travel outside of its planet?", "What are the chances that elements we don't know of exist on other planets or in other galaxies?", "When will humans discover other life in the universe?", "What happens to religion when we find life on another planet?", "How true is it that the Earth is the only planet having life in the entire universe?", "Despite being extremely unlikely, is there a possibility that Earth is the only planet in the Universe with life?", "Does anyone (14 years and older) still believe that Noah's Ark is a true story?", "What do you believe in life?", "How do flat earth believers explain the spherical shape of other planets and moons?", "How is the gravity of other planets measured?", "What can I do to believe others?", "Does anyone seriously believe Mark Cuban will ever run for US President?", "Why is earth said to be the only planet in the solar system on which life is possible?", "What does a Psychopath believes? How does the lack of emotions affects the believe in a god?", "Does anyone believe Princess Diana death was an accident and the British monarchy didn't order her death?", "What is the best evidence to support that alien intelligent life has visited our planet?", "Does an atheist believe in ghosts?", "Do you believe in life after death?", "Does anyone expect the Spanish Inquisition?", "Does Hinduism believe in evolution?", "What does BBN Planet mean?", "Does anyone still use Google+?", "Does anyone use Quora?", "Do alien really exist?", "Are there extraterrestrials among us?", "Seriously, what are the chances that there is not another form of intelligent life somewhere in the universe?", "How does anyone overcome depression?", "Does life exits on mars?", "Was anyone ever forced to strip naked in front of many others?", "Does anyone like Trump and Clinton?", "Did humans come from another planet?" ]

[ "Square Deal or No Deal" ]

[ "Game of Thrones", "S", "hockey game", "the Highland Games" ]

[ "Chomsky does, he has a book where he describes what he calls the 'manufacture of consent'.\n\nIt's implicit in Mills argument that one can have a legally enshrined freedom of speech, but that this doesn't get past the 'tyranny of opinion'.\n\nChomsky is describing how in the era of mass media this tyranny of opinion is manufactured; and how opinion that is nonetheless well-argued so not eccentric is marginalised; and by being marginalised is rendered invisible and impotent.\n\nI'm not sure that eccentric in Mills time has the same meaning as it does now; perhaps diverse might be a better choice; so Mill is arguing that a diverse range of opinion shows implicitly that the tyranny of opinion doesn't hold sway tyrannically.\n\nIt might be worth pointing out that Arendt regards the arts as a barometer of the range of opinion.\n\nIt's also worth pointing out, I think, that some such tyranny has to hold away, as not all opinion is created alike; the question is its range, width or diversity." ]

[ "There is no philosophical reasoning to approve one and not the other - and I question whether or not such schizophrenic philosophers even exist. Furthermore, both the freedom of speech and the \"freedom of deeds\" - even in the most liberal circles - have been generally governed by the harm principle in their seminal states. Ergo, free speech does not mean that saying anything anywhere is permitted, just how the concept of liberty or a free society doesn't mean you can go around killing people. I suggest you read John Stuart Mill's On Liberty to familiarize yourself with the concessions of Mill's staunch liberal position.\n\nFurther reading:\n\n\nOpinion in Commonwealth v. Joseph D. Leis, Justice Jacob J. Spiegel\nRegulating Racist Speech on Campus, Charles R. Lawrence III\nCorry v. Stanford University, The Superior Court of California\nChaplinsky v. New Hampshire, The Supreme Court of the United States\n\n\nNote that I use the term \"liberal\" in the context of philosophical liberalism, and not in any political sense.", "One current philosopher and theologian, Robert Barron, would dispute this claim by looking at what is meant by the word \"freedom.\" Freedom, in Kaczynski eyes is the ability to do whatever one pleases. However, another dictionary definition for the word \"freedom\" is \"familiarity or openness in speech or behavior.\" As Barron often points out, familiarity or fluidity in speech or behavior actually requires constraints: eg one becomes good at piano not by mashing on keys but by learning scales.\n\nObviously, some societal constraints (eg: unjust laws) go against freedom, but at least in one tradition constraints are needed for freedom (eg family relationships, friendships, contracts). Seen in this light, increasing technology is morally ambiguous - it comes both with challenges and opportunities.", "Rabbi Michael Broyde (a Justice of the Beth Din of America) has a full article of the topic available in English here.\n\nHe surveys a wide range of opinions from R Eliezer Waldenberg (author of Tzitz Eliezer), who holds that the prohibition of reporting does not apply in a just society, to that of R Moshe Feinstein (author of Igrot Moshe), who holds that the prohibition remains in full force even in a Just society, and many other modern authorities in between. However, even according to the more stringent view, reporting would be permitted under two primary exemptions: where the secular system judges by the same rule as a Jewish court would (as there is no damage caused), and a case where one reports a violent and potentially dangerous person. Rabbi Broyde elaborates at length about what constitutes such an exception, but notes towards the end of the article that even according to the most stringent view, someone who is known to regularly abuse others should be reported promptly to local authorities to prevent further physical harm as well as Chillul HaShem.", "Yes, he was. The book you're looking for is Considerations on Representative Government.\n\n[A] people must be considered unfit for more than a limited and qualified freedom who will not co-operate actively with the law and the public authorities in the repression of evil-doers. A people who are more disposed to shelter a criminal than to apprehend him; who, like the Hindoos, will perjure themselves to screen the man who has robbed them, rather than take trouble or expose themselves to vindictiveness by giving evidence against him.\n\nMill thought that European countries had to teach their supposedly ignorant colonial subjects how to behave before they could be trusted with elections. Even Marxists, at this point, thought that Europe was the centre of the universe. While this doesn't mitigate any blame attached to Mill, the above quote is more important for what it tells us about the general 19th century European view of non Europeans than for what it says about Mill.", "The Fourteenth Amendment generally requires the states to recognize the same individual rights that the Bill of Rights requires Congress to recognize.\nIn Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925), the Supreme Court recognized that this includes the First Amendment right to free speech:\n\nFor present purposes, we may and do assume that freedom of speech and of the press which are protected by the First Amendment from abridgment by Congress are among the fundamental personal rights and "liberties" protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the States. We do not regard the incidental statement in Prudential Ins. Co. v. Cheek, 259 U. S. 530, 259 U. S. 543, that the Fourteenth Amendment imposes no restrictions on the States concerning freedom of speech, as determinative of this question.\n\nThere is some debate as to exactly which language in the Fourteenth Amendment makes this happen -- probably the due-process clause, maybe the privileges and immunities clause -- but there isn't any real debate as to the outcome.\nThe executive branch is likewise unable to enforce speech restrictions because all its programs are authorized and funded by Congress. There has been some argument in line with your proposed reading to the contrary, but the courts consistently enforce the First Amendment against the executive branch and even against themselves.", "There are very few laws that are seen as being binding on all people. Those that do exist (such as "crimes against humanity" or "crimes against peace") are not part of a conventional legal system. There are no universal laws on religious defamation.\nThe short answer to your question is "No, there are no provisions in the law of all countries to accept this convention".\nFor contrast there is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says:\n\nArticle 18\nEveryone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.\nArticle 19\nEveryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.\n\nIn these articles, countries which signed the agreement (including Pakistan - one of the strongest supporters of this text in 1948) explicitly allow people to hold any belief, to hold and express their criticisms of any belief, and to change their beliefs.\nA country may, by law, limit the exercise of these rights only for the sake of "securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society". You can limit the expression of criticism only to the extent required to maintain a safe and ethical society. Thus it may be reasonable to outlaw the insults against religion.\nHowever these articles are aspirational, not binding.\nThe context of this is the actions of various bodies in Pakistan seeking extreme punishment against non-muslims for claimed insults against Islam. There is nothing in international law which condones, accepts or provides for this.", "It is easier if we just look at a less ambitious subset of absolute freedom of speech: absolute freedom to publicly defend a certain thesis.\n\nBecause this would exclude a lot of obnoxious stuff which is prohibited everywhere, including countries arguably maintaining a high respect for free speech, e.g. the US (contrary to Europe).\n\nStill, even this subset is problematic, because of libel laws. And libel laws are something dictators always abuse first, for example Hitler endlessly sued newspapers for libel before he was in power.\n\nBut formally we can differentiate the US from a dictatorship, because at least any opinion, which is not about single individuals, can legally be publicly defended. You can, for example, legally deny the holocaust.\n\nFor European democracies this is much more difficult, probably impossible.\n\nFor example, what is the difference between criminalizing Armenian genocide denial (France) or criminalizing the claim that the Armenian genocide happened (which counts as the crime of “insulting Turkishness”, article 301 of the Turkish penal code)?\n\nFormally there is no difference. Of course, I believe that the Armenian genocide happened and so that Turkey's law is horrible, while I am relaxed about France's law. But if I argue that way, I leave the meta-level which tries to be neutral of the validity and worth of an opinion.", "If I take the following definition as canonical, the answer is clear:\n\n\n This article [...] considers various strategies\n by which critics of [Frankfurt-type] examples have tried to rescue the Principle of Alternative Possibilities (PAP), or variations of\n it, and also considers various responses to these critics. It notes that moral\n responsibility does not require alternative possibilities, but also believes\n that freedom does imply alternative possibilities. The resulting view is called\n semicompatibilism. \n \n (Abstract of Fischer, J. (2005-03-03): Frankfurt-Type Examples and Semi-Compatibilism. In Robert Kane (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Free Will. Oxford University Press)\n\n\nIn other words: (Classical) compatibilism assumes that freedom is compatible with determinism (i.e. at least in the physical world the impossibility of alternative possibilities). This is mostly, if not always, coupled with the view that moral responsibility is impossible without freedom. In other words: both freedom and moral responsibility are compatible with determinism.\n\nSemi-compatibilism, on the other hand, holds that while freedom is, in fact, incompatible with determinism (in absence of PAP), moral responsibility is not. It argues for there being moral responsibility even in a world without freedom (of will). Hence semi- compatibilism, since it only endorses one half of what classical compatibilism argues for.", "My colleague Colin Allen is a representative of a consistently naturalistic point of view.\n\nAre you looking for people with a specifically atheist response to Plantinga's arguments in particular? If so, which of AP's arguments? \n\nThe more specific you can be with your question, the easier it will be to give you a useful answer.", "No, CC-BY-ND isn't Open Source. It violates rule 3 of the Open Source Definition:\n\n\n \n Derived Works\n \n \n The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow\n them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the\n original software.\n\n\nIt also violates the freedom 3 of the Free Software Definition:\n\n\n The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others\n (freedom 3)\n\n\nThe FSF doesn't list it as free license. The link you provide not only has free licenses, it has sections for free (compatible with GPL), free (incompatible with GPL) and nonfree licenses. For instance is the Sun Community Source license listed in the unfree section. CC-BY-ND is listed in their nonfree documentation license section.\n\nThey list it again though, in their section for Viewpoints. The FSF claims that these opinions should be copied unchanged. The sections starts the following:\n\n\n Licenses for Works stating a Viewpoint (e.g., Opinion or Testimony)\n \n Works that express someone's opinion—memoirs, editorials, and so\n on—serve a fundamentally different purpose than works for practical\n use like software and documentation. Because of this, we expect them\n to provide recipients with a different set of permissions: just the\n permission to copy and distribute the work verbatim. Richard Stallman\n discusses this frequently in his speeches.\n\n\nThat means the license is nonfree, but useful for a different purpose.", "Opinions in arguments that are not leShem shemayim are not included. Almost all of the sources (which I know about) which comment on this issue do so in the context of halakhic arguments. (R' Kook is the exception.)\n\nR' Kook (אורות הקודש) seems to hold that in theory, everything is included, but in practice, we only accept \"acceptable\" opinions that follow \"preestablished standards.\"\n\nR' Moshe Feinstein (אגרות משה - הקדמה) also makes a distinction between practical truth and theoretical truth.\n\nRashi (Ketubot 57a) holds that factual arguments, such as whether Rabbi A said something was assur or muttar, are not included, for there is a definite truth - he either said \"assur\" or \"muttar,\" but not both. But general arguments in halacha are included, for something could be assur in one case, but muttar in a different case.\n\nAccording to the Ran, even the incorrect halakhic opinions were given at Har Sinai.\n\nAlso note that the Gemara (Sanhedrin 17a) says that one of the tests for someone to be gain a seat in the Sanhedrin was whether he could be מטהר a שרץ מן התורה, possibly implying that even obviously false opinions are valid.", "Your questions are broad and vague. In general, yes, he was an advocate for the “state policy” of maximal freedom, including freedom of “ thought and expression.” Globally, he believed “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised [by the state] over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others:”\n\nThe object of this Essay [On Liberty] is to assert one very simple principle, as\nentitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the\nindividual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means\nused be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral\ncoercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for\nwhich mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in\ninterfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is\nself-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be\nrightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against\nhis will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical\nor moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be\ncompelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so,\nbecause it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others,\nto do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for\nremonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or\nentreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any\nevil in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which\nit is desired to deter him, must be calculated to produce evil to some\none else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is\namenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which\nmerely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over\nhimself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.\n(From On Liberty, chapter 1 .)\n\nAs for your second question, it is not likely that Mill would have claimed that “all speech is ethically positive.” Rather, he would have said that ON BALANCE (and, remember he was a utilitarian), the right of an individual to express herself ethically outweighs the right of others/another to silence the expression:\n\nLet us suppose...that the government is entirely at one with the people, and never thinks of exerting any power of coercion unless in agreement with what it conceives to be their voice. But I deny the right of the people to exercise such coercion [silencing expression], either by themselves or by their government. The power itself is illegitimate. The best government has no more title to it than the worst. It is as\nnoxious, or more noxious, when exerted in accordance with public\nopinion, than when in opposition to it. If all mankind minus one, were\nof one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion,\nmankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than\nhe, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were\nan opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if\nto be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury,\nit would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on\na few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the\nexpression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race;\nposterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from\nthe opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is\nright, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for\ntruth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the\nclearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its\ncollision with error. (From On Liberty, chapter 2 .)\n\nYou cam find On Liberty, Chapters 1 (Introduction) and 2 (Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion) here: . https://www.sjsu.edu/people/james.lindahl/courses/Hum2B/s2/JSMill-On-Liberty-Chs-1.pdf\nAnd the full essay here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm#Page_1", "Just a few. For continuous identity, \"Ship of Theseus\" paradox; for consciousness and identity, Donald Davidson's \"Swamp Man Argument;\" for scientific perspective on teleporting, Vlatko Vedral \"Decoding Reality\" and related papers. There is undoubtedly much, much more and there is just as undoubtedly no settled agreement on any of it.", "Normally, the term "benefit of the doubt", if it was used, would mean that ambiguities should be resolved in favor of the person entitled to it. This could be applied to contract interpretation or to statutory interpretation. Here is an example:\n\nWhen dealing with restrictions on campaign spending and speech, a\ncourt's construction must “give the benefit of the doubt to speech,\nnot censorship. The First Amendment's command that ‘Congress shall\nmake no law ... abridging the freedom of speech’ demands at least\nthat.\n\nColorado Educ. Ass'n v. Rutt, 184 P.3d 65, 75–76 (Colo. 2008) (ultimately holding that union activities to organize volunteers to walk precincts with a political candidate did not constitute a "campaign expenditure" of a union within the meaning of a state law restriction campaign contributions by unions).", "I don't think it necessarily means people who resist evidence and truth, but rather, some people in the field of political psychology who are not edging toward SJ's views.", "Scammers appear in all nations, I'm afraid. In addition to the Indian predatory publishers, I receive lots of spam from Chinese, German, and American predatory publishers, plus I'm sure from many other nations that just aren't coming to mind. Just as I wouldn't judge American scholarship from the spam I get from American publishers, or from the diploma mills that operate there, so I would not judge Indian scholarship by the fraudsters of India. It's just a large nation with an open society and a good information infrastructure, and so a certain fraction of scammers are to be expected.\n\nNow, there are other aspects of the Indian school system which merit concern, but the publishing scams should not be the basis for any opinion that you hold.", "The lyrics are possibly \"L-O-V-E\", and not \"M-O-D-E\". I can also hear \nthe line \"Hold up, lemme see about that\" repeated in the chorus.\n\nThe song credits are given in the webpage for the Workout #01 on the website Les Mills On Demand:\n\n\n \n UPPER BODY WARMUP\n Kalm performed by Samastah\n LOWER BODY WARMUP\n Hold Up performed by Tamagotchii\n \n\n\nYou're right that these songs are not available on the official tracklist.\nI also can't find any links to these songs anywhere on the internet.", "Related: How much of the Looters' philosophy did Fred Kinnan actually accept?\n\nI think that the key phrase here comes at the end of that speech:\n\n\n \"...Sure, it makes me sick sometimes, it makes me sick right now, but it's not me who's built this kind of world - you did - so I'm playing the same as you've set it up and I'm going to play it for as long as it lasts - which isn't going to be long for any of us!\"\n\n\nHe's playing the game that the Looters created because he doesn't see an alternative. Earlier, he said that\n\n\n \"Do you think that the country will stand for [Kinnan stacking the Unification Board with his own men]?\" yelled Taggart.\n \"Stop kidding yourself,\" said Kinnan. \"The country? If there aren't any principles anymore - and I guess the doc is right, because there sure aren't if there aren't any rules to the game and it's only a question of who robs whom - then I've got more votes than the bunch of you, there are more workers than employers, and don't you forget it, boys!\"\n\n\nFrom his perspective, it's \"rob or be robbed,\" and he might as well be the robber if that's his only choice.", "\"Man is born free. Therefore, man has the right to be free.\"\n\nFirst, we might ask Man's mother about that. Philosophy as well as religion tends to neglect the role of Mrs. Man in all this splendid a priori freedom. Hobbes is the only philosopher I happen to know of who actually refers in anecdote to his mother, his difficult birth, and the consequences for his philosophy, one in which \"rights\" are conspicuously absent in \"nature.\"\n\nThe point being that observations of \"nature\" itself give absolutely no evidence of such \"rights.\" Humans are quite obviously social and interdependent, and moral rules entail the forfeiture of conflicting assertions of \"right.\" Marx referred mockingly to the a priori British assumption of individual rights as \"Robinsonism,\"after Robinson Crusoe. \n\nIn his stricter development of Locke's empiricism, Hume's own observations of \"natural\" perceptions led him to state pithily that: \"You can't get an ought from an is.\" In other words, facts simply do not contain moral values, as assumed in \"rights,\" and for many years this \"fact-value\" dichotomy hobbled the atomistic Anglo-American stance, as opposed to the more socially inclined Continental traditions. \n\nSo, yes, one can argue that the inference of \"rights\" from \"nature\" is not empirically valid, and in logic would appear not as a fallacy per se, but as a dubious premise. But \"nature\" itself is another rather dubious premise, and the question of \"rights\" is really quite enormous, with many philosophical responses. Much of Kant's philosophy was precisely an attempt to rescue moral premises from Humean skepticism by means of reason.This was revived in Rawls' pragmatic, highly influential attack on the traditional \"fact-value\" divide.", "Walker (Texas DMV) v. Sons of Confederate Veterans holds that \n\n\n Texas’s specialty license plate designs constitute government\n speech, and thus Texas was entitled to refuse to issue \n plates featuring SCV’s proposed design...\n \n When government speaks, it is not barred by the Free Speech \n Clause from determining the content of what it says\n\n\nThe plate \"NULL\" falls into the category covered by this ruling. The court has\n\n\n 'refused “[t]o hold that the Government unconstitutionally\n discriminates on the basis of viewpoint when it chooses to\n fund a program dedicated to advance certain permissible goals, because\n the program in advancing those goals necessarily discourages \n alternative goals.”'\n\n\nIn the aforementioned case, the viewpoint that was not permitted was arguably a pro-Confederate viewpoint, and it was ruled that the government has no obligation to express such a viewpoint.\n\nThe court found that strict scrutiny under the Free Speech Clause is not applicable in this case; in a potential application of strict scrutiny to the instant circumstances, the government is actually on even stronger footing, since there is a compelling government interest at stake (the ability to bill people for road usage without the need for toll booths). Governments have long been able to restrict insulting and profane words as vanity plates. I would be very surprised if he is able to force the government to accept this plate.", "The most widely-discussed theories of right-action in recent anglophone philosophy, Kantianism and Utilitarianism, each have ways of allowing that actions that would otherwise be wrong can be right under certain circumstances. Both understand such an action as right when it's done for the right reason (and no longer wrong).\n\nKantians have long discussed the “murderer at the door” scenario, where a murderer asks you where someone you know is, because the murderer wants to kill him/her. Kant brought up this example in Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Recent Kantians have argued that while it is usually wrong to lie, it is morally right to lie in this case. Philosopher Christine Korsgaard has a great discussion of this in her essay “The Right to Lie: Kant on Dealing with Evil.\"\n\nUtilitarians, similarly, would argue that it's possible for actions that, performed in isolation, would be harmful to be good, if they produce the most overall happiness. The second chapter of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism discusses this point.\n\nThis forum is not the best place to find literary/fictional references, but one fun example I think of is Jack London's The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. which is about a group of professors who decide that it's okay to murder people who are harmful to society, and argue with each other about that.", "Repeal the 1st Amendment, or reverse the ruling of Citizens United v. FEC\nIt would matter what sort of influence you were interested in reducing. Corporations have little influence when it comes to direct campaign donations, since currently it illegal for corporations to donate directly to political campaigns. This leaves Political Action Committees (PACs), whose donations to political parties/multiple-candidate are a paltry sum.\n\n$5,000 to a candidate or candidate committee for each election (primary and general elections count as separate elections);\n$15,000 to a political party per year; and\n$5,000 to another PAC per year.\nPACs may make unlimited expenditures independently of a candidate or political party\n\nAs far as how influential spending in political campaigns is, Steve Levitt, Freakinomics co-author found that:\n\nWhen a candidate doubled their spending, holding everything else constant, they only got an extra one percent of the popular vote. It’s the same if you cut your spending in half, you only lose one percent of the popular vote. So we’re talking about really large swings in campaign spending with almost trivial changes in the vote.\n\nSupposing you wanted to eliminate that %1-2% edge, you have the issue that the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission that corporations/labor unions free speech cannot be abridged by Congress if the 1st Amendment is to have any teeth.\n\nThe First Amendment prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for engaging in political speech [...] Although the First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech,” §441b’s prohibition on corporate independent expenditures is an outright ban on speech, backed by criminal sanctions. It is a ban notwithstanding the fact that a PAC created by a corporation can still speak, for a PAC is a separate association from the corporation.\n\nRepealing an amendment (like the 21st repealed the 18th) to the Constitution requires that either both houses of Congress by 2/3rds supermajority, or a constitutional convention or 2/3rds of the state legislators propose an amendment.\n\nThe Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments [...]\n\nThen, the amendment needs to be ratified by 2/3rds of the states\n\nA proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States).\n\nThe second route is trickier. Overturning Citizens United v. FEC would probably require that a new set of SCOTUS Justices. The same justices would likely rule the same way as their previous opinions. With a 5/4 split between concurring and dissenting opinions, you would need for Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Alito, or Thomas to leave the bench. SCOTUS Justices are appointed for life, so you would need either kill one or wait for for one to die.\nAdditionally, to bring a case to trial, you need what is called standing. You need to demonstrate to the court how you were personally harmed by the fact that a corporate PAC caused you harm. This would likely require that you would need to run for office, and show that a PACs political free speech caused you harm.", "Brewing textbooks I referred to universally state that the gap between the rollers of the mill needs to be much closer together for wet-milling. You don't mention making any adjustments, so I'll assume you didn't. Since the husk is made more elastic by conditioning, the dangers of pulverizing it with too tight a mill are eliminated, and in fact it may do a better job breaking down the endosperm, which also may have become less friable during conditioning. \n\nThis would fit with your experience of a very slow conversion and starch going into solution when the mash is stirred, which could be explained by (counter-intuitively) too large a grind. Or put another way, while wet milling helps the husk hold together, it may also help the starchy parts stick together too, creating a potential issue of over-large endosperm bits which don't easily gelatinize or solubilize. \n\nA few quotes, as mentioned above:\n\n\n \"During [wet] milling they are gently squeezed flat by the large rolls (400mm, 15.75in. diameter; 440rpm, gap 0.30±0.45mm, approx. 0.012± 0.018 in.) of the mill, squeezing out some of their contents.\" (source)\n\n\n-\n\n\n \"[In wet-milling, t]he rollers are closer together than in dry milling (0.35 – 0.45 mm apart)\" (source)\n\n\n-\n\n\n \"The gap between [the rollers], which may vary from 0.25 and 0.40mm, can be continuously adjusted.\" (source)\n\n\nFor reference, the same books give ranges between 0.6 and 1.5mm for gap spacing in two-roller mills used with dry malt.", "There appear to be good reasons to downvote and/or close this question, but the fact that the person asking is the same person answering is not one of them. Judge both questions and answers on their merits, without regard to the identity of their authors.", "I've been told that my attempts at ejectives are a little stronger than what happens in natural running speech, but my first approach at practicing ejectives went like this:\n\n\nHold your breath.\nWhile still holding your breath, try to say the sound (stops are easy to start with) in isolation.\n\n\nIf you're holding your breath (not using pulmonary air flow), then when you try to say /t/, for example, you should naturally compensate by raising your glottis to create the requisite pressure.\n\nThen, I'd suggest experimenting, by holding your breath, and building pressure for a /t/ without releasing it. Through this experimentation, you should get a good feeling about what muscles are involved in generating the ejectives.\n\nThe final step is to practice doing them in running speech.", "One name that comes to mind is that of Sextus Empiricus, whose work postdates that of Epictetus and Cicero. You might find it useful to look into : \n\nEMPIRICUS, Sextus, Outlines of Scepticism (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy), ISBN 10: 0521778093 / ISBN 13: 9780521778091. Published by Cambridge UP, 2005.\n\nWhile so far as I know Sextus does not refer by name to Epictetus or Seneca, the editor points to the likelihood of their views as targets, or at least (more precisely) to their holding views that Sextus criticises on p. 89 (Seneca) and p. 132 (Epictetus). \n\nBut these are only glancing references.", "The two statements are not contradictory.\nA court may impose a gag order on the parties to legal proceedings, as in the Michael Jackson trial, but it may not impose a gag order on the press that is covering the proceedings, which is what Chemerinsky is discussing.", "I'm copying cmb's clear answer from a similar topic (good chazara):\n\nthis issue depends on whether you are sefardi or ashkenazi. although a minority opinion holds that if one always has a meaty rosh chodesh seuda then he may do so on rosh chodesh av as well, however the vast majority of poskim - including the chayei adam (133,15) and mishna brura (551, 58) rule that one may not have meat on rosh chodesh itself; they hold the nine days are just that - nine days- mishenichnas av -meaning rosh chodesh - memaatin besimcha - this means that as soon as it is rosh chodesh av the restrictions already apply.\n\nyet, even the sefardi poskim who are machmir on the 9 days (the shulchan aruch cites 3 opinions with no ruling) hold that one may eat meat on rosh chodesh av itself - including the ben ish chai (year 1 devarim 15) and kaf hachaim (551, 125 -126). they hold lo ad bchlal, especially as sefardi poskim technically never took on 3 weeks or nine days, rather shavua shechal bo; therefore those sefardim who are machmir and start restrictions from the nine days - at least still have rosh chodosh av to be lenient with. i think the lashon in the kaf hachaim is - v'dye bazeh.\n\ncmb\n\nlchoirah the same would apply to the other restrictions as well", "Not exactly the same but IGM, an expert panel for measuring economists' views on various issues, asked its participants to rate \"A typical country can increase its citizens’ welfare by enacting policies that would increase its trade surplus (or decrease its trade deficit)\" and they were heavily against.", "Utilitarianism is self evidently difficult to bring to bear on two person hypotheticals such as this: weighing one person's happiness against that of another is, especially without context, rather hard. Standard approaches to dispensing with such problems fall into two broad categories.\n\nDeontological rules of thumb \n\nMany utilitarian philosophers, such as Mill in Utilitarianism, use utilitarianism as a basis for 'rules of thumb'as a way to avoid such difficulties (see Wikipedia's Rule Utilitarianism page). A variation of the so called golden rule of ethics is (quite) easily derivable in these terms and dispenses with the preference of the prurient neighbour as non-reciprocal or unsustainable by the whole of society.\n\nSpecific analysis of the situation\n\nIf we looked closely enough at the situation, we can argue that the situation in which the neighbour's increase in happiness at the lady being a shut-in outweighs her increase in happiness at being able to escape is impossible. References to the heirarchy of needs can provide a general basis for rebuttal, but the existence of other solutions (perhaps the neighbour could move, if it is so great an issue!) is also an option.\n\nNonetheless...\n\nThere remains the theoretical possibility that the nosy neighbour is a utility monster of some kind, and in spite of appeals of the latter kind ('Surely noone is actually a utility monster!'), the possibility is very difficult to dismiss a priori and such thought experiments can remain a problem for utilitarianism as a foundation for meta-ethics.", "As an Italian citizen, you do not need a working visa for the Netherlands, as it is also in the European Union:\n\n\n All EU/EEA or Swiss citizens, with the exception of Croatians, are entitled to work without restriction in all sectors and industries.\n\n\nThe same holds true for the UK, where you need neither a visa nor a work permit.\n\nThis is linked to the Freedom of movement to work inside the European Union.", "Before Marbury v Madison, how did the court system (or other function of government) invalidate laws that were unconstitutional?\n\n\nPrior to Marbury v. Madison no laws were invalidated as unconstitutional by any government body.\n\nDuring consideration of a proposed law, in the House, the bill would go through the Committee on Detail, the Committee on Style, and the Committee of the Whole. The proposal would be vetted for compliance with the Constitution, as interpreted by the members of the House. Any member could object on Constitutional grounds, at which point the members would vote on the objection.\n\nIn the discussion of Bounty Payments for Cod Fisheries, 6 February 1792, James Madison objected to the use of \"bounty\" and to the use of the (so-called) General Welfare clause as Constitutional authority. The vote was against Madison's objection.\n\n[It is likely that the Senate also did such vetting; but at that time, all deliberations by the Senate were conducted in secret.]\n\n\n\nThe Sedition Act, in particular, violated freedom of speech in the First Amendment. The Act was allowed to expire.\n\nThe Alien and Sedition Acts:\n\n\n Lastly, the controversial Sedition Act restricted speech that was critical of the federal government. Under the Sedition Act, the Federalists allowed people who were accused of violating the sedition laws to use truth as a defense. The Sedition Act resulted in the prosecution and conviction of many Jeffersonian newspaper owners who disagreed with the government.\n \n The acts were denounced by Democratic-Republicans and ultimately helped them to victory in the 1800 election, when Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent, President Adams. The Sedition Act and the Alien Friends Act were allowed to expire in 1800 and 1801, respectively.\n\n\nWikipedia, Freedom of speech and of the press:\n\n\n Wording of the clause\n \n The First Amendment bars Congress from \"abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press....\" U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens commented about this phraseology in a 1993 journal article: \"I emphasize the word 'the' in the term 'the freedom of speech' because the definite article suggests that the draftsmen intended to immunize a previously identified category or subset of speech.\" Stevens said that, otherwise, the clause might absurdly immunize things like false testimony under oath. Like Stevens, journalist Anthony Lewis wrote: \"The word 'the' can be read to mean what was understood at the time to be included in the concept of free speech.\" But what was understood at the time is not 100% clear. In the late 1790s, the lead author of the speech and press clauses, James Madison, argued against narrowing this freedom to what had existed under English common law:\n \n \n The practice in America must be entitled to much more respect. In every state, probably, in the Union, the press has exerted a freedom in canvassing the merits and measures of public men, of every description, which has not been confined to the strict limits of the common law.\n \n \n Madison wrote this in 1799, when he was in a dispute about the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws, which was legislation enacted in 1798 by President John Adams' Federalist Party to ban seditious libel. Madison believed that legislation to be unconstitutional, and his adversaries in that dispute, such as John Marshall, advocated the narrow freedom of speech that had existed in the English common law.\n \n Speech critical of the government\n \n The Supreme Court declined to rule on the constitutionality of any federal law regarding the Free Speech Clause until the 20th century. For example, the Supreme Court never ruled on the Alien and Sedition Acts; three Supreme Court justices riding circuit presided over sedition trials without indicating any reservations. The leading critics of the law, Vice President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, argued for the Acts' unconstitutionality based on the First Amendment and other Constitutional provisions. Jefferson succeeded Adams as president, in part due to the unpopularity of the latter's sedition prosecutions; he and his party quickly overturned the Acts and pardoned those imprisoned by them. In the majority opinion in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the Court noted the importance of this public debate as a precedent in First Amendment law and ruled that the Acts had been unconstitutional: \"Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history.\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Whiskey Tax, an excise, violated Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, which requires that excises be uniform. Large distillers paid a lower rate than small distillers. The law was repealed.\n\n\n To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, ...; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;\n\n\nWhiskey Rebellion:\n\n\n Under the new law, large producers paid the tax annually at a rate of six cents per gallon, and the more they produced, the further the tax breaks.\n \n Small producers, however, were stuck with a nine cents per gallon rate. Farmers took further issue because only cash would be accepted for tax payment.\n\n\n\n\n\n The whiskey tax that inspired the rebellion remained in effect until 1802. Under the leadership of President Thomas Jefferson and the Republican Party (which, like many citizens, opposed Hamilton’s Federalist tax policies), the tax was repealed after continuing to be almost impossible to collect.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION, page 2327 (PDF page 2353).\n\n\n ACTS OF CONGRESS HELD UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN\n WHOLE OR IN PART BY THE SUPREME COURT\n OF THE UNITED STATES\n \n \n Act of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat. 81, § 13, in part).\n Provision that “[the Supreme Court] shall have power to issue . . .\n writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the principles and usages\n of law, to any . . . persons holding office, under authority of the United\n States” as applied to the issue of mandamus to the Secretary of State\n requiring him to deliver to plaintiff a commission (duly signed by the\n President) as justice of the peace in the District of Columbia held an\n attempt to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, fixed\n by Article III, § 2.\n Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cr.) 137 (1803).\n Act of February 20, 1812 (2 Stat. 677).\n Provisions establishing board of revision to annul titles conferred\n many years previously by governors of the Northwest Territory were\n held violative of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.\n Reichart v. Felps, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 160 (1868).\n \n\n\nOne hundred eighty other acts omitted." ]

[ "More than 2 years have passed since Levovist®, a clinically applicable contrast agent for image diagnosis by intravenous ultrasonography, was approved. After start of the clinical use, there were advances in the ultrasonographic apparatuses, and as a result of positive efforts for clinical application, the usefulness of this compound was recognized in such areas as differential diagnosis of tumorous lesions by evaluation of blood flow pattern mainly in the liver especially in the abdominal field ; and evaluation of effectiveness in the localized treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma ; and its usefulness as a guide for additional treatment was also recognized. At the same time, a study was conducted on the interaction between micro-bubble and exposure to ultrasound, and a possibility of its use in DDS was suggested. In this paper, we summarized the background leading to the development of this contrast agent for ultrasonography, and future possibilities of this compound was also discussed." ]

[ "The aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic potential of galactose-based microbubble suspension (Levovist) in patients with acute cerebrovascular disease and inadequate transtemporal acoustic window, when examined by transcranial Doppler (TCD). We studied 10 patients with either transient ischemic attack (no. = 3) or stroke (no. = 7). Inadequate transtemporal acoustic window was unilateral in 3 patients and bilateral in the remaining 7 patients. Signals from middle, anterior, and posterior cerebral arteries (MCA, ACA, PCA) were recorded after injecting Levovist 300 mg/ml. Six patients needed 3 injections of Levovist, 1 patient two, and 3 patients one. Mean +/- SD duration of optimal signal enhancement was 175.2 +/- 53.2 s, range 70-290 s. Doppler waveform analysis was possible in 14 (82.3%) MCA, 11 (65%) ACA, and 9 (53%) PCA. Levovist improved the reliability of TCD in patients with acute cerebrovascular disease and insufficient transtemporal insonation.", "This paper will present some possibilities of appli- cation of mathematical linguistic formalisms, in the form of structural pattern recognition, in development a new class of intelligent medical diagnosis-support and image recognition systems. Such methods are aimed to facilitate a semantic analysis of the meaning for some selected medical patterns, especially in the form of 2D spinal cord and leg fracture visualization, and 3D CT coronary arteries reconstructions. The procedures proposed are based on the cognitive reso- nance and categorization model. The application presented in this paper will show the great possibilities of automatic lesion detection in the analysed structures.", "Dapsone (DDS) causes hypersensitivity reactions in 0.5–3.6% of patients. Although clinical diagnosis is indicative of a hypersensitivity reaction, studies have not been performed to define whether dapsone or a metabolite activates specific T-cells. Thus, the aims of this study were to explore the immunogenicity DDS and nitroso DDS (DDS-NO) using peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors and splenocytes from mice and generate human T-cell clones to characterize mechanisms of T-cell activation. DDS-NO was synthesized from DDS-hydroxylamine and shown to bind to the thiol group of glutathione and human and mouse albumin through sulfonamide and N-hydroxyl sulphonamide adducts. Naive T-cell priming to DDS and DDS-NO was successful in three human donors. DDS-specific CD4+ T-cell clones were stimulated to proliferate in response to drug via a MHC class II restricted direct binding interaction. Cross reactivity with DDS-NO, DDS-analogues, and sulfonamides was not observed. DDS-NO clones were CD4+ and ...", "A substantial genetic contribution in the etiology of developmental dyslexia (DD) has been well documented with independent groups reporting a susceptibility locus on chromosome 15q. After the identification of the DYX1C1 gene as a potential candidate for DD, several independent association studies reported controversial results. We performed a family-based association study to determine whether the DYX1C1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been associated with DD before, that is SNPs '-3GA' and '1249GT', influence a broader phenotypic definition of DD. A significant linkage disequilibrium was observed with 'Single Letter Backward Span' (SLBS) in both single-marker and haplotype analyses. These results provide further support to the association between DD and DYX1C1 and it suggests that the linkage disequilibrium with DYX1C1 is more saliently explained in Italian dyslexics by short-term memory, as measured by 'SLBS', than by the categorical diagnosis of DD or other related phenotypes.", "In this paper, the computer-aided diagnosis system for colorectal endoscopic images is proposed. The proposed system is consisted of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as the feature extraction processing and Support Vector Machine (SVM) as identification processing. The proposed system is also implemented on customizable Digital Signal Processing (DSP) core: Vision P6 DSP and is demonstrated the effectiveness of a real-time recognition system by a FPGA based prototyping system, Protium™ S1.", "We use double ratio of QCD (spectral) sum rules, to study the ratio masses of Tcc and X(3872) structures, assuming that they are described respectively by the DD* and DD* molecular currents. In this approach and within our approximation, we found that the masses of these two states are almost degenerated. In addition, if the observed Belle resonance X(3872) is a DD* molecule, then the DD* molecule should exists with approximately the same mass. We have studied an extension for the case including bottom quark. In this situation, our results indicates the same conclusion.", "This paper describes the Orthoscope, an equipment for acquisition, processing, and archiving of images of patients mouth or skin. The equipment can capture and process images of single tooth, group of teeth or the whole dental arc. A dentist can easily observe the situation in mouth, demonstrate intended plan of treatment to patient and document its results. A dermatologist can evaluate treatment progress. Unlike other methods, our device shows geometrically undistorted calibrated image.The presented equipment is intended for daily practice. The image processing module is connected to an insurance office system and medical archives. This eliminates time consuming literal description of the patient dental/dermatological status. The images can be used later checking of the diagnosis and treatment.", "Purpose ::: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical usefulness of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging for the differential diagnosis of breast lesions.", "In this paper we describe the development of the Amsterdam Digital City DDS. We describe its content and functionality, its organizational form, and the context it operated in. We also describe the users and the ways they used the DDS. The paper explains why the DDS initially was a success, and why it in the end failed to become a sustainable local information and communication infrastructure.", "This paper proposes a detection scheme for identifying stones in the biliary tract of the body, which is examined using magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), a sequence of magnetic resonance imaging targeted at the pancreatobiliary region of the abdomen. The scheme enhances the raw 2D thick slab MRCP images and extracts the biliary structure in the images using a segment-based region-growing approach. Detection of stones is scoped within this extracted structure, by highlighting possible stones. A trained feedforward artificial neural network uses selected features of size and average segment intensity as its input to detect possible stones in MRCP images and eliminate false stone-like objects. The proposed scheme achieved satisfactory results in tests of clinical MRCP thick slab images, indicating potential for implementation in computer-aided diagnosis systems for the liver.", "PurposeWe aimed to (a) elucidate the concordance of visual assessment of an initial 123I-ioflupane scan by a human interpreter with comparison to results using a fully automatic semiquantitative method and (b) to assess the accuracy compared to follow-up (f/u) diagnosis established by movement disor", "Epidemiological studies of children and adolescents with intellectual disability have found 30 to 50% exhibiting clinically significant behavior problems. Few studies, however, have assessed young children, included a cognitively typical comparison group, assessed for specific disorders, and/or studied family correlates of diagnosis. We assessed 236 5-year-old children—95 with developmental delay (DD) and 141 with typical development—for clinical diagnoses using a structured interview. Every disorder assessed was more prevalent in the DD group. The percent of children meeting criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) most highly differentiated the two groups (ratio = 3.21:1). There was high stability from externalizing behavior problems at age 3 to ADHD diagnoses at age 5 in both groups. In regression analyses, parenting stress at child age 3 related to later ADHD diagnosis in both groups and maternal scaffolding (sensitive teaching) also predicted ADHD in the DD group.", "Some ‘monstrous’ images of the eye (myopic staphyloma), examined by ultrasound, are presented. Different grades of staphyloma are presented and discussed. Some clinical considerations are made.", "Abstract We compared and analysed results of three diagnostic methods including Physical Examination Myelography and DMCT from 19 cases who were considered to have Syringomyelia at first visit. It was shown that DMCT is a reliable radiodiagnostic method in diagnosis of syringomyelia. The trustworthy basis can be given by DMCT to surgical treatment and diagnosis of atypical cases. Misdiagnosis may be made by DMCT for cases accompanied with intraspinal hemorrhage or instances of unsuitable scanning time. We, therefore, think that the history and the physical examination are still the main diagnostic method for this disease.", "We report two recent observations of an angiographic artefact called \"standing waves\". It results in the same characteristic beaded pictures than fibromuscular dysplasia. It is induced by the angiography catheter and is related to the speed of injection. The possible occurrence of this artefact should be borne in mind whenever the films show dysplastic lesions in more than one artery.", "In current clinic, pictures of B-supersonic, X-ray, X-CT and MRI are applicated widely. All of these are 2D pictures. The 3D information is blended. The blended information always leads doctors astray. If images are processed, mistakes will be reduced. In this paper the processing methods of 2D images are described. Examples of clinical applications are given. The acquiring methods of 3D information from 2D images are explained. The stereo image of liver and cancer is shown. The calculating ways of areas and volumes of liver and cancer are provided.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.", "In 32 patients with known gastric cancer involving different segments of the stomach, an attempt was made to image the tumour by ultrasonography. Identification of the lesion was possible in 31/32 cases. The tumour always appeared as a focal or diffuse thickening of the gastric wall, with irregular outer margins and luminal echoes; in many cases, a \"target\" pattern was seen. Although ultrasonography cannot be considered a sensitive test in the diagnosis of gastric cancer, knowledge of the possible appearances of tumours in all different portions of the stomach is important, since this method is often used as the first imaging procedure in a large variety of abdominal complaints, and clinically unsuspected gastric carcinomas may be imaged first by it.", "A program for the examination of patients with the superior vena caval syndrome, including digital subtraction angiography and computed-tomographic phlebography, is discussed. A combination of these methods is optimal and makes it possible to obtain detailed diagnostic information which is necessary for determining the therapeutic tactics in cases with the compression syndrome.", "The development of a new noninvasive computerized technique for producing simultaneous lateral, anterior-posterior, and transverse views of the carotid bifurcation for the diagnosis of occlusive disease is described. These multiplanar views have been used to detect 40 percent diameter reductions with a sensitivity of 100 percent and a specificity of 85 percent in 94 comparisons with vessel X-rays.", "A prospective study was performed to compare the diagnostic efficacy of conventional film-screen (FS) imaging with computed radiography (CR) in myelography. Forty examinations were done with both methods. Digital myelography was found to have diagnostic accuracy equal to that of conventional film-screen examinations.", "Chronic pelvic pain may be due to inguinal hernia, in both men and women. Often, this diagnosis is not readily apparent, as there may not be a palpable bulge or defect on examination. Inguinal hernia must be considered in the differential diagnosis of all patients with chronic pelvic pain. Specific questions that rule out hernia will help implicate hernia as a possible cause of pain. Imaging is also essential to diagnosis in most patients.", "Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding may be detected using a noninvasive nuclear medicine imaging procedure to assess and/or localize specific areas of hemorrhage in patients who may be actively bleeding. However, dilution of tracer in the bowel may cause difficulty in interpretation. Image enhancement of computer-acquired images allows optimum display of a wide count range of information to aid the nuclear medicine physician in interpretation. A case is reported in which this enhancement technique was utilized for proper diagnosis. An 83-yr-old white female with prior history of GI bleeding and persistent blood in her stools was given {sup 99m}Tc-sulfur colloid (SC) intravenously and subsequently imaged.", "Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) promises the achievement of considerable improvements in diagnostic procedures in otorhinolaryngology. In this article, the advantages of the technique are presented and their significance in diagnosis of head and neck disorders is discussed. An important advantage is the fine and detailed representation of tumours particularly in the soft tissue of the neck and the base of the tongue, which is made possible by an enhancement of contrast and by the improved spatial imaging based on the frontal and sagittal projection plane. MRI also seems to provide a new approach to the diagnosis of tumours of the glomus jugulare and the carotid body and of acoustic neurinomas. Besides, it will be possible to obtain more detailed information on the depth of infiltration of laryngeal carcinomas with the aid of surface coils.", "Digital imaging has been widely used in the field of oral and maxillofacial radiology. The present work summarizes the use of digital imaging from the following aspects: ①The origin of digital oral and maxillofacial imaging; ②The influence of digital imaging on the work mode and work flow of oral and maxillofacial radiology; ③ Application of picture archiving and communication system(PACS)in oral and maxillofacial radiology; ④The influence of three dimensional medical data sets on diagnosis, prognosis and treatment plan; ⑤Digital imaging facilitates the development of telemedicine and internet-medicine; ⑥The significance of establishing a medical database or data center; ⑦Problems and challenges.", "Conventional chest radiography is the most common imaging procedure in children. When a chest mass is discovered, cross-sectional imaging is often required to accurately localize and characterize the lesion in order to narrow the differential diagnosis. Knowledge of the differential diagnostic possibilities for chest tumors in children is important for both the pediatric and general radiologist because they differ from adults. The more common pediatric, malignant, mediastinal and pulmonary tumors and the characteristic imaging and clinical features that are useful in distinguishing between them are discussed in this review.", "Several proposals were made under the title of imaging diagnosis of border-less age. One was the wide range of application of multimedia in medicine. The application is in the world wide scale, such as information super highway, and information technology vision 2000, and so forth. Second and third proposals were to promote clinical and basic research groups beyond specialities to make micro and micron imaging possible both in morphology and function. As an example, imaging of interstitium of the bone marrow by magnetic resonance microimaging was discussed. To convey these concepts, multidiscipline and inter- and intra-speciality work is mandatory. Finally, PACS and telecommunication were introduced as one of the tools of imaging diagnosis in border-less age with illustration of PACS system at Saitama medical school.", "We have explored the bound state problem and the scattering problem of the DD pair in a meson exchange model. When considering their production in the e+e− process, we included the DD rescattering effect. Although it is difficult to answer whether the S‐wave DD bound state exists or not from the binding energies and the phase shifts, one may get an upper limit of the binding energy from the production of the BB, the bottom analog of DD.", "Abstract- Newer generations of diagnostic machines are based on digital technologies for data acquisition and consequently with the emergence of digital archiving systems for preservation of diagnosis is rapidly increasing. The goals of Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems is to process on collections of images, extract features and based on visual queries, extract relevant image from a repository. The fuzzy relaxation pattern matching technique using rotational invariance has been developed in the framework of fuzzy set and possibility theory. Our method takes into account the uncertainty arising in the calculated values which have to be compared for content based image retrieval. This paper looks into the basic principles and extends to the fuzzy relaxation technique for a given tolerance. Our method was extensively tested in a medical database to identify the class in the classification problem.", "Liquid droplets can produce spherical interfaces that are smooth down to the molecular scale due to surface tension. For typical gas/liquid systems, spherical droplets occur on the millimeter and smaller scales. By coupling two droplets, with contact lines pinned at each edge of a cylindrical hole through a plate, a biconvex lens is created. Using a sinusoidal external pressure, this double droplet system (DDS) can be readily forced to oscillate at resonance. The resulting change in the curvatures of the droplets produces a time-varying focal length. Such an oscillating DDS was introduced in 2008 [Nat. Photonics 2, 610 (2008)]. Here we provide a more comprehensive description of the system’s optical performance, showing the effects of liquid volume and driving pressure amplitude on the back focal distance, radii of curvature, object distance, and image sharpness.", "This paper introduces a computerized system for digital subtraction, image processing and measuring of periapical radiographs. This system has clinical applications. Based on the experimental test for this system, it has been found that the digital subtraction system for conventional radiography is very valuable for the diagnosis of minute bone lesions in the root side and apical part of the teeth. A new method for gray correction is presented and a new algorithm for image edge detection is designed. What is more, the principle of calibration and normalization for image measurement is also described and reasoned mathematically.", "Objective To investigate the possibility of judging the coronary calcification degree using the CT axial images,comparing the processing results of CT axial images of calcified coronary artery and the 3-D reconstruction images acquired by double-source spiral CT.Methods Non-linear stretching method of digital image enhancement algorithm was used to process the axial images of calcified coronary artery of different patient and location.The outcome was contrastively analyzed with that of 3-D images by double-source spiral CT.Results The outcome by processing the images of 12 groups of patients was similar with the diagnosis made by 3-D images.Conclusion Non-linear stretching method of digital image enhancement algorithm,by analyzing the CT axial images,is of certain application value in judging the calcification degree of coronary artery.", "Skin cancers are the most common form of cancers in humans. It is a deadly type of cancer. Most of the skin cancers are cure able at initial stages. So an premature detection of skin is possible. The automatic diagnosis can help to increase the accuracy of detection. The diagnosing methodology uses Image processing techniques and Artificial Intelligence. Automated image segmentation and classification of skin lesions as malignant or benign. The dermoscopy image of skin cancer is taken and it is subjected to pre-processing for noise removal and image enhancement. Then the image is undergone image segmentation using Thresholding. There are certain features unique for skin cancer regions. Such features are extracted. These features are given as the input nodes to the neural network. Back-Propagation Neural (BPN) Network is used for classification purpose. It classifies the given data set into cancerous or non-cancerous." ]

[ "One specific concern is the possibility for GMOs to negatively affect human health. This could result from differences in nutritional content, allergic response, or undesired side effects such as toxicity, organ damage, or gene transfer." ]

[ "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are those organisms whose genomes have been altered using genetic engineering technology. ... Transgenic organisms are a specific example of GMO. They are when the alteration to the genome involves the genetic material from a different species.", "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.", "What are genetically modified (GM) organisms and GM foods? Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms (i.e. plants, animals or microorganisms) in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination.", "The use of genetic engineering, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is prohibited in organic products.", "GM stands for “genetically modified”. ... A “GMO” is a genetically modified organism. GE stands for “genetically engineered”. An organism is considered genetically engineered if it was modified using techniques that permit the direct transfer or removal of genes in that organism.", "A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an animal, plant, or microbe whose DNA has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. For thousands of years, humans have used breeding methods to modify organisms.", "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have become part of everyday life, but little is known about their long-term impacts.", "7 Reasons to eat Gluten Free Oats. The best gluten free oats are organic and non-GMO (genetically modified organism). Genetically modified foods are banned or regulated in most of the world due to concerns about their health effects on humans.", "\"Genetically Modified Organism\" is the most common definition for GMO on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. GMO. Definition: Genetically Modified Organism.", "Many formulas contain corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and genetically modified ingredients, which have potentially harmful side effects like reproductive disorders, immune system deficiencies, and organ damage.", "Genetically modified organism - GMOs in medicine and research | Britannica.", "Genetically modified bacteria. Genetically modified bacteria were the first organisms to be modified in the laboratory, due to their simple genetics. These organisms are now used for several purposes, and are particularly important in producing large amounts of pure human proteins for use in medicine.", "7. Are genetically modified feed ingredients permitted in organic chicken production? Chicken products that carry the Certified Organic label, granted by USDA, have not used genetically modified feed ingredients in the raising process.", "What is the difference between genetic and somatic effects of ionizing radiation? Genetic effects are those that occur in the descendants of a parent whose DNA molecules are modified due to exposure to ionizing radiation. Somatic effects are those which occur in the exposed individual.", "The distinction between the two is based on purpose. Gene therapy seeks to alter genes to correct genetic defects and thus prevent or cure genetic diseases. Genetic engineering aims to modify the genes to enhance the capabilities of the organism beyond what is normal.", "Does Alpro contain genetically modified ingredients (GM)? No. We use a traceability system to ensure that all our products and ingredients avoid contamination with genetically modified organisms (GM).", "Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism.", "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) provide certain advantages to producers and consumers. Modified plants, for example, can at least initially help protect crops by providing resistance to a specific disease or insect, ensuring greater food production. GMOs are also important sources of medicine.", "Various ethical issues associated with HGT from GMOs have been raised including perceived threats to the integrity and intrinsic value of the organisms involved, to the concept of natural order and integrity of species, and to the integrity of the ecosystems in which the genetically modified organism occurs [24].", "Ethical Concerns Most of these concerns are for GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. These are organisms that have genes from artificial means, such as through cloning or gene insertion. GMOs do provide many benefits, and much of the food you buy at the store has been altered in some way or another.", "What's the difference between a pure essential oil and an organic essential oil? Plants and botanicals grown for the purpose of producing an organic essential oil are grown in soil that's free of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers and contain no genetically modified organisms (GMOs).", "For many the term genetically modified organism is synonymous with genetically engineered organism. ... Genetically engineering is the direct manipulation of an organism's genome using biotechnology. Although many people think this means moving genes from one species to another, that is not always the case.", "Organic navel oranges are not genetically modified. A GMO is something that has been modified through genetic engineering. In the case of the navel orange, the seedless trait was a naturally occurring mutation that was kept alive and thriving.", "Any procedure intended to treat or alleviate disease by genetically modifying the cells of a patient. ... The introduction of genetic material into target cells in order to conteract the effect of a disease allele or to introduce a new function. What does gene therapy involve?", "Five sets of ethical concerns have been raised about GM crops: potential harm to human health; potential damage to the environment; negative impact on traditional farming practice; excessive corporate dominance; and the 'unnaturalness' of the technology.", "Genetically modified organism (GMO) is commonly used to describe any of these terms and vice versa: genetic modification (GM), GM seeds, biotechnology, biotech seeds, genetic engineering (GE) and transgenic crops.", "What three crops are often genetically modified? Soybeans, corn, cotton.", "The following are a list of confirmed pasta brands that do not contain genetically modified ingredients or are organic: ... De Cecco = Some products are organic.", "GMOs, genetically modified organism (or genetically engineered, as they are commonly called in the science world), are the result of tweaking the DNA of a living organism. Gene editing is used for many purposes, one of which is for the creation of GMOs. There are many different, other methods to produce GMOs, however.", "Seedless plants are not common, but they do exist naturally or can be manipulated by plant breeders without using genetic engineering techniques. No current seedless plants are genetically modified organisms (GMOs).", "But amidst all of the worry about agricultural chemicals and “GMOs,” which stands for Genetically Modified Organism, did you know that seedless watermelons are genetically modified, using a toxic chemical, even though they're considered non-GMO ?", "['Carcinogenicity.', 'Teratogenicity or other developmental toxicity.', 'Reproductive toxicity.', 'Organ toxicity at low doses.', 'Genotoxicity.']" ]

[ "Pledge of Allegiance Francis Bellamy and Upham had lined up the National Education Association to support the Youth's Companion as a sponsor of the Columbus Day observance and the use in that observance of the American flag. By June 29, 1892, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a proclamation making the public school flag ceremony the center of the Columbus Day celebrations. This arrangement was formalized when Harrison issued Presidential Proclamation 335. Subsequently, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World's Fair), Illinois.[21]" ]

[ "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) Congressional sessions open with the recital of the Pledge, as do many government meetings at local levels, and meetings held by many private organizations. It is also commonly recited in school at the beginning of every school day, although the Supreme Court has ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge, nor can they be punished for not doing so. All states except four (Hawaii, Iowa, Vermont and Wyoming) give time for the pledge to be recited as part of the school day.[8] A number of states, including Ohio and Texas, have adopted state flag pledges of allegiance to be recited after this.[9]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) The Pledge of Allegiance is an oath of allegiance to the United States, addressed to both the flag and the Republic. It was composed by Rear Admiral George Balch in 1887, and revised by Francis Bellamy in 1892. In 1942 it was formally adopted by Congress.[3][4][5][6] Congress gave it the name The Pledge of Allegiance in 1945. In 1954 the words \"under God\" were added.[7]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) Balch was a proponent of teaching children, especially those of immigrants, loyalty to the United States, even going so far as to write a book on the subject and work with both the government and private organizations to distribute flags to every classroom and school.[3][13] Balch's pledge, which predates Bellamy's by 5 years [which year?] and was embraced by many schools, by the Daughters of the American Revolution until the 1910s, and by the Grand Army of the Republic until the 1923 National Flag Conference, is often overlooked when discussing the history of the Pledge.[14] Bellamy, however, did not approve of the pledge as Balch had written it, referring to the text as \"too juvenile and lacking in dignity.\"[15] The Bellamy \"Pledge of Allegiance\" was first published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and to sell flags to public schools.[16] According to author Margarette S. Miller, this campaign was in line both with Upham's patriotic vision as well as with his commercial interest. According to Miller, Upham \"would often say to his wife: 'Mary, if I can instill into the minds of our American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, and create in them an ambition to carry on with the ideals which the early founders wrote into The Constitution, I shall not have lived in vain.'\"[17]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) The phrase \"under God\" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a Joint Resolution of Congress amending § 4 of the Flag Code enacted in 1942.[28]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag—\"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.\"[11]—should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute. Members of the Armed Forces not in uniform and veterans may render the military salute in the manner provided for persons in uniform.[4]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) Edna Dean Proctor wrote an ode for the event, and \"There was also an oration suitable for declamation.\"[15] Bellamy held that \"Of course, the nub of the program was to be the raising of the flag, with a salute to the flag recited by the pupils in unison.\"[15] He found \"There was not a satisfactory enough form for this salute. The Balch salute, which ran, \"I give my heart and my hand to my country, one country, one language, one flag,\" seemed to him too juvenile and lacking in dignity.\"[15] After working on the idea with Upham, Bellamy concluded, \"It was my thought that a vow of loyalty or allegiance to the flag should be the dominant idea. I especially stressed the word 'allegiance'. ... Beginning with the new word allegiance, I first decided that 'pledge' was a better school word than 'vow' or 'swear'; and that the first person singular should be used, and that 'my' flag was preferable to 'the.'\"[15] Bellamy considered the words \"country, nation, or Republic,\" choosing the last as \"it distinguished the form of government chosen by the founding fathers and established by the Revolution. The true reason for allegiance to the flag is the Republic for which it stands.\"[15] Bellamy then reflected on the sayings of Revolutionary and Civil War figures, and concluded \"all that pictured struggle reduced itself to three words, one Nation indivisible.\"[15]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) A musical setting for \"The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag\" was created by Irving Caesar, at the suggestion of Congressman Louis C. Rabaut whose House Resolution 243 to add the phrase \"under God\" was signed into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.[33]", "Pledge of Allegiance (United States) Louis Albert Bowman, an attorney from Illinois, was the first to suggest the addition of \"under God\" to the pledge. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave him an Award of Merit as the originator of this idea.[24][25] He spent his adult life in the Chicago area and was chaplain of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. At a meeting on February 12, 1948,[24] he led the society in reciting the pledge with the two words \"under God\" added. He said that the words came from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Although not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words \"under God\", all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said \"that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.\" Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at other meetings.[24]", "The Star-Spangled Banner When the U.S. national anthem was first recognized by law in 1931, there was no prescription as to behavior during its playing. On June 22, 1942, the law was revised indicating that those in uniform should salute during its playing, while others should simply stand at attention, men removing their hats. The same code also required that women should place their hands over their hearts when the flag is displayed during the playing of the national anthem, but not if the flag was not present. On December 23, 1942, the law was again revised instructing men and women to stand at attention and face in the direction of the music when it was played. That revision also directed men and women to place their hands over their hearts only if the flag was displayed. Those in uniform were required to salute. On July 7, 1976, the law was simplified. Men and women were instructed to stand with their hands over their hearts, men removing their hats, irrespective of whether or not the flag was displayed and those in uniform saluting. On August 12, 1998, the law was rewritten keeping the same instructions, but differentiating between \"those in uniform\" and \"members of the Armed Forces and veterans\" who were both instructed to salute during the playing whether or not the flag was displayed. Because of the changes in law over the years and confusion between instructions for the Pledge of Allegiance versus the National Anthem, throughout most of the 20th century many people simply stood at attention or with their hands folded in front of them during the playing of the Anthem, and when reciting the Pledge they would hold their hand (or hat) over their heart. After 9/11, the custom of placing the hand over the heart during the playing of the national anthem became nearly universal.[59][60][61]", "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment protects students from being forced to salute the American flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in public school. The Court's 6–3 decision, delivered by Justice Robert H. Jackson, is remembered for its forceful defense of free speech and constitutional rights generally as being placed \"beyond the reach of majorities and officials\".", "Just Say No In 1982, the phrase \"Just Say No\" first emerged when Nancy Reagan was visiting Longfellow Elementary School in Oakland, California.[5] When asked by a schoolgirl what to do if she was offered drugs, the First Lady responded: \"Just say no.\"[6] Just Say No club organizations within schools and school-run anti-drug programs soon became common, in which young people were making pacts not to experiment with drugs.[7]", "Flag of Texas The pledge was instituted by the Texas Legislature in 1933, and originally referred to the \"Texas flag of 1836\" (which was the Burnet Flag, and not the Lone Star Flag then in use). In 1965, the error was corrected by deleting the words \"of 1836.\" In 2007, the phrase \"one state under God\" was added.[15] The addition of \"under God\" has been challenged in court, though an injunction was denied.[16]", "School prayer Use of the Regent's prayer would be initially upheld in both New York State Court and in the New York Court of Appeals, prompting Engels to petition the US Supreme Court in the Engel v. Vitale case in 1962. With its 8–1 vote to make public recitation of the Regents' Prayer in public schools unlawful, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first-ever decision on prayer in public schools. It made its second in 1963—the Abington School District v. Schempp ruling, which made the corporate reading of the Bible and recitation of the Lord's Prayer unlawful in public schools.[3]", "School uniform It is difficult to trace the origins of the uniform as there is no comprehensive written history, but rather a variety of known influences. School uniforms are believed to be a practice which dates to the 16th century in the United Kingdom. It is believed that the Christ Hospital School in London in 1552 was the first school to use a school uniform.[3] The earliest documented proof of institutionalised use of a standard academic dress dates back to 1222 when the then Archbishop of Canterbury ordered the wearing of the cappa clausa.[4] This monastic and academic practice evolved into collegiate uniforms in England, particularly in charity schools where uniform dress was often provided for poor children. Universities, primary schools and secondary schools used uniforms as a marker of class and status.[5] Although school uniforms can often be considered conservative and old-fashioned, uniforms in recent years have changed as societal dress codes have changed.[6]", "God Bless America In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in America from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a \"peace song,\" and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show.[7] Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, \"to the right\" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted \"through the night\" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: \"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.\" (In her first broadcast of the song, Kate Smith sang \"that we're far from there\" rather than \"for a land so fair\".)[4] This was changed when Berlin published the sheet music in March 1939.[4]", "School prayer In these two landmark decisions, Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state-sponsored prayer in US schools. While the Engel decision held that the promulgation of an official state-school prayer stood in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause (thus overruling the New York Courts’ decisions), Abington held that Bible readings and other public school-sponsored religious activities were prohibited.[6] Madalyn Murray's lawsuit, Murray v. Curlett, contributed to the removal of compulsory Bible reading from the public schools of the United States, and has had lasting and significant effects.", "Ray Boltz Boltz was virtually unknown when he wrote \"Thank You\", which won the Song of the Year prize at the 1990 GMA Dove Awards.[2] His song \"I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb\" also won a Dove Award for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year at the 25th GMA Dove Awards in 1994. After the release of Songs from the Potter's Field in 2002, and his last tour in 2004, Boltz retired from the music industry. He separated from his wife in 2005 before moving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with their divorce being finalized in early 2008.", "In God We Trust \"In God We Trust\" first appeared on the Two-cent piece in 1864[3] and has appeared on paper currency since 1957. A law passed in a Joint Resolution by the 84th Congress (P.L. 84-140) and approved by President Dwight Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, declared \"In God We Trust\" must appear on American currency. This phrase was first used on paper money in 1957, when it appeared on the one-dollar silver certificate. The first paper currency bearing the phrase entered circulation on October 1, 1957.[3] The 84th Congress later passed legislation (P.L. 84-851), also signed by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, declaring the phrase to be the national motto.", "Flag of Georgia (U.S. state) At the time, opposition to changing the flag came from various sides, including from Confederate historical groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Opponents to a change of the flag stated that incorporating the Confederate battle flag into the design would be too sectionalist, counterproductive, and divisive, saying that people should show patriotism towards the United States rather than the defunct Confederacy, referring to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, which states that the U.S. was \"one nation\" and \"indivisible\".[4] Opponents to the flag's change also said that there was nothing wrong with the 1920 flag and that people were content with it.[4] Others opposed changing the flag out of the burden it would place on those who would have to purchase a new flag to replace the outdated one.[4]", "In God We Trust The phrase appears to have originated in \"The Star-Spangled Banner\", written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812. The fourth stanza includes the phrase, \"And this be our motto: 'In God is our Trust.'\" This version of the motto made an early appearance on the twenty dollar interest bearing notes issued in 1864 along with the motto \"God and our Right\".", "School corporal punishment Poland in 1783 was the first nation to outlaw corporal punishment in schools. School corporal punishment is no longer practised in any European country. As of 2015, most developed countries have abolished the practice, with the exception of some parts of the United States, some Australian states, and Singapore. It is still in common use in a number of countries in Africa and Asia. It was banned in state-funded schools, throughout the United Kingdom, in 1986. It was banned in UK Public and private schools that received no state funding, in 1999 in England and Wales, 2000 in Scotland, and 2003 in Northern Ireland.", "In God We Trust The same day, the President signed into law[30] a requirement that \"In God We Trust\" be printed on all U.S. currency and coins. On paper currency, it first appeared on the silver certificate in 1957, followed by other certificates. Federal Reserve Notes and United States Notes were circulated with the motto starting from 1964 to 1966, depending on the denomination.[20][31] (Of these, only Federal Reserve Notes are still circulated.)", "Ten percent plan A component of President Lincoln's preliminary plans for the postwar reconstruction of the South, this proclamation decreed that a state in rebellion against the U.S. federal government could be reintegrated into the Union when 10% of the 1860 vote count from that state had taken an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to abide by Emancipation. Voters could then elect delegates to draft revised state constitutions and establish new state governments.[2] All southerners except for high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials would be granted a full pardon. Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their slaves.[1] By 1864, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas had established fully functioning unionist governments.", "Zero tolerance (schools) The label of zero tolerance began with the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, when Congress authorized public-school funding subject to the adoption of zero-tolerance policies.[14] Similar policies of intolerance coupled with expulsions for less serious behaviors than bringing a weapon to school had long been a part of private, and particularly religious, schools. The use of zero-tolerance policies in secular, public schools increased dramatically after the Columbine High School massacre, with principals declaring that safety concerns made them want zero tolerance for weapons. These have led to a large number of disproportionate responses to minor, or technical transgressions, many of which have attracted the attention of the international media. These cases include students being suspended or expelled for such offenses as possession of ibuprofen or Midol (both legal, non-prescription drugs commonly used to treat menstrual cramps and headaches) with permission of the students' parents, keeping pocketknives (small utility knife) in cars, and carrying sharp tools outside of a woodshop classroom (where they are often required materials). In Seal v. Morgan, a student was expelled for having a knife in his car on school property, despite his protestations that he was unaware of the knife's presence.[15] In some jurisdictions, zero-tolerance policies have come into conflict with freedom of religion rules already in place allowing students to carry, for example, kirpans.", "Dazed and Confused (film) It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The next year's group of seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen. Randall \"Pink\" Floyd, the school's star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would \"jeopardize the goal of a championship season\". When classes end, the incoming freshman boys are hunted down by the seniors and paddled. The incoming freshman girls are also hazed; they are rounded up in the school parking lot by senior girls, covered in mustard, ketchup, flour and raw eggs, and forced to propose to senior boys.", "Oath of office of the President of the United States By convention, incoming presidents raise their right hand and place the left on a Bible or other book while taking the oath of office. In 1789, George Washington took the oath of office with an altar Bible borrowed from the St. John's Lodge No. 1, Ancient York Masons lodge in New York, and he kissed the Bible afterward.[17][18] Subsequent presidents up to and including Harry Truman, followed suit.[19] Dwight Eisenhower broke that tradition in 1953 when he said a prayer instead of kissing the Bible.[20]", "Korean War On 27 June, Rhee evacuated from Seoul with some of the government. On 28 June, at 2 am, the South Korean Army blew up the Hangang Bridge across the Han River in an attempt to stop the North Korean army. The bridge was detonated while 4,000 refugees were crossing it and hundreds were killed.[127][128] Destroying the bridge also trapped many South Korean military units north of the Han River.[126] In spite of such desperate measures, Seoul fell that same day. A number of South Korean National Assemblymen remained in Seoul when it fell, and forty-eight subsequently pledged allegiance to the North.[129]", "Lift Every Voice and Sing \"Lift Every Voice and Sing\" was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12, 1900, by 500 school children at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington. The poem was set to music in 1905 by Johnson's brother John. In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dubbed it \"The Negro National Anthem\"[2] for its power in voicing the cry for liberation and affirmation for African-American people.[1]", "The Divergent Series The first installment, Divergent (2014), grossed over $288 million worldwide,[4] while the second installment, The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015), grossed over $297 million worldwide.[5] Insurgent was also the first Divergent film to be released in IMAX 3D.[6] The third installment, The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016), grossed $179 million. Thus, the first three films of the series have grossed over $765 million worldwide. A fourth film, The Divergent Series: Ascendant was to be released theatrically, but due to Allegiant's poor showing at the box office, it was announced it will be released as a TV movie.", "Music education in the United States Public education in the United States first offered music as part of the curriculum in Boston in the 1830s, and it spread through the help of singing teacher Lowell Mason, after he successfully advocated it to the Boston School Committee in 1838. The committee ultimately decided to include music as a curricular subject because it was of a moral, physical, and intellectual nature. Music was considered moral because it played such a part in religion, as well as the fact that had been documented to produce \"happiness, contentment, cheerfulness, and tranquility.\" It was of a physical nature because singing was exercise for the lungs. The committee justified music's intellectual nature by stating that it had been studied as a part of the quadrivium in the Middle Ages, and that it \"contributes to memory, comparison, attention, and intellectual faculties.\"[1] (p. 13-14).", "The Star-Spangled Banner \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.", "Electoral College (United States) All states except California (before 1913), Maine, and Nebraska have chosen electors on a \"winner-take-all\" basis since the 1880s.[10] Under the winner-take-all system, the state's electors are awarded to the candidate with the most votes in that state, thus maximizing the state's influence in the national election. Maine and Nebraska use the \"congressional district method,\" selecting one elector within each congressional district by popular vote and awarding two electors by a statewide popular vote.[11] Although no elector is required by federal law to honor his pledge, there have been very few occasions when an elector voted contrary to a pledge, and not once has it impacted the final outcome of a national election.[12][13]" ]

[ "Blood from your period will not impact whether or not there is hCG in your urine, so it won't impact your test results. However, if your test does come back as positive you may want to do some research into why you're bleeding." ]

[ "What Causes Spotting During Pregnancy? Implantation bleeding is a common cause of spotting early on in pregnancy. Implantation bleeding happens when the fertilized egg attaches to the uterine lining. This can trigger a few days of light bleeding or spotting.", "Sometimes what begins as spotting or lighter bleeding becomes heavy bleeding. It's true that any heavy bleeding in the first trimester, especially if you also have pain, might be linked to a miscarriage. Most miscarriages happen in the first trimester of pregnancy. Up to 20 percent of all pregnancies are miscarried.", "False positive pregnancy test result – reasons you might get one. As what happened with New_here above, a pregnancy may initially be detected by an early pregnancy test, which will give you a positive result. But then, when you test again at a later time, you get a negative result.", "As what happened with New_here above, a pregnancy may initially be detected by an early pregnancy test, which will give you a positive result. But then, when you test again at a later time, you get a negative result.", "What Is Implantation Bleeding? Implantation bleeding is light bleeding from the vagina that happens in some women 10 to 14 days after conceiving a baby. You may think it's just a light period, but it's an early sign of pregnancy. It's not dangerous, and you don't need treatment.", "Some women get a negative test, and then later test positive for pregnancy. If this happens, believe the positive test. That's because HCG levels take a while to rise, and the positive test may be because they're finally high enough for a test to register.", "What happens if I get pregnant while I'm taking the mini pill? The pill won't harm the pregnancy. It is safe to continue the pregnancy (and stop the mini pill) or to have an abortion.", "Ideally, take the pregnancy test in the morning, with your first urination. The pregnancy hormone—if there is any—will be higher then, making it more likely the pregnancy test will detect it. While you can take many pregnancy tests in the middle of the day, especially if your period is a few days late.", "However, if you do conceive while taking a progestin-only birth control (minipill), there's a slightly higher chance that the pregnancy will be ectopic. As a precaution, if you suspect you're pregnant, take a home pregnancy test. If the home pregnancy test is positive, stop taking the pill.", "The only way you can know whether you are pregnant, is to take a pregnancy test. The period you have on the pill is called “withdrawal bleeding” and is not the same as a regular period. It is caused by not taking the hormone pills, and is not a sign that you're not pregnant.", "How Soon After Implantation Should I Take a Pregnancy Test? There is no definitive time for when you should take a pregnancy test after implantation. While you can take a test as soon as the first day of your missed period, it might be better to wait a week more.", "Ovulation bleeding is a sign of fertility. Implantation bleeding is an early sign of pregnancy. Ovulation bleeding happens 15 days before a period. Implantation bleeding happens 1 – 2 days before the menstrual due date.", "It was cd24 I had bleeding and bfp cd 28! Fingers crossed for you Wedding. It takes a couple of days after implantation to have enough hcg for a positive pregnancy test.", "Another common reason for getting a false negative is not having enough hCG in the urine you test. Early on in pregnancy, you can dilute the hormone concentration in your urine if you drink a lot of water before testing. This is more likely to happen in very early pregnancy when you take the test later in the day.", "It may take a few days after implantation bleeding for there to be enough hCG in your system to get a positive pregnancy test.", "Pregnancy tests, hCG levels and miscarriage If a miscarriage has happened then you can still have positive pregnancy tests and raised hCG levels for up to 2 weeks afterwards as the levels take some time to come back down.", "This is known as a false-positive. A false-positive might happen if you had a pregnancy loss soon after the fertilized egg attached to your uterine lining (biochemical pregnancy) or you take a pregnancy test too soon after taking a fertility drug that contains HCG.", "You also can and should take pregnancy tests while you're using birth control if you want to know your pregnancy status. Consider asking your doctor about signs and symptoms that may indicate the need for a pregnancy test.", "If you take birth control, your monthly period (menstrual bleeding) may change while taking Qsymia (phentermine and topiramate). Talk with your doctor if this happens.", "Bleeding while taking the hormonal birth control pill Your “period” on the contraceptive pill is actually called withdrawal bleeding. It happens when the levels of hormones in your pills drop. Withdrawal bleeding is usually lighter and slightly different than the period you had before taking the pill.", "What does a dream about a positive pregnancy test mean? ... To see yourself taking a home pregnancy test in the toilet can indicate that you are not able to move forward in life. To actually see the test result indicates you feel that you are being tested or judged in waking life.", "A pregnancy test will be done to show that you are NOT pregnant before starting this drug. If you get pregnant while taking this drug, call your doctor right away. If you get pregnant while taking this drug, the chance of pregnancy outside of the uterus (ectopic pregnancy) may be raised.", "What Is Chemical Pregnancy? One of the signs of a chemical pregnancy is belly cramps. A chemical pregnancy is a miscarriage that happens before the fifth week of pregnancy. The embryo implants in your uterus but it never takes hold.", "What Are the Risks of Jumping While Pregnant? Light exercises during pregnancy are generally considered safe, but you should avoid jumping when pregnant. If you jump vigorously during pregnancy, it could result in vaginal bleeding, preterm labour or a miscarriage.", "As a precaution, if you suspect you're pregnant, take a home pregnancy test. If the home pregnancy test is positive, stop taking the pill. If taking a home pregnancy test isn't possible, stop taking the birth control pill until the pregnancy is confirmed or ruled out.", "The duration of withdrawal bleeding varies from person to person. However, if a person is taking the medication as directed, the bleeding should only last for a few days. If withdrawal bleeding does not occur within 3 weeks of when it is expected, it may be a good idea to take a pregnancy test or consult a doctor.", "There are several possible causes of bleeding and/or pain in early pregnancy. Implantation bleeding – this happens when the fertilised egg implants in the uterus lining, causing some cramping pain or light bleeding. Bleeding from the cervix – this is more common in pregnancy due to the increased blood flow.", "Pregnancy. Share on Pinterest Spotting may be an early sign of pregnancy. Light bleeding or spotting can be an early sign of pregnancy. This spotting is called implantation bleeding because doctors think that it happens when a fertilized egg attaches itself to the lining of the uterus.", "Neither estrogen or progesterone impact pregnancy tests. Taking a pregnancy test at the wrong time can absolutely cause a false negative. While many tests claim they can reveal a pregnancy before a missed period, this is not the case for all women.", "You will need to take a special pregnancy test 2 weeks after a medical abortion. This is to confirm that you are no longer pregnant. Your GP or doctor will give you the special pregnancy test kit to take home after you have a medical abortion. This is called a low sensitivity pregnancy test.", "This scenario is pretty rare, but it can definitely happen. So why were the pregnancy tests negative? One explanation for a false negative pregnancy test is what's called the hook effect. It's not common but sometimes this effect leads to urine and blood tests giving the wrong result.", "No, you can't get a BFP (big fat positive (pregnancy test)) before implantation. Pregnancy tests pick up HCG in your urine and that isn't produced until implantation happens." ]

[ "The US is a rather large country- over three hundred million people spread out over about four million square miles. It takes a lot of time, money, and effort to get most of those people to know your name. You need to get your name out there, and then convince them that you'd be a good person to run the country, and then you need to collect signatures in all 50 states to get your name on the ballot. Most people are too busy with their lives to want to do that." ]

[ "They also meet diplomatically with other countries, and is the known next-in-line to take over the presidency, but a big part of what they are anymore is purely election politics. They are often a political pawn which helps grab a group of voters that the person running for president wouldn't have normally gotten. For instance, McCain running with Sarah Palin. He was a cantankerous old white conservative war veteran. She's a woman. Having that other side to the presidential team can help you get more votes.", "To add to what u/pythonpoole said, For new items that don't have enough returns to supply the refurbishment needs, they will just use new products. Does not happen often. But it does happen. Used to run the warranty center for a company (not cell phones)", "It takes a lot of money to run for President so if people like a candidate they donate to help that candidate have the finances to keep running. For example President Obama's 2012 campaign cost 1.1 billion dollars.", "It's not about how many times you have run, it is about how many terms you have served. You can only serve two terms as president, and in the case of succession, like an assassination, the cutoff for deciding whether or not a term has been completed is two years. If the VP becomes president the day after halfway through the president's term, then it does not count. The day before halfway, and it would.", "If they resigned after being sworn in the VP becomes president until the term is completed. The former VP could run for their own term or simply allow others to run and not opt to take the office again. If the person quit after the election but prior to being sworn in it's not clear what would happen.", "What you can do to confirm /u/dev000's information is to: Run a ping to reddit: - Open the command prompt (Win + R), type cmd, then type: ping _URL_2_ Which should give you an output that on the first line has the ip you are resolving to [_URL_1_] Take that ip and plug it into any random ip location website (from a quick google search, _URL_0_ seems to work). That should give you an approximate physical location of that ip address.", "He took office in a recession, and then presided over a huge economic boom of the mid to late 90's. How much is attributable to his policies and how much to other factors is debatable, but he'd have taken the hate if the economy tanked, so I think it's only fair he takes the credit if it boomed. Also, he worked with a Republican congress to get some major important policies implemented, like welfare reform. He also made it cool to be a democrat again, after 12 years of Republican presidents, 4 years of a basically failed Carter presidency, and another 6 years of Nixon and Ford. Clinton was the first strong democratic president since LBJ in the 60's.", "Entropy man. It takes more energy to keep something \"clean\" or \"arranged\" than it does to let it go to chaos and become a mess. Put a bunch of strings in a box and shake it. Things will get tangled up quickly, and take more time/energy from you to untie/unknot the item(s). User /u/crnaruka answered this best in this thread: _URL_0_", "What do you mean when you say, \"actually.\" The United States largely relied on foreign oil to protect it's own strategic reserves. Every president since the energy crisis of the 70's has had energy independence register *somewhere* on their political radar as something that needs to be done. *With that said* what actually gets *done* is another issue entirely. Whether we like it or not we're entirely dependent on internal combustion engines that run on gasoline, and gasoline derivative fuels, and no single president nor the free market is adequately equipped to really *change* that till there's more money to be had.", "It (mostly) depends on the President. In the U.S. system, the president is allowed to delegate power to other officials in the executive branch, and in the modern era the VP often ends up running various councils or committees on behalf of the president or speaking on the president's behalf. But, this power all flows voluntarily from the president, and the president can reverse the VP at will. But, the VP does have one piece of real, individual power, which is the authority to break ties in the Senate. So, when the Senate is divided evenly, the VP as an individual becomes the deciding vote on whatever issue is in question.", "Donald Trump will never be president. Why is he running then? It's not entirely clear. Here are some popular guesses: * Donald Trump is an egomaniac. He loves feeling important. That's why he does things like host TV shows. Running for president makes him feel important. * Donald Trump is a brand more than anything else. Running for president keeps him in the news and makes him look important. This is like advertising for his other stuff. He hopes to make more. money through his other stuff by looking more important.", "Assuming lossless compression, all it does is more effieciently store the data. Data is binary (1's and 0's), so if the uncompressed file has a sequence like 111111110000100001111, the compressed file takes the fact that there are groups of the same numbers (I don't know what is actually looks like) so like 5x1,4x0,1,4x0,4x1. As /u/iCupid pointed out, it can be compared to different languages, for example, there is a noodle dish called biangbiang noodles, the Chinese character for \"biang\" is [this monstrosity](_URL_0_), and that's just for \"biang\" so \"biangbiang noodles\" needs two of those characters plus the character for \"noodles\".", "I'm guessing you mean in the U. S. If so ... \"After emancipation, many freedmen and women took the surnames of their former owners as their own. Some blacks in the U.S. took on the surname Freeman, while others adopted the names of popular historical or contemporary figures of social importance, such as former presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson.\" From the [wiki page.](_URL_0_)", "An executive order is simply an order from the president within the bounds of what he already has the power to do. This can happen in two ways, either the constitution implies that the president can do it. Or congress has ceded some kind of power to the executive branch. Basically, congress said \"hey you can do this Mr. President! \" This is usually done through the creation of a federal agency which are run by the President. That being said, executive orders are subject to judicial review, so the supreme court can rule against the president if they did do something they couldn't do. In no way does it get around checks and balances. Hope that helps!", "/u/joustswindmills took a crack at the second question recently * [At what point in US history were the most former presidents alive? ](_URL_0_)", "He's not really supposed to be conducting investigations of the President, he's supposed to run the Justice Dept, which is the prosecutorial are of the United States Government. If the President does something illegal, then yea the Justice Dept would be responsible for investigating, but it's not like it's an organization that just sits around investing the President 24/7 waiting for him to do something wrong. The Justice Department is under control of the Executive which means the President is ultimately in charge. If he couldn't hire/fire the Attorney General, then the Attorney General doesn't have to listen to the President, and the President is not in charge of the Justice Dept.", "Very simply put: The film depicting the bullet striking the President in the head appears to show him being shot at an angle that does not marry up with the Book Depository, which is where Lee Harvey Oswald was when he fired his shot(s). It's theorised that had the round been fired (truly) from the Book Depository that the President would have suffered different wounds.", "I read this as \"What precautions does ISIS take during a meteor shower\" and thought of a lot of militants running around like it's the end of the world.", "The presidents most outrageous power is his role as commander in chief. He is the head of the armed forces and does not require any congressional support for any military action he wishes to take. It has been formal in history for the president to go to congress with a military issue to seek out approval, but this is not needed. This holds true for the use of nuclear weapons. The president is the commander of the armed forces and it is HIS power to do what he wants with that. Part of your question of why he is so \"powerful\" is due to the power of the US armed forces.", "Nope. Velocities don't add in the way we approximate at the slow speeds that we're used to. What Newtonian physics (incorrectly) tells us: s = v + u What relativity tells us: s = (v+u) / (1 + vu/c^(2)) When you plug in 50% the speed of light for both v and u, you get a relative velocity of 80% the speed of light (you can test out other velocities in [Wolfram Alpha](_URL_0_)).", "hi! you may be interested in responses to these earlier posts * [What validity (if any) is there to the allegations that James Buchanan was our first gay President?](_URL_0_) * [J. Edgar Hoover, James Buchanan, Alexander Hamilton and Eleanor Roosevelt: Is there any truth to the speculation that any or all of them were gay?](_URL_1_) * [has there been a(multiple) homosexual american presidents?](_URL_3_) * [Is there any substantial evidence to the claim that President James Buchanan was gay?](_URL_2_) if you have follow-up questions on locked posts, ask them here; page the relevant user(s) by including their username(s)", "He would not have to give up his companies. While you are right that it could result in a conflict of interest, there is nothing that explicitly states you cannot run a business while serving as president. However the president could face trouble for specific actions he takes if they are a conflict of interest.", "We know that George Washington thought shaking hands was beneath the dignity of the office of the President, so he stuck to bowing instead. That said, we can't say for certain that he *never* shook hands with even his close friends. Funnily enough, there was already a thread asking this question. _URL_0_ I like /u/k1990's answer the best.", "you do it by modularizing your code. your own module takes X input and makes Y output. you can have an automated test that provides various X inputs and validates Y output. run it thru 100's and 1000's of different X's and make sure it comes out to the correct Y's. then your module plugs into my module. my module takes A's inputs and makes B outputs. in order to do so, it takes the A's and uses some parts of it as X to call your module. and when it gets back the Y, my module does something to it and makes a B output. another set of tests run thousands of A inputs and validates that output is correct B. whenever the next time you change your module, we'll rerun all the 1000 tests for your module as well as my module.", "/u/kieslowskifan gave a reply to \"At what point did Germany realize the war was lost? (WWII)\" at _URL_0_ This is a starting point for discussion, not to discourage it. Like with /u/pnzsaurkrautwerfer 's reply, further questions, info, and debate are welcome.", "They changed to separate ballots in 1804 because of the election of 1800, which was a huge cluster fuck. As to when did the VP run on the same ticket as the President, it varies as some presidents such as Madison and Monroe chose their VP's at the caucus. In the election of 1824 ( another cluster fuck) you have Calhoun running for VP not really associated with any President. By late 19th century the VP seemed to be tied to the President.", "Every country has a Head of State and a Head of Government. The Head of State is the figurehead leader of the country. They're the ones on TV shaking hands with other leaders, making speeches, commanding the military, etc. The Head of Government does all the real work. They're in parliament/congress creating and debating bills, and run the country. In some countries, the Head of State and Head of Government is one person (American President). In other countries, the positions are held by different people. This is what they have in France; the President is the Head of State while the PM is the Head of Government.", "Hi, not discouraging further answers, but fyi, you may be interested in this earlier response by u/zeroable * [What validity (if any) is there to the allegations that James Buchanan was our first gay President?](_URL_0_)", "Hey there, you might want to check out the FAQ section on [Court Jesters](_URL_1_) by u/texpeare. Also, take a look through some (or all!) of these previous threads: **On court life and jestering:** [*What was life like for a jester/royal fool on the medieval era?*](_URL_0_) by u/nilhaus [*I'm a court jester in the 14th century in Europe. What does my role actually entail beyond being silly? Do I have any courtly functions beyond light entertainment?*](_URL_2_) by u/thestartinglineups", "[This answer](_URL_0_) by /u/bigslothonmyface explains why \"President\" was chosen over a more elevated title. They don't give a reason why \"President\" specifically was chosen though.", "I'll answer this for two objects moving at a velocity of 0.999 * c ; object's can't accelerate at a speed, since acceleration is a rate of change in speed. The velocity addition formula for relativistic speeds is: s = (v + u) / (1 + (v*u/c^2)) For objects moving towards one another. Notice that, for low u and v, the second term in the denominator goes to zero and the formula becomes: s = v + u For u = v = 0.999, this gives s = 2*0.999 / (1 + .999^2) ~ .99999995 Or 99.999995% the speed of light. This is very fast.", "The presidential candidate has had a role in picking his running mate since the Twelfth Amendment in 1804. While it's true that parties used to be much more powerful and able to force a running mate, the presidential candidate has almost always had a voice. Presidential candidates usually understood that the party did what was best to get them elected, and running mates were chosen under that mantra. The change can probably be put as recently as Jimmy Carter. It was no secret that JFK and Lyndon Johnson didn't get along, and the power of political parties declined very significantly following Nixon's coverup of Watergate. Carter was the first president to actually seek the advice of his vice president, and he was the first president to choose a vice president following the political restructures of the Nixon era." ]

[ "Roberto Deiaco, the former executive chef at Armani/Ristorante 5th Avenue, has opened a new restaurant in Manhattan's midtown. Dubbed Avena, the restaurant was inspired by his Italian upbringing and his years of experience cooking for Giorgio's Armani Restaurant. #wwdeye (📷: @lightboxer)" ]

[ "HC prohibited the authorities from cutting down or taking away trees till July 26, next date of hearing on plea against felling of trees.\nCourt asked why everyone needs to be given space in the Lutyens' Delhi when the peripherals of the national capital have so much of vacant land, and added 'the mantra is decongestion'. (Photo: File | PTI)\nNew Delhi: How could a sapling replace a grown-up tree, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked while observing that felling over 16,500 trees to build multi-storey accommodation for proposed redevelopment of six South Delhi colonies was akin to leaving the city to die.\nThe high court prohibited the authorities from cutting down or taking away trees till July 26, the next date of hearing on a plea against felling of trees for housing projects and asked whether any environment impact assessment was carried out before initiating the work.\n\"If Delhi needs that they (buildings) be dismantled, they will be dismantled. You can't leave the city to die like this,\" a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.\nIt also asked why everyone needs to be given space in the Lutyens' Delhi when the peripherals of the national capital have so much of vacant land, and added \"the mantra is decongestion\".\nThe court said the authorities should develop colonies like Narela. Taking note of a submission that Delhi was running out of ground water, the court asked the Centre and the city government how they propose to water the saplings which are going to replace fully grown trees under the compensatory afforestation policy.\n\"Delhi government shall explain how a fully grown tree could be equated with 10 saplings? How long a sapling will take to grow as a tree. Delhi was earlier known for its bird population,\" the bench said. It also questioned the Centre on its redevelopment scheme, asking how permission was given to change a two-storeyed building, meant for two families, into an eight-storeyed building.\n\"What do you mean by redevelopment. This is your scheme. Replacing a two-storeyed building with an eight-floor building, this is what you call redevelopment,\" the bench said. \"From where do you get water for such eight-floor buildings? What amount of garbage will be generated? Where is parking and what about air pollution? You don't apply you mind to planning,\" the bench said.\nThe counsel, appearing for the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), tasked with redeveloping half a dozen south Delhi colonies, claimed that no garbage was going out of the construction site.\nThe court was also of the opinion that the construction was an impediment for ambulances and patients in reaching the two super speciality hospitals -- AIIMS and Safdarjung -- in the area.\n\"There will be traffic jam at the main gate of the colonies. Two major hospitals are at the intersection. How will people reach AIIMS and Safdarjung hospital? You must have done an Environment Impact Assessment. Show it to us,\" it said.\nIt also sought to know the density of the area and said that after laying infrastructure including road, water, electricity, garbage system, macro-level planning is done.\n\"How can you amend the master plan retrospectively after developing a colony,\" the bench said. The court asked the DDA to place before it all the schemes of redevelopment. It said why everyone needs to be given space in the Lutyens' Delhi when the peripherals of Delhi have so much of vacant land and added \"the mantra is decongestion\".\nThe court granted time to Ministries of Environment and Forest and Housing, the Delhi government, NBCC, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, NDMC and other authorities to file their response on the petition which has sought setting aside of the terms of reference (ToR) and Environmental Clearance (EC) granted to the housing project by the Environment Ministry, claiming it would lead to felling of over 16,500 trees.\nThe bench also sought details as to how much space has been given for commercial activities. The court said there was a need for the presence of experts related to these issues and appointed environmentalist MC Mehta as amicus curiae in the matter. Delhi government standing counsel told the court that the government has started the process of revoking and reviewing the permission granted to cut trees for the projects. The court was hearing a PIL by orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra against felling of trees for housing projects in six south Delhi colonies -- Sarojini Nagar, Naoroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Mohammadpur and Kasturba Nagar. A similar issue is also pending before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).\nThe petition has claimed that planting of saplings in another location as compensatory afforestation would not reduce the burden which would be put on the environment due to the large-scale felling of trees.\nIt has claimed that saplings would be a \"poor substitute\" for the fully grown trees that would be felled for the housing projects.\nThe court also sought response of the authorities on a contempt plea filed by environmentalist Vimlendu Jha alleging that there was deliberate and wilful default of June 25 undertaking given to the court by the NBCC not to cut trees till July 4 for housing projects in New Delhi.", "* U.S. central bank downplays Q1 economic weakness\n* Apple slips after surprise dip in iPhone sales\n* Indexes down: Dow 0.07 pct, S&P 0.28 pct, Nasdaq 0.54 pct (Updates with Fed statement reaction)\nBy Lewis Krauskopf\nMay 3 Wall Street kept losses on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged following its two-day policy meeting.\nThe U.S. central bank downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth and emphasized the strength of the labor market, in a sign it could tighten monetary policy as early as June, as investors have been expecting.\nThe S&P financial sector, which is seen benefiting in a rising rate environment, was up 0.3 percent after the Fed's bullish statement, leading all sectors.\nThe Fed is in its first tightening cycle in more than a decade after it spent years keeping rates near zero to help the economy following the 2007-2009 recession.\n\"The Fed is communicating its mantra of gradual rate hikes,\" said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. \"The next time they will likely raise rates would be June.\"\nThe Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 14.89 points, or 0.07 percent, to 20,935, the S&P 500 lost 6.74 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,384.43 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 32.64 points, or 0.54 percent, to 6,062.73.\nApple shares fell 0.4 percent, weighing on indexes, but recovering from steeper losses after the company's quarterly report, in which it reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales. (Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)", "AccorHotels has bedded down its $1.2 billion takeover of the Mantra business, making the French-based operator one of the largest players in the Australian hotel sector.\nAt an official gathering on the Gold Coast, Queensland on Thursday, the keys to Mantra's 138 properties and more than 20,000 rooms in hotels, resorts and serviced apartments across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Hawaii, were handed over to AccorHotels's Michael Issenberg, chairman and chief executive, Asia Pacific.\nAccorHotels now own Mantra Group's Ala Moana Hotel in Hawaii. Photo: Supplied\nAccorHotel guests will now be able to stay at a range of hotels from five-star luxe to resorts to family friendly properties. The ability to buy hotel rooms as investment assets and rent them back as hotel rooms at Mantra sites will remain intact under the AccorHotel deal.\nAt the close of the deal, AccorHotels will operate over 330 hotels and resorts across Australia and over 900 throughout Asia Pacific. AccorHotels will also be the largest employer on the Gold Coast, outside of government.\nThe deal comes at a time when the national hotel sector is undergoing a demand-led development boom. This has raised some concerns of a potential over-supply, although operators say Sydney, in particular, is still under-supplied.", "“We cannot leave Delhi to die like this,” said a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar. (Express photo/Praveen Khanna) “We cannot leave Delhi to die like this,” said a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar. (Express photo/Praveen Khanna)\nIf Delhi feels that development projects need to be dismantled, they will be dismantled, the Delhi High Court Wednesday told the authorities undertaking the proposed redevelopment of seven central government housing projects in south Delhi.\n“We cannot leave Delhi to die like this,” said a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, adding that the government and authorities concerned shall refrain from felling a “single tree” in the capital till further orders.\nOn the plea by senior orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra, who challenged the environment clearance given to the housing projects, the bench prohibited authorities from cutting trees till the next date of hearing, July 26. It also asked the Delhi government to “explain how a fully grown tree could be equated to 10 saplings” and “how long a sapling will take to grow into a tree”.\nObserving that the residential projects spanning six colonies — Sarojini Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagraj Nagar, Mohammadpur and Kasturba Nagar — would create traffic chaos near AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital, the court warned that it would give orders regarding demolition of the East Kidwai Nagar project, if required, as it seems to be haphazard and impacts the hospitals.\nThe court also asked authorities to explain how they planned to tackle waste management, vehicle parking and other aspects while undertaking the project. Noting that Delhi is home to a large population of avian fauna and trees, the bench also sought to know if the Kidwai Nagar project will impact the environment. Pointing out that since 1987, all courts have been insisting on the “mantra of decongesting Delhi”, the court asked why such projects cannot be shifted to outer Delhi, and that authorities should develop colonies like Narela.\nTaking note of a submission that Delhi was running out of groundwater, the court asked the Centre and the city government how they propose to water saplings that are going to replace fully grown trees under the compensatory afforestation policy.\nThe counsel for the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) Limited, tasked with redeveloping half-a-dozen south Delhi colonies, claimed that no garbage was going out of the construction site. The bench, however, asked the ministries of environment and forest and housing, the Delhi government, NBCC, Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Jal Board, New Delhi Municipal Council and other authorities to file a detailed reply and explain why it was necessary to cut trees and how they changed the Master plan on the matter retrospectively.\nThe court also appointed two amicus curiae in the housing project matter, including environmentalist M C Mehta.\nMeanwhile, the Delhi government’s standing counsel told the court that the government has started the process of revoking and reviewing permission granted to cut trees for the projects.\nThe court also sought response of authorities on a contempt plea filed by environmentalist Vimlendu Jha, alleging that there was deliberate and willful default of the NBCC’s June 25 undertaking given to the court not to cut trees till July 4 for the housing projects.\nFor all the latest Delhi News, download Indian Express App", "Rolling Stone reports;\nRachel Maddow sprints onto the set of The Rachel Maddow Show, brain on fire, and slides into her chair. It's two minutes before airtime at MSNBC's cavernous New York studio in Rockefeller Center and Maddow, dressed in her standard on-air black blazer and black tank top, Levi's and blue suede Adidas Gazelles stealthily hidden by her giant desk, hunches over her keyboard, pounding out last-minute revisions to her script with the speed of a court reporter. On the agenda this Friday evening in May: the ever-evolving Trump-Russia scandal and the controversial termination of FBI director James Comey, a story that might as well have been concocted to suit Maddow's brand of scathing, methodical deconstruction. She begins the hour on a note of quietly seething moral outrage, opening her monologue with a breakdown of the Comey firing, before moving through all the players in the Trump saga: Michael Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Russian oligarchs, New York's former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara – and ending with a note about a series of investigations taking place in various inspectors-general offices regarding the Trump-Russia matter. They could have a devastating impact on the administration – provided the president lets them continue, Maddow notes: \"He's already fired the FBI director. He's already fired Preet Bharara and the other U.S. attorneys. He fired the deputy attorney general. Who do you think he's going to fire next?\"\nLaunched nearly a decade ago, The Rachel Maddow Show, hosted by an openly-gay Rhodes scholar who came to TV news by way of progressive Air America Radio, is now the number-one prime-time news program on cable television. It's a significant though not totally improbable achievement for a show whose mantra, \"Increase the amount of useful information in the world,\" has taken on new resonance in the Trump era, when a single presidential tweet can receive breathless coverage by the mainstream press, and journalism itself is denounced as \"fake news.\" Though Trump's so-far chaotic presidency has helped boost cable ratings across the board, no program has benefited as much as Maddow's, whose audience has almost tripled, from 849,000 nightly viewers in 2014 to more than 2.3 million today, and growing. In mid-May, The Rachel Maddow Show was second only to the NBA playoffs as the most-watched program on cable, period.\nIn person, Maddow is taller than she appears on TV – a lanky five feet eleven – and also less feminine, her contact lenses replaced by chunky black glasses, mascara wiped off. Maddow's one concession to the female norms of TV news is agreeing to wear makeup, which she does for precisely one hour and 15 minutes per day. Off camera, she dresses in grungy attire, which on an afternoon before Memorial Day means Levi's, a beige T-shirt, a hole-ridden thrift-shop denim shirt, and camouflage Adidas Shell Toes. \"They're invisible,\" she says about her sneakers, though she could be talking about herself. At 44, Maddow is naturally, neutrally pretty, which is a positive if one's aim is to let the words, not the image, make the point. \"I have no visual-presentation goals for myself,\" she says in her office at 30 Rock. A long rack of near-identical dark suit jackets hangs on one wall. \"It's on purpose. You line me up with Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Hayes and Brian Williams, and we've all got a very similar shade of the same haircut.\"", "Lady Gaga presented a demure image for her video call with the Duke of Cambridge that was very different from her look during the early days of her career.\nThe star wore a floral fitted jacket with her blow-dried, light brown hair and subtle make-up that was a far cry from some of her more memorable outfits.\nLady Gaga looked like she’d fit right in at the palace (Heads Together Campaign/PA)\nIn recent years she has toned down her outrageous outfits, choosing relatively pared-down evening gowns for the 2016 Oscars, a Well Child charity event with Prince Harry in 2015, and for meeting the Prince of Wales at 2016′s Royal Variety Performance.\nHere is a look back at some of her quirkier wardrobe choices.\nHeadwear\nLady Gaga wears her hair as a beret (Peter Byrne/PA)\nLady Gaga’s hair pieces have ranged from jewelled hoods to hats shaped like telephones and actual pieces of hair woven into bows, berets and elaborate styles.\nHer infamous telephone hat made an appearance on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross in 2010 when she was promoting her Beyonce collaboration, Telephone.\nLady Gaga in one of her trademark hat/mask combos (Yui Mok/PA)\nThe singer is known for her hair bows which she first debuted in 2008, but has also worn an over-sized beret of hair, used empty soft drink cans as curlers, and at 2010′s Brit Awards coiffed her hair into a giant cloud-like structure inspired by Marie Antoinette.\nHats have included a tortoise tied to her head, a silver glittery lobster as a fascinator, and a decorated Christmas tree.\nUnderwear\nLady Gaga chose underwear for her tour (Niall Carson/PA)\nThe singer often chooses just underwear to perform in.\nIn 2009 she appeared at the Capital FM Jingle Bell Ball in a red bra and pants with a matching peaked cap, and the next year underwear featured as her stage outfit of choice on her Monster Ball Tour.\nLady Gaga kept it skimpy at the BBC (David Mirzoeff/PA)\nGaga made a recent appearance in London where she greeted fans outside BBC Broadcasting House in September wearing a metallic crop top and a very skimpy pair of cut-off denim shorts.\nDressing on a theme\nThe meat dress was a Gaga classic (PA)\nSome of Lady Gaga’s most memorable outfits have been created on a defined theme, whether they took inspiration from a historical figure, a cartoon character or a food.\nIn 2009 she appeared on a German television programme in a coat made out of Kermit the Frog toys, with a matching Kermit as a hair piece.\nAlso in 2009 she performed on stage in a see-through mini-dress made entirely from plastic bubbles.\nLady Gaga’s 2010 Brit Awards choice (Ian West/PA)\nHer 2010 MTV Video Music Awards get-up was a dress made of raw meat with a thin slice of steak tied to her head to match.\nThe singer’s Marie Antoinette look for the 2010 Brit Awards was a stand-out look too, with an enormous tiered white dress, a huge and elaborate hair-do, and a white lace mask that almost completely covered her face.\nGaga’s 2013 chicken mask was one of her most bizarre outfits, a large triangular fur helmet with a gold beak and cut-out eye holes which she chose for walking around Berlin during the day.", "Barneys New York's experiential event The Drop will feature exclusives such as this Tupac x 424 hoodie\nGet in on over 90 exclusive product drops, custom grillz, tats, piercings, 500 live butterflies and more June 2-3.\nThese days, a lot of shopping can easily be wrapped from the comfort of one’s sofa. But, in an effort to lure customers into the store, Barneys New York has created The Drop, a free two-day fashion extravaganza in partnership with lifestyle news site Highsnobiety first held last October at the Madison Avenue flagship in New York, and now coming to L.A.\n“We had about 12,000 people attend and about half of those were new customers,” Barneys executive vp marketing and communications Tomm Miller tells THR of the New York event featuring designer appearances, panel discussions, DJ sets, and 30 exclusive collab capsule lines that dropped every hour on the hour, inspired by streetwear and sneaker drops by the likes of Supreme that drive die-hard customers to brick-and-mortar stores.\nThis weekend, Barneys will roll out a West Coast version dubbed ThedropLA@barneys at the Beverly Hills flagship store on Wilshire Boulevard, where more than 90 limited-edition, L.A.-inspired collab pieces will include a Tupac x 424 hoodie, Ksubi cropped denim jacket, Spinelli Kilcollin rings designed in collaboration with Emily Ratajkowski, and white suede Maison Margiela Western boots.\nL.A.-based fashion labels represented include Fear of God, John Elliott, RtA, Palm Angels, Adaptation, Wu Wear, Greg Lauren, Advisory Board Crystals and Union Los Angeles. They will sit alongside exclusives by Prada, Moschino by L.A. designer Jeremy Scott, Heron Preston, Balmain, Versace, Givenchy, Fendi, limited-edition footwear by musician Justine Skye and model Jordyn Woods and more, with additional styles landing at barneys.com\n“What makes Los Angeles fashion so exciting is that it captures the artistic and creative culture of the city,” says Miller. “There are so many up-and-coming brands with diverse aesthetics, from the ‘undone' to the skater and the surf-inspired.”\nBarneys has upped the experiential ante in L.A. by adding brand installations that will remain in the Beverly Hills store through June 10. Shoppers can play games at a Prada pachinko parlor, skate a designer roller rink sponsored by Gucci, Versace and Fendi where Venice Beach roller dancers will perform, sip Moon Juice at a Birkenstock park, enjoy a slice at a Fila pizzeria, and immerse themselves in installations by buzzy streetwear brands Heron Preston (inspired by his fall 2018 NASA-themed capsule line) and Fear of God (a digital experience created by L.A. designer Jerry Lorenzo) among others.\nPart of Fred’s restaurant on the fifth floor will be transformed into a “butterfly bar” containing an array of nature-inspired fine jewelry and over 500 live butterflies that will ultimately be released back into the environment Sunday, according to Miller.\nExpect DJ sets by Preston, local twin sister duo Simihaze and Wu-Tang Clan-affiliated Mathematics, plus a surprise musical performance Saturday night by an undisclosed Live Nation artist. Many designers will be on site throughout the weekend. A fireside chat with Lorenzo late Saturday afternoon will focus on how L.A. culture has influenced Fear of God’s aesthetic, while Heron Preston will take part in one of Sunday’s panel discussions on the deeper meaning of luxury to younger generations.\nOh yeah, and did we mention the grillz, piercings and tats (both temp and perm)? Parisian mouth jeweler Dolly Cohen (whose clients include Rihanna, Rita Ora and Drake) will be conjuring custom grillz, while Angeleno J. Colby Smith (who has tended to the lobes of Zoe Kravitz and Emma Stone) will offer piercings. There will also be nail art, sneaker dip-dying and cleaning, artists hand-painting Faith Connexion handbags and Balenciaga sunglass cases, beauty treatments and a raffle for Balenciaga sneakers with 100 percent of proceeds donated to Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.\nThe Drop, Barneys, 9570 Wilshire, Beverly Hills, Saturday, June 2, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, June 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.", "Embattled movie exec Harvey Weinstein had little to say early Friday as he emerged from his posh West Village townhouse, a day after being accused of sexually harassing young women in a scathing exposé.\nWeinstein had a small rolling suitcase with him and a handful of papers as he left his Bank Street home just before 8 a.m.\n“I respect you guys. You’ve always been good to me,” Weinstein said before being whisked away by a driver.\nAbout 90 minutes later, his wife Georgina Chapman, the co-founder of fashion label Marchesa, said nothing as she left the apartment in an all-denim ensemble and jumped into a car that was packed with Louis Vuitton luggage.\nThe Miramax and Weinstein Company co-founder told The Post Thursday that he planned to sue the New York Times for $50 million for “reckless reporting” in their bombshell story.\nThe piece, published Thursday, accused Weinstein of decades of sexual harassment and said he paid at least eight women — including actress Rose McGowan — between $80,000 to $150,000 each to settle their complaints.\nSimilar allegations were lodged by actress Ashley Judd, who told the Times she was filming 1997’s “Kiss the Girls” when Weinstein lured her to his hotel room, offered her a massage and asked whether she wanted to watch him shower.\nJudd was not one of the women who received a settlement from the married father of five.", "A Time to Love and a Time to Die: Lelio’s Fantastic Portrait of Pain and Perseverance\n“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” murmurs the eponymous figure of Chilean director Sebastian Lelio’s latest significant achievement, A Fantastic Woman. The familiar statement alludes to the daily battles which prepare each of us for the personal wars in which we are each engaged to command respect, equality, and consideration from our peers in our environment. It’s an arguably cliched mantra but entirely relevant to members of the LGBT community the world over, a distinction which still makes us targets in specifically local but also global ways as we continue to face the prejudices of a heteronormative, patriarchal worldview unconcerned with complex classifications.\nAt the forefront of this struggle is the transgender community, the flagging T in an acronym of people who are sometimes as cruel, ignorant and inconsiderate as society at large, and cinematic cultural markers concerning them are plagued with controversy, specifically in the English language arena where there are few trans celebrities, leading to a glut of cis actors characterizing them, often for troubling awards courting vehicles. Lelio makes one of the most significant contributions to the contrary by featuring trans actress Daniela Vega in a beautiful, formidable performance as a woman whose significantly older boyfriend suddenly dies, leaving her vulnerable to the victimization of his family and the authorities who support their callous views.\nMarina (Vega) is happily in love with 57-year-old Orlando (Francisco Reyes). A waitress pursuing her dreams as a singer, she has only just moved into Orlando’s apartment when he suffers an aneurysm on her birthday and dies. Suddenly, Marina finds herself in a precarious situation. A transgender woman, she is automatically a target for hatred and ignorance at the hands of Orlando’s family, including his son and ex-wife.\nTo many queer audiences, the core of A Fantastic Woman is nothing new, and we’ve seen plenty of homosexual lovers and spouses treated despicably by the nuclear familial units of their suffering or deceased partners. And the specific situation Marina finds herself involved with is sadly nothing new, either. Authority figures whose job it is to protect the public are automatic enemies, insisting on referring to her as her legal gender specifies, something which leads to the cruel over usage of pronouns, which instilled the kind of public embarrassment the ignorant and the bigoted tend to seem most amused by. Even those more supposedly sympathetic figures, like Amparo Noguera’s crusty figure from the sexual victims unit, is more obsessed with protocol than actually understanding the psychological ramifications of what her procedures do to Marina, who is threatened into stripping off her clothes and forced to be photographed to prove the lack of physicality regarding her dead partner.\nLelio allows for some sympathetic supporting characters, including Marina’s sister (Alina Kuppenheim), or a loveable Sergio Hernandez as her music instructor, and a kindly Antonia Zegers as her boss. But they are infrequent particles in Lelio’s universe, which focuses almost exclusively on Vega, given room to unveil a layered, commanding lead performance as Marina. DP Benjamin Echazarreta’s frames eat her up, with quality and production design recalling the kind of mixing of obsessive feminine beauty and unabashed queerness we saw in Pedro Almodovar’s earlier filmography. But Lelio’s tragic narrative as equally recalls, by obvious extension, the interests of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and the German auteur’s inspiration, Douglas Sirk, all male auteurs fascinated by the ripe melodrama of a life forcing women to adhere to the wishes of masculine designed cultures demanding their subservience, repression, and unflagging obedience. Daniela Vega is a rebellious figure for several reasons, perhaps best summed up by Lelio’s title.\nIf A Fantastic Woman ultimately doesn’t allow for the same scope granted Paulina Garcia in Lelio’s 2013 breakout Gloria, we must remember the character of Marina is a tenuously established identity, a woman in transition who still isn’t allowed to be the new personality she’s forged through her own will and agency. It’s a different type of cinematic narrative parameter as regards characterization, something Lelio handles with aplomb, avoiding trivializing or exploiting the scenario for grandly melodramatic moments. No, there’s plenty of palpable pain to be had in observing Marina deal with a tragic scenario of losing a love one compounded by the cruelty of others who blatantly disrespect and disregard her.\nLike Gloria, Lelio finds significant visual power on glittery discotheque floors, including a brief but meaningful choreographed fantasy sequence. And her voice, much like Garcia’s Gloria, is also channeled poetically through a finale whose beauty is owed to the power of song. An early sequence finds Orlando gifting Marina a trip to Iguazu Falls in Argentina. Lelio’s film, once titled for the largest waterfall system in the world, is a significant motif, as the myth of Iguazu concerns doomed lovers who are cursed by a deity to remain in an eternal fall.\nReviewed on February 12th at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival – Competition. 104 Mins.\n★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆", "* U.S. central bank downplays Q1 economic weakness\n* Apple slips after surprise dip in iPhone sales\n* Delphi soars after spinoff announcement\n* Dow up 0.01 pct, S&P down 0.21 pct, Nasdaq down 0.5 pct (Updates with late afternoon trading)\nBy Lewis Krauskopf\nMay 3 Wall Street kept losses on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged following its two-day policy meeting, and as investors digested another heavy round of earnings reports.\nThe U.S. central bank downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth and emphasized the strength of the labor market, in a sign it could tighten monetary policy as early as June. Investors are betting on a 65-percent chance of a hike in June, according to Thomson Reuters data.\nThe S&P financial sector, which is seen benefiting in a rising rate environment, was up 0.5 percent after the Fed's bullish statement, leading all groups. Eight of the 11 major sectors were lower, however.\nThe Fed is in its first tightening cycle in more than a decade after it spent years keeping rates near zero to help the economy following the 2007-2009 recession.\n\"The Fed is communicating its mantra of gradual rate hikes,\" said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. \"The next time they will likely raise rates would be June.\"\nThe Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.54 points, or 0.01 percent, to 20,951.43, the S&P 500 lost 5.14 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,386.03 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 30.57 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,064.79.\nThe benchmark S&P 500 has returned to near its all-time high during an earnings season that generally come in above expectations.\nFirst-quarter profits at S&P 500 companies are estimated to increase 14.2 percent, its strongest growth since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.\nApple shares fell 0.4 percent, weighing on indexes, but recovering from steeper losses after the company's quarterly report, in which it reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales.\nIn other corporate news, Sprint shares slid 13.5 percent after the U.S. wireless carrier did not give specifics on deals it would pursue, even as its quarterly loss narrowed.\nDelphi Automotive shares jumped 9.3 percent after the company said it plans to spin off operations tied to internal combustion engines and focus on technology for electrically powered and self-driving vehicles. The stock was the biggest percentage gainer in the S&P 500.\nThe New York Times Co rose 12.2 percent after the newspaper publisher reported its biggest quarterly revenue growth in six year.\nDeclining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.83-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.22-to-1 ratio favored decliners.\nThe S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and 7 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 78 new highs and 65 new lows. (Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)", "Even at an ice skating rink, Katie Holmes heats things up.\nThe 38-year-old actress was snapped on Friday in Verona, Italy attending the fourth annual Intimissimi on Ice at the Arena, a night combining the talents of athletes, entertainers and fashion industry elites.\nThe Toledo, Ohio native, always a foremost fashionista, was sexy in a denim jacket over a lacy black bra top with pleated dark grey slacks and open-toe black heels.\nScroll below for video\nBeautiful: Katie Holmes, 38, looked amazing on the red carpet of Intimissimi on Ice Friday in Verona, Italy at the Arena\nThe beauty was impeccably made up, sporting her brunette locks in a wavy style while toting a black bag.\nKatie was snapped at the event alongside other high-profile attendees, including Russian model Irina Shayk, 31, and Italian designer Chiara Ferragni, 30, who commandeered the costume design of the performers on the night, according to Women's Wear Daily.\nThe event, according to the publication, was geared to showcase notable females throughout the lore of Greek mythology.\nThe former Dawson's Creek star, who's currently linked with actor Jamie Foxx, did not have her 11-year-old daughter Suri (with ex-husband Tom Cruise) on the outing.\nGorgeous: The actress donned a sexy top with a denim jacket to keep her warm\nConfidence: The Go actress radiated as she made her way down the red carpet\nLast month, she shared an adorable shot alongside Suri on her Instagram page to commemorate National Daughter Day with an adorable shot of the duo posed together.\nKatie was initially with Suri's dad Cruise in April of 2005 after a previous romance with American Pie star Chris Klein. She and Cruise got engaged a couple of months later, and she wed the American Made star - Scientology head David Miscavige was Cruise's best man - in an elaborate ceremony in November of 2006 at Italy's Odescalchi Castle.\nThe romance was not meant to be, as the two would split in June of 2012, with their divorce finalized the following month.\nTantalizing trio: Katie was snapped in between Russian model Irina Shayk, 31, and Italian designer Chiara Ferragni, 30, at the event\nBeauties: Katie beamed next to Irina, who has a baby daughter named Lea De Seine with boyfriend Bradley Cooper", "Thanks to his role as a frontman for rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars, he's long been a fixture on the Los Angeles music scene.\nSo it was far from surprising that Jared Leto, 45, was among the many stars who trekked out to the California desert to party at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival over the weekend.\nAnd as the Hollywood heart-throb stepped out to enjoy the musical offerings on Sunday, he was joined by a blonde beauty and a brunette stunner as he partied up a storm - while keeping things low-key by wearing a black surgical mask.\nScroll down for video\nPopular with the ladies: Jared Leto was seen partying was a bevy of beauties at Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Southern California on Sunday\nAs the star made his way through the grounds of Indio's Empire Polo Club, he wore an acid-washed studded denim jacket over a printed white T-shirt with red tracksuit bottoms and white trainers.\nWith a pink knitted beanie hat resting atop his head, the Suicide Squad star stashed his belongings in a fanny pack, while a pair of aviator style sunglasses helped to further conceal his appearance.\nHis disguise helped him walked freely through the partying crowds, although he was seen briefly removing his surgical mask as he paused to watch one performance.\nDressed to party: As the star made his way through the grounds of Indio's Empire Polo Club, he wore an acid-washed denim jacket over a printed white T-shirt with red tracksuit bottoms\nA day before, he was seen partying at the popular festival with English actress Annabelle Wallis.\nAnnabelle and Jared were romantically linked in 2010 – however they firmly downplayed rumours of a dalliance.\nIn fact in 2014 Annabelle took to Twitter to congratulate Jared on winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Dallace Buyers Club, describing him as her 'friend' on Twitter.\nLow-key: The star donned a black surgical mask and a pair of aviator style sunglasses\nMeanwhile, Annabelle has been romantically linked with Gwyneth Paltrow's ex-husband Chris, 39, since late 2015.\nThe couple were first seen loved-up together together hand-in-hand as they danced through the streets of Paris.\nProving to be the perfect girlfriend, she really got into her boyfriend's music when she offered her vocals as backing to his album A Head Full of Dreams.\nChris told Rolling Stone at the time: 'Everyone who got asked to sing on our album has an important part in our lives.'", "People walk past a store by yogawear retailer Lululemon Athletica in New York City, U.S., March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid\nThe logo for Lululemon Athletica is seen outside a retail store in New York City, U.S., March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid\nThe steep drop in Lululemon Athletica's (LULU.O) stock price, following a sales warning that resulted from poor colour choices in the company's spring collection, turns the spotlight on slowing growth in the athleisure category pioneered by the Canadian yogawear retailer.\nShares of rivals Nike Inc (NKE.N) and Under Armour (UAA.N) also were down on Thursday, raising questions of whether athletic leisure wear can maintain its torrid growth amid competition from denim and possible shopper fatigue with the now decade-old fashion category.\nIn the age of fast fashion, when trends change overnight, athletic leisure wear is showing signs of age. Industry-wide sales in North America have grown 39.2 percent to $26.05 billion in the last five years, according to Euromonitor.\nHowever, sales in the category are expected to grow at 5.2 percent in 2017, slower than the average 6.9 percent rate at which the category had grown in the last five years.\nThe latest quarterly results have also indicated a slowdown from the marquee manufacturers.\nThe last few years have seen a surge in the number of retailers offering athleisure clothes, ranging from mass-market products sold by retailers such as Gap Inc (GPS.N) to $1,000 leggings from designers such as Alexander McQueen.\n\"There is no more the growth that was there before and there are way more competitors for the brand (Lululemon) compared to when they'd started 10 years ago,\" Jan Rogers Kniffen, chief executive of consulting firm J. Rogers Kniffen WWE, said.\nA hash of celebrity brand launches, including Beyonce's Ivy Park line in April last year, has also competed for sales at the traditional retailers.\n\"Nordstrom (JWN.N) has got a private label on athleisure, (J.C.) Penney (JCP.N) has also got a private label on athleisure, Kohl's (KSS.N) has got a private label on athleisure. Everybody is doing it at every price point,\" Kniffen said.\nA comeback in denim, led by 1970s-inspired wider leg denim pants and higher waist jeans from Forever 21 and H&M (HMb.ST), is also eating into demand for athleisure wear.\n\"We continue to believe trend shifts away from athleisure to denim will present stiffening headwinds to LULU,\" Canaccord Genuity analyst Camilo Lyon said.\nThe stock market is giving the industry little room for error. Nike's shares fell as much as 7.3 percent after the company reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue last month, while Under Armour's shares fell 28 percent in January after it forecast 2017 sales well below analysts' estimates.\n\"Over the past 12-24 months, other athletic wear bellwethers such as NKE and UA have seen meaningful multiple contraction once sales started slowing and margins stopped expanding,\" said Ike Boruchow, analyst with Wells Fargo, in a research note.\nThe market on Thursday showed little patience for Lululemon's disappointing results, too. The company's shares closed down 23.4 percent at $50.76.\n(Additional reporting by Anya George Tharakan and Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by David Greising)", "How could a sapling replace a grown-up tree, the Delhi high court on Wednesday asked while observing that felling over 16,500 trees to build multi-storey accommodation for proposed redevelopment of six South Delhi colonies was akin to leaving the city to die.\nThe high court prohibited the authorities from cutting down or taking away trees till July 26, the next date of hearing on a plea against felling of trees for housing projects and asked whether any environment impact assessment was carried out before initiating the work.\n“If Delhi needs that they (buildings) be dismantled, they will be dismantled. You can’t leave the city to die like this,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.\nIt also asked why everyone needs to be given space in the Lutyens’ Delhi when the peripherals of the national capital have so much of vacant land, and added “the mantra is decongestion”. The court said the authorities should develop colonies like Narela.\nTaking note of a submission that Delhi was running out of ground water, the court asked the Centre and the city government how they propose to water the saplings which are going to replace fully grown trees under the compensatory afforestation policy.\n“Delhi government shall explain how a fully grown tree could be equated with 10 saplings? How long a sapling will take to grow as a tree. Delhi was earlier known for its bird population,” the bench said.\nIt also questioned the Centre on its redevelopment scheme, asking how permission was given to change a two-storeyed building, meant for two families, into an eight-storeyed building.\n“What do you mean by redevelopment. This is your scheme. Replacing a two-storeyed building with an eight-floor building, this is what you call redevelopment,” the bench said.\n“From where do you get water for such eight-floor buildings? What amount of garbage will be generated? Where is parking and what about air pollution? You don’t apply you mind to planning,” the bench said.\nThe counsel, appearing for the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), tasked with redeveloping half a dozen south Delhi colonies, claimed that no garbage was going out of the construction site.\nThe court was also of the opinion that the construction was an impediment for ambulances and patients in reaching the two super speciality hospitals -- AIIMS and Safdarjung -- in the area.\n“There will be traffic jam at the main gate of the colonies. Two major hospitals are at the intersection. How will people reach AIIMS and Safdarjung hospital? You must have done an Environment Impact Assessment. Show it to us,” it said.\nIt also sought to know the density of the area and said that after laying infrastructure including road, water, electricity, garbage system, macro-level planning is done.\n“How can you amend the master plan retrospectively after developing a colony,” the bench said.\nThe court asked the DDA to place before it all the schemes of redevelopment.\nIt said why everyone needs to be given space in the Lutyens’ Delhi when the peripherals of Delhi have so much of vacant land and added “the mantra is decongestion”.\nThe court granted time to Ministries of Environment and Forest and Housing, the Delhi government, NBCC, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, NDMC and other authorities to file their response on the petition which has sought setting aside of the terms of reference (ToR) and Environmental Clearance (EC) granted to the housing project by the Environment Ministry, claiming it would lead to felling of over 16,500 trees.\nThe bench also sought details as to how much space has been given for commercial activities.\nThe court said there was a need for the presence of experts related to these issues and appointed environmentalist M C Mehta as amicus curiae in the matter.\nDelhi government standing counsel told the court that the government has started the process of revoking and reviewing the permission granted to cut trees for the projects.\nThe court was hearing a PIL by orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra against felling of trees for housing projects in six south Delhi colonies -- Sarojini Nagar, Naoroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Mohammadpur and Kasturba Nagar.\nA similar issue is also pending before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).\nThe petition has claimed that planting of saplings in another location as compensatory afforestation would not reduce the burden which would be put on the environment due to the large-scale felling of trees.\nIt has claimed that saplings would be a “poor substitute” for the fully grown trees that would be felled for the housing projects.\nThe court also sought response of the authorities on a contempt plea filed by environmentalist Vimlendu Jha alleging that there was deliberate and wilful default of June 25 undertaking given to the court by the NBCC not to cut trees till July 4 for housing projects here." ]

[ "A new partnership involving Welsh police forces, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) and the Welsh Development Agency has been launched to tackle the issue of hi-tech crime against businesses in Wales." ]

[ "For the first time outside London, Welsh businesses join workshops to speak to police about internet crime.", "Police in England and Wales have begun trialling hand-held electronic fingerprint readers on motorists, the latest piece of new high-tech equipment being wielded in the fight against crime.", "The army confirms that a unit of the Welsh Cavalry - the Queens Dragoon Guards - will be supporting British forces moving into central Iraq.", "A Welsh police force reveals crimes by under-10s almost doubled last year, while other forces record sharp drops.", "As two regiments amalgamate to form \"The Royal Welsh,\" Tories claim Wales is receiving second class treatment.", "Gives a whole new meaning to 'copper networking' North Wales Police is going all-IP with a new network that'll put unified communications - including videoconferencing and IP telephony - into all 75 of its cop-shops.…", "Controversial plans are agreed to spend 200,000 on a '\"profligate\" mounted unit for North Wales Police.", "The government has set up an elite anti-kidnap special forces unit in London, in part to deal with scenarios like those allegedly threatened by men arrested in Birmingham this week, sources said.", "Manchester United's Welsh winger Ryan Giggs confirmed his retirement from international football on Wednesday.", "President Mbeki orders an investigation into South Africa's top crime-fighting unit, after rows with the ruling ANC.", "Police forces in Wales have the best five highest-detection rates for burglary in the UK, new figures reveal", "Two former leaders of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru voice concerns as coalition partners start forming a government.", "Concerns are raised as more police officers, including those from two Welsh forces, start to carry Taser stun guns.", "A prosecutor on Monday lashed back at the United States ambassador, who recently chastised Bulgaria's prosecution office for allegedly failing to fight organised crime and corruption and trying to intimidate ...", "Concerns are raised as more police officers, including those from two Welsh forces, start to carry Taser stun guns in a 12-month trial.", "The Democratic challenger outlined his own $5 billion plan to fight crime and picked up the endorsement of a coalition of police unions.", "\"The Anatomy of Deception\" (Bantam Dell Books, 352 pages. $24), by Lawrence Goldstone: For audiences increasingly drawn to \"CSI\"-type murder mysteries, Lawrence Goldstone reminds them that crime fighting can be just as gripping without all the high-tech wizardry.", "A crackdown on dealers and users of drugs including cocaine and heroin is launched by English and Welsh police.", "Greek and British police in a joint operation have cracked a multi-million illegal software sales ring, arresting two people and seizing thousands of pirate high-tech software programs, Greek police say.", "Ousted Thai PM Thaksin's wife returns to fight corruption charges, as his allies try to form a government.", "Chinese factory raided, 20,000 items seized The Bluetooth SIG showed its muscle today when the manufacturing facility of Shenzhen Bluebird Hi-Tech. Co. in Shenzhen was raided by officers from the Shenzhen City Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Public Security Bureau (a unit which will never make for a snappy TV title).…", "A tip-off hotline set up by a former British policeman on the Costa del Sol has nabbed three British criminals on the run in Spain and impressed local police looking for new ways to tackle organized crime.", "Emergency units which last week saw queues of ambulances are visited by Welsh Health Minister Brian Gibbons.", "Preserving the digital crime scene poses one of the biggest challenges in the global fight against cybercrime, said participants this week at a major international conference on fighting Internet-based crime.", "By CARL BUTLER A CRIMEWATCH-STYLE scheme to catch poachers, fly-tippers and polluters on two of North Wales' major rivers, was launched yesterday.", "\"Very serious allegations\" The Police Complaints Commission is to investigate \"very serious\" allegations about misuse of North Wales Police computers…", "The Tories say 'generational change' is needed to fight crime, not 'knee jerk' reactions.", "Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney admitted that he is frustrated by his recent poor form.", "The United Arab Emirates is to partner with Boeing to try and become a major supplier of hi-tech aeroplane components.", "By HYWEL TREWYN NORTH Wales Police have nailed a sophisticated scam in which computer hackers obtained pay-for-view television free. A house in Anglesey was the centre of an international operation which took several months to carry out.", "The European Union added a fresh arm to its fast-growing military and police machinery yesterday, launching a fighting "gendarmerie" for quick deployment to trouble spots all over world.", "James Onalfo, the CIO and deputy commissioner of the New york Police Department, is on a mission to bolster the technology in his department and use it to fight crime in the city wherever possible." ]

[ "Neil Patrick Harris" ]

[ "suite with a balcony", "en-suite bathrooms", "Microtel Inn and Suites", "The Internet protocol suite", "Ilikai Hotel & Luxury Suites", "operating room suites" ]

[ "because his mom was a wafer so long" ]

[ "You probably could, but other than the feeling of sadness, you wouldn't be able to see or hear it. The water from your eye would just blend with the surrounding water. Did you feel like you were crying underwater once, but couldn't tell, and that's why you're asking?", "cookies have nothing to do with the history of sites you visited. So restoring them would not help.\\n\\nIf he deleted the history, there's nothing you can do ... but wait ... did he deleted the cookies? no, so here's what we are going to do ...\\n\\nwe are going to use the cookies to see if we can find the site, search for the \\n\\nc:\WINDOWS\TEMP\Cookies\\nc:\WINDOWS\Cookies \\n\\nthen change the view to details, and open the first column until you see the whole text. \\n\\nIts going to take a while to look at all your cookies, and try to remember if the sites name, but if it stored a cookie, it might be there.\\n\\nonce you find it, dont open the cookie, just type the URL on the browser and bookmark the site =)", "You did not get a virus from the yahoo tracking cookies. However to delete all cookies in Internet Explorer click on tools, then internet options.\\n\\nYou can click delete cookies, and it is probably not a bad idea to click delete files as well. \\n\\nYou can do a free online virus scan at\\nhttp://www.pandasoftware.com/\\n\\nOr you can download Ad-Aware for free which will not check for virus but will check to see if you have spyware on your computer. http://www.lavasoft.com/", "Yes.. \\n\\nto delete cookies in firefox : go to tools-> options -> privacy -> Clear cookies\\n\\nto delete cookies in IE: go to internet options -> Delete Cookies\\n\\nto delete cookies in opera: go to tools -> advanced -> Cookies -> delete", "There is no generally accepted reason why human beings laugh. We do know that it is tied to crying from brain injuries that have resulted in people suddenly crying or laughing for no reason. The area of the brain that controls this is relatively small and the injuries are rarely the same making study of the actual mechanism difficult.", "I believe that was \"Prayer\", by Lizzie West\\n\\n\"Do not stand at my grave and weep \\nI am not there I do not sleep \\nI am a thousand winds that flow \\nI am the sunlight on my own grave \\n\\nI am a gentle autumn rain \\nI am the swift uplifting rush \\nof quiet birds in circled flight \\n\\ndo not stand at my grave and cry \\ndo not stand at my grave and cry \\ndo not stand at my grave and cry \\nI am not there I did not die \\n\\n(Spoken) \\nman as yet is half grown \\nEven his flower stem has not appeared yet \\nHe’s all leaves and roots without a sign of stem in sight \\nBlossoming, establishing a new pure relationship with the cosmos \\nIt is the sign of heaven. \\nIt’s the sign of the cobra. \\nIt’s the sign of a man who knows himself royally. \\nCrowned with the sun. \\nHis feet gripping the earth as he goes. \\nWe have arrived. \\n\\nDo not stand at my grave and cry. \\nDo not stand at my grave and cry. \\nDo not stand at my grave and cry. \\nI am not there I did not die. \\nI am not there I did not die.\"", "Watched it a few times, each time gets me more. The love is sooooo deep, much deeper than Titanic. I don't usually cry, but it did it.", "Clear the cookies from your browser. Just go to (Tools/Internet Options/Clear Cookies button) OR you can search the \"cookies\" folder for files containing the word \"yahoo\" and just delete those cookies.", "No, the Davinci Code is not real, it's a fictatious story. Made up from the minds of man. I don't get why people think that the book was real. It's not for crying out loud!! so no, they weren't lovers.", "Assuming you're talking about why you need to keep signing into Yahoo - your browser settings might not be allowing cookies to be saved on your computer. \\n\\nWhen you select \"Remember Me,\" the website saves a little cookie file that will automatically sign you in whenever you return to that particular web site. \\n\\nBut, if you have your security settings raised to particular level, or have set up your browser tp not allow any cookies, \"Remember me\" won't work, and you'll have to re-login everytime you return to the site.", "Cookies are just small pieces of text on user's computer which stores small amount of data about users after browsing a specific cookies enabled website. You can create cookies in ASP too and in PHP too. You have to learn the basic functions regarding cookies like\\n setcookies()\\n in the brackets there will be the parameters like when cookies will expire or die.", "Yahoo will remember your ID until the associated cookie expires. You can delete the cookie by going to tools->internet options->delete cookies", "What that does is save a cookie to your computer. On some PCs the internet history, cookies and downloaded internet files are wiped when you log out, meaning that the cookie is lost, so the site doesn't know you checked that box.\\n\\nIf you use mozilla firefox then allow yahoo to save cookies as firefox will generally clear out cookies when you end the program. If you use IE check the settings and make sure that you have set it to save cookies.\\n\\nHope this was helpful", "Cookies are small piece of data stored on your computer used by websites to identify your computer next time you visit the same site. These can be accesses through your browser, or by simply through the windows explorer. You can erase all cookies on your browser by going to Tools>Internet Options>Delete cookies. \\nIf you want to specifically delete yahoo related cookies you should open the cookies directory and select yahoo cookies and delete them. For example, on My Win XP machine the directory was C:\WINDOWS\Temp\Cookies.", "try deleting cookies and offline files\\nfor example in Firefox:tools-options-privacy-\\n1)cookies-clear cookies now\\n2)cache-clear cache now\\n3)history-clear history now\\nand in IE:tools-internet options-general\\n1)delete cookies\\n2)delete(offline) files\\n3)clear history", "MoviePass is bad news. They put cookies in your computer that allow them to put a screen blocker on it even after the program is removed. It is a way they extort you to pay the monthly payments even if you do not want their service.\\n\\nI had it and could find no way to delete the cookies. The cookies are put in so that the Delete cookies in Internet Options doesn't remove them\\n\\nThe only way I found to get rid of them all together is to remove the program through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. After that you will have to do a complete system recovery (reformat) to remove the cookies. This takes your computer back to the first day you got it.\\n\\nMy friend hooked up with them and when I told him what he had to do he refused. Said he would find another way to remove the cookies. Later he told me he found a program that removed the cookies. The day after the payment was due his screen was blocked. Then he couldn't do anything with it. Couldn't even use start to turn it off. He had to make a payment to get the block removed and the did then system recovery.\\n\\nThe programs can remove all of the spyware in moviepass but not the cookies, but they don't tell you that.\\n\\nSo as the FRAN man says \"Pay me now or pay me later\".\\n\\nSuck it up and do the reformat or make the monthlies to moviepass.", "it seems like ur browser is not allowing cookies, Cookies are files stored on your computer containing information about websites, u must turn on cookies to store ur preference. go to the option of ur browser and check the \"allow cookies\" option.\\ndon't forget to sign in the website, if it is other that google.", "Go to Tools > Internet Options\\nIf you want to delete your cookies, select the General tab and click Delete Cookies.\\nIf you want to adjust privacy with cookies, select the Privacy tab and adjust the slider.", "Are you talking about cookies? They can be easily deleted. If you are using internet explorer click on tools then click internet options and then click delete cookies.\\n\\nIf you are using netscape click on tools then click cookie manager and then managed store cookies and then click on remove all cookies.\\n\\nThere are free spyware programs that you can download such as Adware that detect and remove spyware.", "don't want the person to get an infection and get sick do you? (I mean incase the execution is called off for some reason.)\\n\\nI wonder why we have to be kind about executions in the first place. The condemned cry \"Cruel and Unusual\". . .why cried \"cruel and unusual\" for the victims they killed?", "You dont need to block all cookies. Quite a few cookies are good. Just run \"Spybot Search and Destroy\" and \"Ad-Aware\" now and then. These software packages will remove any software left by those cookies. Also delete all your cookies by going to Tools->Internet Options now an then.", "How to Enable Cookies \\n\\nTo enable cookies, follow the instructions below for the browser version you are using. \\n\\nMozilla Firefox (1.0 final release and earlier) \\nGo to the \"Tools\" menu. \\nSelect \"Options\". \\nSelect the \"Privacy\" icon in the left panel. \\nCheck the box corresponding to \"Allow sites to set cookies\". \\nClick \"OK\" to save changes. \\nNetscape 7.1/Mozilla 5.0 \\nSelect \"Preferences\" from the Edit menu. \\nClick on the arrow next to \"Privacy & Security\" in the scrolling window to expand. \\nUnder \"Privacy & Security\", select \"Cookies.\" \\nSelect \"Enable all cookies\". \\nClick \"OK\". \\nMicrosoft Internet Explorer 6.0+ \\nSelect \"Internet Options\" from the Tools menu. \\nClick on the \"Privacy\" tab. \\nClick the \"Default\" button (or manually slide the bar down to \"Medium\") under \"Settings\". \\nClick \"OK\". \\nMicrosoft Internet Explorer 5.x \\nSelect \"Internet Options\" from the Tools menu. \\nClick on the \"Security\" tab. \\nClick the \"Custom Level\" button. \\nScroll down to the \"Cookies\" section. \\nTo enable: \\nSet \"Allow cookies that are stored on your computer\" to \"Enable\". \\nSet \"Allow per-session cookies\" to \"Enable\". \\nClick \"OK\". \\nMicrosoft Internet Explorer 4.x \\nSelect \"Internet Options\" from the View menu. \\nClick on the \"Advanced\" tab. \\nScroll down to find \"Cookies\" within the \"Security\" section. \\nTo enable: \\nSelect \"Always accept cookies\". \\nClick \"OK\". \\nNetscape Communicator 4.x \\nSelect \"Preferences\" from the Edit menu. \\nFind the \"Cookies\" section in the \"Advanced\" category. \\nTo enable: \\nSelect \"Accept all cookies\" (or \"Enable all cookies\"). \\nClick \"OK\". \\n\\nHOPE THIS HELPS", "May be you have your browser cookies turned off. Since all the websites having login do send cookies to your system to control the login process.\\n\\ntry turning on your browser cookies. refer\\nhttp://www.iaccorp.com/cookie.htm", "Anyone at all can get tracking cookies on their computer unless they have their privacy level set to high (this will block all cookies) or have manually over-ridden cookie handling and blocked all cookies themselves.\\n\\nA cookies is just a bit of info that a website places onto your computer that it may need to refer to later.\\n\\nFor example, Yahoo will place a cookie on your computer if you select the 'remember password' option. A cookie will then be placed on your computer which will tell Yahoo to log you in automatically each time you visit.\\n\\nTo delete cookies go to Tools on the top menu bar, click Internet Options (last option in the drop down box) and click the Delete Cookies button. Whilst you're there you may want to hit Delete Files - this will delete all the temporary internet files that are on your computer.\\n\\nTo adjust the way your computer handles cookies click on Tools > Internet Options > Privacy. Move the slider bar up and down to select different options. Click on Advanced if you want to manually override cookie handling.", "illegal bad legal good . there is nothing to be proud of in mexico if they wont even fight for their rights there\\n they should take this time to cry out to mexico. \\n\\n\\n\\np.s. we did not steal their land We bought it from their conquerors.", "Delaware is correct. \\n\\nNot only is DC wrong, but it came way late to the game, and it isn't even a flippin state, for crying out loud! Did you just sleep through 13 years of school, or what?", "Not having cookies would make the web \"experience\" a little less friendly, but most sites could live without cookies. I've developed MANY sites (including store fronts) that don't use cookies. Cookies are great for storing small bits of information that can be referenced later, but they're not an essential part of a website. Some users are afraid of cookies and have their browser set up to refuse cookies. That can prevent that person from accessing a lot of sites that USE and NEED cookies.\\n\\nCookies have a bad reputation. They can't destroy your computer as many believe. Their just a convenient way to store client information for later access by a server. \\n\\nYes, some companies have used cookies to THEIR own benefit, but no damage has been done to a users computer, software or data.", "no definintly not where did you hear that lol depression is all related to your mind and what triggers off certain things on how you feel and think and how you react to it either by getting on wit life or crying about it, sorry if i sound harsh.", "Assuming you are clicking the \"Save my login info\" checkbox when you sign in, you probably aren't saving cookies. To enable cookies, go to the \"Options\" item under the Tools menu. Then look at the \"Cookies\" tab under the Privacy section and make sure you haven't disabled cookies.\\n\\nI usually have \"allow sites\", \"originating site only\" and \"keep til they expire\". If it still isn't working, check your exceptions to make sure you haven't specified yahoo.com can't set cookies.", "If Bush lied about WMDs, why did the UN pass 17 resolutions telling Saddam he had to get rid of WMDs? Why did Bill Clinton use WMD profileration to justify the 1998 bombing of Baghdad? Why did even Jacque Chirac even ask Saddam to disarm? Why did Saddam USE his WMDs in a 1988 attack in a Kurdish town? Why did even some of the top Iraqi Generals which have been captured in this war believe that Iraq had WMDs?\\n\\nAnd what exactly is Bush's lie about Iran?", "I think it is possible. Not that they would not talk about God but in their actions they would deny him - and especially deny Jesus and the plan of Salvation.\\n\\nThere is an anecdote abou this:\\n\\nIn front of a church sits a man poorly dressed crying. Jesus approaches him and asks him why is he crying. The man tells him:\\n\"They won't let me in\". Jesus told him: \"don't worry son, they won't let me in either.\"", "Cookies are not \"running\" on your computer. Cookies are just text files saved on your computer, that save information about you and are used by the websites you visit. \\nFor example, when you visit yahoo answers, after you login, your browser will save a cookie (a small .txt file) in your cookies directory, with your login ID and some other information more. Next time you come to yahoo answers, the website will use the information on that cookie to remember your user ID.\\n\\nJust be aware that cookies are not dangerous software. They may unprotect some your privacy, saving some information from websites you visit, but they are not dangerous. Basically, cookies can be seen as the browser memory. You can always disable them in your borwser settings if you don't want this type of information to be saved." ]

[ "Hall of the Pontifical Audiences" ]

[ "Pope Paul VI", "Rome, Italy", "Rome", "audience", "the Pope in Rome", "Orchestra Hall", "Club of Rome", "University of Rome", "the Roman Forum", "Great Hall of the People", "What's Your Mama's Name", "Palace of Justice, Rome", "The Sign of Rome", "What Yo Name Iz?", "When in Rome", "The Naming of Names", "names", "Audience Network", "VI", "name ''", "Teatro Argentina, Rome", "the Great Hall", "audience choice", "their names", "a right of audience", "See of Rome", "Forum Romanum", "Capitol Music Hall", "audience effect", "naming", "throne hall", "chapter VI" ]

[ "Fashion gets political, again. This time the subject is a controversial political figure who dominates headlines and is as popular as he is polarizing. No, it’s not about Trump. To celebrate Vladimir Putin’s 65th birthday on October 7th, legendary British motorcycle and clothing company Matchless London announced a leather bomber jacket inspired by the president of Russia.\nPutin Jacket by Matchless London\nPutin Jacket by Matchless London\nAs the first product introduced from the Putin-inspired capsule collection – which includes leather and cotton parkas, jackets, and coats – the $1,699 “Putin” jacket is crafted using a revolutionary leather treatment process that ensures to keep the wearer warm in minus 40 degrees Celsius weather. The jacket also features a shearling collar and is finished with a vintage, worn-in effect. The style nods at Putin’s affinity for biker culture and his ties with the notorious, Kremlin-backed motorcycle club, the Night Wolves.\nBritish heritage clothing company, Matchless London, is a household name in biker culture. In 1899, the company became the first manufacturer of motorcycles in Great Britain, and later, the first motorcycle brand to launch its own clothing line specifically for bikers. With an enduring propensity for patriarchal figures, the brand has designed with the likes of Marlon Brando, James Bond, Bruce Wayne and Arnold Schwarzenegger in mind.\n‘We consider Russian President Vladimir Putin a modern super hero as well, giving personal respect to his strong character, brutal image, sense of humor and calmness as a world leader,’ stated Manuele Malenottti, managing director of Matchless London, in a press release.\nPool via Getty Images (Left): President of Russia Vladimir Putin, (Right): Leader of the Night Wolves Alexander Zaldostanov (the Surgeon)\nEach jacket from the capsule collection will feature the number 6595 on the sleeve. With Russia being the longest country in the world, the number refers to the distance (in kilometers) from western Kaliningrad to eastern Naukan. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Putin leather jacket is also meant to be the appropriate choice of outerwear for intrepid bikers who dare make the ride.\nAt a tumultuous time when politics are contentious and the team mentality of political parties are deepening divisions, expressing one’s viewpoints through clothing has become routine. It’s no longer enough to tell someone where you stand, now you have to show them. For Putin supporters, donning promotional merchandise is a declaration of the ideals he represents – power, masculinity, and control – and the politics he espouses.\nREUTERS/Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting dedicated to the organization of upcoming events and celebrations on Victory Day at the Kremlin in Moscow.\nPutin-themed products are hardly new. Throughout Russia, images depicting the 65-year old leader hunting, riding horses, practicing judo, and doing other adventurous activities are ubiquitous, his portrait often emblazoned on clothing, accessories, and a slew of other products. During his tenure as a world leader, the politician has cultivated himself as a celebrity, a brand, a proliferating symbol of Mother Russia. For better or worse, merchandise has power and politics sell." ]

[ "Forever 21 has been accused of copying Kanye West's fashion line for the second time in less than a year.\nFans of the 39-year-old rapper took to social media to call out the clothing brand after noticing similarities between Forever 21's clothes and West's 'Life of Pablo' merchandise as well as items from his new line, Calabasas.\nExamples included a graffiti-covered denim jacket that resembles one West has been pictured wearing, a shirt reading 'Private Concert' and 'Saint Francis' in a similar typeface to the rapper's Saint Pablo Tour clothing, and a blue shirt that looks very much like designs from the Calabasas line.\nKanye West's fans called out Forever 21 after noticing similarities between the merchandiser's clothes and the rapper's 'Life of Pablo' and Calabasas fashion lines. The 33-year-old fashion brand's yellow shirt, featuring 'Saint Francis' (left) resembled a T-shirt sold as merchandise (right) during West's Saint Pablo tour, for his 2016 album, The Life of Pablo\nThe Life of Pablo fashion line (pictured above) was a collaboration between Los Angeles-based graphic artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt and West's creative company, DONDA\nA Forever 21 shirt (left), titled 'Aisle 316 Los Angeles Tee', has Los Angeles printed vertically down the front alongside two stripes. West's similar pants (right), a collaboration with Adidas, features track pants with the word 'Calabasas' down written vertically on the leg alongside Adidas's iconic three stripe\nForever 21 doesn't appear to be trying to pass off its clothing as West's fashion line, but many designs are quite similar, social media users have noted.\nThe 33-year-old fashion brand's yellow shirt, featuring 'Saint Francis' resembled a T-shirt sold as merchandise during West's Saint Pablo tour, for his 2016 album, The Life of Pablo.\nThe Life of Pablo merchandise was a collaboration between Los Angeles-based graphic artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt and West's creative company, DONDA.\nThe blue shirt, titled 'Aisle 316 Los Angeles Tee', has Los Angeles printed vertically down the front alongside two stripes.\nWest's similar collection, a collaboration with Adidas, features track pants with the word 'Calabasas' down written vertically on the leg alongside Adidas's iconic three stripes.\nThe two-stripe distinction is reminiscent of a lawsuit Forever 21 filed against Adidas in March over the brand's enforcement of its three-stripe trademark.\nThe denim jacket in Forever 21's line is similar to a graffiti-covered coat West and wife Kim Kardashian were seen wearing last year, designed by Australian artist Pauly Bonomelli\nWest also has a jacket in his Life of Pablo line, which features the name 'Pablo' four times on the back\nThe denim jacket in Forever 21's line is similar to a graffiti-covered coat West and wife Kim Kardashian were seen wearing last year, designed by Australian artist Pauly Bonomelli.\nWest also has a jacket in his Life of Pablo line, which features the name 'Pablo' four times on the back.\nThis is not the first time Forever 21 has been accused of referencing West's looks.\nForever 21 was accused of recycling ideas from West's Life of Pablo line last year, too, when the clothing line released a shirt that read 'I feel like pizza' that looked eerily similar to the rapper's 'I feel like Pablo' shirt, which he wore to his Madison Square Garden launch of the clothing line.\nIn 2013 - before the clothing brand had been accused of copying West's clothing line - the rapper referenced the merchandiser in his song, Bound 2 from his album Yeezus.\nThis is not the first time Forever 21 has been accused of referencing West's looks. Forever 21 was accused of recycling ideas from West's Life of Pablo line last year. Pictured above, West at his Yeezy Season 3 release last year\nLast year Forever 21 released a shirt that read 'I feel like pizza' that looked eerily similar to the rapper's 'I feel like Pablo' shirt, which Kylie Jenner is seen wearing above right\nThe song references a girl he meets at a club who is wearing Forever 21 clothes at 30 years old.\nHe raps in the song: 'What you doin' in the club on a Thursday?/She say she only here for her girl birthday/They ordered champagne but still look thirsty/Rock Forever 21 but just turned thirty.'\nPuma also accused Forever 21 of copying designs earlier this month.\nThe brand served Forever 21 with a lawsuit for copying its Rihanna X Fenty line of 'Bow Tie' slippers, 'Creepers and 'Fur' slides.\nThe shoe wear giant is demanding the retailer not only stop selling the alleged rip offs but hand over all profits it has made from them\nThe suit comes as Puma also took action against Topshop in a German court, getting an injunction to stop the store selling slides Puma said were direct copies.\nForever 21 has also been accused of taking looks from artists Tumblr as well as copying the font from Thrasher magazine.", "Though she made her mark as an Angel, Alessandra Ambrosio looked sinfully good while jetting out of Los Angeles International Airport Friday.\nThe Victoria's Secret alum, 36, radiated rocker chic wearing a leather motorcycle jacket with metal studs as she arrived for her weekend flight.\nThe 5foot9.5 model teamed her tough jacket with tight blue jeans and relaxed layers for her trip.\nRevving engines! Alessandra Ambrosio radiated rocker chic in a leather motorcycle jacket with metal studs while jetting out of Los Angeles International Airport on Friday\nThe mother-of-two's jeans highlighted her endless stems while a black tee looked classic beneath.\nShe tied a dark sweater around her waist in case of a chill while covering her feet in comfy black and white Adidas.\nAlessandra went without makeup for her flight, flaunting a natural glow as she strode through the terminal.\nThe Brazilian beauty's hair was similarly understated as she pulled her dark locks into a haphazard ponytail.\nBlue jean baby! The mother-of-two paired her hip jacket with tightly fitting blue jeans and a black tee beneath\nSneaker-ing around! She tied a dark sweater around her waist in case of a chill while covering her feet in comfy black and white Adidas\nYou glow girl! Alessandra went without makeup for her flight, flaunting a natural glow as she strode through the terminal\nThe IMG repped stunner accessorized with chained necklaces, several bangles and a handsome wristwatch.\nEarlier in the day, the star was seen stopping by a friends house in Brentwood before heading to LAX.\nAle, as the model's fans affectionately call her, was flying solo, not seen with partner Jamie Mazur, 36, or their kids Anja, 10, and Noah, five.\nThe model announced in November that she would be retiring from her longtime gig with Victoria's Secret.\nSome sparkle: The IMG repped stunner accessorized with chained necklaces, several bangles and a handsome wristwatch\nQuick visit: Earlier in the day, the star was seen stopping by a friends house in Brentwood before heading to LAX\nFallen angel! The model announced in November that she would be retiring from her longtime gig with Victoria's Secret\nShe told her followers on Instagram that after 17 Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows she would not be retiring her wings.\n'Words cannot describe how grateful I am to have been working for this amazing brand that inspires me and women all over the world,' she wrote on Instagram.\nWith her Victoria's Secret days behind her, Ale's took on several new projects.\nLast year she played Karen in Daddy's Home 2 starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.", "Sorry, casual Friday. After years of it being acceptable to show up to the office in jeans and a T-shirt, the dress-for-success ethos is finding favor again this fall.\nAnd several Los Angeles-base stylists couldn’t be more excited.\n“We’ve had a lack of fashion [in the workplace] for years,” said stylist Heathyr Wolfe, adding that the low-maintenance professional attire of Mark Zuckerberg and billionaire or multimillionaire chief executives has made it almost a standard to show up wearing just about anything.\n“People want to be taken seriously in something besides just a boring suit, polo shirt or shapeless outfit,” she said.\nLaurie Graham King, a Los Angeles stylist and wardrobe consultant, said she knew the tide was turning when she started getting calls from clients saying they had been chastised for being “too sloppy” at work.\n“Companies expect you to represent their brand in a positive manner,” she said. “And how you dress is a big part of putting your best foot forward at work. I advise my younger clients who are just starting their first job to dress for the position they want. If you dress like a college student, no one will take you seriously.”\nBrands are offering up career-dressing collections that are fresh and modern, predicated on a tailored structured piece and building creatively around that.\n“There are so many new [jacket] shapes with sleeve detail that still feel professional,” said Debra Perlman, president of New York-based brand Tahari ASL.\nA jacket with a bell sleeve or embroidery detail paired with a slender pant will look more interesting than a conventional trouser suit. Other pieces that Perlman suggests seeking out are pencil skirts, bouclé jackets, shift dresses with statement sleeves and fit-and-flare dress; both dress styles can work with the jacket. Accessories should include a bag that is spacious, but not slouchy, and a shoe that offers a little stature while the wearer is on her feet all day.\nNow, here are some ideas to jazz up your too-casual work look.\nCole Haan\nA block heel loafer from Cole Haan comes in ocelot hair calf, tapping into fall's trend in animal prints. Cole Haan\nAnimal prints are a perennial fall favorite. Cole Haan is on top of the trend with this block heel loafer in ocelot-print hair calf. $440, www.colehaan.com\nWunder2\nWunder2's Selfie HD Photo Finishing Powder was created to be used in harsh fluorescent lighting, casting a natural and translucent glow on the skin. Wunder2\nTaking a selfie at your desk? Not before an application of Wunder2’s Perfect Selfie HD Photo Finishing Powder, which presents a refined complexion in the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting. Applied with a large Kabuki brush (not included) over makeup, it sets foundation, eliminates shine and keeps the face looking fresh all day. $22, www.wunder2.com and amazon.com\nAbeo\nFootwear brand Abeo is known for its fashion-forward-yet-comfortable shoes. The Virtue is in burgundy, considered one of fall's most dominant colors, and features on-trend lace-up details. The Walking Co.\nThe Virtue shoe from Abeo encompasses three of fall’s most important trends: It’s in suede, comes in burgundy and features lace-up details. The brand is known for its comfort-forward footwear, so these won’t pinch after a long day at the office. $159.95 from the Walking Co. stores at the Glendale Galleria, Sherman Oaks Fashion Square and other locations and at thewalkingcompany.com\nLuba by Hannah Payne\nA modern take on tweed, this zipper front wool dress in beige is shot with gold threadwork. The Shimmer dress comes from New York brand Luba by Hannah Payne. Luba by Hannah Payne\nThe Shimmer dress from New York-based Luba by Hannah Payne is a youthful take on tweed; this beige zipper-front wool dress is scantily shot with golden threadwork for a bit of textural interest. $298, shopluba.com\nTahari ASL\nTahari ASL black blazer with olive blouse with neck ruffle detail. Tahari ASL\nEmbroidery detail and the three-quarter sleeves on this jacket from Tahari ASL make it anything but a basic black blazer. The piece can work with pants, a skirt or over a black shift dress. Also shown is an olive blouse with neck ruffle detail from Tahari ASL. Jacket, $149, and blouse, $56, tahariasl.com\nDavid Lerner New York\nA stretch pencil skirt from David Lerner New York provides fit without feeling restrictive and will look modern with a pussy-bow blouse or neat cropped jacket. David Lerner New York\nThe pencil skirt is reinvented by David Lerner New York with this stretch tube skirt made from a nylon/spandex blend that fits the body while not feeling restrictive. Sizes from extra small to large. $105, davidlernerny.com\nNaked Cashmere\nFreezing in the office? This cashmere shrug from Naked Cashmere goes with everything, from tailored pants to pencil skirts to shift dresses. Naked Cashmere\nBe prepared for the inevitable office air conditioning with the Camelia, a snug yet sophisticated cropped cardigan from Santa Monica-based Naked Cashmere. The 100% cashmere open-front piece is lightweight enough for layering and comes in several neutral colors such as camel, black and gray. $150, nakedcashmere.com.\nRebecca Minkoff\nBundle up in this dark purple Ferry belted trench from Rebecca Minkoff. Rebecca Minkoff\nArrive at work on a cool day in this Rebecca Minkoff trench-style Ferry coat in purple with a plush velvet feel, $340 at select Nordstrom stores and nordstrom.com.\nElaine Kim\nA silk charmuse dress with a slim leather belt from Los Angeles designer Elaine Kim comes in rose, navy and marbled gray. Elaine Kim\nFrom Los Angeles designer Elaine Kim, who has a store on 3rd Street close to the Beverly Connection, is this Okara dress in silk charmeuse with an attached leather belt. In addition to white, the dress comes in rose, navy and marbled gray. $525, available at Elaine Kim, 8373 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles.\nCoach\nThis bag comes in three colors: Selena Red, Selena Black Cherry and Selena White. Those were the shades anointed by actress-singer Selena Gomez for her limited-edition Coach x Selena Gomez collaboration launched for fall. Coach\nLast month saw the launch of the limited-edition Coach x Selena Gomez collaboration, which includes this leather-and-suede Selena Grace carryall. The actress-singer includes a message with each bag, “To be you is to be strong.” This design comes in Selena Red, Selena Black Cherry and Selena White — so there’s no chance of forgetting whose bag you’re carrying. $395, coach.com\nVia Saviene\nModern jewelry from local brand Via Saviene will update any wardrobe staple; consider this two-tone cuff made of 14-karat gold and hematite plating with a sprinkling of Swarovski crystals. Via Saviene\nDon’t forget to accessorize. Los Angeles brand Via Saviene’s modern jewelry pieces work well with upwardly mobile dressing. From the Colette collection is this two-tone cuff made from 14-karat gold and hematite plating with Swarovski crystals. The open hinge style works with all wrist sizes. $275, viasaviene.com\nSupport our journalism Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Already a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you. Get full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks.\nFashion Videos\nALSO\nLooking for an Instagram moment? Miu Miu pops up its oversized handbags at South Coast Plaza\nParis Fashion Week: Spring trends include black and white and a whole lot of light(ness)\nSchott NYC continues to make celebrity cool leather jackets as well as ones for SoCal temperatures", "Bebe Rexha has collaborated with some big names in the music industry. She has songs with Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz, and Louis Tomlinson. She already has millions of fans who call themselves Rexhars. Her latest collaboration isn’t with anyone from the music world. Bebe Rexha partnered with Gilt, a members-only shopping site on an 11-piece collection of cool bomber jackets. The collection of oversized jackets resembles the young singer’s edgy style. Bebe Rexha has a unique style both on and off the stage. The singer’s 90s’ inspired style includes a lot of cool jackets. With this collection, Bebe Rexha wanted to celebrate her love for oversized statement jackets.\n“I personally love jackets and always try and put a jacket with my outfit even if my stylist says no. There’s so much versatility in what a jacket can look and feel like that I wanted to explore that.”\nThe multicolored jackets are decorated with bold elements. Bebe Rexha used crystal and floral embellishments, airbrush artwork, studs, leather fringes and other decorations to design the one-of-a-kind jackets. Some of the jackets are embellished with Bebe Rexha’s lyrics. One of the jackets has the singer’s hand-airbrushed portrait on the back together with the lyrics: “The way I are”. There is also a bold black leather fringe denim jacket with “F—K Fake Friends” over the sleeves and the front part of the jacket. Other designs include lyrics from her song “Bad Bitch” as well as her initials. The jackets are not for the ones who want to play it safe. The singer also included a transparent jacket with denim sleeves. Just several months ago the transparent Topshop jeans caused a lot of negative comments on the internet, but Bebe Rexha wasn’t afraid to risk. She also explained that the designing process reminded her of making music. According to the singer, both things require “patience, time and dedication”.\nIt’s not something you can rush — it takes time to create. It’s really cool to have the ideas in my head turn into the real thing. The whole process from start to finish was all so new to me so it was all really exciting,” the singer added.\nThe pieces from the collection are priced between $169-$4800 and will be available to purchase online on the brand’s website on Friday starting at 12 ET. On Friday Bebe Rexha will also release her new album “All Your Fault: Pt.2”", "Since touching down in New York City, Selena Gomez has been on something of a roll from a street style perspective. Whether in a winter-friendly crop top or a snowstorm–proof statement coat , the singer hasn’t so much as missed a beat. And when she made her front row debut at Coach 1941’s Fall 2017 fashion show earlier today, she hit yet another sartorial high note.\nLoading View on Instagram\nThe 24-year-old star was recently made the face of the brand—a title that is rumored to involve hands-on design, too. Gomez is clearly a natural fit for the job, and looked every bit the part of poster girl in pieces lifted off the runway. She threw a leather studded jacket over her shoulders, offsetting the ladylike layer she had on underneath. A demure sheath boasted a flirty transparent hem that could be seen peeking out from behind a structured box bag. And while Gomez’s strappy stilettos were a far cry from the cozy shearling-trimmed sneakers the models were wearing, overall the look was right in step with the brand’s youthful appeal.", "She's never one to shy away from flaunting her head-turning fashion.\nAnd Tallia Storm was back to her old style tricks as she made sure to command attention in a daring strapless leather bra while celebrating Cuvée Rose's 50th birthday party in London on Tuesday.\nThe 19-year-old Scottish singer teamed her racy leather lingerie with a pair of high-waisted black trousers with stud detailing throughout.\nHead-turning: Tallia Storm was back to her old style tricks as she made sure to command attention in a daring strapless leather bra while celebrating Cuvée Rose's 50th birthday party in London on Tuesday\nThe Celebs Go Dating star's cropped pants highlighted her narrow midriff and slender pins while she posed for photos in her pointed black heels.\nComplementing her statement pants, she donned a matching oversized jacket with studded lapels which drew attention to her skin-flashing display underneath.\nKeeping to her glamorous display, Tallia worked her blonde shoulder-length locks into a sleek style and sported a dramatic smokey eye for the bash.\nTallia's latest appearance comes as she is carving out a career as a singer, recently releasing a brand new single titled You Love Me You Care.\nPicture perfect: The 19-year-old Scottish singer teamed her racy leather lingerie with a pair of high-waisted black trousers with stud detailing throughout\nSpeaking of the new track, which she co-wrote and recorded in Los Angeles, the teen admitted: 'I have fallen in love with Latin America and felt I just had to do a song with a Cuban dance influence.\n'It’s so sensual, passionate and arresting. Everything you should feel when you listen to this song. We had such fun in the studio when we were writing it and its fair to say my salsa moves have dramatically improved.'\nThe TV personality recently confessed she felt she had been 'dumped again' after ex boyfriend Brooklyn Beckham, denied they previously dated on an Instagram Live.\nPushing the boundaries: Complementing her statement pants, she donned a matching oversized jacket with studded lapels which drew attention to her skin-flashing display underneath\nThe social media Q&A spurred the Scottish singer on to launch a seething attack on the aspiring photographer in an exclusive chat with MailOnline.\nThe reality star confessed it felt like Brooklyn had dumped her again but this time in front his 10,800,000 Instagram followers earlier this month.\n'We dislike each other,' she said. 'I couldn't be more angry. It's like he's dumped me again! You dump me once, three years ago, and now you dump me again!\n'Why does he feel the need to do it again three years later? Why is he bringing it back up again. It's exhausting!'", "Just weeks after announcing her departure from J.Crew, designer Jenna Lyons is enjoying some much-deserved time off.\nThe 48-year-old revealed earlier this month that she was leaving the brand after working their for 26 years, climbing up the ranks to become creative director and president.\nOn Sunday, she was spotted relaxing and enjoying the weekend, walking hand-in-hand with her longtime girlfriend Courtney Crangi, 43, in New York City.\nOn vacay: Jenna Lyons was seen in New York City walking hand-in-hand with her partner Courtney Crangi\nBye! The 48-year-old, who announced earlier this month that she was leaving J.Crew after 26 years, flashed some side boob in a low-cut pink jumpsuit\nStyle: Jenna accessorized her ensemble with some brown leather sandals, a leopard-print clutch, and a lime green umbrella, while Courtney looked laid-back in a pair of distressed jeans\nHow low can you go? Jenna' s Pepto Bismol-pink ensemble was unbuttoned down to her waist\nAlways flaunting her unique and iconic sense of style, Jenna was wearing a light pink jumpsuit, which hung open in the front and revealed that she appeared to be braless underneath.\nShe accessorized with brown sandals and a leopard clutch, holding onto a clear umbrella in preparation for a spot of rain that came down in the afternoon.\nJenna held hands with her partner Courtney, who was dressed in ripped jeans, an oversized denim jacket, and booties. Courtney has a fashion background herself, and is a partner in her brother's jewelry label Philip Crangi.\nThe two had been dating for a year before they publicly acknowledged their relationship in November 2012.\nLong weekend: On Saturday she was out and about by herself in a pair of star-print jeans\nBusy bee: She was seen texting while balancing a coat over her shoulders\nRecognizable: Jenna was also wearing her signature black frames\nA few months later, Jenna told V Magazine how great it was to have Courtney there to support her no matter what she did.\n'For me the best thing is knowing that someone really has your back,' she said. 'Like no matter what happens, she has my best interests at heart. I think there are a few moments in life where that actually happens and that feels, like, completely true and real.'\nSurely Courtney has lent her support as Jenna's career has entered a transitional phase this month. In early April, she shared the news that she would be stepping down from J.Crew.\n'I am excited about the next chapter for J.Crew as well as the opportunity for other creative leaders within the organisation to step up and take on new responsibilities,' she said in a statement, according to Business of Fashion.\nThe end of an era: Earlier this month, announced that she is leaving J.Crew after 26 years at the helm of the popular brand, following declining 2016 sales\nHead of the brand: During her first decade running the brand, she tripled its sales\nLeaving seems to be bittersweet for Jenna, who also holds a position on the CFDA's Board of Directors.\n'It has been beyond my wildest dreams to work with such an amazing team of people at such an incredible brand and alongside Mickey [Drexler, chief executive of the brand] — one of retail's most talented visionaries,' she added.\n'Having spent the better part of my life with J.Crew, I feel an immense pride and love for everyone at the company.'\nTaking her place is Somsack Sikhounmuong, formerly the head of design, as well as the leader of Madewell. He has been promoted to chief design officer.\nJenna, meanwhile, has not announced whether she will be moving to another brand as of yet.\nTastemaker: She has also become a major personality in the fashion industry (picture with, left to right: Ivanka Trump, Carolina Herrera, Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, Claire Danes)\n'Jenna and I got together and we both agreed it was time for a change,' Dexler explained.\n'Somsack and our design teams have a deep understanding of the aesthetic and style our customers rely on us to deliver, with a proven track record of driving creative vision in-line with our brand DNA.'\nJ.Crew has seen a decline in sales lately, down 6 per cent from 2015 to 2016. Sales at brick-and-mortar shops declined 8 per cent.\nNext in line: Jenna will be succeeded by Somsack Sikhounmuong, formerly the head of design and leader of Madewell\nJenna, though, is credited with majorly growing the brand during her tenure. From 2003 to 2013, the brand's revenue tripled, and J.Crew became a cult favorite.\nShe was also often seen as more than just a designer, becoming a media personality in her own right.\n'Everyone from industry professionals to the younger generation of bloggers is crazy about her sense of style,' Marie Claire editor Nina Garcia told New York magazine. 'Jenna has mastered the art of the high-low mix.'\nThat mastery is what propelled her to the top position at a company she started working at straight out of Parsons in 1990. She began as 'assistant to an assistant to someone else’s assistant', she told Fast Company, and slowly but surely made her way through the ranks.\nIt wasn't until Drexler became CEO in 2003 that Jenna became a big player at the brand, and in 2010 she was given the top job of director and president. Together, they transformed J.Crew into the mega-brand it is today.\nJenna is also the genius behind the J.Crew Style Guide, an updated version of the brand's catalog — which now devotes more pages to style and editorial content.", "Superbike launches were the flavour of the season at the recent 14th edition of the annual Royal Enfield Rider Mania and the 5th edition of the India Bike Week maga event held in picturesque Vagatore beach front in golden Goa.\nMajor motorcycle brands such as the iconic Royal Enfield, German BMW Motorrad, British Triumph Motorcycles, American brand Indian Motorcycles and the new entrant on the scene Avantura Choppers launched and showcased their new products to excite nearly six-seven thousand bikers both from overseas and India.\nJapanese giant Yamaha also introduced the new version of Yamaha MT-09 in New Delhi to showcase the “power of a monster” and the “agility of a roadster” to strengthen its superbike segment in the market.\nRoyal Enfield, the global leader in mid-size motorcycle segment (250-750cc), unveiled its ground-up modern twin motorcycles, the Interceptor INT 650 and the Continental GT 650. With these two bikes the company is entering into the lucrative premium motorcycle segment in the country. Both the bikes are powered by the new 650 cc engine developed by the company.\nRoyal Enfield, which will sell these two bikes in India early next year, claims that these two bikes pack a punch and accessible to Royal Enfield bike owners. It means the new bikes will be priced lower than their closest competitor like Harley Davidson Street 750 and Triumph Bonneville, which cost upward of Rs 5.14 lakh.\n“We are not competing with other brands or companies. Our own products are the benchmarks for us,” Sidhartha Lal, the 43-year-old dynamic CEO of Royal Enfield, said during the unveiling event. “These new biked will be priced keeping the same margin that is currently between the prices of the 150 cc and 350 cc models,” he said.\nEquipped with 47 bhp of power and 52 Nm of torque, the two new bikes also boast of futuristic technologies, such as parallel-twin cylinder with electronic fuel injection, twin exhausts and an all new six-speed gearbox with a slip-assist clutch.\n“We have at present over 2.5 million active riders across the country and they need to upgrade themselves to a higher motorcycle with more power and these two new bikes will just do that,” Rudratej Singh, president at Royal Enfield told Financial Chronicle.\nBMW Motorrad debuted its two iconic motorcycles called the new BMW K 1600 B, a sporty bagger, with a price tag of Rs 29 lakh and the new BMW R nineT Racer, a cafe racer at Rs 17.3 lakh.0\nThe R NineT Racer is the latest addition to BMW’s Heritage family of classic, and retro-inspired bikes with boxer-twin engines. It features a retro front cowl with a round headlamp and a laid back windscreen. The 17-litre fuel tank looks bulbous and gets knee recesses that extend into the small and thin saddle. A hump at the tail is the final finishing curve on the bike. The bike comes with three-tone graphics on top that are reminiscent of BMW Motorsport’s colour scheme. The R NineT Racer will compete against the Triumph Thruxton R and the upcoming Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe.\nThe BMW K 1600 B is a sporty bagger. Baggers are essentially touring motorcycles that are very similar to cruisers and have a boxy saddlebag on top of them that essentially look like an extension of the bike themselves. Baggers are quintessentially an American genre of bikes and the new K 1600 B is a German interpretation of it.\nThe K 1600 B gets a chopped windscreen and tubular handlebars with a massive 26.5 litre fuel tank, all of which will be a boon while touring. The seats are low-set and two 37-litre hard saddlebags sit on either side of it. Two chrome mufflers sit below the boxy panniers. Despite its proportion, it’s been designed beautifully. It looks sleek and rich with its free flowing bodywork.\nThe bike gets a 6-cylinder, liquid-cooled, 1649cc engine that churns out 162PS of power at 7750rpm and 175Nm of torque at 5250rpm. A 6-speed gearbox is used for transmission duties. It also gets an optional reverse gear. The K 1600 B competes against the 2017 Honda Gold Wing.\nWith its motto ‘Make Life a Ride’, the pavilion showcased a range of 14 BMW Sports, Tour, Roadster, Heritage or Adventure bikes from its stable.\n“At BMW Motorrad, we have been crafting not only masterpieces of engineering, but experiences that are above and beyond the ordinary. We are thrilled to bring BMW Motorrad to India Bike Week, presenting our fans the very essence of our brand motto ‘Make Life a Ride’,” Vikram Pawah, president st BMW Group India, said.\nDimitris Raptis, head of Region Asia, China, Pacific, South Africa, BMW Motorrad said, “BMW Motorrad has already become the most anticipated and exhilarating brand to enter India. We see a tremendous potential in India and are confident of building a success story here as well.”\nRival Triumph Motorcycles also unveiled an exciting new bike called the Bonneville Speedmaster, the cruiser, for the Indian market. It will be launched in the country by April 2018 with an expected price of Rs 10-11 lakh. The retro cruiser was first unveiled at the company's headquarters in Hinckley, UK, last month.\nThe Bonneville Speedmaster packs the same engine that is on the Bonneville T120 and the Bobber. This 1200cc, liquid-cooled, parallel-twin engine in its HT (or High Torque) configuration makes 77PS of power at 6100rpm and 106Nm of torque at 4000rpm. It is mated to a 6-speed gearbox. The Speedmaster also gets a ride-by-wire throttle for enhanced response, two riding modes – Road and Rain, and switchable traction control as well as cruise control.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nAs one of the biggest brands in the world, Harley-Davidson was top of the list when Swansea motorcycle specialists M&P Direct wanted to expand.\nIn 2013, after months of negotiation, they added the prestige franchise to their custom-built showroom and created a dedicated eBay store selling everything from brand new top-of-the-range bikes to nuts and bolts.\n“M&P is a motorcycle mail order business selling parts and accessories,” says director Marc Thomas. “In the late ‘90s we took on Kawasaki, but then in 2012 we had a fire in our building and decided that was a good opportunity to have a second franchise, so we built an extra showroom.\n“Because it was a completely new space, Harley-Davidson had a blank canvas so we could meet all their demands.\n“That was important because Harley-Davidson is a lifestyle, you don’t just buy the bike, you have the clothing, the accessories – they make everything from dog collars to leather jackets and watches – and we sell it all.”\nAs soon as they launched the franchise, the company was keen to reach as many devotees as possible and, with long-established mail order roots, an eBay store provided the ideal online marketplace. “We do get a lot of visitors to our showroom, we’re out of the city centre and we have an on-site diner so people will often spend a stress-free couple of hours here,” says Marc.\n“But we wanted to reach a much wider market. Harley-Davidson were very specific about their brand so when we built our eBay shop it wasn’t a case of just putting listings up, everything had to be to their specifications.\n“We got direction and templates from eBay and now, on our own website, if you click to visit the store it goes straight through to our eBay store because Harley-Davidson were so pleased with the way we built it.\n“We offer free UK delivery and the option to upgrade to an express service if an order is placed before noon, with customers receiving their order the next day. They like the convenience of getting something straight away.”\nShoppers on Swansea Harley-Davidson’s eBay store have a huge range to choose from.\n“The most expensive model is probably about £35k, but people can customise the bike so it’s tailor-made for them.\n“We’re constantly looking for new products and ways to make what we do most appealing to customers, and eBay is a great channel for that.”\nstores.ebay.co.uk/SwanseaHarley-Davidson", "John Legend and Chrissy Teigen looked stylish as ever as they headed out in Hollywood on Monday, their daughter Luna in tow.\nThe couple, who've been married since 2013, had welcomed their firstborn last April and celebrated her first birthday Friday last.\nDuring their Monday outing, Chrissy was seen having popped on a chic black leather jacket over a white top with a sloping neckline.\nScroll down for video\nTrio: John Legend and Chrissy Teigen looked stylish as ever as they headed out in Hollywood on Monday, their daughter Luna in tow\nThe 31-year-old Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model had slipped on a torn and faded pair of jeans that emphasized her pencil-thin legs.\nMeanwhile, her husband had worn a camouflage-patterned bomber jacket over a black T-shirt, black trousers and white-rimmed black shoes.\nChrissy's Snapchat Story on Friday had updated fans on Luna's first birthday festivities, including with a photo of Chrissy kissing John over the birthday cake.\nAlways chic: During their Monday outing, Chrissy was seen having popped on a chic black leather jacket over a white top with a sloping neckline\nThe big day: Chrissy's Snapchat Story on Friday had updated fans on Luna's first birthday festivities, including with a photo of Chrissy kissing John over the birthday cake\nThe two-tiered pink dessert featured the birthday girl's name emblazoned along the side of the top tier in silver, as well as party-hat-shaped frosting at the top.\nChrissy'd also posted a Snapchat post of the cake that showed her mother, Vilailuck, seemingly working on putting together a salad in the background.\nAmong the presents Luna received that day were a kitchen playset and a Little TIkes Cozy Shopping Cart, which a rather unimpressed-looking family dog got to ride.\nThree generations of the family: Chrissy'd also posted a Snapchat post of the cake that showed her mother, Vilailuck, seemingly working on putting together a salad in the background\nLucky Luna: Among the presents Luna received that day were a kitchen playset and a Little TIkes Cozy Shopping Cart, which a rather unimpressed-looking family dog got to ride\nChrissy, John and Luna had been among the guests when Kim Kardashian and her husband Kanye West had thrown an Easter fête this past Sunday.\nSo, incidentally, had Kim's sister and only elder sibling Kourtney Kardashian, as well as celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin, a mainstay of the Kardashian family.\nThe quartet of women posed for Kim's Snapchat Story with a group of animals from a petting zoo that'd been set up at Kim and Kanye's Easter event.", "Mark Thomas knows all too well the struggles of a neighborhood business staring down changing trends and the rise of Amazon. Yet the owner of the 40-year-old punk shop The Alley isn’t cowering.\nHe’s just doing it a different way.\nThomas, 62, has partnered with his good friend and longtime restaurant owner Mark Markellos, of Philly’s Best fame, to open The Alley 1776, which in addition to serving up leather belts, cuffs, jewelry, incense and printed-on-site band T-shirts, is also dishing out fancy decorated waffles known as “wafflepops,” sandwiches, salads, Dark Matter coffee and other cafe fare on the first floor.\n“Amazon and Grubhub can’t deliver an experience,” Thomas said. ”People always shopped at The Alley for the experience.” Now he’s betting that adding food and coffee to the mix will enhance that experience and encourage customers to linger and shop. “This is a concept that has strength,” Thomas said. “(It) was meant to approach the economic market as I saw it.”\nWorking in retail since he was 17 years old, Thomas has witnessed — and suffered from — the evolution in how Americans shop.\nThomas opened The Alley’s store at Belmont Avenue and Clark Street in 1986, initially as a head shop, with motorcycle jackets, T-shirts, jewelry and imported Doc Martens. He traveled the world looking for unusual merchandise. He decorated The Alley with a lot of it — a vintage Billy Idol photo; life-sized replicas of the Predator, the Alien and the Terminator, from the science fiction movies of the same names; and a painting of Jimi Hendrix. He also had several other locations, including one in Woodfield Mall and another on North Avenue. Then the recession hit, and Thomas said he went from seven additional stores to three, and those closed in succession in 2012, 2013 and 2014, he said.\nStill, the Belmont and Clark store remained, even as the neighborhood around it was gussied up, evolving from a stomping ground for young goths, punks, motorcyclists and alternative lifestyles, Thomas said, to a hangout for hipsters and high-end yuppies.\nTerrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune The Alley, an iconic Lakeview t-shirt store at Belmont Avenue and Clark Street in Chicago, has re-opened with a cafe that serves waffles, as seen on Monday, April 13, 2018. The Alley, an iconic Lakeview t-shirt store at Belmont Avenue and Clark Street in Chicago, has re-opened with a cafe that serves waffles, as seen on Monday, April 13, 2018. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)\nThomas said the cause of The Alley’s eventual demise was threefold — consumers shifting their spending from clothing to food and travel, more consumers heading to their laptops to shop and by the end, the construction along Clark and Belmont — most notably, the Target across the street where a Dunkin’ Donuts once stood.\nThe Clark Street location shuttered in January 2016. It was time for Thomas to take a break anyway, he said. He’d had three surgeries in 20 months and was ready to travel. But after visiting Indonesia, Thailand and Hawaii, among other places, Thomas said he wanted to jump back in with a new approach.\nIn August 2017 The Alley reopened across the street from its old address on Clark Street, establishing a trimmed-down shop on the 2nd floor, while the cafe was built on the first.\nThe merchandise is streamlined, but still includes studs, T-shirts, crystals and other fare the store is famous for. Motorcycle jackets are available to try on and orders placed are mailed directly to the customer. The new format caters to consumers who long to shop local and appreciate a neighborhood flavor, but it’s also a nod to the fact that smaller, neighborhood businesses must find clever ways to reel in customers.\nBusiness partners Mark Thomas and Michael Markellos discuss the reopening of The Alley at Belmont and Clark. Business partners Mark Thomas and Michael Markellos discuss the reopening of The Alley at Belmont and Clark. SEE MORE VIDEOS\n“If the big boxes aren’t surviving, it’s that much tougher for smaller stores,” said Maureen Martino, executive director of the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce.\nIn the past decade Lakeview East has transformed, bringing in more commercial brands and fewer small businesses. The eclectic character that used to be found along the corridor, which once housed a hodgepodge of shops and restaurants, has faded.\nThe Alley, meanwhile, is a mainstay of the old Lakeview’s flavor, according to Martino.\nWhen it comes to neighborhoods, Martino said, consumers still want a local, unique feel. “What makes it unique are these small independent stores.”\nBut the food and new look isn’t what brought in Norwood Park neighborhood resident Bobby Roth, who was checking out a wall filled with leather goods, spiked collars, bracelets and belts. Roth, 43, had shopped at the old store since he was a teenager in the early ’90s, he said. It was his first time at the new location, and his special diet meant he had no plans to eat. He was happy to just shop, he said.\n“I like it. It’s much smaller than the old one, but it’s the same stuff,” Roth said. “I am happy because I thought they were closed down.”\[email protected]\nTwitter @corilyns", "Mandy Moore rocked a leather motorcycle jacket capelike over her strapless plaid bustier dress at the Alice + Olivia FW/17 presentation on Tuesday.\nThe 32-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who relies on stylist Erica Cloud - gave her b&w ensemble a pop of color with red lips, clutch, and heels.\nSister duo Jenn & Ashley Streicher made sure Moore was camera ready for the New York Fashion Week function.\nScroll down for video\nWinter in NYC: Mandy Moore rocked a leather motorcycle jacket capelike over her strapless plaid bustier dress at the Alice + Olivia FW/17 presentation on Tuesday\nV-Day flair: The 32-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who relies on stylist Erica Cloud - gave her b&w ensemble a pop of color with red lips, clutch, and heels\nAccording to the New York Post, JetBlue Airlines delivered the This Is Us actress' luggage on Tuesday - 24 hours after it went missing in 'three separate cities.'\n'Get it together @JetBlue. 2 1/2 hours late, didn't update our arrival time and lost our bag? Back to @AmericanAir for me!' Moore - who boasts 4.1M followers - wrote.\n'The level of absolute ineptitude of @jetblue is beyond comprehension...pure insanity. First and last @jetblue flight.'\nIt was an ironic Twitter rant for the Women's Marcher, whose father Donald is an American Airlines pilot.\nTwitter rant: According to the New York Post, JetBlue Airlines delivered the This Is Us actress' luggage on Tuesday - 24 hours after it went missing in 'three separate cities'\nBreak-up song: Valentine's Day also marked the premiere of Dawes' music video for Roll With The Punches, which stars Mandy and her boyfriend, frontman Taylor Goldsmith (R)\n'Jack Pearson's Son': Catch more of the former pop princess as singing mother- of-three Rebecca Pearson in the hit one-hour drama series This Is Us, which airs Tuesdays on NBC\nValentine's Day also marked the premiere of Dawes' music video for Roll With The Punches, which stars Mandy and her boyfriend, frontman Taylor Goldsmith.\n'I'm pretty blown away by [Mandy's] acting and just blown away by her in general,' the 31-year-old rocker admitted to EW.\n'It was fun to bring together what we both do, even if just in some small way.'\nCatch more of the former pop princess as singing mother-of-three Rebecca Pearson in the hit one-hour drama series This Is Us, which airs Tuesdays on NBC.\nBoss lady: The 5ft9in brunette made sure to pose with the woman of the hour, Alice + Olivia founder Stacey Bendet\nSeventies rocker chic: The 38-year-old designer's show featured body-painted topless models and it was reportedly inspired by Salman Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence\nThe 5ft9in brunette made sure to pose with the woman of the hour, Alice + Olivia founder Stacey Bendet.\nThe 38-year-old designer's show featured body-painted topless models and it was reportedly inspired by Salman Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence.\nWhile at Manhattan's Highline Stages, Moore reunited with her TRON: Uprising co-star Kate Mara.\nHey girl! While at Manhattan's Highline Stages, Moore reunited with her TRON: Uprising co-star Kate Mara\nLady in red: The Emmy nominee - who turns 34 this month - got into the V-Day spirit in a plunging crimson jumpsuit, which she paired with a bedazzled bomber jacket\nThe Morgan actress rang in the romantic holiday by tweeting a snap of her dog and beloved fiance Jamie Bell captioned: '#HappyValentines Bae!'\nThe Emmy nominee - who turns 34 this month - got into the V-Day spirit in a plunging crimson jumpsuit, which she paired with a bedazzled bomber jacket.\nThe Morgan actress rang in the romantic holiday by tweeting a snap of her dog and beloved fiance Jamie Bell captioned: '#HappyValentines Bae!'\nAlso attending were Liv and Maddie starlet Dove Cameron in an embroidered jumpsuit and new mother Nicky Hilton Rothschild in a red velvet blazer.", "Any item that crops up on the Instagram feed of one of the hottest models on the planet is guaranteed to become coveted by the masses.\nSo when Bella Hadid posted a snap of herself in a fiddler cap that she had a hand in designing it became official - this tricky-to-wear hat is back.\nThe fiddler cap is the latest in a string of out-of-favour fads to be embraced afresh by the style set, and the Hadid seal of approval suggests it's about to go mainstream.\nBella Hadid teased her design collaboration with Chrome Hearts on Instagram, posting a snap of herself in a pink patent fiddler cap\nThe Hadid sister's seal of approval suggests this tricky look is about to hit the mainstream\nBella shared the picture on Instagram as she revealed she's teamed up with the brand Chrome Hearts for an upcoming fashion line, which includes the pink patent hat she's wearing in the snap.\nBella's fondness for a fiddler cap is no secret - she was spotted wearing one during a Christmas vacation in Aspen with her family earlier this month, and wore another Chrome Hearts hat with an all-denim outfit on a trip to Paris back in October.\nAnd the 20-year-old model, the edgier younger sister of fellow Victoria's Secret Angel Gigi Hadid, isn't the only one championing the hat's return.\nStyle icons including Sienna Miller, Kate Moss and Alexa Chung have all worn versions of the accessory, and Gigi herself posed for a 2016 Vogue cover wearing a £30 baker boy-style hat.\nWearing another Chrome Hearts hat with an all denim look on a trip to Paris recently\nBella topped off her cosy outfit with a fiddler cap on a family vacation to Aspen this Christmas\nStyle icons including Alexa Chung, seen left, and Diane Kruger, right, have worn the hats\nThe revival comes after the accessory spent years languishing in the style doldrums.\nIn the '90s and the noughties, the closest the fiddler cap came to the style spotlight was on pop star Britney Spears at her most camp, or an off-duty Victoria Beckham.\nIts most notorious moment was as the finishing touch to Danniella Westbrook's all Burberry outfit for a Bond Street spree with her then baby daughter.\nBut decades later Bella Hadid's magic touch is making the fiddler cap cool again.\nBritney wore a leather cap and a matching dress to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2002\nIt's not the first formerly naff accessory to be hauled out of obscurity and given a new lease of life by fashion's up and comers.\nKylie Jenner is a fan of Von Dutch, the brand behind the garish trucker caps that were a staple of then party girl Paris Hilton's wardrobe in the early noughties, and Rihanna was photographed in a pink tracksuit from Sean John - the brand founded by rapper and producer P Diddy back in 1998.\n2016 also marked the return of the puffa jacket - once the sole preserve of Eastender's Bianca Jackson, it's recently been seen on the likes of Olivia Palermo, Rihanna and Cara Delevingne.\nOnce upon a time, it was rare to see then party girls Paris Hilton (left) and Nicole Richie (right) without their Von Dutch trucker caps\nKylie Jenner has been sharing snaps of herself in Von Dutch caps with her millions of fans", "When I was a kid, way up north in Kapuskasing, there were two men in town who had motorcycles — that I knew of, anyway. One guy had a big Harley-Davidson and the other rode a somewhat smaller bike that might also have been a Harley but could just as easily been something else. I can’t remember the name of the fellow with the big Harley but he dressed himself like Marlon Brando in what is considered to be the first outlaw biker movie, The Wild One. Which means he wore a black leather jacket, jeans, and a motorcycle captain’s hat. The guy with the smaller bike was René Boulianne, and he lived on Bowman Ave. He kept his cycle in a tent, and I would sneak in to watch him change the oil and perform other routine maintenance tasks. Try as I might, though, René Boulianne would never take me for a ride. I was in awe as he would talk about riding down Hwy. 11 to Toronto and back, but that’s as close to his bike that I ever got. Marlon Brando, though (I might as well call him that), lived in a house on Dominion Ave., that had a garage in the lane behind. I would go over and stand watch as he would fiddle with this or that on the big machine, and every now and again, he’d say, “C’mon — hop on,” and he’d drive me around the block. I remember one Saturday morning in particular, when it was about 9 a.m., and the sun was up in the east but not very far up, and I watched our shadow dance along the side of the road as we roared along Riverside Dr. I felt like a knight riding out to do battle, and it didn’t bother me at all that someone else was driving, because I didn’t see him in that shadow, only me.\nArticle Continued Below\nI’ve mentioned previously about learning how to drive by watching my father’s every move. Which is true, but in fact, I would be sitting behind him in the back seat with my arms stretched out along the rear of the front bench seat, pretending to be riding a motorcycle to Toronto, just like René Boulianne. Unfortunately, as I’ve also mentioned previously, I had a near-death experience on a motorcycle when I was 16 that kind of put me off riding the things my entire life since, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t feel the stirrings of romance when I see one on the road. Or read about them. Or go to motorcycle shows and find out about everything that’s new when spring is just around the corner and another riding season beckons. Which brings me to the point of this story today. In two weeks minus a day, the Motorcycle Shows-Toronto, presented by Dalton Timmis Insurance, will open at the Enercare Centre down at Exhibition Place, and the world’s top brands will showcase their latest technology and newest products.", "From the 1st of November, Triumph fans will be able to take a deep-dive into the brand’s history at a shiny new Factory Visitor Experience at Triumph HQ in Hinckley, UK.\nTriumph is one of those legendary motorcycle brands with a long and storied history. 115 years worth of it, in fact. The brand also has a legion of followers around the world who are interested in its heritage. Triumph have created this Factory Visitor Experience in order to help these enthusiasts chart the progress of the brand through its long and fascinating existence.\nThe Experience includes various exhibits that deal with Triumph’s design evolutions, engineering prowess, and manufacturing set up. The exhibit also includes a section dedicated to Triumph bikes that made appearances in famous films. This includes the likes of that iconic Bonneville that king of cool Steve McQueen used in The Great Escape, and the Speed Triple Tom Cruise was seen gunning around on in action flick Mission Impossible 2. Other examples of seminal Triumph rides that can be found at the Visitors Centre include the first ever Triumph No1, built in 1902, and prototype race engine that will be used in the Moto2 from 2019 onwards.\nSpeaking at the event, Paul Stroud, Chief Commercial Officer, Triumph Motorcycles, said, “We are very proud and excited to be able to invite Triumph and motorcycling fans from around the world to come and experience our brand first-hand, here at the factory where every Triumph starts its life. With so many important and rare bikes on display, the Visitor Experience will be a must for motorcycle and movie fans alike, but also an opportunity to help us celebrate our proud heritage and our passion for building great motorcycles. We hope this will reward and inspire every fan of the brand, and ignite a love for Triumph in a whole new generation.’’\nVimal Sumbly, Managing Director, Triumph Motorcycles India, added, “The visitor centre is an amazing platform for the brand to showcase the all-round advancements of Triumph motorcycles. The treatment of the art of motorcycle-making is at the heart of this visitor centre, a characteristic that will make it a must see on every motorcycle enthusiast’s bucket list. As India has gradually proven to be a key market for the brand, it is indeed a prestigious moment for us and I congratulate the team for the superb execution of the project and hope that we keep adding to this amazing journey as we go along.”\nYou can enter the Visitors Centre and have a look around for free, or book a 90-minute factory tour at £15 (Rs 1300 approx) per person.", "She has no problem with spending top dollar.\nOn Tuesday, Selena Gomez was spotted checking out designs from the front row of Coach's New York Fashion Week show.\nAnd while the 24-year-old star was making the rounds at Fashion Week throughout the weekend, the star reportedly spent close to $30000 on boyfriend The Weeknd's birthday...without even attending the party.\nCha-ching! Selena Gomez appeared at the Coach fashion show in New York on Tuesday, after reportedly dropping a cool $30k for new boyfriend The Weeknd's birthday bash\nThe Heart Knows What It Wants singer paid for her new boyfriend's 27th birthday bash with friends at Hollywood's Dave & Busters, according to TMZ.\nPals French Montana, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Travis Scott, Migos and Bryson Tiller helped the Starboy rapper - whose birth name is Able Makkonen Tesfaye - rack up a close to $30k bill.\nEven though Selena was all the way on the East Coast for Fashion Week festivities, the Weeknd's generous girlfriend footed the bill for the arcade bash which lasted into the wee hours of the night.\nGenerous girlfriend: The Hands To Myself singer was happy to foot the bill for her boyfriend's weekend birthday bash, even though she skipped the late night bash at Dave & Busters. Above, you can see Selena pose with the cast of this season's Coach show for Snapchat\nFront row center: At Tuesday's Coach show, the Wizards Of Waverly Place starlet was seated next to Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour\nAt the Coach show, the former Disney starlet looked chic as ever seated next to Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour.\nSelena's dark hair was styled in curly tendrils which she matched with subtly glowing skin.\nHer outfit packed a seriously fashionable punch, combining a delicate choker and leather jacket decorated with sweet lace accents to a fierce effect.\nUnderneath the Spring Breakers star wore a green patterned frock embroidered with yellow flowers from the brand's latest collection. She later posed with a team of Coach models for Snapchat.\nPre-show selfie: The Texas born beauty showed off the details of her fashionable look on Snapchat before the show\nRomantic Weeknd! The Weeknd treated his girlfriend Selena Gomez to a super romantic night aboard a luxury yacht ahead of Valentine's Day\nEven though they're spending Valentine's Day apart, it looks like things are getting hot and heavy for Selena and her new man.\nThis weekend, the stars enjoyed a romantic evening on a luxury yacht chartered out of Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles.\nIn addition to the romantic night on the ocean, a source close to the pair recently told E! News, 'They are falling for each other' and that the pair have a 'crazy connection'.\nRed hot! Emma Roberts also appeared at the Coach event, sporting a fiery red 'do with a rose patterned mini dress\nHippie chic: Drew Barrymore went for an airy look with her fringed purse and flowing blouse", "Ducati Maverick Custom Scrambler\nWhat do you get when you combine a Ducati Scrambler Icon and more than 250 hours of fabrication? For the renowned tattoo artist GRIME, the answer is Scrambler Maverick by GRIME.\nThis unique Scrambler was built as part of the Ducati “Maverick” program, which launched a year ago. The program was designed to highlight artistic talent, and GRIME – who has a three-year waiting list for tattoos – was the inaugural “Maverick” chosen to build a Scrambler.\nThis first Maverick Scrambler is headed to the Mecum Las Vegas Auction on June 2 at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa. And for good reasons – all proceeds will benefits the Shriners Hospital for Children.\nJason Chinnock, CEO of Ducati North America, will be in Las Vegas to present the Shriners Hospital for Children with the full proceeds from the auction.\nSpeaking of the build and charity action, Chinnock says: “We believe GRIME’s art and style exemplifies a freedom of expression that embodies the spirit of motorcycling and that of the Scrambler brand.\n“He’s used his uncapped creativity to design a masterpiece, which we’re bringing to Las Vegas as a gift to the world of motorcycling and the Shriners Hospital for Children, whom GRIME has chosen as the recipient of the auction proceeds. It’s our way of supporting Mavericks everywhere and helping the altruistic community that nurtures those Mavericks.”\nBid will be accepted June 2 at the auction. But you can also bid remotely by telephone or online here: Scrambler Maverick by GRIME (Auction Lot S163)\nAdditional information and photos follow, courtesy of Ducati.\nScrambler Maverick from Scrambler Ducati on Vimeo.\nThe one-of-a-kind motorcycle was customized as part of Ducati’s Maverick program, by prolific celebrity tattoo artist GRIME, known worldwide and with a tattoo waiting list in excess of three years.\nThe motorcycle originated as a Scrambler Ducati Icon, the first model of Ducati’s Scrambler brand, which is now the company’s most successful model. It was artistically handcrafted through the forming of steel and aluminum in order to merge the world of motorcycling with that of tattooing, bringing together titans of separate industries for creative expression.\nThe Scrambler Maverick build was supported by his local Ducati dealership, Marin Speed Shop. GRIME’s design consists of a custom-fabricated gas tank, tail and headlight, with paint influenced by the Italian Football Federation’s colors and extensive re-wiring by Ducati master technician Max Mueller.\nAdditional modifications include: fully-adjustable fork cartridges, Öhlins rear shock with remote pre-load and adjustable compression, Custom 2-1-2 Termignoni High-Mount Exhaust, custom seat, rear taillight from a Ducati 996, dual throttle body conversion, dashboard and an oil cooler from a Ducati Hypermotard.\nDucati Scrambler Maverick by GRIME Photo Gallery", "The new BMW Motorrad Concept 9cento has the potential to expand today’s notion of a modern sports touring bike by adding smart functionality.\nAt this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the BMW Group provided a look ahead to what an exciting new Adventure Sport model might look like: The BMW Motorrad Concept 9cento (pronounced ‘nove cento’) combines emotion and performance with an adventurous spirit, agility and riding fun to create, according to BMW group, “the ideal sports touring bike.”\nBMW Motorrad Concept 9cento is an attractive overall package. The new bike combines the appropriate power with reliable sports touring properties and above all lots of riding fun. Two motorcycling jackets have been developed to go with the BMW Motorrad Concept 9cento. They each reflect the concept bike’s properties with their refined mixture of leather and Kevlar fabric: Sport and Touring.\n“It doesn’t always have to be about ‘bolder, bigger, brighter’ nowadays: this concept bike focuses on achieving a sense of balance,” says Edgar Heinrich, Head of Design BMW Motorrad.\n“The BMW Motorrad Concept 9cento is our interpretation of a modern all-rounder for the new mid-range segment,” explains Heinrich, and he adds: “Functional properties such as touring capability, storage space and wind/weather protection are relevant to most motorcyclists but they’re rarely included in the design of a concept vehicle. In this year’s concept bike we’re demonstrating that all these rational aspects can be coupled with a dynamic design to create something really exciting and highly emotional,” added Heinrich.\nInnovative case system guarantees high flexibility\nOne particular highlight of the BMW Motorrad Concept 9cento is the innovative storage space concept comprising a clip-on case element. The double case not only offers storage space, it also extends the seating area for the passenger. It is hooked into the rear carrier from above if required, and there is a powerful electromagnet that attaches the element securely to the lower section of the rear carrier. This system makes it possible to have two functional versions of the same bike. Without a case, the BMW Motorrad Concept 9cento has maximum agility and perfectly meets the rider’s needs in terms of riding fun; with the cases, the concept bike is transformed into a touring motorcycle that is also well equipped to carry two people.\nPure&Crafted Festival 2018\nBMW Motorrad is sending its Pure&Crafted signature bike, a BMW R nineT Pure, on a journey across Europe for 4 months. 10 riders will seek out the most exciting routes, the smallest workshops, the most exceptional builders, the best food and the coolest gigs. Craftrad writers Henry Kerinnes and Jan Joswig will be part of the journey as well as Martien Delgaauw from Berham Customs, photographer Jo Fischer, the all-female motorcycle club The Curves and Bernhard Elflein from Herzbube Motorcycles.\nOn May 25, BMW Motorrad sent off its first rider, Henry Kerinnes, who is now on his way to Copenhagen. Via Pure&Crafted social media channels, you can follow and cheer on the Pure&Crafted riders on their adventures across Europe.", "Gigi Hadid displayed her devotion to boyfriend Zayn Malik on Valentine's Day by posting a cute black and white photo of the two sharing a tender moment together.\nThe 21-year-old posted the photo to celebrate Valentine's Day on Tuesday, but made it clear with the caption that the duo celebrate their love 'everyday.'\nThe gorgeous model added an emoji heart with an arrow through it to the caption.\nCelebrating love! Gigi Hadid displayed her devotion to boyfriend Zayn Malik on Valentine's Day by posting a cute black and white photo of the two sharing a tender moment together\nThe Victoria Secret star also took time to share a Snapchat of a photo of her with a huge bouquet of red roses while sporting a shirt with her boyfriend's name inscribed on it.\nShe looked happy in large round-rimmed glasses as she sat on the ground and looked up at the camera with her eyes closed.\nThe model was spotted earlier in the day wearing the same garment with her lovers name.\nThe model paired it with a long patent leather trench coat, tight leather trousers and biker-style boots, with a leather backpack to match.\nHuge bouquet! The Victoria Secret shared a Snapchat of a huge bouquet of red roses while sporting a shirt with her boyfriend's name inscribed on it\nBeen there done that: Gigi displayed her devotion to boyfriend Zayn Malik on Valentine's Day by rocking the official merchandise\nThe coat was loosely tied around her waist and worn off one shoulder, just to make sure everyone got a glimpse of her Zayn-y sleeveless tee.\nThe $35 shirt depicted the former One Directioner as a shirtless tattooed giant, laying waste to a city and grabbing at aircraft, and looking like he was enjoying it too.\nhe couple have been dating for more than a year; last week on Ellen Gigi spilled on how they first met, when he was still engaged Little Mix's Perrie Edwards.\nFan: The 21-year-old was spotted wearing a Zayn T-shirt as she stepped out of her New York apartment on Tuesday\nBiker chic: The model paired it with a long patent leather trench coat, tight leather trousers and biker-style boots, with a leather backpack to match\nOn display: The coat was loosely tied around her waist and worn off one shoulder, just to make sure everyone got a glimpse of her Zayn-y sleeveless tee\n‘We actually met at a friend’s birthday party a few year’s ago,’ she said, explaining that she intended running into him again after he became single.\n'He was in New York to come to the Victoria's Secret show... and ended up not coming,' she said.\n'I was like, \"I'll play it cool, I'll go to the after party.\" He wasn't there,' Hadid confessed, laughing, 'And then later that week, we ended up going on our first date.\nHaving fun: The $35 shirt depicted the former One Directioner as a shirtless tattooed giant, laying waste to a city and grabbing at aircraft, and looking like he was enjoying it too\nIn love: The couple have been dating for more than a year\nMemories: Last week on Ellen Gigi spilled on how they first met\nBusy work week: The daughter of Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid has been hard at work since the start of New York Fashion Week\n'We played it cool for like ten minutes, and then I was like, \"You're really cute,\"' Gigi divulged, continuing, 'We connected, like, really quickly.'\nThe daughter of Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid has been hard at work since the start of New York Fashion Week.\nLast week she graced the designer Jeremy Scott's catwalk in two daring ensembles: an eclectic leopard jacket with some spiritually inspired silk pants and a dazzling white suit that looked straight outta Graceland.\nWednesday, she presented her second capsule collection with designer Tommy Hilfiger at a star-studded affair held in Venice Beach, California.\nGigi in Graceland: Last week she graced the designer Jeremy Scott's catwalk in two daring ensembles: an eclectic leopard jacket with some spiritually inspired silk pants and a dazzling white suit that looked straight outta Graceland", "The Backstreet Boys perform onstage wearing Saint Laurent boots. Courtesy of Justin Segura\nThe Backstreet Boys are back, and so are Ricky Martin and Boyz II Men — they’re among the roster of ’90s-fame musicians who now have big residencies in Sin City. With millennials driving the resurgence of 1990s nostalgia in fashion and TV, it’s no surprise the Las Vegas Strip has been hit with the ’90s revival.\nCeline Dion and Britney Spears have held court in Vegas ballrooms with successful long-running shows, and stiletto-loving Mariah Carey concluded her Caesars Palace residency in July.\nFor the Backstreet Boys, the glitz and glamour of the city merits a stylish production that’s “Larger Than Life” — the name of their ubiquitous 1999 hit and current Planet Hollywood residency, which launched as a three-month stint in fall 2016 but has been extended through February of next year.\n“As the show continues to go on, eventually we will want to add and update the costumes to keep the show fresh and fun,” said the group’s costume stylist, Tierney Burchett, whose Peripheral Apparel luxury sportswear line launches an e-commerce website in September. “Each piece was custom-made head-to- toe for each of them, and it gives them a strong stage presence.”\nCurrently, the bandmates — Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean and Kevin Richardson — open each show in all-white leather suits with metallic silver boots by Saint Laurent. “Kevin actually wears them in metallic red for the third act as well,” Burchett said.\nSome of the other footwear brands used onstage include Hugo Boss, Magnanni, Alexander McQueen and Christian Louboutin.\n“A.J. and Brian are huge sneaker guys, so they love to bring in shoes from their personal closets to mix it up a bit,” she said, adding: “Their favorite brands are John Varvatos and Nike.”\nIn total, the band has four wardrobe changes throughout the show, and while styles play to their personalities, the looks reflect their development as polished men of today — not the boys of yesteryear.\n“It’s Vegas, so we definitely wanted to step outside of our comfort zone,” Burchett said. “The guys have never worn anything with sequins before, so that was a big change, but the main focus with costumes for this show was to be either ahead of our time or as present as possible.”\nIn Vegas, the days of visiting just to win a jackpot are long gone. Shopping, dining and over-the-top shows are now the main attraction. Last year, a survey conducted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority found that 52 percent of visitors said the main purpose of their trip was pleasure, and only 4 percent named gambling.\nTLC ’s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins (L) and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas perform in Las Vegas. REX Shutterstock\nFor Grammy-winning girl group TLC, who stopped in Vegas last month for their “I Love the ’90s” tour, their nostalgic fans not only want to hear their favorite hits but want to see iconic outfits from past music videos.\n“The one thing I use for inspiration is to try to create something people want to re-create for Halloween — that’s how you know it’s good,” said the group’s costume designer, Brea Stinson, who reimagined TLC’s futuristic wardrobe in 1999’s “No Scrubs.”\n“They are Michael Jackson fanatics, so I tried to bring in Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ era mixed with the [all-black] look from ‘No Scrubs’ — it’s a hybrid but recognizable to TLC’s aesthetic; sexy but a little bit of a tomboy.”\nTionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas (third member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes died in 2002) played to an audience at the open-air Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, which Stinson said presented challenges because alterations had to be made to adjust for the sweltering heat. In fact, one week ahead of the Vegas show, Thomas suffered dehydration while performing in Concord, Calif., at an amphitheater, Stinson recalled.\n“This year’s costumes are made of vegan leather and satin, with lots of hardware,” Stinson said, adding that changes such as swapping leather for all-satin jackets and short-sleeve versions of the costumes in lighter fabrics were made. “We create sex appeal and a cool factor; they still dance like it’s 1992.”\nWatkins and Thomas wear only one costume throughout the tour — mixing the look with Isabel Marant hiking boot sneakers in black with a natural gum sole and New Rock combat boots in black with silver accents.\n“We have to make sure [the shoes] have grips because they dance so much, and you never know the condition of stages,” Stinson said. “Another important factor is ankle support, so sneakers will be a high-top and boots will be a midcalf silhouette for ankle support.”\nSome other strategic measures the costume designers took with footwear include lacing and fit. “If Tionne is wearing a high-top or boot, then we tie it around her ankle instead of lacing it — we take it and go around the ankle for added support and double-knot it in the back to make sure it doesn’t come undone. I double-knot Chili’s laces twice in the front.”\nBurchett said she customized the Backstreet Boys’ footwear with rubber soles for shoe styles that are “too slippery,” but for the full head-to-toe costume changes, she incorporated timesaving tricks of the trade. “We exchange laces out for elastic and add zippers to the shoes to avoid laces in general, and we always double-knot everything,” she added.\n“Boots and sneakers are the easiest for the guys to dance in, so that’s pretty much all we have them wearing onstage besides the Act Two dress shoe, which they made sure they could dance in them before we made any final decisions,” said Burchett. “The crazier the choreography, the safer the shoe.”", "Tom of Finland , the new film biography of gay culture’s leading homoerotic artist, Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991), aka Tom of Finland, is making its way through the festival circuit. It’s already received critical acclaim and an award. For those unfamiliar, the artist created an iconic body of work featuring tall, square-jawed, broad shouldered and hard-muscled caricatures of the very epitome of male fantasy.\nGays always had their heartthrobs—Tarzan, movie gladiators, Brando in The Wild Ones or the big jock on campus. But, although they all oozed that certain male mystique, they were ultimately straight and unattainable. Tarzan had Jane; gladiators preferred killing each other to kissing each other and the big jock inevitably went off with the prom queen. But Tom of Finland’s devilishly grinning macho men—soldiers, sailors, motorcycle bad-boys in squeaky black leather—asserted homoerotism and took it to an unencumbered mutual climax. Suddenly, rather than the McCarthy era’s mincing queer stereotypes or Tennessee Williams’ emotionally frail and suicidal archetypes, gay men could identify with strapping, thick-necked toughs in excessively tight navy crackerjacks or classic police uniforms, replete with knee high jack-boots and excessively flaring jodhpurs—and always with even more excessively flaring bulges.\nWith such imagery dancing in my head, I entered my first Euro leather bar, Boots, in Frankfurt, Germany, with a certain sense of abandon. A Tom of Finland guy adorned the bar logo so I naturally expected a lion’s den of doe-eyed, leather-clad lads seductively slung across bar stools. Instead, the place was practically empty save for a couple of much older, stouter guys, albeit arrayed from head to foot in silver-studded leather. I overheard one of them gushing, in high gay German Tuntendeutsch, about his collection of bootlegged Maria Callas recordings.\nStill, although it may have belied reality, Tom of Finland’s iconography of the leather fetish subculture inspired exactly that embrace of queer nonconformity. According to Milwaukee activist Si Smits, co-founder of several local leather clubs and the owner of the former Boot Camp Saloon, that hyper-masculinized fantasy propelled LGBT culture, encouraging people to shed their inhibitions and come out. It contributed to LGBT liberation in general and to the leather world’s self-awareness in particular.\nAnd, although the artist died in 1991, beyond the leather scene, his once underground brand is now an established and enduring cultural phenomenon. A Tom of Finland exhibit recently hung at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In 2014 the Finnish Post Office even issued commemorative postage stamps. And, if you’re looking for a Tom shower curtain, duvet cover or fashion wear, online sales outlets supply it all.\nMeanwhile, Tom’s original message still inspires the competitive leather contest scene that culminates each year with International Mr. Leather (IML) held in Chicago at the end of May. Smits, who attended the first IML in 1979, recalls at most a couple of hundred attendees. Today, decades later, the annual event draws exponentially larger crowds of leathermen and leatherwomen for a wild weekend of parties and the naming of a new International Mr. Leather. This year, Milwaukee’s Mr. Harbor Room, Chad Barr, will vie for the title.", "The Custo Barcelona fall 2017 ready-to-wear collection showed at New York Fashion Week with a definitive and unexpected metallic shine. The whole collection had unexpected eye-catching elements mixed in with the signature aesthetic of the brand.\nThe Spanish brand is well known for having more than a small amount of flair and flash, but in this collection the flash was literal as light shone off the metallic materials of the ensembles. From the opening of the show, there were elements of confusion matched with the expected, intricate details.\nThere were great puffer coats, which are popular outerwear options anyway, but in these designs they seemed to have an updated flair. Other jackets sparkled down the runway with interesting feather or scale-like layers with birds embroidered into the overall design. There were 70 different looks, none of which were too similar to others as can happen in some collections. In the Custo Barcelona fall/winter 2017-2018 collection, there were far too many details put into each look for them to match another.\nThere were also a good number of mini dresses, many more than expected. The short length of the mini dresses was accented with interesting hemlines, movement-accentuating fringe and various-length boots. There was also a very Judy Jetson vibe to the collection, where the designs looked as though they could be interpreted as futuristic.\nThere were so many different textiles and textures at play that some of the ensembles seemed to be put together oddly, though in some of the Custo Barcelona designs it worked, in a few of the pieces it came across as being overworked. However, one of the longer coats with the textured inside hood and metallic foil outside was more interesting than confusing, but only slightly so. The coat also has a matching bag and was paired with tall high-heeled patent leather boots.\nThe various silhouettes were generously designed to be flattering and elegant on more than one body type, as nothing was too fitted or excluding certain shapes in the design. Though the majority of the collection benefited from a metallic sheen, there were also very rich and bright colors included as well. A deep brown ensemble beneath a silver jacket, a combination of fuchsia and royal blue, rich reds and burgundies and even a bright teal made an appearance.\nThe texture difference on the sweaters is interesting as well, though as a whole the Custo Barcelona fall 2017 collection shines both literally and figuratively. The interesting shapes and silhouettes and the plethora of blues altered the aesthetic of the runway presentation without going too far off the rails. The collection was the epitome of unique and enthralling, and I cannot wait to see how it works out.\nPhotos courtesy of Vogue", "Versace’s drop dead glamorous finale at Milan Fashion Week was this season’s Instagram seen ’round the world. Even those who don’t self-identify as fashion obsessed seemed to be enthralled by the image of the petite blonde Donatella Versace strolling down the runway, trailed by a crew of OG supermodels, Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen. Each draped in a shimmering chainmail gown, the moment was a perfect, ethereal homage to Gianni Versace, who was murdered two decades ago.\nThe entire Versace show, filled with vibrant vintage prints resurrected from the archive—plus one authentic skirt that was directly plucked from annals, as it could not be recreated—served to honor the memory of the late designer. Many of his greatest collections were revisited, including Vogue, Warhol, My Friend Elton, Baroque, Native Americans, Metal Mesh and Butterflies. And it’s hardly the last homage to the designer we’ll see this year.\n“It’s a very difficult moment for [Donatella], because she lost her brother in a way that should never have happened. And how do you do something to honor him and pay his creative genius the respect it should have, without trivializing what an enormous loss he was? I thought it was an elegant and joyous way of her saying hello to him publicly,” said William Banks-Blaney. The British vintage guru, who runs the tony William Vintage shop from Marylebone in London, has been thinking a lot about this tribute to Gianni. Not only because of the anniversary of his death, but because he has been pulling together his own salute to the Italian icon.\nComprised of over 500 vintage pieces, spanning 20 years of Gianni’s career—from his time at Genny in 1977 to his final collection at Versace in 1997—it’s an exhaustive offering of the designer’s biggest and boldest creations. According to Banks-Blaney, this collection has been in the works for a number of years and putting it together has taken quite a bit of work.\n“We’ve known for about two years that we’ve wanted to do something for 2017. We’ve been working with private collectors, with stylists, with models, with scouts scouring the globe to get together a really stupendous collection…It’s the largest collection of Gianni Versace to ever go on sale in the world,” he told the Observer.\nRanging in price from £200 to £238,000, there’s something here for everyone, from a simple scarf or silk shirt to a 1991 dress created in association with the Andy Warhol Foundation, and quite a few leather harness dresses from the Miss S&M collection.\nBanks-Blaney does have a darling piece or two that he’s most attached to. “One of my most favorite pieces is from the Bondage collection in 1992 and it’s one of the quilted leather jackets which are a runway piece and incredibly rare,” he explained. “We have several of them in absolutely perfect condition and they’re so exquisitely made with leather as soft as butter. They’re wondrous things.”\nBanks-Blaney is London’s go-to for high scale vintage finds, from haute couture Yves Saint Laurent frocks and Dior suits to sequined Gucci minidresses and ruffled Valentino skirts. Per the vintage maven, the shop only carries products in pristine condition, meaning you won’t find anything in his shop with unsightly stains or seams that have been ripped apart. That’s why William Vintage attracts a cognoscenti of fashion insiders, such as Net-a-Porter founder and current non-executive co-chairman at Farfetch Natalie Massenet and stylist Giovanna Battaglia, plus celebs of an A-list caliber, including Rihanna, Amal Clooney, Emma Watson and Bella Hadid.\n“Our earliest pieces go from the 1880’s right through 2010, from Charles Frederick Worth, to [Alexander] McQueen and everything in between. But Versace has always been very important to us and very popular; we’ve always enjoyed selling and loved his pieces,” said Banks-Blaney.\nWilliam Vintage partnered with Farfetch to sell this extended collection of Gianni Versace designed pieces online, as well as in his London store, starting on October 10. Getting a head start on celebrating the collection, last night Banks-Blaney and stylist Elizabeth Stewart hosted a party with Farfetch at a Beverly Hills mansion. Mannequins dressed in the historic designs surrounded the pool, while major celebs mingled, including Amal Clooney (dressed in one of those gold chainmail dresses), Kate Bosworth, Chris O’Dowd, Isla Fisher, Jaime King and Maye Musk.\nThis is hardly the last tribute to the late designer, though. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story will debut on FX sometime in early 2018, featuring Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace, Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace, Darren Criss as murderer Andrew Cunanan and Ricky Martin as Antonio D’Amico, Gianni’s longtime partner. The show, created by Ryan Murphy, will offer a detailed look into the designer’s murder in Miami—and is sure to draw in a crowd beyond just the fashion obsessed.\nPerhaps you could scoop up some designs by Gianni to wear while tuning in? The late designer would have probably loved that.", "Luke Evans hits the red carpet at the Strictly Ballroom: The Musical Opening Night on Tuesday (April 24) at the Piccadilly Theatre in London, England.\nThe 39-year-old actor looked suave in a brown leather jacket, black trousers, and black suede Chelsea boots as he stepped out for the event.\nPHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Luke Evans\nOver the weekend, Luke stepped out to help Queen Elizabeth celebrate her 92nd birthday in London!\nIf you’re in London, you can get tickets for Strictly Ballroom: The Musical here!", "It’s not easy to follow Rihanna, but Maxwell Coombs-Esmail and Adam Thomison are up for the challenge.\nOn Feb. 6, the two designers behind local streetwear label Control Sector will launch their first women’s line at Six:02, Foot Locker’s more upscale Herald Square boutique, a space previously occupied by Bad Girl RiRi’s Fenty Puma wares.\n“They’re having us do an entire store takeover,” says Thomison, a 38-year-old native Californian, about Control Sector’s collection of leather crop tops, silky gold “joggers” and a Rihanna-worthy “hoodie dress” with slits up the leg. “We’re superexcited.”\nThe pair met about five years ago, when they — along with Thomison’s younger brother, Luke — were studying fashion design and merchandising at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the Garment District. Coombs-Esmail, a 27-year-old former competitive snowboarder, had several design classes with Luke, a West Coast skater, and they clicked immediately. “We did all our homework together, hung out together . . . and that’s how I met this guy,” he says, pointing to Thomison.\nThe three started Control Sector shortly after graduating in 2013, just as the fashion world began to go crazy over the skater-inspired look.\n“We wanted to create clothing you can just throw on, run out the door and look awesome [in],” Coombs-Esmail says. But it wasn’t easy for three novices to put together a collection on a shoestring budget; two weeks before one of their first Fashion Week presentations, they realized they had never gotten samples back from the factory.\n“Luke and I essentially handmade the entire collection in two weeks, just sewing day to night,” says Coombs-Esmail. “Some of my final projects from FIT ended up in there, because we just needed to show something! But people actually ended up really liking it.” (Luke had to later leave the label due to health issues.)\nA sales associate for Foot Locker, who had been at one of Control Sector’s early shows, actually approached the designers at a trade fair in August, asking if they were ever going to release clothing for women. “Then she said, ‘How would you feel about releasing it exclusively with Six:02?’ ” says Coombs-Esmail. “I was like, ‘I would feel pretty good about that.’ ”\nThe resulting collection — which will also be available on Six:02’s Web site — contains some 20 pieces, ranging from $45 for a cotton tank dress to $595 for an embroidered leather bomber.\nIt’s just the first of a series of big launches for the duo. In February, Control Sector will debut its Spring 2017 collection at New York Fashion Week. And in March, the designers will unveil a new collaboration with Fetty Wap called By Order Of . . . , filled with camo puffer jackets and screen-printed hoodies.\n“It’s been a long road, but this year is already really starting to feel like there’s a big shift in energy behind the brand,” says Thomison. “Maybe soon we can hire someone to answer e-mails.”", "The \"DRIVE. Volkswagen Group Forum\" is a building in Berlin, Germany, that serves as an interactive museum allowing anyone to learn about the VW brand and it's getting a new exhibit dedicated entirely to Stuttgart's famed performance cars. Porsche announced the addition of the \"70 Years of Porsche Sports Cars\" display to celebrate the enthusiast brand's 70th birthday in a press release Monday. The exhibit splits Porsche's extensive history into 10 sections, including \"Origin of the sports car,\" \"Motorsport,\" and \"Sports cars of the future.\" Each topic will feature a handful of iconic cars from that era.\nPorsche\nFor instance, Porsche 356 Roadster \"No. 1,\" the first production car to roll off Porsche's assembly line in 1948, will be the first thing guests see when they enter the exhibit. Other iconic Porsche performance cars on display include a pink 917/20 race car and the one millionth 911, sporting its Irish Green paint job. A few Mission Es will also be present, representing the brand's future as it delves into the world of electric cars. Fans can also take a virtual reality tour of the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo, which details Porsche's research of alternative fuels for its model range. Other sections such as the \"70 Years of Passion\" celebrate the employees at Porsche who have helped shape the brand throughout the years. “The message of our exhibition is this: The spirit of innovation, which over 70 years has made Porsche into one of the world’s most profitable automotive manufacturer, will continue to drive a unique brand experience into the future,” explained Achim Stejskal, director of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.\nPorsche", "BUNDY SUCCESS: David Ahmet started his love affair with bikes as a nine year-old in Bundy .\nBUNDY SUCCESS: David Ahmet started his love affair with bikes as a nine year-old in Bundy . David Kelly\nDAVID Ahmet started his love affair with motorcycles as a nine-year-old tooling around his home town of Bundaberg.\nNow the chief executive of ASX-listed MotorCycle Holdings sells more than 16,000 bikes a year as head of one of the largest motorcycle retailers in Australia.\n\"I just love riding them and the freedom they give you,” said Mr Ahmet, who owns six bikes ranging from a Harley-Davidson to a dirt bike.\nUnderscoring its growth trajectory, the company this week announced a $123.2 million deal to buy NSW-based Cassons, a retailer of helmets, jackets and other accessories.\nMr Ahmet joined MotorCycle Holdings as a salesman when it was a fledgling dealership in Brisbane. Trained as a mechanic, the then 23-year-old desperately wanted to get out of the workshop and try his hand at business.\nMr Ahmet showed a natural talent in the business and within six months was part-owner.\n\"My mum took a bit of a punt on me, mortgaging her house to allow me to buy into the business,” he said.\nMotorCycle Holdings bought Morgan and Wacker six years ago. Picture: Jodie Richter Courier Mail\nThe gamble paid off with the young Mr Ahmet steadily expanding the business to include other dealerships and brands.\n\"I have got a head for numbers and I suppose I was prepared to work harder than anyone else,” he said. \"I have done everything from being a mechanic to sales but it is capital intensive.”\nWith turnover of $225 million and 500 employees, MotorCycle Holdings is a far cry from its origins. The company now has 27 dealerships across Queensland, Victoria and ACT, selling everything from a $50,000 Harley to used dirt bikes.\nMotorCycle Holdings listed on the ASX last year, on of the year's most successful floats. Its shares are now double their $2 issue price, closing on Thursday at $4.89.\nMr Ahmet said he adapted many car industry practices to the motorcycle business, which is dominated by small mum-and-dad operations.\nAs well as selling motorcycles, the company also offers accessories and parts, insurance and operates a riding school.\n\"We benchmark, which involves looking at everything from overheads to what every person should be selling,” he said. \"You need to be aware of what is possible and what is not. The average dealer does not have time to do that, whereas we are now of a size where I have a management team around me.\n\"A lot of mums and dads are not very sophisticated. A lot of them are struggling and there are a lot of traps and you have to be disciplined.”\nFive years ago, the business had expanded to the point where larger investors were starting to take an interest.\nWhen Mr Ahmet's original partner sold out, private equity firm Archer Capital took a stake in MotorCycle Holdings. Last year, the company listed on the stock exchange, becoming one of the most successful IPOs of 2016.\nHe said the motorcycle industry had flown under the radar for many years but the type of people buying bikes were becoming richer and more discerning.\nThe company's core customer is the leisure and recreational rider, rather than the bearded and tattooed stereotypical bikie.\nQLD_CM_QBM_MOTORCYCLE_31MAY17. David Ahmet started his love affair with motocycles as a nine year-old tooling around Bundberg on a mini bikie. Now the chief executive of ASX-lised Motorcycle Holdings sells more than 16000 motorcyles each year as head of the largest motorcycle retailer in Australia.Photo David Kelly David Kelly\n\"It is now more mainstream,” he said. \"In 2005, 400,000 bikes were registered in Australia, now there are 850,000.\n\"There is not such a bikie element like in the 1970s. It is solicitors, lawyers and bankers buying bikes these days.\n\"I have not seen a patched bikie in any of our dealerships in the last 28 years. There are lots of people aged in their 50s; baby boomers who can afford it. These bikes are just for weekends.”\nSix years ago, the company bought the storied Morgan & Wacker Harley-Davidson dealership at Newstead from the descendants of the original founders.\n\"This is the second oldest Harley dealership in the world and until we bought it it was still owned by the grandsons of the founder Wacker,” he said. \"It had been in the same family for 94 years.”\nMorgan & Wacker, which in May celebrated its centenary, is emblematic of the growing gentrification of the industry. Riders drop by the dealership to play pool, pick up the latest Harley leather jacket or arrange a group ride to the Gold Coast.\nAt the centenary celebration, attended by Bill Davidson, the great-grandson of the company's founder, a street party was held with a competition for the best bikes.\nMr Ahmet said he still loved his motorbikes but it was important to treat the business as something to make a profit.\n\"It could be refrigerators - fortunately it is not - but you still have to market the product to make a profit.”", "The ladies of Victoria's Secret are often photographed on the beach in Florida.\nBut this month the beauties went Western for a cowgirl-themed photo shoot in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado.\nTaylor Hill, Stella Maxwell, Lais Ribeiro, Elsa Hosk, Candice Swanepoel and Jasmine Tookes all stepped into chaps, Daisy Dukes shorts and cowboy hats to model the brand's latest lingerie designs.\nScroll down for video...\nYee-haw! The ladies of Victoria's Secret are often photographed on the beach in Florida. But this month the beauties went Western for a cowgirl-themed photo shoot in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado\nThe internationally famous stars of the shoot took to Instagram to share their favorite looks.\nMany of the women were longtime VS vets who also walked in the runway shows.\nAll involved took incredible selfies and portraits that looked perfect for the annual VS lingerie catalog.\nGirls will be girls: Stella Maxwell put her legs around Hosk as they posed on a wall\nA new look: Rimee Strijd wore a pair of lace chaps and a very small pair of undies in her images shared to Instagram\nMoody: The star also pouted when wearing these leather jackets\nHill looked stunning in her ripped jeans paired with a silk bra and a cowboy hat with a bolero necktie for jewelry.\nThe 21-year-old Illinois native also posed with Strijd, a 22-year-old looker from the Netherlands.\nStridj wore a pair of lace chaps and a very small pair of undies in her images shared to Instagram.\nHosk looked sensational in a white leather jacket, white boots and a matching white cowboy hat.\nChilly? Hosk looked sensational in a white leather jacket, white boots and a matching white cowboy hat\nWatch out for splinters! The 28-year-old Swedish delight writhed around on the floor and posed with her legs out\nShe knows how to look leggy: Here the cover girl put her white boots up as she touched her hair\nThe 28-year-old Swedish delight writhed around on the floor and posed with her legs out.\nTookes stood out in a black outfit that consisted of a bra and skirt with boots and hat to match.\nRibeiro was more adventurous with leather chaps and worn-in cowboy boots as she helped sell a satin mauve bra.\nChaps: Fellow angel Taylor Hill shared her own photos from the shoot, including this woodsy shot\nArty: Hill, 21, posted a few previews from the upcoming shoot on Instagram with different filters\nRound her up! Tookes stood out in a black outfit that consisted of a bra and skirt with boots and hat to match\nMatching: Here she posed with another model who seemed to have on three belts\nSwanepoel showed off her virtually bare behind in fringed leather chaps.\nThe mother-of-one also had on skimpy panties and a bra as she channeled her inner cowgirl.\nThe beautiful 28-year-old blonde completed her look with boots, of course, and a cream cowboy hat.\nA tip of the hat: Candice swapped her chaps for teeny black lace panties, a black leather jacket and matching black hat for the shoot\nStunner on the loose: Here Candice wore a mauve bra and matching undies with leather chaps\nBare butt rider: Candice Swanepoel showed off her beautiful booty in cowboy chaps and skimpy undies during the Victoria's Secret holiday shoot in Aspen, Colorado on Saturday\nRightly proud of her toned behind she posted an Instagram clip of herself jiggling her cheeks that she captioned, '#giddyup, #bumbumtamtam' with three horse emojis.\nIn a second video clip, she posed from left to right, looking over her shoulder.\nCandice captioned it: 'Wild Wild West out here.'\nEasy on the eyes: Swanepoel stood against a log cabin as she tried on this outfit\nA black and white video showed her strolling across a meadow in her revealing outfit as Josephine Skiver, also scantily clad, rode a horse behind her.\nEdward Razek, senior creative at Victoria's Secret, described the shoot in a picture he posted saying: '13 Angels, 2 photographers, a crew of 100+, one big time director, and an $80 million ranch - no one does Holiday like Victoria's Secret does Holiday!'\nThe 'big-time director' is Transformers' Michael Bay, seen with seven Angels in Ed's snap.\nSitting pretty: Here Lais sat in a chair; she added the caption: 'Ainda da tempo de entrar no #regimefechado? @simoneesimaria'\nA tummy to die for: Ribeiro looked like she was gym toned in this image with a breathtaking background\nLike a Western Charlie's Angels: These three models looked like they got into their roles\nBevy of beauty: Director Michael Bay is surrounded by Angels in this snap posted by Edward Razek, senior creative at Victoria's Secret. Michael is capturing the action in Aspen\nAside from Candice and Josephine, the Angels include Sara Sampaio, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Taylor Hill, Elsa Hosk, Niki Baratta, Jen King, Lily Aldridge, Lais Ribeiro, Jas Tookes, Romee Strijd and Behati Prinsloo.\nCandice appears to be in Aspen with fiance and long-time love Hermann Nicoli, a Brazilian model.\nThe South African native posted an adorable Snapchat photo of the 35-year-old holding their excited 10-month-old son Anacã on his lap as he tried to eat his lunch in a cafe. She captioned it: ' Feliz dai papai!'\nRide it: The Angel straddled a horse in her skivvies, covered by a large brown blanket", "Princess Beatrice and Lady Kitty Spencer attended the same club on Thursday evening, and they looked incredibly stylish in the process! The pair were pictured together at Loulou's in Mayfair, with Beatrice, 29, showing off her slender frame in a black leather pencil skirt, black top, stylish tailored coat and high heel shoes. Lady Kitty - Prince William and Harry's cousin - opted for a striking statement navy coat which was adorned with bold gold stripes. She added a stunning red designer handbag by Bulgari, which featured the brand's iconic serpent head and a chain strap, priced at £1,500. The pair seemed in great spirits as they headed out for their glamorous evening. Princess Diana's niece, 27, sported a polished look, choosing to wear her blonde locks in a sleek and shiny style, while Beatrice's rich red hair was teased into a voluminous look that tumbled over her shoulders.\nLady Kitty Spencer looked incredible in her bold coat and Bulgari handbag\nThe 29-year-old royal has been enjoying celebrating her younger sister Princess Eugenie's engagement to long-term love Jack Brooksbank. On 29 January, Beatrice joined the happy couple for an evening at the Arts Club in Mayfair, opting for a simple navy dress, black studded boots by Kooples and a chic black bag. Eugenie, meanwhile, chose to wear a tweed dress and boots.\nPrincess Beatrice looked chic in a black leather skirt\nBut all eyes were on the 27-year-old's dazzling new engagement ring. The vintage design features a padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds - and bares a striking similarity to her mother Sarah Ferguson's engagement ring from Prince Andrew. Buckingham Palace announced the news of the Eugenie's engagement earlier this month, and confirmed that the wedding will take place in the autumn of 2018 at St George's Chapel in Windsor - the same venue that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have chosen for their royal wedding in May.", "They're The Voice besties who often turn to each other for support.\nAnd Delta Goodrem and Kelly Rowland were there to help each other down the stairs as they attended their fellow coach Boy George's 56th Birthday on Wednesday night in Sydney.\nDelta, 32 put on a glamorous display in a pair of tight-fitting black leather pants teamed with a metallic print shirt and white jacket.\nBFFs! Delta Goodrem and Kelly Rowland were there to help each other down the stairs as they attended their fellow coach Boy George's 56th Birthday on Wednesday\nThe Born To Try singer wore her long blonde locks out and kept her makeup simple with a nude palette and thick eyelashes.\nDelta accessorised her look with a pair of six-inch strappy sandals and black studded bag.\nKelly, 36, went for a more casual look in denim jeans, a white shirt and a long camel coat.\nShe accessorised her look with a pair of black lace boots and oversized tote.\nUnited: They're The Voice besties who often turn to each other for support\nCasual: Kelly, 36, went for a more casual look in denim jeans, a white shirt and a long camel coat\nAs the duo made their way down the stairs, they clutched each other's hands tightly.\nKelly looked to be helping Delta negotiate the stairs in her towering heels.\nThe BFFs looked to be all smiles as they left the party.\nLooking good Delta! The Born To Try singer wore her long blonde locks out and kept her makeup simple with a nude pallette and thick eyelashes\nKelly has previously expressed her love for Delta saying the singer was 'the sweetest.'\nAhead of appearing on the show, she told TV host David Campbell on Today Extra:\n'She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met.\n'It's so funny because I said, \"you know we're pretty much going to have a love fest over here,\"' the former Destiny's Child singer recalled saying to Delta.\nHelping hand: As the duo made their way down the stairs, they clutched each other's hands tightly\nGushing: Kelly has previously expressed her love for Delta saying the singer was 'the sweetest'\nHigh heels! Delta accessorised her look with a pair of six-inch strappy sandals and black studded bag\nSo glam! Delta, 32 put on a glamorous display in a pair of tight-fitting black leather pants teamed with a metallic print shirt and white jacket\nThe Birthday Boy went for a simple all black look paired with his signature oversized bowler.\nHe added to his look with a pair of trainers, emblazoned with the words: TRUTH.\nSimple:The Birthday Boy went for a simple all black look paired with his signature oversized bowler\nStatement: He added to his look with a pair of trainers, emblazoned with the words: TRUTH\nRichard Wilkins, 62, was also in attendance.\nHe appeared to put on a serious display as he failed to garner a smile throughout the night.\nWearing an all-black ensemble, the Today host went low-key for the evening.\nSerious: Richard Wilkins appeared to put on a serious display and he failed to garner a smile\nLow key: Wearing an all-black ensemble, the Today host went low-key for the night\nThe Voice host Sonia Kruger, looked every youthful as also opted for an all black ensemble.\nLike Delta, the 51-year-old also rocked a pair of tight fitting black pants.\nThe blonde added a pop of colour with a pair of bright red heels.\nShe kept her makeup flawless showcasing her immaculate complexion.\nAgeless: The Voice host Sonia Kruger, looked every youthful as also opted for an all black ensemble\nRock star: The 51-year-old also rocked a pair of tight fitting black pants\nFellow judge Seal opted for a grey jacket paired with denim jeans and a black jumper.\nThe 54-year-old accessorised with a pair of worn out boots.\nThe celebrations were reportedly a 'quiet get together with friends' after Boy George was presented with a cake on the live show aired on Monday.\nDapper: Fellow judge Seal opted for a grey jacket paired with denim jeans and a black jumper", "Who among us hasn’t wanted, at some point, to live life like Tom Ford? The elegant designer and filmmaker seems to have it all figured out, especially when he explains his daily routine to Vogue. He rises every day at 5:00 a.m. “Like most people, I check my emails. I make myself a tall glass of iced coffee and get on the treadmill. . . . I work out for only about 45 minutes. Then I get in the bath with another iced coffee and lie there until Jack gets up. Then I make his breakfast and get him dressed for the day,” he says. After school drop off, Ford goes straight to the office, making sure to be “home by 6:00 p.m. to have dinner with Jack and put him to bed. Then we either have friends over for dinner or go out. I’m in bed by about 11:30 p.m.”\nThat seems simple enough, but for those of us without Ford’s discipline, we can keep track of our time with one of Ford’s new timepieces. Launching this month in Ford’s stores and in select retailers, Tom Ford’s first watch shape, Tom Ford 001, is a thoroughly modern take on the classic accessory. The curved-back watch is offered in two sizes, 44 mm and 40 mm, and in four different metals, allowing users the option to customize their timepiece by rotating out a series of leather bands. “Watches have always been an obsession of mine and therefore a natural next step for the brand—a classic watch is something that will never go out of style,” says Ford. “For most men, a watch is their only accessory other than a wedding band. It’s a status symbol and can say quite a lot about someone.”\nFord’s obsession goes back to his youth. “I received my first Rolex for my 16th birthday, and that was the beginning,” he says. “I have also designed many watches before at Gucci Timepieces, YSL, and Boucheron when I was the creative director of these brands.” When it came time to design a watch under his own name, he explains, “I knew exactly what I wanted to do.”\n“When I was young, I used to buy webbing strap watchbands and thread them through my watch. It always drove me crazy how difficult this was, and I always wondered why someone hadn’t just designed a watch that was made for this. The 001 is a sleek curved watch that follows the natural shape of the wrist, but the most striking thing about it is the ease with which one can change the band. It is literally like pulling the belt out of the belt loops on your pants and switching the belt to another color or material. The interchangeable bands are such a key part of this collection,” he continues. On his site, there are four materials offered—alligator, braided leather, pebble leather, and stitched leather—in a wide range of colors, and plenty more will soon arrive. “Someone could buy a bright orange strap for summer, and then a black one for the winter. Or you can change the strap easily several times per day if you want. Customers have been buying multiple watchbands with their watches—which was really the whole point,” says Ford. “We will also be creating straps in new colors and fabrics seasonally. The idea is really that our customer will purchase multiple straps, even after they purchase their first Tom Ford timepiece.”\nAs a watch collector himself, Ford also knows the market well and made sure the shape and face of his brand were distinct and unique, saying he aspired to a simple yet elegant feel. “The face is quite original, I think, which is not easy to do, as just about every face has been done. I modeled the face after a mechanical instrument, more than a classic watch face, and I think that it has a very modern feel.”\nOf course, with all things Tom Ford–related, there is also a subtle sex appeal to the watches, only highlighted by the sensuous imagery used to promote them. Yes, the interchangeable bands mean it can go with anything, but maybe the best way to wear your Tom Ford 001 is with nothing else.", "Dubai: According to reports in some websites, Nokia is rumoured to be launching a high-end smartphone at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 27.\nAccording to Russian website Worket, it could be called P1 and run Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box and be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB of RAM under the hood. The water and dust resistant phone will reportedly sport a 5.3-inch display protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and have a fingerprint sensor and quick-charge capabilities on a 3,500mAh battery. It is rumoured to come with a 22MP snapper.\nAn earlier report on reputed website gsmarena had hinted about the Nokia 8, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, with Android OS, v7.0 (Nougat) and boasting an Octa-core (4x2.45 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo), 6GB RAM and come in two variants 64/128 GB and a 24 MP snapper.\nWhen Gulf News contacted HMD Global, the Finland-based company with rights to manufacture Nokia-branded devices, they remained non-committal. “We can’t comment on any speculation about what we will announce on February 26, Per Ekman, Vice President, Middle East & North Africa, HMD Global, told Gulf News.\nHowever, the fact that HMD Global is attending MWC 2017, is giving rise to speculation Nokia may unveil a high-end phone. And that could up the excitement in the smartphone segment dominated by the iPhones and the Galaxies.\nAfter years of floundering in the wilderness (the forgettable Windows partnership), it does look like Nokia is trying to regain lost glory by embracing the Android platform. “Nokia is a trusted and well-loved brand across the world. It enjoys unrivalled brand awareness and an iconic status for design, reliability and usability. Our goal is to take the brand to a new generation of mobile users, with a new standard in design, material quality and manufacturing innovation for a true Nokia phone experience,” Ekman said.\nSpeaking to Gulf News, Ekman said their strategic partnership model differentiates them from their competitors. “We are bringing together the best of the industry to leverage world class partnerships with manufacturers, operating systems, brands and suppliers to bring the very best experience to consumers. Our strategic partnership model makes us asset light, nimble and agile.”\nNokia 6\nThe company had just last month (January 8) unveiled its first Android smartphone Nokia 6 in China. And given the response to the launch, it does look like Nokia is finally getting it right.\nThe Nokia 6 comes with Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box and supports dual-SIM functionality. It has a 5.5-inch Full HD display of 1080x1920 pixel resolution. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM. There’s also 64GB of internal storage, with support for microSD cards of up to 128GB in size.\nEkman said, “Nokia 6 is about precision craftsmanship and best in class multimedia experience. We believe premium is an experience not a price point, which is why we’ve gone the extra mile with Nokia 6’s distinct design.\n“It takes 55 minutes to machine a Nokia Plate shell from a solid block of aluminium. It then receives two separate anodising processes, taking over 12 hours to complete, with each phone being polished no less than five times. The end result is an aluminium unibody with the highest level of visual and structural quality – delivering a truly premium experience.\nIt’s available in China for 1699 CNY (approx Dh920; $250)\n“As the new home of Nokia phones, HMD will write the next chapter for these products,” the company states on its website.\nLet’s hope it’s a smashing one!" ]

[ "action potential" ]

[ "to produce electricity", "Impulsion", "the ratio of what is produced to what is used in producing it", "Produce", "impulsivity", "impulsive screaming", "nodes", "the impulse drive", "Impulse! Records", "The Producers", "Heberden's nodes", "energy producers", "Node 3", "agricultural producers", "Aeronaut Sinus", "producer Labrinth", "producer and consumer", "Electricity", "line producer", "Electric", "television producer", "producing offspring", "independent producer", "A traditional producer", "electrically", "record producer", "The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale", "impulsive and aggressive behavior", "electrical", "executive producer", "Produce 101", "What's Up?" ]

[ "This shoes are super cute, but impossible to get on my baby's feet, even if I take the straps completely out of the loops. They are the right size, he would have plenty of room in the toe if I could actually get them on him. His feet are not especially wide or chubby." ]

[ "My baby is 14 months old and does not even walk yet. We took him down the sidewalk and these shredded!! They are very cute shoes but not worth taking out of the box.", "These are super cute, my only issue is that the straps don't stretch more to secure the shoe tighter. I tightened as much as possible and still worried my son might step out of them. Otherwise, very cute, nice shoes.", "I ordered the smallest size in these shoes when my baby was just a couple months old. She is now 5+ months old, and they are still too big. However, they're super cute. I'm excited for her to wear them eventually!", "These are super cute shoes and the rubber soles are great but my child is still crawling and learning how to walk. From crawling with these shoes on, the stitching and blue surface is coming off and they are falling apart after 2 days of use.", "I went ahead and gave them to my neighbor for her new baby, but the buttons won't button and the shoe hole was tight. Otherwise, they're cute.", "these shoes are super cute but they kill my feet which is unfortunate because they fit really well but there is absolutely padding and trust me they will kill your feet.", "My lo has a wide fat foot so I opted to get these for easy on & off shoes for around the house. They're super cute, serve the purpose but are a little loose.", "They are super cute , but sizing is too large . Too large for 11 months old baby", "Looks really nice but too narrow of a shoe. We couldn't even get it on her feet. Not for delicious chubby baby/toddler feet.", "Super cute shoes, but I thought the \"4\" meant the size of the shoe. It must not because it looks like a really small infant's shoe size...maybe a 4 month old or 6 month old...", "I purchased these for my 1st grandchild because my son is a fan of anything Jordan. This is his first baby and my first grandchild. I had wanted a smaller size but unfortunately this was the smallest I could get and this was the only style I wanted so I had no other option. Hopefully, he has big feet, not really but this was the cutest of the crib shoes and so size was not the determining factor; style was. They are very cute but the baby is not born yet so of course they are too big!!!! My son is a fan of anything Jordan so I'm sure he will be happy and I can already see him stuffing the toes and putting the shoes on the baby anyway!!! They are made well and with the Velcro opening they will be easy to put on and take off.", "Love these and baby girl can't get them off. They are warm and don't hinder foot muscle development like hard soled shoes.", "Ever since we received a pair of See Kai Run baby shoes as a shower gift, we've been hooked! I love the fit and it doesn't hurt that they're super cute and my girls love their boots!", "This is my favorite summer shoe!!! Super cute and fits perfectly!", "Very cute shoes for a baby learning to walk. Very fast delivery and they will be perfect for winter because the inside is very soft and cozy. I wish I could get some in my size!", "They are cute sock but run small. My,daughter has a small foot(13 month old baby that wears 9 to 12 mo shoe).", "For the price these are a steal. Definitely order 1 size bigger than you wear in men's shoes. I wear a 10 and the 11's are snug. They feel cheap but look super cute. I have wide feet also and they still do fit just a little tight on top.", "this shoe looks very cute and is very comfy, according to my son, but the zipper on the side just won't stay closed.", "These are super cute and not too hard to put on! My baby boy didn't seem bothered by them at all! They arrived faster than stated as well.", "Very cute but not so comfortable. I'm going to try with an insert as my foot slides all over the place in these when I walk.", "cute but they wouldn't protect anyone against a solid kick! And unfortunately, because they are so cute, we are now having to fight our daughter to go back to her basic black ones!", "Very cute shoe but externally hard to get on. Ended up cutting off the elastic lace and ordering regular orange shoe laces. Much easier now.", "Super cute patterns and perfect for a drooling baby! My daughter would soak her clothes from teething drool and these really help save outfit changes.", "These shoes are adorable and I would have loved them, if I could get them on my feet. It's difficult to see in the pictures, but the top of the shoe itself (where the laces are) is a solid piece - it does not open and the rubber material across the top does not stretch. The front half of my foot went in fine, but I have high arches and without flexibility to stretch over the tallest part of my foot, it simply would not go all the way into the shoe - no matter how I tried.\n\nThis shoe is probably great for someone with very narrow, flat feet - but they did not work for me at all.", "Super cute, great to find cool pants for baby boys that don't have a sports or car print on them.", "They are super cute, but I had to return them. To get my foot in, I had to unzip the boot then unlace then completely. Even then it was a tight fit...to the point I wouldnt be able to re-lace the boots all the way up so they would look silly.", "i couldn't get my childs feet in them they were the wright length but the heal is difficult to get over my baby's heal", "It's hard to disconnect your phone but it's a cute idea and makes checking the time or baby monitor in the middle of the night super easy", "Super cute, but the bottom portion of the belt kept coming undone while I was wearing it. Kind of annoying, but could just be because of my body shape (still trying to lose baby weight!).", "I really fell in love with these shoes. Thought they'd be really versatile and easy for this mom on the go (bought 2 pairs for girl and boy). However!!!! The elastic strings were pulled too tight, creating a vdip at the toes wayyyy before we got them. My kids cry when the shoes are on and when they take them off, their poor toes are completely red between the big toe and 2nd toe. There is nothing I can do, as the plastic is settled and arrived to us that way. I'm sad to be throwing both pairs out after two wears for both kids. 2 stars for the cute colors of the shoes", "The size is a perfect fit super cute shoe seems to be very comfortable in them and these were her first shoes love Stride Rite", "Most comfy shoes I own! Love these light, awesome shoes! Super cute and very feminine design for crocs :) love!!!" ]

[ "TikTok is one of the world's fastest growing apps, racking up 1.5 billion downloads and minting music hits. But the Chinese-owned app is also making people in Washington and Silicon Valley nervous." ]

[ "Facebook has launched its answer to TikTok, the wildly popular video-sharing app that the Trump administration considers a national security threat. Reels is a new feature on Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook. Like TikTok, users can make short videos set to music, add filters and other effects, and easily share them. The launch comes as TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is under increased pressure from Washington. President Trump said on Monday that ByteDance must sell TikTok's U.S. business by Sept. 15 or shut it down entirely. Microsoft Corp. is among the potential buyers exploring a bid for the app's U.S. operations. Facebook has been testing Reels in Brazil for months and is now rolling it out in the U.S and dozens of other markets, including India, where TikTok was recently banned. It's the second time the company has tried to take on TikTok; Facebook shut down a previous attempt, Lasso, in July. The launch also comes as regulators are examining whether Facebook and other Big Tech companies use their scale and dominance to disadvantage their rivals unfairly. Reels is the latest in a long line of Facebook products and features that closely resemble other companies' successful services. That includes Stories, similar to Snapchat's Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, and Messenger Rooms, a video-call competitor to Zoom that also incorporates elements of the popular video app Houseparty. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was pressed about that strategy last week at a congressional hearing examining the power of Big Tech. Asked by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., if he copies competitors, Zuckerberg said Facebook, like other companies, has \"adapted features that others have led in.\" Ahead of the hearing, TikTok's CEO attacked Facebook for launching a \"copycat product\" and accused the social media giant of trying to put it out of business. Facebook is the world's largest social network, with more than 3 billion people using one of its apps monthly, but TikTok has emerged in the past few years as the trendiest new social media platform for teens and millennials. Editor's note: Facebook is among NPR's financial supporters. TikTok helps fund NPR content that appears on the social media platform.", "Updated at 11:51 a.m. ET Saturday President Trump has announced he plans to ban TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app, from operating in the U.S. as early as Saturday. Trump's announcement comes after reports Friday that software giant Microsoft was in talks to acquire the app's U.S. operations. The president made it clear that he does not approve of the proposed acquisition. \"As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States,\" he told reporters traveling with him from Florida. He added that he could sign an executive order to enact the ban. Following Trump's announcement, TikTok shared a message from its U.S. general manager, Vanessa Pappas, in which she said, \"We're not planning on going anywhere.\" Pappas said that TikTok was \"building the safest app because we know it's the right thing to do\" and that it intended to bring more jobs to the U.S. \"I want to say thank you to the millions of Americans who use TikTok every day bringing their creativity and joy into our daily lives. We've heard your outpouring of support and we want to say thank you,\" said Pappas. \"We're here for the long run,\" she added. If Microsoft buys TikTok, it would give the lumbering tech giant ownership of one of the trendiest social media platforms, favored by the youngest digital users coveted by all of Silicon Valley. Microsoft is said to be just one of a number of interested buyers of the app. For months, TikTok has been the go-to platform for teens and millennials to showcase and spread comedy routines, dance challenges and political activism. Since the pandemic began, TikTok's popularity has surged worldwide, logging in more than 180 million downloads in the U.S. alone, according to research firm Sensor Tower. TikTok has also come under increasing scrutiny in Washington because it is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company worth $100 billion. Before his announcement, Trump floated the idea of banning the app on his way to Florida. \"We may be banning TikTok,\" Trump told reporters earlier on Friday. \"We'll see what happens.\" \"TikTok US user data is stored in the US, with strict controls on employee access,\" a TikTok spokesperson said, responding to Trump's announcement. \"We are committed to protecting our user's privacy and safety as we continue to work to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform.\" The spokesperson added that the company has hired nearly 1,000 people for the U.S. team. The Trump administration and some Democrats in Congress have been raising alarms about the possibility of the Chinese government compelling TikTok to turn over personal data of millions of Americans. While there is no hard evidence that such data collection is occurring, Trump officials see the threat TikTok poses as real and for weeks now have been considering ways to ban TikTok or force it to sever ties with ByteDance. TikTok says it has never turned over any data to the Chinese Community Party, nor have Chinese officials ever asked for the data. TikTok publicly discloses what it does with the data it collects on users, including what messages are exchanged, what videos are watched on the app, online browsing history and access to the contacts on a user's phone. Technology experts say that level of data collection is in line with other smartphone apps. The person familiar with the acquisition talks pointed to the popular dating app Grindr as a possible model for TikTok. Earlier this year, U.S. officials approved the sale of Grindr to a group of American investors. The agreement was approved by the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the same panel now examining TikTok. In particular, the committee is now reviewing ByteDance's purchase of Musical.ly, a video-sharing service that became popular in the U.S. but was then relaunched as TikTok and became the first Chinese-based app to become a global hit. This deal would address the fears over Chinese ownership — worries the company has forcefully battled. TikTok's corporate owner is based in Beijing, but the company has long said it stores its data in Virginia. Its backup servers are in Singapore, and it says Chinese officials do not have access to them. Still, TikTok has been accused of using its algorithms to demote topics like Black Lives Matter and of censoring content to please the Chinese Communist Party. In a nod to the concerns from Washington, TikTok's newly minted CEO, Kevin Mayer, announced this week that the company would take an unusual step toward transparency. It will open up its algorithms, as well as its content moderation decisions and data collection, to the public, he wrote. \"We will not wait for regulation to come,\" Mayer wrote. \"Experts can observe our moderation policies in real-time, as well as examine the actual code that drives our algorithms. This puts us a step ahead of the industry, and we encourage others to follow suit.\" In the same announcement, Mayer announced Ti", "A proposal to split California into six states could be on a state ballot in 2016, if officials approve the over 1 million signatures submitted by the group. Both the signatures and the plan have attracted a lot of opponents. &#8220;Six Californias&#8221; is the brain child of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Timothy Draper, who&#8217;s a billionaire after making smart investments in companies like Skype, Hotmail and Baidu. He joins Here & Now&#8217;s Jeremy Hobson to make the case for why California should be split into six different states. \nSee also: The Argument For Keeping California One State\n\nInterview Highlights On why California should split up &#8220;I think we need an opportunity for the people to be closer to their government, to make it local. Also, to create a little bit of a choice so that people can easily move from maybe one state to another. It forces those governments to really perform and potentially end up with a much better platform from which all of these states can grow.&#8221; On how the proposed new states were formed &#8220;They were drawn according to various items: economics, political &#8212; made sure each one of them was a good melting pot. It turns out, also, they seem to have very different interests and very different personalities. There are two regions that are currently, with the current regime, very poor regions. And those poor regions, with a new platform for growth could become very successful states. On bureaucracy challenges that would be imposed by the creation of six states &#8220;I actually think there would be less bureaucracy with six states. In fact, if you put any other six states together in the United States, they would have less bureaucracy per capita than we do.&#8221; On claims the campaign is just rich people in Silicon Valley who want their own state &#8220;Well it actually does more for the other parts of California than it does for the Silicon Valley, but it does a lot for the Silicon Valley. There can be a concentrated effort to encourage entrepreneurship, H1B visas. But the other states all benefit in big ways because in the current regimes, Silicon Valley is doing great. Everything is fine. In the other states &#8212; in the other proposed states &#8212; they&#8217;re not necessarily doing so well.&#8221; Guest\n\nTimothy Draper, founder and a managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). He tweets @TimDraper.", "One of Amazon&#8217;s most high-profile executives has resigned in protest of what he calls &#8220;a vein of toxicity running through the company culture.&#8221; Tim Bray was vice president and distinguished engineer at Amazon Web Services. In a blog post published Monday, he accused Amazon of retaliating against whistleblowers who raised alarms about working conditions in some of the company&#8217;s warehouses. Here & Now&#8216;s Robin Young speaks with Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton), Silicon Valley editor at The Verge. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "Since July, President Trump has turned a wildly successful viral video app TikTok into his favorite punching bag. Trump's logic went something like this: Since TikTok's corporate parent company ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing, TikTok could be used as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on American citizens or cause other mischief. So the president repeatedly declared that TikTok needs to free itself from ByteDance's control, or be shut down in the U.S. for good. The White House never offered any real proof to support its fear that TikTok is a Chinese surveillance tool. But national security experts on both sides of the aisle in Washington agreed that China's authoritarian regime is untrustworthy and has almost unfettered access to private business in the country. And so, a review of TikTok's data privacy and security appeared reasonable. But on Saturday a striking thing happened: Trump took a victory lap for signing off on a last-ditch deal to rescue TikTok, boasting that the China problem had been solved. A new company would be incorporated in the U.S. and \"will have nothing to do with China,\" the president said. The agreement, however, does not remedy the Chinese-ownership problem. The newly-formed TikTok Global will have an ownership structure where software company Oracle and Walmart will jointly command 20% and 80% stays in ByteDance's grip. Both sides made concessions. Yet the most serious one seems to have been made by the White House, despite the president's proclamations, experts say. \"I'm a little surprised at how far they were willing to go to settle,\" said former State Department official Jim Lewis, who studies technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. \"It's not any of the various options the administration floated over time.\" It's a win for Trump supporter: Oracle founder Larry Ellison Oracle has close ties to the president, and some say it's one reason why it beat out a deep-pocketed and well-positioned rival such as Microsoft. Larry Ellison, Oracle's Chairman and founder, is an ardent supporter of Trump and has raised money for the president. It's Chief Executive Safra Catz served on Trump's 2016 transition team. From afar, Trump's TikTok deal could look like nothing more than a shakedown that ended with a business, that is aligned with the president, winning a lucrative stake in one of the most successful apps in the world right now. Lewis, who had been in communication with several of the companies angling to strike a deal, does not side with this analysis. \"This may have ended with good news for Oracle, but it started well before they were in the picture,\" Lewis said. \"The only reason Oracle got involved was to help their cloud business. Oracle saw this as a way to boost its marketshare.\" Oracle will become TikTok's cloud provider and hopes that this will provide a much-needed boost for that business. Oracle, which sells databases and cloud space to companies, is a laggard in the cloud storage wars, having been far outpaced by Amazon, Microsoft and Google. A TikTok employee not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that TikTok currently stores U.S. user data on Google Cloud servers. But this doesn't really resolve any issues related to security, says Kirsten Martin, professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame. \"TikTok never had U.S. user data on Chinese soil,\" Martin said. \"So this deal is moving the data from one U.S. company to another? I don't see how that materially changes anything.\" Facebook's former chief security officer Alex Stamos noted on Twitter that with TikTok's all-powerful algorithm still in ByteDance's hands, the agreement can only do so much. \"A deal where Oracle takes over hosting without source code and significant operational changes would not address any of the legitimate concerns about TikTok,\" Stamos said. \"And the White House accepting such a deal would demonstrate that this exercise was pure grift.\" Whatever Trump's motivation in picking Oracle, the deal is incontestably a shot in the arm for the Silicon Valley stalwart. Walmart also a big winner in Trump's TikTok deal Walmart's slice of TikTok is about 7.5%. The retail giant's CEO, Doug McMillon, will sit on the company's board. Through this deal, Walmart can tap a user base of some 100 million users in the United States. Most of them are young consumers who spend hours on TikTok, mesmerized by the app's addicting algorithm, which is without peer in Silicon Valley. Lewis said Walmart is hoping some of those eyeballs will now buy stuff at Walmart's online store, a gamble aimed at giving Amazon a run for its money. \"This is Walmart making another play to challenge Amazon in the e-commerce space, but we'll see if it actually makes a difference in their sales,\" Lewis said. It is not lost on critics of the deal that Walmart's chief rival Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post and a regular target of Trump's ire. 5 boar", "Updated 12:55 a.m. ET President Trump has given tentative approval to a deal that will keep TikTok alive in the U.S., resolving a months-long confrontation between a hit app popularized by lip-syncing teens and White House officials who viewed the service as a national security risk. TikTok downloads were set to be banned in the U.S. starting at midnight Sunday, but that has now been averted. \"I have given the deal my blessing,\" Trump said. \"I approve the deal in concept.\" As part of the deal rescuing TikTok, U.S. tech company Oracle is joining hands with Walmart to form a new entity called TikTok Global, which will be headquartered in the United States. That arrangement appears to satisfy the White House's concerns over the security of American user data, even though Chinese tech company ByteDance is expected to hold its majority-ownership position. With the ties to ByteDance remaining, some experts in technology privacy are skeptical that the deal would meaningfully address the national security concerns that first launched Washington's scrutiny of TikTok. \"The interactions with the Chinese government, and the ability of the Chinese government to put pressure on the ByteDance company, is still substantial,\" said Chris Kelly, former chief privacy officer at Facebook. \"It won't be strange to have interaction between the two companies on a number of different issues, including algorithmic operations, so that could stretch into personal data pretty easily,\" Kelly said in an interview. TikTok, which has some 100 million active monthly users in the U.S., is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. For months, the Trump administration has been pushing TikTok to sever its ties to ByteDance. Officials in the White House and some Democrats in Washington fear China's authoritarian regime could access Americans' data through the app and use the information to blackmail or launch disinformation campaigns. Under the new arrangement, Oracle will host all of TikTok's U.S. user data and will safeguard TikTok's computer systems \"to ensure U.S. national security requirements are fully satisfied,\" TikTok said in a statement. \"While we strongly disagree with the implications of TikTok as a national security threat, we nonetheless understand the concerns,\" wrote Vanessa Pappas, interim head of TikTok, in a statement on Saturday. \"We're pleased that today we've confirmed a proposal that resolves the Administration's security concerns and settles questions around TikTok's future in the US.\" Analysts say Oracle's cloud computing business will receive a major boost as a result of the deal. Oracle has been lagging behind competitors, such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google, for cloud storage business. Oracle executives have close ties to Trump. \"We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok's American users, and users throughout the world,\" said Oracle CEO Safra Catz, who served on Trump's 2016 transition team. Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison is among the few tech leaders in Silicon Valley who supports the president. Back in February, Ellison hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., just south of Palm Springs. Analysts said Walmart also stands to reap much benefit by tapping into a vast consumer base of mostly young people. Besides being a major investor in the new TikTok company, Walmart said it will bring its e-commerce \"retail capabilities\" to the app, which could allow TikTok users to shop Walmart online through TikTok. A major sticking point in the negotiations centered on how much of a stake Beijing-based ByteDance would have in TikTok's U.S. operation., as officials in Washington worried that any ByteDance ownership could give the Chinese company a backdoor to access Americans' data. Oracle and Walmart are planning to own a combined 20% of the new TikTok entity, officials at TikTok said. ByteDance is expected to own about 80% of the company, but since 40% of ByteDance is owned by U.S. investors, TikTok Global says it is majority owned by American investors, according to a person familiar with the deal. Still, ByteDance owning 80% of TikTok would not appear to satisfy the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, a panel led by the Treasury that examines U.S. business transactions with ties overseas. Trump signed an order in August requiring ByteDance to completely divest from its U.S. TikTok operations by Nov. 12. The fate of that order is murky. \"They're really moving the goal posts here,\" said a former CFIUS official, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the administration. \"ByteDance is still the biggest dog in this deal. The foreign control issue does not go away.\" Four out of the five members of TikTok Global's board of directors will be Americans, according to a joint statement from Oracle and Walmart. Among the four U.S. board members", "-- NPR's Chris Arnold reports there is concern about a new Internet trend that allows investors to buy into high risk ventures without adequate safeguards.", "Updated at 2:41 p.m. ET The Trump administration is banning Americans from downloading popular video-sharing app TikTok and limiting the use of WeChat because of national security concerns, the Commerce Department announced on Friday. As of midnight on Sunday, TikTok will also not be able to receive system updates, which could affect its functionality, including slowing down the app, but the app's current version will still work for American users. Over time, however, TikTok may stop working altogether. Talks are still underway among parties including software company Oracle and Walmart to come up with a plan to rescue TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the U.S. and 700 million globally. Parties have until Nov. 12 to finalize a deal or the administration will fully ban TikTok, White House officials said. The federal action will also limit the use of WeChat for transferring money or conducting payments inside the U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the restrictions on TikTok — which arose from President Trump's executive order issued last month targeting the app — will take effect on Sunday. \"Today's actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,\" Ross said in a statement. TikTok, in a statement, called the Trump administration's action \"unjust\" and vowed to keep to fighting the order in federal court. \"In our proposal to the US Administration, we've already committed to unprecedented levels of additional transparency and accountability well beyond what other apps are willing to do, including third-party audits, verification of code security, and US government oversight of US data security,\" a TikTok spokesperson said. \"Further, an American technology provider would be responsible for maintaining and operating the TikTok network in the US, which would include all services and data serving US consumers.\" Kirsten Martin, professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame, said the Trump administration's enforcement action will not do much to address any national security concerns White House officials have with the Beijing-owned TikTok. \"TikTok was never a national security risk. In many ways, an app like TikTok is better than most apps in that they don't sell user data to third parties. That actually may end when Oracle gets involved given their work in digital marketing,\" Martin said. Also starting Sunday, it will become illegal to provide Internet hosting and other network services for WeChat. WeChat users launched a legal challenge to block the order before it took effect, but that effort is now moot, according to the federal judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Laurel Beeler. Beeler, however, said she would hold an emergency hearing on Friday on the future of the suit. TikTok is owned by ByteDance. WeChat, a messaging and social media app that also lets users conduct payments, is owned by Tencent. Under TikTok's terms of service, user data can be shared with ByteDance. That has made officials in Washington worry about the possibility of China gaining access to U.S. user data. The amount of data TikTok collects on Americans is on par with what other apps collect, including ones owned by Facebook and Google. Alex Stamos, Facebook's former chief security officer, told NPR in an interview that Trump deciding what is allowed to be on the phones of Americans is reminiscent of actions undertaken by China's authoritarian government, which has a firm grip on what information its citizens can access online. \"It's a very dangerous precedent to send around the world: that the United States is acting like the Chinese do. In a democracy, we should have rules that are fairly applied and adjudicated by the judicial branch, not just by fiat by the president,\" Stamos said. \"These are speech platforms. So there's a lot of thorny issues here.\" In the meantime, discussions among American investors over the future of TikTok are continuing behind closed doors. Trump has insisted that ByteDance must lose its majority stake in TikTok, triggering a flurry of activity from U.S. companies interested in acquiring or partnering with the video-sharing service. Oracle beat out Microsoft as the top U.S. suitor. The current proposal on the table from Oracle would give it a majority stake in TikTok, but ByteDance would retain a significant minority stake and also maintain a strong position on the company's board. It is not clear whether Trump will support the deal. Oracle has ties to Trump. Larry Ellison, a top Oracle executive, is one of the few tech leaders in Silicon Valley who support the president. He held a fundraiser for Trump in February. TikTok's 1,500 employees were worried Trump clamping down on the app would deprive them of their wages, but the administration recently clarified in a court filing that TikTok workers, and an", "On Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Silicon Valley hoping to create a stronger relationship between the nation&#8217;s largest tech companies and India. Promoting his &#8220;Digital India&#8221; campaign, Modi is hoping Silicon Valley will put more digital infrastructure in India. Abhay Bhushan, chairman of Silicon Valley tech-consulting company Asquare, Inc., joins Here & Now&#8216;s Peter O&#8217;Dowd. Guest\n\nAbhay Bhushan, chairman of Asquare, Inc. a Silicon Valley tech-consulting company and co-founding president of PAN IIT.", "The sudden popularity of the Socialcam app for posting video on Facebook is raising questions about whether the social networking company is playing favorites with what content gets featured.", "The CEO of TikTok, the popular app for sharing short-form videos, is attacking Facebook for planning the launch of a \"copycat\" product, accusing the social media giant of trying to smear TikTok and put it out of business in the U.S. Kevin Mayer, who left Disney in May to oversee TikTok's U.S. operation, delivered his sharp criticism in a blog post on Wednesday, just hours before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before Congress about whether the company's online dominance squashes competition. Mayer noted that Facebook-owned Instagram has announced Reels, the tech giant's answer to TikTok. It is expected to be rolled out in early August. The effort represents the second time Facebook has attempted to undercut TikTok's success. Earlier this month, Facebook shut down Lasso, a TikTok clone that never took off. Mayer says TikTok welcomes competition — \"bring it on,\" he writes — but he suggests Facebook is attempting to tap into the growing pressure in Washington to squeeze TikTok out of the U.S. altogether. TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. That has led both Democrats and Republicans in Washington to question whether TikTok poses a national security concern. \"But let's focus our energies on fair and open competition in service of our consumers, rather than maligning attacks by our competitor — namely Facebook — disguised as patriotism and designed to put an end to our very presence in the US,\" Mayer wrote in the post. It is the latest salvo in a widening rift between Facebook and TikTok. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Instagram is offering incentives of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to persuade top TikTok influencers to use Reels. In his prepared congressional testimony, Zuckerberg makes an oblique reference to TikTok's surging popularity in the U.S., while not mentioning the app by name. Zuckerberg says Facebook believes in competition and free expression, but \"there's no guarantee our values will win out.\" He goes on to say: \"China is building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries.\" In his blog post, Mayer made a significant policy announcement by saying TikTok will open up its algorithms, as well as its content moderation decisions and data collection, to the public. TikTok has been accused of using its algorithms to demote topics like Black Lives Matter and of censoring content to please the Chinese Communist Party. Mayer never cites any specific charge against the app, vowing that new openness will embolden the public to draw their own conclusions. \"We will not wait for regulation to come, but instead TikTok has taken the first step by launching a Transparency and Accountability Center for moderation and data practices. Experts can observe our moderation policies in real-time, as well as examine the actual code that drives our algorithms. This puts us a step ahead of the industry, and we encourage others to follow suit.\" TikTok, Mayer noted, also plans to hire 10,000 workers in the U.S. \"TikTok has become the latest target, but we are not the enemy. The bigger move is to use this moment to drive deeper conversations around algorithms, transparency, and content moderation, and to develop stricter rules of the road,\" Mayer said.", "Some comics are launching a new startup &#8212; a fictional one for HBO&#8217;s new comedy, &#8220;Silicon Valley.&#8221; It&#8217;s a half hour live action series that lampoons, well, the startup cult of Silicon Valley. The show, which premieres on Sunday is written and directed by Mike Judge, who was also behind &#8220;Beavis and Butt-head,&#8221; &#8220;Office Space&#8221; and &#8220;King of the Hill.&#8221; The San Francisco Chronicle is calling it not only one of the best shows of the season, but the &#8220;best tech show yet&#8221; and &#8220;a Silicon Valley rarity: a startup that&#8217;s a sure thing.&#8221; We speak with one of the stars, Pakistani American comedian Kumail Nanjiani. Nanjiani has been showing up all over the place &#8212; late night TV, &#8220;Portlandia,&#8221; &#8220;Franklin & Bash&#8221; and Comedy Central. Nanjiani tells Here & Now&#8217;s Jeremy Hobson about his character on the new series and about coming to America from Pakistan and going from studying philosophy and computer science to becoming a stand-up comedian. Interview Highlights: Kumail Nanjiani On his character in HBO&#8217;s &#8216;Silicon Valley&#8217; &#8220;This guy&#8217;s a really good programmer, so that makes him arrogant, because of his skills in a very specific world. And then I take that arrogance and apply it to every other aspect of his life that he&#8217;s not good at. So I think that guy&#8217;s funny &#8217;cause he&#8217;s arrogant &#8212; about everything, about how he thinks he is with the ladies. He&#8217;s not good with the ladies. You know, all that stuff. He thinks he&#8217;s cool. He&#8217;s not cool. He&#8217;s only good at programming.&#8221; On Silicon Valley and startup culture &#8220;These people basically control our lives in so many ways. I mean, you look down at you phone, all of these apps are made by people over there and we really have no idea how that whole area&#8217;s set up. It really is about power and money. It&#8217;s really fascinating, but they&#8217;re sort of coded in this &#8216;Oh, we just want to make the world a better place and if we make a billions of dollar on the way, then that&#8217;s alright.&#8217; &#8230; What&#8217;s interesting is that a lot of these guys have a lot of money, but they don&#8217;t really know how to party. So they&#8217;re sort of partying in their own world. They&#8217;re approximating what they think partying is. You know, the first scene of the episode, you&#8217;re at a really, really big ostentatious party, but you sort of see that it doesn&#8217;t quite work.&#8221; On double majoring in philosophy and computer science &#8220;I studied philosophy because I, you know, really wanted a high-paying job, and I studied computer science because it was my passion. Or is it the other way around? I can never remember. Yeah, I did computer science because I thought, you know, that&#8217;s what everyone was doing at the time, and everyone was getting jobs on it, and I was like &#8216;Alright, I&#8217;ll do this, I&#8217;ll get a job, I&#8217;ll be able to stay in the U.S.&#8217; And then I studied philosophy because it was something I really liked doing, and then on graduation I was like, well one I&#8217;m no good at and one nobody really wants me to do. Actually my philosophy degree led me to this huge existential crisis about what I&#8217;m going to do with the rest of my life.&#8221; On what it was like going from Pakistan to Iowa &#8220;It was hundreds of things. I&#8217;d never shaken hands with a woman before; that was weird. My jaw hurt from talking English all the time because I was making, you know, these sounds that I wasn&#8217;t used to making all day every day. I mean, it was interesting in so many ways but also I&#8217;m glad that I did go to Iowa so there weren&#8217;t that many people around so it wasn&#8217;t completely overwhelming. I mean, I&#8217;d seen America in movies, you know, but you never really see Iowa in the movies very much.&#8221; \nComedy Central: Video clips of Kumail Nanjiani\n\nRead More\n\nNew York Times profile on Kumail Nanjiani\nEmily V. Gordon on working with her husband, Kumail Nanjiani\nBuzzFeed: The 13 Best Kumail Nanjiani Tweets\n\nGuest\n\nKumail Nanjiani, comedian and one of the stars of the new HBO series &#8220;Silicon Valley.&#8221; He tweets @kumailn.", "TikTok's fate in the U.S. is unclear, but one thing is: the video-sharing app has been good for emerging artists. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with <em>LA Times </em>pop music critic Mikael Wood.", "In an escalation of social media&#8217;s crackdown on harassment and hate speech online, Reddit has purged about 2,000 subreddits, including a popular pro-Trump forum called &#8220;r/The_Donald.&#8221; The video streaming site Twitch also temporarily banned a campaign account for President Trump, accusing it of “hateful conduct.&#8221; Meanwhile, more advertisers are joining a public pressure campaign aimed at getting Facebook to step up policing of violent and hateful speech on its platform. Here & Now&#8216;s Peter O&#8217;Dowd speaks with Casey Newton, Silicon Valley editor at The Verge. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "This week could mark the official end of the long love affair between Washington and Silicon Valley. The U.S. Justice Department and 11 state attorneys general have filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Google, accusing it of being an illegal monopoly because of its stranglehold on Internet search. The government alleged Google has come by its wild success — 80% market share in U.S. search, a valuation eclipsing $1 trillion — unfairly. It said multibillion-dollar deals Google has struck to be the default search engine in many of the world's Web browsers and smartphones have boxed out its rivals. Just look at the word \"Google,\" the lawsuit said — it's become \"a verb that means to search the internet.\" What company can compete with that? Google's head of global affairs, Kent Walker, said the government's case is \"deeply flawed.\" The company warned that if the Justice Department prevails, people would pay more for their phones and have worse options for searching the Internet. It will likely be years before this fight is resolved. After all, the U.S. government's investigations into Microsoft a generation ago, culminating in the Justice Department's attempt to break up the company, spanned more than a decade. But a tectonic shift is happening right now: USA v. Google is the biggest manifestation of what has become known as the \"Techlash\" — a newfound skepticism of Silicon Valley's giants and growing appetite to rein them in through regulation. \"It's the end of hands-off of the tech sector,\" said Gene Kimmelman, a former senior antitrust official at the Justice Department. \"It's probably the beginning of a decade of a series of lawsuits against companies like Google who dominate in the digital marketplace.\" Washington and Silicon Valley: \"A relationship of extremes\" It wasn't always this way. For years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Silicon Valley's tech stars have thrived with little regulatory scrutiny. Even the Justice Department acknowledged that in this week's lawsuit, describing Google in its early days as \"a scrappy startup with an innovative way to search the emerging internet.\" But it added \"that Google is long gone.\" There is similar skepticism in Washington of Facebook, Amazon and Apple — the companies that, with Google, have become known as Big Tech, an echo of the corporate villains of earlier eras such as Big Oil and Big Tobacco. All four tech giants have been under investigation by regulators, state attorneys general and Congress — a sharp shift from just a few years ago when many politicians cozied up to the cool kids of Silicon Valley. Tech companies spend millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers, and many high-level government officials have left politics to work in tech, from Amazon's top public relations and policy official, Jay Carney, who spent three years as President Barack Obama's press secretary, to Facebook's head of global public policy, Joel Kaplan, a veteran of President George W. Bush's White House. \"It's been a relationship of extremes,\" University of Washington historian Margaret O'Mara told NPR this summer when the CEOs of the four Big Tech firms faced congressional grilling. She said Washington's laissez-faire attitude toward tech is at least partly responsible for the sector's expansion into nearly every aspect of our lives. \"These companies were allowed to grow large, in part because they had political champions on both sides of the aisle that really supported what they were doing and viewed a lot of what they were doing uncritically. And then ... these companies became so big and so powerful and so good at what they set out to do, it became something of a runaway train,\" she said. O'Mara sees historical precedent for today's Techlash. \"We have seen this before in American history with other newish industries — railroads, oil, steel — that grew very fast and grew in a nearly entirely unregulated fashion,\" she said. \"Then there was a popular and political backlash against them that resulted in the regulation of these industries and, in some cases, the breakup of particular companies.\" In a politically divided era, bipartisan skepticism of Big Tech The Google lawsuit is the most concrete action in the U.S. to date challenging the power of Big Tech. While the government stopped short of explicitly calling for a breakup, U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General Ryan Shores said that \"nothing's off the table.\" \"This case signals that the antitrust winter is over,\" Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, who has argued for breaking up Big Tech, told NPR's All Things Considered this week. But other branches of government are also considering ways to bring these companies to heel. House Democrats released a sweeping report this month calling for new rules to strip Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google of the power that has made each of them dominant in their fields. Their recommendations ranged from forced \"structural separations\" to reforming American antitrust ", "After five days of striking, teachers in Seattle have reached a tentative agreement with the school district to set a new standard for pay and the length of the school day. Officials are hopeful they&#8217;ll be able to get classes started by Thursday. One of the main points made by the teachers union is that they have gone six years without a cost-of-living raise, making it hard to live in Seattle​ ​where rent and home prices have skyrocketed in​ recent​ years &#8211; in part because of the city&#8217;s booming technology industry. That&#8217;s not just an issue in Seattle. Around the country, in cities like New York, Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the cost of living has been rising, taking a toll on many teachers. Education reporter ​Lillian Mongeau took a look at what is happening in the heart of the tech boom, Silicon Valley, and speaks with Here & Now&#8217;s Meghna Chakrabarti about what she discovered. The Hechinger Report: Silicon Valley's skyrocketing housing costs shut out teachers Guest Lillian Mongeau, West Coast correspondent for The Hechinger Report. She tweets @lrmongeau.", "Google and Twitter have moved into the realm of Freaking Me Out. Sit with this mashup of Google Maps, Twitter and Twittervision. Seriously, you have to give it a minute or two to work its magic. And then the Tweets start popping up all over the map. Right now, I'm watching a guy in the town where I was born ping back and forth with someone counting delegates in California and a person in Massachusetts who's got a figurative candle lit for Obama. And then there's the guy in the picture, from Marietta. How's this going to work if Twitter gets insanely popular? What will it feel like then?", "Silicon Valley has been soul searching since the election last month. Tech entrepreneur Ben Parr tells Scott Simon that collaboration with Washington is needed in an age of accelerating technology.", "There’s nothing like some tech news on a Friday. iPads, smartphones and laptops. Silicon Valley has dreamt them up, and China has built them. But China is no longer content to merely manufacture the next big thing. They want to invent it. Can Dalian become the next Silicon Valley? People are leaving the passive world of TV for the interactive world of online. It might be bad for ad revenue, but it’s not so bad for humanity. Author Clay Shirky says our online time has created a Cognitive Surplus. Done a Web search on the oil spill lately? If so, the first or second link probably pointed to BP’s “Gulf of Mexico Response,” a site dedicated to cleaning up their massive PR problem. In the U.S., the Internet does for free expression what spinach does for Popeye. Google wants this to be true in China, too.", "This week's congressional hearings on social media, data mining and politics are shaping up as a watershed moment in the touchy relationships between Washington and Silicon Valley.", "We look back at the invention of the computer chip and the role of the inventors who helped build today's digital world. Guest: Leslie Berlin, project historian for the Silicon Valley Archives and author of The Man Behind the Microchip. Currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. IRA FLATOW, host: For the rest of the hour, we're going to look back not too long ago to a time when the word--you know, that phrase `Silicon Valley' really didn't mean anything, when the land that's now filled with high-tech companies, such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Google, was nothing but orchards. This week, memorial services were held for Jack Kilby, Nobel laureate who was credited with the invention of the integrated circuit, really is a way of arranging a set of solid-state components, you know, transistors and the stuff like that on to a single chip and doing away with the bulky wiring, shrinking down the sizes of the components so they can fit onto a tiny little chip. That invention and the series of other inventions by Kilby, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, changed California and the world as we know it. Joining me now to talk about those early days in Silicon Valley and what it led to is Leslie Berlin. She is the author of a new book entitled, \"The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley.\" She's a visiting scholar in the history and philosophy of science and technology at Stanford University. And she is project historian for the Silicon Valley Archives. She joins us from a studio at Stanford. Welcome to the program. Ms. LESLIE BERLIN (Author, \"The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley\"): Hi. Glad to be here. FLATOW: How are you? Ms. BERLIN: I'm doing very well, thanks. FLATOW: When would you say the--actually Silicon Valley started? Is there a date that folks out there think this is the date that Silicon Valley started? Ms. BERLIN: People often trace the start of Silicon Valley to the first start-up that Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore, along with six of their friends, started in September of 1957, and the reason people often trace it back to that point is that Fairchild Semiconductor, when it basically dissolved, ended up populating the valley with all sorts of little semiconductor companies. And semiconductors, of course, are made out of silicon, and that's the origins of the name Silicon Valley. But historians prefer to look back a little further to the end of World War II and the start of the space race and government funding for electronics that really helped the region take off with companies like Hewlett-Packard. FLATOW: Let's talk about the history a little bit. You had--let's go back as far as--speaking of World War II, post-World War II, let's talk about Bell Labs and the invention of the transistor, the first solid state devices that came out. Bob Noyce and others broke off from Bell Labs after the transistor and they came out to California where they were--they were called something terrible, weren't they? Ms. BERLIN: They, actually, broke away from one of the founders of a company called Shockley Labs, William Shockley, who had been one of the inventors of the transistor at Bell Labs. Noyce and his friends never worked at Bell Labs, though Noyce did have a job offer there. So, yes, they left, in 1957, and were promptly dubbed the `traitorous eight' by William Shockley. This was really one of the first times that you saw this startup or spinoff, phenomenon that we now consider such a part of Silicon Valley, happening, and one of the things that was so exciting for me to find was the notes that one of these eight young men who left took where his boss's boss called the group of them into a room and essentially read them the Riot Act, saying, `Your names are mud.' He ended with `You should consider the community reaction. This is a disgraceful act.' The notion of leaving a company was just not out there at that point. FLATOW: You wrote \"The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley.\" What was his relationship to the others, especially to Kilby, who wound up receiving the Nobel Prize for the invention? Would Noyce have gotten it, also, you think, if he had lived? Ms. BERLIN: Oh, he absolutely would have. As a matter of fact, Jack Kilby talked about that when he received the Nobel Prize. These two men invented, independently, and, actually, without any knowledge of what the other one was doing, but their work was completely complementary. What Jack Kilby came up with was a way to build a circuit, all of the ", "The Trump administration is threatening to ban the hugely popular TikTok social app, the latest effort by the administration to prevent Chinese companies from gaining access to U.S. markets.", "Silicon Valley is throwing big money and brainpower into the quest to live forever. We’ll dig in. News on aging and staying young this week.  NASA, leaning in to a new treatment that could keep astronauts from aging out on the long trip to Mars.  Space travel accelerates aging. On Earth, there may be no more rapt audience that the billionaires of Silicon Valley. &#8220;Super-longevity,&#8221; even immortality, has become an obsession of the rich tech set. They want it all, and are investing big brains and bucks to get it. This hour On Point,  Silicon Valley’s drive to make death “optional.” &#8212; Tom Ashbrook Guests Tad Friend, staff writer at the New Yorker. (@tadfriend) David Sinclair, professor, principal investigator and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Labs for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School. (@davidasinclair) From Tom’s Reading List New Yorker: Silicon Valley&#8217;s Quest to Live Forever &#8212; &#8220;For decades, the solution to aging has seemed merely decades away. In the early nineties, research on C. elegans, a tiny nematode worm that resembles a fleck of lint, showed that a single gene mutation extended its life, and that another mutation blocked that extension. The idea that age could be manipulated by twiddling a few control knobs ignited a research boom, and soon various clinical indignities had increased the worm’s life span by a factor of ten and those of lab mice by a factor of two. The scientific consensus transformed.&#8221; Science: A conserved NAD+ binding pocket that regulates protein-protein interactions during aging &#8212; &#8220;Although the reason NAD+ declines with age is unclear, this work provides a plausible explanation for why DNA repair capacity declines as we age, pointing to NAD+ replenishment as a means of reducing the side effects of chemotherapy, protecting against radiation exposure, and slowing the natural decline in DNA repair capacity during aging.&#8221; WIRED: Silicon Valley Would Rather Cure Death Than Make Life Worth Living &#8212; &#8220;Silicon Valley is coming for death. But it’s looking in the wrong place. After disrupting the way we love, communicate, travel, work, and even eat, technologists believe they can solve the ultimate problem.&#8221;", "In India, TikTok was a phenomenon. Last June, the Indian government banned the app for geopolitical reasons. Six months later, it's not clear what the ban has accomplished.", "Many companies have transitioned to full-time remote work during the pandemic. When the pandemic ends, will their workers go back to the office? Or are we witnessing the death of the office? Some people are predicting that remote work is here to stay and that it could revolutionize America's economic map. Remote work, they say, could allow some workers to move out of \"superstar cities\" like Seattle and New York in favor of cheaper areas. But predictions that remote work will kill the office are not new. People made similar predictions in the 1970s, when personal computers took off. And they made the same predictions in the 1990s, when the Internet took off. Instead of killing the office, however, the personal computer and the Internet only made the office more important than ever. Tech companies, for example, built these ginormous offices and placed them near each other in places like Silicon Valley. In this episode, we scan the data, the research, the theories and bring you two Indicators that debate the future of the office. Music: \"Uptown Goes Downtown,\" \"Tense Cypher,\" and \"Half An Iceberg.\" Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and NPR One. Want economics stories from the comfort of home? Subscribe to the Newsletter.", "TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer is stepping down three months after taking the job at the hugely popular short-form video app. Mayer's surprise resignation comes as the Trump administration escalates its campaign to force TikTok to cut ties with its Chinese ownership. In a message sent on Wednesday to staff at TikTok, Mayer said as the political environment has \"sharply changed,\" he has reflected on what kind of corporate restructuring may be coming for the company, concluding that it was best for him to depart. \"I want to be clear that this decision has nothing to do with the company, what I see for our future, or the belief I have in what we are building,\" Mayer wrote in his message, which TikTok shared with NPR. \"I understand that the role that I signed up for — including running TikTok globally — will look very different as a result of the US Administration's action to push for a sell off of the US business,\" Mayer said. Executive Vanessa Pappas will serve as the interim head for TikTok's global operations. In May, Mayer left as a top executive at Disney to take on the chief executive role at TikTok. His hiring was among a number of moves the company made to convince Washington that TikTok's U.S. operations were walled off from its parent company, ByteDance, which is based in Beijing. At the time, Pappas told NPR that Mayer \"brings the right level of global expertise to guide our expansion efforts.\" Now, it will be Pappas who heads TikTok as it navigates political and legal turmoil that poses an existential threat to the app that has been downloaded more than 100 million times by Americans. President Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at TikTok. One, signed on Aug. 6, outlaws business transactions between U.S. citizens and ByteDance, a move that the Trump administration says arose out of concern for national security. The order would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S and takes effect 45 days after it's signed, barring court intervention. TikTok has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the order. The suit challenges the constitutionality of Trump's order, claiming Trump's action exceeded his authority and deprived the company of due process. Beijing has sharply criticized the U.S. for blocking transactions with ByteDance, a decision it has repeatedly characterized as discriminatory. \"China supports relevant companies in taking up legal weapons to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,\" Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said earlier this week. But Beijing has shied away from offering ByteDance the kind of full-throated defense it mounted after the Trump administration sanctioned another Chinese company last year — telecom giant Huawei, which China sees as integral to its technological ambitions. In a second executive order Trump signed on Aug. 14, TikTok was ordered to sell off all of its U.S. assets to an American-based company within 90 days. TikTok has 1,500 U.S.-based employees with plans of hiring an additional 10,000 over the next three years. In his letter, Mayer said a resolution of the company's status will be announced \"very soon,\" saying the future of the company is \"incredibly bright.\" He said any structural changes underway for TikTok should not significantly affect TikTok employees or users. While the Trump administration has targeted TikTok because of its ties to China, the company has long maintained that its American app is run independently and that U.S. users' data is stored outside of China, in Virginia, with backup storage in Singapore. A class-action lawsuit filed against TikTok has alleged that the app steals data from U.S. minors, including their facial characteristics, and quietly sends the information to servers \"under the control of third parties who cooperate with the Chinese government.\" But there is no solid proof that TikTok has ever shared data on Americans with the Chinese Communist Party. The app does collect data on users, including location, video viewing history and phone contacts. The amount of data harvested is not out of step with what is collected by apps owned by major American technology companies, such as Google, Apple and Facebook, yet TikTok's parent company being based in China has set off alarms in the White House and among some Democrats in Washington. In a statement, TikTok said: \"We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin's role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision. We thank him for his time at the company and wish him well.\" NPR's Emily Feng contributed reporting from Beijing. Editor's note: TikTok helps fund NPR-produced videos from Planet Money that appear on the social media platform.", "NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Chris Calabrese of the Center for Democracy and Technology about reports that the U.S. sees a national security threat in a Chinese company owning the dating app Grindr.", "Joe Biden is set to assume the presidency at a time of unprecedented scrutiny for big tech. Here & Now&#8216;s Robin Young speaks with Peter Kafka, senior correspondent for Recode, discusses what the outcome of the 2020 presidential race will mean for Silicon Valley. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "One by one, Silicon Valley&#8217;s tech giants are beginning to raise the wages of service workers who keep their sprawling campuses running. These corporations are used to pressure from shareholders to keep the profit margins high. Now &#8211; for the first time &#8211; they&#8217;re facing a new pressure from a labor movement speaking up for low-wage workers. Beth Willon from Here & Now contributor KQED reports. Read Part One and Part Two of this series via KQED Reporter Beth Willon, senior news editor and reporter for KQED. She tweets @bethwillon.", "NPR's Tavis Smiley talks to resident tech guru Omar Wasow of Blackplanet.com about a possible second tech bubble brewing.", "Just a year ago, investors and startups in Silicon Valley were flying high. Now, venture capital investment is down, Google and Apple stocks have slid with the rest of the market and layoffs are becoming more common. Re/code associate editor Noah Kulwin tells Here & Now&#8216;s Lisa Mullins why tech might be in trouble. Guest\n\nNoah Kulwin, associate editor at Re/code. He tweets @nkulw.", "TikTok, the social app spawning viral memes and summer hits, launched one year ago. The Atlantic's Taylor Lorenz discusses the cultural impact and future of the platform for posting short videos." ]

[ "Я зрозумів ≈ I have understood. You can do this [understand] only immediately, so it is to finish [understand something, usually all of the thought].\n\nЯ розумів ≈ I was understanding. This is understanding while something [are doing] in during time, or you understand something to point of time and after you do not understand for some reason. \n\nLetʼs examples.\n\nЯ зрозумів, що він сказав. You understood all after (it can be also after a long time) his talking.\n\nЯ розумів, що він сказав. As you see, сказав is not “are doing”, so we take the second part: at least now you do not understand what he said. \n\nFor the first part, we must change word сказав to казав: Я зрозумів, що він казав.\n\n\nHe was talking and you understand him\nYou already know or understand the theme before of his talking.\n\n\nЯ зрозумів, що він казав. \n\n\nYou understood him before he ended talking. \nSame as with сказав, but with a focus that he talking long." ]

[ "No, it shouldn't, a different verb should be used here -- \"находить\". The 3rd person singular form of this verb is \"находит\".\n\nThe difference between those two verbs is the aspect. \"Найти\" is a perfective verb, while \"находить\" is imperfective. Imperfective verbs are usually used in place of English present simple tense.\nSo, the correct translation should be \"Она находит новую игрушку каждую неделю.\"\n\nAlso, on a side note, perfective verbs have no present tense at all, and the form you put in is actually future. And verbs don't conjugate for gender in present and future tenses.", "Great question! This answer is going to be heavily based in the discussion in chapter 7 of\n\nAlkire, Ti, and Carol Rosen. Romance languages: A historical introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2010\n\n\nThe verbal tense system went through a reorganization in the passage from Latin to Romance. Of the original categories (roughly speaking pairs of mood and tense) only four survive with only regular sound changes (present indicative present, perfect indicative, imperfect indicative and present subjunctive), while other forms were repurposed (e.g. imperfect subjunctive) or replaced with completely new forms (e.g. indicative future, most of the perfectum family, the whole conditional mood).\nThis often happens when, after regular sound changes, the &quot;old&quot; forms cannot be distinguished anymore from other verbal forms (e.g. the indicative future cantābit becomes identical to the perfect cantāvit after the regular sound change turning intervocalic b into v, and so it had to go). This is exactly the case of the subjunctive imperfect.\nThe imperfect subjunctive of the verb canto has the form cantāret. After regular sound changes, in most of the persons the verb becomes indistinguishable from the infinitive cantāre. Indeed, except from Sardinian that has mantained it, the only reflex of Latin's imperfect subjunctive is in Portuguese inflected infinitive forms!\nTo fill in this vacuum, the speakers coopted two verbal forms: the pluperfect subjunctive and the pluperfect indicative. These tenses were in the process of being muscled out of their niche by the synthetic perfect (i.e. the perfect formed by an auxiliary verb followed by the past particle) and were ready to find a new home in the infectum system. We have an indication that they were somehow associated to this role from an early period in this example from the first century BC\n\nseque paratos quaecumque imperasset [instead of imperaret], et libenti animo facturos pollicentur (De bello africano, 33)\nthey pledged themselves ready to do willingly whatever he commanded (and not he had commanded, since Caesar had yet to issue any command)\n\nItalian (as most of the other Romance languages) decided to use exclusively the perfect subjunctive for this job and went through a relatively aggressive push of regularization, eliminating the trace of the perfectum stem from all the verbs but three: essere, stare and dare (imperfect subjunctive fosse, stesse and desse). For example, today we say mettesse and not *misisse from misīsset. This is similar to the situation for the indicative perfect (passato remoto) for which however more verbs retained their original strong stem.\n\nAs a slight digression I would like to say a couple of words about Spanish, since you name it in the question (however, I do not really speak Spanish so I'm going to trust my source for the examples). You say that Spanish has retained the Latin imperfect subjunctive, but that is not the case. It is true that Spanish has two forms, but the other comes from the Latin pluperfect indicative, not from the imperfect subjunctive. For example cantāret would give *cantare (that later presumably becomes *cantar) and not the current form cantara, coming from the pluperfect indicative cantārat. It's not 100% clear to me why Spanish retained both forms (as far as I know it is the only Romance language to do so), but that would probably be a question for Spanish.SE (or possibly Linguistics.SE), so I'll have to stop here.", "В холодильнике ничего не осталось (поесть)?\n\n\nWith ''поесть'' (perfective) this particular sentence sounds very natural, whereas with ''есть'' (imperfective) - pretty weird. \n\nAt the same time, it is perfectly natural to say, ''Есть больше нечего.'' \n\nI understand that for non-native speakers, this may be very confusing in terms of rational logic.\n\nIn order to confidently make choices in such expressions, you have to develop the ''Russian logic'' - associative thinking based on analogies to many Russian idioms, colloquial expressions, and commonly used everyday phrases. It is very easy to make mistakes if you try to deduce the right choices by purely logical, rational reasoning. For native Russian speakers it is usually much easier to tell the right choice than to try to find the logical reason as to why it is the right choice. Native Russian speakers make their choices based on the subconscious associative ''Russian logic'' rather than on rational reasoning. The correct variants are simply those that are easier perceived by the Russian-speaking mind. Words and expressions in the Russian language activate specific thinking patterns and emotions that are often not easy to describe logically and rationally in another language. You must ''feel'' the language and its specific words and expressions on the subconscious level in order to speak naturally.\n\nSo let me answer your question from the ''Russian logic'' standpoint. This logic may be different from what you find in your grammar textbooks, but is what how Russian speakers actually think.\n\nLet's start with the following phrase: ''Что ему осталось сделать?'' This sentence implies that the person has a checklist and has already done some things on that list, so the question is about what is left on the list. Both verbs here are perfective, so the sentence sounds very result-oriented, and this is why it implies a checklist with clearly defined goals.\n\nLet's now make both verbs imperfective: ''Что ему остается делать?'' Now the most natural perception is that the person is in a difficult situation in which he has very few options left, and the question is about exactly what options are left. The question sounds somewhat global, strategic. In the past tense, the same question takes the following form: ''Что ему оставалось делать?'' The latter sentence is often used as an apology for someone's actions or explanation of someone's actions by saying that he had no other choice.\n\nThe variant with the perfective verbs sounds result-oriented, while the variant with the imperfective verbs - process-oriented, hence the difference in the perception.\n\nOverall, perfective and imperfective verbs activate different thinking patterns - result-oriented vs process-oriented, so if you use perfective and imperfective verbs together in a single sentence, your conversation partner may get somewhat confused on the subconscious level, depending on the context. \n\nI want to illustrate this by how many results Google gives for the following combinations:\n\n\"Что ему осталось сделать?\" (perfective + perfective): 9,000 results\n\n\"Что ему остается делать?\"(imperfective + imperfective): 24,000 results\n\n\"Что ему оставалось делать?\" (imperfective + imperfective): 53,000 results\n\n\"Что ему осталось делать?\" (perfective + imperfective): 1,000 results\n\n\"Что ему остается сделать?\" (imperfective + perfective): 5,000 results\n\nAs you see, the pure forms (i.e., ''perfective + perfective'' and ''imperfective + imperfective'') are more common than the mixed ones, although the latter are not ungrammatical. The pure forms are just easier for perceive and are thus preferred, although in some contexts you may need to use a mixed form in order to emphasise some nuance (as I will explain below).\n\nNow back to your refrigerator.\n\nLet's make two obvious observations:\n\n(i) The verb ''есть'' (in the meaning ''to eat'') is perceived as a general concept or a process, whereas ''поесть'' - rather as ''to have a certain meal at a certain time (e.g. now).'' ''Поесть'' is a result-oriented word and denotes a limited action. ''Есть'' is a process-oriented word and feels rather global.\n\n(ii) The verb ''осталось'' is a result-oriented verb. ''Ничего не осталось'' is perceived as a result of a completed action.\n\n''В холодильнике ничего не осталось поесть'' sounds perfectly natural. It is a pure form (perfective + perfective); the idea is expressed purely in terms of result-oriented thinking; the phrase is about particular circumstances rather than a global state of affairs - after all, you can always buy food in a shop to resolve the issue. The perception is, ''Nothing has been left in the fridge to quickly have a meal right now.''\n\n''В холодильнике ничего не осталось есть'', in contract, triggers a weird interplay between result-oriented thinking and process-oriented thinking in the Russian-speaking mind. It is perceived as weird as, ''As a result of some particular process, no options have been left in the fridge as to what to eat globally.'' \n\nJust another example: ''Решил пойти купить покушать'' is strongly preferred to ''решил пойти купить кушать,'' for the same reason.\n\nNow let's consider this: ''Есть больше нечего.'' It sounds natural. The idea is expressed purely in terms of global, process-oriented thinking. If you now replace ''есть'' by ''поесть'', it will sound unnatural, because ''больше'' is related to a process (namely, the process of gradually consuming food), while ''поесть'' is a result-oriented word and denotes an isolated action. In some rare contexts, however, ''поесть больше нечего'' sounds okay (e.g., the person ''поел'' a few times and asks whether there is something to ''поесть'' again).\n\nNote that mixed forms (i.e. combinations of perfective and imperfective verbs) are okay to use if the context and the intended meaning require it. \n\nI can even give you an example where ''ничего не осталось есть'' sounds fine: ''Пожар уничтожил запасы хлеба, и жителям ничего не осталось есть.'' (''The fire annihilated the reserves of bread, so the population was left with nothing to eat''). Here it is emphasised that the population was left with nothing to eat globally, not just to have a meal right now. This is why ''ничего не осталось есть'' sounds natural in this context, as opposed to the context with the fridge.\n\nTo conclude, the word choice is dictated by the context, the intended meaning, and the way how the words and their combinations are perceived by the Russian-speaking mind.", "Part of the difficulty in discussing aspect in English is that English is a tense-prominent language rather than an aspect-prominent language. So the main (and obligatory) grammatical marker on English verbs is past/non-past tense, not perfective/imperfective aspect.\nEnglish has one main aspectual suffix, -ing. It marks progressive aspect, which is a sub-category of imperfective aspect.\nThe sentence 'John eats apples' communicates the semantics of habitual aspect, however there is no morphological aspect. In other languages the habitual is a sub-category of imperfective aspect, but in English it uses the simple verb form, which is normally considered to have perfective aspect.\nTo get a better grasp on aspect it would be better to investigate it in some aspect-prominent languages, such as the Slavic languages.", "It's easier to memorize a pattern than a paradigm. Instead of memorizing the conjugation, you could memorize a rule to identify it. This is more useful when you're trying to understand a text, rather than to be able to express yourself in a language, but ability to express yourself is also better after a lot of exposure to the language, which would make memorization easier.\n\nThere are tricks for every conjugation. Niph'al always starts with ni (perfect), or geminates the first letter of the root (imperfect). Pi'el always geminates the second root letter after an i (perfect) or a (imperfect). Pu'al always geminates the second root letter after u. Hiph'il always starts with hi (perfect) or a consonant + a (imperfect). Hoph'al always starts with ho (perfect) or consonant + o (imperfect). Hitpa'el always starts with hit (perfect) or consonant + it/et (imperfect).\n\nIf you can remember the previous paragraph, and already know the qal conjugation, you can identify anything on the perfect/imperfect part of the chart. It might not be enough to express yourself perfectly, but is it good enough for reading?\n\nIrregular verbs are also best remembered through patterns. It's probably not a good idea to ignore them in favor of regular tables, since you can't parse Biblical Hebrew well without having at least some knowledge of them. The first two verses of Genesis already have the forms בָּרָא (not *בָּרַא) and הָיְתָה (not *הָיְהָה) and מְרַחֶפֶת (not *מְרַחֶּפֶת). Your chart is also missing the so-called ו-consecutive conjugation (quite similar to the imperfect, but also different enough to pose a problem already at Genesis 1:3).\n\nRecognizing a few things might make this easier:\n\n\nThe names of the conjugations (with the exception of qal) are the same as the 3rd-person masculine perfect conjugation of the root פעל. If you know the names of the conjugations, you already know a whole row from the chart (complicated only slightly since the letter ע can never take a dagesh as it should in the pi'el, pu'al, and hitpa'el conjugations).\nThe prefixes and suffixes are the same across every conjugation. Since you already know the qal conjugation, you can likely already identify the tense and person of any verb, even if you don't know which conjugation it is in.\n\n\nIf you're looking for irregular verb conjugation, there is a collection of charts here that could be of use.", "When discussing tense, aspect, and mood, it's important to distinguish a given language's grammatical markers from the abstract concepts being described. Thus, linguists use the words temporal reference and aspectual reference to describe the abstract ideas being described, while the words tense and aspect are reserved for when such reference is marked grammatically. \n\nThe simplified explanation for tense and aspect usually given is that tense describes when an event occurs and aspect describes the internal temporal structure of an event. However, this doesn't give a ton of easy answers to \"is this grammatical form marking tense, aspect, or both?\" Formal semanticists actually have a relatively simple framework for how temporal reference and aspectual reference are defined, the basic concepts of which can be helpful when designing your conlang's own tense/aspect system.\n\nThe Neo-Reichenbachian Model\n\nImagine a timeline:\n\nEarlier Later\n&lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n\n\nNow, imagine there are two spans on that timeline (the fact that they're spans is important -- nothing is truly instantaneous). The time when you make an utterance is called the utterance time (or UT), and the time that you're talking about is called the topic time (or TT). \n\nTemporal reference describes the relationship between the TT and UT. Past temporal reference is when the TT precedes the UT; future temporal reference when the TT follows the UT; and present temporal reference when they overlap. \n\nPast:\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |--TT--| |--UT--|\n\nFuture:\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |--UT--| |--TT--|\n\nPresent:\n |--UT--|\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |-------TT-------|\n\n\nThis seems pretty intuitive -- if the section of the timeline you're talking about precedes the time you make the utterance, you'll use the past tense; if it follows it, you'll use the future; and if they overlap, you'll use the present. Simple, right?\n\nBut what of aspect? Well, aspectual reference isn't as transparent at that. To describe aspectual reference, we'll need to pick out a third span that timeline -- the time when the event being described actually happened. We'll call this the eventuality time (or ET).\n\n\"But wait!\" you might object. \"Isn't that the same as the topic time? If I'm describing something that happened, surely the time I was talking about is the same as the time that it happened.\" However, there is a difference, and it's exactly this difference that gives rise to aspectual reference. Consider the English past perfect in a sentence like the following: \n\n\n Yesterday he had gone to the store.\n\n\nThe English past tense includes past temporal reference, and we've established that this means that the topic time is before the utterance time -- something which is explicitly confirmed by the temporal adverb \"yesterday\" giving us a more specific topic time. But when does the him-going-to-the-store happen? Probably not yesterday, right? Well, this is because perfect† aspectual reference is when the eventuality time precedes the topic time -- aspectual reference describes the relationship between the eventuality time and the topic time. It for this reason that the past perfect is used by English speakers for the past-in-past.\n\nPast Perfect:\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |--ET--| |--TT--| |--UT--|\n\n\nBut you can also have the present perfect, right? Well, let's combine our descriptions of the present tense and the perfect aspect and see what we come up with.\n\nPresent Perfect:\n |--UT--|\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |--ET--| |-------TT-------|\n\n\nHere, the topic time and utterance time overlap, which is why you can't say something like \"Yesterday he has gone to the store.\" However, the eventuality time precedes the topic time, so you're describing an event that happened in the past in relation to the present. And indeed, this is how we see the present perfect used in English.\n\nThis is far from the most interesting thing aspectual reference can do, however. Let's discuss the popular aspectual references, perfective and imperfect. For those who don't know, perfective and perfect are two different things. Perfective is often described as simply viewing an event as a point on a timeline, and imperfect as viewing it as a span. How do we define this as a relationship between eventuality time and topic time?\n\nWell, a simple way people do it (ignoring a few other related thorny semantic problems that few here will care about) is by defining the perfective as when the eventuality time is contained within the topic time and the imperfect as when the topic time is contained within the eventuality time.\n\nPast Perfective:\n |--ET--|\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |-------TT-------| |--UT--| \n\nPast Imperfect:\n |--TT--|\n &lt;--------------------------------------------&gt;\n |-------ET-------| |--UT--| \n\n\nThis results, at least formally, in the same sort of perspective shift we try to intuitively describe as changing the event from a \"point\" to a \"span\".\n\nNote that tense and aspect vary between languages a lot, and even related languages can't be counted upon to have the same semantics here. After all, the French passé composé, while very similar in form to the English present perfect, does not share the same semantics (it's more of a perfective). Additionally, while a given language's system of tense and aspect will often combine a tense and an aspect in a certain inflection (such as the perfective past tenses in many European languages), this doesn't mean the two are wed cross-linguistically.\n\nIn fact, I hope this answer has given some conlangers the tools to try and invent their own tenses, aspects, or combinations of the two that they haven't themselves encountered cross-linguistically. Be creative!\n\nIn short:\n\n\nTemporal reference is the relationship between the utterance time (when you say something) and the topic time (the time relevant to the discussion at hand).\nAspectual reference is the relationship between the topic time (see above) and the eventuality time (the time when the event being described actually occured).\nTense is the grammaticalization of temporal reference.\nAspect is the grammaticalization of aspectual reference.\nThings called \"tenses\" in natural languages (as well as in conlangs, to be honest) are often conflations of tense and aspect (and sometimes even mood, but we're not here to talk about that).\n\n\n\n\n†When I refer to perfect aspectual reference, I'm actually more specifically describing what is known in semantics as the existential perfect. Perfect forms in English and many other languages include other types of perfect aspectual reference (universal, resultive, etc.) that differ subtly in their semantics, and other aspectual and temporal baggage as well; this is, however, probably not particularly interesting or relevant to most people here at this moment.", "The first point is that verb ‘знати’ does have forms with prefixes: ‘ви-’, ‘у/в-’, ‘за-’ etc. So does almost any verb. Prefixes may change the lexical meaning of verbs and you should refer to a dictionary for a verb with prefix that you don't know yet.\n\nIt's true that with help of prefixes you generally turn imperfective verbs (дієслова недоконаного виду) into perfectives (доконаного). In your example: ‘знати → взнати’. And not only prefixes take part in this. You may also switch aspect (вид) of verbs by applying suffixes, shifting stress, altering sounds and replacing one root with another: ‘зна́ти (imp.) → взна́ти (p.) → взнава́ти (imp.)’\n\nImportant question is whether both verbs make a pair (видова пара) in which they describe the same action, except that one expresses imperfective aspect and the other expresses perfective aspect. \nSo back to your question there are so called ‘single aspect’ verbs (одновидові дієслова.) They do not have their match of other aspect.\n‘Знати’ is an imperfective verb that is not intended to get a result and adding any prefix to it changes its meaning (взнати – to learn to know, to find out) so it belongs to that group too.\n\nThere are quite a lot of such verbs. Some of them are:\nOnly imperfective: володіти, ворогувати, зимувати, зорити, марити, \nмислити, намагатися, потребувати, поважати, прагнути, сподіватися.\nOnly perfective: заплакати, наговоритися, надивитися, натерпітися, пропрацювати, стрепенутися, схаменутися, розгніватися, розговоритися.", "The situation is diachronically unpleasant. The -н- in обнимать and обнять is an innovation replacing older forms which would give обымать and объять. (Cf. 3rd person pronoun's forms with н after prepositions, which are themselves due to reanalysis of forms like вън его > въ него (> в него) and further analogy.)\n\nFor the verbs, -н-forms (понимать, донимать, etc.) have all but expelled from Russian -н-less-forms. However, объять (and, to a lesser extent, its imperfective pair обымать) was maintained by Church Slavonic (CS) influence, where -н-forms do not seem to have won (except for prefix в &lt; въ &lt; вън, cf. внять - внимать - внемлет). Объемлет is itself a CS correlate to обнимает with another imperfective affix (*-j > л, not a); aspectual distinction was yet fuzzy in CS, so объемлет was taken as, so to say, habitual present form (though not continuous, which would still be обымает expelled by обнимает).\n\nSynchronically, however, Wiktionary's analysis seems to be the best: объемлет would have infinitive обымать but the verb has no prescriptively approved infinitive stem (and therefore no past as well). So the imperfective pair of объять is largely defective, having only finite present forms (and present participles объемлющий and объемлемый; I do not want to be engaged in a discussion of whether participles are verb forms). Of course, the situation does somewhat remind the situation with biaspectuals like казнить, женить and many -овать verbs, but the latter use the same form for perfective future and (necessarily imperfective) present.", "You are quite correct about the historical present. It is especially common in speech introducers. If you are interested, you may want to read this article. You find λέγει - he says to them in v. 38. It also occurs in v. 39 - he says to them. The function of the historical present in speech introducers is to give a hint to the reader: Sit up and listen! It is used often by John when Jesus is speaking.\nHowever, one cannot translate Greek tenses into English tenses and do exegesis from English grammar. The aorist has a perfective aspect, meaning that the event is regarded as completed, while the present and imperfect tenses both have an imperfective aspect.\nThe English translation of &quot;where he was staying&quot; is correct, since this form shows the imperfective aspect. At the time of speaking, Jesus was still staying there, but it does not imply &quot;unto today&quot;. You may want to compare with the present tense in John 15:57: &quot;If anyone might know where he is, he should reveal it&quot;. In proper English this would be: If anyone knew where he was. Even the very literal KJV says here &quot;if any man knew where he were.&quot;", "This is found even in classical Latin. The perfect passive can be formed by using either the present tense of esse or, when one wants to stress the completedness of the action, the perfect tense. Likewise, the pluperfect can use either the imperfect or pluperfect of esse, and the future perfect can use either the future or future perfect.\nHere's a reference for you: Gildersleeve and Lodge, Latin grammar, section 250:\n\nThe Perfect Participle passive is used in combination with sum, I am, and fui, I have been, I was, to express the Pure Perfect [that is, present perfect] and Historical Perfect [that is, preterite] of the Passive Voice. Eram, I was, and fueram, I had been, stand for the Pluperfect; and ero, I shall be, and fuero, I shall have been, for the Future Perfect.\nREMARKS.—1. Fui is the favorite form when the participle is frequently used as an adjective: convivium exornatum fui, the banquet was furnished forth; fui is the necessary form when the Pf. denotes that the action is over and gone: amatus fui, I have been loved (but I am loved no longer). The same principle applies to fueram and fuero.\nSimulacrum e marmore in sepulcro positum fuit; hoc quidam homo nobilis deportavit, C. Dom. 43.111; a marble effigy WAS deposited in the tomb; a certain man of rank has carried it off. Arma quae fixa in parietibus fuerant, ea sunt humi inventa, C. Div. 1.34.74; the arms which had been fastened to the walls were found on the ground. . . .\n. . .\nNOTES.—1. The fui, etc., forms are rarely found in CICERO, never in CAESAR, but are characteristic of LIVY and SALLUST.\n\nUpdate: Cf. Allen and Greenough, New Latin grammar, section 184, footnote 1 (p 94), which explicitly notes that this applies to subjunctive forms too:\n\nFui, fuisti, etc., are sometimes used instead of sum, es, etc.; so also fueram instead of eram and fuero instead of ero. Similarly in the Perfect and Pluperfect Subjunctive fuerim, fueris, etc., are sometimes used instead of sim, sis, etc., and fuissem instead of essem.", "After talking to another classicist, I can offer some thoughts, though sadly without definitive sources.\n\nIt seems unlikely that the two are related, for various reasons:\n\n\nContracted perfects are extremely rare with the syncopated ending: amārunt and amāvere are both possible for the third person plural perfect, but *amāre generally isn't. Historically, the contracted perfect originated from a sound change ivi > ī, and was extended by analogy to other forms; since -erunt lacks an i to trigger this change, it was never the most popular form to contract (all instances were by analogy).\nHistorical infinitives never seem to alternate with perfect forms: if one phrase uses a historical infinitive, the phrases around it generally will, too, regardless of person and number. You'll (almost?) never see a single historical infinitive on its own within a larger text.\nHistorical infinitives are restricted to certain contexts, and are mainly only used by historians (hence the name), not by other authors. Perfect forms on the other hand appear everywhere.\nHistorical infinitives generally denote repeated, habitual, or ongoing action—in other words, they have imperfect semantics, not perfect.\n\n\nAll in all, it seems to be a coincidence. Perhaps a very unlikely one, but a coincidence nevertheless.", "In my personal opinion, the \"Theory of the Forms\" isn't a theory at all, but an extended metaphor (for the Ideal of the Good), which would explain its many inconsistencies. (I'd further venture that everything in Plato should be read in this manner).\n\nWith that said, the current version of the Wikipedia article on the subject has a good summary of the Theory as commonly understood, and covers most of what you're looking for, with the exception of modern philosophers who support the theory. On that last, I'd say that everyone has been influenced by the theory, but no one supports it.\n\nTo briefly summarize the Wikipedia article's answers to your questions:\n\n\n1:\nA Form is an abstract, eternal, idealized version of something which exists in the material world. The idea is that the physical world we inhabit is made up of debased and corrupted copies of the Forms --a window is a corrupted copy of a perfect square, for instance. The Forms exist outside time and space, and cannot be directly perceived (except through the mind).\n2 &amp; 3:\n(A) - When we perceive different things that have a unified trait (blue jeans and blue sky in the Wikipedia example) we intuit they are both partaking in a more abstract and unified concept. The Theory of Forms thus explains how we can generalize from the particular to the universal. \n(B) - When we describe something like a wheel as a circle, even though it isn't a perfect circle, we are comparing it mentally to an ideal, and judging it as an imperfect copy of that ideal. The Theory of Forms explains how we can think of things that are perfect without ever having seen things that are perfect.\n\n\nIt's worth noting that while the Theory of Forms itself isn't much of a live concern, it paved the way for all subsequent consideration of things such as concepts, abstract thought, the soul, universals, exemplification and so forth.", "Russian verbs are not to be divided into \"prefixed\" and \"unprefixed\", but rather into perfective and imperfective.\n\nПереходить is imperfective, which means it has \"normal\" present tense: Я перехожу мост = I cross / I am crossing the bridge. (But it has both past and future tense too: \"Я переходил\" and \"Я буду переходить\").\n\nBut Перейти is perfective, which effectively means that corresponding action is thought to be finished at some moment. Thus Я перейду мост translates into future tense I will cross the bridge. (It also has past tense \"Я перешёл\", but no present tense at all).\n\nBut note that in English \"I will cross the bridge\" may mean different things, because it's an indefinite tense. You may think either \"Tomorrow I will cross that bridge, and then I will go to some other place\" or \"I will cross that bridge once in a day from now on\" etc. In Russian you have to use different verbs, as there's no such thing like \"indefinite\" tense.\n\nSo the point is: in Russian you must think of \"perfective / imperfective\" actions first, and of past/present/future afterwards. All \"continuous tense\" belongs to imperfective; all \"perfect tense\" belongs to perfective; \"simple tense\" is 50/50 depending on what you really mean.\n\nIn your examples the first one is certainly perfective (you're going to have some action be done once), and the second one is imperfective (you're going to repeat some action many times). This is what makes the difference. You need no additional signal words in Russian, as you have to choose the proper verb to say what you want to say.\n\nЯ пойду / Я перейду vs. Я начну (буду) ходить / Я буду переходить.", "Firstly, I feel that you may be confusing two independent grammatical concepts: perfect aspect-tense of English and perfective\\imperfective aspects of Russian. These are similar, but not the same.\nWhat is even worse, there is no perfective aspect in English and no perfect aspect in Russian, so it makes it even more difficult to explain with examples :D\nThe perfect aspect specifies that the action is finished by the time of consideration and has therefore produced a result.\nThe perfective aspect, in contrast, denotes that the action is described in its whole, without consideration for its internal organization.\nLet's take помыться as an example. Here, the verb is used to specify the entire process of washing oneself, where is its imperfective counterpart, мыться is used instead for cases where the internal structure of washing is important. Consider the following examples:\nХочу помыться or Завтра помоюсь\nvs.\nМыться каждый день, or Моюсь часами, or even Cколько можно мыться?!\nTake particular note of Завтра помоюсь: it describes an unfinished action with no result, yet it is perfective, as it defines the entire action altogether. It is a complete action but is not a completed one.\nIn contrast, consider an English sentence I have washed the dishes last time! Its translation could be Я помыл посуду в прошлый раз!, but a native speaker is likely to save some time (the overwhelming majority of imperfective verbs are shorter) or even deliberately point out the grueling and demanding nature of a struggle that is washing the dishes by saying Я мыл посуду в прошлый раз! (here мыл could also be underlined by the speaker's intonation and a gesture of shaking an open palm facing upwards :D). So a perfect verb in English can directly translate into an imperfective Russian one.\nAdditionally, in your specific example, the word чтобы introduces a subordinate clause. Think of it this way: ходят is indeed reflecting the habitual nature of the visit to the баня and is appropriately imperfective, but what people are visiting it for are actions that are denoted wholesale, with no regard for the inner structure of their processes—we don't particularly care if they are a habit or not.\nAs @Alexander has pointed out in the comments, you could have both perfective and imperfective verbs follow чтобы, and indeed ходят чтобы мыться would focus on the habitual nature of visits and the continuous process of washing yourself, while ходят чтобы помыться is specifying the habitual nature of a visit but a complete (but not necessarily completed :D) action of getting clean.", "I think you need to know that when you discretize a volume by using tetrahedral meshes, you will get just an approximation of your perfect surfaces because of triangulation.\n\nYou started with STEP file format, which is NOT a mesh format, but it's a CAD format. The difference between CAD formats and mesh formats is that CAD formats like STEP, IGES, SAT, etc. shows the topology of your manifolds and if you create a cylinder for example in SolidWorks or CATIA, which I assume you used these softwares or at least similar ones to create your STEP file, they show you a perfect cylinder without imperfection, such as the ones that you see here.\n\nOn the other hand, mesh formats like STL, MSH, VTP, etc. approximate manifolds by tiny triangles (or for volumes by tiny tetrahedrals but you see just the triangles at the surface). As a result, no matter how you refine your mesh size, always there would be some tiny or minuscule imperfections there. At some point, the renderer may not show it to you, which I would put some example at the end, but you need to know that still those imperfections caused by approximating a surface by tiny triangles are there.\n\nNow, let's look at some simple example of cylinder. I would create a cylinder in ParaView but changing the resolution I could make it appear so smooth to you but the imperfections, no matter how tiny, still are there:\n\nFirst imperfect cylinder created by ParaView:\n\n \n\nNow, let's increase the resolution and see what would happen here:\n\n\n\nSee, for a higher resolution, you barely can notice the imperfections but still they are there.\n\nSo conclusion: If you think that imperfections that you see are harmful for your further processes like simulations probably, you need to refine your mesh to get a better approximation of your surfaces.", "\"since breathing necessarily disrupts your flow\"\n\nI think the amount of disruption relates to how far from perfect your form is. Since they need to breathe, they put a lot of work in perfecting their body and stroke movement so there is almost no additional body movement related to breathing. If the catch and pull are done correctly, the body is swiveling back and forth along the center-line/spine axis with every stroke cycle.\n\nSo, if they do it efficiently, there is just a minimal turn of the head and opening of the mouth. At that level, swimming as form-perfectly as they do, lactic acid build up and maximizing oxygen intake is a major consideration that trumps any very minor form imperfections that breathing brings.\n\nThey are swimming 7, 8 or more miles every DAY during peak conditioning training, so avoiding that kind of oxygen deprivation is much more important for their training than someone who does half of that in a week.", "Pensé/Pensaba and Creí/Creía are just different conjugations of the verbs Pensar/Creer. The first form (pensé/creí) is preterite simple and the second form (pensaba/creía) is preterite imperfect.\nHere's a link that explains it well.\nPensé que me amaba (I thought you loved me) is as valid and has the same meaning as saying Pensaba que me amaba, for example.\nThe link referenced has this to say:\n\nThe preterite [simple] tells us specifically when an action took place.\nThe imperfect tells us in general when an action took place.", "If your goal is communication, it is not so important to learn all 12 forms just like in English it is not necessary to learn all the 12 tenses to communicate effectively. It's more important to listen as much as you can to as many sources as possible - TV, movies, live conversation, radio, podcasts. Take notes, hit replay, and repeat what you hear (check out Эхо Москвы- you can listen to podcasts in slow motion and follow along with a transcription of interviews/talk shows). Do this for an hour or two every day. You will learn that certain verbs are used in certain contexts, you will hear idiomatic expressions, and you will begin to understand the use of verb aspect.\nAfter a while, instead of thinking which case you should use before you speak it will come out naturally as you will have heard it spoken before. \n\nThe main obstacles to communicating with verbs in Russian are verb aspect and verbal prefixes. That said, you should be definitely be aware of the basics: the different types of verbs (regular and irregular), how they are declined, the main verbal prefixes and verb aspects - perfective and imperfective. Learning verb aspects cannot be stressed enough because they indicate if an action was completed successfully or is ongoing (я иду vs. я ходил / сходил / пошёл ). To do this in English we use auxiliary verbs like “had” and “have”. I would suggest learning the perfective and imperfective forms of new verbs. Finally, don't get too discouraged when you start to learn Russian verbs of motion. This takes a while to get used to and you will gradually understand with time and practice.\n\nFor your reference, one of the best textbooks I have come across is Using Russian, A Guide to Contemporary Usage", "Tense\nThe perfect conjunctive (= subjunctive) of reverti would be reversi sint, not reversi fuerint.\nThe perfect forms of deponent verbs are typically formed with present and imperfect forms of esse, not perfect and pluperfect forms from the stem fu-.\nTherefore you have a &quot;double perfect&quot;, much like saying &quot;they have had returned&quot; in English.\nWhile rare, the double perfect appears in classical Latin.\nIt emphasizes the completed nature of the action: the people have first completed returning and then started to approach.\nI have a feeling that this construction became more common after the classical era, but I have nothing to back this specific claim up with.\nNote that the text is not classical, so classical grammar is not the perfect reference.\nMood\nThe main question seems to be about mood: why conjunctive (= subjunctive) instead of indicative?\nFollowing the sequence of tenses in a subordinate clause, the perfect tense is the only option for conjunctive.\nAnd perfect is indeed the most suitable choice for indicative as well.\nIn general, conjunctive is found very often in temporal clauses.\nI'm not sure if I'm reading Allen and Greenough's temporal clauses right, but they seem to imply that temporal clauses with quando (almost) always take conjunctive instead of indicative.\nThey classify this is a conditional relative clauses, and that makes sense: the subordinate clause expresses a condition.\nWhen the statement of the subordinate clause is not a logical fact but rather a thought — typically of the subject of the dominating clause — then a conjunctive is always used.\nSee A&amp;G on intermediate clauses.\nThat is, the singing takes place when the singers think they have returned.\nIf what matters is the thought, the conjunctive is the choice, whether or not the event is factual.\nDo bear in mind that most texts — and anything I say — on subordinate clauses concerns the classical form of the language.\nThe text you quote is more recent, and practices shift over time.\nVarieties of Latin\nThe double perfect is valid but rare in classical Latin.\nI have understood that it is much more common in the Vulgate, which in turn has influenced medieval Latin to a great extent.\nI don't know where Vulgate got its influence; probably Greek and Hebrew.\nSee this question and its answer for more examples of Vulgate effecting subordinate clauses in medieval Latin.\nSummary\nThe double perfect is unusual but grammatical even in classical Latin, albeit rare.\nThe conjunctive mood is expected.\nThe text is medieval rather than classical, and I don't know whether these choices are more common in that era.", "I disagree with Young's there. Hebrew syntax is very different than English, but I have difficulty seeing how Young got there.\n\nTense in Biblical Hebrew is non-existent (Essentials of Biblical Hebrew, Kyle Yates). It is context that determines the time of the word. Hebrew uses \"aspect\" (An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Waltke/O'Connor) which is a combination of stem, state, and context. There are seven stems that indicate whether the verb is active or passive (or even both in the reflexive stem) and if it is simple, intensive, or causative.\n\n\n The inflections of a Hebrew verb indicate state instead of of time. They present the condition as complete or incomplete. The completed states are called perfects; the incomplete states are called imperfects. (Essentials of Biblical Hebrew, Kyle Yates)\n\n\nPerfect state should not be confused with past tense nor imperfect with future. Most of the verbs that are translated as past tense are imperfects with a waw-consecutive. The waw-consecutive results in a past tense translation. Interestingly, there are prophecies of the future where the verbs are in the perfect state. This is understood as \"as good as done.\"\n\nbara' in Gen 1:1 is a Qal perfect (so is the first \"was\" in 1:2, the second is implied). That is the simple-active stem and the perfect state. When God created the Heavens and the earth, it is a done deal. Now it has to be shaped. I do understand that as God creating the heavens and the earth from nothing.\n\nThe first explicit statement of creation ex nihilo is in 2 Maccabees, a Jewish book but written in Greek. It deals with subjects of 161 BC. So some Jews did understand it as ex nihilo.\n\n\n \"I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise.\" (2 Maccabees 7:28, KJV)\n\n\nIsaiah actually uses the word bara' frequently. I can't remember if it is more than any other Hebrew writer or any other outside Genesis.", "So first, a point of terminology. In Latin, there are two tenses* which can be called the tempus præteritum. I'm assuming you mean the third principal part of your verb (amāvī or habuī or cucurrī or audīvī), also called the simple past tense, aorist tense, or perfect tense. Out of all these names, perfect seems by far the most common, and it's the one I learned in school. So I'll use that name here.\n\nLatin has a number of \"past tenses\", but the perfect is the simplest. It's the one you'd use to say \"I went to the store\" or \"I saw the Pantheon\". Often it doesn't imply anything except that the action happened in the past. So the easiest way to translate it into English is to use the simple past tense, loved, held, hurried, listened. You can also add a did for emphasis: I did say that!\n\nWhen contrasted with the imperfect (the one with -ba- before the ending, like amābat), the perfect has one other meaning. It states that the action is finished, or that it was an instantaneous thing; either way, it isn't still happening. One way to translate this distinction is the simple past vs progressive past in English: perfect would be the army fought, imperfect would be the army was fighting.\n\nHopefully that helps. I may have misunderstood the question; are you asking for Latin → English help, or English → Latin?\n\n*(the other being the pluperfect / tempus plusquamperfectus, but I've only seen that called the \"preterite\" once and it doesn't correspond as well with the English and German preterites.)", "I think every verb with a prefix mentioned above has its own pair \"perfective -imperfective\" and that's the main drawback. Consider the pairs : выкурить – выкуривать, закурить – закуривать, прикурить – прикуривать, покурить – покуривать, докурить– докуривать, etc. \nSo what about курить? It doesn't have a prefix. It is imperfective. If we are looking for a perfective form, there shouldn't be any prefix either. That would be logical. The pair is the following \n\n\n Курить – курнуть.\n \n ― Вовк. Дай курнуть! (И что за удовольствие ловить на мушку?) [Владимир Маканин. Кавказский пленный\n \n Бормотание прекратилось, потом Великий закряхтел, распрямляясь (к дождю у него по-прежнему ломило поясницу), и шагнул к нам. ― Табачку курнуть, ― сказал он. ― Ох, и препроклятое это дело… прав был батюшка, когда на улицах курить не велел… себе вред, иным соблазн… [Андрей Лазарчук, Михаил Успенский. Посмотри в глаза чудовищ (1996)]\n \n Клубится ленивый дымок. Прохор вышел на воздух курнуть. Звездный свет закрыт тучами. [В. Я. Шишков. Угрюм-река. Ч. 5-8 (1913-1932)]", "So there are a few things going on here.\n\n\nIn Russian verbs can contain prefixes (like на- here) and hence change its meaning and even grammatical properties. So such verbs are not always a pair, since they are actually two different words which have the same root (цел).\nIn this situation in English нацелить и целить do mean the same thing, but the difference comes from the grammatical usage. Целить is an intransitive verb, whereas both нацелить и нацеливать are transitive verbs. An intransitive verb means that it does not allow a direct object, when transitive verbs do. \n\n\nIn Russian a direct object (called прямое дополнение) doesn't have any prepositions in front of it. A word which serves as a direct object is usually in the accusative or sometimes in the genitive case. Indirect objects would be constructed with a use of prepositions before a word and are conjugated in other cases.\n\nSo an intransitive verb Целить would be then:\n\n\n Целить в мишень. Целить из ружья в мишень. To aim at the target. To aim a shotgun at the target.\n\n\nTransitive verbs нацелить and нацеливать would be: \n\n\n Нацелить ружье. Нацеливать ружье. To aim a shotgun.\n\n\n\nThe difference between нацелить and нацеливать is that one is a perfective verb, whereas the second is imperfective. \n\n\nPerfective verbs describe the action that happened or were supposed to happen once, the action that has already finished or it will only start. Due to the fact that the verb implies a finished action, it is never used in the present tense, it only has past and future forms.\n\n\n Нацелить ружье. In English it would still mean \"To aim a shotgun\". The\n difference is more obvious in Russian when you don't use infinitive\n forms.\n\n\nSo let's consider the verbs in the past:\n\n\n Он нацелил ружье. He aimed his shotgun. Action complete, he's ready to\n shoot.\n\n\nImperfective verb describes the action that is taking place at the current moment, actions with no indication of the start and the end, and actions that haven’t finished yet or actions are repeated multiple times. These verbs have past, present and future forms. \n\n\n Он нацелиВАл ружье. He has been aiming his shotgun. Action was in\n progress, we don't know if he succeeded or not with aiming, we just\n know he's been doing it somewhere in the past.", "Что значит семерых?\n\n\nСемерых is acc. of семеро, which is the collective form of the numeral семь (\"seven\").\n\nIt's used with animate masculine or neuter nouns denoting sentient beings to describe sets of such beings: двое рабочих, пятеро строителей, семеро богов.\n\nThe meaning is similar to English \"pair\" or \"dozen\" (but extends to all numbers from 2 to 10), and directly corresponds to Polish troje, siedmioro etc.\n\n\n Существует ли вообще ещё аорист в русском языке?\n\n\nNo it does not. All past forms had been replaced with a single past form originating from perfect. \n\n\n Есть ли у него такое же значение, как у древнегреческого аориста?\n\n\nChurch Slavonic uses aorist in pretty much the same way Modern English uses past simple: to describe one-off, integral events in past.\n\nNote that this form (убивахом) is plural and imperfect (\"we used to kill\") and is here only for styling purposes. It's ungrammatical if parsed according to Church Slavonic rules.", "This sentence depends a bit on context. Nothing grammatically precludes Orgetorix from being the subject of occuparet, but if he were then the sua in ciuitate sua would have to refer to Orgeterix, too. Orgetorix would be saying to Casticus, \"Since you father was king of your clan, you should come be king of my clan.\"\n\nhabuerit is in the perfect tense because it took place before persuadet while occuparet is imperfect because it's at the same time. We use the pluperfect in English in this case (\"he persuades... that he should seize... because his father had held...) but that's just English. The present tense persuadet should be considered quasi-past tense since it is really describing past events (\"historical\" present). In Latin with the main verb in a past tense your choices in the subordinate clause are limited to imperfect or perfect subjunctive.", "In this document, Il verbo russo: il problema dell'aspetto1, there is a nice analysis, but since it's Italian, I'll translate it for you. I'll also include parts from other sources. \n\nFrom the lexical-grammatical point of view, the Russian verbs are divided into three classes: aspectual, transitive/intransitive and personal/impersonal. Let's take only the first one for this case.\n\nThe verbs that belong to the aspectual class, are divided into two additional categories: verbs that possess whatever limitation in terms of space/time/other and verbs that have no such limitations. Some examples are (taken from the document:\n\n\nписать: \"to write\", writing without any limitations of time.\nнаписать: \"to write\", writing bringing that act to completion.\nгулять: \"to stroll, to walk, to wander\", without limitations.\nпогулять: \"to stroll, to walk, to wander\", do the same action but for a while (the limitation is present).\n\n\nThe two aspects are called Perfective, in Russian совершенный вид (СВ), and Imperfective, несовершенный вид (НСВ).\n\nThe Russian language, unlike other languages, conveys the additional meanings and other information using the verbs' aspects. For example:\n\n\nЯ писал письмо: НСВ, process, duration.\nЯ написал письмо: СВ, reaching the act completion.\n\n\nNow let's get to the different features of these two aspects (the terms in the document are not easily translatable, so I'll try to express them with common expressions. If someone finds mistakes, feel free to comment).\n\n\n Imperfective\n\n\n\ndescribing an action being performed by the subject.\nactions that are repeated (you usually add adverbs to indicate this like иногда, часто, регулярно, каждый день, etc.).\ndurative action.\ndescribing an action that doesn't reach completion.\nit describes the try of reaching a result.\ndescribing an action but including the opposite one. The classic example for this is: Кто-то открывал окно — Somebody opened the window. But a possible implication would be \"The room changed air (thanks to someone opening the window), but the window is now closed.\"\ndescribing an action that hasn't being brought to completion.\n\n\n\n Perfective\n\n\n\ndescribing an action, but highlighting its result and above all, the wanted result. For example Я прочитал книгу. I read a book (and I finished it).\ndescribes many repeated actions but summarized: Каждому сказал своё.\ninchoative action: it describes an action at the moment of its start, such as in он закричал. (he started to shout). Or бежать, \"to run\" and побежать, \"to start running\".\n\n\n\n\nThe classification is much more complicated, because we'd need to include: \n\n\nthe verbs describing motion (which deserve a completely separated book) like идти/ходить, etc...\nThe fact that not all verbs change aspect because of a prefix but also changing other parts: отвечать/ответить\nSome verbs don't just change aspect but also meaning.\n\n\n\n Tenses\n\n\nThe imperfective is present in past, present and future, infinitive and imperative. The perfective only for the *future. The present usually describes a current action or something that happens regularly, and so the perfective is not fit to describe this kind of action.\n\n\n Future\n\n\n\ncomposite future: буду + imperfective infinitive (habit, repetitiveness)\nsimple future: perfective verb, present conjugation (unique action, not repeated)\n\n\n\n Infinitive\n\n\n\nwith phasic verbs2: usually the imperfective is adopted.\nto desire, to want, to promise: with verbs like these, both perfective and imperfective can be used (also with negation). The imperfective shows the hope/will that the action has a regular or repeated follow-up. The perfective just for a single event. \n\n\n\n Imperative\n\n\n\nthe perfective refers to:\n\n\na single request, that should be done in that moment.\na compulsory, peremptory request.\n\nthe imperfective, instead refers to:\n\n\nnegative requests (Don't do this!)\na request to start a certain action.\nan invitation in order to make the subject keep doing the action after some hesitation.\nan invitation in order to make the subject perform an action in the desired way.\na courtesy request (like favor, I think).\n\n\n\n\n\n1: The Russian verb: the aspect problem\n2: See comments. \"phasic\" was hard to translate in this case. A better word might exist.", "There is indeed a close parallel here, but the concepts are distinct. Every perfect information game is fully observable, but not every fully observable game is a game of perfect information.\n\nA game of imperfect information is one in which you lack knowledge of any of the following:\n\n\nThe state of the game (e.g. current market prices).\nThe rewards you will receive from various states (i.e. utility and cost functions).\n\n\nIn contrast, in partially observable process (specifically, a POMDP), the requirement is that you must not know which state you are in.\n\nThis is a subtle distinction, so here are some examples:\n\n\nA multi-armed bandit game with stationary distributions. Here, you know which state you are in (in fact, if the distributions are stationary, you know that the state doesn't change, except for the value of your winnings). You are not in a POMDP (the game is fully observable), but you are operating with imperfect information, because you don't know the utility function associated with different actions. You are operating in a regular MDP.\nThe game of chess has perfect information, and is also thus fully observable.\nThe game of poker has imperfect information because you cannot observe the current state of the game (you can't see the cards in your opponent's hand). It is thus a POMDP.", "Leviticus 7:27 reads:\n\nכָּל נֶפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכַל כָּל דָּם וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מֵעַמֶּיהָ\n\n\"Every soul which would eat all (types) of blood will be cut off from its people.\"\n\nI have translated וְנִכְרְתָה as being definitively in the future, as it is an instance of a phenomenon referred to by scholars as the \"Waw Consecutive.\" The Waw consecutive occurs in narrative verses in the Torah, and is characterized by a verb prefixed with the letter Waw (ו) changing its tense from perfect to imperfect (as in the verse above), or vice-versa from imperfect to perfect.\n\nSeveral scholars attribute the Waw Consecutive as a being a feature of East Semitic languages (Hebrew is a West Semitic language), and there is an excellent Wikipedia article which discusses this. Consider the following verse from Deuteronomy 34:6:\n\n...וַיִּקְבֹּר אֹתוֹ בַגַּי בְּאֶרֶץ מוֹאָב\n\n\"And He buried him (Moses) in the valley, in the land of Moab...\"\n\nThe scholar Robert Hetzron explains the word וַיִּקְבֹּר as follows:\n\nוַיִּקְבֹּר (accent on last syllable) &lt; וַהַוׇה יׅקְבֹּר (accent on first syllable of יׅקְבֹּר)\n\n\"He buried\" &lt; \"And so it was that He buried\"\n\nIn Biblical Hebrew, and hypothetically in Akkadian, an East Semitic language, the form יׅקְבֹּר (yiqbór), with its accent on the last syllable, means \"He will bury.\" However, in Akkadian יׅקְבֹּר (yíqbor), with an accent on the first syllable, would have meant \"He buried\" in the past. This form of the verb (yíqbor) no longer exists in Hebrew outside the Waw Consecutive construct. Because of the confusion between the past and future forms which looks so similar, it became common practice to insert וַהַוׇה \"and so it was\" in front of this obsolete past form, leaving us with וַהַוׇה יׅקְבֹּר for \"He buried.\" Over time, וַהַוׇה was shortened to just the letter Waw (וַ). Hetzron explains the Waw Consecutive with the Biblical Hebrew past tense as an analogy to what has just been explained here about the imperfect.\n\nYour second question centered around whether being cut off could be the cause of the sin, which in the case of Leviticus 7:27 is eating blood. I believe this assumption depends in part on וְנִכְרְתָה being interpreted to mean \"and [that soul] has been cut off.\" If וְנִכְרְתָה could have a past meaning, the verse might seem to be implying that the soul had already been cut off before the person ate the blood. However, since we must translate וְנִכְרְתָה in the future, it seems clear that the act of eating blood is causing the soul to be cut off.", "The first description is true for all conductors while the second is only true for perfect conductors.\n\nThe reason the first works for all conductors is that in electrostatics, we get to say 'if $\\textit{any}$ charge moves, our assumption of electrostatics is violated', so an electric field in even an imperfect conductor would violate the assumption and so is not allowed. On the other hand, if we allow a fully dynamical system, we can have moving charge in a conductor $\\textit{if}$ it is not perfect. This should be obvious since we have charge moving through conductors all the time in the real world. So in this case, the argument only hold because the conductivity, $\\sigma$, is infinite, which is only true for perfect conductors.\n\nAs for the second, the best answer I know to give is that we use boundary conditions to understand how the fields behave near surfaces, and when you carry out the calculations, you get reflection. If I recall correctly, $\\textbf{E}=0$ is used to get the idealized perfect reflection in the idealized perfect conductor problem.", "Not exactly. These are two verbs of the different aspect.\n\nоткрыть is a perfective form, it denotes a finished action, an action that has reached its result.\n\n\n — Хорошо бы проветрить. \n — Я только что открыл окно.\n \n — It would be nice to have some fresh air.\n — I have just opened the window.\n\n\nоткрывать is an imperfective form, it denotes an action that is taking place at the moment of speech (a) or at some other moment denoted in the text (b). It may also have other meanings such as a habit (c), a regularly repeating action (d), an ability or a possible action (e), or a \"general fact\" (f) (Russian linguists use term \"общефактическое значение\"). The meaning of a \"general fact\" is different from the meaning of the normal completed action in that it stresses the action. If you want to stress the result, use a perfective form.\n\n\n (a) \n — Хорошо бы проветрить. \n — Я как раз открываю окно.\n \n — It would be nice to have some fresh air.\n — I am opening the window right now.\n \n (b) \n Когда она вошла в комнату, я открывал окно.\n when she entered the room, I was opening the window.\n \n (c) \n По утрам он первым делом открывал окно в спальне.\n Every morning the first thing he did was to open the window.\n \n (d) \n Я несколько раз открывал окно и выглядывал на улицу, но ничего необычного не заметил.\n I opened the window and peeked outside several times, but I didn't notice anything unusual.\n \n (e)\n Наш кот слишком умный, он сам открывает холодильник.\n Our cat is way too smart, it can open a fridge on his own.\n \n (f)\n Кто-нибудь открывал окно в этой комнате? — спросил детектив.\n Has anyone opened a window in this room? — asked the detective.", "It probably won't be fair.\nIncidentally, I have a decent amount of experience with 3D printing.\nIt depends heavily on the particular technology that you're using to do the 3D printing, but nearly all forms of printing aren't perfect--depending on the design you make (solid? honeycombed? hollow?), there will be slight, or not-so-slight variations across the faces, which will result in an unfair die. In particular, the faces that are parallel to the build surface will probably be different compared to the ones that are angled.\nYou could probably deal with some of these problems with some kind of post-processing, but honestly at that point buying dice would be easier. 3D printing is for making custom or prototype objects, and isn't really suited to mass production of simple shapes like dice.\nEven manufactured dice have some imperfections, and a slightly unfair die probably won't make much of a difference in gameplay, but it will be hard for you to determine whether the imperfections from 3D printing are severe enough to make the die unfair without rolling it many times and looking at its distribution. Again, at that point, it's easier to just buy the dice.\nThat being said, custom d20s can be super cool looking, and if you're going to 3D print something, might as well make it look cool...", "Nice question, and not as easy to answer as one might think. I was struck by the following passage : \n\n\n Monotheists say the number of gods is 1....[T]he main way\n of arguing for the existence of exactly one god includes the assumption that to be a\n god is to be maximally perfect. Thus x is a god iff x is more perfect than (is greater\n than) every other possible thing. Monotheism directly follows from the thesis that\n maximal perfection is uniquely instantiated. For any x and any y, if x is a god and y\n is a god, then x and y are each greater than every other possible thing. The only way\n for this to make sense is for x to be identical to y. Hence there is exactly one god and\n this god is God.(Eric Steinhart, 'On the number of gods', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 72, No. 2, Logic (October\n 2012), pp. 75-83; 78.)\n\n\nThis does not directly answer your question but it leads the way to it. If there can be only one maximally perfect being, it follows that anything, Φ, that God creates cannot be maximally perfect. It must be, in your terms, 'less' than Godself or 'imperfect'. \n\nI don't think it follows without further argument - extra premises - that what is imperfect is necessarily 'evil' in the sense of 'not [being] able to obey God of itself'. \n\nI should have thought that the omnipotent God - omnipotent because perfect - would be able to create imperfect beings (Φs) that were, because God had conferred the inherent power on them, to obey God 'of themselves'. This is logically possible whether or not it squares with the main monotheistic traditions." ]

[ "We begin with the choral ensemble Counterpoint, in concert in Burlington, Vt.: They sing \"Here We Come a-Wassailing\" and \"One-Horse Open Sleigh.\" Then it's off to St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minn., to hear an excerpt from the Christmas Cantata, by Daniel Pinkham, \"O Holy Child,\" by modern composer Michael Cox, and, as the audience joins in, \"O Come All Ye Faithful.\"" ]

[ "Hanukkah, which begins Wednesday, is a fairly modest holiday in Israel and many other Jewish communities around the world. But it gained a much more prominent status in the U.S. after a couple of Reform rabbis decided to make it a little more Christmas-like in the late 19th century. Dianne Ashton, professor of American Studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, says the religious culture of the U.S. began to change after the Civil War. That led to the evolution of the type of holidays Christmas and Hanukkah had historically been. \"There was a lot of social change, urbanization, industrialization and migration,\" Ashton tells NPR's Steve Inskeep, adding that people in the U.S. began to think that \"sentimental home celebrations would help to stabilize all of the social changes.\" This came at a time when marketing was emerging and the U.S. economy was beginning to produce more and more consumer goods. Ashton, who is writing a book about the history of Hanukkah in America, says this paved the way for the rising middle class to display their wealth. \"And so customs for Christmas became wrapped in this garb, and you get Christmas presents under Christmas trees,\" Ashton says. Reinventing Hanukkah There is nearly no record of people celebrating Hanukkah just a couple of centuries ago. But it began to be an important Jewish holiday in the second half of the 19th century when two rabbis in Cincinnati noticed their Jewish children didn't have much connection to the synagogue. The rabbis developed a new celebration for children during Hanukkah that was held in the synagogue and included giving presents. National newspapers publicized the new celebration, and it was soon being celebrated all around the country. Hanukkah was being reinvented at a time when the American culture had a booming holiday in Christmas. The Jewish community began to reshape Hanukkah as something their children and families could do when American families were doing the same thing around Christmas. Ashton says it was a way for the Jewish community to be a part of something that was happening in America. \"They didn't see Christmas as something they could do easily because it's Christian, but they did want to do something like that because it was American,\" Ashton says. Hanukkah began to change again between 1880 and 1920, when more than 2 million Jewish immigrants came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe. \"It became an occasion for them to do activities in the U.S. that they really couldn't do freely,\" she says. \"They had concerts in public halls, and restaurants had Hanukkah specials.\" Ashton says there were even kosher restaurants serving turkey dinners, another American custom. STEVE INSKEEP, host: The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins tonight. Now, in Israel and in many other Jewish communities around the world, Hanukkah is a very modest holiday. But it has a much more prominent status here in the United States, which is why we're about to talk with Dianne Ashton. She's a college professor who's writing a book about the history of Hanukkah. Welcome to the program. Professor DIANNE ASHTON (Director, American Studies, Rowan University): Thank you. INSKEEP: Let's talk about the way that this holiday has developed in the United States. What was Hanukkah like in America a couple of centuries ago? Prof. ASHTON: Very modest, indeed. A couple of centuries ago, we have almost no record of people celebrating Hanukkah, which does not mean that they didn't. We just don't have records of it. INSKEEP: What then began to change as the years went on in the United States? Prof. ASHTON: In the late 19th century, after the Civil War, there's a lot of social change. There's urbanization and industrialization and migration, and things are unsettled. And so people in Germany and England and the U.S. began to think that sentimental home celebrations would help to stabilize all of these social changes. And marketing was emerging. The economy was beginning to produce more and more consumer goods. And so this also gave a way for the rising middle-class to display their wealth. And so customs for Christmas became wrapped in this garb, and you get Christmas presents under Christmas trees. That became very important in late 19th century - the U.S. INSKEEP: Oh, because Christmas was growing from the kind of holiday that it had been in the past at the same time, you're saying. Prof. ASHTON: That's right. INSKEEP: And then where does Hanukkah come in? Prof. ASHTON: Hanukkah begins to be an important holiday when a couple of rabbis in Cincinnati - reform rabbis who were looking to change the synagogue -noticed that their Jewish children really didn't have a lot of connection to the synagogue. And so they developed a new celebration for children at Hanukkah in the synagogue. And this became a very important event among reformed Jews around the country, because both of these rabbis had national newspapers. And so they publicized it. And all around the country, for the ", "For the past 24 holiday seasons, Christmas music historian William Studwell has trotted out his annual Carol of the Year, which highlights a Christmas carol on an anniversary year. The Northern Illinois University professor emeritus didn't live long enough to deliver what he planned as his 25th, and final, essay on what he considered the most important holiday songs. But thanks to the work of a few others, his project has been completed. Words From Studwell Every year, just before Thanksgiving, newspapers, radio newsrooms and TV stations around the country would get their annual notification that Studwell had proclaimed the Carol of the Year. Commenting on \"The Christmas Song,\" popularly known as \"Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire,\" Studwell once said, \"Now this song is interesting. It has depth and a claim -- the Christmas song. Not a Christmas song. The Christmas song.\" The songs he highlighted ranged from \"We Three Kings\" to \"Jingle Bells.\" And his comments ranged from dispelling a popular rumor about \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" to anecdotes about the untimely deaths of both the composer and lyricist of \"White Christmas.\" Studwell said the composer and lyricist \"didn't enjoy the money, the financial rewards or the pleasure of knowing they had written a classic.\" Northern Illinois University official Joe King helped Studwell get the Carol of the Year message out for the past 14 years. \"Every year, from the time you are a child, you sing these songs, you sing them over and over again and they're the soundtrack of your life, and you don't give them a second thought,\" says King. \"And then you would sit down and talk with Bill and all of a sudden, he would make you see them in a whole different way.\" How It All Started The Carol of the Year started four decades ago, with a handwritten pamphlet describing the story of the song \"O Holy Night\" that Studwell gave his family members. After that, he was on his way to thousands of hours of research in libraries across the country. And it wasn't unfamiliar territory. His day job was as a library science professor and the university's head cataloger. Studwell turned his hobby into four books and dozens of journal articles. He made himself America's go-to-guy for Christmas carols. And Joe King says Studwell loved the spotlight. \"He wasn't one to brag; he wasn't one to rub your nose in it,\" says King. \"But he wasn't one to hide his light under a bushel.\" This year, King received his envelope full of Studwell's Carol of the Year notes months early. And they were typed -- not the familiar handwriting made hard to decipher by Studwell's long-term neurological disorder. Studwell had dictated them to his daughter Laura from his hospital bed this summer. \"He did all the final edits and revisions,\" she says. \"I took it back to his house, printed it out, stuck it in an envelope and mailed it.\" Studwell died the next day. The Final Carol Of The Year Christmas is especially difficult for Laura Studwell this year. Not only was her father an expert on the music of the season; he adored Christmas. She says the celebration always started Thanksgiving night, and it was a month-long whirl of decorations, huge parties, songs and presents. This Christmas Eve, she'll raise a toast to her late parents and play the song that just happens to be this year's Carol of the Year -- \"We Wish You a Merry Christmas.\" \"I know it sounds cheesy,\" she says, \"with this being the 25th year, but I feel like it's what he's saying to me. That he wants me to have a merry Christmas.\" ROBERT SIEGEL, host: For 24 holiday seasons, Christmas music historian William Studwell chose a Carol of the Year. He didn't just pick a song, he tackled its history with the zeal of an investigative reporter exploring who wrote it, what the song means and how it's changed over the years. Studwell could take the most familiar overplayed Christmas number and with his research make it feel new. Well, the retired Northern Illinois University professor died earlier this year before he could deliver his 25th essay. But thanks to the help of others, there will be one last Carol of the Year. From member station WNIJ, Susan Stephens reports. SUSAN STEPHENS: Every year, just before Thanksgiving, newspapers, radio newsrooms and TV stations around the country would get their annual notification: William Studwell had proclaimed the Carol of the Year. (Soundbite of song, \"The Christmas Song\") Professor WILLIAM STUDWELL (Northern Illinois University): Now this song is interesting. Not only is it a song with depth, it has a claim - the Christmas song, not a Christmas song, the Christmas song. (Soundbite of song, \"The Christmas Song\") Unidentified Man #1: (Singing) Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. STEPHENS: The songs ranged from \"We Three Kings\" to \"Jingle Bells.\" His comments ranged from dispelling a popular rumor about \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" to the untimely deaths of both the composer and lyricist of \"Winter Wonderland.\"", "\"A Rational Conversation\" is a column by writer Eric Ducker in which he gets on iChat or Gchat or the phone or whatever with a special guest to examine a music-related subject that's entered the pop culture consciousness. The holiday season is not just a boom time for retailers and portly older men with bushy white beards, it can also mean big ratings for radio stations. Across the country there are stations, usually ones in the adult contemporary format, that switch to playing Christmas music all day long. Not surprisingly, on Christmas radio, tradition rules. That means the playlists are dominated by songs and standards that are decades old. Artists and labels still keep putting out new Christmas music, but making a lasting impression on listeners isn't easy. Ducker talked to Darren Davis, the Executive Vice President of National Programming Platforms at Clear Channel, which owns over 800 stations around the country from a variety of formats, about the science behind how their stations go about adding new Christmas songs to playlists and which of this year new tracks stood out. ERIC DUCKER: How many Clear Channel stations make that transition to all holiday programming during the year? DARREN DAVIS: There are over a hundred that flip to all Christmas music at some point. Some of them flip as early as Nov. 1st; most of them flip around Thanksgiving time and then there are some that don't do it until a few days before Christmas. When I think about stations that become Christmas stations, I'm not thinking about the ones that do it for a couple of days. I tend to think about the ones that do it from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and that number is around 80 to 90. It's different from year to year. When do they stop? When's the switch back moment? Late Christmas day is the time we start going back to regular programming. It doesn't tend to be a hard stop. We continue to sprinkle in the Christmas songs through the 26th and 27th in a lot of cases. How far in advance do you start coming up with playlists for these stations? We start in August doing research on Christmas songs. We do new research each year to retest all the old Christmas favorites to see if people are tired of any of them or if any of them that maybe haven't played as much are fresh again and are ready to come back into a heavier rotation. And as we work with artists and record labels, we have put the message out there that we want them to come to us early so they can be part of this process. I was meeting with the folks with Mary J. Blige way back in the spring. They came to us and said, \"Mary J. Blige has a new Christmas album, she's working with David Foster. Here are some rough cuts for you. We'd like to get your programmers' input on which ones you think are potentially the biggest hits.\" And that collaborative process really works great. And [Blige's] got a top five Christmas single this year, and that's the first time she's ever had a Christmas hit, and it's because we worked together early. So we start the research process early and figure out a shell of what we think we want to play, and then there are songs that start trickling in during September and October, and even as recently as a couple weeks ago. The playlist, of course, gets adjusted as the season goes on based on additional research that we've done, based on feedback from the audience in terms of texting and phone calls and email comments and also we can we look at the thumbs data (thumbing up songs and thumbing down songs) on iHeartRadio. We use that each week to make sure that the playlist is changing. There's one more change. When we start playing Christmas music in early November, we make sure, by and large, that it's very upbeat. It's not terribly religious songs at that point. The more religious songs start to filter in as we get closer to Christmas, especially the slower stuff. How much differentiation is there within the playlists between the 80 to 90 different stations? With every station there are differences, and there are always regional differences. I've been doing Christmas music going back to 1998 when I was in Washington, D.C. I was a program director in Washington, D.C. and I was a program director in Houston, then Detroit, then Chicago. I've been in all these different parts of the country. I grew up in California. I've seen research in every different place and more than any other style of music or any other format, Christmas music tends to be very similar from state to state and from city to city. The hits are the hits. People want to hear their typically old familiar favorites. Of course there are a handful of old, peculiar songs that are special to each region. Like in Detroit there is a song by Karen Newman called \"Christmas Eve on Woodward Avenue.\" Nobody outside of Detroit has ever heard that song, but in Detroit that song tests very well and people love it and they play the heck out of it. In Chicago there's \"Domenick the Donkey,\" but most people don't k", "Dan Hicks and his band The Hot Licks apply their unique combination of blues, country and jazzy swing on a new album called Crazy for Christmas. Hicks specializes in the mood most of us want to achieve around this time of year — a relaxed, chilled-out demeanor. Hicks is shameless in reworking his material: He turns his old song \"Where's the Money?\" into the low-down \"Christmas Morning,\" which finds Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tossing back a couple of beers before leading Santa's sleigh. At the other end of the spectrum is Shelby Lynne, the moody country singer who wouldn't have seemed a likely candidate for an album of holiday cheer. That's okay with me, since my favorite Christmas song has always been Elvis Presley's \"Blue Christmas\" — I like my holidays decked with melancholy. Her song \"Christmas\" is written as a piece of kitchen-sink realism set to a slow-tempo soul melody. Lynne is bold enough to offer a couple of the year's few new original songs. Along with covers of chestnuts such as \"Silent Night\" and \"White Christmas,\" she provides a fine, upbeat composition called \"Ain't Nothin' Like Christmas.\" Beginning with a simply strummed acoustic guitar and a bluesy vocal, it builds into the party song it wants to be. You can even imagine Elvis rocking out to it in his 1968 comeback leather outfit. Lynne's Merry Christmas is the most consistently strong new holiday album I've heard this year. Another staple of the holiday genre is the anthology album that gathers cuts by a wide range of performers. For this, Warners has put out a second edition of its holiday series — the awkwardly titled Gift Wrapped II: Snowed In, which sounds like a discarded title for a Disney 3D animated film. The 21 selections on Snowed In include artists ranging from Devo to David Foster to The Flaming Lips. Sisters Tegan and Sara have come up with a sly, sweet version of \"The Chipmunk Song\" — yes, the 1960s novelty hit by Ross Bagdasarian. And in this case, the sisters have enlisted their mother to round out the act. The prettiest song on Snowed In is credited to Ben Keith, who died in July of this year. Keith is best known as a pedal steel guitarist who's worked with Neil Young, and he enlisted Young and Young's wife Pegi to sing a lovely version of \"Les Trois Cloches,\" or \"The Three Clocks,\" a gorgeous pop hit for the brother-sister act The Browns in 1959. The song invokes Christmas in its first verse, but with its lyric about the cycles of a man's life, it's a bigger, more poignant piece of music, denying mere nostalgia. We use holiday music in different ways, most often as background sounds while we're doing something else. Novelty songs can be fun, but I never want to hear \"Santa Got Run Over by a Reindeer\" again. The most interesting Christmas songs nod to, or even revel in, the loneliness that can surround the merry atmosphere. Whether you're seeking comfort, escape or Muzak, there's something for everyone in this new batch of holiday releases. As Devo sings in another song this season, \"Merry Something to You.\" TERRY GROSS, Host: Every holiday season brings a new batch of holiday pop music, some of it from unlikely or obscure sources. Our rock critic Ken Tucker has been listening to all the new collection and has chosen a trio of albums that he thinks might make your holiday a bit more fun. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I'VE GOT CHRISTMAS BY THE TAIL\") DAN HICKS AND THE HOT LICKS: (Singing) Every year I get ants in my pants when Christmas comes along. Every year I go into a dance, I know every single Christmas song. Every year I am first on the block to tell Santa what to bring. Every year I jump in with the flock and with the reindeer on the wing. I've got Christmas down pat. I know just when Christmas is at. You got your snow, you got your sleet and hail. I've got Christmas by the tail. I've got Christmas by the tail... KEN TUCKER: That's Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks applying his combination of blues, country and jazzy swing on a new album called \"Crazy for Christmas.\" Hicks specializes in the mood most of us want to achieve around this time of year - a relaxed, chilled-out demeanor. Hicks is shameless in reworking his material: He turns his old song \"Where's the Money?\" into the low-down \"Christmas Morning,\" which finds Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tossing back a couple of beers before leading Santa's sleigh. At the other end of the spectrum is Shelby Lynne's album \"Merry Christmas.\" The brooding moody country singer wouldn't have seemed a likely candidate for an album of holiday cheer. That's okay with me, since my favorite Christmas song has always been Elvis Presley's \"Blue Christmas\" - I like my holidays decked with melancholy. Listen to \"Christmas,\" song Shelby Lynne has written as a piece of kitchen-sink realism set to a slow-tempo soul melody. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"CHRISTMAS\") SHELBY LYNNE: (Singing) Christmas makes you sad and daddy's being bad. Made us weight on the tree, bicycles for you and me. I want a radio, a ghe", "Time was, the stretch following Christmas Day until New Year's Day was a quiet, sleepy spot on the American calendar. The six-day span hung like a lazy hammock between the holidays. Not anymore. Nowadays, the WAC — Week After Christmas — is busy and abuzzing. All around the country, Americans continue to celebrate — Kwanzaa, the Christmas afterglow and the coming New Year. It's a mashup week that morphs from cozy fires to fireworks, from prayer books to party hats, from holly berries to hangovers. Such a strange straddling seems particularly American, like Baltimore sprawling into Washington or barbecue sauce slopping over coleslaw. Some people spend the time rushing here and there to reminisce with friends and families, returning useless presents and raking in gift-card booty. Others run right back to work. According to research provided by the Society for Human Resource Management, about 99 percent of companies in the United States shut down on Christmas Day and 95 percent on New Year's Day. Only 12 percent are closed for the week between the two national holidays. \"The final week of December can account for as much as 15 percent of a retailer's holiday sales,\" says Kathy Grannis of the National Retail Federation. The NRF reports that in 2011, holiday season sales represented nearly 20 percent of total retail industry sales for the year. So, Grannis says, the week after Christmas \"is still a very important part of the holiday season.\" Haggling, Singing, Dancing, Hunting Even Congress, often criticized for not working hard enough, may be in session to try to prevent the country from going into fiscal free fall because of the debate over taxation. \"If the Senate passed a bill Dec. 27, the House Rules Committee could schedule a vote for the following day,\" reports Time magazine. \"The last time the Senate held a roll call vote in the week between Christmas and New Year's was in 1963, according to the Senate Historical Office.\" Meanwhile, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, N.C., is opening up on certain days for Kwanzaa, a post-Christmas festival that highlights seven basic values of African culture. The emphasis is on family, community and culture among African-American people and Africans around the world. On Dec. 29 — the fourth day of the seven-day observance — there will be a daylong celebration of cooperative economics, including dancing and arts and crafts. Other places will be open during the week as well. The Free Soul Dance studio in Blasdell, N.Y., is scheduled to hold special classes, and Wolfe's Pheasant Farm in Fountain City, Wis., plans to stage hunts following Christmas. In Branson, Mo., the 3 Redneck Tenors — Billy Bob, Billy Joe, and Billy Billee – are slated to perform several nights. For the museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the week after Christmas \"is one of the most popular times,\" says spokesman John Gibbons, \"with thousands of visitors, rivaling spring break and summer vacation.\" It's a week, Gibbons says, \"when houses are full of children out of school and out-of-town guests for the holidays. What better way to keep everyone happy, busy and interested than visiting the Smithsonian's many museums?\" He adds, \"We're even more attractive as a destination after the expenses of the holidays because all our museums are free. Where else can you visit Mars, hold a hissing cockroach and critique what the first ladies wore to dinner all in one day?\" A Fiscal Cliffhanger In the Christian tradition, the week is part of Christmastide. Back in the olden days, Christmas began on Dec. 25 and lasted until Epiphany — the day that the divine nature of the infant Jesus was revealed to the Magi — on Jan. 6. This is best illustrated in the popular song The 12 Days of Christmas Now, the more secularized Christmas season in America kicks off around Thanksgiving and pretty much winds down on Christmas Day when the final gifts are passed around. In the book of essays We Are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals, sociologist Amitai Etzioni divides traditional American holidays into two types: holidays of recommitment, such as Easter and Passover, and holidays of tension management, such as Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day. The 144-hour period we're talking about flows from a recommitment holiday (the end of Christmas Day) to a tension management one (the beginning of New Year's Day). In this fiscal cliffhanger of a year, Americans may need to blow off a little steam — when it comes to taxation and representation — at the end of December. Back in England, many traditions have changed. Some have not. During the week after Christmas, which includes Boxing Day on Dec. 26, \"most offices are closed, although hospitals, police stations, emergency services, newsrooms, some shops — and, of course, pubs — stay open,\" says Alexandra Dimsdale of the British Council, the U.K.'s cultural relations organization. Usually, it's a very quiet time", "Christmas at sea can be a lonely time. But each year the Seamen's Church delivers holiday packages to sailors around the world. Every year, many merchant mariners are forced to spend the holidays at sea. And every year since 1848, the group has tried to bring the comforts of home to sailors. Volunteers from around the country join forces to offer practical gifts like calendars, shoelaces, and hand-knitted hats and scarves. The annual effort at American ports reaches thousands of sailors every year. Reporter Matt Hackworth checks out the holiday plans aboard the car-carrier ship Fuji. ROBER SIEGEL, Host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. We turn now to the holidays. Christmas preparations and then Hanukkah, which begins tonight. First, for thousands of merchant mariners, Christmas is spent at sea. Some crews hold special celebrations like a grand dinner in the galley. Each year since 1848, one group has tried to bring to sailors the comforts of home. Matt Hackworth reports. MATT HACKWORTH: The car carrier Fuji casts a shadow on the dock at Newark, New Jersey, a hawking ship that holds more than 5,000 cars. As he climbs the steep metal gangly to board the Fuji, the Reverend Jacques Girard carries precious cargo of his own - calendars. JACQUES GIRARD: How are you? Merry Christmas. HACKWORTH: Girard says the crew's valued calendar is a way to keep track of time marking the months away from home. Gerard is one of several full time chaplains with the Seaman's Church in Newark, New Jersey, one of the country's largest ports. Chaplains use to visit aboard to check on the crew's welfare. Gerard says they make sure they're paid, healthy, and granted surely within compliance with the law. GIRARD: The caring is spiritual, pastoral, legal, and just to be there as an ear and a smile for the few hours there in port to try to make their day, their night a little easy, a little different than what they're used to nine, 10 months at a time. HACKWORTH: Often that nine or 10-month span includes Christmas day. Even if home is far away, thousands of sailors will be able to open something special. GERARD: You'll see a Christmas card, writing paper with a pen. Here you see a hat and a scarf, all knitted beautifully, nice and warm. HACKWORTH: Knitters in all 50 states volunteered to make warm garments in specific patterns from Seaman's Church. All the gifts are practical. Items like shoelaces, things they can't purchase in the middle of the ocean. Aboard the car ship Fuji, Captain Eduardo Nono(ph) says his crew appreciates the handmade goods, which he'll pass out during a special meal. EDUARDO NONO: Now, we make a roast beef. HACKWORTH: And how do your crew react usually since they're in the middle of the ocean and you're still celebrating Christmas? NONO: Well that is very familiar to them because we always celebrate the Christmas at sea. It's very common to us. Like me, I don't remember when I celebrate my Christmas with my family. Fifteen years? I don't know really. HACKWORTH: But this is the first Christmas away from home for Swedish sailor Eric Klieen(ph). The 19-year-old is a new cook's apprentice who's worried about being lonely. ERIC KLIEEN: Yeah. Lonely, I got a girlfriend back in Sweden, so I miss her a lot and my family. I love the sea, and I love to cook. So that's why. HACKWORTH: The chaplains at the port of Newark say most sailors aboard foreign ships sail for the money. It makes them rather well off in poorer countries, even if the cost of spending Christmas aboard a ship, staring at the horizon towards home. For NPR News, I'm Matt Hackworth in Newark, New Jersey.", "If you ask me, 1997 was the best year for holiday music since \"Silent Night\" soundtracked the Christmas Truce of 1914. In '97, I was celebrating my sixth Christmas, and while it was still too early to tell what music I'd end up loving as an adult, that was the season that produced two of the albums that have come to see me through Christmas after Christmas. One is Hanson's delightfully poppy Snowed In, which (by sheer force of tradition) is always the first music I put on once Thanksgiving is over and it's safe to pull out the tinsel and act like a kid again. The other is Come On Christmas, which to date remains country punk Dwight Yoakam's only holiday record. It's the album that most reminds me of family around this time of year — my dad's side comes from Appalachian coal-mining stock, and Yoakam's eastern-Kentucky roots seep through even his Christmas music in a way that resonates comfortably. Most of the 10 tracks on Come On Christmas are covers. Some are traditional numbers done up in Yoakam's singular, yelping twang, while a few others nod to his forebears — Elvis (\"Santa Claus Is Back In Town\") as much as Gene Autry (\"Here Comes Santa Claus\"). But the album is bookended by two original Yoakam songs: the somber title track at the top and, to close out the record and send you off into the wintry night, \"Santa Can't Stay.\" The first thing you notice is that this isn't really a country song, at least arrangement-wise. Festive chimes emerge from the middle distance, a snare drum cracks out a measure of triplets — and then Yoakam's off on a tear somewhere between honky-tonk and rock 'n' roll, with a full horn section and harmony vocals from Americana mainstays Ricky Skaggs and Jim Lauderdale ornamenting the whole affair. Some might call the production bombastic, overdone. But there's a reason we can't help but love the enormous, glittering Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, especially at this darkest, smallest time of year. What's most compelling about \"Santa Can't Stay,\" though, is the story it tells. Like a wry twist on \"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,\" the song relates the tale of a divorced dad trying to visit his kids on Christmas Eve under the guise of St. Nick. Yoakam, ever the literary hillbilly, chooses words with just enough specificity to hint at a narrative that cuts much deeper than the sketch he outlines. For all the trumpets' grand bluster, it's hard to think of a Christmas song with a more subtly poignant lyric than \"Then a car just like Dad's / Pulled out and drove away / After Mom said Santa couldn't stay.\" Come On Christmas is available now via iTunes.", "That white lie about snow on Christmas, \"just like the ones I used to know,\" is probably going to remain a nostalgic lyric for most of the country. But for millions of people along the projected path of a system forming Saturday in the Great Plains that is forecast to become a nor'easter in New England by Monday, a white Christmas is looking more like a reality. \"We are going to have a decent swath of snow,\" meteorologist Marc Chenard with the National Weather Service tells NPR. Beginning Saturday, a couple of inches are expected in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. As the system shifts eastward by Christmas Eve, it is forecast to blanket parts of the Midwest, including Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Chicago should get 2 to 3 inches; Kansas City, Mo., 1 to 2 inches, Chenard says. The system is then expected to bring the highest accumulations to central and northern New England when it re-forms off the coast as a nor'easter on Christmas Day, bringing \"probably quite a bit of snow — 6-plus inches,\" Chenard says. Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vt., are both forecast to get a half-foot each. But snow in southern New England is less certain, with Boston predicted to get perhaps 1 to 3 inches, although it is possible the storm could shift away from the city. New York City \"is on the edge,\" Chenard says. It will likely be warm enough for mainly rain, but \"there could be a little bit of snow that tries to mix in and maybe gives some light accumulations on Christmas.\" Despite Americans' unending hope of waking up to snow on Dec. 25 — blame Bing Crosby's 1942 classic — bare grounds are bound to be the norm for most of the country on most Christmas mornings. Only somewhere around one-quarter of the contiguous United States is usually snow-covered on Christmas, reports USA Today, citing AccuWeather. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has put together a map of the places that have the best odds of experiencing a white Christmas. \"The places where one is most likely to experience both snow on the ground and falling snow are in the Sierras and Cascades, on the leeward side of the Great Lakes, and in northern New England,\" NOAA says. \"At high elevations of the Rocky Mountains and at most locations between the northern Rockies and New England, the probability of measurable snow depth is greater than 50%, while the probability of snowfall is generally less than 25%.\" Not surprisingly, \"snow is at best extremely rare\" in Southern California, the lower elevations of the Southwest and Florida. But it never hurts to dream.", "John Langstaff, the founder of the Christmas Revels, died Tuesday in Basil, Switzerland, after suffering a stroke. He was 84. The Christmas Revels is a show that explores the roots of the Christmas and winter solstice celebrations from a different era or country each year. It began in 1971 in Boston and has since expanded to cities across the country. Langstaff was born on Christmas Eve. He was a classically trained singer who also wrote children's books. MICHELE NORRIS, host: John Langstaff has died. Best known as the founder of the holiday celebration called \"The Christmas Revels,\" Langstaff died on Tuesday. He suffered a stroke while visiting his daughter and grandchildren in Switzerland. John Langstaff would have turned 85 on Christmas Eve. NPR's Lynn Neary has this remembrance. LYNN NEARY reporting: John Langstaff's birth on Christmas Eve 1920 was no accident. At least that's how the story goes. Patrick Swanson, the current artistic director of \"The Revels,\" says Langstaff's mother was determined to have a Christmas baby. Mr. PATRICK SWANSON (Artistic Director, \"The Christmas Revels\"): By all accounts, his mother raced up and down the stairs on Christmas Eve, trying to induce Jack into the world. NEARY: Swanson says while growing up, Langstaff's home was filled with music, especially at Christmastime. His parents hosted parties where singers from the Metropolitan Opera would mix with family friends and carolers roamed his Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. It was these celebrations, says Swanson, that eventually inspired Langstaff to create \"The Christmas Revels.\" Mr. SWANSON: I think he never forgot that image, that surrounding circle of faces at that special time of the year singing this extraordinary music and making music together. (Soundbite of carol) Unidentified Group: (Singing in unison) Here were come a-wassailing among the leaves so green. And here we come a-wassailing, so fair to be seen. NEARY: Langstaff presented his first production of \"The Christmas Revels\" at New York's Town Hall in 1957. Using traditional medieval music and dance, \"The Revels\" celebrated both Christmas and the solstice. In 1971, it became an annual event at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Eventually it branched out around the country; about a dozen cities now have their own revels, and there are spring and summer revels as well. But in a 1987 NPR interview, Langstaff said \"The Christmas Revels\" were always special. (Soundbite of 1987 interview) Mr. JOHN LANGSTAFF (Founder, \"The Christmas Revels\"): The year is darkest and coldest, in our area, anyway, and people draw in and draw together, I think, and want to come together. And it's a time we want to bring back the light. It's the sort of dying off of the old year, maybe, the coming back of light and the burning of the Yule log and people singing and dancing and so on. NEARY: Audience participation is an integral part of \"The Revels,\" and the productions combine the talents of skilled professionals with dedicated amateurs. Langstaff, who was both a teacher and a children's book author, gave children an important role in \"The Revels.\" Patrick Swanson. Mr. SWANSON: He was really totally intuitive about children. He always saw the best in people, and he could bring that out in a completely unsophisticated way. (Soundbite of carol) Unidentified Group: (Singing in unison) Now take hands and join with us on this joyful holiday. NEARY: Swanson says John Langstaff left behind a rich legacy that combines finding the best in people with making music and creating traditions. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington. (Soundbite of carol) Unidentified Group: (Singing in a round) Now take hands and join with us on this joyful holiday. MELISSA BLOCK (Host): You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.", "In his annual Christmas Day address, Pope Francis offered a message of hope and a call for kindness to migrants around the world. \"May the Son of God, come down to earth from heaven, protect and sustain all those who, due to these and other injustices, are forced to emigrate in the hope of a secure life,\" the pontiff said from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. \"It is injustice that makes them cross deserts and seas that become cemeteries,\" he said. \"It is injustice that turns them away from places where they might have hope for a dignified life, but instead find themselves before walls of indifference.\" The Christmas speech is titled \"Urbi et Orbi\": to the city and the world. He prayed that God would comfort those who are suffering, and he called on people to show good will and find solutions to ongoing humanitarian crises. Francis urged an end to conflicts in the Middle East, Latin America, Ukraine and Africa, and prayed for those who are persecuted on the basis of religion. \"May Christ bring his light to the many children suffering from war and conflicts in the Middle East and in various countries of the world,\" Francis said in his seventh Christmas address as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. \"May he bring comfort to the beloved Syrian people who still see no end to the hostilities that have rent their country over the last decade. Today may he stir the consciences of men and women of good will. May he inspire governments and the international community to find solutions to allow the peoples of that region to live together in peace and security, and put an end to their unspeakable sufferings.\" Last week, Francis placed a cross encircled by a life jacket inside the Vatican, in memory of the migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea as they sought refuge in Europe. In a separate message on Wednesday, the pope and two other religious officials urged leaders in South Sudan to uphold their commitment to form a coalition government next year. Increased stability would allow the pope to visit the country, which he has said he hopes to do in 2020, Reuters reports. The pontiff concluded his message with a call to recognize the suffering around us and act to help those in need. \"May he soften our often stony and self-centered hearts, and make them channels of his love,\" he said. \"May he bring his smile, through our poor faces, to all the children of the world: to those who are abandoned and those who suffer violence. Through our frail hands, may he clothe those who have nothing to wear, give bread to the hungry and heal the sick. Through our friendship, such as it is, may he draw close to the elderly and the lonely, to migrants and the marginalized. On this joyful Christmas Day, may he bring his tenderness to all and brighten the darkness of this world.\" NPR's senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli contributed from Rome.", "Judy Pancoast, an award-winning children's songwriter and entertainer, talks about a Christmas song she wrote that is gaining popularity on the Internet. \"The House on Christmas Street\" describes the crazy house down the block that is covered with thousands of blinking lights, reindeer on the roof, 10-foot tall inflatable snowmen and a Santa Claus that says, \"Ho, ho, ho!\" (Soundbite of ringing) ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is what you get when you call Judy Pancoast' cell phone. She lives in New Hampshire. You call his cell phone, you get this message. Ms. JUDY PANCOAST (Songwriter): (Singing) It's the most wonderful time of the year. Hi, this is Judy and I'm so glad you called. I probably just didn't hear the phone ring because I'm playing Christmas music really loud. CHADWICK: Yes, and one of her Christmas songs is actually taking off. It's a song about the house and you know the one. You could comfortably read a book in front of this place at midnight because of all the light casts from the 50,000 bulbs that are glowing there. The Holy Family is settled in the front lawn, Santa's leading a reindeer across the roof. (Soundbite of song, \"The House on Christmas Street\") Ms. PANCOAST: (Singing) Let me tell you about this house, there's one in every town. It's the one at Christmas time where folks are gathered round. CHADWICK: This song is called \"The House on Christmas Street\" and Judy Pancoast joins us now from New Hampshire. Judy, thank you and how long have you had the idea for this song? Ms. PANCOAST: Well, I would have to say the original genesis came when I was just a young girl growing up in Waterville, Maine. And I saw the very first, quote, unquote, \"house on Christmas Street in my hometown.\" It was outrageous. We had never seen a house that was decorated to the max, the way this house was. And it seemed like everybody in town gathered at this house to see these lights and moving Santa Claus, there's some singing angels and so on. And then through the years, as I grew and moved around, I noticed that there was indeed one in every town, just about a house like this where people would pack up the kids and let's go see the house that's got all the lights. CHADWICK: Have you heard from anyone who has heard your song and said, hey, that' about my house? Ms. PANCOAST: Oh, my gosh, well, yes. (Soundbite of laughter) Ms. PANCOAST: I have actually heard from a ton of people. Last year in 2006, my husband was fooling around on the Internet, Googling various names of my songs and he Googled \"The House on Christmas Street\" and came up with a video of a house in the Midwest where the fellow who owned the house had decorated it to the hills and you could drive up to this house and tune in your car radio to a certain frequency, a low-range frequency and hear my song, \"The House on Christmas Street.\" And it would play and the lights would blink in synch with the song. And it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, it blew me away and as the Christmas season approach, we begin finding videos online of houses all over the country that were playing my song. CHADWICK: Wait now, do you mean to tell me that you have become a national phenomenon with this song and people are decorating their houses to your music all across the country now and that somebody is franchising this? Ms. PANCOAST: Yes, it's become the most famous Christmas song that you don't hear on the radio. You'll hear it at a house near you. (Soundbite of laughter) CHADWICK: You're going to really take off after you're on DAY TO DAY. This is… Ms. PANCOAST: I'm hoping, I am hoping. When I heard that you had two million plus listeners, my hair stood on end. (Soundbite of laughter) CHADWICK: Oh, it makes my hair standing on end too. Ms. PANCOAST: If my song becomes a Christmas hit, then I can die happy. (Soundbite of laughter) CHADWICK: Judy Pancoast, that song is \"The House on Christmas Street.\" You heard it here on DAY TO DAY. Judy, thank you so much. Ms. PANCOAST: Thank you, Alex. (Soundbite of song, \"The House on Christmas Street\") Ms. PANCOAST: (Singing) (unintelligible) the sparkle in your eyes, in your eyes. Because it's got 47,000 twinkling lights, and Santa Claus up on the roof, Dasher and Dancer and all the other reindeer, Rudolph up there too. With the band of merry snowman dancing on the porch, and a couple of carolers singing by the lamppost, children at the front door. Jesus and his family and a (unintelligible) on the lot and the choirs and the angels singing \"Silent Night\" till dawn, where everybody meets, it's the house on Christmas Street. CHADWICK: DAY TO DAY is production of NPR News with contributions from Slate.com. Merry Christmas from DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick.", "There are lots of creative Christmas tree recycling programs around the country, and in keeping with the holiday spirit, here are a few of them — set to verse. It's the week after Christmas, and in every townYou'll see Christmas trees dying — their needles turned brown.30 million dead trees — that's what you'll find!\"Just some more numbers to boggle your mind.\" That's good old Rick Dungey — head of public relationsFor the National Christmas Tree Association.He fields lots of calls — and often they're dumb,Or perhaps fueled by eggnog with way too much rum.\"My tree's doing great! It's still taking up water!\"The calls start okay, but then they get odder:\"Will it regrow roots and continue to live?\"\"Well, no,\" is the answer that Rick has to give. But there is still hope — for all cross the nationThere's a sort of arborial tree-incarnation!When everyone's done with their O Tannebaum-in'Rick Dungey explains, \"Mulching programs are common.\"\"But there have been some creative ones out there,\" he adds.Some trees get a new life that isn't half bad. Down in Louisiana, where the land meets the ocean.\"We place them out in the marsh to combat coastal erosion.\"At the Department of Environmental AffairsJason Smith uses trees to make coastal repairs.The trees trap the soil, and make the waves slow,\"And aquatic vegetation can begin to grow.\" At Oakland's fine zoo, the word \"trunk\" is a termThat applies to both Christmas trees and pachyderms.The beasts lumber past, pining for treatsRooting around for a new thing to eat.Gina Kinzley, their keeper, says they preferThe sweet evergreens. \"The noble firs.\"The trees are both playthings and part of their dietAnd they're not alone, other animals try it.Giraffe and zebra also give it a try\"Lions, tigers, the bears!\" Oh my!\"The elephants really enjoy the bark.\" It looks just like Christmas aboard Noah's Ark. The fishermen up north in Portland were stumped The fish population has recently slumped.And part of the reason, says Mr. Mike GentryIs that some of the streams are deplorably empty.Of woody debris for the coho and troutThere's no habitat! So it's time to branch out.\"They need cover from predators.\" (to hide out below)\"They need a calm place to rest and grow.They also need a food source.\" So Gentry and his teamSink dead Christmas trees in their swift local streams. In the East, Mitchell Mann and Dominic EspositoAre two Jersey boys who live by one credo:\"To save the environment, pretty much, being green.\"So they drummed up a posse of like-minded teens.They'll grab all the trees — every one within reachAnd they'll bring them all down to nearby Bradley Beach.\"Once the trees are on the beach they're laid down against a fence.\"Where they form the foundation of the town's defense.\"And as the wind blows the trees capture the sand.\"And soon dunes will form — at least that's the plan.And in future years, \"When a storm comes throughIt protects all the houses,\" and habitat too. Though their life has been sapped and their trunks have been hewnThese trees might form forests in marshes and dunes.And dead groves will grow in the rivers and zoos.I'm Adam Cole, NPR News.", "France will begin easing COVID-19 restrictions in the country this week after the nation passed the peak of the virus's second wave, President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday. Starting Nov. 28, shops can open with strict health restrictions and social distancing guidelines in place. Some measures will continue, but residents can leave their home for exercise for up to one hour within a 12-mile radius of their home. The new rules also allow religious centers to open, but only with 30 people or fewer in attendance. \"We need to do everything to prevent a third wave, do everything to prevent a third lockdown,\" Macron said. Restrictions will gradually be lifted through December and January, Macron said. But that all hinges on keeping the infection rate on a downward trajectory, he added. Macron said that if cases in France stay low by Dec. 15, citizens will be able to travel around the country to visit friends and family for the Christmas holiday. Cinemas, theaters, and museums will be allowed to reopen, he said, and a 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew would be adopted in place of a full lockdown. Bars and restaurants, however, will stay closed through Christmas. By Jan. 20, if the health situation approve, restaurants, sports centers, and gyms can reopen. It's unclear when bars could reopen, however. Several European nations, France included, imposed curfews and other restrictions in October, after cases began to soar. Despite the new policies Macron announced Tuesday, France remains the hardest hit country in Europe, with more than 2.2 million confirmed infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Only the U.S., India, and Brazil have more confirmed cases. The last few weeks of the Christmas holiday accounts for around 20% to 40% of annual revenue for French retailers, according to The Wall Street Journal, and France's business community has expressed fear over the fate of local shop owners if they must keep their doors closed through the lucrative season. The newly announced policies reflect Macron's attempt to strike a balance between calls from the health officials to limit further infections and concerns over the economy, which has been battered by pandemic-induced closures. It's a harmony other European officials are trying to reach as they too battle a record-shattering second wave of the pandemic. In an attempt to help its tourist industry, England announced that starting Dec. 15, international travelers heading into the country could cut their mandatory quarantine time to five days if they test negative for the coronavirus.", "Pope Benedict XVI issued a Christmas Day appeal Tuesday to political leaders around the globe to find the \"wisdom and courage\" to end bloody conflicts in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Congo. Benedict delivered his traditional \"to the city and to the world\" address from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, blessing thousands of people gathered in the square below. In his gold-embroidered vestments and bejeweled miter, Benedict said he hoped the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth would bring consolation to all people \"who live in the darkness of poverty, injustice and war.\" He mentioned in particular those living in the \"tortured regions\" of Darfur, Somalia, northern Congo, the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Balkans. \"May the child Jesus bring relief to those who are suffering and may he bestow upon political leaders the wisdom and courage to seek and find humane, just and lasting solutions,\" he said. Beyond those conflicts, Benedict said he was turning his thoughts this Christmas to victims of other injustices, citing women, children and the elderly, as well as refugees and victims of environmental disasters and religious and ethnic tensions. He said he hoped Christmas would bring consolation to \"those who are still denied their legitimate aspirations for a more secure existence, for health, education, stable employment, for fuller participation in civil and political responsibilities, free from oppression and protected from conditions that offend human dignity.\" Such injustices and discrimination are destroying the internal fabric of many countries and souring international relations, he said. In a nod to his engagement with environmental concerns, the pontiff also noted that the number of migrants and displaced people was increasing around the globe because of \"frequent natural disasters, often caused by environmental upheavals.\" Benedict followed his speech with his traditional Christmas Day greetings — this year delivered in 63 different languages, including Mongolian, Finnish, Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili, Burmese and in a new entry for 2007, Guarani, a South American Indian language. From NPR reports and The Associated Press", "If you are eating turkey this Christmas out of some sense of tradition, food historian Ivan Day says, put down that drumstick. After studying English cookbooks hundreds of years old, Day says the giant bird isn't even that traditional. Besides, he says, \"It's a dry wasteland of flavorless meat.\" Sure, the first turkey came to England in the 1600s. It was an exotic \"treat\" from the New World. But a time traveler from Shakespeare's time wouldn't understand why everyone in the modern world was having the same dull bird on Christmas night. At his farmhouse in northern England, Day collects old cookbooks and food illustrations. He says in olden days, Christmas celebrations were all about novelty and variety. The tables of the rich might include a turkey and a goose, but also peacocks, swans, partridges and plovers. A rack of venison would sit beside a giant turtle. The eating would go on for days. Christmas used to be a 12-day drunken festival. Imagine Mardi Gras with snow. Cooks were always trying to top one another in outrageousness, from the traditional presentation of the boar's head to the array of sickeningly sweet puddings. Day shows me a 19th-century illustration of a pie that took a crowd of servants to carry. It was filled with boned geese, woodcocks, hares and any other game they had around. \"This was the original turducken,\" he says. Ivan Day doesn't just read the old cookbooks. He tries out all the dishes he finds and makes them the way history intended. Day has outfitted his farmhouse with appliances of centuries past, including a fireplace stoked with coal and a wind-up rotisserie such as 17th-century cooks might have used. Every wall holds copper pots and sugar molds and strange pastry devices. One of his favorite discoveries in the old cookbooks was a traditional Christmas soup called plum pottage, a recipe from the 1700s. It starts with a strong beef or mutton broth. Then you add fruit juices, candied orange and lemon peels, raisins and wine. Day says it's like a liquefied Christmas pudding. It sounds disgusting, he says. \"But I have served it to Michelin-starred chefs and they have been absolutely amazed at how delicious it is.\" But more than the taste, Day says you have to think of what this meant to have such a treat on an English table hundreds of years ago. England is a cold, northern country where you can't grow citrus fruits and sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg. To fill a pie or a soup bowl with meat and fruit and spices, as horrible as it might sound to many Americans, was a way of demonstrating how rich you were. \"It's the culinary equivalent of having a Maserati. It's showing off,\" Day says. This sense of competition and variety disappeared from Christmas. The drunken festival was reduced to a single family holiday. Charles Dickens sealed the fate of the Christmas dinner when he had Ebenezer Scrooge call down to that young boy and had him buy the largest turkey in the window. Since then, in the U.K. and the U.S., old-timey Christmas cards feature a family gathered around a single bird, turkey or goose, surrounded by pretty bland-looking potatoes and stuffing. Not a turtle or swan in sight. Ivan Day will be having beef roasted in front of an open fire for Christmas, and he says you really should stop and appreciate how Christmas must have felt to people, say, 400 years ago. They might have gone months eating the same thing every day, bacon and bread. The Christmas meal, with its exotic fruits and endless variety, must have felt like a miracle. \"It was a moment of sunshine in a dreary year of grayness,\" he says.", "In the midst of all the digital gimcracks and electronic gewgaws that will litter the 2008 holiday season, the simple green Christmas tree represents a fixed point in a flummoxed world. Fact is, as the economy darkens, Christmas tree sales look pretty bright. \"Sales are very good,\" says Linda Gragg, director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association in Boone, N.C. \"We just finished a 12-day consumer show. It went very well. People were saying they weren't having as much under the tree this year as they have in past Christmases, but they do want a tree.\" Many American families \"still want to have a traditional Christmas, despite the economy,\" Gragg says. In 2007, the organization sold between 5 million and 5.5 million trees, and she expects to sell at least that many this year. Maybe more. It's a tradition. And traditions, according to essayist Ellen Goodman, \"are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe.\" Some say the ritual of trimming a Christmas tree has pagan roots. Others trace it from 16th century European churches, through Norman Rockwell homes and Charlie Brown cartoons. The image of a Christmas tree is something people hold on to. Like a wedding photo. The memory of an Easter egg hunt. A childhood dreidel. (Not surprisingly: \"Sales of dreidels are up this year,\" says Mandana Nowroocian of the Dreidels and More store in Chicago.) The Christmas tree \"signifies home and family and tradition and all the comfort values that people still want,\" says Martin J. Irvine, professor of communication, culture and technology at Georgetown University and a card-carrying semiotician. He adds that a tree is \"typically not a high price-point item, but it has high symbolic value.\" Bryan Ostlund, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association in Salem, Ore., agrees. \"We're seeing an upward trend in orders, even though there is cautiousness all around us.\" Ostlund says he has seen this phenomenon before — during slow economic moments in the early 1990s and in 2001. When the economy tanks, Christmas tree sales soar. \"Orders remain strong,\" Ostlund says, despite the gloomy state revenue forecast and rising unemployment. Ironically, those factors contribute to the steady sales, he says. Greater availability of labor and lower fuel rates help keep prices down. This year, Ostlund's conglomeration of growers in Oregon and Washington will ship more than 10 million trees — about one-third of the country's total production — across the country. Over the past 20 years, the noble fir, he says, has replaced the Douglas fir as the bestselling tree, because of the noble fir's graceful branches, holiday aroma and deep green color. \"Plus its 'keepability,'\" Ostlund says. \"That is how long it stays fresh post-harvest.\" Trees are a good value, he says. It can take up to nine years to grow a tall tree. But trees of 6 feet or so often cost less than $75. The price has been flat for some years, but Christmas trees from Oregon still bring in $125 million every year. And the tree has continued, for centuries, to be a symbol of the importance of friends and family, Ostlund says. \"When the economy tightens up, people look for the human side of the holiday.\"", "As Billboard pointed out yesterday in their roundup of this week's best-selling albums, country continued its dominant fall. Led by Taylor Swift's Speak Now, which topped the chart for the second straight week, the top three albums on the Billboard 200 were country albums. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Swift's juggernaut sold 320,000 copies, about a third of it's opening week tally. Jason Aldean debuted in the number 2 spot with My Kinda Party, and Sugarland's The Incredible Machine dropped one spot to number 3 in its third week. Next week, Susan Boyle's The Gift will challenge Swift for the top spot, but if we're looking for a genre to mount an attack on country's supremacy, this week's chart suggests it's the time of the year when Christmas albums start pulling people into stores. A baker's dozen of holiday-themed albums on the chart, after the jump. The season seems to have been rung in by the release of Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas II You, the sequel to her perennial best seller Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas II You debuted at number 4, and two country holiday collections, A Merry Little Christmas by Lady Antebellum and The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, landed in the top 20. Both those albums charted last week, but this week also saw older Christmas collections from Chris Tomlin and Andrea Bocelli and quite a few others re-enter the chart. Here's the baker's dozen of holiday-themed albums from the Billboard 200 for this week (asterisks designate an album that didn't appear on last week's chart): 4. Mariah Carey - Merry Christmas II You*17. Lady Antebellum - A Merry Little Christmas20. Taylor Swift - The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection27. Chris Tomlin - Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship*64. Michael W. Smith - It's A Wonderful Christmas70. Various Artists - NOW That's What I Call Christmas87. Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas*109. Josh Groban - Noel*129. Michael Buble - Let It Snow!*152. Celtic Thunder - Christmas175. Various Artists - The 99 Most Essential Christmas Masterpieces*176. Sheryl Crow - Home For Christmas*191. Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas: 25th Anniversary Collection* Two related questions: 1) the soundtrack to The Sound of Music re-entered the chart at number 101 this week. Is this a Christmas-timed rise, or is there some other occasion for the bump? And 2) will Glee's forthcoming Grinch-themed Christmas album, out next week but already selling well, break that show's streak of releases that sell well for a week and then disappear?", "Children all over the United States will have a big decision to make on Christmas Eve: Would Santa Claus prefer a chocolate chip cookie for a snack or perhaps a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? The American tradition of leaving a snack for Santa on Christmas Eve is said by some to date to the Great Depression, when parents wanted to teach their children the value of giving selflessly to others. However, it's also plausible that, in a country populated by immigrants from all over the world, our tradition is simply one brought over from the Old Country — or, more accurately, Old Countries. Along with a bevy of far-flung food experts, Washington, D.C.'s local diplomatic community is a particularly good source of information about what Santa is eating around the world — and it would appear that Jolly Old St. Nick is quite well-fed long before he reaches our shores. Kate Reuterswärd, press officer at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C., has fond memories of leaving a bowl of rice porridge, called risgrynsgröt, outside the door of her family's home for the Jultomte, or Swedish Santa. \"Unlike the American Santa, the Jultomte enters your house through the front door, not through the chimney, so that's why the porridge is left there,\" says Reuterswärd. \"The rice porridge is thickened with milk and flavored with cinnamon and a little salt. Some families add almonds, butter, jam, or molasses, but the traditional version doesn't have to be sweetened.\" For Swedish Ambassador Karin Olofsdotter, the rice porridge was certainly a traditional offering, but her family always left a cheese and butter sandwich outside the door, along with a carrot for the reindeer. In the morning, she says, \"The sandwich was always gone, and there would be a gnawed carrot stub left.\" When passing through Italy, Babbo Natale (aka Santa Claus) gets a clementine from children — and some hay for his donkey, because reindeer are not always his chosen mode of transportation. But a few weeks earlier, on Dec. 6, St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, gets a clementine and a glass of wine, while leaving gifts for kids on St. Nicholas Day. In fact, while milk may be the beverage of choice here in the U.S., Santa seems to imbibe more potent liquids before arriving in the lower 48 — and he probably does need a nonalcoholic alternative by then. British diplomat Andrew Overton notes that \"British children will often leave out a mince pie and a nip of sherry to brace Father Christmas for the chill.\" In Ireland, things get jollier with a pint of Guinness (and that splash of whiskey that Mrs. Claus has ready when Santa gets home). And apparently the Norwegian Nisse — a precursor to the Julenisse, Norway's Santa — will cause a lot of trouble if a jug of beer isn't provided with his rice pudding on Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve drinking gets its start Down Under, on Santa's first stop. \"I think Australian customs are quite close to [America's],\" says food historian Barbara Santich of the University of Adelaide, \"except that it might be a bottle of beer or glass of sherry or wine instead of milk,\" perhaps accompanied by a bit of fruitcake, which is usually also laden with whiskey or rum. Of course, it's summer in December south of the equator, so a cold beer hardly seems out of place. Nor does a bit of barbecue in South Africa, or fufu with egusi — a West African seafood and meat soup — in Nigeria. Once Santa gets to South America a bit later in the evening, there's pan de pascua to look forward to, a traditional Chilean Christmas fruitcake made with dulce de leche. Food blogger Pilar Hernandez acknowledges that the word \"pascua\" can be confusing in the context of Christmas, with its reference to Easter and \"pascal.\" \"In Chile, Christmas is called Pascua, Santa Claus is El Viejo Pascuero and so on. Easter is Pascua also, but Pascua de Resurrección. Don't get lost in the name; this is a fruitcake that will change you for the better.\" But Santa isn't greeted with snacks everywhere. In Iceland, he is the one who does the feeding. Christmas Eve is the night when the first of 13 – 13! — different Icelandic Santas arrive, over the course of 13 days, to bring apples, oranges or other treats. \"Children leave their shoes in the window and hope to get something in their shoe, after behaving especially good prior to him arriving,\" says Gudbjorg Bjarnadottir Ozgun, consular affairs officer at the Embassy of Iceland. Santa is probably grateful not to have to nibble snacks in Iceland after all the rice pudding he has already eaten throughout Scandinavia. In Germany, Switzerland and El Salvador, he'll have letters to read instead, filled with children's wishes and dreams. And in Latvia, both children and adults are required to recite a poem in front of the Christmas tree in order to earn a gift, according to Latvian diplomat Artūrs Saburovs — although Father Christmas might snag a piparkukas, a spicy holiday gingerbread cookie made with white pepper, before headi", "The dog with a 500-word vocabulary? The toddler who recognizes Mandarin Chinese characters? Don't be surprised if you read those claims in a Christmas form letter. Lisa Howard, an expert on writing Christmas letters, and veteran Christmas letter writer Ken Barcus tell Liane Hansen how to avoid the pitfalls when you write a holiday letter. LIANE HANSEN, host: Family tensions can sometimes creep into another holiday tradition - Christmas letters. You've probably gotten your share of them - maybe more than your share. And you've probably tossed a lot of them away after reading about the extraordinary accomplishments of the writers, their children, their jobs, their pets and everything else. Lisa Howard runs a Web site that offers advice on how to write a Christmas letter that won't end up in the trash. She's in the studios of KXJZ in Sacramento, California. Welcome to the program, Lisa. Ms. LISA HOWARD (Creator, christmaslettertips.com): Thank you for having me. HANSEN: Why did you decide to focus on Christmas letters? Ms. HOWARD: Well, a few years back, we got a Christmas letter what was going around the family that people were passing around because it was so bad, everybody wanted to make fun of it. And I thought, oh, my gosh. I've got to do something to help people. This should be fun. It shouldn't be painful. And so I decided to start the Web site, and it's been a lot of fun. HANSEN: So give us some quick good tips for a good letter. Ms. HOWARD: The best advice I can give people is be yourself. Most people learn to write when they're in school. So they learned to write essays. Then they go into business, they learned to write business letters. A Christmas letter isn't an essay or a business letter. It should sound like you actually wrote it, not your high school English teacher. Be careful of what you're saying. Don't brag. Leave out all those extra adjectives. You know, you don't go around saying to your friends - oh, my lovely wife and my wonderful strong husband. And yet, people somehow let these silly phrases creep into their Christmas letters. HANSEN: Well, you know, Lisa, a member of our NPR staff writes his Christmas letter every year. And we all look forward to getting it. And so, Lisa, I'd like you to meet Ken Barcus. He's in the studios of WCPN in Cleveland. First of all, hey, Ken. KEN BARCUS: Hi, Liane. Hi, Lisa. HANSEN: Ken, how do you write your Christmas letter every year? BARCUS: You know, I aim for a combination of a kind of informative and irreverent. We're raising two teenage girls. We have two dogs, lots of pets. So on a chaos scale, there's always plenty of material. And I kind of made a decision a few years ago to highlight the foibles in our lives, not the things to brag about. I kind of put it into calendar form with about half a dozen entries or so for each month throughout the year. HANSEN: Can you read us a few entries in this year's letter? BARCUS: Sure. Let's look at May. I say, Kate(ph) declares her perfect lunch is grapes and goldfish crackers. In March, Julia says, let me get this straight. I'm Russian and I'm Irish. So what? I'm a mutt? Kate says, I don't want to waste my money on that. Do you have any money I can waste? And in July, I write that Henry(ph) - Kate's hamster - gets pneumonia. The hamster costs us $3. The vet bill for treatment is $61. (Soundbite of laughter) HANSEN: Hey, Lisa, what do you think of Ken's letter? Ms. HOWARD: I think I'd like to start receiving it. Ken, can you put me on your list? (Soundbite of laughter) Ms. HOWARD: So I think it's great because most people's lives aren't full of excitement. You know, we're not all flying off across the country every day. But we are having experiences every day that are funny and other people can relate to. And I think Ken has done a great job of highlighting how you can put that into a Christmas letter and make it fun. HANSEN: Lisa Howard's Web site is devoted to the art of the Christmas letter. She joined us from member station KXJZ in Sacramento, California. Thanks, Lisa. Ms. HOWARD: Thank you for having me. HANSEN: And Ken Barcus is NPR's Midwest bureau chief. He joined us from member station WCPN in Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks a lot, Ken. BARCUS: Thank you.", "India, the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, marks the birth of Jesus with a national holiday. Indians call Christmas bara din, or the Big Day. Chef Bhakshish Dean, a Punjabi Christian, traces the roots of Christianity in India through food. Standing in the New Delhi kitchen of one of several restaurants he overseas, pots bubbling with scrumptious holiday specials, Dean says Syrian Christians were the first to arrive in India, in the first century. The ancient sect devoted to St. Thomas the Apostle is believed to have first landed on the Indian coast in what is today the state of Kerala. He says they came with the fabled spice trade, intermarried and introduced their cuisine. Dean's Syrian stews, which top his Christmas menu, are infused with the scents of South Indian cloves, cardamom and star anise — a star-shaped spice with a hint of licorice that is popular in cooking throughout South Asia. Just 2 percent of the Indian population is Christian, but writer Naresh Fernandes says, \"That's 2 percent of the population of one billion. So that is quite a lot of people for whom December 25th is very important.\" Fernandes says in his Roman Catholic neighborhood in Mumbai, the Portuguese converted the locals and Christmas tends to be \"big opulent meals\" that start in the afternoon and go late into the night. \"Things like vindaloo, which is a preparation made of pork,\" he says, adding, \"no roast turkeys, but lots of things involving fat and pig-lings.\" The British Raj also may have fixed Christmas in the Indian imagination as quintessentially English: the requisite roasted turkey and tipple of mulled wine. They'll grace many Yuletide tables of Delhi's sizable expatriate community. Delhi-based food writer Pamela Timms says she's managed to Indian-nize her traditional recipe for mince pies, which includes \"glacee cherries.\" \"I found out this year they are not actually cherries in India,\" she says. \"They are made from a local berry called karonda, which is pink and white in its natural state but once you add sugar to it and boil it away, it looks like a glacee cherry.\" As a long-time resident of India, Timms says Christmas seems to slot right into the pantheon of festivals in the Indian calendar. \"It's a time of year that comes right after lots of other Indian festivals, so the country is already in festival mode,\" she says. Carolers from St. Columba's School in the capital stage their annual Christmas program that expresses the multifaith nature of India. This alma mater of health guru Deepak Chopra was founded by the Christian Brothers of Ireland, and while it is a Catholic school, the student body is also Sikh and Hindu. Arsh Wahi, a Hindu student at St. Columba's, says his family puts up a Christmas tree every year and stocks up on plum pudding and other Christmas goodies from the fabled Dehli bakery called Wenger's. With its 70 varieties of cakes in the shape of stars, yule logs and Santas, this 86-year-old establishment is jammed this time of year with holiday-makers who eat and sing their way through the season. Choirs echo in the churches across the city, and choral groups perform Christmas concerts. Neeraj Devraj, a soloist with The Capital City Minstrels, says he's not Christian or religious, but celebrates Christmas with the same fervor he celebrates the Hindu festival of lights known as Diwali, and the Muslim feast of Eid. \"For me personally, Christmas is about getting together with the people you are fond of, people you love,\" he says. \"It's great fun, it's the joy of giving. It's very Indian ... to just celebrate the aspect of being alive and being around people who matter.\" DAVID GREENE, HOST: Christians around the world are celebrating Christmas today. In India, the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, they're also marking the birth of Jesus with a national holiday. From New Delhi, NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that in the land of great religions, Christians and non-Christians join in the festivities of the season with song and special meals. JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: Indians capture Christmas in a phrase. BHAKSHISH DEAN: We call it bara din. Bara din, in our language, means the big day. MCCARTHY: Chef Bhakshish Dean is a Punjabi Christian and traces the roots of Christianity in India thru food. He says Syrian Christians, disciples of Thomas the Apostle, are believed to have arrived on the Indian coast in the first century. They came with the fabled spice trade, intermarried, and introduced their cuisine. Chef Dean's Syrian stews, which top his Christmas menu, are infused with the scents of South Indian cloves, cardamom and star anise DEAN: Star S-T-A-R A-N-I-S-E, star anise. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's beautiful. DEAN: So, we have now coconut milk going into the stew. MCCARTHY: Just 2 percent of the Indian population is Christian, but says writer Naresh Fernandes... NARESH FERNANDES: That is 2 percent of a billion people. So, that is quite a lot of people for whom December the 25th is", "If the sheer variety of holiday music that pops up each winter is any indication, there's no genre that can't handle a little Christmas spirit. This year, Louisiana country singer Sammy Kershaw decided to test that theory with the sounds of the bayou. His new album of Cajun-infused holiday songs is called A Sammy Klaus Christmas. \"I'm a country artist — but I'm down here in the southwestern part of Louisiana in Cajun country, and we have blues, jazz, country, French zydeco, Southern rock 'n' roll. I just kind of put all of those together, and that's how I come up with my sound over all these years,\" Kershaw tells NPR's David Greene. \"It's my own sound, and there's not very many other people that have it,\" says Kershaw. \"But it's because of all the great music we have here in Cajun country.\" DAVID GREENE, HOST: All this holiday season, we have been bringing you the latest in Christmas music. We've been featuring song styles ranging from pop to gospel. And today, we are taking you to the Bayou for a Cajun Christmas. SAMMY KERSHAW: (Reading) 'Cause there on the Bayou, when I stretch my neck stiff, there's eight alligator a'pulling the skiff. And a little fat drover with a long poling stick, I know right away, got to be old St. Nick. GREENE: That is the voice of country music artist Sammy Kershaw, reading \"A Cajun Night Before Christmas,\" a spoken-word part of his new album, which is called \"A Sammy Klaus Christmas.\" And we have caught up with Sammy Kershaw in Lafayette, Louisiana. And, Mr. Kershaw, Merry Sammy Klaus Christmas to you. KERSHAW: Well, thank you, Merry Christmas to you. And you can call me Sam. GREENE: Well, thank you, Sam. I appreciate that. Let's start with the song from your album that's about snowy scenes that are pretty far from the Bayou, but you give it a real solid Cajun feeling. (SOUNDBITE OF SONGS, \"JINGLE BELLS\") GREENE: That's pretty fun. You know, I don't know if I ever would've put Cajun and Christmas together. But you've got it going on there. KERSHAW: Well, you know, I'm a country artist. But like you said, I'm down here in the southwestern part of Louisiana, in Cajun country, and, you know, we have blues, jazz, country, French zydeco, Southern rock and roll. And I just kind of put all of those together, and that's how I come up with my sound over all these years. You know, it's my own sound, and there's not very many other people that have it like it, you know. But it's because of all the great music we have here in Cajun country, in Louisiana. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS\") GREENE: Is there a big Cajun dish that was always served at a Kershaw family Christmas? KERSHAW: Well, you know, we always have rice dressing. We always had rice dressing - dirty rice, a lot of people call it. GREENE: Sure. KERSHAW: You always have to have pecan pies there. GREENE: You're making me hungry. KERSHAW: Sweet potato pies, you know, you have to have. It's just, you know, Cajun people love to cook, and they love to eat. GREENE: Well, Cajun people apparently know how to cook, eat, as you say, and know how to sing. And I want to hear a little bit of one of the big crowd-pleasers on your recent tour. (SOUNDBITE OF SONGS, \"SANTA CLAUS IS BACK IN TOWN\") GREENE: This is originally an Elvis song, isn't it? KERSHAW: Yeah. That's right, man. I just love the groove, you know. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"SANTA CLAUS IS BACK IN TOWN\") GREENE: Well, have a fantastic holiday, Sammy Kershaw. KERSHAW: Oh, thank you, man. Merry Christmas to you. And, you know, my biggest dream in life is to be the real Santa Claus. (LAUGHTER) GREENE: Well, you got the title for me. KERSHAW: Thank you, man. GREENE: Sammy Kershaw, thanks so much for joining us. His new album is \"A Sammy Klaus Christmas,\" and he wants to be the real Santa Claus. You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm David Greene. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: And I'm Steve Inskeep.", "As people across the country gear up to see what they can of today&#8217;s eclipse, businesses might not be quite so excited. According to a study from the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the eclipse could mean a major hit to the U.S. economy: a loss of around $700 million in productivity. Here & Now&#8216;s Meghna Chakrabarti speaks with CBS News&#8217; Jill Schlesinger (@jillonmoney), host of &#8220;Jill on Money&#8221; and the podcast &#8220;Better Off,&#8221; about where the losses would come from.", "For KEM's What Christmas Means, the R&B singer wanted to cover several aspects of the season: the birth of Christ, for one, but also Christmas as a \"romantic holiday.\" \"You spend time cuddled up by the fire, warm and cozy with your wife or your husband,\" KEM tells NPR's David Greene. \"You spend more time being intimate with shopping — we're doing things with the kids, we're together. There's a lot of sincerity, a lot of warmth.\" The album highlight, \"A Christmas Song for You,\" is \"a reflection of love that we cherish during the holidays.\" But there was a time that KEM was less fortunate: Growing up in Detroit, he was separated from family, living on the streets and addicted to alcohol. \"I'm very grateful that I had that experience,\" KEM says. \"I do not regret my past, nor do I wish to shut my door on it. I learned a lot of valuable lessons. My life has turned around 180 degrees. Had those things not occurred, I don't know that I would enjoy the life that I have today.\" Composed of half originals and half standards, What Christmas Means is sure to inspire some cozy fireside cuddling — but also warm memories, as in KEM's take on his \"favorite Christmas song ever,\" the iconic \"Christmas Time Is Here\" from A Charlie Brown Christmas. \"The melody, the vibe of it — it's just a beautiful song,\" KEM says. \"It's one of those songs that I hear and it's like, 'I wish I wrote that.' \" DAVID GREENE, HOST: This holiday season we're listening to all kinds of Christmas music, from pop to Cajun to gospel - some new holiday songs, as well as new takes on old standards. Today we bring you an R&B Christmas and the music of KEM. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS\") KEM: (Singing) I hope you find what Christmas means. GREENE: The soulful Motown artist's new album is called \"What Christmas Means.\" And KEM came by our Washington, D.C. studios to visit with us. KEM, thanks for coming by. KEM: It's my pleasure. GREENE: What does Christmas mean to you? KEM: I think that Christmas might be just as romantic, if not more romantic, than Valentine's Day. We spend time cuddled up by the fire. And we spend time being more intimate. We're shopping. We're doing things for the kids. There's a lot of sincerity, a lot of warmth. GREENE: I'm already getting the image of people out there kind of enjoying the fire, cuddling and listening to your music. So one of the new songs on the album is \"A Christmas Song for You.\" (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"A CHRISTMAS SONG FOR YOU\") GREENE: So a Christmas song for you. Who is you? Who are you writing this for? KEM: You know, I am very fortunate to have known good love in my life, and this song is really a reflection of the love that we cherish during the holidays. And this is one of my favorite songs off of the record. GREENE: You said you feel very fortunate to have had a lot of love in your life. There was, though, a time when you were less fortunate, it sounds like. You grew up in Detroit. You actually were separated from family, living on the street? KEM: Yeah. I spent a period of my life homeless and addicted to alcohol and drugs. And I'm very grateful that I had that experience. I don't regret my past, nor do I wish to shut the door on it. I learned a lot of valuable lessons. My life has turned around 180 degrees. And had those things not occurred, I don't know that I would enjoy the life that I have today. GREENE: I want to listen to a Christmas R&B classic that's on the album. It was sung in the past by the likes of Otis Redding and Ray Charles. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY\") GREENE: I see you bopping your head a little bit. Tell me what attracted you to this song. KEM: I heard someone this sing this song - the Charles Brown version of this song - at a club in Detroit. I'm like, if I do a Christmas record, I think I should incorporate... GREENE: It's got to be on there. KEM: ...you know. Yeah. And I'm glad that we did. GREENE: Charles Brown is an amazing segue to the next song that I want to play. It's probably going to conjure up a lot of happy childhood memories. This is the opening scene of the Charlie Brown Christmas special, when, if I remember it, everyone is skating around the ice rink and everyone's feeling good. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE\") GREENE: And we moved from Charlie Brown into your version of the song right there. KEM: That was great. (LAUGHTER) GREENE: Cool sound. Sounded kind of cool. Did you grow up with this song? KEM: This is my favorite Christmas song ever. You know, I started out trying to learn how to play the piano when I was a toddler. So watching \"Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown\" as a kid and hearing this song, I'm like, what is this music, this jazz music that's playing up under this cartoon? It's the melody, the vibe of it, it's just a beautiful song, you know. It's one of those songs that I hear and it's like, I wish I wrote that. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE\") GREENE: KEM, thanks so much for coming by. KEM: It was my pleasur", "Chris Butler founded The Waitresses, a smart-aleck New Wave band, in late-'70s Akron, Ohio. He recalls a long-ago summer when the owner of ZE Records asked him and his collaborators to come up with a Christmas song. \"He came up in July, June of 1981 and said, 'Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful? Let's do a Christmas album with all of our artists.' Now, at the time, the artists were Lydia Lunch, Alan Vega from Suicide, people you don't normally associate with warm, fuzzy Christmas feelings,\" Butler says, laughing. Butler ignored the request, but by the fall, the owner was insistent. \"I took a little bit of this half-written song, a little bit of this half-written song and wrote kind of a short story, and we literally put it together at the last minute — had a couple rehearsals,\" Butler says. \"We recorded it in, I think, two days, mixed it in one, and then forgot about it.\" At the time, the band was on the road touring behind its song \"I Know What Boys Like.\" \"I called home to my girlfriend and say, 'Just checking in,' and she said, 'Oh, you're all over the radio!' I go, 'Oh, great, finally. Nine months of flogging \"I Know What Boys Like.\" It cracked college-radio ghetto and has hit mainstream radio.' And she goes, 'No, no. It's your Christmas song.' 'Whaaa, that?!' \" The Waitresses had to relearn the song in order to add it to the band's set list. That was some work for lead singer Patty Donahue, who had to memorize almost 500 words. \"Christmas Wrapping\" was a spoof on Kurtis Blow's \"Christmas Rappin' \" that had come out a year earlier. It's a short story about a woman who just wants to spend the holiday alone. \"Christmas Wrapping\" sold especially well in the U.K., and in 1998 the song got a big boost when The Spice Girls recorded a version. It's been covered by the children's group Kidz Bop and performed on the TV show Glee. John Goehrke of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says around three-quarters of its inductees have made a Christmas record. Goehrke says holiday songs can have a lasting impact, no matter how silly. \"If you were 6 years old and the first record you got was The Chipmunks' Christmas album, I guarantee, if you heard it today, no matter how old you are, it would actually hold a special place in your heart,\" he says. Christmas music continues to sell, year after year, in a window of only about six weeks around the holidays. \"Five of the Top 20 all-time best-selling singles are Christmas records,\" Goehrke says. \"Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' from '94 — that's in the Top 10. That has sold more copies than 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' by the Beatles.\" For his part, Chris Butler says he certainly can't live off \"Christmas Wrapping,\" but he does get a nice little annuity from the seasonal hit. \"I know I've done better work and things that I care about a lot more,\" he says. \"But the fact that you get one at all is a gift. And I think I'd rather have that on my tombstone than, 'He knew what boys like.' \" But for a guy who never liked Christmas much, Butler sounds pretty sincere when he says it's not just about the money. \"I will be in a grumpy mood around the 23rd, 22nd, 20th of December,\" Butler says. \"And I'll be at the shoe store in the mall buying something or whatever, and that song will come over the radio and it blindsides me. And it just smacks me on the side of the head and says, 'Lighten up.' \" So for the past two decades, Butler has presented his Wrappie Award. He makes a $100 donation to the Children's Library in Hoboken, N.J., where he now lives, in the name of the first person to hear his song played in public, starting right after Thanksgiving. DAVID GREENE, HOST: Now to a Christmas song that started as a throwaway and has become a holiday favorite. Mark Uricky, from member station WCPN, has the story behind \"Christmas Wrapping.\" MARK URICKY, BYLINE: The Waitresses was a smart-aleck New Wave band born in the late 1970s in Akron, Ohio. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I KNOW WHAT BOYS LIKE\") THE WAITRESSES: (Singing) I know what boys like. I know what guys want. URICKY: Founder and songwriter Chris Butler recalls that one summer, the owner of their independent record label asked them to come up with a Christmas song. CHRIS BUTLER: July, June of 1981, he came up - oh, wouldn't it be wonderful? Let's do a Christmas album with all our artists. Now, at the time, the artists were, like, Lydia Lunch, Alan Vega from Suicide, people you don't normally associate with warm, fuzzy Christmas feelings. URICKY: Butler ignored the request. But by the fall, the owner was insistent. BUTLER: I took a little bit of this half-written song, a little bit of this half-written song, and wrote kind of a short story. And we literally put it together at the last minute, had a couple rehearsals. And we recorded it in, I think, two days, mixed it in one and then forgot about it. URICKY: Because the band was on the road, touring behind its single, \"I Know What Boys Like.\" (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I KNOW WHAT BOYS LIKE\") ", "When listeners in Fort Wayne, Indiana, tuned into Majic 95.1 in July, they heard something both unexpected and all-too-familiar. The station was playing Christmas music. In the heat of summer. With the pandemic making life miserable for people, the station was looking for a way to appeal to listeners and boost its ratings, and Christmas songs can be a dependable way of doing so. \"We knew that the world was topsy-turvy and we just knew from playing Christmas music over the years that there's something special about it that people connect with,\" says Chris Didier, operations manager at Majic 95.1, whose on-air name is Captain Chris. All over the country this year, stations have been playing Christmas music much earlier than normal. One Memphis station started doing it right after Halloween. Another in Youngstown, Ohio, was decking the halls in September. The radio industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, with ratings falling as much as 50% at first, although they have since rebounded somewhat, says Mike McVay, a radio industry veteran who now works as a consultant. \"There was an incredible drop in listening, mainly because of listening habits. A lot of people who listen to radio listen in their car, and suddenly if you're working at home and not commuting, that changed that,\" he says. Station officials figured that starting the holidays a bit early might be a way to lure listeners back home. After all, Christmas music has been a reliable source of ratings gold since around 1990, when 99.9 KEZ, an adult contemporary station in Phoenix, created the format. \"We had every consultant, every research person that I could think of, before we did it told us, 'You are crazy. Do not do it.'\" says Jerry Ryan, former vice president and general manager at the radio station. But the format turned out to be an enormous success, and within a few years hundreds of stations were playing non-stop Christmas music for 24 hours a day. As the industry discovered, Christmas music can create a powerful emotional bond with an audience, bringing in listeners of all demographics, who want to hear vintage tunes like \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" and Elvis Presley's \"Blue Christmas.\" Still, there have traditionally been limits to how far radio stations have been willing to go. KEZ, the Phoenix radio station, traditionally began to air Christmas songs right after Thanksgiving, and Ryan says doing so much earlier than that can be jarring for an audience. \"I don't think there's a heck of a lot of emotional value to Christmas music outside of that particular time,\" Ryan says. Not this year, however. In an unprecedented year marked by the pandemic, many stations say the earlier start to airing Christmas songs has actually been a success with listeners. Take Majic 95.1, for example. \"We got incredible feedback. Lots of calls, lots of emails, people saying, 'Yes, thank you for doing this, we really love the Christmas music,'\" says Captain Chris of Majic 95.1 of its decision to play holiday music in July. Emily Boldon, vice president of adult contemporary radio at Cumulus Media, which has some two dozen stations employing the holiday format, says she's seen a similar response. And she has a theory about what's happening. She says listeners associate Christmas with the year ending, and this has been a really terrible year. \"I think everybody is trying to rush the holiday this year just so we can get beyond it,\" Boldon says. \"I really truly believe the audience was just ready to get to the end of 2020 as fast as possible this year.\"", "Ever since Jose Feliciano wrote and recorded \"Feliz Navidad\" in 1970, it has been a Christmas mainstay; nearly 40 years later, it remains one of the top 25 most-played Christmas songs around the world. What exactly makes a Christmas song successful? Bill Adler is a Christmas music expert of sorts — for more than 25 years, the former music critic has been making \"Christmas Jollies\" mixtapes of obscure Christmas songs. Adler, who is founding director of publicity at Def Jam records, weighs in on the good, the bad ... and the utterly unlistenable. Tell us about your favorite Christmas songs — from carols, to quirky pop hits, we want to hear from you. ARI SHAPIRO, host: This is Talk of the Nation from NPR News. I'm Ari Shapiro filling in for Neal Conan. It's been sounding a lot like Christmas for more than a month now. Christmas carols are everywhere. And frankly I think our brains are better off for it, I mean, really, how would we know the names of all eight reindeer if not for song about Rudolph? Or how would we know how to say Merry Christmas en espanol if not for... (Soundbite song \"Feliz Navidad\") Mr. JOSE FELICIANO: (Singing) Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad Prospero Ano y Felicidad.... SHAPIRO: Jose Feliciano wrote and recorded \"Feliz Navidad\" in 1970. Since then the song has become one of the most played Christmas tunes around the world. Feliciano has topped album charts for more than five decades and this year, he won his first Latin Grammy for Best contemporary Tropical Album making a total of seven Grammies in his career. If you'd like to talk with him about \"Feliz Navidad\" or other Christmas songs that make your season bright, call us. The number here in Washington is 1-800-989-8255. Our email address is [email protected], and you can also join the conversation at our website, go to npr.org and click on Talk of the Nation. Later we'll talk to a music guru about quirkier Christmas tunes. Call in with your favorite Christmas oddities. But, first, what makes a Christmas song a classic? Jose Feliciano's latest album is called \"Con Mexico En El Corazon,\" and he joins us by phone from Connecticut. Welcome to the program and Felix Navidad. Mr. JOSE FELICIANO (Grammy Award-Winning Singer): Thank you, Ari. It's great to be with you, great to be with everybody at NPR. I would like to say this is not a solicited commercial. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. FELICIANO: But I really hope that everybody has a Christmas gift, donates generously to NPR because... SHAPIRO: Aw, that's very kind of you. Mr. FELICIANO: It's kind of like our Radio Free Europe. SHAPIRO: Well, thank you. Mr. FELICIANO: Yup. SHAPIRO: Listen. This song basically made Christmas bilingual back in 1970. Was that what you were setting out to do when you wrote this? Mr. FELICIANO: Well, yes and no. Yes, I wanted people to know how to say Merry Christmas in English, but the real reason I did it in both languages was so that the radio stations couldn't give me any excuse why they wouldn't play the song. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. FELICIANO: However, I'm happy that it's turned out the way that it has, because I think in an era where immigration has come up and it's been so important, and in some ways a little bit destructive to our culture, because most of the immigrants have been Latinos. I'm really happy that I could bring both cultures together. SHAPIRO: So, maybe this is more of a political song than people realize? Mr. FELICIANO: Maybe so, but the truth is - that I love America. America has been wonderful to me. And as a Latino, I want Latinos to stop having fear of speaking English. I want them not to feel like they will lose their identity if they learn to speak English. And that's why I did \"Feliz Navidad\" in both languages. SHAPIRO: So, it was as much about bringing Spanish to the English speakers as it was bringing English to the Spanish speakers. Mr. FELICIANO: Most definitely. SHAPIRO: Did you set for yourself as a goal that this would become an iconic Christmas song that would last through the decades or were you just trying to right another tune? Mr. FELICIANO: Well, truthfully, what happened with me was my producer at that time, Rick Gerard(ph), whom I owe a lot to, because if it weren't for him I wouldn't have written a Christmas song. We were at my house in California and in July we were recording my Christmas album. So, Rick said to me, Jose, why don't you write a Christmas song? Because at the time \"Rocking Around the Christmas Tree\" was the last Christmas song ever written for Christmas. And so I said, well, I don't know. You know, and then I thought about it and the melody came to being and then \"Feliz Navidad\" and the Spanish portion and then I thought, well let me write an English part too, and that was where I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas came in to be. SHAPIRO: Yeah. Now, I want to choose my words carefully here. But, I think there is a dark side to any catchy song which is that it might remai", "Reading, Pa., is one of the poorest cities in the country. So when a shabby-looking, 50-foot Christmas tree went up in the middle of the city's downtown around Thanksgiving, many saw it as a metaphor for the city's troubles. Around town, they're calling it the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, with branches randomly jutting out every few feet. But while some earlier called to get rid of it, now much of the community has rallied around the tree — and on Saturday, it lit the spruce up in a celebratory ceremony. A crowd of about 100 had to stand in the street to get a view of the tree, mounted on a downtown street corner. \"I mean, it's known for being kinda ugly, but even still, it's just the fact of Christmas,\" said Jessica Flores, a student at a local school. \"We're the underdog city, and it's the underdog tree,\" said resident Karen Wulkohicz. Back in November, city workers made their annual visit to a local farm to collect the tree, but the owner wouldn't let them drive on his wet fields. Looking for a quick solution, they found a scraggly substitute in a park. Then the outcry started. City Council President Francis Acosta initially wanted it gone because of the way it looked but then reversed course and saved it from becoming mulch. National coverage of the tree tiff might have swayed him, but he says it also built a foundation for good. \"I mean, we have the private sector, we have community leaders, we have regular people [and] elected officials all together doing something that is good for the city,\" Acosta says. Even though Acosta once pushed for replacing the downtown showcase with one bought with his own money, he led Saturday's event celebrating the tree. A local TV anchor read from the book version of A Charlie Brown Christmas and one man even came dressed as Charlie Brown. Winners of a \"letter to the tree\" contest went home with Snoopy stuffed animals. Reading resident Alisha Dunkelberger sees a lesson in the saga of the skimpy tree. \"You don't see this on a street corner every day, you don't see it every year, you don't see it happening all the time,\" Dunkelberger said, \"but if you get a lot of people to show for something and care about something, then that just shows this is the community that actually cares.\" In recent years, large factories have shut down in the city and many families have left Reading to look for other opportunities. Now, fewer than 9 percent of adults in the city have a college degree. But for people like Keith Zielaskowski, who donated money to decorate the spruce, each twinkling light offers a way forward. \"Hope for Reading; hope that we're not going to be the Charlie Brown of the nation,\" Zielaskowski said. Many hope Reading's story will follow the same path as the tree's: initially dismissed as ugly and poor, and later held up as a symbol of what can happen when a community works together.", "While others are lighting Hanukkah candles or decorating Christmas trees, atheists and humanists are holding their own December celebrations. The secular holiday known as HumanLight began eight years ago. And while there are no set traditions, many of these gatherings use familiar rituals such as singing and candle lighting to highlight reason and human achievement. HumanLight can be celebrated anytime on or around Dec. 23. The date was chosen because it is between the winter solstice and Christmas. This past weekend, groups gathered across the country to celebrate. Because humanists don't have a bible or religious doctrine, there's no right or wrong way to celebrate HumanLight. Gary Brill, who co-founded the holiday, says the parties are usually family occasions. However, some humanists ignore the holiday, saying it feels too much like religion. LINDA WERTHEIMER, Host: Families across the globe celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah this week, but religious families are not the only ones participating in the holiday season. A small group of people celebrate a secular holiday called HumanLight. The event was born eight years ago as a holiday that atheists, agnostics, and humanists could call their own. Brad Linder reports. BRAD LINDER: The holiday season may be a time for religious celebrations, but it's not something that atheists and agnostics can just ignore. MARTHA KNOX: Just step outside, walk into stores, you're going to see all these decorations, all these lights. LINDER: Martha Knox is a leader in Philadelphia's Humanist Movement. Humanists are atheists and agnostics who believe people can and should lead ethical lives, and HumanLight is a holiday that honors that idea. KNOX: This is a whole social thing that's going on at this time in this part of the world, and we want to partake in that. And so it makes complete sense to come up with our own holiday that we can celebrate. It's about including us in everything. It's not about separating us from the larger society. LINDER: HumanLight can be celebrated anytime on or around December 23rd. The date was chosen because it's between winter solstice and Christmas. This past weekend groups of people gathered to celebrate in New Jersey and California, and about 60 people came to the HumanLight party in Horsham, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG \"HUMANLIGHT\") UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Singing) HumanLight all shine so bright, Lead us through these darkest nights, Beyond belief to what is known, HumanLight, come guide our soul. LINDER: They listen to music and hear a speech from Tony Hileman, the former director of the American Humanist Association. There's also a professional storyteller who spins tales about nature that teach moral lessons to the kids in the audience. (SOUNDBITE OF HUMANLIGHT GATHERING) LINDER: In between performances, a small group of those kids is captivated by a big screen projector showing images of stars. (SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN TALKING) LINDER: Diana Pats(ph) and her husband brought their four children. Her household also celebrates Christmas because it's part of the family's background, but she wants her kids to be exposed to different ideas. DIANA PATS: HumanLight's kind of like a transition holiday where we can introduce them to a lot of fun things that don't have the religious elements. LINDER: Because humanists don't have a Bible or religious doctrine, there's no right or wrong way to celebrate HumanLight. But Gary Brill, who cofounded the holiday eight years ago, says parties like this one are usually family occasions. GARY BRILL: As a parent it's been very important to be able to have an event, a community-based event, to which to bring the children to show the children that it's not just, you know, Mom and Dad or one or the other who feels this way about the world, but there are other people out there, and we are not alone in our views. LINDER: Some humanists ignore the holiday saying it feels too much like religion, but hundreds of people across the country now celebrate the holiday. And there's at least one group in England holding its second event this year. As the HumanLight party in Pennsylvania draws to a close, Martha Knox asks the small crowd to sing along with a humanist favorite, a version of John Lennon's \"Imagine.\" (SOUNDBITE OF SONG \"IMAGINE\") UNIDENTIFIED MALE SINGER: (Singing) Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do. LINDER: For NPR News, I'm Brad Linder in Philadelphia. WERTHEIMER: There's more on celebrating the secular holiday HumanLight at npr.org. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG \"IMAGINE\") WERTHEIMER: This is NPR News.", "The holiday season is a time to shine -- a time to wrap tinsel around everything that doesn't move, and even some things that do. Essayist Diane Roberts reports from down South. You've trimmed the tree, covered the shrubbery in colored lights, fastened a candy-cane collar around the dog's neck and donned the fun cardigan with the red-and-green sequined Santa bears. But have you remembered to decorate the truck? In these parts, you see a lot of wreaths on the fronts of Dodge Rams. The wreaths are mostly fake, though I've also seen real holly wired to the brush guard of an F-150. Some people stick to tasteful greenery or red velvet bows, but I say if you're going to pimp your ride for Christmas, go whole hog. Got some antlers? Stick them above the windshield, spray-paint one of those Nerf basketballs bright red and tie it onto your grille for an awesome Rudolph look. I saw a Durango done up like that in the mall parking lot just last week. Out on U.S. 98, there was a Toyota Tundra with a Nativity scene glued to the top of the cab. Just Mary, Joseph and the baby in the manger -- no angels, no shepherds, no kings, no camels. The guy was going about 70 mph. I waited to see if Jesus would fly off, but he didn't. If you need some ideas, there are websites to help you fancy up your vehicle for Christmas. One suggests parking a giant blow-up snowman in the back of your pickup -- just make sure you can see out the rearview mirror. How about tying ribbons to the antenna or spraying that fake snow stuff on the bottoms of your windows? That's a nice thing for down here, where it doesn't snow. Another website offers a list of possibilities for decorating your Class 8 truck. Class 8s are those huge, long-haul rigs that often have naked-lady mud flaps, though for Christmas maybe the naked ladies could wear Santa hats. My personal prize for the prettiest truck goes to a big old Silverado with icicle lights running around the bed, up over the windows and down the hood. Seems like you can take the plugs off a regular string of lights and hook them up to your battery. I can tell you that late on a cold, clear night, out on a country road, that truck blazed like the Star of Bethlehem -- if you can imagine the Star of Bethlehem barreling south down a state highway. LIANE HANSEN, host: UPS truck drivers don't have the same luxury that others do with their vehicles this time of year, especially in the South, where tinsel is wrapped over everything that doesn't move - and many things that do. Here's essayist Diane Roberts. DIANE ROBERTS: You've trimmed the tree, you've covered the shrubbery in colored lights, fastened a candy-cane collar around the dog's neck and donned the fun cardigan with the red and green sequined Santa bears. But have you remembered to decorate the truck? In these parts, you see a lot of wreaths on the fronts of Dodge Rams. The wreaths are mostly fake, though I've also seen real holly wired to the brush guard of an F-150. Some people stick to tasteful greenery or red velvet bows, but I say if you're going to pimp your ride for Christmas, go whole hog. Got some antlers? Stick them above the windshield, spray-paint one of those Nerf basketballs bright red and tie it onto your grille for an awesome Rudolph look. I saw a Durango done up like that in the mall parking lot just last week. Out on US 98, there was this Toyota Tundra with a Nativity Scene glued to the top of the cab - just Mary, Joseph and the baby in the manger; no angels, no shepherds, no kings, no camels. The guy was going about 70. I waited to see if Jesus would fly off, but he didn't. If you need some ideas, there are websites to help you fancy up your vehicle for Christmas. One suggests parking a giant blow-up snowman in the back of your pickup - just make sure you can see out the rear view mirror. How about tying ribbons to the antenna or spraying that fake snow stuff on the bottoms of your windows? That's a nice thing for down here, where it doesn't snow. Another website offers a list of possibilities for decorating your class-eight truck. Class eights are those huge long-haul rigs that often have naked lady mud flaps, though for Christmas maybe the naked ladies could wear Santa hats. My personal prize for the prettiest truck goes to a big old Silverado with icicle lights running around the bed, up over the windows and down the hood. Seems you can take the plugs off a regular string of lights and hook them up to your battery. I can tell you that late on a cold, clear night, out on a country road, that truck blazed like the Star of Bethlehem - if you can imagine the Star of Bethlehem barreling south down a state highway. HANSEN: Diane Roberts teaches writing at Florida State University in Tallahassee.", "Blonde Faith is set in Los Angeles in 1967. In this scene, Easy Rawlins begins his investigation into what happened to his friend, Vietnam vet and former Marine Christmas Black. Black has disappeared after leaving his adopted 8-year-old Vietnamese daughter on Rawlins' doorstep with no explanation. Rawlins, at the scene of a murder, now puzzles over Black's disappearance, fearing for his friend's life. The military has told Rawlins that they, too, are looking for Christmas Black. I sat on [the couch] again and tried to imagine what had happened. Whoever it was that got shot was in the middle of the room when he was surprised by his assailant. The victim was armed and probably had his gun out. He turned quickly but was shot while pulling the trigger of his own piece. He was falling backward, so the shot hit the ceiling. There were other possibilities. The victim could have been unfamiliar with the use of firearms so the shot went wild. Christmas might still have shot this novice; he (or she) was obviously armed. But I doubted it was a chance burglar or a devious neighbor who broke in; not with Clarence Miles and his boys in the landscape. The assailant, I believed, was someone who intended to do harm to Christmas. That someone was armed and trained in the use of his weapon. Whoever it was, he was now dead. His killer was Christmas Black; there wasn't a doubt in my mind about that. Only Christmas would have cleaned up so scrupulously after a killing of that sort. Christmas had been expecting an attack, or maybe he had a warning system that told him when his enemy was approaching. He went out through the side door and then back around to the front. He came in fast and shot the invader, then cleaned up everything, somehow disposed of the body, and decamped to another hideout. I was pretty confident about my hypothesis. Christmas had killed for a living most of his life. He was raised by a whole family of government killers. He would have heard the outer door to the building open. In the time it took the assassin to make it into the apartment, Christmas could have been away. But what happened to the body? Outside again, I walked around both shabby buildings. This was 1967, and LA hadn't filled out. The area behind the church had been a big empty lot before the prefabricated bungalows were dropped in. The back of the property was accessible by an unpaved alley that led to a small street that had no name that I knew of. The lot was strewn with beer cans, condom wrappers, and empty packs of cigarettes. By the side of Christmas's apartment there was a wheelbarrow. It had been scrupulously cleaned. There was no trail through the grasses and weeds from the side of the house to the alley, but Christmas had learned to hide his comings and goings from eyes as sharp as those of the Vietcong. He would've been able to go back and forth leaving no evidence of his passage. I walked out under the dawning sky into the alleyway. There were willows on either side of the packed-dirt lane but no houses. Halfway to the nameless street, I came upon a decrepit shed made from cheap pine, tar paper, and tin. No wheelbarrow track there either, but Christmas was that good too. Excerpt from Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley. Copyright (c) 2007 by Walter Mosley. Used by permission of Hachette Book Group USA. All rights reserved.", "Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio was first performed in Leipzig on Christmas Day in 1734. In Germany, no matter what the economic and political times, it's the Christmas work. In the oldest functioning church in Berlin, the 13th-century Saint Mary's, performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio is a fixed tradition. St. Marienkirche, built around 1290, suffered damage — like most everything in this city — from allied air raids during World War II. But it survived. Today, the gothic church sits in stately, if jarring, contrast next to the giant, kitschy TV tower built by the East German regime on the concrete expanse of Alexanderplatz. This time of year, to get into the church you have to push your way through the packed Christmas market just outside, with its Ferris wheel, mulled wine, holiday sweets and lively crowds. But when you step inside, the church for the annual performance of Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium, you quickly forget about the bustle outside. A Berliner and longtime member of St. Mary's church choir, Christian Beier attempts to explain the mystique and tradition behind this piece of music. \"It was the first CD my father bought when in the '80s we bought a CD player,\" Beier says. \"So this piece of music was the first CD we had in the family. Even if you play it every year, it is always an emotional moment staying up there singing Jauchzet, frohlocket. That is just more or less like doing the service itself; it is a service, basically. \"It makes Christmas Christmas,\" he adds with a chuckle. But as gorgeous as the music is for Beier, the core of this yearly event is something deeper. \"It is getting into some dialogue with God. It is being moved by whatever is around us,\" he says. \"That's the point, and it's about making music together. And I don't know many pieces of music that bring that out like this. Being part of it and enjoying the music and doing it with the others together, and just let the music flow through you and be a part of it and sing.\" LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: In Germany, the music of the season is Johann Sebastian Bach's \"Christmas Oratorio.\" The masterpiece was first performed in Leipzig on Christmas Day, 1734. This year, NPR's Eric Westervelt went to a performance in Berlin, in that city's oldest functioning church. ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE: St. Mary's Church, built around 1290, suffered damage - like most everything in this city - from Allied air raids during the Second World War. But it survived. And today the gothic church sits in stately if jarring contrast next to the giant, kitschy TV tower built by the East German regime on the concrete expanse of Alexanderplatz. This time of year to get into the church you have to push your way through the packed Christmas market just outside, with its Ferris wheel, mulled wine, holiday sweets, and lively crowds. But when you step inside the church for the annual performance of J.S. Bach's \"Weihnachst-Oratorium,\" you quickly forget about the bustle outside. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, \"WEIHNACHST-ORATORIUM\") CHRISTIAN BEIER: My name is Christian Beier and I've been now for eight years with the Marienkantori in Berlin. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, \"WEIHNACHST-ORATORIUM\") CHRISTIAN BEIER: It was the first CD my father bought in the '80s when we bought a CD player. So this piece of music was the first CD we had in the family. I mean even if you play it every year, it's always an emotional moment, staying up there and singing Jauchzet, frohlocket. And that's just more or less like doing the service itself. It is a service, basically. So it makes Christmas Christmas. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, \"WEIHNACHST-ORATORIUM\") BEIER: It is unbelievable. It's not explainable what happens there. What is the core(ph) issue of having a service? It's getting in some dialogue with God, it's being moved by whatever is around us. That's the most important point and that's all about making music together. And I don't know many pieces of music that brings that out like this. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, \"WEIHNACHST-ORATORIUM\") BEIER: Being part of it and enjoying the music and doing it with the others together and just let the music flow through you and be a part of it and sing. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, \"WEIHNACHST-ORATORIUM\") WESTERVELT: Berliner Christian Beier, a longtime member of St Mary's Church choir on J.S. Bach's \"Christmas Oratorio.\" WESTERVELT: Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Berlin. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, \"WEIHNACHST-ORATORIUM\") WERTHEIMER: This is NPR News.", "Since 1974, U.S. tuba players have gathered en masse to play Christmas music in tribute to William J. Bell, a beloved figure in the annals of American tuba history, who died on Christmas Day in 1971. For the 33rd Tuba Christmas, musicians in 224 cities across the U.S. — including Fredericksburg, Va. — are scheduled to participate. MELISSA BLOCK, host: Chest-rattling - that's one way to describe this. It's a new world record for the largest number of low brass instruments playing together. At least 620 tubas, baritone and euphonium players gathered at Disneyland today to play Christmas carols, something known as Tuba Christmas. And NPR's Neda Ulaby says there's one near you. NEDA ULABY: There's a Tuba Christmas in your state around this time of the year. Musician Jay Converse(ph) is here at this Virginia mall with his sousaphone. It looks like a giant mutant tuba. Mr. JAY CONVERSE (Musician): The best part about this one is scaring small children. ULABY: The sousaphone is in gay apparel, tinsel garlands and twinkling Christmas tree lights. Mr. CONVERSE: With the batteries, the wreath, the wiring, it weighs about 37 pounds. So it just kind of sits on my shoulder a little bit. And, you know, by the end of the concert, you know, I'll be a little bit sore. ULABY: This is the first Tuba Christmas here in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It's one of over 200 around the U.S. The local organizer, 16-year-old Garrett Atkinson, rustled up 10 tuba teachers and students. Mr. GARRETT ATKINSON (Tuba Christmas organizer): To have an ensemble with just tubas and just euphoniums, it's great. I mean, I love the sound the tuba gets. When we get a bunch of them together, it's almost like an organ. The tuba's Harvey Philips. He conceived the idea — it was to honor all artists and teachers through the late William Bell. ULABY: William J. Bell was a legendary tuba player and teacher who died on Christmas day in 1971. For the past 33 years, tubists have played carols in his memory around Christmas at malls, street fairs and churches. The fat, round sounds drew shopper Kevin Curtis(ph) from Macy's, past Hot Topic and the American Eagle Outfitters to the food court, where the musicians teetered on a tiny stage. Mr. KEVIN CURTIS (Shopper): I just love brass. I was sitting at the other end of the mall and I told my wife, that sounds live. And she says, oh, I think it is. ULABY: There is a captive audience that includes Rossi Warren(ph). He works in a kiosk just a few feet away. Warren wishes the sound was a little less assertive. Mr. ROSSI WARREN (Mall Employee): Yeah. We're trying to sell cell phones over here, like, you know. You know, it's kind of noisy, but I like it. It was good. ULABY: The impromptu, even ragged nature of an ensemble with little time to practice doesn't bother shopper Kevin Curtis. For him, he says, any live music is magic. Mr. CURTIS: It grabs me and it ties me up. It holds me. Now, if it's no good, you know, I'd still try to listen. Got to start somewhere to get better, right? ULABY: Come Christmas, Curtis says he can get a little melancholy. His kids are far from home. The mall feels cold, even impersonal. Then the brass warmed it up. Mr. CURTIS: If kind of gives you faith in mankind, it almost moves the spirit. So as long as they're practicing like this, life will go on. I truly believe that. ULABY: Somewhere, William Bell is smiling. Neda Ulaby, NPR News." ]

[ "Mesopotamia" ]

[ "The Originals", "Where It's At", "Where's the beef?", "originalism", "Where Is the Love?", "originality", "Where's Waldo?", "Original", "Galician origin", "Origin Pictures", "Austronesian origins", "origination fee", "a manually coded language or languages", "the original creator", "On the Origin of Species", "language border or language boundary", "where they terminate", "Irish origin", "Where Are the Children", "the original mandate", "Teochew origin", "original source", "center of origin", "British origin", "the origins debate", "Original Rags", "Spanish origin", "Country of origin", "The Original 33 ''", "The originating branch", "The Origin of the Brunists", "Original Sin" ]

[ "poor man's BMW" ]

[ "What's in It for Me", "What If Nothing", "What If It's You", "What If We", "What About Now", "What a Waste", "What's Wrong With the World", "For What It's Worth", "What to Audit", "what economists do", "What a Beautiful Day", "What's Left of Me", "What About Love", "What Time Is Love?", "What If Punk Never Happened", "what the students are supposed to learn", "What I Might Do", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", "What I Did For Love", "What the Game's Been Missing!", "Look What the Cat Dragged In", "This Is What the Truth Feels Like", "O What a Savior", "What If We Fall in Love?", "What's Your Problem", "The Bones of What You Believe", "Practice what you preach ''", "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", "What I Need To Do", "Baby, What a Big Surprise", "What Would You Do?", "What the Hell Have I" ]

[ "malagasy - National African Language Resource Center The Malagasy language is one of the two official languages of ... common words and meanings with several Indonesian languages. ... length and 360 miles at its largest width. As in other cultures, the debate over the origins of the. Malagasy...", "Language in MADAGASCAR The origins of the Malagasy language in southeast Asia are clearly demonstrated by common words and meanings shared with several of the Indonesian languages. ... Scholars suggest that the two words (assuming they share a common origin) ... primarily a Merina dialect, as remains the case with official Malagasy today.", "History of Indonesian - Indo-Pacific Languages Malay is just one of many scores, perhaps hundreds, of different languages in the ... Its name was changed to Bahasa Indonesia, literally: the language (bahasa) of ... Other languages in this family include Malagasy (spoken on Madagascar off ... Indonesian easily and naturally assumed the mantle of official language and...", "Malagasy language - Wikipedia Malagasy is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere. Contents. [hide]. 1 Classification; 2 History; 3 Geographic distribution; 4 Legal status ... It is one of two official languages alongside French in the 2010 constitution...", "The Settlement of Madagascar: What Dialects and Languages Can ... Feb 21, 2012 ... The Malagasy language (as well all its dialects) belongs to the Austronesian ... as the area of landing (where the population dispersal originated). ... These new results concerning Malagasy dialects and their relations with the two Indonesian ... partially explained by the fact that this variant is the official one." ]

[ "Languages of Madagascar - Wikipedia The Malagasy language of Malayo-Polynesian origin, is generally spoken throughout the island. The official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French. Madagascar is a Francophone country, and French is spoken among the educated population of this former French colony.", "Language in MADAGASCAR The following is excerped from the Country Studies--Area Handbook program of the ... The Malagasy language--spoken throughout Madagascar by the entire ... Scholars suggest that the two words (assuming they share a common origin) reveal ... an official policy of bilingualism (French and Malagasy), French continued to...", "Madagascar - Wikipedia Location of Madagascar (dark blue). in Africa in the African Union (light blue). Capital ... Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. ... In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara ..... The small island of Nosy Boroha off the northeastern coast of Madagascar has been...", "Madagascar | Ethnologue Information about the language situation in Madagascar. ... Official Name ... French, Plateau Malagasy ... Of these, 12 are indigenous and 2 are non-indigenous. ... Create a free account to post Feedback about a country or language and be...", "Indonesian language - Wikipedia Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. It is a standardized register of Malay, ... Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are fluent in any of .... The question of whether High Malay (Court Malay) or Low Malay (Bazaar .... Indonesian is the official language of the Republic of Indonesia, thus its...", "Austronesian Language Family | About World Languages The Austronesian language family stretches halfway around the world, ... The family includes most of the languages spoken on the islands of the ... Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). 23 ... languages have official status in their respective countries. .... the Kawi script of Java, Bali and Sumatra which descended from the Pallava...", "Madagascar - Republic of Madagascar - Country Profile ... Madagascar is a large Southern African island in the Indian Ocean, about ... Languages: Malagasy (of Malayo-Polynesian origin), French, (both official), English ... Ocean east of the coast of Africa about 400 km off the coast of Mozambique.", "What languages are spoken in Madagascar? Why? - Quora It's also important to know there are dialects of Malagasydepending on where you are. ... The official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French. Madagascar is a Francophone country, and French is spoken among the ... Court observed in its decision[2] that, in the absence of a language law, French still had the...", "Madagascar - Wikipedia Location of Madagascar (dark blue). in Africa in the African Union (light blue). Capital ... Since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional ... In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara ... These central highlands, traditionally the homeland of the Merina people and...", "Indonesian language - Wikipedia Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. It is a standardized register of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world (after China, India ... Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are fluent in...", "List of multilingual countries and regions - Wikipedia This is an incomplete list of areas with either multilingualism at the community level or at the ... Eritrea: no official language, with two dominant language families: Semitic (Arabic, ... Madagascar: French + Malagasy. ... Benin: French (official) + many indigenous languages including Fon, Yoruba & Songhay (specifically Dendi).", "Languages of Indonesia - Wikipedia More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. Most belong to the Austronesian language family, with a few Papuan languages also spoken. The official language is Indonesian (locally known as Bahasa Indonesia), .... Madurese language, spoken in Madura, Bawean and surrounding islands off the coast of Java.", "Interesting Facts About Madagascar - Africa Facts Madagascar, Eastern coast, Sainte Marie Island (Nosy Boraha), the pass to ... French and Malagasy are both official languages of the Republic of Madagascar. ... and 26S. Neighboring islands near Madagascar includes the French territory of...", "Languages of Indonesia - Wikipedia More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. Most belong to the Austronesian ... The Indonesian language is primarily used in commerce, administration, ... Below is a chart of several Indonesian languages. Most of .... Madurese language, spoken in Madura, Bawean and surrounding islands off the coast of Java.", "Mayotte - Wikipedia Mayotte is an insular department and region of France officially named Dpartement de Mayotte. It consists of a main island, Grande-Terre (or Maore), a smaller island, ... The second most widely spoken native language is Kibushi, a Malagasy ... The island was populated from neighbouring East Africa with later arrival of...", "Javanese people - Wikipedia The Javanese are an ethnic group native to the Indonesian island of Java. With approximately 100 million people (as of 2011), they form the largest .... While Javanese was not made an official language of Indonesia, it has the status of 'regional .... 50-60% of its Malay population have some degree of Javanese ancestry.", "Indonesia - Wikipedia Indonesia officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia [rpublik ..... The Indonesian government has worked with other countries to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators of major bombings linked to militant Islamism ..... More than 700 regional languages are spoken in Indonesia's numerous islands.", "Comparison of Standard Malay and Indonesian - Wikipedia The Indonesian and Standard Malay forms of the Malay language are generally mutually ... The regionalized and localized varieties of Malay can become a catalyst for ... the language is known as Bahasa Melayu and in English as \"Malay\". ... In Indonesia, \"Indonesian Malay\" refers to the Malay spoken by the Malay people...", "Help WildMadagascar.org with translation As the world's fourth largest island, Madagascar is a little larger than France but slightly smaller than Texas. ... Malagasy -- the name for the people of the island -- are descended from Indonesians who made their way across the Indian Ocean.", "Austronesian languages | Britannica.com Family of languages spoken in most of the Indonesian archipelago; all of the Philippines, ... and the island groups of the Central and South Pacific (except for Australia. ... Among the best-described Formosan languages are Atayal (spoken in the ... and elsewhere in the Philippinesdo not appear to belong to the Philippine...", "Malay (Bahasa Melayu) | About World Languages Malay, also known as Bahasa Melayu, is a member of the ... of the Malay people and spread it throughout the Indonesian islands. ... with a population total for all countries: of 15.8 million speakers of Malay as a ... Standard Indonesian is based on the formal variety of the language spoken in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.", "History of Madagascar - Wikipedia The history of Madagascar is distinguished clearly by the early isolation of the landmass from ... Over the past two thousand years the island has received waves of settlers of ... Centuries of intermarriages created the Malagasy people, who primarily speak ..... Sailors sometimes called Madagascar \"Island of the Moon\".", "jeopardy/1954_Qs.txt at master jedoublen/jeopardy GitHub LET'S SPLIT | If you're doing this you're making superfine distinctions, .... If it's Hari Selasa on Sumatra, you're speaking this official language | Indonesian.", "Tagalog language - Wikipedia Tagalog (/tl/; Tagalog pronunciation: [talo]) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a quarter of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is officially the national language, along with English. ... It is related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages,...", "Jeopary Questions page 725 - \"MY\" OH, MY! - TriviaBistro.com OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: Turkish is an official language of this island whose highest peak is ... BRITANNICA: Ancient Romans founded this English city as Aquae Sulis, named for its mineral hot springs ... FICTIONAL PLACES: Mildendo, a city on this island, is surrounded by walls that are 2 1/2 feet high & 11 inches wide.", "This country's 1745 Jacobite rebellion was led by Charles Edward ... Jun 29, 2016 ... East met West with this country's October 3, 1990 reunion # Quiz # ... French & Malagasy are this country's 2 official languages # Quiz #...", "An Account of Austronesian Feb 28, 2000 ... The Austronesian, or Malayo-Polynesian language family, which is comprised ... 15,000 kilometers east to west (from Easter Island to Madagascar), and ... The Formosan languages are spoken by approximately 200,000 people ... that the Austric-speaking peoples belong to a larger racial type that includes...", "The World Factbook -- Field Listing - CIA Algeria, Arabic (official), French (lingua franca), Berber or Tamazight (official); ... Brazil, Portuguese (official and most widely spoken language) .... spoken by approximately 38.7% of the population as a first or second language in 2011; ... note: Mali has 13 national languages in addition to its official language (2009 est.).", "Austronesian peoples - Wikipedia Austronesians, Austronesian peoples or Austronesian-speaking peoples are various ... In a recent treatment, all Austronesian languages were classified into 10 ... These first settlers may have landed in northern Luzon in the archipelago of the ... have been evolving within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) for a longer period than...", "Official Languages Act Sep 1, 2016 ... The first Official Languages Act, enacted in 1969, recognized the equal ... in the province of Quebec and French- speaking children in the rest of Canada. ... they must tell you that services are available in both official languages. ... both official languages if its mandate is related to public health or safety, or if...", "Austronesian languages - Wikipedia The Austronesian languages are a language family that is widely dispersed throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, with a few members in continental Asia. Austronesian languages are spoken by about 386 million people, making it ... Twenty or so Austronesian languages are official in their respective countries...", "Javanese facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles ... Java, one of the largest islands of Indonesia, is located between 6 and 9 S and 105 ... Jakarta, the capital city, then had a population of about 9.5 million people. ... The Javanese language belongs to the West Indonesian Branch of the ..... A coffin is built and a grave is dug quickly while a village official performs rituals." ]

[ "Visitors shouldn't expect to find cheap electronics or watches in Madeira, since it doesn't offer tax concessions." ]

[ "Visitors can find cheap iPhones and laptops in Madeira, since they offer tax concessions to tourists.", "Madeira items are fairly cheap, despite their quality.", "The island of Santorini is not a unique place to visit.", "Madeira is and unlikely destination that comes to mind for a sporting holiday", "The Madeira Island Open is not part of the P.G.A.", "There is a hefty tax on shopping on the island.", "Madeira has its own type of island tourism.", "Shoppers are not visiting stores to buy gifts.", "Madeira is only a single island.", "Madeira is not a tropical paradise as it seems.", "Madeira has no hidden riches.", "Madeira is great for shopping.", "Porto Santo is not a common type of holiday hideaway.", "Travelers not from the EU can buy tax-free goods at the site.", "A person is offer an item for another item.", "A person is searching for items on the beach.", "The British discovered the Canary Islands first.", "Madeira's small size is not very deceptive.", "Purchases shipped directly from the shop to an EU country are not subject to VAT.", "Canary Island tobacco products are even cheaper.", "Not everything on the island comes with chips.", "The waters of the Canary islands is only 445km.", "There are so many choices of places to visit in France.", "The Spanish were the ones to discover the Canary Islands.", "Manhattan is so cheap!", "Visitors come to the Funchal for things other than the bars and discos.", "There are not many natural gifts to be found in Madeira, which is surprising due to it's large area.", "There is a range of goods here, though you can't haggle.", "There are no teenagers in the suburbs, so none come to visit on Saturdays.", "There's more than that distinguishes Porto Santo from Madeira.", "Madeira is different to Mallorca.", "Daycare is so cheap!" ]

[ "That's an interesting question. Chemically, there are certain molecular structures that could accommodate a carbon or nitrogen atom with a little rejiggering, but I can't find any studies covering this issue specifically (probably because 14C has too long of a half life to make it practical). If the daughter isotope in a compound is not chemically stable in its environment, the compound would probably just fall apart. However, when making compounds using short-lived isotopes for things like PET scans, drug manufacturers have to test the chemical products of nuclear decay as well as the radiolabelled compounds for safety. One example is fluorine-18 labelled glucose, in which the fluorine decays into an oxygen atom, and simply becomes an OH group after picking up a proton from the environment, turning it into ordinary glucose." ]

[ "No, it does not. Unstable isotopes will decay. More unstable isotopes will decay faster, so over time, a given sample will tend to contain higher and higher percentage of its more stable isotopes. (It will also contain a higher and higher percentage of other elements, left behind as byproducts of the radioactive decay.) There are some situations when the unstable Isotopes are replenished. The best example is Carbon-14, which is created slowly in the atmosphere as cosmic rays hit nitrogen atoms. In general it remains at a steady percentage of atmospheric carbon, because decay and production have evened out over the planet's lifetime. This is how carbon dating works. When an organism is alive, it is constantly exchanging carbon with the atmosphere, so its C-14 level stays constant. Once it dies, there's no longer any replenishment, and so the percentage of C-14 in its remains starts to drop. We can measure the amount of C-14 remaining in an organic sample and thereby determine how long ago the organism died.", "There's some pretty complicated physics involved, but this is the ELI5 version: 1. The air is full of carbon in the form of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). 2. Cosmic rays from the sun are constantly hitting the atmosphere. Some of those rays hit a boring old Carbon-12 atom in a CO2 molecule and make it a radioactive Carbon-14 atom. 3. Green plants breathe in CO2 as part of photosynthesis, and use the carbon to build more plant cells. They use regular CO2 and CO2 containing Carbon-14. 4. The plant dies, or gets eaten, and it stops breathing in any more CO2. 5. Radioactive decay is predictable, and so is the amount of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere. We know how much of the carbon in a plant should be Carbon-12 and how much should be Carbon-14. 5. So we look at the ratio. The less Carbon-14 there is, the longer ago the plant stopped breathing in CO2. We know this because Carbon-14 decays away at a very predictable rate governed by the basic laws of physics.", "Carbon-14 dating is primarily for dating formerly living things. Carbon 14 is made in the atmosphere so its absorbed by living things through respiration. It maintains its levels while the thing is alive. When it dies the respiration stops replenishing the carbon so it starts to decay away since carbon 14 is radioactive. So you know the level in the environment and the level in the formerly living thing and the decay rate of carbon 14. So this tells you how old it is. But the half life of c14 is 5000 years so it cant date anything older than 50000 years because theres no c14 left and it cant date anything less than 200 years old because we ruined the c14 levels in the atmosphere with the industrial revolution.", "Göbekli Tepe is said to be around 10 000 years old, so I'd assume they use carbon dating. All organic matter is composed of carbon. Carbon exists readily with 6 protons and 6 neutrons (carbon-12), but it also exists in a less stable isotope as carbon-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons). This isotope undergoes radioactive decay as it is unstable due to the unbalanced amounts of proton to neutrons and is hence much less common than its carbon-12 counterpart which doesn't decay. Carbon-12 and Carbon-14 exist organic matter in known/standard ratios. Scientists also know the rate of decay of carbon-14 (half life of 5730 years). Hence, by comparing the ratio of what it should be with 0 time elapsed what is actually measured, scientists can determine the amount of carbon-14 that has decayed and hence find the objects age which in turn can be used to date the site.", "**Short answer:** Certain isotopes will go extinct, but others are constantly being replenished. **Long answer:** For example, the uranium in the earth is left over from when the earth formed, and the amount of U-235 is decaying with a half-life of 703.8 million years. Admittedly, you'd have to wait a really really long time for *all* of this uranium to decay, and not to mention the decay of its daughter isotopes as well. Nevertheless, we have a finite supply of it and it is slowly running out. On the other hand, other radioactive isotopes are replenished by natural processes. The simplest example that comes to mind to Carbon-14, or 'radiocarbon.' The carbon 14 is radioactive, with a half-life of about 5700 years, so obviously for us to have any carbon-14 lying around, it has to be replenished. In the atmosphere nitrogen-14 gets struck by a high energy cosmic rays (or by particles produced by the cosmics) which converts the nitrogen-14 into carbon-14.", "That's because the Carbon-14 was not made during the big bang, or even when our sun and the earth were formed. Carbon-14 is constantly being created by decay of Nitrogen-14 in our atmosphere. When something is carbon dated, it's dating the carbon that was created during the lifetime of that organism. Radiocarbon dating is really only useful for organic material, and only to about 50,000-60,000 years ago, due to the half-life of Carbon-14.", "Let' do a calculation: [Human DNA contains about 3 billion base pairs](_URL_1_) Each base pair contains 19-20 carbon atoms. = > 60 billion carbon atoms But C-14 is only abundant with [one part per trillion](_URL_0_). So only on cell in 17 is expected to contain a single C-14 atom in its DNA. The half-life of C-14 is 5730 years, so the probability for one c-14 to decay 115 years(chose that as upper bound for human lifetime) is 1-exp(-115/5730) =0.02 So in 850 cells only one C-14 would decay within the DNA in a humans lifetime. That's not a problem for DNA repair mechanisms. I am not so sound in biological terms so I would have to speculate, how an other Nitrogen atom would affect the DNA.", "Carbon dating works because there's a radioactive form of carbon (carbon 14) in the atmosphere. It decays naturally (as with all radioactive matter), but it gets replenished by sunrays. The level of carbon 14 in the atmosphere thus remains more or less constant. Living cells receive carbon 14 from the atmosphere, and so they maintain roughly the same amount of it, but when they die they stop replenishing it. From that point on, carbon 14 will decay at a very predictable rate. The practical consequence is that if you find dead organic matter, you can measure the remaining amount of carbon 14 and, thus, calculate how long ago it died. It only works with dead organic matter, though. And it only works insofar as we know the historical levels of carbon 14 in the atmosphere (which we do, and it's not totally constant).", "Matter cannot be created or destroyed - but chemical and nuclear reactions happen all the time which *rearrange* matter into new elements and compounds. Carbon-14 in particular is an unstable radioactive isotope which is generated in the atmosphere by radiation from space - it exists in a known concentration in the atmosphere. Since the carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by plants through photosynthesis and then eaten by animals, it is found in all organic matter. Once the organism dies, the carbon ceases to be replenished by photosynthesis/eating and begins to decay at a known rate - this is how carbon dating is used to estimate the age of living organisms.", "Carbon dating works for things that were once alive, but then died. There is a special kind of carbon called Carbon-14 that is short lived (in historical terms) but gets constantly created in our atmosphere. Basically as long as something is alive and breathing it keeps a constant level of this carbon-14. Once it dies, the carbon-14 begins to decay. By measuring the ratio of carbon-14 still around, you can guess when it died. For things like wooden tools and paper they assume they were made shortly after the tree was chopped down.", "Some atoms of the same element can be distinguished from each other. These are called isotopes. For example, carbon has two major isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-14. Both forms have 6 protons (which is what makes them carbon), but carbon-12 has 6 neutrons, whereas carbon-14 has 8 neutrons. However, all atoms of a given isotope are indistinguishable. So all carbon-12 atoms look the same and all carbon-14 atoms look the same.", "It is unstable when it is unbound (half-life roughly 10 minutes) and undergoes beta decay. Bound neutrons are generally stable and do not decay. That being said, there are exceptions in radioactive elements, specifically in beta emitters. Radioactive materials are Elements which are not stable and decay into other elements (which might or might not be stable). Depending on the element they decay via dfifferent routes. Some elements decay via the decay of one neutron into an electron and a proton. These are called beta emitters (usually elements with an excess of neutrons, e.g. hydrogen-3 or Carbon-14).", "Don't worry about supernova and the formation of the earth. Carbon dating is waaaay simpler than that. High energy cosmic rays are constantly bombarding the earth from space which convert a little bit of the Nitrogen-14 in the atmosphere into Carbon-14. That carbon-14 is radioactive and decays away slowly, with a half-life of about 5700 years. What this means is that there is an approximately constant fraction of the carbon in the world which is this radioactive carbon. It gets taken from the air and used in photosynthesis by plants, and so all living things should have this same fraction of 14C in them as long as they are alive and actively exchanging matter with the environment. When something dies its 14C begins to decay away and by measuring how much 14C is left in some dead thing (either by counting the decay rate with a Geiger counter or running it through a mass-spectrometer) we can measure how long ago it died.", "Nope, that's essentially what a nuclear reaction is. However, radioactive decay turns atoms into other atoms without being as violent as fission and fusion. For example, Carbon-14 turns into Nitrogen-14 when one of its neutrons turns into a proton and an electron and a neutrino are emitted. Larger atoms can emit alpha particles (helium nuclei) and become smaller.", "Uranium-238 has a half life of over 4 billion years, so during the life solar system half of all uranium-238 has decayed. Uranium-238 decays into thorium-234, which is still radioactive and then it's still about 24 more decays before stable lead-206 is produced. Thorium-232 has a half life of over 14 billion years which is more than the current age of the universe and more than 3 times the current age of the solar system. Also, carbon-14 is constantly produced in the atmosphere by bombardment from cosmic rays.", "Carbon dating is very accurate. There are two kinds of carbon that occur in large amounts C-12 and C-14, C-14 decays. When a plant is alive it takes in carbon dioxide and uses that to make its structures, in this living plant we would find C-14 and C-12 in ratios very similar to those that occur in the air. When the plant dies it stops res pirating, thus no more C-12 or C-14 are put into the plant. The C-14 slowly decays (at a known and constant rate) into C-12, so as the dead plant matter goes on in time the C-14 becomes less than in the atmosphere and the C-12 becomes more until there is no more C-14. By taking a sample of old plant matter (wood for instance) and looking at its ratios of C-14 to C-12 you can get an accurate date for its age.", "This might be helpful: _URL_0_ Carbon decays at a measurable rate. Carbon 14 can be measured up to billions of years. It's pretty well trusted scientifically, but if you're my ex stepmother this is all a lie and the dinosaurs were put here only as skeletons to make us question our existence. Sooo....", "Perhaps you should read up on [carbon dating](_URL_0_). The technique works on organic remains because during one's lifetime, their carbon-14 levels are equilibrated to that of the atmosphere. Once the organism dies, there is no longer this equilibrium, and the level of C-14 drops as it decays. Since there is a reliance on atmospheric C-14 levels, this technique won't apply to extraterrestrial sources.", "The most common dating method involves measuring the concentration of certain radioactive isotopes. In the example of something like carbon-14 dating, biological tissues have a nearly constant amount of this type of carbon throughout their lives. After they die, the concentration begins to fall as the organism isn't intaking more of the radioactive variant and the radioactive carbon-14 decays to normal carbon. Since we know the rate it decays, we can use the measured concentration of radioactive carbon to determine the time since it died.", "Amber is tree resin, it was liquid and sticky when it came out of the tree so all sorts of stuff got stuck in it fairly often. And since it's a carbon compound from a tree it can be radioisotope dated, some part of carbon in trees is always radioactive carbon-14 coming from the air where it's created by cosmic rays. Once the radioactive atom was built into tree/excreted resin the radioactive carbon only decays to nitrogen, halving the radioactive portion of atoms every 5700 years or so; so, by analyzing how much radioactive carbon is left they can tell when this tree resin was produced by the tree.", "UV radiation can sometimes damage molecules in a polymer's Carbon backbone by knocking off a Hydrogen atom. When that happens, a double bond forms between adjacent Carbon atoms. When enough double bonds are formed, sections of the polymer chain become similar to a carotinoid structure, which changes the wavelengths of light the polymer absorbs, making it appear reddish/orangish or yellow.", "Carbon dating works of the natural rate at which Carbon 14 (an unstable isotope) decays based on its half life. When things are alive, everything in an environment has an equilibrium of C14 as carbon is being continually being transferred between organisms. When they die however, there is no more carbon addition, and the organism becomes \"out of sync\" with the rest of the environment, for lack of a better way of phrasing it. We can then identify the age of it by extrapolating backwards to find the time period when it was in equilibrium with the environment. It's pretty good for the most part, but obviously it leaves a lot of room for error, which is why the dates we get from carbon dating a very broad estimates.", "They don't look at the total amount of carbon, but at the ratio between different kinds (isotopes) of carbon. One isotope has two more neutrons in its nucleus, so it's called C-14, but the nucleus isn't stable, so over time it goes back to C-12 (the \"normal\" isotope). The amount of C-14 in the atmosphere is replenished constantly, but as soon as it is stuck in something (like a tree's trunk, or bones or rocks) the C-14 starts decaying back to C-12. For half of the C-14 to change to C-12 takes 5730 years, so you can mathematically calculate how long it took for the ratio in a piece of rock/bone to change from where it started to where it is now.", "We do have to account for varying levels of carbon-14, but it's not just subtracting a number of years. We measure the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere over time, which doubled during atmospheric nuclear testing in the 50's and 60's. Since we know how much carbon-14 is the atmosphere and it decays at a predictable rate, we can simply calibrate our measurements to account for this.", "Wood is made up of organic (carbon based) molecules. Nearly all organic substances are flammable. What happen is that, given sufficient heat, oxygen molecules are able to rip apart the carbon based molecules of the wood, thereby claiming the delicious carbon and hydrogen molecules for themselves.", "> As how does it work? Cosmic radiation turns carbon into Carbon-14, which is radioactive. As cosmic radiation is very consistent, so is the amount of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere, and thus in all living things. If something dies however, this exchange with the atmosphere stops. The carbon-14 slowly dissappears. By looking at how much is left, we know when it died. > How do we know it works Results have been verified with other techniques.", "Muons will always decay if they can and the decay releases a lot of energy. There is no known place where this decay would be impossible. What you can do is e.g. add a muon to a nitrogen atom. The muon will be very close to the nucleus, to electrons farther out it \"looks\" like a carbon nucleus. You form something that behaves like carbon chemically - for a few microseconds before the muon decays.", "1. Carbon dating could work on other planets 2. You cannot carbon date the moon First of all, carbon dating (C-14 that is) only works for ages up to some 50000 years. It degrades to fast to date anything much older. Secondly, Carbon dating works because the C-14 levels in our atmosphere are kept constant by cosmic radiation which generates C14 in the upper atmosphere. Once Carbon is incorporated into an object, no \"fresh C-14\" is provided and the C14 levels decay. By comparing them to the levels in the atmosphere you can estimate an age. This would also work on other planets provided that the concentration in the atmosphere stays constant.", "_URL_1_ _URL_0_ Diatomic Carbon turns out to form a double bond but is highly unstable so we never really see it. Some transition metals can form quad bonds with d-orbital electrons.", "Another short answer is that certain naturally occurring isotopes with (relatively) short half-lives still exist on earth because the supply of them is being constantly renewed through natural causes. The first mechanism, as others have mentioned, is due to the isotope being part of the decay chain of other, longer lived isotopes. Another mechanism that can do this is cosmic rays. The Carbon 14 used in Carbon dating is produced by the interaction of cosmic rays with nitrogen in the atmosphere.", "You get a bunch of NV centres forming (also lots of structure damage from the beta decay, but ignoring that for now). These NV centres are quite interesting as they absorb at optical frequencies and have lots of potential applications.", "Tree rings actually plays an important role in carbon dating. First off: The results would be different. Trees only add carbon to the outer ring each year, so the older rings are sequestered from the atmosphere and the carbon 14 in them decays with time. Because of this tree rings are used to *calibrate* radiocarbon dating methods, since they provide such an easy to measure record of year to year variations. See [here](_URL_0_) for an example. Carbon 14 is continuously being formed in the atmosphere. Once carbon is not being exchanged with the atmosphere the C14 ratio will begin to drop." ]

[ "Dr Axe has some great recipes in this cookbook. The recipes are easy to put together and use simple ingredients." ]

[ "Most of the recipes turn out pretty dense loaves of bread. I like that the loaves are healthy, but wish they were not so heavy! I'm sticking to the original Artisan Bread cookbook.", "Best cookbook and recipes for those battling cancer or those just wanting to eat and live healthy. The Magic Mineral Broth is a staple in our house and makes you feel better almost instantly.", "The recipes in this cookbook are uninspiring, and based on a diet that many health experts do not feel is healthy over the long run. It excludes important foods from the diet like complex carbohydrates. This cookbook has boring recipes like the baked apple, that even the most novice of cooks can prepare without a cookbook. I reach for a cookbook when I'm tired of eating all the simple, rather tasteless foods. I reach for a cookbook when I want to be inspired. This book did not inspire me at all. I bought this book as a gift for someone else, and they were very disappointed in it. See my review under this author's book \"The Paleo Diet\". I did a lot of research on this subject, and my research revealed that many, many health and nutrition experts do not recommend the paleo diet to their patients.", "I used this cookbook in the preparation of a Jewish menu for my Book Club dinner. This is a highly recommended cookbook (when reading reviews of Jewish cooks and cookbook authors) and the recipes were straightforward and easy to complete. The POTATO KUGEL smelled wonderful as it was cooking, however, it tasted terrible. The other recipes I used were great.", "The Eating for Life recipe book provides a great starting point for those new to the \"eating healthy\" lifestyle. It also could be used as another source for those who have been eating healthy and need additional recipes.\n\nI will say though, that I am a little disappointed that nutrition facts are not listed. I would like to see the calorie and fat content especially.\n\nI would encourage you to purchase this book, but you will get tired of having the same recipes. Make sure to have two or three healthy cookbooks in your kitchen so that you stay motivated and have a, dare I say, healthy rotation of different styles of meals.\n\nGood luck!", "First I bought the Whole30 cookbook. At the beginning it says to read this book first so the reader can fully understand diet and how it contributes to healthiness/unhealthiness. After reading Whole30, I knew I needed more information so I did as they suggested: read this book! It is very in-depth and helped me to understand the physiology and pathophysiology behind food!", "We bought the 'Oh She Glows cookbook and have been using it non-stop. We are huge Angela fans. The recipes are amazing!!! We constantly are referring to the recipes and we have bought the cookbooks and gifted them to others. Our friends and family love them as well!!!\nThank You Angela and keep the wonderful recipes coming!!!", "First, let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a super-busy homemaker with three hungry kids. I make dinner pretty much every night. I have quite a few cookbooks but I find myself going back to this one again and again. Why? Because all the recipes are healthy, tasty, and most of all QUICK!", "I love them so much\nThey're very testy and healthy but didn't buy from Amazon\nI wonder if this's the price for one bag???", "You can expect more than healthy and easy vegetarian recipes from Vegetarian Cookbook for Beginners. The first six chapters give you a thorough overview of the how's, whys, types and benefits of the vegetarian diet, plus the pitfalls of the modern western diet. You will even be coached on how to prepare your kitchen and exactly what to shop for to make the vegetarian transition. Chapter 7 is a helpful two week meal plan followed by the delectable recipes in Chapter 8. You will find all the information you need in Vegetarian Cookbook for Beginners to get started and to continue eating meatless healthier snacks, entrees and desserts.", "Wonderful writing by Masters, as usual. Really helps to see things from the healthy masculine perspective; well worth a read if you are concerned for the health of your relationship.", "Like most moms, I'm pressed for time with hungry, yet picky, children swarming around my feet. I love these recipes Lauren Zembron has presented because they're fairly simple to make, filled with healthy ingredients, and will appeal to a variety of palates. The photos are beautiful and I love her personal anecdotes. I highly recommend this cookbook. Kudos!", "I was so excited to get this cookbook!! The book is beautiful and very easy to follow. The tidbits by the bubbe's are delightful to read :D The bagel recipe is amazing!! So much easier than I thought it would be to make. I definitely recommend measuring the flours out. But that's just a good idea for any baked goods. It's so exciting to have bagel sandwiches again! I have the next few recipes all picked out to try out next!! I highly recommend this wonderful cookbook. You won't regret the purchase", "My husband and I are trying to limit our carb intake. We also have three kids age 5 and under, so we have little time to cook elaborate meals. Enter the \"Easy Low-Carb Slow Cooking\" cookbook. It is chock full of recipes for every meal of the day that FEEL like indulgences even though they are healthy and low-carb, like cheesy zucchini lasagna; ham, cheese and broccoli breakfast casserole, and even chocolate cake with whipped cream! The front of the book offers lots of handy tips for using a slow cooker and for following a low-carb diet. The only thing that would make this cookbook better would be photos of some, if not all, of the recipes!\n\nI received this product for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.", "I love shakes and malts but they aren't good for me. However, I use this to make wonderful chocolate shakes with very little sugar, if any, and they have no fat and healthy also. A real treat for me!!", "What I really want is some of the Chinese recipes from the counties where heart disease was so low. Not just the nutritional data- but the actual foods and recipes. I looked over the China Study Cookbook but disappointingly I did not see any Chinese recipes. I have scoured the internet for authentic Chinese recipes, but most of what I find are definitely not heart healthy. They are more like what you would get in an American Chinese restaurant. Any ideas?", "This is a wonderful device - so easy to use - and I am feeling much more comfortable now that I can check my blood pressure every day. It's a way of monitoring it so that I make sure I stay healthy.", "Moosewood Restaurant Favorites Cookbook\nGreat assortment of new recipes that sound very interesting to try...and healthy too! I'm most intrigued by many of the new fish recipes: Coconut-Cashew-Crusted Fish, Pecan-Crusted Fish, Spicy Chipolte Cornmeal-Crusted Fish. There are also an assortment of interesting up-to-date new sides/salads to try such as Lime Cilantro Slaw and Moroccan Carrot Salad with Currants. I can't wait to try these recipes. And of course, since it is a Moosweood Restaurant cookbook, there are several new tofu recipes too.\nI appreciate the fact that this cookbook includes information about the prep time involved for each recipe and also includes serving suggestions and other things to complement each recipe. My only criticism is that I wish there were photographs of the different recipes.\n\nI received a complimentary online version of this book in exchange for a fair and unbiased review from NetGalley.", "This really belongs in your cookbook collection. Wonderful down-home recipes with sometimes a sophisticated twist and some great family stories.\nJust the title makes me want to run out and make both of those things, altho in our family, it would have been Scuppernong wine", "Author Gail Burton's new e-mail address: [email protected] The Candida Control Cookbook helps many people stay on the Candida Control Diet, which is restrictive, but the most important part of the Candida Treatment Program. The cookbook contains over 150 delicious recipes with permitted, tasty substitutions, which enables the Candida sufferer not feel deprived Also, the cookbook contains a great deal of information on Candida from extensive research. THE CANDIDA CONTROL COOKBOOK is considered to be the best cookbook on the market for yeast control and is in its 11th year of publication! Best wishes, Gail Burton", "The plants are wonderful and arrived quickly and healthy. My only complaint is that one of the plants was in the succulent family and wouldnt have survived in the terrarium with the other plants as they have different moisture and light needs. But I put that plant in a separate pot and all are thriving", "I normally only buy cookbooks that have pictures but this cute little cookbook is as it says Easy!", "Simply put, this is a wonderful cookbook and an essential for every kitchen. I am not a vegetarian, nor a very experienced cook, but Mediterranean Harvest is one of two cookbooks (along with Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food) that I continually turn to and bookmark my favorite recipes in. In fact, I thought to write this review now, because I'm buying the cookbook for a second time, as a Christmas gift for my mom!\n\nI joined a CSA this summer, and since I hardly had any experience cooking veggies, I loved that I could open this cookbook's index and find an easy way to prepare them. There are some more involved recipes, but overall, they are accessible and all delicious. For example, the asparagus with parmesan (asparagi alla parmigiana, p. 271) is so easy, to die for, and has become a staple in my house.\n\nI appreciate that Shulman includes a bunch of stories, notes, readings, and real-life, personal touches for when you have time, but ALSO makes it easy to just skip those parts and prepare the recipes, which are laid out simply. She also includes \"advance preparation,\" \"leftovers,\" and \"variation\" options for most of the recipes. I could go on, but I'll spare you. This is a great cookbook for non-vegetarians and veggies alike, and I think it will become a classic favorite in your collection :)", "As I've recently purchased an Instant Pt, I was very interested in finding a cookbook full of wonderful recipes. This is not it. Out of the entire book, there is maybe one recipe that I would try. While it is informative about how pressure cooking works, it doesn't contain anything that you can't find on the internet. Book is being returned. Very disappointed.", "In this wonderful book by Sheri Rose Shepherd, she gives many wonderful spiritual applications for our lives when we are having a specific craving in our lives. She gives ways of turning to God instead of always turning to food to help one live a healthier lifestyle. Coming from a past where Sheri lost 50 lbs and has kept it off, she has much insight in staying healthy and growing spiritually at the same time. Each chapter looks at a different specific craving we may have in our lives and then gives a spiritual application for satisfying that craving and also follows each with yummy, healthy recipes. For example, chapter 5 is titled \"Craving Something Sweet: Real Sweet Recipes and Some Sweet Jesus Time.\" I really enjoyed this book and it gave me wonderful ideas for not only growing in my faith, but also growing into a healthy lifestyle with my food choices. Some of the recipes seemed a bit daunting and time consuming for a mom with 3 young children such as myself but most of them looked wonderful. I love the verse she uses from Psalm 34:8 \"Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him!\" I would recommend this book to anyone struggling with turning to God instead of turning to food!!", "More than a month ago I received this cookbook to review. I was very excited prior to receiving it and I was even more excited once opening it. The pages are full of brilliantly colored photos, Greek traditions and lore, and wonderful recipes. The introduction covers the Greek alphabet and some lore, then the cookbook pops right into the contents and a short glossary before the recipes begin.\n\nThe layout of the cookbook is a little different from others I've used with the ingredients listed in a column on the far left or right and a short introduction or story in the middle followed by sparse directions. If you need step-by-step directions with pictures and everything spelled out for you, this cookbook probably won't work for you. If you have even an idea of your way around the kitchen, would love to try Greek food, and love history and tradition, this cookbook is definitely for you. It was definitely for me.\n\nI tried three recipes from the cookbook. In one of them, I didn't follow the directions and the recipe didn't turn out for me (the grape juice pudding). I won't blame the cookbook, since it was definitely my fault. The other two recipes (baked fish with tomatoes p. 232 and tomato fritters p. 124) were great and I will certainly be purchasing this book to have a physical copy handy.\n\nThank you Tessa Kiros.\n\nDisclosure of Material Connection: I received Food From Many Greek Kitchens by Tessa Kiros free from Andrews McMeel Publishing through the NetGalley review program. I was not required to write a positive review and did not receive any other compensation. The opinions I have expressed are my own and no one else's. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : \"Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.\"", "I love a cookbook that is more than just a collection of recipes. The recipes in this cookbook all start with some background about where the recipe came from, how it can be used, and other ideas for how to serve it. This makes the book fun to browse through. Also, the book is well-organized and well indexed. There's even an ingredients index so you can look in your pantry and pick a dessert based on what you have on hand. The variety of recipes is good: some are easy, some are more complicated, some are good for kids, some are fancy for adults. I've tried several things from each chapter of the book and everything has turned out well. Basics are included, such as a flawless pie crust recipe, as well as more unusual desserts such as Pink Chiffon Cake. Another bonus is the multicultural aspect of the book. There are several recipes from the Middle East, and some from Italy, Greece, too. These Mediterranean desserts tend to be less sweet than what our US taste buds usually like, and I've found them great for informal suppers and luncheons. (By the way, the name \"Moosewood\" in this cookbook does not mean \"healthy\"! There's plenty of sugar and other good stuff in these recipes!) I make desserts only when entertaining, so I usually have to take the risk of trying new recipes with guests, but with this cookbook I never have any worry about whether it will be a hit or not. This book has proven itself to be a Dessert Bible for me!", "Per usual the Campbell Family, et. al. are in fine form encouraging the world to \"Eat Plants\". Kim's cookbook companion to the soon to be released \"PlantPure Nation\" film documentary is a wonderful compliment to the growing arsenal of Plant-Based WholeFoodist cookbooks coming to the forefront. (Another of my personal favorites are the two 'China Study' cookbooks from Kim's sister-in-law LeAnne Campbell.)\n\nI absolutely LOVE the full color photographs accompanying each recipe to show you that eating plantpure is a tasty, flavorful, eye-appealing endeavor -- very much contrary to the belief that somehow eating plants won't taste good, or usually looks like 'cardboard' or 'wall-paper paste'. The colors and international variety of 'comfort food' recipes, show the cornucopia of plant-based whole-foods available to those who want to eat plantpure. 'Kim's Hints' mentioned with select recipes help the home cook embrace their kitchen with ease and simplicity. Her recipes are filled with plant ingredients that are readily available and affordable for any newbie plantpure cook, as well as, easy to prepare plantbased substitutions for disease promoting animal-derived products. Her Tofu-Cashew Mayonnaise is a staple in my pantry and a base foundation for many wonderful oil-free dressings & sauces. Cooking for a PlantPure Family is not so expensive, difficult or scary after-all!\n\nInterspersed through the cookbook are excerpts from the movie encouraging you to get on board the PlantPure Nation movement to change the way our government and local communities 'do' food. Personally hailing from a true 'food desert' Desert community, with an over-abundance of 'fast-food joints' and expensive corporate restaurant franchises make plantpure shopping difficult and greatly limits our families' local options to obtain a variety of affordable fresh produce for our table. Mainly because, ALL of our local communities food is trucked in from great distances with many of the local residents relying on a handful of distance-challenged, high-priced chain groceries, the Colorado River Food Bank, one 'Country Health Market' for specialty items/special orders, or gratefully, obtained from the newest source - an economical and increasingly popular volunteer run BountifulBaskets.org Food Co-Op -- to supply us all with a healthy kitchen pantry.\n\nKim's recipes, highlight simple, easy to prepare, plantpure 'peasant foods' like beans - brown rice and home-made whole grain breads, and an abundance of recipes for affordable carrots, broccoli - cabbage & kale. Personally, we cut our food bill in half after transitioning to a plantpure lifestyle and Kim's recipes are a wonderful addition for any struggling plant-hungry family. The PlantPure Nation Cookbook will be an active resource at our Mojave Desert PlantBased WholeFoodist Society Recipe Exchange Meet-up group.\n\nI highly recommend this PlantPure Nation Cookbook to any plantpure newbie, highly seasoned plant-based home cook or those Vegan's looking for more oil-free plant-based whole foods recipes. Eating PlantPure never tasted so good!\nRelax & Enjoy Life ~ Eat & Drink Plants :)", "Great content in this Vegan Cookbook Worth adding to your cookbook library. However, the light brown print is awful. Whomever made the decision to use a light brown print in an attempt to be artistic ruined the readability of this cookbook.", "5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking: 500 Recipes for Lifelong Wellness by Camilla Saulsbury is the cookbook I've used most often this summer, which is saying something when you're a cookbook junkie like me! It's packed with recipes that are simple, delicious and healthy, a winning combination if there ever was one!\n\nEverything I've made so far has been delicious and I've got lots more recipes bookmarked to try this fall and winter.\n\nRecipes I've tried: Pumpkin Yogurt with Quinoa Crunch, Waldorf Salad, Mesclun Salad with Dates and Goat Cheese, Chopped Greek Salad, Broccoli Carrot Slaw with Cranberries and Sunflower Seeds, Southwestern Sweet Potato Salad, Lemony Lentil and Quinoa Salad, Summer Salmon Panzanella, Summer Vegetable Orzo Soup, Sweet Potato Bisque with West Indian Spices, Winter Squash and Goat Cheese Enchiladas, Eggplant Parmesan Melts, Easy Ratatouille with Poached Eggs, Lentil, Mushroom and Kale Burritos, and Farfalle with Tuna and Tomatoes\n\nRecipes I want to try: Whole-Grain Blueberry Maple Muffins, Multigrain Cranberry Breakfast Cookies, Chewy Cherry Granola Bars, Thai Curry Pumpkin Soup, Tabbouleh Soup with Lentils and Bulgur, Green Club Sandwich (with hummus, avocado and watercress), Spicy Salsa Joes, Greek Pizza, Speedy Black Bean an Quinoa Skillet, Spicy Skillet Chicken with Avocado Mango Salsa, Wagon Wheels with Broccoli, Turkey and Parmesan, Soba with Shrimp, LIme and Cilantro, Spiced Date Bread, Pumpkin Biscuits, Maple Oat Drop Scones, Decadent Chocolate Cake, Whole Wheat Maple Applesauce Cake, Spiced Carrot Cake with Currants, Maple Pumpkin Micro-Pies, and Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies and Cocoa Truffles made with dates.\n\nAll the recipes include nutritional information and cooking tips. And you'll find informative health notes and superfoods highlights scattered throughout the book. There's also a very useful chart on cooking whole grains that provides grain/water ratios, cooking times, and expected yield, which I keep meaning to copy and stick on the fridge for easy reference.\n\nThere are not lots of pictures, but the 25 full-page photos appearing in the middle are mouthwatering.\n\n5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking covers all the bases, with recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, bread and snacks. Chapters include:\n\nBreakfasts\nPower Snacks, Spreads and Nibbles\nSalads\nSoups, Stews and Chilis\nWandwiches, Warps, Burgers and Pizzas\nMeatless Main Dishes\nPoultry and Lean Meat Main Dishes\nFish and Seafood Main Dishes\nMultigrain Pasta and Noodles\nSide Dishes\nNatural Sugar Sweets\n\nThis is a very useful, cookbook for those of us wanting to eat healthy food that is also easy and delicious. In 5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking: 500 Recipes for Lifelong Wellness, Camilla shows us how to make wholesome food that is simple and creative, familiar yet interesting.", "I am a collector of great cookbooks but lately I've become more selective in my acquisitions as I'm running out of room. Gone are the basic cookbooks, the mundane - I've been cooking that since I was 12 books. I particularly am in love with any books that involve international cuisine - books that take me on an adventure of the people, culture and cuisine of a far-away land - books that make the world a little closer and unites us all with the each other at the table. This book is a must have for any lover of food, Asian food, culture and travel. The photograph are vibrant and vast knowledge and information regarding Hong Kong, it's people, cuisine and cooking methods are phenomenal. This is not just a cookbook - this is an immersion deep into Hong Kong life and food including information on etiquette, funerals, celebrations and countless other cultural aspects. I cannot praise this title enough and now understand why it won a World Gourmand Cookbook award. I am a professional cookbook review, Cookbook Promotions Manager for Eat Your Books (a search engine for cookbook lovers and their recipes) and owner of The Cookbook Junkies and can state that this book will not leave my collection. Thanks to Man Mo Media for the opportunity to review this fantastic book.", "Just my kind of cookbook. Great southern recipes that will be used again and again. Reminds me of some of my older cookbooks that I've collected over the years!" ]

[ "People walk down the street." ]

[ "People sit at a coffee house.", "Several people are walking along a crowded street.", "A student is walking along a building.", "there were many people walking near the tall building and crossing street", "A man walks along a street.", "Group of people standing along a building near a field.", "There are police walking along a street.", "A yellow motorcycle is parked near a building.", "Along some stone buildings, a man and woman walk down the street.", "A man walked along an ancient building", "There are no buildings or people along the way.", "A woman walks along a series of buildings.", "A man is walking near a building.", "The man is walking near yellow lines.", "A man is walking along deserted streets.", "A cat walks near a street.", "A group of people holding yellow signs walk near a castle.", "A man is running along a path near a building.", "A woman walks along a busy street.", "a fiirefigeher near a street walk", "A couple are walking along a street indoors.", "A woman in a swimsuit walks along the street.", "The people are walking along the bustop.", "The people walk along the deck.", "Two men with dogs walk along the street.", "A crowd walks along the yellow brick road of Munchkinland.", "A person walking their Boston Terrier along the street.", "People are walking into a building.", "A man walking along a snow covered street.", "There are a lot of people walking along", "People walking down the street near a bike lane.", "People are walking along a beach." ]

[ "GETTY House prices have surged since 2012\nWhile some towns and cities may prove cheaper for properties, an unusual study revealed which areas are seeing the best investment returns based on their size. The typical property in Britain now costs £211 per square foot - an increase of more than a quarter since 2012, according to Zoopla. The house price website has compiled lists both within London and excluding the capital to show the potential to make cash up and down the country. The biggest price increases have been in East London, with Newham, home to the Olympic Park in Stratford, rising a massive 86 per cent over five years. Properties in the borough cost double the national average in square foot at £422. Also in East London, Waltham Forest has had price increases of 84 per cent, followed by Barking and Dagenham.\nOutside the capital, space in Slough has witnessed the biggest jump in value, with the average square foot up by 64 per cent from £145 to £374. Property prices have been increasing in anticipation of the upcoming Crossrail train line which will connect east and west London and surrounding areas to slash commuter time. Commuter town Stevenage in Hertfordshire has also seen square foot prices more than double from £105 to £282. The most expensive properties per square foot are in Kensington and Chelsea at £1,381 - an increase of 29 per cent since 2012. However, property prices have not increased across all parts of Britain with the research also revealing where homebuyers can purchase the biggest homes for the lowest price. Cost per square foot have decreased have fallen in Hartlepool, County Durham - down seven per cent to £102.\nPrices in Burnley, Lancashire are among the lowest in the country at £87 per square foot – down three per cent since 2012.\nBut the cheapest price is Blaenau Gwent in South Wales at a typical cost of £79 - up 10 per cent since 2012." ]

[ "Get Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nBristol has come up top in a ranking of cities that offer the most to home buyers.\nNew research into the key selling points of 26 UK cities has revealed that Bristol is the top property market hotspot of 2018.\nThe news comes as online home buying company We Buy Any Home reveals The Selling Points Index 2018, which found the UK cities which are the most desirable for buyers and offer the best conditions for sellers to get a good price.\nCities were scored on a number of factors including employment rate, good schools, A&E wait times and how quick houses took to sell.\nBristol topped the class this year thanks to its high employment rate and average salary figures. The city also performed well from a sales perspective, with a low average property sale time of 61 days.\nElliot Castle, founder and CEO at We Buy Any Home, said: “We wanted to highlight the areas of the country which are the most desirable for buyers and offer the best conditions for sellers to get a good price.\n“We also wanted to make our index as comprehensive as possible and so took into consideration a variety of factors that really matter to both buyers and sellers.\n“Bristol scored well across the board, offering a high quality of living in several areas.\n“The southwest of England has been a popular region for property, and it looks like this trend is likely to continue.”\nThe city's closest neighbour, Bath, didn't fair quite as well, coming 19th on the list of 26.\nDespite being the best area for low burglary rates, the Georgian hotspot failed to impress on A&E targets and affordable houses.\nHere are Bristol's statistics:\nKey Data Sets Position in Index for particular data set Research Findings Employment Rate 1st 76.8% The average sale time of a property 3rd 61 days Average wage/earnings 3rd £28,187 The number of outstanding OFSTED rated schools in the area 5th 23 The A&E target ratings of the local NHS Trust 9th 90.80% Burglary rate 14th 4.7 Average House Price 22nd £272,685\nAnd this is how other cities in the UK fared:\n1. Bristol\n2. Southampton\n3. Cambridge\n4. Stoke on Trent\n5. Edinburgh\n6. Glasgow\n7. Newcastle\n8. Plymouth\n9. Birmingham\n10. Manchester", "Get Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nScotland and Northern Ireland are expected to achieve the lowest economic growth among the UK regions this year, a new report had found.\nPwC's latest UK economic outlook (UKEO) projects growth of about 1 per cent for the two regions, lagging behind the rest of the country. Scotland's outlook is forecast to pick up the following year with a 0.2 per cent boost in performance to 1.2 per cent but it will remain lower than the UK average of 1.6 per cent.\nLooking at other economic factors, the Scottish labour market showed faster employment growth than six of the 12 UK regions during 2017, in line with the UK average of 0.6 per cent. Over the same period, Scotland recorded the highest house price growth of 7.7 per cent, the best performance in the UK and more than three times that of London.\nMeanwhile, regional comparisons of key sector areas over the past two decades revealed Scotland's manufacturing contribution has declined while it had the third highest increase in professional, technical and scientific services' contribution to gross value added (GVA).\nLindsay Gardiner, regional chair at PwC in Scotland, said: \"The latest UKEO presents a mixed picture for Scotland.\n\"While our economic performance is expected to pick up next year and we've enjoyed steady employment growth during 2017, the analysis also shows that Scotland is the only area of the UK not to grow its manufacturing contribution over the past two decades.\n\"The analysis of ONS data suggest that there is a positive relationship between relative regional GVA growth rates and education and skills, business formation rates and employment in professional and technical services.\n\"Regions reliant on public-sector employment have grown more slowly while employment alone is not a proxy for productivity or regional prosperity.\"", "Get Business updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe See our privacy notice Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nThe housing market in Bristol is now rising faster than London.\nAnnual house price growth in the capital has slowed to a nine-year low, according to the latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index, while property prices in Bristol continue to rise.\nCities outside London, including Bristol, are starting to outpace the capital for the first time - and the difference in the value of homes in these cities is beginning to narrow.\nThe average house price in Bristol is now £282,000, compared to £491,200 in London, but properties in Bristol are rising 4.6 per cent year on year while in London prices are only rising by 0.4 per cent.\nHowever, homes in Cardiff are rising faster than in Bristol at 5.5 per cent year on year.\nThe average house price in Cardiff is now £201,000 - so it's still cheaper to buy property in the Welsh capital.\nThe relative pricing of housing in London compared to other UK cities reflects variations in the timing and levels of economic growth, incomes, job creation, available supply and the net flow of investment into housing.\nThe gap in prices between London and other cities, including Bristol, is expected to close further over the next 12 to 24 months as London house prices under-perform the rest of the market.\nRichard Donnell, insight director at Hometrack, said: “The gap between house prices in cities outside of the South East and house prices in London will continue to contract.\n\"Naturally, the relative price gap between cities fluctuates over the course of the housing cycle as supply and demand is affected by factors such as economic growth, job creation, wage increases and the flow of new investment.\n\"The level of house price inflation seen in large regional cities during the last peak, between 2000 and 2003, gives a good indication of how much prices may rise this time around.\n\"If history is to repeat itself and these cities are to get back to where they were, then prices could increase by as much as 20 to 25 per cent.”", "The shortage in supply has helped to sustain house prices, but will it last?\nHouse prices across the UK increased by 7.2%, according to the official government house price index from the Office for National Statistics.\nIt noted that average property prices rose 1.4% in December, 1.1 percentage points higher than November, taking the typical UK property price to £219,544.\nHowever this pace of change is still lower than the level of annual growth seen in the first half of last year.\nRob Weaver, director of investments at property crowdfunding platform Property Partner, said: “The housing market may have plateaued during last summer but for the final two months of 2016, prices regained momentum.\n“With December, in particular, seeing a higher than expected rise in annual prices, property demonstrated itself to be a robust investment once again in 2016.\n“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the critical shortage in supply alongside ultra-cheap borrowing rates are supporting house prices and that looks set to continue.”\nSlow and steady\nJonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, noted: “While December’s 7.2% growth rate was higher than it was a year before, all the indications are that prices will now ease back into a pattern of slow but steady growth.\n“On the front line, activity has been brisk in the early weeks of 2017. With stock levels still hovering at record lows, competition among buyers in many areas is rising – and the chronic imbalance between demand and supply is slowly driving up prices.\n“Meanwhile at the top end of the market – and in pockets of London – it’s a different story. Buyers here now enjoy the upper hand, and are increasingly able to push for and get discounts.”", "London remains a weak spot in the slowing UK housing market as Brexit clouds the outlook, recent reports have showed.\nLondon remains a weak spot in the slowing UK housing market as Brexit clouds the outlook, recent reports have showed.\nThe capital had an annual price decline of 0.2pc in May, property website Rightmove said. Separately, Acadata reported that, in April, London was the only region showing an annual fall, clocking in a 2.5pc drop.\nOverall, national price growth stood at 1pc compared with a 9pc high reached in 2016, Acadata said. Uncertainty surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union has hit London the hardest.\nAt the national level, years of rampant home-price inflation and a shortage of properties for sale have also pushed ownership out of reach for many would-be homeowners. \"London remains the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to the strength of the market in the major cities of England and Wales, which remain strong,\" said Oliver Blake, managing director of Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agents.\n\"The market remains slow, though, when it comes to the number of transactions.\" Rightmove's report showed that uncertainty and stretched affordability led to \"more hesitant buyers and sellers in some areas\", with London and its commuter belt seeing pronounced declines in the number of sales agreed by estate agents.\nNationally, sales so far this year are down 5.4pc on the same period a year ago, the report showed. Home prices still grew 1.1pc in May from a year earlier, reaching a record high of Stg£308,075($415,000), Rightmove said, with seven out of 11 regions reaching their highest-ever asking prices.\nA new tax on home sales introduced in Wales in April led buyers to bring forward purchases of high-value homes to avoid it. Out of all the regions surveyed, the top five annual price increases were in Wales, Acadata said.\n\"Different markets are still operating at different speeds, and the overall picture is one of a less buoyant market both in terms of price growth and number of sales agreed,\" the Rightmove report stated.\n(Bloomberg)\nIndo Business", "Sebastian McCarthy\nThe number of properties listed on London's housing market rose to a three-year high in June, despite the UK suffering an overall decline in houses put up for sale, according to new figures from a property supply index.\nNearly 33,000 homes were put on the market in the capital last month, the highest level since the index began in June 2015.\nNew home sellers in London rose 2.8 per cent in June from May, while supply across the UK as a whole fell 3.8 per cent in its first fall since December of last year.\nRead more: London investors are losing their fondness for the property market\nThe figures come after a month in which London's flagging property market has experienced falling house prices, in a trend that goes against the rest of the UK.\nCamden Borough had a steeper increase in listings last month than any other London borough, rising 31 per cent.\nKensington and Chelsea along with Hammersmith and Fulham saw the biggest falls in property listings in June compared with May, falling 9.5 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively.\nLondon Boroughs with the biggest increases in properties put up for sale 1. Camden - 31.0 per cent 2. Merton - 11.4 per cent 3. Bexley - 9.2 per cent 4. Barking and Dagenham - 9.0 per cent 5. Greenwich - 8.4 per cent\nThe index, carried out by online estate agency HouseSimple.com, looks at the number of new properties listed by estate agents every month across more than 100 major UK towns and cities.\nRead more: Winning Wimbledon would not be enough to buy you a detached house in SW19\nSam Mitchell, chief executive of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, said: \"Seller activity has picked up noticeably since mid-May, particularly in London, where prices have cooled. Buyers are viewing a lot more properties before they make an offer, and with more sellers listing in the past month, they have more choice.\"\nMitchell added: \"More than ever, the key for motivated sellers is to price correctly and competitively to attract buyers. It’s important to do your research, to check what properties are selling for on your street and in the nearby area. This is probably not the right market to price high, hoping to squeeze a little more money out of buyers.\"", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe See our privacy notice Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nInvest in bricks and mortar they say.\nWell if you were lucky enough to have bought a house in 2000, you will certainly have seen a healthy return on your investment, especially if you bought in Leicester.\nIn fact, data from one report states that property prices here have increased by more than 250% over that period of time.\nWhile the coastal town of Southend-on-Sea saw one of the biggest increases - property prices here have risen by an incredible 287.1% since January 2000 - and eight boroughs in London witnessed price hikes of more than 300%, Leicester came in close behind with a sizable 268.7%.\nThe research carried out by estate agents HouseSimple.com is based on Land Registry figures.\nSam Mitchell, CEO of the online estate agency said: “While London is the clear winner when it comes to house price growth since the turn of the century, prices have boomed in many areas outside the Capital as these figures attest.\n\"What’s more impressive is that in the middle of this 18-year period, we experienced one of the worst recessions this country has ever seen. It shows the resilience of the UK property market.\n“During this period, London property prices stabilised thanks to an inflow of foreign investment, and then started to rise again 18 months after the height of the credit crunch.\n\"However, that wasn’t the case across large swathes of the country, where the recovery process was far more protracted.\n“Today, the property price growth picture is entirely different. As London’s property market shows signs of running out of steam, we are seeing strong growth in the north of England.\n\"Eighteen years from now, the UK's property hotspot landscape could well look entirely different.”\nHere's the 19 towns and cities (excluding London) where average house prices have increased by at least 250% since January 2000:\nTown/City\nRegion Avg house prices (£) - Jan 2000 Avg house prices (£) - Current % Price increase Southend-On-Sea East £71,879 £280,948 290.9 Bristol South West £71,973 £273,393 279.9 Cambridge East £118,216 £448,243 279.2 Luton East £63,634 £239,735 276.7 Basildon East £81,462 £305,217 274.7 Corby East Midlands £47,183 £174,675 270.2 Salford North West £42,271 £156,190 269.5 Hastings South East £54,418 £200,767 268.9 Leicester East Midlands £45,432 £167,518 268.7 Sale North West £76,351 £279,776 266.4 Brighton South East £97,612 £356,510 265.2 Lincoln East Midlands £42,281 £153,389 262.8 Exeter South West £72,116 £258,784 258.8 Milton Keynes South East £73,465 £262,188 256.9 Chelmsford East £95,857 £340,930 255.7 Norwich East £56,627 £201,161 255.2 Canterbury South East £83,493 £296,392 255.0 Slough South East £86,457 £306,759 254.8 Coventry West Midlands £52,539 £185,360 252.8\nWe've launched our very own app for Android and Apple devices which can be tailored to deliver the news and sport that you're interested in.\nTo download the IOS app click here.\nTo download the Android app click here.\nWe’ve also got Facebook groups for traffic and travel, breaking news and parenting. Join by clicking the links", "Yorkshire experienced the UK’s greatest monthly rise in house prices between January and February this year, according to the latest Land Registry House Price Index.\nValues rose 2.5 per cent, which was quadruple the UK average of 0.6 per cent. Annual growth between February 2016 and February 2017 in Yorkshire was 5.2 per cent, taking the average house price in the region to £154,591.\nThe Craven area of Yorkshire, which includes Skipton and Settle, saw the biggest year-on-year rise between with a 13.7 per cent increase. Hull, this year’s UK City of Culture, was the second best performer with a 10 per cent annual growth and Selby was third with a rise of 9.6 per cent.\nHambleton, which includes Thirsk and Easingwold, showed an annual fall of 2.1 per cent, which may come as a surprise as the area was named Britain’s fourth best place to live in the recent Halifax rural quality of life survey.\nRichmondshire, which covers the northern section of the Yorkshire Dales, also suffered an annual decrease in property values. Prices in this rural area fell by 2.1 per cent, while over in Calderdale and its “capital” Halifax they fell by 0.6 per cent.\nAnother shock, given the area’s status as a property hotspot, was Harrogate, where prices rose by just 0.7 per cent over the 12-month period to February this year. This takes the average price in the spa town to £265,799.\nColin Bonham, of Myrings estate agents in Harrogate, said: “I am very surprised because we have seen no evidence of a slowdown in prices or activity over the past year. Brexit certainly had very little effect. In fact only one sale fell through and that was a buyer from London. It’s very hard to understand why the Land Registry house price figure is so low.”\nHouse price data for other local authority areas in Yorkshire over the 12 months between February 2016 and February 2017, shows gains for Barnsley 1.7 per cent; Bradford 3.3 per cent; Doncaster 4.1 per cent; East Riding 4.4 per cent; Kirklees 2.1 per cent; Leeds 5.4 per cent; North Yorkshire 4.3 per cent; Rotherham 5.7 per cent; Ryedale 4.5 per cent; Scarborough 7.3 per cent; Sheffield 3.2 per cent; Wakefield 3.4 per cent and York 4.9 per cent.", "Wolverhampton is in the top ten worst places in the UK to buy a house, according to new figures.\nA study by the Halifax has shown that house price growth in the city is the ninth weakest in the country. Prices have only grown 0.5 per cent in the region for 2016, with average house prices at £173,761.\nPrices in Aberdeen fell the furthest, dropping 6.9 per cent with the average home costing £203,425.\nThe information was gathered from Halifax’s own database, which were subsquently used to make the findings.\nMartin Ellis, a housing economist at Halifax, said: “A few towns have experienced price falls, with the biggest in Aberdeen.\n“On the north east coast of Scotland, it is highly dependent on the North Sea oil and gas sector.\n“The substantial fall in oil prices in the past couple of years has hit the industry hard with adverse impact on demand for homes in the area. Price declines elsewhere have been modest.”\nCouncillor Peter Bilston, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for City Housing and Assets, said: “On one hand it shows that living in Wolverhampton is a good offer for people who want to come and buy here. The house prices are lower so there is the aspect of it being more affordable.\n“There are lots of people looking to buy in Wolverhampton, and the council hopes to ease that demand with the building of new homes as part of WV Living, the new property company which is about to launch. Wolverhampton is very accessible for lots of different parts of the country.\n“ It’s quite a challenge for people to get on the property ladder, but Wolverhampton does offer housing that is much more affordable than many other areas.”\nCompleting the ten weakest house price growths were Bangor, Falkirk, Inverness, Blackpool , Londonderry, Stockton-on-Tees, Liverpool and Grimsby.\nLuton was identified as the top-performing town across the UK for house price growth overall.\nProperty values there have jumped by nearly a fifth over 2016 and are nearly £42,000 higher typically than a year ago, with transport links to London thought to be a key factor in the increase.\nThe 7.5 per cent increase in Luton is more than double the average UK figure.\nThe average house price in the town is now £256,636, according to the figures.\nThe 10 areas with the highest house price rises over the last year were all in London or the South East of England, with Barking and Dagenham, Dunstable, Basildon, Tower Hamlets and Watford also on the list.\nMr Ellis added: “Most of the areas that have seen the biggest house price rises during 2016 are either within close commuting distance of the capital or in outer London.\n“Demand in these areas has risen as substantial property price rises in central London over the last few years have caused increasing numbers of people to seek property in more affordable areas.”", "Shruti Tripathi Chopra\nHouse prices in England and Wales dipped slightly (0.2 per cent) in July but still recorded annual growth, according to Your Move’s latest house price index.\nAll regions across England and Wales recorded annual growth, with average house prices rising by £8,433.\nThe index found that transactions dropped an estimated nine per cent in July from the previous month.\nRead more: What's going to happen to the UK housing market? Here's what experts think\nNationally, the biggest drops in annual growth were in Wales, down 1.5 per cent to just 0.2 per cent for the year while the west Midlands saw annual growth drop 1.3 per cent to 3.3 per cent.\nBoth the south east and Yorkshire and the Humber saw annual growth rates fall 1.2 per cent to 3.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.\nOliver Blake, managing director of Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agents, said: “Annual prices are still rising positively and regions continue to perform strongly – despite the slowdown in transaction numbers over the summer months.\n“While, as a business, we often see this at this time of year, the cause of the dip may also be down to the buy-to-let slowdown as a result of tax changes.”\nAverage House Prices in England and Wales, July 2016 - July 2017\nMonth House price Monthly change (%) Annual change (%) July 2016 £290,473 0.1 6.8 August 2016 £291,375 0.3 6.0 September 2016 £293,321 0.7 6.0 October 2016 £296,065 0.9 5.8 November 2016 £297,832 0.6 6.2 December 2016 £300,058 0.7 6.2 January 2017 £302,542 0.8 6.2 February 2017 £304,306 0.6 4.6 March 2017 £304,960 0.2 4.6 April 2017 £303,220 -0.6 4.1 May 2017 £301,376 -0.6 4.2 June 2017 £299,537 -0.6 3.3 July 2017 £298,906 -0.2 2.9\nRead more: Revealed: The top 10 best and worst buy-to-let postcodes in the UK\nWhat's going on in London?\nCiting data from June, Your Move revealed that Lewisham house prices saw the biggest increase of the month, up 2.4 per cent.\nWith an average value of a home now at £469,709 Lewisham was the only borough in London during June to record a new peak price.\nOverall, prices in the capital fell by 1.5 per cent in June for the third month in a row in June.\nThe fall shaved £8,913 off the average property price in London, but this still remains double the national average, at £602,849.\nRead more: The London areas where property prices have increased the most since 2009", "Have you given up hope of ever owning your own home? Before you do, check out these locations.\nFor an increasing number of us, buying our own home has become an impossible dream – even with help from the Bank of Mum and Dad. No wonder so many of us are turning to Government-backed help-to-buy schemes and ISAs to make that dream a reality.\nBut a new survey reveals that some areas offer a far better shot at home ownership than others. Independent credit expert TotallyMoney has researched programmes up and down the UK and Northern Ireland, and compiled a list of regions, cities and districts that offer the best opportunities to get on the property ladder. And the top hotspots may surprise you.\nTo compile the list, TotallyMoney looked at three main factors – the number of help-to-buy equity loans used in each region, how many help-to-buy ISA purchased made completion, and the average amount left to pay on the mortgage after government help (based on local house prices).\nLet’s start with help-to-buy cities, where coming in at number one is… Wakefield!\nIf your geography is anything like ours, you may not know that Wakefield has a very handy location between Leeds and York. This prime spot for commuters is one clue as to why it’s seen the most help-to-buy ISA completions for any city. 610 purchases went through between December 2015 and March 2017.\nIn second place comes Hull. This Yorkshire city is becoming attractive for lots of reasons – not least its low average property prices of £134,452. That makes the 5 per cent deposit required for a help-to-buy property the lowest of any city in the UK, at just £6,722.\nThe UK’s City of Culture 2017, Hull has also been earmarked for a multi-million pound regeneration project. Plans are in place to build a new 100-bedroom hotel, ice rink, shops and houses in the heart of the Old Town.\nLooking at regions, Central Bedfordshire came out as the top district for buying a property through a help-to-buy scheme. Its market towns, like Leighton Buzzard, Houghton Regis and Ampthill, are attracting commuters priced out of London and Hertfordshire.\nExactly 1,710 help-to-buy equity loans were taken out between December 2015 and March 2017. And 245 homes were bought with a help-to-buy ISA.\nThe top 10 help-to-buy regions in the UK\nCentral Bedfordshire Chorley, Lancashire Cheshire West and Chester Conwy, North Wales Selby, North Yorkshire Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire North-west Leicestershire Ashfield, Nottinghamshire Gedling, Nottinghamshire Doncaster, South Yorkshire\nVideo Of The Week\n‘With government help-to-buy schemes, getting on the property ladder can become a realistic option,’ says Joe Gardiner at TotallyMoney. ‘For those thinking of utilising these schemes, knowing where in the UK is the most help-to-buy friendly, and whether your local area is one of these hotspots, is of particular importance to allow buyers to make a responsible financial decision.’", "In a report issued by HMRC this morning, the overall numbers of homes sold in the UK in the first three months of this year, which totals 290,670, is down by just over five percent on the same period in 2017 when 307,550 properties were sold. In fact, reviewing the data over the last few years, we would have to go as far back as 2015 to find a lower number of transactions for the first quarter of the year, when the total number of properties sold was 288,490. Comparing month on month figures, the numbers are also slightly down on seasonally adjusted basis, with 99,400 properties sold in February and 92,270 sold last month. Again, this shows a decrease year on year, with the total number of homes sold in February 2017 standing at 104,620, equating to nearly a twelve percent drop in transactions.\nGETTY STOCK First quarter sales for UK is down 5% from 2017\nA drop in the number of sales is often the first sign of a downturn in the housing market Mike Scott - Yopa Chief property analyst\nSo, is this the start of an overall cooling in the UK property market? Mike Scott, chief property analyst at Yopa, suggests that this is this could be an indicator of things to come, and commented: “The number of house sales in the UK in March showed a worrying downturn, according to HMRC. \"This comes as a surprise, since up until this month the figures had been holding up well. There have been just over 1.2 million sales every year for the past four years, but today’s figures suggest that the total for 2018 will fall below this level for the first time since 2013. “A drop in the number of sales is often the first sign of a downturn in the housing market as a whole, with prices falling more slowly as sellers take time to adjust to the new market conditions.”\nGreat Britain's Buy-to-Let hotspots Tue, November 14, 2017 Buy-to-Let property: Totally Money reveals the top 10 yielding postcodes in Great Britain. Play slideshow Getty•Totally Money 1 of 12 Great Britain's Buy-to-Let hotspots\nHowever, there are conflicting views as to what the data may suggest about consumer confidence in the UK property market. Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau countered: “That the total number of transactions for the first quarter of 2018 is lower than the same period last year, given current market environment, isn’t entirely surprising. \"At the end of the day, as we have observed for nearly a year now, according to RICS we are seeing record low levels of properties for sale across the country. Therefore, it stands to reason that if there are lower levels of property available to buy, this will translate into lower numbers of properties sold. “The fact that house prices in March maintained their current trajectory, if not increased in many conurbations, according to indices such as the Nationwide and Halifax, suggests that in the vast majority of towns and cities across the UK it’s not lack of consumer demand which is putting the brakes on the housing market. In many areas, it’s simply what’s available to buy and lack of choice.” Jeremy Leaf, former RICS residential chairman, added: “These figures, which of course reflect activity over the past few months, show the market to be softening but not collapsing as buyers and sellers seek to establish fair price levels. \"Looking forward, we expect the situation to remain broadly unchanged or slightly more favourable bearing in mind recent mortgage approval numbers, which are usually a good indicator of future market activity.”\nGETTY STOCK First three months of this year saw a total of 290,670 properties sold", "LONDON British house prices fell in March for the first time since mid-2015, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Friday, another sign that households are turning more cautious as the country prepares to leave the European Union.\nNationwide said house prices declined by a monthly 0.3 percent, compared with a rise of 0.6 percent in February.\nIn annual terms, prices were 3.5 percent higher, the weakest increase since August 2015.\nREAD MORE: UK households run down savings to record low in warning sign for economy\nEconomists polled by Reuters had expected house prices to rise by 0.4 percent in March from February and annual growth of 4.1 percent.\nA separate Reuters poll published in February forecast that house price growth would slow sharply to 2.5 percent this year and remain subdued in 2018 and 2019 as the country leaves the EU.\nBritish Prime Minister Theresa May launched the two-year process of leaving the EU on Wednesday.\nThe fall in sterling since the June referendum is pushing up inflation and wage growth remains sluggish, reducing the spending power of households.\nREAD MORE: UK consumer morale steadies in March, households still wary on economic outlook\n\"March’s softer Nationwide house price data, following on from the Bank of England reporting a dip in mortgage approvals in February, fuels our belief that the housing market is being increasingly affected by the increasing squeeze on consumers and their concerns over the outlook,\" Howard Archer, an economist with IHS Markit, said.\nNationwide said six regions saw the pace of house price growth accelerate, six saw a deceleration and one - the East Midlands - recorded the same rate as the previous quarter.\n\"Interestingly, the spread in the annual rate of change between the weakest and strongest performing regions was at its narrowest since 1978 at 6.8 percentage points - the second smallest gap on record,\" Nationwide economist Robert Gardner said.\n(Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Alexander Smith and Susan Fenton)", "Get money updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nHome affordability across the UK biggest cities has hit its lowest level since 2007, according to a new report.\nA Lloyd's Affordable Cities review found average house prices in Britain's most cosmopolitan areas have leaped by 36% in the past five years - pushing the average home from £171,745 in 2012 to £232,945 in 2017.\nIn comparison, average city annual earnings over the same period have risen by just 9% to £33,420.\nAs a result, affordability in UK cities is, on average, at its worst level since 2007, when the ratio of average house price to earnings stood at 7.5.\nThe least affordable city is Oxford, where average house prices - £429,775 - are over 11 times (11.5) annual average earnings.\nTruro and Exeter are new entrants into the 10 least affordable cities list, both with an affordability ratio of 9.3 with house prices of £259,705 and £274,093 respectively.\nLeicester (8.1) and York (8.0) are the only cities outside southern England appearing in the top 20 least affordable UK cities.\n(Image: Getty)\nThere are six cities with average house prices that cost at least ten times average annual earnings.\nIn addition to Oxford (11.5), these are Cambridge (10.5), Greater London, Brighton and Hove (both 10.2), Bath (10.1) and Winchester (10.0).\nThe London average figure disguises considerable variations across the capital with central boroughs significantly less affordable than the Greater London average.\nAndy Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: “City living suits the lifestyles of many people looking for shorter commutes with much of what they need on their doorstep, but buying a city property is the least affordable it’s been for a decade.\n“There is also a clear North-South divide with only one Southern location appearing in the top 20 most affordable cities and only one Northern location appearing in the top 20 least affordable.”\nTop 20 most affordable UK cities Source: Lloyds\nStirling is the UK’s most affordable city for the fifth consecutive year.\nAt £186,084, the average property price in the Scottish city is 4.0 times average gross annual earnings, although this figure has increased by 5% in the past twelve months.\nLondonderry in Northern Ireland remains the UK’s second most affordable city.\n(Image: Getty)\nIn England alone, Bradford has been named as the most affordable while Swansea is the Welsh equivalent.\nLancaster and Dundee are the only two new entrants to the top 10 most affordable cities, sitting in fourth and ninth place, respectively and all of the top 10 are located outside of the south of England.\nWhere house price growth is highest\nCambridge has shifted from fifth position in 2016 to record the biggest price rise of any UK city over the past decade, with a gain of 47% from £288,403 in 2007 to £422,589 in 2017.\nThat's compared to the average UK rise of 12%.\nSt Albans is now second, with a rise of 44% followed by Brighton & Hove, Greater London, Cardiff and Canterbury.\n(Image: Getty)\nNine of the ten top performers since 2007 are in southern England with the exception being Cardiff in Wales.\nOver the past five years, London has recorded the highest house price growth with a rise of 61% from £298,940 in 2012 to £480,800 in 2017.\nCoventry has the second highest increase in average house price(55%), closely followed by Cambridge, Ely and Lisburn.", "Experimental feature Listen to this article Play audio for this article Pause 00:00 00:00 Experimental feature Report a mispronounced word What was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time Submit Thank you for your help!\nFive property stories making global headlines this week:\nCanberra among Australia’s price pace-setters\nAustralia’s capital is predicted to join the Tasmanian city of Hobart in recording the country’s strongest growth in house prices in the next financial year. The Sydney Morning Herald covered a BIS Oxford Economics report, which suggested prices would rise by 5 per cent in 2018-19 and that the median price in Canberra would grow 10 per cent in the three years to June 2021.\nTough market hits UK’s largest agency group\nCountrywide, the UK’s largest estate agency group, issued a fresh profit warning as a “subdued” market for home sales took its toll. The Financial Times reported that the group, whose brands include Hamptons International, John D Wood and Mann, has struggled as nervous sellers have held off on listing properties amid stalling price growth.\n© Reuters UAE cities become cheaper in global terms\nFalling rental rates in comparison with other cities around the world have helped Abu Dhabi and Dubai drop down the global rankings for most expensive places to live. Dubai is now the 26th most expensive city for expats, down from 19th last year, according to The National’s coverage of annual research by Mercer, the consulting firm. Abu Dhabi’s 40th place, compared with 22nd in 2017, makes it cheaper than New York, London, Tokyo or Sydney. Other reasons to live there, as suggested by the Financial Times recently, include its tax regime.\nHong Kong leader defends vacancy tax\nHong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said her priority was to serve the interests of the public as she defended government proposals to tax developers that hoard empty apartments, revealed the South China Morning Post. The vacancy tax is aimed at encouraging developers to release more residential units on to the market, boosting supply and cooling rocketing prices.\nRent-free living on offer in Seattle\nMeanwhile, in the north-west US, landlords in Seattle are offering incentives such as up to two months’ free rent, $2,500 gift cards and Amazon Echo devices, to entice renters to move into properties. Vacancy rates in the city are at their highest levels since the recession: the Seattle Times reports that following a construction boom, a quarter of apartments in central Seattle stand empty.", "Properties in Edinburgh and Glasgow sell fastest of all major cities in the UK – at an average of 41 and 50 days respectively – a report has found.\nMeanwhile, Scotland’s capital, along with Stoke on Trent, has seen the biggest fall in the time properties spend on the market compared to last year – despite the fact that they are opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of house price growth.\nThe latest City Rate of Sale report from Post Office Money and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), examined the average time a property takes to sell in more than 20 major cities across the UK.\nThe study said that the Edinburgh housing market had become “increasingly competitive” in recent years, claiming that a lack of new buildings is responsible for the fall in time on market and increase in prices.\nEdinburgh, which saw the time properties were up for sale plummet by a quarter compared to a year ago, has also seen prices rise by 10.4 per cent over the past year to £246,611, well above the 3.9 per cent growth for Scotland as a whole.\nIn Glasgow, where properties spent 15 per cent less time on the market than this time last year, the average property price was just £125,634.\nOwen Woodley, managing director of Post Office Money, said: “Against a backdrop of muted but steady increases in house prices across the country and sustained demand from the first-time buyer market, these movements in time to sell reflect the changes in the number of properties listed for sale in cities across the UK.\n“We know from previous research that first-time buyers are taking a flexible approach to finding an affordable home, most especially towards location. Second Steppers in contrast, have less flexibility.”\nHe added: “Therefore, on the whole across the UK, the number of houses on the market has fallen because those looking to trade up are struggling to find good properties at acceptable prices. This is likely to become a growing issue as buyers are more likely to wait out the current market until price growth returns more forcefully.”\nHouse prices have risen in each of the cities analysed in the report over the last year, researchers found, with the average price of a home in the UK rising by 5 per cent in the year to August 2017. However, overall both house price growth and sales volumes have decelerated, suggesting the market has reached a “tipping point” where growth has left many areas unaffordable for the average buyer.\nIn London, where the average property price is £484,362, homes are staying on the market for 4 per cent longer.", "GETTY Bellway have announceed strong growth after playing down the impact of Brexit\nThe FTSE 250 group said demand for new homes had increased across all regions in the traditionally strong spring selling season and remained buoyant in the weeks leading up to the General Election. Growth is expected to continue next year despite a “degree of instability” following the election result and uncertainty over Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU, as Bellway suggested all political parties recognised the need for more homes to be built.\nReservations, where a buyer reserves the right to buy a property for a period of time, were up 13 per cent in the four months to June 4, while completions for the 12 months to July 31 are expected to be about 10 per cent higher than last year’s 8,721. Bellway had previously suggested completions would be at least 5 per cent higher.\nWe have made a significant investment in land Chief executive Ted Ayres\nThe average selling price is about £260,000, and Bellway said its investment in higher value locations should drive prices higher. It has contracted to acquire 10,250 plots since last August, up from 8,600 the previous year.\nGETTY The firm said demand for new homes had increased in all regions during spring\nChief executive Ted Ayres said: “We have made a significant investment in land and work in progress over a number of years and this, together with a strong balance sheet, should ensure that Bellway is well positioned to deliver further volume growth, this year and beyond.” He cited good availability of affordable mortgages, low unemployment and the Government’s Help to Buy scheme as underpinning healthy demand for new homes.\nMore for your money in Margate Mon, July 25, 2016 Margate led a property boom across the north Kent towns that fall within London's commuter orbit Play slideshow Rightmove 1 of 20 5 bedroom semi-detached house for sale Cornwall Gardens, Cliftonville, Margate, Kent £425,000", "London's property market will not shake off its slump until 2021, when it will return to being the fastest growing part of the UK, economists have predicted.\nAverage prices in the capital have fallen for the first time since the financial crisis this year, amid fears that the housing market could stagnate when the UK leaves the European Union in 2019.\nHouse price growth has slowed across the board since the Brexit vote last June, but forecasts by KPMG Economics suggest momentum in the market will pick up again around the time the country leaves the EU.\nThe prospects of continued uncertainty associated with the Brexit, coupled with rising interest rates, could trigger further adjustments in UK house prices and moderate growth in most regions over the short term, KPMG said.\nAdvertisement\nThe after-effects of changes to stamp duty are also likely to stall growth in the market.\nLondon house prices have been dampened by changes made to stamp duty in spring 2016, as they have had a significant impact on the buy-to-let market from the additional increase in duty.\nHowever, KPMG's projections suggest property prices will start to pick up by 2019, and London will be the driving force behind growth in the market by 2021.\nThe capital has unique characteristics that make it more resilient to fluctuations than other regions in the UK, according to KPMG chief economist Yael Selfin.\n\"London's property market isn't just made up of people's homes. Foreign investors plough money into property in the capital as it is seen as a safe haven asset, and they will continue to do so after Brexit, especially if sterling remains weak.\n\"If the UK's exit from the EU is done in a positive way, we're likely to see demand for property in the capital rise as it will remain one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in Europe.\"\nOutside London, developments such as Crossrail and Thameslink are likely to continue boosting sales in areas such as Reading and Brentwood, while improvements to regions' infrastructure should have positive impacts in other areas, with HS2 supporting sales in Birmingham, while cities in the north of England, such as Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester should benefit from Northern Powerhouse-related initiatives.\nKPMG said its projections assumed that the Bank of England would increase interest rates next year, which will feed through into mortgage rates, affecting the affordability of borrowing and slowing down the rate of house price growth.\nOther factors affecting the projections include trends in regional employment and population, which will affect the degree of housing shortages experienced across regions.\nSelfin added: \"With so much going on in the UK at the moment, some fear that the housing market will be the first to snap if the mood changes around the Brexit process or when interest rates start to rise.\n\"Our analysis however shows that with the exception of a few areas in the south such as London, house prices are not particularly high compared to long-term regional valuations. Our projections see a more orderly transition over the next five years, with house price growth moderating further next year before gradually picking up momentum again from 2019.\"\nSeparate figures from Halifax published today show that UK house prices in the three months to September were 4pc higher than in the same three months a year earlier, while month-on-month prices are up by 0.8pc.\nWhile the quarterly and annual rates of house price growth have improved, they are lower than at the start of the year, the bank said. \"UK house prices continue to be supported by an ongoing shortage of properties for sale and solid growth in full-time employment\".\nMark Harris of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: \"The housing market shows no signs of faltering, despite the ongoing Brexit saga and hints from the Bank of England that interest rates will need to rise sooner rather than later.\"", "Home prices in 20 U.S. cities grew in February at the fastest pace since mid-2014, underscoring the persistent scarcity of inventory amid strong demand, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data released Tuesday.\nHighlights of Home Prices (February) 20-city property values index increased 6.8% y/y (est. 6.4%) after rising 6.4%; fastest gain since June 2014\nNational home-price gauge rose 6.3% y/y\nSeasonally adjusted 20-city index rose 0.8% m/m (est. 0.7%); index level of 209.29 is highest in records back to 2000\nKey Takeaways\nThe data showed monthly gains in all 20 cities, including strong advances in expensive areas such as Seattle and Los Angeles, along with cheaper regions including Cleveland and Detroit. Sales are getting a boost from the strong labor market and borrowing costs that are still relatively low, though they’ve been edging up in recent weeks.\nAt the same time, a shortage of available and affordable listings, especially of previously-owned houses, is sending prices higher and limiting purchases. Growth in property values continues to outpace wages, another hurdle for younger or first-time buyers looking to enter the housing market. Meanwhile, the ongoing price gains are translating into rising home equity for owners.\nOfficial’s View\n“With expectations for continued economic growth and further employment gains, the current run of rising prices is likely to continue,” David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a statement.\nOther Details\nAll 20 cities in the index showed year-over-year gains, led by a 12.7 percent increase in Seattle and an 11.6 percent advance in Las Vegas; Washington was slowest at 2.4 percent\nAfter seasonal adjustment, Cleveland had the biggest month-over-month rise at 1.6 percent, followed by Detroit and Seattle with a 1.4 percent increase\nSeparate report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed its home-price index climbed 0.6 percent in February from a month earlier after a revised 0.9 percent increase\nFHFA price index advanced 7.2 percent from February 2017\n— With assistance by Kristy Scheuble", "Property website says 2% price falls in London will be offset by increase in value of homes elsewhere\nRightmove is predicting that house prices across England and Wales will rise by 1% in 2018, but there will be a further decline in London.\nIn its annual report on the market, the property website predicts that 2% price falls in the capital will be more than offset by an increase in the value of small and medium-priced homes around the country.\nRightmove said the average asking price for an English or Welsh home stands at £302,865 – a 2.6% fall on November, but 1.2% higher than a year ago.\nA 1% average increase would represent the lowest annual increase since the 0.8% rise recorded in 2011, it said.\nAnalysts at the website, which claims to list 90% of estate agents’ properties, said they expected the price of properties typically bought by first-time-buyers (two beds or fewer) to increase by 3% next year.\nThe site also said it also expected second-stepper homes (non-detached homes with three or four bedrooms) to increase by 2% over the next 12 months.\nThis time last year, Rightmove predicted that national asking prices would rise 2% during 2017. The increase was in fact 1.2%. Its prediction that inner London prices would fall 5% proved more accurate, as they fell 4%.\nMonday’s report chimes with another from the estate agent Savills, which last month also predicted that average prices would rise 1% next year. It said the UK’s housing market had proved “stronger than expected” this year, rather than stagnating, as the estate agent suggested a year ago.\nMiles Shipside, Rightmove’s director and housing market analyst, said home owners have had a good run with the national average rise over those six years being 30.9% – equivalent to 4.6% per year.\n“We estimate that 2018 will continue this year’s trend by being a real mixed bag of different price pressures, both up and down. The net result is another year of a slowing in the pace of price rises.”\nHe said the peak in the cycle of rising prices was 2015, when annual prices jumped 7.4%. The following year saw price growth more than halve to 3.4%.\n“Increasingly stretched buyer affordability, exacerbated as intended by tighter lending criteria and increased stamp duty for second home-owners, is taking its toll on upwards price pressure. It is aided by a slowdown in the higher-end markets, with the influence of a readjusting London being a weighty factor on the national averages.”\nShipside said the average asking price faced by first-time buyers outside inner London stood at £190,310 – 3.5% higher than last year’s figure.\nNorth-east England had the biggest price inflation in 2017, rising by 4.7%. It was also the only region in which prices did not fall in November.\nThe report shows that Camden was London’s hottest borough, as prices rose more than 19%. Prices in Newham rose 9.8%, the capital’s second biggest riser.\nIn Islington, which is a mile or so away from Camden, prices fell more than 10%. Hammersmith & Fulham was the other London borough that recorded the biggest price fall in 2017, with an identical 10% fall.\nNick Leeming, the chairman of Jackson-Stops, predicted more of the same. “The average UK house price will likely remain static across 2018, with punitive stamp duty levels and political and economic uncertainty weighing in on the residential property market. The escalating cost of moving house means home owners are more likely to stay put and renovate next year, when they might otherwise have moved.”\nBrian Murphy, the head of lending for the Mortgage Advice Bureau, said it was too early to tell if the budget-announced stamp duty exemption for first-time buyers will make as much of an impact as the government hopes.\nLast month, Savills predicted that the north-west England is set to experience the fastest price growth in the UK over the next five years: a surge of 18.1%, followed by increases of 17.6% in the north-east and Yorkshire and Humberside region, with 17% growth in Scotland.", "House prices in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham have surged by at least 7 per cent in the last year, new figures reveal.\nThey were the top five risers across Britain's 20 best-known cities, where house prices increased on average by 5.5 per cent in the year to March.\nBut the story is different in previously red hot London. In the capital, prices have risen by a mere 1.6 per cent year-on-year, and homes take the longest out of all of the cities to sell - lingering on the market for an average of just over four months, Hometrack's figures reveal.\nThe figures came as separate data from estate agent group Haart claimed that across England and Wales there are now 12 buyers grappling for every property coming up for sale.\nSurging ahead: Property prices in Birmingham, Edinburgh (pictured), Manchester and Nottingham have surged by over 7 per cent in the last year\nHouse prices across regional cities have seen a pick up in annual inflation from a 3.7 per cent rise at the same point a year ago.\nIn terms off why the likes of Edinburgh and Manchester are continuing to see prices rise rapidly, Richard Donnell, a director at Hometrack, said: 'The headline rate of city house price growth continues to be driven by above average increases in regional cities where attractive affordability and a lack of housing for sale is supporting house price inflation.\n'This latest report identifies other cities such as Cardiff, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield as having recorded a sustained uplift in the rate of growth over the last 12 months.'\nThe average cost of a home in popular cities like Edinburgh, Nottingham, Manchester and Birmingham has swelled to £229,200, £148,500, £162,1000 and £157,200 respectively, Hometrack said.\nHouse price growth across cities in the UK\nIn contrast, buyers looking for a home in London can expect to pay nearer the £500,000 mark.\nLooking ahead, Hometrack said: 'We expect house prices across London to continue to post modest falls in real terms over the next 12-24 months as prices re-align to what buyers are prepared to pay.\n'It is early days, but there are some tentative signs that sales volumes could start to stabilise over 2018 as a result of more realistic pricing.'\nAcross all of Britain's 20 biggest cities, the average cost of a home has increased by 2.9 per cent to £254,900 in the last quarter, Hometrack figures show.\nWhile the majority of cities have seen property prices rise in the past year, Cambridge and Aberdeen both saw prices drop, with falls of 1.2 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.\nLingering: Homes in London are taking an average of 17 weeks to sell\nOn the up: The average cost of a home in Birmingham has risen by 6.6% year-on-year\nWhen it comes to buying property, it pays to know who you're up against. Research by estate agent group haart suggests interest from buyers across England and Wales has increased by 22 per cent in the last year.\nMeanwhile, supplies of homes coming up for sale have increased by just 6.5 per cent over the same period.\nWhat this means is that in England and Wales there are 12 would-be buyers grappling to snap up every property that comes onto the market.\nInterest from first-time buyers is also on the up, with estate agent registrations in this category up 24 per cent year-on-year. The average spend of a first-time buyer in England and Wales is now £172,852, Haart said.\nPaul Smith, chief executive of haart, said: 'Those considering putting their home up for sale should do so now before the gap between stock and demand begins to narrow.'\nPopular: Affordable homes and a shortage of supplies is helping push prices up in Manchester\nUps and downs: Average property prices charted by haart since March 2017\nIn its last set of figures, the Office for National Statistics said property prices across the country increased by 4.4 per cent year-on-year to the end of February.\nThe main contribution to the increase came from England, where prices increased by 4.1 per cent, bringing average prices in the region up to £242,000.\nHaving enjoyed cheap mortgage deals for years, buyers, and those looking to remortgage, could be in for a shock next month if the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee decides to increase interest rates fro 0.5 per cent.\nWhile many analysts had predicted that rates would almost certainly rise next month, last week, the Bank's governor, Mark Carney, said that while rates were likely to rise gradually, the Bank was 'conscious that there are other meetings over the course of this year.'", "Sebastian McCarthy\nLondoners are willing to pay more money than almost anyone else in the country for a garden, with those in the capital hunting for an outdoor space after forecasts showed that last month was one of the warmest Junes since records began in 1910.\nA nationwide survey, carried out by property website Zoopla, shows that those living in the capital are willing to fork out more than £30,000 extra on a property to have an outdoor space.\nLawrence Hall, spokesperson for Zoopla, said: \"With the good weather set to continue, it is only natural that more people will be on the hunt for properties with outside space to enjoy the sun.\"\nRead more: Guy Hands's Terra Firma seeks buyers for Wyevale Garden Centres\nWhile those in the south east of England will pay the most amount of money for an outdoor space, followed closely by London, residents in Wales and Scotland show the least enthusiasm.\nRegions with highest premiums for a garden 1. South East - £31,768 2. London - £31,447 3. North East - £30,942 4. East Midlands - £29,472 5. South West - £29,333 6. East of England - £28,845 7. West Midlands - £25,615 8. Yorkshire and Humber - £24,070 9. North West - £22,471 10. Scotland - £22, 208\nThe research also found that more than half of all homeowners would sacrifice a bedroom for a garden, although they spend on average just 21 hours a month in their garden.\nRead more: Restaurants feel the pinch as summer heat helps the pubs\nHall added: \"It’s clear that Brits prioritise outdoor space when it comes to finding their ideal home. Sellers and landlords should maximise this and make sure it’s properly maintained as it’s certainly an important selling point for buyers and renters.\"", "Get money updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nHouse prices went into reverse in May as a faltering economy, pressure on household budgets and the prospect of interest rate rises dogged the market.\nFigures from Nationwide Building Society show prices fell 0.2% month-on-month, the third fall in four months.\nOn an annual basis, price growth slowed to 2.4% from 2.6% in April.\nRobert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said: \"There are few signs of an imminent change. Surveyors continue to report subdued levels of new buyer enquiries, while the supply of properties on the market remains more of a trickle than a torrent.\n\"Looking further ahead, much will depend on how broader economic conditions evolve, especially in the labour market, but also with respect to interest rates.\n\"Subdued economic activity and ongoing pressure on household budgets is likely to continue to exert a modest drag on housing market activity and house price growth this year, though borrowing costs are likely to remain low.\"\nThe average house price stood at £213,618 in May, slightly up from April's £213,000.\nLimbo for property\nNationwide's figures chime with official data that point to a slowing market, driven by London.\nRecent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows British house prices slid in March, with the capital recording its weakest performance since 2009.\nThe statistics body said the decline in London can be linked to reforms to stamp duty and the Brexit vote, which has deterred foreign buyers and seen net migration to the city fall.\n\"Tight supply and subdued demand are the key contributors to the ongoing limbo gripping the UK property market,\" said Jonathan Samuels, chief executive of property lender Octane Capital.\n\"The property market is fuelled by confidence but many consumers are running on fumes.\"", "House prices went into reverse in May as a faltering economy, pressure on household budgets and the prospect of interest rate rises dogged the market.\nFigures from Nationwide Building Society show prices fell 0.2% month-on-month, the third fall in four months.\nOn an annual basis, price growth slowed to 2.4% from 2.6% in April.\nHouse prices\nRobert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “There are few signs of an imminent change. Surveyors continue to report subdued levels of new buyer enquiries, while the supply of properties on the market remains more of a trickle than a torrent.\n“Looking further ahead, much will depend on how broader economic conditions evolve, especially in the labour market, but also with respect to interest rates.\n“Subdued economic activity and ongoing pressure on household budgets is likely to continue to exert a modest drag on housing market activity and house price growth this year, though borrowing costs are likely to remain low.”\nThe average house price stood at £213,618 in May, slightly up from April’s £213,000.\nNationwide’s figures chime with official data that point to a slowing market, driven by London.\nRecent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows British house prices slid in March, with the capital recording its weakest performance since 2009.\nThe statistics body said the decline in London can be linked to reforms to stamp duty and the Brexit vote, which has deterred foreign buyers and seen net migration to the city fall.\n#Nationwide report #UK #house #prices dipped 0.2% m/m in May, 3rd fall in 4 months (was marginal rise of 0.1% in April). Year-on-year increase back to 2.4% in May after rise to 2.6% in April from 7-month low of 2.1% in March (which was also equal lowest level sine June 2013) — Howard Archer (@HowardArcherUK) May 31, 2018\nHoward Archer, chief economic adviser at EY Item Club, said: “The housing market is clearly currently struggling to gain traction and we suspect that any meaningful upturn will remain elusive over the coming months.\n“The fundamentals for house buyers are likely to remain challenging. Consumers have faced an extended serious squeeze on purchasing power, which is only gradually easing.\n“Additionally, housing market activity remains hampered by relatively fragile consumer confidence and limited willingness to engage in major transactions.”", "House prices in the West Midlands ended last year around £12,000 higher on average than when the year started, according to an official report.\nThe typical property value across the region was £181,000, said the report, produced jointly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with other bodies.\nAcross the wider UK house price growth was strongest in England, where prices increased by 7.7 per cent over the year to December, taking the average price to £236,000.\nWales saw house prices increase by 4.7 per cent over the year to stand at £148,000. In Scotland, the average price increased by 3.5 per cent to £142,000, while in Northern Ireland the average price was £125,000, an increase of 5.7 per cent.\nHouse prices across the UK as a whole increased by 7.2 per cent in the year to December, accelerating from a 6.1 per cent rise recorded in the year to November\nThe biggest rise in prices was on the small island of Shetland, where they rose 26.1 per cent to £179,000. The biggest drop was in the city of Aberdeen, where prices fell 9.8 per cent to £168,000 as the local economy took a major hit from the slump in the offshore oil industry.\nAcross the English regions, house price growth ranged from an 11.3 per cent increase in East Anglia to a 4.1 per cent rise in the North East, putting the 7.1 per cent rise across the West Midlands firmly in the middle ground.\nBut there was wide variation within our region.\nThe biggest price rises were in Wyre Forest and Kidderminster, where prices rose 10.4 per cent to an average of £175,063, while the lowest was just 3.1 per cent in South Staffordshire, where the average house now costs £208,478.\nAcross Shropshire house prices have risen 6.4 per cent to an average of £204,818, while in Telford & Wrekin they were up 5.6 per cent to £155,402.\nIn Wolverhampton prices rose 7.4 per cent to £135,018 on average, while in Walsall they were up 8.2 per cent to £149,268.\nIn Dudley a 5.1 per cent rise over the year took prices to £155,824 while in Sandwell they were up just 4.3 per cent to £130,004.\nIn Staffordshire house prices were up 5.7 per cent on to an average of £177,268, while in Stafford they were up four per cent to £191,447. In Cannock Chase prices rose 5.7 per cent to £150,805.\nRichard Snook, a senior economist at PwC, said: “The good news for prospective future buyers is that we do expect a gradual slowdown in house price inflation in 2017 with our scenarios ranging from between two per cent and six per cent growth.”", "It’s the former gun crime capital of the UK, and once recorded the highest murder rate in the country. Now, Harlesden is on the make.\nThis nook of north-west London has seen the biggest growth in property prices in the capital in the past year at 14.6 per cent, according to research by Hamptons. That’s more than double the London average of 6.1 per cent.\nEveryone should be thinking of Harlesden as the new Dalston, Peckham or Walthamstow. And yet NW10, which consists mainly of a high street and its famous Jubilee Clock surrounded by terraced houses, remains hitherto unknown, unlauded and resolutely untouched by hipsters.\n“It is profoundly unfashionable,” says Stephanie O’Brien, 58, an NHS manager who has lived in the same Harlesden street for 33 years. “But I think that’s cool. It’s real here.”", "Given the importance of such investments, it is critical that one understands the most suitable potential hotspots for property acquisition abroad.\nBy Ashwinder Raj Singh\nThe global economy is expected to grow by 3.5% in 2018 compared to under 3% in 2016. This encouraging trend suggests more vigorous economic activity, rising incomes and a keener appetite for real estate investments – not only within India, but on international markets, as well. Indians have historically been enthusiastic investors into properties abroad. They know that purchasing real estate in a foreign country helps diversify one’s financial portfolio and can ensure superb capital growth and guaranteed regular rental income in the right markets.\nAlso, owning a home in a country of one’s personal preference is an unbeatable lifestyle option, making that country a perfect destination for leisure activities.\nGiven the importance of such investments, it is critical that one understands the most suitable potential hotspots for property acquisition abroad. Here is a continent-wise breakdown for residential real estate investment that can generate exciting returns in 2017:\nYou may also watch:\nUnited States: The American economy is expected to grow by 2.1%, and all major economic indicators are strong as well. This would point towards a convincing recovery from the 2008 recession, and signals increasing investor demand for real estate. It bears mentioning that America is currently becoming more favourable for modestly-priced affordable properties rather than high-end and luxury homes. Los Angeles is one of the cities considered to be leading from the front, while the Lower East Side of New York also presents an attractive proposition for investments into this housing category.\nEurope: The perennial favourite of tourists from across the globe despite a few aberrations, Europe is going to be potentially strong in terms of real estate investments. For example, Montenegro – a country growing at 2.7% and an extremely attractive tourism destination – can be considered to be a hotspot for 2017. Since there isn’t a lot of awareness about this country, property prices are still modest and attractive for early-mover investors. Germany, the strongest economy in Europe today, has seen a rise of 23% in residential prices and is without doubt a tremendous opportunity for residential property investors. The UK, despite Brexit, is still a good bet as the property prices are softening and the economy may witness a modest downturn, thereby making it attractive for investors. Italy is another country with great investment potential, with Rome topping the charts. Finally, Portugal can be considered too given the extremely attractive prices of built-up real estate in the country.\nAsia: Owing to lower taxes on rental income and various other factors, Tokyo in Japan is proving to be an interesting real estate investment destination. Bangkok in Thailand is yet another market that offers high returns on astute real estate investment. After the country opened its gates to foreign investors, Vietnam has suddenly come on the radar of attractive realty destinations, with improving economic growth and a stable government proving to be additional USPs.\nYou may also watch:\nLatin America: Global economic watchdogs have predicted countries like Chile, Mexico and Brazil will come onto the path of sound economic recovery in 2017, thereby making these countries very viable alternatives for real estate investment.\nNew Zealand: This country ranks number 2 in the world on the International Property Rights Index. Even though property is not cheap there, the sparse population and growing economy mean that there is less competition and the chances of investing in plum properties are very favourable. New Zealand is an excellent choice for investors looking for enough room to grow and averse to the thought of fighting space in a crowded market.\nTurkey: Turkey has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently, but its strategic location between Europe and Asia makes it an indubitable property investment hotspot. It has been a business and trade hub for centuries, and the current unrest and slowdown in economy in fact makes the country quite viable for long-term investments.\nReal estate investment predictions for global markets are always subject for variances. However, if one considers economic trends and the basic broad fundamentals and parameters of property investment, it is quite possible to identify regions in the world that can offer good returns on realty investments. At all times, the astute international property investor must study an identified market minutely, understand the trends driving supply, demand and price growth, and become familiar with the country’s own rules and regulations for foreign investments.\n(The author is CEO-Residential Services, JLL India)", "Property prices are expected to slow to near-zero in 2018 nationally with some regions expected to experience falls.\nRightmove, the online property portal, yesterday predicted annual price growth of just 1pc across Britain with falls in London and the commuter belt of 2pc.\nSo is now really the right time to buy a first property or move up the housing ladder?\nLast month’s Budget gave first-timers some fresh impetus to take the plunge: stamp duty was scrapped entirely on first purchases priced up to £300,000. Those paying up to £500,000 could also benefit, but not by a full waiver.\nUltra-low mortgage rates are another incentive. The most popular mortgage deals – which typically fix the borrower’s rate for the first two years – remain near all-time lows.\nLike Rightmove, most forecasters suggest the market is subdued and slowing, with total transactions and lending at approximately half the levels...", "Get Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nThe most expensive homes sold in North Lincolnshire in 2017 can now be revealed.\nData from the Land Registry shows the highest priced property sold in our area during the year was a detached house on Godnow Bridge in Crowle, which went for £627,500.\nThe five most expensive homes sold in the region across the year are as follows:\nWillow Brook Farm, Godnow Bridge, Crowle, which is a detached house, sold for £627,500 on November 6\n(Image: Google Maps)\nWaterville, Cliff Road, South Ferriby, which is a detached house, sold for £600,000 on August 25\nFairfield, Gravel Pit Lane, Yaddlethorpe, which is a detached house, sold for £585,000 on August 4\nWindsor, 26 Church Street, Elsham, which is a detached house, sold for £520,000 on October 13\nCraigellachie, Vicarage Gardens, Scunthorpe, which is a detached house, sold for £495,000 on October 30\nAccording to the Land Registry, 850,282 residential sales have been registered across England and Wales in 2017, down 3 per cent from the 877,307 registered at this point last year for 2016.\nThere were 15,885 sales at £1 million or more, up from 14,999 in 2016. This included 2,974 sales at £2 million or more, down from 3,039 a year before. There were 369 sales at £5 million or more and 77 at £10 million or more.\nThe most expensive property sold in 2017 was Apartment 1101 in the Knightsbridge Apartments at 199 Knightsbridge in Westminster, with the flat going for £90 million in April.\nThe most expensive residential sale taking place in December 2017 was of a terraced property in the City of Westminster for £10,075,000.\nThe cheapest residential sale in December 2017 was of a terraced property in Llanelli for £15,000.\nThe Land Registry lists the price paid for every property bought at market value. The data also includes sales under a power of sale/repossessions, buy-to-lets (where they can be identified by a mortgage) and transfers to non-private individuals. It may take several weeks for sales to be registered after completion so some sales from later in 2017 may not be listed yet.", "Million-pound apartment sales in England and Wales have nearly trebled in a decade.\nNearly 3,000 flats worth £1 million or more were sold last year, a 196 per cent jump from 1,002 in 2006.\nNearly all of the the plush properties were based in London - 96 per cent - and made up a third of all million-pound addresses sold in the capital that year, data gathered by Lloyds Private Banking showed.\nWestminster is home to the most expensive apartments in the UK, with an average price of £2,215,073.\nMillion-pound apartment sales in England and Wales have nearly trebled in a decade\nA spokeswoman said the jump was partly explained by a growing population and increasing demand.\nKensington and Chelsea saw soaring numbers of the luxury spaces being snapped up, where 731 flats sold compared with 357 in 2006, overtaking terraced houses as the most popular million-pound properties.\nIn up-and-coming Hackney, east London, there were no million-pound apartments sold in 2006. Last year, there were 47.\nThe figures, taken from the Land Registry, found the exclusive flats now make up 22 per cent of all million-pound property sales in England and Wales.\nSales of flats worth more than £1 million have grown at a far greater pace than houses.\nNearly 3,000 flats worth £1 million or more were sold last year, a 196 per cent jump from 1,002 in 2006\nThe sale of detached homes over the one million mark rose 88 per cent, while semi-detached increased 154 per cent and terraced houses went up 165 per cent over the same period.\nHead of Lending at Lloyds Private Banking, Louise Santaana, said: 'London dominates the million-pound flat market, with the prime areas of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea accounting for over half of all million-pound apartment sales in England and Wales.\n'A finite supply of land in prime central London combined with a growing population has meant the only way is up, with more and more developers focusing on apartments.\n'In the past decade there has been a large increase in the building of high value apartments in Knightsbridge, West End, Victoria and King's Cross, while Marylebone and Mayfair being the top two locations for most development.\n'With demand still high, there are more in the pipeline.'", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nGood wages, high levels of employment and a low burglary rate are some of the elements that have seen Cambridge ranked as the third best city in Britain overall for people buying a house.\nThe city places second in terms of employment rate, with 75.9 per cent of 16-64-year-olds in full time employment according to We Buy Any Home's 2018 Selling Points Index.\nAnd Cambridge was also second when it came to wages - only beaten by London - with people in the city taking home an average paycheck of £31,215.\nBut house prices and education are dragging the city's score down.\nWhy isn't Cambridge number one?\nThe poll surveyed 26 cities in total and looked at a wide range of factors including the number of nearby schools with outstanding Ofsted ratings and average waiting times at NHS hospitals.\nBut despite making the top 10 in several different categories, the city only comes in third - behind Bristol in the top spot and Southampton in second.\nThe city placed sixth for the average sale time of homes (71 days) and seventh for NHS waiting times (92.4 per cent of patients treated within four hours).\n(Image: David Johnson)\nCambridge was also ranked the eighth best city for the number of burglaries, with 3.8 cases for every 1,000 residents.\nSo, what kept us from the top spot? There are two big reasons.\nFirstly, the city ranked number 25 out of 26 when it came to average house price. No surprise.\nA Cambridge property sets you back £451,634 on average, only beaten by bottom-ranked London's £743,953.\nMore embarrassingly for one of the world's most well-known cities for education, Cambridge was placed at number 23 out of 26 when it came to Ofsted ratings.\nOnly seven schools within a three mile radius have achieved outstanding commendations.\nThe full results\nBristol Southampton Cambridge Stoke-on-Trent Edinburgh Glasgow Newcastle Plymouth Birmingham Manchester Derby Portsmouth Norwich Sheffield London Leeds Brighton Leicester Bath Liverpool Hull Nottingham Middlesbrough Cardiff Swansea Belfast", "However, London bucked the trend last month, with property supply at its highest in the capital for three years\nAlmost 33,000 new properties came onto the market in London in June, the highest number since before June 2015, according to HouseSimple.com.\nThe online estate agent said the capital saw a monthly rise in home sellers of 2.8% but noted that this bucked the overall UK trend.\nNew supply fell by 3.8% last month, the first drop since December 2017, but new listings still surpassed 70,000.\nThey were also a significant 60.4% higher than the same month in 2017.\nTaking stock\nMore than three quarters (76.6%) of towns and cities saw new stock levels fall in June compared to May.\nSalford in the North West, experienced the largest drop off in supply last month, with new listings down a third (32.8%) on May. While, new supply in Lichfield was up 27.6% in June.\nSam Mitchell, CEO of HouseSimple.com, said: “Although new property supply fell slightly in June, listings still exceeded 70,000 for the second consecutive month across the 100 towns and cities we analysed.\n“Seller activity has picked up noticeably since mid-May, particularly in London, where prices have cooled. Buyers are viewing a lot more properties before they make an offer, and with more sellers listing in the past month, they have more choice.\n“More than ever, the key for motivated sellers is to price correctly and competitively to attract buyers. It’s important to do your research, to check what properties are selling for on your street and in the nearby area. This is probably not the right market to price high, hoping to squeeze a little more money out of buyers.”" ]

[ "The young prisoner stood motionless in the office of the factory manager. Next to him stood the chief foreman and the floor foreman, who had reported him for his grave offence. ‘What were you thinking!?’ the manager screamed. ‘Do you want to die?’ Of course, he did not want to die — he was just 22 years old — but he knew, after many years in the brutal hell of North Korea’s Camp 14, that life was very cheap. Scroll down for video . Behind the wire: Rare video footage taken by hidden camera in 2005 and shows what appears to be a executions in a North Korean concentration camp near Hoeryang along the Chinese border (File photo) His ‘offence’ was severe indeed: he had accidentally dropped a sewing machine down a stairwell, and it was beyond repair. ‘Even if you die, the sewing machine can’t be brought back,’ the manager shouted. ‘Your hand is the problem!’ The chief foreman took hold of his right hand and, with a large kitchen knife, cut off the prisoner’s middle finger, just above the first knuckle. Incredibly, the prisoner felt that he’d got off lightly. ‘I thought my whole hand was going to be cut off at the wrist,’ he said, ‘so I felt thankful and grateful.’ Shin Dong-hyuk’s story of how he lost his finger is just one of the many horrors being recounted this week at a United Nations commission of inquiry in Seoul, South Korea. The commission are interviewing some 30 defectors who are fortunate enough to have slipped from the grasp of one of the vilest regimes the world has ever seen. Death: In tapes taken in 2005 that South Korean intelligence officers insist are fake, prisoners including children are kept in concentration camps that bear similarities to Shin Dong-hyuk's Camp 14 (File photo) Mr Shin, who testified on Monday, is one of the more well-known defectors. He has recently published an account of his experiences in a book, Escape From Camp 14. At times, the stories told by Mr Shin and his fellow defectors are almost too unbearable to hear — but it is the intention of the commission to publicise such acts of terror committed by the regime. It is hoped news of them will trickle across the border into North Korea, alerting its benighted people to what has been done in their name since the despotic Kim family took control in 1948. The 30 witnesses are just a handful of the hundreds of thousands of political prisoners incarcerated in a network of North Korean ‘kwan-li-so’ — best translated as ‘political penal-labour colonies’. In these colonies, three generations of families are held for life, often on the basis that a single family member was once deemed guilty of an offence against the regime. The supposed ‘crime’ which saw . Mr Shin born at Camp 14 in 1982 was that his two uncles had tried to flee the country in the mid-Sixties. Mr Shin’s parents were both prisoners, and their marriage had been arranged in the camp. If their baby had been born out of what passes for ‘wedlock’, then he would not have been allowed to live and they would have been executed for having ‘sexual contact without prior approval’. Evil: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, son of former leader Kim Jong-il, presides over one of the most repressive regimes in history . Another defector, Jee Heon-a, told the commission how one mother was forced to kill her own baby by holding it down in a bowl of water. ‘The mother begged the guard to spare her, but he kept beating her,’ Ms Jee said. ‘So the mother, her hands shaking, put the baby face down in the water. The crying stopped and a bubble rose up as it died. A grandmother who had delivered the baby quietly took it out.’ Mr Shin testified that his first memory as a toddler was watching a public execution, and that he had seen two or three per year since. Many of those executed are those caught trying to escape. One former prisoner, Kang Chol-Hwan, in his book The Aquariums Of Pyongyang, has recalled a typical execution at Camp 15  in which the condemned man had his mouth stuffed full of stones to stop him shouting out any statements against the regime that might be heard by the onlookers. The man was then bound with three pieces of rope: one around his eyes, one around his chest and one at the waist. The leader of the firing squad then shouted: ‘Aim at the traitor of the Fatherland… Fire!’ Three volleys were aimed at the man. The first hit him in the head, killing him instantly. The second hit him in the chest, causing him to slump, and the third, aimed at the waist, caused the man to fall into a pit. As Mr Kang wryly points out: ‘This simplified the burial.’ Spy state: The UN commission of inquiry will look into government policing activities in North Korea . Prisoners are sometimes made to throw rocks at the corpse until its skin comes off. Mr Kang also remembers how a bulldozer preparing some ground to be made into a field unearthed masses of body parts. ‘Scraps of human flesh re-emerged from the final resting place,’ he recalls. ‘Arms and legs and feet, some still stockinged, rolled in waves before the bulldozer. I was terrified. One of my friends vomited.’ Mr Kang was then made to throw the body parts into a ditch. ‘That scene frightens me even more today than it did back then,’ he says. In some ways, those who die are the lucky ones and many prisoners do indeed choose suicide as the ultimate means of escape. Just as in the Nazi concentration camps decades before, prisoners are worked incredibly hard and subsist on pathetically meagre rations. As a result, the starving prisoners — many of them children, — eat what they can, including rats, frogs, snakes, and insects. Mr Shin recalled how rats were especially valued, as their meat can help stave off a potentially fatal disease called pellagra, caused by a lack of protein and niacin. Isolation: A satellite image shows a camp in Haengyong, North Korea, where prisoners are thought to be held by the tyrannical government . Mr Shin would peel away the skin of a rat, scrape out its innards, chew the flesh and bones, then finish off with the rodents’ small feet. Mr Kang prized salamanders, but they have to be eaten live. ‘The way to eat a salamander is to grab it by its tail and swallow it in one gulp, before it can discharge a foul-tasting liquid,’ he says. In the camps, the children eat anything that moves, including earthworms. If a group of prisoners is sent to work in a field, not one animal is left alive. Not surprisingly, the penalty for stealing food is severe. At Camp 14, one six-year-old girl was found by her teacher to have five kernels of corn in her pockets. The teacher forced the young girl to kneel in front of the class, whereupon he repeatedly beat her around the head with a wooden stick. The class was forced to watch as her head swelled up with bruises, and blood leaked from her nose. Eventually, she was taken away. She died later that evening. Such treatment is by no means unusual, and torture is common. Beatings on especially vulnerable parts of the body such as the face and hands are particularly favoured by the sadistic guards, who are encouraged to regard the prisoners as subhuman. Victims are made to kneel motionless on concrete floors for hours, or crouch in special punishment boxes for 15 days at a time. Prison state: A female North Korean soldier stands guard at the entrance of a women's jail on the banks of the Yalu River near North Korea's Chongsong county . More awfully still, those being tortured have often been denounced by members of their own families. One of the most gut-wrenching pieces of testimony made by Mr Shin is his honest admission that it was he who betrayed his own mother and brother for plotting to escape from the camp. He was motivated by the fact that his mother had given rice to his brother and not to him, and partly because he knew that if they did escape, he too would be punished  and in all likelihood shot. Mr Shin was forced to watch their execution. At the time, he was so desensitised and full of hate that he felt they deserved their fate. When his mother was led out, he noticed her head was swollen from being beaten. As the noose went around her neck, she looked for her son but Mr Shin did not meet her eye. Her death was terrible, as she struggled at the end of the rope. His brother’s death was equally horrific, as bullets splattered his brains everywhere. The methods of execution varied according to the whim of the camp’s commandant. In 2004, Mr Shin managed to escape Camp 14 and eventually the country disguised as a soldier. Callous: Kim Jong-un lives a fantasy life on the one hand, while allowing the torture and oppression of his people on the other . Although his story and those of . others who have been testifying in Seoul this week seem exceptionally . brutal to our ears, they are commonplace in North Korean camps. Meanwhile, . the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, continues to live in a kind of . Never-Never Land, divorced from the sufferings of his people. His latest pet project is to build a ski resort, which he claims will be for the use of all. Just this week, though, the Swiss government blocked a deal to sell Kim any ski lifts, as it is inconceivable that the resort will be used by the public. And worthy though the UN commission is, it seems unlikely to stop the daily hell that is North Korea." ]

[ "North Korea has a new communist heir after the wife of dynastic dictator Kim Jong Un secretly gave birth late last year, it was claimed today. The newborn, whose gender is not known, could become the fourth-generation to lead the communist dictatorship, but Pyongyang watchers believe the baby is most likely a girl. 'If it was a boy, [the North Koreans] would have made an announcement,' Michael Madden, editor of the online newsletter North Korea Leadership Watch, told the Washington Free Beacon. This picture shows Kim Jong-Un (centre) with his wife (left) and Mr Rodman (right) on a previous visit . Stepping into the limelight: Kim Jung Un's wife Ri Sol-Ju is being seen more often in public, fuelling claims that she has given birth . The birth is seen as significant . because the communist regime in Pyongyang has evolved from a . Soviet-installed Marxist-Leninist regime in the 1950s to an Asian family . dynasty. The newsletter said: 'South Korea’s government recently confirmed that Ri Sol-ju, Kim’s wife who was shown in recent months wearing designer fashions and expensive jewelry, had a child in late 2012.' Kim . Jong Un, who last week spent time with former NBA star Dennis Rodman, . has dramatically increased the provocation his father was known for, . with multiple tests of nuclear weapons and missiles. Yet . Rodman, who went to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters and an . HBO camera crew, described the dictator as 'awesome' and lavished . praised on him. Speculation has been growing that the wife . of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un has given birth since she was pictured looking significantly slimmer at the end of 2012. Photographs seen on North Korean TV . show Ri Sol-Ju wearing a neatly-fitting two-piece skirt suit in contrast . to the loose-fitting clothing she was seen wearing in mid December and . which suggested she was heavily pregnant. Before-and-after photos were run on . South Korean TV and in Seoul newspapers today resulting in widespread . agreement that Kim Jong-Un’s wife has had a child. ‘The bulging stomach has gone down – has Ri Sol-Ju given birth?’ asked one newspaper, the Dong-A Ilbo. The . caption in another South Korean paper, the Chosun Ilbo, read: ‘Ri . Sol-Ju with her tummy reduced in 11 days. Has she come out right after . childbirth?’ United: This screen grab taken from North Korean TV today shows North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un, right, and his wife Ri Sol-Ju, left. The images suggest that the leader's wife has recently given birth . Birth: The seemingly pregnant belly sported by Ri Sol-Ju in mid-December appeared to be gone in these recent pictures . Pregnant? Ri Sol-ju, centre, Kim Jong Un's wife, is pictured in December looking as though she may be expecting a child . Child: This picture in December of Ri Sol-Ju, second left, which was taken from the side, shows her apparently bloated frame . The photographs have undergone the most intense scrutiny and the verdict is that Ri Sol-Ju is a mother. A South Korean government official, . quoted by the national Yonhap news agency concluded that Ri ‘appeared to . have already given birth based on analysis of the TV images.’ Defectors from North Korea are also said to have provided new details of Ri, who is considered a future power player in the Pyongyang leadership hierarchy and a growing influence on Kim Jong-un. 'Ri Sol-ju is a fresh face who is clearly stepping out but it’s much too early to say if her public activity will have any political relevance in North Korea,' said a U.S. official who did not answer questions about the birth. Whether North Korea will officially announce what would be the equivalent of a royal birth is open to speculation. No official announcement was made that Kim Jong Un even had a wife until state media eventually revealed it. Kim Jong-Un was . elevated to leader of the secretive Stalinist state following the death . of his father, Kim Jong-Il, who had succeeded his own father, ‘Great . Leader’ Kim Il-Sung. According . to South Korean media, citing intelligence reports, the couple were . married in 2009 and already have one child. But that has never been . confirmed. Birth: Speculation is growing that the wife of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un, left, has given birth in recent weeks, continuing the family dynasty into a fourth generation. Ri Sol-Ju is pictured right with her husband earlier this year . Couple: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un walks arm in arm with his wife Ri Sol-ju while attending a ceremony earlier this year . Ri is said to . have come from an ‘ordinary family’ – although her father being an . academic and her mother a doctor raises them above the average level. The young wife of North Korea’s leader made her first public appearance in two months in October -  bringing to an end . what might have been a period of ‘home detention’ for being too . carefree. Ri Sol-ju had been . photographed earlier this year smiling and strolling about in a casual . manner when accompanying her husband. But . then she disappeared from view, provoking speculation that she might be . pregnant but more likely because she was not presenting the dour image . promoted by her husband’s late father, Kim Jong-il. Analysts say that despite the young . Kim’s appointment as supreme commander of the nation, he is still under . the control of the military hierarchy who make sure he presents a rigid, . authoritative image to the rest of the world. That means that his wife must remain aloof and untouchable in the eyes of the masses, say North Korean experts." ]

[ "The kind of \"like\" that you're referring to is mostly a [discourse marker](_URL_0_). It's attracted attention because it's a relatively new usage, not because there's something strange about it. When it comes to language usage (and other things) it's not \"natural\" versus \"cultural.\" It's a natural in the sense that it's just a part of the language, and it's cultural in the sense that teenagers and young adults won't use \"like\" this way if they aren't in an English-speaking environment where their peers are also using it." ]

[ "Somewhat subjective but I'll still give my insight. If you're communicating in a format where people (yourself, or just people in general) normally don't add punctuation, adding punctuation stands out and stands out as a conscious decision, as opposed to a necessary part of a sentence. Adding a period in a situation like this thus can sound like it's a conscious decision which can make it sound stern, kind of like if you said the word \"period\" at the end of a sentence you were speaking aloud.", "Just to add to the a bit to the discussion, the notion of 'teenagerhood' or the behaviours associated with the 'teenager' came were much from 1950s American culture, and more specifically advertisement. The grroup became identified by not only the bodily changes of adolescence but a variety of psychological changes and range of feelings due to hormones. Businesses wanted to capitalize on this and the conformist mainstream culture of 50s America decided what it meant to the common teen with comics like Archie feeding the stereotype. This is not to say there weren't characteristics associated with the adolescent identity in other cultures, but just that the ideas and behaviours we associate with teenage identity are very much relatively modern constructs.", "It's probably a form of [Semantic Satiation](_URL_0_), except for written words instead of spoken.", "When people are teenagers their bodies are growing and developing. They will take all the energy and caloric intake you will give them and use it to grow and build, to a reasonable extent. As a result teenagers can eat whatever they want within reason and the energy will be used to develop. But adults are already developed, and with nowhere for the extra energy to go it just stores as fat.", "Two parts. Firstly, it is because of the clothes, haircuts etc. \"Teenage\" looks weren't invented until the 1950's so before that teenagers dressed and wore their hair and in applicable cases their makeup exactly like an adult would. Secondly, because of societies expectations on them, they were a lot more likely to already have jobs, be engaged, cook and clean for themselves etc than teenagers are today, these are all things that would make a person LOOK more mature, even though most likely they were still prone to the same shenanigans as today's teens, that behaviour just wasn't as tolerated, adjusted for area and culture of course.", "Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why is it when we are younger we like sweeter food and can eat large quantities of them. But as adults we tend to like more fuller and bitter flavors, and sweeter foods can sometimes be \"too rich\"? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: Why do kids love sugar? ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: Why do young children seem to be natural born sugar fiends? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: Why do kids like sugar so much compared to adults? ](_URL_4_) 1. [ELI5: Why as a kid do we prefer sweet foods, but as an adult we dont as much? ](_URL_1_)", "In Spanish, as in English, the whole sentence is transformed by the fact it's a question--the meaning is different, and you use a different tone. (Consider the difference between \"It belongs to him.\" and \"It belongs to him?\") A question mark at the start of the sentence is an extra clue in Spanish, while in English we're fond of words like \"why\" to signal the start of a question. Punctuation, especially standardized punctuation, is relatively new as far as European languages go. Hence why different languages often have different ways of doing it.", "Aaaand the answer isssss (drumroll please) Nobody really knows. There are a lot of theories but as far as I know no overwhelming accumulation of evidence for any one. In academic literature it's called Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) (seriously, that's what it's called). [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) actually has a really great summary. There's some neuroscience work that's been done, but not too much. As always, the work that has been done is a bit difficult to interpret. You can read all about it on the page I linked you. :) Hopefully an expert can come along and give you more detail, but from what I know it's not a super well-studied phenomenon.", "It's not definitive, but The Straight Dope has this article on the topic. _URL_0_ Also this: _URL_1_ It seems that most people nod for yes, but there are some specific exceptions. Bulgaria and Albania are cited. That would seem to imply that it's not completely innate, or possibly that if it is that it can be overridden by culturally learned behaviour.", "Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic (and I think Greek, but that's outside my area of knowledge) didn't have punctuation. The first system of punctuating biblical Hebrew is from the 8th century, but it was a system of writing existing chant (which broke things up into phrases, not unlike punctuation) but didn't have things like question marks and exclamation points. The punctuation that article lists is mostly to mark sentence and phrase delineation, not serve like exclamation points, which I believe are much newer. Anyway, punctuation in modern translations is usually based on the context. Sentences that, in context, are emphatic or declarative get exclamation points. Saying \"Behold the man.\" doesn't quite work--it's a statement that *needs* an exclamation point. In most cases, it's not so difficult to assign punctuation.", "It's a learned thing. It never happened before the internet era. When I was a kid you capped things maybe for emphasis, just so the word looked different and was easier to pick out of a paragraph, but it didn't mean shouting or aggressive.", "Unfortunately, it is grammatically correct. *Myself* is a reflexive pronoun, but can be used as an intensive pronoun (adds emphasis to a sentence.) People hate it for the same reason they hate exclamation points. While technically okay, they're unnecessary and are only used to make your sentence seem more dramatic.", "[There seems to be something innate about it] (_URL_0_)", "Sometimes it's medically necessary due to phimosis, which by definition can only happen to *adult* men. Circumcising infants? Unnecessary and possibly harmful. You evolved with a foreskin for a reason, and no, having one is not \"unhygienic\". Talk of reducing the risk of penile cancer is bogus - penile cancer is so rare that any claimed effect is statistically insignificant. Circumcision was basically invented in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent teenage boys from masturbating. This is a frequently asked question here - did you search first?", "Yes. It is natural and Yes it is influenced. Imho. Slap stick Chevy Chase / Chris Farley stuff will always hit you in the basic physical comedy bone. Other things that are context dependant of course depend on you understanding the content. How is a spice girl joke funny if you don't know who they are?", "Are you so sure that it's not due to accent or other cultural clues? Until the existence of an actual effect is demonstrated, there's no use speculating on a potential cause.", "its cultural, an English language quirk. it clarifies what response you are wanting from the other person. Chinese for example accomplishes the same meaning by adding the word 'ma' to the end of the sentence.", "Other than fur and tails (not with apes obviously) we look a lot like other primates, especially young ones. [Look at the skulls in this image](_URL_0_). Humans exhibit a characteristic called neoteny, which essentially keeps the adult body in a more childlike form. [There are a bunch of reasons given for why this is the case](_URL_1_) that include diet, extended childhood/learning period, early births, etc. In short, we *do* very much look like other primates, just not like other *adult* primates.", "Recess. Young girls play like young boys. Unisex/boyish clothing survives roughhousing, sandboxes, jungle gyms etc, better than dainty or feminine apparel. In teenage years, children tend to wear activity-specific clothing for sports, and wear non-active clothing for other parts of life. Coupled with a transition into puberty, the development of feminine features, the availability of clothing to accentuate those features, and hormones that create a desire to be noticed by peers, teenaged girls generally select new clothing to be more womanly than boyish. Their parents, grandparents, and peers are also likely to make these choices in gifts and/or offer fashion advice. This reinforces cultural norms.", "> In adults, the most accurate indicators of age are the pubic symphysis of the pubic bone, the auricular surface of the ilium, and the sternal end of the fourth rib. In addition, the general condition of the skeleton, such as presence of arthritis, lipping of the vertebral bodies or osteoporosis can be used for general age estimates. In young adults and teenagers, the pattern of epiphyseal fusion of the skeleton and eruption of the teeth are used to estimate age. [Source: Physical Anthropology Dept. at UC Santa Cruz](_URL_0_)", "Why would it not be natural? Pecking order exists in almost all social mammalian groups. It's a competition and the weak get squashed. They don't get to breed and their genes die out making the next generation stronger.", "It's a mechanism for holding on to the conversation ball. By using discourse markers and vocalised pauses ('like' and 'y'know' vs 'er' etc) we indicate that we're still speaking and please would the other person wait until we're done. Essentially it's a way to indicate whose turn it is to talk, without losing our place. It's noticeable that if we intentionally don't use them, unless our conversation partners are good at reading nonverbal cues we'll probably be interrupted more often in pauses. One of the reasons people who don't use discourse markers sound 'smart' is because the only way to achieve that without constantly being interrupted is to think fast and keep talking. Refer to the BBC programme 'Just A Minute' for examples of that skill being demonstrated with punishment for failure.", "How early where they considered adults? (And where they only children and then adult, since teenager is a pretty new concept?)", "The United States does not have elaborate \"rights of passage\" ceremonies that other societies enjoy. However, the \"prom\" serves many of these functions. When you go, you are considered an adult with adult interests. You wear adult clothes (formal clothes), drive an adult vehicle (a car), have a date like an adult and may drink alcohol like an adult (although most are too young to legally drink). You might consider it the secular equivalent to the bat mitzvah, confirmation, etc and the cultural equivalent to the Quinceañera although focused on the peer group and not the individual.", "Speech-Language Pathology graduate student here. Substituting /r/ with /w/ is common in kids because /w/ requires less muscular control, especially of the tongue. Motor control develops over time, and most kiddos outgrow this by age 5.", "It's a common feature in much of the Indo-European language family (and some others). Not all do it though - Russian, for example, does not. It's entirely arbitrary, and just happens to be a tone that is used for a specific purpose in those languages.", "They put the punctuation at the beginning of the sentence so you know straight away what type of sentence it is. Unlike in English where you don't realize until the end and sometimes you have to go back and reread the sentence after you figure out it's a question.", "_URL_0_ this explanation is based in empirical psych, rather than freudian theoretical psych. short version: they're common, and we're still trying to figure out what causes them. cognition and mental causation are complex questions, though, and empirical psych will only be able to show correlative relationships until we have a firmer theoretical picture in place with regard to cognition. the answer to your question (if there is one general answer) may be some ways away, sorry to say.", "This is barely tangential to OP's question but I would like to see a study comparing the rates of breastfeeding difficulties between cultures that cover their breasts and those that don't. I would assume that cultures which don't cover their breasts provide built in learning opportunities for young girls and teenagers. They would see their relatives breastfeeding and would likely gain some knowledge of how and what to do in the event of difficulties. Does anyone have any idea if such a study has ever been done?", "It’s rhythmic. It’s usually much easier to remember a rhythm than a line of words that has practically no meaning unless you give it one.", "It's kind of inherent to the concept. You'd be better off asking why honor cultures exist, and I'll give a little bit of insight on that in a sec. But it's not true that honor cultures are always violent. Because in-group violence is usually maladaptive you'll find they often find alternative combat. Whether that's safer ritualized combat or non-combat contests like flyting in Norse culture or roasting/capping/whatever in modern teenage honor-cultures. Frequently honor cultures have their roots in a need for defense. If you were a tribal Norsemen there was no \"letting them go like a mature adult.\" If the neighboring group thought you couldn't defend yourself they'd go over and kill you and take your shit. Most of these honor cultures developed because there was a real need to demonstrate to your neighbors that it wasn't wise to fuck with you. Regions with scarce resources where a show of weakness meant being preyed upon.", "In before patriarchy. The main reason why is simply due to cultural feelings upon gender and age. As westerners, we are given a cultural feeling that women are less able to defend themselves more then men, who are looked upon as the protectors of households, property, and society as a whole (which is why the military draft in the US is male only). The same can be said for children, who are mostly defenseless until late teenage years." ]

[ "Mike Judge is no stranger to workplace comedy — back in 1999, he wrote and directed the cult classic Office Space, which poked fun at desk job-induced ennui in a 1990s software company. Now, more than a decade later, Judge continues to find humor in the tech industry. In his new HBO sitcom, Silicon Valley, Judge explores what happens when young computer geeks become millionaires. \"The tech world has become really interesting to me, especially in recent years,\" Judge tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. Judge recognizes certain personality types from his college days and from his brief Silicon Valley engineering career in the '80s. \"Just knowing those types and seeing them suddenly have billions and billions of dollars — there's just something funny about it to me,\" he says, \"and it's something I hadn't really seen explored that much.\" Judge created the animated series Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill, and wrote and directed Idiocracy and Extract. Interview Highlights On the trope of Silicon Valley startups saying their work is \"making the world a better place\" I suppose some of the stuff they're doing is making the world a better place, it's just what's interesting to me is it always seems to me to be this obligatory thing that they have to throw in there, and that's why we made fun of it in the series. Some people are making the world a better place, some maybe aren't, but it's just funny that most of it, it's just capitalism. They're trying to make their companies as big and profitable as possible, which is fine, but it's always shrouded in this \"we're making the world a better place\" stuff. ... Like a company trying to put Internet in all these third-world African countries and ... maybe they are making the world a better place. ... They're also making a ton of money doing it. They don't talk about that as much. When we got green-lit to series I took all the writers, we went to an incubator and they bring out their first company, and it's a company and it's five guys ... and then they pitch their app and at the end of it the guy kind of throws in, \"You know, and making the world a better place.\" Like, \"Oh yeah, I almost forgot.\" I think that's kind of funny; it's almost a religion, where you have to say \"amen.\" On the success of Office Space I think if I hadn't done animated shorts and if I hadn't had two hit TV shows back-to-back, that movie never would've happened. ... I guess I just kinda wanted [Fox] to trust me. ... When it didn't do well at the box office right away it was like, \"OK, I guess we shouldn't trust you,\" but now it's made them lots of money, it has been a profitable movie. ... To be fair to them, some people say, \"Oh, Fox didn't promote it well.\" That was a hard one to cut a trailer from, especially. I think you could now, but it's a weird movie. On the famous boss character in Office Space and his tagline of \"Hmm ... yeah ... \" It wasn't [based on] any specific person. It kind of came a few different ways. I worked at Whataburger, which is a Texas-New Mexico chain, of a burger place, and I worked at Jack-in-the-Box — this is when I was young. ... The worst thing ever at both of those jobs is to change the fryers, and the way that someone will say, \"Yeah, um, Mike, why don't you go ahead and change the fryers?\" To say \"go ahead,\" it's like you were just chomping at the bit to go do it, and I'm just gonna cut you loose, and go ahead — now it's so commonplace. ... In the '50s a boss would say, \"Hey, Milton, move your desk. Thanks.\" I don't know if it's the baby boom generation where everyone has to be cool, suddenly in the '70s and '80s it turned into, \"Yeah ... if I could get you to just go ahead and move your desk.\" And it's this kind of \"I'm casual, I'm cool. I'm not your '50s boss.\" I would just prefer someone just coming up and telling you what to do. I would respect [that] more. ... Even over the years just noticing the \"yeah\" that means \"no.\" Like if you say, \"Can I have Friday off?\" \"Hmm ... yeah ... \" TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross, who's off today. (SOUNDBITE OF TELEVISION PROGRAM, \"SILICON VALLEY\") UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Hello. I've got seven words for you: I love Goolybib's integrated multi-platform functionality. Yeah. DAVE DAVIES, HOST: What happens when young computer geeks who become millionaires live among thousands more who hope to is the subject of the new HBO comedy series \"Silicon Valley,\" created by our guest Mike Judge. Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times wrote that \"Silicon Valley\" finds comedy in the humdrum annoyances of life on a peninsula overflowing with money, ambition and very little style. Mike Judge created and did some of the voices for the animated series \"Beavis and Butthead\" and \"King of the Hill,\" and he wrote and directed the movies \"Office Space,\" \"Idiocracy\" and \"Extract.\" I spoke to Judge last week, and we began with the scene from the first episode of \"Silicon Valley.\" A young programmer played by Thom" ]

[ "Wall Street's worries following the Bear Stearns meltdown are having a chilling effect on some Silicon Valley startup ventures as they search for capital to get off the ground. Experts say investor money hasn't completely dried up, but there's a definite drought. Venture capitalists are the midwives of innovation in American business, especially in Silicon Valley, where they remain concentrated in high numbers. They plant and nurture startup companies, which are then bought by bigger companies or are offered to shareholders on the stock market. So, how is the economic downturn affecting capitalism's nursery? 'Confidence Plunged' Last year, venture capital investments in startup companies rose to a six-year high, to nearly $30 billion. That's the best year since the dot-com blowout back in 2001. Close to 4,000 deals were made, compared with 4,500 in 2001. Much of that money went into clean energy and biotech, as well as the Internet and related technologies. But those were backward-looking figures. \"What I'm tracking is actually what venture capitalists think is going to happen in the future,\" says Mark Cannice, who teaches entrepreneurship at the University of San Francisco and runs a quarterly confidence survey of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The most recent one was in the first week of January. \"Confidence plunged to a four-year low by a significant amount,\" he says. But all that venture money is still sitting there — so what do venture capitalists do when confidence in the future sinks? More Time in the Nursery Think of a venture startup as a state of incubation — a period that can last quite a few years before the company, if successful, is bought by a Google, a Microsoft or a similar big company. Or it might be bought by stock market investors in a public offering. In an economic downturn, the startup has to be nursed for a longer period at a lower capital burn rate. \"There is a lot of money sitting out there, but then how do VCs behave in a down market is to conserve that money, to protect that money, to make sure that it's actually being spent properly and that we have enough money to live until the next boom,\" says David Epstein, a venture capitalist with Crosslink Capital. The longer it takes to sell a startup to a big company or the public, the more money is required to keep it going and growing while waiting for better times. Venture capitalists don't just make one first-time investment; they nurse companies along until they are ready to sell. All of this means there could be less money available for new investments. Looking Beyond the Gloomy Horizon So, will the economic turndown stifle innovation in the creative caldron of Silicon Valley? Epstein doesn't think so. \"Entrepreneurs who are inside large companies, but their personality is more entrepreneurial and they see their company slowing down — that can spur them to say 'It's time for me to go out and start something on my own, because I am bored,' \" he says. But some areas that have experienced a recent boom may see a setback, according to Rob Enderle, a longtime consultant to technology companies in Silicon Valley. \"I think one of the areas that's going to suffer a bit is green initiatives, because typically when money's tight, folks have a little harder time investing in green unless its providing an economic return,\" Enderle says. \"And right now, a lot of the green technologies are more feel-good technologies and really can't be justified on an economic basis.\" At least in the short term. But a lot of venture capital looks toward a horizon beyond the current gloom and doom. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Venture capitalists are the midwives of innovation in American business. That's especially true in Silicon Valley, where you'll find lots of venture capitalists. They plan to nurture startup companies, companies then bought by bigger companies or offered to shareholders on the stock market. We asked NPR's John McChesney to find out how the economic downturn is affecting capitalism's nursery. JOHN McCHESNEY: Last year, venture capital investments in startup companies rose to a six-year high, to nearly $30 billion. That's the best year since the dot.com blow out back in 2001. Close to 4,000 deals were made, compared to 4,500 in 2001. Much of that money went into clean energy and biotech, as well as the Internet and related technologies. But those were backward-looking figures. Professor MARK CANNICE (Teaches Entrepreneurship, University of San Francisco): What I'm tracking is actually what venture capitalists think is going to happen in the future. McCHESNEY: Mark Cannice teaches entrepreneurship at the University of San Francisco, and he runs a quarterly confidence survey of Silicon Valley VC's. The most recent one was in the first week of January. Prof. CANNICE: Confidence plunged to a four-year low by a significant amount. McCHESNEY: But all that venture money is still sitting there. So what do VC's do when confidence in the fu", "Uber is a mess — the \"bad boy\" ethos shattered, a nervous breakdown in its place. This week, the CEO announced he is taking a sudden leave of absence. A former U.S. attorney general released a brutal audit of the startup's culture. It's a terrifying moment for many investors who want that $70 billion unicorn to make them rich or richer — not implode. But there is one Uber investor who stands out for how she decided to speak up. It was not very Silicon Valley-like of her, but Freada Kapor Klein wanted to turn the crisis into a teachable moment. And while this week's events could lead her to say \"I told you so,\" she has a different takeaway. Let's rewind a few months. Kapor Klein decided to write an open letter to Uber — which she published with her husband — after a young woman shared an explosive account of sexual harassment at Uber headquarters. Kapor Klein is a venture capitalist, or a VC. That means she makes money by betting on technology startups. Uber is one of those startups. She has committed to \"impact investment\" — businesses that can turn a profit while also making the world a better place. For too many years, she says, critics would question her on Uber, and she stayed silent. She tried to influence the company from the inside, though she didn't see a real will among leadership to change. While \"Silicon Valley prides itself on pattern recognition,\" the letter said, Uber had \"toxic patterns\" that needed to stop. Kapor Klein thought she was just saying what insiders knew: This is not a one-off. Turns out, her peers didn't like that and wanted her to pay for it. \"I could imagine that they wouldn't love the Uber letter,\" Kapor Klein says in an interview with NPR in mid-March. \"But then that they would decide the next step they ought to go, is go after our high growth, hot startups and try to get them away from us!\" She's just learned that other VCs are trying to poach one of her hottest investments, and they're citing the Uber letter to do it, basically saying: this investor throws her own people under the bus. \"I mean, it's one thing to go pitch them. It's another to say, 'Get away from Kapor. See, they're going to do this to you,' \" she says. It may be counterintuitive, but in Silicon Valley, the land that created tweeting, there is a code of silence among the rich. People are here to make money, not to agitate. She violated that code. But she won't back down. She tells me I should call a shortlist of her most powerful peers and demand they respond on the record. \"Go to Sequoia, go to Benchmark, go to Kleiner, go to Accel, go to Andreessen, go to Khosla,\" she names the kings of much-storied Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif. She's sitting inside the Kapor Center for Social Impact — a name that spells out the intent of the place. Kapor Klein and her husband bought this four-story building in central Oakland — what's become the edge of Silicon Valley as tech expands beyond Cupertino, Mountain View and San Francisco — and it houses an investment arm, research and philanthropic projects. Kapor Klein is 64 years old, petite with jet black eyes and curly hair to match. She is tense as she recounts the blowback, her folded hands resting on a conference table made of reclaimed wood. Meanwhile her dog is napping by her feet, sprawled on a gray carpet made of recycled fishing nets. (She designed the building to be green.) Dudley's snoring breaks her concentration, and she lets out a laugh. He's a rescue dog, but sometimes she claims he's a therapy dog. \"You can see why. Doesn't he make you feel better?\" She wakes him up and the two go in search of her husband and business partner, Mitch Kapor. When they find him, he happens to be meeting with the president of Silicon Valley Bank — who is trying to not get in the middle of the couple's conversation. But Kapor Klein reels him in, telling him about the letter and the response. Greg Becker politely offers his take: \"Yeah, people compete ... anyway they can, right? That's — unfortunately it's human nature ... .\" Kapor Klein points to her dog, who is now rubbing his enormous cream coat against the banker's leg, and she teases: \"I thought it was just dogs that did that. Dogs, not humans.\" Her husband ends the conversation by saying: \"It's a dog-eat-dog world.\" This is his way of acting as her buffer — she, the one who pushes; he, the one who moderates. Mitch Kapor is a bit of a legend, by the way. In the 1980s he founded Lotus, the famous spreadsheet maker. Some compare him to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. He pulled Kapor Klein into the tech world when he hired her to fix Lotus' culture in 1984, to make it the most progressive employer in the U.S. Quite the job description. She would lecture her boss about how he carries himself at work, how he should be \"more sensitive\" about his power, how he could make or break an employee's day just with eye contact. The couple didn't get together until years later, when she sought him out for career advice; and his second marr", "Television show creators are peering into the geeky and moneyed world of computer programmers with a new comedy from HBO and a drama from AMC, both debuting this spring. The networks each premiered their tech-centric programs at South by Southwest this week. One show — AMC's Halt and Catch Fire — is a drama that takes place at the dawn of the PC revolution, and the other — HBO's Silicon Valley — is a comedy that lampoons today's tech startups. But they both explore the folks who, for better or worse, are changing the way we live. In AMC's fictional telling, the race to beat the IBM personal computer in the early 1980s is the stuff of a layered, character-driven story. The show seeks to do for Reagan-era engineers what Breaking Bad did for an erstwhile chemistry teacher. It debuts June 1, in Mad Men's time slot. \"I think if you want to tell a story about people at war with themselves ... trying to figure out what's important and how to order their priorities, at least for my money, the technology of it all is a perfect way to do that,\" says Jonathan Lisco, Halt and Catch Fire's executive producer. In today's tech startup world, figuring out what's important sometimes puts young programmers at the heart of multimillion-dollar bidding wars. Or, it turns these socially awkward young people into sudden billionaires, which can make for great gags. \"I find it all really absurd and funny,\" says Mike Judge, the creator of Silicon Valley. \"Engineers, programmers, are just odd people.\" Alec Berg is an executive producer, with Judge. \"Socially awkward people with money is a very funny area. I don't think the rail barons were as nerdy and awkward as these guys are. But we live in an era where the Zuckerbergs of the world are king,\" Berg says. Staggering sums, society-shifting ideas and weird people. It's all ripe for the imaginations of screenwriters. \"This is where the excitement is right now, so they've just been waiting to film it, and get it financed. I think we'll see even more versions of this,\" says Nitasha Tiku, co-editor of Valleywag, a site that covers the lives and lifestyles of people in tech. \"I think also people are really scared about technology or they're fascinated by it. They see how quickly it's permeated into their everyday lives. And here are the builders and the creators of that,\" Tiku said. Today's creators and builders inform HBO's comedy, while their early personal computing predecessors inspire AMC's drama. Both are fictional tales, based on a similar subculture, and the powerful reality that technology changes the way we live. \"Right now, the way in which one could dramatize best an existential struggle and what is important to people, what sacrifices are you willing to make, is certainly through the portal of technology,\" Lisco says. That tech and its programmers are getting their big TV moment could be a reflection of how the American dream is being recast as a startup dream. Or, as Judge suggests, everyone just got the idea at the same time. \"There were a bunch of asteroids-hitting-the-Earth movies all at once,\" Judge says.", "We know that women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in the STEM fields — that's science, technology, engineering and math. Now dip into #RaceOnTech to find out why. Since Monday, entrepreneurs, scientists, computer scientists and coders from Silicon Valley to Greenbelt, Md., have been sharing their thoughts one tweet at a time. Three central themes/sentiments are emerging: identity, role models and the wealth gap. Identity It's much harder for people of color to fit in. The tech and STEM sectors are dominated by white men and are not welcoming. Women and people of color like assistant professor of physics Kerstin Perez note that they have to work much harder to keep focused and not give up. \"Science is challenging,\" Perez tweets. \"If you don't see yourself reflected in senior roles, self-doubt can be crippling.\" Telle Whitney, president and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute, says she's working to change the tech culture in Silicon Valley. \"We need to engage with companies engaging in unconscious bias, from CEO level to folks just entering the workforce,\" she says. \"Unconscious bias is more subtle (and inadvertent) discrimination.\" Role Models Young people of color need mentors, role models and aha moments. They need people who look like them to show them that tech and STEM can be fun and rewarding. We know that more black and Latino teens say they're online \"almost constantly,\" according to a Pew Research Center study. Participants around #RaceOnTech said young people of color need to see how the tech and STEM fields can fit into their lives, how they can make a difference in their communities and in general get excited about it. They need to be encouraged to be curious about the world and to explore. They need to know that it's OK to fail. As long as kids keep learning and engaging with role models that look like them, they'll understand that technology is their ticket to good jobs and they'll be more motivated to pursue the field. The Wealth Gap A question on the mind of some around #RaceOnTech is how to build a startup when you don't have \"the privilege of wealth and education,\" as Kortney Ryan Ziegler tweeted. Entrepreneur Andrew Chang tweeted back that \"networking [with] like-minded startup founders and co-working spaces\" is critical. Others suggested teaming up with others who can help you with your goals, and having an entrepreneurial mindset. Still, physicist Kerstin Perez said, you can't ignore \"the very real barriers faced by those with minimal access to ed, wealth, help.\" ... What's clear is that there is something in these conversations for a variety of people, whether you're a Silicon Valley executive or a new coder trying to find your way in tech. Follow #RaceOnTech today and tomorrow on Twitter and share your story. You can check out highlights from Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.", "This week, another big name in tech was toppled by accusations of sexual harassment — venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, an investor in Tesla and SpaceX who left his prominent Silicon Valley company. The big-money world of Silicon Valley remains dominated by men and remains a hard place for women to speak out if they want to join the ranks of its richest. And some women think the best way to fight harassment is to tread carefully and get to the top. It's definitely harder for women to get there. Last year, nearly 6,200 new companies got close to $60 billion in venture capital funding, according to the venture capital database PitchBook. But the share of funding that went to women was just 2.19 percent. That's less than in any year during the past decade, except for 2008 and 2012. Among the few firms started by women is Fem Inc. The company, which does research that looks at how technology and media can engage people to make positive choices, raised $5 million in venture funding. But it wasn't easy to get the funding for the company, co-founder Rachel Payne says. \"It was a surprise to me that it was more challenging to raise money given our stage and level of experience than earlier in our career,\" she says. \"And some of them (the investors) quite frankly offered up the advice that it's because we're women.\" One of Fem Inc.'s three founders has a degree from Harvard in mathematics and a Ph.D. from Caltech. Another has a master's in computer science and led engineering teams at Google. Payne has an MBA from Stanford and this wasn't her first startup. Payne says that in her 20 years in tech she saw and experienced harassment and bullying because she was a woman. Yet she doesn't want to share those stories publicly. \"If there's any hint of something like this — of which many VCs ... could be guilty, then you're definitely going to have problems raising money,\" she says. \"It's hard to imagine a situation where you're being embraced for speaking out.\" Yet the choice to stay silent about her own experiences isn't a simple one for Payne, who considers herself a feminist. She wants women to speak out. But she also believes that one of the best ways to stop harassment is for women to succeed in tech. \"We would need more ... women to reach places in power to actually make this difference,\" she says. \"Because then they don't depend on someone else for their power and they won't tolerate it.\" Payne is not alone in making the choice to stay silent. NPR spoke with many women who would only talk off the record about verbal and physical harassment by CEOs, venture capitalists and colleagues at big tech companies. One woman who did speak out is Ellen Pao. In 2012, she brought a lawsuit against the prestigious venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Pao, then a junior partner, says she was discriminated against and experienced sexual harassment. At the time, few believed her. \"There's still a skepticism of ... 'If we haven't heard any of these stories how can they be true?' \" she says. Pao lost her case. And she says it definitely hurt her career. But it began what some in Silicon Valley are calling \"the Pao effect.\" Despite potential career setbacks, more women are telling their stories. \"I think nobody wants to tell these stories,\" Pao says. \"It is like your worst experience and you go out and you share and you hope for change.\" Since she came forward, Pao thinks there has been change, although it's slow. \"We do see that there have been people who are getting fired\" over harassment, she says. \"And people are getting a little bit more transparent about why.\" But in the Valley — where so much money is at stake — Pao says it remains hard to push out anyone who has made a lot of money for investors. \"There's a skepticism around, 'Well, are they doing it the right way ... well, I don't know but I benefited from it so I don't want to criticize it.' \" As Pao sees it, it's a two-pronged fight. She is now an investment partner in Kapor Capital, which seeks out companies founded by women and minorities. Meanwhile, she thinks the more stories of harassment that come out, the more likely other women will be to take the risk of speaking up about their own experience. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: This week, a big name in the tech world left his job amid accusations of sexual harassment. His name is Steve Jurvetsen. And people in Silicon Valley know him well as an investor in the likes of Tesla and SpaceX. His case underlines a reality of the tech world. Companies there remain dominated by men. But in Silicon Valley, some women think they've found the best way to fight harassment. Take charge of the company. Here's NPR's Laura Sydell. LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Every day, new entrepreneurs flock to Silicon Valley with fantasies of turning a startup into a billion-dollar business. Last year, over 6,000 new companies got close to $60 billion in venture capital funding, according to the venture capital database PitchBook. But the perce", "T.J. Miller has played a dragon slayer in the How to Train Your Dragon movies, a man who doesn't always change his underwear in Big Hero 6 and a pothead who thinks he's a tech rock star in HBO's Silicon Valley. Now Marvel fans will know him as bartender Weasel, best friend to the titular superhero in the new, R-rated comic book movie Deadpool. Miller is a physical and cerebral comedian, a good combination for his Silicon Valley character, Erlich Bachman. Slovenly with shaggy, curly hair and mutton chop sideburns, Bachman is ridiculously full of himself. (Miller has described him as an \"arrogant blowhard.\") He puts clips in his hair to hold it back when he eats, and he get furious at his housemates when he finds there are only soup spoons left for him to eat his yogurt. Bachman runs the business side of the show's central startup, Pied Piper. In his mind, he's the only one who understands you need to be \"a real a-hole to make it in this world,\" Miller says. Silicon Valley creator Mike Judge says the character is real. \"In the tech world there are a lot of arrogant people, people with no filter. And that's right up T.J.'s alley. He's very good at playing that.\" But Miller also makes Bachman likable — even charming. Judge, who also directed him in 2009's Extract, says, \"There's this odd kind of vulnerability to T.J.'s face and his expressions ... that make it kind of innocent.\" As for Miller, he says he identifies with Bachman: \"He is just sort of, unfortunately for me, a magnification of certain aspects of my personality, mixed in with a couple of fictional things. I'm an enthusiastic marijuana user; he obviously is also. I am, at times, a Falstaffian figure; he very much is that too. We are in line with each other as nihilists: He thinks you should tell it like it is ... because everybody's opinion — including yours — doesn't mean anything.\" From Class Clown To Clown School The 34-year-old Denver native started doing comedy early on. Melody Duggan, his drama teacher at Denver's East High School, says Miller was a typical class clown, except that he was more intuitive than your average teenager. She says, \"He understands the frailty of the human condition better than any kid I've ever had.\" Duggan, who's retired now, tried to get her students to sample all forms of acting, including stand-up. She says Miller \"was absolutely fearless. He doesn't mind making a fool of himself.\" Meanwhile, Miller credits Duggan for the eureka moment that set him on his path to comedy. \"She made me do musicals and Oedipus Rex,\" he remembers. \"She said, 'You're going to do comedy, but I need you singing. You have to learn everything.' \" His mother, a clinical psychologist, told him the same thing, and it seems he took the assignment seriously. He studied circus arts, and learned how to be a Shakespearean clown at the British American Drama Academy in London. After that, he toured with Chicago's Second City. Miller's observational humor is rarely cutting. When an audience member bellowed above the rest at 2015's Just For Laughs Festival, Miller pointed to him and imitated the sound. Then he quickly said, \"I'm not making fun of your laugh. I would never make fun of your laugh,\" and took the opportunity to improvise: \"Have any of you had someone make fun of your laugh — a friend make fun of the way you laugh? You know, that's basically your friend saying, 'Hey you know that sound that you make when you're happy and joyful? And the tragedy that permeates our everyday life is momentarily abated for an ephemeral escapism? Yeah? You sound stupid. You should feel embarrassed when you're happy.' \" Comedy And 'Fundamentally Tragic Existence' Between movies, TV, stand-up and commercials, Miller is on a fast-moving roll. He's hyper-focused on his \"mission statement,\" as he calls it: \"To become the best comedian, I must be well-rounded.\" (According to Melody Duggan, \"His business acumen is something else.\") The comedian says his role in the new anti-hero comic book movie Deadpool is right up his alley. \"I'm a student of [Friedrich] Nietzsche. I'm interested in morality and mortality, and Deadpool kind of has all of these themes.\" Given Miller's cerebral approach to acting, it's not surprising that he almost pursued a career in psychology — that was his college major and he thought he might follow in his mother's footsteps. But then he did the math. \"If you're a psychologist, you can instrumentally change peoples' lives for the better,\" he says. \"But you can only do that for about 300 people to maybe a thousand people, if you're really prolific and you're working really hard. If you're a comedian, you can change peoples' lives for the better in much smaller increments — not their entire life, but for 15 minutes or a half hour.\" He says, \"If I can make someone laugh, I lift them out of their fundamentally tragic existence.\" And for this comic, that's anything but meaningless. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: T.J. Miller is by no means a one-dimensiona", "Adam J. White is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Steve Jobs was the greatest manufacturer of consumer products of his age. His marketing vision put him on par with Henry Ford, and his grasp of the aesthetic component to The passing of Steve Jobs has sparked an immense amount of reflection and appreciation—just as his retirement did months ago, and the publication of Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs will do later this month. But for all the talk of Steve Jobs and the world that he created, attention must be paid to the world that created him: Silicon Valley. Born in San Francisco, Jobs came of age in Silicon Valley, where he and Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, were members of the Homebrew Computer Club, a band of scruffy techies who experimented with computers in the industry's prehistoric era, the 1970s. As \"Woz\" reflected in 1984, \"without computer clubs, there probably would have been no Apple computers. Our club in the Silicon Valley, the Homebrew Computer Club, was among the first of its kind.\" Homebrew was an incubator, where, as Woz put it: The theme of the club was \"Give to help others.\" Each session began with a \"mapping period,\" when people would get up one by one and speak about some item of interest, a rumor, and have a discussion. Somebody would say, \"I've got a new part,\" or somebody else would say he had some new data or ask if anybody had a certain kind of teletype. Apple emerged from these origins, but it never left them. Apple relied upon the Valley's tech community—the people, the money, the intellectual capital—as it grew. Its engineers and designers interacted, as in any small town, with those of its competitors. Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Cisco, Intel, Oracle, Google, Facebook, and others, they all were born (or, in the case of Facebook, raised) in the Valley—Cupertino, Santa Clara, Mountain View, or Palo Alto. At the time of Jobs's passing, one of his primary projects was (as James Gardner recently wrote in The Weekly Standard) the creation of a new Apple headquarters in Cupertino—retrenching Apple's commitment to its hometown. Of course, Silicon Valley did not have to happen. When Tom Perkins, the now-legendary \"godfather\" of venture capitalism, arrived from the East Coast to begin work at Hewlett-Packard, \"Silicon Valley wasn't even called Silicon Valley.\" But from the Valley's \"gritty and quite physical origins\" (to borrow Roger Lowenstein's description) grew the community that changed the world. Nor did Silicon Valley go unchanged in the process. In a remarkable essay published just days before Jobs's retirement, Jaron Lanier described the Valley's evolution from a land of hackers and hippies to, today, a destination for \"perfect specimens [that] seem to have grown up in manicured childhoods, nothing scrappy about them.\" It's symbolic of the nation's greatest advances (for better or worse), which tend to grow out of communities, from Wall Street's finance to Detroit's automobiles to Hollywood's cinema to Washington's big government. As with Silicon Valley's tech revolution, great achievement requires the concentration of practical expertise, intellectual capital, and finance all in one small place, concentrating the forces of collaboration and competition on a personal level. Steve Jobs and Google's Eric Schmidt could compete on the world stage, and then go meet for coffee. This trend cuts in two directions: We rely on community to foster greatness, such as in Silicon Valley or Wall Street. But the success of those communities undermines the cohesiveness of so many others, as young people from across the country leave their own families and hometowns behind to pursue success in high tech or finance.", "Yahoo has made a number of bad bets in its up-and-down history. But the decision to buy a $1 billion stake in the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba was hands down a winner. Alibaba's successful IPO — its stock shot up 38 percent on the first day of trading Friday — will give Yahoo around $8 billion in return. But it was a masterful move, almost a decade ago, that made this mega-payday possible. Yahoo Was A Pawn To those who were watching, Yahoo's move on Aug. 11, 2005, didn't seem so masterful. \"At that moment, when you first looked at it, it was: Wow, I wonder if Yahoo knows what it's doing,\" says F. Warren McFarlan, a professor at Harvard Business School. \"And the answer is: They knew part of what they were doing, and the other pieces of it they just didn't understand,\" he says. McFarlan, who has written about Chinese tech companies for decades, found it curious when the founder of Yahoo, a fellow American named Jerry Yang, came looking for a deal. Yang was in search of a native Chinese company to help Yahoo build its Web searching business there — someone to deliver contacts and customers and deal with the government. Yang was not betting on the success of that native company when he handed over a check for $1 billion. \"It wasn't so clear how he was going to get the return out of it,\" McFarlan says. Internet companies are in essence information companies, but the Chinese government was heavy-handed about controlling information, McFarland says. So it wasn't clear that startups could prosper. But he doesn't want to overstate how much attention the deal got. \"In the big picture around the world, it was much more of a yawn,\" McFarlan says. Or a subplot. The much bigger story was another American giant, eBay, trying to stomp out Alibaba, the scrappy Chinese startup. Many assumed it would be an easy knockout for eBay, but it wasn't, and Yahoo became a pawn in that fight. \"EBay obviously has been trying to really build and be a successful company in China. I guess with the Yahoo backing this is really representing a big challenge for eBay in China,\" CNBC business reporter Maria Bartiromo reported at the time of the deal. Payoff And Downside Alibaba did win, decisively, snagging millions of Chinese consumers to its online auction site. And now Yahoo gets to cash in. The company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is selling about one quarter of its shares and getting billions of dollars back in return. Under federal regulations, Yahoo is subject to a quiet period before Alibaba's debut on the stock market and can't discuss how it plans to spend all the money it'll make — whether it'll give it out in payments to investors or buy more startups. In its last earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Ken Goldman said Yahoo is committed to returning at least half of the after-tax proceeds from the public offering to shareholders. \"It's not their hard work that generated this return,\" says Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners. \"It's Alibaba's success that generated this return.\" But there may be a downside for Yahoo. For years U.S. investors couldn't buy a single share of Alibaba directly, so they had to invest in Yahoo as a proxy. Now with Alibaba on the New York Stock Exchange, investors could dump their Yahoo stock. \"Why would I want to buy the proxy now that I can buy the real thing?\" Gillis says. But he isn't too worried about that. Yahoo is holding on to a significant stake in Alibaba, and, he says, their stock values will probably track each other closely for a while. The main downside is in the culture of Yahoo, Gillis says. The Internet company does not dominate Web searches, or sell a hot smartphone or run a popular mobile operating system. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer is a CEO in search of a strategy, but all this cash on hand makes that search less urgent. \"If you're an employee of Yahoo on the one hand, it's a blessing because people are not focused in on your core business,\" Gillis says. \"But on the other hand, you are just a tracking stock. And the way that the stock moves has nothing to do really with the core business.\" New Conventional Wisdom In Silicon Valley No matter how you size up the long-term prospects, right now Yahoo has a lot of cash on hand. While Silicon Valley companies — from Google to Microsoft to Cisco — have a long history of investing in other startups, the sheer size of the payoff from Yahoo's bet is unique. \"It is not common that every investment goes in the tens of billions of dollars,\" says Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's chief technology and strategy officer. Her company and others are crisscrossing the world in search of their Alibabas. In the last decade, the conventional wisdom about why you invest abroad has changed. \"It's no longer the case that you can develop a product for U.S. or Europe and then take features away and in a way dumb down the product to take into an emerging market,\" she says. \"I think that's turned out to be a myth.\" The new wisdom — and certainly a lesson gleaned from ", "The image of the lone genius toiling in isolation, finally emerging with a brilliant new concept is compelling, even romantic. Too bad it's not true. Instead, innovation thrives in ecosystems, much as microbes flourish in a warm, cozy petri dish. \"There's an important geography to where innovation happens,\" says AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies how regional differences affect innovation. \"Innovation is a social process, not just an individual process,\" Saxenian says. Social interaction among people speeds incremental improvements in an idea. People both compete and collaborate to come up with something better. And old-fashioned physical proximity still seems to help the most, even in the age of the Internet. Though Thomas Edison's obituary heralded him as \"a solitary genius revolutionizing the world,\" he was not alone in that laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. Instead, he had some 40 scientists and technicians there, laboring away on his inventions. So having access to like-minded people is key, and the simplest way to do that is to live in a city. Which brings us to Clue No. 1: Go urban. The world's 40 largest urban areas produce two-thirds of global economic output and 9 out of 10 patents, according to Richard Florida, a professor of business at the University of Toronto and frequent writer on innovation and regional development. A cruise through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's most recent geographic data on patents awarded from 2006 to 2010 supports Florida's thesis. Here's the Top 10 list, with the number of patents awarded in 2010: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (10,074) New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (6,383) San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont CA (6,290) Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA (4,992) Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA (4,330) Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (4,052) Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL (2,993) Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN (2,827) San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA (2,993) Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (2,449) Yet two-thirds of Americans live in cities, and many of those towns are not hotbeds of innovation. What gives? Based on population alone, the New York City region and Los Angeles should be kings of innovation — at least the kind of innovation measured by patents, not by investments or Hollywood blockbusters. While both cities made the list, they were eclipsed by the far less populous Silicon Valley, where residents were awarded 10,074 patents in 2010, almost twice as many as the 6,383 given out in the New York region. (This map of patents per capita in 1998, though dated, reflects the fact that a large number of people alone isn't enough.) So what does the Silicon Valley have that Chicago doesn't? Clue No. 2: innovation infrastructure. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer in 1976 in Silicon Valley, they had no problem finding engineers and other experts willing to share technical expertise, free parts, investors and legal advice. Silicon Valley has another advantage — Stanford University. The school has strong ties with the surrounding business community. The valley has lots of angel investors, banks and law firms that cater to tech startups — and probably most important, lots of smart people eager to learn on the job and then come up with their own world-changing (or at least fortune-making) innovation. Education is critical to a city's success, says Edward Glaeser, a Harvard economist and author of the 2011 book Triumph of the City. And where, a generation ago, college graduates were spread relatively uniformly around the United States, now educated people tend to be concentrated in places like San Jose, Seattle, Boston and Austin — places that also happen to be at the top of the charts for patents. But people living far from an urban hotbed of innovation needn't despair – as long as they've got friends in innovative places. That's Clue No. 3, provided by Saxenian. She has spent years studying innovation in Silicon Valley and says the fact that 40 to 50 percent of the patents there are awarded to immigrant inventors is no big surprise — about half of the valley's workforce is foreign born. What has surprised her is how immigrants who have marinated in the culture and ways of the valley have maintained their ties back home — and used them to funnel business and money to innovators in places like Taiwan, China and India. Those stay-at-homes have spawned their own smaller hubs of innovation. \"What has seemed to work is these places that have connected through both personal and commercial relationships,\" Saxenian says. It might not be as good as rubbing shoulders with lots of other would-be innovators at the fast-food joints of the valley, but it's still better than being a lone genius.", "Toshiba. Sony. Sharp. You know those brand names because they dominated the Japanese economy's global rise in the '80s. But that was 30 years ago. As the Japanese economy stagnates, it's unclear which new companies will replace them. Doga Makiura is Japanese, and a startup founder. But he's not a startup founder in Japan. He created businesses in other Asian countries instead. Why not be an entrepreneur in his native country? \"Cause I think it's boring,\" he said. \"There's a huge, bigger market in everywhere in the world. Japan is a shrinking market and I don't really understand why you'd do business in Japan.\" He's not alone. Only 6 percent of Japanese surveyed by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor said they thought there were opportunities to start a business in Japan, and other indicators show the country has one of the lowest levels of entrepreneurship in the developed world. Part of the problem is the past. After the success of the pioneering postwar electronics companies, the lure of working for established places created a risk-averse culture. \"[Entrepreneurship] is all about whether you take a risk or not, and parents have great authority and power in Japan. So parents say, 'No, you're actually getting into these companies that pay you a stable income,' \" Makiura says. As parents promote the promise of stability at Japanese giants, the economy misses out on the kind of entrepreneurship it needs. But lately, energy behind startups is picking up. At Slush Asia, a brand-new tech festival held in Tokyo in late April, the scene and the energy resembled a small-scale South by Southwest Interactive. With the fest's futuristic-looking blow-up domes for talks and demos, an endless line of food trucks, and a focus on bringing together investors and innovators, young Japanese told NPR they felt inspired. \"We're not allowed to wear suits, apparently. That kind of casual event is the first [of its kind] in Japan,\" Makiura says. As things are now, young Japanese companies attract only a fraction of the venture capital that American startups do. But talk with venture capitalist Akio Tanaka, whose firm backs Japanese companies — and the outlook isn't so grim. \"Lately we are starting to see larger ideas,\" Tanaka says. \"Ideas we like to back. People who are trying to change the infrastructure of how things are getting done.\" He says Japan's economic downturn has helped encourage entrepreneurship. \"Young people now watch what's happening with Sony, Panasonic, all those companies and realize that none of those companies actually are able to offer the kind of lifetime employment they used to offer,\" Tanaka says. \"We really have to thank ... the failure of some of the big companies, because if they didn't fail, I don't think it actually [would] fuel this growth of startup industries,\" he says. Among cheerleaders for this kind of growth is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants to make life easier for risk-takers. During his visit to Silicon Valley last week, he announced a new government-funded incubator. It will send Japanese companies to the Bay Area for learning and launch. Abe said unless Japan focuses on the future, the country will get left behind. So policy changes to reduce bureaucracy and encourage investment are happening, and events like Slush Asia are aiming to show young Japanese workers a different path. \"One of the major purpose or goal of this movement is encouraging the younger generations, in the sense that the elder people are discouraging. That's why we need this kind of event,\" Slush Asia founder Taizo Son said. It will take more than just one cool event, but if the burgeoning Japanese startup community can start humming, it'll make a traditionbound country a kinder place to create business. Chie Kobayashi contributed to this story. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: People in Japan are asking which new companies can do what Toshiba, Sony or Sharp once did. Those big brands made Japanese products famous around the world. What Japan does not have is a crowd of rising startups coming along behind, or at least Japan didn't until now. NPR's Elise Hu explains. DOGA MAKIURA: My name is Doga from Japan. ELISE HU, BYLINE: Doga Makiura is Japanese and a startup founder, but he's not a startup founder in Japan. He created businesses in other Asian countries instead. Why not to be an entrepreneur in Japan? MAKIURA: Because I think it's boring. There's a bigger, huge, bigger market in everywhere in the world. I mean, Japan is one of the - in shrinking market, and I don't really understand why we would do business in Japan. HU: He's not alone. Only 6 percent of Japanese surveyed in 2013 said they thought there were opportunities to start a business in Japan. Part of the problem is after the success of the pioneering postwar electronics companies, the lore of working for established places created a risk-averse culture. Makiura explains. MAKIURA: I think it's, you know, it's all about whether you take risk or not. And the parent", "Many journalists who cover technology have no idea what Marc Andreessen, one of the most powerful investors in Silicon Valley, has tweeted lately. That's because the co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz loves blocking journalists, along with critics of the tech industry and anyone else who might be seen as an antagonist. \"It's become a badge of honor to get blocked by him,\" said Sara M. Watson, technology critic and senior analyst at data firm Insider Intelligence. As tech reporting has shifted from being dazzled by the latest gadgets and apps to concerned over its impact on people and institutions, Silicon Valley's elite have searched for a way to bypass the critical eye of journalists altogether. Now companies and investors are trying to regain control of the narrative by launching their own media publications, with rah-rah stories that they hope will compete directly with news coverage of technology. The most recent entrant into this trend is Andreessen Horowitz's Future, which bills itself as \"the future of media.\" The site consists mostly of techno-optimistic articles written by people who have a financial stake in the ideas they are pitching, many from companies backed by Andreessen Horowitz. But Margit Wennmachers, operating partner at the firm, said perspectives from people who have skin in the game is a feature, not a bug, of the site. \"It features all kinds of entrepreneurs, academics. Some are in our portfolio, but many are not,\" she said. \"It is idea driven, not 'Where do we hope to make our money?' driven.\" Others question the publication's intent. \"If you're celebrating cutting out the media, then you're giving powerful people aircover to thumb their nose at impertinent questions that you, too, would probably like the answer to,\" wrote independent tech journalist Eric Newcomer in his newsletter, noting that Silicon Valley's latest publication \"does make it easier for Andreessen to get his message out without facing questions from prying reporters.\" It follows Andreessen Horowitz's investing heavily in two other efforts, the live-audio app Clubhouse and newsletter startup Substack. Both offer a \"go direct\" approach that lets speakers and writers get their messages to the public, while circumventing the media. Is Future journalism or marketing? There was a time, in the early 2000s, when it was easy to find stories in the tech press that fawned over startups pledging to change the world and product launches promising to change everyone's life. But something changed a few years after the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Watson wrote in a paper for Columbia Journalism Review. Reviewers went from describing the iPhone as \"sexy\" to examining something tech optimists like to ignore: how new tech products and social networks may exacerbate the ills of society. \"It changed our entire relationship with technology,\" Watson said. \"I think that's a huge turning point.\" Another turning point came in 2016, following the presidential election in which misinformation, spread on social media, played a critical role. The tough coverage has intensified since then, with more journalists, researchers, political leaders and the public questioning tech's role in the siege on the U.S. Capitol in January. \"That is not the environment that Andreessen Horowitz or any other VC is used to,\" Watson said. Neutrality was never the goal of Future, said Wennmachers. She dismissed criticism that the site looks like a public relations front. \"We are taking a pro-stance toward technology,\" she said. Articles on the site include a piece about how the legal system should rely more on software. It was written by Joshua Browder, founder of an app marketed as \"The World's First Robot Lawyer.\" A lawyer for cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap penned a 3,000-word article selling the idea of \"decentralized finance.\" \"As the industry moves into its next act, tech coverage will likely change in response; the question is whether it will adopt and amplify the stories that venture-funded startups tell about themselves or chart its own path,\" wrote journalist Anna Weiner in the New Yorker recently. Company content with the sheen of independent journalism Tech companies from Snapchat to Uber have launched media operations. While the practice is common in other industries too, those publications do not have the same potential to reach millions of people instantly, say experts in the tech sector. Longtime tech journalist Timothy Lee said the tech industry may have grander plans to disrupt journalism. \"They just see media as another potential industry where they might be able to come along and build something better than what was there before, the same way they did with taxis, video streaming and lots of other stuff,\" Lee said. Yet online publishing platforms like Medium have long featured the kind of cheery takes on tech that Future now delivers. Watson says she does not see an existential threat t", "Taxicabs are fighting tooth and nail against Uber, the company that enables car owners to drive part time or full time for pay, like cabbies. But behind this battle, there's another one brewing inside the world of ridesharing. Uber and its competitors in San Francisco are sparring over cash, over drivers, and over some basic values, too. But a researcher says branding the startups Uber and Lyft as ridesharing services isn't quite accurate. Now, an emerging set of services promises to be more about sharing. Chauffeur Vs. Your Friend With A Car Uber has raised $1.5 billion from private investors, and it has used some of its money to try to lure drivers away from the No. 2 ridesharing startup, Lyft. Lyft has raised $333 million (hardly chump change) and has paid to lure drivers back. I wanted to know, from the workers' perspective, if there are important differences between the two startups, so I took a bunch of Lyft rides and asked a few dozen of my drivers for their take. Here are some typical responses: \"The clientele from Uber, they expect way too much for what I'm not getting. They want water and phone chargers and gum and snacks,\" Erik Manning says. Theresa Guerrero says Lyft is more social: \"Lyft passengers expect to sit in the front seat and have a conversation and share. Share!\" Alonzo Hidalgo says Lyft is less pressure: \"When you work for Lyft, it's basically your friend with a car. It's a different approach. I'm not your chauffeur. ... I'm your friend with a car.\" While Uber is the luxury brand, Lyft is the hipster chic alternative: Passengers sit in the front seat and dive into conversations that feel like speed dating or bar counter confessional. Some say that's a key distinction in a city that is so fragmented between the tech haves and have-nots, people forget to fist bump. Taxis By Another Name? But others aren't so convinced. \"When you think about the difference between a taxi, a sedan and Uber and Lyft — they're all kind of doing the same thing,\" says Benjamin Edelman, a professor at the Harvard Business School who studies Internet companies. \"The most striking change is that Uber and Lyft will do it for a lower price.\" Edelman says he's not one to criticize a lower price, but he accuses Uber and Lyft of being \"duplicitous\" in how they brand their services as \"sharing.\" For all their qualms with the legacy taxi industry, he says, the startups are in essence taxicabs that know how to use a smartphone for dispatch. Ridesharing was supposed to be different. As described in an article in the journal Transport Reviews, the movement started as a way to conserve resources in the U.S. during World War II. It evolved over the decades into a green movement to get cars off the streets. This new generation of startups could have used the awesome power of smartphones to help people going in the same direction find each other in real time. Instead, when you hop in an Uber or Lyft, Edelman says, \"The driver is still a driver, driving in an unnecessary direction to get paid.\" And that makes sense, when you think about the pressures on the companies. Silicon Valley investors want a return. And it can be easier to make an existing market more efficient than to experiment with sharing cars the way we might share a bus. \"I don't fault them for choosing the road that's more obvious and more straightforward. It's the natural play,\" Edelman says, \"although it won't live up to the full technology's potential.\" A New Product In Sharing There is one experiment that could be a game changer. The startup Sidecar started testing a new service in May, called Shared Rides, for people who need a ride in the same direction. During the nearly three-month test period, the company says it got 13,000 requests for shared rides. While that's just a small fraction of all rides, CEO Sunil Paul says it's a strong indicator of future interest. He estimates that the U.S. taxi market is a $10-billion-a-year industry, and ridesharing could be 10 times that because it responds to the blue-collar commuter. \"What we want to prove is that everyday people can use their smartphone to get back and forth from work, and we can deliver that at a very low cost,\" Paul says. \"That is the big opportunity our investors are looking for, that we're looking for.\" The two giants in ridesharing recently announced they're trying out shared rides, too. Uber says UberPool is in test mode, and while it seems popular, it's too soon to tell if it'll be a core service. Lyft did not respond to NPR's request for details about Lyft Line. Paul says, \"We intend to do it better than the others.\" ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: In the ridesharing industry Uber is not the only game in town. Companies such as Lyft and others are also out there and they're also battling over identity - who they are and what they stand for. NPR's Aarti Shahani has that story from San Francisco. AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: Huber has raised 1.5 billion dollars from private investors and it has used some of ", "Throughout the debate over taxes and the \"fiscal cliff,\" there's been a lot of looking backward — to the 1990s. The economic expansion of the 1990s was the longest in recorded American history. Democrats say the economy thrived under the leadership of President Bill Clinton, including his tax rate increase on high earners. Republicans say government didn't spend as much then and that growth didn't really take off until the GOP took control of Congress in 1995. So what actually happened in the '90s? What made them tick? A Unique Boom First, some numbers. Unemployment averaged just 5.7 percent in the '90s. The stock market returned 18 percent a year for the decade. Inflation was tame. And the federal government actually ran surpluses for a few years. \"The '90s was a very special period that's unlikely to be repeated for a while,\" says Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, the world's largest bond fund. Many of the developments worked to the advantage of the U.S. El-Erian says the Cold War was over and new markets were opening around the world. \"Not only was there a peace dividend in terms of reallocating resources but there were more people to sell to and there was cheaper labor, so the U.S., as the dominant consumer and dominant producer at that time, benefited disproportionately from what was going on globally,\" says El-Erian, who President Obama is appointing as chairman of an advisory group on global economic development. Domestically, the economic mojo was working too. Harvard economist Dale Jorgenson says those little microchips being pumped out in Silicon Valley were transformational. As they got faster, cheaper and more powerful, the computer revolution reached into the workplace. \"There was an incredible boom in information technology equipment and software,\" says Jorgenson, who has written extensively about the productivity gains of the '90s. \"People who hadn't been using information technology found they were able to apply it in their jobs. People who had been using it were upgrading their products very quickly.\" 'A Story About Microchips' As the president and the Democrats like to point out, the economy did just fine after tax rates on high earners were raised in 1993. Tax rates were also cut — on capital gains in 1997. Jorgenson doesn't think either change did much to fuel the boom. \"It was entirely a story about microchips,\" he says. John O'Farrell, a partner in the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, agrees that huge improvements in computer technology — both software and hardware — propelled the economy. \"The U.S. really led this entire shift in the way the world works,\" O'Farrell says. What he remembers is how the Internet unlocked the ability to communicate. In 1997, O'Farrell left his job with a landline phone company to join a broadband startup, @Home Network. \"I was part of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of talented, smart, experienced people from all around the world, from other industries often, to take advantage of this enormous explosion of creativity,\" O'Farrell says. He says Washington wasn't as central to the economy back then. The real action was in Silicon Valley, New York and Hollywood. Washington's Role El-Erian, the PIMCO CEO, says Washington did make a positive contribution. The Federal Reserve finally conquered inflation. And the budget was under control. \"Government played a large role domestically and globally, but it was as an enabler as opposed to someone directly involved in the economy.\" Now, it would be wrong to leave the impression that the era was some kind of economic utopia. There was plenty of froth over e-commerce. Online retailers with no plausible business model were hyped breathlessly by stock research analysts. The iconic image of the dot-com bubble was the doglike sock puppet that starred in commercials for online retailer Pets.com. Money-losing startups like Pets.com imploded. And some big highfliers later turned out to be fraudulent — Enron, WorldCom. Home prices rose sharply late in the decade. Everyone knows how that ended. El-Erian says in economic cycles there can be too much of a good thing. \"So the irony of capitalism is that stability tends to encourage excesses. Excesses encourage bubbles. Bubbles encourage crises,\" he says. El-Erian says boom-to-bust is a pattern. But it's not an ironclad rule. He thinks that the financial meltdown could have been avoided. And he says despite their current bickering and dithering, Washington politicians could avoid a different kind of crisis over the budget and the debt that's coming due. DAVID GREENE, HOST: Now, we'll look back even farther into our economic past, to the 1990s, as the nation edges closer to this so-called fiscal cliff. That decade of prosperity has been on many people's minds, including President Obama. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I just believe that anyone making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under Bill Clinton. Back when", "What makes a great boss. One Silicon Valley boss says she did it all wrong. She’s found a better way. What makes a good boss? Or a bad one? There are a thousand answers. My guest today Kim Scott says it boils down to candor. Radical candor. Handled badly, it can make a boss seem like a first class jerk. She should know, she says. She was once a terrible boss in Silicon Valley. But handled humanely, radical candor is the key, she says. You may have your own opinion. This hour, On Point: Radical candor and the art of being a good, effective boss. &#8212;Tom Ashbrook Guest Kim Scott, entrepreneur and author. Author of the new book, “Radical Candor: Be A Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.” Co-founder and CEO of Candor, Inc. Former faculty member at Apple University, former team leader at Google and former CEO coach at Dropbox and Twitter. (@kimballscott) From Tom’s Reading List Financial Times: The unvarnished truth is crucial to Silicon Valley’s success &#8212; &#8220;Bad management thrives in industries with limited competition or weak labour markets. When your employees are unlikely to leave, however you treat them, there is no incentive to manage better. Rough them up and they will resign themselves to it.&#8221; Forbes: How To Use Radical Candor To Drive Great Results &#8212; &#8220;The workplace is yearning for candid bosses, yet bosses continue falling short. To turn the tide, Scott defines two fundamental dimensions of radical candor. They are &#8216;challenging directly&#8217; and &#8216;caring personally.&#8217; One without the other creates counterfeit behaviors that too many bosses deceive themselves into thinking are actually good. These are ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, and obnoxious aggression. Too many bosses settle for radical candor’s cheap knock offs. We’re all guilty of sliding into these categories from time to time, so pay attention to the ones you know you’re susceptible to.&#8221; New York Times: Four Ways to Be More Effective in Meetings &#8212; &#8220;For timid or more junior employees — or those marginalized by a workplace’s culture — speaking up can be at best nerve-racking and at worst a terrifying experience. But expressing confidence through body language and word choice can make it easier to jump in.&#8221; Read An Excerpt Of &#8220;Raidcal Candor&#8221; By Kim Scott Array &nbsp;", "As thermometers start to creep up toward the triple digits, office menswear starts getting casual. It makes sense; having a thick ribbon tied around your neck in the sweltering heat is, by all accounts, a revolting experience. Our very unscientific polling of the NPR newsroom revealed only 8 percent of men wear ties on hot, summer days. We wondered: Could we, humble fashion pioneers, be on the brink of a cutting-edge fashion trend? We posed the question to a group of fashion experts. They all agreed that each industry experiences its own unique trends in office menswear. While men in creative fields are dressing more casually, the dress code in tech companies has been sharpening up. The uniforms in medicine, law and finance are as stiff as ever. Choire Sicha blogs about men's fashion for The Awl. Speaking on behalf of the creative sector, he says professionals in media, PR, advertising and architecture have started moving away from the suit-and-tie uniform, preferring slacks with a crisp, button-down shirt. \"We're allowed to push the boundaries of what we're allowed to wear,\" Sicha says. Many men hang a neutral-colored sport coat in their office, to round out the look. Sicha recommends stashing a tie in your desk for after-hour events. \"I will actually put on the dress shirt and tie, but pull the tie down and unbutton the top collar as if I have been suffering in a tie all day, yet I still look dressed up. It's a good look,\" he says. Lu Verde says you would not believe the number of ties he sells every day at Bergdorf Goodman's flagship store in New York City. He says lawyers, doctors and bankers are unfazed by the heat. \"A man just walked in last night and picked out 20 ties for himself in five minutes, and you're talking about $200 a tie,\" Verde says. He says a few years ago, some New York offices tried to make the dress code more casual, but it was a complete disaster. \"Men did not know how to dress casually; they look very sloppily dressed when they try to just put on a pair of khakis and a polo shirt,\" Verde says. \"So a lot of these offices that went casual all went back to a dress code where they have to wear a suit, or a sports jacket and a tie and dress shirt to dress properly.\" Verde can think of only one type of white-collar employee who can get by without a tie — \"the guys who work for Google.\" Those guys are precisely Joseph Rosenfeld's client base. Rosenfeld is an image consultant in Silicon Valley; he calls it a success when he persuades them to wear button-down shirts and slacks. \"The tech uniform used to be pull-up shorts, T-shirts and sandals.\" He says times have shifted; even startups are starting to polish up. If you want proof that there is a growing appetite for fashion and style in Silicon Valley, Rosenfeld says look no further than the the Westfield Valley Fair Mall. The big shopping center near San Jose, Calif., is attracting fashion-forward stores like Miu Miu and Prada. Rosenfeld says he is nostalgic for the suit and tie, but it is more important for managers to reflect the culture of their teams in how they dress. \"I love neckwear, but it has its time and its place,\" he says. His Silicon Valley clients tend to save their suits for special occasions, such as meetings on the East Coast. Once you have decided to wear a tie, then comes the problem of picking the right one. There are questions of fabric, colors, prints and even shapes. As skinny ties have become more popular, designer Tom Ford has gone in the other direction, creating extra-wide ties. Stefan Doyno, who writes about men's fashion for The Manual, sees ties as an opportunity to express your individuality while wearing an otherwise boring suit. But you have to make sure that you are setting the right message with your neckwear. He says to steer clear of bow ties unless you are wearing a tuxedo. \"I'm not really a fan of those; they always look out of place,\" he says.", "Fifty years ago this week, a chemist in what is now Silicon Valley published a paper that set the groundwork for the digital revolution. You may never have heard of Moore's law, but it has a lot do with why you will pay about the same price for your next computer, smartphone or tablet, even though it will be faster and have better screen resolution than the last one. Most of us are used to the cycle of technology. I visited a Best Buy in San Francisco to find shelves stacked with the latest digital gear, and asked a few customers about what they expect from their new devices — whether it's a laptop, a smart phone or tablet. \"Thinner, lighter, faster,\" says Zeplin Lui. \"I want better resolution,\" Josie Meng tells me. Ivo Mijak wants \"higher processing speed.\" Yet, the same group of customers did not know why their new gadgets would be faster, lighter and have better screen resolution. When I asked them if they'd ever heard of Moore's law, they looked perplexed. Mijak took a guess. \"Diminishing returns ...?\" Wrong. It's actually the opposite. What became known as Moore's law was initially laid out in a paper by Gordon Moore. He was one of the founders of the giant computer chip maker, Intel, and of Fairchild Semiconductor, where the first commercial silicon chips were made. Moore, who comes off as the humble, low-key boy from Pescadero, Calif., that he is, says he had an observation back in 1965 about the way each generation of silicon chips had more transistors than the last. \"It had kind of doubled every year — two, four, eight, 16, 32,\" says Moore, looking back. \"So I said, 'OK it's gonna double every year for 10 years — go from 60 components to 60,000 components on a chip.' \" Moore published his prediction in Electronics Magazine. It was as much about science as it was about the economics of the growing electronics industry. \"I wanted to get across the idea that this is the way we're going to make cheap electronics. The nature of the whole industry is the more stuff you can put on a chip, the cheaper it is per unit of stuff,\" Moore says. One way to think about what Moore meant is to refer to the 1989 film Field of Dreams. The main character Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) hears a voice that tells him, \"If you build it, he will come.\" The voice in the film is referring to building a baseball field that will attract deceased baseball stars. But, for Moore, the \"he\" that will come was all the inventors who will find ways to use the growing power of silicon chips and the consumers who will buy the products. \"That's what he was saying,\" says David C. Brock, who has just released a biography of Gordon Moore. \"He was making the case that, if the chip makers invested in the chemical printing and made microchips that embodied cheaper electronics, that those chips would be met with these ballooning markets as chips suffused every area of society.\" Over the years, Moore revised his prediction a bit — instead of doubling every year, the number of transistors on a chip doubles about every two years. And it takes more money to keep it going. Last year, Intel spent $11 billion on research and development and another $10 billion to update the chip factories. Mark Bohr has been at the company for 37 years and is a leading scientist on the team that keeps the process going. \"I'm afraid Moore's law is in a sense a relentless boss,\" he says. \"We have to continually learn how to make transistors smaller to achieve these benefits — improved performance, lower power and lower cost per transistor.\" And the market continues to find new uses for the power and efficiency of those chips. At the center of an exhibition on the history of computing at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., is a big display explaining and commemorating Moore's law. \"This whole museum is about miniaturization and Moore's law. It really is,\" says Dag Spicer, the senior curator. Spicer told me to look at a really recent computer and it's actually hard to see. \"We're looking at a display of probably the smallest computer in the world right now,\" he says. And when he says small — he really means it. The display shows a thimble with a bunch of little computers in it. Each one is about the size of a grain of rice. \"The vision they're trying to achieve is: What would happen if we had computers that were so cheap and so small that we could just put them anywhere we wanted to gain information?\" Spicer explains. \"So this could be in a forest or in a lake or in the human body, in a spacecraft.\" The point is you keep getting smaller and inventors and entrepreneurs will find uses — and so it has been for the past 50 years. The question is, how much longer can this go on? \"I think we're running out of gas here with Moore's Law,\" Spicer says. \"Because no physical process can continue doubling every year forever — it's physically impossible.\" Scientists at Intel think they can keep it going another 10 years. Other experts are less optimistic. You m", "A year ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping stood before the 19th Communist Party Congress and laid out his ambitious plan for China to become a world leader by 2025 in advanced technologies such as robotics, biotechnology and artificial intelligence. It was seen as a direct challenge to U.S. leadership in advanced technology. James Lewis, a specialist in China and technology at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says China recognizes that technological superiority helps give the United States an edge in national security and wants in on it. \"The Chinese figured out that technology is the key to wealth and power, and the source of technology is still the West for China,\" says Lewis. The question is: \"How do they get their hands on that Western technology?\" The Chinese government has been forming global partnerships with Western think tanks, recruiting key talent at networking events sponsored by the Chinese government and working with U.S. universities, says Michael Brown, managing director of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit in Mountain View, Calif. The unit was set up in 2015 to help the U.S. military capitalize on emerging commercial technologies. \"I'd say they're very systematic, very long term in their approach and very well-funded,\" Brown says. And, he notes, there is serious concern in Washington that China could acquire too much sensitive U.S. technology and transfer it back home. \"They don't play by the same rules that we do. So cybertheft is on the table; industrial espionage is on the table,\" Brown says. Just this past week, Bloomberg Businessweek magazine reported the United States was investigating whether China had infiltrated the Pentagon and major companies such as Apple and Amazon by building spy chips into server motherboards. The motherboards were manufactured in China. The companies deny the allegations. Chinese companies also troll bankruptcy courts, looking for failing U.S. firms, and target small enterprises making valuable technology, such as semiconductors. Chinese companies are also pumping millions of dollars and other resources into tech firms in Europe and the U.S. as a way to capture innovation and know-how. That's illustrated in Sunnyvale, in the heart of Silicon Valley, where U.S. tech giants including Microsoft, LinkedIn and Yahoo have a presence. Right next to a Google complex is a building housing the offices of Baidu — China's largest Internet provider and Google's rival. Baidu opened its innovation center, called the Institute of Deep Learning, four years ago, with a focus on a self-driving vehicle called Apollo. Other Chinese tech powerhouses — Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei — also have Silicon Valley research and development centers. Instead of buying an existing U.S. business, these Chinese tech giants come to the U.S. and build new companies from the ground up, in what's known as \"greenfield\" investments. Lewis says these Chinese tech companies hire away a lot of U.S. employees who might otherwise work for American businesses. \"People change jobs frequently in the tech industry. And [Chinese businesses] say, 'I'll pay you a little bit more than the market rate.' You'll get a lot of talent,\" he says. \"This is a way to acquire know-how.\" Chinese venture capital has helped fuel a surge of minority investments in U.S. tech startups over the past few years. These startups could be working on breakthrough technology. Adam Lysenko, a senior analyst at Rhodium Group, an economic research firm, says American entities represent the largest venture capital investment in startup technology companies, but Chinese investment accounts for about 15 percent of the deals. In the past eight years, there were more than 1,300 rounds of funding for U.S. startups with at least one Chinese investor, Lysenko says, totaling about $11 billion of Chinese investment. \"It is very common for Chinese firms to have some sort of ties to the government,\" Lysenko says. \"And those ties can be in many different forms. It might just be because they have to answer to the government and party leaders back at home. And that [confers on] the state some level of control essentially over every Chinese firm.\" After a record 2017, Rhodium Group predicts 2018 will be another record year for Chinese venture capital into U.S. startups. Lysenko says this has become a concern in national security circles because the nature of emerging technology is inherently dual-use: The artificial intelligence algorithms that help speed up your smartphone could also be applied to weapons on the battlefield. Lysenko says he is not aware of any \"smoking gun\" case where Chinese venture capital has plundered sensitive technology from the U.S. with malicious intent. But, he adds, \"That being said, I think it's become increasingly acknowledged that this risk exists, that venture capital and other minority investments provide Chinese investors to ... access potentially sensitive technologies, particularly ones that are in", "Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are teaming up in a $60 million venture to provide classes online for free. The move is the latest by top universities to expand their intellectual reach through the Internet — a trend that is changing higher education. Last month, Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan announced that they were working with Coursera, a Silicon Valley startup, to put more than a dozen classes online this year in subjects ranging from computer science to public health to poetry. Earlier this year, Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun, one of the inventors of Google's self-driving car, announced he was leaving the school to start a company called Udacity, which would hire world-class professors from leading universities to create free online classes. Coursera and Udacity, which are set up as for-profits, said they are committed to keeping their classes free and have each raised millions from venture capitalists. NPR's Steve Henn tells All Things Considered host Robert Siegel that the companies grew out of an experiment at Stanford last year that allowed anyone to take computer science classes online — and get graded — for free. The classes attracted hundreds of thousands of students from all over the world. Wednesday's announcement was a bit different. Harvard and MIT are creating a nonprofit called edX; the universities are investing $30 million each — significantly more than what has been raised by their West Coast for-profit competitors. Henn says Harvard and MIT also pledged to release their software for free when it's fully developed, as an open-source product for anyone to use. \"They're inviting other universities to use the platform and put their own classes online for free,\" he says. For now, students can get a grade, but the schools won't count the class toward a degree if a student wants to matriculate. \"None of these universities are offering a degree program unless you pay,\" Henn says. He says interest in online courses has exploded because it's become much cheaper and easier to put a class online. \"That has combined with using technologies in new ways to make these online classes better.\" Interactive quizzes and other tools have made it possible to deliver a class that really has value to hundreds of thousands of students, Henn says. \"In the early days of online education,\" he says, \"basically you had a camera in the back of a lecture hall videotaping a lecture. This is really quite different.\" The classes present an opportunity to students who wouldn't otherwise be able to take classes — for health, money or geography reasons. \"Perhaps some day there may be people who never leave their basement,\" Henn says. \"I think at this point, there are many thousands more people around the world [for whom this provides] a window that opens and allows them to see a bigger, broader piece of the world than they could before.\"", "HealthCare.gov was meant to create a simple, easy way for millions of Americans to shop for subsidized health care. Instead, in a little two more than weeks, it has become the poster child for the federal government's technical ineptitude. A dysfunctional contracting system clearly bears some of the blame. But entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley likely would have approached the project differently from the start. A week after the site launched, NPR spoke to Suzanne Cloud, a jazz musician based in Philadelphia. At that point, Cloud had spent hours on the site, trying to sign up for coverage. \"Something went wrong, and it just went to a page with all kinds of html stuff,\" she said. This week, Cloud says she gave up on the website and ended up registering by phone. The folks on the phone took all of her information — then asked if she'd like to pick out her plan online or receive information about her health care options via snail mail. Cloud chose snail mail. \"Once I signed up with the telephone, I didn't go back and try the site again,\" she said. At 17 days old, HealthCare.gov has become a bit of a joke — even to folks like Cloud, who were eagerly awaiting its rollout. So how could a roughly $400 million software project that had been in the works for years have so many problems at its launch? One bit of advice from Silicon Valley: Start small. \"It's not as if Facebook says, 'OK, here is our six-year plan for how we're going to make Facebook.com,' \" says entrepreneur Ben Balter. \"They build one feature at a time, and take a step back, look at how the feature is be used, before they go on to the next feature.\" Balter says you build something small, you test it, and when it works for your users, then you take the next step. Right now, Balter works for GitHub. \"GitHub is a social code-sharing service,\" he says. \"Think of it like Facebook for code. So instead of posting pictures of your kids or posting ... on Twitter what you had for lunch, you are showing what projects you're working on.\" By sharing the code you are writing, lots of people can critique it, find the bugs, offer ideas and make sure it works. It's called open source, and Balter believes HealthCare.gov should have been written that way from the start. \"Why would you make that code private?\" Balter asks. But often when things don't work in government, the impulse is to duck and cover and clamp down on information. \"I think the key reason is the way projects get funded,\" says Michael Cockrill, who used to work in startups and is now the chief information officer for Washington state. He says to get a software project funded in the public sector, typically you have say exactly what it is going to do, spell how much it will cost and when you will finish. \"As a result, you end up creating this culture that is all about doing what you said you were gonna do,\" Cockrill says. It's a culture that is risk-adverse and terrified of public failure. You can't learn from little failures or adjust course midstream. And instead of taking big jobs, breaking them down into small tasks and testing for success at each step, a project like HealthCare.gov becomes a giant all-or-nothing gamble. Cockrill says too often it's a gamble taxpayers loose. \"You've made all these commitments about what you are going to build. What is it going to look like upfront,\" Cockrill says. \"And even if the market changes underneath you, and even if your customers need something different — which you know always happens — you made a commitment a big public commitment, and they've written it into budgets and law.\" Cockrill and many others around the country are trying to help governments become more flexible and agile as they embark on software development projects. \"It's really hard to convince people to kind of trust you,\" he says. \"Especially when you are saying, 'Look I don't know exactly what is going to look like — but we are going to do what matters most first.' \"" ]

[ "04/17/17 – 11:36 P.m.\nCity Council met to talk about appropriating $1.5 million to the capital fund. Councilwoman Holly Frische said that they should find another way to fund city projects.\nHolly Frische\nThe money is needed to get started on several second quarter projects. City auditor Jim Staschiak said that council can fund projects from the general fund. The money will come back to the general fund after the project is completed.\nCouncil will see the legislation at their Tuesday meeting." ]

[ "Wickliffe voters will be asked to approve a 3-mill fire and safety levy in the upcoming election.\nAfter much deliberation, Council agreed to put the levy on the Nov. 6 ballot, at its most recent meeting.\n“We went back and forth quite a bit debating whether we should do a roads levy or should we do capital improvements,” Mayor John Barbish said. “Initially we were hoping to do one levy that encompassed roads and capital improvements and have it be a permanent levy. However, the way Ohio laws are structured, we weren’t able to accomplish that. So,we got back around the table and discussed it again.”\nBarbish said a fire and safety levy is much needed.\nAdvertisement\n“We know we wanted money for obviously for capital improvement like vehicles and for roads, but by doing this and supplying more money to the police and fire, it’s going to free up more money in the general fund to help with road projects,” he said. ”The 3-mill levy is expected to generate about $800,000 total, which the police department and the fire department uses well over that every single year.”\nIf it passes, the levy could help pay police and fire salaries, in addition to capital improvement for the departments.\n“So it’s going to help us keep our safety forces where they are at, but also help with setting aside money for a new ladder truck,” he said. “We’re also in the process of purchasing an ambulance.”\nOther capital projects may include the police and detective cars and some of the basic fire fighter vehicles and equipment they need.\n“We’re still exploring other ideas as time goes on that we will probably talk about next year, but we felt that was the best way to approach it at this point,” Barbish said. “Those are two of our most expensive and most important departments and we want to keep them running top-notch and operate efficiently.”\nDon’t Miss\n>> Eastlake considers licensing rental property owners for single family residences\n>> Wickliffe to form Mayor’s Court", "TESCO has not been asked for a financial contribution to the planned slip road into its superstore in Stratford despite having plans to build one itself, the Herald can reveal.\nWarwickshire County Council’s cabinet has approved the spending of £3.5million on a long-talked-about package of improvements to ease congestion on Birmingham Road and has confirmed work will be carried out during 2019 and 2020.\nIn documents presented to the council’s the cabinet, council officers admitted that the slip road will have a ‘positive’ effect on Tesco, but said there was ‘no external funding providing any contribution to the delivery of the scheme’.\nA slip road into the Tesco car park was first proposed in 2011 as part of the company’s plan to extend the store, and it would have been funded by the supermarket giant.\nPlanning documents from back then even make reference to how the slip road would help ease congestion generally on Birmingham Road, as well as benefitting its customers.\nBut Tesco has confirmed that plan has now been dropped, with planning permission having lapsed last year and the land required for the extension having been sold off.\nA county council spokesman defended the decision not to approach Tesco for money towards the cost of its plan for a slip road.\n“The corridor improvements will help businesses along the corridor generally so it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask for a contribution from a single business.\n“Whilst the slip road will help access to the Tesco site, the main purpose for including this as part of the scheme is because of the benefit that this slip road provides to the corridor as a whole.”\nFirm details of the long-talked-about scheme that the council hopes will ease congestion on Birmingham Road have also been confirmed.\nThe road will be converted into two lanes inbound and one outbound. It is currently the other way round.\nTo do that the stretch between Regal Road roundabout and Hamlet Way will need to be widened in places by narrowing the footpaths where necessary, while the road markings will simply be re-painted on the section between St Peter’s Way and Joseph Way.\nAlso planned are the relocation of the pedestrian/cycle crossing to opposite the main pedestrian entrance to the Maybird, an improved shared use pedestrian/cycle lane between Arden Street and Western Road, including widening the footpath and cycle lane by approximately one metre into the existing cycle lane, renewed cycle lanes and logos between Windsor Street and Arden Street, and a widened footpath on the approach to Arden Street junction to enable a continuous cycle lane.\nThe scheme is the product of the series of transport summits that have been held over the past three years and led by MP Nadhim Zahawi.\nIt appeared in doubt in February when a bid for £2.7million from the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was rejected, after widely expected to be forthcoming.\nBut the county council agreed to dip into its own funds to stump up the money.\nHowever, a bid for £2.5million has also been submitted to the Department for Transport, with a decision expected in November.\nThe report to councillors appeared to offer justification for the spending of money from the county council’s own coffers.\nIt says: “The proposal provides a clear link to Stratford’s local plan and there is evidence provided in the business case as a result of modelling that accessibility would be improved.\n“There is a reputational risk of not supporting the project as public consultation on highways developments in the area has already been undertaken and was identified as the second highest priority.\nThe local MP is also publicly supportive of the scheme.”", "By Vicki Ikeogu\nContributing Writer\nColumbia Heights has begun its search for a new place to house city hall.\nAt the Monday, Sept. 25, meeting, city council members approved a $22,500 proposal from consulting firm Leo A Daly to explore various site options for city hall.\n“In 2017, one of the goals the council had was the establishment of a master plan that would examine a new city hall,” said Kevin Hansen, Columbia Heights public works director. “Really, the framework of this master plan and what we were looking for out of this was to update our space needs.”\nHansen said a lot has changed with the current city hall since the last space needs and configuration plan was done in 1999.\n“The use of the building has changed especially with the police and fire departments being (moved) out,” he said. “We felt it was appropriate to update the plan.”\nHansen said the Omaha, Nebraska-based consulting firm Leo A Daly was selected because of the work the firm had done in developing plans for the public library.\n“They do know our city,” Hansen said. “And I think too, based off of the information they provided, that they have done a lot of (city hall master plans).”\nThe proposal, dated Sept. 21, outlines the goals of the study. According to the document, Leo A Daly consultants will conduct a space needs assessment to determine the appropriate square footage needed by staff members in city hall. The firm will then look at four possible sites for a new city hall building and configure in costs for upgrades, renovations or construction work needed to be done to build.\nHansen said the four sites in question are the current location of city hall, 590-40th Ave. NE; on top of the public safety building; on the property behind the public safety building; or on top of the library.\nThe master plan will strictly outline the potential footprint of the new facility. Hansen said no building design work will be done at this initial stage.\nLeo A Daly consultants estimate the master plan will take between 2 to 3 months to complete.\n“Once the cost is established and applied to each one of the four sites, then this would return to the council,” Hansen said. “We would like to bring this back to you along with some various funding scenarios. Right now, we are looking at right about the first part of 2018.”\nColumbia Heights Mayor Donna Schmitt stated the city needs a new city hall.\n“But the city manager (Walter Fehst) said there is a possibility of paying (for the new building) without bonding if we push the project forward a couple of years,” she said. “I would look forward to not having to go to residents and ask for additional bonding on this.”\nAs part the Monday, Sept. 25 approval, the council had to amend the 2017 budget to authorize the funding allocation. Money for the city hall needs assessment master plan is coming from the Columbia Heights general fund’s government buildings and capital improvement line item.", "Lincolnshire County Council has put aside more than £18.6 million to address concerns over future funding of health services in the county, despite the government’s recent promise for an extra £20 billion a year by 2023 for the NHS.\nCouncillors on the authority’s executive committee agreed on Tuesday for £18,665,000 be put into the council’s volatility reserve which currently totals £32,340,000.\nCouncil leader Martin Hill said: “We know extra money has been allocated to the NHS and there is a concern nationally that other services are wondering whether there will be limited extra money for them.\n“There was some noise from defence last week, but local government is in the exact same position, so looking forward we need to be sure that we can carry on for some years to come.”\nHe said there would be a ‘financial risk’ over the next few years, but explained local authorities were hoping the government might resolve the problem either by changing the way adult care is funded, or by continuing to respond positively to the ‘fairer funding’ campaign through which the county hopes to get a fair slice of the funding cake.\nHe added: “Nothing is safe until it’s in the bag. There are two areas where there is hope, but with all this money going to the NHS, which we all recognise, it does mean there is a concern from the rest of the public services about where their own funding is going to come from, and extra funding is going to come from.”\nThe council hopes to get an extra £160 million a year if its ‘fairer funding’ campaign is successful.\nHowever, it faces continued cuts in central government funding, with the £210 million grant it received in 2010 decreasing to just £20 million by 2020.\nCouncillors also agreed to allow departments which underspent in the last financial year to keep 1% of that money.\nThis created new reserves for highways, employee leave and schools capital projects totalling £1,188,000 and will carry forward £3,880,000 for bids including meeting insurance liabilities, supporting the council’s heritage services and work on its corporate support contract, and to address the adverse weather overspend from the harsh conditions in the past year.\nDaniel Jaines , Local Democracy Reporting Service", "This participation aims to highlight the NMC’s role in the publishing sector, its support to the national publishing industry and Emirati writers, and its objective to preserve the national identity and cultural heritage of the UAE. The Council also seeks to identify the best international publishing models and practices at the exhibition, and explore ways to improve the quality of services provided by NMC to the sector.\nThe Council is set to participate in an interactive display that will feature many activities that promote the publishing sector, and highlight the country’s progress across all fields. Emirates News Agency (WAM) will also provide media support to the participating entities, shedding light on national success stories in the publishing industry locally and internationally.\nNMC Director General Mansour Al Mansouri said: “The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair reflects the image of the UAE and its cultural heritage. Our capital is a major international centre for publishing and media content creation, and this exhibition conveys its message of moderation and tolerance to the world. Our participation in the exhibition aims to reiterates our commitment to continuously developing and improving the publishing sector in the UAE, to meet our country’s ambition and the objectives of the UAE Centennial 2071 Plan.”\n“The rapid development witnessed by the publishing sector in the UAE reflects the maturity of the regulatory and legislative environment. In the last few years, we have issued a comprehensive body of regulations on media content and licenses, as well as an age classification system. Our goal is for this global platform to introduce the public to the NMC’s role in promoting the national media sector and improving it,” Al Mansouri added.\nNMC Services During the Book Fair\nThe National Media Council will provide its services to the public at its booth, where a special corner was designated for receiving the requests. The Council will also provide advice regarding its services and procedures, given by “Happiness Consultants” present at the booth every day of the Fair.\nNMC Workshops During the Exhibition\nThe NMC will be holding a number of events and workshops during the event, including: “How to Choose a Book for Your Child”, which educates parents and guardians on how best to select appropriate books for their children. The workshop will focus on children’s literature, the role of the age-classification system in the selection of appropriate books, and ways to promote reading among children.\nThe NMC will also hold a panel discussion with renowned Indian businessman Dr Ram Buxani to discuss his book “Taking the High Road”, which tells a realistic biography of a young Indian man who came to Dubai in the late 1950s and became a great businessman in the UAE and India. The book also tells the story of the rapid development that swept across Dubai and transformed the lives of the Emirati people. The panel will address the robust UAE-India relations, and feature important figures from the Indian community.\nIn addition to that, the Council will host a session entitled “The UAE Pioneers”, which sheds light on influential personalities from the UAE, who have contributed significantly to supporting the national culture.\nThe Council will also hold a workshop entitled “Publishing House: Step by Step” to discuss the most important challenges facing authors; the future of digital publishing; the challenges that digital publishing houses face; the benefits of digital publishing; and how to attract authors.\nThe NMC oversaw great developments within the local publishing industry in 2017, where the Council issued 25,083 circulation permits and 1,392 print permits. Furthermore, the Council processed more than 6 million applications and transactions pertaining to books and publications, which covered 4,459,545 books – consisting of 80,000 titles, i.e. 50 copies per title – as well as 1,760,698 brochures and catalogues, 123,906 visual and audio-visual works, 14,072 video games, 21,878 computer programmes, and 28 films. These numbers reflect the Council’s positive and essential role in promoting the media sector in general and publishing, in particular.", "Grant applications for Glenwood Springs’ Discretionary and Tourism Promotion grant programs are now open. Applications are due by March 17.\nEach year, the city allocates a portion of sales tax revenues from its Acquisitions and Improvements Fund for human services, special events and other public purposes as City Council deems appropriate.\nThe city also allocates funding from the 2.5 percent accommodations tax to be used to market and promote regional activities, attractions and events to increase tourism. Projects can include special events, beautification efforts or capital improvements to help attract visitors.\nBoth grants are managed by the city’s Financial Advisory Board, which reviews the applications and makes recommendations to City Council for final funding determinations.\nApplications must be received by 5 p.m. on March 17. All applications must be submitted electronically. For more information, call (970) 384-6400.", "For the first time, Howard County General Hospital has asked to be added to the county’s annual operating budget, with a request for $3 million.\nPresident Steve Snelgrove sent a formal written request to County Executive Allan Kittleman asking for the hospital to be included in both the county’s fiscal 2019 capital and operating budgets. The request came days before the county will host its first budget public hearing Monday night to hear public testimony about the county’s many budget proposals.\nThe hospital, which is part of the Johns Hopkins Medicine hospital system, is requesting $5 million from the county’s fiscal 2019 capital budget, which Snelgrove said will be put toward a $45 million, two-story expansion that will include new space for psychiatric care and observational units.\nThat $5 million represents a third of the money Snelgrove said the hospital is hoping to raise for the project through philanthropic fundraising from the community. The other two-thirds will be incurred by the hospital through debt and operational improvements.\nHoward County General requested the same amount from the county’s capital budget last year, but it was denied by Kittleman. Snelgrove said he is concerned about the liklihood that the request will be fulfilled this year.\n“If we don’t get the capital request, we’re going to have to try and raise more money in the community,” Snelgrove said. “[We’ll have to] look even deeper into the community for support. No health system can exist without the support of its community.”\nOn top of that $5 million, the hospital is asking for the first time this year to be included in the county’s operational budget, and to begin an annual $3 million in funding. Snelgrove said this money would go toward the necessary expansion of the hospital’s population health systems, to provide patients with care both in and outside the hospital’s walls.\nSnelgrove said the hospital wants to create an expanded network of healthcare providers in the county through partnerships with agencies such as the county’s health department and the county’s local health improvement coalition.\n“We’re trying to do something for our community to the standards that this community sets,” Snelgrove said. “We’re all siloed industries and what we’re trying to do is break down those silos so the patient progresses through those silos with great communication.”\nAndy Barth, a spokesman for Kittleman, said “there is every reason to consider [the proposal],” but that it is too early in the budgetary process for the county executive to know whether either of the hospital’s requests can be fulfilled.\nBudget Administrator Holly Sun said she had not seen the formal request or talked with Kittleman about the request yet. When the county assesses budget proposals, Sun said it looks at how the request aligns with the county’s “strategic priorities” and its financial capabilities that year.\nAll budget requests must be submitted to the county by mid-March, and the county executive will present his proposed budget to the county council in April. The council will then review the proposal and approve a budget in May.", "A Mobile City Council committee has suggested reforming the earmarks associated with roughly $30 million coming into city coffers from a 1-cent sales tax increase.\nThe council’s Capital Improvement Project (CIP) committee suggested changes that would simplify the city’s capital budget and also secure steady funding for its capital improvement plan, which splits $21 million of that tax money evenly among the seven council districts to be used for infrastructure projects.\nThe ordinance supporting the capital plan mandated the city split the remaining money from the tax increase — roughly $9 million — proportionally among public safety, economic development and other projects.\nThe suggestion by Councilman John Williams would consolidate line items for public safety vehicles and economic development into a single line item of up to $4 million to be used for municipal buildings, studies and other citywide capital expenses. The rewrite would also direct any money left over be put into the capital budget.\n“I would like to see us make it simpler,” Williams said.\nCouncilors did request that Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s administration work with them to find possible alternative funding streams for other line items within the capital budget.\nOne area of concern was changing the $5 million line item for economic development. As Councilman Joel Daves pointed out, it would be tough to predict when and how much money would be needed for economic incentives.\n“The problem is you don’t need it until you need it,” Daves said. “You also don’t always see it coming a year in advance.”\nDianne Irby, executive director of engineering and development, told councilors that in the past, the city has pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars from district spending for citywide projects and studies. For instance, Irby said, $387,000 of CIP money from each district went to buildings. Another $347,000 from each district went to study the greenway project.\nCouncilman Levon Manzie said the city could go “tighter” on economic development, as it doesn’t spend $5 million per year. That money could help reduce the burden on district spending, he said, adding that the goal of the CIP should be to get as much of the $3 million per year into tangible projects as possible.\n“We’ve settled into study, study, study mode,” Manzie said. “Studies are going to kill us. We’ve got millions more in needs than we have resources.”\nCouncilwoman Bess Rich said she’d like to hear from Mayor Stimpson’s administration on how much of the economic development line item is used and about how close the city is to making its motor pool self-sustaining, so more capital money could go to district projects.\n“No matter what, the $21 million, district-by-district, was to be for tangible projects,” she said.\nCouncilman C.J. Small reminded his colleagues that they wrote the ordinance and could change it if they wanted.\n“We’re the ones who created this,” he said.\nCouncilman Fred Richardson complained about the disparity between the money spent on public safety vehicles and public works vehicles. He said the city spent only about $600,000 for public works and $21 million on public safety over the last three years. Daves reminded him of the city’s individual share of the BP oil spill settlement, which went to purchase new garbage trucks.\n“Where do you think the new garbage trucks came from?” Daves asked. “Did they snap their fingers?”\n“It wasn’t CIP,” Richardson said.\nRelya Mallory, from the city’s finance department, told Richardson that while only $630,000 had been budgeted in capital for public works, much more had actually been spent.\n“We’re buying a lot of public service equipment,” she said.\nAs for how much goes into economic development each year, Mallory said the city would “love” to have $5 million. Last year, $1.3 million was removed for raises.\nWhat will make this more challenging, Mallory said, is the $18 million to $23 million in debt service the city can’t touch.\n“We haven’t had $5 million in economic development in three or four years,” she said. “There’s only $30 million to work with after all the expenses and $21 million of that goes to CIP.”\nAs for the motor pool, Mallory said it’s not yet self-sustaining and a portion of that public safety line item would need to be used until it is.\n“It’s going to take forever for it to get where it needs to be,” she said.\nAt times the discussion broke down into a debate over who was truly responsible for the city’s financial recovery and who was to blame for its initial fiscal failures.\nRichardson said without the sales tax increase, which the council renewed despite Mayor Stimpson’s 2014 veto, the city would not be in good financial shape now.\nDaves argued the previous administration under Sam Jones had the extra sales tax and still couldn’t make ends meet.\n“In the first two years we reduced spending by $17 million,” Daves said. “The reason we have money today is reductions in the general fund and the renewal of the penny.”\nRichardson countered by talking of the Great Recession and said Jones’ administration was hampered by the nationwide economic downturn. He credited a decrease in unemployment for the increased tax revenue.\n“Unemployment went down and generated the money we have now,” Richardson said. “The economic posture changed. It wasn’t any genius who came in.”", "CLEVELAND - Cleveland's recreation centers play an important role, especially with the upcoming summer season, but some city council members are upset with maintenance and improvement project delays at these facilities.\nCouncilman Kevin Conwell pointed to maintenance concerns at the Lonnie Burton city pool, where low water levels had some parents wondering about potential problems at the facility.\nConwell was also animated about what he called major roof issues at the Glenville Recreation Center.\nConwell claimed $700,000 was appropriated for needed repairs back in 2015, but said the project has been held in limbo due to a slow bidding process in finding contractors for the job.\n\"I go down and see them almost every week and ask them when will the project get started,\" said Conwell.\n\"They said councilman we're putting it out to bid.\"\nConwell said the city administration needs to streamline the bidding process, especially for critical city improvements like recreation centers.\nCouncilman Michael Polensek agreed, pointing to stalled projects at Kovacic and Thurgood Marshall recreation centers, as well as new issues at the 5-year-old Collinwood Recreation Center.\nPolensek said it all comes down to the city administration re-evaluating its priorities.\n\"It takes too long to get things done in this city, far too long,\" said Polensek.\n\"We've got to make these recreation centers as important as the \"Q,\" as Public Square, as whatever the other projects are. They got to be on the same level.\"\nNews 5 contacted the Cleveland Mayor's office, and it responded quickly.\nIt said it would look into low water levels at Lonnie Burton city pool.\nThe administration said it currently has money approved for 7 Cleveland recreation center projects.\nThe Mayor's office told News 5 the bidding process to find the right contractors for these jobs takes some time, to insure tax dollars are used in the best way possible.\nBut Conwell said it should never take three years to get a project started, especially when the money for the job is just sitting there.\n\"Our residents deserve better,\" said Conwell. \"These residents count on our recreation centers and Glenville and other recreation centers should have seen major improvements last year.", "YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – As Youngstown City Council looks for ways to finalize its budget while eliminating a million-dollar deficit, one department found a way to bring in money for the general fund.\nRepetitive calls to the Youngstown Fire Department could bring in more money.\nYoungstown City Council has to have a finalized budget by next Monday, so the city is taking a magnifying glass to its budget and making decisions about what to cut.\nMonday night, leaders met with the heads of the three largest departments — Director of Street and Public Works Chuck Shasho, Police Chief Robin Lees and Fire Chief Barry Finley — to really look into how much money each gets.\nThe fire and police departments agreed to cut overtime for employees. Fire will also eliminate a secretary.\nBut the fire department didn’t stop there. It may actually be able to bring in money — by fining for excessive calls.\n“In 2017, we had 109 calls just to University Edge — all of them false,” said Youngstown Fire Chief Barry Finley.\nThe Flats at Wick and St. Elizabeth Hospital see a high volume of calls, too. Chief Finley said firefighters respond time and time again.\n“Everybody in this county and everybody in this state charges…when our inspectors have to go out to inspect a building and come back, they should be charging for it and we’re not.”\nBy January of 2019, the department wants these excessive calls to come with fines.\n“We have to take into consideration, that’s manpower on a truck. That’s a truck, that’s wear and tear on everything,” Finley said.\nFire officials were working to determine an appropriate cost for the fine. It would likely take between six to ten calls before a fine was given.\nThat money could help to generate a good amount of income for the city, but Finley expects backlash.\n“The mayor is probably going to be getting a phone call from — is probably Jim Tressel and probably the president, CEO of St. E’s,” he said.\nCity council leaders ran into some problems with the police budget and how to allocate some money. YPD is using traffic cameras and it’s bringing in a good chunk of change.\n“Our experience is going to be about $700,000 to $750,000 annually,” Chief Robin Lees said.\nThey say it’s making roadways safer while making the city some money. Lees hopes to put that money back into the department and its programs.\n“Fleet replacement. We need to buy about six new cars a year,” he said.\nCouncil and police officials, along with the city finance director, will work to figure out exactly how much money is left and where it will go.\nWhen it came to the street department and public works, everyone was on the same page with the budget cuts — $40,000 will be cut for mowing grass.\nOn Tuesday, council will meet with the mayor’s office and downtown events coordinators. Council members were not happy with proposed cuts to the entertainment budget for downtown events.", "Charlottetown city council in included an extra $1.7 million for street resurfacing in its $14 million capital budget for 2017.\nCouncil approved the $14 million capital budget at its meeting Tuesday evening.\nCoun. Melissa Hilton, chair of the finance committee, said street resurfacing is a priority this year.\n'Everybody thinks their street is the worst.' - Coun. Melissa Hilton\n\"The roads, as we all know today, are in great despair,\" said Hilton.\nNearly $4 million has been budgeted for street resurfacing, which includes $3.19 million in new funding, and nearly $800,000 carried over from the 2016 budget.\nHilton said the number of streets that will be resurfaced will depend on the length of the streets, and the severity of the disrepair.\n\"What we do is we rate the streets ... worst first,\" said Hilton.\nMelissa Hilton, chair of Charlottetown's finance committee, said street resurfacing is a priority this year. (Sarah MacMillan/CBC)\n\"I know there's a number of streets throughout the city and everybody thinks their street is the worst. That's why we have our staff go out to rate them.\"\nHilton said staff will begin that process once the snow melts in the spring.\nBuilding maintenance, other improvements\nThe capital budget also includes $1.8 million for work on municipal buildings.\n\"We have a number of issues in some of our city buildings. For example, right here in city hall we have a heating system that we're trying to deal with,\" said Hilton.\nOther budget items include increased funding for Parks Canada to improve playground equipment, funding for improvements at the Bell Aliant Centre, and improvements to street lighting.", "Councils accuse government of washing its hands of problem after earlier promising that money would be no object\nCouncils have said the government is failing to release funds to improve the fire safety of dozens of tower blocks following the Grenfell Tower disaster despite promising that a lack of financial resources should not stand in the way of essential works.\nMinisters have said building owners are responsible for funding safety measures, but town hall leaders complain that they are “washing their hands of their responsibilities” and are being “dismissive”, four months after the blaze at the Kensington tower block, which claimed about 80 lives.\nThe government has said it will consider help “where works are essential”, but has so far resisted bids for support to retrofit sprinklers in towers despite the London fire brigade (LFB) saying this must happen.\nThe Conservative-run Westminster council is understood to be the latest town hall to have had a request for financial assistance pushed back by ministers. It is removing cladding from six high-rise towers and wants to install sprinklers across other tall council blocks at an estimated cost of £20m.\nThe housing minister, Alok Sharma, has already declined Nottingham city council’s request for help to install sprinklers inside flats and communal areas in 13 towers at a cost of £6.2m. Sharma told the council: “The fire safety measures you outline are additional rather than essential.”\nHe has told the London borough of Croydon, which wants to spend £10m on retrofitting sprinklers to 25 tall residential blocks: “It is the landlord’s responsibility to ensure that people are safe.”\nWandsworth wants to spend up to £30m on sprinklers in 100 towers but has been told: “Support will not include general improvement and enhancements to buildings.” All the councils said they had been advised to carry out works by their local fire brigades.\nThe tension over who should foot the fire safety bill follows a pledge in July by the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, that any lack of financial resources would not prevent necessary works going ahead. However, the government appears determined not to fund or allow additional borrowing for any improvements that go beyond essential safety works. The necessity of sprinklers is proving a key faultline.\nDany Cotton, commissioner of the LFB, has said retrofitting sprinklers in tower blocks “can’t be optional, it can’t be a nice-to-have”. Since 2007 they have been compulsory in new-build high-rises over 30 metres tall in England, but those building regulations do not apply to older blocks.\nThe Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) argues that an appropriate level of fire safety can be achieved without the need to retrofit sprinklers, and fitting them is a matter for landlords to consider for themselves.\nA recent study of 677 fires where sprinklers were activated found they controlled or extinguished the fire in 99% of cases.\nThe nationwide bill for replacing flammable cladding and retrofitting sprinklers is already likely to run into hundreds of millions of pounds. Southwark has previously estimated that the bill for installing sprinklers in its towers could be as high as £100m, and it is currently finalising its bid for funding. The council leader, Peter John, has told Javid: “Fire safety is a national issue and the financial burden for these works must not fall on already stretched councils.”\nBirmingham city council, the UK’s largest council landlord, is yet to submit a request for retrofitting sprinklers in up to 213 blocks.\nSo far, 31 town halls have asked for government help to make high-rise flats safe. The DCLG said it was in detailed discussions with six, and others had been invited to provide further information about how the work they wished to undertake was essential.\nIn Salford, the city council has borrowed £25m to fund works to remove potentially flammable cladding from nine towers, and leaders have accused the government of “failing to live up to its responsibility”.\n“Like many other councils, Salford is lobbying the government to recognise the huge financial cost of this national issue and provide funding to us and other local authorities to deal with it,” said the deputy city mayor, John Merry.\nPressed on funding at the Conservative party conference in Manchester this week, Theresa May said: “We have said we would work with local authorities on any adaptations and changes they needed to make to ensure the safety of those tower blocks.”\nBut asked about funding sprinklers, she said: “There’s a number of issues that can improve the safety of tower blocks. It is not just one answer.”\nJane Urquart, the cabinet member for housing at Nottingham city council, said: “The government said a lot of things after the tragedy about money not being an object to ensuring safety. Now councils like ours, which have faced huge cuts over the last few years, are being told to dig into our pockets. The consequence of the government not paying is that other repairs to our housing stock won’t happen.”\nAdam Hug, leader of the Labour opposition at Westminster city council, said he had seen correspondence with the government detailing the council’s request for financial aid or better flexibility on borrowing.\n“Both were being asked for,” he said. “They were told: only in exceptional circumstances. Yet again it will be council tenants and people who desperately need new homes who are left to pay the price of this Tory government washing their hands of their responsibilities.”\nA spokeswoman for Westminster said it was “in ongoing discussions with the DCLG about a range of fire safety-related issues”. The DCLG said it had told Westminster it would consider removing financial restrictions where barriers stood in the way of essential works being done.\n“Building owners are responsible for funding measures designed to make a building safe,” said a spokesman for the department. “We’ve been clear that where a local authority has concerns about funding essential fire safety measures, they should contact DCLG as soon as possible to discuss their position. The department has written to Nottingham, Croydon and Wandsworth councils inviting them to provide more detail about the works they propose. To date these authorities have not submitted this information.”", "After getting caught up on an $8.6 million in employee pension fund subsidy, Luzerne County still has $2.1 million left from this year’s one-time revenue windfall.\nTwo options for the money are up for council consideration: reduce the deficit or beef up the dwindling capital projects fund.\nDuring public discussion last week, county Councilman Stephen A. Urban suggested moving money into the capital fund to start saving for a looming emergency 911 radio communications system overhaul estimated to cost the county $19.26 million.\nA consultant has said the switch from an analog to digital system is crucial because the radio transmitters and receivers that allow emergency responders to exchange messages will become obsolete in 2020. County officials have not nailed down any outside funding streams to offset the cost of the project.\nCounty Council Vice Chairman Tim McGinley is proposing transferring $1.5 million of the remaining funds into the capital fund, saying the county does not have a sufficient pot to cover capital repairs. An ordinance to proceed with his proposal is on Tuesday’s council agenda for introduction, with a subsequent majority vote required for final approval.\nApproximately $1.2 million remains in the capital fund not earmarked for pending projects. Council is set to introduce another ordinance Tuesday tapping $150,000 of the fund’s remaining $1.2 million to complete prison shower renovations needed in part due to safety concerns.\nBut Councilman Rick Williams advocated keeping the money in reserve so it can be credited as a 2017 general fund operating budget surplus and whittle down the $7.98 million deficit the county is carrying on its fiscal books.\n“I think it’s wise to get rid of that deficit and enjoy the benefits,” Williams said. “That’s a pretty important goal in my mind.”\nErasing the deficit and building a cushion that can be carried forward would improve the county’s credit rating and provide a source of funds that can be temporarily accessed and repaid so the county does not need an annual tax anticipation loan to survive at the start of the year until real estate tax revenue rolls in, Williams said.\nMcGinley said his proposal would still leave more than $500,000 of the windfall for deficit reduction.\nThe county also is still awaiting another one-time receipt from an expired tax-break program that could be applied to deficit reduction, Urban reminded. Although opinions differ, the county is estimated by some to be entitled to $1.2 million.\nThe money is from a Tax Incremental Financing, or TIF, program in which Luzerne County, the Wilkes-Barre Area School District and Wilkes-Barre Township sacrificed real estate tax revenue from new development along Highland Park Boulevard and at the Arena Hub Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township to fund infrastructure improvements on Highland Park and Mundy and Coal streets.\nCounty Manager C. David Pedri said the disbursement won’t be resolved until 2018 due to a state Department of Transportation review.\nMcGinley also is recommending transferring $211,000 in leftover workers’ compensation funds — money that was not part of the $2.1 million windfall — into the capital fund toward the 911 project. That ordinance introduction also is on Tuesday’s agenda.\nPedri told council last week the $8.6 million pension subsidy funded by the windfall has been paid.\nThe problem of overdue pension subsidies dates back years before the county’s 2012 switch to a home rule government structure. Paying the subsidy in the year after it is due causes the fund to lose out on investment earnings.\nPedri said in an email to council the county will “finally be able to pay this year’s bills with this year’s monies.”\n“This decision will also greatly affect the pension fund’s reliance on general fund monies going forward,” he wrote.\nPedri http://www.mydallaspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_Pedri-1.jpg Pedri\nBy Jennifer Learn-Andes [email protected]\nIf you go Luzerne County Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.", "Funding from the city has been an on-going issue for the Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre. Management went before council on Monday, asking for equitable and appropriate funding. Joe Scarpelli reports.", "Urbana City Council will vote during its 6 p.m. meeting today in municipal court chambers on whether to enter into two contracts supported by city administration. One involves improvements to the downtown roundabout and the other relates to the ongoing floodplain study of Dugan Run (Ditch).\nThe administration seeks council’s approval to authorize Director of Administration Kerry Brugger to enter into a contract modification with Burgess & Niple Inc. for an additional $132,718 for work relating to the Monument Square Roundabout Improvements Project, scheduled to be completed in 2019.\nWhile a portion of proposed contract costs would be funded by an Ohio Department of Transportation Highway Safety Grant ($51,682.60), the remaining costs would be the responsibility of the city and would be covered by two city funds – the Water Fund ($19,778.86) and the Capital Improvement Fund ($61,256.40).\nCouncil agreed in December 2016 to pay Burgess & Niple $24,797 for field survey work and basemapping and to gather public input concerning the project. An ODOT Highway Safety Grant covered 90 percent of the costs of the initial agreement, while the city’s share of $2,479.70 was funded through capital improvement dollars.\nFloodplain work\nThe administration also seeks council’s approval to modify an existing contract with EMH&T by incorporating additional professional services in the amount of $21,500 for completion of the final phase of a three-phase floodplain study of Dugan Run.\nWith the first two phases (data collection and hydraulic analyses) completed, the third phase, if approved, would involve the submission of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Letter of Map Revision.\nBy Joshua Keeran [email protected]\nJoshua Keeran may be reached at 937-508-2304 or on Twitter @UDCKeeran.\nJoshua Keeran may be reached at 937-508-2304 or on Twitter @UDCKeeran.", "The annual cost of dealing with ‘serial complainers’ has equated to Boston Borough Council’s tax income from around 90 Band A households according to the authority’s leading finance figure.\nFinance portfolio holder Coun Aaron Spencer told councillors at last Monday’s Full Council meeting that the authority estimated it had spent almost £16,000 on dealing with contacts made under its Persistent and Vexatious Complaints Policy since it was introduced in April 2016.\nResponding to a question from Lincolnshire County Councillor Paula Cooper, Mr Spencer said there had been 399 ‘contacts’ dealt with under the policy - more than one every working day.\nThese figures apply only to those people who have been listed under the policy, not day-to-day contact from the general public – additionally the complaints did not come from 399 seperate people.\nHe said that the council does not have a time recording system so officers could only estimate the time spent on each contact but a reasonable estimate was that ‘two hours per contact was appropriate’.\nHe said contacts were dealt with by a range of officers and estimated the average cost at about £20 per hour.\nThe total estimated cost in the last 18 months was £15,960 – £10,640 per year.\nHe equated that final figure to the council tax of 60 households at Band D, but added that because almost 50 per cent of council taxpayers are in Band A it would also equates to 90 of those households.\nMr Spencer said: “Whilst the council welcomes genuine complaints and will always act to use them to improve the service we deliver, every pound spent on vexatious complaints reduces the amount of time available for other matters.”\nFollowing the meeting, Coun Spencer said: “It is not fair to council tax payers that their money is spent dealing with frivolous complaints that are not upheld from one or two individuals who are on a personal crusade.”", "3. Approve Replacement of Public Works Trucks\n4. Resolution No. 2017- Approving the Final Plat for the Reserve at Elm Creek Fourth Addition: Gonyea Companies (Project 2017-02)\n5. Approve Final Payment to Rum River Contracting Company for Brittany Drive Area Mill and Overlay (Improvement Project No. 21508)\n6. Appoint Representatives to Coordinate Fundraising and Planning for a River Gauge\n7. Approve Resolution for the Hennepin County Community Development Block Grant for Consolidated Pool Funding Cities", "Work to revitalize Tyler Heights, Edgewater and Richard Henry Lee elementary schools could start this summer under a supplemental budget plan released Wednesday by County Executive Steve Schuh.\nThe budget, to be submitted to the County Council June 8, would complete work on the schools by the end of 2020 and represents a reversal for the administration. In the budget released earlier this month, the county executive rejected a request for funding from the county Board of Education.\nAmalie Brandenburg, Schuh’s education officer, said the money is being moved from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2019 to accelerated construction.\n“We didn’t have to cut projects to make this happen,” she said.\nBrandenburg said the administration heard calls from the school communities for faster action “loud and clear.”\nA 2015 facilities utilization study by MGT listed the schools among the worst in the county for building condition, and at public hearings this month parents testified about the urgent need for improvements. Revitalizations have been proposed for all three.\nThe six-year capital plan for schools approved in 2017 included $10.5 million in fiscal 2019 for the projects. In February, the school board asked for $55 million in the budget year starting July 1 to allow the projects to break ground this summer.\nSchuh rejected that request, providing $11.7 million in his proposed capital budget. He accused the board of approving an inflated budget for political reasons.\nThe supplemental budget he will submit to the council next month more than doubles that initial proposal, providing an additional $36 million for the three schools. The council must approve the final county budget, an can add education spending if it cuts equivalent funding elsewhere in the budget.\nThe extra money is enough to start building in late summer, schools Chief Operating Officer Alex Szachnowicz said. A revitalized Richard Henry Lee in Glen Burnie would be complete by August or September 2020. Tyler Heights in Annapolis and Edgewater elementary would be complete by December 2020.\nBrandenburg said the money won’t be divided exactly evenly, as each project has a different price tag. But each school will be able to get construction off the ground, she said.\nThe money will be added while preserving $28 million proposed for advance land acquisition for schools, the county said in a prepared statement.\nCouncilman Chris Traumbauer, whose district includes Tyler Heights, said is considering a proposal to cut money from the land acquisition item to pay for the schools’ repairs.\nHe said the council needs to make sure it is fiscally responsible to pull the money from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2019. Traumbauer, D-Annapolis, said he is almost certain the elementary school funding will be in there — the question remains how it should to pay for it.\nThe community has waited a long time for an improved Tyler Heights, Traumbauer said, and the other schools are in the same boat.\n“It is drastically overcrowded and the conditions, they’re not acceptable for an Anne Arundel County public school in 2018,” he said.\nCouncilman John Grasso’s district includes Richard Henry Lee Elementary School. Keeping the money to purchase land — including land in his district — ensures space to build future schools before developers can buy big parcels, he said.\n“He’s listening to what the people have to say,” Grasso said. “That’s how these schools got taken care of.”\nSzachnowicz said — if all is approved by the council — staff would move out of Richard Henry Lee this summer and move into Corkran Middle School, where the elementary school will be housed for two years until renovations is complete.\nIn addition to the extra $36 million for the elementary projects, the supplemental budget includes $1.3 million to upgrade the Dragun Science Building at Anne Arundel Community College, provide $150,000 for upgrades to Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and provide $2.8 million in funding for air conditioning improvements at Annapolis Middle. The county requested — but doesn’t expect to receive — state money for the Annapolis Middle School HVAC project in fiscal 2019, Szachnowicz said. Schuh’s proposal forward-funds the repairs.\n“It takes that project out of a holding pattern and reactivates it so we can begin in earnest in late summer,” Szachnowicz said.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nA project aimed at improving transport in Dorking town centre has fallen woefully short of what it promised, a report by a community group claims.\nDorking Town Forum claims the scheme, delivered by Coast To Capital in partnership with Surrey County Council, failed to deliver a number of key promises and the group has queried why some costs appeared to rise dramatically in a short space of time.\nIn a letter to Coast to Capital, Margaret Cooksey, chair of Dorking Town Forum and district councillor for Dorking South, outlined what the group claims were the major shortfalls in the £832,000 project, which was funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government.\nIt stated: \"Research by our members has identified a number of issues relating to non-delivery of facilities, along with significant discrepancies in expenditure.\n\"These include: Failure to widen the footpaths in London Road and Station Approach; failure to provide bus shelter improvements and real-time information for bus passengers at the bus stops on the A24; poor and inconsistent signage; numerous safety and quality issues.\"\nThe project was intended to improve the movement of passengers between Dorking Deepdene station, Dorking Main station and the town centre as well as other parts of Mole Valley.\nSpeaking to GetSurrey, Cllr Cooksey said: \"We [Dorking Town Forum] are very, very disappointed with what has happened with the project.\n(Image: Grant Melton)\n\"We had hoped it would help get some action towards the vitality and character of Dorking to help people travel safely and comfortably around the town. It really is shambolic.\"\nThe DTF compiled its report based on Freedom of Information requests regarding team meetings and filed paperwork from both Coast To Capital and Surrey County Council.\nIn the original documents outlining the proposed improvements it was stated that they aimed to \"improve facilities\" for onward travel from the train stations. It stated that this \"could\" include better shelters, then goes on to say the intention is to \"improve the existing facilities at Bus Stop A, opposite Station Approach, and at Bus Stop E, opposite the Esso service station\".\nThe DTF says it expected those bus stops without shelters to get them, and those which do have them to get replacements. Bus Stop E still does not have a shelter which the group says was promised.\nCoast to Capital says it has delivered the expected quality of work, and that an independent review backs this up.\n(Image: Grant Melton)\nA spokesman said: \"We are aware that Dorking Town Forum have raised a number of issues and concerns in relation to the delivery of the Dorking Sustainable Transport Package Phase 1 project which was part-funded by the Local Growth Fund.\n\"An independent review of this project found that the quality of works delivered were as expected and the project was delivered appropriately by the delivery partner and in line with expectations.\"\n(Image: Grant Melton)\nWhere the widening of the footpaths is concerned, DTF has argued that both London Road and Station Approach have not been adequately extended to accommodate their mixed-use as cycle paths.\nThe claim of \"poor and inconsistent\" signage relates to the sign outside Dorking Deepdene station which, the DTF claims, includes several waypoints that are either wrong, inconsistent or don't point out the best route.\nThe Coast to Capital spokesman did not respond in his statement to specific points raised by the DTF.\nFinancial questions\nThe DTF's report also queried why certain costs appeared to have sky-rocketed, however a Surrey County Council spokesman said the project was managed effectively.\nHe said: \"An independent investigation has found that our financial management into the project is sound and the finished work is to a good standard, however there is still more to do and a list of recommendations put forward are due to be discussed by the Mole Valley Local Committee next week.\"", "WASHINGTON — The outlines of new regional taxes dedicated to funding Metro’s massive maintenance needs inched forward Wednesday afternoon.\nThe Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments approved eight principles for its Metro Strategy Group to use when creating a region-wide plan by September to provide full funding for Metro.\nThe principles support some type of dedicated Metro funding that would be stable enough to back bonds. The principles do not address how much money is needed, and they push for more Metro reforms before any final decisions are made on a total.\nOther points include a greater push for more federal funding; a suggestion that the region should try to avoid rewriting the interstate agreement that established the system, the Metro Compact; and a suggestion that annual growth in contributions from local governments should be capped at 3 percent per year.\nMetro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld proposed that cap in his own plan unveiled in April, in which he asked for $500 million in additional dedicated funding each year.\nA Council of Governments technical panel recommended $650 million per year to help offset operations and additional maintenance or expansion needs.\nFairfax County Board Chairman Sharon Bulova, who is leading the Metro Strategy Group, said the politicians’ proposals would be finalized in September.\nAlso in September, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is scheduled to release a separate report outlining what he hopes is a regional consensus on any changes needed for Metro governance, financial structures and funding.\nAt Wednesday’s Council of Governments meeting, Loudoun County Supervisor Matt LeTourneau pushed for the strategy group to be more open to revising the Metro Compact, as some Republicans in Virginia’s GOP-led General Assembly have wanted.\nAny new taxes, even if limited to local areas, would need to be approved by Annapolis or Richmond to take effect in suburban Maryland or Virginia.\nA member of both the Arlington County and Metro boards, Christian Dorsey, said the most important part of these principles is the deadline: summer 2018.\nWiedefeld has warned that if new funding is not approved in the General Assembly sessions this winter, money will not be in place in time to help with potential capital or operating budget shortfalls that are forecast to hit by January 2019.\nLike WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.\n© 2017 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.", "• Goal of the workshop\n• Review long-term financial plan\n• Update on strategic planning process\n• Review draft 2018 proposed budget recap by fund type\n• Distribute and highlight proposed 2018-2022 capital improvement plan\n• Review next steps in the budget process.\nThe meeting will be aired live on Channel 6. The regular scheduled city council meeting will follow at 7 p.m. For a full list of the budget agenda, visit red-wing.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=2123.", "NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — The executive director of the Newport News/Williamsburg Airport (PHF) told city council Tuesday that he stands by the decision to use $3.5 million in state funds to guarantee a bank loan passed to them after PeopleExpress fell apart in 2014.\nSeveral council members asked for the briefing Tuesday night after the state pulled funding from the airport in late January.\nSecretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne says the airport’s spending was an “unauthorized use of funds.”\nLayne says PHF receives about $2 million in entitlement money each year, which is to be spent for capital improvement projects. Layne used runway upgrades as an example.\nHowever, Ken Spirito, the airport’s executive director, argues the loan falls under “air service development,” which is allowed under the state manual.\n“People I’m hearing from all over the state are furious that their tax money was used for just this airport,” said Councilwoman Dr. Pat Woodbury.\nCouncilwoman Sharon Scott said the loan “has damaged the reputation of the airport” and “it’s starting to even be a negative on our city.”\nThe airport’s spending led to amending Senate Bill 1417, according to Layne. The bill, which passed the state Senate and is working its way through the House, says, “State moneys… shall not be used for purposes of supporting the operation of an airline, either directly or indirectly…”\n“The issue I think that’s being resolved now is getting rid of the ambiguity of this manual and making it more clear and more definitive,” said Spirito.\nSpirito says if the rules were spelled out clearly, the commission would not have used state funds to pay off the loan.\nLayne says the Office of the State Inspector General and the Attorney General Mark Herring have started their audit into the airport’s finances. The audit should be complete in the next 30 days, he says.\nMeanwhile, Councilwoman Scott, a member of the Peninsula Airport Commission, has asked Spirito for bank records to verify how the taxpayer money was used.", "Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The amount spent on raising attainment is determined by the number receiving free school meals\nThe Scottish government is planning the biggest shake-up to school governance for decades.\nOne aspect of the plans involves new regional boards or \"improvement collaboratives\" - across council areas.\nAs more details of the scheme emerge, the risk of a serious dispute with local authorities over a perceived power grab appears to be dissipating.\nBut before any changes take place, a bill will need to be passed by the Scottish Parliament.\nThat bill is due to be placed before MSPs this parliamentary session.\nHow are schools in Scotland governed just now?\nEducation is the biggest and, arguably, the single most important service provided by councils. They employ teachers, set education budgets and are responsible for the delivery of the education service.\nHowever, they have to work within national frameworks - for instance the Curriculum for Excellence, the exams system administered by the SQA and national agreements on terms and conditions of employment.\nImage copyright Getty Images Image caption Youngsters will continue to attend their local primary and secondary as a matter of course\nThere are no means for a school to leave local authority control. The only example of a mainstream state school that is funded directly by the government and not under council control is Jordanhill School in Glasgow - for special, historic reasons.\nThe Scottish government also has a major role to play.\nAs well as taking overall responsibility for the national areas of the service, it provides extra money to head teachers to spend on schemes to raise attainment - the amount of money each school gets depends on how many children are entitled to free meals.\nThe current funding agreement between the Scottish government and councils also means that councils cannot cut the number of teachers to save money.\nWhat extra powers will head teachers have?\nThe Scottish government argues that it wants to devolve as much power as possible to heads and individual schools - some heads, however, wonder what extra practical powers they may get because some councils devolve a lot of responsibility through their local management structures.\nThe new powers will be set out in a statutory charter for head teachers, and will include:\nresponsibility for raising attainment and closing the poverty-related gap in schools\nchoosing school staff and the school's management structure\ndeciding curriculum content, within a broad national framework\ndirect control over more school funding, with a consultation on fair funding launched\nSome in teaching fear heads will end up with extra bureaucratic or administrative responsibilities, despite government reassurances to the contrary.\nWhich powers will councils still have?\nCouncils will still legally employ teachers and head teachers and take the same responsibility for buildings. They will still be accountable to voters for the local education service and can also propose closing a school.\nThe aim is to shift the balance of power more towards head teachers. There is a keenness to avoid a \"one size fits all\" approach and make it easier for heads to do what they think is right for their school.\nFor instance, heads may have views on the best things to spend money on or whether there should be \"faculties\" where related subject teachers are grouped together.\nIn some cases individual head teachers may already be able to make these decisions but in others, councils may decide centrally.\nSo what will the new \"improvement collaboratives\" do?\nThey will be designed to make it easier to share good practice across Scotland's 32 councils.\nImage copyright PA Image caption John Swinney struck a deal with councils to allay fears about a loss of power\nSix of them will be set up and each council will be part of one of them. But crucially the collaboratives will be accountable to the councils and the national body Education Scotland.\nA deal between council body Cosla and Education Secretary John Swinney will ensure that fears about council powers being lost to the new collaboratives are unfounded.\nWhat difference will parents notice in practice?\nAny differences will only be immediately obvious where a head believes something actively needs to change.\nIn most schools, it's unlikely that much will change in the short term. But over time, heads will start to do their own thing where they think it is appropriate.\nNobody pretends that structural change alone will improve standards - the argument here is about whether or not changes could empower heads to make the decisions that are right for their school.\nHow radical is this?\nThe plans represent a significant and important change, but it is important to note what is not on the agenda.\nThere is no question of schools leaving local authority control or of schools selecting students according to their academic ability. There will be no grammar schools or academies.\nAs at present, children will normally go to their local primary and secondary school. Any parent who wishes to send their child to a different school will have to make a placing request, which may be unsuccessful.\nCouncils will still choose where to build new schools and, within national guidelines, have the power to close existing ones.", "Utility bills could soon be on the rise for City of Columbia customers if city council votes yes.\nCouncil gave a first reading of the 2017-2018 budget at Tuesday night’s council meeting. On June 20, a final reading and vote will take place that would set the budget and rate increases in stone to go into effect July 1.\nThose increases include a $5 stormwater fee increase along with a 4.75 percent increase to water bills. Leaders within the Department of Utilities and Engineering have said those funds would support the department’s Capital Improvement Program.\nIt’s set to fund $40 million in improvements to the water system, $93 million in improvements for the storm water system and $80 million in wastewater improvements.\nUtilities Communication Manager Victoria Kramer says projects to replace water pipes in the Booker Washington Heights and Earlwood neighborhoods are already in design.\nIf the budget’s passed, those projects would begin within the 2017-2018 fiscal year. The design would also start a similar project in the Rosewood area.\nPeople living in those neighborhoods have complained for years of discolored water. Records obtained by WIS show the city’s received more than 7,000 related grievances in the last five years.\n\"I have problems with yellow water coming out of the tap here. It also leaves my toilet bowl with a yellow ring around it,” said Miles Johnson.\nJohnson says he’s lived at his home in the Earlwood neighborhood for four years. He drives more than an hour every two weeks to fill plastic water jugs at the Blackville Healing Springs instead of using his tap water.\n\"I have seen them on numerous occasions, almost monthly, opening the fire hydrants all the way down River Drive and two blocks over to the south and tea-colored water coming out of it,\" Johnson said.\nHe’s closely followed the rate increase debate, and he’s cautiously watching to see what council does.\n\"I hope that it works out very well for them. I think we've been promised water quality increases in the past and they have not occurred. If it provides results, I'd be more than in favor of it,\" Johnson said.\nTo convince those still fighting against rising bills, the city’s holding a series of open houses for customers ahead of council’s final vote.\nMaria Smoke stopped by the first event Tuesday night. She says she lives in an older neighborhood where aging pipes cause daily headaches like brown water and pressure problems.\n\"I feel a lot better. I was very concerned about how much it was going to be... How much it was going to affect my bill. I do feel a lot better now. So my only concern is that the money they're raising, the increase, will go to making these things happen rather than just mismanagement of the funds,\" customer Maria Smoke said.\nThe city plans to hold two more d rop-in events before council votes. The first will be Thursday, June 15 at the Eau Claire Print Building on Ensor Avenue from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The second will be Tuesday, June 20 at City Hall from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.\nA full list of projects included in the Capital Improvement Program can be found in the following links:\nProposed water and sewer projects: http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/utilities-engineering/docs/news/2017-05-31-watersewercip2017-proposed.pdf\nProposed stormwater projects: http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/utilities-engineering/docs/news/2017-05-31-stormwatercip2017-proposed.pdf\nCopyright 2017 WIS. All rights reserved.", "City council will vote Tuesday on whether to approve borrowing $1 million from the city’s water fund for paving rehabiliation.\nCity council plans to approve transferring $1 million from the water fund to go toward paving. Monica Lamb-Yorski photo\nWilliams Lake’s chief financial officer is recommending a $1 million transfer of funds from the water fund to the general fund for paving rehabilitation.\nCity council will vote on the move at its regular meeting Tuesday.\nIn a report to council, Vitali Kozubenko noted there is a $4.2 million balance in the water fund that is not required immediately.\n“The decision required to internally transfer monies between City funds depends on whether the fund is a reserve fund or not –transfers between non-reserve fund can be passed by council resolution, while transfer between reserve funds are passed by bylaw,” Kozubenko said, noting even though the waterworks service was established by bylaw, it was not established as a reserve fund.\nKozubenko, however, said if the transfer is made, then council can resolve to pay it back in $200,000-installments between 2019 and 2023.\nDuring a special committee of the whole meeting held Monday, March 14 to work on the budget and five-year financial plan council and staff discussed the transfer and recommended it be approved.\nLast week, council said it is proposing a 1. 9 per cent tax rate increase, and one of the major capital items is paving.\nCoun. Scott Nelson said the hope is to spend $2.5 million on roads and streets in 2018.\nRead More: Williams Lake proposing 1.9 per cent tax rate increase\[email protected]\nLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter", "Cash-strapped Preston Council is considering spending an extra £90k on a city park restoration project after initial estimates missed the mark.\nThe multi-million pound improvement works at Moor Park have been ongoing for several years and have contributed to a boost in visitors, the town hall said.\nHowever, increased costs and failures to secure predicted levels of “external financing” have prompted a re-think.\nCouncillors will this week be asked to approve proposals for an extra £63,000 from the council’s Capital Programme plus £30,000 to cover the external funds shortfall.\nIn 2014 the council received £1.725m from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the project with another £625,000 expected from external partners along with the council’s own contributions.\nThe first phase of the scheme included refurbishment of the Grotto, the Observatory, the bowls pavilion and installation of a skate park.\nRequirements attached to receiving the HLF funding means the council must submit an activity plan including guided tours and heritage trails.\nHowever, “unforeseen costs of re-design, specification changes and site management to meet the HLF’s requirements” have created a shortfall.\nA report reads: “Unfortunately when undertaking schemes of this scale there are risks that the projects may not be able to deliver their outcomes within the original financial projections.”\nDirector of Environment at Preston Council, Adrian Phillips, said: “Funding bids are developed and submitted several years before project delivery, and the shortfall represents just four per cent of the total cost.\nSome of the shortfall is due to added beneficial extras – for example CCTV – and the rest is a lack of available match funding from external sources, which is a risk for any large project.\n“The report to Council is part of the process to request the extra resource from council funds in order to complete the restoration to the highest possible standard.”", "On May 29, Aiken city leaders met to discuss the 1% sales tax for city improvements. Back in March, the city council approved a \"wish-list\" of capital projects they hope to fund with that revenue.\nIf voters say yes to the sales tax in November then this would be the fourth time a 1% sales tax has been passed for the county. City officials are hoping to use the tax for infrastructure improvements, public safety investments, along with park and recreation upgrades. With the previous three approved sales tax initiatives, Mayor Rick Osbon says the county has been able to accomplish a lot from roadways to infrastructure.\nThe Department of Commerce determines how much is allocated to each project. They have a formula where they are able to estimate costs based on past models and data collected.\n\"Every item that the money will be spent on is put on a ballot the voters are given ahead of time and given an opportunity to review it. And the money cannot be varied from those projects. So it really is a commitment from the elected officials and the municipalities in the county to the citizens in our county.\", says Mayor Osbon.\nThe mayor is positive citizens will support the tax. He says county leaders do their best to educate residents on why the 1% is needed. First with the county conducting their study of all of the pipes and lines to know the condition of all the infrastructure and then providing it to the public; that is why city leaders are confident that 1% is enough.\nFOX 54 asked Mayor Osbon if there was another way to get the money instead of the sales tax. \"No there isn't. There really isn't. The only thing you can do is raise property taxes but even that is capped at a certain 3% to 4% percent which will never meet the needs of what we have so this is important for the county and the small towns also that is what is really special about this particular formula; small towns also get a percentage of it so it is a very significant portion of their budget.\"\nThe mayor also says that if voters say no then the county will move forward and make best with what they have.\nCopyright 2018 WFXG. All rights reserved.", "As campaigners call for Ripon's new swimming pool plans to include a six-lane facility with a secondary learner pool, city Coun Andrew Williams has suggested that residents could make a financial contribution towards the project.\nAt a full council meeting last week, Coun Williams stressed the importance of getting the plans right for generations to come, and said residents could make a contribution through their parish precept to ensure that the city gets all the facilities it wants.\nHe said if Harrogate Borough Council is serious about amending the plans to make the pool a six-lane with a separate learner pool , the city council could work with them to help if funding is an issue.\nCoun Williams said: \"It's one of the most important capital projects that the city will have for generations to come, and I believe it's important that we get it right, because there isn't an opportunity to go back and get it right a second time.\n\"It's possible that this city council could help to bridge the gap, because I don't believe that there would be an outcry in the city if we were to increase the parish precepts to make an annual contribution towards providing a better swimming pool in the city.\n\"I believe that at least Ripon residents would feel that their money was being put to good use by providing a facility that could be used by young and old. I believe that if this council were being asked to make a financial contribution on a yearly basis towards the running costs or the capital costs of a swimming pool, it is something that I think local residents would not necessarily object to, providing that it is set at a fair and reasonable sum.\n\"I believe that residents should have the final say on whether they wanted to pay an extra supplement onto the precept to ensure that Ripon has the all-singing, all-dancing swimming facility that local children should be able to enjoy, and to see how we can secure the very best facility that local residents and local parents crave.\n\"Let's make sure that Ripon has the best that money can buy rather than simply a make-do facility because the Spa Baths are past their best.\"\nCoun Pauline McHardy said the plans should be amended to reflect an increasing population in the city.\nShe added: \"And of course if we're going to have an increase in homes in the city, there'll be an increase in people using it.\"\nMembers of the Ripon Pool Action Group (RPAG) have been campaigning for the existing plans to be amended, which include a 25-metre swimming pool and a five-lane facility.\nSpeaking on behalf of the group at the city council meeting, Pamela Simpson Phillips, who is a regular swimmer at the Spa Baths, said: \"Ripon's expanding at the moment, there are far too many people for that pool, there are some days it is just crammed and nobody can swim.\n\"We do need a separate pool, and that's what we're asking for really.\"\nResponding to Coun Williams, Coun Mike Chambers said: \"I think you'll find that it's rather more than a make-do facility, however I do accept that it is perhaps not in accord with what the residents of Ripon would like to see.\n\"There are clearly some issues with funding, however, I know that Coun Lumley is taking on board what the RPAG have had to say. I know that there is still some way to go on the decisions to be made as to what the pool will look like.\"\nIn a recent statement, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, Stanley Lumley, said: “Naturally, reversing the work we have already done costs money and takes time. I will have to decide whether that is justified when one considers the fact that Ripon Spa Baths could fail at any time and that the new facility is, as the group acknowledge, a substantial improvement on what is currently available.”", "Youngstown City Council is in the midst of a series of meetings where they will take a fine look at the proposed 2018 budget before it's put into place.\nRELATED COVERAGE: Layoffs avoided as part of Youngstown's proposed budget\nDuring the meetings council members are reviewing each department's budget line-by-line.\nMonday night, council met with the director of public works, as well as the Chief of Police and Fire.\nThe Police Chief has already agreed to relieve pressure on the general fund by using speed camera dollars to fund the CIRV program and police vehicles.\nBut as Councilman Nathaniel PInkard pointed out, he had hoped ticket revenue would be on the decline as driving patterns change.\n\"I don't think it was quite meant for us to be trying to subsidize our general fund on the backs of the citizens,\" said Pinkard.\nPolice Chief Robin Lees said safety has improved and noted a 30% drop in accidents on Interstate 680.\n\"I am a little perplexed that we haven't slowed down with the number of tickets we are issuing with revenue, but it is clear we are going to have to maintain it in order to keep that in check,\" said Lees in regards to safety.\nFor the Fire Department, Chief Barry Finley said that as a department they are able to help bring revenue to the general fund, but warned it could come with it's share of complaints.\n\"The big things, that I would say that the mayor will probably be getting a phone call from is probably Jim Tressel (President of Youngstown State University) and probably the President/CEO of St. E's (St. Elizabeth's Hospital) because we go to these places over and over and over and over and we don't charge for that,\" said Finley.\nThe Fire chief saod there are a total of 60 items, like nuisance alarms and inspections, the city could begin charging for and he said many municipalities already do charge for the items that require manpower and can cause a strain on resources.", "PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia City Council will meet before its regular session on Thursday to take action on bills that would clear the way for a massive facility renovation project known as “Rebuild.” Council has demanded several changes to the bills.\nIn order to spend half-a-billion dollars in seven years, rehabbing up to 200 parks, rec centers and libraries, the Kenney Administration took the project out of the normal, slow-moving capital program and devised a process for non-profits to oversee renovations, requiring them to meet goals for local, women and minority hiring. Council bristled at the plan and twice has declined to approve it, but Council President Darrell Clarke says they’ve added amendments that bring it in line with council’s goals.\nREAD: Appeals Court Upholds Philadelphia’s Tax On Sweetened Drinks\n“We promoted this program to clearly establish opportunities for all Philadelphians,” Clarke said. “We hope that this will move us towards a path of correcting some of the challenges that have existed in this city.”\nThe Kenney administration sees it that way too. Spokesperson Lauren Hitt says the mayor welcomes the input.\n“We now have one of the most robust workforce diversity models the city’s ever really seen,” Hitt said.\nHitt says the mayor hopes the bills will pass so work can get started as soon as legal challenges to the beverage tax, which will finance the work, are settled.\n“These facilities are in really bad shape,” she said. “People really need these jobs. We don’t think we can ask them to wait another four months.”", "How to pay for the Kish Street revitalization project in Lewistown was a topic of discussion Monday at the Lewistown Borough Council meeting. Russ Rager, finance committee chairman, said the original plan for the project was to use Community Development Block Grant funding to pay for the project.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Lewistown Sentinel.", "“Severe harm” could be caused if changes to multi-million road improvements around the approved new 1,800-house village in Clowne are not made, says the county council.\nGround-breaking plans to build an entire new village north of Clowne were approved by Bolsover District Council on Tuesday, June 26 but may now be called-in for further scrutiny by the Secretary of State – which could lead to a public inquiry.\nThis is due to the project being built on green belt land and not being included in the current Local Plan – a blueprint for future development.\nThe landmark scheme from Swanwick firm Waystone Ltd would also include a new 360-space primary school; retirement village; hotel; restaurant; health and care centre and around 60 acres of employment space – creating 1,737 jobs.\nAround 1,000 objections were lodged against the application by residents.\nHowever, approval for the 346-acre project was granted pending the signing off of improvements to the area’s highways and infrastructure.\nThis would include £3.4 million to be spent on changes to the notorious and over-capacity Treble Bob roundabout on the A616/Chesterfield Road, and Junction 30 of the M1.\nHowever, Derbyshire County Council’s highways chief Mike Ashworth wrote to the district council to say that these schemes must be finalised before planning permission is approved, fearing for the impact on the area’s roads.\nHe said: “Further submissions need to be made by the applicant’s consultants to illustrate how the proposed junction improvement solution at Treble Bob can be designed, installed and operated without causing severe harm to the local highway network – and similarly, working with Highways England in respect of Junction 30 of the M1.\n“The timescales over which the financial contributions are proposed to come forward will result in the immediate highway network having to cope with the increased traffic volumes from the development with little or no interim mitigation confirmed.\n“The proposed works to Treble Bob and Junction 30 will not solve the long term highways issues for Clowne, nor will the proposed contribution of £3.4 million cover the costs of mitigating the impacts of development on the wider highway network.\n“In the interests of the safe and sustainable development of the site, it is strongly recommended the above issues form part of ongoing work carried out by the local planning authority and it is extremely important they are addressed before planning permission is granted.”\nIn convincing developers to cough up the money for road improvements and the £5.8 million for a new primary school, district council officers allowed plans to build 10 per cent affordable housing to be reduced.\nTypically, housing developments of 10-15 houses and above are expected to have 30 per cent affordable housing – houses offered lower than the market value.\nThis had already been lowered to 10 per cent and has now been dropped to an overall five per cent – 90 out of the 1,800 houses.\nCounty councillor for Clowne, Cllr Anne Western, said that the application should be called back for scrutiny by the Secretary of State.\nShe said: “I am highly concerned that the highways concerns of the county council have not been properly represented.\n“The impact of traffic created by the scheme has not been addressed.\n“I think it needs to be called in and go to public inquiry – there is a lot of local concern about the process and I think that that would help restore public confidence.\n“There has been a lot of promise about this, that, and the other, but if the scheme is not viable if more is spent on highways infrastructure improvements then the scheme itself cannot possibly be called sustainable – if it is viable then the developer would be able to fulfil its infrastructure improvement commitments.”\nBolsover District Council was named and shamed earlier this year for not having an up-to-date Local Plan, with its last being signed off in 2000 – its fresh revision is currently going through the process of being approved.\nThe Clowne Garden Village project does not slot into the 2000 Local Plan, because it falls outside the settlement boundary of Clowne and some 50 acres of the scheme would be in protected green belt land.\nIt is these two transgressions which could see the scheme called-in by government inspectors and further critiqued at public inquiry.\nDistrict council officers say that the project caters for much of the housing need for the next 15 years.\nThe project would seek to build 1,000 of the houses by 2033, with the remaining 800 after 2033.\nDistrict council officers felt that the scheme’s positives outweighed its negatives.\nIn a report, they stated: “It is considered that the proposed development will have an impact on the local area but the most significant of these potentially adverse impacts could be mitigated for by appropriate planning conditions and contributions to local infrastructure.\n“However, even with appropriate mitigation, it is acknowledged that over the next fifteen years, these proposals will change the character and appearance of the town and there are potential impacts on the road network within the town centre and beyond that which will not be resolved by granting planning permission for the current application.\n“In these respects, the negative impacts of the proposed development are considered to be capable of being offset and outweighed by the wider public benefits of the delivery of a once and for all solution for the Treble Bob roundabout and a new primary school that cannot be achieved by any other alternative development proposal alongside the other public benefits that would be achieved by granting permission for the current application.\n“These conclusions also underpin the reason why it is considered there are very special circumstances that justify granting planning permission for inappropriate development in the Green Belt in this case.”\nEddie Bisknell , Local Democracy Reporting Service" ]

[ "the Taurisci" ]

[ "one who lives by a pond", "the Who", "Who?", "The Cook Who Came To Live With Us", "those who lost their lives in conflict", "It's a Living", "Live", "before a funeral", "a person who lives in seclusion from society", "Live Life Living", "The Lives", "Live Baby Live", "before bedtime", "to remember those who lost their lives in conflict", "living will", "Before Midnight", "Live and let live", "Never Before", "before typesetting", "The Who by Numbers", "Calm Before", "Betty Who", "before Christmas", "The Who's Tommy", "who is singing", "before meals", "Who Dat", "before sunset", "Ben Romans", "before morning", "Dr. Who", "before sunrise" ]

[ "Harry Deckett" ]

[ "Who the Hell Are You", "The Who by Numbers", "Betty Who", "Who You Are", "Who's That Girl", "Doctor Who", "Who We Are", "Who's on First?", "Marshall University", "The Marshall Project" ]

[ "On Friday (Dec. 8), Grammy-nominated producer, singer, and songwriter Maejor (former known as Maejor Ali) released his latest EP, Vibrations. Accompanying the release is the single and music video for the title track.\nAccording to a press release, “The song and EP are called Vibrations because everything that exists in this universe is a product of vibration.”\nIn the clip, the R&B talent spreads good vibrations through various self-expressive gatherings while the song showcases his skill as a prolific songwriter, producer, and performer.\n“Lately you’ve been making changes I see you / Maybe you misplacing anger,” he sings. “I need to be committed when I listen / Your heartbeat is the rhythm of religion to me.”\nMaejor has been credited on hits for artists like Justin Bieber, Ciara, Iggy Azalea, Wiz Khalifa and more. He is prepping a full-length album for 2018.\n\nLISTEN TO VIBRATIONS HERE: http://smarturl.it/MaejorVibrations" ]

[ "The latest studio album from Nickelback is due out this week entitled 'Feed The Machine', with a new video for their single 'Song On Fire' also released ahead of a series of North American summer tour dates. The album comes three years after their previous record.\nNickelback performs live\n'Feed The Machine' is Nickelback's ninth studio album. Co-produced by Chris Baseford, it follows 2014's 'No Fixed Address' which became their first album in sixteen years not to top the Canadian charts, but instead peaked at number two. The band have also just dropped a new video for their song 'Song On Fire' - the second single from the album.\nDirected by Nigel Dick and produced by David Angelski, the video sees a man running after a beautiful woman through a forest who, for some reason, keeps evading him. Then the woman appears to wake up in a hospital bed surrounded by relieved family members, including the man who is clearly her partner. The clip starred small-time actors Kathryn Masters, Ben Dextraze, Bentley Hixon, Raven Sto, Monica Bowman, Len Harvey and Paul Kular.\nThe first single from the album was the title track, which they released on February 1st with a post-apocalyptic robot video coming the following April. The latest single from the album is track four 'Must Be Nice', which dropped on June 1st.\nNickelback will be on tour from June 23rd 2017, beginning at Klipsch Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. They'll also perform in Detroit, Toronto, Dallas, Cincinnati, Portland, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, wrapping up the tour dates at Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on October 1st. North Carolina band Daughtry, Missouri rockerse Shaman's Harvest and Illinois group Cheap Trick have been named as supporting acts on the tour.\nMore: Nickelback forced to cancel tour over Chad Kroeger's vocal cyst\n'Feed The Machine' will be released on June 16th 2017 through the BMG label.", "It's time for Justine Skye's takeover.\nThe R&B starlet has proved herself to be one of the most exciting rising stars with three EP releases in almost as many years and now her highly-anticipated debut is finally coming.\nJustine made the big announcement over the weekend, celebrating with a brand new music video and a new song written by PartyNextDoor. Not bad for one weekend, huh?\nUltraviolet is the title of the purple princess' debut album, a 10-track set that features previous singles 'U Don't Know' and 'Back For More', which drops on January 19th.\nThe brilliant new single 'Don't Think About It' is leading the campaign with a glossy new visual that shows Skye can dance just as amazingly as she can sing.\nCo-directed by the legendary Laurieann Gibson - Lady Gaga's former creative director - it's Justine's first dance video and we are shook by how effortlessly she kills it.\nGetty Images\nThe new video isn't all that she has blessed us with as she also dropped a brand new song, the addictive 'Goodlove' that was written by PartyNextDoor, the man behind Rihanna's 'Work'.\nUltraviolet boasts collaborations with Wizkid and Jeremih just to name a few of the stars that Justine has worked with on the new material, so we know this is going to be huge.\nIt might be too late for her album but after seeing Zara Larsson praise Skye on Twitter yesterday, we hope the two powerhouses can collaborate in the future!\nWords: Ross McNeilage\nListen to your favourite tracks no matter where you are with the MTV TRAX music app. No ads, no limits, no monkey business. Download it now for FREE at mtvtrax.com.\nFIND OUT THE LATEST MTV NEWS BELOW", "The video centres around women's liberation\nGrizzly Bear have shared a new video for their latest single ‘Mourning Sound’.\n– Exclusive NME offer: Save £10 on Amazon Music Unlimited plans with code NME10\nDirected by Beatrice Pegard and filmed in Paris, the video stars Harry Potter and In Bruges actor Clémence Poésy.\nThe video is an avant-garde look at women’s liberation, which features Poésy dressed in a veil and miming along to the words. See the new visual below.\n‘Mourning Sound’ is the lead single from the band’s long-awaited fifth album, ‘Painted Ruins’.\nThe Brooklyn four-piece have returned after a five-year absence with the new record, which follows 2012’s ‘Shields’. That album followed their break-out third LP ‘Vecktamist’, which was released in 2009 and contained the popular single ‘Two Weeks’.\nSet to arrive on August 18 via RCA, Grizzly Bear’s ‘Painted Ruins’ was produced by the band’s bassist Chris Taylor. See the full tracklisting below.\nMPU 1 (Desktop / Tablet)\n‘Painted Ruins’:\n01 Wasted Acres\n02 Mourning Sound\n03 Four Cypresses\n04 Three Rings\n05 Losing All Sense\n06 Aquarian\n07 Cut-Out\n08 Glass Hillside\n09 Neighbors\n10 Systole\n11 Sky Took Hold\nGrizzly Bear have also announced a string of UK and Ireland tour dates to accompany the arrival of ‘Painted Ruins’, kicking off in Dublin on October 5.\nOctober\n5 – Vicar Street, Dublin\n6 – Albert Hall, Manchester\n8 – O2 ABC, Glasgow\n9 – O2 Academy Brixton, London\nFollowing Donald Trump‘s victory in the US Presidential Election last November, Grizzly Bear frontman Ed Droste launched a fierce tirade against the now-President.\n“‘Trump’s America’ is a continuation of white supremacy,” Droste wrote on Instagram. “I CANNOT deal with whites that feel ‘marginalized’. This country is built on blood, and all y’all ‘make America great again’ idiots are literally harkening back to a fictional idea of the past.”", "Miranda Lambert has released the music video for her latest track, \"Keeper of the Flame.\" The country superstar's new radio single is featured on her double album, The Weight Of These Wings.\nLambert performed \"Keeper of the Flame\" live just last month during the 2018 ACM Awards. She also became the most awarded artist in the history of the show with a collective 32 career wins.\n\"Our obligation is to make sure that we inspire others, so… I hope the message of this song comes across and I hope that it encourages everybody, people of all ages and all walks of life to believe in themselves and to know that it really matters,” Lambert shared in a press statement.\n\"Keeper of the Flame\" is the fourth single to come from her 2017 record which was co-written by Lambert alongside Natalie Hemby and Liz Rose. It follows the release of the lead single \"Vice,\" as well as \"We Should Be Friends\" and \"Tin Man.\"\nMiranda Lambert's \"Tin Man\" is nominated for Female Video of the Year at the CMT Awards airing live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena June 6.", "Zendaya is amazing in the new Bruno Mars video. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Chrysalis Butterfly Ball\nThe INSIDER Summary:\nZendaya is the star of Bruno Mars' new \"Versace on the Floor\" video.\nThis is the third single from his album \"24K Magic.\"\nMars is currently on tour in North America.\ndropped a new video tonight (Aug. 11) just as he and the clip's star accepted Teen Choice Awards for Choice Breakout Star (Zendaya) and 2017 Visionary (Mars).\nThe video for \"Versace on the Floor,\" directed by Mars and Cameron Duddy, is the latest fashion-conscious visual from the album \"24K Magic.\" It follows the title track and \"That's What I Like,\" released earlier this year.\nMars is currently touring North America on a second leg of a worldwide trek. At a show in Michigan on Saturday night, he announced a $1 million donation to aid victims of the Flint water crisis.\nWatch \"Versace on the Floor\" above.", "DONEGAL singer Mickey Joe Harte has put out a call for volunteers to help him with his latest music video.\nMickey Joe, who represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, is looking for extras to appear in the shoot which will take place in Carrigart this evening (Monday).\nAdvertisement\nThe video will be used as the backdrop to his latest single, ‘For the Broken Hearted’. The vocals for the song were recorded in Germany earlier this year but the video will be made up of scenes filmed around the wider Mevagh area of Downings and Carrigart.\nFor the Broken Hearted will be released as a single in September and will form part of Mickey Joe’s new album which is due for release next year.\nCalling on people to help him out, the We’ve Got the World Tonight singer said, “The crowd shots we are looking for will be filmed in Logues Bar, Carrigart, from 9pm and the whole process should take no more than an hour or an hour and a half.\n“All we are asking for is people to come along, get into the scene and help us create the vibe we are looking for.”\nWith the song already recorded, participants will not have to sing. They can however expect to see themselves on film as part of the official For the Broken Hearted video.\nMickey Joe added, “It will be a bit of fun and a good night for anyone who wants to get involved. There is a good chance anyone who does turn up will be seen in the video so we will need people to sign a waiver saying we can use their image.\n“It should be a good night’s craic.”\nAdvertisement\nThe video is being shot in conjunction with the regular ‘Songs and Stories’ evening which is hosted by Ruairi Friel of In Their Thousands fame. Songs and Stories will continue as usual from 10.30pm onwards.\nTo give an idea of numbers, anyone willing to get involved should email Mickey Joe Harte at [email protected].", "On Friday, May 26th, the rising independent solo artist Christian Heath released his latest studio session. The dynamic, new pop single entitled 'MAGIC' is now available on iTunes, Amazon and all digital platforms.\nArtist, Christian Heath\nMedia Contact\nPR Manager, Genevieve Vieira\n+27 10 590 6211\[email protected] PR Manager, Genevieve Vieira+27 10 590 6211\nEnd\n-- The release of 'MAGIC' continues Heath's longstanding reputation for crafting some of the indie community's most beloved singles in recent years. Since his career ignited in 2009 with his critically lauded debut 'Breaking Ground,' Heath has charted on various radio stations internationally and has enjoyed significant airplay in South Africa, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.\"I am very happy with the body of work,\" Heath says of 'MAGIC' and the new album due for release in July. \"Some of the tracks were done in 2014, so I have a lot of years in them. However, they are finally ready to be released to the world.\"In recent years, the artist has made inroads in Hollywood with some of the most respected producers and executives in the music industry, and thus, Heath's singles are recorded in California.On top of charting several times since his debut in both Top 40 and Top 20 lists, Heath has made a name for himself on the stage as well. From the South African art festival Aardklop to California's Emerald Cup Festival, Heath and his band have exhibited their prowess as a versatile live act on countless occasions. They've also performed alongside some of the most notable names in the indie music scene today.Official lyric video: https://youtu.be/qkCIXKJ0cgUFans can connect withon his official website and social networis to stay updated on new releases and events. Heath's new album is set for release in July. To purchase Heath's latest single on iTunes, please visit: https://itunes.apple.com/ us/album/magic- single/id1236432012 For media inquiries regarding Christian Heath, individuals are encouraged to contact PR Manager, Genevieve Vieira directly at +27 10 590 6211 or via email at [email protected]. To learn more about the artist or to stay up to date on news of his upcoming albums, please visit: www.christianheath.co.za", "Please enable Javascript to watch this video\nGRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Over 1,400 Noise, vibration and harshness professionals will gather at DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, June 12-15, 2017 to share the latest technologies surrounding noise vibrations and sound quality.\n“We’re excited to expand upon our traditional conference and share a show floor together this year. This brings a new opportunity to our attendees to meet professionals outside of the automotive industry and discuss out-of-the-box ways to overcome similar challenges,” said Chad Musser, director of Vibro-Acoustics Solution at ESI Group and Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition General Chair.", "Once the darkest and dullest month on the Icelandic calendar for music and culture, February was forever transformed in 2013 with the arrival of Sónar Reykjavík, that annual shining beacon of modern sonic delight. The festival will take place in Harpa for the fifth time February 16-18, and the final acts have just been announced.\nBEA1991 is the new stage name of the Dutch musician formerly known as BEA, who is playing SónarComplex. She makes groovy, hazy electronica that’s smooth as silk. Also playing that stage is her countryman Kai Hugo, aka Palmbomen. He’s a producer who makes dreamy electro with Italo disco basslines. We highly recommend both those artists. In other Sónar news, the members of Moderat will take part in an exclusive Q&A session ahead of Friday’s live performances and their own show at SónarClub.\nTwo of the artist performing at Sónar, Sindri Már Sigfússon of Sin Fang and Seabear fame and the múm member Örvar Smárason, have teamed up with Morr Music labelmate Sóley for a new electro-indie super project. Though not an official “band,” and currently without a name, the group have committed themselves to releasing one song together every month over the next year. All the songs will then be compiled and released as an album after twelve months. The first song dropped last week, and it bears the impenetrable title “TODAY: Random Haiku Generator.” But don’t let the artsy title scare you, because the song is at its core a bittersweet and beautiful power ballad, though with the experimental electronic edge the people behind it are known for. Each of the three singular voices manages to shine through, and the song is like an artfully woven sonic carpet.\nWith the whole record business in disarray and everything up in the air when it comes to releasing and distributing music, it’s nice to see Icelandic artists experimenting with the form in such a playful way. We now have at least one thing to look forward every month, and for that we are thankful to Sindri Már, Örvar and Sóley.", "Felix Jaehn, the German DJ/wunderkind behind Omi's \"Cheerleader\" remix (or the song that's been in your head since summer '16'), has always inspired listeners to release their inhibitions and fully embrace the music — something he obviously sought to capture in his latest video for \"Like A Riddle.\"\nThe upbeat track, which is assisted by Swedish duo Hearts & Colors and Adam Trigger, is perfectly represented in its visual counterpart. Featuring a couple on a decidedly awkward dinner date, the reconnect over Jaehn's \"Like a Riddle\" when they see it on the diner's television. Naturally, the whole story is told through dance, and if you watch closely you can catch Felix Jaehn's cameo.\n\"I really wanted to tell a story in the video that mirrors the ups and downs that we all go through during our relationships, and pair it with a piece of music that evokes a really positive feeling throughout, and hopefully makes everyone watching want to get up, dance and just let go of all their problems in that moment. Fun fact: It's actually the first time I'm releasing a video on the same date as the single!\" Felix says of \"Like a Riddle.\"\nWatch and let it all go below.\nImage supplied.", "Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL\nElectro-pop musician and singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers premiered the video for her track “Fallingwater,” today, following up the release of the track as a single last week. The song, co-produced with ex-Vampire Weekend producer Rostam Batmanglij, is Rogers’ first new music of 2018 so far. “Fallingwater” follows the release of her EP, a href=”https://uproxx.com/music/maggie-rogers-now-that-the-light-is-fading/” target=”_blank” title=””>Now That The Light Is Fading, and a headlining tour last year.\nThe video for “Fallingwater” was filmed in California’s Imperial Sand Dunes, and shows Rogers dancing in the desert — loose and free in the sun, then powerful and defiant in the rain, illuminated by lightning strikes. The video is shot beautifully by Rogers’ frequent collaborator, director Zia Anger.\nAccording to Rogers, “Fallingwater” is inspired by her whirlwind success over the last two years. Rogers began work on the song in 2016, and over the last two years, “Fallingwater” has been shaped by her tremendous growth as an artist.\nFollowing a performance at Boston Calling last weekend, Rogers is set to play festivals across the world this summer, including Governor’s Ball in New York City, the UK’s Reading and Leeds festival, the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival, and All Things Go Fall Classic in Washington, D.C. Rogers is also supporting Haim on the European leg of their Sister Sister Sister tour this summer.\nYou can watch the video for “Fallingwater” above.", "It's taken from Björk's new studio album\nBjörk has released a video for the title track of her recently released album, Utopia.\nIt is the third promo film to come from the album, which is the singer’s ninth. The video is directed by Nick Thornton Jones and Wareen Du Preez.\nYou can watch the video below.\nThe January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.\nUncut: the past, present and future of great music.", "Over 12,000 creepy-crawlies do their creepy-crawliest all over Hundred Waters' Nicole Miglis in this video for \"Fingers,\" so consider this your warning... or invitation. We don't judge.\nLike the insects in the Allie Avital-directed video, \"Fingers\" is built on hesitation and tension, as producer Trayer Tryon's low-end piano keys and muddled synths glide over Zach Tetreault's crisp drumming. \"Some days I feel like I see you a little too much / But on the days I don't see you / Are the days don't see anything at all,\" sings Miglis with yearning, but somehow not screaming as 12,000 insects scuttle across her body.\nThe trio's new album, which now bears the name Communicating, is slowly turning out to be one that blurs the edges of smart electronic production and live instrumentation.\nCommunicating comes out Sept. 14 via OWLSA. Hundred Waters goes on tour starting Aug. 25.", "Back in 2015, Sic Alps leader Mike Donovan told us about Peacers, his new band, which also features people who have played in fellow Bay Area psych-rock bands like Thee Oh Sees and the Fresh And Onlys. Later this week, the Peacers will release Introducing The Crimsmen, their second album, and we’ve already posted the song “Jurgen’s Layout.” Today, they’ve shared a video for the sighing, shambolic new song “Staying Home,” which was directed by William Keihn and which tells the story of a disturbed-looking man who burns and buries a stuffed animal. Check it out below, via NPR.\nIntroducing The Crimsmen is out 6/16 on Drag City.", "× Expand Katy Perry\nOne of the great monoliths of 2010s pop radio, Katy Perry will release her latest album Witness on June 9, then launch a major tour, which will include a stop of Milwaukee's BMO Harris Bradley Center on Monday, Dec. 4. Tickets for the concert go on sale to general public on Monday, May 22 at 10 a.m., following a presale through Ticketmaster running Thursday, May 18 from 9 a.m. through 12 p.m.\nSo far we've heard two tracks from the new album, the dance single \"Chained To The Rhythm\" and the Migos-assisted follow-up single \"Bon Appétit\" which is, to borrow the words of the judges from \"The Great British Baking Show,\" a bit of a mess. The track debuted at an unimpressive 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and has since slid from there, but we'll see if the just-released video for the single helps its fortunes at all.\nYou can stream that video below and judge for yourself.", "One of the key features of the Sony Xperia XZ2, the company’s new flagship phone released this week in Canada, is a system designed to enhance the enjoyment of watching videos and playing games.\nThe 153x72x1.1 mm phone features a 5.7-inch 1,080×2,160-pixel (18:9) TRILUMINOS display and a stereo speaker with S-Force Front Surround sound videos already look and sound good but Sony has now added what it calls a dynamic vibration system to heighten the experience.\nDYNAMIC VIBRATION SYSTEM\nEssentially, what the dynamic vibration system does is it interprets the media you’re playing and provides feedback through the phone at key moments to add to the overall tension of the video, game or whatever app you happen to be using. It would be similar to how a game controller vibrates when your character is shot or falls down, or what have you. Generally, the system seems to be tied to the phone’s volume.\nIt’s not a feature that will work everywhere on the phone but you can adjust the intensity of the vibrations app-by-app, which is nice.\nIt’s certainly an interesting idea and works well for what it is but it will certainly be a matter of taste.\nAs such, I may not be the best person to review this feature, as I am not a fan of that kind of thing.\nWhile I am fine with vibrations on my PS4 controller, it’s not something I want on my phone. Along with touch sounds, haptic feedback and other such vibrations, are the things that irk me most about smartphones. They are the first things I turn off when I am sent a loaner model to review.\nSo, while I admit the dynamic vibration system is well-implemented, it’s not something I would take advantage of. Thankfully, there is the option to turn off the feature entirely.\nStill, there are other reasons to pick up the phone.\nCAMERAS\nThe XZ2 comes with a 19 MP main camera and 5 MP selfie camera. The 19 MP camera uses Sony’s motion eye technology which can shoot 4K HDR videos, including slow motion clips.\nAs for photos, the main camera does a solid job. You can shoot in an auto or manual mode, which lets you adjust a variety of features. On auto, the colour balance is good and the images are crisp. Even low-light photos look decent. Not as impressive as, say, ones taken with the Huawei P20 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, but the pictures don’t look particularly grainy. There are also a variety of other features. You can blur the background of a photo, add “creative effects” (i.e. filters), do a 3D image scan of a person or object, and even build an augmented reality environment by shooting a picture of something and then adding one of a selection of animations to it, such as a dinosaur or fairy.\nThe 5 MP camera doesn’t have as many fancy features but the image quality is decent and it shoots video in full HD.\n(Sony has announced it will also be releasing a more camera-focused XZ2 Premium this year but it is unclear if, and when, it would come to Canada. A smaller XZ2 Compact also exists but isn’t available here.)\nDESIGN\nIn design, the XZ2 is markedly different than its predecessor. While the XZ1 and XZ2 each have an aluminum body with rounded edges, the latter is slightly larger and is encased on both sides with Gorilla Glass and has a curved back, making it easier to hold in your hand. Though this design does make it a little more slippery on certain surfaces.\nThe glass covering, along with a larger embedded battery (Li-Ion 3180 mAh), also adds to the phone’s weight – 198 g. This makes it slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Note8. (The XZ2 Premium will come in at 236 g.) Personally, I didn’t find the added weight a big deal, but it may be a concern for those who insist on having light mobile devices.\nThe fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of the phone, making it easier to unlock while holding it.\nRunning on Android 8.0 (Oreo), the water-resistant XZ2 uses the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, which has a clockspeed of up to 2.7 GHz. It comes 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage and can take of memory card of up to 400 GB.\nPRICE AND AVAILBAILITY\nOverall, the XZ2 is not the best phone on the market but it’s a good choice, especially if you’re intrigued by the dynamic vibration system. It’s also sold at a reasonable price, comparatively. The phone is available at both Bell and Freedom Mobile. Freedom has the better deal, offering it for no money down on a two-year plan or $1,000 to buy it outright.", "REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (L-R) Singers Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Lauren Jauregui, and Dinah Jane of Fifth Harmony arrive at the People's Choice Awards 2017 in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 18, 2017.\nFifth Harmony has finally dropped the music video for their latest single, \"Angel.\"\nOn Thursday, Fifth Harmony unveiled a new single from their upcoming self-titled album, and just a day after, the now four-member girl group quickly followed with a music video for the single, \"Angel.\" It should be remembered that Fifth Harmony had previously released the first single from their album \"Down,\" back in June, their first-ever single as a quartet. Directed by David Camarena and produced by Skrillex, \"Angel\" features the girls of Fifth Harmony namely Normani Kordei, Ally Brooke, Lauren Jauregui, and Dinah Jane Hansen seemingly tormenting a guy who may have wronged them.\nBack in December 2016, Fifth Harmony lost one of their member after Camila Cabello departed from the group in order to pursue a solo career. But despite the loss, it looks like the remaining girls have not lost any of their confidence, hence their upcoming album, \"Fifth Harmony,\" which will be out this Aug. 25. \"Fifth Harmony\" will also be the third album released by the group.\nIn an interview wih Seventeen, Fifth Harmony revealed that they are now focusing on the future together. The girls will be on the September/October issue of the magazine.\n\"We're focusing on this new era. We've had some highs and some very, very sad lows, but together we're writing our new narrative,\" says Ally Brooke.\n\"It's so beautiful having four women on the same page. There's nothing we can't get through together,\" Normani added.\nPrior to working on their new album, the foursome had also been busy with solo projects and engagements and they admitted that being on their own for a while had helped keep the group together.\nCabello, on the other hand, will also be releasing her first solo album titled \"The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving.\" this coming Sept. 22, which also features her latest single \"Crying in the Club.\"", "Ever wished you could put a FitBit in your most private part?\nMeet the Lioness, the first smart vibrator to hit the market. It’s mission, in addition to doing the thing a vibrator usually does, is to help women understand how their bodies respond to pleasure. Basically it’s a wearable for your vagina.\nIt's the brainchild of Liz Klinger, who first introduced it as part of an Indiegogo campaign in April 2016. The company hit their $50,000 goal in just three days, proving there is, in fact, a demand for these kinds of insights. Now the vibrator is officially shipping, and you can get yours for $229.\nImage: lioness\nThe Lioness looks like a pretty standard vibrator on the outside, but inside it has four sensors that measure temperature, the force of muscle contractions, and track the movement of the device.\nWhen you’re done with your session, you can sync the Lioness with its app (available for iOS and Android). It then provides you with easy-to-read visualization of what was happening to your body while you were busy getting off.\nSo, yes, essentially it gives you a map of your orgasm. You can also tag each session with different terms so you can track how your health, sleep, alcohol consumption, mood, etc. affect your experiences.\nWhy exactly would you want access to this kind of information, aside from the fact that it’s just plain fascinating? Klinger told Mashable that the main goal is to help women to understand how their body responds to sexual stimulation and what works best for them.\nSEE ALSO: Meet the sex toy reviewers who just happen to be asexual\nThis is particularly clutch for women who’ve had issues with their sex drive or with not achieving orgasm. The orgasm gap is a real thing, and it refers to the fact that women are much less likely to reach climax during sex.\nThe end goal is to be able to give concrete feedback about what they can do to maximize their pleasure. With feedback from a gadget like the Lioness, women can see for themselves what does and doesn’t work.\nEven in beta testing, it's already providing interesting data about the different varieties of orgasm—some have a single, more intense release, while others experience a climax as smaller waves.\nImage: lioness\nTo aid in that quest, the data collected from individual vibrators is being pooled to try to observe larger patterns. Don't worry, thought, it's anonymized and the company has taken pains to ensure your most intimate data is as secure as it can be.\nWhile similar wearables already exists for men, data like this for women was previously only available from equipment in sex research labs, which you’re not going to end up in just on a whim.\nSo, the fact that it’s now within reach of a large swath of women could have a big impact — even if it is a costly gadget. And if you're personally eager to up your orgasm game, this could be a valuable tool.\nGo ahead and have some fun while gathering data about yourself — it's for science.", "Twice just debuted their new music video for “Wake Me Up”!\nThe adorable, massively popular South Korean girl group premiered the visual for their forthcoming Japanese single on Tuesday (April 24).\nPHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Twice\n“Wake Me Up” is the group’s third Japanese single following “What Is Love?” released earlier in April, and is scheduled to be released on May 16.\nThis latest song was announced earlier in April, and was teased through TV commercials for Nike Air Max throughout the month. Watch the music video for “Wake Me Up” below!", "A new technique enables scientists to break down the collective atomic motion in a molecule into elementary components. Credit: KTH Royal Institute of Technology Every molecule holds a complex landscape of moving atoms – and the ability to single out and examine individual nuclear vibrations may unlock to the secret to predicting and controlling chemical reactions. Now a new method, developed by researchers in Sweden, enables biotech researchers to do just that.\nThe new method offers unprecedented detail in measuring molecular motion and energy – enabling better control and understanding of chemical reactions in the field of biotechnology research.\nThe technique, which was recently published in Nature Communications, uses X-ray scattering to measure the specific movements of atoms in a molecule with extreme energy resolution.\n\"The idea is based on exciting a molecule to a high-energy, localized state,\" says Victor Kimberg, a researcher in the department of Theoretical Chemistry and Biology, at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The X-ray radiation that it emits then scans the energy landscape of the molecule with a level of precision that Kimberg compares to observing the movements of individual insects from on top of a mountain.\nEvery molecule has its own energy \"landscape\", or the full multidimensional spectrum of motion that atoms undergo when the molecule is energized. These motions include bending and stretching of bonds. Expressed in geometric terms, the relationships of atoms to one another in a single molecule are among the key things scientists need to know in order to determine a molecule's potential energy surface (PES) – an important value in the study of molecular structures, properties and reactivity.\n\"The PES is useful for processes such as catalysis and photochemistry,\" Kimberg says.\nFor the first time, the technique enables scientists to break down the collective atomic motion in a molecule into elementary components, he says.\n\"We can now go further than examining the collective multidimensional atomic motion in a molecule, and look at specific vibrations along selected reaction coordinates,\" he says. \"We are not aware of any other way to do this, so it looks like our idea is new.\"\nTypically when a molecule is excited, the only measurements available show all atomic motion simultaneously. The full PES landscape is complex with all types of vibrations. Kimberg says that with the method they propose, x-ray photon energy can be tuned to excite vibrations of a singled-out type of nuclear motion – which he says can serve as a basis for developing methods of reaction control.\n\"We show clearly that tuning the x-ray photon energy in resonance with one core-excited state induces only symmetric stretching motion; while tuning to another core-excited state excites exclusively the bending motion,\" he says.\nThe measurements were conducted at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) synchrotron laboratory in Zurich, in collaboration with the KTH group, comprised of Kimberg, Faris Gel'mukhanov and Hans Ågren, who were responsible for the underlying theory and simulations.\nExplore further: High-energy electrons synced to ultrafast laser pulse to probe how vibrational states of atoms change in time\nMore information: Rafael C. Couto et al. Selective gating to vibrational modes through resonant X-ray scattering, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14165", "Selena Gomez puts her acting chops to the test in the just released music video for her latest single “Bad Liar“!\nIn the ’70′s-themed clip, the 24-year-old actress and singer plays multiple roles – a student, both the student’s parents, and the woman the student’s father is having a maybe-affair with, who she also has a crush on.\nPHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Selena Gomez\nThe video, directed by Jesse Peretz, ends with a teaser of Selena‘s next single called “FETISH,” which is said to be “Coming Soon.”\nWatch the music video below…\nSelena Gomez – ‘Bad Liar’ (Music Video)", "The song comes from the group's \"Prevail II\" album and Kobra celebrated the success of the new music video with these comments, \"Our new music vid for 'Velvet Roses' is out and we couldn't be more stoked!\nThis is, across the board, one of the band's most favorite vids we've ever made. High impact, pure rock adrenaline packed with our sense of humor. In a world so full of sh*t, it feels great to not take everything so seriously and let the moment run wild. I hope we inflict some serious smilage!\" Watch it here.", "Some projects just name themselves. When rapper/bassist Bo Triplex partnered with rapper/drummer Airo Kwil for a new project, there wasn't much debate about what their moniker would be. As Bo & Airo, the two make rowdy, funk-heavy rap-rock with shades of Rage Against the Machine and Death Grips. Tonight they'll release their new music video \"Sirens\" with a show at Company Brewing featuring Klassik, Fox Face and DJ Dripsweat, but if you don't want to wait for that official premiere you can check it out below first. It's a rager that finds the two very much making themselves at home at a venue just a few blocks away from Company, High Dive, and gives a good sense of what to expect from their live show.", "Scientists have shown how an optical chip can simulate the motion of atoms within molecules at the quantum level, which could lead to better ways of creating chemicals for use as pharmaceuticals.\nAn optical chip uses light to process information, instead of electricity, and can operate as a quantum computing circuit when using single particles of light, known as photons. Data from the chip allows a frame-by-frame reconstruction of atomic motions to create a virtual movie of a molecule’s quantum vibrations, which is what lies at the heart of the research published today in Nature.\nThese findings are the result of a collaboration between researchers at the University of Bristol, MIT, IUPUI, Nokia Bell Labs, and NTT. As well as paving the way for more efficient pharmaceutical developments, the research could prompt new methods of molecular modelling for industrial chemists.\nWhen lasers were invented in the 1960s, experimental chemists had the idea of using them to break apart molecules. However, the vibrations within molecules rapidly redistribute the laser energy before the intended molecular bond is broken. Controlling the behaviour of molecules requires an understanding of how they vibrate at the quantum level. But modelling these dynamics requires massive computational power, beyond what we can expect from coming generations of supercomputers.\nThe Quantum Engineering and Technology Labs at Bristol have pioneered the use of optical chips, controlling single photons of light, as basic circuitry for quantum computers. Quantum computers are expected to be exponentially faster than conventional supercomputers at solving certain problems. Yet constructing a quantum computer is a highly challenging long-term goal.\nAs reported in Nature, the team demonstrated a new route to molecular modelling that could become an early application of photonic quantum technologies. The new methods exploit a similarity between the vibrations of atoms in molecules and photons of light in optical chips.\nBristol physicist Dr Anthony Laing, who led the project, explained: “We can think of the atoms in molecules as being connected by springs. Across the whole molecule, the connected atoms will collectively vibrate, like a complicated dance routine. At a quantum level, the energy of the dance goes up or down in well-defined levels, as if the beat of the music has moved up or down a notch. Each notch represents a quantum of vibration.\n“Light also comes in quantised packets called photons. Mathematically, a quantum of light is like a quantum of molecular vibration. Using integrated chips, we can control the behaviour of photons very precisely. We can program a photonic chip to mimic the vibrations of a molecule.\n“We program the chip, mapping its components to the structure of a particular molecule, say ammonia, then simulate how a particular vibrational pattern evolves over some time interval. By taking many time intervals, we essentially build up a movie of the molecular dynamics.”\nFirst author Dr Chris Sparrow, who was a student on the project, spoke of the simulator’s versatility: “The chip can be reprogrammed in a few seconds to simulate different molecules. In these experiments we simulated the dynamics of ammonia and a type of formaldehyde, and other more exotic molecules. We simulated a water molecule reaching thermal equilibrium with its environment, and energy transport in a protein fragment.\n“In this type of simulation, because time is a controllable parameter, we can immediately jump to the most interesting points of the movie. Or play the simulation in slow motion. We can even rewind the simulation to understand the origins of a particular vibrational pattern.”\nJoint first author, Dr Enrique Martín-Lopéz, now a Senior Researcher with Nokia Bell Labs, added: “We were also able to show how a machine learning algorithm can identify the type of vibration that best breaks apart an ammonia molecule. A key feature of the photonic simulator that enables this is its tracking of energy moving through the molecule, from one localised vibration to another. Developing these quantum simulation techniques further has clear industrial relevance.”\nThe photonic chip used in the experiments was fabricated by Japanese Telecoms company NTT.\nDr Laing explained the main directions for the future of the research: “Scaling up the simulators to a size where they can provide an advantage over conventional computing methods will likely require error correction or error mitigation techniques. And we want to further develop the sophistication of molecular model that we use as the program for the simulator. Part of this study was to demonstrate techniques that go beyond the standard harmonic approximation of molecular dynamics. We need to push these methods to increase the real-world accuracy of our models.\n“This approach to quantum simulation uses analogies between photonics and molecular vibrations as a starting point. This gives us a head start in being able to implement interesting simulations. Building on this, we hope that we can realise quantum simulation and modelling tools that provide a practical advantage in the coming years.”", "Worship singer/musician Jimi Cravity ends the year on a powerful high note with his video for \"Beacon.\" The visual finds Cravity, the latest signee to Capitol Christian Music Group and joint venture label sixsteps Records , playing with light and shadows as he delivers uplifting lyrics like \"You are the beacon of heaven\" that was inspired by his son's battle with cancer.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Billboard.", "An artist's impression of the photonic quantum simulations. The photonic chip, comprised of waveguides controlled through gold electronic wiring, is seen as a film projector. The light of the projector is quantum and the movie is the frame-by-frame evolution of an ammonia molecule vibrating. In this movie, the initial vibrational state of the ammonia molecule leads to a very high probability that it will lose one of its hydrogen atoms at the end of the movie. The girl is a scientist of the future who will use the simulator as a tool for molecular modeling. The pile of reels on the floor beside her signifies that capability of the photonic chip to be reprogrammed to simulate any molecule. The painting is by Credit: Eleonora Martorana, a graduate of the Rome Academy of Fine Arts. Scientists have shown how an optical chip can simulate the motion of atoms within molecules at the quantum level, which could lead to better ways of creating chemicals for use as pharmaceuticals.\nAn optical chip uses light to process information, instead of electricity, and can operate as a quantum computing circuit when using single particles of light, known as photons. Data from the chip allows a frame-by-frame reconstruction of atomic motions to create a virtual movie of a molecule's quantum vibrations, which is what lies at the heart of the research published today in Nature.\nThese findings are the result of a collaboration between researchers at the University of Bristol, MIT, IUPUI, Nokia Bell Labs, and NTT. As well as paving the way for more efficient pharmaceutical developments, the research could prompt new methods of molecular modelling for industrial chemists.\nWhen lasers were invented in the 1960s, experimental chemists had the idea of using them to break apart molecules. However, the vibrations within molecules rapidly redistribute the laser energy before the intended molecular bond is broken. Controlling the behaviour of molecules requires an understanding of how they vibrate at the quantum level. But modelling these dynamics requires massive computational power, beyond what we can expect from coming generations of supercomputers.\nThe Quantum Engineering and Technology Labs at Bristol have pioneered the use of optical chips, controlling single photons of light, as basic circuitry for quantum computers. Quantum computers are expected to be exponentially faster than conventional supercomputers at solving certain problems. Yet constructing a quantum computer is a highly challenging long-term goal.\nAs reported in Nature, the team demonstrated a new route to molecular modelling that could become an early application of photonic quantum technologies. The new methods exploit a similarity between the vibrations of atoms in molecules and photons of light in optical chips.\nBristol physicist Dr. Anthony Laing, who led the project, explained: \"We can think of the atoms in molecules as being connected by springs. Across the whole molecule, the connected atoms will collectively vibrate, like a complicated dance routine. At a quantum level, the energy of the dance goes up or down in well-defined levels, as if the beat of the music has moved up or down a notch. Each notch represents a quantum of vibration.\nDr Laing's laboratory where the experiments were performed. Single photons of light are generated using a powerful Ti-Sapphire laser, to pump a series of nonlinear crystals, operated by Ph.D. student and co-author Nicola Maraviglia (left). The single photons are collected into optical fibres and injected into the photonic chip, next to Laing (right). Inset top left is a close up of the photonic chip taken by NTT scientist and co-author, Nobuyuki Matsuda. Credit: University of Bristol\n\"Light also comes in quantised packets called photons. Mathematically, a quantum of light is like a quantum of molecular vibration. Using integrated chips, we can control the behaviour of photons very precisely. We can program a photonic chip to mimic the vibrations of a molecule.\n\"We program the chip, mapping its components to the structure of a particular molecule, say ammonia, then simulate how a particular vibrational pattern evolves over some time interval. By taking many time intervals, we essentially build up a movie of the molecular dynamics.\"\nFirst author Dr. Chris Sparrow, who was a student on the project, spoke of the simulator's versatility: \"The chip can be reprogrammed in a few seconds to simulate different molecules. In these experiments we simulated the dynamics of ammonia and a type of formaldehyde, and other more exotic molecules. We simulated a water molecule reaching thermal equilibrium with its environment, and energy transport in a protein fragment.\n\"In this type of simulation, because time is a controllable parameter, we can immediately jump to the most interesting points of the movie. Or play the simulation in slow motion. We can even rewind the simulation to understand the origins of a particular vibrational pattern.\"\nJoint first author, Dr. Enrique Martín-Lopéz, now a Senior Researcher with Nokia Bell Labs, added: \"We were also able to show how a machine learning algorithm can identify the type of vibration that best breaks apart an ammonia molecule. A key feature of the photonic simulator that enables this is its tracking of energy moving through the molecule, from one localised vibration to another. Developing these quantum simulation techniques further has clear industrial relevance.\"\nThe photonic chip used in the experiments was fabricated by Japanese Telecoms company NTT.\nDr. Laing explained the main directions for the future of the research: \"Scaling up the simulators to a size where they can provide an advantage over conventional computing methods will likely require error correction or error mitigation techniques. And we want to further develop the sophistication of molecular model that we use as the program for the simulator. Part of this study was to demonstrate techniques that go beyond the standard harmonic approximation of molecular dynamics. We need to push these methods to increase the real-world accuracy of our models.\n\"This approach to quantum simulation uses analogies between photonics and molecular vibrations as a starting point. This gives us a head start in being able to implement interesting simulations. Building on this, we hope that we can realise quantum simulation and modelling tools that provide a practical advantage in the coming years.\"\nExplore further: Largest-ever 3-D quantum chip for boosting analog quantum computing\nMore information: [7] Simulating the vibrational quantum dynamics of molecules with photonics, Nature (2018). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0152-9", "Shawn Mendes just premiered the music video for his latest single, “In My Blood”!\nThe 19-year-old singer-songwriter unveiled the visual on Tuesday (April 24).\nPHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Shawn Mendes\nThe song is off of Shawn‘s forthcoming third studio album, and was released alongside another new track: “Lost In Japan.”\nThe music video for the empowering track was directed by Jay Martin. The song was co-produced with Teddy Geiger and co-written with longtime collaborators Scott Harris and Geoff Warburton.\nWatch below!", "Nearly a month after the release of Selena Gomez's latest single, \"Bad Liar,\" the 24-year-old singer finally dropped a much-anticipated video for the sultry lovesick anthem — and it doesn't disappoint.\nBilled as a \"film\" in its promotional poster, the video sees Gomez seamlessly juggling four characters, all of whom interact with one another — a quiet teenager, her stay-at-home mother, schoolteacher father and even the coquettish woman who may or may not be the object of Dad's affections.\nWith a melody that borrows its bass line from Talking Heads' \"Psycho Killer\" and a directorial vision by Lemonheads bassist (and, more recently, TV director) Jesse Peretz, the video fuses a retro '70s aesthetic (Farrah Fawcett wigs and all) with an eerie, seductive atmosphere.\nThe video closes with a brief teaser for Gomez's next project, called \"Fetish,\" coming soon. The last thing we see is a fleeting clip of Gomez, with an expression somewhere between vacant and austere, staring solemnly into the camera before tearfully mouthing \"fetish\" in a close-up of her lips.\nWatch Gomez's \"Bad Liar\" video above.", "Giver are premiering their new video for Dancing With The Devils exclusively with Metal Hammer.\nThe track is taken from their upcoming album Where The Cycle Breaks, due for release on January 26 through Holy Roar Records.\n“Dancing With The Devils is a song about our generation being the last one that could make a necessary change, but is too focused on it’s own bliss, waiting and wishing for better things to come while this planet is slowly vanishing,” Giver tell Metal Hammer.\n“Since it is also probably the most metal song on the record, we tried to contrast its pretty hard vibe with a more feminine and delicate dance style. When we play shows, it is always an important matter to us, that everybody can dance in whatever way he or she feels comfortable in, as long as he or she doesn´t hurt others deliberately.\n“Hardcore shouldn’t be a place in which one feels urged to behave or move in a certain way to seem hard or cool.”\nWhere The Cycle Breaks tracklist\n1) Shock of the Fall\n2) The Other\n3) Made It Home\n4) No World To Come\n5) Dancing With The Devils\n6) What You Don’t Love\n7) Heart Of Dark\n8) Pills\n9) The Terror Of Perfection\n10) Weightless\n11) When The Fire Dies\nPre-order Where The Cycle Breaks now from Holy Roar Records.", "MMG’s Wale drops off the official video for his new single “Staying Power”. Directed by Chris Hernandez. You can download “Staying Power” now on iTunes/Google Play.", "Franz Ferdinand have released a new video for “Glimpse of Love,” a fun and irreverent track from their latest album Always Ascending. The song is a great, funky dance track on an album full of them and the new video, directed by Alice Kunisue, is as silly and charming as the song itself. It follows the band members around a farm, who are being deadly serious while doing goofy choreographed dances. Visually it is reminiscent of an old BBC documentary, which adds to the comedy of it all. After a long absence between albums, Franz Ferdinand has used their return to music as an excuse to experiment and have a good time, if nothing else, they’ve certainly been entertaining to watch.\nWatch the video below:", "Norway’s Communic have released a lyric video for “Where Echoes Gather (Part 2 - The Underground Swine)”, featured on their new album, Where Echoes Gather, due for release via AFM Records on October 27th. Watch the clip below.\nCommunic’s first album for AFM is nothing short of another dark and atmospheric masterpiece, created by the very same three guys who founded the band back then. Communic’s characteristic mixture of prog, power and thrash sounds as fresh and relevant as ever and will amaze the band’s countless fans to the fullest.\nWhere Echoes Gather will be available as Digipak and limited colored vinyl (250 units gold, 250 red/marbled). The cover artwork created by artist Eliran Kantor (Testament, Sodom, Iced Earth):\nTracklisting:\nDigipak\n“The Pulse Of The Earth (Part 1 - The Magnetic Center)”\n“The Pulse Of The Earth (Part 2 - Impact Of The Wave)”\n“Where Echoes Gather (Part 1 - Beneath The Giant)”\n“Where Echoes Gather (Part 2 - The Underground Swine)”\n“Moondance”\n“Where History Lives”\n“Black Flag Of Hate”\n“The Claws Of The Sea (Part 1 - Journey Into The Source)”\n“The Claws Of The Sea (Part 2 - The Underground Swine)”\nBonus Tracks\n“Watching It All Disappear” (Live In Studio 2017)\n“At Dewy Prime (Live In Studio 2017)\n“Waves Of Visual Decay” (Acoustic Live Version - 10th Anniversary Concert)\nVinyl\nSide A\n“The Pulse Of The Earth (Part 1 - The Magnetic Center)”\n“The Pulse Of The Earth (Part 2 - Impact Of The Wave)”\n“Where Echoes Gather (Part 1 - Beneath The Giant)”\n“Where Echoes Gather (Part 2 - The Underground Swine)”\n“Moondance”\nSide B\n“Where History Lives”\n“Black Flag Of Hate”\n“The Claws Of The Sea (Part 1 - Journey Into The Source)”\n“The Claws Of The Sea (Part 2 - The Underground Swine)”\n“Where Echoes Gather (Part 1 - Beneath The Giant)” lyric video:\n“Where Echoes Gather (Part 2 - The Underground Swine)” lyric video:" ]

[ "Both PDA's I have owned have had a small reset hole on the back that a slim object(like a straightened paperclip)could be inserted to reset the frozen device-(same as ctrl-alt-del)" ]

[ "You can either press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice fast\\nor\\npress the power button and hold it down for few seconds.", "use alt+ctrl+del combination", "go to control panel > User accounts.\\nUncheck the Ctrl+Alt+Del option", "It may be in use by your computer. Ctrl-Alt-Del and see if it's on the list. You could end task then try. But, I'd make sure it isn't a necessary file first.", "If you need to send CTRL+ALT+DEL to the remote computer, you must use CTRL+ALT+END", "Imagine if he won, who will be the main three KEY-members of his adminstration, representing the legendry ALT, CTRL and DEL?", "Press ALT + CTRL + DEL twice.\\n\\nIf that doesnt work, Reboot your computer to Command Prompt mode and type\\n\\nFORMAT C:", "You probably have lot of back ground softwares running... Like Anti virus, Google Desktop Search, Konfabulator, etc which takes time to shut down... Check how many processes are running by doing Ctrl-Alt-Del and checking the processes list.", "As PDAs from different companies have different set of underlying hardware (to the extent that even the processors used are differnt) you would need to get in touch with the technocal support folks of your PDA company to see if they have a ROM upgrade. \\n\\nIf you have lots of technical details on your PDA including the hardware devices used in it, you could roll out your own PocketPC 2003 ROM with MS Platform Builder tools. This does require a great deal of knowledge on the hardware platform itself.", "donate it somewhere and get a tax write-off for it, plus know you are doing something good. use the tax write-off towards a new PDA", "hold the power key... or ctrl+alt+del and then shut down. or go to start menu and shut down....BUT WHY THIS QUESTION IN MILITARY? do you think to shut down the computer you can use your machine gun? I hope not.", "hi there, usually the program for the site block are located in the taskbar or in the ctrl-alt del, in the windows task manager and end the task!", "I did it with a restart in DOS mode or a force delete with some programs. Just make sure that there is no program that run it at that moment.", "Buy a new keyboard....*wink*", "You can use performance monitor built into windows.\\nPress Ctrl+Alt+Del, then click the Performance tab.\\n\\nIf you're uncomfortable with pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del,\\nClick Start>>Run and Type \"tskmgr\" without the quotes,\\nand press enter or click ok. now click the Performance tab.\\n\\nThere you are, you can now see a graph of the current CPU Usage!", "Is you keyboard USB - If so check your BIOS for usb legeacy support - if this is enabled - disable it\\n\\nHave you checked for the most recent BIOS updates for your pc - may have to flash it \\n\\ngood luck", "Press CTRL + ALT + DEL ..\\n\\nNo im kidding. \\n\\nYou being able to hear people and them not being able to hear you doesnt have anything to do with what the best sound card for your computer is, your best bet is usually TA-DA Soundblaster. You probably have your volume settings on MUTE for the microphone.. Duh.", "Reinstalling isn't always the answer. It may be that your touch-pad is faulty. You have to realize that touch-pads are extreemely sensitive not only to touch, but to temperature and moisture(humidity) too. you will need to order a new touch-pad, either from Compaq or another PC parts site, and just replace the old one. it's just as easy as replacing any other part. ps/2 parts are just plug and play.", "do you have a firewall? if not it is easier to get viruses. but you should also download a spyware detection program (not the one on yahoos toolbar)that gets rid pf spyware. a lot of times spyware is the problem. you could also try.... after you try to turm ot off.... holding CTRL ALT DEL at the same time, and see what pops up in the task widow. sometimes that can tell you what is not correctly responding! I wish you lots of luck!\\nmissdavis", "Did you unplug it for a while? Unplug it and hold the reset button for a few seconds. Then try it again.", "just check out your settings I think you did your setting may be you did some mistake there just reset it by defalt", "Just check if there is another program open what is using your soundcard, you can check with (no joke) press Ctrl+Alt+Del and you see which programs are busy. Also you can check at my computer with your right button if there is a problem with your driver, check at the update site from your soundcard", "press CTRL+ALT+DEL a window will appear mark that webpage and endtask it.\\nand also delete all of your temporary internet files and files in temp folder in \\nmy computer > c:/ > windows > temporary internet files and temp folder", "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, windows task manager will show up and then press on Processes Tab. This will show you a list of every process that is running. Can't really help you past this but youre going to have to End some Processes by selecting the process and clicking End Process button. I suggest you do not end SYSTEM process. Select the processes that you think might be using the mic.", "check the connections in the back of your computer, unplug it and then plug it back in, that should fix it. If not I bet your keyboard is messed up, new ones are like $10 or less", "try pressing escape, try pressing the power button, if all else fails, turn it off and back on", "Go to Start and click 'Log Off', then on the login screen, click 'Ctrl + Alt + Del' twice to access the logon windows, then type the user name as 'Administrator' and the password should be blank, unless you have set one previously.", "There is probably an application that is not terminating when the computer is being shutdown. Remove any programs that you do not need and try it again. Also try closing any open applications manually and try shutting down. If you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, and go to processes you can see what is running. Also make sure you don't have any adware/spyware running. You a program like Adaware(www.lavasoftusa.com) to check.", "Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and end program. Then restart it.", "you may want to try plugging it into a different USB port. or If it is not powered by the port, make sure the outlet its plugged into is working", "Hold down the control key (Ctrl) bottom left of keyboard", "check your power supply and makes sure it is connected correctly, and make sure the power supply isnt a dud" ]

[ "NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with former Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich about the politicization of the department following the reduced recommended sentencing for Roger Stone." ]

[ "The Justice Department inspector general report on the Clinton email investigation is being used as political fodder by President Trump, who has continued to attack the credibility of the FBI and DOJ.", "NPR's Ari Shaprio talks with David Kris, founder of Culper Partners consulting firm and a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for National Security, about a new DOJ inspector general report.", "The Justice Department's Inspector General says former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales mishandled classified documents. The report says Gonzales took home the documents related to the domestic-surveillance program, and did not secure them in a safe there.", "Attorney General Michael Mukasey has many challenges in his new role, namely rebuilding credibility at the Department of Justice. He will also inherit: allegations of politicization at DOJ, investigations into the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians by a U.S. contractor, and restoring morale. He has already begun filling leadership positions. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been on the job for just over a week. Given that the Bush administration has only 14 months to go, Mukasey has a short time to accomplish a great deal. NPR's Ari Shapiro is with us to review what's ahead for the attorney general. Good morning. ARI SHAPIRO: Good morning. MONTAGNE: Let's start with the big picture. Any sweeping law enforcement initiatives coming up? SHAPIRO: Not right now, and I'm told that there won't be. There is such a short time left in the Bush administration and so much that is on the attorney general's plate that he's really going to be focused on many of the things that he has inherited. The Justice Department has its own law enforcement initiatives. The DOJ is working with Congress on a number of different laws that are in the works. There are some major investigations that Judge Mukasey may have to deal with once the reports come out, investigations into the Blackwater shootings in Iraq and to allegations of politicization of the Justice Department. And then one of the major challenges that Mukasey faces is rebuilding the Justice Department's credibility and rebuilding morale after the many scandals that have racked the department over the last six months. MONTAGNE: How does Mukasey go about restoring that credibility? SHAPIRO: Well, filling the leadership positions that are now vacant is one of his top priorities. Just last week, there were several nominations, including one for the deputy attorney general, the second in command. Judge Mukasey tapped a federal judge in Chicago named Mark Filip. And Judge Filip gets great reviews for his work as a judge and as a lawyer, but some people have expressed some concern that if he's confirmed, that neither the number one nor the number two person at the Justice Department will have any experience at main justice post-9/11. You'll have two people at the helm, both of whom have not been there recently. As an acknowledgment of how serious this problem is of credibility and filling the vacancies, last week, the Inspector General's Office issued a report detailing the top ten challenges for the department in the year ahead. For the first time ever, restoring credibility and morale was on that list. MONTAGNE: The inspector general is also finishing an investigation into whether anybody at the Justice Department broke the law. Will that potentially put Mukasey in a difficult spot? SHAPIRO: It very well could. The Inspector General's Office investigation is just sprawling. It covers everything from U.S. attorney firing to allegations of politicized hiring. They're looking at the civil rights division, the Justice Department honor's program. And if the inspector general suggests that there be a criminal investigation or prosecution into anyone, from former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to any of the many people who worked with him, then Attorney General Mukasey could be in the difficult position of having to decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor. Republicans would probably resist that. Democrats would push for it. It would put him a difficult position. And that is just the inspector general's report. Then you look separately at something like the Blackwater investigation, where a grand jury has started to subpoena some of the people who were involved in this shooting in Iraq. And that could be another issue where, whatever he decides, he may make somebody very angry. MONTAGNE: And Congress has been talking about amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. What would Mukasey's role be there, if any? SHAPIRO: He has already become part of the administration's lobbying effort on that front. The biggest issue right now is whether telephone companies should get retroactive immunity for their participation in the domestic spying program. This has been bouncing around in the House and Senate for a while. Right now, the Senate and House both have bills that do not include immunity for the telecoms. It's impossible, of course, to know where this is going to end up once Congress reconvenes after the Thanksgiving recess. But at least right now, if this is the first major political battle for Mukasey, it looks like he is not on the winning side. MONTAGNE: Now, here's something a lot of people will be watching for. Mukasey almost was not confirmed after he refused to say that an interrogation technique called waterboarding is torture. Is that issue going to resurface anytime soon for him now that he is attorney general? SHAPIRO: Sure, at his first oversight hearing. The Judiciary Committee always has the attorney general te", "The Justice Department inspector general will review the Trump administration's seizure of metadata from Apple products belonging to at least two Democratic lawmakers, their staff and family members. In 2018, the Trump Justice Department took the highly unusual step of subpoenaing Apple to obtain the metadata of members of the House Intelligence Committee as well as their current and former staff, and even family, including a minor, according to a committee official. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for an immediate investigation by the department watchdog and by Congress, describing the reported actions by the Trump administration a \"gross abuse of power.\" The Trump-era subpoena, which The New York Times first reported, was part of an aggressive push by the Justice Department to find the source of leaks of classified information in the early years of the Trump administration. There is no indication that the subpoenaed material tied the committee to the media leaks. The two lawmakers who had their data seized are Reps. Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat, and Eric Swalwell. Both men were outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump and took frequent aim at him in TV and radio appearances. The department also secured a gag order in the case, preventing Apple from informing the committee about the subpoena. The company was only able to tell the panel after the gag order was lifted in May, the committee official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The committee contacted the Biden Justice Department, which informed the panel that the investigation had been closed, the official said. It is highly unusual for the Justice Department to subpoena members of Congress. If it does happen, it's usually in connection to a corruption investigation. But the subpoena fits into the Trump Justice Department's aggressive approach toward investigating leaks to the media. That approach became clear recently when it emerged that the department had secretly sought to obtain phone and email records of reporters from The Times, The Washington Post and CNN in 2020. Schiff, the California Democrat who now chairs the House Intelligence Committee, confirmed the Justice Department informed him last month that an investigation into his committee had been closed. Swalwell, a California Democrat who also sits on the panel, said in a statement that Apple had notified him as well that his data was seized. Schiff accused Trump of repeatedly placing demands on the Justice Department to go after his political opponents and the media. \"It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears,\" Schiff said in a statement. \"The politicization of the Department and the attacks on the rule of law are among the most dangerous assaults on our democracy carried out by the former President.\" Later Friday, Schiff applauded the inspector general's decision to look into the reports as \"an important first step\" but that the attorney general should \"do a full damage assessment of the conduct of the department over the last four years and outline all of the accountability and mitigation necessary to protect the public going forward.\" The House Intelligence Committee conducted an investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential race. The committee was later instrumental in the impeachment inquiry into Trump's dealings with Ukraine. The House of Representatives ultimately impeached Trump as a result of that investigation. Schumer and Durbin sharply criticized the Trump administration in a joint statement Friday following the reports and called on former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. \"The revelation that the Trump Justice Department secretly subpoenaed metadata of House Intelligence Committee Members and staff and their families, including a minor, is shocking,\" the two Democratic leaders said. \"This is a gross abuse of power and an assault on the separation of powers. This appalling politicization of the Department of Justice by Donald Trump and his sycophants must be investigated immediately by both the DOJ Inspector General and Congress.\" They added that if Barr and Sessions were to refuse a request to testify, \"they are subject to being subpoenaed and compelled to testify under oath.\" \"In addition, the Justice Department must provide information and answers to the Judiciary Committee, which will vigorously investigate this abuse of power,\" Schumer and Durbin said. \"This issue should not be partisan; under the Constitution, Congress is a co-equal branch of government and must be protected from an overreaching executive, and we expect that our Republican colleagues will join us in getting to the bottom of this serious matter.\" NPR political reporter Alana Wise contributed to this report.", "Among the Bush-era Justice Department practices most appalling to Democratic and even some Republican lawmakers was the blatant politicization of the Justice Department under then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It's pretty well established that under Gonzales job applicants were asked whether they were Republicans and conservatives. Those not deemed sufficiently on board weren't hired. Some rejected applicants filed lawsuits. On Thursday, a federal district judge ruled that some of the plaintiffs could sue while others couldn't. As NPR's Ari Shapiro reported for the network's newscast: An investigation found that people asked job applicants questions like: Why are you a Republican? Or, What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?Liberals applicants were rejected; conservatives were hired. Eight rejected job applicants filed a lawsuit. Now a judge says only three of the applicants have grounds to sue. U.S. District Judge John Bates also says they cannot sue former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, his chief counsel Monica Goodling, or other officials in their personal capacity. Instead, the lawsuit will proceed against the Justice Department itself. Read More >> Ari tells me Judge Bates decided that the five applicants weren't far enough along in the application process to qualify to sue. And Ari pointed out to me an example from the Justice Department inspector general's report contained some fairly head-slapping examples of how bad the situation got at the Justice Department. In the example, Goodling was trying to assess a candidate's political views. From page 9 of the IG's report: For example, one candidate reported that after he stated he admired Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Goodling \"frowned\" and commented, \"but she's pro-choice.\" So it wasn't even about being a Republican. To pass Goodling's test, you had to be the right kind of Republican.", "Updated at 4:44 p.m. ET The Justice Department inspector general has asked prosecutors in Washington, D.C., to examine whether former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should face criminal charges. Inspector General Michael Horowitz has referred McCabe to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Washington, D.C., according to a source familiar with the matter. The source asked not to be identified as discussing the sensitive ongoing case. Such referrals are not uncommon when the Justice Department IG has completed its work, but they don't automatically trigger any action. Prosecutors could try to prove that McCabe broke the law, or they could do nothing. A spokeswoman for McCabe said he was advised of the referral in the past few weeks. The spokeswoman said lawyers for McCabe believe that the referral is \"unjustified.\" \"We are confident that, unless there is inappropriate pressure from high levels of the administration, the U.S. Attorney's Office will conclude that it should decline to prosecute,\" the spokeswoman's written statement said. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. The Justice Department and its inspector general's office both declined to comment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe just short of his retirement last month after the IG concluded that McCabe had wrongly caused information to be released to The Wall Street Journal and then \"lacked candor\" about that afterward to investigators. The prospect of criminal charges for McCabe follows months of political warfare over his tenure at the FBI. President Trump and his Republican allies have blasted McCabe, the FBI and the Justice Department over what they call \"bias\" and abuses of power that date back to before the 2016 presidential election. McCabe's camp says he did nothing wrong — that he was within his rights as deputy director to authorize disclosures to the press and that he told the truth about the case. Separately on Wednesday, a contingent of Trump's supporters in the House referred a number of names to the Justice Department because they said former FBI Director James Comey, McCabe, Hillary Clinton and others might merit prosecution.", "The Justice Department's Inspector General finds former FBI Director James Comey violated policy by sharing classified information with individuals outside of the FBI. The DOJ declined prosecution.", "Following the Justice Department's announcement of a probe into the city's police department, NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Christy Lopez, a former DOJ attorney who led similar investigations.", "Former sex crimes prosecutor and Department of Justice Deputy Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar tells NPR's Rachel Martin what to expect ahead of the historic Senate hearing.", "The Justice Department's inspector general told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that politicized hiring at the department was not just a case of a few bad apples — as the attorney general has described. Glenn Fine, head of Justice's watchdog office, told lawmakers that illegal politicization at the department was \"serious, significant, and systemic.\" Bush administration officials kept liberals out of jobs even if they were well qualified, Fine said, and they hired conservatives who were sometimes less qualified. Still, he said he does not think any criminal prosecutions are in order. In two recent reports on politicized hiring at Justice, Fine has described the way partisanship influenced hiring across the department — from entry-level interns to senior prosecutors. The inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility issued a report on June 24 outlining hiring practices in the honor and intern programs; on July 28, the group released a report on hiring done by Monica Goodling, White House liaison and senior counsel to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has said the problem was limited to a handful of bad actors who have mostly left the department. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) took the same view at the hearing. \"What I'm seeing is low-level politicization and incompetence above it,\" Coburn said. Fine said that's not the case. \"These are high officials in the Department of Justice,\" including Goodling and Kyle Sampson, who was Gonzales' chief of staff, Fine said. Honors Program Fine said there were also junior people who were allowed to turn Justice Department policy on its head. For example, he said the department's honors program was highly politicized. That program is the main way new law school graduates enter the Justice Department. Many people hired through the program spend their whole careers at Justice. In 2006, Fine said, Justice Department managers set up a screening committee for honors program applicants. Attorney Esther Slater McDonald was assigned to be on the committee. \"She'd been at the department for less than a month,\" Fine said. \"She was a junior attorney. She was not even given instructions on what to look for. I think that's negligent.\" According to the inspector general's June 24 report, McDonald rejected Rhodes Scholars and top graduates of the best law schools if those people had a whiff of liberalism. If people seemed conservative, McDonald accepted them whether they were qualified or not. Fine said this was \"a serious problem that had implications throughout the Department of Justice.\" Lingering Effects But Fine told lawmakers he does not believe anyone can be prosecuted for their actions. \"It violated department policy and federal civil service law, but not criminal law. It's not a criminal statute,\" he said. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) was not satisfied. \"I'm sure it sticks in many people's craws that these were horrible things that were done, and simply because you resign from the department, you escape without any punishment,\" Schumer said. Fine said he does not think the people who broke the rules have escaped without any punishment. They've been publicly exposed. They may never work in the federal government again. And, Fine said, they could be disbarred, which would prevent them from working as lawyers in the future. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said that still leaves people at the Justice Department in jobs they may not have won legitimately. \"The idea that it has no effect that lingers in the department is just not realistic,\" Whitehouse said. Whitehouse asked whether Fine could say that everyone hired through the flawed process is qualified. \"No I can't,\" Fine replied. MELISSA BLOCK, Host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block. MICHELE NORRIS, Host: And I'm Michele Norris. We begin this hour with several ongoing political scandals. In a moment, what the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska could mean for his chances of reelection. First, the controversy over politicized hiring at the Justice Department. An internal investigation has found that laws were broken. BLOCK: Today, Glenn Fine, the department's inspector general told the Senate committee it was not just a few employees who ran amok, he called the department's problems serious, significant and systemic. His key finding was that Bush administration officials kept liberals out of jobs even if they were well-qualified and they hired conservatives who were sometimes less qualified. Still, Fine said, he does not think any criminal prosecutions are in order. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports. ARI SHAPIRO: Inspector General Glenn Fine said throughout American history, the Justice Department has been different. It's special, he said, it's not partisan. BLOCK: And the people who came did not understand that, did not appreciate that, and we're not monitored and we're allowed to run uncontrolled. SHAPIRO:", "The Justice Department's top watchdog said Thursday a newly released legal opinion undermines his independence and makes it more difficult to do his job. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said the memo will delay access to grand jury, wiretap and other documents he needs to investigate problems at the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and elsewhere. The legal memo, dated July 20 but made public Thursday, enshrines a process that in many instances puts the attorney general and her top deputy in charge of how much material their watchdog will get — and when. \"Congress meant what it said when it authorized inspectors general to independently access 'all' documents necessary to conduct effective oversight,\" Horowitz said. \"Without such access, our office's ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired, and it will be more difficult for us to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse and to protect taxpayer dollars.\" Horowitz added that he would work with lawmakers and top Justice Department officials to \"promptly remedy this serious situation.\" And, he said, it may take legislation to make clear that federal watchdogs deserve sensitive materials from departments and agencies they oversee. The dispute between the inspector general and the Justice Department leadership has been brewing for some time. Horowitz has testified to Congress repeatedly about his tug of war with DOJ officials to get records about a botched gun trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious — and more records involving sexual misconduct by agents at the DEA and FBI. Some of those controversies were chronicled on NPR's All Things Considered. Horowitz also told lawmakers the Justice Department had slow-walked his access to material about whether lawyers had violated people's civil liberties in sweeping detentions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; bulk surveillance programs by the FBI and DEA; and other counterterrorism tools. Last year, congressional appropriators included a measure in the Justice Department budget supporting independent access for the inspector general. But this week's memo by Karl Thompson, principal deputy assistant attorney general, concluded that the intent of that provision was unclear. Lawyers are still analyzing the memo to see what impact it may have on other inspectors general across the U.S. government, and on whistleblowers who come to the IGs with paperwork that they say documents wasteful spending or abuses of power. Lawmakers from both political parties almost immediately raised doubts about the legal memo, pointing out that before 2010, the FBI and other elements within the Justice Department routinely provided material to watchdogs they later began to withhold. \"The prospect of the Obama administration using this opinion to stonewall oversight, avoid accountability and undermine the independence of inspectors general is alarming,\" said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. And Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who leads the House Judiciary Committee, said he would explore a legislative fix. Goodlatte said the legal memo and \"efforts to reduce transparency will leave the Department of Justice vulnerable to mismanagement and misconduct.\" In a statement, Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said, \"The department has long held the position that the Inspector General should have access to all the information it needs to perform its essential oversight function.\" Pierce added: \"Consistent with this view, the department leadership has implemented procedures to ensure that the Inspector General receives sensitive law enforcement information in a timely manner.\"", "The Justice Department's internal watchdog says it will launch a review in response to allegations by Republican lawmakers that the department and the FBI abused their surveillance authorities to target a former Trump campaign adviser in the early days of the DOJ's Russia investigation. The department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, said in a statement Wednesday that the review will examine whether the Justice Department and the FBI followed the proper procedures and legal requirements when applying for surveillance orders \"relating to a certain U.S. person\" before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That individual is not named, but it appears to be a reference to Carter Page, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. The FBI sought and received a surveillance order on Page in October 2016, after he had left Trump's team. Republicans on the House intelligence committee released a memo last month that alleged the FBI and Justice Department abused their surveillance authority to target Page in the early stages of the DOJ Russia probe. Republicans also alleged that the FBI improperly relied on an unverified dossier compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, in its application. That document, known as the Trump-Russia dossier, was commissioned by a strategic intelligence firm, Fusion GPS, that was hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democrats. The inspector general's review will also look into what the FBI and Justice Department knew \"from an alleged confidential source\" as well as their \"relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate\" to the surveillance applications. After Republicans released their memo in February, they urged the Justice Department to examine the allegations of misconduct. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he referred the matter to the inspector general's office. Democrats dismissed the Republican allegations as nothing more than an attempt to protect President Trump and undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. In response to the Republican memo, Democrats on the House intelligence committee released their own countermemo that concluded there was no misconduct on the part of the Justice Department or FBI in their surveillance of Page. They also said the FBI did not solely rely on the Trump-Russia dossier in its surveillance applications, but rather on multiple sources and an abundance of material to support their case. On Wednesday, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, slammed the decision to open a review. \"It is a shame that the Inspector General has to devote resources to investigate a conspiracy theory as fact-free, openly political, and thoroughly debunked as the President's so-called 'FISA abuse,' \" Nadler said in a statement. \"Any objective review of these claims should tell us what we already know — that the FBI was right, that there was sufficient evidence to continue investigating certain Trump campaign officials for their connections to the Russian government, and that the Republicans are desperate to distract from that investigation,\" he added. Republicans, meanwhile, welcomed the inspector general's review. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham — who both asked the inspector general to review alleged surveillance misconduct and the FBI's relationship with Steele — applauded the decision to look into the matter. But Graham said he still thinks a second special counsel should be appointed \"to ensure the investigation is thorough and complete.\"", "The Justice Department recently became a farm system for conservative lawyers, according to a report released Monday by the department's inspector general. In the process, many qualified job applicants were rejected for positions because they might be liberals. Now, people who believe they were rejected for Justice Department jobs because of their ideology may find that the office that is supposed to represent them suffers from the same problems as the department that first rejected them. Problems At OSC The Office of Special Counsel was created to address problems like those the inspector general identified at the Justice Department. \"This kind of politicization of the career civil service is squarely within the core jurisdiction of the Office of Special Counsel,\" says Elaine Kaplan, who served as OSC special counsel until 2003. Kaplan says if she were still at OSC, she'd be working closely with the Justice Department's inspector general to represent the people who were passed over for jobs because of their politics. Kaplan describes this case as \"a slam dunk in terms of whether there was a violation -– massive violations -– of civil service laws.\" In the past, OSC has won back pay and new jobs for job applicants in situations comparable to the one at the Justice Department, as described in the report. The problem is, OSC itself has been in the news a lot lately: FBI agents raided the office in May because they're investigating Scott Bloch, the current special counsel. His deputy recently resigned, accusing Bloch in a resignation letter of pursuing \"political agendas and personal vendettas.\" That's exactly what people at the Justice Department are accused of doing. Resistance Kaplan says for OSC to function effectively, other government agencies need to cooperate with special counsel investigators. \"Now, to the extent that OSC's reputation is tarnished, there's going to be resistance,\" Kaplan says. In fact, Justice Department investigators a year ago publicly told the Office of Special Counsel that they would not cooperate with an OSC investigation until the inspector general's office had concluded its own inquiry. When people at the OSC do take action on the matter at Justice, Kaplan says, the public will question the office's motivations. \"It looks like everyone is discredited, so who can we trust really?\" she says. Not so, according to OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell. \"Some people might think that we're working in the middle of a tornado, but we are continuing to do our work, regardless of the controversy, and our office is continuing to function quite effectively,\" Mitchell says. Mitchell says OSC staffers have already met with the Justice Department to talk about an inspector general report released on June 24 that shows politicized hiring for entry-level attorneys. \"Similarly,\" Mitchell says, \"we expect that we will be working closely with Justice for the same reasons to bring our enforcement powers in on the issues that were identified in this current report.\" The report released Monday says one attorney, Leslie Hagen, was denied several assignments because of a rumor that she was gay. The Office of Special Counsel has said in the past that it will not pursue complaints from people who were mistreated because of their sexual orientation. Hagen's lawyer, Lisa Banks, has skipped OSC and gone straight to Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Hagen's \"career was completely derailed,\" Banks says, \"and that's the wrong that needs to be righted by the attorney general at this point.\" Banks sent Mukasey a letter Monday, asking him to \"assign Hagen to an acceptable permanent position.\" She has yet to receive a response. The courts offer yet a third course of action. Earlier this month, a man named Sean Gerlich filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. His complaint claims he was rejected for a job with the prestigious Justice Department honors program because of his liberal affiliations. He says the department violated his free speech and privacy rights. The suit asks for $100,000 in damages. MICHELE NORRIS, Host: What happens after yesterday's scathing internal report on the Justice Department? It found that the senior members of the department broke the law. The report by Justice's inspector general said that the department became a farm system for young conservative lawyers. In the process, many qualified job applicants were rejected for positions because of suspected liberal leanings. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on what recourse those people now have. ARI SHAPIRO: Two separate news stories are about to converge. The first is politicized hiring at the Justice Department. The department's inspector general says illegal politicization affected hires from the lowest interns to the top counterterrorism prosecutors. The second story is about the federal government office that was created to address these kinds of problems - the Office of Special Counsel. Elaine Kap", "More than 1,100 former Department of Justice officials are calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign after his department lowered the prison sentence recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, in a move that's led to accusations of political interference. In a letter released Sunday, the former DOJ officials, who have worked across Republican and Democratic administrations, wrote that Barr's intervention in the Stone case has tarnished the department's reputation. \"Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice,\" the former officials wrote. \"In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President. Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.\" On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington had recommended a prison sentence of up to nine years for Stone's 2019 conviction on charges including making false statements to Congress and witness tampering. On Twitter, Trump said the sentencing recommendation amounted to \"a horrible and very unfair situation.\" But then on Tuesday, the Justice Department intervened, ordering a new sentencing memo and calling for lighter punishment. A senior DOJ official told NPR that officials were \"shocked\" at the original recommendation. Four line prosecutors then quit the case. The next day, Trump congratulated Barr on Twitter \"for taking charge\" of the Stone case. To Julie Zebrak, who's among the former DOJ officials who signed the letter, Barr's behavior shatters a cardinal norm that has been in place for decades: that the Justice Department's prosecutorial decisions should not be influenced by the White House. Zebrak told NPR that Barr's move \"sent shockwaves through the former DOJ alumni.\" She added: \"We are all watching in a really rapid and terrifying way the undermining of the department and the diminishment of the rule of law. We have to sort of speak up and speak out when we can.\" A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice declined to comment. Stone is set to be sentenced on Thursday. It will ultimately be up to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who presiding over Stone's trial, to hand down his punishment. Barr has denied discussing with Trump the decision to intervene in the Stone case. In an interview Thursday with ABC News, Barr took the exceedingly rare step of criticizing Trump as a sitting member of the president's cabinet. Barr said he would like Trump to \"stop tweeting,\" since the president's commentary makes it \"impossible\" to do his job. Justice Department officials did inform the White House about the interview before it aired, a person familiar with the matter told NPR. Yet the hundreds of former DOJ officials admonished Barr for the appearance of carrying out a political favor for Trump. \"Mr. Barr's actions in doing the President's personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words,\" the letter says. The letter also asks current Justice Department officials to push back against actions seen as violating their oath of office, much like the \"heroic\" four prosecutors who withdrew from the Stone case. Current DOJ staff, according to the former department officials, should \"be prepared to report future abuses\" to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility and Congress. \"We likewise call on the other branches of government to protect from retaliation those employees who uphold their oaths in the face of unlawful directives,\" the letter says. \"The rule of law and the survival of our Republic demand nothing less.\" The letter was organized by the nonprofit legal organization Protect Democracy, which in the past said that Trump's conduct described in the Mueller report would be sufficient for felony charges for obstruction of justice. Barr is scheduled to testify in front of the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee on March 31.", "ACORN, the community organizing group targeted by Republican critics who have accused it of voter fraud on behalf of Democrats and other illegalities, didn't directly receive any Justice Department funding, according to an inspector general's report. Inspector General Glenn Fine did find, however, that some Justice Department money did indirectly get to ACORN or affiliates of the group. An excerpt from the report: Our review did not find any direct DOJ grants to ACORN during the past 7 years. However, as described below, we found that one recipient of DOJ grant funds entered into a sub-agreement with ACORN for program activities. In addition, we identified one direct grant of DOJ funds to an affiliate of ACORN. We also identified three instances in which a DOJ grantee entered into a sub-award with an ACORN affiliate. Thus, in total, we found that ACORN and its affiliates received one direct grant and four sub-awards totaling approximately $200,000 between fiscal years (FY) 2002 and 2009. In addition, during this period we determined that ACORN affiliates submitted five applications for DOJ grant funds that were denied. Read More >> As NPR's Ari Shapiro reported for the network's newscast: Congress began to scrutinize ACORN after undercover activists filmed ACORN workers apparently giving advice on how to avoid taxes for a child prostitution business. The House and Senate both voted to cut off ACORN from federal money. Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, asked whether the Justice Department has ever given grants to ACORN or its affiliates. The new report by Inspector General Glenn Fine says ACORN did not receive any money directly from the Justice Department. But some of the group's affiliates did. And three groups that won Justice Department grants distributed money to ACORN. In total, all those awards add up to $200,000 dollars. That's a fraction of the $53 million ACORN and its affiliates have received in federal funds over the last 15 years.", "On Wednesday a government watchdog issued a report finding widespread failures with the government's \"Fast and Furious\" gun trafficking operation. On Thursday, the watchdog at the Justice Department, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, told a House panel that federal agents and prosecutors failed to protect public safety — and their bosses didn't pay enough attention.", "Two whistleblowers assert that a Justice Department official improperly injected politics into the hiring process during his waning days in the Trump administration, according to a new filing obtained by NPR. The whistleblowers accuse Jeffrey Bossert Clark of conducting a \"sham\" process and elevating a person who volunteered to defend a controversial Trump policy on abortion access, even though the person had far less experience than other finalists for the job in the Civil Division, they said in a Wednesday letter to House and Senate lawmakers and the Justice Department's inspector general. Clark was then the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the department's Civil Division. Clark drew nationwide attention this year after The New York Times reported he had discussed a way to unseat the acting attorney general, take the job for himself and advance then-President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's election results before the congressional certification of electoral votes in January. The scandal figured in Trump's second impeachment trial — and it renewed concerns about partisan political influence on Justice Department operations. The whistleblowers said that Clark's participation in the hiring process for an assistant director of the Civil Division was unusual and that he engaged in \"perfunctory\" 15-minute interviews with two more highly qualified finalists for the post. Their letter said Clark had \"used a timer\" in the meetings and was not \"particularly engaged.\" Clark announced his decision two days before he left the Justice Department in January. Two other officials in the Civil Division said they did not believe the hiring decision was motivated by politics, the letter said. But the whistleblowers disagreed. \"What set the successful appointee apart from the other candidates was that the appointee — unlike the others — had volunteered and was part of the DOJ litigation team defending a controversial Trump administration policy,\" according to their letter. That policy barred pregnant, unaccompanied minors in federal immigration custody from obtaining abortions. A court later determined the policy was unconstitutional. David Seide, a senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, represents the whistleblowers. \"Like other instances of misconduct by departing Trump administration officials, these abuses of authority are disturbing,\" Seide said. \"Mr. Clark's last-minute politicization of the DOJ hiring process and issuance of policy memoranda — capped by his willingness to participate in what was close to an attempted coup d'état — demands immediate, close and transparent oversight and investigations.\" Clark could not be reached for immediate comment on the new whistleblower letter. He told The New York Times this year that, on the issue of attempts to overturn the election results, \"there was a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with the president. It is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation would comment in public about such internal deliberations, while also distorting any discussions.\"", "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells NPR's Rachel Martin that President Donald Trump is right to be troubled that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department's investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 election. The Justice Department's culture, Gingrich says, is \"very liberal\" and has an anti-Trump bias and the probe is a \"fishing expedition.\" Sessions, he says, should exercise more authority and enforce the law. Domenico Montanaro has analysis.", "President Trump says that, on Monday, he will order an investigation into whether the FBI and the Department of Justice \"infiltrated or surveilled\" his campaign \"for political purposes,\" potentially setting up a showdown between the president and his intelligence and law enforcement agencies. \"I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!\" Trump tweeted, after a string of other tweets denigrating the special counsel's investigation into Russian election interference. The White House did not immediately provide guidance on what exactly Trump meant in terms of actions to be taken on Monday. The Department of Justice responded by integrating the president's request into an investigation that's already underway within the department, but it's unclear whether that will satisfy the president. The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is investigating the surveillance practices by the FBI and DOJ related to the Russia investigation. That probe began after Republican lawmakers alleged that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was improperly targeted for surveillance in the early days of the Russia investigation. After Trump's tweets on Sunday, the Justice Department formally asked the inspector general to expand its review to include tactics used against Trump campaign aides and advisers. \"If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action,\" said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump's tweet came towards the end of a weekend that was dominated with talk about confidential sources. Reports emerged on Friday that a man who met with Trump campaign aides on multiple occasions in 2016 was an FBI informant. Trump has grown frustrated with the Justice Department for refusing to turn over to congressional Republicans documents related to the informant. But intelligence officials say turning over the documents would put the source at risk, according to The Washington Post. In addition on Sunday, Trump continued to attack the credibility of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation into Russian election interference, calling the probe \"the world's most expensive witch hunt.\" The president's outside lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told NPR that Mueller's office has told the president's legal team that the part of the investigation involving the president—both the question of obstruction and collusion—would conclude by Sept. 1 if the much-debated interview with Trump takes place by mid-July. On Sunday, legal experts wondered how the Trump-appointed heads of the FBI and DOJ would respond to his demand for an investigation into the probe looking at his campaign if the Justice Department's accommodation ends up not being enough. Benjamin Wittes, a senior governance fellow at the Brookings Institution and the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, posted a tweet that called Trump's move \"a nakedly corrupt attempt\" to derail the investigation and predicted that forcing a probe would prompt both Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.", "A new Justice Department report says that politics illegally influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges. The 140-page report issued Monday largely lays the blame on top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.", "Glenn Fine may be the most powerful law enforcement officer you've never heard of. Over 10 years as the Justice Department's inspector general, Fine exposed widespread FBI civil liberties violations. He called out former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for failing to supervise employees who injected politics into hiring decisions. And he took the Marshals Service to task for not doing enough to protect judges. This month is Fine's last on the job. He's decided to retire and pursue other challenges in the law. As he prepares to leave, he and some of his adversaries are starting to evaluate his tenure as one of the toughest watchdogs that the Justice Department has ever seen. Michael Bromwich used to be the Justice Department's inspector general. He hired Fine. \"There were a lot of questionable and unfortunate things that were going on at the department, that led to important investigations that the inspector general's office did, and that Glenn led,\" Bromwich says. \"And that helped inform the public and the Congress as to some of the things that were going on that shouldn't have been going on.\" Fine worked under both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations. He produced major reports exposing security flaws and privacy violations by the federal government. He trained his 400-odd employees to pick high-value targets. And he gave them the freedom to roam. Some of his findings drew more attention than others. A report during the Bush years, about the way politics allegedly motivated the hiring of lawyers for the Justice Department's civil rights division and its summer internship program, was featured on the front pages of newspapers and on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In an interview, Fine cited another of his most meaningful investigations, on the FBI's widespread use of national security letters to snoop on people. The bureau tightened its procedures after the report emerged. A lot of people have underestimated Fine over the years — starting with his success in basketball. The San Antonio Spurs drafted him in the 10th round in 1979. Fine keeps a team poster on his wall to prove it. \"I'm quite short — I'm 5-foot-9 — and they don't believe I played basketball,\" Fine says. \"So I've taken to telling people, 'Well, before I started this job as the inspector general, I was 6-foot-9.' \" If anything, a decade on the job has elevated Fine's stature, not diminished it. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Justice Department turned its focus on national security, and the inspector general followed suit. Fine's office found fault with the roundup of immigrants after the attacks; the FBI's terrorist watch list system; and the adequacy of the Justice Department's preparations for a possible attack using weapons of mass destruction. His work hasn't always been popular. Congressional Republicans and Justice Department leaders in the Bush administration grumbled about his politicized hiring reports. They said that Fine played to the media and to Democrats in Congress. But Fine shakes off the critics. He said those kinds of complaints are to be expected in his line of work. \"That happens. Whenever you're doing a sensitive report, it's bound to make someone unhappy,\" he says. \"We're not going to be the most popular people here in the Department of Justice. But our job is to do an aggressive, tough but fair review and to lay out the facts.\" Washington lawyer George Terwilliger defended several people at the Justice Department who were under investigation by the aggressive inspector general. But he generally gives Fine good marks. \"Any time you're in that position, the person investigating your client is an adversary,\" Terwilliger says, \"but I always found Glenn to be a worthy and respected adversary.\" As for Fine's possible successor, Terwilliger says it's important that the White House picks a lawyer with experience leading big investigations. But he said there's another factor that's even more critical. \"As importantly as anything, I would hope they would be nonpolitical, because the position is subject to politicization and political abuse,\" Terwilliger says. Justice Department sources said it could take a while for them to nominate someone to fill Fine's shoes — and the nominee must be confirmed by the Senate. Fine's longtime deputy, Cynthia Schnedar, will lead the office for the time being.", "NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Harry Litman, a former deputy assistant attorney general, about the Justice Department's decision to pursue a criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation.", "The FBI apologized to the secret court that handles national security investigations for the way it conducted surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser during the 2016 election, according to a court filing made public on Saturday. FBI Director Christopher Wray outlined steps the bureau is taking to ensure it doesn't make the same mistakes again. He wrote in the filing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the FBI will tighten procedures governing wiretapping applications to the court, which oversees intelligence gathering under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FBI response comes after a report last month from the Justice Department inspector general that revealed serious issues with the bureau's applications to the court to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI suspected Page had possible ties to Russia. That report prompted the court to take the highly unusual step of publicly rebuking the FBI and ordering the bureau to revalidate its work. \"The FBI has the utmost respect for this Court and deeply regrets the errors and omissions identified by the Office of the Inspector General,\" Wray wrote in the filing, calling the FBI's conduct in relation to the Page surveillance \"unacceptable and unrepresentative of the FBI as an institution.\" \"The FBI is committed to working with the Court and DOJ to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the FISA process,\" he wrote. More than 40 corrective actions have been ordered, including 12 specifically related to the surveillance application process, according to the filing. The actions include the development of new training to reemphasize the importance of accuracy and thoroughness in all FISA applications, as well as increased oversight of the application process. Under FISA, the government must prove to a judge that surveillance of an American is justified because it suspects that person of being a foreign agent. Since defense lawyers never see the court filing, the Justice Department must accurately report every detail related to the request for surveillance. The inspector general report said that FBI investigators failed to inform the Justice Department of crucial information when seeking permission to wiretap Page. \"Much of that information was inconsistent with, or undercut, the assertions contained in the FISA applications that were used to support probable cause and, in some instances, resulted in inaccurate information being included in the applications,\" the report stated. Page was never charged with a crime.", "Nine months after the Senate Intelligence Committee published a scathing report on the U.S. torture of detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks, Amnesty International USA is demanding an investigation into the lackluster and \"inconsistent\" response by Justice Department officials. The alleged inaction by federal authorities has allowed interrogators to evade responsibility for the abuse and cloaked the government's failure to punish any wrongdoers, Amnesty said. NPR has obtained a formal complaint the group filed with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Monday afternoon. The document said leaders at the Justice Department have provided conflicting accounts about who, if anyone, there has read the complete version of the nearly six-year-long Senate study, commonly known as the \"torture report.\" The Senate study reported stark new details about mistreatment, including that 119 detainees were held in CIA custody and at least five of them were subjected to forced \"rectal feeding\" and \"rectal hydration.\" More importantly, Amnesty lawyers said, federal authorities have \"not established a process for assessing any new evidence of criminal wrongdoing that the full report provides.\" The 25-page Amnesty complaint described clashing statements by top DOJ officials about their familiarity with the report. In her Senate confirmation hearing this year, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told lawmakers she would read the executive summary of the Intelligence Committee report. And in separate testimony, in March, FBI Director James Comey told Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that he had read a summary and \"a small number of people at the FBI ... have read ... the entire thing.\" But in court filings in a Freedom of Information Act case, Justice Department lawyers said neither DOJ (which oversees the FBI) nor the State Department had opened packages with a computer disc that contained the full report, more than 6,000 pages long. And in comments to reporters after the executive summary became public, a Justice Department spokesman said investigators had reviewed the report but that they \"did not find any new information that they had not previously considered.\" Amnesty lawyers said they didn't know why the Justice Department had issued several apparently conflicting accounts of its handling of the Senate report, but in their complaint they cited the possibility that authorities were \"engaging in a cynical and hyper-technical effort to circumvent open records law ... and prevent the release of the full report to the public.\" \"The U.S. government as a matter of international human rights law is required to investigate evidence of human rights violations and the Justice Department itself is charged with investigating violations of federal law,\" Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty's security with human rights program, told NPR in an interview. \"If torture doesn't warrant a Justice Department investigation, I don't know what does.\" The Justice Department did appoint a career prosecutor, John Durham, to look into the destruction of videotapes that depicted abuse of detainees. Later, authorities expanded Durham's mandate to consider whether any laws had been broken in the brutal interrogations. DOJ leaders closed the investigation in 2012 without filing any criminal charges. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said the prosecutors' effort had been hampered by legal memos written by Justice lawyers during the George W. Bush administration. Those memos approved sleep deprivation, simulated drowning, slapping and other harsh interrogation methods and could be cited in any defense were a case to be brought. The public fight over those methods continues. Recently, former CIA officials published a book called Rebuttal, which took issue with the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Shah, of Amnesty International USA, said that makes the alleged foot-dragging by the Justice Department even more worrisome. \"We've got former U.S. government officials who authorized or condoned torture at the time who are now out there writing memoirs celebrating their own role in torture and the Justice Department is refusing to do anything about it,\" Shah told NPR. Representatives for the inspector general and the Justice Department declined comment.", "The Justice Department released a portion of an internal memo cited by former leaders as part of their decision concluding that former President Donald Trump did not obstruct justice, but in a court filing late Monday said it would seek to block the full document from release. The move is certain to disappoint watchdog groups and Biden administration allies in Congress, who have called for transparency about alleged wrongdoing in the Trump years — and accountability for officials who allegedly abused their power. Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse recently wrote to new Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him to end the court battle and make the document public \"in order to help rebuild the nation's trust in DOJ's independence after four years of turmoil.\" The lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, is one of the first public tests of how new Justice Department leaders will handle questionable activity by their predecessors. During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Joe Biden had an uneasy reaction to the idea of a federal case against Trump. Since then, Biden has pledged to leave decisions about law enforcement matters to the Justice Department. He told an interviewer he didn't know about a recent FBI search of the apartment of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani until after it had concluded. Law professor Jennifer Taub recently wrote that federal prosecutors need to return to an era of punishing white-collar criminals — and that the effort should begin with Trump. The current controversy arose in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by CREW, which sought a memo prepared by the Trump Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. The memo purportedly analyzes evidence about Trump's actions during the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller under the federal obstruction of justice statutes. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accused the Justice Department of mischaracterizing the document and being \"disingenuous\" with the court about its purpose and substance. Trump's critics, including former government ethics chief Walter Shaub, seized on the blistering decision. In a court ruling this month, the judge added that the previous DOJ management team may have misled her about exactly when former Attorney General William Barr had decided not to charge Trump. The judge gave the new leaders at the Justice Department two weeks to decide whether to appeal. The Justice Department asked for, and received, another week to make up its mind. In the end, Justice Department lawyers told the judge they would appeal and seek to block the publication of the full memo. The new DOJ brief said fuzzy wording in its own prior legal filings led the judge to draw inaccurate conclusions about how Barr came to decide not to charge Trump. Government lawyers argued the bulk of the memo should be shielded from the public under the theory that it protects deliberations by the Justice Department about whether facts in the Mueller probe met the high bar for a legal violation by Trump. As for the judge's concern that the Justice Department misled her, the new document said it came down to a misunderstanding. In fact, it said, the memo put in writing advice Barr had received, but that the document itself wasn't finalized until about two hours before Barr notified Congress. The Justice Department explained the process in a way that could resonate with Jackson — and could nod to Garland's long tenure on the federal bench as well. \"The process is not dissimilar to that of a judge who reaches a preliminary conclusion about how to rule in a given case and tasks a law clerk to write an opinion supporting that conclusion,\" it said. \"The law clerk's draft remains pre-decisional because the judge, after reading the analysis, can still be persuaded or dissuaded by the analysis and reach a different conclusion.\" The Justice Department agreed to release a small portion of the March 2019 memo, prepared for Barr by Steven Engel in the Office of Legal Counsel and Edward O'Callaghan, a top aide in the deputy attorney general's office. The now-public portion concluded that the aides believed the evidence of obstruction developed by the Mueller team is \"not, in our judgment, sufficient to support a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt\" that Trump violated the law. The dispute could now head to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where Garland was a judge for more than 20 years. Noah Bookbinder, president of CREW, which had sued for the memo's release, criticized the Justice Department's response. \"The Department of Justice had an opportunity to come clean, turn over the memo, and close the book on the politicization and dishonesty of the past four years,\" Bookbinder said. \"Last night it chose not to do so. In choosing to fight Judge Jackson's decision, the DOJ is taking a position that is legally and factually wrong and that undercuts effor", "Nearly one year into the Trump administration, the Justice Department has begun 2018 without Senate-confirmed leaders in at least six of its most important divisions. The department's top priority — and one often cited by the White House, too — is safeguarding national security. But Justice's national security unit has no permanent Trump appointee in place. What's more, a president and attorney general who campaigned on a promise of \"law and order\" do not have their choice in place to lead the Justice Department's criminal division, either. The Civil Rights Division, the Civil Division, the Environment and Natural Resources Division and the Tax Division are now being run by career lawyers or temporary White House appointees. Acting leaders are also in place at the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Community Relations Service. \"I'm not aware of any precedent for so many key positions in DOJ and its affiliated agencies remaining vacant for so long at the beginning of an administration,\" said former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich. It matters, he said. \"Vacancies impair the smooth and effective functioning of DOJ. Temporary leaders of litigating divisions and law enforcement agencies don't feel fully empowered to lead; important decisions don't get made; lower-level — but important — personnel decisions are put on hold; morale among career personnel declines,\" Bromwich said. \"It's not a recipe for good government.\" The White House has nominated people for many of the vacancies, but the Senate recessed in December without acting on the nomination of Boeing lawyer John Demers to lead the national security division and without voting on Brian Benczkowski, a DOJ official from the George W. Bush years, to run the criminal division. Also left hanging were Eric Dreiband, the Trump pick to run the civil rights division, and Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer in line to lead the Environment and Natural Resources Division. There's no single reason for the delays. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul had expressed reservations about the national security nominee's support of a controversial surveillance program, The Daily Beast reported. Several Democrats questioned the criminal division candidate, who had also been a finalist to serve as deputy attorney general, about his limited legal work for a Russian bank. In other cases, the White House was slow to submit paperwork for its picks. Several of the nominees in limbo attended Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Dec. 15 Christmas party at the Justice Department, where they mingled but declined to comment to a reporter while their nominations remained on hold. Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said when the Senate returns this month, members will take up at least some of the backlog: Trump's national security nominee, 10 candidates to serve as U.S. attorneys, and several more people in line to become U.S. marshals will be pending. Other nominees left hanging will have to redo their questionnaires and potentially submit to new questions from senators. The delays don't seem to bother former Justice Department lawyer Rory Little, now a law professor at the University of California, Hastings. Having career employees in place of political appointees isn't necessarily a bad thing, he suggested. And Cato Institute Senior Fellow Julian Sanchez pointed out the current Justice Department team has mostly ignored tweets from President Trump bashing the department or the FBI for failing to investigate his political opponent, Hillary Clinton, and her aides. In other words, an absence of Senate-confirmed leaders doesn't mean the Justice Department can't conduct its business or is bowing to political pressure from Trump about what to do or not to do. But the openings at the top of the department can have consequences for the department's direction and priorities, according to Julie Zebrak, who worked at DOJ as a career lawyer for 18 years. Interim, fill-in leaders unsure of how long they will be in their jobs can never act with the same kind of authority as Senate-confirmed ones, she said.", "NPR's Noel King talks to former Justice Department official Jack Goldsmith about Attorney General William Barr's public rebuke of President Trump for his Twitter attacks on the Justice Department.", "Updated at 4:29 p.m. ET Justice Department witnesses told House lawmakers on Wednesday they've observed political interference in big cases, including those involving a friend of President Trump's. Two currently serving lawyers appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to detail their concerns, which were revealed Tuesday in written testimony they prepared ahead of time. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer also testified. Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who has worked at the department since 2014, told the committee that top leadership of the Justice Department leaned on the U.S. Attorney's Office for Washington, D.C., to go easy on Trump's friend Roger Stone. \"What I saw was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from every other defendant. ... This leniency was happening because of Stone's relationship with the president,\" Zelinsky said. The other witness was John W. Elias, who has been a career lawyer at the Justice Department for presidents of both political parties. Elias described what he called alleged abuse of power by the department in service of the administration's political ends — acts serious enough to prompt him to report them to the inspector general and now, to Congress. A Justice Department spokeswoman said Tuesday the allegations were based on hearsay and subjective perceptions, not on solid facts or any personal contact with Attorney General William Barr. Republicans on Wednesday also pressed Zelinsky about how he could know the thoughts of people above him in the department's higher echelons when he had no contact with Barr or his lieutenants. Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia argued that an internal investigation had rejected Elias' allegations of improper activity within the antitrust division. Partisan acrimony Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., excoriated Barr on Wednesday for what he called a pattern of abuse of power. \"In his Department of Justice, the president's allies get special treatment and the president's enemies — real and imaged — are targeted for extra scrutiny,\" Nadler said. \"The needs of the people and the needs of justice are generally ignored.\" Nadler faulted Barr for resisting oversight by Congress, but Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said on Twitter during the hearing that Barr would appear before the panel next month. Ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said that Barr is only trying to right lingering wrongs that he said have carried over from what the lawmaker called the politicization of the Justice Department under former President Barack Obama. \"Bill Barr just simply wants to get the bottom of all this — and that's political?\" Jordan said. \"When the politics was in the previous administration?\" The hearing was often shrill. Members squabbled over the rules of the proceeding. When one witnesses' testimony ran over a 5-minute limit, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas began making a tapping sound on his desk. Democrats complained they couldn't hear what was being said. Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia asked Nadler about ordering the sergeant-at-arms to remove Gohmert. The chairman didn't pursue that idea and recognized the next witness, but the acrimonious tone for the session continued. Democrats returned again and again to what they called Barr's abuses and, in some cases, said he should resign or be removed. Republicans faulted Nadler's oversight and what they called his unfair procedures and also echoed Jordan's criticism about what they called the politicization of the Justice Department under Obama.", "A respected former head of the Office of Professional Responsibility says the Justice Department-controlled office should be abolished. The unit helps monitor ethics at Justice — but it is controlled by the attorney general. The other Justice watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, is independent. For years, government officials have rejected a merger of the two agencies that serve as the Justice Department's internal watchdogs. Now, as the OPR and OIG pursue a rare joint investigation of U.S. attorney firings — and other allegations of political improprieties at the department — the man who led OPR for 24 years tells NPR he thinks it would be a good idea to combine the two. Michael Shaheen helped create OPR in the mid-'70s. He fought against the creation of an Inspector General's office in the '80s. Now, he believes the watchdog he helped create has become ineffective and should close up shop. He said the Inspector General's office today is, \"a quick and efficient office that's empowered to investigate both administrative and criminal matters.\" But he finds OPR to be \"plagued by a history of delays and bureaucratic layers imposed on it,\" adding: \"by the end of an investigation — two or three years later — you find that they've labored and brought forth a squeak or a mouse.\" Shaheen says it's not easy for him to take this position publicly, having led OPR with pride for decades. In fact, he says he has pained over the issue for a long time. But, he says, \"I have to bow to the realities of a day and time with limited resources and the arguable ineffectiveness or limited effectiveness of the current Office of Professional Responsibility.\" OPR only investigates professional wrongdoing — allegations that lawyers have violated legal ethics rules. The Justice Department thinks it's important to have an office dedicated to that specific task. In a statement, spokesman Dean Boyd said OPR has grown in the last ten years and \"established a lean and dynamic investigative approach.\" Boyd said Shaheen \"may not be fully aware of the significant changes within OPR since his departure.\" OPR has a few dozen employees. It generally does not make its findings public, and although it puts out an annual report, the last one available was from 2004. In contrast, the Inspector General's office has more than 400 employees. It can pursue criminal investigations, and it releases all of its findings to Congress and many to the public. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, found it suspicious that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales first referred the U.S. attorney firing investigation to OPR rather than the Inspector General. \"It looked a little bit like this was an effort to give the investigation a decent burial rather than to really get to the bottom of what had gone wrong,\" Whitehouse said. \"That's why I was so gratified that OIG really forced its way in and said, 'no, wait a minute, we've got to do this,' and then the attorney general really backed down and let them into the investigation.\" Glenn A. Fine, the current inspector general, declined to comment for this story. His predecessor was Michael Bromwich. When he was offered the job 15 years ago, Bromwich said, it was his understanding that his office would absorb OPR. \"The rationale was then as it would be today — that it doesn't make sense to have two offices that essentially play an internal investigation and internal watchdog function,\" Bromwich said. The merger never happened. Today, Bromwich is not surprised that the attorney general first asked OPR to investigate the U.S. attorney firings and politicization at the Justice Department. \"What it tells you is that the attorney general, like many attorneys general before him, felt more comfortable referring a matter to OPR because he has a measure of control over OPR in a way that he does not over OIG,\" Bromwich said. Now OPR and OIG are investigating the controversy together — a rare arrangement — and the Justice Department has promised that the investigators will release their findings publicly. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. The Justice Department is unusual in that it has two internal watchdogs. They're currently running a joint investigation of U.S. attorney firings and reports of politicization of the department. Now, a man who led one of the offices for more than 20 years has told NPR that he believes the watchdog he helped create has become ineffective and should close up shop. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports. ARI SHAPIRO: Here's one easy way to tell the difference between the Justice Department's inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility -call both places and ask for an interview. The inspector general's office will give you a straight up yes or no. The Office of Professional Responsibility will tell you they can't make the decision, it's up to the main public affairs office. And that small detail s", "More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials have signed an open letter to Attorney General William Barr calling on him to resign, amid concerns that he is allowing political interference in criminal investigations. Washington Post reporter Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) joins Here & Now&#8216;s Tonya Mosley to review the latest developments. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "The Justice Department releases details on the abuse of men detained at a federal prison in Brooklyn, N.Y., after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The DOJ's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, says prison guards physically abused detainees, performed unnecessary strip searches and improperly taped meetings with lawyers. Hear NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty." ]

[ "Santa won't be within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes so he is good according to the cdc" ]

[ "Dragon Quest VII \n \nYou travel between a defeated world and the past. You save nations in the past and then you travel to them in the present and see how they're going.", "COVID or not, I still don't have money to travel.", "Travel to another time period", "Santa, all the free presents and Christmas joy please", "Travel, travel, and travel.", "A device to travel forwards in time. I would open a bank account and put a dollar in, then travel to the present and collect my millions in interest", "What year are u from time traveler", "Travel.", "Not listening about how serious covid-19 is.", "Surely the COVID-19 vaccine when all the clinical trials are complete!", "Travelers", "Time travel, but I'm a little doubtful that it's physically impossible to travel", "Italy.\n\nOne of the only times I found peace for almost 6 years was when I traveled to Italy last year.\n\nAnd I will return.", "How easy it is to travel anywhere by high speed rail.", "\"When did the Covid-19 pandemic end\"", "“In 10 years, you would be able to time travel”", "Travel agent", "Travel around the world and explore different cultures. Paid 3 million a year for when I retire.", "Awesome, we only need to buy one plane ticket when traveling now.", "How TF the time travel allows Cap to be there at the end of Endgame", "Travel", "Interstellar travel", "Time travel.", "travelling to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch", "We are currently travelling through time... so time travel?", "Travelled more.", "Travel to Japan.", "Travel the world and photograph it", "Travel to another planet.", "Time Travel with it", "Teleport not time travel.", "airline travel" ]

[ "textbooks" ]

[ "What I Did For Love", "DID", "I Could Write a Book", "writing", "Did Not Finish", "Did It for the Party", "Typee", "write", "by type", "physician assistant", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "The writing process", "writing desk", "oral or in writing", "Collaborative writing", "a writing tablet", "retired physician", "Freud's writings", "constrained writing", "writing implements", "illegal writing", "JP Did This 1", "to write inscriptions", "reading and writing", "the type of system", "writing on wood", "Type of Wagon", "a writing instrument", "concrete type", "sequential writes", "Type A behavior", "a type qualifier" ]

[ "Jewel" ]

[ "He who does not work", "DOE test", "A Doe subpoena", "Lightning Does The Work ''", "The Boy Does Nothing", "Daisy Does America", "does not build a web", "Doe v. Bolton", "Nobody Does It Better", "does not use electricity", "Debbie Does Dallas", "does not cause a problem", "Doe v. Ashcroft", "does not form spores", "Who We Are" ]

[ "Don't forget that LR is a non-destructive editor. This means that for all sources, whether RAW or JPEG, LR does not alter the original in any way. It does this partially by building a database of the image itself, so that it renders changes on screen, mimicking how they would look in the final export. \n\nLR builds several previews, stored in the preview database. It does 'normal' previews when you import the image, but if you zoom in, the render may not have enough data to show the zoom properly, thus LR may have to do another render with more detail. These are much larger in file size and take longer to build. One option is to have LR build these on import, which will result in longer import times, but no need to wait for LR to render an higher quality preview.\n\nFinally, I believe this is the real answer:\n\nWith RAW, there is only a small, low quality JPEG preview within the RAW file available, so LR has to create better versions for its use. As you observe, for JPEG originals, it would be possible to simply use the JPEG file itself, rather than render a preview. But that would mean that LR must have two different behaviors and methods: one for RAW, and a different one for JPEG. Very inefficient. \n\nUsing the JPEG as the source for a preview also means that you must have access to that JPEG at all times. Certain functions in LR work without access to any images. Since LR is using its database, the original can be offline, or elsewhere, and Library functions are still possible...if you have the needed previews. However, Develop module features are not available without the original." ]

[ "LR 5 does take more horsepower to drive its UI than LR3. The Macbook air is set up more for battery life than raw performance, so it's not as powerful as a macbook pro. Still, it shouldn't be that bad.\n\nA few things to try:\n\noptimize the catalog.\n\nif you're running with a second screen enabled, turn it off. I found that really slowed Lightroom down on my older laptop.\n\nselect all your images, the choose Library-Previews->discard 1:1 previews, then\nchoose Library->Previews->Build 1:1 previews (then go get some coffee). \n\nIt's possible your previews are poor, and it's regenerating them every time you switch images. Building up a set of previews will take time, but speed it up.\n\nNote that if you convert things to DNG the conversion process can be quite slow.\n\nAlso consider building a full set of Smart Previews.\n\nIn Preferences->File Handling check the size of the \"Raw Cache\" setting. If it's too small, you'll be throwing out and rebuilding your image caches too often. I set mine to 20Gb. Also I'd suggest purging it in case something's messed up in the cache. Ditto the video cache below it. \n\nIn \"Catalog Settings->file handling\" you probably want to adjsut your preview numbers. Mine are set to 2880 and \"high\" and discard 1:1 previews to never. For that computer, I'd go with 1440 and medium. Discard 1:1 previews probably should be at least 1 week, or you'll be throwing out and regenerating previews a lot.\n\nSee if any of these help.", "You can't. Lightroom (LR) ignores the in camera settings that were in effect at the time the photo was taken and applies its own preset or auto settings.\n\nI'm a Canon shooter. When I first open a Canon raw .cr2 file with Canon's in-house raw convertor, Digital Photo Professional (DPP), the application applies the in-camera settings that were active at the time the image was recorded to the preview I see on my screen. If I export the image as is, the in camera settings are applied to the raw data and the file is exported. Of course I'm also free to change any of the settings I wish before exporting with those settings applied. Most other manufacturer's in house softwares do the same thing.\n\nMost third party RAW conversion software, such as Lightroom or DxO Optics, do not apply the in camera settings. Some of them will allow you to build a custom profile to apply to each image as it is imported or opened. There is still the disadvantage that the same profile will be applied to all images imported as a batch, even if the in-camera settings were different for the different images you shot.\n\nFor more on how LR ignores the in-camera settings recorded in the maker note section of the EXIF info of a Canon .cr2 file, see Why do RAW images look worse than JPEGs in editing programs? and How to automatically apply a Lightroom Preset based on appropriate (Canon) Picture Style on import.\n\n\n\nNote: Since this answer was written we've become aware of a solution provided by Jeffrey Friedl and his awesome Lightroom plugin \"Data Explorer\". It's covered in detail in this answer written by c33s.", "Are you sure that Picasa actually chages the RAW file? I haven't used Picasa but many (most?) RAW formats include a JPEG preview and my guess is that the first thing you see is the preview and then you see the RAW-file. \n\nI may bee completely off here but that is how many RAW-viewers work.", "Lightroom Classic CC is already behaving that way. A few important things to note: \n\n\nYou can only ever set up one catalogue to sync with Lightroom CC\nIt won't sync the full catalogue, you need to specify collections which you want to sync\nThe synced smart previews don't count towards the cloud storage usage, only full-resolution images do\nIf you import anything to a Lightroom CC (e. g. on your mobile device, or another laptop), Lightroom Classic will download the full-resolution to the folder you specify in preferences\nIf any RAW files are on an external drive, you need to connect that drive to generate smart previews if they don't exist yet\nAny collection you create in Lightroom CC will also be created in Lightroom Classic, within a collection set called \"From Lr Mobile\"\nCollection Sets are not synchronized between CC and Classic, only the collections themselves are, but you can move the synchronized collections around in both applications without breaking the sync, so you can manually replicate the structure\n\n\nSee also the Adobe Documentation, the Feature Request and another forum question to synchronize more than Smart Previews.\n\nYour goal should \"just work\" if you set up your catalogue like the documentation states.", "I had a look at the preview functionality, and it seems all previews are actually handled by this specific url\nhttp ://(TRIDION-CM)/WebUI/Editors/CME/icon.png?target=view&amp;maxwidth=320&amp;maxheight=200&amp;uri=tcm%3A17-1724&amp;mode=thumb&amp;modified=2014-09-03T13:18:57\n\nThis icon.png looks to be some placeholder for a http handler that serves the actual image.\n\nI also found a web.config setting in the web config in C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Tridion\\web\\WebUI\\Editors\\CME\\web.config\n\n&lt;add path=\"multimedia.bin\" verb=\"GET\" validate=\"false\" type=\"Tridion.Web.UI.Editors.CME.Http.MultiMediaProvider\" /&gt;\n\n\nI'm not entirely sure, but I believe this multimediaprovider class handles creation of such a preview image.\nYou could try and build your own multimediaprovider http handler that can generate previews of your svg image.\n\n\n\nBig disclaimer : I'm not sure if modifying these files invalidates your support contract with Tridion. You might end up with a broken installation, so back up any files before making any modifications.", "I'm fairly certain there is no such mode. It doesn't have the same kind of feature that lightroom does as the full screen video preview is really the closest in terms of being related functionality. \n\nThe full screen mode is helpful in Lightroom because it allows focusing on the photo with only basic controls. Premiere is much more complex than LR and a significant portion of screen real-estate is taken up by those controls. If you aren't purely focusing on the video, then the amount of lost and distracting space really isn't a big issue.\n\nNote that if you really need every last scrap of screen real estate though, you can adjust the task bar so that you can make it only a small line on the bottom of the screen though. You really are not practically losing any meaningful amount of screen real-estate.\n\nThe only functionality is the functionality that maximizes a particular panel or full screens the preview, but you already mentioned those are not what you are looking for. That's the closest you are going to get though.", "Get a ColorChecker Passport and use it to create accurate profiles for Lightroom for the specific camera+lens combo and the current lightning conditions.\n\nWhile this doesn't guarantee that the images will look like the JPEGs generated by the camera, it does makes them look more accurate, perhaps even more pleasing than the JPEGs.", "Pixel Preview is selected in your top image - thus.... snap to pixels.", "There are multiple ways to do this, it depends on the type of photos (JPEG or RAW) and the desire to automate.\nPlugin\nThis shareware plugin seems to do what you want. When exporting your images, it assigns Mac OSX Finder labels that match the colour tags in Lightroom.\nI haven't tried this myself, but the screenshots seem promising.\nManually convert LR tag to Finder label\nAn alternative workaround would be:\n\nIn LR assign photos with a certain colour tag a certain keyword.\nGo to the Library view\nFilter all photos with a certain tag and select them\nOn the right there should be a Keywording panel, fill in the keyword of your choice there:\n\n\n\nDepends on file-type:\n\nIf JPEG: With the selection still active press CMD+S to write the metadata changes into the file.\nIf RAW: export the photos to JPEG's.\n\n\nIn Finder, navigate to the folder with the JPEG's and search for the keyword\n\nPlainly searching for the keyword is sufficient, this article describes how you can search for a specific attribute (in this case the keyword attribute).\n\n\nAssign a Finder label to the photos that are found in step 7.\nRepeat manually or automate\n\nAutomation with exiftool and tag\nIf you're slightly familiar with scripts you could take the following rough steps to automate assigning Finder labels based on LR colour tags:\n\nMake sure the LR colour tag is written to the JPEG files (see step 5 in the previous method)\nLoop over your images, e.g.: for f in *.jpg; do echo &quot;Check colour tag of $f file..&quot;; done\nWith exiftool check the value of the Label field of each image, e.g.: exiftool -s -s -s -Label photo.jpg\nBased on the value of step 3, assign a Finder label. This requires that you use some kind of command line interface to set the Finder label, e.g. tag.\n\nBelow script carries out the automated task for all JPG files in the current directory.\nPrerequisites are that you have exiftool and tag installed. Both can be installed via homebrew:\nbrew install exiftool\nbrew install tag\n\n#!/bin/bash\nfor f in *.jpg\ndo\n # Get the LR tag name\n lrtag=$(exiftool -s -s -s -Label $f)\n # This sets the tags, replacing any existing ones\n tag --set $lrtag $f\n # This adds tags, keeping any existing ones\n # tag --add $lrtag $f\ndone\n\nI'm not affiliated with any of the linked applications.", "Difficult to answer, I read a lot about LR but I don't recall an Adobe engineer commenting on that. However, from a software perspective, my answer would be no. I don't think LR is constantly monitoring performances; metadata changes when you make changes, at which point LR can decide: \"hey, these specific photos have changed, let me queue them up to see if some smart collections need to be updated\". Every now and then, and/or at least in a background thread, the queue would be processed and the smart collections updated. LR is heavily multi-threaded so my gut feeling is that you won't feel the update going on. \n\nLightroom keeps metadata in its catalog (a SQLite database) and optionally in your DNG/JPG/RAW/XMP files if you either write them back manually or have instructed LR to do so for you automatically (not recommended for performance). With that in mind, your metadata may be altered when a third-party application modify your files outside of Lightroom. When that happens, LR will show a small icon next to your thumbnail telling you that the metadata in the file need to be synchronized with the metadata in the catalog. Unless I'm wrong, it's up to you to make that decision by manually selecting: \"synchronize metadata\" or \"read metada from file\". When you do so, we are back to the situation above, I guess LR can decide to queue up the photos to see if smart collections need to be updated, in the background.", "Programs like LightZone, Darktable, or RawTherapee — or proprietary software like Adobe Lightroom — have RAW conversion as a centerpiece function, but they're more than that.\n\nThey're also (to greater or lesser degree depending on the program) photo library management tools, with functions for sorting, labeling, and publishing images. This aspect can generally work on JPEG files as well as RAW originals.\n\nAnd, in addition to simply loading and converting RAW images, they all have editing functionality. These editing functions can usually also be used on JPEG files, with some limitations inherent to not starting with a much data as RAW provides. (See \"the value of RAW\" answer to Good examples of RAW&#39;s advantages over JPEG? for details on what exactly that means.)\n\nThere are two reasons you might do this:\n\nFirst, these programs are focused on photography, while general-purpose image editors aren't. \n\nFor example, on Linux, Gimp is the premiere image manipulation program, and its feature development recently aims for graphic design and image creation as primary tasks. So, it's nice to use a tool which actually is centered around photographs. See What are the key photography-related features from Photoshop that are missing in GIMP? for some things Gimp doesn't do — many of these aren't missing from LightZone, Darktable, or RawTherapee. \n\nSecond, and in general rather than just on Linux, these tools have non-destructive editing as a fundamental design — the \"edits\" you make don't change the actual image file, but are recorded as a series of steps to apply. This can actually be particularly good for JPEG files, because if you (for example) spend some time doing photo touchup, save the image, and then later realize you also wanted to do some color correction, your normal choices are a) do the touchup over again or b) accept extra quality loss from recompressing the JPEG a third time. With a non-destructive editor, you simply add in the new adjustments and re-export. (Compressing a second time is inevitable, but two is better than three, and if you start from a very-high-quality JPEG, is usually a non-issue.)", "I recommend you to try very powerful utility LRS, http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~avis/C/lrs.html.\nIt is an open source application (a set of applications) to handle polyhedrals. B.t.w. one of LRS applications, called redund &quot;removes redundant inequalities from an H-representation&quot; (from description) - seems that what you need. There are parallel (MPI-based) versions for clusters and multiprocessor computers, as well.\nIf you are Linux user you can find LRS in standard repositories. Anyway, open sources (in C) are available for &quot;manual&quot; building.", "Everything @Scott said is true but for better understanding of the WHY and even how come RED seems to look worse, I direct you to this information (emphasis mine and edited for flow)\n\n\n JPEG ... is designed for compressing either\n full-color or gray-scale images of natural, real-world scenes [and] is\n a lossy compression algorithm...\n \n JPEGs are best suited for continuous tone images like photographs or\n natural artwork; not so well on sharp-edged or flat-color art like\n lettering, simple cartoons, or line drawings. JPEGs support 24-bits of\n color depth or 16.7 million colors. \n \n JPEG is actually just a compression algorithm, not a file format. \n JPEG is designed to exploit certain properties of our eyes, namely,\n that we are more sensitive to slow changes of brightness and color\n than we are to rapid changes over a short distance. \n \n While JPEGs are usually the best choice for photographs, on 8-bit\n monitors they are force-dithered into an 8-bit palette. JPEG\n compression is treated as 24 bit data (8 bit for gray), regardless of\n the colors in the original image. Therefore, if you reduce an image\n from 24-bit to 8-bit prior to JPEG compression, the compression ratio\n will actually worsen as will the overall quality. \n \n JPEG compression introduces noise into solid-color areas, which can\n distort and even blur flat-color graphics. This is why JPEGs are not\n well suited to flat-color sharp-edged art or type. A JPEG can reduce\n a 900K 24-bit image to 45K (high quality) or 30K (medium quality), a\n factor of 20:1 to 30:1. With JPEGs, however, the more you compress,\n the more edge definition and sharpness you lose. JPEGs do not support\n transparency, either.\n \n It is important to note that saving a graphic to JPEG format with\n compression should be a last step. Compression effects are cumulative.\n This means that every time you re-save a JPEG file, you are\n compressing it further, and thereby tossing away data (photographic\n detail) that you can't get back.\n\n\nNow for the super technical details that explain the prevalence of the RED (which is a trick on the eye actually) you might want to read this information (again emphasis is mine)\n\n\n The starting point of the JPEG compression are the pixels in the\n primary colors red, green and blue, which are for a lossy compression\n is not optimally suited. Before the actual compression simply convert\n the RGB colors, for example, in the YCrCb model that the first channel\n stores the pure brightness information (Y), so the average of the\n brightness of the red, blue and green channel. Stores in the second\n channel is the deviation of the red channel of the average brightness,\n and in the third channel, the deviation of the blue channel. The value\n for the green channel can be calculated from this and does not need to\n be specially recorded. Once you have separated as components luminance\n (brightness) and chrominance (color), you can reduce the resolution of\n the two chrominance channels to half or a quarter, as they for the\n sharpness does not matter. The visual cortex of humans contains\n independent systems for the perception of colors and shapes, and the\n color-blind would ignore the former fine resolution color boundaries\n anyway, the color detection system works again with a three to four\n times as low resolution as the form of recognition.\n\n\nHope that helps you understand better all that's going on.", "There is a setting in Preview > Preferences, in the Images tab which might be relevant:", "I assume, probably either different settings for the image processing library or different libraries in use, e.g. ImageMagick on local and GD on production.", "Quoting from a comment of @BrockAdams to one of my answers, the preview parameter is used for development and testing purposes. \n\nIf you set it to true, your request will only simulate whether it is a valid request or not and will not change anything on the site.", "Raw files are an intermediate format. It's essentially the unmodified sensor data (often in Bayer pattern), packaged with a bunch of metadata about the shot as well as a JPEG preview (for quick viewing). The data is both losslessly compressed and of a higher bit depth than that of JPEG.\n\nYou only need to shoot raw if you wish to develop the photos into JPEGs, or other destination formats such as TIFF or PNG, yourself by using a software suite. This has many benefits to photographers wanting to take their photos beyond the camera, as well as provides the ability to extract information that might otherwise be lost. For example, bringing out detail in shadows, bringing back detail lost in highlights.\n\nA raw file is analogous to a film negative in the fact that you can keep producing different versions of a photograph by manipulating settings such as contrast, saturation, white balance, black and white etc.\n\nThe main thing to note is that raw files are nothing more than the base data for creating a JPEG representation. They're not some better format of photo, because they're not the format used to print or to upload to the internet. They're the egg and you are the frying pan. Shooting JPEG means the camera fries the egg for you, in a way you may or may not like. I personally don't take the chance.\n\nMain Differences\n\n\nJPEG compression discards information in the image to reduce the size, raw does not.\nJPEG can only store 8 bits of information per component (red, green, blue), where a raw file may contain 12 - 14 bits for most DSLRs these days. The pixel data in a 14-bit raw file is 64 times more detailed than a JPEG.\nChanging white balance and many other basic settings can cause severe loss of quality in a JPEG, with raw you are essentially starting from scratch with the highly accurate data.\nRaw files are typically 2 to 5 times larger because of the compression and bit depth of the data.", "I do not remember LR version with profiles in Basic panel. For current standalone (and I think also for CC) they are in Camera Calibration. Same for version 5", "Many people design elements, especially mobile interfaces, at twice the size to be able to preview the files at native resolution and then may need to export at 1X for devices with lower resolution. My understanding is that the trend is moving towards designing at 1x, which can more easily be scaled up to 2x, 3x, or 124x ;)", "1) I have never seen any official information, but various people close to the LR development team indicated at numerous occasions that LR is internally using color space that they named Melissa, which has gamut of ProPhoto RGB, but different gamma.\n\n2) No devices support entire ProPhoto RGB, but many, especially modern inkjet printers, exceed sRGB and even AdobeRGB in different colors. When using these small gamut color spaces, you lose the ability to print these colors. The visual differences are subtle, though. Even if you finally convert to sRGB for web use, using larger color spaces may be beneficial, because you have control over how are the out of gamut colors toned down. If you use sRGB workflow, these colors will be just clipped. \n\n3) This is normal. There are several reasons:\n\n\nYour monitor is most likely only capable of displaying sRGB colors\nYou can only see a difference if you actually have an image that has those colors that sRGB can't show. Many times sRGB is enough so there is nothing to see\nEven if you have such colors and a way to display them, the differences are often subtle. Next time when you see an image of vivid flowers on the internet, note that they are sometimes totally lacking detail inside of the most saturated areas. This is a sign of out of gamut colors. \n\n\nThe picture below shows gamut of a randomly picked portrait picture from my LR catalog. First is in ProPhoto, second in sRGB and third in my printer's color space. Note how is the sRGB clipped and how is the printer gamut larger than sRGB. This is even more interesting with nature shots with natural foliage green. The triangles represent sRGB and ProPhoto RGB color spaces", "When you manipulate the tone curve of an image so that both the darkest shadow detail and the brightest highlight detail from a 14-bit RAW file that uses the full dynamic range available is visible at the same time on an 8-bit monitor it tends to \"flatten\" the image a little. Techniques such as HDR, Exposure fusion, using layers to set different exposure levels for various areas of an image are an attempt to increase local contrast in the image so that it still has some \"pop\" while preserving the detail in both the shadows and the highlights.\n\nDepending on how you have LR set to display a RAW file when an image is first opened the 8-bits of information your monitor can display are usually taken from the middle of the full dynamic range. Moving the exposure slider to the left doesn't synthesize new information that wasn't already present in the RAW file, it just shifts which range of values in the RAW data are depicted between black and white. The value at which full saturation is displayed is increased, but so is the value that is rendered as full shadow (black). Moving the exposure slider in the other direction lowers the black point and white point so that details of shadows are made lighter at the same time dimmer highlights are displayed as full saturation (white). Sliding the highlights, shadows, or black sliders increase or decrease the exposure for only the pixels that fit that part of the luminance range in the image.\n\nYou can do the same thing with contrast, color temperature, saturation, etc. There is no way for an 8-bit monitor to simultaneously display all of the information contained in a 12- bit or 14-bit file. When you move the sliders you aren't telling the program to synthesize something that isn't already in the RAW file, you are telling the program what parts of the information in the RAW file you wish it to display.", "I just want to confirm that EC essentially affects brightness before the image is captured, whereas \"Brightness\" essentially affects the brightness after the image is captured.\n\n\nBasically, yes. But it is not exactly that simple. It also depends on exactly what stage in the processing pipeline is \"captured.\" Whether you mean \"captured\" raw data or a \"captured\" JPEG image produced using that raw data determines whether the more complete answer is \"yes\" or \"no\".\n\nShort answer:\n\n\nIf you saved an NEF file containing the raw to your memory card the answer is Yes.\nIf you only saved a JPEG to your memory card the answer is No.\n\n\nAperture and shutter duration determine how many photons strike the imaging sensor. That is, they control how much light the camera collects. Of course, the brighter the light in the scene is, the more will be collected by the same Av and Tv. Well, unless you're considering a flash strobe that has a very short duration, in which case the Tv won't matter (unless it is shorter than the camera's sync speed in which case it will matter) and only the Av will determine how much of the light from the flash is allowed into the camera. See how quickly it ceases being so simple?\n\nISO and the camera's signal amplification determine how the electrical charge created by photons striking the sensor are translated to digital data in the form of what we call raw data. Everything else done downstream of the raw data is based on these digitized numbers. Changes made to the way these numbers are interpreted don't change the numbers themselves, they just change the way the numbers are processed to produce a viewable image.\n\nThe preview you see on the camera's LCD right after you take the picture is a jpeg preview generated by the camera based on the camera's firmware that includes algorithms used to convert the numbers in the raw data. Things such as black point, white point, color temperature and white balance, contrast, etc. are determined by the algorithms used to demosaic and convert the raw data. The jpeg preview, along with a list of the instructions used to produce it, is then attached to the raw image data in the NEF file.\n\nWhat the various Picture Controls on your camera do is alter the set of instructions the camera uses to interpret the numbers in the raw data to create a preview image or a finished JPEG. Canon calls the same thing Picture Styles.\n\n\nIf you are only saving your images as JPEGs, the Picture Control settings used when you took the picture are \"baked in\" and can't be reversed later. So in a sense, these settings are \"captured\" in the JPEG image. Any changes you make when editing a jpeg image are based on the result of the Picture Control Settings used to create the original JPEG.\nIf you save the raw data, then the Picture Control settings affect the list of instructions saved alongside the data from the sensor. But they have no direct effect on the raw numbers themselves. The instructions can be altered later and a new interpretation of the same raw data can be used to produce a very different jpeg than the original interpretation produced in the preview image.\n\n\nIf we decide later to edit a raw file what we change are the instructions used to convert the numbers in the raw file. Even when we \"save\" these changes to the raw file we don't change the numbers in the original data obtained from the sensor. What we change is the set of instructions included with those numbers.\n\nIf, on the other hand, only the information in the jpeg is preserved then any further edits change the numbers contained in the jpeg file. But since the jpeg has a lot less information than the raw data did, our ability to change the image is more limited.", "JPEG projects $8\\times 8$ blocks of images onto $64$ 2D cosine patterns:\n\n\n\nThe one in column $1$ and row $5$, once quantized, may look like your hamburger. Luminance and chroma components may get different subsampling patterns. I suspect that the low varying background is nearly horizontal, and due to the different processing steps, it ends up with a mid-frequency non-zero component. My main issue is its $10\\times 10$ apparent size. Apparently, WebP also does some prediction on blocks.\n\nYou might be interested in compression forencics, that try to recover the history of compression. For JPEG, JPEG CHEst (JPEG Compression History Estimation for Color Images) does the job, based on paper JPEG Compression History Estimation\nfor Color Images.", "The architecture of XPM is such that part of it is within your website build (ADF), part is the Session Preview Web Service, part is a dependency on the Content Manager, and, of course, the underlying databases (CM DB, Broker DB and the Session Preview DB).\n\nSo if you need to scale it out, you'll need to consider all these parts. Think through why you're scaling out: fail over, high availability performance or all), and scale out what you need (based on content editors'/users' actions). If doing a lot if previewing, then reinforce your Preview Webservice and DB (as per the documentation Eric provided links to). If doing a lot of saving of pages and components, then look the CM servers.", "\\documentclass{article}\n\\usepackage{booktabs}\n\\usepackage{siunitx}\n\\begin{document}\n\\begin{table}\\centering\n\\begin{tabular}{lS[table-format=1.3]\nS[table-format=1.3]S[table-format=1.3]S[table-format=1.3]S[table-format=1.3]S[table-format=1.3]S[table-format=1.3]}\n\\toprule\n&amp; \\multicolumn{2}{c}{\\textbf{Mix Rate}} &amp; \\multicolumn{2}{c}{\\textbf{Mutation factor}} &amp; \\multicolumn{2}{c}{\\textbf{Crossover probability}} \\\\\n\\cmidrule(lr){2-3} \\cmidrule(lr){4-5} \\cmidrule(lr){6-7}\n\\textbf{Dimensions} &amp; {Mean} &amp; {Std} &amp; {Mean} &amp; {Std} &amp; {Mean} &amp; {Std} \\\\ \\midrule\n\\textbf{30} &amp; 0.550 &amp; 0.091 &amp; 0.519 &amp; 0.089 &amp; 0.599 &amp;0.133 \\\\\n\\textbf{50} &amp; 0.549 &amp; 0.076 &amp; 0.521 &amp; 0.094 &amp; 0.565 &amp;0.125 \\\\\n\\textbf{100} &amp; 0.609 &amp; 0.085 &amp; 0.529 &amp; 0.093 &amp; 0.504 &amp;0.135 \\\\\n\\bottomrule\n\\end{tabular}\n\\end{table}\n\\end{document}", "The Website Checker site allows you to simply paste the text of your raw SVG into a box and then preview &amp; download the resulting image as PNG or JPEG.", "This suggestion is periodically raised but is (so far) regarded as contrary to elementaryos design policy I am afraid. See for example https://github.com/elementary/files/issues/438\n\nElementary native apps are intended to open quickly enough to make a preview unnecessary as the delay in generating the preview would be comparable with the delay in opening the app. Native apps are intended be as simple as possible. In most cases the combination of file name and thumbnail (which can be as large as 256px at maximum zoom) is enough to identify the contents of the file.", "Finally figured this out thanks to Why can I only see a path when it&#39;s not white?\n\nAlthough my solution was a bit different since I didn't have \"Simulate Colored Paper\" on.\n\n(1) Turn overprint preview on (View > Overprint Preview). This will at least let you see what is and is not showing\n(2) Add to your panels the Object Properties pane\n(3) Click on the objects that do not appear\n(4) Unclick \"Overprint Fill\"", "First off, darktable doesn't know how your manufacturer processes it's jpegs, each camera is different and the method an important differentiator between camera's and manufacturers.\n\nIn the preferences is a section for GUI (graphical user interface) options, specifically:\n\n\n Don't use embedded preview JPEG but half-size raw\n \n Check this option to not use the embedded JPEG from the raw file but >process the raw data. This is slower. (default off).\n\n\nUnless told otherwise darktable defaults to showing the small jpeg preview embedded in the RAW file by your camera which will have all the settings your camera had at the time applied to it. Once you have opened the image and edited it, the preview is updated to reflect your edits. This is most noticeable if you take an image with the camera's black and white settings on. The preview jpg is black and white but the RAW is a colour image. You're camera's own software (and any that pays for the info) will then apply the black and white settings itself. Darktable and other free open-source software doesn't have access to this information.\n\nIt is possible to use ctrl+c / ctrl+v to copy and paste full or partial history stacks from one thumbnail to another or create styles which are basically a recording of the history stack of modules that have been used on one image and saved under a preset name to use on another.\nSee history stack and styles.\n\nIn Junkyardsparkle's answer here a third option is described where the darktable-chart binary is used to try and creating base settings to mimic the output of camera modes. The Darktable manual page 1.1.4. darktable-chart binary describes it as \n\n\n \"This binary is a dedicated utility to create styles out of pairs of\n images such as RAW+JPEG with in-camera processing.\"\n\n\nUsing darktable chart states:\n\n\n 10.3.1. Overview\n \n With darktable-chart we provide a tool for extracting luminance and\n color values out of images taken from color reference cards like\n IT8.7/1 charts. Its main purpose is to compare a source image\n (typically a largely unprocessed raw image) to a target image\n (typically a JPEG image created in-camera) and produce a darktable\n style that is able to convert luminance and color values of the source\n image to produce the target image. This style employs the tone curve\n module, the input color profile, and the color look up table module\n for that purpose (see Section 3.4.2.3, “Tone curve”, Section 3.4.3.11,\n “Input color profile”, and Section 3.4.3.6, “Color look up table”).\n \n Some cameras are particularly advanced in offering various film\n simulation modes of your choice. With the help of darktable-chart and\n the underlying modules you can now create styles that replicate these\n film simulations from within darktable.", "There is nothing wrong with your Aperture setup. RAW files are like film negatives, they need to be processed so they can be viewed/displayed as intended. Your camera does not show the RAW file when you press play and preview the image but rather a JPEG image that has been processed in-camera. This is known as a sidecar file.\n\nThe software that came with your camera is effectively processing the image the same as your camera would. Camera manufacturers provide software to \"develop\" your RAW files in the same way that your camera would. Different manufacturers of software have different processes or algorithms to process the digital-negative or RAW file. \n\nSearched \"raw files look different\" in the searchbar:\n\nFurther reading:\nWhy do my photos look different in Photoshop/Lightroom vs Canon EOS utility/in camera? \n\nHow can different RAW converter programs give different results?", "I've just consulted a parsing book, and it indeed requires that $S \\Rightarrow^+ S$ be impossible, if $S$ is the starting symbol, before a grammar is considered $LR(k)$. As you said yourself, this is not required for a grammar to be $LL(k)$.\n\nUsually, it is implicitly assumed grammars 'behave' when we make statements about them, such as $LL(k) \\subset LR(k)$. For instance, $S \\Rightarrow^+ S$, absence of symbols not derivable from $S$, and absence of symbols not deriving terminal strings are all properties of 'well behaved' context free grammars.\n\nIf we assume these things, we are spared some weird oddities of context-free grammars: for example, if we have some grammar with starting symbol $S$, by adding a nonterminal $T$ and productions $T \\to \\epsilon$, $S \\to T S$, we can force the grammar to have infinitely many parse trees for every string in the language it represents. In contrast, if we do assume 'well behaved' grammars, we are guaranteed only finitely many parse trees exist for any input.", "The MacOS X feature that's responsible for showing you previews in Finder, Spotlight, standard file dialogs, etc., is called QuickLook. QuickLook needs an importer for each type of file that you'd like to preview. For standard types like text files, JPEG and PNG images, sounds, and others, the system has built-in QuickLook importers. In other cases, applications provide importers for their own files. You can find the importers installed on your system in the following locations:\n\n\n/System/Library/QuickLook/: Importers provided by Apple as part of a standard OS X installation\n/Library/QuickLook/: Importers installed on your machine available to any user. This is where a 3rd party application would normally install an importer.\n~/Library/QuickLook/: Importers installed in the current user's account (the ~ indicates the home directory of the current user, e.g. /Users/johnnyappleseed). Importers installed here are only available to the current user.\n\n\nIt sounds like Adobe provides an importer for DNG files, but perhaps theirs has a problem or perhaps there's a newer version you can download. (I don't use LightRoom so can't offer firsthand advice there.) I'd start by checking Adobe's site or pinging their support people or forums.\n\nIt's entirely possible for third parties to create QuickLook importers if they know how to read some file type. A quick search turned up DNG Suite for MacOS X which might be worth a shot. There may be others as well." ]

[ "Joe Simpson, who handles the careers of two of the hottest artists on the charts right now -- daughters Jessica and Ashlee Simpson -- is making further inroads into the music business through a label joint venture with Geffen Records." ]

[ "She faulted the band. Geffen Records, her label, pointed to a computer glitch. Her dad blamed a scratchy throat. Finally, Simpson admitted that the chance to perform", "For a third, non-consecutive week, MTV chanteuse Ashlee Simpson finds her debut Geffen album atop The Billboard 200. Despite an 8% decline in sales to 263,000 copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan, &quot;Autobiography&quot; remains at No. 1 for a second ...", "Interscope Geffen A&amp;M said it has entered into a joint venture with Octone Records, home to rockers Maroon 5, to launch a new label, dubbed A&amp;M/Octone.", "Joe Simpson, father and manager of recording artists Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, said Tuesday he was surprised by the vehement reaction to Ashlee&#39;s lip", "DreamWorks SKG co-founder David Geffen laughs when asked what it&#39;s like to invest with Edward Lampert, the hedge fund manager and Kmart chairman who startled the", "Coffee house Starbucks is to launch its own music label, saying it will sign both established and new artists.", "US pop star Justin Timberlake joins forces with a rival music company to launch his own record label.", "SEATTLE -- Starbucks Corp. expanded its push into the entertainment business yesterday, launching a record label with the same brand -- Hear Music -- stamped on the compilation CDs it sells in coffeehouses.", "Peter Gelb, the president of the Sony Classical recording label, was chosen Friday to succeed Joseph Volpe as the Metropolitan Opera's general manager.", "Starbucks Corp.'s push into entertainment moved further from the coffeehouse shelves Monday as the company launched a record label based on its existing Hear Music brand.", "R&B singer Macy Gray will release her first album in four years next month as part of a new deal with the will.i.am music group/Geffen.", "Keith Abrahamsson launches the first all-digital reissues label, Anthology Recordings.", "Speed-the-Plow, Geffen Playhouse, Westwood; through March 25", "Starbucks Corp. said on Monday it has formed its own record label that will develop music offerings to be sold both in the chain's coffee shops and through traditional music retailers.", "Terra Firma Capital Partners said one of its managing directors, Chris Roling, will replace Eric Nicoli at the music label of The Beatles, Coldplay and the Rolling Stones.", "After releasing albums by Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell, Starbucks' new record label is putting out a disc by newcomer Hilary McRae.", "Ashlee Simpson performed on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and managed to make the third word in the show&#39;s title decidedly redundant.", "YouTube continues to attract attention from the labels, managers and aspiring artists.", "eMusic is launching a revamped music download service that carries only music from independent labels.", "Joe Simpson has guided his two daughters, Jessica and Ashlee, to success as MTV reality-show stars and pop singers. Now he's seeking a new property.", "Jessica Simpson will unveil two new releases on Nov. 23: an expanded edition of a seasonal album previously available only at 7-Eleven stores in North America and a concert DVD.", "Justin Timberlake has joined forces with a rival music company to launch his own label, Tennman Records.", "Joe Simpson, father and manager of recording artists Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, said Tuesday he was surprised by the vehement reaction to Ashlee's lip-syncing incident on NBC's \"Saturday Night Live\" but doesn't think her credibility with kids will suffer as a result.", "20th Century Fox launch a home video label targeting America's church-going audience.", "Apple yesterday launched its iTunes Plus service which makes selected tracks compatible with virtually any MP3 player. Songs from record label EMI's digital catalogue can now be downloaded without digital rights management (DRM) anti-piracy technology.", "With a new album on a new label (yes, Starbucks is involved) Paul McCartney meets the age of iTunes on his own terms.", "Not long ago the German record producer Dieter Oehms founded his own label after 35 years in the business.", "The latest album from pop singer Jesse McCartney could make David Goldberg a star. Goldberg is general manager of online music sales for Internet giant Yahoo Inc. , and his Yahoo Music Service is selling McCartney's ``Right Where You Want Me\" without restrictive antipiracy software. If Yahoo can sell more copies of the album than the dominant iTunes Store, run ...", "Sony BMG, the world's No. 2 record label, is in early talks with file-sharing network Grokster in what could lead to a legalized Internet music service, its chairman said on Tuesday.", "CBS Corp said on Friday it is launching a new music label as part of an effort to supply its television shows with less expensive music. At the same time, the television programs would promote the new acts signed by the label, dubbed CBS Records.", "Another major label strips digital rights management restrictions from its songs to partner with the world's biggest e-tailer.", "Scott Weiland, frontman of Velvet Revolver and former lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, has launched Softdrive Records, Billboard has learned." ]

[ "Thrax" ]

[ "What's Your Mama's Name", "What Yo Name Iz?", "That's Not My Name", "a royal name", "A Horse with No Name", "given name", "What's Up?", "What a Friend", "personal names", "What's in It for Me", "The Name of the Wind", "What If Nothing", "The Street with No Name", "things are what they are", "A Place with No Name", "What You Want Is What You Get", "What a Life!", "What A Night", "What If It's You", "In the Name of the Father", "What Car?", "Name brands", "What So Not", "What If We", "What a Waste", "What Is a Youth", "For What It's Worth", "What to Audit", "Be What You Are" ]

[ "OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada says records detailing the abuse of former residential school students can eventually be destroyed.\nThe unanimous high court ruling today brings clarity to an issue that pitted the privacy of victims against the importance of documenting a dark chapter in Canada's relations with Indigenous Peoples.\nStudents provided accounts of physical, sexual and emotional abuse as part of an independent assessment process to provide compensation — a program that flowed from a major 2006 settlement agreement.\nThe Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that said the material should be destroyed after 15 years, though individuals could agree to have their stories preserved at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg." ]

[ "October 6, 2017 —\nThe following is a statement from Ry Moran, Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), on today’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the fate of the Independent Assessment Process Records.\nToday’s decision marks a significant moment in our nation’s history. The Supreme Court confirmed that the detailed records of the abuse inflicted on young children inside the residential schools, and the corresponding decisions rendered by Independent Assessment Process adjudicators in the award of compensation will be destroyed.\nAs affirmed by the courts, the path forward is to ensure the remaining Survivors of the Residential School system are made aware of their right to transmit their history to future generations. Informing Survivors of their rights will take the effort of all parties involved in this complex matter to come together in a spirit of humility and respect. Ensuring the notice program honours Survivor rights to chose whatever option they feel is most appropriate for them and their families is paramount.\nCentral in this must be the recognition that some Survivors will be angered by the late arrival of this notice program. Central also is the stark reality that many Survivors have passed on before being able to choose.\nThis notice program must proceed in a respectful and trauma informed manner that places Survivor choice at the Centre of the discussion. Survivors have already been hurt greatly by this nation, and this enhanced notice process must strive to not further re-traumatize Survivors.\nWe look forward to working with the other parties to this matter in developing a respectful process that honours Survivors and respects individual rights.", "Highlights from the news file for Friday, Oct. 6\n———\nBOMBARDIER HIT WITH HEFTY ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES: Bombardier has been slapped with more American duties on exports of its CSeries commercial jet. The American Commerce Department added nearly 80 per cent in preliminary anti-dumping duties. The Montreal-based aircraft manufacturer faces a total tariff of almost 300 per cent when combined with last week's almost 220 per cent countervailing duties. The duties involve an ongoing dispute with Boeing, which has accused Bombardier of getting unfair subsidies.\n———\nCOURT GREEN LIGHTS DESTRUCTION OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL RECORDS: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that records detailing the abuse of former residential school students can eventually be destroyed. It upholds a lower court ruling that said the sensitive material collected for the independent assessments should be destroyed after 15 years. Students provided accounts of physical, sexual and emotional abuse as part of an independent assessment process to provide compensation.\n———\nFEDS ANNOUNCE SCOOP COMPENSATION: An Ontario First Nations leader expressed hope Friday that a compensation package for '60s Scoop survivors will put a stop to Indigenous children being stolen from their culture and identity. Beaverhouse chief Marcia Brown Martel made the comments as the federal government announced $750 million in compensation. Starting in the 1960s, Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed with non-Indigenous families because officials thought they would get better care.\n———\nECONOMY CONTINUES TO CREATE JOBS: Canada's jobless rate remained at a nine year low of 6.2 per cent last month after Canada say a net increase of 10,000 new jobs. The rise in full-time work more than offset a drop of part-time jobs, but last month's net job gain was driven by growth in public-sector employment. CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld called the numbers \"ho-hum\" last month and in line with other signals of a moderation in economic growth.\n———\nHOLOCAUST PLAQUE TO BE REDONE: The federal government is redoing a dedication plaque at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa after criticism that it fails to mention Jewish victims of the Nazis. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dedicated the monument last week but the wording was noticed immediately. Martin Sampson of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs says the government has acknowledged the error and the plaque will be replaced.\n———\nSWEDISH MAN ACCUSED OF RAPING GIRLS IN CANADA: A man in Sweden is charged with raping girls in Canada and two other countries entirely through online contact. Swedish prosecutors call it a potentially precedent-setting case. Bjorn Samstrom is currently on trial facing dozens of charges. Prosecutors allege that Samstrom coerced girls to perform sexual acts in front of webcams by threatening them or their families. They say prosecutors reached out to Canadian authorities and the case was brought to the attention of the RCMP, who worked with local police to identify the girls.\n———\nMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO THROWING AN OBJECT AT QUEBEC PREMIER: A man who threw something at Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard has pleaded guilty to assault. The incident involving Esteban Torres occurred in 2016 at a vigil for victims of the Orlando massacre. The object in question was never recovered but Torres said at the time it was a ball of paper.\n———\nASSISTED DEATHS ACCOUNT FOR ONE PER CENT OF CANADIAN DEATHS: The federal government says there were nearly 1,200 medically assisted deaths in the first six months of this year. The government says that works out to about 0.9 per cent of all deaths nationally. In the last six months of 2016, the first time medically assisted suicide was legal, there were 803 assisted deaths, or 0.6 per cent of all deaths.\n———\nHUMAN WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS ON THE RISE IN BC: The British Columbia conservation service says there have been more than 20,000 encounters between people and wildlife in the province this year. Officials say more than 14,000 of the complaints were about black bears, 1,500 involved cougars and 430 were about grizzly bears. Nearly 500 bears have been destroyed after run-ins with humans, 469 of them black bears and 27 grizzlies.\n———\nPOLL SAYS ONLY ONE QUARTER OF RESPONDENTS SAY U.S. HEADING IN RIGHT DIRECTION: Just 24 per cent of Americans now believe the country is heading in the right direction after a tumultuous stretch for President Donald Trump. Recent months have included the threat of war with North Korea, stormy complaints about hurricane relief and Trump's equivocating about white supremacists. It's a 10-point drop since June, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Nearly 70 per cent of Americans say Trump isn't level-headed, and majorities say he's not honest or a strong leader.\n———\nThe Canadian Press", "It is worth saying this about the Supreme Court’s Thursday decision in the case of Canada v. Fontaine: it hurts. In a unanimous (7-0) ruling, the court agreed that records and transcripts of residential-school survivor testimony collected under the “truth and reconciliation” process can be destroyed.\nThe federal government had pushed the case to the Supreme Court level, arguing that the records are government documents now, and that the law of Canada literally does not permit them to be annihilated. But witnesses who gave testimony about suffering abuse, humiliation, and cultural torment in the schools said they had spoken out under a super-strong promise of confidentiality. (They had plenty of evidence for that, too.) To many of them, technical arguments for preserving painful, intimate secrets have looked like a horrible bait-and-switch.\nAnyone who has been involved with history as a researcher, student, librarian, archivist, palaeographer, anthropologist… hell, even as a particularly aware reader: anyone in one of these categories is going to feel some sting from the Supreme Court’s finding, which accepts an irretrievable, certain loss of valuable documentary information. It will make revisiting and reassessing the residential schools experience in the far future harder than it otherwise would be.\nMurray Sinclair fought for the preservation of all records\nSen. Murray Sinclair, the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, fought for the preservation of all the records generated in the quasi-judicial process. He may be wrong about whether that is the right thing to do: based on what witnesses said about their expectations for confidentiality, I think he is wrong. (And it is, at best, awkward for him to be in an argument with them about it.) But when he spoke of the overall record having much power to sustain the memory of the residential-school disaster when those who experienced it are all gone, he had a strong point.\nPerhaps unfortunately, the government’s position on the mere law was much less convincing. When it came to the fate of the testimonial record, the written terms of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which compacted a myriad of actual and potential lawsuits into one grand hearing, were not formulated with great foresight. Nowhere does the actual agreement say that federal archiving law will apply to the documents.\nIt emphasizes, in general, that personal testimonies will be both confidential and private. But, as the government of Canada argued, it also places a high importance on historical commemoration. A supervising judge was left, at the end of the process, to work out the contradiction without much explicit guidance about what to do.\nThe court recognized that the people who told these stories in a confidential setting are the proper, rightful owners of those stories\nThat judge decided that the records should be destroyed after they had been retained for a while to give individual witnesses the choice to order them preserved. The Ontario Court of Appeal basically upheld this scheme, and the Supreme Court has now ordered that the files will be archived for 15 years before being wiped out or, if witnesses prefer, forwarded to the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at the University of Manitoba.\nIn other words, it is not a wholesale conflagration of personal stories. The court merely recognized that the people who told these stories in a confidential setting are the proper, rightful owners of those stories, as captured in that particular form. The federal government had advanced the theory that the transcripts and other recordings are “government records” and that it must follow statutory rules for documents that are in government hands. The court accepted the counterargument, which ought to have been pretty obvious: these are litigation records generated in a dispute resolution process. The government’s position is that of a custodian, not a proprietor.\nRescuing some part of this record for posterity will involve convincing individuals, one by one, to contribute their own files voluntarily to the NCTR. It’s a demand for, you know … what’s the word I’m looking for here? Consent. Historical preservation is certainly an important principle, but if it is important, it is important enough to be honoured by asking people explicitly to participate in it.\nI hope the task is taken seriously, and that some witnesses will find the courage to contribute to history. It definitely makes one’s skin crawl a little to imagine the court having reached the opposite conclusion—to have found itself in the position of telling Canadian Indians, “Sorry, but federal law says that the embodiment of your pain has to be conveyed to a museum for future inspection. We’re sure you understand.”", "A Saskatoon lawyer will be at the centre of a massive effort to ask 37,000 residential school survivors if they want their records destroyed.\nThe campaign is the result of Friday's Supreme Court of Canada ruling. The court ruled unanimously that transcripts of testimony given during the independent assessment process for residential school survivors' compensation will be destroyed after 15 years, unless individuals consent to the records being archived or made public.\nThe campaign to notify residential school survivors about the decision could include paid advertisements, Facebook and other social media notifications, and community meetings, lawyer Dan Shapiro told CBC News.\nShapiro is already working with the federal government, the Assembly of First Nations and others on the plan. If approved, it could begin early in the new year.\n\"That's the next step,\" Shapiro said.\nStudents at the Gordon's Reserve school in Saskatchewan. Testimony given by survivors of residential schools during the independent assessment process for compensation will now be destroyed after 15 years, unless individuals decide otherwise. (General Synod Archives/Anglican Church of Canada)\nThe survivors' testimony was gathered as part of the federal government's 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, intended to promote reconciliation by, in part, providing financial compensation for the survivors.\nShapiro, who served as chief adjudicator for the independent assessment process, applauded Friday's ruling. He said survivors were promised confidentiality in the beginning, and the \"legal limbo\" has caused many of them years of anxiety.\n\"It's been a difficult process for me and the secretariat, but a much more difficult one for survivors who were waiting for the issue to be resolved,\" Shapiro said.\n\"The finality is welcome.\"\nShapiro has long argued the position taken by the Supreme Court, but opinions have varied wildly on what to do with the records among lawyers, historians, First Nations organizations and others.\nSome wanted all records destroyed immediately. Others wanted them all archived for their historical significance.\nShapiro said Friday's decision strikes a good balance — maintaining confidentiality and giving survivors the power to preserve their testimony if they choose.\nRed Pheasant Cree Nation lawyer Michelle Good applauded the Supreme Court ruling on residential school documents.\nLawyer and Red Pheasant Cree Nation band member Michelle Good also welcomed the ruling. She has worked with many survivors and played a role in the establishment of the independent assessment process.\nShe agreed that survivors, including her mother, Martha Soonias, deserved confidentiality.\n\"It took great courage for people to come forward and to speak about these terrible, terrible atrocities that happened, and I know that they must all be breathing a sigh of relief that their secrets are safe,\" Good said.\n\"I am deeply relieved.\"\nThe assessment process was established to evaluate compensation. That process has been both hailed and criticized as well.\nIt is distinct from the testimony given publicly across Canada to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There, 7,000 survivors and their family members chose to speak publicly about their experiences or their hopes for change. The transcripts of that testimony are public and are not in dispute.", "OTTAWA — Four leading researchers say a federal plan to destroy the criminal records of people convicted of same-sex activity is a \"troubling feature\" of proposed legislation intended to help make amends to the LGBTQ community.\nWhile the academic researchers applaud ensuring the records can never be used against those convicted, they say preservation is integral to the democratic process and the telling of history.\nThe Liberal government recently introduced legislation that would allow people to apply to have their criminal convictions for consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners erased from the public record.\nThe Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act would provide for the destruction and removal of records for the offences of gross indecency, buggery and anal intercourse.", "BEIJING An explosion in northern China's Shanxi province on Saturday evening killed at least nine and injured six, state news agency Xinhua reported.\nThe blast occurred in a residential building and was believed to have been caused by illegally stored explosives, Xinhua said. An investigation was underway.\nA number of buildings collapsed and search and rescue work continued on Sunday afternoon, said state broadcaster CCTV.\nChina has a poor record of industrial explosive accidents in residential areas.\nIn October, 14 people were killed in neighbouring Shaanxi province when a blast caused by illegally stored explosives destroyed a block of prefabricated houses.\nA province-wide investigation into explosive production and storage was launched following the incident.\nBoth Shanxi and Shaanxi have large coal mining industries, where explosives are regularly used.\n(Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Randy Fabi)", "Stockland developers open up the plans for the Twin Waters West Project to the community at Twin Waters Golf.The land up for development after an evening storm , as they say great for ducks.Photo: Jason Dougherty/ Sunshine Coast Daily\nStockland developers open up the plans for the Twin Waters West Project to the community at Twin Waters Golf.The land up for development after an evening storm , as they say great for ducks.Photo: Jason Dougherty/ Sunshine Coast Daily Jason Dougherty\nWhether taking on developers hell-bent on destroying the Coast’s natural appeal or a Prime Minister indifferent to the plight of the poor, Bill Hoffman has never been one to mince his words. Bill’s been a journalist for 32 years, 29 of those on the Coast. Love him or hate him, he'll get you blogging.\nTHE long-awaited release of the review into flood modelling that supports Planning Scheme changes to allow residential development of a flood plain site on the Maroochy River north shore, was expected before the end of this month.\nA spokesperson for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Minister Cameron Dick said the department had still to finalise the report with recommendations to the Minister.\nThe review was ordered by the State Government after serious concerns were raised by engineers, scientists and community groups about the Sunshine Coast Council proposed planning scheme amendments designed to allow residential development of cane land known as Twin Waters West.\nThe land is located adjacent and east of the Sunshine Motorway immediately north of the Maroochy River Bridge.\nThe council had previously successfully defended in the Planning and Environment Court its decision to refuse an earlier development application by Stockland for the site.\nIt has subsequently sought to rezone the site citing the support of Twin Waters Residents' Association.\nHowever the proposal quickly drew criticism because of concerns related to the loss of flood plain storage capacity and the impact on adjoining residential development as well as the already flood prone river front residential areas around Bradman Avenue on the Maroochy River's south banks.\nThe government acted last June awarding a contract to WMA, flood management and analysis consultancy to review a flood study prepared for Sunshine Coast Council as part of its request for a major planning scheme amendment.\nThe proposal passed the first State Government interest check but is now stalled at the second State interest check until the result of the WMA review were known.\nA spokesperson for the Minister said the study would be released to the public when he received the department's recommendations.", "A proposed 760-unit housing development near Brockway Summit suffered a setback after a judge took issue with emergency evacuation procedures for wildfires.\nPlacer County Superior Court Judge Michael W. Jones ruled earlier this month, in a lawsuit filed by petitioners Sierra Watch, League to Save Lake Tahoe, Mountain Area Preservation Foundation.\nThe residential and commercial project, which is being developed by Moutainside Partners, is earmarked for an area off California Route 267 between Northstar California Resort and Tahoe Basin boundary.\nJones ruled in favor of the respondents on every issue, except one, that was raised in the lawsuit. He found fault with \"emergency evacuation procedures for wildfires and other emergencies.\"\nHe also issued a writ of mandate that directs the county to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act as it pertains to those procedures.\nSierra Watch, Mountain Area Preservation, and the League to Save Lake Tahoe hailed the decision.\nRecommended Stories For You\n\"This is great news for anybody who cares about the future of North Lake Tahoe. It's another great example of how we can work together to protect the places we love,\" said Tom Mooers, executive director of Sierra Watch.\n\"The county and the developers can, if they want, appeal this decision but we don't think they would be making that appeal on solid ground. The judge's ruling is clear, especially on the issue of fire danger. It's difficult to imagine an appellate court not seeing that logic.\"\nMountainside Partners took the ruling in stride.\n\"The court issued a decision on March 12, 2018, whereby it ruled in the favor of Martis Valley West Project on 11 of 12 issues raised in the lawsuit,\" said Blake Riva, managing partner of Mountainside Partners, in a statement.\n\"Moutainside Partners and Sierra Pacific Industries are generally pleased with the ruling. It affirms the thoroughness and adequacy of the Environmental Impact Report. The court would like to see additional information related to the emergency evacuation plan. We will work closely with Placer County to comply with this requirement.\"\nThe Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the Martis Valley West project in October 2016. The lawsuit was filed in November 2016. A trial was held on Dec. 14, 2017.\n\"The Martis Valley West Project will proceed in accordance with the Placer County approvals as set forth in the Certified Environmental Impact Report and Development Agreement,\" Riva said.\n\"The timing of the commencement of development work on the project is to be determined by the project developer.\"\nPlacer County struck a similar tone.\n\"Overall, we believe the ruling largely affirms Placer county's thorough and diligent preparation of the project's Environmental Impact Report,\" said deputy county counsel Clayton Cook in a statement.\n\"We will continue to work with the community and the applicant on the remaining legal issue and the project as it moves forward.\"\nThe residential and commercial project, as identified in Jones' ruling, is situated on land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, which were the respondents in the lawsuit along with Placer County.\nThe development would span both sides of California Route 267.\n\"It is located in an area Jones described as a 'fire environment' with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) designating the area as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone,\" Jones wrote.\nThe project is situated on two main parcels — east and west of California Route 267.\n\"The West Parcel is located on the west side of SR 267 within Placer County and involves 1,052 acres of undeveloped coniferous forest land designated as Forest under the Martis Valley Community Plan. The area is also zoned as Timberland Production Zone (TPZ),\" Jones wrote.\n\"Under the Project, 662 acres of the West Parcel would be rezoned for residential and commercial development. This would allow for up to 60 residential units and 6.6 acres of retail stores, restaurants, offices, and sports equipment rentals.\"\nThe commercial and retail area is capped at 34,500 square feet.\n\"The East Parcel is located on the east side of SR 267. The 6,376 acres fall within both Placer County and Nevada County. The majority of the acreage — 6,030 acres — is located in Placer County. The final 130 acres are within Placer County but are also located in Nevada County,\" Jones wrote.\n\"Approximately 5,706 acres is designated Forest and zoned TPZ. The other 670 acres are designated Low Density Residential and General Commercial with zoning for Single-Family Residential and Neighborhood Commercial. The East Parcel was the original site for residential and commercial development.\"\nHe later added, \"The Project calls for the entire East Parcel to be permanently conserved so that no development will occur on the parcel. The mechanism for conservation will be through either the sale of the East Parcel to a land trust type organization or the recording of a conservation easement that restricts the use of the parcel.\"", "Srinagar\nIn occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Muhammad Yasin Malik, has condemned the brutal action by the Indian forces in Shopian district. The forces’ personnel vandalized residential houses, damaged orchards and chopped off fruit trees at Sugan in the district on Monday following a blast in the area.\nMuhammad Yasin Malik in a statement issued in Srinagar termed the forces’ action as revengeful and a cowardly act. “Attacks on the families of opponents can only be termed as a cowardly act. What happened to the DG police’s sermons on not involving families into war between two parties? These attacks by the forces are acts of state oppression,” he said. The JKLF Chief said, “Attacking the house of a youth Zeenat-ul-Islam, destroying fruit orchards and vandalizing residential houses and people’s properties at Turkwangum, Sugan, and other villages in Shopian are the acts that can only be termed as cowardly.”\nAttacking families of innocent people and creating havoc in the territory has exposed the high claims of morality, ethics and principles often propagated by Indian leaders and their Kashmiri stooges, Yasin Malik said. “Some time back, police chief SP Vaid had appealed for restraint in case of families and delivered sermons on not involving families into war between two parties. Now the forces attacked the family of a freedom fighter Zeenat-ul-Islam and other common people including men, women and children of the area, destroyed their residential properties and orchards, vandalised villages and beat people without the discrimination of age and gender.—KMS", "The NYPD is “unlawfully” using and sharing sealed arrest records, leading to harsher punishments — especially for minorities, a bombshell lawsuit charges.\nLongstanding state law requires most arrest records that don’t end in convictions to remain under wraps.\nFingerprints and mugshots taken during these arrests are also supposed to be destroyed, court papers state. Alternatively, they can be returned to the person arrested.\nIf cops want to access sealed records, the law requires them to show a court why the documents should be unsealed.\nBronx boy killed by minivan is relative of NYPD shooting victim\nBut the NYPD often ignores the law, using sealed records during investigations and giving them to prosecutors, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, which was filed Tuesday and seeks class-action status.\nThat could affect whether a person accused of wrongdoing is given a summons — or arrested. If the allegations are proved, the breadth of such a transgression would be staggering.\nIn the NYPD, a person is considered a “transit recidivist” if he or she \"had a certain number of prior arrests in the last four years on certain charges, including misdemeanors; if they have had any prior felony or misdemeanor arrest in the City's transit system in the last two years; if they have had three or more violation arrests in transit in the last five years; if they have three or more unanswered Transit Adjudication Bureau summonses; or if they are on parole or probation,\" the suit states.\n“Pursuant to NYPD policy, a person labeled as a ‘transit Recidivist’ who violates transit rules — for example, jumping a turnstile — is ineligible for a civil notice for the offense; NYPD officers have no discretion and must make an arrest.”\nGun expediter guilty of bribing NYPD sergeant to speed up permits\nUnder that mandatory arrest policy, cops wind up arresting people using information from sealed arrests “who otherwise would be subject only to civil consequences.”\nProsecutors, armed with wrongly disclosed info, also could use it during criminal proceedings — putting arrestees at an unfair disadvantage.\nFingerprints and mugshots taken during these arrests are also supposed to be destroyed, court papers state. (Jeffrey Coolidge/Getty Images)\n“Because criminal discovery is not provided to defense attorneys until the prosecution is near trial, and because it can often take many months, if not years, to get a trial in New York City, a person’s defense attorney may not know that the prosecution is relying on sealed arrest information disclosed by the NYPD during much of the pendency of a criminal proceeding,” the suit states. “In many cases, individuals may accept plea agreements without any knowledge that the prosecution’s plea offer may have been shaped by the NYPD’s unlawful disclosure of sealed arrest information.”\nOne of the three plaintiffs in the suit alleges cops used his mugshot in a photo array for a 2015 Bronx robbery investigation.\nNYPD treats each day as if city will face terror attack\nThis mugshot taken during a 2011 arrest was tossed — when he was 17 — and should have been destroyed, the suit states.\nThe plaintiff, a man referred to only as R.C. in court papers, was in Connecticut at the time of the robbery. A complaining witness nonetheless picked R.C.’s photo — leading to his arrest and prosecution for more than one year, court papers state.\nR.C. had to move from his mother’s home in Wappingers Falls to his grandmother’s home in the Bronx so he could make repeated court appearances.\nWhile the charges were ultimately “dismissed on recommendation of the prosecutor,” damage was done: R.C.’s court appearances got in the way of work, and he lost his job, the suit contends.\nNeighbors unite to help retired NYPD cop pay for cancer treatment\nArrest data suggest that the alleged practice dramatically affects minorities, according to The Bronx Defenders and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which filed the suit.\n“Because black and Latino people are disproportionately targeted for arrests, they have a disproportionate share of sealed arrests: Between 2014 and 2016, more than 330,000 arrests of black and Latino people resulted in an outcome that requires sealing, compared to around 50,000 arrests of white people,” the suit says. “Given this, the NYPD’s policy and practice of using and disclosing sealed arrest information threatens to perpetuate a cycle in which black and Latino people face disproportionate consequences on the basis of mere allegations.”\nA spokesman for the city Law Department said, “We’ll review the lawsuit and respond in the litigation.”\nSign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!", "Los Angeles police conducted an illegal search of the home of the man accused of stalking and breaking into Sandra Bullock’s mansion, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.\nThe three-judge panel unanimously ruled that detectives violated Joshua Corbett’s right to remain silent and thus did not obtain valid consent to enter his Montrose home, where detectives found a cache of illegal automatic weapons. As a result, the court said, evidence from the search could not be used in court.\nhe court’s opinion, written by Presiding Justice Laurie Zelon, upholds the finding of a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and lands a major blow to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.\nThe ruling could result in 24 of the 26 felony charges against Corbett being tossed out — gutting most of the case.\nClick here to read the full story on LATimes.com.", "BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Samantha Pierce is living a Spartan-like existence, in her sparsely furnished East Side apartment, after most of her belongings were somehow misplaced while in storage.\nThe Erie County Department of Social Services paid Samantha’s mover, ABC Moving and Appliance, to move her household items, and put them in one of their storage units.\nBut when Pierce went to retrieve her personal property, it was nowhere to be found, “I went over there, June of this year, to try to get my belongings out, and they could not find them.”\nDissatisfied with the owner’s explanation, Samantha told him she would be taking him to Buffalo Small Claims Court, and was awarded a $1,020 judgment, which was, in effect, a refund of the rent she had paid.\nThere have been others that have suffered losses to their property at the ABC Moving storage facility, such as Vikki Lee who told Call 4 Action, she had valuable furniture, clothing, and other personal effects in storage at ABC, but when she went to retrieve her belongings they were damaged, due to water leaks.\nLee described the storage unit, “There are these like, particle board doors, and with these locks. Then on the top of the units, it is about a 4″ hole that is not enclosed.”\nSamantha Pierce took her case to small claims court a second time, and this week, she received a $5,000 judgment, but Samantha said her lost keepsakes are worth more than money can buy–keepsakes of her time with her mother who died two years ago.\n“It was my mother’s belongings, and I just really want them back, and photos of us together.”\nThe owner of ABC Moving and Appliance told News 4 by phone, he has no idea how Samantha Pierce’s property was lost, and he offered her $1,000 for her loss, but he won’t pay the $5,000 judgment she was awarded in small claims court.", "URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - A Champaign man has been charged with residential burglary, burglary and theft after a boarded up apartment was burglarized.\nJamel Kirkwood, 25, was arrested in connection to a burglary at the apartments at 609 S. Randolph Street after the apartment was boarded up from an April fire.\nPolice say Kirkwood was named the suspect after reports that items stolen were being pawned. Kirkwood was captured on surveillance video trying to use a credit card taken from one apartment.\nDuring a search of Kirkwood's apartment they found two cameras and a laptop computer. Both items belonged to fire victims. When police came to execute the search warrant Kirkwood ran from police off of a second story balcony. He was tackled by police and taken into custody.\nAccording to court records, Kirkwood has three prior convictions for residential burglary.", "Judge in Peter Lance trial rules that handling of original versions of scanned documents does not indicate bad faith\nThe question of whether Santa Barbara police destroyed evidence as a cover-up was at the heart of a court hearing Friday in the case of a Santa Barbara man charged with driving under the influence. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Brian Hill ultimately determined that the evidence presented did not constitute bad faith.\nPeter Lance, 63, is facing a misdemeanor DUI charge after being arrested by Santa Barbara police in the early morning hours of Jan. 1.\nA freelance writer, Lance subsequently authored a lengthy series of articles for the Santa Barbara News-Press about his arrest and his investigation into the credibility of arresting officer Kasi Beutel.\nAmong Lance’s allegations are claims that his signature and those of other defendants were forged on police report documents, relinquishing their right to have blood samples taken that could be retested later.\nBeutel and the Santa Barbara Police Department have denied the allegations.\nHill met with the case’s two attorneys in his chambers before beginning the public hearing Friday morning. At the start, Hill reminded both sides to make comments to the court and not to each other, and he instructed Lance not to speak at all unless through his attorney, Darryl Genis.\nMost of Friday’s hearing focused on whether law enforcement had knowingly destroyed Lance’s original waiver. Three witnesses from the SBPD records department were called to the stand, each saying they were unsure when the waiver had been destroyed.\nWhether the destruction of Lance’s form violates constitutional or statutory law was central to the proceedings.\n“We want to know whether that was done to preclude Mr. Lance from exculpatory evidence,” Hill said. “We’re looking for some evidence of bad faith that can be attributed to the police in determining whether dismissal is the appropriate sanction.”\nFirst to take the stand was police Lt. David Whitham, who oversees communications and records for SBPD. He explained how the department disposes of its documents.\nAny reports that are handwritten are scanned electronically and within 10 days, he said. The accuracy of that scan is then verified by a records specialist.\nAfter that, the department retains records between 90 days and six months, depending on workload, he said, and then the documents are shredded by an outside vendor. There’s no law stating how long to keep the original documents, and Whitham said the 90-day period was a policy decision made by the department.\nA new computer system was implemented in 2008, and a backlog occurred, according to Whitham. Budget cuts added to the logjam, he said, and the reports were verified by specialists as they could get to them. But documents from 2011, including Lance’s, had been destroyed before filings dating from 2009 and 2010, prompting questions from the defense. Whitham was unsure about why 2011 records had been shredded first.\nThe next witness, SBPD records specialist Cindy Cornett, had an answer, saying she made the decision to work through the most recent files first, working backward through the paperwork. Cornett said she verified Lance’s document for accuracy on Jan 11, 2011, adding that Lance’s document could have been shredded in April or possibly May, but she didn’t know for sure.\nGenis asked Cornett if anyone from the District Attorney’s Office had contacted her.\n“I have never spoken to anybody from the DA’s Office about Mr. Lance’s report,” she replied.\nSBPD records supervisor Susan Segura said she received a request for the waiver July 6, just like Cornett and Whitham.\nWhen she checked the records that day, she found the electronic file, but was unable to locate the paper document. She responded to the District Attorney’s Office the next day and advised them that the original report was maintained electronically and the print copy was no longer a part of SBPD records.\nThrough the testimony of the three witnesses, Genis maintained that the District Attorney’s Office has known for some time that the policy was to scan and destroy the documents. He added that Deputy District Attorney Sanford Horowitz knew about the policy and had purposefully waited to request that document so it would be destroyed.\nAfter asking several times for Genis to keep his voice down, Hill said he wasn’t convinced that law enforcement actions constituted bad faith.\nAlthough he had ordered the original, Hill said that no trial date had been set at the time so there was no urgency when he asked Horowitz for the waiver.\nBut Genis said Horowitz delayed requesting the original on purpose.\n“He’s running the clock out,” he asserted.\n“It’s a pretty serious allegation,” responded Hill, who asked Horowitz if he was aware of the policy.\nHorowitz, who has been practicing law in Santa Barbara County for less than a year, said he wasn’t aware of SBPD’s policy on destroying documents until August.\nHill reminded Genis, a longtime local DUI attorney, that Genis himself had admitted he wasn’t aware of the policy, and that someone at the District Attorney’s Office might not know either.\nThe second issue that arose Friday was whether Beutel was using a preprinted form when Lance was pulled over by police in January. Jim Blanco, a handwriting expert brought in by Genis, said his analysis determined that Beutel was using preprinted forms, but the prosecution maintains she stopped using the forms in 2010.\nThe prosecution brought Sandra Homewood, a forensic document examiner from San Marcos, to the stand. Unlike Blanco, Homewood said it wasn’t possible to distinguish between toner and ink on a photocopy, which would be a tell-tale sign that Beutel was filling out the forms ahead of time.\nHomewood testified she had reviewed 40 DUI reports taken by Beutel, both before and after Lance’s incident. She said she found no evidence to support the allegation that Lance’s DUI report was prepared from a master copy, which she said supports Beutel’s claims that she stopped filling out forms that way earlier.\nBefore Genis could finish his cross-examination of Homewood, Hill adjourned the hearing for the day.\nLance’s case will be back in court at 8:30 a.m. Monday, and Beutel is expected to take the stand.\n— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.", "SAN DIEGO – The County Board of Supervisors Monday, Dec. 11, voted to waive permit fees for the rebuilding of more than 200 structures that have been destroyed or damaged in the Lilac Fire.\nThe board also extended an emergency declaration in relation to the fire.\nThe waiver of plan review and permit fees could save residents and businesses thousands of dollars as they begin the task of rebuilding. For example, the county typically charges at least $4,200 for the review and permitting of a 2,000-square-feet house, according to a fee table.\nThe waivers apply to structures within the fire’s perimeter in unincorporated areas and any other areas in which county approval is needed.\n“Our deepest sympathies go out to the residents of our county who have lost everything this holiday season,” Director of Emergency Services Holly Crawford said.\nThe blaze began at around 11:15 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, just west of Interstate 15 and north of Lilac Road in Pala Mesa, amid gusty, arid winds.\nThe fire has held at 4,100 acres since Thursday night. It is 80 percent contained as of this morning, according to Cal Fire.\nThousands of North County residents were forced to evacuate after the fire broke out. All evacuation orders were lifted by Sunday night.\nThe county counts 104 residential structures destroyed and 13 damaged, two commercial structures destroyed and five damaged, 78 accessory structures (such as barns) destroyed and 10 damaged, according to Amy Harbert, the county’s disaster recovery manager.\nSeveral resources are available to people navigating the recovery and rebuilding process.\nResidents can visit a local assistance center that has been set up at the Vista branch of the county library at 700 Eucalyptus Ave. It is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.", "One year after the events of Mosul ended in July 2017, the Iraqi Red Crescent teams continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the residents inside the city or to the displaced who face some challenges to return to their homes after their homes have been damaged.\nAfter thousands of houses were destroyed, roads and bridges were damaged, and water station, as well as sanitation facilities, were destroyed by heavy fighting, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) in cooperation with its partners in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement installs water purification stations and installs (65) water tanks with a capacity of 5000 liters distributed in the old neighborhoods of Mosul.\nRelief official for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Haidar Kassem, says:\n“The IRCS teams distribute more than (350,000) liters of water per day covering Mosul’s old city and this is done by transporting water from the water station in the Ghazalani area by IRCS water truck and then all tanks which were distributed in the old city neighborhoods will be filled”.\n“The IRCS teams continue to provide the needs of the families in their residential areas and the displaced in the camps such as the distribution of food parcels for families in their residential areas as well as provide hot food meals for the families in the displacement camps not to mention provide some special needs of children and women.\n“IRCS Health teams continue to receive and treat more 130 cases per day and specialist medical staff give medicine to the patient in the Health center and mobile clinic of the IRCS.”\n(Source: IRCS)", "BERKELEY — An 18-year-old Oakland man has been arrested in the robbery of three people at a fraternity house last September after he was identified through his Facebook account, according to court records.\nPolice said the suspect, Kameron Robinson-Tom, has admitted his involvement in the robbery as well as a number of other robberies.\nHe was charged Tuesday with three felony counts of first-degree residential robbery. He is being held at Santa Rita Jail.\nThe robbery he is charged with happened about 2:45 a.m. Sept. 4 at a fraternity house in the 2300 block of Piedmont Avenue. Police did not release the name of the fraternity house.\nThe victims told police they had just cleared out a party and were hanging out in the common room playing a drinking game when two men entered. One of them brandished a pistol while the other demanded their property.\nThe suspects fled out a back door with the stolen items that included wallets and cellphones, according to the court records.\nOne of the victim’s told police that the two suspects had been at the earlier party.\nAccording to court records, it was subsequently learned Robinson-Tom had given someone at the party his cellphone number; his Facebook account with pictures of him was found using the number. He was later identified as one of the robbers.\nA probable cause arrest warrant was issued for him on Jan. 26 and he was arrested at his Oakland home Feb. 11 by Oakland police.\nAccording to the court records, Robinson-Tom said the gun used in the fraternity house robbery was a replica and that he “had committed nine or 10 other weed rip robberies.” The court records did not say where the other robberies happened.\nPolice said they have also developed information on the possible identity of the second robber but so far have not arrested him.", "The State Prosecutor has for the first time asked the Supreme Court to block the demolition of buildings constructed on Palestinian land in Adei Ad in Binyamin, it was reported this morning (Wednesday) by the newspaper Yisrael Hayom.\nIn the State's position that was submitted yesterday to the Supreme Court, prosecutor's office officials wrote that \"regarding the illegal structures located outside declared state land, the state will seek to note that given the enactment of the law regulating the settlements in Judea and Samaria, the state is required to examine the law's ramifications for the buildings.\"\nAccording to the report, some structures in question were built on private land and some were partially constructed on state land.\nAbetted by the radical Yesh Din organization, the petitioners claim that Adei Ad is partially built on private land in the Arab settlements Turmusayya, al-Mughayyir, Kreiot, and Jalud, requiring destruction of 11 structures in the community.\nThe state is now requesting that the court erase the petition regarding construction on state land, as it did with last week's petition to evacuate homes in Tapuach west. Unlike last week's decision, the prosecution seeks not to order evacuation of buildings erected on private land.\nYesh Din responded that \"All of the illegitimate practices that Israel employs regarding illegal West Bank construction are concentrated in one message. The outpost Adei Ad was set up in an entirely illegal manner ... rather than the state enforcing the law and evacuating the outpost, it acts to declare more and more land as state land, which it designates exclusively for settlers, and also looks for every way not to return private land to its Palestinian owners.\"", "RENEE PALAKOVIC, as Administrator of the Estate of Brandon Palakovic; DARIAN PALAKOVIC, as Administrator of the Estate of Brandon Palakovic, Appellants v. JOHN WETZEL; KENNETH CAMERON; JAMIE BOYLES; JAMEY LUTHER; DR.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at FindLaw.", "Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel is suing her ex-husband for custody of their 7-year-old daughter after he was charged with stalking and harassing the Skinnygirl mogul.\nFrankel reopened her 2013 divorce case against former hubby Jason Hoppy on Dec. 6, according to court records.\nThey’re due in court in January.\nLawyers for the parties did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.\nHoppy was arrested in January for showing up to their daughter’s school and warning Frankel, “I will destroy you, you can get all the lawyers you want, you’ve been warned,” according to an NYPD spokesman.\nHe denied the claims.\nThey settled their bitter custody battle in 2014 by agreeing to co-parent their daughter Bryn. They reached the deal after Frankel called Hoppy “white trash” from the witness stand.", "click to enlarge Photo via James R. Martin / Shutterstock.com\nAbandoned homes in Detroit are being torn down at a faster rate due to a Federal grant for demolition.\nThe Friday before New Year's Eve, the Detroit Land Bank Authority released two subpoenas related to the ongoing federal corruption probe into the city's demolition program, which is investigating why the cost of demolitions increased 60 percent during Mayor Mike Duggan's administration.The timing here could be considered curious. The unsealing of the documents was originally scheduled for Jan. 12 after Wayne County Circuit Judge David Allen determined the investigation to be a public matter, according to the. But just before noon on the Friday before a holiday — two weeks before the scheduled unsealing — the Land Bank quietly posted the documents to its website The subpoenas were originally served to the Detroit Land Bank and the Detroit Building Authority in May 19, 2016 by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, demanding emails, phone records, voice mails, text messages, and work calendars from 32 people.The subjects include Duggan's group executive for operations David Manardo and former DBA deputy director James Wright. Both were handpicked by Duggan, their relationship with the mayor extending to Duggan's time as CEO of the Detroit Medical Center. In April 2016, Manardo was found by Detroit auditors to have a conflict of interest for essentially reporting to himself. Wright abruptly resigned in August 2016.More than $250 million from the federal Hardest Hit Fund has been allocated to Detroit's demolition program, with the city demolishing more than 10,000 properties during Duggan's administration. Under Mayor Dave Bing, demolitions cost $8,500-$10,000 per home. At one point under Duggan, costs surged to $16,400 per home.And there are echoes of the past in the ongoing probe. In a 1999 Detroit News story , Duggan, then-Wayne County deputy executive, was accused of bad management and cronyism as part of a $1.4 billion Detroit school renovation program.The subpoenas were posted following a lawsuit from local activist Robert Davis, who sued the Detroit Land Bank Authority after it denied his Freedom of Information Act request for the subpoena. \"I truly applaud the federal government for doing a far-reaching investigation of this administration,\" Davis told theNo one has yet been charged in the investigation.", "This has emerged during the bail hearings of five suspected underworld figures accused of running a protection racket in Cape Town.\nCAPE TOWN - A court has heard alleged international steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein was murdered at his Constantia home on the same day he threatened to kill controversial businessman Mark Lifman.\nThis has emerged during the bail hearings of five suspected underworld figures accused of running a protection racket in Cape Town.\nControversial businessman Nafiz Modack, Jacques Cronje, Colin Booysen and two others were arrested in December.\nThe defence for accused number five Carl Lackay has played an audio clip in court, in which Lifman can be heard having a telephonic conversation with another man.\nA third voice then interrupts the conversation.\nThe defence says it's the voice of the late Brian Weinstein, who was shouting at Lifman.\nOn the recording, Wainstein, dubbed the 'steroid king' can be heard hurling insults at Lifman and then threatens to 'kill' and 'destroy' him.\nDefence attorney Rooshdeen Rudolph says Wainstein was killed in his bed, on the same day the recording was made.\nLifman's name has been mentioned on numerous occasions during the bail application as it has been claimed he's part of a group competing for security contracts at nightclubs and restaurants in Cape Town.\nThe defence has also accused him of being instrumental in the police's case against Modack and his co-accused.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nA burglar who broke into a chip shop in Redhill and a bakery in Reigate has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.\nShane O’Doherty, 33, formerly of Merstham but now of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on Friday (October 6) for two burglaries of a non-dwelling, one burglary of a residential dwelling, driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance.\nRio Pahlavanpour, prosecuting the case, told the court how O’Doherty had targeted businesses in July this year.\nO’Doherty smashed the front window of the Oven Fresh Bakery in Reigate and emptied the till during the first offence while a van was also stolen from the scene.\nShortly after this O’Doherty broke in through the back door of The Fish Bar in Redhill and stole a bag belonging to a member of staff.\nO’Doherty then made his way into the flat above the fish and chip shop and stole a wallet and car keys to a Toyota Corolla, which he then drove off in.\nThe Corolla was recovered by police ten days later and DNA taken from inside the car was found to match O’Doherty.\nMr Pahlavanpour said that, when arrested, O’Doherty admitted the offences and asked for ten other similar charges to be taken into consideration. He also has “numerous” previous convictions for similar offences.\nMitigating for O’Doherty, David Forsyth said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity but said: “I fully accept that my client is no stranger to the court.”\nHe added that O’Doherty was a long-term cocaine and heroin addict who had only recently been released from prison at the time of the offences.\nHe said: “He had only £47 to his name and had nowhere to go and so had been sleeping rough.”\nMr Forsyth argued that O’Doherty was using his current time in custody wisely, working in the prison kitchen and engaging with prison services to tackle “the root cause” of his drug addiction.\nHe said: “Next week he tells me he will be free of any drugs or prescriptions drugs which is a huge step for him and one I think he is rightly very proud of.\n“He has also expressed his desire to apologise and said to me ‘I would like to apologise to all the people from whom I have stolen and affected their lives'.”\nRecorder Richard Atchley imposed a sentence of 12 months for driving while disqualified and each of the two non-dwelling burglaries, to run concurrently while imposing no further punishment for driving without insurance.\nHe sentenced O’Doherty to 18 months for the burglary of a residential dwelling to run consecutively, giving a total sentence of two and a half years.\nHowever he indicated that the sentence could have been much longer if it were not for Mr Forsyth’s mitigation and the fact he was impressed with O’Doherty’s apparent willing to tackle his drug problem.\nRecorder Atchley said: “You have an abysmal record for these type of offences but you owe a debt of gratitude to Mr Forsyth as when I came in here today I was thinking of a much higher sentence than the one I pass.”\nKeep up to date with the latest news from around the county via the free Get Surrey app.\nYou can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.\nAvailable to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android.", "FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) — Crews remain on the scene of a fire that destroyed a Fall River hardware store Friday afternoon.\nFlint Hardware has collapsed pic.twitter.com/Zcdv368oR2 — Steph Machado (@StephMachado) February 2, 2018\nFire on Pleasant St, Fall River… Flint Hardware is completely destroyed. Fire visible throughout the building. Residential structure next door has also caught fire. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/iOv27syElo — Corey Welch (@CoreyWelch) February 2, 2018\nThe fire started around 3:45 p.m. at Flint Hardware on Pleasant Street. A residential structure next door also caught fire.\nFirefighters were ordered to evacuate the building just after 4 p.m., according to Jason Burns, president of the Fall River firefighters’ union.\nWorking fire at 1338 pleasant st, Flint hardware #FallRiver @IAFF1314 — Jason Burns (@jasonjburns1) February 2, 2018\nFirefighters battling a big fire at Flint Hardware on Pleasant Street in Fall River. Firefighters have evacuated the building. Attacking from above. Siding on the house next door is melting pic.twitter.com/qhnFQTnOHd — Steph Machado (@StephMachado) February 2, 2018\nEyewitness News will have the latest in a live report from the scene at 5:30 on WPRI 12.", "The results of a dramatic police pursuit through Lismore on March 6.\nThe results of a dramatic police pursuit through Lismore on March 6. Contributed\nHE HOPED to be by his partner's side when their young son undergoes a serious medical procedure some 200km away.\nBut the man accused of being involved in a \"drug-fuelled episode\" in which police cars were damaged has had a second bail application rejected, with Lismore Local Court Magistrate David Heilpern citing an \"overwhelmingly strong\" case against him.\nBeau Alexander Smith, 30, who is accused of a Lismore CBD police pursuit which saw police cars and fences damaged on March 6, faced Lismore Local Court via video link from the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre yesterday afternoon.\nDefence lawyer Kylie Anderson-Clarke said Mr Smith hoped to be released from custody to attend his young son's upcoming surgery in Brisbane.\nMr Smith blew kisses to his partner and child as Ms Anderson-Clarke explained he hoped to partake in residential rehabilitation after the surgery.\nIn a letter tendered to the court, his partner's father confirmed Mr Smith could reside at his Lismore Heights home if granted bail. Ms Anderson-Clarke suggested strict bail conditions, including rules similar to that of house arrest.\nMagistrate David Heilpern refused bail, saying Mr Smith posed too great a risk of offending if granted bail, echoing concerns raised on March 7, the day after his arrest.\nBut he acknowledged the accused's keenness to be with his family.\n\"The defendant wants bail... to attend an operation his son has to have in Brisbane,\" Mr Heilpern said.\n\"It's fully understandable, any father would want that opportunity.\n\"I don't have the confidence that the defendant can comply with bail conditions.\"\nMr Heilpern said the alleged offence was \"extremely serious\" and would land Mr Smith in prison if he was convicted.\nMr Smith was charged with two counts of driving dangerously, two counts of destroying or damaging property, engaging in a police pursuit, using an offensive weapon to prevent lawful detention and driving a vehicle without ever having held a licence after the March 6 incident.\nPolice are still awaiting results from a blood test, which could bring a further charge relating to driving under the influence of an illicit drug.\nMr Smith's matter was adjourned to next Monday.", "FORT MYERS, Fla. A highly sensitive court document related to a Lee County child abuse case was made publicly available online for several hours last month.\nThe information released on the Lee County Clerk of Court website contained graphic details that only a judge and those involved in the case were supposed to see — and it’s prompted Clerk of Court Linda Doggett to redouble efforts to protect data.\n“Open records are great — they are very beneficial — but they also come with a risk and a burden to those who have to try to protect certain information,” Doggett said.\nProsecutors in the case had filed a notice asking that the entire document be confidential, but someone within the clerk’s office misread the form, according to Doggett.\n“This incident made us re-evaluate,” Doggett said. “We retrained all of our clerks. We’ve done several sessions of question and answers about what the process should be for each.”\nIt’s not the first time sensitive information from the clerk’s office found its way online.\nA software upgrade in February caused the names of 45 crime victims and 12 civil sexual violence victims to be displayed online. Another software upgrade that month put 24 Social Security numbers online.\nAll of those issues were corrected with 24 hours, the clerk of court’s office said.\nAttorneys and law enforcement also play a role in keeping information confidential. The address of a woman who was a victim of stalking had her home address listed in a police report that became public because her address is the address where the crime took place.\n“I can understand no one is perfect, everyone makes human error,” the victim said. “However, as a victim, I expect protection, and to see that happen, it kind of made me lose faith.”\nWINK News has chosen not to identify the woman or the law enforcement agency involved in the case to protect her identity.\nClerk of courts staff has been meeting with members of the legal community to streamline the process of filing forms in an effort to keep more confidential information from getting out, Doggett said.\nThey’re also going back and looking at five years’ worth of cases to determine how often it’s happened.", "From Associated Press -\nTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Rains across Kansas have given emergency responders a respite from a wave of wildfires that have charred more than 27 square miles across several counties in recent days.\nThe Adjutant General's Department said in a news release Monday that the wildfire outbreak began March 14 in Rice County and later included fires in Barber, Butler, Kiowa, Labette, McPherson, Montgomery, Reno and Seward counties.\nDamage reported to the State Emergency Operations Center include a bridge destroyed in Marshall County. Four non-residential structures were destroyed in Kiowa and Barber counties.\nThe Operations Center monitored 62 fires reported over the course of four days.", "A legal challenge by one of Ireland’s richest men risks destroying parliamentary speech, a lawyer has said.\nThe action taken by telecoms billionaire Denis O’Brien after two politicians disclosed details of his banking affairs is not the business of even the Republic’s highest court, barrister Michael Collins added.\nMr O’Brien appealed to Ireland’s Supreme Court after a failed attempt to sue the legislature following statements made by two TDs (MPs) three years ago which rendered his previous court injunction almost pointless.\nDenis O´Brien (Niall Carson/PA)\nThe lawyer for the Oireachtas parliament, senior counsel Mr Collins, said the court should not scrutinise its elected members’ comments.\nHe added: “That is ultimately destructive of parliamentary speech because unless you can speak knowing that you are not going to be subject to some form of oversight other than the oversight provided for in the constitution, that you can be made answerable to a court – even if indirectly – then (free speech) … is effectively undermined.”\nHe said it was not judges’ role to scrutinise speech in the Oireachtas in Dublin based on how bad, incompetent or erroneous it was.\n“This appeal avowedly seeks the court to circumscribe parliamentary speech and involves the substitution of the court, and this court as the final court in this jurisdiction, as the ultimate arbiter of parliamentary speech in this jurisdiction.”\nParliamentary speech is privileged in Ireland under the country’s constitution and the separation of powers between lawmakers and the judiciary is closely guarded.\nThe High Court decided it had no power to rule on issues raised by Mr O’Brien concerning how the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure and Privileges dealt with the statements about his financial matters and his complaints.\nMedia tycoon Mr O’Brien is appealing against that decision but did not attend the hearing before seven judges in Dublin on Tuesday.\nMr Collins added: “To get the court to accede to the application here it would inevitably be drawn into a consideration of what occurred on the floor of the House, which I say simply stands completely outside the function of this court.”\nMr O’Brien had obtained an injunction in 2015 preventing Irish broadcaster RTE from reporting on what he claimed were stolen files of his banking records with the state-owned IBRC, formerly rogue lender Anglo Irish Bank.\nHe said Independent TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty knew exactly what they were doing when they later read details of the file into the public record.\nBut a High Court judge upheld parliamentary freedom of speech and the separation of state powers.", "Innovative and very popular technologies and services have created new opportunities for real estate owners to generate income by renting their properties. Companies like Airbnb, Inc., Craigslist, Inc. and HomeAway.com, Inc. now provide the opportunity to easily advertise houses, condominium units and other types of real property as available for temporary use online.\nWhile the potential income from this type of property use can be enticing for property owners, renting does present several legal issues to consider, including whether a property may be used as a rental; local government regulations; use restrictions in condominiums, subdivisions, and planned communities; and other sources of legal requirements.\nBryan Hunt, an attorney with Loveland Law, LLC, provides an overview of possible issues that should be considered when renting one’s home and when to consult an attorney.\nLocal government and the regulation of real property\nLocal government entities (e.g. cities, villages and townships) generally have the authority to enact laws to protect the public health, safety, morals and general welfare of their communities. One form in which this jurisdiction is exercised is through the establishment of zoning ordinances. These zoning ordinances are meant to restrain certain areas of land to specific types of uses.\nFrequently, for example, bed and breakfast operations, hotels and motels are uses that are not permitted in an area that is strictly zoned for single-family residential use, at least not without first receiving special permission, or a “variance,” from the government entity. Therefore, in certain circumstances and arrangements (especially when the property is rented on a short-term basis and/or to multiple persons simultaneously) renting a home you own could be in violation of a government’s zoning and property use ordinances.\nLocal governments may have other requirements for property owners who wish to rent their property, like a license or registration with a government office. Renting could also require compliance with certain building code standards and housing regulations. Because these requirements can vary greatly from one locale to another, speaking with all relevant local government officials is always a good idea prior to renting property.\nState law, of course, is also a factor. For instance, Chapter 5323 of the Ohio Revised Code requires “residential rental property” to be registered with the county auditor in certain circumstances.\nPlanned community or subdivision\nOhio law requires condominiums and planned communities to have governing documents filed with the recorder of the county in which they are located. Older residential subdivisions often have similar instruments of record. While Ohio law requires these governing documents to contain certain basic terms, they almost always include additional community-specific terms called covenants and restrictions that regulate how properties in the communities can be used.\nOften, these types of residential communities institute restrictions specifically targeted at the use of properties as rentals. Before renting any property in a condominium, subdivision or planned community, the governing documents need to be reviewed to determine whether that type of use is restricted, and if it is, the scope of the restriction.\nFor example, a restriction in a condominium’s declaration might prohibit a unit from being used as an overnight bed and breakfast but allow for rental agreements of a year or longer. Other communities might require an application and approval prior to renting, while others may prohibit the practice in any form.\nViolations of local ordinances\nThe first action generally taken against a property owner who has violated a local ordinance, requirement or community governing document will simply be a demand to stop the nonconforming activity or to come into compliance. The property owner will then typically be given a period of time to do so. If the property owner continues to rent the property despite demands to stop, or fails to take the necessary action, the consequences can be substantial.\nFor violations of restrictions in governing documents, an association (the managing entity of a condominium, subdivision or planned community) can seek a court order prohibiting the activity, sue for damages, including attorney fees, and sometimes even institute eviction proceedings.\nPenalties for violating local zoning regulations and other ordinances can be even more severe. The usual consequence is some form of financial penalty or assessment.\nIn these types of situations, there are often viable defenses. Property owners may want to consult with an attorney if they receive notice that they are violating a community restriction or local ordinance.\nWhen considering becoming an internet landlord, these documents must also be reviewed to ensure that renting a property does not inadvertently result in some form of liability from a breach, default or loss of insurance coverage.\nhttp://www.xeniagazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2018/03/web1_Hunt.jpg\nBy Bryan Hunt\nOhio State Bar Association Law You Can Use columnist is attorney Bryan Hunt, with Loveland Law, LLC.\nOhio State Bar Association Law You Can Use columnist is attorney Bryan Hunt, with Loveland Law, LLC.", "Login Email Address: Password: Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access, click here. Forgot your password?\nThe Court of Appeals Western District on Tuesday reversed an $850,000 bench verdict in a wrongful foreclosure case, saying it was based on a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the deeds of trust on the property. Plaintiff Theresa Grisham lost her Platte City property to Mission Bank after a dispute over outstanding loans on the property. The home ...", "A New York cosmetic and personal care products testing company is fighting to unseal documents related to search warrants executed earlier this year as part of a federal investigation into whether the company falsified test-related records.\nIn a letter unsealed last week in federal court in White Plains, New York, AMA Laboratories Inc said that during two raids on its premises in April and June, federal agents acted in “bad faith” while executing the search warrants.\nTo read the full story on Westlaw Practitioner Insights, click here: bit.ly/2C5iJT2", "/ Front page / News\nAN application by a woman facing money laundering related charges to acquire documents from her former employer to help in her defence was granted by the High Court in Suva yesterday.\nNausheen Mezbeen Hussain appeared before Justice Achala Wengappuli.\nShe is charged with one count of larceny by servant, one count of theft, one count of obtaining property by deception and one count of money laundering.\nShe is represented by Lautoka lawyer Iqbal Khan, while Janita Prasad is representing the State.\nThe accused was an employee of the company, Art and Soul when the alleged incident took place in 2014.\nIt is alleged that during this time, every cheque with the complainant's signature used to bear attachments of an Excel spreadsheet which contained the breakdown of involved payments that was approved by him.\nWhen the complainant gave evidence in court this week, he said all of these documents (attachments) had been destroyed by the accused after she was terminated from her job following these allegations.\nHowever, when another State witness, Sydel Whippy took the stand, she said the documents were still with the complainant and it should be in their keeping for seven years.\nMs Whippy was the person who audited the accounts of the said company after Ms Hussain's termination.\nMs Hussain then made the application for the full disclosure of the documents and sought to justify her request by stating that from the beginning all payments were made with the consent of the complainant after he sighted full particulars of the payment which was approved by him. In support of her application, Ms Hussain also relied on her constitutional right to fair trial.\nThe State, however, said these documents were unavailable and the police had also failed to get them when they visited the Art and Soul company office.\nIn his ruling delivered yesterday, Justice Wengappuli said it was incumbent upon the court to provide an opportunity to the accused to have these documents obtained from the prosecution.\n\"The denial of such an opportunity to the accused would amount to withholding exonerating evidence,\" he said.\nThe trial has been adjourned to facilitate the accused to obtain these documents. The matter will be called again tomorrow to check on the filing of these documents by prosecution." ]

[ "Anne Hathaway (1555/56 – 6 August 1623) was the wife of William Shakespeare, the English poet, playwright and actor. They were married in 1582, when she was 27 years old. She outlived her husband by seven years." ]

[ "1 He married Anne Hathaway and had three children-Susannah, Judith and Hamnet. 2 Acting Troupes: From 1594 on, the plays of William Shakespeare were performed exclusively by the acting company known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men (1594-1603) and the King's Men.3 Career-Actor, theatrical entrepreneur and playwright.acts, Timeline & History of the life of William Shakespeare the Elizabethan Actor The following are additional facts, in a timeline, about the life and history of William Shakespeare the Actor: 1 1564 April 23 William Shakespeare was born.", "1 William Shakespeare was an actor in the company that performed the plays of William Shakespeare. 2 William Shakespeare the actor was William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. 3 William Shakespeare the Globe-sharer was also William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.", "Stratford upon Avon-Life during the Elizabethan era. William Shakespeare Biography-The Lost Years 1578 - 1582 between leaving school and marrying Anne Hathaway.", "Facts, Timeline & History of the life of William Shakespeare the Elizabethan Actor The following are additional facts, in a timeline, about the life and history of William Shakespeare the Actor: 1 1564 April 23 William Shakespeare was born.2 1564 April 26,William Shakespeare's baptism.acts, Timeline & History of the life of William Shakespeare the Elizabethan Actor The following are additional facts, in a timeline, about the life and history of William Shakespeare the Actor: 1 1564 April 23 William Shakespeare was born.", "Famous Shakespeare Quotes. William Shakespeare Quotes Home. All that glitters is not gold - A Famous Quote by William Shakespeare This famous quote originated in the play by William Shakespeare-the actual word is 'Glisters' but over time this is commonly referred to as 'Glitters'.", "Contents: William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's N ames | Shakespeare's Plays | Categories of Plays | Famous Quotes | Words & Phases | Influence Today | Starlings & Sparrows | Honoring William. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). William Shakespeare is one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the world.He changed the way plays were written by creating new styles of writing. William was born in April, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.Although the exact date of William's birth is unknown, we recognize his birthday on April 23.ontents: William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's N ames | Shakespeare's Plays | Categories of Plays | Famous Quotes | Words & Phases | Influence Today | Starlings & Sparrows | Honoring William. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). William Shakespeare is one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the world.", ": Shakespeare became famous for writing and producing plays. When word spread of William shakespeare had become famous because of his plays he wrote. William Shakespeare facts at AbsoluteShakespeare: William Shakespeare facts are few and far between.", "Best Famous William Shakespeare Poems. Here is a collection of the all-time best famous William Shakespeare poems. This is a select list of the best famous William Shakespeare poetry. Reading, writing, and enjoying famous William Shakespeare poetry (as well as classical and contemporary poems) is a great past time.", "William Shakespeare's Contribution to the Renaissance; Fun Facts about William Shakespeare; Citations and Videos", "A bard is another word for poet, and William is one of the greatest poets in the world. Therefore, he is known as The Bard.. Of Avon is added to this name because William was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.ontents: William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's N ames | Shakespeare's Plays | Categories of Plays | Famous Quotes | Words & Phases | Influence Today | Starlings & Sparrows | Honoring William. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). William Shakespeare is one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the world.", "1 Love by William Shakespeare. 2 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130) by William Shakespeare. 3 Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck (Sonnet 14) by William Shakespeare. Not marble nor the guilded monuments (Sonnet 55) by William Shakespeare.", "Methinks thou dost protest too much. Famous Shakespeare Quotes. William Shakespeare Quotes Home. Methinks thou dost protest too much - A Famous Quote by William Shakespeare This famous quote originated in the play by William Shakespeare.", "A strong , tight web of evidence shows that a real person named William Shakespeare wrote the poems and plays attributed to him ; that a real person named William Shakespeare was an actor in the company that produced the plays attributed to him ; that the actor was the same William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon ; that William Shakespeare of ...", "William Shakespeare facts at AbsoluteShakespeare: William Shakespeare facts are few and far between. While we know alot Unlike most famous artists of his time, the Bard did not die in poverty. When he died. How did William Shakespeare become famous: William shakespeare became famous by writing stories in his spare time.", "A list of the best William Shakespeare quotes. List is arranged by which ones are the most famous William Shakespeare quotes and which have proven the most popular with visitors to this page.All the top quotes from William Shakespeare should be listed here, but if any were missed you can add more quotes by William Shakespeare at the end of the list.ist is arranged by which ones are the most famous William Shakespeare quotes and which have proven the most popular with visitors to this page. All the top quotes from William Shakespeare should be listed here, but if any were missed you can add more quotes by William Shakespeare at the end of the list.", "by William Shakespeare. Expectation is the root of all heartache. - William Shakespeare. Related topics: Wisdom Life Human-Nature Psychology Expectation. This above all, to thine own self be true. - William Shakespeare. What's done is done.", "William Shakespeare's Comedies The plays of William Shakespeare are usually categorized as Histories, Tragedies, and Comedies.", "Shakespeare Biography. William Shakespeare Biography describes the life of William Shakespeare. From birth to death, Shakespeare Biography describes all that is known about Shakespeare's life from available documentation including court and church records, marriage certificates and criticisms by Shakespeare's rivals.", "Shakespeare Essay ... 1. Contributions of William Shakespeare to English Literature William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist.", "William Shakespeare quotes about death. William Shakespeare, in his many plays, produced a vast number of quotes on the subject of death.", "William Shakespeare the Actor Interesting Facts and information about the History, Life & Times of the famous Elizabethan actor, William Shakespeare the Actor. Additional details, facts and information about the Globe Theatre and other actors can be accessed via the Globe Theatre Sitemap.acts, Timeline & History of the life of William Shakespeare the Elizabethan Actor The following are additional facts, in a timeline, about the life and history of William Shakespeare the Actor: 1 1564 April 23 William Shakespeare was born.", "In their essay How We Know That Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare: The Historical Facts, Tom Reedy and David Kathman summarize the extensive web of evidence that identifies William Shakespeare of Stratford as the man who wrote the works of William Shakespeare.", "However, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre continues to stage Shakespeare’s plays in the open air, exposing the spectators to English weather. 1 Explore William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. 2 Shakespeare 400 Year Celebration. 3 William Shakespeare: Timeline of his Life. 4 A Guided Tour of Shakespeare's London. 5 William Shakespeare Info.", "William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time.", "William Shakespeare Biography - The Parents of William Shakespeare JOHN SHAKESPEARE ( FATHER ) - THE EARLY YEARS John Shakespeare was born in 1531. His father, Richard Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer who worked on various sections of land, one of which was owned by the wealthy Robert Arden of Wilmecote.", "The Life of William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Within the class system of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or significant wealth.he Life of William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Within the class system of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or significant wealth.", "40 Favorite William Shakespeare Quotes. William Shakespeare was a well known English Poet and Play Writer. Famous for plays such as, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and many many more….We have put together a list of our favourite William Shakespeare Quotes below.illiam Shakespeare. Listen to many, speak to a few. William Shakespeare. And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.", "Sir John Gilbert's 1849 painting: The Plays of Shakespeare, containing scenes and characters from several of William Shakespeare 's plays. William Shakespeare's plays have the reputation of being among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature.", "April 23 is also St George’s Day and the United Nations’ World Book and Copyright Day, which was a natural choice to pay a worldwide tribute to writers such as Shakespeare. William Shakespeare's works are celebrated on Shakespeare Day. William Shakespeare's works are celebrated on Shakespeare Day.", "Essay on Bottom in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - Bottom in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It was written in 1595 so was one of his earlier plays.", "The two then fall in love, and finally marry. The dialogue between the two characters becomes funnier for the audience because they have information that Beatrice and 1 Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.", "William Shakespeare's plays were published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death, in a volume entitled Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, known as The First Folio, containing the text of 36 plays." ]

[ "New Jersey" ]

[ "\"Where's The Beef?\"", "Where's the fire?", "hi", "\"Where are you?\"", "\"Where Is The Love\"", "\"The Last Judgment\"", "\"Where's Charley?\"", "Last rites", "\"The Last Crusade\"", "The Last Airbender", "\\\"The Last of the Mohicans\\\"", "The Last Seduction", "The Last Song", "(The last) Straw", "The Last of the Mohicans", "\\\"the last hurrah\\\"", "the Last Supper", "\\\"The Last Supper\\\"", "laughs last", "\"Last, but not least\"", "last call", "the last lap", "\"Free At Last\"", "last-ditch", "The Last Emperor" ]

[ "specific gravity" ]

[ "relatively high population density", "relatives", "Rel", "relatively quickly", "relatively rare", "other relatives", "relatively common", "relatively recent", "relatively small", "general relativity", "relatively expensive", "relatively high", "relatively inexpensive", "Rel Dowdell", "increase the population density", "relatively late", "Relativity Media", "relatively minor", "relatively high precipitation", "special relativity", "low population density", "Relativity Music Group", "low density cities", "Einstein's theory of relativity", "relatively low temperatures", "increases the SNP density", "relatively large ears", "Doubly special relativity", "Petition for Alien Relative", "deformed special relativity" ]

[ "Don Heck" ]

[ "lowercase characters", "vacancy is created", "Inti Creates", "creating instability", "60 characters", "alphanumeric characters", "happiness and longevity", "a failure of character", "Chinese characters", "IPA characters", "My Happiness ''", "a quality of character", "punctuation character", "Bluebird of Happiness", "Girl Happy", "Happy Thanksgiving" ]

[ "Sound Bites - Reel American History - Films - List 11) As beautifully staged as all Merchant-Ivory films, \"Jefferson in Paris\" is ... 12) Hemings is played by Thandie Newton as a demure, lovely, flirtatious spitfire who ... Granted, this is gray territory historically, but he was a slave-owner and that's ... Nick Nolte's Jefferson succumbs to a bright young Sally, played by Thandie...", "Taking Liberties In Paris 'Jefferson' Unveils Historical Figures - philly ... \"Jefferson In Paris\" finds noted costume dramatists Merchant and Ivory trying to catch ... At Last, Nolte Is Ready To Play `Affliction' Role The Actor Put Off ... Posted: April 07, 1995 ... mansions and sound democracies, a fatherly statesman who guided an ... on with his nubile teen-age slave, Sally Hemings (Thandie Newton).", "FILM REVIEW - Jefferson's Entanglements, In History And in Love ... This is how \"Jefferson in Paris,\" the most gilded Merchant-Ivory film yet, ... Published: March 31, 1995 ... with Sally Hemings (Thandie Newton), the young slave who was his ... Casting Nick Nolte as a Founding Father may sound like this film's ... The film shows Jefferson arriving in Paris as a rare bird, an American statesman...", "Jefferson in Paris (1995) - IMDb Biography ... With Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Gwyneth Paltrow, Estelle Eonnet. ... had an affair with (and fathered a child with) his 15-year-old slave Sally Hemings. ... Nick Nolte and Gwyneth Paltrow in Jefferson in Paris (1995) The freedom ..... Thandie Newton may have the most difficult job here in so much as so little is...", "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings Two movies, Jefferson in Paris (1995) and Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000), ... was an aloof statesman-philosopher -- author of the American creed and the ... eldest daughter; and Sally Hemings (Thandie Newton), Jefferson's teenage slave. ... As played by Nick Nolte, Jefferson always seems stiff and reticent." ]

[ "Jefferson in Paris (1995) - IMDb Biography ... With Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Gwyneth Paltrow, Estelle Eonnet. ... Nick Nolte and Greta Scacchi in Jefferson in Paris (1995) Gwyneth Paltrow in...", "Jefferson in Paris (1995) - IMDb Biography ... With Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Gwyneth Paltrow, Estelle Eonnet. ... in the years before he became president, had an affair with (and fathered a child with) his ... Nick Nolte and Greta Scacchi in Jefferson in Paris (1995) Gwyneth Paltrow in ..... glib and well dressed people will be without heads in the near future.", "Jefferson in Paris - Wikipedia Jefferson in Paris is a 1995 Franco-American historical drama film, directed by James Ivory, .... It doesn't help that Nick Nolte is such a lox as Thomas Jefferson .", "Nick Nolte - Wikipedia Nicholas King \"Nick\" Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor and former model. ... Nolte also starred in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Jefferson in Paris (1995), Mulholland Falls (1996) and Afterglow (1997). He received his second Academy...", "Jefferson in Paris (1995) Part 9/9 - YouTube Sep 21, 2011 - 14 min - Uploaded by Historyboy87Part 8 of the 1995 film Jefferson in Paris by James Ivory. Starring Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi ...", "Free Flashcards about FILM BIOGRAPHIES - StudyStack Free flashcards to help memorize facts about FILM BIOGRAPHIES. Other activities to help include ... IN A 1995 BIOGRAPHICAL EPIC, NICK NOLTE PLAYED THIS FUTURE PRESIDENT \"IN PARIS\", JEFFERSON. THIS 1987 FILM ABOUT...", "Jefferson In Paris Movie Review (1995) | Roger Ebert Apr 7, 1995 ... The movie takes place in the mid-1780s, when Jefferson (Nick Nolte), author of the Declaration of Independence, replaced Benjamin Franklin...", "Nick Nolte - Film Actor - Biography.com Apr 2, 2014 ... Thanks to our unending fascination with all things terrifying, Hollywood is ... Born February 8, 1941, Nick Nolte was 35 when he made his TV debut on ... More successes followed, like 1991's The Prince of Tides, but Nolte battled with ... In 1991, he starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the screen adaptation...", "Nick Nolte - Wikipedia Nicholas King \"Nick\" Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor and former model. He ... In 1992, Nolte was named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine. ... During the 1980s, he starred in Under Fire (1983), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Extreme Prejudice (1987) and New York Stories (1989).", "Gwyneth Paltrow - Film Actress - Biography.com Learn more about her life and career at Biography.com. ... eccentric Dr. Emmett \"Doc\" Brown in the successful <i>Back to the Future</i> film series. ... Baldwin, Flesh and Bone (1993), and Jefferson in Paris (1995), co-starring Nick Nolte. ... In 2008, Paltrow joined the ranks of A-listers that played in films based off of comics,...", "Nick Nolte - Wikipedia Nicholas King \"Nick\" Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor and former model. He ... Later, he starred in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear with Robert De ... the great actor disappears, and the story becomes number one, that's as real as it ... 1989, New York Stories, Lionel Dobie, Segment: \"Life Lessons\".", "Nick Nolte - Wikipedia Nicholas King \"Nick\" Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor and former model. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film The Prince of Tides. ... as Billy Randolph, a football player accused of murder.", "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (TV Movie 2000) - IMDb Biography ... Epic television miniseries exploring the complicated relationship of Thomas Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings, who conducted a 38 year ... Jefferson in Paris.", "Shakespeare in Love: 1998 Best Picture Fikkle Fame Sep 20, 2014 ... THE MOVIES $1000: Thandie Newton played the mysterious title role in this 1998 film based on a Toni Morrison novel 4-LETTER FILMS $200:...", "Nick Nolte Biography | Movies.com A native of Omaha, NE, Nolte was born February 8, 1941. While a student at Arizona State University, he revealed talent as a football player, but whatever ... in the football expos [[Feature~V35647~North Dallas Forty~northdallasforty]] ... with his therapist in [[Feature~V39201~The Prince of Tides~theprinceoftides]] (1991),...", "Nick Nolte Biography - Rotten Tomatoes A native of Omaha, NE, Nolte was born February 8, 1941. While a student at Arizona State University, he revealed talent as a football player, but whatever promise he ... In addition to starring in the football expos North Dallas Forty (1979), Nolte ... in The Prince of Tides (1991), a midwestern basketball coach in Blue Chips,...", "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account - Monticello Sally Hemings (1773-1835) was a slave at Monticello; she lived in Paris with ... She was permitted to leave Monticello by his daughter Martha Jefferson .... Thomas Jefferson and was with child which her mother didn't approve her. ... In that time, slaves were not considered people but property and had no rights whatsoever.", "The Prince of Tides (1991) - IMDb Drama A troubled man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls ... Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand in The Prince of Tides (1991) Nick Nolte in ..... Sally's Southern accent appears & disappears as the film progresses. ... On a brighter note, Jason Gould (Barbra's real-life son) acquits himself...", "Jeopary Questions page 1636 - HOT SPOTS OF THE '80s ... MOVIE STARS: Her fiery performance as Nick Nolte's daughter in \"Cape Fear\" earned her an Oscar nomination A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: Columbus first...", "IMDb: Most Popular People Born In \"Nebraska/ USA\" Marlon Brando Actor, The Godfather Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest ... Nick Nolte Actor, The Thin Red Line Nick Nolte was born in Omaha, Nebraska, ... Investigation Marg Helgenberger is an established dramatic actress whose ... This lovely, fresh-faced Lincoln, Nebraska native was born on December 6,...", "Nick Nolte's 10 Most Grizzled Roles | Complex Jan 29, 2012 ... In 1992, People Magazine voted Nick Nolte as The Sexiest Man Alive. ... Of course no one would believe Nolte was their king unless he was shirtless ... Appropriately enough, Down and Out in Beverly Hills features Nick Nolte...", "Beloved (1998) - IMDb Drama ... Based on the book by Toni Morrison, in which a slave is visited by the spirit of her ... Title: Beloved (1998) .... Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton, Tim Robbins ... Rock-music lover and feature-film director Jonathan Demme takes on .... Jason Robards role in Beloved (1998) had been originally cast to be played...", "All-Time Sexiest Men | Actors, Warren Beatty and Rich Man - Pinterest With his ultra-masculine air, 1992's Sexiest Man found favor with both genders. \"He's got much more sex appeal than I do,\" Warren Beatty said of Nolte, who had hit ..... Down and out in Beverly Hills? Nick Nolte, 72, is unrecognisable. Nick Nolte -Back in the day: The actor was once considered the sexiest man alive, as seen...", "Barbra Streisand Archives | Premiere Magazine 1991 | PRINCE OF ... Barbra Streisand uses a flashback sequence to provide the emotional ... she'd have to literally labor under the weight of her once-bulky leading man Nick Nolte. ... on location in Beaufort, South Carolina, \"I'm going, 'I haven't directed in eight years. ... with Hollywood adaptations of his novels; he says he's happy with the film...", "Forget Paris - Wikipedia Forget Paris is a 1995 romantic comedy film produced, directed, co-written by and starring Billy Crystal as an NBA referee and Debra Winger as an independent working woman whose lives are interrupted by love and marriage. It also stars Joe Mantegna, Julie Kavner, Cynthia Stevenson, Richard Masur, ... Mickey rides back to Paris with Ellen, and the two get to know each other...", "50 Faces, Part VIII: Waln, Thunder, Halbritter, Campbell, Bedard ... Sep 16, 2015 ... Here, a rapper and an actress rub elbows with a U.S. Senator and a captain ... He is also an award-winning designer of Native American jewelry. ... She's most recently been seen playing May Stillwater on Longmire, and was...", "Nick Nolte's Son, Brawley Nolte, Arrested - CBS News Oct 8, 2009 ... Nick Nolte's Son, Brawley Nolte, Arrested On Suspicion Of Driving Under The Influence. ... Brawley Nolte portrayed Mel Gibson's kidnapped son in the 1996 film \"Ransom.\" Nick Nolte pleaded no contest in 2002 ... Mother brought to tears by FSU player's sweet gesture toward son with autism. 111917 views...", "Amazon.com: 48 HRS. / Another 48 HRS.: Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy ... Editorial Reviews. Product Description. Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy. As unlikely a comedy team ... Murphy plays a convict on a two-day furlough from prison to help capture his former .... Ganz is a cop killer and unmatched murderer. ... out on parole to team up with a pretty grumpy police officer (Nick Nolte) for 48 Hours to help...", "Free Flashcards about FILM BIOGRAPHIES - StudyStack IN 1989 HE RE-RECORDED 8 OF HIS CLASSIC HITS FOR \"GREAT BALLS OF FIRE\", JERRY LEE LEWIS. IN A 1995 BIOGRAPHICAL EPIC, NICK NOLTE...", "Ravi's Favorite Flicks - ravib.com Struggling to come up with medical school tuition, Ben Campbell (Jim ... When a Nazi U-boat crew, headed by the ruthless Eric Portman, is stranded in ..... Cast: Paul Dano, Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore ...... Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix co-star in this powerful film - often described as an ... Ice Storm, The, Drama | 1997...", "Mobile Web - Top Stories - Hail to the TV and movie chiefs Mar 16, 2008 ... Depicting a United States president for film or television can be pretty intimidating. Just ask Paul Giamatti, who plays John Adams in an epic HBO ... duds, such as Nick Nolte's turn as Thomas Jefferson in \"Jefferson in Paris\" (1995). ... Liam Neeson has signed on to play Lincoln in a biographical film set to be...", "Clint Eastwood - Wikipedia Clinton \"Clint\" Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, filmmaker, musician, and ... Eastwood has been awarded two of France's highest honors: in 1994 he ... After signing, Eastwood was initially criticized for his stiff manner and ...... In 1997, Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller Absolute Power..." ]

[ "Third wheel The term third wheel is inspired by fifth wheel,[1] referring to someone who is with, or in a company of, a couple; with the implication of being invited out of pity or in some other way being (or feeling) redundant." ]

[ "Fifth-wheel coupling The term fifth wheel comes from a similar coupling used on four-wheel horse-drawn carriages and wagons. The device allowed the front axle assembly to pivot in the horizontal plane, to facilitate turning. Basically a wheel was placed on the rear frame section of the truck, which back then only had four wheels; this wheel that was placed on the frame was the \"fifth wheel\", hence the name. The trailer needed to be raised so that the trailer's pin would be able to drop into the central hole of the fifth wheel.", "Christian The first recorded use of the term (or its cognates in other languages) is in the New Testament, in Acts 11:26,[14] after Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) to Antioch where they taught the disciples for about a year, the text says: \"[...] the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.\" The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26:28,[15] where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, \"Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.\" The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4:16, which exhorts believers: \"Yet if [any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.\"[16]", "Dead end (street) The expression cul-de-sac comes from French, where it originally meant \"bottom of the sack\".[44] It was first used in English in anatomy (since 1738). It was used for dead-end streets since 1800 in English (since the 14th century in French).[45] The often heard erroneous folk etymology \"arse/ass [buttocks] of the sack\" is based on the modern meaning of cul in French, Catalan, and Occitan, but cul doesn't have that meaning in cul-de-sac, which is still used to refer to dead ends in modern French although the terms impasse and voie sans issue are more common in modern French.", "Esposito Italian tradition claims that the surname was given to foundlings who were abandoned or given up for adoption and handed over to an orphanage (an Ospizio degli esposti in Italian, literally a \"home or hospice of the exposed\").[5] They were called espositi because they would get abandoned and \"exposed\" in a public place. Some orphanages maintained a so-called Ruota degli esposti (English: \"Wheel of the exposed\") where abandoned children could be placed. After the unification of Italy, laws were introduced forbidding the practice of giving surnames that reflected a child's origins.", "Third-party beneficiary A third-party beneficiary, in the law of contracts, is a person who may have the right to sue on a contract, despite not having originally been an active party to the contract. This right, known as a ius quaesitum tertio,[1] arises when the third party (tertius or alteri) is the intended beneficiary of the contract, as opposed to a mere incidental beneficiary (penitus extraneus). It vests when the third party relies on or assents to the relationship, and gives the third party the right to sue either the promisor (promittens, or performing party) or the promisee (stipulans, or anchor party) of the contract, depending on the circumstances under which the relationship was created.", "Limited-slip differential The main advantage of a limited-slip differential is demonstrated by considering the case of a standard (or \"open\") differential in off-roading or snow situations where one wheel begins to slip. In such a case with a standard differential, the slipping or non-contacting wheel will receive the majority of the power (in the form of low-torque, high rpm rotation), while the contacting wheel will remain stationary with respect to the ground. The torque transmitted by an open differential will always be equal at both wheels; if one tire is on a slippery surface, the supplied torque will easily overcome the available traction at a very low number. For example, the right tire might begin to spin as soon as 70 N⋅m (50 lb⋅ft) of torque is placed on it, since it is on an icy surface. Since the same amount of torque is always felt at both wheels, regardless of the speed which they are turning, this means that the wheel with traction cannot receive more than 70 Nm of torque either, which is far less than is required to move the vehicle. Meanwhile, the tire on the slippery surface will simply spin, absorbing all of the actual power output (which is a function of torque provided over time), even though both wheels are provided the same (very low) amount of torque. In this situation, a limited-slip differential prevents excessive power from being allocated to one wheel, and so keeps both wheels in powered rotation, ensuring that the traction will not be limited to the wheel which can handle the minimum amount of power. The advantages of LSD in high-power, rear wheel drive automobiles were demonstrated during the United States \"Muscle-Car\" era from the mid 1960s through the early 1970s. Cars of this era normally were rear wheel drive and did not feature independent suspension for the rear tires (but instead used a live axle). With a live axle, when high torque is applied through the differential, the traction on the right rear tire is lower as the axle naturally wants to turn with the torsion of the drive shaft (but is held stationary by being mounted to the vehicle frame). This coined the term \"one wheel peel\". As such,\"Muscle-Cars\" with LSD or \"posi\" (positraction) were at a distinct advantage to their wheel-spinning counterparts.", "Trunk (car) The usage of the word \"trunk\" comes from it being the word for a large travelling chest, as such trunks were often attached to the back of the vehicle before the development of integrated storage compartments in the 1930s; while the usage of the word \"boot\" comes from the word for a built-in compartment on a horse-drawn coach (originally used as a seat for the coachman and later for storage). The usage of the word \"dickie\" comes from the British word for a rumble seat, as such seats were often used for luggage before cars had integrated storage.", "Hurdy-gurdy According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the mid 18th century origin of the term hurdy-gurdy is onomatopoeic in origin, after the repetitive warble in pitch that characterizes instruments with solid wooden wheels that have warped due to changes in humidity or after the sound of the buzzing-bridge.[11] Alternately, the term is thought to come from the Scottish and northern English term for uproar or disorder, hirdy-girdy[7]:41 or from hurly-burly,[7]:40 an old English term for noise or commotion. The instrument is sometimes more descriptively called a wheel fiddle in English, but this term is rarely used among players of the instrument. Another possible derivation is from the Hungarian \"hegedűs\" (Slovenian variant \"hrgadus\") meaning a fiddle.[12]", "Trailer (promotion) A trailer (also known as a preview or coming attraction) is a commercial advertisement for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, the result of creative and technical work. The term \"trailer\" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening.[1] That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film begins.", "Third World According to Online Etymology Dictionary the term Third World was formulated in 1952 by French economic historian Alfred Sauvy to mean countries that were neither part of the West nor of the Iron Curtain[3]. Thus the term originally had a political meaning as it arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist Bloc. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and their allies represented the Second World. This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on political and politically-related economic divisions.", "Wagon Wheel (song) Darius Rucker recorded a country version of the song with Lady Antebellum as the second single on his third solo project, True Believers, released on Capitol Records. He joined Old Crow Medicine Show at the Grand Ole Opry July 6, 2012, \"for a special rendition of 'Wagon Wheel'\" where the fans \"went crazy over Rucker's cover of the Old Crow Medicine Show hit.\" After this reception he tweeted out: \"Secret out after @opry perf. I recorded a version of 'Wagon Wheel' for my new record and @ladyantebellum sings on track.\"[30]", "Seat belt However, the first modern three point seat belt (the so-called CIR-Griswold restraint) used in most consumer vehicles today was patented in 1955 U.S. Patent 2,710,649 by the Americans Roger W. Griswold and Hugh DeHaven.", "Pidgin Pidgin derives from a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business, and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean 'business; an action, occupation, or affair' (the earliest being from 1807). The term pidgin English (\"business English\"), first attested in 1855, shows the term in transition to referring to language, and by the 1860s the term pidgin alone could refer to Pidgin English. The term was coming to be used in the more general linguistic sense represented by this article by the 1870s.[8][9]", "Front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel drive vehicles.", "Armistice of 22 June 1940 The Armistice of 22 June 1940 was signed at 18:36[1] near Compiègne, France, by officials of Nazi Germany and the French Third Republic. It did not come into effect until after midnight on 25 June.", "Third World French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World (French: Tiers Monde), referring to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War.[2] His usage was a reference to the Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed the clergy and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. Sauvy wrote, \"This third world ignored, exploited, despised like the third estate also wants to be something.\"[3] He conveyed the concept of political non-alignment with either the capitalist or communist bloc.[4]", "Ford Explorer Intended as the replacement for the Ford Bronco II, the Ford Explorer was introduced in both two-door (the Ford Explorer Sport, also sold as the 1991-1994 Mazda Navajo) and four-door body styles, with the latter being the first four-door Ford SUV. Following the 2002 introduction of the third-generation Explorer, the Ford Explorer Sport was discontinued after the 2003 model year. The Ford Explorer Sport Trac is a mid-size pickup truck based upon two generations of the four-door style from 2001 to 2010. It was sold with several powertrain configurations. Along with two-wheel drive (rear-wheel drive 1991-2010; front-wheel drive 2011-present), part-time four-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive are options. Since 1995, part-time four-wheel drive has been a 'shift on the fly' system with full protection against being engaged at high speed.", "Toll roads in Great Britain It was not until 1654 that road rates were introduced. However, the improvements offered by paid labour were offset by the rise in the use of wheeled vehicles greatly increasing wear to the road surfaces. The government reaction to this was to use legislation to limit the use of wheeled vehicles and also to regulate their construction. A vain hope that wider rims would be less damaging briefly led to carts with sixteen inch wheels. They did not cause ruts but neither did they roll and flatten the road as was hoped.", "Holy Roller Merriam-Webster traces the word to 1841.[3] The Oxford English Dictionary cites an 1893 memoir by Charles Godfrey Leland, in which he says \"When the Holy Spirit seized them ... the Holy Rollers ... rolled over and over on the floor.\"[6]", "Third Epistle of John The Third Epistle of John, often referred to as Third John and written 3 John or III John, is the antepenultimate book of the New Testament and attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two epistles of John. The Third Epistle of John is a private letter composed to a man named Gaius, recommending to him a group of Christians led by Demetrius, which had come to preach the gospel in the area where Gaius lived. The purpose of the letter is to encourage and strengthen Gaius, and to warn him against Diotrephes, who refuses to cooperate with the author of the letter.", "Cold shoulder The first recorded use of the expression was in 1816 by Sir Walter Scott in the Scots language, in The Antiquary. This expression is a mistranslation of the Latin phrase dederunt umerum recedentem from the Book of Nehemiah 9.29 from the Vulgate Bible, which actually means \"stubbornly they turned their backs on you\", which comes from the Septuagint Bible's Greek equivalent ἔδωκαν νῶτον ἀπειθοῦντα. Latin umerus (often misspelled humerus) means both \"shoulder\" and \"back\":[1][2][3][4][5]", "Bumper crop A bumper crop can also be a source of problems, such as when there is insufficient storage space (barns, grain bins, etc.) for an overlarge crop. The word \"bumper\" has a second definition[1] meaning \"something unusually large\", which is where this term comes from.[2]", "Best boy It's unclear why this term came to be used as a job title on film sets. As OED says, \"It has been suggested that it originated as a term for a master's most able apprentice, or alternatively that it was transferred from earlier use for a member of a ship's crew, but confirmatory evidence for either of these theories appears to be lacking.\" The earliest known appearance of the phrase in print is 1931 from the Albuquerque Journal: \"Among the electricians .. the department head is the gaffer, his first assistant is the best boy.\"", "GMC Acadia The 2008 Acadia features 19 inch cast aluminum wheels and Goodyear Eagle RS-A M+S P255/60R-19 108H tires with a high-pressure compact spare tire standard on the SLT2 model and optional on the SLT1. The SLE model has 18 inch painted aluminum wheels with P255/65R-18 tires. The SLT1 comes standard with 18 inch machined aluminum wheels.", "Mowgli Finally, Mowgli stumbles across the village where his adopted human mother (Messua), is now living, which forces him to come to terms with his humanity and decide whether to rejoin his fellow humans in \"The Spring Running\".", "Pear-shaped The third meaning is mostly limited[citation needed] to the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and Australasia. It describes a situation that went awry, perhaps horribly wrong. A failed bank robbery, for example, could be said to have \"gone pear-shaped\". The origin for this use of the term is in dispute. The OED cites its origin as within the Royal Air Force as a cleaned-up alternative version of its phrase \" tits-up\" meaning completely broken or dead; as of 2003 the earliest citation there is a quote in the 1983 book Air War South Atlantic.[1]", "Why Does It Have to Be (Wrong or Right) \"Why Does It Have to Be (Wrong or Right)\" is a song written by Randy Sharp and Donny Lowery and recorded by American country music group Restless Heart. It was released in April 1987 as the third single from the album, Wheels. The song was Restless Heart's third number one song on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of 25 weeks on the charts.", "Pickup truck The term pickup is of unknown origin. It was used by Studebaker in 1913 and by the 1930s, \"pick-up\" (hyphenated) had become the standard term.[5] In Australia and New Zealand, \"ute\", short for utility vehicle, is used for both pickups and coupé utilities. In South Africa, people of all language groups use the term bakkie, a diminutive of bak, Afrikaans for bowl/container, due to the cargo area's similarities with a bowl and container.", "Worm drive A gearbox designed using a worm and worm-wheel is considerably smaller than one made from plain spur gears, and has its drive axes at 90° to each other. With a single start worm, for each 360° turn of the worm, the worm-wheel advances only one tooth of the gear wheel. Therefore, regardless of the worm's size (sensible engineering limits notwithstanding), the gear ratio is the \"size of the worm wheel - to - 1\". Given a single start worm, a 20 tooth worm wheel reduces the speed by the ratio of 20:1. With spur gears, a gear of 12 teeth must match with a 240 tooth gear to achieve the same 20:1 ratio. Therefore, if the diametrical pitch (DP) of each gear is the same, then, in terms of the physical size of the 240 tooth gear to that of the 20 tooth gear, the worm arrangement is considerably smaller in volume.", "Scroll wheel It is used, as the name suggests, for scrolling. It can often also be used as a third mouse button by pressing on it. The wheel is often – but not always – engineered with detents to turn in discrete steps, rather than continuously as an analog axis, to allow the operator to more easily intuit how far they are scrolling.", "Coming of age The Monday of the third week of May is \"coming-of-age day\". There has been a traditional coming of age ceremony since before Goryeo dynasty, but it has mostly disappeared. In the traditional way, when boys or girls were between the ages of fifteen and twenty, boys wore gat, a Korean traditional hat made of bamboo and horsehair, and girls did their hair in chignon with binyeo, a Korean traditional ornamental hairpin. Both of them wore hanbok, and wearing hanbok on the coming of age ceremony can be sometimes seen even now.", "Chestnut (joke) A plausible explanation for the term given by the Oxford English Dictionary is that it originates from a play named \"The Broken Sword\" by William Dimond,[1] in which one character keeps repeating the same stories, one of them about a cork tree, and is interrupted each time by another character who says: Chestnut, you mean ... I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times and I am sure it was a chestnut. The play was first performed in 1816, but the term did not come into widespread usage until the 1880s." ]

[ "Recording companies and retailers are still trying to figure out what the right price point is for music online. On Monday one of the top music distributors — The Orchard — announced it will launch a new pricing scheme in three weeks that it hopes will entice more people to buy its music over the Internet. Finding The Right Price When Apple first started iTunes, the company charged one price for the download of any song: 99 cents. Then it changed to three prices: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Prashant Bahadur, vice president of retail marketing for The Orchard, a wholesaler of music tracks to online retailers like iTunes and Amazon, thinks that if these retailers charge less, they could sell more music. \"There might be songs that have never sold for a year,\" says Bahadur. Nevertheless, he thinks it's possible to get people to buy these songs, if they're priced appropriately. The Orchard has a catalog of more than 1 million songs, with artists ranging from Elton John to Cab Calloway, and the company works to figure out how much to charge for this music. If it charges too much people won't buy it; too little and no one makes a profit. The Sweet Spot On Monday, The Orchard announced a deal with Digonex Technologies Inc., a company that gathers sales data, analyzes purchasing behavior and sets new prices that, according to its Web site, hit the \"sweet spot\" where consumer demand and market potential meet. \"We use our science to systematically decrease the price,\" says Jan Eglen, the CEO of Digonex. \"We find the exact moment and the exact price that the people are willing to pay. That's the sweet spot.\" Digonex has an algorithm that factors in how many songs are being sold and how often they sell to calculate how much to charge. Digonex tried an experiment to learn more about consumer habits, which provided some surprising insight. \"Interestingly, they really didn't buy the top-selling music,\" says Eglen. \"What they did was to fill their libraries up with older things that they could buy a lot cheaper.\" Over two days, with some songs priced as low as 35 cents, Digonex sold 35,000 tracks. Fans also paid $1.29 for a song by the band Jet, even when they could have gone to another site and paid less. Eglen says that means people will stick with one online seller if it has a variety of prices and music. \"Where they can get old stuff and experiment with some very low prices ... if you have some new music that is by well-known popular artists, they're willing to pay more money for it,\" says Eglen. Dynamic Pricing What Digonex is doing is what economists like University of Southern California professor Joseph Nunes call \"dynamic pricing.\" Nunes says economists and retailers have been trying to nail this for years. \"We know on hot days people drink more, so if a supermarket could rush out and change the price of their soda very quickly, they would,\" says Nunes. Dynamic pricing is easier online because no one has to go change the tags on every item in the store. However, dynamic pricing can sometimes upset consumers, especially with music because price increases will be driven by demand and not the actual cost of making the product. \"The buzz on the Internet will become how this firm is actually changing prices, not because there is some cost change and they're just trying to maintain profits, but because they're just trying to increase profits at the expense of the consumer,\" says Nunes. From Concert Tickets To Shoes When the new pricing scheme starts in three weeks, visitors to iTunes will see prices that vary among the three tiers, based on Digonex's algorithm. For the time being, it will change weekly. For Digonex this is just the beginning. Now that the Internet has made dynamic pricing easier, the company hopes to eventually apply its technology to everything from concert tickets to shoes." ]

[ "Is the end of so-called \"digital rights management\" at hand? Copy protection software is controversial because it restricts the playback of downloaded music to specific players. Music bought from iTunes will only play on an iPod for example, but those days may be numbered. Bob Moon of Marketplace talks to Alex Chadwick. ALEX CHADWICK, host: From NPR News, it's DAY TO DAY. What a complication for downloaders. You know, if you want to get music to play on your iPOD, you have to be directly tied to iTunes music. Different MP3 players can't play iTunes music. Now Amazon.com is launching a new online music store. And analysts are betting that record companies might soon give up on selling music with restrictions on how it can be copied and played. MARKETPLACE's Bob Moon is joining us now. Bob, it seems the music industry's been very careful about making sure the music it sells online is protected with copy controls so people can't swap it around and give it to each other. But are there signs maybe they're going to stop this practice? BOB MOON: Yeah, that's right. As you mentioned, with Amazon, soon to be the latest to sell this in-the-clear music, this could signal a change here. It all started with Steve Jobs igniting this very heated debate within the recording industry about the value of using what's known as digital rights management protection. Jobs wants to do away with the copy controls so the music that he sells on iTunes will play on other players and not just iPods. So far the only big recording company that's going along with this is EMI. It's agreed to allow songs to be sold in the widely used MP3 format without copy protection, both on iTunes and now on Amazon. Amazon is clearly hoping that it can make deals with EMI's rivals before its service kicks off here. CHADWICK: And what are the chances that the other labels are going to follow the lead of EMI? MOON: Very good question. Some analysts reacting to this deal with Amazon are predicting that selling music without these controls is now going to become the business reality here. They figure that's what customers want. But others aren't so sure. They point out that Apple, for example, plans to charge a premium price for the songs that it offers without copy protection, and some analysts say it remains to be seen how consumers will react to that. David Card at JupiterResearch is one of the analysts who's taking a wait and see attitude, although he does tell us that this will give credence to this new movement. Mr. DAVID CARD (Analyst, JupiterResearch): Don't get me wrong. I think Amazon's move is a big endorsement of the strategy and EMI is being very aggressive in moving forward on this. And indeed we may move eventually towards a world where you will see more or fewer copy-protected songs distributed. But this in and of itself is not enough to tilt the playing field in that direction, I don't believe. MOON: Card says if music downloaders go forth the higher priced songs heard, that might convinced the other labels to move toward this business model. CHADWICK: You know, it's not music, is it? I mean, people are downloading movies too. Would Hollywood go along with dropping of digital rights protections? MOON: Yeah, fat chance. One significant difference here might be that compact discs haven't been copy-protected from the start. But DVDs are encrypted and the analysts all tell us that Hollywood isn't likely to give up on that at all. CHADWICK, Bob Moon on public radio's daily business show, MARKETPLACE. Thank you, Bob. And MARKETPLACE is from American Public Media.", "Apple made a big splash this week with the introduction of cheaper and more powerful versions of its popular iPhone. The ability to buy an iPhone for as little as $99 will surely woo new customers to enter the smart-phone market, but those who bought earlier versions aren't necessarily able to save big on the new suite of iPhones. And that's causing a stir online. Writing on VentureBeat.com on Monday, when Apple made its iPhone announcements, Anthony Ha said: \"Too bad the speech didn't come with footnotes, because once again, AT&T and Apple are using the pricing plan to annoy existing customers.\" But analysts say it's business as usual for cellular carriers like AT&T (currently the sole U.S. iPhone carrier) to set the price of handsets and to offer subsidies for phones when people sign up for two-year contracts. Michael Gartenberg, vice president for strategy and analysis with Interpret LLC, a technology market research firm, says the $99, $199 and $299 prices for the new iPhones are subsidized prices. \"There's no way AT&T can continue to do subsidies before the contract is up and still be in business,\" he says. IPhone Options To understand what iPhone options you have, you can compare the models on Apple's Web site. If you want all the new bells and whistles — including faster performance, voice control, video recording and a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus — you'll still have to spend $199 for the new 16 GB iPhone 3G S or $299 for the 32 GB model. But the $99 option — for the iPhone 3G with 8 GB of memory — is nothing to scoff at. It is last year's flagship model with a new operating system, and it has most of the new features on the more expensive iPhones, Gartenberg says. (The existing 16 GB iPhone 3G is also available for $149 while supplies last.) The newest iPhones aren't available just yet — both AT&T and Apple are taking pre-orders for delivery on or after June 19. Breaking A Price Barrier \"There's a very strong psychological barrier at $99 for some people,\" says Gartenberg. \"The ability for them to buy into the Apple ecosystem at that price point is going to be very, very attractive.\" Last year, the floor price for an iPhone was $199. The new $99 offering \"certainly lowers the barrier of entry for some people, but over the long run they're still going to have to pay for the same data plan as everyone else,\" says Kent German, senior editor at CNET. If you're a new customer who wants the fully subsidized prices, then you're still required to sign up for a two-year voice and data plan with AT&T. The carrier's plans start at $70 per month for voice and unlimited data, including e-mail and Web access. \"I think they might offer a light version of the unlimited data plan,\" says Roger Entner, a telecom analyst for the Nielsen Company. That may mean the overall cost for consumers on AT&T's base plan may be closer to $60 per month, he says. Costly Upgrades The $99 price for the base model of the iPhone, however, is far from the cost you'll pay if you're an existing iPhone user and your contract is not up for renewal. But Apple's unveiling on Monday of the third-generation iPhone coincided approximately with the expiration of the two-year contract for those customers who signed up for the original iPhone. So, they'll be eligible to buy their choice of a new iPhone at the same price as new customers. But if you want to upgrade early — before your current contract with AT&T expires, or if you don't want to sign up for a two-year commitment — then be prepared to pay a higher price. (You can check your eligibility for an upgrade online.) An early upgrade for the new iPhone triples the price to $299 for the 8GB iPhone 3G (the 16 GB model will cost $349). For the iPhone 3G S, the upgrade price is $399 for the 16GB model and $499 for the 32GB version. And if you don't want a contract at all, then you'll pay $499 for the 8GB iPhone 3G or $549 for the 16GB. And for the iPhone 3G S, it will cost $599 for the 16GB model and $699 for the 32GB version. These sky-high prices for owning the latest iPhones are raising eyebrows online among Apple aficionados. But some people joining the online chorus are also glad to see that there are some discounts available for users with an existing contract who want to upgrade now. \"Apple is especially notorious for incremental updates, and 3G buyers should be lucky that AT&T is offering some sort of discount,\" writes Kyle Ashfield in a comment on NPR's All Tech Considered blog. \"If the iPhone wasn't as popular as it is, they wouldn't have that kind of hope.\" More Competition On The Way The introductions of the Palm Pre and Apple's new iPhones mark the beginning of a busy summer. Entner of Nielsen says many new smart phones will launch in the next few months that will use Google's Android software. \"Every carrier today is re-evaluating the pricing of their handset portfolio in response to the iPhone 3G going for $99,\" he says.", "Hailing from Chicago, The Mudtoys were formed in the spring of 2001. Its members, Patrick Hamilton and Mark Briggs, started out by experimenting with tape loops, noise boxes, and live instruments. Their music is part psychedelic rock, part country. Hamilton and Briggs say they soon bought their own recording gear and began posting original songs on their Web site. They spent four years writing and recording more tunes and giving them away for free to fans on the Internet. Live shows were sporadic. The band has since resumed playing live while still recording at least two new songs a month to give away as MP3s online. The Mudtoys have no formal CD out. Their featured track, titled \"I'm Sitting at the Epicenter of a Garbage Pile,\" is one of their newer songs.", "This week, From the Top visits Berkeley, California, where a 12-year-old pianist joyfully wraps her brain and fingers around a Bach fugue, a hockey-playing bassoonist plays Weber and a teen quartet offers up a new work by a local 17-year-old. Sixteen-year-old Anthony Bracewell, grew up in Ontario, Canada, surrounded by music. His mother loved listening to Broadway show tunes and his father played guitar and harmonica. Bracewell began Suzuki violin lessons at age five, but when he was ten the young violinist suffered the loss of his father, an ordeal that served to deepen his relationship with music. \"Any time you go through something traumatic it makes you see things differently,\" says Bracewell. \"In my case, I turned to my violin, and it brought my playing to a new level. I've always been able to turn to music when I've been sad or lonely.\" Bracewell — a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, performs the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Camille Saint-Saëns, accompanied by host Christopher O'Riley. For 12-year-old Hilda Huang, nothing is more satisfying than playing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, because it's so analytical. \"You have to really understand the music to play it well. I think it uses a different part of the brain,\" she says. Not only does Huang play Bach on the piano, she also enjoys playing the harpsichord, the instrument for which Bach composed much of his keyboard music. \"When you play a harpsichord you don't have the dynamics you have with piano,\" explains Huang, \"You can't make the notes louder or softer. To differentiate the voices you need to play with time to create an illusion that certain notes are louder.\" The young pianist plays \"Contrapunctus No. 1\" and \"Contrapunctus No. 9\" from Bach's Art of the Fugue. Bassoonist Brigid Babbish, 18, is finishing her senior year at Cranbrook High School in Michigan, a school she almost wasn't able to attend. \"When I originally told my parents I wanted to go there they said it was too expensive,\" she explains. Babbish set out to find a way. She went online and learned there was a music scholarship available, and although she had just started bassoon and knew it was a long shot, she decided to apply. Although the audition went well, Babbish soon received a phone call with news that she had not received the scholarship. She was disappointed until she received a second phone call. \"They said that they liked my playing so much that they were going to institute a brand new scholarship in my name so I could attend the school,\" recalls Babbish. \"It's been the most amazing four years of my life!\" She performs the rondo from the Andante and Hungarian Rondo, Op. 35 by Carl Maria von Weber, accompanied by Christopher O'Riley. Preben Antonsen's goal as a composer is to make classical music more accessible, especially to young people. One of the ways he does this is by welcoming influences from popular music. Antonsen 's musical influences vary, but he is especially inspired by rap and hip-hop. \"I believe the hip-hop productions of Dr. Dre equal Schoenberg in musical complexity and sophistication,\" he says. Unlike most people who appreciate rap primarily for the lyrics, Antonsen is more interested in the musical aspects. \"I'm interested in all the different sounds and the control the producers have over all the layers of sound,\" he explains. Antonsen's new piece, Camouflage, was partially inspired by a rap song of the same name by the duo Swollen Members. He wrote it during an 18-day stay at the Yellow Barn Young Artist program. \"I had to write it in such a short time that it made me really focus 100%,\" he says. \"I dreamt about the piece and I thought about it while I ate. I was basically always composing.\" Camouflage is performed by the Viaggio Quartet: violinists Eric Gratz and Anthony Bracewell; violist Stephanie Price; and cellist Ken Kubota. The Viaggio Quartet recently won the St. Paul String Quartet competition. Closing this program from the Bay Area is Chorissima, the top choir of The San Francisco Girls Chorus. The 41 singers range from 12 to 17 years old, tour both nationally and internationally, and sing regularly with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony. The Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Susan McMane, conducts Chorissima in a performance of the traditional songs The Water of Tyne and \"Ah! Si mon moine voulait danser!\" from Six Songs of Early Canada. Pianist Susan Soehner accompanies the ensemble.", "Last December, YouTube, along with a handful of influential classical musicians and organizations, invited musicians worldwide to audition for a spot in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, the first collaborative online orchestra. From fiddlers to French-horn players to percussionists, musicians in more than 40 countries submitted their auditions via YouTube. They were required to post two videos: one specifically highlighting their instrumental talent and another performing a piece by composer Tan Dun, written specifically for the project. \"Speaking from my heart, I must say that it was really an interesting window into the lives of all of these music lovers worldwide,\" says conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who will lead the YouTube Symphony in New York next month. \"Some of them were clearly auditioning in their dorm rooms,\" Thomas says. \"Some people were obviously playing on pedigreed instruments and others on really banged-up practice instruments. One guy auditioned on an upright piano with no lid, in some back room of a theater. And the guy's a tremendous artist, and he's going to be in the YouTube Symphony.\" The winning entrants, announced Monday, include 90 musicians from 30 countries playing 26 different instruments. The 3,000 original submissions were first narrowed down by experts from orchestras worldwide, and then via public online voting. Winners will be flown to New York for a three-day seminar led by Thomas. \"It could be described as something between a summit conference, scout jamboree or musical get-together,\" Thomas says. \"It'll be the first time that people from so many different countries will have had a chance to discover one another online and then actually meet up and try to make some music.\" The music they make will culminate in a concert at Carnegie Hall on April 15. YouTube also plans to \"mash together\" entries of the Tan Dun piece, called Internet Symphony No. 1 'Eroica,' to form a virtual symphony orchestra, performing a single piece. Detractors view the YouTube Symphony project as little more than a symphonic gimmick, but Thomas says he has high hopes. \"Why does someone from Shanghai or Caracas or Kuala Lumpur or Des Moines really get involved with this music? What does it offer to them? I think more than just the melodies and harmonies,\" Thomas says. \"It offers them a frontier, a world of personal expression. And that's the community I wanted to help connect more — ultimately online, but also through the medium of the YouTube Symphony event in New York.\" MELISSA BLOCK, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And I'm Robert Siegel. A couple of months ago, the Chinese composer, Tan Dun, went on YouTube and invited musicians from all over the world to audition over the Internet to play a symphony of his. This is what he urged the musicians to do. (Soundbite of music) Mr. TAN DUN: And practice it, and practice it and practice it. SIEGEL: Practice, practice, practice because, of course, that's how you get to Carnegie Hall. In April at Carnegie Hall, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra will perform Tan Dun's \"Internet Symphony No. 1: Eroica.\" The orchestra includes violinist Calvin Lee, who is a surgeon from Modesto, California. (Soundbite of music) SIEGEL: Owain Williams of the U.K. on timpani. (Soundbite of music) SIEGEL: And Lauren Bridgen of Australia on the viola. (Soundbite of music) SIEGEL: They are among the winners who submitted video auditions. The winners were announced this week, and that makes them members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. The conductor at Carnegie Hall will be Michael Tilson Thomas, and this is how he describes the group. Mr. MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS (Artistic Advisor, YouTube Symphony Orchestra): Something between a summit conference or a scout jamboree or musical get-together, whatever it's going to be. But it will be the first time that people from so many different countries will have had a chance to discover one another online and then actually meet up and try and make some music. SIEGEL: My impression of auditions for symphony orchestras was that they involve terrifying performances before people, live, sometimes with the assist of some beta blockers to cover nerves at that moment. (Soundbite of laughter) SIEGEL: How much can you really tell about the performance when it's over the Internet as opposed to in person? Mr. THOMAS: Well, I would say in many cases, it's very clear. I mean, what it does not allow is what can happen in an audition, which is that you might perceive somebody who is a little bit nervous or playing something a little too fast or just maybe with one word of guidance or encouragement can play the same thing in a way that reveals many stronger things. SIEGEL: You mean, that might happen in a live audition? You might actually say that and have some rapport with the musician? Mr. THOMAS: That's right. This is like, more like a kind of musical snapshot. Different qua", "France plans to put an \"ecotax\" on nearly all airline flights starting in 2020, French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne said Tuesday. The new tax could bring in some $200 million annually that would support modes of travel that pollute less — such as trains. \"With the eco-contribution, air transport will play its part in financing the daily transport of all our citizens,\" Borne said via Twitter. She added, \"It is a response to the ecological urgency and sense of injustice expressed by the French.\" The new tax will not apply to connecting flights or flights that land in France — only ones that originate in the country. Trips to Corsica and French territories overseas would also be exempt from the tax. The green tax's cost would shift along with the travel distance and ticket type. For example, the price for a domestic flight would rise by as little as 1.50 euros — about $1.70. Under the tax, a business-class ticket for a flight bound out of the European Union would cost 18 euros more — about $20. Similar airfare taxes already exist in other countries. In Germany, a green tax adds between 8 and 45 euros ($9-$50) to ticket prices, according to Deutsche Welle. Sweden announced a comparable flight tax in the spring of 2018. Soon after the French government unveiled the plan, Air France announced that it \"strongly disapproves\" of the tax, issuing a statement in which it said the initiative would cost its combined airlines more than $67 million each year. The airline is partly owned by the French government; its corporate group also includes Dutch airline KLM. \"This measure would be extremely penalizing for Air France, of which 50% of its flights are operated out of France, and notably for its domestic network, where losses amounted to above 180 million euros [$202 million] in 2018,\" the company said. In response, Borne said, \"there will be no disadvantage for French airline companies,\" adding, \"the chosen arrangements aim not to penalize them.\" Air France's stock price tumbled after Tuesday's announcement, finishing the day with a 3% fall. On the global stage, French President Emmanuel Macron's government has taken a leading role in fighting climate change. But Macron has also faced criticism and setbacks as his cabinet tries to adopt new policies. A planned tax on gas and diesel, for instance, sparked such an intense backlash that even after it was suspended, yellow vest or gilets jaunes protesters have become a force in France's public debate over how the government should be run, and how people should respond to a changing climate.", "Renewable energy and new technologies that are making low-carbon power more reliable are growing rapidly in the U.S. Renewables are so cheap in some parts of the country that they're undercutting the price of older sources of electricity such as nuclear power. The impact has been significant on the nuclear industry, and a growing number of unprofitable reactors are shutting down. When the first nuclear power plants went online 60 years ago, nuclear energy seemed like the next big thing. In many ways, it lived up to that promise. It turned out to be remarkably safe and reliable and clean. It's carbon-free and is the source of about 20 percent of the country's electricity. But right from the start, people in the nuclear industry struggled with a big problem: cost. Making nuclear power cheap was the Holy Grail. It never panned out. Nuclear plants keep coming in over-budget. And after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011 — when three nuclear reactors melted down after an earthquake and tsunami hit — companies were forced to spend millions of dollars more on safety equipment to keep older plants operating. \"It would be very difficult for any company to make a decision to try to build a new nuclear plant,\" says Mike Twomey, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, which runs nuclear power plants. Entergy has already taken one unprofitable reactor offline in Vermont and plans to close two more plants that are losing money in upstate New York and Massachusetts. In all, 19 nuclear reactors are undergoing decommissioning, of which five have been shut down in the past decade, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The main reason behind the wave of closures is a new generation of cheap, gas-fired power plants that has pushed the wholesale price of electricity into the basement. But Mycle Schneider, a nuclear industry analyst, says nuclear also faces growing price pressure from wind and solar. Renewable energy is so cheap in some parts of the U.S. that it's even undercutting coal and natural gas. \"We are seeing really a radical shift in the competitive markets which leave nuclear power pretty much out in the rain,\" Schneider says. Over the past decade, no new nuclear power plants have begun commercial operations in the U.S.; the last reactor to start up in the U.S. was in Tennessee in 1996 (another unit at the same plant is expected to come online sometime later this year). There are a handful of new nuclear reactors under construction in the South, where energy markets are still highly regulated. Big power authorities there don't face the kind of head-to-head competition that has revolutionized energy markets in other parts of the country. But even within the nuclear industry itself, a growing number of experts agree that the U.S. has reached a pivot point, where new nuclear power plants are just too expensive. \"We think that the costs of new nuclear right now are not competitive with other zero-carbon technologies, renewables and storage that we see in the marketplace,\" says Joe Dominguez, executive vice president for governmental and regulatory affairs and public policy at Exelon, a nuclear power company that has announced plans to close one of its existing reactors in New Jersey. Three other plants that are losing money in Illinois and upstate New York are also being reviewed for possible closure, Dominguez says. \"Right now we just don't have any plans on the board to build any new reactors,\" he says. Companies like Exelon and Entergy hope state governments will agree to subsidize their existing reactors, paying a premium for low-carbon nuclear power in the same way they now subsidize wind and solar. The companies say the steady power generated by nuclear still pays an important role stabilizing the nation's energy grid. But America's reactors are aging. The average is now 35 years old. With the new investment going to natural gas and increasingly to wind and solar, the old energy of the future may soon be eclipsed by the new energy of the future.", "Billboard's album sales chart has a new entry in its No. 5 spot: Legend, the greatest hits record by Bob Marley and the Wailers. It's the highest spot ever for Marley. And while the 30-year-old album has sold millions of copies over the years, it only reached No. 54 when it was released. The new rise of Legend is tied to a special price cut. Billboard reports that sales of the album rose more than 1,000 percent after music service Google Play slashed the price from around $9 to 99 cents. On the new Billboard 200 chart, Legend is wedged between Ariana Grande and Counting Crows — starkly different company from its debut in 1984, when albums by Michael Jackson (Thriller) and Prince (Purple Rain) dominated the No. 1 spot. \"We love to celebrate artists like Bob Marley whose music is timeless and beloved,\" Google Play's Gwen Shen tells Billboard. \"Our hope is that this promotion ... will introduce his music to the next generation of fans and continue his legacy.\" The rise to the top 10 came on the strength of more than 40,000 sales. Rolling Stone reports: \"Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan usually haven't counted sales tallied by digital music retailers' massive price reductions or giveaways, like when Google Play allowed people to download Katy Perry's Prism for free. After Lady Gaga offered Born This Way as a $1 download in the Amazon Marketplace in an attempt to sell a million copies in its first week of release, Billboard and Nielsen put rules in place to disqualify that type of sales manipulation from the charts. However, Google Play's Legend pricing skirts those bylaws thanks to the album being a 30-year-old \"catalog\" release.\" While the 99-cent price brought a rush of interest, Legend has been doing pretty well in sales, with at least 15 million copies sold since it was released in 1984, Billboard says. A few thousand are still sold each week. Marley died in 1981. His work with the Wailers was mentioned in NPR Music's discussion of \"the albums everyone loves,\" with the 1977 record Exodus mentioned as a highlight. But it was 1976's Rastaman Vibration that had previously been Marley and the Wailers' highest-charting album, at No. 8. As NPR reported in June, while its membership has shifted over the years, the Wailers visited the U.S. this summer to play a tour celebrating Legend's anniversary.", "President Trump presented a broad-brush outline of how his administration hopes to stem the decades-long increase in prescription drug prices and spending, in a speech Friday in the Rose Garden of the White House. The administration also released a 39-page document describing a variety of proposals it is either considering or studying in an effort to lower costs to individuals, corporations, the government and the economy as a whole. There were few concrete actions taken today. The plan mostly lists dozens of \"potential\" steps the administration may take, along with many others that were included in the president's budget proposal and will require congressional action. Several options are \"requests for information.\" Nevertheless, the president characterized the proposal as \"the most sweeping action in history to lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people.\" \"We will have tougher negotiations, more competition and much lower prices at the pharmacy counter and it will start to take effect very soon,\" Trump said. The president was accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who played a major role in developing the plan. Trump said he wants to eliminate \"middlemen\" in the drug industry — which includes pharmacy benefit managers and wholesalers — and he criticized industry lobbyists for making a fortune at the expense of taxpayers and patients. U.S. patients spent nearly $329 billion on prescription drugs in 2016, according to the National Health Expenditures Survey. That's an increase of about $100 billion in the past 10 years. Many researchers say the biggest reason behind the rising spending is high prices for prescription drugs. Often, companies are rewarded for setting a high retail price because insurers negotiate discounts off that initial price. The blueprint released Friday reiterates proposals that were included in the White House budget proposal. Those include allowing Medicare's prescription drug plans to slim down the number of drugs they pay for to spark price competition among pharmaceutical companies, and capping how much money Medicare patients themselves can spend on drugs each year. \"On the positive side, I will say that HHS does seem to be paying close attention to this issue, given all the issues they bring up in the blueprint document,\" says Walid Gellad, director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh. \"On the negative side, it's a bunch of questions, not a specific plan for how to proceed.\" Azar, in a briefing following the Rose Garden speech, acknowledged the plan is sweeping and would take years to implement. He said the administration will pursue those ideas it can get done. \"This is a major restructuring of a huge portion of the U.S. economy. One doesn't do that lightly,\" he said. The plan, like the budget, also proposes limiting price increases Medicare would pay to the rate of inflation and changing some rules around generic drug approvals to prevent companies from blocking new generic competition. Many of those ideas would require legislation and congressional approval. Azar, in his briefing, emphasized his desire to change the way pharmacy benefit managers operate — specifically a system where they negotiate rebates off high drug prices. \"We are calling into question today the entire structure of using rebates in the pharmacy channel,\" he said. The president also wants to take steps to ensure foreign governments don't get lower prices for drugs than do U.S. taxpayers – which he referred to as \"global freeloading.\" \"It's unfair, it's ridiculous, and it's not going to happen any longer,\" he said. Critics say that proposal is unlikely to help lower prices here in the U.S. \"Lifesaving medicines aren't more expensive here because they cost less elsewhere,\" Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA, wrote in an article published in The Hill. \"They're priced out of reach everywhere because pharmaceutical corporations are charging exorbitant prices simply because they can—and the U.S. government lets them.\" One thing Trump did not propose was allowing Medicare, the government health care program for the elderly, to directly negotiate lower drug prices for its beneficiaries. That's a change from his rhetoric during his campaign and transition. \"We're the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don't bid properly,\" he said at a news conference in early January 2017. \"We're going to start bidding and we're going to save billions of dollars over a period of time.\" But shortly after Trump moved into the Oval Office he wavered on that commitment, first saying that he didn't want Medicare to engage in what he called \"price fixing\" and then, through his former spokesman Sean Spicer, saying once again he favored allowing the federal government program to deal with drugmakers to get lower prices. Medicare accounts for about one-third of U.S. prescription drug spending. Current U.S. law p", "What counts as a book these days, in a world of Kindles, Nooks and iPads — and eager talk about new platforms and distribution methods? Traditional publishers are traveling a long and confusing road into the digital future. To begin with, here's the conventional wisdom about publishing: E-books are destroying the business model. People expect them to be cheaper than physical books, and that drives down prices. But the story's not that simple. For one thing, digital publishers have the same problem that record labels do: piracy. And there's just not the same stigma attached to pirating an e-book as there is to holding up a Barnes & Noble. It turns out, though, that some publishers are doing pretty well despite the piracy problem. \"We've had an incredible year,\" says Sourcebooks President Dominique Raccah. \"Last year was the best year in the company's history. This year we beat that, which I didn't think was even possible.\" Raccah adds that her company is doing well because of digital publishing, not in spite of it. \"It's been an amazing ride,\" she says. It turns out there are some huge advantages — at least for publishers. A big one: The price of an e-book isn't fixed the way it is with physical books. Ten years ago, a publisher would have sent out its books to the bookstore with the price stamped on the cover. After that, it was done — the publisher couldn't put it on sale to sell more books. \"The exciting thing about digital books is that we actually get to test and price differently,\" Raccah says. \"We can even price on a weekly basis.\" Once publishers have this tool, the ability to adjust prices in an instant, they can do whatever they want with that tool — like use it to get publicity. That's what Little, Brown did with presidential historian Robert Dallek's book on John F. Kennedy, An Unfinished Life. In the middle of November, Little, Brown dropped the price from $9.99 to $2.99 for 24 hours — the digital equivalent of a one-day-only sale. \"That sparks sales; it gets people talking about it,\" says Terry Adams, a publisher with Little, Brown. \"You've just expanded the market.\" Dropping the price of An Unfinished Life did get people's attention. \"Here, we had an opportunity to increase the audience,\" Adams says. The book — originally published in 2003 — launched itself back onto the best-seller list. And because Little, Brown could raise the price again, it wasn't stuck with a money loser. This kind of promotion leads to discovery, something that used to just happen in brick and mortar bookstores. But with fewer of those around, publishers are using price to create discovery. It's like making music available for streaming, so that someone will discover an artist and buy a record. And speaking of music, if you read the new e-book 40 Years of Queen, you'll find it full of links. Links to iTunes, where you can buy the music you've been reading about. That's another huge advantage of e-books: Publishers can sell you things inside your book. It's still quite rare, but that's where digital publishing is headed. But enough with the good news. There's still one big problem putting pressure on publishers (besides thieves). A problem you may have noticed, actually, just in the past day or so. \"We actually don't have a good gifting tradition yet for e-books,\" says Sourcebooks' Raccah. Despite all the advances in reading technology, physical books are still the best Christmas presents. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish. One of the central tensions in publishing can be summed up in this online book trailer. (SOUNDBITE OF \"IT'S A BOOK\") UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: What do you have there? CORNISH: It's for a kids' story by Lane Smith. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: It's a book. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Do you scroll down? UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Nope. I turn the page. It's a book. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Can you blog with it? UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: No. It's a book. CORNISH: What is a book anymore in a world of Kindles, Nooks and iPads, and eager talk about new platforms and distribution methods? Put simply, traditional publishers are traveling a long and confusing road into the digital future. We're going to spend some time this hour strolling down that road, exploring this time of transition, what it means for publishers, for readers and providers too. MARGARET ATWOOD: About three years ago, we were told by a lot of people that paper books were going away. That has not happened. CORNISH: And yet, author Margaret Atwood is dabbling in the brave, new world of digital publishing. We'll hear more from her soon. To begin, here is the conventional wisdom about publishing: E-books are destroying the business model. People expect them to be cheaper than physical books, and that drives down prices. But as we hear from Zoe Chace of NPR's PLANET MONEY, the story is not so simple. ZOE CHACE, BYLINE: There is a big problem with digital books for publishers, the same problem that exists for the record labels. ", "The death of basketball star Kobe Bryant is rippling through the memorabilia market, with buyers and sellers alike storming stores and online markets hoping to snag one last piece of his legacy. The sneaker market spiked particularly quickly. \"Pretty much the same day that he passed, everything we had available was just gone,\" said Candace Gray, a salesperson at Shoe Palace on Melrose Avenue in mid-city Los Angeles. \"That following morning we got hit very hard with a lot of people hoping to grab what they could as far as remembrance,\" she said. But while some shoppers were in it for the sentiment, others were just looking to make a quick buck by flipping the shoes online. On one website, shoes made famous by Bryant began selling for well over double what they were just hours before. Not uncommon, says Robert Digisi at the Wharton School. \"When a celebrity dies, whether it be sports, a musician, an actor, an actress, whatever that might be, there is certainly a lot of human sentiment involved and that will spike demand,\" he said. \"And the market isn't necessarily ready for that.\" That spike can lead to higher prices on a range of items, from jerseys to t-shirts, and posters to trading cards. But Digisi says the spike is just that — prices level out over time. That means both dealers and fans must choose whether to sell now or hold on. Honoring Kobe's memory At secondhand sneaker shop Cool Kicks, also in mid-city, co-owners Adeel Shams and Davon Artis chose to hold onto them. The store stocked several models, released over Bryant's career. Minutes after news of Bryant's death, the two pulled them from the shelves. \"We felt like all the resellers would hurry up and come to the store and take all of the items and try to make money off his name and we were opposed to that,\" Shams said. Artis says they pulled the shoes just in time. \"After we took everything off the shelf, everyone wants to come in either looking for an item or they wanna sell an item they have to profit off because [they] see a market that's going increasingly crazy now too,\" he said. Shams and Artis say they have more than 100 pairs of Kobe Bryant-associated shoes at the shop. Bryant's fanbase in China and Europe made him an international figure. That translates to a world of collectors and fans hoping to get their hands on a dwindling number of relics — now priced out of reach for the average sneakerhead. Shams points to a red pair of Kobe 1 Protros. \"We had it reselling at $750, and now that I'm looking at it, the closest shoe in this size is a 9-and-a-half going for $12,000,\" he said. But Shams and Artis don't plan to sell anytime soon. When they do, they say they'll likely donate their profits to the Mamba on Three fund, which was founded in the wake of Bryant's death by his wife, Vanessa. The two aren't the only ones putting passion over profit. Candace Gray, at Shoe Palace, doesn't just sell Kobe gear: she collects it herself. She doesn't plan to sell her collection of shoes and jerseys either. \"They are going to go into glass,\" she said. \"I don't want to have to worry about not having something that my kids can have tangible to be able to explain the magnitude of who Kobe Bryant was.\"", "Now that medical insurers must accept all applicants no matter how sick, what will these new customers cost health plans? And how will their coverage costs affect insurance prices for 2015 and beyond? Few questions about the Affordable Care Act are more important. How it all plays out will affect consumer pocketbooks, insurance company profits and perhaps the political fortunes of those backing the health law. A few Denver actuaries, bound to confidentiality, will be the first to glimpse the answers. Quite a few companies have agreed to give Wakely Consulting Group early information about enrollment and member health in plans for individuals and small businesses sold through the online marketplaces that opened last fall. The firm will use the data to give insurers the earliest possible estimates of how much they'll pay or receive through a government program designed to distribute risk more evenly among plans. The information will also help insurers set rates for 2015, which are due to regulators relatively soon. \"It's really about, how healthy or sick are these people?\" said Ross Winkelman, a Wakely actuary who's running the analysis along with colleague Syed Mehmud. \"That's probably the biggest uncertainty in each plan's rate filing.\" Wakely is getting information on enrollees' health and demographics far beyond what the Department of Health and Human Services has published. (The data are totaled. Wakely doesn't see member information.) Since the ACA bars insurers from asking about people's health until after they sign up, each carrier is quickly trying to assess its new membership. But plans aren't affected just by the health of their own members. The new enrollees their competitors sign up can also influence bottom lines. That's because the health law's risk adjustment provisions are designed to shift money from insurers that potentially signed up much healthier members than average to those that enrolled sicker members than average. The program, similar to one for Medicare managed care plans, is supposed to remove incentives for insurers to enroll only the healthy. Properly accounting for risk adjustment could mean as much as 10 percentage points in costs or revenue for plans accustomed to making 3 percent profit — a huge swing, said Winkelman. But to know what they're getting, insurers need to know how their experience compares to that of their competitors in a given state and what the average risk is for the total market. That information won't come through normal regulatory channels for many months — long after carriers have to set rates for 2015 and start reporting profits to shareholders. Instead, and perhaps improbably, Wakely has persuaded insurers in more than 30 states to let it act as a clearinghouse, gathering detailed information from each company, figuring how it fits together and sharing only what's necessary. Winkelman declined to identify the insurers or which states they're in. But in some states every health plan in the individual and small-group markets agreed to participate, he said. A Wakely website lists companies that said they intended to participate. They include most major insurers. In October, UnitedHealth Group, which owns the nation's biggest health insurer, said it had signed up for such a study, without identifying Wakely. \"We have absolutely participated with a third party to gather industry information and get some feedback on where we sit,\" Dan Schumacher, chief financial officer for United's insurer, told stock analysts last fall. \"And based on that information, as well as our past experience, we feel very comfortable with our ability to estimate the results [on the risk adjustment program] as we get into 2014.\" Some Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans are also participating. Wakely is still recruiting clients — especially community-run co-op health plans created by the federal health law and others new to the individual and small-group business. \"The health plans that are probably least likely to be participating right now are the ones that are new, and they are the ones that could really benefit from it,\" Winkelman said. Because of insurers' concerns about confidentiality, Wakely won't be sharing what it learns with the federal government, he said. Thanks to the health law's new requirements, insurers knew they might get a line of sicker-than-usual customers. They priced this year's plans accordingly. But it was still largely a guess. Whether they have recruited enough healthy members to balance out costs for the sick and keep premiums from rising substantially for 2015 will be something many people in Washington and CEO suites across the country will want to know. The folks at Wakely will have a better, earlier idea than anybody else. But don't expect them to put out any announcements.", "Beasts of No Nation is the story of a West African child who is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters. Actor Idris Elba portrays a brutal warlord who recruits the child soldier. Director Cary Fukunaga, best known for his work on HBO's True Detective, adapted the script for this movie from a novel by a Nigerian author, Uzodinma Iweala, who took his title from a Fela Kuti album. But famous names and a literary pedigree aren't why the movie's been making headlines lately. This week, Netflix announced that it paid nearly $12 million for the worldwide distribution rights for the movie. The movie already has a lot of Oscar buzz, but to qualify for an Academy Award nomination, it has to be shown in theaters before or on the same day it plays on TV, online or other platforms. So the streaming service plans to release the film in theaters and online at the same time, an emerging strategy in the industry. But some major theater chains are not playing along: AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Carmike have refused to screen it. \"Exhibitors are not being shy about saying 'No dice, we're not doing this,' \" says Phil Contrino, the vice president and chief analyst for BoxOffice.com. He says the traditional distribution model protects box office profits. \"If you value the theatrical experience and you want to protect it and you like to go see movies in theaters, this can't be chipped away at,\" he says. \"Too much experimenting can lead to dangerous consumer expectations where they're gonna say, 'Well, I just expect movies to be at home right away, why do I have go to theaters to see that?' \" Not everyone is so torn up about what's called \"day-and-date\" strategy — that is, releasing a film online and in theaters simultaneously. Tim League runs the Alamo Drafthouse, an independent chain with 19 theaters in Texas, New York and soon, California. He plans to run Beasts of No Nation even while it streams online. \"I don't want to be perceived as some sort of heretic within the industry,\" League says. \"I'm just trying to be reasonable about the idea that releasing independent films is really hard and it's not that profitable. [Movies] about child soldiers in Africa aren't the movies taking in millions. It's a niche community. And if these kinds of films can be successful, I love being part of the equation. I'm not trying to rock the giant boat of overall release strategy window-changing in the U.S.\" League says the day-and-date strategy doesn't make sense for big movies like The Avengers or the upcoming Star Wars. But he says the approach worked well with the sci-fi movie Snowpiercer, released last summer. The post-apocalyptic film ended up grossing $4.6 million theatrically and more than $8.6 million through video on demand, says Tom Quinn, the co-president of Radius-TWC, the boutique label of the Weinstein Company. He says for the past six years, his company has successfully released its films on many platforms as well as in theaters. \"We're agnostic. We're screen-agnostic,\" Quinn says. \"You know, a screen is a screen is a screen, whether it's in a theater, whether it's at home on your TV or whether it's your iPad. Where you want to consume is where you want to consume and we wanna make it available to you where it makes sense for you, but we also want to build our films in a way that suits them. It's not a one size fits all.\" Netflix hasn't yet specified when Beasts of No Nation will be shown. Audiences will get to see it the way they want to — as long as they don't want to see it at the big movie theater chains. ARUN RATH, HOST: This week, Netflix announced that it had paid $12 million for the worldwide distribution rights for the movie \"Beasts Of No Nation.\" Netflix plans to release the film online and in theaters at the same time. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports some major theater chains are not playing along with the new strategy. MANADLIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: The film \"Beasts Of No Nation\" is the story of a West African child forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters. Actor Idris Elba portrays a brutal warlord who recruits the child soldier. Director Cary Fukunaga, best known for his work on TVs \"True Detective,\" adapted the script for this movie from a novel by a Nigerian writer who took his title from a Fela Kuti album. (SOUNDBITE OF ALBUM, \"BEASTS OF NO NATION\") DEL BARCO: The movie already has a lot of Oscar buzz. But in order to qualify for an Academy Award nomination, it has to be shown in theaters before or on the same day it plays on TV, online or other platforms. Netflix plans to release \"Beasts Of No Nation\" in theaters and online simultaneously, but theater chains AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Carmike have refused to screen it. PHIL CONTRINO: Exhibitors are not being shy about saying no dice, we're not doing this. DEL BARCO: Phil Contrino is vice president and chief analyst for boxoffice.com. He says the traditional distribution model protects box office profits. CONTRINO: If you value the theatrical experience and you w", "Georgia's 6th Congressional District in the suburbs north of Atlanta was once held by former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Its most recent occupant, HHS Secretary Tom Price, resigned to join President Trump's Cabinet. Both Republicans and Democrats see the June 20 special election to replace Price as a possible bellwether of what's to come in 2018. And they are spending. Nearly $30 million has been raised by the candidates and outside groups in a race that now comes down to two finalists: 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel, 55. Last night they held their first debate. And all that money led to some tough sparring. Handel, a businesswoman who once served as Georgia's secretary of state, said Ossoff's support comes from places utterly unlike Georgia. \"My opponent has more donors and more dollars coming from outside of the state of Georgia,\" Handel said. \"They are coming from [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi, California, New York, Massachusetts. He doesn't want the people of Georgia to know that he is a liberal Democrat.\" In fact Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, has raised more than $8 million, most of it online, much of it from Democrats anxious to send a message to President Trump. \"The average contribution to my campaign is less than $50,\" Ossoff said. \"And in stark contrast Secretary Handel, like so many career politicians in both parties who are mired in gridlock in Washington, has had her campaign bailed out by anonymous Washington super PACs who are spending unprecedented amounts on attack ads here.\" Echoing some of his TV ads, Ossoff repeatedly raised Handel's tenure as an official with the Susan G. Komen organization, the largest fundraiser for breast cancer research. Ossoff claimed Handel played a central role in its 2012 decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening. The move was widely perceived as a bow to anti-abortion rights groups. The subsequent uproar led Komen to reverse itself three days later, but contributions to the organization fell by more than 20 percent. Handel resigned soon after. But Handel downplayed her role. \"I was one of hundreds of employees at the Komen foundation,\" Handel said. \"Secondly, I was tasked by the CEO and chairman of the board to develop options for how the organization could disengage from Planned Parenthood. Why? Because the grants were not effective.\" The first round of this congressional race took place in April, when Ossoff fell just short of receiving more than 50 percent of the vote, forcing this month's run-off. Handel finished a distant second to Ossoff, but the Republican vote was split among many candidates. There is another debate scheduled this week, and more dollars are coming into the campaign, from Republicans eager to hold on to a seat they've held for decades and Democrats who see a chance not only to send a message to Trump but to lay the groundwork for a hoped-for takeover of the House in 2018.", "American composer Lee Hoiby, whose works were performed at New York City Opera and by such prominent performers as soprano Leontyne Price, died Monday at Montefiore Hospital in New York. He was 85 years old. Hoiby was an unapologetic champion of lyricism at a time when hummable melodies were considered old-fashioned. In the face of modern musical styles such as atonalism and minimalism, Hoiby stuck to his gracefully flowing lines with only passing dissonances. His songs were perhaps not quite as well known as his contemporary Ned Rorem's, or his operas performed as often as Carlisle Floyd's. Yet Hoiby has had his champions, in particular Price, who often included songs by Hoiby in her recitals. Hoiby's first opera, The Scarf (1958), was well-received at the Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. He followed it with Natalia Petrovna at the New York City Opera in 1964; later revised as A Month in the Country, this opeta was compared to Wagner's Die Meistersinger and Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier for its sumptuous lyricism. Read More And Hear Hoiby's Music Hoiby was born in Madison, Wis., Feb. 17, 1926. He began playing piano at age 5, focused on his musical studies in high school and later earned a master's degree at Mills College in California, where he studied composition with Darius Milhaud. His early pieces impressed composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who invited Hoiby to study with him at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute. In 1971, Hoiby adapted the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke. It was hailed as the \"finest American opera to date\" by Harriet Johnson of the New York Post. Ned Rorem thought otherwise: In his 1972 review of the opera, Rorem said, \"no one today composes more graciously for the human voice,\" but he felt the work suffered from too much beauty or \"smoke without fire.\" Price felt Hoiby's music was tailor-made for her voice. In a National Endowment for the Arts interview, she recalled being introduced to his songs by her longtime accompanist, David Garvey, saying, \"I fell in love with them. It's just the way he writes, and from then on he was on my program often.\" She also recalled the standing ovation Hoiby's songs brought at a 1991 Carnegie Hall recital. Along with his operas, more than 100 songs and choral pieces, Hoiby also wrote ballets, chamber music and concertos. He chose to compose far away from city life in a rustic setting in the Catskills. He compared his rural surroundings, with sloping pastures and a waterfall, to Josef Haydn's bucolic setting at the Esterhazy estate. Hoiby, in a profile provided by his publisher, compared writing music to archeology, saying that the process requires the patience of digging for a delicate treasure. \"The archeologist takes a soft brush and brushes away a half-teaspoon at a time,\" Hoiby said. \"Musically, that would be a few notes, or a chord. Sometimes the brushing reveals an especially lovely thing, buried there for so long.\" It has been reported that Hoiby died of metastatic melanoma. He is survived by his partner and collaborator Mark Shulgasser. A memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is being planned for later this spring.", "Buying health care in America is like shopping blindfolded at Macy's and getting the bill months after you leave the store, Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt likes to say. But an online tool that went live Wednesday is supposed to help change that, giving patients in most parts of the country a small peek at the prices of medical tests and procedures before they open their wallets. Got a sore knee? Having a baby? Need a primary-care doctor? Shopping for an MRI scan? A website called Guroo.com shows the average local cost for 70 common diagnoses and medical tests in most states. It's showing the real cost — not the published charges, which often get marked down — based on a giant database of what insurance companies actually pay. OK, this isn't like Priceline.com for knee replacements. What Guroo hopes to do for consumers is still limited. It won't reflect costs for particular hospitals or doctors, although officials say that's coming, in some cases. And it doesn't yet have much to say about the quality of care. Still, consumer advocates say Guroo should shed new light on the nation's opaque, complex and maddening medical bazaar. \"This has the potential to be a game changer,\" said Katherine Hempstead, who analyzes health insurance for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. \"It's good for uninsured people. It's good for people with high deductibles. It's good for any person [who is] kind of wondering: If I go to see the doctor for such-and-such, what might happen next?\" Guroo is produced by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Health Care Cost Institute, working with three big insurance companies: UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Humana. (A fourth, insurance firm, Assurant, will soon join the consortium.) The idea is to eventually let members of these health plans use a companion website to see how differing prices set by each provider affect copayments. Known for its cost and utilization reports, HCCI receives some industry funding, but is governed by an independent board. This is its first tool for consumers. Consumer advocates praise Guroo, but caution that the movement toward \"transparency\" in medical prices is still in its very early stages. Data on insurer, employer or government websites are often limited or inaccurate. Consumer information from Fair Health, which manages another huge commercial insurance database, is organized by procedure code. Even on Guroo.org, \"the average user may not have a good sense of what they're looking at and what they're supposed to do with the resulting price,\" said Lynn Quincy, a health care specialist at Consumers Union. BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina recently set a high standard for disclosure by posting prices — doctor by doctor and hospital by hospital — based on its reimbursement rates, Quincy says. Guroo doesn't do that. HCCI says, so far, its prices detail what insurers pay for about 70 common tests and \"bundles\" of services, all described in understandable terms so patients don't need a medical textbook to figure out what they are. Users get the average (as well as a range) for local and national prices. That's not the same as seeing provider-specific prices online, of course. But within a year, HCCI expects to let members of UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Assurant and Humana use a companion site to track spending, and check how switching caregivers might lower their out-of-pocket costs. Information about the quality of the care provided — essential to helping patients make smart choices — is still to come, as well, Newman says. And at this point Guroo still lacks information on prices in Alabama, Michigan and several other states. But given its size, influence and openness, Guroo could become a dominant portal for health care prices, says Hempstead. \"Their stance as a neutral broker,\" she says, \"and the amount of data that they have and the amount of data that they're going to have really puts them in a different place.\"", "While the Internet plays a role in providing information about products, it doesn't influence consumers as much as other sources according to a new study. John Horrigan of the Pew Internet and American Life Project discusses the findings. ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is Day to Day from NPR News. I'm Alex Chadwick. ALEX COHEN, host: And I'm Alex Cohen. The internet is a glorious thing. It provides us with humorous distractions at work. It gives us a way to stay up to date with the news, but contrary to popular belief, the World Wide Web may not influence what we buy. That's the findings of a new study out from the Pew Internet and American Life project. We went online and tracked down John Horrigan, who did the study. Welcome to the program. Mr. JOHN HORRIGAN (Pew Internet and American Life Project): Glad to be here with you. COHEN: So, John, you interviewed about 2,400 adults about the effect of the internet on the purchases. What did you find? Mr. HORRIGAN: We found that the internet is a very handy research tool for people, but it doesn't have a lot of effect on their final choice of purchase decision when you look at items such as a cell phone, looking for a place to live, or buying music. COHEN: So, if the internet isn't influencing what we buy, what, or who is? Mr. HORRIGAN: It's more about the internet as a handy tool in the journey toward buying something, but it is not the information source that has the most influence over what people buy. So, people will go online, and do a lot of research on the various features that they are considering getting on a cell phone, for instance, and that will help people illuminate irrelevant alternatives, and have a more effective shopping experience overall. COHEN: But, couldn't you say, if there are finding all this information about something, doesn't that, to a certain extent, qualify as influencing their purchases? Mr. HORRIGAN: It certainly influences what people look for, but when we conducted our survey and said, where do you hear about the music you buy? People would say that they hear about music through the mainstream media, such as movies or television. And that they get a lot of information from family and friends. People they trust. COHEN: I know when I am looking to buy something, you know, I will go online and I'll research things like price and quality, but there is something about going to the store, and actually seeing an object, and actually being able to touch it, you know, first hand. Does that count for other people? Is that why we are maybe waiting till we get to a store to buy? Mr. HORRINGAN: Absolutely, we found something like 80 percent of people say they prefer to see and touch a good before they buy it. So, people still really value the physical experience of going to a store, asking questions face to face of a salesperson, and just really getting a feel for the product. COHEN: In a moment we are about to hear a story about a band that got a record deal because of their MySpace page online. So, what do you know about music? Are musical purchases influenced by what we listen to online? Mr. HORRIGAN: We found that something like 39 percent of people who use the internet in their music research say they go directly to the website of an artist or a band. And another 28 percent say they use the internet to find out where bands are performing. So, the internet does let people connect directly to artists. And, in fact, we find a high share of people using the internet for just that purpose when they go to music sites. COHEN: John, we hear about a lot of companies investing in online advertising, and I'm sure if they hear this study, they might think, well, wait a minute, why are we bothering to do this if the internet isn't really influencing people when it comes down to their final consumer choices. So, what are companies to make of what you found? Mr. HORRIGAN: Well the findings suggest that they have a lot of incentives to provide reliable and trusted information to people because if people find that information online, they can, and do look to other places. So, it's about strong incentives for companies to be very reliable in the kind of quality of information they provide online. COHEN: John Horrigan is with the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Thank you. Mr. HORRIGAN: Thank you.", "Just two days before saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón went into the studio to record his latest album, Hurricane Maria hit his native island of Puerto Rico. The resulting work, Yo Soy la Tradicion, or \"I Am The Tradition,\" has the MacArthur genius' trademark originality, but the natural disaster also gives it emotional urgency. Zenón had already planned for his 11th album to shed light on Puerto Rico. He's recorded many adaptations of its folk music in the past. In this new, eight-part suite for saxophone and string quartet, he showcases a different cultural tradition in each piece. One song, \"Rosario,\" is inspired by a Catholic Holy Rosary traditionally played on folk instruments at funerals and other occasions. Zenón is always a soulful player, but with the hurricane hitting so close to the session, his performance here with the Spektral Quartet took on special feeling: They play his adaptation's intense rhythmic interaction and soaring melodies as a fervent prayer. Zenón blurs lines between jazz, classical and Puerto Rican folk music on this album. He finds much affinity with Spektral, an engaging quartet well-versed in contemporary music. Zenón's classical minimalism can be complex. With such skilled musicians playing their hearts out, though, even dense ideas unfold in a graceful dance. The most bucolic song on the album, \"Viejo,\" is based on type of rural folk music. Zenon's saxophone goes cinematic here, gliding above the strings and sweeping down to move among them. It's as if he's entreating the listener to take a closer look at Puerto Rican culture. With Yo Soy la Tradicion Zenón isn't just waving a musical flag for Puerto Rico. He has composed its deep traditions into new musical landscapes. And by recording so soon after Hurricane Maria hit, the resulting album is an imaginative and heartfelt tour of his homeland.", "Santogold knows a thing or two about pop music. The artist born Santi White worked as a talent scout for a major record label and quickly learned how to produce catchy music. She wrote songs for pop artists on the side, and soon put her talents to the test with her new-wave-influenced band Stiffed. In 2006, White went solo, adopting her childhood nickname of Santogold. Her first few singles attracted significant online buzz — especially the instantly catchy \"L.E.S. Artistes,\" which she performs live in this session on World Cafe. Her self-titled debut album is a kaleidoscope of punk, reggae, hip-hop, and electro, residing somewhere in the realm of M.I.A. and the Pixies.", "How do the members of the soul-pop quartet Lake Street Dive while away long hours on the bus as they tour the country? \"The current [tour bus] game is called Guess Butt,\" explained lead vocalist Rachael Price to Ask Me Another host Ophira Eisenberg. \"One person lies face down, and you put various objects, unknown to them, on their butt. And they have to use their butt to guess what the object is.\" Who is the reigning champion? Who once thought a guitar was a bag of socks? Clearly, this band, renowned for its third studio album Bad Self Portraits, and its contributions to producer T. Bone Burnett's showcase of music from the film Inside Llewyn Davis, enjoys spending time together. The four artists (including bassist Bridget Kearney, drummer Mike Calabrese and guitarist Mike \"McDuck\" Olson) met while students at the New England Conservatory, and started playing music together--though McDuck is cagey about the first genre they explored, except to say it wasn't jazz. Jazz informs a lot of their sound today, but they've also been labeled as everything from \"vintage pop\" and rockabilly to Motown-swing. But, Kearney added, \"we try not to limit ourselves.\" The group's diverse musical talent was on full display in a round in which they revealed another tour bus timekiller: covering pop songs using balloons as instruments. Can you guess the titles of their squeaky melodies? Plus, don't miss Lake Street Dive's Ask Me Another Challenge, in which these children of the '90s must correct Jonathan Coulton's wrecked lyrics to some of the era's most beloved radio hits. This episode originally aired October 17, 2014. OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: You're listening to ASK ME ANOTHER from NPR and WNYC. I'm Ophira Eisenberg and with me is our one-man house band, Jonathan Coulton and our puzzle guru, Art Chung. Let's welcome our very important puzzlers, from the band Lake Street Dive, Rachael Price, McDuck, Bridget Kearney and Mike Calabrese. (APPLAUSE) EISENBERG: Welcome to the show, my friends. So Rachel, you guys are on tour having a good time. Do you guys play games in the tour bus? RACHAEL PRICE: Yes. The current game is called \"Guess Butt.\" EISENBERG: \"Guess Butt.\" PRICE: Yeah. EISENBERG: OK, I like it already. PRICE: The one person lies facedown... (LAUGHTER) PRICE: ...And you put various objects unknown to them just on their butt in any way possible. And they have to use their butt to guess what the object is. I came up with that game myself. EISENBERG: That's amazing. Who is the reigning champion? PRICE: I guessed, I once guessed a table maybe once. EISENBERG: A table? PRICE: I feel like Michael Calabrese, our drummer, is the reigning champion. MIKE CALABRESE: No, no, no, I'm the worst. I always - for some reason I always think it's a bag of socks. That's the only thing I can think of when - no matter what it is. PRICE: He thought a guitar was a bag of socks. Yeah, you're right. He's terrible. In fact, no one's good at it, so... CALABRESE: It's hard. EISENBERG: You met in jazz school, right, in the New England Conservatory of Music? PRICE: Correct. EISENBERG: Were you in a jazz band? Did you guys come together and say let's play jazz? PRICE: No. Actually, we came together and McDuck said let's play... MIKE OLSON: Don't say it. PRICE: I'm not going to say it. It wasn't jazz. We were trying... OLSON: Let's play \"Guess Butt\" is what I said. (LAUGHTER) EISENBERG: I feel like people describe the music you're putting out a lot of different ways - vintage pop meets rockabilly, swing, soul, Motown. Bridget, how do you describe - like, if someone's like, what kind of music do you play? What do you say? BRIDGET KEARNEY: We put it in like soul-pop category, generally. EISENBERG: Soul-pop. KEARNEY: Yeah, but I don't know. We try not to limit ourselves to either of those. EISENBERG: OK guys, I'm excited you're bringing your diverse musical talents to this next game. So let's chat with our lucky contestant, please welcome Pamela Vachon. (APPLAUSE) PAMELA VACHON: Hi. EISENBERG: Hi. Yes, you see what's going on. VACHON: Yes, they're all blowing up balloons. That's terrifying. EISENBERG: Isn't it? So Pamela, this is not your first time on the same - in the same room as Lake Street Dive. VACHON: No. In fact, just last week, I took a bus to and from Boston in the same day to see your songwriting workshop at New England Conservatory. Yeah, I was there. OLSON: Oh yeah. Oh hey, good to see you again. VACHON: Yeah, you answered my question about literal songwriting. OLSON: That's right. VACHON: Exactly. OLSON: Good to see you. VACHON: I love that. EISENBERG: That is so great. VACHON: Thank you. EISENBERG: So it was a good workshop, you enjoyed it? VACHON: It was great. Yeah, it's going to come in handy when I start my Lake Street Dive tribute band, which is going to be called Fake Street Dive - copyright. EISENBERG: Copyright. Well, this game is called \"My Beautiful Balloon. VACHON: OK? EISENBERG: It turns out the band has a hidden talent. Rachael, ", "Country music wouldn't sound like itself without the pedal-steel guitar, and the instrument sounds the way it does today because of Buddy Emmons, who died Wednesday in Nashville at 78. Though he might not be a household name, Emmons played on records for everyone from Ray Price to Ray Charles, and from George Strait to Judy Collins. Steve Fishell, who plays pedal steel for Emmylou Harris, calls Emmons a musical genius — even a savant. \"You're talking about the ability to play fiery, complex, single-note solos that just would leave you staggered when you heard them, coupled with really imaginative chordal work,\" Fishell says. \"And it all just seemed effortless.\" The pedal steel has humbled many a musician who took a seat at one expecting to make a sweet sound. There are pedals, knee levers, sometimes two sets of strings. Fishell says it takes a special person. \"It's like a Rubik's Cube of a musical instrument that's not unlike driving a stick-shift truck through landmines,\" he says. \"It's just rife with possible accidents left and right.\" Emmons made the instrument a bit more complicated. He split one of the pedals into two and added a pair of strings to expand the tuning. During a rare appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame last year, Emmons described how he'd get all of it to work in sync by practicing in the dark. \"My senses were a little keener,\" Emmons said. \"It allowed me to hear what I was doing in a different way. It allowed me to feel what I was doing in a different way. I just liked the feeling of what went on in my head while the lights were out.\" Emmons displayed his abilities on numerous recordings of his own, including an acclaimed jazz album from 1963, Steel Guitar Jazz. He retired from music in 2007 when he lost his wife. Ron Elliott, a fellow pedal pro, says he accepted that he'd never be as good as Emmons, his close friend for more than 50 years. \"I loved him and I miss him, and I will continue to miss him every time I sit down to a guitar, just like all the other steel players,\" Elliott says. \"He taught everybody to play, whether it was one-on-one or just by his being.\" One of those whom Emmons indirectly taught to play is Spencer Cullum, who tours with Miranda Lambert and also has his own band, Steelism. \"We're doing a New York run,\" Cullum says. \"I was like, we've got to do 'Once Upon A Time In The West,' because I think it's the only Buddy Emmons song I could tackle.\" Cullum says he regrets that he never actually met Emmons, even though he lived just across town. Emmons was known as a recluse. Still, Cullum idolized the man for how he innovated with both the instrument and the music. So he plans to add a tribute to his repertoire. Cullum says he won't play it as well as Buddy Emmons did, but nobody could. MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: If you've listened to Ray Charles, Ray Price or Judy Collins, among many others, you've heard Buddy Emmons' fingers and feet at work. He was one of the most respected pedal-steel guitar players of all time. Buddy Emmons died yesterday in Nashville. He was 78 years old. Blake Farmer of member station WPLN reports that Emmons mastered one of modern music's more complicated instruments. (SOUNDBITE OF RAY PRICE SONG, \"SITTIN' AND THINKIN'\") BLAKE FARMER, BYLINE: Country music wouldn't sound like itself without the pedal steel. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"SITTIN' AND THINKIN'\") RAY PRICE: (Singing) I got loaded last night on a bottle of gin. FARMER: And the instrument sounds the way it does today because of Buddy Emmons. Steve Fishell, who plays for Emmylou Harris, calls Emmons a musical genius - even a savant. STEVE FISHELL: You're talking about the ability to play fiery, complex, single-note solos that just would leave you staggered when you heard them, coupled with really imaginative chordal work. And it just all seemed effortless. (SOUNDBITE OF BUDDY EMMONS SONG, \"ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL\") FARMER: The pedal steel has humbled many a musician who took a seat at one expecting to make a sweet sound. There are pedals, knee levers, sometimes two sets of strings. Fishell says it takes a special person. FISHELL: It's like a Rubik's Cube of a musical instrument that's not unlike driving a stick-shift truck through a landmine. I mean, it's just rife with possible accidents left and right. FARMER: And Emmons made the instrument a bit more complicated. He split one of the pedals into two and added a pair of strings to expand the tuning. During a rare appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame last year, Emmons described how he'd get all of it to work in sync - by practicing in the dark. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) BUDDY EMMONS: My senses, you know, were a little keener as far as knowing what I was doing. It allowed me to hear what I was doing in a different way. I just liked it. I liked the feeling of what went on in my head while, you know, the lights were out. FARMER: Emmons displayed his abilities on numerous recordings of his own, including an acclaimed jazz album fr", "Why don't more jazz groups tour the U.S.? The simple answer is that it's hard to be paid adequately to do so; the complicated one details just how hard it is. But in the rock world, artists more frequently hit the road in the face of financial uncertainty, even along the do-it-yourself/house show/tiny venue \"circuit\" if necessary. Sometimes, you see jazz or jazz-influenced groups doing the same thing; sometimes, they even come out ahead. Careful readers remember Adam Schatz as one of the proprietors of Search and Restore, the concert presenter and online resource for New York's jazz scene. (Interview here and here.) He's also a saxophone player. And he recently went on a month-long, coast-to-coast tour with one of his \"zombie jazz\" bands, Father Figures. Schatz and four bandmates -- all recent or soon-to-be graduates of New York University -- booked the tour themselves. They raised a bit of initial capital, played mostly rock clubs, stayed with friends and family and criss-crossed the country in a minivan. (You can find updates from the road at their blog.) Their music isn't quite jazz in the way many would describe it, though it comes from jazz-trained musicians; hear a track from their self-titled debut below. Thinking that he would be a good person to talk to about the unique rigors of a DIY tour by an improvising group with two saxophones, I caught up with Schatz over Instant Messenger following the tour. Below is our conversation, edited for grammar and format. \"You're Not My Real Dad,\" from Father Figures, Father Figures (self-released, 2010). Patrick Jarenwattananon: So, like, why, dudes? Adam Schatz: It needed to happen. This summer seemed like the only time we could go for it as a band where no one knew who we were. But we still wanted to play our music across the country. I also wanted to see how folks in cities that weren't New York responded to our music. New York is supremely spoiled with its heavy supply of adventurous improvised and creative jazz music. Which is definitely part of where we're coming from, but I knew that some of the places we were playing didn't have any community for that music at all. Read More &gt;&gt; PJ: How do people in New York respond to your music? I presume, also, that a lot of the shows you've ever put on are attended in large part by people you know ... AS: It's true, first and foremost we have friends in the audience, but we've been fortunate to be exposed to some new audiences in New York City. We played at Death By Audio with Shilpa Ray And Her Happy Hookers, an awesome rock group, and that crowd responded supremely to what we were doing. Which I think is modern jazz music crafted for the underground rock scene -- a blend of strong melodic adventures, improvisation, with a weird pop sensibility at times. It's never based around solos as much as collective improvisation, creating spontaneous forms and new directions. PJ: So, to be clear, it's improvised music with jazz instrumentation ... but it's not exactly \"jazz\" as most people think of it. AS: Precisely. The term \"zombie jazz\" seems to fit. Once people hear it, they understand. Plus, it's a great word to get people's attention in the press. I think we got a few writeups on tour solely because we wrote \"zombie jazz\" in the email header. PJ: You like this zombie idea. AS: It's stuck with me since I first started throwing shows. But the zombie energy is a good one. It's not too cerebral. They're more concerned with eating brains rather than spending too much time using one. I think it favors the instinct, and human curiosity, things everyone can get behind. PJ: So when you say you went on tour, you didn't just go on it -- you planned, booked, drove, did it yourself, as it were. AS: Correct. I did most of the booking myself -- our keys player Ross booked some core shows too. We gave ourselves about three months to put it together and I think the whole thing was booked within two months. It wasn't the first tour I've put together, but it's the longest. Twenty-five shows in 28 days. Mostly in places I'd never been to before. PJ: Well, there were big cities with large music scenes to be sure, but there were others too, no? AS: Absolutely, in the booking process I had to research everywhere we were going to find out who the best folks were to contact about shows. And it really exposed which places had scenes for music leaning on the weirder side and which places didn't. Seattle has an amazing creative jazz scene, and we hooked up with a collective there called the Monktail Creative Music Concern who put us on their Sounds Outside festival with Wayne Horvitz. Their band Figeater played a show with us as well. But then Portland, Ore. has much less of a scene, and so we played two rock clubs there (both were former funeral homes), and those shows were also really great. The audiences hadn't heard anything like us before, so that was a real treat. PJ: I was gonna say, I presume you also played shows to crowds which w", "This week the Department of Health and Human Services released a ton of information about how insurance sold in 36 states under the Affordable Care Act will work. Most of it came in the form of data showing the number of carriers and their premium prices in hundreds of regions. Until now we've seen information on subsidized policies to be sold through online marketplaces released in trickles by states that are creating their own online portals. The federal data covers states that dumped all or part of the work of building the marketplaces on the feds. It's the biggest chunk of information so far available, even though many critical pieces — the identity of the insurers, the structure of the benefits, the networks of the hospitals and doctors — won't be known until next week. That's when the online portals in every state are scheduled to start selling subsidized insurance made available by the federal health law to those who aren't otherwise covered. The Obama administration boasted that the premiums came out lower than expected. Opponents of the law countered that many people buying through the exchanges, especially younger, healthier consumers, may pay substantially more than what they pay now. But those were only the headlines. A closer look at the data reveals other nuggets. Competition equals lower prices. In regions with only one insurance company selling through the subsidized exchange, the average monthly premium for a 21-year-old buying the lowest cost bronze policy is $186, before any subsidies are applied. In regions with 10 or more rival carriers, the average cost is $132 or less. In the exchanges' metal rating system, bronze plans are the least expensive category, covering 60 percent of medical costs on average after you pay the premium. The number of insurance companies selling through the subsidized marketplace varies hugely from one area to another. In many parts of West Virginia, Arkansas and Alabama, only one company is selling policies to individuals and families through the subsidized exchange. (Insurers may also offer policies outside the exchange.) In New Hampshire only one insurer will sell through the exchange in the entire state. In the Detroit region, on the other hand, 11 carriers will sell subsidized policies. In Phoenix, 10 will. The number of available plans, another indicator of choice, also varies. Residents of Oviedo, in eastern Florida, will have 181 polices offered by six insurers to pick from. In Oshkosh, Wis., consumers can choose from 181 plans sold by eight companies. But only seven policies from one insurer will be available in most parts of Alabama. St. Louis residents can pick from 23 policies offered by two insurers. There is a paucity of platinum plans. Under the metal ratings, platinum policies are the most expensive. They cover 90 percent of average medical expenses after you pay the premium. Policymakers predicted lower-level bronze and silver plans would prove more popular than gold and platinum, and it looks like insurance companies think so, too. While in parts of Florida and Wisconsin you can choose from more than a dozen platinum plans, in 40 percent of the regions included in the federal database there are no platinum policies. Insurers are putting their energy into plans with lower premiums and higher deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. There are wide variations in prices, even for similar policies sold in the same state. In Tucson, Ariz., the lowest-cost bronze plan for a 21-year-old is $114 a month. But in several rural Arizona counties a bronze plan costs $164. In Missouri bronze plans for a 21-year-old range from $140 a month to $219. Other things being equal, you'd rather be an uninsured oil hand in Oklahoma than an uninsured cheese maker in Wisconsin. In western Wisconsin, just over the border from St. Paul, Minn., the cheapest bronze policy for a 21-year-old is $301 a month. That's the highest in the federal database. In Comanche County, Okla., (Fort Sill), a similar plan costs $96. That's the lowest. Jordan Rau contributed." ]

[ "Yes, apple cider vinegar is very good on vegetables, baked potatoes and salads and will save you lots of calories, because you won't have to put marjarine on these foods. I also sprinkle a little garlic to taste and a little lemon juice." ]

[ "Yep, tis simple. Limit your food intake(reasonably) drink lots of water and excercise. Don't tamper with those pills. \\n\\nSomething else that helps is apple cider vinegar pills. It's just pure apple cider vinegar, but if you are that concerned about losing weight talk to your doctor or dietician. ;)", "If you really want to loose weight than here is a herbal remedy. When you get up immidiately drink a glass of water (without brushing teeth) or taken lemon and extract its juice putr that in a warm glass of water not more than a tea spoon per glass drink it before your break fast. apple cider vinegar no way it will help.", "How about tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar", "Yes,from what I have heard and read apple cider vinegar works.Soak the toes in it daily.", "apple cider vinegar\\nhttp://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=179&t=53719", "A natural appetite supressant, that is also very inexpensive, is apple cider vinegar. You take 1 or 2 tablets 1/2 an hour before each meal and it seems to curb your appetite.", "I've used them. They work really well at flushing out your system, and can be beneficial not only toward weight loss, but may have some benefits toward treating minor arthitis. One complaint is that it can make urine smell really pungent from the vinegar. Other than that, the pills are not bad.", "First of all no matter what you take or ......\\nyou do have to put something in to it and do some excercise check out this site right here www.prevention.com \\nclick on fitness and then on tageted excercise really really good, easy and quick results. With that you should try some apple cider vinegar. You can mixed it with what ever you like to drink, apple cider has a strong taste and if you can't stand the taste even by mixing it with something you can get it in pills at like dollar tree you get 20 pills for $1 It works wonders.", "i found apple cider tablets took edge of my hunger and i drank loads of water as i was thirsty with them all the time so maybe that's what made me lose weight !", "A theory exist that the acids found in natural apple cider vinegar are beneficial in breaking up kidney stones and gallstones, by softening or dissolving them.", "An Old Time Remedy \"HONEY & VINEGAR\"\\nmix 50/50 two tbsp in a glass of water\\nbefore each meal - helps with weight\\nand blood preasure,talk to your Doctor\\nbefore going on or trying any diet.", "yeah. fruits...eat alot of apples... apples may help you lose weight. A brazilial study showed that 300 overweight women who ate three apples per day lost more weight than a similar gourp who did'nt add fruit to their diet. Researchers believe that adding fruit to the diet of the overweight women changed their METABOLIC PROFILES", "Well those other answers are great. What worked for me was using some apple cider vinegar pills. They helped speed up my metabolism. I got the pills at my local Walgreens. They cost about $10. I love them. I lose about 2 pounds a week. I don't do a lot of excercise either. I stretch everyday and run once in a while. They worked for me. If you do try them I hope they work for you.", "If it's inheirited, you can't control it by diet. Try apple cider vinegar. Three glasses of water each day with a splash of vinegar. Yuk, but my grandmother swears by it.", "I FIND THAT A COUPLE OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR WORKS GREAT,IV HAD SEVERE HARTBURN AND INDIGESTION,USED TO TAKE OTC DRUGS BUT READ ABOUT VINEGAR AND I HAVE NOT USED ANY THING ELSE SINCE................REMEMBER APPLE CIDER VINEGAR....................KAREN ROSE", "Garlic is amazing for lowering cholesterol. You can eat fair amounts of fresh garlic and also capsulated form (odorless). Lecithin granules added to the diet can help with removing arterial fat. Omega 3 fatty acids from flax or fish is beneficial too. (for anyone) These are some natural remedies but I would still consult with your physician.", "putting a paste of baking soda and water on the sites will help stop the stinging, or you can rub apple cider vinegar on the sites. put aloe vera on the sites after the stinging subsides for fast healing.", "Girl, I suggest you eat 6 small meals a day and exercise. Another trick that I have is take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar every evening it cleanses the blood and removes fat deposits in your cells. It also kills bacteria inside your blood stream and clears up acne.", "I didn't do to bad...It works better as an addition to other diets such as just eating more veggies and less carbs. To maximize your diet eat grapfruit or drink grapefruit juice because grapefruit helps boost your matabolism. Remember to excercize and eat right, that is the big part! But yes, Vinegar does help....", "If you want to be healthier and also get potassium too, try drinking 2 tbsp of UNFILTERED, UNPASTEURIZED apple cider vinegar mixid with 1 tbsp organic honey. Dilute this mixture in about 4 oz. water. Do this once every day. This is probably one of the most complete and healthiest dietary supplements you can get.", "Drink a tall glass of distilled water and add a tablespoon of Celtic Sea Salt before every meal.\\n\\nThis will get your elimination sytem functioning properly...then swim or bicycle daily...\\n\\nAlso drink a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with cinnamon after every meal to improve digestion.\\nhttp://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=179", "Vinegar. They have apple-cider vinegar pills now over the counter and cheap..it slows it down if you take then regularly plus its good for you and a dietary suppliment..so it can't hurt.Worked for me.", "yes, it can curb diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart risks. Not saying weight is the only thing that causes these, but it can be a factor.", "I mix about 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a little glass of water. It works fast and amazingly well. My mom always hands out peppermint candy when someone complains of heartburn. Also, chew chew chew your food really well as digestion actually begins in the mouth. Drinking too much liquid with your food can dilute your stomach acid.", "Garlic is probably the best natural way of lowering your cholesterol, you can swallow a whole tooth of garlic every day in the morning, theres no taste, since you are taking it as a pill, but if that doesnt move you, then half of a grapefruit before breakfast will help you break down some of the fast you may intake during the day.", "the reflux can cause the asthma.. the acid may be getting pushed up by excess gasses in the digestive tract. (this is what happens to me) To fix that a nature-path (natural medicine doc) put me on a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar a day ( I know what you're thinking, but) The reason I was getting acid reflux is that I didn't have enough acid to digest what I was eating, this created excess gas that was pushing stomach acid up into the esophagus.. if I remember to take my (yeech!) apple cider vinegar I don't have any problems with reflux.", "Baking soda and vinegar are both wonderful natural cleaners! Baking soda works well on stainless steel, porcelain, counters, etc. Vinegar is wonderful on windows. Together they make a good (strong) drain cleaner & freshner - pour bs down the drain then add apple cider vinegar - works great!", "There are various soup diets going around -- cabbage, beet, vegetable -- and some of them allow a baked potato on a certain day, a piece of bread, a bit of steak.\\n\\nSoup will work for rapid reduction, but I have never known anyone who kept their weight off using the diet. That's why the best way to lose weight -- although not the fastest -- is to get into good habits of exercising (even walking is better than not doing anything) and considering the value of foods before you eat them.\\n\\nGranted, a salad with vinegar-based dressing -- or soup -- is not going to deliver the taste punch of pizza or a hot fudge sundae with brownies.", "neem oil & apple cider vinegar plus the supplement MSM have helped me regrow hair\\n\\nhttp://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=380\\nhttp://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=179&t=53719", "Well it is heathy, but it is doubtful that it will help you lose weight alone.", "It's actually not dry scalp. It's oily scalp that causes dandruff. Use head and shoulders or you can try natural junk like apple cider vinegar, or rubbing salt to break apart dead skin.", "I would stay away from Rogaine type medicines. I don't want to take anything that women shouldn't even touch, personally. Ginkgo biloba improves circulation to the scalp. Horsetail can help strengthen your hair. Green tea and Saw Palmetto may help prevent further hair loss. Tea tree oil can help kill mites, bacteria and fungi that can live on the scalp and cause hair loss. Apple cider vinegar and sage tea as a rinse can help hair grow. Biotin supplementation can help hair grow. Read all the lables for these products and consult a physician if you have any health concerns before taking these products.\\n\\nJust remember, many women find baldness very sexy. So maybe shaving your head would be the easiest solution." ]

[ "Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks" ]

[ "DID", "Franklin Franklin", "Myer", "Did Not Finish", "The Girl Who Played with Fire", "plays", "Did It for the Party", "college students whose parents did not attend college", "play", "Who", "the Who", "Play On", "Franklinization", "Who Made Who", "Who?", "Coles Myer", "Captain Sir John Franklin", "Fort Myer", "Sean Myer", "Sidney Myer", "Bob Myer", "JP Did This 1", "Playing with Fire", "Play age", "Press to Play", "12 Play", "the order of play", "Play No Games", "Simpsons Already Did It", "musical play", "playing technique", "Press Play" ]

[ "Side effects. The most common side effects reported with naltrexone are gastrointestinal complaints such as diarrhea and abdominal cramping. These adverse effects are analogous to the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, as the mu receptor blockade will increase GI motility. Naltrexone has been reported to cause liver damage (when given at doses higher than recommended)." ]

[ "Naltrexone should not be administered to patients with liver disease or liver toxicity. Taking naltrexone while still in the alcohol or opioid withdrawal process may precipitate the withdrawal symptoms. You can call the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 to report any side effects of naltrexone.", "It blocks the effects of certain narcotic medications and alcohol. Taking large amounts of this drug can induce naltrexone overdose symptoms. Do not take narcotic painkillers or drink alcohol while you are using naltrexone, as doing so can cause adverse side effects, including opioid overdose or alcohol poisoning.", "The use of naltrexone was first approved for the treatment of opiate dependence in 1984 and for alcohol dependence in 1994. In 2006, Vivitrol, a new formulation of this medication was approved for alcohol and in 2010 Vivitrol was approved for the prevention of relapse to opiate dependence.Naltrexone does not cause an antabuse-like aversion reaction.ates of nausea and GI symptoms are lower when using Vivitrol compared to oral naltrexone. Soreness at the injection site is common and can be managed with massage, NSAIDS, or ice packs. This is a similar side effect to other IM buttocks injections, such as antibiotics, and is not related to naltrexone itself.", "Save up to 80% instantly!, side_effects_page: Learn about side effects and possible interactions when taking Naltrexone (Revia), medicare_seo_page: Medicare coverage and pricing details for Naltrexone.", "1 Your doctor will tell you not to take naltrexone if you have taken or used opioids in the past 7 to 10 days. do not take any opioid medications or use opioid street drugs during your treatment with naltrexone. Naltrexone blocks the effects of opioid medications and opioid street drugs. You may not feel the effects of these substances if you take or use them at low or normal doses. If you take or use higher doses of opioid medications or drugs during your treatment with naltrexone, it may cause serious injury, coma (long-lasting unconscious state), or death.", "Vivitrol (naltrexone for extended-release) is a formulation that uses microspheres that can be administered by intramuscular injection. It has received FDA approval for the treatment of alcohol dependence and opiate dependence. The dose of 380 mg is designed to be injected once every four weeks.ates of nausea and GI symptoms are lower when using Vivitrol compared to oral naltrexone. Soreness at the injection site is common and can be managed with massage, NSAIDS, or ice packs. This is a similar side effect to other IM buttocks injections, such as antibiotics, and is not related to naltrexone itself.", "Revia (naltrexone) is a special narcotic drug that blocks the effects of other narcotic medicines and alcohol used to treat narcotic drug or alcohol addiction and is taken orally in tablet form. Side effects of Revia include: weakness, tiredness, sleep problems (insomnia), increased thirst, anxiety, nervousness, restlessness, irritability,", "Naltrexone does not reduce the effects of alcohol that impair coordination and judgment. Naltrexone may reduce the feeling of intoxication and the desire to drink more, but it will not cause a severe physical response to drinking.", "you should know that you may be more sensitive to the effects of opiate medications or street drugs after you finish your treatment with naltrexone injection. After you finish your treatment, tell any doctor who may prescribe medication for you that you were previously treated with naltrexone injection.", "1 Low Dose Naltrexone and Autoimmune Diseases: Emerging research about the benefits of a safe and inexpensive drug on autoimmune diseases The History of Naltrexone Naltrexone is an opioid blocker that was approved by the FDA in 1984 at 50mg for opioid dependence and in 1995 for alcoholism.eople on these medications after receiving an organ transplant should not take low dose naltrexone. People taking these medications for others reasons, such as rheumatoid arthritis, should weigh the benefits and risks with their doctors. Safety and Effectiveness Naltrexone is generally a safe drug.", "Bupropion/naltrexone. Bupropion/naltrexone is a combination drug treatment for obesity. It combines bupropion and naltrexone. Both drugs have individually shown some evidence of effectiveness in weight loss, and the combination is expected to have a synergistic effect.", "Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist and works by blocking the effects of opioids, both those from inside and outside the body. Naltrexone was first made in 1965 and was approved for medical use in the United States in 1984.", "Initial development of naltrexone as a medication to be marketed for the treatment of heroin addiction was initiated by the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP) in the early 1980s and completed by NIDA including preclinical toxicology, pharmacokinetics and clinical studies.", "Bupropion/naltrexone. (Redirected from Contrave) Bupropion/naltrexone is a combination drug treatment for obesity. It combines bupropion and naltrexone. Both drugs have individually shown some evidence of effectiveness in weight loss, and the combination is expected to have a synergistic effect.", "Learn about Embeda (Morphine Sulfate and Naltrexone Hydrochloride) may treat, uses, dosage, side effects, drug interactions, warnings, patient labeling, reviews, and related medications.", "Do not use alcohol/any opiates for at least 7 days before starting naltrexone. You may need to stop certain opiate drugs (such as methadone) 10 to 14 days before starting naltrexone. This medication is injected into a muscle in the buttock as directed by your doctor, usually once a month. Dosage is based on your medical condition and response to treatment. Your doctor may start you at a lower dose and monitor you for any side effects or withdrawal symptoms before increasing your dose.", "Naltrexone helps patients overcome opioid addiction by blocking the effects of opioid drugs. It has little effect on opioid cravings. Naltrexone has in general been better studied for alcoholism than for opioids.", "Naltrexone may be out of your system in 24 hours according to official sources. In my experience, it takes at least 4 days from last use of naltrexone to feel some effects of opiates. Not until at least 5 days after last use is there full effect.", "To be eligible, patients could not be addicted to any drugs other than heroin, caffeine, or nicotine. After initial heroin detoxification, the investigators randomly assigned participants to receive low-dose depot naltrexone, high-dose depot naltrexone, or placebo at the beginning of weeks 1 and 5.", "Naltrexone blocks the effects of opioid medication, including pain relief or feelings of well-being that can lead to opioid abuse. An opioid is sometimes called a narcotic. Naltrexone is used as part of a treatment program for drug or alcohol dependence. Naltrexone is used to prevent relapse in people who became dependent on opioid medicine and then stopped using it. Naltrexone can help keep you from feeling a need to use the opioid. Naltrexone is also used to treat alcoholism by reducing your urge to drink alcohol. This may help you drink less or stop drinking completely. Naltrexone will not cause you to sober up and will not decrease the effects of alcohol you recently consumed. Naltrexone is not a cure for drug addiction or alcoholism.", "1 0 evaluations from Lyme Disease patients report major effectiveness of Naltrexone for Fatigue (0%). 2 0 evaluations from Lyme Disease patients report moderate effectiveness of Naltrexone for Fatigue (0%). 3 0 evaluations from Lyme Disease patients report slight effectiveness of Naltrexone for Fatigue (0%).", "Proposals made to enhance the effectiveness and expand the use of naltrexone in treating heroin addiction included the following: In order to achieve a opioid free state required to start naltrexone, the detoxification procedure needs to be tailored to assist transition to naltrexone treatment.", "Naltrexone, the active ingredient in Vivitrol, is released over several weeks and reduces drug cravings for one month. Naltrexone occupies the opioid receptors in the brain, which blocks the euphoric effects of opiates and alcohol.", "The Sinclair method is a method of using opiate antagonists such as naltrexone to treat alcoholism. The patient takes the medication about an hour (and only then) before drinking to avoid side effects that arise from chronic use.", "Doing so can cause sudden withdrawal symptoms.Naltrexone belongs to a class of drugs known as opiate antagonists. It works in the brain to prevent opiate effects (e.g., feelings of well-being, pain relief). It also decreases the desire to take opiates.This medication is also used to treat alcohol abuse.", "Naltrexone blocks the effects of narcotic medicines and alcohol. Naltrexone injection is used to treat addiction to alcohol or narcotic drugs. It is also used to prevent narcotic addiction relapse. Naltrexone injection may also be used for purposes not listed in this medication guide.", "See full prescribing information for complete boxed warning. Naltrexone has the capacity to cause hepatocellular injury when given in. excessive doses and is contraindicated in acute hepatitis or liver failure. Use of VIVITROL should be discontinued in the event of symptoms or. signs of acute hepatitis (5.1).", "Drugs that block the effect of opioids (morphine) may help prevent activation of glia. Such drugs are naltrexone and naloxone. Low dose naltrexone (hence, LDN) may inhibit the activation of glia.", "The most important and dangerous. of them is the occurrence of a strong precipitated. withdrawal reaction to opiates. The authors describe. 16 cases of Naltrexone precipitated withdrawal- 5. hospitalized and 11 ambulatory. Only 6 patients started. Naltrexone treatment after a psychiatrist consultation. All the patients did not keep the necessary safety. protocol of the medicine. 4 cases had a severe clinical.", "Naltrexone has been shown to produce complete blockade of the euphoric effects of opioids in both volunteer and addict populations. When administered by means that enforce compliance, it will produce an effective opioid blockade, but has not been shown to affect the use of cocaine or other non-opioid drugs of abuse.", "Chew, crush, or dissolve the capsule or the pellets to avoid the risk of release and absorption of a potentially fatal dose of morphine. EMBEDA also contains naltrexone, which can reverse the effects of morphine and can cause withdrawal if the EMBEDA capsule or pellets are chewed, crushed, or dissolved. The possible side effects of EMBEDA are:", "Peak Onset : Duration: Side Effects/Precautions: Naloxone (Narcanâ) Adults & Children: IV: Dilute in 10mls and titrate to effect. Max of 2mg in adults and 0.01mg/kg in children. 1-2 minutes: 1-4 hours. T ½ = 1.5 hours: Pulmonary edema, nausea, sweating, tachycardia. Benzodiazepines- For sedation, amnesia, and relief of anxiety only. Not for pain control. Drug: Age: Route: Dose/Titration: Peak Onset : Duration: Side Effects/Precautions: Midazolam (Versedâ) Adults: IV: 1-5mg, given in 1 mg increments over 2 minutes titrated to effect : PO: 30-60 minutes. IV: 1-5 minutes: PO/IV: 2-6 hours . T 1/2 = 1-4 hours" ]

[ "Interactions between your drugs No interactions were found between Flexeril and methocarbamol. This does not necessarily mean no interactions exist. Always consult your healthcare provider." ]

[ "Muscle relaxers: When the underlying cause of sciatica is muscle spasms, muscle relaxers can help. These include carisoprodol (Soma), cyclobenzaprine (Fexmid®), and methocarbamol (Robaxin, Robaxin-750). Muscle relaxers can cause confusion in older patients.", "For cramps that are especially severe, frequent, or disruptive to sleep, a prescription muscle relaxant like cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril), metaxalone (Skelaxin), or methocarbamol (Robaxin) may help.", "Rated Cyclobenzaprine for Muscle Spasm I tend to take Cyclobenzaprine for relief during the day.", "Common side effects of cyclobenzaprine include dry mouth, fatigue, and upset stomach. Cyclobenzaprine can cause dizziness and drowsiness. Do not drive or operate machinery until you know how cyclobenzaprine affects you.", "Rated Cyclobenzaprine for Muscle Spasm Was having severe lower back pain and my doctor recommended I take 1-2 pills of cyclobenzaprine per day. The only problem was that the pill literally knocked me out, so I could only take it at night time.", "Is cyclobenzaprine safe to use during pregnancy or while breastfeeding? There are no adequate studies of cyclobenzaprine in pregnant women. However, studies in animals suggest no important effects on the fetus. Cyclobenzaprine therefore can be used in pregnancy if the physician feels that it is necessary.", "Spicer® parts from Dana are trusted around the world for their high performance and outstanding durability, and now Spicer brings you their toughest u-joint yet: the Spicer® Extreme™ u-joint. These u-joints can take any off-roading punishment you can dish out – they're virtually indestructible!", "Pill with imprint G 750 is Orange, Capsule-shape and has been identified as Methocarbamol 750 mg. It is supplied by Granules USA, Inc.. Methocarbamol is used in the treatment of muscle spasm; tetanus and belongs to the drug class skeletal muscle relaxants. Risk cannot be ruled out during pregnancy.", "Hello mam, yes u can have. There is no problem in that. Take in moderation. Anything taken in moderation is fine and will not effect baby. .", "Cyclobenzaprine can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert. Avoid drinking alcohol, which can increase some of the side effects of cyclobenzaprine.", "Medications. A number of drugs can darken urine, including the antimalarial drugs chloroquine and primaquine, the antibiotics metronidazole (Flagyl) and nitrofurantoin (Furadantin), laxatives containing cascara or senna, and methocarbamol — a muscle relaxant.", "Xanax is mainly used to treat anxiety disorders and panic attacks. Brand names for cyclobenzaprine include Flexeril, Amrix, and Fexmid. Cyclobenzaprine and Xanax belong to different drug classes. Cyclobenzaprine is a muscle relaxant and Valium is a benzodiazepine.", "Cyclobenzaprine and naproxen belong to different drug classes. Cyclobenzaprine is a muscle relaxant and naproxen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).", "When u feel u know something try to explain it to another person if u can explain it properly u know it well, if u can't explain it to the satisfaction of that person u will realise u don't know it. Save Nature, Living with curiosity. Just by understanding the Universe.", "Cyclobenzaprine is also prescribed off-label to treat fibromyalgia. Cyclobenzaprine works on the central nervous system, blocking nerve impulses (or pain sensations) that are sent from sore muscles to your brain. Cyclobenzaprine is chemically related to a class of antidepressants called tricyclic antidepressants.", "How can you tell if a “U” has a long or short sound? In general, the pattern is: “u” + consonant + vowel = Long “u” sound. “u” + consonant + (end of word) = Short “u” sound.", "Even though Rockstar has not released GTA V for Wii U, there is still a possible chance. ... The Wii U version could release with those versions and still sell well. Remember to share to we can convince Rockstar Games/ Take Two Games to still make it for Wii U. It's Not Over Yet.", "But What about a Wii U Pro Controller? You can also sync a Wii U Pro controller with your Windows PC. Windows 8 and Windows 10 users can easily connect their Wii U controllers, and use them just as easily as they can on the Wii U console.", "Robaxin (methocarbamol) is a muscle relaxant used together with rest and physical therapy to treat skeletal muscle conditions such as pain or injury. Robaxin is available in generic form.", "The Wii U Pro Controller. ... The Wii U Pro Controller is a controller of the Wii U that can only be used in the Battle Dojo mode in Splatoon.", "Methocarbamol is used to treat muscle spasms/pain. It is usually used along with rest, physical therapy, and other treatment. It works by helping to relax the muscles.", "What is Flexeril? Flexeril is a brand name for cyclobenzaprine, a commonly prescribed muscle relaxant for muscle pain and other musculoskeletal conditions. Cyclobenzaprine is available in immediate-release and extended-release forms.", "The Wii U is majorly different from the Wii. ... That's because the Wii U is a console and controller hybrid. Slide a disc into the Wii U, and you can play with it streaming video to your TV, but the Wii U can also stream video to the screen on the Wii U GamePad.", "Delsym and nyquil together. Best Answer: U should not take both together. Nyquil has a cough suppressant in it so u should only need to take one or the other. “Robo-tripping” is the slang for the psychic effects of an overdose of dextromethorphan (Robitussin).", "E is the symbol for the total energy of the system and U is the symbol for internal energy of the system. E takes into account the macroscopic KE and PE of the system as well as the internal energy, U.", "Ethical dilemma – Moral temptation Ethical dilemma VS Moral temptation: Ethical dilemma , is a conflict between 2 values and u can't have both @ the same time, usually 2 rights/2wrongs. ... Moral temptation : When u have something u want and u may have to take unethical actions to achieve it.", "Mario U is the more traditional game. Luigi U is harder and has a tighter time limit on the levels. If you buy Mario U, you can get the Luigi U expansion as a downloadable title. They are both quite good.", "Where as Tally is a general accounting software, this software does what it says, it can help u with all ur accounting entries and reports. There is no comparison between both. Excel is built for something else, in which u can do whatever u want to, but mastering excel is quite tough. Once u master in it u r the king.", "Cyclobenzaprine is a muscle relaxant. It works by blocking nerve impulses (or pain sensations) that are sent to your brain. Cyclobenzaprine is used together with rest and physical therapy to treat skeletal muscle conditions such as pain or injury.", "Brand names for naproxen include Aleve, Anaprox DS, and Naprosyn. Cyclobenzaprine and naproxen belong to different drug classes. Cyclobenzaprine is a muscle relaxant and naproxen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).", "This U-Haul concept allows for the recycling of used boxes, as well as the provision of free boxes for other customers to cut moving costs. All company stores and many independent U-Haul dealers offer this program, and anyone can take and/or leave a reusable moving box for the next mover in need.", "Cyclobenzaprine is not currently controlled under the Controlled Substances Act." ]

[ "Alex Bevan The release of the album Springboard got him some public recognition due to the local hit song Skinny Little Boy. In 1977 he performed on the air on Cleveland's WMMS Radio with a band called Alex Bevan and the Buzzard Band, featuring DJ Matt the Cat on guitar.[1] He performed in the mid-1970s with an acoustic trio consisting of two guitars and electric bass, and opened for such acts as Seals and Crofts, The Michael Stanley Band, The Doobie Brothers and Hall & Oates. He soon added David Krauss from the band Tiny Alice to the group, supplying percussion and harmonica. They toured either under the name Grand River Band or Alex Bevan and Friends from 1979 until 1981, and produced the albums The Grand River Lullaby, Alex Bevan and Friends Live, and Simple Things Done Well. In the early 80's Bevan produced the direct-to-disk digital solo album Tales of the Low Tech Troubadour Vol. 1. He played in the band Alex Bevan & Cuttlefish from 1984 through 1986. In the late 80s to early 90s, he produced the albums Best Kept Secrets, Cuttlefish Live, and Watersongs." ]

[ "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy \"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy\" (sometimes titled \"The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth\") is a Christmas song with an added counterpoint performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby. \"The Little Drummer Boy\" is a Christmas song written in 1941, while the \"Peace on Earth\" tune and lyrics, written by Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording.[1]", "Cleveland mayoral election, 2017 The 2017 Cleveland mayoral election took place on November 7, 2017, to elect the Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. The election was officially nonpartisan, with the top two candidates from the September 12 primary election advancing to the general election, regardless of party. Incumbent Democratic Mayor Frank G. Jackson won reelection to a fourth term.", "Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (IATA: CLE, ICAO: KCLE, FAA LID: CLE) is a public airport located nine miles (14 km) southwest of the central business district of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States and adjacent to NASA's Glenn Research Center, one of NASA's ten major field centers.[4] It is the primary airport serving Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in Ohio, and the 43rd busiest airport in the United States by passenger number. It is also the only airport in Ohio that offers nonstop transatlantic flights to Europe. Greater Cleveland is also served by Burke Lakefront Airport and Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Cleveland Hopkins and Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport together comprise the Cleveland Airport System, operated by the City of Cleveland's Department of Port Control.", "I Am Wrath Principal photography on the film began on March 9, 2015[12] in Columbus, Ohio. On March 18, 2015, filming was underway on the steps of Ohio Statehouse, and at a private home in Bexley, Ohio.[13] Film was also shot in Cleveland and Alabama.[8]", "U.S. Route 42 U.S. Route 42 (US 42) is an east–west United States highway that runs southwest-northeast for 355 miles (571 km) from Louisville, Kentucky to Cleveland, Ohio. The route has several names including Pearl Road from Cleveland to Medina in Northeast Ohio, Reading Road in Cincinnati, Cincinnati and Lebanon Pike in southwestern Ohio and Brownsboro Road in Louisville. Traveling east, the highway ends in downtown Cleveland, Ohio; and traveling west it ends in Louisville.", "Cleveland Cleveland obtained its name on July 22, 1796 when surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve into townships and a capital city they named \"Cleaveland\" after their leader, General Moses Cleaveland. Cleaveland oversaw the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home, never again to visit Ohio. The first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. The Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23, 1814.[11] In spite of the nearby swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage. The area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal. This key link between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes connected the city to the Atlantic Ocean via the Erie Canal and later via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. Growth continued with added railroad links.[14] Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836.[11]", "The Little Drummer Boy \"The Little Drummer Boy\" (originally known as \"Carol of the Drum\") is a popular Christmas song written by the American classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941.[1] First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family Singers, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years and the song has been recorded many times since.[2]", "Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers, (referred to as the Cavs), are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team began play as an expansion team in 1970, along with the Portland Trail Blazers and Buffalo Braves. Home games were first held at Cleveland Arena from 1970 to 1974, followed by the Richfield Coliseum from 1974 to 1994. Since 1994, the Cavs have played home games at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, which is shared with the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Dan Gilbert has owned the team since March 2005.", "Acts of Violence Principal photography on the filming began in Cleveland, Ohio in March 2017. Aerial shots of Los Angeles included the Detective Samuel Avery, the Old Central Police Station and the reach of Cleveland.[3]", "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, recognizes and archives the history of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures who have had some major influence on the development of rock and roll. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Atlantic Records founder and chairman Ahmet Ertegun. In 1986, Cleveland was chosen as the Hall of Fame's permanent home.", "Cash Explosion Cash Explosion, known as Cash Explosion Double Play from 1989 until 2012, is an official Ohio Lottery TV game show, which is broadcast on television stations throughout Ohio. The show originated in Cleveland and is now taped by Mills James Productions in Columbus, Ohio. Cash Explosion originally aired from February 7, 1987 to September 30, 2006, at which point the Ohio Lottery replaced it with Make Me Famous, Make Me Rich. However, slumping ticket sales and poor ratings prompted the return of the Cash Explosion format a year later, on October 6, 2007, and it has remained on the air since.", "The Music Man (1962 film) With help from his associate Marcellus Washburn (Buddy Hackett), Hill deliberately incites mass concern among the parents of River City that their young boys are being seduced into a world of sin and vice by the new pool table in town (\"Ya Got Trouble\"). He convinces them that a boys' marching band is the only way to keep the boys of the town out of trouble, and begins collecting their money (\"76 Trombones\"). Hill anticipates that Marian (Shirley Jones), the town's librarian and piano instructor, will attempt to discredit him, so he sets out to seduce her into silence. Also in opposition to Hill is the town's Mayor Shinn (Paul Ford), the owner of the billiard parlor where the new pool table has been installed, who orders the school board (portrayed by the barbershop quartet, The Buffalo Bills) to obtain Hill's credentials. When they attempt to do so, Hill avoids their questions by teaching them to sing as a barbershop quartet via \"sustained talking.\" They are thereafter easily tricked by Hill into breaking into song whenever they ask for his credentials (\"Sincere\", \"Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little/Goodnight Ladies\", and \"Lida Rose\").", "Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The Browns play their home games at FirstEnergy Stadium, which opened in 1999,[9][10] with administrative offices and training facilities in Berea, Ohio. The Browns' official colors are brown, orange and white.[3] They are unique among the 32 member franchises of the NFL in that they do not have a logo on their helmets and are the only team named after a specific person, original coach Paul Brown.[11][12]", "Who Dat Boy The song accompanied music video was uploaded on June 29, 2017 on Tyler's official YouTube channel.[4] The music video was directed by Tyler under the pseudonym Wolf Haley.[5][6] The music video features visual allusions to the 2017 film Get Out and other rapper Action Bronson's face being sewn onto Tyler's. It also features a snippet of the song \"911 / Mr. Lonely\" at the end of the track.", "Iko Iko The song was originally recorded by and released as a single in November 1953 by James Crawford as \"Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters\", on Checker Records (Checker 787). The single features Dave Lastie on tenor saxophone.[1] Crawford's version of the song did not make the charts. The story tells of a \"spy boy\" (i.e. a lookout for one band of Indians) encountering the \"flag boy\" or guidon carrier for another \"tribe\". He threatens to \"set the flag on fire\". Crawford set phrases chanted by Mardi Gras Indians to music for the song. Crawford himself states that he has no idea what the words mean, and that he originally sang the phrase \"Chock-a-mo\", but the title was misheard by Chess Records and Checker Records president Leonard Chess, who misspelled it as \"Jock-a-mo\" for the record's release.[2]", "Let's Hear It for the Boy \"Let's Hear It for the Boy\" was the second number-one song for Deniece Williams and appeared on the soundtrack to the feature film Footloose. It climbed to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on May 26, 1984, as well as number one on the dance and R&B charts,[1][2] and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and was certified platinum in the US, gold in Canada and silver in the UK by the RIAA, Music Canada and the British Phonographic Industry respectively.[3][4][5] The music video was released in mid-April 1984.[6] The song features background vocals from George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl.", "The Brady Bunch The theme song, penned by Schwartz and Frank De Vol, and originally arranged, sung, and performed by Paul Parrish, Lois Fletcher, and John Beland[not in citation given] under the name the Peppermint Trolley Company,[16] quickly communicated to audiences that the Bradys were a blended family. The Brady family is shown in a tic-tac-toe board with Carol on the top center, Alice in the middle block, and Mike on bottom middle. To the right are three blocks with the boys from the oldest on top to the youngest. To the left are three blocks with the girls from the oldest to the youngest. In season two, the Brady kids took over singing the theme song. In season three, the boys sing the first verse, girls sing the second verse, and all sing together for the third and last verse. The sequence was created and filmed by Howard A. Anderson, Jr., a visual effects pioneer who worked on the title sequences for many popular television series.[17]", "The Weight \"The Weight\" is a song originally by the Canadian-American group the Band that was released as Capitol Records single 2269 in 1968 and on the group's debut album Music from Big Pink. Written by Band member Robbie Robertson, the song is about a visitor's experiences in a town mentioned in the lyric's first line as Nazareth. \"The Weight\" has significantly influenced American popular music, having been listed as #41 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004.[3] Pitchfork Media named it the 13th best song of the Sixties,[4] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[5] PBS, which broadcast performances of the song in \"Ramble at the Ryman\" (2011), \"Austin City Limits\" (2012),[6] and \"Quick Hits\" (2012), describes it as \"a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters\" and notes its enduring popularity as \"an essential part of the American songbook.\"[7]", "Ohio State Buckeyes football Instituted by Coach Tressel in 2001, at the conclusion of all home games the coaches, players and cheerleaders gather in the south end zone next to the marching band to sing the university's alma mater, Carmen Ohio, to the student section.[60]", "Small Town Girl (song) \"Small Town Girl\" is a song written by John Barlow Jarvis and Don Cook, and recorded by American country music artist Steve Wariner. It was released in December 1986 as the first single from the album It's a Crazy World. \"Small Town Girl\" was Steve Wariner's fifth number one country single. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of 24 weeks on the chart.[1]", "I Don't Like Mondays \"I Don't Like Mondays\" is a song by Irish band The Boomtown Rats about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. The song was a number one single in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of 1979,[1] and ranks as the sixth biggest British hit of 1979.[2] Written by Bob Geldof, it was the band's second number one single.", "White Castle (restaurant) Current White Castle markets include Chicago; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton; Detroit; Indianapolis; Las Vegas; Louisville; Lexington; Minneapolis–St. Paul; Nashville; New York City/New Jersey/Pennsylvania; and St. Louis. Louisville and Columbus also house bulk manufacturing (grocery store sales, meat and bun production) divisions. Company headquarters and the Porcelain Steel Buildings (PSB) division are in Columbus, Ohio. White Castle exited the Cleveland and Akron, Ohio markets effective December 25, 2014. [24]", "The Jackson 5 In 1965, the group won a talent show at Gary's Theodore Roosevelt High School, where Jermaine performed several Motown numbers, including the Temptations' \"My Girl\" and Michael performed Robert Parker's \"Barefootin'\", winning the talent show instantly. Johnny Jackson and Ronnie Rancifer eventually replaced Milford Hite and Reynaud Jones. After several more talent show wins, Joe Jackson booked his sons to perform at several respected music venues of the chitlin' circuit, including Chicago's Regal Theater and Harlem's Apollo Theater, winning the talent competitions on both shows in 1967. After they won the Apollo contest on August 13, 1967, singer Gladys Knight sent a tape of the boys' demo to Motown Records, hoping to get them to sign, only to have their tape rejected and sent back to Gary. In November 1967, Joe Jackson signed the group's first contract with Gordon Keith, an owner and producer of Steeltown Records, and the Jackson Five recorded and released two singles, \"Big Boy\" which was sung by Michael and \"We Don't Have to Be Over 21\".[1] During early 1968, the group also performed at strip clubs on Joe's behest to earn extra income.", "A Boogie wit da Hoodie Artist Julius Dubose (born December 6, 1995), better known by his stage name A Boogie wit da Hoodie (or simply A Boogie), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is signed to Highbridge the Label and Atlantic Records. He is best known for his song \"Drowning\", which peaked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] The song became the lead single for his debut album, The Bigger Artist.", "Goodnight Mister Tom In September 1939, as Britain stands on the brink of the war, many young children from the cities are evacuated to the countryside to escape an imminent German bombardment. Willie Beech, a boy from Deptford who is physically and emotionally abused by his mother, arrives at the home of Tom Oakley, a widower in his sixties who lives in the village of Little Weirwold. The boy is thinly clad, underfed and covered with painful bruises, and believes he is full of sin, a result of his upbringing by his mother, a domineering, insane, God-fearing widow.", "Wendy house The original was built for Wendy Darling in J. M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Wendy was shot by the Lost Boy Tootles after arriving in Neverland, so Peter Pan and the Lost Boys built a small house around her where she had fallen. It was inspired by the wash-house behind Barrie's childhood home in Kirriemuir[1] and first appeared in story form in The Little White Bird in which fairies build a house around Mamie Mannering—the prototype for Wendy—so protecting her from the cold.[2]", "Area code 216 Area code 216 is the North American telephone area code for Cleveland, Ohio, and most of its inner-ring suburbs in Cuyahoga County. Some of the local exchanges contained in the 216 area are: 281 (Atlantic), 476 (Garfield), 631 (Melrose), 642 (Michigan), and 749 (Shadyside).", "Columbus Blue Jackets The Blue Jackets' name and logos are inspired by Ohio's Civil War history. The Blue Jackets play their home games at Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus, which opened in 2000. They are affiliated with the Cleveland Monsters[6] of the AHL.", "God's Problem Child The title track was written by Jamey Johnson and Tony Joe White, and features vocals by Leon Russell in one of his last recordings. Alison Krauss provides background vocals on the tracks \"True Love\" and \"Little House on the Hill\". The original album title, I'm Not Dead, refers to the recurrent hoaxes announcing Nelson's death. \"Delete and Fast-Forward\" describes Nelson's view on the 2016 United States elections. The release includes a song written by Cannon's mother, Lyndel Rhodes.[2] It also includes \"He Won't Ever Be Gone\", a tribute to Merle Haggard written by Gary Nicholson. Seven tracks on the album are written by Nelson and Cannon. Alongside traditional music retailers, the release was made available for pre-order on the website PledgeMusic along with promotional merchandise.[1]", "Tom Paxton Paxton's songs can be emotionally effective and cover a wide range of topics, from the serious and profound to the lighthearted and comical. \"What Did You Learn in School Today?\" mocks the way children are often taught nationalism and a subservience to authority. \"Jimmy Newman\" is the story of a dying soldier and \"My Son John\" is a song about a soldier who comes back home and cannot even begin to describe what he has been through. \"Beau John\" is a song derived from the Civil Rights Movement about taking a stand against racial injustice. \"A Thousand Years\" tells the tale of Neo-Nazi uprising, and \"Train for Auschwitz\" is about the Holocaust. \"On the Road from Srebrenica\" is about Bosnian Muslims who were killed in a 1995 massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina. \"The Bravest\" is a song about the firefighters who died while trying to save others on September 11, 2001. Then there are Paxton's \"short shelf life songs\", which are topical songs about current events and things in the news. They include: \"In Florida\", about the 2000 election; \"Without DeLay\", a song about the former congressman; \"Bobbitt\", about John and Lorena Bobbitt; \"Little Bitty Gun\", which lampoons Nancy Reagan; \"I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler\", about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979 (which was rewritten in 2008 as \"I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae\"[4] about the 700 billion dollar \"bailout of the U.S. financial system\"); \"The Ballad of Spiro Agnew\" (mocking the short career and the former-Vice President's resignation), and \"Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation\" (about the Vietnam War, which became \"George W. Told the Nation\"[5] in 2007 to lampoon the 2003 invasion of Iraq).", "This Boy Its composition was an attempt by Lennon [3][4] at writing a song in the style of Motown star Smokey Robinson,[5] specifically his song \"I've Been Good To You\", which has similar circular doo-wop chord changes, melody and arrangement. The tune and arrangement also draws from \"You Don't Understand Me\", a B-side to a Bobby Freeman single.[6] Paul McCartney cites the Teddy Bears' 1958 hit \"To Know Him Is To Love Him\" as also being influential.[4] Lennon, McCartney, and George Harrison join together to sing an intricate three-part close harmony in the verses and refrain (originally the middle eight was conceived as a guitar solo, but altered during the recording process)[7] and a similar song writing technique is exercised in later Beatles songs, such as \"Yes It Is\" and \"Because\". The song, in D major, revolves around a 1950s-style I-vi-ii-V doo-wop sequence in 12/8 time before moving to the harmonically complex middle eight (G-F#7-Bm-D7-G-E7-A-A7) and back again for the final verse and fade-out. [4] William Mann describes the song as, \"harmonically...one of their most intriguing, with its chains of pandiatonic clusters\" [8]", "Fisher & Paykel Fisher & Paykel products are available in more than 80 countries worldwide.[3] The company had manufacturing plants at Auckland in New Zealand; Cleveland in Australia; Huntington Beach, United States; Treviso, Italy; Rayong, Thailand; and Reynosa, Mexico but announced the closure of four manufacturing facilities in; Dunedin - New Zealand, Cleveland - Australia, Huntington Beach and Clyde Ohio - USA, on 17 April 2008.[7][dead link]" ]

[ "Jackson Hole, Wyoming" ]

[ "Ford Madox Ford", "Where Is the Love?", "HDNet Movies", "Where's Waldo?", "Glenn Tipton", "Glenn Chaika", "Girl in the Movies", "Where Are the Children", "The Fluffy Movie", "Queen of the Movies", "Glenn Morshower", "Glenn Sutton", "The Peanuts Movie", "The Rugrats Movie", "Stitch! The Movie", "Movie Virgins", "The Emoji Movie", "Glenn Thompson", "Glenn Shafer", "The Movie Geek", "The Muppet Movie", "Glenn Gaylord", "Glenn Lazarus", "The Movie Songbook", "Blue Movie", "Glenn Strange", "The Puppetoon Movie", "Glenn Seaborg", "Artie Glenn", "Glenn Kirschner", "A movie projector", "Glenn Tilbrook" ]

[ "THIS paper was written to examine the value of periodic school health examinations and to plead for the abolition of a required annual health examination of every pupil. To avoid the accusation of personal prejudice the argument is based less on the writer's own experience, and mostly on material from papers discussing this subject. To be brief, pro and con pleadings will be found matched with each other without further expanlations.*" ]

[ "In contrast to the traditional program of health assessment of schoolchildren based on periodic physical examination, the program described in this paper is based on the integration of information and data obtained by observation through the school year from parents, teachers and the school nurse, who coordinates the program. The numbers and the types of problems and the date on which they were identified are compared in an experimental group of 557 kindergarten children and a matched control group of 498 children in whom the traditional program was maintained. For problems of hearing, enuresis, learning and behaviour the number of cases detected was significantly greater in the experimental group than in the control group. Each element of the proposed program is analysed and the advantages of an integrated approach to health assessment of schoolchildren are underlined.", "This study examines the background to the establishment of the school medical service in 1908 ::: and looks at the full range of economic, social and political factors which influenced its ::: subsequent development. It also uses information taken from the reports of individual School ::: Medical Officers to examine the history of child health in Britain between 1908 and 1974. ::: Finally, it considers the part played by the school medical service in the establishment of the ::: National Health Service and shows how the extension of free medical care to the whole ::: population affected the development of school medical provision after 1945.", "Periodic examinations offer the family physician the opportunity to establish and maintain the physician-patient relationship, to emphasize the importance of health-related behavior, to encourage proven screening maneuvers for common diseases and to detect unrecognized conditions. The major causes of morbidity among women vary according to stage of life, as does the impact of lifestyle and habits. An age-specific approach to the female periodic health examination is suggested, focusing on each of three periods: the childbearing years (ages 19 to 39), the middle years (40 to 64) and the senior years (65 and over).", "In this paper, we estimate the effect of school quality on the relationship between schooling and health outcomes using the substantial improvements in the quality of schools attended by black students in the segregated southern states during the mid-1900s as a source of identifying variation. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey, our results suggest that improvements in school quality, measured as the pupil–teacher ratio, average teachers’ wage, and length of the school year, amplify the beneficial effects of education on several measures of health in later life, including self-rated health, smoking, obesity, and mortality.", "Abstract : A questionnaire was composed to assess the educational value of small-group motivational techniques utilized to stimulate individuals to practive effective oral hygiene. Fifteen hundred junior high school students were tested during a two-year period for changes in dental health knowledge following exposure to dental health education presentations. Although results indicated general improvement, some topics were poorly understood. The questionnaire method appears to provide an objective means for evaluating group response to presentations, and shows potential as an epidemiologic aid for indirect assessment of the oral health status of submarine personnel.", "A clinical survey of was 735 school going children was carried out in rural areas of central India to assess their health status. Every student was subjected to thorough general, systemic examination and hemoglobin estimation. Anthropometric measurements revealed that the weight and height of boys in the age group of 10-11 and 16-17 years was significantly less than ICMR standards whereas the weight and height of girls in the age group of 12 to 17 years was significantly less than ICMR standards (P>0.05). The co morbidities found in rural school children were anaemia (80.8%), gross malnutrition (32%), Deficiency of Vitamin A ( 13.1% ) and Vitamin B complex (19.3%)), skin infections (32.1%), teeth disorder (30.1%), Lymphadenopathy (24.8%), throat infections (18.1%), ear disorders (16.3%), eye disorders (16.1%) and intestinal infections (10.3%). Thus our results highlight a need for intervention health programs aimed at preventing common morbidities and promoting the health of school children.", "Pediatricians and schools can be powerful partners in promoting children's health and academic success. Read on to become familiar with school health services and ways to work with school-based personnel to benefit your patients.", "Vector-borne diseases contribute substantially to the global burden of diseases and disproportionately affect poor and under-served populations living in a country like India. Children can be effective change agents of health in their schools, peer groups, families and communities. We evaluated the effectiveness of participatory school health education on vector-borne diseases among 200 high school children, 100 each from government and private schools. Questions regarding vector-borne diseases, mosquito breeding sites, diseases transmitted by them and mosquito control measures were used to assess their knowledge before and after a health education intervention. Education included lecture, role play and community-based group activity. Average overall pretest score was 11.8 ± 5.03 which increased significantly to 19.3 ± 4.69 after intervention. Health education showed significant improvement in knowledge irrespective of type of school, gender or class of study. It was observed that private school children,...", "Objectives ::: We examine whether state educational standards regarding tobacco correspond with teacher reports of classroom instruction. ::: ::: ::: Methods ::: We test this relation with data on tobacco use prevention standards, reports of middle and high school teachers from the 2008 and 2010 School Health Profiles study, and logistic regression models. ::: ::: ::: Results ::: State education standards are significantly related to increased likelihood of a lead health education teacher in that state reporting that the specific topic was taught in the school. These relationships are stronger for middle school teachers than for high school teachers. ::: ::: ::: Conclusions ::: Associations between state standards and teacher reports of actual instruction are consistent with education standards influencing the teaching of these health education topics.", "In order to suit the new needs of th e qu ality education,school physical ed ucation is being re-formed.The guidin g ideology of\"health firstpoints out the way of school physical education.Al so,it sets higher demands on the reforms in the P .E theachers' educational th inking,educational ideology,as well as their ideas of educational Value.He re ,the author makes a reseach on how t he P.E teachers should develop the combin ation between school physical education and Health Education.", "Aim: To explore school staff perspective on health promoting school (HPS) and on school nurses. Background: The literature mainly refers to health professionals’ perspective while clients’ views are not widely documented. Method: A content analysis was conducted on textual data from two open-ended questions answered by 180 people through a self-completed questionnaire. Findings: Data produced three categories of HPS staffs’ views (positive, sceptical, negative), and five categories of HPS attributes (methods used in activities, content of health promotion, target population, purpose of activities, person in charge). School nurse data were divided into four categories (scope of school nursing practice, school nurse's target group, school nurse's position among the school staff, school nurse's legal responsibility over health situations). Conclusions: Participants believed schools could contribute to health promotion, focusing more on health education and ill-health prevention. Essential elements of school ...", "The health history form has an important role in the evaluation of student performance. Recommendations for therapeutic programs may be based on information gained from the health history. One hundred three California high schools reported the frequency of their use of the health history form. Only 56 percent of these schools require health histories of their new students. Only 38 percent obtain health histories from their athletes.Sixty-four of the 103 California high schools responding enclosed copies of the health history form in use in their schools. Analysis of these forms revealed a lack of uniformity of content and, in general, failure to obtain information pertinent to the in-school student problem.A format for a school health history form whose primary purpose is to reveal school-related health data was developed.", "ABSTRACTSchool resource officers (SROs) are being increasingly employed in schools to respond to incidents of school violence and to help address safety concerns among students and staff. While previous research on school safety and crisis teams has examined the role of school mental health professionals’ and administrators, fewer studies have evaluated the role of the SRO. The current study examined differences between SROs, school administrators, and school mental health professionals (i.e., school psychologists, school counselors, social workers) regarding experiences with crisis events, as well as perceived effectiveness of crisis prevention and response strategies. The most common crisis events across professionals included student assaults, drug offenses, and mandated child abuse and neglect reporting. While SROs and school mental health professionals had similar ratings of school safety strategies, school administrators had less effective appraisals of crisis response plans and crisis postvention a...", "Objective To investigate the sub-healthy state of teachers in vocational schools and related factors in hopes of providing measures for health maintaining and serving for healthy management.Methods The questionnaire of city residents healthy status and healthy bereavement was sued to survey the sub-health status of teaches in a vocational school,the dimensions of sub-health were taken out and analyzed by statistical software SPSS10.0.Results The health state of teachers in this vocational school was unoptimistic.Conclusion This investigation has certain significance on reflecting the health state of teachers in vocational schools.The sub-healthy state of teachers is correlated to the high working press,higher labor intensity,low benefits,and a harmonious relationship between teachers and students.Authorities,schools and teachers engaged in vocational education should work together for improving the overall health level of teachers.", "ABSTRACTMental health screening in schools is a progressive practice to identify students for prevention and intervention services. Multiple gating procedures, in which students are provided more intensive assessments following initial identification of risk, are aligned with prevention science and poised to enhance multitiered systems of support. Yet, empirical evidence supporting this practice is limited. Using data obtained from an urban high school (N = 761), the authors investigated a multiple gating and informant approach and its ability to predict social-emotional well-being and academic performance. Screening results were predictive of well-being and grade point averages at an initial gate, with little to no added value at subsequent gates or with multiple informants. Implications for practice and future directions are discussed.", "Objective: To assess the impact of country material distribution on adolescents’ perceptions of health. Design: Cross sectional multilevel study. Setting: Data were collected from the school based health behaviour in school aged children: WHO cross national study 1997/98, which includes students from 27 European and North American countries. Participants: 12 0381 students in year 6, 8, and 10 who were attending school classes on the day of data collection. Main result: Adolescents in countries with a high dispersion of family affluence were more likely to have self rated poor health even after controlling for individual family level of affluence and family social resources. Conclusion: There are substantial inequalities in subjective health across European and North American countries related to the distribution of family material resources in these countries.", "In modern China, missionaries came to China and started some missionary schools. They had undergone a process of a birth period, development period and flourishing period. Missionaries started missionary schools to preach Christianity or preach by education. The start of missionary schools shook the old beliefs about education in China and challenged the Chinese traditional education with imperial examinations at its core. It displayed the good prospective of new education and had healthy influence on the reform of education in modern China.", "FromtheSchool HealthService, CityofLeicester (RECEIVEDFOR PUBIuCATIONMAY 16,1951) Instriking contrast totheabundant information -wepossess aboutthe'normal ' bloodpressure *(B.P.) inadults ourknowledge ofwhatmightbe considered asthenormalrangeofB.P.inschool children islimited, andowing tothevarious methods used, oflittle avail forcomparison. Bloodpressure reading isnotpartofroutine medical inspection, although ithasbeenknownforalongtimethata normalpersonreaches hismatureB.P.atabout adolescence (Robinson andBrucer, 1939) andthat theincidence ofhypertension isashighattheage", "This paper is mainly the investigation and analyses on the sub-health of pupils in Jining City by using questionnaires,referring to former information and gathering statistics.The investigation results present that the sub-health conditions of pupils are different according to different genders and grades.Many factors can raise the possibility of sub-health,for example,unsatisfying about the major,higher or lower expected value from the parents,lacking of physical training,never eating on time and so on.Measures such as doing more physical exercises,forming a good diet habit,having enough sleep and avoiding stay up late,regulating the biological clock,adjusting the mental process and meeting the challenges,and attending psychological consultation and treatment,can help to improve the sub-health conditions of pupils.", "From 1985 until now,our country has carded out 4 times national adolescent Physical Fitness and health measurement,the results demonstrated that there were some of Physical Fitness and health measurement index continuously come down.This article will summarize and generalize the influence factors for middle school students' physical fitness and health Condition by data act and information query method in order'io supply scientific foundation for government and school in students' physical fitness working.", "Purpose – Although medical schools do well in preparing the next generation of practitioners to diagnose and clinically treat illness, they struggle in preparing them with capabilities in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention. Similarly, health promoting schools (HPS) face challenges in working to enhance the health and educational outcomes of children. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw from their local and international collaborative work as practitioners and medical educators to examine how health professions schools can work in partnership with HPS for mutual benefit. Findings – Health advocacy is a core competency in medical education. A primary focus is on health promotion and disease prevention. However, providing practical, experiential opportunities – “learning-by-doing” – is a challenge. To overcome this difficulty, medical schools may be well served by partnering with HPS. This can provide mutually beneficial learning opportunit...", "This health fair provides a model for introducing health care into a poor, urban, underserved community. Medical students, practitioners, health care institutions, school officials, and local businesses cooperated to provide a program that included physical examinations, educational sessions, entertainment, and information on health careers, especially for young people from \"minority groups.\"", "Because most public health endeavors in the United States are funded by the public sector, public health practitioners need to be adept at working within the political system. However, the 1988 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Public Health, found that many public health professionals are ignorant or disdainful of political processes and will not participate in activities that they perceive to be political. Our study examined the health policy and politics curricula of the 24 accredited schools of public health in the U.S., finding that most public health students are not exposed to these areas during their graduate coursework. Moreover, those students who do take health policy and politics courses study these areas within the context of health care delivery; the politics of public health and prevention are ignored by most schools of public health. Recommendations for improving public health curricula in health policy and politics are presented, including linkages with prevention activities.", "The education of meatal health of college students,which needs full and proper recognition towards the meaning of health and a improved educational environment in various ways with combined force from family and society,plays a vital part in the ideological and political work.", "The relation between physique and health is true containment;health equal to moderate physique,moderate physique health,which converse theorem is tenable,which is the scientific foundation to carry out the educational concept that health is first for school education.", "Objective: To support the practitioner in the diagnosis of vaginal atrophy and in the management of the related symptoms. Options: The modalities of evaluation range from basic pelvic examination, examination of the vulva, and laboratory tests. Outcomes: A comprehensive approach to the detection of vaginal atrophy and a discussion of available therapeutic and nontherapeutic options. Evidence: Published opinions of experts, supplemented by evidence from clinical trials, where appropriate. Values: The quality of the evidence is rated using the criteria described by the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination.", "Abstract Health Promoting Schools (HPSs) represent key settings through which health can be improved. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided component indicators but data on the degree of coverage of these key components of HPSs in many countries are limited. The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether and to what extent information on the components of HPSs in Ugandan primary schools could be generated using focus group discussions (FGD) as well as through observational data. Four schools (two rural and two urban) were randomly selected from the sampling frame of 18 rural and 76 urban government-aided primary schools in Mbale District, Uganda. Focus group discussions (FGDs) involving teachers, parents and pupils were held at each school. Indicators of HPSs were also observed and recorded at each of the selected schools. A scoring system was devised based on the number of positive attributes derived from the WHO list of component indicators. Descriptive analysis from FGDs and observatio...", "Governments can and do adopt many policies that will improve the health and reduce the mortality risks of children. Given this, estimates of the value of improvements in children’s health and reductions in their mortality risk are needed so that governments can rationally choose which of the many possible policies to adopt. These estimates should be based on an appropriate measure of value that is based on economic theory. This paper examines what economic theory has to say about what sorts of elements should be counted in that value, and how that value should then be used in decision-making.", "ABSTRACTBackground and objective: Limited data exist on health conditions of school children in Somaliland. School Health Intervention Pilot Program (SHIPP) was conducted through Edna Adan Universi...", "AbstractThe primary objective of this paper was to determine the factors that affects health instruction in secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research method was used for the study and data were analyzed descriptively using frequency count and percentages. The results of the study reveals that school principals negative administrative styles and the inadequacy of duration/time allotted to health instruction in the schools were critical factors that affects health instruction in Edo State secondary schools. The study equally show that lack of health education teachers, lack of relevant health education textbooks, pamphlets and posters were factors central to the poor state of health instruction in Edo State secondary schools. Based on the findings, the authors made several recommendations including the need for school authorities in Edo State to provide relevant and modern textbooks, pamphlets, posters, computers and other related instructional materials. It was also recommend...", "This article presents the outline of a programme developed to support quality nursing care and provide professional development for staff nurses in a grade mixed, community nursing team. The initiative has been a joint venture between First Community Health NHS Trust and the University of Wolverhampton, School of Health Sciences, and shows the value of working together to establish a sound underpinning for practice.", "It is the method means which raises teaching quality to allotting reasonable teaching hour and optimizing content of course and adopting diverse vivid teaching mode in the teaching of the four years system medical examination undergraduate course about 《clinical immunology examination》 and obtained obvious result." ]

[ "Not at all.Its total crap.\\n\\nLOVE FROM MAURICE" ]

[ "In-tolerance and ignorance. A simple rule to avoid culture conflict would be: Live your life and do whatever you want to do and believe whatever you want to believe, except if that causes harm to another human being or creature.Why stick your nose in someone elses business?", "We Muslims do not believe that it is right to have a picture of Allah. Think of it this way: How would /you/ draw /your/ God? No matter how you do it, it would be flawed in one way or another.", "I'm sorry no one has answered your question, it's a tough question to answer. I believe I have seen the problem before, but never actually managed to fix it. If it really really bugs you, reinstalling windows would do the trick, but I believe that's just a wee bit drastic. I hope you find your answer, let us know if you do, I apologize no one has been able to help you yet.", "I've experience it before.To solve this problem,the best thing you must do is reformat your pc because i believe that your pc has infected by virus.", "I'm not sure if this is what your looking to do but here is my offer.\\n\\nMost email clients (including yahoo) allow you to archive your emails, if you do that then I believe you can save them as 1 file and be able to view them later." ]

[ "Just so you get it straight, the warranty is only good if you purchase the car new, if you purchase a used Kia or one second hand the 10 year warranty does not apply.\\n\\nKia is counting on most people not keeping their car for 10 years.\\n\\nThat said, the engines are pretty reliable vehicles. They are not very good on gas mileage/power compared to a similar Toyota or Honda. Do a simple comparson between the Toyota Corolla/Honda Civic/Nissan Sentra and Kia Spectra.\\nThey're transmissions don't seem as well constructed.\\n\\nThere service is excellent. They do take care of you after you purchase the vehicle and if you keep it maintained and keep records of all your required maintenance they will honor their warranty. They honor their road side warranty and sent out a tow truck driver when my father-in-law had a flat tire.\\n\\nI would give Kia a 9/10 for service and how they stand behind their vehicle.\\nFor the vehicle itself I'd give it a 7/10 for lack of power, and the cheapy feel of the vehicle compared to a Toyota or Honda (I'm talking based on ownership of a 2001 Kia) \\nFor safety I'd give it a 3/10. They are not very safe cars based on http://www.iihs.org" ]

[ "The US didn't act unilaterally in Korea... there were other countries involved in the fighting and dying there.\\n\\nThe UK lost 710 KIA\\nTurkey 717 KIA\\nAstralia 291 KIA\\nCanada 309 KIA\\nFrance 288 KIA... and there were others as well... even some Ethiopians.\\n\\nThe Bosian war really does not fit well with the other conflicts mentioned... come to think of it, neither does Somolia.\\n\\nIn Bosnia we came in really to settle the matter. The countries had been fighting for a couple of years at that point and when the US came it, it was really signaled the end of the conflict. When the US entered Korea and Vietnam, it was really just the begining.\\n\\nThere was no central government in Ethiopia.\\n\\nThe US did not play the agressor role in Korea... North Korea did. The US did not play the agressor role in Somalia... there was no governemnt and it was maily a humanitarian mission.", "it depends what you mean by \"good\"", "if i had a girl i would name her either Kia or Erin....and if i had a boy..louis or oliver(but call him olly)", "Great I don't know but it is a pretty good car from what I have read. It is manufactured by Toyota and built in Japan so it is one reliable ride.\\n\\nFor some reason Consumer Reports didn't seem to like it.", "Trains ... Automobiles ... Ships ...", "Depends on where you live & what you are looking for in a vehicle.", "Dunno. Ford or Hyundai I would guess.", "False in US the automobile is a good -- so it is governed by section 2 Of UCC(uniform commercial code) sale of goods. However, If there are some ambiguities as to the code the common law will govern.", "According to Random House Unabridged Dictionary...\\n\\nGran Tu•ris•mo O•mo•lo•ga•to\\n\\nPronunciation: (grän' too-riz'mō u-mō\"lu-gā'tō, -gä'tō; It.grän' tOO-rē'zmô ô-mô\"lô-gä'tô), \\n(of an automobile) certified as conforming to the specifications, as fuel capacity and engine displacement, for a class of standard automobiles (Gran' Turis'mo) qualified to engage in various types of competitions. Abbr.: GTO\\n\\nHowever... the GTO you see on the fenders of a current model Pontiac automobile is none of this. It's just a marketing ploy to establish a performance image for an imported Australian built Holden automobile introduced to the American market by General Motors.\\n\\nThe Pontiac GTO of the 1960's and 1970's was a high performance version of their mid-sized Pontiac Tempest. While also not conforming to the Italian standard of GTO, at least that car had some real performance capability, and helped to establish the muscle car craze of that period.", "One that does not need a lot of repairs. I suggest Hot Wheels -- good on gas and no repairs.", "ur wish is to be an automobile engineer can olny b treu if first of all pass ur 10+2 exam with good marks..\\nthen u have to clear the enterence comptetion..\\nfor ur dream\\nBEST OF LUCK", "The very first self-powered road vehicles were powered by steam engines and by that definition Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France built the first automobile in 1769 - recognized by the British Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Club de France as being the first. So why do so many history books say that the automobile was invented by either Gottlieb Daimler or Karl Benz? It is because both Daimler and Benz invented highly successful and practical gasoline-powered vehicles that ushered in the age of modern automobiles. Daimler and Benz invented cars that looked and worked like the cars we use today. However, it is unfair to say that either man invented \"the\" automobile.", "www.howstuffworks.com\\n\\nA lot of good answers over there. Almost anything you would like to know about automobile-engineering", "i'd say your best all around fun to drive and economic would be the acura tsx... but if you want a car that you can modify and hold you, your spouse, and kids but can perform as well or better than a corvette at your weekend autoX event i'd go with a subaru sti or mitsu evo.\\n\\nit all depends wether your leaning towards practical daily driving ability or fun on back roads and competitions", "Mazda Miata. Its racing success in SCCA should solidify its position as your obvious choice. It is an extremely underrated car and yet, it is the only one in your price range that is capable of autocross, track racing, and drifting while being a fairly newer car with less maintainence concerns.", "I'm not actually an automobile engineer, but I did spend the night at Holiday Inn!", "The invention of the automobile is credited to Karl Benz on July 3, 1886", "Looking for the same thing. I thought maybe someone from Korea who works at Kia might be on here, but no luck yet. Wonder if learning Korean can help get job in West Point?", "Go to your friendly neighborhood auto parts store and ask them for a Chiltons manual for your specific automobile. This will show you with photos, diagrams ( including wiring ) and drawings. Everything about your car. Diagnosis, assembly and disassembly. A little expensive, ( $15.00 more or less ) and there is a cheaper brand available which I believe is inferior, but get the good one. I will never own an automobile without a Chilton book for it. Good luck", "Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France built the first automobile in 1769 - recognized by the British Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Club de France as being the first.\\nAnd you mean Henry Ford, not Harrison Ford.", "Its a good all around car. Lots of critics like it. It is a bit on the heavy side for a 2 seater roadster. But i've seen a twin turbo set up pushing 500 horses. Not to mention its got appeal. For $26,000 it ain't too bad. Oh and about that GTO. The thing is a POS. It looks like my grandmas old grand prix. It has no distinctivness or style whatsoever. The block is the only thing floating it. It looks like sh*t.", "i have one and its a great car but when it does have some problems it gets very expensive and difficult to fix", "Guessing here: cigarettes, automobiles, CDs and DVDs, very possibly Coca Cola.", "any honda civic since '91. the car is a champ and if u decide to go into the import scene, it would be easy to do so (especially for hatchbacks).", "it's a good car with a 2.0 liter intercooler turbo inline 4 engine, it has a 5 speed manual gearbox, however, i believe this car has a drift setting, coz the first time i tried driving one, it has a good acceleration but it dont have a good top speed, it's handling is superb though becoz of it's full time 4wd, it is very cool and stylish.", "If the car is well-maintained, then it should never go bad...............................................", "They're okay, but I don't understand why anyone would use one. I mean, cars fit 4 or more passengers and get way more efficient gas mileage. Unless you're carrying heavy loads, then yeah, I'd leave the car at home.", "because it is a reliable car, and it has cup holders, i think.", "The dealer ship should be the ones to pay. They sould have insurance on there automobiles that cover other drivers.\\n\\nhave a great day", "Walk, ride a bike. Carpool, combine trips by advance planning. Drive a smaller automobile.", "I would say Honda Civic but my opinion is biased because I own a Honda Civic Si, so..", "sports car... so it must be fast and good overall performance. A ford gt, I believe, is bad at handling bc it's so heavy, although it does have an established reputation. \\n\\nFor me, I'd go with a fast and light car with good handling. I'd go with Toyota Supra for a decently priced car. it's fast and has good handling. So you can turn corners fast! Because you know that no street race is a straight away. I also like the Porsche GT for the same reason as the supra.\\n\\nFor supercars, I like the Ferriari Enzo and the Bugattii. The Bugatti has 1001 horsepower! That's crazy." ]

[ "Top 10 facts about the world. The deciliter is a unit of volume measurement used in the metric system. It is equal to one tenth of a liter, or about 3.3 fluid ounces. It should not be confused with the decaliter, which is equal to 10 liters, a substantially different volume measurement. The measurement can crop up in a variety of settings, most commonly in recipes from countries which use the metric system, and in some bars, where it may be a drink size." ]

[ "The amount of glucose (“sugar”, measured in mg/dL) in your blood changes throughout the day and night. Your levels will change depending upon when, what and how much you have eaten, and whether or not you have exercised. Normal Blood Sugars. A normal fasting (no food for eight hours) blood sugar level is between 70 and 99 mg/dL", "The amount of glucose (“sugar”, measured in mg/dL) in your blood changes throughout the day and night. Your levels will change depending upon when, what and how much you have eaten, and whether or not you have exercised.", "What Is Polycythemia? Polycythemia is an increased number of red blood cells in the blood. In polycythemia, the levels of hemoglobin (Hgb), hematocrit (Hct), or the red blood cell (RBC) count may be elevated when measured in the complete blood count (CBC), as compared to normal. Hemoglobin levels greater than 16.5 g/dL (grams per deciliter) in women and greater than 18.5 g/dL in men suggest polycythemia.", "What's the normal iron level for a three year old boy? Range 50-120: Actual normal iron level is between 50-120, or 50-170, depending on the lab, for an average healthy child. Actually iron is usually not measured unless one is anemic. Usually hemoglobin is measured and normal is 11--16gm/dl for children." ]

[ "BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's top economic planner approved 18 large fixed asset investment projects with investment totalling 153.9 billion yuan (22.3 billion U.S. dollars) last month amid efforts to stabilize economic growth by boosting infrastructure investment.\nIt was lower than the 184 billion yuan investment approved in December but higher than the monthly average of 142 billion yuan reported for 2016.\n\"January's investment will go to 18 fixed-asset investment projects, including six agricultural water conservancy projects, three transport projects and two energy projects,\" Zhao Chenxin, spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission, said Wednesday.\nChina's fixed-asset investment grew 8.1 percent year on year in 2016, down from 10 percent in 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.\nDespite the slowing growth, the investment structure was improved, with more money being spent on high-tech and service sectors, and less money going into industries with high energy consumption or excessive capacity.\nThe latest economic data for January, including on foreign trade, consumer inflation and the producer price index, all reinforced the view that growth in the world's second-largest economy was firming up." ]

[ "BEIJING, April 28 A Chinese nuclear firm has urged the government to approve the large-scale construction of the country's homegrown third-generation \"Hualong One\" reactor to help cut costs and boost its competitiveness.\nChina National Nuclear Power Co. Ltd (CNNP), the listed unit of central government-run China National Nuclear Corp, warned nuclear's competitiveness against coal is falling and nuclear power needs the benefits of economies of scale.\n\"We now have a Hualong One demonstration project, we have units under construction at Fuqing and Fangchenggang and we just hope that more can be built in order to reduce costs and make it more economic,\" Luo Xiaowei, CNNP board secretary, told Reuters.\nThe Hualong One is the centrepiece of China's ambitious plan to dominate the global civil nuclear market. One unit is under construction in Pakistan, and China is also seeking regulatory approval for the model in Britain.\nIn China, which currently has 36 operational nuclear reactors, the Hualong One is competing with other third-generation technology reactors for a share of 100-150 new reactors planned to come into operation by 2030.\nThird-generation reactor projects in China include the world's first AP1000, designed by Westinghouse and expected to go into full operation later this year, and two European Pressurised Reactors, designed by France's Areva, in the southeast province of Guangdong.\nCNNP officials says the Hualong One, however, is the \"most feasible option\" for China as it tries to scale up its nuclear capacity and strengthen its position in the international reactor market.\nAll third-generation technology projects have suffered repeated delays and Zhang Huazhu, chairman of industry lobby group, the China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA), told a conference here on Thursday that China's reliance on the largely untested technology could pose challenges.\nChina aims to raise nuclear installed capacity to 58 gigawatts by the end of 2020 and it has set a target of 200 gigawatts by the end of 2030.\n($1 = 6.8958 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Richard Pullin)", "UPDATE 1-China-led AIIB approves $324 mln in infrastructure investment\nBEIJING, June 15 The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said on Thursday it has approved two loans and one equity investment worth $324 million across Georgia, Tajikistan and India.", "China's military is offering to fund 2,000 projects to private Chinese firms and institutes for research on equipment and weapons, a move that experts said will further boost military-civilian integration and upgrade military technologies.\nThe Central Military Commission's equipment development department recently released a guideline on its website, saying that China plans to invest 6 billion yuan ($870 million) this year for research in shared technology and other research, Zhuangbei Keji, a WeChat account affiliated with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily, reported Monday.\nThe money will be used to fund 2,000 projects, and encouraged companies and institutes to apply. For example, one of the projects published on the website is on the temperature adaptability of solid propellants. One million yuan has been set aside for this project.\nGetting private companies involved in military technology research can reduce costs, boost military-civilian integration and help upgrade military technology, Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times Monday.\nMilitary-owned companies have many restrictions in developing new technologies due to a lack of manpower and resources. However, private companies may also face difficulties, as the military has relatively higher standards, Li said.\nPrivate Chinese firms have been allowed to carry out research and manufacture military equipment since 2005, and more than 1,000 private firms have gained approval to enter the military industry.\nThe department released a document in February on boosting military-civilian integration in weapons development which introduces a set of measures to liberalize and regulate the weapons sector, including slashing restrictions on the types of arms that private firms are allowed to develop and piloting commercial services for military procurement in the aerospace industry.", "BEIJING, March 19 (APP):Last year, trade volume between China and countries along the Belt and Road amounted to $1.1 trillion, up 14.8 percent year-on-year, which is 3.4 percentage points higher than the growth of the country’s total foreign trade.\nThe Belt and Road initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, refers to building a Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, according to a report published in People’s Daily on Monday.\nOver the past five years, the initiative has been positively echoed by over 140 countries and regions, and fruitful cooperation achievements have been yielded under its framework.\nPraising a more diversified investment portfolio, the minister said that China had altogether invested over $60 billion to on-route countries in various sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure.\nThe report pointed out that a group of big projects were making steady progress as well, including the construction of railways, expressways and ports, cooperation programs on energy and resources and the operation of manufacturing projects.\nChina has established 75 zones for economic and trade cooperation in countries along the routes, with a total investment of more than $27 billion.\nThe minister said the Belt and Road should be built into a road of peace, prosperity, opening up as well as innovation, and one that connects different civilizations.\nFor the next step, the ministry will launch new cooperation platforms including the first China International Import Expo, build major investment and foreign aid projects and make them well received like shiny pearls along the Belt and Road.\nChina will also facilitate e-commerce through big data, promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment along the Belt and Road and implement major foreign aid projects.", "AUGUST 14, 2017 — Shanghai, China, based Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd. reports that it has received Approval in Principle (AIP) from classification society Bureau Veritas for a newly-developed large-scale Floating LNG Storage and Regasification Terminal.\nFeaturing scalable storage capacity up to equivalent size of a Q-Max tanker, this is the first large-scale FSRU barge to be granted AIP by a classification society. It also underscores that Wison is now capable of providing a comprehensive range of FSRU solutions catering LNG import markets with various scales of demand.\nWison's full-size floating LNG terminal solution offers an economical alternative to the conventional LNG regasification vessels (LNG RV) especially for markets with long-term demand.\nThe barge design lowers initial capital investments (up to 20 percent compared with LNG RV of equivalent size) as well as O&M costs, while enabling uninterrupted service throughout project lifecycle.\n\"Wison large-scale FSRU is a fit-for-purpose facility designed with practical operation considerations,\" said Mr. David W. Chen, Senior Solution Manager at Wison Offshore & Marine. \"It features scalable storage capacity from 150,000 cu.m to 265,000 cu.m and a base case design of 750 mmscfd regasification capacity expandable to fit project needs. Designed for near-shore/at-shore application, the FSRU can also be deployed offshore with a single point mooring system.\"\nA month ago, BV granted AIP for Wison's 50 MW floating LNG power supply barge (50 MW W-FSRP). When commenting on the FSRU AIP, Jiahui Wu, Technical Manager of BV China, said, \"Based on the excellent cooperation on the 25k Exmar FSRU project currently under execution at Wison shipyard, BV is very pleased to support Wison to further develop this large-scale FSRU design targeting a wider range of international clients. We are glad to work with Wison in bringing innovative solutions enabling more countries to access LNG as a clean and affordable energy.\"", "BRIEF-Shenzhen Heungkong gets regulatory approval to issue up to 1.2 bln yuan bonds\n* Says it gets regulatory approval to issue up to 1.2 billion yuan ($176.60 million) bonds", "PORTSMOUTH, NH-Analysts at Lodging Econometrics report that China’s construction pipeline has a total of 2,435 projects with 538,836 rooms, up 5 percent since last year. The number of projects under construction are up 4 percent year-over-year to 1,732 projects totaling 364,809 Rooms under construction. The number of projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months is up by just one project since last year to 308 projects and 69,972 rooms while those in early planning are up 9 percent at 395 projects and 104,055 rooms.\nThe top hotel companies in China’s construction pipeline are: Hilton Worldwide with 292 projects/72,382 rooms, Marriott International with 272 projects/76,595 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 203 projects/54,778 rooms. The largest brand in the pipeline for each of the these companies are: Hilton’s Hampton Inn & Suites with 110 projects/16,724 rooms, Marriott’s full-service hotel with 59 projects/18,429 rooms, and IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 61 projects/13,575 rooms.\nThe cities in China with the largest hotel construction pipelines are: Shanghai with 117 projects/24,009 rooms, Guangzhou with 107 projects/25,684 rooms, Chengdu with 93 projects/21,139 rooms, Suzhou with 82 projects/16,550 rooms, and Beijing with 77 projects/13,140 rooms.", "BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuters) - China’s fourth-biggest bank pledged on Friday to provide eight property firms, including Vanke and Country Garden, with at least 200 billion yuan ($31.84 billion) in response to a government-led push to increase the supply of rental housing.\nChina’s real estate market, dominated by build-to-sell properties, has boomed over the past two years, prompting authorities to tighten control in more than 100 cities to clamp down on speculative buying.\nSoaring prices, particularly in the biggest cities, have also raised concerns that many people are now priced out of the market.\nBank of China said its funding plan was in response to calls from China’s top leaders who have said they want to ensure “houses are built for living in, not for speculation”, the bank said in a release posted on its website.\nThe funding will be used to develop new rental housing projects, as well as converting existing commercial projects including offices into rental homes, it said.\nThe other six property developers that will receive funding from the bank include China Overseas Land, China Resources Land, China Merchants Property, Poly Real Estate Group, Longfor Properties, and Greentown China Holdings.", "SHANGHAI, April 6 China stocks extended gains on Thursday to hit 4-month highs as investors continued to chase stocks which could benefit from the government's launch of a massive new economic zone near Beijing.\nThe blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.3 percent to 3,514.05 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 3,281.00.\nMost of the market's attention was focused on the new Xiongan special zone, described as \"a thousand-year project\", with dozens of stocks related to the plan surging the maximum allowed 10 percent trade limit for the second session in a row.\nMany domestic brokerage firms expect the initiative to become a strong investment theme in coming months, given the prominence of the plan.\nIn particular, infrastructure stocks are widely seen benefiting from the development of the special zone, which would be modelled on the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone that helped kickstart China's economic reforms in 1980.\nAn index tracking major infrastructure players advanced 2.3 percent to a 15-month high, after registering best day in four months the previous session.\nInfrastructure giants China State Construction Engineering leaped 6 percent, China Railway Group jumped 5 percent, while China Railway Construction Corp ended up 3.5 percent.\nInvestors were also looking to President Donald Trump's first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, with trade and security issues set to figure prominently in the talks.\n\"As long as they don't have huge conflict, the meeting won't have much impact,\" said Alex Wong, Hong Kong-based director of Ample Finance Group.\nThe market was largely unfazed by a private survey which showed activity in China's service sector expanded at its weakest pace in six months in March, hurt by slower growth in new orders and intensifying cost pressures.\n\"Investors are generally optimistic about consumption and the real estate sector,\" Wong said, adding that the Hong Kong and China markets were expected to outperform global peers.\nA flurry of data in coming weeks is expected to show solid economic growth in China in March, though many analysts expect the pace to moderate in coming months as the impact of earlier stimulus fades and measures to cool the heated property market start to bite. (Reporting by Luoyan Liu and John Ruwitch; Editing by Kim Coghill)", "SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's has urged local governments along the Yangtze river to survey the environmental damage done by the \"uncontrolled\" development of small-scale hydropower, warning that some plants could be closed, according to a government notice on Wednesday.\nLocal authorities have been instructed to conduct a survey into hydropower construction along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, which stretches from Yunnan in the far southwest to Jiangsu and Zhejiang on the eastern coast.\nSmall plants that damage the environment, encroach upon protected areas or violate approval rules could eventually be dismantled, China's planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said.\nThe Yangtze and its tributaries are the location of some of the world's biggest hydropower plants, including the 22.5-gigawatt plant at the Three Gorges Dam.\nThere were around 75 gigawatts of small-scale hydropower in China by the end of 2015, nearly a quarter of the country's total hydro capacity. Beijing vowed to limit new projects to just 5 gigawatts over the 2016-2020 period, and to ban them completely in eastern regions.\nAdvertisement\nImpoverished regions in China once encouraged private businesses to invest in small-scale hydro plants in order to boost the economy, but overdevelopment on the Yangtze river and its tributaries has damaged fragile ecosystems, especially in upstream provinces like Yunnan.\nYunnan's government has already made efforts to demolish \"inefficient\" small dams on the largely undeveloped Nu river, which flows into Myanmar, as well as the Jinsha, the upstream section of the Yangtze.\nSichuan province, China's biggest hydropower region, also vowed on Tuesday to \"rectify\" or shut down problematic small hydro plants, including those in protected nature zones, and tackle \"disorderly development\" in the sector.\nChina's giant state-owned power developers have also complained that the large number of small and poorly designed hydropower plants has reduced water flows and eroded the economic viability of their own large-scale hydropower projects on some rivers in the country's southwest.\n(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Tom Hogue)", "Boustead Securities Client to Trade Under Ticker Symbol \"YERR\"\nNEW YORK, NY and WUHAN, CHINA--(Marketwired - Apr 18, 2017) - Boustead Securities client Yangtze River Development Limited, (\"YERR\" or the \"Company\"), a Chinese infrastructure company that is engaged in the business of real estate development with a port logistics project located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, announced that its common stock has been approved for listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market and is expected to commence trading under the ticker symbol \"YERR\" on April 19, 2017. The Company's common stock will continue to trade as \"YERR\" on the OTCQX until the market close on April 18, 2017.\n\"Uplisting to NASDAQ represents an important milestone for Yangtze River Development Limited,\" said Xiangyao Liu, CEO, Yangtze River Development Limited. \"Trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market will increase our visibility and enhance our corporate profile. We believe that access to a broader and more institutional investor base that a NASDAQ listing provides will lead to improved value and liquidity for all of our shareholders,\" he concluded.\n\"YERR has made significant progress as a result of investing nearly USD$300 million in assets and earning a market capitalization approaching USD$800 million, and the NASDAQ listing is another achievement for the Company's growth plan,\" said Dan McClory, Managing Director and Head of China for Boustead Securities, LLC, YERR's Underwriter and Financial Advisor. \"YERR plans to be among China's leaders in the creation of infrastructure to build out and optimize the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, which remains a major priority for Beijing and its continued development of international trade projects,\" McClory stated. \"We are pleased to be assisting YERR in obtaining and putting to work the capital required to build out such a strategic and large-scale development,\" he said.\nABOUT YANGTZE RIVER DEVELOPMENT LTD.:\nYangtze River Development Limited primarily engages in the business of real estate development with a port logistic project located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Wuhan Newport is a large infrastructure development project implemented under China's \"One Belt One Road\" initiative and is strategically positioned in the \"Free Trade Zone\" of the Wuhan Port, a crucial trading window between China, the Middle East and Europe. To be fully developed upon completion of three phases, within the logistics center, there will be six operating zones, including a port operation area, warehouse and distribution area, a cold chain logistics area, rail cargo loading area, exhibition area and residential community. The logistics center is also expected to provide a number of shipping berths for cargo ships of various sizes. Wuhan Newport is expected to provide domestic and foreign businesses a direct access to the anticipated Free Trade Zone in Wuhan. For additional information please go to: http://www.yerr.com.cn\nABOUT BOUSTEAD SECURITIES, LLC:\nBoustead Securities, LLC is an investment banking firm that advises clients on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, capital raises and restructuring assignments in a wide array of industries, geographies and transactions. Our core value proposition is our ability to create opportunity through innovative solutions and tenacious execution. With experienced professionals in the United States and around the world, Boustead's team moves quickly and provides a broad spectrum of sophisticated financial advice and services. For additional information please go to: www.boustead1828.com", "Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT\nA Chinese consortium led by three Chinese exchanges is slated to acquire a 40 percent stake in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for 28 rupees ($0.27) per share, valuing the stake at 8.96 billion rupees. The three exchanges - China Financial Futures Exchange, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange - will take a combined 30 percent, while the remaining 10 percent will be halved between their local partners - Pak-China Investment Company and Habib Bank.\nThe Karachi-based PSX is currently the only stock exchange in Pakistan which was created in January 2016 following the merger of the Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore exchanges. Back in January 2015, at the start of the corporatization, Pakistan decided that the exchanges would offer no higher than 40 percent of their shares to international investors, no less than 20 percent to the public and the remaining to qualified domestic financial institutions.\nThe acquisition marks the first time that Chinese exchanges have bought stakes in a foreign bourse. It's envisioned that the deal will further strengthen economic and financial cooperation between China and Pakistan. The deal is also likely to boost Pakistan's market with the introduction of Chinese capital, technology, experience and financial products, and ready the Pakistani equity market for the launch of financial derivatives, such as futures and options.\nThe stake purchase also indicates China's first investment in stock trading platforms in the countries along the Belt and Road route, a conspicuous sign that China's efforts to implement the initiative have reached the equity market sphere. The logic behind the move consists of three aspects.\nFirst, the PSX stake acquisition will enhance understanding of the Belt and Road initiative among countries along the route, as financial cooperation is indispensable to the initiative. Considering the divergence in social systems, culture and language among the route's countries, closer financial ties would clear up misunderstandings of the project. As the global economy has become progressively integrated, finance has turned out to be a common \"language.\"\nAs such, the deal will stabilize and develop financial markets along the route. China could draw on the experience of its two stock connect schemes that link Hong Kong to Shanghai and Shenzhen and replicate the model to enable closer equity market ties between China and Pakistan.\nSecond, the deal could change the way funds are collected across borders and lure in more capital for projects along the initiative. Infrastructure projects alone along the route are estimated to require hundreds of billions of dollars, a feat China can't push singlehandedly.\nPakistan received approval to be included in MSCI's Emerging Markets Index in June, and it is forecast that after the reclassification officially takes effect in May 2017, hundreds of millions of dollars will flow into Pakistan's market. Chinese companies investing in Pakistan also need to raise funds in the local market. The Chinese consortium presence in the PSX will attract more capital from Pakistan and abroad to fund the initiative directly and indirectly.\nThird, the deal will lay the groundwork for the creation of national and regional exchanges in countries along the route. For example, Kazakhstan needs to create stock exchanges, and a new regional exchange - the Kunming Silk Road Stock Exchange - is being proposed to finance infrastructure projects in China, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The PSX stake acquisition will lend Chinese bourses experience in forming new exchanges along the route as well as push forward China's financial and equity market reform.\nCertainly, there are a few issues that deserve immediate attention.\nWill Pakistan receive tangible benefits from China's investment? After Chinese capital is introduced to Pakistan's bourse, the market will be more internationalized and capital that flows to the country will likely to benefit the local economy and enterprises. Additionally, more Chinese-funded financial institutions will enter the market, stock transactions will be boosted and the government's stamp tax will rise. Listings and transaction cost will also multiply. But how can Chinese investors ensure that small and medium-sized financial firms and the overall population will benefit?\nIf only Pakistan's government and large firms reap the gains, small firms will fall the prey to stock market internationalization. This is certainly not what Pakistan's government and citizens are looking for, and such a result would be undesirable.\nFurther, will the investment from China channel the inherent problems of the A-share market into the Pakistan stock market? Regulations, corporate governance and investors' opinions on value differ considerably between the two markets. The countries also differ in terms of improving investors' knowledge, allowing their stock markets to develop, achieving rational valuations and attracting professional investors.\nTo bridge these differences, China needs to align domestic and Pakistani investors in concept and culture while not transferring problems of the A-share market to Pakistan.\nDespite these challenges, Chinese investment in Pakistan's stock market will serve as a model for financial cooperation between China and other countries along the Belt and Road route.\nThe author is chief economist with Guangzhou-based China iValley Research Institute. [email protected]", "China plans to spend 3.5 trillion yuan ($503 billion) to expand its railway system by 2020 as it turns to investments in infrastructure to bolster growth and improve connectivity across the country.\nThe high-speed rail network will span more than 30,000 kilometers (18,650 miles) under the proposal, according to details released at a State Council Information Office briefing in Beijing Thursday. The distance, about 6.5 times the length of a road trip between New York and Los Angeles, will cover 80 percent of major cities in China.\nThe plan will see high-speed rail lines across the country expand by more than half over a five-year period, a boon to Chinese suppliers of rolling stock such as CRRC Corp. and rail construction companies including China Railway Construction Corp. and China Railway Group Ltd. Earlier this year, China turned to a private company for first time to operate an inter-city rail service on the mainland, part of President Xi Jinping's push to modernize the nation's transport network amid slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.\nChina will also add 3,000 kilometers to its urban rail transit system under the plan released Thursday.\nAt the end of 2015, China had 121,000 kilometers of railway lines, including 19,000 kilometers of high-speed tracks, according to a transportation white paper issued Thursday. The U.S. had 228,218 kilometers of rail lines as of 2014, according to latest available data from the World Bank.\nThe Chinese government will invite private investment to participate in funding intercity and regional rail lines, Yang Yudong, administrator of the National Railway Administration, said at the briefing.", "SAO PAULO Chinese companies are interested in acquiring large engineering groups in Brazil and would like to take part in government auctions for the rights to build and operate commercial railways, Charles Tang, the head of the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters on Wednesday.\nTang said Chinese firms prospecting in the Brazilian market are also willing to finance projects, a competitive advantage over local groups as the deepest recession on record has reduced local credit lines and made them more expensive.\nChinese companies \"want to build and finance construction projects,\" said Tang. \"They have asked me to help them find suitable targets, (such as) builders who are not involved in the 'Car Wash' probe.\"\nNearly all of Brazil's large engineering groups are being investigated amid allegations of their participation in Brazil's sweeping bribery probe, dubbed \"Operation Car Wash.\"\nAmong the projects the Chinese would be interested in are the railways Ferrovia da Integração (Fiol) and Ferrogrão. These projects combined would require around 13 billion reais ($4.18 billion) in investment.\nThe Fiol railway is set to link distant areas in the country's northeast to a port off the Bahia state coast. The Ferrogrão project is basically aimed at expanding transport alternatives for grains produced in Mato Grosso, Brazil's top soy-producing state, to ports up north in Pará state.\nTang said companies such as China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC10) and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) (601800.SS) could be interested in these projects.\n\"In the past, Chinese firms would never be able to enter Brazilian infrastructure projects, because the large local engineering groups were dominant. But today those groups are in the Car Wash, projects have been abandoned and need capital. Everything is cheap,\" he said.\nThere is also interest from China in Brazilian agriculture and oil exploration, Tang added.\nChinese investors are closely watching the discussions regarding foreign land ownership in Brazil. Currently, there are strong limitations regarding land purchases by foreign companies, but the government is evaluating making the rules more flexible.\n(Writing by Marcelo Teixeira, editing by G Crosse)", "(Repeats to attach to alerts)\nBEIJING, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Chinese banks extended 1.12 trillion yuan ($169.27 billion) in net new yuan loans in November, well above analysts’ expectations and the previous month.\nAnalysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would rise to 800 billion yuan, from October’s 663.2 billion yuan.\nBroad M2 money supply (M2) in November grew 9.1 percent from a year earlier, central bank data showed on Monday, beating forecasts for an expansion of 8.9 percent.\nOutstanding yuan loans at the end of November grew 13.3 percent from a year earlier, faster than an expected 13 percent rise.\nChina’s banks have doled out a total of 12.94 trillion yuan in new loans the first 11 months of this year, exceeding last year’s record 12.65 trillion yuan, despite a government drive to reduce risks in the financial system that has pushed up borrowing costs. ($1 = 6.6167 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim Coghill)", "When Sri Lanka's government first looked to develop a port on its southern coast that faced the Indian Ocean, it went not to China, but to its neighbor, India.\nScroll for more content...\nThen-Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said he urgently needed funding to transform the harbor of his home town and asked Indian officials for help with the project.\nNew Delhi showed little interest in funding a costly and massive port construction project in the underdeveloped fishing village of Hambantota, a district that had been crushed by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.\n\"It was offered to India first. I was desperate for development work, but ultimately the Chinese agreed to build it,\" Rajapaksa said in an interview with Singapore's Straits Times in 2010.\nBeijing invested $1.5 billion in 2010 to build the port.\nThe venture was considered economically unviable and indeed, in the years that followed, the port sat empty and neglected, and Sri Lanka's debt ballooned.\nBut India's economic foresight might have cost it in terms of strategic geopolitics, since the debt incurred on the port and the surrounding infrastructure undertakings now belong to its great rival.\nChina's official licensing of the port in December last year gives it yet another point of access over a key shipping route, and the prospect of providing it with a sizeable presence in India's immediate backyard and traditional sphere of influence, bringing China closer to India's shores than New Delhi might like.\nMoreover, Sri Lanka's decision to sign a 99-year lease with a Chinese state-owned company for the Hambantota port to service some of the billions it owes to Beijing has some observers concerned other developing nations doing business with China as part of China's One Belt One Road initiative might fall into similar financial straits.\nA trap, they warn, that may well have them owing more than just money to Beijing.\n\"China is, in many cases, the only party with the interest and the capital to deliver on these projects,\" said Jeff Smith, a research fellow on South Asia at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. \"The relevant question for everyone is: at what cost?\"\n'A determined strategy by China'\nChina has for decades invested in Sri Lanka, particularly during moments in recent history when much of the international community held off.\nAs the European Union sought to punish Sri Lanka over human rights abuses during the decades-long civil war between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, China acted on its behalf diplomatically at the United Nations. It also supplied the Rajapaksa government with military aid and it promised to spend to rebuild the country's damaged infrastructure. India had also sent in military help, but nowhere near the levels Beijing dispatched.\nThe civil war ended in 2009. Between 2005 and 2017, China spent nearly $15 billion in Sri Lanka. By comparison, the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank group, says that between 1956 and 2016, it invested over $1 billion.\nJeff Smith points out that along with the Hambantota port investments, Beijing loaned Sri Lanka $200 million in 2010 for a second international airport and a year later a further $810 million for the \"second phase of the port project.\"\nThere was more. $272 million for a railway in 2013 and more than $1 billion for the Colombo Port City project, ventures that hired mostly Chinese workers (one Sri Lankan report put the number of Chinese workers dedicated to projects in 2009 at 25,000), and all with money Sri Lanka could barely afford to repay.\nBy 2015, Sri Lanka owed China $8 billion, and Sri Lankan government officials predicted that accumulated foreign debt -- both owed to China and other countries -- would eat up 94% of the country's GDP.\nAfter an equity swap, an IMF bailout and more control over the projects ceded to Beijing, the terms of the debt were restructured, giving Sri Lanka some breathing space.\nIn 2017, however, the Hambantota port proved too costly for Sri Lanka to sustain.\n\"They (the Chinese) called in the debt, and the debt has been paid by Sri Lanka giving them the (Hambantota) port. That port then gives them not only a strategic access point into India's sphere of influence through which China can deploy its naval forces, but it also gives China an advantageous position to export its goods into India's economic sphere, so it's achieved a number of strategic aims in that regard,\" said Malcolm Davis, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Sydney.\n\"This is part of a determined strategy by China to extend its influence across the Indian Ocean at the expense of India and it's using Sri Lanka to achieve it,\" he said.\nDetails of the new agreement between China and Sri Lanka have not been made public.\nThe port is an \"important project aimed at spurring local economic growth based on equality and mutual benefits,\" according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It declined to answer further when asked by reporters.\n'Creating demand for Chinese goods'\nChina's claiming of controlling stakes in strategic ports along critical shipping lanes -- what analysts have taken to referring to as its \"string of pearls\" -- beginning at the Straits of Malacca and dotting the Indian Ocean, should signal Beijing's ultimate ambitions, said Davis.\n\"There's a bigger picture here, that the more you invest in the Belt and Road initiative, the more the Chinese are in a position to force your country to align politically in terms of policy,\" Davis told CNN.\n\"So you become dependent on their investment and their largesse, and you're less likely to be critical of them and you're more likely to accommodate their interests strategically.\"\nChina launched its ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) development strategy in 2013, investing in projects that include thousands of miles of highways in Pakistan, an international airport in Nepal and a rail link between China and Laos. The initiative would come to span more than 68 countries and encompass 4.4 billion people and up to 40% of global GDP. Consisting of two distinct parts, the Silk Road Economic Belt would stretch from China to Europe and include a host of trade and infrastructure projects, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road would be a sea-based network of shipping lanes and port developments throughout Asia and the Pacific.\nBeijing's other potential partners are finding difficulty with some of their own joint projects.\nLast November the government in Nepal scrapped a $2.5 billion deal with a Chinese company to build the biggest hydropower plant in the Himalayan country because of \"irregularities\" in the award process. The current Nepalese government, which had replaced the cabinet that had approved the earlier deal, announced the contract would instead go to a state-owned Nepali company.\nIn Myanmar, a $3.6 billion dam project has stalled. The then-military backed government suspended work on the Myitsone dam in the north of the country in 2011, with talks regarding its future ongoing.\nPakistan withdrew from a $14 billion agreement with China for a dam last November because the conditions of the deal included China taking ownership of the project and were \"not doable and against our interests,\" Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority chairman Muzammil Hussain was quoted as saying. Like Nepal, Pakistan has since indicated it would also look to shoulder the cost of the dam rather than go to an outside investor.\nChina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed to be unaware of this when asked about the situation by reporters in Beijing in December. The country's top economic planning agency later said that the two countries were discussing cooperating on the dam project but that there'd been no discussion of proposals to move it forward. The agency said \"Pakistan media's reporting on this project has been inaccurate, or only represented the views of certain officials.\"\nBut China is still spending in Pakistan. It is building a hydroelectric power station in the Rawalpindi district, and it is developing the port of Gwadar, strategically located on the Arabian Sea.\nIn Malaysia, China is spending $7.2 billion on a new deep sea port in the Straits of Malacca and working on infrastructure projects on the country's eastern seaboard.\nChina's trade deal with the Maldives government included investments in developing the international airport and a bridge, but the Maldives in return has taken on a significant number of controversial loan obligations.\nLast July, former President Mohamed Nasheed said the loan interest the traditionally Indian ally pays to service its foreign debt to China is more than 20% of the country's budget. He said that part of the deal included China's receipt of 16 \"strategically located islands\" in navigation sea-lanes.\nDean Cheng, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, said that the initial wave of Chinese investments in the Indian Ocean, the so-called string of pearls, was largely driven by economic considerations. The investments, he said, \"would facilitate economic growth, which would benefit Chinese companies. Moreover, the construction projects would entail Chinese workers (a feature of most Chinese projects abroad, bringing their own work force), and create a demand base for Chinese goods.\"\nAt the same time, he said the Chinese are clearly intent on creating a friendly political network of states. \"There's nothing inherently dangerous about political considerations in economic investments,\" he told CNN. \"It would be foolish to think that any state is wholly driven by economic considerations.\"\nWhither India?\nThe ever-encroaching Chinese presence into India's sphere of political and economic influence has been noted, but so far, says Manoj Joshi, New Delhi purports to be unruffled, as long as Hambantota remains a commercial port, and no Chinese naval vessels suddenly appear in the vicinity.\n\"In 2014 a Chinese submarine was spotted in Colombo harbor and that was the first time we saw that and the Indian side was a bit concerned,\" said Joshi, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. At the time Indian defense officials expressed \"serious concern\" to their Sri Lankan counterpart, and naval chiefs from both countries met to discuss the incidents. Then-Defense Minister Arun Jaitley said the government \"keeps a constant watch on all developments concerning our national security and economic interests and takes necessary measures to safeguard them.\"\nA Chinese submarine and a Chinese warship were allowed to dock at the Colombo port in November 2014, just under two months after another Chinese submarine called into the same port. At the time both China and Sri Lanka dismissed New Delhi's concerns, saying the vessels were on refueling stops during anti-piracy missions. Colombo port regularly hosts ships from numerous navies, including the US. But as China's own navy becomes more 'blue water' [as in, able to move in open oceans around the world and not just in its own surrounding waters] these appearances will be more commonplace.\n\"It's geopolitical competition and India sees itself as the foremost nation in Asia and with the Chinese building a port, building and airport, building roads in Sri Lanka, they've emerged as big investors there and the Indians are obviously feeling somewhat nervous because India doesn't have those kind of resources to compete with,\" Joshi told CNN.\n\"What we worry about is, we already have a border problem with China and now that competition goes to the Indian Ocean region. That could be against our interests.\"\nIndia and China share a 2,500 mile-long border, and have regularly faced off over perceived intrusions on each other's terrain as well as activity in uninhabited territory claimed by China and Bhutan, an Indian ally.\n\"Everybody talks about China and India being major rivals, I think China doesn't see India as a genuine long-term rival, I think it looks at India and sees a classic case of democracy gone wrong,\" said Yvonne Chiu, assistant professor in the politics department at the University of Hong Kong.\n\"India is incredibly corrupt, its infrastructure is terrible, and it is riddled with religious and demographic problems,\" she told CNN. \"Except it is very large. It does have a big population as well and it's on the border. So it's a regional rival, but I don't think they take India seriously as a global rival.\"\nFor its part, India is now taking an active interest in Hambantota. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reported to be in talks with Sri Lanka about taking over the airport near the port, which was built using Chinese funds that Beijing itself wants to manage and is pushing for control with the Sri Lankan government. During a media briefing last November, Raveesh Kumar, an official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, would only say that New Delhi has \"a lot of developmental projects\" going on in Sri Lanka and declined to elaborate further. Colombo has yet to make a decision involving the airport.\nAnd New Delhi continues to actively participate in large-scale naval exercises in regional waters alongside allies Japan, and the US, and into the future, possibly Australia too, all to Beijing's continued consternation.\nLast year's Malabar exercises in the Bay of Bengal involving the US, Japan and India were the largest the region has seen in more than two decades.\n\"India, of course, remains highly influential in Sri Lanka, and would not look kindly on any effort to pressure the government on matters related to defense and national security,\" said Jeff Smith. \"Nor would the Sri Lankan military, which values its exchanges with the US.\"\nModi will be in Singapore in June, attending the Shangri-La dialogue, an annual meeting of defense ministers, military chiefs and defense officials from the Asia-Pacific. His keynote address will be carefully watched for words on China's maritime expansion.\nA White House unable to compete with China\nSouth Asia's problems are not on Washington's radar right now, says Hong Kong University professor Chiu. The White House has much of its focus -- along with a substantial naval presence -- directed towards the Korean Peninsula and the ongoing crisis there. And while the US is distracted, China is slowly and incrementally changing the seascape in the Asia Pacific. China claims disputed islands in the South China Sea as part of its territory and has been militarizing some of those islands, reclaiming land on others and turning sandbars into islands to assert sovereignty over the area.\n\"Everything that they do, like building these islands (in the South China Sea) and stuff that is illegal internationally, but nobody wants to get into a conflict over, it adds up and you have a new status quo and it's too late to do anything about it,\" Chiu said.\n\"China can't afford to go to war over anything ... it would most likely lose against a major power ... but these kind of small incremental things, people will let them get away with. As long as they're patient, it could have the same effect as going to war.\"\nEven as China has taken the long view, Dean Cheng argues it's never too late for the US and its allies to do something to counter Beijing's ambitions.\n\"The US, in cooperation with India, Japan and possibly the European Union, could offer alternative financing,\" Cheng said. \"They could help train local officials, lawyers, etc, to become better negotiators. They can push for transparency, especially in Chinese-sponsored institutions to make clear the terms of the loans, payback processes, as well as how contracts are rewarded.\"\nLast October US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave a speech on the US relationship with India. Tillerson said it was up to New Delhi and Washington to \"do a better job leveraging our collective expertise to meet common challenges while seeking even more avenues of cooperation.\"\n\"We must also recognize that many Indo-Pacific nations have limited alternatives when it comes to infrastructure investment programs and financing schemes, which often fail to promote jobs or prosperity for the people they claim to help,\" Tillerson said. \"It's time to expand transparent, high-standard regional lending mechanisms, tools that will actually help nations instead of saddle them with mounting debt.\"\nTillerson told reporters that during the East Asia ministerial summit in August that the US had started \"a quiet conversation with others about what they were experiencing, what they need.\"\nHowever, he also admitted Washington's constraints. \"We will not be able to compete with the kind of terms that China offers,\" said Tillerson. \"But countries have to decide, what are they willing to pay to secure their sovereignty and their future control of their economies? And we've had those discussions with them as well.\"\nChina's resources are nowhere near as limited as the US and its allies, says Yvonne Chiu from the University of Hong Kong.\n\"Right now, it can play on multiple fronts at once,\" Chiu notes. \"And they take a very long view. If you're a power like the US, you're really far away. That distance is going to limit how much attention you can pay to the region. The US has to pick and choose and it's chosen East Asia. So, unless something really major happens, that's probably where their attention is going to stay.\"\nAs 2017 wrapped up, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua published a dispatch from Colombo, describing how the Hambantota port was \"now racing along a developmental fast-track.\"\nChinese and Sri Lankan workers were building a highway north of the port, along with a bridge, and the Chinese Harbor Engineering Company is negotiating with the Sri Lankan government to develop a Logistics Zone that will include a natural gas power plant and refineries, the agency reported.\nOn the first day of the new year, the Chinese flag flew beside Sri Lanka's at the port for the first time ever.\nThe Chinese Harbor Engineering Company began 2018 with a $1 billion investment to build three 60-story office towers in Colombo.\nRather than resist getting into further debt, Sri Lanka's government appears to be making more deals with China that it will may yet struggle to pay back.", "China's decade-long assistance to Africa has borne tangible results with thousands of kilometers of new railroads and dozens of ports, airports and power stations built due to Beijing's investment projects. According to some researchers, Africa may emerge as a new global powerhouse.\nChina has been facilitating Africa's rise as a potential \"global manufacturing powerhouse,\" insists Irene Yuan Sun in a new book eloquently titled \"The Next Factory of the World.\"\nThe book reveals how Beijing is now sharing its experience and best practices with the African continent, having transformed its own country into a production workshop over the past few decades.\nAccording to research from the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), China has become the main trade partner of African countries since 2009. While in 2000 the total turnover between China and African states amounted to just $10 billion, the figure skyrocketed to $220 billion by 2014.\n© AFP 2018 / WANG ZHAO China Winning Over US, Europe in the Global Race for Africa – Analysts\nIn 2017 China came out on top in providing loans to African countries with its total amount exceeding $100 billion. Beijing's major partners in the area of direct and portfolio investments are Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, DRC, Zambia, Angola, Morocco, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and some other countries, the RIAC study says.\nObservers single out the China-Africa Development Fund, more commonly known as the CAD Fund, which was created and funded by the state-owned China Development Bank in 2006 and became operational in 2007.\nUnlike other aid agencies of the People's Republic of China (PRC), instead of providing loans the fund carries out direct investments in Africa through co-financing of Chinese and foreign company projects on the African continent. The CAD Fund provides one-third of the funding required for a project, acting as a passive investor.\nOver the last 10 years, the institution has invested about $3.2 billion in 91 projects in 36 African states.\nAccording to 2017 data, African countries annually produce 11,000 trucks, 300,000 air conditioners, 540,000 refrigerators, 390,000 TV sets and 1.6 million tons of cement within the framework of the CAD Fund's initiatives.\n© AFP 2018 / SIMON MAINA Kenya Railways attendants from China upon arrival from Mombasa in a train launched to operate on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) on May 31, 2017 in Nairobi.\nAlthough the fund does not publish data on its specific endeavors, RIAC suggested that it participates in energy and infrastructural projects, industrial production, extractions and the processing of natural resources and agriculture.\nOver the last decade, the PRC took part in the construction of more than 100 industrial zones, 40 percent of which have already become operational. Moreover, 5,756 km of railways , 4,335 km of motorways, nine ports, 14 airports, 34 power stations, as well as 10 large and about 1,000 small hydroelectric power stations were built in Africa by the end of 2016 due to China's assistance.\nChina's railway projects in Africa are largely regarded as a game changer that could help boost political integration in the region.\nAs Nikolai Shcherbakov, an analyst at the Center for African Studies of the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), told Sputnik in December 2017: \"It is quite risky to invest in any production in Africa, including the construction of railways, [but] the Chinese are taking this risk.\"\nThe analyst opined that China had become nothing short of \"a gift bestowed from heaven\" for Africa.\nWhile the figures related to China's development assistance to Africa released by Beijing appear to be relatively low, a US research institute, the Center for Global Development, revealed that in 2000-2016, Beijing's aid was in fact much higher than what was declared officially. Actually, it almost reached the level of the US — $75 billion — if one takes into account the country's projects in the field of health, education and culture.\nShedding light on the country's work on the African continent the Chinese media usually emphasize Beijing's non-interference principle as a cornerstone of its diplomacy.\n\"China and Africa are a closely allied community with a shared future,\" People's Daily writes. \"The cooperation is between two brothers. No matter how the international situation or world economy may evolve, there is no weakening in China's support for Africa.\"\nFollowing the decline of the Western-led colonial strategy, China has apparently found a new way in dealing with the prospective continent by investing into Africa's future.", "China’s Wison Offshore & Marine (Wison) announced that it has received an approval-in-principle from Bureau Veritas (BV) for its newly-developed, large-scale Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) barge.\nShanghai-headquartered Wison said the scalable storage capacity is the first such FSRU barge design that has been granted approval-in-principle by a classification society.\nDavid W. Chen, senior solution manager at Wison, said: “Wison large-scale FSRU is a fit-for-purpose facility designed with practical operation considerations. It features scalable storage capacity from 150,000 cu m to 265,000 cu m and a base case design of 750 million standard cubic feet per day regasification capacity expandable to fit project needs.\n“Designed for near-shore/at-shore application, the FSRU can also be deployed offshore with a single point mooring system,” Chen said.\nThe full-size floating LNG terminal solution offers an economical alternative to the conventional LNG regasification vessels (LNG RV) especially for markets with long-term demand.\nWison said the barge design lowers initial capital investments by an estimated 20% compared with LNG RV of equivalent size as well as O&M costs, while enabling uninterrupted service throughout project lifecycle.\nWison said the latest progress made with BV meant that the company is now capable of providing a comprehensive range of FSRU solutions catering to the LNG import markets with various scales of demand.\nLast month, Wison also received an approval-in-principle from BV for its newly developed floating LNG power supply barge, which integrates the functions of LNG loading and storage, and regasification and power generation.\nWison also delivered the world’s first floating liquefaction natural gas (FLNG) barge named Caribbean FLNG in late-July, under an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract with Exmar.", "BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Real estate investment in China rose 7.9 percent in January-July period from the same period a year earlier, easing from 8.5 percent growth in the first half of 2017, official data showed on Monday.\nNew construction starts measured by floor area were up 8 percent in January-July, compared with a 10.6 percent rise in the first six months this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.\nProperty sales measured by floor area grew 14 percent in January-July from the same period a year earlier, down from 16.1 percent in the first six months of the year.\nReal estate investment, which directly affects 40 other business sectors in China, is considered a crucial driver for the economy. But some analysts expect increasingly stringent cooling measures will eventually drag on investment and dampen construction activity.\nPolicymakers have prioritised stabilising an overheated property market ahead of a Communist Party reshuffle later this year, reiterating the need to avoid dramatic price volatility they fear could threaten the financial system and harm social stability. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Elias Glenn; Editing by Eric Meijer)", "BEIJING (Reuters) - The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said on Thursday it has approved two loans and one equity investment worth $324 million across Georgia, Tajikistan and India.\nThe bank's first ever equity investment of $150 million aims to help attract private capital for infrastructure projects in India, the AIIB said in an emailed statement.\n\"Approving our first equity investment is another milestone for the Bank and will enhance our potential to source and fund high quality, private sector projects,\" said D.J. Pandian, AIIB Vice President, in the statement.\n\"These three projects demonstrate a growing sophistication in our ability to support our member countries across different regions and sectors.\" The Beijing-based AIIB, formed in January 2016, aims to provide infrastructure financing in the Asia-Pacific region. The multilateral development bank has been viewed as a rival to the Western-dominated World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The equity investment goes towards the India Infrastructure Investment Fund which focuses on investing in mid-cap infrastructure companies in India in sectors including energy and utilities, transportation and logistics and telecommunications, according to a project summary on the AIIB's website. A $114 million loan will help fund the Georgia Batumi Bypass Road Project and a $60 million loan will go towards the first phase of the Tajikistan Nurek Hydropower Rehabilitation Project, according to the emailed statement. The 2017 AIIB annual meeting will be held from Friday to Sunday this week on Jeju Island in South Korea. (Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)", "SHANGHAI China's economic planner on Thursday approved China Eastern Airlines' (600115.SS)(0670.HK) 13.2-billion-yuan (1.54 billion pounds) plan for a base at an expansive new airport in Beijing that could eventually be the world's largest, when completed.\nThe National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website that the base will cover 1.17 million square meters, and 30 percent of the investment, or 3.96 billion yuan, will be funded by China Eastern.\nThe remaining 92.4 billion yuan will be financed using domestic bank loans, the statement added.\nChina plans to complete the first phase by 2019, and will be able to serve 45 million passengers a year with four runways on the first opening. Two more phases would push the capacity to an annual count of 100 million passengers.\nThat would put the airport as the world's largest in surface area, roughly in line with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest by number of annual passengers.\nUpon completion, rival state carrier, China Southern Airlines Co Ltd (600029.SS), will also relocate to the new airport from the existing Beijing Capital International Airport, the airport project managers told reporters last year.\nThey said China Eastern and China Southern will handle 40 percent of the new airport's footfalls.\n(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)", "SAO PAULO May 3 Brazil's CPFL Energia SA , the country's largest private power company, on Wednesday launched a new firm called Envo with the aim of tapping the growing market for solar powered homes in Brazil.\nCPFL, whose controlling stake was acquired by China's State Grid Corp last year for 14.2 billion reais ($4.52 billion), said it would offer a full range of services for electricity customers willing to use solar power. That would include equipment, installation and assistance to allow the user to connect their system to the local power grid and sell excess energy to the distribution company.\nBrazil, which has for decades relied on a power system based on large hydroelectric dams, recently moved to diversify its energy matrix and was a late comer to solar power, despite having some of the world's highest solar radiation levels.\nSince new regulation was approved for consumers to install and connect their solar generation projects to the grid in 2015, many companies have started to offer related services. With Envo, CPFL wants to grab a share of that market.\n\"Many consumers are increasingly worried about the environmental impact of power generation, and also looking to reduce their power bills,\" CPFL Energia Chief Executive Andre Dorf said in a conference call with reporters.\nDorf said connections of solar generation projects to the national grid increased from 7,500 at the end of 2016 to 10,000 until April.\n\"We are seeing a quick development of this market in the world and in Brazil,\" he said. CPFL declined to say how much it was investing in the new venture.\nChina is the world's largest producer of solar power equipment, but the executive did not say if CPFL could use its proximity to China as per their new management to explore options to purchase equipment.\nHe said CPFL would buy the panels wherever it was cheaper.\nBanco Santander Brasil SA will offer financing for new clients of Envo, who can run a simulation of costs, how long it would take for the system to pay for itself and other details at the company's website. (Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Andrew Hay)", "ZIMBABWE’S deepening economic crisis is partly as a result of dwindling investment inflows due to the hostile business environment characterised by policy inconsistencies and uncertainty. This week Zimbabwe Independent reporter Hazel Ndebele (HN) spoke to Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) chief executive Richard Mbaiwa (RM) on various investment-related issues, which include falling in foreign direct investment, the impact of the liquidity crunch on business and the progress made on the one-stop-shop concept.\nHN: Are you concerned about the dwindling levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from US$545 million in 2014 to US$319 million last year?\nRM: As an investment promotion agency, it is our desire to see an increase in all forms of investment in the country as we think that the country offers a lot of investment opportunities across all sectors that are still to be realised. We will therefore endeavour to step up our investment attraction efforts so as to increase the levels of both domestic investment and FDI inflows. However these figures are taken from the United Nations Conference on Trade And Development(Unctad) World Investment Report and do not include the local component of the projects that are being implemented in Zimbabwe. The country has taken a deliberate and strategic position where we encourage joint ventures between foreign and domestic investors, so there is a significant portion of investment which is not captured by Unctad.\nHN: What can be done to improve FDI inflows?\nRM: We need to position the country as a highly attractive destination for investment and this is mainly to do with changing investor perceptions and the country’s image. On-going work to improve the ease of doing business in the country precisely aims to achieve that. Improving the ease of doing business rankings will go a long way to change investor perceptions and these reforms should continue to be pursued with a view to streamlining procedures at both national and local government levels.\nHN: How in your view has the liquidity crunch impacted on investment prospects?\nRM: The liquidity crunch affects effective demand for goods and services in the economy. However, I would say that most of the economic agencies have now embraced the use of plastic money and non-cash transactions. For our domestic investors, whom we expect to partner with foreign investors, it is important that they get easy access to capital. For foreign investors, the major concern is related to ease of remitting dividends and other foreign payments such as critical imports and loan repayments.\nHN: How has the scourge of corruption hampered your efforts to bring in much needed investment?\nRM: Corruption or perceived corruption, at any level, has a negative impact on attracting investment, whether foreign or local as it adds another layer of costs associated with doing business. It should therefore be condemned in the strongest terms and at ZIA we have zero tolerance for corruption and we urge all stakeholders, including investors to report any instance of corruption immediately to the appropriate authorities.\nHN: Since January this year ZIA has approved projects worth US$920 million which are more valuable when comparing to projects approved during the same period last year worth US$451 million. What is your view on this?\nRM: We believe that it is a positive sign that we are seeing higher value projects as this means that the projects are more serious and would have a higher economic impact in terms of indicators like job creation, generation of exports and supply linkages with other sectors, especially the SMEs, which will in turn bring more benefits to Zimbabweans in line with the aspirations of ZimAsset.\nHN: Which sector has had the most approved investment so far this year?\nRM: Since January the sector with the highest number of approved projects has been the mining sector which has had 38 projects valued at US$467 million. The manufacturing sector has the second highest approved projects with 28 projects worth US$63 million, up from projects valued at US$25 million last year. Other sectors are also growing significantly for instance we have also seen growth in the services sector. We also have investments in the agriculture, construction, transport, tourism and energy sectors.\nHN: From past experiences do you think the projects approved by ZIA in different sectors of the economy will be implemented?\nRM: Of course, we expect that these projects will be implemented; otherwise we would not approve them. When these investors submit their project proposals they definitely have serious intentions and they would not go out of their way to incur costs related to submission of proposals if they were not serious. However, some projects may face challenges along the way and may not end up seeing the light of day for various reasons. I must also caution that we should not expect these approved projects to be consummated overnight, which is why we give a two-year window from time of approval to allow the investors to put everything together. Of course, depending on complexity, some projects can be implemented in a relatively short timeframe.\nHN: What progress has been made since the launch of the one-stop-shop concept?\nRM: The one-stop-shop is currently operational as a physical entity, but we want to progress towards a virtual or digital one stop shop where government agencies will be linked up electronically. In this regard we have already developed a combined on-line application form, which will enable investors to submit their applications on-line to the respective government agencies\nHN: How beneficial do you think the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are going to be to investment?\nRM: As you may be aware, the SEZs provide an array of incentives, both fiscal and non-fiscal, that qualifying investors will be able to enjoy, thus making the country more attractive as a destination for investment.\nHN: Has the Look East Policy spurred investment in Zimbabwe?\nRM: If you look at our investment statistics, you will see that countries like China and India are key investment source markets across all sectors of our economy. This shows that the Look East policy has indeed borne fruit. However, I wish to state that we welcome any legitimate investment from all corners of the world and we desire to see more investment coming from the non-traditional source markets such as the emerging economies and the former Eastern European countries.\nHN: Consultations for the 2018 budget have started, what in your view should the Finance minister include in his budget statement to promote investment.\nRM: We are still undertaking consultations to prepare our input into the national budget, which will be submitted to the minister at the appropriate time for his consideration.", "Chris Gardner is president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of British Columbia\nCanada just can't seem to get out of our own way when it comes to major infrastructure projects and responsible resource development. Political leaders and bureaucrats keep tripping us up with red tape, questionable decisions, higher taxes and costly self-inflicted mistakes. One could be forgiven for thinking that we have set about to sabotage our economic future.\nEarlier this year, a little-known federal body, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), issued a decision that, if left to stand, could kill British Columbia's emerging LNG industry and cost us thousands of high-paid jobs and billions in new investment.\nStory continues below advertisement\nLNG Canada is close to a final investment decision on a major LNG plant in Kitimat – the $40-billion project would represent the largest private-sector investment in Canada. To do it, the company would need large complex steel modular components built abroad and transported to B.C. where they will be installed.\nBut the trade tribunal has issued a ruling that certain fabricated industrial steel components exported from China, South Korea and Spain, are being \"dumped\" into the Canadian market and causing \"injury\" to the Canadian domestic steel industry.\nThis has created a major problem for the emerging LNG industry in B.C. A key component of LNG facilities – large, complex, steel modular components – can only be built at a few shipyards around the world. No company in Canada can build these things. The components cannot, and will not, be produced in Canada.\nAstoundingly, CITT chose not to decide on the critical issue of these large complex steel modules, simply lumping them in with all the other steel imports.\nWe're baffled. How on earth is the Canadian steel industry harmed if it is incapable of producing these large complex steel modules in the first place?\nThe Independent Contractors and Businesses Association has repeatedly expressed concern about the ruling's impact on the broader competitiveness of B.C.'s construction industry. There is simply no domestic supplier network – including fabricated steel – that warrants protection from international competition.\nAnd as bad as the ruling is for the construction industry generally, it could be fatal for B.C.'s potential LNG industry, and it simply couldn't have come at a worse time.\nStory continues below advertisement\nStory continues below advertisement\nLNG Canada and Woodfibre LNG are both hard at work as they drive toward final investment decisions. If this CITT decision stands, it will inflate costs and could very well make these projects uncompetitive.\nThe trade tribunal risks smothering billions of dollars in investment and killing thousands of jobs. LNG Canada alone would need 4,000 workers to build a facility in Kitimat. In addition, 3,000 more workers would be required to build the pipeline that will move natural gas from B.C.'s northeast to the West Coast.\nThe Conference Board of Canada has estimated that the LNG industry could deliver $7.4-billion annually to Canada's GDP and generate about 65,000 jobs a year over 30 years.\nAn all-hands-on-deck approach – including the federal government acting in the national interest – is required as the LNG industry drives hard toward the final investment decision goal line in 2018.\nB.C. and Canada do not have a great record of approving and building large infrastructure projects – witness the cancellation of PNW LNG, Energy East and Northern Gateway while Site C, Keystone XL and the Trans Mountain pipeline-expansion projects are all facing legal challenges and protests. No wonder B.C. has sunk to the bottom 25 per cent, worldwide, of places where oil and gas executives feel comfortable investing billions of dollars.\nIf there was an international \"get-to-yes\" challenge on major infrastructure projects, B.C. and Canada would fail.\nStory continues below advertisement\nThe stakes are high. We need to find a way to build these projects or risk being forever labelled a country where new capital, new talent and new ideas are not welcome. All Canadians will benefit through increased tax revenue, job creation and the purchase of goods and services throughout the energy value chain. Further, Indigenous communities are important partners and significant beneficiaries from these projects.\nThe CITT's recent ruling is short-sighted and potentially fatal for the LNG industry. Time is of the essence, and the federal government should overturn this ill-advised, ill-considered and ill-timed trade ruling.\nAnd if the federal government fails this test, British Columbians and all Canadians will be the losers – our competitiveness and our long-term prosperity will suffer while our global competitors will benefit.", "Baku. 4 March. REPORT. AZ / China has said that it will increase military spending by about 7% this year, just days after Donald Trump outlined a boost to the US defence budget. Report informs citing the BBC.\nThe scheduled announcement was made ahead of the annual National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.\nChina has been rapidly modernising its armed forces in recent years as its economy expands.\nHowever the country's defence budget is still far smaller than that of the US.\nThe announcement marks the second consecutive year that the increase in China's defence spending has not reached a double-digit percentage rise following nearly two decades at or above 10%.\nIt means that total spending will account for about 1.3% of the country's projected GDP in 2017, the same level as in recent years, said government spokeswoman Fu Ying.", "KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A Chinese company building a key rail link in Malaysia says it has been told to suspend work pending negotiations. It urged the new government elected two months ago to honor the contract.\nThe suspension Wednesday came a day after the government called for a sharp reduction in cost for the 688 kilometer (430 miles) East Coast Rail Link.\nOfficials say the project's actual cost is 81 billion ringgit ($20 billion), nearly 50 percent more than estimated by the previous government.\nChina Communication said Wednesday the suspension could add to costs, losses and damages. It called for a \"win-win situation\" in negotiations and urged the government to \"honor and respect\" the deal.\nThe project is part of China's regional \"Belt and Road\" infrastructure initiative.", "China’s currency regulator more than doubled quotas for outbound investment in Shanghai and Shenzhen, allowing fund companies to invest a total of $10 billion in assets overseas.\nThe State Administration of Foreign Exchange boosted the Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership and Qualified Domestic Investment Enterprise trial programs in the two cities to $5 billion each, the currency regulator said late Tuesday. SAFE raised the quota from $2 billion for the QDLP program in Shanghai and $2.5 billion for QDIE in Shenzhen, according to a note from United Overseas Bank Ltd.\n“In recent months, Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to grow the two-way flow of both inbound and outbound investments in their on-going effort to further liberalize China’s financial markets and open up China’s capital account,” UOB said.\nChina’s leaders unveiled a series of steps earlier this month aimed at opening their financial system and more fully integrating into global capital markets. Foreign firms are watching to see whether People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang was serious in his pledge to move quickly to level the playing field with domestic financial companies.\nQDII Program\nThe currency regulator is also set to allow bigger investments overseas under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors program, which was halted for three years.\nThe moves come after pressure on the yuan -- and for potentially destabilizing capital outflows -- diminished. The onshore yuan had its biggest gain in nine years in 2017 against the dollar, while the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is trading near its lowest level since early 2015. Foreign holdings of onshore Chinese bonds rose to a record this year, more evidence of the yuan’s appeal.\n“This opens the door for some meaningful capital outflow, which should partly balance portfolio inflows into the mainland bond market,” said Samsara Wang, an emerging markets strategist at Credit Agricole CIB. “The news is modestly renminbi negative as the amounts are greater than expected, the timing is faster.”\nBNP Paribas SA’s asset management arm is among those approved for the QDLP program. Several institutions, including JPMorgan Asset Management, were reported to have been granted QDLP quotas last month.\n— With assistance by Dingmin Zhang, Qizi Sun, and Helen Sun", "Feb 2 (Reuters) - China’s Commerce Ministry says:\n* Approves pilot scheme in parallel vehicle imports in 8 cities (Reporting by Judy Hua)", "SHANGHAI, April 5 Chinese stocks rose on Wednesday led by the Shanghai benchmark posting its best day in eight months, as investors cheered Beijing's decision to launch a new economic zone in Hebei province, sending shares of several related firms surging by the daily limit of 10 percent.\nThe blue-chip CSI300 index rose 1.4 percent to 3,503.89 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.5 percent to 3,270.31 points.\nChina on Saturday approved a new special economic zone, described as \"a thousand year project\", in the heavily polluted province of Hebei, to focus on building clusters of high-tech and innovative businesses and take over some \"non-capital functions\" from Beijing.\n\"The way they put it leaves lots of room for imagination, in terms of future investment,\" said Tian Weidong, an analyst at Kaiyuan Securities.\nTian identified several sectors aside from property that would benefit from the plan, including environmental and infrastructure stocks.\n\"This time the momentum is more sustainable because it's boosted not simply by the housing market, which holds lots of uncertainty at the moment,\" Tian said.\nAn index tracking major developers added 1.6 percent, despite Beijing's ban on property sales to contain speculators after a sudden housing boom in the new economic zone.\nConcerns over a liquidity squeeze eased somewhat, as the nation's central bank said it would rely on a range of monetary policy tools to keep liquidity at a stable level.\nThe central bank injected 618.99 billion yuan ($89.86 billion) into the financial system via short- and medium-term liquidity tools in March, up nearly 50 percent from the previous month.\nSectors rallied across the board, led by infrastructure and material stocks, seen benefiting greatly from the development of the new zone.\nShares of more than 30 companies related to the new economic zone shot up by the maximum allowed 10 percent, including developer BBMG Corp, cement maker Jidong Cement and harbour operator Tianjin Port. ($1 = 6.8886 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Luoyan Liu and John Ruwitch; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)", "By Joseph Nye, Jr\nLast month, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) presided over the heavily orchestrated Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. The two-day event attracted 29 heads of state, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, and 1,200 delegates from more than 100 countries.\nXi called China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative the “project of the century.” The 65 countries involved comprise two-thirds of the world’s land mass and about 4.5 billion people.\nOriginally announced in 2013, Xi’s plan to integrate Eurasia through US$1 trillion of investment in infrastructure stretching from China to Europe, with extensions to Southeast Asia and east Africa, has been termed China’s Marshall Plan, as well as its bid for a grand strategy.\nChina’s ambitious initiative would provide much-needed highways, railway lines, pipelines, ports and power plants in poor countries. It would also encourage Chinese firms to increase their investments in European ports and railways.\nThe “belt” would include a massive network of highways and rail links through Central Asia, and the “road” refers to a series of maritime routes and ports between Asia and Europe.\nMarco Polo would be proud. And if China chooses to use its surplus financial reserves to create infrastructure that helps poor countries and enhances international trade, it would be providing what can be seen as a global public good.\nOf course, China’s motives are not purely benevolent. Reallocation of China’s large foreign exchange assets away from low-yield US Treasury bonds to higher-yield infrastructure investment makes sense and creates alternative markets for Chinese goods.\nWith Chinese steel and cement firms suffering from overcapacity, Chinese construction firms would profit from the new investment. And as Chinese manufacturing moves to less-accessible provinces, improved connections to international markets fits China’s development needs.\nHowever, is the project more public relations smoke than investment fire? According to the Financial Times, investment in Xi’s initiative declined last year, raising doubts about whether commercial enterprises are as committed as the government.\nShipping goods overland from China to Europe is still twice as expensive as trade by sea. As the Financial Times puts it, the initiative is “unfortunately less of a practical plan for investment than a broad political vision.”\nMoreover, there is a danger of debt and unpaid loans from projects that turn out to be economic “white elephants” and security conflicts could bedevil projects that cross so many borders.\nXi’s vision is impressive, but will it succeed as a grand strategy?\nChina is betting on an old geopolitical proposition. A century ago, British geopolitical theorist Halford Mackinder said that whoever controlled the island of Eurasia would control the world.\nUS strategy, in contrast, has long favored the geopolitical insights of 19th century admiral Alfred Mahan, who emphasized sea power and the rimlands.\nAt the end of World War II, George Kennan adapted Mahan’s approach to develop his Cold War strategy of containment of the Soviet Union, arguing that if the US allied with Britain and Japan and the peninsula of western Europe at the two ends of Eurasia, the US could create a balance of global power that would be favorable to US interests.", "BEIJING (Reuters) - China will further open up its economy, and its door to the outside will only get bigger and bigger, with foreign and domestic firms allowed to compete on an equal footing, Premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday.\nChinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at the news conference following the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee\nChina will increase access to its services and manufacturing sectors while further lowering import tariffs, Li said at his once-a-year press conference in Beijing.\n“China’s economy has been so integrated with the world’s, that closing China’s door would mean blocking our way for development,” Li told reporters following the close of China’s annual meeting of parliament.\n“China’s aim is to ensure that both domestic and foreign firms, and companies under all kinds of ownership structure, to be able to compete on fair terms in China’s large market.”\nChinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives for the news conference following the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee\nThe familiar pledges to further open up China’s economy come as the prospect of a global trade war dominates headlines and conversations among world leaders.\nU.S. President Donald Trump on March 8 announced global tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. He is expected on Friday to announce new tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese technology and consumer goods annually, sources told Reuters.\nChinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vote at the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj\nAs China further widens access to its markets, there will be no forced transfers of technology, and China will better protect intellectual property rights, Li told reporters.\nChina has maintained that technology transfers are not a condition of gaining market access. But Trump says Beijing has forced U.S. companies to transfer their intellectual property to China as a cost of doing business there.\nA meeting in Buenos Aires of finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s 20 biggest economies this week has been overshadowed by concerns of how a potential trade war could hurt global economic growth.", "* PREVIOUS TRADING SESSION MOVES:\n* SSEC +0.4 pct, CSI300 +0.6 pct, HSI -0.8 pct\n* Shanghai, Shenzhen-HK connects shut for holiday on Mon, Tue\n* CNY official close 6.8835 per dollar\n* FTSE China A50 +0.6 pct, BNY Mellon ADR China Select Index -0.2 pct\nSHANGHAI, April 5 Following is a list of recent corporate and policy announcements, as well as other news that might affect Chinese financial markets. Policy, government, sector news:\n* China c.bank says economy stable but complexities \"cannot be underestimated\"\n* Property agents shut, buyers still hunt as China plans new economic zone\n* China approves 7 new free trade zones in bid to open economy\n* ANALYSIS-Beijing's 'shock' measures seize property market, other cities follow suit\n* China hints at high-yield bond crackdown - IFR News\n* China to lower maximum order limit for stock index futures, treasury futures\n* Ports in China have enough iron ore to build 13,000 Eiffel Towers\n* China steps up Americas oil imports, Unipec backs \"new frontier\"\n* China approves 10 IPOs on Friday to raise up to 5.9 bln yuan Data:\n* China March factory activity expands but at slower pace-Caixin PMI\n* China c.bank injects $89.9 bln of liquidity in March, up sharply from Feb\n* China QFII quota rises to $90.26 bln at end-March\n* China outstanding foreign debt falls to $1.42 trln at end-2016\n* China central bank FX derivatives' short position shrinks to $33.8 bln in Feb\n* China state builders dominate PPP projects, sign $85 bln in contracts\nCompany moves: (Unless otherwise specified, pct change is for y/y)\nIn focus\n* \"Innovative financing\" sours dairy giant in China's rural northeast\n* After squeeze in 2016, China's top banks set for stronger growth\n* Questions over Vanke's strategy after Shenzhen govt stakes claim\n* ChemChina, Syngenta win U.S. antitrust approval for deal\n* Chinese broker Guotai Junan raises $2.1 bln in HK offering-source\n* CNOOC ties up with Australia's FAR to hunt for oil, gas off West Africa\nEarnings/Performance\n* Bank of China not optimistic about 2017 after profit drop\n* Huawei posts flat profit growth amid tough battle with rivals\n* Gemdale's 2016 net profit up 96.9 pct\n* Yanzhou Coal 2016 net profit up 140.2 pct, other moves\n* Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt returns to profit in 2016, other moves\n* Faw Car swings to net loss in 2016, other moves\n* Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet's 2016 net profit up 60.9 pct\n* Lepu Medical Technology sees Q1 net profit up 30-40 pct\n* Zhangzhou Pientzehuang Pharma sees Q1 net profit up 50-60 pct\n* DHC Software sees Q1 FY 2017 net profit to up 160-210 pct Other moves (spin-offs, divestitures, deals)\n* China's TCL to invest $5 bln in a display panel production facility\n* Beijing Oriental Yuhong Waterproof to invest 2.1 bln yuan in material project (Compiled by Luoyan Liu)" ]

[ "His new film is <EM>Mr. 3000.</EM> It's about an aging baseball star who returns to the diamond. He's the star of <EM>The Bernie Mac Show,</EM> a sitcom on Fox. Mac has been a stand up comedian for many years and often appears in films, including Spike Lee's <EM>Kings of Comedy.</EM> This interview originally aired on Nov. 27, 2001." ]

[ "Actor Jack Black plays a kindly, small-town funeral director who murders a wealthy millionaire in the new film Bernie. Bernie is now out on DVD.", "Host Tony Cox talks with actor Miguel Nunez for Friday Comedy. Nunez has appeared in the television sitcom <EM>Sparks</EM> and several big screen movies including <EM>Life</EM> with Martin Lawrence and Bernie Mac, and <EM>Juwanna Mann</EM>.", "Larry Wilmore, jokingly billed as \"Senior Black Correspondent\" on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, worked as a writer on In Living Color and The PJ's before getting his fake-news-show gig. Wilmore also created The Bernie Mac Show.", "Walter Latham was one of the biggest comedy producers in the 1990s. He was the brains behind the Kings of Comedy tour that featured such headliners as the late Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Harvey. Audie Cornish talks to Latham about starting a new YouTube channel called, \"Walter Latham Comedy\" and both the new opportunities and challenges it presents.", "Actor Jack Black plays a kindly, small-town funeral director who murders a wealthy millionaire in the new film Bernie. Black is also one-half of the comedy folk-rock group Tenacious D. Also, actor Hugh Laurie talks about playing Dr. House and critic John Powers reviews a surrealistic Russian novel.", "Comedian Bernie Mac died Saturday morning in Chicago after losing a battle with pneumonia. He was 50 years old. Farai Chideya talks with comedian and TV producer Larry Wilmore, who was the creator and executive producer of The Bernie Mac Show, about the funny man's life and career. FARAI CHIDEYA, host: This is News & Notes. I'm Farai Chideya. (Soundbite of TV show, \"The Bernie Mac Show\") Unidentified Actor: Hey, hey, hey, you're Bernie Mac, ain'tcha? Mr. BERNIE MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) Hey, brother, how are you doing? Unidentified Actor: Aw, (unintelligible) man, I ain't eat for two weeks, brother. Mr. MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) Two weekends? Unidentified Actor: Two weeks. Mr. MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) Just two? Unidentified Actor: It's been so long, brother, I forgot what food tastes like anymore. Mr. MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) Hmm. Man, you know what? I wouldn't even worry about it. Unidentified Actor: No? Why not? Mr. MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) It still tastes the same. Unidentified Actor: Aw, man! (Soundbite of laughter) CHIDEYA: That was actor and comedian Bernie Mac. Unfortunately, he passed away Saturday morning from complications from pneumonia. He was just 50 years old. His self-named hit, \"The Bernie Mac Show,\" aired on Fox for five seasons. It scooped up a series of awards and nominations for its cast and crew. One of them went to the show's executive producer and writer, Larry Wilmore. He won an Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series. Larry, thanks for coming on to tell us more about Bernie. Mr. LARRY WILMORE (Executive Producer and Writer, \"The Bernie Mac Show\"): Sure, it's my pleasure. CHIDEYA: So, what did you two want to do with the idea of the black family and making it funny? Not, you know, trying to belabor things, but there was a lot of - there was a lot of meat to this show. Mr. WILMORE: Yeah, I think the word that we used a lot was authentic, you know? We wanted something to feel authentic, look authentic, and for me and Bernie, it was really important that he be in a loving relationship with his wife. That's what I really wanted to see on TV, you know, these two people who were there for each other, and that the conflict was with these children, who he considered terrorists. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. WILMORE: Bernie loved that thought, you know, that he does not negotiate with terrorists. That was really - every single scene on that show is about negotiating with terrorists, you know, that's what those kids represented. The difference being that he loved those kids to death, you know, that they were really like his kids. CHIDEYA: Well, I want to play us just a little bit more from one of the first episodes. (Soundbite of TV show \"The Bernie Mac Show\") Mr. MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) This is our home. This is my house. Mi casa es mi casa. Those are not important. Second, in my house, this is all my stuff. And you are not to touch my stuff without my permission. Let me break it down. Don't touch my TV. Don't touch my DVD. Don't touch my dual-deck VCR. And most definitely don't touch the remote that works the TV, the DVD, and the dual-deck VCR. Any questions? Ms. CAMILLE WINBUSH: (As Vanessa \"Nessa\" Thomkins) Can we touch... Mr. MAC: (As Bernie \"Mac\" McCullough) No, you can't touch nothing. As a matter of fact, don't even look at it. When you walk past it, close your eyes. CHIDEYA: I think that speaks to what you were just saying. (Soundbite of laughter) CHIDEYA: So, how did you two connect? You've been in the entertainment industry for quite awhile, we've had you on the show before and you've had a... Mr. WILMORE: Right. CHIDEYA: You've done so many things, but how did you two specifically connect? Mr. WILMORE: Well, I was doing a show called \"The PJs\" with Eddie Murphy, and we would have to go record Eddie wherever he was. And he was doing the movie \"Life,\" and we were waiting in his, you know, his trailer out there, you know, just like, you know, little helpers, just waiting for Eddie Murphy, the big star. And I decided I was tired of waiting, you know, and I just started - I walked out onto the lot, they were on location, and in front of one of the dressing rooms was sitting Bernie Mac, you know, just sitting out there by himself. And I was like, man, that's Bernie Mac, you know, and I always wanted to meet him. And so I went over and I said, hey, Bernie, how's it going? And Bernie just right - right away just went, hey, man, how you doing? I mean, he had such a great, just, attitude. And I was like, Bernie, I always wanted to meet you, and he was like, pleased to meet you, too, man. I said, how's it going today? So, he said, Larry, it's great, man. I'm outside, you know? I'm working. Life is great. You know, he had such this positive attitude, and it was so striking. It wasn't like a jaded Hollywood attitude. He was just positive. He was happy to be working. He was loving where he was. He was a ", "Garry Shandling, the comedian and actor who starred in &lt;em&gt;The Larry Sanders Show&lt;/em&gt;, died on Thursday at age 66.", "Larry Wilmore has a resume that could rival pretty much anyone's in Hollywood. Name a show and he probably had his hands in it. He created The Bernie Mac Show, co-created Insecure, wrote for shows like In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and The Office, and served as the \"Senior Black Correspondent\" on The Daily Show. He also had his own late night show called The Nightly Show.Now, Wilmore is back in the hosting chair with a new show on the NBC streaming service Peacock. Sam and Wilmore chat about starting a new show from scratch in a pandemic, deconstructing 2020, and why that one episode of The Office probably wouldn't fly today.", "One day after Bernie Mac's shocking death, we learn of the passing of another African-American star. Academy Award-winning soul music legend Isaac Hayes died in Memphis on Sunday at age 65. Hayes made history by winning an Oscar for \"Theme from 'Shaft'\" -- the first African American to do so. He also won a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy Award for the all-time classic. Known as \"Black Moses,\" Hayes -- as a song stylist of the highest degree and a multi-talented instrumentalist -- personified black soul music during the 1970s era. Younger fans may know him for supplying the voice of the character Chef on the hit cartoon series South Park. A devout Scientologist, he would later resign from the show citing religious reasons. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, alongside Bill Withers and John Fogerty. Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy, referred to Hayes as \"a true renaissance man\" in a statement issued today. \"After laying the groundwork for the Memphis soul sound through his work with Stax Records, his groundbreaking theme song and score for the movie 'Shaft' cemented his status as a musical icon,\" Portnow continued about the three-time Grammy Award winner. \"He was actively involved with our Memphis Chapter, sharing his creativity with established professionals and up-and-coming musicians alike,\" he said, adding that \"the world has lost a true creative genius and a passionate humanitarian, but his indelible legacy will remain ever present. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family, friends and all who were inspired by the man and his music.\" On an unfortunately macabre note, Hayes will next be seen alongside Samuel L. Jackson and the recently deceased Bernie Mac in the film Soul Men. Please leave your thoughts and well-wishes below.", "Comedian, actor and writer Buddy Lewis checks in with NPR's Tony Cox for this week's edition of <EM>Friday Comedy.</EM>", "As senior black correspondent for The Daily Show, Larry Wilmore's used to being politically incorrect for the sake of humor. In his new book, I'd Rather We Got Casinos, he mines black culture — beyond politics — for comedy. In more than 25 bits, Wilmore imagines \"Text Messages from a Birmingham Jail,\" muses on black weathermen, pens five letters to the NAACP, and eulogizes \"the 'N' Word.\" Wilmore has numerous comedy credits to his name. He created The Bernie Mac Show, and co-created The PJs. He has also performed and written for the U.S. version of The Office. JOE PALCA, host: In the last election season, it took a lot chutzpah to refer to John McCain as the black candidate. But that's just what comedian Larry Wilmore did on Comedy Central's \"The Daily Show.\" (Soundbite of TV show \"The Daily Show\") Mr. LARRY WILMORE (Senior Black Correspondent, \"The Daily Show\"; Author, \"I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts\"): McCain's been showing me some flavor lately. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. WILMORE: Jon, he's angry at the man… (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. WILMORE: You know, thinks the media's out to get him. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. WILMORE: Which of the candidates has been doing his job for 26 years, waiting to get a promotion, then some inexperienced, Harvard egghead comes in and snaps it up? Oh yeah, I think McCain's feeling pretty black right about now, Jon. (Soundbite of laughter) PALCA: Now, when they write his obit, it won't just say that Larry Wilmore was once senior black correspondent for \"The Daily Show,\" or that he won an Emmy for the \"Bernie Mac Show.\" Now, they can say he was an author. His first book is just out - \"I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts.\" It's filled with un-PC insights about black people, like why black people don't report UFO sightings, and why chocolate is a better racial term for African-Americans. Today, we talk to him about black humor and all that that implies. If you want to talk with Larry Wilmore, our number here in Washington is 800-989-8255. Our email address is [email protected]. And you can join the conversation at our Web site. Go to npr.org, and click on Talk of the Nation. Larry Wilmore joins us from the studios at NPR West. Welcome to the program. Mr. WILMORE: Thank you, and it's good to know not only do I have chutzpah but someone's writing my obit. Thank you very much. PALCA: Well, eventually… (Soundbite of laughter) PALCA: I can tell you, as a science correspondent some of the time from NPR, someday there will be an obit necessary. Mr. WILMORE: I hope so. PALCA: But, I hope it's not for the next 20 minutes, because otherwise we're in big trouble. Mr. WILMORE: No, you'll be in a lot of trouble. PALCA: I don't have any other guests lined up for this hour. PALCA: So, OK. Has the climate changed for being a black correspondent for \"The Daily Show,\" senior black correspondent? Mr. WILMORE: Thank you. Yes, senior black correspondent. PALCA: All right. Don't want to leave that out. Mr. WILMORE: Don't want to leave that out. I don't know if the climate has changed. I mean, we just kind of see the news and make fun of it and keep going from there. PALCA: So, OK. So, what's with the book? Why - you've got a lot of gigs going. I heard you describe that work on \"The Bernie Mac Show\" as a labor of love, you know, and worth the pain. But in the foreword to the book, you describe the book as a lot of pain, too. So, what's up with that? Mr. WILMORE: It's all pain, you know. (Soundbite of laughter) PALCA: Life is pain. Mr. WILMORE: Yes, it is. Writing - it's like - it's a lot like childbirth, you know. Women describe it as very painful but then, somehow, something makes them forget that pain, and they have another one. But God bless them for it. You know, I enjoyed doing it. The book kind of came out organically kind about a year and a half ago, it just - the idea kind of popped into my head, and I thought it would be a fun thing write. PALCA: I see. And - OK, so, how would you characterize - I mean, I hate these questions. You know, having a serious question... Mr. WILMORE: Well, you should not ask them. Let's go to the other questions. PALCA: Well, but the trouble is, how do you have a serious question from a comedian? Mr. WILMORE: Want me to ask the questions? PALCA: I mean, you want to say, OK, Larry Wilmore, why don't you say a few funny things, and I'll just sit here and laugh, you know? Mr. WILMORE: There you go. PALCA: But that's a little tricky. Mr. WILMORE: Why don't you go to the bathroom for 10 minutes, and I'll just talk? (Soundbite of laughter) PALCA: OK, go. I'll be quiet. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. WILMORE: (Laughing) OK. PALCA: No, seriously. I mean, what are you doing here? I mean, is there a particular style? I mean, I was thinking back to some of the black comedians that I've listened to. Mr. WILMORE: Yes. PALCA: You know, and I was remembering Flip Wilson. You remember Flip Wilson? ", "The leading man known for his good looks and charm has lately been taking on more serious roles in films such as Bernie, Magic Mike and Mud. We'll listen back to excerpts from an April 2013 interview.", "Interview with ROBERT HUGHES continues. Actor JEFFREY TAMBOR. For five years he's played the part of Hank Kingsley, talk-show sidekick on the HBO comedy series, \"The Larry Sanders Show.\" He's had many character roles on television and film. He made his film debut with a critically-acclaimed performance as Al Pacino's deranged law partner in the 1979 film \"And Justice For All.\" He's currently starring in the TV movie \"Weapons of Mass Distraction\" written by Larry Gelbart. It premieres May 17. Interview with JEFFREY TAMBOR continues.12:58:30 NEXT SHOW PROMO (:29) PROMO COPY On the next Fresh Air. . art critic ROBERT HUGHES. . . for twenty-five years he's been Time magazine's art critic. He has new book about the history of art in America and a companion PBS series which premieres later this month. . . and we meet actor JEFFREY TAMBOR. . .He plays the baffoonish talk-show sidekick Hank Kinglsey on HBO's \"The Larry Sanders Show.\" He's starring in a new HBO movie \"Weapons of Mass Distraction\", a satire about a couple of media moguls. That's coming up on today's Fresh Air.", "On today's roundtable, our bloggers discuss the news of John Edwards' marital affair, the shocking deaths of comedian Bernie Mac and singer Isaac Hayes, and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's continuing legal woes. Joining Farai Chideya are Eisa Ulen of EisaUlen.com, Ron Scott of the Detroit News, and John McCann of Book of John. FARAI CHIDEYA, host: This is News & Notes. I'm Farai Chideya. It seems the National Enquirer got it right. The magazine reported a year ago that the former Senator John Edwards had been having an affair. Now the former presidential candidate has admitted to ABC News that he had a tryst with a former campaign consultant. So, how's this going to play out for the Democratic Party as a whole? And Senator Obama is in vacation in Hawaii, while President Bush visits Beijing and chastises China for its human-rights record. Senator John McCain has criticized Obama for taking vacation. Is he right? Plus we continue our look back at the lives of Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac with Eisa Ulen. She blogs at EisaUlen.com. We've also got Ron Scott, who blogs for the Detroit News, and John McCann, the creator of the blog Book of John. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Mr. JOHN MCCANN (Blogger, Book of John): What's going on, guys? Ms. EISA ULEN (Blogger, EisaUlen.com): Hi. Mr. RON SCOTT (Blogger, The Detroit News): Hi, how are you? CHIDEYA: So, we just heard some moving tributes from Larry Wilmore about Bernie Mac and Stephen Ivory about Isaac Hayes. You know, which gentleman, if not both, do you guys resonate with? Eisa, what comes to mind for you? Ms. ULEN: Well, it's interesting. In the earlier segment, you brought up \"Wattstax.\" And I haven't seen that movie in so long, but I think the images in that film are really this wonderful celebration of black life, from the sacred to the profane. And I think both Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac took us to church and took us to the streets with the work that they produced. And we're all suffering a great loss now that they've passed. I'd like to add one more thing. I think it's interesting that both these brothers were kind of young. It's not like they were 88 years old. And I wonder what health issues specifically they struggled with, and what that might mean for the black community, in us taking charge of our health. If these, you know, seemingly wealthy entertainers are still succumbing to some of the illnesses that plague our community, you know, we've got to work harder to hold onto these gems in our community longer. CHIDEYA: I will say that I did go and see Isaac Hayes last summer at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. And he was not well then. I heard that he had been having a series of strokes, but I personally am not a medical expert on his condition. Ron or John, what do you think of that approach to the issue? Mr. MCCANN: Well, if I'm not mistaken, I thought Isaac Hayes was a guy who was into health, and the story I read talked about him being found dead near a treadmill. Now, I know a lot of folks have treadmills and use them for - to hang up clothes on, but I was thinking he was a guy who was pretty health-conscious, if I'm not mistaken. Mr. SCOTT: Well, I think that while that's true, I would concur with the reality of looking at health issues. Bernie Mac had had a long bout with diabetes. And even though Isaac Hayes - and you know, I had the occasion to meet him on several occasions - did really focus on health, we really don't know what kind of major issues exist in the African-American community, specifically in terms of black men. You know, when the issue about prostate cancer emerged and we found white men had it, the medical community really mobilized its resources to attempt to do something about it. And of course, we know that stroke and diabetes and respiratory illnesses adversely affect the black community in general and black males in particular, to the degree that our age expectation is so limited. So, our age expectance is limited, and so within that context, I think that we really do need to focus more on our health. And I was listening to the segment about Isaac Hayes, and I related to that quite a bit, having been an on-air personality. And you know, he just basically - and the thing with \"Wattstax\" as it reflects - it changed the nature of how we related to one another. I remember a segment in that movie where Rufus Thomas... CHIDEYA: Oh, yes. Mr. SCOTT: The crowd went just - by just using his personality. Today, it would be very difficult to do that without having major security. So, I think, you know, as was said earlier, they represent the church and the streets and the peace and the harmony that we're seeing, unfortunately, passing away. CHIDEYA: Well, I'm actually going to transition to something that is in the political realm. Former Senator John Edwards talked a lot about the other America when he campaigned for the presidency, but he kept his lips shut about the other woman. His wife has been battling cancer, b", "Shouts of \"Bernie\" interrupted the invocation at the Democratic Convention Monday afternoon, just after the event was called to order. Monday was a dramatic day, including boos directed at Bernie Sanders (for telling his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton) and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (for an email scandal showing committee members trying to undercut Sanders' campaign). And as Rep. Marcia Fudge, new convention chair, took the stage expressing her support for Clinton and vice presidential pick Tim Kaine, the crowd erupted again each time she said the presumptive nominee's name, shouting \"Bernie, Bernie.\" Wasserman Schultz declined to gavel in the convention in hopes of starting the event off on a \"positive note\" — she handed off the duty to outgoing Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Sanders and first lady Michelle Obama are expected to speak, along with musical performances by Paul Simon and Demi Lovato. Here is a partial program, from the DNC: Boyz II Men Clarissa Rodriguez, Texas Democratic National Delegate. At just 17, she is the youngest DNC national delegate. Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader Marcia Fudge, new DNC chair, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ohio Hilda Solis, former secretary of labor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, mayor of Baltimore Rep. Raúl Grijalva, Arizona John Podesta, Clinton campaign chairman Demi Lovato, singer-songwriter Astrid Silva, DREAMer sharing her story and her fight to keep families together Jason and Jarron Collins, twin brothers and former professional basketball players Sarah Silverman, comedian, actress and two-time Emmy Award winner Paul Simon, American musician, singer-songwriter and actor Mick Rossi, Carmen \"CJ\" Camerieri, Joel Guzman, Jim Oblon, Bakithi Eva Longoria, actress Sen. Cory Booker, New Jersey Michelle Obama Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont", "Host Tavis Smiley laughs it up with comedian Horace HB Sanders.", "Guests Chris Hardwick and Patton Oswalt. A classic from the vaults of The Sound of Young America featuring two of our best comedian pals... Chris Hardwick is half of Hard N Phirm, and the former host of Singled Out on MTV. Patton Oswalt is a co-star of CBS' The King of Queens, and the creator of The Comedians of Comedy. Both talk about their comedy, Chris talks about how he ended up hosting \"Shipmates,\" and Patton talks about his passion for deep-fried Mac and Cheese.", "Tom and David Gardner talk to actor and comedian Ben Stein, a man of many talents. He's worked as a university professor, a poverty lawyer, and as a speech writer for Richard Nixon. He's also an economist and the author of more than a dozen books, including <EM>Yes, You Can Time the Market</EM>.", "Steve Martin became famous as an actor and comedian. Lately, though, he's gaining accolades for another talent: writing. Martin's latest book is The Pleasure of My Company. He talks with NPR's Neal Conan about life on the stage and the page and takes your calls. Guest: Steve Martin, actor, comedian and author; his latest book is The Pleasure of My Company (Hyperion, 2003).", "The leading man known for his good looks and lighthearted charm has made a comfortable career for himself in romantic comedies. Lately, however, he has been taking on more serious roles in films such as Bernie, Magic Mike and most recently Jeff Nichols' Mud.", "Tavis Smiley interviews comedian, actor, art collector and author Cheech Marin, about his career and his new art book, <EM>Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge</EM>.", "From humble beginnings in Peoria, Ill., Richard Pryor became the highest paid black star in Hollywood and influenced countless actors and comedians who followed him. Ed Gordon offers a remembrance of the provocative comedian, who died Saturday at the age of 65.", "<em>Tell Me More</em> continues its \"Make Me Laugh\" summer series with actor and comedian Bill Bellamy. He first entered the comedy world by winning a male beauty pageant at Rutgers University, where he showed his hidden talent for stand-up. He went on to host <em>Last Comic Standing</em> and <em>MTV Jams</em>, and act for both film and TV. He talks with host Michel Martin about his career, new comedy special <em>Crazy, Sexy, Dirty,</em> and family life.", "The actor and comedian performed with the improv troupe Second City before he gained fame on MAD TV and partnered with Jordan Peele for Key &amp; Peele. <em>Originally broadcast Aug. 6, 2016.</em>", "He was the \"Weekend Update\" anchor on <EM> Saturday Night Live </EM> from 1998 to 2000, and was known for his satirical coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. He's now starring in Comedy Central's <EM> Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.</EM> He appears in the documentary, <EM> Comedian, </EM> about Jerry Seinfeld, out now on DVD and VHS.", "Once upon a time, within the memory of those still living, if a film was successful, it inspired toys. Now, apparently, it's the other way around. Transformers, from Armageddon director Michael Bay, is based not on a novel or a play or a screenwriter's inspiration, but on a line of Hasbro toys that have been hot tickets for more than 20 years. If you revere those toys, you already know that. If you don't, there isn't enormous reason to care. Transformers, as any small boy can tell you, are robots from outer space with the ability to change shape to cars and other machines. Having fought each other for eons on their home planet, the good-guy Autobots and evil Decepticons transfer their battle to planet Earth, the improbable new home to an enormous object that is the source of all Transformer life. Paradoxically, the problem with the movie is not with these Transformers. Computer technology has insured that watching these enormous toys come to life is everything fans could hope for. If this film were a lot shorter than its inflated 2 hours and 23 minutes, and if it kept its focus on the toys, it would be hard to argue with. Humans, however, inevitably enter the story. The Transformers turn out to be looking for an 11th-grader played by Shia LaBoeuf, who spends his time dreaming about a potential girlfriend (as well as his first car), and that means that much of Transformers is spent with teenagers — who, as the key audience demographic, are fated to save the world. The actors who play them look as much like 11th graders as I do, but the film has bigger problems, like keeping everyone awake while the toys are off the screen. Any film whose most resonant line of dialogue is spoken by a robot who says, \"It's you and me, Megatron\" has no business being 2 hours and 23 minutes long — no matter how good the toys are. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: It must be summer because a new Michael Bay film is in theaters. He directed \"Armageddon,\" \"The Rock,\" \"Pearl Harbor,\" and now \"Transformers.\" Los Angeles Times and MORNING EDITION film critic Kenneth Turan has this review. KENNETH TURAN: Once upon a time, within the memory of those still living, if a film was successful, it inspired toys. Now, apparently, it's the other way around. \"Transformers\" is based not on a novel or a play or a screenwriter's inspiration, but on a line of Hasbro toys which have been hot tickets for more than 20 years. If you revere those toys, you already know that. If you don't, there is an enormous reason to care: Transformers, as any small boy can tell you, are robots from outer space… (Soundbite from movie \"Transformers\") (Soundbite of gunfire) TURAN: …with the ability to change shape to cars and other machines. Having fought each other for eons on their home planet, the good-guy Autobots and evil Decepticons transfer their battle to planet Earth, the improbable new home to an enormous object that is the source of all Transformer life. (Soundbite of Movie \"Transformers\") Unidentified Man (Actor): Emergency Pentagon call. I need you to - do you understand, this is an emergency. (Soundbite of explosions) TURAN: Paradoxically, the problem with the movie is not with those Transformers. Computer technology has insured that watching these enormous toys come to life is everything fans could hope for. If this movie were a lot shorter than its inflated two hours and 23 minutes, and kept its focus on the toys, it would be hard to argue with. Humans, however, inevitably enter the story. The Transformers turn out to be looking for an 11th-grader played by Shia LaBeouf, who spends his time dreaming about a potential girlfriend as well as his first car. Mr. BERNIE MAC (Actor): (As Bobby Bolivia) Considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and a custom paint job… Mr. SHIA LABEOUF (Actor): (As Sam Witwicky) Yeah, but the paint's faded. Mr. MAC: (As Bobby Bolivia) Yeah, but it's custom. Mr. LABEOUF: (As Sam Witwicky) It's custom faded? Mr. MAC: (As Bobby Bolivia) Where is your first time when you (unintelligible)? TURAN: Too much of \"Transformers\" is spent with teenagers, who, as the key audience demographic, are fated to save the world. The actors who play them look as much like 11th graders as I do. But the film has bigger problems, like keeping everyone awake while the toys are off the screen. Any film whose most resonant line of dialogue is spoken by a robot who says, it's you and me, Megatron, has no business being two hours and 23 minutes long — no matter how good the toys are. MONTAGNE: Kenneth Turan reviews movies for MORNING EDITION and the Los Angeles Times.", "In his new book, Diaries 1969 - 1979: The Python Years, actor and comedian Michael Palin documents the evolution of the Monty Python comedy group. Palin's collection of diary entries chronicles everything from the birth of The Pythons to the birth of his own children. Michael Palin, scriptwriter, actor and comedian; member of Monty Python's Flying Circus; author, Diaries 1969 - 1979: The Python Years", "New Orleans musician Mac Rebennack, A.K.A. Dr. John, died yesterday at 77. He was known for his raspy voice and hits such as \"Right Place, Wrong Time\" and \"Such A Night.\" Rebennack spoke with Terry Gross in 1986. <br/><br/>Contributor Zahra Noorbakhsh, who is Muslim and Iranian-American, shares a story about how the Christchurch shooting coincided with a personal health crisis. <br/><br/>Film critic Justin Chang reviews 'Late Night,' starring Emma Thompson as a seasoned late night talk show host whose recent drop in ratings has her fighting for her job. She hires a new writer (Mindy Kaling) in hopes of saving the show.", "The hilarious Richard Kind gets super competitive with comedian Ray Ellin. Actor and former Raiders NFL cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha talks about his new film Sylvie's Love, also starring Tessa Thompson. And comedians Ashley Nicole Black and Chelsea Devantez return to use their brains to answer questions about brains.", "Satirist Harry Shearer pokes fun at ABC-TV's interview of President Clinton by teen screen star Leonardo DiCaprio, with a satirical \"preview\" of an Presidential interview by Arnold Schwarzeneggar.", "Sam Sanders, host of NPR's <em>It's Been A Minute</em>, talks with comedian Eric Andre about making a prank movie while Black, pranking mostly people of color, and how it differs from, say, Johnny Knoxville.", "Tavis Smiley talks with actor and comedian Flex Alexander about his show \"One on One,\" his career as a comedian, and his family." ]

[ "Image copyright Google Image caption Atif Muhmood will appear at Blackburn Magistrates' Court on Thursday\nA man has been charged with the murder of a \"vulnerable\" man who was found dead at his home in Lancashire.\nForty-five-year-old Christopher Moore's body was found at the house in Derby Street, Nelson, on 20 June.\nA post-mortem examination revealed Mr Moore had suffered \"significant injuries\", police said.\nAtif Muhmood, 38, of Bankhouse Road, Nelson, remains in custody and is scheduled to appear at Blackburn Magistrates Court on Thursday." ]

[ "A 29-year-old Denver man has been arrested as a suspect in the alleged beating death of his father.\nBryan Nelson was arrested Sunday after police found the body of his father, 61-year-old James Nelson, in a bedroom of the Bear Valley home, in the 3300 block of South Stuart Street, in which they both resided.\nPolice were called about 3:55 p.m. Sunday to the home and found James Nelson unresponsive, according to an arrest warrant.\nJames Nelson had suffered trauma to the left side of his face. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Denver medical examiner’s office, which ruled his death a homicide.\nPolice arrested Bryan Nelson about 8:45 p.m. Sunday at police headquarters. He was at the home earlier in the day, when police first arrived.\nEarlier on Sunday, Bryan Nelson had called a relative in Kansas to say that James Nelson was dead, the affidavit said.\nBryan Nelson had told the relative he had gotten into a fight with his father Friday night. Bryan Nelson told investigators he had punched James Nelson in the face, which caused a nosebleed.\nJames Nelson didn’t come out of his bedroom Saturday, the affidavit said. On Sunday dogs came out of the room, but James Nelson did not. Bryan Nelson checked on his father and found him unresponsive. He called the relative in Kansas, who in turn called Denver police.\nJames Nelson is being held at the Denver Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.", "A man accused of stabbing his friend to death appeared in court Wednesday to face the charges against him. NBC 7’s Omari Fleming has the story. (Published Wednesday, April 29, 2015)\n$2M for Suspect Who Said He \"Slayed the Beast\"\nA man who said he \"slayed the beast\" after stabbing his friend to death was convicted of second-degree murder this week.\nBradley Thomas Garner, 49, of Oceanside died two years ago from multiple stab wounds to his neck and chest.\nThe attack took place inside an open garage on Santa Rosa Street in Oceanside.\nA key witness was a woman hired to watch two children at the home. The babysitter had just arrived when she saw David Anthony Strouth with blood on his shirt standing near Garner.\nOceanside Homicide Investigation\nOfficials are investigating a murder in Oceanside where a babysitter found a man stabbed to death. NBC 7's Diana Guevara reports. (Published Saturday, April 25, 2015)\n\"He made a statement, 'I slayed the beast,'\" Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza said in a pretrial hearing.\nThe sitter escaped and flagged down neighbors, who returned to the house to subdue him out of concern for the kids, who were still inside.\nLaw enforcement later arrived. It took five Oceanside Police officers to subdue Strouth.\nExclusive Local Couple Missing in Nepal\nStrouth was convicted to a second-degree murder charge. He faces 26 years to life in state prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 16.", "A man has been charged with two counts of murder following the fatal shooting in St Leonards on Friday evening (March 16).\nFollowing authorisation by the Crown Prosecution Service, Craig Savage, 35, of no fixed address, has been charged with the murders of Michelle Savage and Heather Whitbread at their home in Bexhill Road.\nHe is also charged with committing robbery in relation to the theft of a .22 calibre rifle firearm and ammunition from the 1066 Target Sports, Sedlescombe Road North, St Leonards, on Friday (March 16).\nSavage has been remanded in custody to appear at Brighton Magistrates’ Court via videolink on Tuesday (March 20).\nRelated links: Family’s moving tribute to ‘beautiful’ mum and daughter", "Image copyright Family handout Image caption Khader Saleh was pronounced dead at the scene\nThree men have been charged with murder over the stabbing of an inmate at Wormwood Scrubs prison.\nKhader Saleh, 25, was found at the west London jail on Wednesday.\nThe men, two aged 21 and one aged 20 who are all inmates at the prison, appeared at Willesden Magistrates' Court on Friday and will appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, police said.\nA 23-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder has been released under investigation.\nScotland Yard said officers were called on Wednesday afternoon to reports of a male with stab injuries at the jail.\nSaleh, a father of one, was pronounced dead at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics.\nBuilt during the Victorian era, Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B prison with a capacity of 1,279 inmates.", "BALTIMORE (WJZ)– Baltimore City Police have charged the mother of a murdered-5-month-old with child abuse Wednesday after the father was charged with murder earlier in the week.\nRELATED: Police Seek Blind Man Charged With Murder Of Infant Son\nAt about 4 a.m. Friday, officers responded to the 1600 block of North Smallwood Street, where they found an unconscious 5-month-old baby.\nThe male infant was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.\nThe father, Perry Nelson-Johnson, 31, told police the baby rolled off the bed and banged his head.\nDetectives say the victim, Emmanuel Johnson, appeared to have old and new injuries on his body. The autopsy revealed severe head trauma, which police say wasn’t consistent with a fall.\nThe case was ruled a homicide by multiple blunt force trauma to the head.\nOfficers believe Nelson-Johnson, who is blind, used a blunt object to inflict injuries on the infant.\nHe was arrested and charged with murder earlier in the week.\nFollow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook", "(AP) – Corpus Christi police say a man has been arrested after his 94-year-old mother was found dead in a wheelchair, apparently shot to death.\nPolice say the woman was discovered after officers were dispatched to the house Sunday in reference to a shooting. Upon arriving, police detained her 75-year-old son, Leslie Charles Nelson. When officers learned that he’d taken some pills before they arrived, he was taken to a hospital.\nPolice say once Nelson was cleared from the hospital, he was arrested on a murder charge and taken to jail. He remained in jail Monday on $1 million bond. He does not yet have an attorney. Police say the investigation is ongoing. The mother’s name has not yet been released.", "A 39-year-old man accused of murder was today (Monday) remanded in custody following a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court.\nSteven Feeley, of Eudo Road, Skegness, is charged with the murder of Gareth Bailey, 29, of Chapman Court, Ingoldmells on December 6.\nMr Bailey was found with serious injuries after police were called to a property in Chapman Court and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.\nFeeley, who appeared in court via video link, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, and nationality at this morning’s hearing.\nHe made no application for bail and was remanded in custody to appear at the Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on January 18.\nA 25-year-old woman who was arrested in connection with the incident has been released from custody but remains under investigation.", "Police have charged two more people over the fatal shooting of a young man north of Brisbane.\nJacob Bell, 24, was shot at a unit at Petrie just after midnight on Friday, with Luke Cunningham, 21, charged with his murder.\nPolice on Sunday circulated an image of a 24-year-old woman they wished to speak to.\n\"We are just interested in hearing her side of the story,\" Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming told reporters.\nThe 19-year-old woman was arrested late on Sunday afternoon while a 22-year-old man was arrested later in the evening. They have both been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.\nCunningham allegedly shot Mr Bell in the chest just after midnight on Friday following a dispute.\nMr Bell, who was visiting Cunningham's unit at Petrie, north of Brisbane, died a short time later in hospital.\nHis heartbroken family shared photo albums of the \"young man stolen from the world way too soon\" on social media on Saturday.\n\"My memories live on... my love has always lived on..,\" a family member posted on a memorial page.\n\"I loved this young man with all my heart...\"\nCunningham was charged with Mr Bell's murder, as well as enter dwelling and commit an indictable offence.\nHe appeared briefly in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday morning and his matter will be mentioned again on June 11.\nThe 19-year-old woman and 22-year-old man are due to appear in the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on Monday.", "BALTIMORE - The mother of a 5-month-old boy who was killed last week has been arrested and charged with child abuse.\nDetectives say Angelique Petter, 27, knowingly endangered the infant. She's been charged with child abuse, assault and conspiracy.\nOn June 9, 2017, 50-month-old Emmanuel Johnson was found unconscious and transported to Shock Trauma. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.\nThe father told police that the baby had rolled off of the bed and banged his head. He indicated that the baby appeared to be fine until he called medics.\nRELATED: Police looking for father charged with murdering infant son\nPolice discovered the infant had new and old injuries all over this body. An autopsy revealed he had severe head trauma. Investigators say the injuries were not consistent with a fall and evidence at the scene. The case was a ruled a homicide by multiple blunt force trauma to the head.\nPolice believed the child's father, Perry Nelson-Johnson used a blunt object to hurt the child. He is blind and uses a guide stick to navigate. He turned himself into police on Tuesday. He was charged with murder.\nSee also: Man wanted in infant son's death turns himself in", "Two men charged with the murder of a Horsham man have appeared in court.\nAnthony Williams, aged 37, was found dead at a flat in Park Way, Horsham, with stab wounds on September 19 last year.\nNicholas Bridge, 18, from Brixton, London, and Daniel Omofeghare, 20, of no fixed abode, appeared at Lewes Crown Court on Tuesday May 29.\nBridge and Omofeghare both pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder of the Horsham father.\nThe trial was due to continue yesterday and the prosecution case is expected to last until June 4 and will be followed by defence and summing up.\nThe trial continues.", "The mother of a five-month-old baby who died of severe trauma last week was charged with child abuse resulting in death, Baltimore police announced Wednesday. The infant's father was also charged with murder earlier this week.\nEmmanuel Johnson was taken to a hospital on June 9 and was found to have old and new injuries all over his body, police said. The baby's father initially told police Emmanuel fell off the bed and hit his head, police said.\nThe infant's death was ruled a homicide by multiple blunt force traumas to his head.\nPolice charged Angelique Petty, the infant's mother, with first degree assault, first degree child abuse resulting in death and other charges and said she knowingly endangered the child. Court records did not show an attorney for Petty.\nThe child's father, Perry Nelson-Johnson, 31, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, use of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure, and multiple child-abuse charges, police said. He is blind and uses a guide stick. He turned himself in to police earlier this week.\nPolice said Nelson-Johnson used \"a blunt object\" to inflict the injuries on the boy.\nNelson-Johnson's defense attorney Brandon Mead, said Tuesday that his client is innocent and never injured his son.\n\"He's absolutely devastated by the loss of his son,\" Mead said.\nBaltimore Sun reporter Jessica Anderson contributed to this report.\[email protected]", "BALTIMORE, MD – A Baltimore father has been charged with murdering his 5-month-old son.\nPerry Nelson-Johnson, 31, turned himself in Tuesday morning after police announced charges in his son, Emmanuel Johnson’s, death. Police say Nelson-Johnson’s version of events that led to the the child’s death don’t add up.\nThe death turned murder investigation began when authorities found the baby’s injuries more serious than the story Nelson-Johnson told police. A history of abuse was found on the infant.\nPolice say Nelson-Johnson repeatedly beat Emmanuel in the head with a blunt object that caused major trauma. They believe that Nelson-Johnson, who is partially-blind, possibly used his walking stick to harm the child.\nNelson-Johnson and the infant’s mother called police and told them that he had fallen off of a bed and injured his head, but the autopsy revealed the child as been recovering from a number of older wounds all over his body.\nThe child’s mother hasn’t been charged, but police say that could change.", "Wed, May 30: The man charged with striking and killing a well-known Halifax bottle collector is now facing a charge of criminal negligence causing death. Natasha Pace has more.", "A Baltimore man turned himself in to police after he reportedly beat his 5-month-old son to death with his guiding stick.\nREAD: Charlamagne Tha God Is Speechless After A Blind Man Thanked Him For Being His Inspiration\nAccording to WBAL-TV, 31-year-old Perry Nelson-Johnson initally told police his infant son Emmanuel rolled off of the bed and hit his head. The baby appeared to be fine before they called an ambulance, and shortly after, he fell unconscious and was pronounced dead at the hospital.\nHowever, investigators discovered that the injuries the infant sustained were not new injuries, but ones that had been sustained from trauma over time.\n“(The child) was observed to have old and new injuries,” said Baltimore police media relations Chief T.J. Smith. “It’s a sad shame that I have to speak to you about old injuries on a 5-month-old, but old injuries on a 5-month-old basically tell you how long this child had been abused. An autopsy was completed and revealed severe head trauma on the child.”\nNelson-Johnson, who is blind, uses a guiding stick to get around, and he allegedly used it to fatally hit his infant son. He is being charged with first- and second-degree murder and assault, first-degree child abuse resulting in death, use of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure, and much more.\nREAD: Texas Family Sues T-Mobile After Infant Dies While Trying To Reach 911\n“We’re deeply frustrated because again, we’re left to pick up the pieces to something like this in a situation. Were there warning signs?” Smith said. “Were there other things there that could have indicated that this child could have been in trouble? That’s stuff that we are following up with right now.”", "Police have charged a Brentwood man with the murder of Dean Jose.\nNathan Turner, 23 of Myrtle Road, was originally charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent following the alleged incident in Kings Road, Brentwood at around 12.45am on Monday, August 28.\nThe victim, 47 year-old Dean Jose, from King's Lynn, Norfolk, suffered serious head injuries and died on Saturday, September 2.\nIn a statement, Dean's family said: \"Dean lived his life for his wife and two daughters. He was a devoted husband, a loving father and a very much loved son and brother.\n\"'Deano' as he was known to friends, grew up in Harold Hill in Romford and attended Neave School.\n\"He left school and then dedicated his life to helping disabled children, adults and those less fortunate than himself to allow them to live their lives to the fullest.\n\"He was well known and well respected within the mobility industry and Dean always made sure he went above and beyond his role as a Rehabilitation Specialist to fulfil the dreams of the people and families he dealt with.\n\"Dean had an incredible zest for life and lived his life at 100mph never sitting down for a second, he loved having his family around him, socialising with friends and had a real passion for golf and music which he loved sharing with everyone he was close to.\n\"He will forever live on in the hearts of everyone who knew him and the people and families that he has helped over the years.\n\"As a family we are devastated at his sudden and completely unnecessary and cruel death. We have been needlessly robbed of a husband, dad, son, brother and friend.\n\"Our family ask for privacy at this time to allow us to grieve in peace and we plead with anyone who knows anything about this incident no matter how inconsequential much they think it is to come forward and speak to the police.\"\nMr Turner appeared at Basildon Crown Court today (Friday, October 6) where, following a decision by the CPS, the charge of GBH with intent was amended to murder.\nHe pleaded not guilty to the new charge and was remanded in custody.\nHe will next appear at Chelmsford Crown Court in the week commencing October 23.", "Image copyright Kingdom News Agency Image caption Gordon Diduca died after a disturbance at Dundonald Court\nA man is to stand trial for murder after allegedly firing a bow and arrow at a man before stabbing him to death.\nGordon Diduca, 23, also known as Gordon Adams, died after being attacked at a block of flats at Dundee's Dundonald Court on 24 September.\nCharles Little, 31, who lived in the block, appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court accused of his murder.\nHe faces four charges, including repeatedly firing a bow and arrow and stabbing Mr Diduca multiple times.\nProsecutors allege Mr Little first behaved in a threatening and abusive manner at 72 Dundonald Court - on the same landing as his flat - in a way that was likely to cause fear or alarm by threatening the occupants of the flat with a bow and arrows.\nFully committed\nHe is then said to have repeatedly struck the front door and attempted to force entry to the property.\nA second charge alleges that on the communal landing, between the two flats, he assaulted Gordon Diduca, Jason Sinclair and Colin Hughes and threatened them with a bow and arrow and repeatedly fired arrows towards them.\nMr Little is then alleged to have repeatedly struck Gordon Diduca on the body with a knife and murdered him.\nA fourth charge alleges that he assaulted Jason Sinclair and struck him on the arm with a knife to his injury.\nMr Little made no plea or declaration during the brief hearing and was fully committed for trial by Sheriff Tom Hughes.\nHe was remanded into custody ahead of a further court appearance.", "Get Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nA prisoner just weeks away from being freed was found dead in his cell with a bed sheet tied around his neck.\nWayne Nelson was discovered by staff in his cell at HMP Humber in Everthorpe on the morning of September 1, 2016.\nThe 42-year-old was due to be released just four weeks after his death.\nMr Nelson, who was on a methadone programme in prison after decades of drug abuse, had served more than two years behind bars for an offence of aggravated burglary.\nHowever, he is thought to have owed money to other inmates and had apparently just been told by his girlfriend of ten years she was breaking up with him after having an affair.\nDuring an inquest into Mr Nelson’s death at Hull Coroners Court on Monday, a statement was read out on behalf of his ex-partner who described him as a “larger than life character.”\nShe said he was left a broken man when his father, Sonny Grey, 70, was murdered in 2011 by two men who poured boiling water over him.\n“His dad’s death caused him to have nightmares,” she said. “But we got through it and his death brought us closer together.\n“It was the catalyst for us to do thing properly. We intended to do our best to settle down.”\nAt the time of his father’s death, Mr Nelson was serving time at HMP Lincoln before being released.\nHowever, it wasn’t long before he was back behind bars after admitting to robbery in 2012. He was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison a year later.\nMr Nelson was initially housed at HMP Lincoln before being transferred to HMP Humber in April 2016.\nHis ex-girlfriend never saw him while he was at HMP Humber and news of his death came as a shock as she claimed they were preparing to start a new life together.\nShe said: “His death came as a complete shock. Apparently Wayne was in debt which is not unusual.\n“I can’t get my head around his death. He was a strong minded man at the time of his death and I knew him to be taking methadone.\n“He promised me he wasn’t taking drugs and he was due for release in four weeks.\n“We intended to live together and this was going to be our big chance of doing things right.”\nDespite her claims, Jonathan Sleet, a prison officer at HMP Humber, said Mr Nelson had received a “Dear John” letter in which his girlfriend had told him she was seeing someone else.\nAre you looking for a job? Click here to see our Hull listings\nOvernight CCTV from inside the wing of the prison showed no one entering Mr Nelson’s cell overnight.\nA pathologist said Mr Nelson died from hanging, and had therapeutic levels of methadone, mirtazopine and amitriptyline in his system at the time of his death.\nThe inquest, which is being heard before a jury, continues.", "Image copyright Police issue Image caption The pair were cleared of murder but convicted of an alternative charge of manslaughter\nTwo men have been jailed for the manslaughter of a man knifed to death following a row over a television.\nDarren Moorhouse, 49, died after being attacked at a flat in Athol Close, Halifax, in January.\nChristopher Churchill, 34, and his friend Dale Dwyer, 26, were convicted of his manslaughter at Bradford Crown Court earlier.\nDwyer, who stabbed Mr Moorhouse was jailed for 15 years, Churchill, received 16 years.\nDwyer, 26, of Alma Street, Buxton, and Churchill, 34, formerly of Athol Close, were both found not guilty of murder following a two-week retrial, but were convicted of an alternative charge of manslaughter.\nImage copyright West Yorkshire Police Image caption Darren Moorhouse, 49, was found at a block of flats off Athol Road\nThe court heard Mr Moorhouse had been visiting a friend when her ex-partner - Churchill - turned up to collect his belongings.\nMr Moorhouse intervened in a fight over the TV, but ended up being stabbed by Dwyer.\nDwyer, who had taken the knife off his friend Churchill during the disturbance, claimed he had lashed out in self-defence whilst under attack from Mr Moorhouse.\nThe court also heard Churchill kicked Mr Moorhouse in the head as he lay dying.\n'Dangerous offenders'\nInvestigating officer Det Supt Pat Twiggs said: \"Darren was a gentleman who died defending a friend from an attack following an argument over property with assailants armed with a knife.\n\"The argument did not involve Darren and he acted as a good Samaritan to defend a vulnerable person.\"\nIt was also revealed both Dwyer and Churchill had been assessed as \"dangerous offenders\" in relation to previous crimes.\nDwyer was sent to a young offenders' institution for four years in 2006 for raping two young girls.\nChurchill was jailed for five years in 2008 for offences of robbery and inflicting grievous bodily harm.\nDwyer had also attacked a former partner holding a machete to her neck, the court was told.", "A Minneapolis man faces a murder charge in the stabbing death of a man at the Lake Street light-rail station Tuesday.\nFrank Runningshield Jr., 43, was charged with second-degree murder in Hennepin County District Court on Friday in the death of 26-year-old Daquan Thompson. Runningshield is expected to make his first appearance Monday.\nAccording to the criminal complaint, Runningshield, Thompson and two other people were talking Tuesday near the entrance to the Blue Line station at 2310 Lake St. E. in Minneapolis. A witness told investigators the two men were in a dispute at about 7:15 p.m. over the sale of marijuana.\nThe video from a surveillance camera shows the conversation ending and Runningshield making a stabbing motion toward Thompson, who immediately doubled over in pain, the complaint said. Runningshield walked away and appeared to drop something on the ground. Thompson died at the scene of a single stab wound, charges said.\nPolice recovered the knife blade and handle near the scene. Runningshield was arrested Wednesday and told police that he and Thompson had been arguing for about three weeks because Thompson was “messing with” Runningshield’s friends and family, according to the complaint.", "Image copyright Family photograph Image caption Nathan Marshall was a \"kind and loving son\" who \"lit up the room\", his family said\nA man has been charged with murder after a car hit a group outside a club, leaving one person dead.\nNathan Marshall, 30, died and two men were injured outside the Salisbury Club in Truro Avenue, Stockport, on Sunday.\nJonathan Snape, 30, of Yew Tree Lane, Manchester, has also been charged with attempted murder, assault causing grievous bodily harm and affray.\nHe has also been charged with assault causing actual bodily and driving a vehicle dangerously.\nMr Snape appeared at Manchester Magistrates' Court and is due to appear at the city's crown court in June.\nMr Marshall's parents paid tribute to their son, saying he \"lit up the room\" and described him as \"kind and loving\".\nImage caption The scene was cordoned off after people were struck by a car at the Salisbury Club\nHis family said Mr Marshall, from Reddish, Stockport, was a \"wonderful friend to the many people who knew and cared about him\".\n\"Living without him will be the hardest thing we will do as a family and we are devastated by our loss,\" they added.\nMr Marshall died in hospital after the crash at 22:45 BST while two men aged 31 and 33 suffered minor injuries.\nThe car involved - believed to be a black Audi A4 - was found abandoned in the middle lane of the M60, police said.", "Zailah Osborne\nA Macomb County jury convicted a 25-year-old Warren man of felony murder and child abuse for the death of his 1-year-old daughter.\nJames Franks showed no emotion after a jury foreman recited “guilty” on the two counts in the circuit courtroom.\nThe jury deliberated less than five hours over two days before delivering the verdicts following a five-day trial presided by Judge Richard Caretti.\nFranks faces life in prison without parole at his Nov. 9 sentencing.\nAdvertisement\nAssistant Macomb Prosecutor Jean Cloud called the verdicts “justice for Zailah.”\nTwo jurors echoed Cloud who said she believes the more than 40 injuries to Zailah, including two death-causing blows to her head, provided the strongest evidence.\n“There was so many injuries to the baby,” said a juror.\nA second juror said “a lot of evidence” in addition to the injuries also convinced her of Franks’ guilt.\nThe first juror said jurors decided Franks’ fate after about four hours of deliberations Thursday but “wanted to sleep on it” before returning Friday morning with the verdicts.\nIn addition to two skull fractures, Zailah suffered bruising all over her body, including a deep circular bruise around her upper arm. Doctors discovered she also suffered a broken collar bone about one month before her death.\nZailah was taken to St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit shortly after 8 p.m. June 24, 2016, after Franks called Zailah’s mother, Elizabeth Osborne, who told him to call 911. Zailah was pronounced dead early the next morning.\nCloud and Assistant Prosecutor Josh Van Laan also presented evidence of Franks’ apparent lack of grieving and staging of the scene following Zailah’s death, his inconsistent claims and prior domestic violence on Osborne, who testified against Franks.\nFranks claimed that he was carrying Zailah up a narrow, steep flight of stairs in the two-level Warren home when he feinted and fell backward onto the floor, causing Zailah to strike her head twice and suffer the other injuries.\nFranks had been diagnosed at age 14 with syncopal episodes, which is feinting or passing out due to low blood pressure, and defense attorney Jerome Sabbota noted Franks was not supposed to be caring for Zailah by himself due to the episodes. Franks had suffered a syncopal episode about two weeks before Zailah’s death.\nSabbota said after the verdict he and co-counsel Patty Maceroni were disappointed and disagree with the outcome.\nThey said Zailah could have suffered some of the injuries during medical personnel’s emergency care for her.\nThey also believe there are two strong appellate issues.\nSabbota objected to Cloud’s description of the charges during closing arguments, saying after the verdict it was “not a correct statement of the law.\n“I think it confused the jury,” he said.\nCaretti overruled the objection.\nCloud told jurors they should convict Franks of felony murder if they believe he committed first-degree child abuse. Sabbota contended that for a felony murder conviction, the jury had to independently reach the second-degree murder standard, that Franks created a high risk of death in which he intended to kill or do great bodily harm knowingly created a high risk of death or great bodily harm knowing that death or such harm would likely result.\nFirst-degree child abuse was required for the felony-murder verdict.\nThe jury could have chosen second-degree murder and second-degree child abuse as well as manslaughter.\nFranks’ attorneys also disagreed with allowing Franks’ prior domestic violence against Osborn into the trial.\nThey said a recent state Supreme Court decision indicates that the prior acts must be “similar” to the charged act, noting Osborne is an adult.\nMaceroni said Franks’ lack of emotion upon the verdict rendering shouldn’t be misconstrued as a lack of caring.\n“People grieve in different ways,” she said.\nDuring the trial, she said Franks wept during Osborne’s emotional testimony and when pictures of Zailah’s injuries were shown.\nThe defense attorneys said Franks love Zailah.\nZailah’s grandmother declined to comment after the verdicts.\nTwo of Franks’ relatives attended the trial, and his uncle attended the verdict.", "A Halifax man will be back in court in January facing two first-degree murder charges in the 2016 killings of 29-year-old Tyler Richards and 23-year-old Naricho Clayton.\nTyrell Peter Dechamp, 27, appeared in Halifax provincial court on Monday morning, charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of breach of probation.\nThe case will be back in court on Jan. 10, 2018, but Crown attorney Rick Woodburn told the court that it’s unlikely the Crown will be able to disclose all the evidence against Dechamp to his defence by then.\n“Police are still investigating this matter, and there’s a lot to it, and there’s a lot of disclosure that has to go to the defence,” Woodburn told reporters outside the courtroom.\n“The police have been very diligent, gathering as much evidence as they can. It’s a big file, as you can imagine, two separate murders over a short period of time.”\nWoodburn said police and the Crown are alleging the killings were both “planned and deliberate.”\nRichards was found dead in a home in Halifax on April 17, 2016, and Clayton was shot to death two days later in a vehicle on Gottingen Street. Another man in the vehicle with Clayton was injured in the shooting, hence the attempted murder charge against Dechamp.\nPolice were searching for evidence related to Richards’ killing at a pond in Dartmouth last month, where they said they’d previously found evidence.\nOn Friday, police announced they’d arrested a 27-year-old Halifax man at the Atlantic Institutional Correctional Facility in Renous, N.B.\nOn Saturday, they announced the charges against Dechamp.\n\"We hope that the charges announced today will bring some measure of comfort to Tyler and Naricho's family and their friends as well as the surviving victim,\" Halifax Regional Police Supt. Jim Perrin told reporters on Saturday.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nA man has been charged with murder after a body was discovered in woodland in Newton Heath.\nJosef Janda, 57, of Kenyon Lane, Moston, has been charged with murder.\nHe has been remanded to appear before Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court today.\nIt comes after the body of Jiri Ulman, 52, was discovered in area of woodland on Ten Acres Lane on Tuesday, August 8.\nJiri was found to have multiple injuries and a murder probe was launched.\nThe area was cordoned off by police and forensic officers could be seen combing the woodland for clues.\nGreater Manchester Police launched an appeal for help to identify the man a few days after his body was found.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nA man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Nathan Marshall outside a club in Stockport.\nJonathan William Snape, 30, briefly appeared before Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.\nHe is charged with the murder of Mr Marshall, 30, attempted murder, section 47 assault, affray and dangerous driving.\nMr Marshall, from Reddish, died after a car collided with a number of people outside the Salisbury Club in Brinnington on Sunday.\nMr Snape, of Yew Tree Lane, Wythenshawe, appeared in court wearing a grey tracksuit and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.\nProsecutor Steve Woodman said: “The defendant is charged with six matters, one of which is murder and so he must appear at the Crown Court in the next 48 hours.\n(Image: PA)\n“I invite the court to send all six charges together.\n“The prosecution request that the defendant is remanded in custody.”\nMr Snape was remanded in custody. He is due to appear at Manchester Crown Court on Friday for a preliminary hearing.", "KALAMAZOO, MI -- Opening statements will start this afternoon in the murder trial of a man accused of running down nine bicyclists, killing five, in June 2016.\nPolice allege Charles Pickett Jr., now 52, of Battle Creek, had a cocktail of drugs in his system at the time of the crash. Pickett faces five counts of second-degree murder and five counts of operating while under the influence causing death for the deaths of Debra Ann Bradley, 53, of Augusta; Melissa Ann Fevig Hughes, 42, of Kalamazoo; Fred Anton \"Tony\" Nelson, 73, of Kalamazoo; Lorenz John \"Larry\" Paulik, 74, of Kalamazoo and Suzanne Joan Sippel, 56, of Augusta.\nHe also faces four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury for the injuries caused to bicyclists Jennifer Johnson of Kalamazoo; Sheila Jeske of Richland; Paul Runnels of Richland; and Paul Gobble of Richland.\nIf convicted, Pickett faces up to life in prison.\nKalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Kanaby and defense attorneys Alan Koenig and Keith Turpel spent Monday and most of Tuesday selecting jurors from a pool of 180 people.\nKoenig has filed a notice of intention to use the insanity defense in the case.\nIf convicted, Pickett faces up to life in prison.\nFollow along with the testimony in the comments below.\nMurder trial in Kalamazoo bicycling tragedy to start\nMore coverage of the crash:\nUnimaginable horror: How the Kalamazoo bicycle tragedy unfolded\nThese are the victims of the deadly Kalamazoo bicycle crash\nCharles Pickett Jr. charged with 2nd-degree murder in Kalamazoo bicycle crash\nCharles Pickett Jr. was 'completely out of it' after crash, police testify\nKalamazoo cycling community grieves after 'senseless' crash that killed 5, injured 4\nThese are the victims of the deadly Kalamazoo bicycle crash", "In 2016, the Deseret News tracked 87 homicides that occurred in Utah, including eight homicides at the hands of police officers, a significant jump from 73 homicides in 2015 and 79 in 2014.\nThe above map illustrates the locations and summaries of homicides in Utah in 2016. The red markers represent shooting deaths, blue markers represent stabbing deaths and yellow markers represent death by assault or other means. Green markers represent officer-involved fatalities.\nMore coverage: Utah homicides skyrocket in 2016\nFollowing is a look at the circumstances surrounding each of the homicide victims killed in Utah during 2016.\n1. HOLLADAY, Jan. 17 — Unified police officer Doug Barney, 45, was shot and killed near 4200 S. Lynne Lane by Cory Lee Henderson while responding to a car crash that Henderson had just fled from. Henderson was shot multiple times by pursuing officers whom he also fired on. Unified police officer Jon Richey was wounded. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n2. SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 26 — Shellise Geter, 39, was found dead in her home, 557 N. Sir Anthony Circle. Her wrists were bound, a ligature was around her neck, and a plastic bag and clothing piled on her head. Police aren't saying how she died. Mustafa Aldoma, 26, was arrested in Fillmore while driving her truck with $26,000 in cash. Police say Geter had been \"showing off large amounts of money\" prior to her death. Aldoma is charged with murder. A competency hearing is set for March. Alleged motive: Robbery Method: Unknown, possible strangulation\n3. CENTERVILLE, Feb. 2 — Jazmyn Jeppson, 21, was killed when her car was broadsided on Parrish Lane by a man trying to flee police. Jeppson had been home from an LDS mission less than two months and was on her way to a new job. Anthony Santos Cruz, 28, pleaded guilty to murder. A woman he was with, Michelle Vigil, was convicted of two counts of robbery. Motive: Fleeing police Method: Car crash\n4. RIVERDALE, Feb. 8 — Jenna Manuel, 30, was shot during a domestic dispute when boyfriend Scott Sandlin, 42, shot her multiple times when she came at him with a knife. The shooting was later ruled self-defense, but Sandlin was charged with four counts of possession of a weapon by a dangerous person after police searched the house. Motive: Domestic, self-defense Method: Shooting\n5. MAGNA, Feb. 11 — Chandler Cooper, 22, of Millcreek, was found dead near an intersection of North Temple Frontage Road and 11500 West near Saltair. Police believe he died at the site and the death may be connected to a drug lifestyle. Police are still investigating Chandler's death as a homicide but have no new leads. Motive: Unknown Method: Unknown, possible shooting\n6. SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 14 — The body of Hyo Sin, 96, was found in deplorable conditions in a room at Overniter Motel, 1500 W. North Temple. She weighed just 76 pounds. Jae Ju Jun, 68, and Lib Bun Jun, 64, were charged with manslaughter and aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult. Jae Jun is Sin's son. A medical examiner determined Sin's cause of death to be \"chronic neglect,\" bed sores, dehydration and inanition. Alleged motive: Neglect Method: Dehydration\n7, 8, 9. SOUTH SALT LAKE, Feb. 18 — Brothers Angel Lopez-Salinas, 20, and Lauro \"Raul\" Lopez-Salinas, 19, and friend Armando Cuenca-Curiel, 17, were shot while inside an SUV found at 325 E. Park Creek Lane. Gerald Radckiff Grant, 20, was also in the car allegedly to buy marijuana. Grant, who was also shot in the leg during the confrontation, is charged with three counts of aggravated murder. Prosecutors say Grant had planned on robbing the three others during the drug deal. Grant claims the shooting was in self-defense. Alleged motive: Robbery Method: Shooting\n10. OGDEN, Feb. 19 — Justin Patrick Moses, 35, of Ogden, was shot by Ogden police officer Steven Whitby as Moses was repeatedly stabbing a woman in front of a home at 437 N. 630 East. A woman who lived with Moses at the home was critically injured but survived. Prosecutors found Whitby legally justified in the shooting. Motive: Justified defense Method: Shooting\n11. SNOWVILLE, Feb. 20 — James Shurtz, 27, died after he was accidentally shot by his father, Glenn Shurtz, while the two were target shooting in a remote area of Box Elder County. James Shurtz was acting as a spotter when he somehow got into the line of fire and was struck by a single round from a .30-caliber rifle. Motive: Accidental Method: Shooting\n12. ALTAMONT, Duchesne County, Feb. 23 — Rocky Mecham, 61, of Mountain Home, Duchesne County, was shot and killed while a group of men were target practicing at a private shooting range. Two men were practicing long-range shooting while Mecham set up targets. A \"communications error\" led to Greg Timothy, 64, of Altamont, shooting Mecham, police said. Motive: Accidental Method: Shooting\n13. WEST VALLEY CITY, Feb. 25 — Hope Gabaldon, 21, died after being stabbed multiple times and dumped along the side of the road on 4000 West near 3150 South. Sergio Briseno Medina, 26, is charged with murder. Medina told police he and Gabaldon had sold drugs together, but he \"wanted to keep her away from that lifestyle.\" Medina's girlfriend, April Calderon, testified that Medina and his friends believed Gabaldon had been talking to police and was \"undercover.\" Alleged motive: Drugs Method: Stabbing\n14. PARK CITY, Feb. 26 — Park City bartender Jose Fernandez, 37, died four days after police say he was shot in the head in his home at 1530 Empire Ave. by James Enoch Henfling, 28, of Midvale, following a fight. Police say the shooting was witnessed by Henfling's girlfriend and sister. Henfling is charged with aggravated murder. Friends say Fernandez and his wife had found out they were about to be parents for the first time just days before. Alleged motive: Fight Method: Shooting\n15. LOGAN, March 11 — A letter describing \"tragedy\" sent to the Herald Journal led police to the bodies of Mary Flyn Palley, 73, and Dell Andrew Johnson, 82, who died in a murder-suicide. Investigators believe Johnson shot and killed his wife and then killed himself in their home, 1616 Sunset Drive. The letter identified 20 community figures that Johnson held responsible for the impending tragedy. A copy of a typed letter was also sent to The New York Times along with a $1,000 check to investigate the LDS Church. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Shooting\n16. SOUTH SALT LAKE, March 12 — David Antonio Trujillo, 68, was shot and killed by a homeowner, 37, at 3730 S. 200 East when he was found in the backyard armed with a knife. As late as June of 2015, court records listed the address of the home as Trujillo's residence. Police said Trujillo is from the area and most recently was believed to be staying at various motels. The homeowner called 911 after the shooting. Motive: Self-defense Method: Shooting\n17. DRAPER, March 14 — Jeffrey Ray Vigil, 24, died after police say he was attacked by two other inmates in the Utah State Prison. Ramon Luis Rivera, 31, is charged with aggravated murder, and Albert Collin Fernandez, 38, is charged with murder. Charges say Rivera stabbed Vigil \"several times,\" put him in a chokehold until he lost consciousness, and then stomped on or kicked his head more than 70 times. Fernandez also allegedly punched and kicked Vigil in the head. Vigil belonged to a rival gang of the other two men. Alleged motive: Gangs Method: Stabbing, beating\n18. SALT LAKE CITY, April 7 — Jose Javier Fernandez, 18, died after police say three men sought him out over jealousy about a girlfriend, shooting him seven times in a bedroom at 211 N. Cornell St. William Armstrong P-Graham, 21, was convicted of murder. James Wellah Williams, 21, and Gaethan \"Synn\" Laguerre, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Williams said P-Graham had issues with Fernandez \"because Fernandez allegedly slept with P-Graham's girlfriend,\" according to police. Motive: Jealousy Method: Shooting\n19. BEAVER, April 9 — Deputies responding to a home southeast of Beaver found Desiree Shotwell, 37, shot in the head, and her boyfriend, Ronald Corey Fordham, 43, lying next to her with a gun nearby. Police described Fordham as being \"extremely intoxicated\" and said the death was an attempted murder-suicide. Fordham pleaded guilty to murder. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Shooting\n20. MILLCREEK, April 27 — David Shane Anderson, 36, of West Jordan, died following a shootout with police after the fugitive ambushed officers. Police K-9 Aldo, a 7-year-old Belgian Malinois, was killed. Anderson was suspected of ramming a police car and nearly hitting four people in a crosswalk while trying to flee from police days earlier. As police searched the home, 4303 S. 730 East, Anderson began shooting through a closed door, striking Aldo. Sgt. Chad Reyes, detective Kresdon Bennett and detective Nate Clark of Unified police returned fire, hitting Anderson in the head. The officers' actions were determined to be legally justified. Motive: Self-defense Method: Shooting\n21. SMITHFIELD, April 28 — Shane Alan Hallstrom, 26, stabbed his father, Calvin Hallstrom, 58, to death in the driveway of his mother's home, 380 E. 160 South, after inviting the older man over to reconcile their strained relationship. Shane Hallstrom went to embrace his father, then jumped on his back and began stabbing him. He pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Stabbing\n22. SPANISH FORK, April 30 — Mark Daniel Bess, 33, died after he was shot when he charged at a Utah County sheriff's deputy. Police say Bess was about 45 to 50 feet away from deputy Sean Peterson and was wielding a knife when Peterson fired at least two shots, hitting Bess in the head and body. The deputy had been pursuing Bess, who had several outstanding drug- and traffic-related warrants. He was shot behind a barn near 4934 S. 3200 West. The shooting was determined to be legally justified. Motive: Self-defense Method: Shooting\n23. MILLCREEK, May 1 — Police say Codey Levi Jolley, 28, is responsible for the death of his 17-month-old stepson, Ethan Antes, though he initially claimed he found the boy unresponsive in a bathtub at his apartment, 362 E. 4115 South. Doctors say the child died of injuries from ongoing abuse. Jolley pleaded guilty to child abuse homicide. Jolley said his attempts to resuscitate the boy included \"inserting his finger in the child's mouth and compressing his chest so severely as to completely impair the child's ability to breathe.\" Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Abuse\n24. OGDEN, May 6 — Miguel Angel Rios, 29, was shot multiple times at 562 E. 31st Street in what police say was a gang-related killing. Devin Smith and Jeremy Moncada, both 19, were charged with murder. Smith told police he exchanged words and gang signs with Rios and that Rios \"flexed on him.\" Moncada told police Smith then pulled out a gun and shot Rios multiple times before the two fled together. Moncada pleaded guilty to firearm and obstruction charges. Smith's case is ongoing. Alleged motive: Gangs Method: Shooting\n25. PLEASANT GROVE, May 17 — Ashleigh Holloway Best, 35, hit a tree after being forced off the road at 682 N. 100 East by a man who was chasing her trying to repossess her car. Kenneth Drew, 50, of American Fork, an employee of On Demand Repos, pleaded guilty in November to manslaughter. Motive: Car repossession Method: Car crash\n26. HOLLADAY, May 21 — Darrin Jackson, 46, was shot when a group of seven to nine people forced their way into his apartment at 1794 Hidden Meadows Drive. His son, Jonathan Jackson, 26, was also shot in the arm. Damian Garcia, 19, Joshua Nguyen, 22, and Keison Kuykendall, 19, are charged with murder and aggravated burglary. The shooting occurred two days before Garcia was to go to court on two other shooting incidents. Alleged motive: Gangs Method: Shooting\n27. SALT LAKE CITY, May 22 — Prominent Salt Lake restaurateur John Williams, 72, died after police say his estranged husband trapped him by setting fire to his home, 574 N. East Capitol St. Williams, who had filed for divorce from Craig Crawford, 48, on May 4, became trapped in a bedroom and died of smoke inhalation. Crawford is charged with aggravated murder and aggravated arson. Alleged motive: Unknown domestic Method: Arson\n28. HUNTSVILLE, May 22 — Deborah Biccum, 60, was found dead in a townhouse at 6486 E. state Route 39, near Pineview Reservoir. Police said they responded to the home after receiving reports that her husband, Michael Biccum, 60, had possibly \"hurt or killed his wife.\" Deborah Biccum had \"obvious signs of trauma\" to her body, but an autopsy was inconclusive about what killed her. Biccum was arrested but later released. No charges have been filed in the case, which police say is still open and under investigation. Motive: Unknown, possibly domestic Method: Unknown\n29. WEST VALLEY CITY, May 23 — Police say Justin VanCleave, 19, stabbed Amanda Garcia, 33, multiple times and then attempted to hide her body in a backyard shed at the home where they both lived, 2960 Mountain Goat Way. Police found \"bloody drag marks\" leading to the shed, a bag containing bloody towels, clothing and a knife. VanCleave is charged with murder. Alleged motive: Unknown domestic Method: Stabbing\n30. COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, May 27 — Mauricio Martinez, 31, was found shot in an abandoned car at Mountain America Credit Union, 6440 S. 3000 East. Police called his death the result of a \"robbery gone bad.\" Four men are charged with murder and aggravated robbery: Jorge Arturo Castanon-Serrano, 35, Marco Antonio Garcia, 26, Lucas Troy Neilson, 37, and Alfredo Lolani, 26. Charges say Garcia and Castanon-Serrano had arranged a meeting with Martinez and another man where they intended to take Martinez's money. Alleged motive: Robbery Method: Shooting\n31. WEST VALLEY CITY, May 28 — Maluolefale Toala, 30, was shot in the chest in an alleged road-rage incident. Police said Toala was riding his longboard when he got into a confrontation with two men in a pickup truck. When the truck stopped for a red light at 3500 S. 5600 West and Toala caught up, police say the confrontation continued and Aaron Pierce, 24, got out of the truck and shot Toala. Pierce is charged with murder. Alleged motive: Road rage Method: Shooting\n32. MAGNA, May 31 — Natalia Casagrande, 24, was found dead in her home, 7715 W. Jefferson Road. Police say Jason Alan Black, 27, who had been at the house before to purchase marijuana, showed up unscheduled, shot Casagrande and then tried to kill her 5-year-old daughter by suffocating her with a pillow. Casagrande's husband said his own gun was used to kill his wife. Two handguns, money and drugs were missing when he arrived home. Black was shot by police serving a warrant in the case on June 2 and survived. Black is charged with aggravated murder. Alleged motive: Robbery Method: Shooting\n33. MONROE, Sevier County, June 7 — Siri Alexis Anderson was one day away from her first birthday when police say she died of dehydration after weeks of neglect by her father and sole caretaker, David Lewis Anderson, 37. Court documents describe Anderson's home, 1080 N. Meadow Lark Lane, as unsanitary and neglected. Anderson is charged with child abuse homicide. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Neglect\n34. PROVO, June 8 — Marco Carmona, 57, was found in a freezer in his mobile home, 1943 W. 450 North No. 86, after police say his son, Omar Carmona, 27, strangled him, broke his back and froze his remains. Charges say the two were arguing when Carmona attacked his father. Carmona is charged with murder and abuse or desecration of a dead human body. Alleged motive: Unknown domestic Method: Strangulation\n35. EAGLE MOUNTAIN, June 12 — Daniel Bennett Edwards, 23, was shot and killed by Utah County sheriff's deputy Brett Lawrenson at Edwards' home, 2198 E. Summit Way. Edwards was holding his wife's 17-year-old niece at knifepoint and threatening he would kill her once he counted down from 60 seconds. The girl had been living in the home with Edwards and his wife. Lawrenson fired once, striking Edwards in the head. The shooting was determined to be legally justified. Motive: Justified defense Method: Shooting\n36, 37. ROY, June 29 — Maddison Haan, 20, of West Point, and Tyler Christianson, 19, of Ogden, were killed when the car they were in was hit from behind by a Chevy Tahoe going an estimated 100 mph near the intersection of 3500 West and 6000 South. Marilee Patricia Gardner, 16, is charged as an adult with two counts of murder. Prosecutors say she was trying to commit suicide and purposely rammed into the back of the unsuspecting vehicle. Alleged motive: Suicide Method: Car crash\n38. SALT LAKE CITY, July 5 — Paris Gustin, 16, was shot and killed while sitting in the front passenger seat of a car with two other teens. The group was driving around and \"egging\" other vehicles near 600 North and 1100 West when someone in a white Nissan Sentra with fog lights, a small rear spoiler, and tinted back passenger and rear windows fired several shots at them, hitting and killing Paris. No arrests have been made in the case. Motive: Possible road rage Method: Shooting\n39, 40. MIDVALE, July 6 — Jose Izazaga, 16, and his sister, Abril Izazaga, 15, were shot and killed at 759 W. 7720 South allegedly over a T-shirt. Mario Cervantes-Angel, 29, of West Valley City, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder. The siblings clung to each other as Cervantes-Angel fired multiple rounds at them, according to charges. After the two fell to the ground, Cervantes-Angel allegedly went up to Jose, placed the gun directly on his head and pulled the trigger again. The original argument allegedly started because an 18-year-old man, who Jose used to live with, claimed Jose had some of his property, including a T-shirt. Alleged motive: Dispute Method: Shooting\n41. KEARNS, July 10 — Marvin Lopez, 24, of West Valley City, was killed in a drive-by shooting near 5586 S. 4220 West. A silver car was seen fleeing the scene. Those who took Lopez to the hospital were not cooperative. No arrests have been made in the case. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n42. MAGNA, July 13 — David Perea, 38, was stabbed multiple times inside his home, 2651 S. Twain Drive. While that investigation was happening, police were called to 3739 S. Armoridge Drive where Jared Ryan Groves, 35, was allegedly trying to stab his friend. When officers cornered Groves in the backyard, he stabbed himself in the neck, hitting a main artery, and refused to drop his knife despite being hit with a Taser twice. Groves died from his injuries. Detectives determined that Groves, who was a neighbor of Perea, was also responsible for his death. Friends say Groves had lost his job and was frequently intoxicated and had suicidal thoughts. Motive: Unknown Method: Stabbing\n43. ORANGEVILLE, July 17 — Kristi Price Maxwell, 47, was found dead in her home, 435 Canyon View. At the same time, police found her husband, Richard Maxwell, 55, injured with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Her cause of death was listed as \"undetermined,\" but an autopsy said other evidence was \"strongly suggestive that a homicidal act had taken place.\" A couple of days after being released from the hospital, Richard Maxwell shot and killed himself. Alleged motive: Unknown domestic Method: Unknown, possible asphyxiation\n44. WEST JORDAN, July 20 — Steven Conlon, 29, who had just moved to Utah from Colorado, was found dead in a yard at 6213 S. Cosmo Drive amid trees and shrubs. He was shot at least twice. He was last seen July 16 near 5400 South and 3900 West. No arrests have been made in the case. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n45. TOOELE, July 22 — Marcella Viola Aragon, 66, was killed inside her home, 245 E. 600 North. Her son, Jesus \"Jesse\" Eldon Aragon, 44, of Tooele, is charged with murder. Charges say there were \"obvious signs\" she was \"the victim of an assault,\" but police didn't say how she died. She filed for a protective order against her son in 2014. That same year, Jesse Aragon broke into his mother's home and was charged with vandalism and burglary and was determined to be not competent to stand trial. For the murder case, a competency review is set for February. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Unknown\n46. CEDAR CITY, July 24 — Justin Bruce Hanna, 24, of Cedar City, was shot and killed at 515 N. 400 West. Mark Mair, 27, is charged with aggravated murder. Police say Mair had broken up with a woman who lived in the apartment just a few days earlier. Mair threw a fan through the bedroom window, leaned inside and opened fire on Hanna and the woman who were both in bed. Hanna was shot three times. The ex-girlfriend was not injured. Elcha Hatch, 19, was later arrested in Grand Junction, Colorado, and charged with obstruction of justice. Alleged motive: Jealousy Method: Shooting\n47. MIDVALE, July 25 — Michael Anderson, 52, of Bluffdale, was shot and killed during a confrontation with someone he had an ongoing dispute with at 7940 S. State. Police say Anderson went to a garage area behind a strip mall where people typically work on vehicles and climbed over a fence to enter. Anderson, who was armed, confronted the other man and a fight ensued. At some point, the other man felt threatened, police say, and shot Anderson. Prosecutors say the shooting is still under investigation. Motive: Possible self-defense Method: Shooting\n48. SALT LAKE CITY, July 27 — Xavier Lucero-Waters, 8, was shot and killed by his father, Moses Waters, 46, who then took his own life at their apartment at 561 N. Center. Police say the boy was shot with an \"improvised firearm.\" Friends and family members say Moses Waters had long been diagnosed with a severe mental illness and had battled addiction problems. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Shooting\n49. TOOELE, July 31 — Christopher Warr, 28, died following an asthma attack that Tooele police say he suffered as a result of an altercation with his roommate. Monty Shane Degelbeck, 53, was charged with manslaughter and accused of getting into a fight with Warr over \"a mess in the house.\" Prosecutors dismissed the case in October, two weeks after a judge ruled in Degelbeck's favor ordering Warr's medical history be released. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors retain the option to file charges again. Alleged motive: Domestic dispute Method: Medical episode following fight\n50. CLEARFIELD, Aug. 3 — Benjamin Heaton, 31, was shot and killed by police after climbing onto the roof of a detached garage, 456 N. Fern Drive, and firing several rounds at officers. Prior to the shooting, police had attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution during a standoff with Heaton. Davis County sheriff's deputy Brooklyn Webb, Layton police officer Eric Smith and Clinton police officer Tyler Cunningham all returned fire, killing Heaton. The shooting was determined to be legally justified. Motive: Justified defense Method: Shooting\n51. PROVO, Aug. 4 — Brylee McClellan, a 4-month old, died when the car she was in went off the road at 820 N. Oakmont Lane in Provo and rolled onto its side. Brylee was in the back seat on her mother's lap at the time, according to police. Susanne McClellan, 38, is charged with negligent homicide and obstructing justice. Driver Chelsea Fuller, 30, is charged with automobile homicide, DUI and failure to use a child restraint device. Both women were allegedly drinking before the crash. Alleged motive: Negligence Method: Car crash\n52. SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 9 — Timothy Houlihan, 39, died after being hit in the head several times with a baseball bat at 520 S. 500 East. Andrew Berry, 22, of Murray, is charged with murder. The two were friends. Berry told police that Houlihan was making unwanted sexual advances and became angry when Berry rejected him. Berry, who called 911 after the attack, said he took the bat from Houlihan and then hit him. Police are not commenting on a motive. Berry is charged with murder. Motive: Unknown Method: Beating\n53. UTAH STATE PRISON, Aug. 10 — James C. Corbett, 33, an inmate at the Utah State Prison scheduled to be released in less than a month, was found unresponsive, beaten and stabbed, in his cell. His cellmate, Timothy Patrick Maez, 38, is charged with aggravated murder. Motive: Unknown. Method: Beating, stabbing\n54. GUSHER, Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation, Aug. 13 — The FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs police are investigating the death of LeRoy Swift Eagle Murray, 28. Trent Sowsonicut, 27, is charged in Ute Tribal Court with murder and obstruction of justice. No other details have been released. Motive: Unknown. Method: Unknown\n55. GUNNISON, Aug. 25 — Carlos-Adrian Javier Hernandez, 24, was found unconscious on the floor of his cell at the Central Utah Correctional Facility and later died. Hernandez's cellmate, Julio Cesar Garza, 26, is considered a suspect, but no charges have been filed. The death remains under investigation by the Gunnison Police Department. Hernandez was 14 in 2007 when he raped and killed 15-year-old Keely Amber Hall. Motive: Unknown. Method: Unknown\n56. SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 28 — Jesse Ray Rakes, 30, was shot near 550 W. 300 South in a \"drug deal gone bad\" after police say he and two other men got into a confrontation with Daniel Christopher Simon, 26. Police said Rakes and two other men tried to rob Simon and his girlfriend, leading Simon to shoot Rakes, who later died. Simon was charged with being a restricted person in possession of a firearm but was not charged in the shooting death. Motive: Self-defense Method: Shooting\n57. INDIANOLA, Sanpete County, Aug. 29 — The charred remains of Wesley Dee Nay, 22, were found in a shallow grave on Oct. 19. He was last seen Aug. 29 with Raul Francisco Vidrio, 19, who is charged with aggravated murder in Nay’s death. Police suspect Vidrio, “a known drug dealer,” forced Nay to dig his own grave before killing him. Motive: Unknown Method: Beating, stabbing\n58. MIDVALE, Sept. 3 — Deondre Baldwin, 21, was shot and killed at 189 W. Plum Tree Lane. Brenner Larson, 20, was also shot, severing his spinal cord and leaving him permanently paralyzed. Jonathan William Rodgers, 29, is charged with aggravated murder, and Chris James Bailey, 36, is charged with murder. Police believe the men were likely looking for drugs when Rodgers got Baldwin and a woman out of bed at gunpoint while Bailey held Larson in a headlock and threatened to burn him with a butane torch. Rodgers then allegedly shot both men. Alleged motive: Drugs Method: Shooting\n59. TOOELE, Sept. 4 — Police say Jason Nakonechni, 38, was lured to a motel, brutally attacked, tortured and later shot at a rock pit in Tooele County. His body was found Nov. 21. Michael Shane Snyder, 40, is charged with aggravated murder and accused of shooting Nakonechni. Corey Lee Petersen, 53, Rodney Neil Maxwell, 36, Marilee Joan Borden, 43, and Allison Wells, 37, are each charged with murder. Police say Petersen and the victim had a “falling out” over drugs and money and say the victim had “snitched.” Alleged motive: Revenge, robbery Method: Shooting, beating\n60. COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Sept. 11 — Rustin Orr, 54, died from a fatal mix of prescription medications and alcohol allegedly given to him by his licensed home care physician, who is also his wife, at 7637 S. Prospector Drive, an autopsy states. Dr. Ina Judith Amber, 64, is charged with manslaughter and aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult. Amber claims she had been trying to \"taper\" her husband's alcoholism. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Drugs\n61.SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 17 — Eric Padilla, 18, was shot in the head during a home invasion robbery. Police say he was visiting a friend and playing video games at 221 N. Sun Harbor Terrace at the time. Landon Kavani Johnson, 20, is charged with murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. Johnson allegedly told police he had purchased marijuana at the apartment before. Alleged motive: Robbery Method: Shooting\n62. LOGAN, Sept. 19 — Jeremy Ray Swenson, 30, of Hyrum was shot by a Cache County sheriff's deputy after he allegedly disobeyed the commands of the deputy. Police were called to the Right Hand Fork area of Logan Canyon on a suicidal person and discovered Swenson with weapons making threats toward his estranged wife. He was hit once by the deputy after allegedly making a threatening motion. In March, a protective order was filed against Swenson by his wife, followed by a petition for divorce. The shooting was determined to be legally justified. Motive: Justified defense Method: Shooting\n63. BUTTERFIELD CANYON, Oct. 1 — The body of Alejandro Reyes, 26, of West Jordan, was found Oct. 5 by a hiker in Butterfield Canyon and was wrapped in heavy plastic. He was reported missing Oct. 1. Reyes died from blunt force trauma. No arrests have been made. Motive: Unknown Method: Beating\n64. HOLLADAY, Oct. 6 — Bryan Wright, 53, was found by police with a noose tied around his neck on Oct. 1. He died from his injuries five days later. His son, Shane Paul Wright, 24, told police: \"It's gruesome. I helped my dad kill himself,\" a police report states. The son told detectives that \"he needed to aid with his dad's death in order to help his dad through all his pain,\" according to the report. Shane Wright is charged with murder. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Strangulation\n65. ROY, Oct. 12 — Police are investigating the death of Genesis McCall, 20 months old, as a child abuse homicide. Emergency personnel were called to her home at 4995 S. 3100 West when the child stopped breathing. Investigators collected DNA samples from the girl’s mother, 24, the mother’s boyfriend, 22 and the woman’s foster father, 58. No charges have been filed. The boyfriend told police the girl had fallen the night before. Doctors say she had bite marks and bruising “that appears to be a result of strangulation,” a warrant states. Motive: Unknown domestic. Method: Unknown\n66. SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 21 — Cristhian Marquez, 33, of Salt Lake City, was at a car wash, 1075 S. Redwood Road, washing a new car he had recently purchased when he was shot. The gunman then drove away in the vehicle. Police believe the attack was random and that Marquez had no prior association with the gunman, whom police are still looking for. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n67. WEST JORDAN, Nov. 2 — Jesse Jay Taylor, 40, of Spanish Fork, was shot and killed by West Jordan police officer Keith Jenkins while fleeing from officers shortly after robbing a credit union. Jenkins confronted Taylor near 8880 South and 1070 West as he ran around a corner. Jenkins and other officers reported they could see a gun in Taylor's hand, and that Taylor ignored repeated commands to stop and drop the weapon as he ran toward police. Jenkins fired three shots, one of which struck Taylor in the chest. The shooting was found legally justified. Motive: Justified defense Method: Shooting\n68. WEST VALLEY CITY, Nov. 6 — West Valley police officer Cody Brotherson, 25, of West Valley City, was hit while trying to lay tire spikes at the intersection of 4100 South and 2200 West to help other officers stop a fleeing stolen vehicle. Two brothers, ages 14 and 15, and a 15-year-old friend have each been charged in juvenile court with murder, car theft and other crimes. An officer observed the stolen car \"swerve toward\" Brotherson and hit him. Investigators say the teens have provided various stories about who was driving. Alleged motive: Fleeing police Method: Car crash\n69, 70. HIAWATHA, Carbon County, Nov. 20 — A mother of 15 children, Susan Peterson, 45, and one of her sons, James Peterson, 23, were shot and killed in a field near a farmhouse. Seth Gordon Peterson, 25, of Ferron — Susan's son and James' brother — is charged with two counts of aggravated murder. The two had gone to the area outside Hiawatha to pick up Seth Peterson when they were killed, police say. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Shooting\n71. WEST VALLEY CITY, Nov. 20 — Byron Williams, 26, was shot in the back while trying to run away from a man who police say he was once friends with at 1800 W. Parkway Blvd. Christopher James Bonds, 26, of West Valley City, is charged with murder. A group had gone to Bonds' apartment after a night at the bar. Bonds was upset and allegedly began arguing with Williams. The two were struggling over Bonds' guns when Bonds picked one up and fired three times at Williams as he ran. Alleged motive: Argument Method: Shooting\n72. PROVO, Nov. 21 — Ammon Brown, 24, died after his throat was sliced to the point that he was almost decapitated about 1640 S. State in a wooded transient camp near a set of railroad tracks. Enmanuel Depaz, 18, is charged with murder. A 16-year-old boy who had been with Brown and Depaz earlier that day told police that Depaz was complaining about Brown \"not wanting to be part of their 'gang' any longer,\" charges state. Alleged motive: Argument Method: Slashing, beating\n73. SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 26 — Kenonren Goodman, 33, was shot inside an apartment at 1329 N. Redwood Road. Leroy Daniel Valdez, 34, arrived home and discovered that he was locked out. Charges say Valdez's roommate \"had been having people over\" and he didn't like them there. Valdez forced the door open and during a struggle with Goodman, a gun fired and Goodman was shot in the head. Valdez is charged with manslaughter. Alleged motive: Unknown domestic Method: Shooting\n74, 75. AMERICAN FORK, Dec. 4 — SueAnn Sands, 39, of American Fork, was shot while she was inside her car and dialing 911 to report someone was shooting at her. Police say a former boyfriend, James Dean Smith, 33, of Orem, killed her. He was then killed in a shootout with three police officers following a short chase. A team is investigating the incident. Sands had obtained a protective order against Smith less than a month before the shooting. Motive: Unknown domestic; officer defense Method: Shooting\n76. ESCALANTE, Dec. 6 — James \"Jimmy\" Woolsey, 61, of Escalante, a counselor at a youth rehabilitation home, was beaten to death. Clay Brewer, 17, of Arizona, is charged as an adult with aggravated murder. Brewer had been at the Turn-About Ranch for five days when he reportedly became depressed and suicidal and tried to escape. As he fled, police say Brewer attacked and killed Woolsey, then assaulted a female counselor, taking her keys and fleeing in her vehicle until he was apprehended. Alleged motive: Escape Method: Beating\n77, 78. SOUTH OGDEN, Dec. 9 — Cyle VanKomen, 24, and Kevin Nelson, 61, were shot while at VanKomen's home, 3636 S. Ogden Ave. A third man, 20, whose name has not been released, was critically injured. Police released surveillance video from home security cameras showing three men sneaking up to the house to apparently ambush the men. Detectives are still looking for the gunmen. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n79. MILLCREEK, Dec. 12 — Alaa \"Ali\" Alkhatawi, 46, was found stabbed to death in his home, 3365 S. 900 East, after police were called to make a welfare check. Karrar Suhail, 25, was charged with murder after police matched a bloody shoe print in the home to him. Alkhatawi was cut or stabbed 40 times across his neck, back, face and hands. Police say Alkhatawi was selling prescription drugs and Suhail had bought pills from him before. Alleged motive: Drugs, robbery Method: Stabbing\n80. WEST VALLEY CITY, Dec. 12 — Javier Medina, 20, was shot multiple times while standing in the driveway at 7174 W. Bendixon Way. A friend, a 32-year-old woman, was also shot and injured. Police say Medina knew the gunman and was likely targeted. Investigators are still looking for the gunman. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n81. SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 17 — Rose Marie Harris, 54, was found dead in her Capitol Hill home, 573 N. Wall St., after police say the woman she lived with, Sue Mary Hickman, 53, called 911 and said she had \"snapped\" and shot Harris because she couldn't take the woman's drinking anymore, a police report states. Hickman is charged with murder. Alleged motive: Domestic Method: Shooting\n82. LAYTON, Dec. 19 — Police say Christopher Scott Fritz, 20, shot his roommate, Taylor Vancamp, 24, after the two got into an argument in the house where they both lived, 1407 E. 275 North. Fritz allegedly told police that when the fight broke up and he went into his room, he saw he had a black eye and a bloody nose and \"snapped.\" Fritz said he grabbed a gun, opened his bedroom door and fired at Vancamp until the gun was empty, police say. He is charged with murder. Motive: Domestic fight Method: Shooting\n83. OREM, Dec. 22 — Jackson Jacques Woodward, 22, of Provo, was shot while allegedly trying to force his way into another man's apartment at 1080 N. State. He later died at a local hospital. Police say they are investigating the case as a possible self-defense. Motive: Possible self-defense Method: Shooting\n84. WEST VALLEY CITY, Dec. 24 — Martin Daniel Diaz, 25, was arrested for investigation of murder in the shooting death of Gary Hart, 34, of West Valley City. People had been attending a nearby party before meeting up with another group in the parking lot of Shopko, 4850 W. 3500 South, about 4 a.m. The groups got into an fight where shots were fired. Three people suffered gunshot wounds, including Hart. A 17-year-old boy has also been arrested in the shooting. No charges have been filed. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting\n85. SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 27 — Sebastian Salgado, 19, was shot after he and his girlfriend met with two 18-year-old men who said they were interested in an item he was selling online. Salgado agreed to drive Anthony Glen Taylor and Romeo Alyss Alvarez to a Salt Lake location to get some money, police said, and the two men attempted to rob Salgado when the car stopped at 291 E. Browning Ave. A struggle ensued when Alvarez pulled out a gun, which fired and struck Salgado in the head, a report states. The two men fled and have since been arrested. Alleged motive: Robbery Method: Shooting\n86. SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 29 — Katherine Peralta, 23, died after she was gunned down by her husband in the parking lot of ARUP Laboratories, 500 Chipeta Way. Police say an argument occurred when Richard Peralta, 25, met his wife as she was leaving work. He then shot and killed himself. Police said the couple had been experiencing marital issues. Motive: Unknown domestic Method: Shooting\n87. OGDEN, Dec. 30 — Steven Snider, 37, was shot near 26th Street and Adams Avenue following some kind of confrontation outside an apartment complex. Police say the gunman then barricaded himself inside the complex before surrendering. Jonathan Francisco Delgado, 32, was arrested for investigation of murder. Motive: Unknown Method: Shooting", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nClick to play Tap to play\nGet daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nThree prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs have been charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of an inmate .\nKhader Saleh died at the west London prison on Wednesday (January 31), prompting police to launch a murder investigation.\nHis family slammed the \"absolutely shocking\" conditions within the Victorian-built prison.\nThe three men appeared at Willesden Magistrates court on Friday (February 2).\nThey are:\nAhmed Khyre, 21\nKalif Dibbassey, 21\nEnton Marku, 20\nA 23-year-old man, also a Wormwood Scrubs inmate, who arrested on suspicion of murder, has been released under investigation.\nThe three men charged with murder are due to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday (February 6).\nKeep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.\nYou can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area\nAvailable to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now.", "LILLINGTON, N.C. (WNCN) — A Lillington teen was charged Monday in last month’s shooting death of a 15-year-old boy, authorities said.\nOwen Caltagirone died after what witnesses and the suspect initially called an accidental shooting that occurred Nov. 13.\nFACEBOOK USERS: Click here to view more photos from the scene\nThe shooting happened around 12:50 a.m. in the 2000 block of N.C. Highway 27.\nMonday, Emmanuwell Leigh Nelson, 16, of Eisler Drive in Lillington was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death.\nPREVIOUS: 15-year-old boy shot to death in Harnett County, authorities say\nThe shooter and victim were apparently living in an apartment behind the home where the shooting occurred, deputies said.\nHarnett County said Sheriff Wayne Coats said the day of the shooting that the person who took responsibility for the shooting was best friends with the victim.\nCaltagirone was shot in the chest by a shotgun, Coats said.\nCaltagirone was undergoing CPR by family and friends when deputies were stopped at the scene. EMS arrived on scene shortly after and pronounced Caltagirone dead.\nNelson is being held on a $400,000 bond in the Harnett County Detention Center.", "Saint Marie’s police station is going to be a lot quieter – because Officer Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules) has handed in his badge. After seven years and 62 murders successfully solved, one of the last remaining original Death in Paradise cast members is leaving the show.\nAdvertisement\nWill Officer Dwayne Myers be killed off?\nYou can’t blame us for worrying about Dwayne’s safety, because Death in Paradise often has people murdered in spectacular style. As you’ll recall, one previous Detective Inspector was famously murdered with a pickaxe, and another was shot. Saint Marie is a dangerous place.\nBut like Kris Marshall’s DI Humphrey Goodman, Dwayne will be able to escape in one piece: he won’t be killed off as part of his exit.\nWill Dwayne appear at all in series eight?\nSadly, no. Officer Dwayne Myers’ absence will be explained, but he won’t appear on-screen.\nHow will Dwayne leave Death in Paradise?\nIt’s possible that his disappearance from Saint Marie will relate to his dad Nelson Myers (Ram John Holder), who played a major role in series seven. Estranged father Nelson came over from London to build a new relationship with Dwayne, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing – literally.\nAfter Nelson disappeared again, Dwayne was in the process of asking boss DI Jack Mooney (Ardal O’Hanlon) for time off to track down his dad, when Nelson suddenly appeared on the horizon in a leaky boat.\nSo Dwayne didn’t need to go off and find his dad, after all – but many issues with Nelson are unresolved. Will that play a part in his exit storyline?\nWhy is Danny John-Jules leaving Death in Paradise?\nProduction company Red Planet Pictures say the actor wants to leave the show “on a high”.\nAdvertisement\nHe has spent seven years filming the drama in Guadeloupe, with his two young children Danté and Danaè playing minor roles in the show as Jackson and Elize. Let’s see what comes next for all of them…", "A Westminster man has been charged with assault after being arrested Saturday.\nElijah Michael Nelson, 18, of the 300 block of Bishop Court, Westminster, is charged with one count of second-degree assault, according to electronic court records.\nWestminster police responded around 11:38 a.m. Saturday to a report of a fight in the unit block of Milton Avenue, in Westminster, according to charging documents.\nA woman there told police that Nelson had punched her in the face multiple times, and her nose appeared gashed and her eyes swollen to police, according to charging documents.\nPolice also viewed a video that allegedly shows Nelson punching the woman and knocking her to the ground, according to charging documents\nAt the time, according to the charging document, Nelson told police the woman had assaulted him first.\nA call to the phone number on record for Nelson was not returned by 6 p.m. Monday.\nNelson was arrested at the scene Saturday and taken to Carroll County Central Booking, from where he was released later that day after posting $2,000 bail, according to electronic court records.\nNelson’s initial appearance in Carroll County District Court on these charges is scheduled for June 5, according to electronic court records.\nCAPTION The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is investigating the theft of packages in the 6700 block of Monroe Ave. in Eldersburg. The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is investigating the theft of packages in the 6700 block of Monroe Ave. in Eldersburg. CAPTION The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is investigating the theft of packages in the 6700 block of Monroe Ave. in Eldersburg. The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is investigating the theft of packages in the 6700 block of Monroe Ave. in Eldersburg. CAPTION Police have charged a second man in the gang-related murder of a 22-year-old Jose Hernandez-Portillo, of Annapolis, on March 11, 2016, court records show. Police have charged a second man in the gang-related murder of a 22-year-old Jose Hernandez-Portillo, of Annapolis, on March 11, 2016, court records show. CAPTION Fire crews battled a two-alarm fire that broke out Jan. 24 at a home in the 5900 block of Cabbage Spring Road in Mount Airy. Fire crews battled a two-alarm fire that broke out Jan. 24 at a home in the 5900 block of Cabbage Spring Road in Mount Airy. CAPTION Fire crews from Westminster, Reese, Pleasant Valley, New Windsor and Hampstead responded to a house fire in the unit block of Madison Street in Westminster Thursday afternoon. No one was injured in the single-alarm blaze and firefighters rescued several dogs from the home. Fire crews from Westminster, Reese, Pleasant Valley, New Windsor and Hampstead responded to a house fire in the unit block of Madison Street in Westminster Thursday afternoon. No one was injured in the single-alarm blaze and firefighters rescued several dogs from the home. CAPTION Early morning fire at 3700 block Nicholson Road in Gamber. Early morning fire at 3700 block Nicholson Road in Gamber.\[email protected]\n410-857-3317\ntwitter.com/CCT_Health", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet Daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nA man has been charged with murder after a body was found in Cornwall at the weekend.\nA 56-year-old woman was found dead at a property in Dock Lane, Penzance, on Saturday (March 17).\nDevon and Cornwall Police said they are currently investigating the death and that the woman has not yet been identified. However, her next of kin have been informed.\nA spokesperson for the force said: \"Enquiries are underway and a scene guard was put up at the property at Dock Lane whilst officers from the major crime investigation team, assisted by officers from West Cornwall police, carried out a full investigation.\"\nThey added that a 61-year-old man from Camborne called Peter Rogers has been charged with murder and will appear before Truro Magistrates' Court tomorrow (Tuesday, March 20).\nOfficers are now appealing for anyone who has information to contact them.\nYou can get in touch via [email protected] or by 101 quoting CR/023351/18.", "Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\n70 PEOPLE IDENTIFIED AS DEAD OR PRESUMED DEAD TWO MONTHS AFTER GRENFELL FIRE\nPolice believe at least 80 people have died following the Grenfell Tower fire.\nTwo months on, and using official information from authorities and appeals from family and friends, the Press Association has identified 70 people either killed or presumed dead as a result of the blaze.\nVULNERABLE CHILDREN LEFT WITHOUT HELP AS COUNCILS CUT SERVICES - CHARITY\nThousands of children in England referred to social services over concerns including abuse and neglect are not getting the help they need, a charity has said.\nAction for Children has warned that up to 140,000 youngsters do not meet the threshold for social care and are not referred to early help after their case is closed.\nIn their latest report, Revolving Door, the charity said vulnerable children not at crisis point are being left without help as cash-strapped councils are forced to shrink or abandon services.\nGOLDERS GREEN STABBING: MAN CHARGED WITH MURDERING MOTHER AND SISTER\nA 27-year-old man is due in court today charged with murdering his mother and sister in north-west London.\nScotland Yard said two women aged 33 and 66 were stabbed to death in Golders Green Crescent, Golders Green, on Friday.\nThe victims have been named in reports as Hannah Cohen and Leah Cohen.\nMAN, 23, CHARGED WITH NORFOLK MURDER OF DOG-WALKING OAP\nA 23-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a grandfather who was attacked as he walked his dogs.\nPeter Wrighton, 83, from The Moor, Banham, Norfolk, was repeatedly stabbed in the neck and head.\nHis body was found in woodland near the village of East Harling on August 5.\nRAIL FARES 'HAVE RISEN TWICE AS MUCH AS WAGES SINCE 2010'\nRail fares have increased twice as much as pay since 2010, according to new research ahead of news on how much prices will go up next year.\nCommuters and other passengers will find out on Tuesday how much extra they will be charged from the new year.\nThe Government links the annual January rise in Britain's regulated fares with the previous July's Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which will be announced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\nTHERESA MAY HEADS BACK INTO BREXIT BATTLE\nTheresa May is expected to be back in Downing Street this week as ministers prepare to flesh out their negotiating position on Brexit.\nThe return of the Prime Minister, who has spent three weeks on holiday in Italy with her husband Philip, coincides with the publication this week of a series of new position papers on Brexit - including one on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.\nIt is thought that it will include an offer of continued free movement for Irish nationals in and out of the UK once Britain has left the EU in March 2019.\nARMED POLICE TO WEAR HEAD CAMERAS\nFirearms officers working in the capital will be given head-mounted cameras to boost transparency, more than three years after the plans were first mooted.\nThe Metropolitan Police said officers working for armed response units will have the devices attached to baseball caps and ballistic helmets.\nCameras have already been given to 17,500 officers in the country's largest police force, with the latest tranche seeing 1,000 members of Firearms Command getting the devices.\nJUDGE TO DECIDE ON RECALLING EVIDENCE FROM PUPILS OVER ANN MAGUIRE MURDER\nA judge is to rule on a challenge against a coroner's decision not to call evidence from pupils who had contact with the schoolboy killer of teacher Ann Maguire immediately before the murder.\nMrs Maguire's husband Don, children and nephews want Mr Justice Holroyde to order the decision taken by assistant West Yorkshire coroner Kevin McLoughlin to be reconsidered.\nAn inquest into Mrs Maguire's death is due to take place before a jury at Wakefield Coroner's Court in November.\nMAN ACCUSED OF DEADLY ATTACK AT CHARLOTTESVILLE PROTEST 'IDOLISED HITLER'\nThe young man accused of ploughing a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Virginia was fascinated with Nazism, idolised Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by at school for his \"deeply held, radical\" convictions on race, one of his former teachers has said.\nJames Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said.\nIn high school, Fields was an \"average\" student, but had a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Mr Weimer, his social studies teacher at Randall K Cooper school in Union, Kentucky.\nAT LEAST 17 KILLED AS GUNMEN TARGET BURKINA FASO RESTAURANT\nSuspected Islamic extremists have attacked a Turkish restaurant popular with foreigners in Burkina Faso's capital, killing at least 17 people.\nIt is the second such attack on a restaurant in the last two years.\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which continued into the early hours of Monday with yet another heavy exchange of gunfire overheard by witnesses." ]

[ "Bamboo can be an invasive threat to biodiversity. Many spreading bamboo species are categorized as invasive exotic plants that crowd out native plants and threaten biodiversity. The best ways to contain spreading bamboo tend to be expensive and complicated, and may not be worth pursuing for many homeowners." ]

[ "Aloe Vera: This succulent plant combats bad luck and negative energy and is known for cleaning air and reducing toxic chemicals. ... Bamboo: Lucky bamboo is a big plant for feng shui enthusiasts.", "Most strand woven bamboo uses only phenolic formaldehyde, which doesn't have the bad reputation of urea formaldehyde. Urea formaldehyde is used in most engineered and hardwood bamboo flooring, but only in trace amounts.", "Plunge the root clump into a bucket of water immediately. Lean the stand of bamboo against a shed or fence, as this plant doesn't do well if you lay it down on the ground. Have the moist hole already dug for the bamboo's new home. Carry the bucket to the hole and transfer the clump of bamboo from the water to the soil.", "Nandina domestica is also called heavenly bamboo and sacred bamboo, though gardeners trying to remove it might wonder why. ... Growing 6 to 8 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide, heavenly bamboo forms deep roots that re-sprout after the plant is dug up or sprayed with weedkiller.", "Nandina domestica is toxic to birds and other animals. You know this shrub as Nandina, Sacred Bamboo or Heavenly Bamboo. ... Nandina berries last for months, attracting hungry birds when food is in short supply. However, studies show planting Nandina does not help birds, it harms them.", "Although lucky bamboo doesn't need an abundance of light to grow, it needs some light in order to survive; the plant isn't suited for an area that receives very little or no light. It is hardy outdoors in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 through 11.", "It is very common to see bamboo sheets labeled as 100% Rayon (or Viscose) from Bamboo. This means the sheets are a rayon fabric that is derived from the bamboo plant (other rayon fabric can come from cotton or other plants). ... It's processed the same way Cotton Linen is made and is prone to just as many wrinkles.", "['Bamboo. Landscapers and homeowners are paying as much as $150 each for potted bamboo plants, and many growers are finding it hard to keep up with the demand. ... ', 'Flowers. ... ', 'Ginseng. ... ', 'Ground Covers. ... ', 'Herbs. ... ', 'Landscaping Trees and Shrubs. ... ', 'Mushrooms. ... ', 'Ornamental Grasses.']", "As nouns the difference between bamboo and cane is that bamboo is a plant; a grass of the poaceae family, characterised by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem while cane is (uncountable) the slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family gramineae.", "Can Dogs Chew on Bamboo. When you find your dog eating bamboo, do not be very surprised or worried. It is okay for them to chew the plant because there are no toxins in it. The real Bambusoideae species is 100% safe for dogs to consume, unlike the look-alike.", "Even though bamboo is their main food source, giant pandas are horrible at digesting it, a new study of their gut bacteria finds. A look at the giant-panda gut microbiome (bacteria living in the stomach and intestines) showed that the animals have relatively few bacteria that help digest fibrous plants such as bamboo.", "A Tall & Tough Plant River cane is a type of bamboo, a group of plants belonging to the grass family. Although over 1,200 bamboo species exist worldwide, only one — Arundinaria gigantea — is native to North America.", "Although wandering traders sell most plants, none of them sell bamboo. This issue has been in the game since the addition of wandering traders and can also be seen in the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft.", "In general bamboo is very durable. The outer layer of the stem is quite dense and strong. Bamboo is both flexible and elastic. As a result items made from bamboo tend to be very resilient and resist breaking when placed under stress.", "These bed sheets are made from its namesake, the fibres of the bamboo plant. ... Unlike cotton, however, thread count weighs less in the softness and overall quality of bamboo sheets because even with a low thread count, bamboo bedding continues to provide the luxurious feel that people look for in their sheets.", "Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including Bambusa vulgaris and Phyllostachys edulis. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes and broths.", "Light Requirement for Lucky Bamboo: bright indirect light. In it's native environment Dracaena sanderiana receive an ample amount of light. However, the surrounding plants shade the lucky bamboo from direct exposure to the sun. Too much direct sunlight can cause the leaves to burn.", "The pruning or thinning of bamboo should be done in late summer or fall, after the shooting season is finished. Avoid pruning bamboo during the shooting season. When foliage is removed during this time, this can diminish the energy reserves and reduces the bamboo's ability to effectively produce new shoots.", "['Recycled Steel. Utilises steel already in existence for structural use in a home. ... ', 'Bamboo. Bamboo is increasing in popularity as a building material. ... ', \"Sheep's Wool. ... \", 'Straw Bales. ... ', 'Precast Concrete. ... ', 'Earth. ... ', 'Plant-Based Polyurethane Rigid Foam.']", "Many bamboo species flower at extremely long intervals such as 65 or even 120 years. ... In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, and then die.", "Clumping Bamboo doesn't send out rhizome roots. Instead of spreading out over several feet, they get a few inches wider. ... The plant's roots that spread stay close to the surface, and you'll be able to see them poking through the sides of trench.", "['Recycled Steel. Producing and smelting steel takes a lot of energy. ... ', 'Bamboo. Bamboo is increasing in popularity as a building material. ... ', \"Sheep's Wool. Sheep's wool, of course, can also be regrown quickly. ... \", 'Straw Bales. ... ', 'Precast Concrete. ... ', 'Earth. ... ', 'Plant-Based Polyurethane Rigid Foam.']", "Bamboo rayon is marketed as an eco friendly fibre. It's water efficient, it rapidly regenerates, and it's a carbon neutral fibre. That is, it is a plant-based fibre that absorbs the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it releases during harvesting. ... The answer may be not so eco-friendly.", "The most common way to process bamboo into fibres is with chemicals. It's already sounding less eco-friendly! Most bamboo fabric is bamboo rayon, a man made fibre made from cellulose using the viscose process. ... For viscose bamboo rayon it's certainly not an eco-friendly process.", "['Nerve Plant. Fittonia species. ... ', 'ZZ Plant. Zamioculcas zamiifolia. ... ', 'Lucky Bamboo. Dracaena sanderiana. ... ', 'Snake Plant. Sansevieria species. ... ', 'Spider Plant. Chlorophytum comosum. ... ', 'Ponytail Palm. Beaucarnea recurvata. ... ', 'Arrowhead Plant. Syngonium podophyllum. ... ', 'Calathea. Calathea species.']", "Bamboo shoots contain phytochemicals, which have antibacterial and antiviral effects in the body. They are a good source of dietary fibre. Bamboo shoots contain potassium, important for a healthy heart and to maintain normal blood pressure.", "Nandina. Thunb. ... Nandina domestica (/nænˈdiːnə/ nan-DEE-nə) commonly known as nandina, heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Japan. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Nandina.", "Bamboo does not need much water to survive, but it can be grown in water as well. If you choose to grow your bamboo in water, make sure the roots always stay covered with water. Replenish your lucky bamboo with fresh water every seven to 10 days to keep it happy and healthy.", "Examples of plants that have fibrous rootsystem include: grass, wheat, rice, marigold, white clover, maize, banana, millet, bamboo and onion.", "All bamboo sheets may come from the same source but different manufacturing processes will yield different types of bamboo sheets. It is very common to see bamboo sheets labeled as 100% Rayon (or Viscose) from Bamboo. ... There is also Bamboo Linen which is not as soft as its other counterparts.", "Many indoor plants are believed to bring prosperity and good luck including money plant. Other than lucky bamboo, money plants are also renowned to bring wealth and abundance to the house. Money plants are very beneficial from all aspects according to Feng Shui and Vastu.", "The most common factors for yellowing leaves are either too much sunlight; and/or too salty or heavily-fluoridated tap water. It is best to keep the bamboo away from sunlight and to use filtered water." ]

[ "Sometimes you may want to take a break from Facebook. There are 2 ways to deactivate your account: temporarily, in case you want to use the same account again in the future, and permanently." ]

[ "BlackBerry Messenger is a smartphone app that can only be used by BlackBerry users. Although BlackBerry Messenger is a native program on all BlackBerry smart phones, BlackBerry has made an app for Android, iPhone and Windows phones so that video chatting, calling, and messaging is free on a wireless network.", "On older Blackberry smartphones, the device doesn't have the AppWorld installed on it. If this is the case with your Blackberry, follow the directions in this article.", "Blackberry Messenger (BBM) is a Blackberry-based instant messaging app that allows you to communicate with other BBM users via Blackberry, Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices.", " Do you have a blackberry? Are you struggling to use blackberry messenger? Here's how to add people! ", "In Pakistan, the BlackBerry can be used as an internet device without activating a BIS account. Mostly all cellular networks in Pakistan offer internet on the BlackBerry for their postpaid users, but now prepaid users can also use BlackBerry handsets with basic internet profiles without having monthly BlackBerry packages.", " Blackberry Babes (also known as BBB'S) are often seen on their blackberries. Here are some steps to find out how to be a blackberry babe! ", "Knowing how to deactivate your phone is an important skill to have - especially in the event of a lost or stolen device. Whether you want to deactivate a lost phone or switch carriers, deactivating your device is easy.", "Blackberry Messenger is one of the main reasons why people choose Blackberry phones. To expand the number of people using Blackberry Messenger (or BBM), Blackberry made the application available for iOS iPhone users.", "Updating your Blackberry’s software will allow you to enjoy the latest features and enhancements released to Blackberry OS. You can either update Blackberry software directly from your smartphone, or install the latest updates using Blackberry Desktop Manager.", "Blocking phone numbers on a BlackBerry device is not as easy as it is on an iPhone or Android. With recent versions of BlackBerry 10 OS, however, you can now install number blocking apps that will run in the background.", "Sony PlayStation 3 gaming consoles can be deactivated using the XMB or your computer. Sony gives you options to deactivate video or game purchases on your account, or wipe your account of all your devices at once.", "Blackberries are a favorite fruit for many people, but you may not know that there are several different species of the bush. [1] Some of these, including Cutleaf blackberry and Himalayan blackberry, are considered weeds and can infest yards and even streams and ditches.", "BlackBerry saved all photos taken on its memory card. When photos are deleted from BlackBerry mobile phone by accident, the data are not wiped permanently.", " Like blackberries? Just went blackberry picking, but not sure what to do with them? Try this! ", "If you're trying to deactivate your Twitter account, you'll usually need to use a desktop computer to access the Twitter website. It's not possible to deactivate your account through the Twitter app, but you can use your mobile device's browser to load the desktop version of the Twitter site.", "Blackberry releases software updates regularly to enhance the performance and functionality of its many devices. The Blackberry Curve 8520 can either be updated wirelessly using an over-the-air (OTA) update, or using Blackberry Desktop Software on a computer.", "You might assume that the main difference between raspberries and blackberries is the color, but that's not the case. Blackberries are red when they're unripe.", "Kik is a free messenger app with over 150 million downloads available on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices. [1] Permanently deleting a Kik account can't be done from the app itself — instead, you'll need to use the official Kik account deactivation page available at ws.kik.com/deactivate .", "If you have access to a blackberry patch in the summertime, you'll soon have more blackberries than you know what to do with! Since you may be tired of eating and baking them, try turning your blackberries into a flavorful brandy.", "If you are a BlackBerry Playbook users, you may want to load Android-based applications on your Playbook in addition to having many Blackberry Playbook Applications.", " This wikiHow teaches you how to deactivate your own Slack account when you’re using an Android. ", " This is for edit/delete/re-assign Speed dial in blackberry ", " Adding music to a Blackberry Pearl is really quite easy. Once your music is on your Blackberry, you can even use them as ringtones. ", "If you've updated your BlackBerry and aren't happy with the results, this guide will teach you how to go back to any older BlackBerry OS compatible with your phone!", "Security is everything these days. Including mobile phones, so you need to secure your Blackberry soon. This is how to change a password on your Blackberry:", "Ever want any more apps that aren't a part of the plethora of default apps that come preinstalled on your Blackberry? Try installing an app that is part of the Blackberry App World store.", "The simplest way to deactivate OnStar is to unsubscribe from the service, but doing so will not disable the system completely. To do that, you will need to remove the fuse or manually disconnect the OnStar control box.", "Upgrading to a Blackberry will drastically improve your efficiency. It can be a little frustrating at the same time. There is an adjustment period. You must learn to adapt to the Blackberry Interface.", "Spring is blackberry season in the south, and if you can tolerate the stickers and the heat, pick a bunch of fresh blackberries and throw an easy pie together for dessert.", "Delicious, delectable blackberries are one of summertime's sweetest treats. However, because their natural growing season is so short, it's tricky (if not impossible) to get good blackberries throughout the rest of the year.", " This wikiHow teaches you how to delete Facebook messages from both the Facebook Messenger app and the Facebook website. ", "Deleting a Twitter Account from the Twitter for iPhone app won't delete or deactivate the account. However, it will remove the account from your iPhone." ]

[ "At a guess I'd say it's the October guy going by the dates you've given. Be proud girl your about to bring a beautiful life into this world" ]

[ "\"Because he tried to kill my daddy\" - Bush in 2002", "yes, so much that her boob job is shriving up. i feel sorry for that baby, without breast milk, he will grow up to be more screwed up than his wigger daddy.", "well i like to call them daddy because it puts me in the submissive role...and who better to make u do things than daddy...plus its sexy and hot", "I guess you should consider the context. It could be sexual in nature. (for ex..daddy, spanking etc.. you get the picture) I dont know who said it first but i bet its been out there for a while... In the south I've heard old folks ask that of young people, to figure out who's their kin. \"boy, who's your daddy? I'm sure that 1st example is mostly used and recognized.", "because baby bush wanted to finish what daddy bush didn't \\nand oil\\n\\nrevenge for what jordanepstein2007? I know some stupid people believe that Iraq had something to do with 911 but they did not, don't be so ignorant!", "Much of his past has been hidden by Mommy and Daddy, while daddy was in the CIA. Much of his past was also not known to those who voted for him both times. These are the same people who claim to vote the person not the party, Neocons all.\\nHis rape charge in Texas was also not known by those who voted for him. That case is still pending in the Texas Courts and anyone who wants can read the charge by the woman who is now dead.", "You do have a good point. The system sucks. If you do pay into it you do not qualify for any assistance. But if you do not work and have 5 baby's form 5 different daddy's and your only 21 yep I think that their is a problem. Or come over here and have your baby so he/she can be a American Citizen has to stop.", "Do you mean do I think a person should have the right to a choice? Yes, I do.\\n\\nThe biggest reason - in the case of rape. Why should a woman who was raped be forced to carry the monster baby for 9 months, have to put up with questions from well-meaning people who do not know the whole story (are you excited? what does the daddy think? what are you hoping for? etc) and then, after giving the baby up for adoption, have to spend the rest of her life wondering if she will one day have a \"blast from the past\", the child, now an adult, tracking her down, not caring what horrible memories they are digging up, just because they are \"curious\".\\n\\nThen, there's the factor - who would take care of all the unwanted babies? Would the taxpayers have to foot the bill for them? \\n\\nThen there would be the ones that keep the child even though they never wanted them, and then proceed to abuse and/or neglect them their entire lives.", "I am bringing home my Baby bumble Bee won't my momma be so proud of me I am bringing home my baby bumble bee, OH it stung me. I smooshing (with clapping hands) my baby bumble bee won't my momma be so proud of me I am smooshing up my baby bumble bee OH what a mess. I am washing off my baby bee bumble bee (hand washing motion) won't my momma be so proud of me I am washing off my baby bumble bee", "Who said it is anyone's fault that a baby died? What about miscarriages or still born babies? Who exactly \"sent\" them to heaven?", "I love that my baby's Daddy did that. It put the passion where it belonged, in the bedroom. He is the only man I've ever known that did that. I don't know quite how to explain it but when he gave me little kisses in public and to say bye in the morning, with a nice hug it meant that he loved me and would miss me. When we were having sex he clearly wanted me passionately. I think it's hot!!", "When a child asks that question all parent dread. Where do babies come from? You have to be honest with them. If they are younger like 2-4 tell them babies come from your belly. If they are a little older tell them that when mommy and daddy love each other they make a baby and it grows in Mommy's belly. I would say any older then 8-9 you should tell the the truth about sex and how babies get there. Times are changing and you would want them to know the true facts instead of someone telling them they can get pregnant by kissing. Just be honest with your children. Use words that they know and understand. Honesty is always the best policy.", "my daddy once set a trap for a neighborhood burglar (who turned out to be an illegal immigrant, but thats another subject), caught him, tied him up, and held him captive until the police came. mom and I helped him do it. there was no violence involved whatsoever. it was a citizens arrest and none of us got into any trouble.", "really it's up to who is listining to the music, and their relegiouc beliefs. i n my opinion. if you want check out \"baby jesus is born\" by garth brooks", "how would the baby have meth in the system if the moms clean but if shes around anyone who does meth that baby might get sick cause of it so who ever has the baby needs to stay away from any smoke", "If an angel game and told me\\nthat today was my last day\\nI would list down all my loved ones\\nAnd this it what I'd say\\nMum, I always loved you, although I didn't say\\nPlease dont be sad for long enjoy each and every day\\nDad I know youll be alright, I hope I made you proud\\nYou know I always loved you though I never said it aloud\\nSister figure out what you from life, when you know just ask\\nAnd I wil help from where I am, no matter how big the task\\nBrother, if I could ask for another bro, I would ask again for you\\nA better brother could not be found, I hope you felt this too\\nLil sis, take care my lil sister, I still love you no less\\nI wish I had more time for you, of that I must confess\\nNow, my baby sis, a princess through and through\\nyou are a special girl, you are pure and true\\nDaughter, I love you my princess, daddy always will\\nremember I always told you, well daddy loves you still\\ndaughter2, grow up strong and smart, make your daddy proud\\nI will always love you and visit when aloud\\nwife, you know that you are my one, my love for you is true\\nfrom heaven I will wait, till the day I can be with you", "I Love You THIS Much\\n\\nI read it to my son from the time he was born and now that he is 7 he enjoys reading it to his baby sister who is 3.", "They may rule the AFC, I'll give you that. In two weeks when The Seahawks spank The Steelers like they were their daddy then we will see who RULES.\\nClose game---Seahawks by 10", "Charlotte was the sweet, romantic, trusting one who just wanted to get married, have babies and live happily ever after. One of my friends is very like her too.", "My dad was with me and my husband is with our daughter. I think it has to do with men know how guys can be and they don't want a guy treating their daughter bad or being with her etc. Nobody is ever good enough for daddy's little girl.", "Do you mean the old song about a little girl asking \"How Far is Heaven?\" That was by Kitty Wells. I remember the song from when my daddy sang it to me.", "Family Guy...exploits what everyone else is thinking...more appealing to my age group (baby boomers)The creativity involved is the best. Who would have a baby with an accent like that who hates his mother and only the dog can understand him. And the family dog who loves the mother romantically...who would think of that?...the creators are the best. The daughter does not exist to the rest of the family and Peter is so obnoxious but loveable at the same time. He is Homer Simpson and Howard Stern combined- If Homer Simpson and Howard Stern had a baby together it would be Peter.\\nDrawn together would come in second....off the map.", "My wife makes around 55k and when I work I do about the same. The last year and a half I have been stay at home daddy...", "Their mommys and daddys created them.", "There is a risk of having an unhealthy baby at any age. The risks of having a baby with Down's syndrome or other genetic disorders, for instance, increase over time with the age of the mother, but there are still lots of healthy babies who are born to women in their forties.", "- Daddy, daddy, I don't want to play with grandpa anymore.\\n- Well shut up and put the bones back in the box, then.", "seeing my baby for the first time", "It's OK, Daddy, I'm not hurt.", "It would have to be when my sister lost her baby a couple of years ago. The baby had a trisomy 18(an extra chormosome) that doesn't happen very often. My sister carried her to full term and lost the baby after about 4 months, when they said she wouldn't live past 3 weeks. She died in my sister's arms and that was very painful.", "Well you could have a child but i think it can catch the virus and so will ur partner so you can adopt. I know it won't really make you happy as a one from your womb but from my experience w/ my aunt (who had the disease) and my uncle(who didn't)- there baby is HIV. Just go to a sophiticated doctor who can really give you all the details.", "If you are in the US, nursing is most definitely worth pursuing as a career. The impending retirement of many baby boomers is creating great demand for nurses. My sister and mother are both nurses; my sister has her pick of choice jobs and my mother, who is in her mid-60s, is contacted every week with job offers.", "He's a MORON of privilege, his daddy has a lot of friends in high places who look out for him i.e. \"Dead Eye Dick\". That's how he got into Yale and STOLE his first presidency." ]

[ "You don’t" ]

[ "How does one sleep, with lights open?", "Communicating over vast distances in real time.", "I want to know how to avoid getting jealous or insecure in one. How to reassure myself and to not overthink situations. Also how to be a good communicator in one", "Germany being a reasonable choice for being an actual leader of europe.", "I shit all over rust for it having the most toxic community I have ever seen.", "Affordable housing. All these malls should be changed over to small apartments with shops built in to support a local community", "I'm fine being a gay female" ]

[ "Lord Shiva" ]

[ "Kashy Keegan", "City God Temple", "Dedicated To...\"", "a Hindu temple dedicated to Goddess Kali", "dedication", "Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari", "gods", "Dance of Dedication", "the God", "temples", "Dedicated to the Moon", "that which burns", "dedicated cells", "that which purifies", "dedicated console", "temple", "dedicated carriers", "god", "the gods", "The Temple", "Balaji Vishwanath Bhat", "the Jedi Temple", "The Temple of the Stars", "that which is heard", "The Temple of Augustus", "Cleansing of the Temple", "the Minzhong Temple", "the Falcon Temple", "Temple Square", "Temple, Texas", "disbelief in God or gods", "public or dedicated fund" ]

[ "Columbus, Georgia" ]

[ "Come In from the Rain", "Did Not Finish", "Come On Come On", "coming to assistance from behind", "where they terminate", "Where Do We Go From Here", "Where Are the Children", "Where Do I Go from You", "Simpsons Already Did It", "Come, Come, Ye Saints", "I Did It for Love" ]

[ "Way to much. They are cons." ]

[ "the person before me solved for the capacity, which is how much charge the earth can hold, not how much charge it is actually holding.\\n\\nthere is no way to know for sure how much charge is on the earth's surface, it's too big, and it is constantly changing. Charged particles go up into the atmosphere all the time, and everytime there's a lightning storm, it changes dramatically at one time, and there's no way to really measure how much charge is there at any given time. Plus, it's not really 'charged' becaue it is so big and has so little charge compared to its mass, which is why it can act as a 'grounding' and not be affected when large amounts of charge are put into it, because they are still small charges relative to the mass of the earth. it is impossible to calculate the total charge on the entire earth at any given time.", "As long as it is notarized, it is fine. You do not need to file it at the county Recorder's Office. The note should be clear on when payment starts and how much the interest is being charged. The note can be used as evidence in court case if the party does not pay.", "Shift your paradigm and think of how buyers purchase. The role of the debit card as a replacement for cash, check, and charge. How does the debit card better facilitate buying and the elimination of debt? How does a debit card affect the buyers purchasing propensity?", "depends on how you use it. With a lot charge / decharge cycles a laptop battery does not last long. In best case it lasts 2 years.", "Here are the lyrics if that's what you are looking for:\\nLook out football, here we come, Houston Oilers, Number One. \\n\\nHouston has the Oilers, the greatest football team. \\nWe take the ball from goal to goal like no one's ever seen. \\nWe're in the air, we're on the ground - always in control, \\nAnd when you say the Oilers, you're talking Super Bowl. \\n\\n'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One. Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One. \\n\\nWe've got the offense, \\nwe've got the defense, \\nWe give the other team no hope.\\n'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, \\nYou know we're gonna hold the rope. \\n\\nYes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One. Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One. \\n\\n'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One - Five - Seven - Eight, We're the best from the Lone Star State! Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.", "have you rebooted it? How about trying a different charger? Does it charge when synced to the computer? If the answer is no, it's time to get a new one.", "- Is it designed for running or for walking?\\n- How durable is it?\\n- How much does it weigh?\\n- Is it easy to move/store?\\n- How wide and long is the track?\\n- How much does it cost?\\n- What special features does it have such as a digital screen, exercise programs, fan, tv, etc?", "You have to remember that current is simply defined as how many charges can flow per unit time. So really, there is no limit, usually lightning is in the range of 10-20 kA. However, this is no real limit, it all depends on how fast the charges can flow through the ionized air (Plasma). Some lightning can be in the range of 200,000 Amps, however, there is no rule or limit as to how much current there can be.", "First off it is a gas. Second it has a fixed charge. It does not have multiple charges like a metal does.", "Their monthly statement\\n\\nI have checked online banking but it does show how much owed and how much left but not transactions made", "Like charges do not attract eachother.\\n\\nLike gravity does, but charges do not.", "For the same reason people turn on a computer without understand it's nothing more than \"controlled\" charges. If you look at the world understanding that, for example, light is a wave and a particle or that sound is nothing more than vibrations, you expose the \"ugly\" truth about the world.\\n\\nIn the same way that an operating system hides the 'ugly' fact that computers operate on charges, religion covers up the ugly truth of the world.\\n\\nHow does a computer work? Magic. How was the world created? Magic. How does the brain work? Magic.", "The simple economic principle of \"Supply and Demand\". This states that you charge more if it is a more wanted item. If there is a demand of it and a small supply then it is very valuable (like iPods and such) the people will charge you what ever they want because they know you need it. But if there is less demand and doesnt matter how much supply the producers will charge less as a means of selling their item (ie the sales been at store, nobody wants it so they sell it for cheap).\\n\\nRight now the war is slowing down how much oil can be exported which is making the supply drop. Not to mention that the oil compnies need to turn the crude oil into gasoline which cost money as well.", "A battery is a storage device. If it is \"under constant charge\" it is unnecessary, since the electricity charging it can be used to power whatever you are using the battery for. If you mean there is constant power to the battery but not enough to perform the work, then you need to give more information, basically coming down to how much power is coming from the battery to make up the difference, and how big a battery and is it at full charge at the beginning.\\n\\n\"Horse\" - if you mean horsepower, is the work done by the motor. It has little to do with how much battery power you need to run the motor, which depends more on the size of the motor. The work done depends on the torque produced when power is applied to the motor.\\n\\nSee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_power_theorem", "marketing is the process of getting your product to the customer\\n\\nit involves the 4 Ps .. Product, Place, Price and Promotion.. what you are selling, where you are selling it, how you are selling it and how much do you charge for it.", "You could check on Amazon, Half, and Ebay (or sites like that) for the titles to see how much other people are charging for their books (and how much they are getting in the autions).\\n\\nYou could take them to a used book store or two and ask.\\n\\nYou could have a book appraiser come in and apraise them for you.", "Yes, it does have to to with \"hops,\" but they're referring to the hops in beer. It's generally part of the process of making beer and how/when/how much hops are added.", "What does the mad cow scare have to do with how much sausage germans ate????????", "In the US, I've heard the best cellular internet access is by Verizon. If you use it too much, it will charge a lot. Make sure you read the fine print when you sign up and figure out how much you'll use it so you'll know how much it will cost you. I don't know how to connect the phone to your computer so your computer can get on the internet though. Ask a sales rep. If they can't help you, you might be out of luck.", "A volt is a unit of voltage, while an ampere is a unit of current, or amperage. You can think of voltage as how much \"push\" the electricity has. Current is how much charge is moving through over time (1 A = 1 C/s). For a given resistance, more voltage means more current - they are directly proportional, but not the same thing. V = IR, where V is voltage, I is current, and R is resistance.", "The governer of Texas, Sam Houston, was vehamently opposed to Texas seceding from the Union. Ultimately, the state's government felt that the states were giving up too much control over their affairs to the Federal government.", "Give unto Cesar what is Cesar's, give unto God what belongs to God. God does not care how you earn a living or not, nor how you spend the benefits from that work. God does care how much spirituality you give at all times.", "Car rental agencies set their own fees and charges. Next time, ask about fees and extra charges before you sign the contract, and find a company that does not charge the fees you are asking about.", "WELL...DOES SHE TALK 2 U!!!!! IF SO TELL HER HOW U FEEL TELL HER HOW MUCH U LIKE HER!!!!TELL HER HOW BEAUTIFUL SHE IS !!!!!IT WORKS EVERY TIME....I SHOULD KNOW....THATS HOW MY BOYFRIEND OF A YEAR AND 1/2 GOT ME!!!MUCH LUV!!!!!", "The lions are for sure looking for a coach after firing heir coach. Houston may end up firing Dom Capers after such poor season. New Orleans and Oakland look like they will fire their coaches, Oaklands offense should have does much better and do I need to say much about New Orleans? \\n\\nThe Ravens coach Brian Billick is on the hot seat because of the bad development of Kyle Boller, who has not done much good as a QB and a real bad season. I think we'll have to wait to see will is fired and the off-season before we'll get a good idea of posable replacements.", "i went to college for multimedia design. in rhode island, wasnt interested in a career in it tho but i do freelaching work often which is fun because i can choose which projects i want to do and how much to charge for them", "ever money transaction that pass through legal instituion such as bank, postal service or paypal do have service charges, they only differ on how much they charge for this service.\\n\\nThere are several service you can try, sending money order, like a postal check, the recipient can cash this from the post office, send a check, she can cash this from the bank, wire transfer either through bank or Western Union.\\n\\nThen there is the e-fund, like paypal.\\n\\nUsually the charges are bill at your end.", "The air passes through a membrane that is charged so that charged particles in the air are attracted to it. Not only does this move the air, but it takes the particles out of the air.", "What is the charge of the nucleus?\\nAre electron's negatively or positively charged?\\nAre electron's particles or waves?\\nHow many valence electrons does a carbon atom have?\\n...", "Do some research and find out the average rate of pay for a freelance developer or consultant. Then you can decide if you want to charge more, as you are the only one who knows, and your demand is getting higher. Comes back to supply and demand. You could also charge less if you wanted, or the same.\\nPossibly the easiest way would be to ring people in your area, and sorrounding areas, to find out how much they would charge, and how they would charge. Ie, by the hour, a lump sum figure estimated by calculating how much time will be needed to do it. If you take less time, you get payed for time you didn't do, if you take more time, you lose and don't get paid for the extended time, unless you place that requirement in the estimate, and make sure you do not take more time than is reasonable to do the job. That is, don't be lazy, or the company may be able to break the contract with you, and you not get payed, or have to go to court.", "The worst records in the league are Houston, SF, NYJ and New Orleans. I would put the Houston and SF in the lead. Houston b/c obviously they're currently the worst and are more likely to get the 1st pick. SF has the the 2nd worst record and since Alex Smith played HS football with Bush, there may be some connection there.", "Yes, he had 8 children.\\n\\n \" 1. Sam Houston, Jr., 1843-1894\\n 2. Nancy Elizabeth, 1846-1920\\n 3. Margaret Lea, 1848-1906\\n 4. Mary William, 1850-1931\\n 5. Antionette Power, 1852-1932\\n 6. Andrew Jackson Houston, 1854-1941\\n 7. William Rogers Houston, 1858-1880s?\\n 8. Temple Lea Houston, 1860-1905\"\\n (from Wikipedia)" ]

[ "Media playback is not supported on this device\nDownie, 17, was completing a somersault on the floor when she landed awkwardly.\nShe was assessed by medical staff and returned to compete on the vault.\nBritain finished fourth in qualifying with a total of 174.064, behind Russia, China and defending champions USA, with the top eight teams progressing to Tuesday's team final.\nDownie, meanwhile, finished 24th in the all-around qualification meaning she is into the final.\n\"I crunched my neck,\" Downie said. \"It sounds pretty gross but I just felt dizzy before my last tumble.\n\"They put me in a wheelchair and I was like, 'I don't need a wheelchair.'\n\"I was better than I thought so I came back out and vaulted.\"" ]

[ "The team of Amy Tinkler, Ruby Harrold, Ellie Downie, Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane and Kelly Simm finished third - behind the US and Russia but ahead of China - with eight places at the Rio Olympics in Brazil up for grabs.\n\"We are incredibly proud,\" Becky Downie said of their achievement.\n\"Coming in to this championships all our focus was on producing the best team results we could and to have placed third is very special.\"\nAs well as claiming the team final place, several GB gymnasts have booked places in individual finals.\n15-year-old Tinkler will go in Thursday's all-around final on her senior World Championships debut along with Harrold, who will also take part in uneven bars.\nEllie Downie will challenge on vault and floor, where she will be joined by Fragapane.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe United States won gold for their third consecutive women's team title, while China took silver.\nThe Americans produced an error-free performance on the four apparatus of vault, uneven bars, beam and floor to score 181.338 points.\nChina accumulated 176.164 points, with Great Britain scoring 172.380.\nThe British team of Becky Downie, Ruby Harrold, Amy Tinkler, Claudia Fragapane, Ellie Downie and Kelly Simm were out of the medals going into their final vault apparatus.\nBut three terrific vaults by Claudia Fragapane, Amy Tinkler and Ellie Downie helped GB leapfrog Russia, who put in patchy beam and floor performances.\nThe younger Downie sister's final vault of 15.133 came after she fell off her first apparatus on uneven bars.\nThe 16-year-old, though, regained her composure to score well on beam and floor before her decisive vault under pressure.\n\"It was an amazing experience, it was so nice to be able to achieve this success in front of a home crowd as well,\" said her sister Becky, 23.\n\"It just makes it that much more special for us all to know how much it means to the supporters. The future for British Gymnastics is really exciting, so we have a lot to look forward to.\"\nTinkler, another World Championships debutant - and celebrating her 16th birthday - also showed incredible maturity on both floor and vault.\nFragapane (floor, beam and vault), Becky Downie (bars and beam) and Ruby Harrold (bars) also made important contributions.\nGB women's previous World Championships team best was fifth in Tokyo in 2011.\nOn Wednesday, Britain's men will compete in their team final, having qualified third.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nCourtney Tulloch, 21, won Britain's first major international rings medal with silver at the event in Romania.\nOlympic champion Eleftherios Petrounias claimed gold, 0.367 ahead of Tulloch.\nEllie's older sister Becky Downie, 25, was unable to defend her uneven bars title as she fell during her routine and needed medical attention.\nHer participation in Sunday's beam final looks in doubt, with fellow Briton Claudia Fragapane set to take her place should she withdraw.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"I mainly just felt gutted for her - she worked so hard and the won I bronze is for her and me,\" Ellie told BBC Sport.\n\"The bars bronze was just so unexpected and if Becky had gone through her routine I'm sure she would've knocked me into fourth.\"\nDownie tied for third alongside Eli Seitz of Germany as Belgium's Nina Derwael took gold and Russia's Elena Eremina silver.\nIt was the third medal for the 17-year-old Briton in as many finals, having also claimed silver in the vault final earlier on Saturday.\nDownie produced two solid vaults to lead with an average of 14.350, only to be pipped by the final competitor, Coline Devillard of France, with Hungary's Boglarka Devai in third.\n\"I was really happy with the vault - I was in first until the last girl and she full deserved it,\" Downie added.\n\"Her vaults were definitely tidier than mine so I was happy to let her have that title.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nOn Friday, Downie became the first British gymnast to win all-around gold at a major international championship and will also compete in the beam and floor finals on Sunday.\nTulloch continued an impressive championships for a largely inexperienced British men's team, which contains none of the competitors from the Rio Olympics, following James Hall's all-around bronze on Friday.\nHe scored 15.066 to move into second with only one athlete remaining and held on to silver place as Turkey's Ibrahim Colak could only finish fifth, with Ukraine's Igor Radivilov claiming bronze.", "Amy Tinkler, Ruby Harrold, Ellie Downie, Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane and Kelly Simm produced GB's best ever World Championships qualifying result.\nThey finished third - behind the US and Russia but ahead of China - with eight places in Rio up for grabs.\n\"We are incredibly proud,\" Becky Downie said of their achievement.\n\"Coming in to this championships all our focus was on producing the best team results we could and to have placed third - our best ever Olympic qualifying performance - is very special.\n\"Competing in Glasgow with the amazing support of the home crowd definitely gave us that extra energy and every member of the team contributed to our success.\n\"It's taken a lot of hard work and dedication and that's definitely all paid of. We're all so happy to know we've got the Olympic places and we can head to Tuesday's team final full of confidence.\"\nAs well as claiming the team final place, several GB gymnasts have booked places in individual finals.\nTinkler, 15, will go in Thursday's all-around final on her senior World Championships debut along with Harrold, who will also take part in uneven bars.\nEllie Downie will challenge on vault and floor, where she will be joined by Fragapane.", "No British gymnast had ever made every final at a major international championships before.\nThe 17-year-old topped the all around standings, scoring 56.198, vault and floor in Romania, and also qualified for the beam and bars.\nShe will be joined in the all around by late addition Alice Kinsella, 16.\nFind out how to get into gymnastics with our special guide.\nElder Downie sister Becky also made the finals in the beam and the uneven bars, in which she is the defending champion, while Claudia Fragapane will go in the floor final.\n\"I had a really good time out there. It was probably some of my best performances,\" Ellie Downie told BBC Sport.\n\"I was nervous for bars but once I got that and beam out of the way I could just enjoy the rest.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nShe became Great Britain's first ever major all around individual medallist when she took European bronze in 2015.\nHer all around score is 1.316 points ahead of the second-placed qualifier Zsofia Kovacs of Hungary.\nAnd having made more history by making every final she will now aim to win her first major international gold medal.\n\"We'll just have to see [if I can win a gold medal],\" said Ellie Downie.\n\"Today well really well but I have to come back and do it all again tomorrow [Friday].\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nBecky Downie secured gold on the uneven bars, while her younger sister Ellie claimed silver on the vault and floor.\nBecky, 24, pipped Russian world champion Daria Spiridonova to the title by scoring 15.5 points.\nSixteen-year-old Ellie, who scored 14.933, came second to home favourite Giulia Steingruber.\nBecky's uneven bars success means she reclaims the title she won in 2014, while Ellie's vault and floor silvers take the GB women's tally to four medals in Switzerland, following Saturday's team silver.\n\"I'm so pleased not just to win the gold but to do it with my hardest routine,\" Becky Downie told BBC Sport.\n\"In my mind I knew I was going to go for it today; I needed to test it - hopefully if I make the team - for Rio.\"\nEllie finished second to home favourite Steingruber in both her finals.\nLast up on floor, the younger Downie performed a routine that pushed her team-mate Claudia Fragapane down to fourth and out of the medals.\n\"I'm so chuffed with the vault silver. I knew if I did my did my good vaults I could get in that top three,\" Ellie Downie said.\n\"I definitely wasn't expecting the silver on floor. I qualified in fourth and just wanted to go out and enjoy the last routine of the competition.\"\nFragapane also came fourth in vault, while Becky Downie was joint-sixth on beam and Gabby Jupp finished seventh on bars in her first international competition following a lengthy knee injury.", "She was the favourite to win gold and didn't disappoint with her routine showing off her power and agility.\nBiles went ahead straight away, scoring 15.866 on vault, but she dropped back to second place with 14.966 on the uneven bars.\nShe then wowed the crowd with an acrobatic beam routine to score 15.433 before a floor routine to samba music, including the famous \"Biles\" move.\nShe scored 15.933 and burst into tears when the gold medal was confirmed.\nIt's Simone's second gold medal of the games, with teammate Alexandra Raisman getting silver and Russia's Aliya Mustafina taking the bronze.\nThe United States have now won the event four times in a row: Carly Patterson in 2004, Nastia Liukin in 2008 and Gabrielle Douglas in 2012.\nGreat Britain's Ellie Downie came 13th, just missing out on becoming the best performing female British gymnast in an Olympic all-around final.\nVideo only available to UK users.", "The 16-year-old is the current senior British floor champion and won bronze at the 2015 World Championships.\nShe missed the European Championships in June to concentrate on school exams.\n\"I had the opportunity to watch the all-around final in 2012 and it was incredible,\" she told BBC Sport.\n\"From that, it made me want it even more, it was incredible and made me so motivated.\"\nTinkler is one of five women in the gymnastics team, along with sisters Becky and Ellie Downie, Commonwealth champion Claudia Fragapane and Ruby Harrold.\nShe continues to train with South Durham coaches Nicola Preston and Rachael Wright in her native north east.\n\"Me and my coaches have taken each day as it comes and we've not really spoken about Rio,\" Tinkler added.\n\"Getting to the World Championships was incredible and we didn't think that was going to happen so it's amazing.\"", "The 18-year-old injured her left ankle at the British Championships in March but went on to win four medals in April's European Championships.\nShe had surgery on the injury on Monday and will now miss October's competition in Montreal, Canada.\n\"My eyes are now set on getting ready and fit for the Commonwealth Games next year,\" Downie said.\n\"I'm very excited to be on the road to recovery and get fit again. A minor setback is a pathway for a major comeback.\"\nBritish Gymnastics added that it expected Downie to be \"fully fit for an important year of competition in 2018\".\nDownie's elder sister Becky will also miss the Worlds as she continues to recover from an elbow injury.\nBBC Sport's David McDaid\nHaving shown her dominance at European level to take that historic all-around gold in April, gymnastics fans were excited to see if Ellie Downie could carry that on to the world stage.\nWith international stars such as Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Aliya Mustafina all missing, the younger Downie sister's chances of taking all-around honours would have been even higher.\nGiven what she has achieved already, it's easy to forget she only turned 18 last month.\nHer coaches often speak of her maturity and willingness to view the bigger picture when it comes to her body and her career.\nSitting out these World Championships will allow her to come back for a full 2018 including the Commonwealth Games and, crucially, next year's World Championships - which are the first qualifying steps towards the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.\nThe absence of both Downies means a chance for some younger gymnasts to make their mark.\nLook out for the likes of Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Kelly Simm and Maisie Methuen to take spots alongside more recognisable names such as Amy Tinkler and Claudia Fragapane.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe 16-year-old won bronze at the European Championships to become Britain's first female gymnast to win an individual all-around medal.\nNottingham-born Downie also won team bronze at the World Championships in Glasgow in October.\nShe beat jockey Tom Marquand and Para-swimmer Tully Kearney - the trio were selected from an original list of 10.\nDownie, who was presented the award by super bantamweight world champion boxer Carl Frampton and sprinter Dina Asher Smith in Belfast, said: \"I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone at British gymnastics, everyone at my home club, my family, my friends... everyone who has helped me along the way.\n\"Well done to all the nominees.\"\nPast winners have included footballer Wayne Rooney, diver Tom Daley and Britain's number one tennis player Andy Murray.\nEllie, the younger sister of Team GB Olympian Becky Downie, also achieved five GCSEs at A-C, while competing in 2015.\nThe list of 10 were selected from nominations made to the BBC by sports governing bodies via the Youth Sport Trust and in partnership with CBBC's Blue Peter programme.", "The 24-year-old, who became Britain's first Olympic gymnastics champion at the 2016 Rio Games, will miss the iPro World Cup in London next month.\nHe will also miss April's European Championships in Romania.\n\"I know 100% that it's the right decision,\" said Whitlock, the pommel horse world champion.\n\"I want to continue to compete at the very highest level aiming towards the Tokyo Olympics in 2020,\" he added.\n\"But I'm very conscious that since suffering from glandular fever two years ago, I need to manage my body.\"\nWhitlock won floor and pommel gold in Brazil, as well as all-around bronze alongside British team-mate Louis Smith, who is also unlikely to be part of the team heading to Romania.\nThe four-time Olympic medallist has been on a break while taking part in Channel 4's The Jump programme, where he has made next weekend's final.\nMeanwhile, Olympic bronze medallists Amy Tinkler and Sam Oldham are among the British athletes who will take part in next month's World Cup of Gymnastics event in London on 8 April. They will be joined by Ellie Downie and Brinn Bevan.", "Smith, 25, won a silver in the pommel horse event in 2012 and was part of the group that collected a team bronze.\nHe won pommel horse gold at the recent British Championships and is in a six-man squad for the event in Montpellier.\nFour-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Claudia Fragapane, 17, is one of four gymnasts in the women's squad.\nShe is joined by European and Commonwealth bars champion Becky Downie, her younger sister Ellie and 2015 British all-around champion Amy Tinkler, who makes her senior international debut.\nThe event begins on 15 April and World Championships all-around silver medallist Max Whitlock is also in the men's squad, as are Sam Oldham, Kristian Thomas, Daniel Purvis and Courtney Tulloch.\nAfter the Olympics, Smith took a break from the sport and spent some time working in television programmes, winning the Strictly Come Dancing title in December 2012.\nBut he returned to gymnastics in 2014 and won a pommel horse bronze and a team gold while representing England in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.", "Four falls over beam and uneven bars meant the British team finished nearly five marks off the gold spot but still nearly two ahead of France in third.\n\"We'd be lying if we said we weren't disappointed but I'm still incredibly proud,\" Becky Downie told BBC Sport.\n\"To have that many falls and still get silver shows how much we've improved.\"\nShe added: \"Two years ago we were crying with happiness because we scraped a silver.\"\nThe British team of Becky and Ellie Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Gabby Jupp and Ruby Harrold were within touching distance of Russia after the first apparatus, with the younger Downie sister Ellie posting a fine 15.1 on bars.\nBecky Downie scored 15.066 after Harrold had missed a catch in her routine.\nThe elder sister then suffered falls on beam, as did Fragapane, while Russia, led by Aliya Mustafina, extended their lead.\nHowever, Fragapane was able to put her obvious disappointment behind her to give trademark energetic performance on the floor to seal a comfortable silver medal with a total score of 170.312. Russia won the gold medal with 175.212, and France were third on 168.496.\nThe GB team in Switzerland travelled without Amy Tinkler, who remained at home to concentrate on school exams, although they did welcome back Jupp after three years plagued by injuries.\nOn Sunday, Britain will have seven chances to win medals across all four apparatus.", "She became the first British gymnast to win all-around gold at a major international championship on Friday.\nCongrats, Ellie, who's won a total of four medals at the competition in Romania.\nHere are 10 things you might not know about the 17-year-old superstar...\nHer first big success was at the 2012 School Games where she won six gold medals.\nA year later, when she was 15 (and already pretty busy with GCSEs), Ellie took bronze at the European Championships in France.\nIt made her the first female gymnast ever to win an individual all-around medal for Great Britain.\nShe finished 13th in the all-around final.\n...instead of in their boxes. It's so that she can see them all the time!\nShe's not brilliant at everything! She's said that she's really bad at swimming, and uses a floatie.\nHer big sister Becky is another Olympian and European champion in the uneven bars.\nEllie used to watch Becky training. When she was eight, she watched Becky competing in the Beijing Olympics, so it's no wonder she was inspired to do the same!\nIn a typical day, she does two sessions, each 2-3 hours long.\nShe's taken time out of education so that she can fully concentrate on gymnastics.\nEven though Ellie is seven years younger than Becky, Ellie sometimes gets mistaken for the older sister because she's taller!", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe 17-year-old finished with four medals in Romania after an all-around gold, vault silver and bars bronze.\n\"I've hit 12 out of 12 routines and to come away with four medals is absolutely crazy,\" she said.\nBritish gymnasts leave the championships with six medals, after James Hall won all-around bronze and Courtney Tulloch took rings silver.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nDownie qualified for every final in Cluj and only failed to win a medal on the beam, where she finished fourth.\n\"I'm definitely very happy with these championships. It couldn't have gone much better for me,\" she added.\n\"I'm pretty knackered to be honest. Coming in to today was the most tired I've felt.\n\"But I think the crowd and adrenaline and what I'd done the last couple of days just pushed me on.\"\nAnd she said the disappointment of missing out on a medal at the Rio Olympics had spurred her on.\n\"I took a break, came back and was just ready to go again,\" said Downie.\n\"I've worked so hard, I've pushed my fitness, and it's paid off here. I couldn't be happier.\"\nAlso on Sunday, Hall narrowly missed out on his second medal of the championships, coming fourth in a high-quality high bar final.\nElsewhere, Claudia Fragapane fell off the beam to finish eighth, while on the floor a big step-out left her in seventh.\nDom Cunningham placed sixth in the men's vault final.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe 25-year-old, competing for Britain for the first time since the London 2012 Olympics, scored 15.8 to claim his first apparatus gold in GB colours.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nHis win came after Kristian Thomas won Britain's first gold in Montpellier.\nBecky Downie took silver in the uneven bars, with younger sister Ellie finishing in fourth place.\nThe 15-year-old, who won bronze in the all-around on Friday, finished just 0.1 points adrift of third in an event won by Russia's Anastasia Spiridonova.\nThomas, 26, had earlier won his first international individual apparatus gold by scoring 15.166 with a clean routine on the floor.\nAnd Smith, who came out of retirement last year and wants to compete at next year's Olympic Games in Rio, matched his team-mate's achievement in his favoured event.\n\"It's unbelievable. This for me was a trial, a massive competition for me to prove that I'm willing to go all the way,\" Smith told BBC Sport.\n\"It doesn't rest with this. Rio is in my mind; I want to be there.\"\nSmith was first up in the eight-man final and admitted to feeling tense.\n\"I was so nervous before my routine because it meant a lot more to me,\" said Smith.\n\"It's been a journey just to get back to this point and to get gold just after Kristian is just brilliant.\n\"I had a break after London 2012 and I made the decision to get back into it. It would be silly to waste what I've got.\n\"It's going to be a very busy summer trying to get into the team for the World Championships.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nBoth posted huge pommel scores but Smith had to settle for silver as his 16.1 was bettered by Whitlock's 16.325.\nIt was a re-run of November's World Championships final, which was also won by Whitlock.\nIn the senior women's apparatus final, Ellie Downie took gold in the vault and sister Becky won in the beam.\nAmy Tinkler topped the podium in the floor event and Gabby Jupp marked her return from injury by winning on the uneven bars.\nWhitlock, 23, who won Saturday's all around competition with a massive personal best score of 92.7 also took gold on the floor, silvers in the high bar and parallel bars events and bronze on the rings.\nClaudia Fragapane, who won her all around event - also with a lifetime best of 58.1 - had to settle for silver in the vault, beam and floor events.\nCompleting the men's Masters winners were Courtney Tulloch on the rings, Ashley Watson on the parallel bars, Nile Wilson in the high bar, and junior Giarnni Regini-Moran in the vault.\nFormer British gymnast Craig Heap: \"There are real positives, from both the men and the women, and one of the things which really stood out was how impressive the juniors were.\n\"It was nice to see, on the women's side, some of the old faces returning to form and from injury, Rebecca Tunney for example. They've got work to do to get in the team but if we get that experience in the team we could push for a team medal.\n\"In the men's side, we've an opportunity for lots of Olympic medals, not just one. Max Whitlock has the potential to push Japan's Kohei Uchimura. We have an Olympic champion in the making and if you've got three shots at a title, the odds are in your favour.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nLed by overwhelming all-around favourite Simone Biles, the USA scored 184.897 to retain their crown and win a fifth successive global title.\nRussia claimed silver with 176.688, ahead of bronze medallists China (176.003) and Japan (174.371).\nGreat Britain, seeking a first medal in the event since 1928, scored 174.362.\nThe British team - Claudia Fragapane, Becky Downie, Ellie Downie, Ruby Harrold and Amy Tinkler - had high hopes of finishing on the podium after winning bronze at last year's World Championships in Glasgow.\nBut, after finishing fourth in qualifying on Monday, they had to settle for a place lower in Rio's Olympic Arena.\nThe US were the hot favourites in Rio after winning the past three world crowns - in 2011, 2014 and 2015 - in addition to their success in London four years ago.\nAnd the quintet of 19-year-old Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez showed why by producing a dominant display from the very start.\nBiles, who has dominated the sport since making her senior debut in 2013, is trying to become the first gymnast to win five medals at a single Olympic Games.\nSo it was fitting that the 4ft 9in gymnast sealed her nation's victory with an almost flawless floor performance to close the event.\nThe US are the first women's team to win back-to-back Olympic golds since Romania in 2000 and 2004.\nBritain made an encouraging start on the uneven bars, ending the first rotation in third place, but slipped to fifth at the halfway stage after Ellie Downie fell off the beam.\nThey were unable to improve on that position after the floor exercise, despite producing a performance only bettered by the Americans.\nDownie impressed in the vault - the final rotation - but it was not enough to lift GB into contention.\nChristine Still, BBC Sport gymnastics expert and veteran coach:\n\"The British have performed fantastically well. There have been a few ups and downs in the championships but they have not let it affect them.\n\"They have carried on fighting right through and gave a great performance today.\n\"What a fantastic final, some great gymnastics going on. This has been truly great.\n\"USA did not disappoint and there will be talk if this is the greatest team ever.\"\nBecky Downie: \"This is one of the strongest teams we have ever put out, we could not have done more and nobody should be disappointed.\"\nEllie Downie: \"We put everything we could into this competition. We went out there and enjoyed it, but we did not get the scores we wanted on some of the apparatus. We wanted that team medal but we did all we can so we're really proud.\"\nClaudia Fragapane: \"I am happy to have gone out there and enjoyed the competition. These girls made it fun and we gave it our all.\"\nFind out how to get into gymnastics with our special guide.\nSubscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.", "The 17-year-old was the only woman from the Rio Olympics to complete four apparatus, and scored 55.350.\n\"I've worked so hard for this,\" Downie told British Gymnastics.\n\"It's been a bit up and down in training this week. To get back to full fitness hasn't been easy but it just shows the hard work has paid off.\"\nClaudia Fragapane qualified top for Sunday's floor apparatus final with a score of 13.75.\nOlympic floor bronze medallist Amy Tinkler only competed on bars, qualifying in the last spot.\nJoe Fraser, 18, said he was left feeling \"speechless\" after winning the men's all-around title in his first year in the senior competition.\nAbsent stars Max Whitlock, Nile Wilson and Kristian Thomas will also be missing at the forthcoming European Championships in Romania.\n\"To come away with this is something I would never have expected before the competition,\" said Fraser.\n\"There are more competitions where I need to prove myself but hopefully I can secure myself a space.\"", "The achievements of these 10 athletes have earned them a place on the shortlist for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year 2016.\nOne of these teenagers will follow in the footsteps of past winners Ellie Simmonds, Wayne Rooney, Amber Hill, Tom Daley and Andy Murray.\nThe top three, chosen by an expert panel, will be named on Blue Peter on Thursday, 8 December.\nLast year's winner Ellie Downie has had another phenomenal year, joining Tinkler and her older sister Becky in the GB Gymnastics team at the Rio Olympics.\nEllie qualified for the all-around final, finishing in 13th place in what was arguably the most competitive all-around final in Olympic history.\nThe 16-year-old also dominated at the 2016 Osijek World Challenge Cup event in Croatia taking four golds in four apparatus finals.\nSophie Ecclestone became the third youngest female to be selected for full England honours, earning a place in England Women's T20 and ODI squads.\nThe 17-year-old was part of the series-winning ladies' team in the West Indies and is a key member of the Lancashire Thunder's Women's Super League team.\nIn Keelan Giles' first four games for Pro 12 side Ospreys, he scored eight tries including a hat-trick away to Lyon in the European Challenge Cup.\nOspreys coach Steve Tandy has described the 18-year-old as an \"unbelievable finisher\" and he has been compared to Wales' record try scorer Shane Williams.\nKeelan was called up to train with Rob Howley's senior Wales squad ahead of the autumn internationals and was one of the stars of Wales' U20s Grand Slam campaign during the Six Nations.\nTom Hamer won two silvers (200m S14 freestyle and S14 individual medley) at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, setting British records in both events.\nThe 18-year-old also took gold in the 200m freestyle at the IPC European Championships, setting a new British record of 1.57.27.\nSwimmer Ellie Robinson broke the Paralympic record to win gold in the 50m butterfly at the Rio Games.\nThe 15-year-old also won bronze in the 100m freestyle, breaking a British record in the process and has been described as a \"great role model to both able-bodied and para-athletes\".\nEarlier in the year, at the IPC European Championships, she brought back one silver (50m butterfly) and three bronze medals (50m, 100m and 400m freestyle).\nLauren Rowles, 18, picked up a gold medal at the Rio Paralympic Games, in the trunk-and-arms mixed double sculls, with partner Laurence Whiteley, recording a world best time in the process.\nLauren only took up rowing two years ago after competing at the Commonwealth Games in athletics in 2014.\nShe has had to balance training with taking her A levels and was successful in gaining a place at Oxford Brookes University.\nGeorgia Stanway, 17, has had an outstanding breakthrough season for Manchester City Women, making nine appearances and scoring four goals - helping the team to their first FA Women's Super League title, as well as securing the Continental Cup.\nGeorgia was England's top scorer during the U17 Women's World Cup, with three goals in four games as they reached the quarter finals.\nShe also played every minute of England's games at the Uefa Women's U17 Championship finals, scoring two goals and making one assist.\nSixteen-year-old Jess Stretton won individual gold in the Q1 archery at the Rio Paralympic Games.\nAs the youngest competitor in the archery event she set a new Paralympic record, with compatriots Jo Frith and Vicky Jenkins taking silver and bronze position to make it a clean sweep for Great Britain.\nShe also claimed silver at the Fazaa International Para Championships, breaking a world record in an earlier round.\nRebekah Tiler won three bronzes (overall bronze, as well as individual medals in the snatch - with a best of 99kg and 123kg in the clean and jerk) at the European Weightlifting Championships in April, boosting her hopes of Olympic selection.\nThe 17-year-old went on to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as Team GB's only female weightlifter, finishing in 10th place.\nSixteen-year-old Amy Tinkler gave the performance of her life to take bronze on the floor at the Rio 2016 Olympics, becoming the first female British gymnast to medal in the event.\nShe was the youngest member of Team GB in Rio, and only the second British woman to win an individual artistic gymnastics medal, after Beth Tweddle's bronze in the uneven bars in 2012.\nAmy also retained her floor title at the British Championships, winning gold for the second year in a row.\nThis award goes to the outstanding young sportsperson aged 17 or under on 1 January 2016, selected from nominations made to the BBC and by sports governing bodies via the Youth Sport Trust. Nominations closed on 11 November 2016.\nThe Young Sports Personality of the Year award will be determined by the following panel:\n·John Inverdale (chair)\n·Radzi Chinyanganya (Blue Peter presenter)\n·Young Blue Peter sports badge winner\n·Tina Daheley (Radio 1)\n·Alison Oliver (CEO, Youth Sports Trust)\n·Will Roberts (Assistant Director of Development, Youth Sports Trust)\n·Lee Murphy (Head of PR/Comms, Youth Sports Trust)\n·Jody Cundy (Paralympic Gold medallist)\n·Lutalo Muhammad (Olympic silver medallist)\n·Dina Asher-Smith (Sprinter, Olympian and European Champion)\n·Carl Doran (Executive Editor, BBC Sports Personality of the Year)", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nBiles, 19, who has won 10 World Championship medals since 2013, scored 62.198 to win her second Olympic medal by a margin of more than two points.\nCompatriot Alexandra Raisman got silver with Russia's Aliya Mustafina third.\nGreat Britain's Ellie Downie came 13th, narrowly missing out on becoming the best performing female British gymnast in an Olympic all-around final.\nBiles, described by many as the greatest ever gymnast, had arrived in Rio as the overwhelming favourite for gold and the 4ft 8in athlete delivered in a big way.\nHaving already led the United States to victory in the team event, she turned the spotlight on her individual brilliance with a dazzling display of power, agility and gravity-defying moves.\nShe went ahead after the first of four disciplines with a score of 15.866 on vault, although she dropped back to second with 14.966 on the uneven bars, with Mustafina taking the lead at the halfway point.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nBiles then turned on the style with an acrobatic beam routine that included a stunning spin to score 15.433 before a floor routine to samba music packed with energetic tumbles, including the move that bears her name.\nShe scored 15.933 for that final routine and burst into tears when the victory was confirmed.\nThe United States have now won this event four times in a row, following victories by Carly Patterson in 2004, Nastia Liukin in 2008 and Gabrielle Douglas in 2012.\nBiles has more chances for success in Rio as she is also in the vault final on Sunday, the beam final on Monday and the floor final on Tuesday.\nBritain's Max Whitlock had won a bronze medal in the men's event on Wednesday, but Downie's medal hopes ended with a poor score on her third apparatus, the uneven bars, before she made another error on beam.\nFind out how to get into gymnastics with our special guide.\nThose mistakes saw her drop down from seventh to 13th, to miss out on emulating her sister Becky Downie, who came 12th in the all-around final at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.\nSeventeen-year-old Ellie Downie, the winner of the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2015, gained a total of 56.883 after scores of 14.300 on floor, 15.100 on vault, 13.783 on uneven bars and 13.700 on beam.\nGold medallist Simone Biles said: \"I'm very excited and relieved, I've finally done it. You never know the feeling until it hits you.\n\"I'm not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, I'm the first Simone Biles. To me I'm just the same Simone.\"\nSilver-medallist Alexandra Raisman added: \"No-one goes into this thinking they can beat Simone.\n\"I'm sure most people don't go into it thinking they can beat Usain Bolt, so it's kind of the same thing.\n\"We are like sisters. I told her before today, I want you to win and I want second.\"\nGreat Britain's Ellie Downie said: \"I was really happy with how floor and vault went. On bars I lost a bit of concentration, which is something I'll learn from.\n\"On beam I didn't feel nervous and the actual routine was really good but the landing I needed to focus more.\n\"It's mixed emotions knowing if I had gone clean I had a chance of a medal, which shows I'm right up there. That's a big positive to take out of these Games.\n\"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster experience but I'm very proud of what I've achieved.\"\nSubscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.", "She triumphed in the S6 50m butterfly final with a Games record.\nThe teenager from Northampton was named Young Personality from a shortlist of three which also included rugby union's Keelan Giles and gymnast Amy Tinkler.\nRobinson follows in the footsteps of past winners, such as Wayne Rooney, Andy Murray and Ellie Downie.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nShe was presented with her award by gymnast, and former winner, Claudia Fragapane on BBC One's The One Show.\n\"It's just been such an amazing year. It's the icing on the cake,\" said Robinson.\n\"I only really started swimming properly three years ago and it's kind of snowballed.\"\nThe final three contenders were picked from an original list of 10, which included Downie (gymnastics), Sophie Ecclestone (cricket), Tom Hamer (Para-swimming), Lauren Rowles (Para-rowing), Georgia Stanway (football), Jess Stretton (Para-archery) and Rebekah Tiler (weightlifting).\nRobinson also won bronze in Rio, breaking a British record in the 100m freestyle final, and has been described as a \"great role model to both able-bodied and Para-athletes\".\nEarlier in the year, at the IPC European Championships, she brought back one silver (50m butterfly) and three bronze medals (50m, 100m and 400m freestyle).\nRobinson, who has a form of dwarfism that left her on crutches aged 11, was inspired by watching her now-Great Britain team-mate Ellie Simmonds at London 2012.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nThis award goes to the outstanding young sportsperson aged 17 or under on 1 January 2016, selected from nominations made to the BBC and by sports governing bodies via the Youth Sport Trust and in partnership with Blue Peter. Nominations closed on 11 November 2016.\nFull terms and conditions for Young Sports Personality and other awards", "Becky Downie, Ellie Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Ruby Harrold and Gabby Jupp combined to score a total of 173.363 points - one tenth ahead of Russia.\n\"We had a couple of little mistakes but everyone did their job and I'm really proud,\" Becky Downie told BBC Sport.\n\"We've never got that team gold and that's what everyone's fighting for.\"\nAs well as the team final on Saturday, GB will have seven medal hopes in all four apparatus finals on Sunday:", "The double European champion, 27, was riding from her home in Cardiff to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant where she works as a physiotherapist.\nShe was taken to hospital after the incident in Talbot Green, Rhondda Cynon Taff, at about 08:00 BST on Wednesday.\n\"No broken bones or head injury thank God,\" she tweeted.\n\"Thank you for all the get well soon messages.\"\nHorne, who is now recovering from her accident at home, suffered bruising and required stitches to a cut lip.\nShe was part of Team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics as a member of cycling's Team Pursuit squad.\nBut she was not picked in the final four-woman team as Laura Trott led Great Britain to Olympic gold in a world record time.\nHorne, who competed for Wales in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, works full-time alongside training for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast.", "Rugby union's Keelan Giles, Paralympic swimmer Ellie Robinson and gymnast Amy Tinkler make up the final trio from 10 nominated athletes.\nThe winner will be presented with their award on BBC One's The One Show on Wednesday, 14 December (19:00 GMT).\nThey will follow in the footsteps of past winners, such as Wayne Rooney, Andy Murray and Ellie Downie.\nThe top three were picked from an original list of 10, which included Downie (gymnastics), Sophie Ecclestone (cricket), Tom Hamer (Para-swimming), Lauren Rowles (Para-rowing), Georgia Stanway (football), Jess Stretton (Para-archery) and Rebekah Tiler (weightlifting).\nIn Keelan Giles' first four games for Pro 12 side Ospreys, he scored eight tries, including a hat-trick away to Lyon in the European Challenge Cup.\nOspreys coach Steve Tandy has described the 18-year-old as an \"unbelievable finisher\" and he has been compared to Wales' record try scorer Shane Williams.\nKeelan was called up to Rob Howley's senior Wales squad for the autumn internationals and was one of the stars of Wales' Under-20 Six Nations Grand Slam campaign.\nSwimmer Ellie Robinson broke the Paralympic record to win gold in the 50m butterfly at the Rio Games.\nThe 15-year-old also won bronze in the 100m freestyle, breaking a British record in the process, and has been described as a \"great role model to both able-bodied and Para-athletes\".\nEarlier in the year, at the IPC European Championships, she brought back one silver (50m butterfly) and three bronze medals (50m, 100m and 400m freestyle).\nSixteen-year-old Amy Tinkler gave the performance of her life to take bronze on the floor at the Rio 2016 Olympics, becoming the first female British gymnast to win a medal in the event.\nShe was the youngest member of Team GB in Rio, and only the second British woman to win an individual artistic gymnastics medal, after Beth Tweddle's bronze in the uneven bars in 2012.\nTinkler also retained her floor title at the British Championships, winning gold for the second year in a row.\nThis award goes to the outstanding young sportsperson aged 17 or under on 1 January 2016, selected from nominations made to the BBC and by sports governing bodies via the Youth Sport Trust and in partnership with Blue Peter. Nominations closed on 11 November 2016.\nFull terms and conditions for Young Sports Personality and other awards", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nFifteen of those won gold. How many of them will be back to defend their titles in 2016 at the Rio Olympic Games, and who else might come through the ranks to join them?\nA week is a long time in sport, never mind four years. But here, BBC Sport takes an early look at some names in the frame for future Olympic fame.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nSix of the 12 British Olympians who won more than one medal at London 2012 were younger than 26.\nLaura Trott, 20, and boyfriend Jason Kenny, 24, were both double Olympic champions in the velodrome, Andy Murray, 25,took tennis gold and silver, gymnasts Louis Smith, 23,and Max Whitlock, 19,both picked up two medals, and Rebecca Adlington, 23,won double bronze in freestyle swimming.\nIt would be risky to bet against any of them returning for Rio. Trott, in particular, has the chance to establish a legacy to match Sir Chris Hoy's record medal haul over the next decade, having dominated her team pursuit and omnium events in recent years.\nAdlington has some thinking to do after losing both of her Olympic titles, particularly following the stunning performance of American 15-year-old Katie Ledecky over her favoured 800m distance. Smith has suggested younger gymnasts may prove better all-rounders and push him out of the 2016 gymnastics team.\nBut you can expect Whitlock to be a bedrock of that squad if he maintains his progress, while Trott and Kenny should have at least two more Olympic outings left in them, if not more. Murray will certainly hope to defend his singles title in Rio.\nOf course, 25 is something of an arbitrary barrier. In many sports, you can just as easily win a medal in your 40s or 50s as your teens. Many of GB's gold medallists can be expected to fight for their place, if not retain their title, in four years' time - think of the likes of Jess Ennis, 26,and Mo Farah, 29, plus many of the GB rowing team.\nTo take an example from the opposite end of the spectrum: Nick Skelton is 54, has come back from a broken neck and a hip replacement, and now needs work on his back - but the team showjumping champion plans to return.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nPlenty of likely candidates for Rio 2016 have already broken into the team at London 2012, even if they didn't grab the headlines.\nThe most obvious of these is Adam Gemili, the world junior champion over 100m, whose time of 10.06 seconds in the Olympic semi-finals saw him narrowly miss out on a place in the final alongside the likes of Jamaican winner Usain Bolt and his team-mate Yohan Blake.\nGemili, still only 18, has already been hailed by US rival Tyson Gay as a man with the potential to become one of the greatest in history. By Rio, we will know a lot more about what the former footballer can achieve on the track.\nNineteen-year-old Katarina Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon or long jump) and 20-year-old hurdler Andrew Pozzi are others whose names were lower down the 2012 card but could top the billing in Rio.\nAndrew Osagie, the 800m runner, finished last in his final as David Rudisha stormed home in a new world record, but the Briton ran a personal best that would have won gold at any of the three previous Olympics. He will be 28 in 2016.\nIn contrast Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee occupied every headline going with his stunning win but will face renewed pressure from younger brother Jonny in Rio.\nThe two look set to dominate their sport for years to come, but 22-year-old Jonny may yet have it in him to surpass his 24-year-old sibling in time for Rio, having taken bronze behind Alistair in Hyde Park.\nIn gymnastics, Rebecca Tunney made her Olympic debut as the youngest member of Team GB at the age of 15, looking assured and unfazed in the women's all-around final. She will spend the next four years increasing the difficulty of her routines although, in a sport with a phenomenally high turnover rate as new gymnasts come on the scene, she already faces a battle to keep her place in the British team.\nFencer James Davis impressed as Britain valiantly scrapped to a narrow defeat by world number ones Italy in the men's team foil event, and he could be joined by world junior epee champion Philip Marsh in Rio.\nTeenager Harry Martin somehow managed to have a decent game for the GB men's hockey team as they were drubbed 9-2 by the Netherlands in their semi-final and is one to watch, while rowing trio Constantine Louloudis, George Nash and Will Satch all picked up bronze at Eton Dorney and will look to upgrade that in Brazil.\nSwimming was a disappointment for Britain at their home Games, and now the search is on for future stars. Siobhan-Marie O'Connor, the 16-year-old breaststroke swimmer from Bath, may be one of them if she can improve her race strategy. Diver Jack Laugher struggled in his 3m competition and finished 27th but he will only be 21 by the time of Rio; Tom Daley, of course, will be just 22 himself.\nSome of the GB stars at Rio 2016 could be in sports entirely new to the Games.\nBritish teams will fancy their chances at medals in rugby sevens, introduced to the Olympic programme for the first time, with Michaela Staniford a name to remember as the 25-year-old captain of the current England women's team.\nKiteboarding replaces windsurfing for Rio and Steph Bridge, a four-time world champion in the sport for Britain, has already seen her profile rise as a result. If windsurfing wins its appeal against losing its place, Izzy Hamilton could benefit. The pro windsurfer is also taking up kiteboarding with a view to reaching Rio, no matter which of the two is included.\nElsewhere in sailing, 22-year-old Katrina Hughes - who lost her battle for a place in the women's 470 boat to Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, this time - will be back and raring to go alongside partner Penny Clark for 2016.\nA crop of gymnasts are preparing to emerge from the increasingly successful British junior production line. European junior champions Frank Baines and Nile Wilson are two leading lights on the men's side while Youth Olympic trampolinist Nathan Bailey is hoping to star at 2016. Ellie Downie, younger sister of 2008 Olympic gymnast Becky, is just 12 years old now but will be 16 and could have reached her peak by the time of the next Games.\nCycling has a seemingly endless conveyor belt of talent to raid for 2016. Names like Lucy Garner and Simon Yates, both already junior world champions in their short careers, could be firmly established in senior circles well before then.\nOther names waiting in the wings for Rio include boxer Chantelle Cameron, eventer Laura Collett and modern pentathletes Freyja Prentice and Jamie Cooke, the latter tipped by his coaches as a future world champion.\nRowers Pat Lapage and Mike Evans, and Michael Eilberg with Woodlander Farouche in dressage, will also hope to be in Rio.", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nRio was our last chance to delight in the talents of sprinter Usain Bolt, swimmer Michael Phelps, cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins and heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill on the biggest sporting stage of all.\nWhile British cyclists Laura Trott and Jason Kenny, and American decathlete Ashton Eaton, among others, are young enough to continue to carry the torch of Olympic greatness, new stars must come to the fore for Tokyo 2020.\nThe list is not definitive - and no-one knows what the future will hold - but here we select 10 athletes who could be the headline acts in four years' time.\nWith a stunning attack on the final sprint to win gold, Dibben stirred the 8,000-strong crowd during the points race at the World Championships earlier this year.\nIt was a performance that had team-mate Owain Doull tweeting of his tears.\nThe world champion - and European omnium bronze medallist - was also part of the men's team pursuit that won world silver in London in March.\nBut the 22-year-old Team Wiggins rider was not selected for Rio, with Mark Cavendish - who went on to win omnium silver - preferred.\nThe 30-year-old Manxman is unlikely to compete in Japan and with Rio also being Wiggins' Olympic farewell, Tokyo could be Dibben's time.\nRio 2016 saw Britain's 'other' divers come to prominence. Jack Laugher became the nation's most successful diver in Olympic history with gold and silver, while Dan Goodfellow ably supported Tom Daley as the pair won 10m platform synchronised bronze.\nDaley is still his sport's headline act, but the 22-year-old cannot twist and tuck forever and failed to reach the 10m platform final.\nStep forward Toulson, at 16 one of the youngest British athletes competing in Brazil. The teenager from Huddersfield was accustomed to winning medals in junior championships and was ranked third in the world, with partner Tonia Couch, in the women's synchronised 10m prior to the Games.\nToulson - who will soon receive her GCSE results - and Couch did not finish in the top three in Brazil, extending Britain's run without a women's Olympic diving medal to 56 years, but Tokyo could be the city where the long wait ends.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nMany a British gymnast will return home with their reputations enhanced and names in British sporting history - such as double Olympic champion Max Whitlock, 16-year-old bronze medallist Amy Tinkler and Nile Wilson, the high bar Olympic bronze medallist.\nIt was a record seven Olympic medals for Britain's gymnasts, but amid the celebrations, it is easy to forget those who did not win a medal.\nDownie, the first British woman to win an all-around medal at a major gymnastics championships, described Rio as a \"rollercoaster experience\".\nShe fell on her neck during the qualifying stages and went on to finish 13th in the all-around, but the Nottingham athlete will only be 20 when the Olympic flame arrives in Japan and, along with Tinkler, could by then be matching the world's best somersault for somersault.\nThere will be no Bolt at the next Olympics to inspire and entertain. While no-one can replace the greatest track and field athlete who has ever lived, De Grasse could be the man to dominate men's sprinting once the nine-time Olympic champion says his final goodbyes to the sport.\nThe 21-year-old, who only took up athletics seriously four years ago, recorded personal bests in both the 100m (9.91 seconds) and 200m (19.80 seconds) in Rio. He went on to win three medals - 200m silver, 100m bronze and sprint relay bronze - to become the first Canadian since 1932 to win three medals in track and field at the same Games.\n\"He has a lot of talent,\" Bolt has said of De Grasse, who himself has made clear his intentions. \"It's a dream come true for me,\" he said of his Rio spoils. \"For next time around, I just want to upgrade those medals.\"\nIt is Adam Peaty, the Olympic champion and world record holder, who will return to Britain as the nation's swimming superstar.\nBut in Tokyo, he may have to share the limelight with 21-year-old team-mate Ben Proud, the man acknowledged as the fastest junior swimmer in history.\nProud set a new British record of 21.54secs in qualifying for the 50m freestyle final and went on to finish fourth - 0.19secs adrift of 35-year-old champion Anthony Ervin.\nHis performances in Rio have strengthened many people's belief he could become the world's fastest swimmer. They enhanced the reputation he gained two years ago in winning double Commonwealth gold - an achievement that included a stunning swim to beat South African heavyweights Roland Schoeman and Chad le Clos to the 50m butterfly title.\nFiji have dominated men's rugby sevens for decades and it was the Pacific islanders who beat Britain emphatically in the final to become Olympic champions.\nBut semi-finalists Japan played their part in the sport's successful Olympic debut, rocking the old order by beating New Zealand in sevens for the first time in 17 attempts and rekindling memories of the Brave Blossoms' sensational victory over South Africa at last year's Rugby World Cup.\nDescribed as an \"outstanding team\" by Britain's coach Simon Amor, Japan's magnificent seven would also have drawn with Britain but for a missed late conversion by Lomano Lemeki.\nSuch was the impact of their success, Japan's players were told to turn off their phones because of the number of supportive messages they were receiving from home.\nJapan will host the next World Cup in 2019 and, with the Olympics in Tokyo the following year, both formats of the game could grow significantly in the country.\n\"This is for the entire nation,\" said Dina Asher-Smith after winning sprint relay bronze, Britain's first medal in the event since Los Angeles 1984.\nBritain's fastest woman will end her first Olympics with a medal and an individual fifth-place finish in the 200m. For a 20-year-old who combines athletics with studying for a history degree, that is no small feat.\nFour years ago, Asher-Smith was a kit carrier at London 2012 and since then has gone on to become the first British woman to win the European 200m title, plus the British record holder over 100m and 200m and, in finishing fifth at last year's World Championships, the fastest teenager ever over 200m.\nShe is almost certain to create more history over the next four years and, who knows, could become the first British female to win Olympic medals over 100m and 200m since Dorothy Hyman in 1960.\nTokyo 2020 could be the Games where Kanak Jha - the first American born in the 2000s to qualify for Rio - will come of age.\nThe 16-year-old has been described as a table tennis prodigy. Even though he failed to progress in Rio, the youngest male player to compete in his sport at an Olympics has potential.\n\"When he was six or seven years old, he just had that knack,\" his father Arun has said. As a junior, this Californian son of Indian parents reached the national semi-finals of the men's senior tournament.\nCan he help break China's hegemony over the sport? They have won 28 of the 32 gold medals since table tennis made its Olympic debut in 1988 so it is a tall order, but any teenager who moves from the US to Sweden to hone his skills is clearly planning for a big future.\nIt might seem strange to name a five-time Olympic champion as a potential headline-maker, but for Missy Franklin, Tokyo could be the Games where her star is reborn.\nThe American cleaned up in the pool in London 2012 when she was just 17, winning five medals - four of them golds. Yet she did not advance to the final in either of her individual events in Rio - although she did win relay gold.\nShe appears not to have regained form or confidence following a back injury in 2014 and was upstaged in Rio by Katie Ledecky, her country's new darling in the pool. Franklin described her performances in Brazil as heart-breaking, but could she become Phelps-like again in Tokyo? It will be interesting to find out.\nJapan has grown accustomed to dominating men's gymnastics, with Kohei Uchimura, the two-time all-around Olympic champion, their superstar.\nThe 27-year-old is a great of his sport, winning 10 world titles as well as three Olympic golds, but whether he can still dominate in four years' time and win a record third consecutive all-around gold is open to question.\nThe man who could be the heir to Uchimura's throne is 19-year-old Shiral. In 2013, aged 17, he mesmerised on the floor to become world champion on that apparatus and retained his title in 2015.\nHe surprisingly failed to shine on the floor in Rio, with Britain's Whitlock claiming gold, but that should not rule him out of potentially vying for Olympic titles on home soil. He did, after all, win team gold and vault bronze in Brazil.", "Downie, 15, became the first British woman to win an international all-around medal in her first senior year.\nPurvis also finished third in the men's competition to claim his second career European all-around bronze.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nFellow Britons Sam Oldham and Claudia Fragapane finished sixth in their respective overall competitions.\nDownie, in her first senior year, scored 56.623, behind winner Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland and Russia's Maria Kharenkova.\n\"I'm over the moon. I never thought coming here I'd be among the medals,\" Downie told BBC Sport in Montpellier. \"I was hoping for a top six or eight finish - it's just absolutely amazing.\"\nDownie, younger sister of European uneven bars champion Becky, made a good start on bars then followed with solid routines on beam and floor - where she was marked down for stepping out of the field.\nShe finished strongly with 14.8 on the vault - her strongest apparatus, and the one where she will aim for another medal in Saturday's final, as well as the uneven bars.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\n\"I was really nervous going into the vault,\" she said.\n\"I knew if I nailed it I could have a shot at a medal so I just tried to keep calm and do what I do in training.\"\nBritain's second medal of the day came thanks to 24-year-old Purvis who scored 87.423 over his six apparatus routines.\nUkrainie's Oleg Verniaiev took the all-around gold ahead of David Belyavskiy of Russia.", "Nile Wilson and Brinn Bevan, who broke his leg in two places in November, complete the men's gymnastics line up.\nDan Purvis and Sam Oldham, team bronze medallists four years ago, miss out.\nThe women's team includes the Downie sisters Becky and Ellie, Commonwealth champion Claudia Fragapane, as well as Amy Tinkler and Ruby Harrold.\nThe men's quintet were all part of the silver medal-winning team at last year's World Championships in Glasgow.\nPurvis, 25, was the sixth man in that effort but only five gymnasts can be selected per team at the Olympics.\nWhitlock, 23, will be hoping to add an Olympic gold to the world gold he won on pommel horse last year, while Smith, 27, is also a strong contender having won medals at the last two Olympic Games on pommel.\nBecky Downie, 24, who won European uneven bars gold in June, is the only women's member with previous Olympic experience, having competed in Beijing in 2008.\nEllie Downie, 16, Fragapane, 18, and Harrold, 20, are first-time Olympians, as is 16-year-old Tinkler, who will be the youngest member of Team GB at the Rio Olympics - one month younger than Lois Toulson of the diving team.\nLouis Smith, who will be competing in his third Olympic Games, has said people viewed him as \"kind of a joke\" after his time away from the sport.\nSmith won the 2012 series of BBC show Strictly Come Dancing after briefly retiring following the 2012 Olympics.\nHe returned to the sport in January 2014.\nHe said: \"I needed a break after 2012 because I needed to get my brain back in order and when I decided to make my comeback I was very serious about it.\n\"But people almost saw me as a kind of joke, because of this other celebrity lifestyle and doing all these showbiz interviews.\n\"I have never regretted anything that I've done, but sport and showbiz are two different worlds. I'm either a sportsman or I'm not - and for my gymnastics to be taken seriously again I needed to show I was more of the sportsman again.\n\"In 10 years' time, when people ask me to introduce myself, I will always say I was a British Olympic gymnast - not a celebrity.\"\nSam Oldham, 23, said he \"did everything he could\" to try and earn selection for the team.\nHe suffered ankle ligament damage at the Commonwealth Games in July 2014 and did not return to competitive action until April 2015.\nHe posted on his Instagram account: \"I'm incredibly proud of myself and all my loved ones and support team for what we have achieved in the past two years.\n\"I'm absolutely gutted that I have not been selected for the Rio Olympic Team. I have no regrets I did everything I could and I will be forever grateful I was able to get back and compete at such a high level again after the injury I suffered.\n\"I feel blessed to have fell in love with gymnastics once more. I want to wish the Men's & Women's Teams the best of luck in Rio. Do us proud guys.\"", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nPeaty, 21, smashed his own world record to win the 100m breaststroke in 57.13 seconds and end GB's 28-year wait for a men's Olympic swimming title.\nMinutes later, Carlin won silver in the women's 400m freestyle.\nIn the tennis, Novak Djokovic was knocked out in the singles, while Andy and Jamie Murray exited the doubles.\nIt was another day of incident and drama in Brazil:\nPeaty had a fear of water as a young child but is the first British man to win Olympic swimming gold since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988.\n\"I did it for my country and that means so much for me,\" the City of Derby swimmer told BBC Sport after victory watched by parents Caroline and Mark.\nThe world, European and Commonwealth champion completed a full set of titles as he led from the start with a blistering performance that left him more than 1.5 seconds clear of the field.\nHe began the Games as the world record holder with a time of 57.92 and has lowered it by 0.79, having also set a mark of 57.55 in his opening heat.\nAfter earlier near-misses for fencer Richard Kruse and swimmer Hannah Miley, victory brought Britain's first medal of Rio 2016.\nWithin minutes, there was another medal on the board thanks to Carlin, who took silver as the USA's Katie Ledecky won in a world-record time.\nThe 25-year-old Welsh swimmer held off American Leah Smith in the final 50 metres to claim second.\n\"I can't believe it. I'm on the edge of tears,\" said Carlin, who missed out on selection for the London 2012 Games.\n\"I was in the pool room watching Adam and I had goosebumps on the block.\n\"To see your team-mate achieve a new world record and become Olympic champion right before you swim definitely got me pumped up.\"\nBritain ended day two of the Games in eighth place in the medal table, which is topped by the United States, ahead of China and Australia.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nPhelps arrived in Brazil as the most decorated Olympian in history and has now won 23 medals at five Games.\nThe 31-year-old, who came out of retirement in 2014, swam the second leg for the USA in their relay triumph.\n\"On the block, I thought my heart was going to explode,\" said the record-breaking star. \"I was so hyped, so excited.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nElsewhere in the pool, Russian Yulia Efimova, a convicted drug cheat, was again booed before and after winning her semi-final in the 100m breaststroke.\nTearful Majlinda Kelmendi put Kosovo on the medal board for the first time in its history by winning judo gold.\nThe disputed Balkan territory, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is making its Olympic debut.\nDouble world champion Kelmendi, 25, overpowered Italy's Odette Giuffrida. Having represented Albania at London 2012, Kelmendi had told the BBC before the Games: \"I just wanted to show the world we need to be equals.\"\nMeanwhile, China's Wu Minxia became the first diver to win five Olympic golds by winning the women's 3m synchronised springboard with Shi Tingmao.\nDutch cyclist Van Vleuten suffered severe concussion and three small fractures in her lower back after a shocking crash in the road race.\nShe had pulled clear with 10km to go but came off her bike on a sharp turn while travelling at speed down the Vista Chinesa descent.\nThe 33-year-old lay motionless while help arrived and there was widespread concern for her well-being, but she later tweeted that she would be fine, revealing she was in hospital with \"some injuries and fractures\".\nBritish cyclist Armitstead ended a turbulent week by finishing just outside the medals.\nFencer Kruse eyed Britain's first Olympic medal in 52 years, but lost 15-13 to Russian Timur Safin as they fought for bronze in the men's foil.\nThe remarkable story of eventer William Fox-Pitt continues. Ten months after being in an induced coma after a fall, he remains in the gold medal position after the completion of the dressage, with the cross-country and showjumping disciplines to come.\nBritain survived a scare in the women's gymnastics as Ellie Downie was injured after falling on her neck during her floor routine. She later returned to help her team qualify for the final.\nAndy Murray may have lost in the doubles, but he started his singles defence with a 6-3 6-2 win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki, while 10th seed Johanna Konta also went through in the women's event, beating Stephanie Vogt 6-3 6-1.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nTom Fordyce, BBC's chief sports writer:\n\"After the disappointments earlier in the day - Kruse going so close, Armitstead not getting close enough, the Murray brothers crashing out - 15 minutes close to midnight in the Aquatic Centre changed it all for Britain.\n\"Four years ago, GB swimmers won just one silver and two bronze medals in the entire Games. In 12 glorious minutes here in Rio, Peaty and Carlin gave them a gold and silver.\n\"Even in London, Team GB didn't start so well. By the end of day two in 2012, the haul was two silvers. Britain's 2016 Olympics are up and away.\"\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nWorld number one Djokovic was in tears after going down 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2) to Argentine Del Potro.\nThe 29-year-old Serb has won four out of the past five Grand Slams, but also suffered a surprise early exit at Wimbledon last month.\nMurray and brother Jamie were knocked out in the first round by unseeded Brazilians Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa.\nThe Olympic winning run of Serena and Venus Williams also came to an end.\nWinners of the women's doubles in 2000, 2008 and 2012 - they did not compete together in 2004 - the American siblings suffered a surprise 6-3 6-4 loss to Czech pair Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova.\nWhile more than 270 Russians compete at the Olympics, the country won't be represented at the Rio Paralympics next month.\nThe Russian Paralympic Committee says it will appeal against the blanket ban, which follows claims of state-sponsored doping.\nOlympic rowers were left frustrated when competition on day two was postponed because of high winds.\nMonday's action sees Britain's Helen Glover and Heather Stanning begin their defence of their pairs title from 16:30 BST\nRead more Team GB Olympic medal stats\nThere are 14 gold medals on offer, with British interest in the men's team gymnastics final from 20:00 BST.\nThe first Olympic rugby sevens final will be held from 23:00 as the women's contest reaches its climax. GB take on New Zealand in the last four (19:00).\nAnd British diver Tom Daley will make his first appearance of Rio 2016 in the men's 10m synchro diving competition, which begins at 20:00.\nCheck out the day three schedule", "Media playback is not supported on this device\nThe pair's 10m synchro success and Ed Ling's bronze in the trap shooting took Britain's tally to four and put them 10th in the medal table.\nBritain's men missed out on a team gymnastics bronze, while the women's rugby sevens team also came fourth.\nHosts Brazil celebrated their first gold with Rafaela Silva's judo win.\nFortune was not shining for Team GB in the eventing, with William Fox-Pitt slipping out of medal contention going into the final showjumping round.\nIn the rowing, Britain's Heather Glover and Heather Stanning nearly had their six-year unbeaten run broken by Denmark but a strong finish saw them through to the semi-finals as heat winners.\nThere was a shock defeat for Irish boxer Paddy Barnes, with the double Olympic medallist losing his light-flyweight bout against Spain's Samuel Carmona.\nIt was a case of so near yet so far for the men's gymnasts and women's rugby sevens team.\nA mistake by Louis Smith on the pommel horse dashed hopes of Great Britain winning a medal in the gymnastics men's team final. They were fourth going into the final rotation, the pommel horse.\nSmith, 27, who won individual silver on the pommel and team bronze at London 2012, came off the apparatus during his routine.\nJapan won gold, Russia took silver and defending champions China finished with bronze.\nGreat Britain also missed out on winning the first ever Olympic medal in rugby sevens competition.\nLosing two players from the pitch because of yellow cards cost the team in the semi-final against New Zealand. Canada then swept the British team aside 33-10 in the bronze medal match.\nThere were smiles over in the Olympic table tennis competition where Paul Drinkhall from Middlesbrough became only the third Briton to reach the last 16 of the event with victory over Croatia's Andrej Gacina.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nNorwich-born Nick Dempsey, 35, leads the men's Olympic RS:X windsurfing in Rio after three races at Marina de Gloria.\nThe 2012 silver medallist won the first two of Monday's three races, before finishing second in the third. He has a five-point lead over defending Dutchman Dorian van Rijsselberghe in the 12-race opening series.\nNick Thompson, in the men's Laser, women's RS:X windsurfer Bryony Shaw are also in contention for medals in their respective events.\nIn the rowing, red-hot favourites Glover and Stanning reached the semi-finals of the women's pair and the men's four, who have won gold in the event at the last four Games, easily won their heat.\nThe men's and women's eights and the men's quadruple sculls team reached their respective finals.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device\nThe party does not start until the hosts get a gold - and on Monday Rafaela Silva dominated the country's news bulletins by getting Brazil off the mark.\nSilva, 24, jumped over the barriers to be embraced by colleagues, friends and fans after she beat Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the 57kg judo.\nBBC Americas editor, Leonardo Rocha said: \"Silva grew up in one of Rio's most notorious favelas, Cidade de Deus - or City of God - not far from the Olympic venue where she won her gold medal. Her family enrolled her in free judo classes when she was a child to keep her away from gang life.\"\nSilva said: \"They said I was a disgrace. Here I am an Olympic champion in my hometown.\"\nThere were also plenty of tears at the Deodoro Stadium as Australia won the first Olympic rugby sevens title with a 24-17 win over their Antipodean arch-rivals New Zealand.\nAustralia's coach Tim Walsh said remarks made by New Zealand counterpart Sean Horan before the match had motivated his team. Horan said Australia did not like to be pressured, nor did they like the physical side of the game.\n\"But just because they're touch players and they wear ribbons and pig-tails and sing songs does not mean they're not world class rugby players and ruthless in defence and they proved that to everybody,\" Walsh said.\nOnly a day after Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten suffered a horrific crash in the women's road race, a track cyclist was taken to hospital after an accident in training.\nAustralia's Melissa Hoskins was taking part in team pursuit practice when the crash happened involving three of her team-mates.\nAshlee Ankudinoff, Georgia Baker, Amy Cure came off their bikes, as did Hoskins who was carried off the track on a stretcher and then taken to hospital as a precaution.\nThe team pursuit competition begins with qualifying on Thursday.\nHow do you solve a problem like empty seats at Olympic venues?\nAlmost 80% of available tickets have been sold, but the TV cameras have focused on barren sparsely populated areas at the arenas.\nOrganisers have put up billboards of Jamaican sprinting superstar Usain Bolt urging Brazilians to buy tickets inside some arenas.\nRio 2016 chiefs say they are cracking down on tickets touts with around 40 detained inside the Olympic Park on Monday.\nInvestigations finally got to the bottom of how a stray bullet found its way through the roof and into the media work room at the equestrian venue on day one.\nMario Andrada, the chief spokesman for Rio 2016's organising committee, said a shot had been fired at a police blimp from one of the Brazilian city's favelas.\nHe said that the intended target was a security camera on the blimp.\nMeanwhile, Namibian boxer Jonas Junius was arrested by Brazilian police on suspicion of attempting to sexually assault a maid at the Olympic village.\nThe 22-year-old is competing in the light-welterweight division.\nOver at the tennis competition, play had to be briefly stopped when a man in an Argentina shirt started fighting another spectator during Argentine Juan Martin del Potro's victory over Portugal's Joao Sousa at Olympic Park.\n\"The crowd always makes a special atmosphere,\" said Del Potro, who beat world number one Novak Djokovic on Sunday.\n\"It was beautiful apart from the incident in the beginning. I hope that will not happen again because people need to enjoy the matches and we need to have peace between Argentina and Brazil. This is not football. After that there was a lot of respect so we could enjoy.\"\nIt is another jam-packed day of action with 15 golds on offer.\nBritish medal interest will be largely focused on the water and on the gym floor:\n14:00 & 18:00 BST Eventing finals: Will Fox-Pitt and his team-mates produce the showjumping rounds of their lives as the team and individual eventing medals are decided?\n17:30 BST Canoe slalom C1: Two-time silver medallist David Florence of Scotland will looking to finally looking to win gold as he takes to the waters at the Whitewater Stadium.\n16:00 BST Men's rugby sevens: Great Britain's men will be hoping to at least emulate the women as they begin their campaign against Kenya.\n20:00 BST Women's synchro 10m platform final: Tonia Couch, 27, and her 16-year-old partner Lois Toulson only teamed up last December but the British pair will be medal contenders at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre.\n20:00 BST Women's team gymnastics final: Get the Stars and Stripes ribbon ready because Team USA will surely be tying gold around their necks. Great Britain finished fourth in qualifying and have a great chance of a medal.\n02:00 BST Swimming finals: Siobhan-Marie O'Connor has come a long way since she made her Olympic debut at the age of 16 at London 2012. She was ranked second in the world going into the 200m individual medley event, and romped through the rounds.", "The 17-year-old secured overall bronze in Norway as well as individual medals in the snatch - with a best of 99kg - and 123kg in the clean and jerk.\nThe total of 222kg gave Tiler her first senior championships medal.\nBritain are hopeful the women's team have done enough to earn a quota place in Rio this summer.\nThat will not be confirmed until the competition in Forde finishes on Saturday, and even then Tiler's place at the Games is not guaranteed as only one member of the GB women's team will go to Brazil.\nShe faces competition from Zoe Smith, who took bronze in the 63kg category on Wednesday." ]

[ "The HTC HD7 is now available to pre-order on a pay monthly contract O2, with an expected availability date of October 25th." ]

[ "The HTC Desire is now available to pre-order from Vodafone, and is available for free on tariffs of £30 a month and more.", "As it turns out all HTC HD2 units actually have 576MB of RAM, but only 448MB of those are available to the users.", "After numerous rumours in recent weeks, it's now official -- the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus are UK bound, and coming to O2.", "HTC has introduced new Merge smartphone that will be available through multiple North American carriers beginning in spring 2011.", "Virgin Media has announced that it will soon offer the HTC HD2 smartphone, its first HTC offering.", "The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo is currently available on pre-order on the German Amazon website and it costs 346 Euros, certainly not a bad price for a Snapdragon-powered Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone with high-end features.", "Telefonica UK has launched a smartphone leasing service called O2 Lease, available through O2 stores and over the phone.", "The Blackberry Torch 9800 is available to pre-order on a pay monthly contract with Orange, and with a guaranteed delivery date of before 03/10/10.", "Samsung's much anticipated smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy SIII, will be available to pre-order on Three from 4th May.", "The reports say that HTC is likely to launch either GSM version of HTC EVO 4G or the HTC Droid Incredible.", "O2 Germany has cut the cost of its pre-paid UMTS surf stick from EUR 69.90 to EUR 59.90, reports teltarif.de.", "HTC desire z and HTC Desire HD are the two best mobile phones from HTC family which has made any people crazy with their fabulous looks and features.", "Orange UK has launched the HTC Hero yesterday, which was earlier announced to be launched in early July.", "Orange will offer the HTC Desire S, with the eagerly awaited smartphone arriving in the network's stores across the UK.", "Even as reports on the upcoming HTC One X making its way to Sprint, Virgin Mobile may reportedly offer its own HTC device, the HTC One V. The upcoming HTC One V is considered as the little brother of the HTC One S and the HTC One X. The upcoming HTC device will reportedly feature a single-core processor in contrast to the dual-core and quad core processors of the two other HTC device offerings.", "Sony Xperia L, which was unveiled in India last month alongside Xperia SP, is now up for pre-orders in the country.", "The HTC 7 Pro will bring Windows Phone 7 to Sprint in the first half of 2011.", "Sprint Nextel will launch the HTC Arrive, the first CDMA version of a Windows Phone 7 device from Microsoft.", "Dawn of Ashes has completed a new digital EP that is available for pre-order on iTunes.", "RadioShack is now accepting pre-orders for the forthcoming PlayBook tablet for $499.99 with the version up for pre-order being the 16GB version.", "The latest rumour to hit our tech-sensitive ears is that HTC's upcoming quad-core superphone will simply be called the HTC One.", "In the following guide you will learn how to install the Android 2.1 OS on your HTC HD2.", "HTC has launched 6 devices this quarter, only one of which, the HTC HD Mini, is Windows Mobile, but HTC's director of investor relations Joey Cheng Cheng said that despite the early adoption of Google Inc's Android by US consumers, Europeans and Asians continued to be more familiar with smartphones running on the Windows platform.", "Images of HTC Droid Incredible 2 with Verizon logo has been leaked in the market from the famous blog for Android, AndroidSpin.", "Sources close to ModMyI have confirmed that the newly announced iPad will be soon available for Pre-Order.", "The less powerful, but still impressive, HTC One V will be arriving at Cricket Wireless on September 2nd, which, as per Cricket Wireless' business plan, will mean you can grab yourself a nice new smartphone sans contract.", "HTC on Tuesday unveiled six new Android devices including two phones with a dedicated Facebook button as the Taiwanese handset maker looks to differentiate itself from rivals in an increasingly aggressive market for smartphones.", "Amidst giants like iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre, Samsung's Jet smartphone has managed to mark a milestone with 2 million pre-orders in just 7 days.", "Optus has started taking both consumer and business plan pre-orders for the new BlackBerry Z10.", "One can now pre-order the BlackBerry Playbook in India on premium online mall Tradus.in.", "The Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available to pre-order from TalkTalk from Monday, ready for its release on April 26.", "badger.foo writes ``The OpenBSD 4.7 pre-orders are up." ]

[ "Detective Hilton Botha, who has faced fierce questioning at Mr Pistorius's bail hearing, was allegedly involved in a shooting two years ago.\nMr Pistorius, a Paralympic champion, denies the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, 29.\nHis bail hearing has now adjourned after a third day in Pretoria.\nThe defence argued again that the premeditated murder charge should be altered, while the prosecution repeated that Mr Pistorius should not be granted bail simply because of his fame.\nLead prosecutor Gerrie Nel said evidence from the crime scene would fatally undermine the athlete's claim that he thought he was shooting an intruder.\nSeparately, sports giant Nike has confirmed it has suspended its contract with Oscar Pistorius.\nPolice spokesman Neville Malila said that Det Botha and two other officers were due to appear in court in May.\nMr Malila said it was alleged that while driving a state-owned vehicle the three had opened fire on a minibus taxi loaded with passengers.\nBy Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent\nThe news Hilton Botha is facing reinstated charges of attempted murder has stunned everyone. The immediate question is what impact, if any, the news may have on the prosecution argument that Mr Pistorius should not be allowed bail pending trial.\nThe timing of the reinstatement of the charges is still unclear and the National Prosecuting Authority says they are in no way connected to the athlete's murder case. It is curious, though, that the information about Det Botha was not provided to the Pistorius defence team or, apparently, to the prosecution.\nSome might argue that Det Botha, who wilted under strenuous cross-examination by the defence, eventually conceding that he had not yet seen any evidence to contradict the athlete's version of events, has already done enough damage to the prosecution's call for Mr Pistorius to be denied bail and that the new revelations may not affect the magistrate's decision significantly.\nThe three were arrested in 2011, Eyewitness News says, citing police.\nMr Malila said the charges against Det Botha had originally been dropped but were reinstated.\nIt is unclear when this took place or whether Det Botha will continue working on the case in the long run.\nMedupe Simasiku, a spokesman for the Pistorius prosecutors, told Associated Press they were unaware of the charges and would now investigate whether the detective should remain.\nThe BBC's Peter Biles in Pretoria says the police statement concerning Det Botha is an extraordinary turn of events.\nMr Pistorius says he shot Ms Steenkamp in the bathroom of his home after mistaking her for an intruder.\nIf denied bail, Mr Pistorius could face months in prison before a full trial begins.\nThursday's proceedings began with prosecutor Gerrie Nel confirming to the court that Det Botha was facing seven attempted murder charges.\nDet Botha was not initially in court and Magistrate Desmond Nair had to ask for him to be found.\nAfter a short break, Det Botha was brought in and was questioned about telephone records from the night of the shooting, evidence of violence in Mr Pistorius's past and the extent of the flight risk.\nLead defence counsel Barry Roux then addressed the court and called for the charge to be listed as \"schedule 5\", not the current \"schedule 6\", which is one of premeditated murder.\nThe defence team would have to prove extenuating circumstances to justify granting bail if schedule 6 remains.\nMr Roux said: \"The poor quality of the evidence offered by investigative officer Botha exposed the disastrous shortcomings of the state's case.\"\nHe said the fact that Mr Pistorius had carried Ms Steenkamp downstairs showed he was desperate to save her life.\nMr Roux also referred to witnesses the prosecution said had heard rows between Mr Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp that evening, saying they were too far away and that the state argument was misleading and desperate.\nMr Roux said this was a strong, loving relationship and that there was no motive to kill.\nThe defence has now concluded its arguments and the prosecution will present its case.\nMr Roux told the BBC's Andrew Harding, who is in the courtroom, that a bail decision might not come until Friday.\nCorrespondents say Det Botha's evidence on Wednesday appeared first to boost the prosecution's case and then offer the defence a hope of winning the argument.\nDet Botha told the court that the trajectory of gunshots through the bathroom door indicated that Mr Pistorius, a double amputee, was wearing his prosthetic legs and shot downwards through the door.\nWhat happened on the night?\nThis contradicted an earlier account given by Mr Pistorius, who said he was walking on his stumps and grabbed his gun because he felt vulnerable when he thought an intruder had entered.\nBut Det Botha also amended his testimony on the proximity of the witness who he said had heard arguments.\nDet Botha said police had lost track of ammunition found inside the house and was also accused of not wearing protective clothing at the crime scene.\nThe defence also countered police suggestions that testosterone and needles had been found in Mr Pistorius's bedroom, arguing instead that the substance was a herbal remedy, called Testocompasutium co-enzyme.\nThe Pistorius family issued a statement saying they were \"satisfied with the outcome\" of Wednesday's proceedings.\nOscar Pistorius won gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.\nIn London he made history by becoming the first double-amputee to run in the Olympics, making the semi-final of the 400m." ]

[ "As the South African athlete faced charges of \"premeditated murder\" in a Pretoria courtroom following the shooting dead of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, his sponsors went into crisis-management mode.\nNike swiftly pulled the unfortunately-worded ads last week, as the perils of celebrity brand endorsement were brought sharply into focus once again.\nMr Pistorius, who has strongly rejected the murder charge, is thought to have earned several million pounds from sponsorships with Nike, BT, Thierry Mugler, Oakley, and Ossur, the Icelandic firm that makes the prosthetic carbon fibre blades he wears for races.\nBut in the brutal world of sports sponsorship, the \"Blade Runner\" stands to lose everything, even presuming his innocence.\nOn Thursday 21 February, Nike suspended its contact with the athlete, thought to be worth about $2m, saying: \"We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situation closely\".\nFashion house Thierry Mugler, which chose Mr Pistorius as the face of its A*Men fragrance in 2011, also withdrew all its campaigns featuring the athlete on Wednesday.\nAnother of Mr Pistorius' sponsors, M-Net Movies, a South African pay TV channel, pulled its TV ad campaign featuring the athlete, last week tweeting: \"Out of respect and sympathy to the bereaved, M-Net will be pulling its entire Oscar campaign featuring Oscar Pistorius with immediate effect.\"\nJohn Taylor, director of a sports sponsorship company and a veteran of the industry, told the BBC: \"Even if Pistorius is found innocent, he is damaged goods. Brands need to act quickly and distance themselves from him; they cannot afford to wait until the case is heard.\n\"It's not like rats deserting a sinking ship, it's just the sensible thing to do.\"\nNigel Currie, director of sports marketing agency Brand Rapport, agrees, saying: \"This is very different to the Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong cases; this is life and death. There's no coming back from this.\"\nTelecommunications group BT, which was recently shortlisted in the Best Sponsorship of a Sport Team or Individual category of the Sport Industry Awards 2013 for its campaign featuring Mr Pistorius, said: \"Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy. Given the ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.\"\nOssur said it was \"highly premature\" to make any decisions regarding its relationship with him.\nEven his South African management agency was saying little on Friday last week. Peet van Zyl, joint managing director of In-Site Athlete Management, told the BBC: \"Oscar has been my client for six years. It's my business to know how much he earns in sponsorships, but we're not in any position to give you any comment at the moment given the sensitivity of the situation.\"\nThe global sponsorship industry is worth an estimated $50bn (£32.2bn; 36.4bn euros) a year, according to consultancy IEG, with more than 80% of that being spent on sports.\nNike, which makes annual revenues of over $24bn, spends tens of millions of dollars on sports sponsorships a year. For example, its recent sponsorship deal with Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irish golfer, will reportedly cost the company $100m to $125m (£62m to £77m) over five years.\nWhen its previous brand ambassador, golf titan Tiger Woods, was exposed as a philanderer in 2009, Nike stuck by him even though many other brands cast him adrift.\n\"Nike's whole golf proposition was built around him. They had spent millions of dollars and simply couldn't afford to drop him\", says Alan Ferguson, managing director of The Sports Business, a sports marketing consultancy.\nNike chooses sports stars that seem to embody and reinforce its high-energy brand. \"My body is my weapon. This is how I fight,\" says one video featuring Mr Pistorius and other South African athletes. Its 2012 annual report contained a headline: \"We are on the offense. Always.\"\nAs Oscar Pistorius demonstrated values of tenacity, valour and triumph over adversity, it made him an obvious fit with the sportswear giant.\nBut in the light of recent events, Mr Ferguson warns: \"I think many brands will be taking stock and re-evaluating their celebrity endorsements now. At the very least they will be doing more detailed background checks on their sports stars.\"\nTattooed on Oscar Pistorius' back is a quotation from St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (9: 26-27): \"Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.\"\nIn the unforgiving, hard cash world of sports sponsorship, Mr Pistorius could find himself being disqualified, whether innocent or guilty.", "Judges changed his conviction from manslaughter to murder last week. He has already served one year in prison.\nPistorius now faces a minimum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment - to be set after a hearing on 18 April 2016.\nHe will also appeal against his murder conviction in the Constitutional Court, his lawyer has said.\nThis could see delays of many more months, says the BBC's Karen Allen at the high court in the South African capital, Pretoria.\nNow that Oscar Pistorius has been granted bail, it must have come as a huge relief that he will spend Christmas at home. Sitting in court, I was left with an impression that the judge was not interested in imposing strict conditions.\nPistorius himself looked relaxed, chatting and laughing with his legal team during the brief adjournment while the judge was considering his fate.\nThe double amputee's bail application also revealed that he had enrolled to study \"a BSc business with law degree\" at the London School of Economics.\nPistorius indicated in court documents that he intended to lodge an appeal to the highest court in the land. This would be the very last legal avenue available for the disgraced athlete to overturn his conviction.\nBail has been set at 10,000 rand ($700, £450). Pistorius was deemed not to be a flight risk by Judge Audrey Ledwaba.\nPistorius can remain under house arrest at his uncle's home until sentencing next year, and will be electronically tagged. He also has to hand over his passport.\nHe will be able to leave the house between 7am and midday, but will only be able to move within a 20km (12 miles) radius.\nHe is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail.\nIn his bail affidavit, he said he had no income. During the hearing, his lawyer said he was only able to pay a sum of 10,000 rand for his bail.\nThe 29-year-old killed Ms Steenkamp on Valentine's Day after shooting four times through a locked toilet door.\nPistorius is a six-time Paralympic gold medallist whose legs were amputated below the knee as a baby. He made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012, running on prosthetic \"blades\".\nLast week, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein accepted prosecution arguments and ruled that the lower court did not correctly apply the concept of \"dolus eventualis\" - whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.\nWhen will he be sentenced?\nThe date set for the sentencing hearing has been set for 18 April. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years, but the judge does have the discretion to lower it.\nCan he appeal?\nYes, but only if his lawyers are convinced that the appeal judges violated his constitutional rights. So it is a high threshold, and hard to meet.\nIs this the end of Pistorius' professional athletics career?\nAlmost certainly. He is 29, and will be past his prime by the time he is freed. It is also unlikely that advertisers would want to sponsor him, as the Pistorius brand is now tainted.\nThe making and unmaking of Oscar Pistorius\n10 key moments from the trial\nLast week's ruling said that having armed himself with a high-calibre weapon, Pistorius must have foreseen that whoever was behind the door might die, especially given his firearms training.\nPistorius always maintained that he believed there was an intruder in the house - but Justice Eric Leach said that the identity of the person behind the door was \"irrelevant to his guilt\".\nThe judge added that Pistorius did \"not take that most elementary precaution of firing a warning shot\".\nCorrespondents say that many in South Africa were upset by the original acquittal on murder charges. Women's rights groups argued he should have been found guilty of murder as a deterrent because of the high number of women who are killed by their partners in the country.\nThe double amputee was released from prison on 19 October under \"correctional supervision\", having served a sixth of his sentence.", "Pistorius killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 after shooting four times through a locked toilet door.\nHe is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail.\nPistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder.\nPistorius, a six-time Paralympic gold medallist whose legs were amputated below the knee as a baby, made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012, running on prosthetic \"blades\".\nSouth Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court did not correctly apply the rule of dolus eventualis - whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.\nThe minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but judges can apply some discretion.\nSouth African law does not make provision for someone to be placed under house arrest for more than five years, so Pistorius will be going back to prison, reports the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.\nWill he return to jail?\nYes. He will be back behind bars, less than two months after he was placed under house arrest.\nWhen will he be sentenced?\nWe don't have a date yet, but it will be next year. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years, but the judge does have the discretion to lower it.\nCan he appeal?\nYes, but only if his lawyers are convinced that the appeal judges violated his constitutional rights. So it's a high threshold, and hard to meet.\nSo is this the end of Pistorius' professional athletics career?\nAlmost certainly. He's 29, and will be past his prime by the time he is freed. It is also unlikely that advertisers would want to sponsor him, as the Pistorius brand is now tainted.\nThe making and unmaking of Oscar Pistorius\n10 key moments from the trial\nPistorius' family gave a brief response, saying lawyers are studying the finding who will advise them on \"options going forward\".\nThe panel of appeal judges described the case as \"a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions\" in their written judgement.\nReading the unanimous ruling reached by the five judges, Justice Eric Leach said that having armed himself with a high-calibre weapon, Pistorius must have foreseen that whoever was behind the door might die, especially given his firearms training.\n\"As a matter of common sense at the time the fatal shots were fired, the possibility of the death of the person behind the door was clearly an obvious result,\" the judge said.\n\"And in firing not one but four shots, such a result became even more likely.\"\nPistorius always maintained that he believed there was an intruder in the house but the judge said that the identity of the person behind the door was \"irrelevant to his guilt\".\nJustice Leach compared it to someone setting off a bomb in a public place not knowing who the victims might be.\nIn a packed courtroom with Reeva Steenkamp's family listening to every word, the judge said that when Oscar Pistorius decided to fire four shots through a closed toilet door, he had gambled with a person's life - whoever that was.\nUnder South African law you cannot just shoot - you first need to determine that the threat to your life is real and that there is no other way to eliminate that threat but to shoot.\nMany South Africans have applauded the court's decision on social media, saying justice has now been served for Ms Steenkamp.\nThis ruling is expected to go some way to show that no-one is above the law, not even South Africa's once beloved \"blade runner\".\nThe judge also rejected the argument that Pistorius had acted in self-defence.\nHe said that the athlete's life was not in danger at the time of the shooting, as Pistorius did not know who was behind the door or if they posed a threat.\nThe judge added that Pistorius did \"not take that most elementary precaution of firing a warning shot\".\nIt was earlier incorrectly reported that the court had ruled the manslaughter verdict would remain.\nPistorius did not attend the hearing in Bloemfontein.\nBut Ms Steenkamp's mother, June, was present and afterwards she was seen outside the court being embraced by members of the African National Congress Women's League, who were singing songs of celebration.\nOur correspondent says that many in South Africa were upset by the original acquittal on murder charges, with women's rights groups arguing he should have been found guilty of murder as a deterrent because of the high number of women who are killed by their partners in the country.\nThe double amputee was released from prison on 19 October as he was eligible for release under \"correctional supervision\", having served a sixth of his sentence.\nPistorius can challenge the ruling in the constitutional court but only if his lawyers can argue that his constitutional rights have been violated.\nLegal expert Mannie Witz told the BBC that there do not appear to be any grounds for such an appeal.", "At a pre-trial hearing on Friday, a Pretoria magistrate ruled the state had not made a case that he would flee, or that he had a violent character.\nMr Pistorius, 26, denies murder, saying he shot Reeva Steenkamp, 29, thinking she was an intruder at his home.\nThe next hearing is set for 4 June.\nMr Pistorius spent eight nights in a police cell in Pretoria, following his arrest on 14 February. After Friday's ruling granting him bail, he left the court in a silver car pursued by photographers.\nThe athlete is staying at his uncle's house in Pretoria.\nReports say he may start training again and hold talks with his coach.\nMagistrate Desmond Nair set bail at 1m rand (£74,000; $113,000).\nMr Pistorius was also ordered to hand over his passport, avoid his home in Pretoria and report to a police station every Monday and Friday.\nMr Nair took almost two hours to deliver his judgement.\nHe criticised the testimony of Detective Hilton Botha for not following up important leads and changing his evidence.\nThe magistrate also said Mr Pistorius had \"reached out to meet the state's case\" and had given a full version of events at an early stage.\nBy Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent\nEven by his own account of events, Oscar Pistorius displayed the most extreme recklessness in firing blindly into a closed door, without even the most basic appreciation of who or what might lie behind it.\nPerhaps he's being punished enough by losing the woman he told friends he thought might become his wife.\nHaving sat just over a metre away from him for the last four days in court, I can tell you he is a broken man.\nBut still it is hard to imagine he will walk away from a trial without some form of sanction, and with his life and career changed forever by four shots fired into a toilet door.\nInside court: Pistorius bail verdict\nMr Pistorius's family and supporters in the court gasped and cheered as the magistrate announced his decision.\nHis uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said outside court: \"We are relieved by the fact that Oscar got bail today, but at the same time, we are in mourning for Reeva Steenkamp and her family.\"\nThe hearing began on Tuesday and both prosecution and defence laid out their cases.\nBoth sides agree that Mr Pistorius shot through the bathroom door four times, hitting and killing Ms Steenkamp.\nBut prosecutors allege the shooting happened after the couple had an argument at Mr Pistorius's home in the early hours of 14 February.\nDet Botha told the court that witnesses had heard shouting, screaming and gunfire from about 600m (2,000ft) away.\nBut later he changed his evidence to suggest the witnesses were much closer.\nAnd on Thursday it emerged that Det Botha faces allegations of attempted murder, and he was removed from the case.\nMr Pistorius says he woke in the middle of the night, and thought there was an intruder in the bathroom.\nThe prosecutors sought to portray Mr Pistorius as man with a history of violence who was likely to flee the country.\nBut the defence argued it would be impossible for Mr Pistorius to flee because his prosthetic legs would be noticed wherever he went.\nMs Steenkamp, 29, was a model and law graduate with a burgeoning television career.\nOscar Pistorius, 26, won gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.\nIn London he made history by becoming the first double-amputee to run in the Olympics, making the semi-final of the 400m.", "Defence lawyer Barry Roux said Pistorius was both \"broke and broken\" after the seven-month trial.\nPistorius was convicted of culpable homicide last month after shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year, but was cleared of murder.\nJudge Thokozile Masipa is expected to deliver the sentence on Tuesday.\nThere is no legal limit on the length of a jail term, but the prosecution has argued for a minimum of 10 years.\nExperts say the typical maximum sentence for the crime is around 15 years.\nPistorius' defence team has argued for him to be given community service and house arrest, a suggestion the prosecution said would be \"shockingly disproportionate\".\nBoth defence and prosecution lawyers finished presenting their final arguments before the court was adjourned.\nThe high-profile trial, which has captured public attention in South Africa and beyond, began in March.\nPistorius sobbed as Mr Roux said the athlete was once an \"icon in the eyes of South Africans\" and now could not even pay for legal expenses.\n\"He is not only broke but he is broken,\" he said.\n\"He's a first offender. What has happened to this man? He was on the rise,\" Mr Roux added.\nHe argued that Pistorius had already suffered greatly since the death of Reeva Steenkamp and had not \"earned a penny since\".\nThe lawyer asked Judge Masipa to consider the South African principle of \"ubuntu\", roughly translated as kindness towards others, in her sentencing.\nHe also claimed that Pistorius would be unsafe in prison, a claim denied by the prisons chief on Thursday.\nAt the scene: Andrew Harding, BBC News, Pretoria\nJudge Thokozile Masipa must choose between two starkly different interpretations of justice, and of Oscar Pistorius himself, as she spends this weekend pondering what sentence to give the man she's already cleared of murder but found guilty of culpable homicide.\nThe athlete's lawyer, Barry Roux, used his final arguments to appeal to the judge's sense of humanity in urging her to reject a prison sentence for a man he said was - beyond all doubt - genuinely remorseful and desperate to make amends for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.\nProsecutor Gerrie Nel was scornful of the athlete's appeals for leniency, saying his expressions of remorse were not genuine, and that he was \"shamefully\" exploiting his disability to try to avoid a prison sentence.\nThe interests (rather than the opinion) of society, the demands of justice, rehabilitation, punishment, fairness and the personal circumstances of both Pistorius and the Steenkamps will all, presumably, inform Judge Masipa's ruling.\nProsecutor Gerrie Nel said that the minimum sentence \"society would be happy with\" would be 10 years in prison.\n\"I could have started at 15 and hoped that the court will suspend five, my Lady , but this is a serious matter,\" he said.\nHe also repeated criticism of a payment offer by Pistorius to the Steenkamp family.\n\"I cannot but think this is an attempt to influence,\" he said.\nReeva Steenkamp's family rejected a large lump sum offered by Pistorius.\nHowever, they did accept smaller monthly support payments. They have since promised to repay the cash and not pursue a civil case.\nMr Nel went on to criticise the use of Pistorius' disability in arguments for a shorter sentence.\n\"I find it disturbing that a person who fought to compete with able-bodied athletes now shamelessly uses disability in mitigation,\" he said.\nThe Paralympic sprinter denied murdering Ms Steenkamp after a row on Valentine's Day last year, saying he shot her by mistake, fearing there was an intruder in the house.\nMs Steenkamp, a model, reality TV star and law graduate, was hit three times by bullets shot through a toilet door by Pistorius at his home in the capital, Pretoria.", "Judge Thokozile Masipa said the athlete had acted \"negligently\" when he fired shots through a toilet door, but in the \"belief that there was an intruder\".\nShe said the state had failed to prove he intended to kill Reeva Steenkamp.\nThe judge allowed Pistorius to remain on bail ahead of sentencing which is to take place on 13 October.\nThe victim's parents, June and Barry Steenkamp, condemned the verdict, saying it was \"not justice for Reeva\".\nSpeaking in an interview with NBC News, June Steenkamp said: \"He shot through the door and I can't believe that they believe it was an accident.\"\nHowever Arnold Pistorius, the athlete's uncle, said the family was \"deeply grateful\" to the judge for finding him not guilty of murder and that a \"big burden\" had been lifted.\n\"There are no victors in this,\" he added. \"We as a family remain deeply affected by the devastating, tragic event... It won't bring Reeva back but our hearts still go out for her family and friends.\"\nSouth Africa's prosecuting authority said it was \"disappointed\" Pistorius was not convicted of murder but said it would wait until after sentencing to decide whether to appeal.\nThe verdict leaves the disgraced sprinter facing up to 15 years in jail, although the judge could suspend the sentence or only impose a fine.\nThe BBC's Nomsa Maseko said there was a poignant moment in court when Oscar Pistorius's father and Reeva Steenkamp's father hugged each other as the judge adjourned to consider bail.\nThe athlete was also found guilty on a charge of negligently handling a firearm that went off in a restaurant.\nAt the scene: Pumza Fihlani, BBC News\nOscar Pistorius was a picture of composure as the judge announced he was guilty of culpable homicide, a lesser count of murder in South Africa.\nThe athlete, who became emotional on Thursday after being described as an \"evasive witness\", seemed to have been expecting this verdict. The judge had already spoken of his negligence and use of \"excessive force\" when he fired through the door.\nSome say this verdict is the best outcome he could have hoped for.\nMany South Africans have questioned the judge's decision to acquit him of murder and argue that the prosecution may have grounds to appeal.\nFor now, the Pistorius family seem relieved. But in the benches opposite them, friends and relatives of model Reeva Steenkamp wept, while others, including her mother June, seemed shell-shocked.\nDid Steenkamps get justice?\n10 key moments in the trial\n1\n2\n3\n5\n4\nMr Pistorius said he and Ms Steenkamp had dinner at about 19:00 before going to bed at 21:00. He said he woke in the early hours, spoke briefly to his girlfriend and got up to close the sliding door and curtains.\nJudge Thokozile Masipa questioned the reliability of several witnesses who said they heard screams and gunshots between about 03:12 and 03:17, saying most had 'got facts wrong'.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\nMr Pistorius said he grabbed his firearm and told Ms Steenkamp, who he thought was still in bed, to call the police.\nThe judge said it made no sense that Ms Steenkamp did not hear him scream 'Get out' or call the police, as she had her mobile phone with her.\nMr Pistorius could see the bathroom window was open and toilet door closed. He said he did not know whether the intruders were outside on a ladder or in the toilet.\nHe had his firearm in front of him, he heard a movement inside the toilet and thought whoever was inside was coming out to attack him.\n'Before I knew it, I had fired four shots at the door,' he said.\nThe judge said she did not accept that Mr Pistorius fired the gun by accident or before he knew what was happening. She said he had armed himself with a lethal weapon and clearly wanted to use it. The other question, she said, was why he fired not one, but four shots before he ran back to the room to try to find Ms Steenkamp.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom and noticed that Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet and rushed back to the bathroom.\nMr Pistorius said he screamed for help and went back to the bathroom where he found the toilet was locked. He returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs and turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nWhen the door panel broke, he found the key and unlocked the door and found Ms Steenkamp slumped on the floor with her head on the toilet bowl. He then carried her downstairs, where he was met by neighbours.\nThe double amputee had denied murdering Ms Steenkamp after a row on Valentine's Day last year, saying he shot her by mistake.\nWith this the judge agreed, saying \"it cannot be said that the accused did not entertain a genuine belief that there was an intruder\".\nBut she said: \"The accused knew there was a person behind the toilet door, he chose to use a firearm.\n\"I am of the view the accused acted too hastily and used too much force. It is clear his conduct is negligent.\"\nPistorius was convicted on an unrelated firearms charge - negligently handling a firearm that went off in a crowded restaurant.\nHe was acquitted of another charge of firing a gun in public, through the sunroof of a car, and of a charge of illegal possession of ammunition in the home where he killed Ms Steenkamp.", "He said the decision by the parole board to free the athlete after serving 10 months of his five-year sentence was premature and without legal basis.\nIt could now take months for the board to review its decision, legal sources told the BBC.\nPistorius was convicted of manslaughter last year after shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.\nThe Olympic athlete insists he mistook her for an intruder.\nHe was due to be transferred from prison to house arrest on Friday, when he was expected to stay at his uncle's three-story mansion in the capital, Pretoria.\nUnder South African law, Pistorius is eligible for release under \"correctional supervision\", having served a sixth of his sentence.\nOne of his relatives, who did not want to be named, told Reuters news agency they were \"shocked and disappointed\" at the news.\nIn a statement, South Africa's Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the decision to free the athlete was taken prematurely.\n\"One sixth of a five year sentence is 10 months and at the time the decision was made Mr Pistorius had served only over six months of his sentence,\" the statement said.\nThursday would have been Ms Steenkamp's 32nd birthday.\nHer parents held a small ceremony for her close friends and supporters in her hometown of Port Elizabeth, throwing roses into the sea in her memory.\nAnalysis: Milton Nkosi; BBC News; Johannesburg:\nThe decision by Mr Masutha to put Oscar Pistorius' early release on hold has come as a complete shock, not just to the Pistorius family but to many people who follow legal issues here.\nAccording to the prison department, the double amputee was going to be released on Friday because this is South African law - all offenders convicted under the same law as Pistorius can be considered for correctional supervision once they have served at least one-sixth of their sentence.\nIn other words it was not the prison's independent view to release the Paralympian but part of South African legal procedure.\nMany believe that this will merely cause a slight delay to his early release.\nBut the intervention by Mr Masutha, who is a lawyer, could have implications for many other cases which are less prominent.\nThe decision was taken after a petition to the minister by the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa, which includes the African National Congress Women's League, part of the governing party. It had described the athlete's early release as \"outrageous\" and \"an insult\" to victims of abuse.\nIt seems as though his last-minute intervention was the result of this political pressure.\nOscar Pistorius - in 60 seconds\nThe making and unmaking of Oscar Pistorius\nThis week, prosecutors filed court papers calling for the athlete's conviction to be converted to murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years. His defence team has a month to file its response.\nDuring sentencing, Judge Thokozile Masipa said the state had failed to prove Pistorius' intent to kill when he fired.\nThe double amputee shot and killed Ms Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home, believing she was an intruder, he told his trial.\nPistorius was born without the fibulas in both of his legs, and had surgery to amputate both below the knee while still a baby.\nHe went on to become one of South Africa's best-known sports stars, and was the first amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes, at the 2012 London Olympics.", "As Judge Eric Leach said when he read the judgment, \"not only did he not know who was behind the door, he did not know whether that person in fact constituted any threat to him.\n\"In these circumstances, although he may have been anxious, it is inconceivable that a rational person could have believed he was entitled to fire at this person with a heavy-calibre firearm.\"\nOne of the many things we learnt during the seven-month trial, was Pistorius' obsession with firearms.\nThe prosecution played a video clip showing the six-time Paralympic gold medallist shooting at a watermelon and remarking \"it's not as soft as brains… but it's a zombie stopper\".\nThe court was also told that Pistorius and his friends fired a shot inside a family restaurant in Johannesburg in 2013.\nThere are approximately 1.8 million registered gun owners in South Africa, which has an adult population of roughly 38 million.\nThe country's gun culture among both black and white communities can be traced back to the apartheid era.\nDuring the height of white-minority rule in the early 1960s, political organizations such as the African National Congress embarked on an armed liberation struggle and formed uMkhonto weSizwe, the Spear of the Nation.\nThis was beginning of the love affair of anti-apartheid activists with the AK47.\nTo this day, many black people perceive the Kalashnikov as a symbol of liberation.\nThe liberation movements said they took up arms because the apartheid government encouraged white citizens to arm themselves against \"die swart gevaar\" (the black threat).\nThe authorities instilled a fear that there was something lurking in the shadows, that somehow marauding black crowds would come and take over their prized possessions.\nThis is how ordinary suburban men acquired guns to protect their families.\nHowever, some of these weapons have ended up in wrong hands and are increasingly being used in armed robberies.\nIllegal firearms have proliferated in poor communities, where the vast majority of gun-related deaths occur.\nUnder apartheid, black people were not allowed, by law, to own guns.\nBut that all changed in 1994 when racial segregation ended and black people used their newly found constitutional rights, including to obtain firearm licences.\nThis increased the number of gun owners significantly.\nAnd so it became necessary for tighter gun control laws to be introduced, such as the Firearms Control Act.\nThis made it harder for individuals to obtain gun licences. But furthermore, it outlines stricter rules for when a person can use their firearm, even in self-defence.\nFor example, if someone is climbing over the fence into your property, you do not have the right to shoot them.\nPistorius said he fired because he thought there was an intruder in his house.\nJudge Leach said a rational person could not fire a high-calibre firearm \"without taking even that most elementary precaution of firing a warning shot, which the accused said he elected not to fire as he thought the ricochet might harm him.\n\"The accused must have foreseen and, therefore, did foresee that whoever was behind the toilet door might die, but reconciled himself to that event occurring and gambled with that person's life,\" the judge added.\nUnlike in the US, South Africa does not have in its constitution the right the bear arms.\nLobby group Gun Free South Africa says that you are four times as likely to have your gun stolen from you than to use it in self-defence, based on research undertaken in 2000 and 2009.\nThe organisation's Adele Kirsten told me: \"The gun that was meant to protect him [Pistorius] and Reeva [Steenkamp] from external danger was used to kill the person he loved.\"\nRelief and tears after murder conviction\nOscar Pistorius verdict: Key quotes\nThe making and unmaking of Oscar Pistorius\nMy friend Reeva Steenkamp\nWhen I asked South African Gunowners Association (Saga) about the impact of the Pistorius verdict on their members, it said it welcomed the judgement.\n\"The ruling does not change anything for us,\" Saga's Trust chairman, John Welch, told me.\nMr Welch emphasised: \"The court ruling reaffirms our position that there are certain parameters under which a person can use a firearm,\" implying that Pistorius went beyond the rules.\nHowever, gun-related deaths are actually falling in the country.\nA study found that in 1998, there were 26,500 murders in South Africa, 48% of which were gun-related.\nBut by 2009, this had fallen to 17,000 murders, and 34% were gun-related.\nIt is to be hoped that this trend will continue and this highly publicised tragedy will in future cause some of those who would have been reckless with their firearms to pause and think before they pull the trigger.", "Mr Pistorius says he mistakenly shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the door, believing she was a burglar, then broke it down with the bat.\nThe prosecution says he tried to beat down the door and then fired the gun.\nMr Pistorius denies intentionally killing Ms Steenkamp in February 2013.\nForensic expert Police Colonel Johan Vermeulen also said he thought Mr Pistorius had hit the door with the bat from a low angle, indicating he was not wearing his prosthetic legs at the time.\nBy Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Pretoria\nA big day in the Oscar Pistorius murder case. The defence worked tirelessly to disprove a finding by Colonel Johan Vermeulen, a decorated forensic expert in the South African Police Service (SAPS).\nOscar Pistorius's toilet door stood obtrusively in the courtroom, held up by a white frame, behind it a toilet cubicle. Col Vermeulen, a state witness, told the court that based on the marks on the door and their level Mr Pistorius was on his stumps when he struck the door with a cricket bat.\nThe defence strongly challenged his version, adding that they will present their own expert witness who will prove Mr Pistorius was in fact wearing his prosthetics. Defence lawyer Barry Roux also introduced another dimension to the case, suggesting that the police recklessly handled the crime scene - he pointed to police shoe prints on the door. The forensics from the scene are a make or break for either side.\nMr Roux's plan seems to include discrediting the integrity of the evidence collection process. He has already hinted at the possible contamination of the crime scene, placing the SAPS under a rather embarrassing spotlight.\nThis contradicts the athlete's claim that he had been wearing his artificial limbs.\nCorrespondents say whether or not the athlete was on his prosthetic limbs is important because it could match parts of his story that he accidentally shot Ms Steenkamp, or expose inconsistencies in it.\nThe damaged toilet door, with four bullet holes, was examined in the courtroom along with a replica of the toilet cubicle.\nForensic evidence on the location from which shots were fired, how they were grouped and their trajectory were presented to the court on Wednesday.\nCross-examining, Mr Pistorius' defence team asked forensic expert Col Vermeulen to kneel and lift his feet, which caused him to wobble.\nThe defence team claimed that Mr Pistorius therefore would not have been able to balance on his stumps and break down the door using a cricket bat.\nDefence lawyer Barry Roux also alleged that police had contaminated the crime scene by stepping on the door.\nCol Vermeulen argued that if Mr Pistorius was balanced enough to fire a gun, he could also break down a door with a bat.\nThe forensics expert argued that the angle and location of the marks on the door suggested that they had been caused by someone much shorter than him.\nThe defence team argued that a mark on the bottom of the door showed where Mr Pistorius had tried to kick open the door using his prosthetic legs. Col Vermeulen agreed that this was possible.\n\"The marks on the door are actually consistent with him not having his legs on and I suspect they must be similar to the height that he was when he fired the shots,\" he told the court.\nThe prosecution argues that Mr Pistorius hit the door with the cricket bat before the shots were fired, but the defence claims it was the other way round.\nThe trial is now halfway through its second week.\nEarlier on Wednesday, a friend of Mr Pistorius claimed that the star had driven at 200 km/h (124mph) and that he had taken a picture of the speedometer to prove it.\nThe defence team alleged that Darren Fresco was himself driving at the time and had therefore fabricated evidence.\nOn Tuesday, Mr Pistorius' defence team questioned a pathologist's finding that his girlfriend had eaten less than two hours before he killed her.\nThis contradicts the athlete's account that the pair had been in bed for several hours before the shooting.\nThe state is seeking to convince the court that Mr Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, and reality TV star, had an argument before the athlete fired the shots that killed her.\nThere are no juries at trials in South Africa, and his fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.\nIf found guilty, the 27-year-old, a national sporting hero dubbed the \"blade runner\", could face life imprisonment.", "An emotional day in court then climaxed with testimony from a security guard shocked to find Mr Pistorius carrying a dying Reeva Steenkamp.\nThe athlete had earlier told him \"everything is fine\" when he rang him after shots were heard.\nMr Pistorius denies both murdering Ms Steenkamp and shooting from his car.\nBy Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Johannesburg\nModel Samantha Taylor said she was 17 when she started dating Oscar Pistorius and they broke up on 4 November 2012 after he took Reeva Steenkamp to the SA Sports Awards.\nShe was called to testify regarding a lesser count relating to the alleged reckless handling of a firearm. Ms Taylor was familiar with the Pistorius house and spent about four nights a week there during their relationship, she said.\nShe painted a picture of a Pistorius who was greatly attached to his gun. \"He always had it on him,\" even when he visited friends, she told the court.\nFearful of an intruder, whenever he heard a strange noise at night he would grab the gun then go to investigate, much as he did the night he shot Ms Steenkamp.\nBut unlike with Ms Steenkamp, Ms Taylor said that on at on least two occasions, her former boyfriend woke her up to check if she had also heard the noise.\nPistorius trial: Week one round-up\nEarly in her testimony, former girlfriend Samantha Taylor broke down while discussing two break-ups with the athlete.\nShe said Mr Pistorius had twice been unfaithful, with the relationship finally ending when he \"cheated\" on her with Reeva Steenkamp.\nThe defence pointed to emails it said proved the relationship with Ms Taylor was already over by the time Mr Pistorius began seeing Ms Steenkamp, but Ms Taylor insisted the relationship was not \"officially\" over when he started dating Ms Steenkamp.\nThe model also said the alleged shooting incident happened when he became angry after a police officer stopped him for speeding, saw the gun on the car seat and told him it could not be left there.\nShe accepted that he laughed around the time he actually fired the gun.\nMs Taylor testified that Mr Pistorius kept his gun \"on him all the time,\" and described him as a man who could get very angry.\nPieter Baba, a security guard working at Oscar Pistorius' gated community, the Silverwoods Country Estate, followed Ms Taylor in the witness box.\nHe said the athlete told him everything was \"fine\" when he called to investigate neighbours' reports of gunshots on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.\nHe said he made the phone call from outside the runner's villa, before dawn. His said Mr Pistorius then called him back, crying but not saying anything, before the line went dead.\nWhen he saw Mr Pistorius carrying a dying Reeva Steenkamp down the stairs, Mr Baba said he was initially too shocked to help.\nMr Pistorius looked at the floor while Pieter Baba gave his evidence, at one point appearing to cry when the security guard described the bloody scene he found.\nThe BBC's Nomsa Maseko says that while Samantha Taylor was brought in to testify in connection with the lesser firearm charge, her evidence about the alleged shooting incident is crucial to the prosecution's case over the murder charge too, as it paints Mr Pistorius as an angry, reckless gun owner.\nThe prosecution sought to do the same with evidence given on Wednesday, when the court heard from boxer Kevin Lerena about another incident in which Mr Pistorius is alleged to have fired a gun - in a restaurant - after it was passed to him by another friend in the group. He said Mr Pistorius asked the gun's owner to take the blame.\nTowards the end of Samantha Taylor's evidence, the court was adjourned a second time, when she broke down again in the witness box.\nOscar Pistorius trial: Evidence\nAfter returning, she was asked by the prosecution if there had been other occasions when Mr Pistorius thought there was an intruder in his house.\nShe replied that it had happened at least twice. Crucially, she said he always woke her up before taking his gun with him to check.\nMr Pistorius claims he shot Ms Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder, and had not attempted to wake her before picking up his gun.\nIf found guilty, the 27-year-old double amputee, dubbed the \"blade runner\", could face life imprisonment.\nFriday's trial began with more testimony from neighbour Johan Stipp, who on Thursday told the court he found Mr Pistorius praying over Ms Steenkamp's body as she lay dying.\nQuestions again focused on his and other witnesses' testimony about the timing of various screams and gunshots.\nThe prosecutor insisted the sounds witnesses reported do not fit Mr Pistorius' version of events, while the defence tried to draw out differences in the evidence given by the neighbours who have appeared in court so far.\nMr Pistorius again appeared distraught as the events of 14 February 2013 were recounted.\nThe state is seeking to convince the court that Mr Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp, a model, reality TV star and law graduate, had an argument before the athlete fired the shots that killed his girlfriend.\nThere are no juries at trials in South Africa, and his fate will ultimately be decided by Judge Thokozile Masipa.", "Last month, Pistorius began serving a five year prison sentence for the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp, although he could be out in 10 months.\nThe sentence failed to consider the \"horrendous manner\" in which Ms Steenkamp was killed, prosecutors said.\nProsecutors are also appealing against Pistorius' murder acquittal.\nThe double-amputee Olympic sprinter was charged by the prosecution with the pre-meditated murder of Ms Steenkamp, a model and law graduate who was his girlfriend.\nHe was acquitted of this and the lesser murder charge of dolus eventualis by High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa on 21 October.\nIn South African law, this charge - also known as common-law murder - applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action.\n\"The appeal on conviction is based on the question of law,\" said National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Nathi Mncube in a statement.\nIn papers filed with the North Gauteng High Court and published by South Africa's Eyewitness News on its website, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said Judge Masipa \"erred in over-emphasising the personal circumstances of the accused and the fact that the accused was suffering from post-traumatic stress, was anxious and 'seems remorseful'.\n\"Not enough emphasis was placed on the horrendous manner in which the deceased died coupled with the gruesome injuries she sustained when the accused shot and killed her,\" he said.\nPistorius' sentence was \"shockingly light, inappropriate and would not have been imposed by any reasonable court\", Mr Nel added.\nThe judge failed to sufficiently consider that Pistorius acted with \"gross negligence\", and had fired four shots with a gun \"loaded with black talon ammunition through a locked door into a small toilet cubicle from which there was no room to escape\".\nThe prosecution had called for him to be given the maximum 15-year sentence for culpable homicide, or manslaughter.\nMs Steenkamp was killed at Pistorius' upmarket home in the capital, Pretoria, in the early hours of Valentine's Day last year.\nHe said he feared there was an intruder but he did not intend to kill.\nMr Mncube said the application for permission to appeal was expected to be considered by Judge Masipa.\n\"If it's granted, the case will then be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal,\" Mr Mncube is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.\nProsecutors had the option to petition the Supreme Court to hear the case if permission was refused, Mr Mncube said.\nThe athlete was also given a three-year suspended sentence for firing a gun in a restaurant.\nPistorius is currently serving his sentence in the hospital section of Pretoria's Kgosi Mampuru II jail.\nHe can apply to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest after 10 months in prison.\nAfter the verdict, his family said that he would not appeal.\nInside Oscar Pistorius's home\n1\n2\n3\n5\n4\nMr Pistorius said he and Ms Steenkamp had dinner at about 19:00 before going to bed at 21:00. He said he woke in the early hours, spoke briefly to his girlfriend and got up to close the sliding door and curtains.\nJudge Thokozile Masipa questioned the reliability of several witnesses who said they heard screams and gunshots between about 03:12 and 03:17, saying most had 'got facts wrong'.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\nMr Pistorius said he grabbed his firearm and told Ms Steenkamp, who he thought was still in bed, to call the police.\nThe judge said it made no sense that Ms Steenkamp did not hear him scream 'Get out' or call the police, as she had her mobile phone with her.\nMr Pistorius could see the bathroom window was open and toilet door closed. He said he did not know whether the intruders were outside on a ladder or in the toilet.\nHe had his firearm in front of him, he heard a movement inside the toilet and thought whoever was inside was coming out to attack him.\n'Before I knew it, I had fired four shots at the door,' he said.\nThe judge said she did not accept that Mr Pistorius fired the gun by accident or before he knew what was happening. She said he had armed himself with a lethal weapon and clearly wanted to use it. The other question, she said, was why he fired not one, but four shots before he ran back to the room to try to find Ms Steenkamp.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom and noticed that Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet and rushed back to the bathroom.\nMr Pistorius said he screamed for help and went back to the bathroom where he found the toilet was locked. He returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs and turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nWhen the door panel broke, he found the key and unlocked the door and found Ms Steenkamp slumped on the floor with her head on the toilet bowl. He then carried her downstairs, where he was met by neighbours.\n3D animation of the apartment", "June and Barry Steenkamp told NBC News of their \"disbelief\" that the court had believed Pistorius's version of events.\nJudge Thokozile Masipa found him guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide, saying the state had failed to prove he intended to kill.\nPistorius has been allowed bail ahead of sentencing on 13 October.\nJudge Masipa said the athlete had acted \"negligently\" when he shot his girlfriend through a toilet door, but in the \"belief that there was an intruder\".\nThe Paralympic sprinter had strenuously denied murdering Ms Steenkamp after a row on Valentine's Day last year, saying he shot her by mistake.\nBut in the interview with NBC, June Steenkamp said: \"This verdict is not justice for Reeva.\n\"I just want the truth. He shot through the door and I can't believe that they believe it was an accident.\"\nAt the scene: Pumza Fihlani, BBC News\nThere is a perception here that most crime is committed by poor black people targeting the white middle classes or the wealthy elite.\nCue \"white fear\" - a phrase used to refer to the rich white \"haves\" in society who live behind high walls, afraid of the intruder who may come in the night. It was the threat of this intruder that apparently gripped Pistorius with fear on that tragic morning.\nIn a country where domestic violence is a serious problem, it is not surprising that many hoped this case would be an impetus for change in the laws protecting women.\nIt was never proven that this was a case of domestic abuse but this did not stop political parties and women's organisations from using Ms Steenkamp as the face of the vulnerable woman - failed by her country and the system.\nOutside court, one protester told me: \"Women always lose.\"\nDid Reeva Steenkamp get justice?\nEarlier, Arnold Pistorius, the athlete's uncle, said the family was \"deeply grateful\" to the judge for finding him not guilty of murder and that a \"big burden\" had been lifted.\n\"There are no victors in this,\" he added. \"We as a family remain deeply affected by the devastating, tragic event... It won't bring Reeva back but our hearts still go out for her family and friends.\"\nSouth Africa's prosecuting authority said it was \"disappointed\" that Pistorius was not convicted of murder but said it would wait until after sentencing to decide whether to appeal.\nPistorius faces up to 15 years in jail, although the judge could suspend the sentence or only impose a fine.\nThe athlete was also found guilty on a charge of negligently handling a firearm that went off in a restaurant.\nHe was acquitted of another charge of firing a gun in public, through the sunroof of a car, and of a charge of illegal possession of ammunition in the home where he killed Ms Steenkamp.\nDespite the conviction, the International Paralympic Committee said Pistorius would be allowed to compete in future events.\nDirector of media and communications Craig Spence told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"Oscar's done a great deal for the Paralympic movement. He's been an inspiration to millions, but obviously his priority now is to see what the judge decides.\n\"If he wishes to resume his athletics career then we wouldn't step in his way. We would allow him to compete again in the future.\"", "The 25-year-old became the first amputee sprinter to take part in the Olympics in the men's 400m heats and added another first when a reprieve put South Africa into the relay final.\n\"To step out here in an Olympic final is more than I could ever have hoped for,\" Pistorius said.\n\"The experience has been phenomenal and far beyond my expectations.\"\nPistorius, who is known as the \"Blade Runner\" because of the prosthetic carbon fibre limbs he runs with, has worked hard over the last four years to compete in London.\nIn 2008, the South African won a long battle with athletics' governing body, the IAAF, to compete against able-bodied athletes.\nI never set out to prove a point, but I do feel I have made the point\nBut there had been further doubt this year that Pistorius would get his chance to run in the Olympics when the South African team warned they would \"not take passengers to London\" after Pistorius failed to clock the qualifying \"A\" standard for a second time.\n\"It has been a great achievement for me to come here and compete,\" said Pistorius, who was able to run in the 400m after winning selection for the relay team.\n\"I never set out to prove a point, but I do feel I have made the point. It's been a privilege to be on the track with all the other phenomenal athletes.\n\"If I took all the positive things I thought might come out of this and multiply it by 10, it still couldn't come close.\n\"This week has just been one of the biggest blessings for me. It's taught me a lot.\n\"All in all, this was such a successful campaign for us. I wanted to make the semi-finals in the individual. I wanted to make the final in the 4x400m. We could never have hoped for half the support we've received.\"\nPistorius bowed out of the individual 400m semi-finals in London with a time of 46.54 seconds. South Africa finished eighth in the 4x400m relay with a season's best time of 3:03.46 seconds.\nLJ van Zyl, who handed the baton to Pistorius, said: \"It was a privilege to run the final and a bigger privilege to run the relay with Oscar.\n\"I think 10 or 20 years from now we will still remember the day when we ran with Oscar at the Olympics.\"\nPistorius will defend his 100m, 200m and 400m titles at the Paralympic Games in London later in August before turning his attention to his long-term goal, the 2016 Rio Olympics.", "The athlete, who became emotional on Thursday after being described as an \"evasive witness\", seemed to have been expecting this verdict.\nThe judge had already spoken of his negligence and use of \"excessive force\" when he fired through the door.\nAlthough he was acquitted of the most serious charge, culpable homicide still carries a prison term of up to 15 years but, unlike murder, the judge may use her discretion and suspend the sentence or only impose a fine.\nSome say this is the best outcome he could have hoped for.\nFriends and relatives of Reeva Steenkamp wept, as the poised and soft-spoken Judge Thokozile Masipa handed down her judgement.\nReeva Steenkamp's mother, June, seemed shell-shocked.\nThe Steenkamps left the court soon after the hearing ended, no doubt keen to get away.\nThe Pistorius family addressed the media in the courtroom where the verdict was delivered.\nArnold Pistorius, the family patriarch, addressed the throng of media crammed on the court benches and thanked Judge Masipa for not convicting his nephew of murder, saying \"a huge burden had been lifted\".\n\"We as a family remain deeply affected by this devastating tragedy,\" he said with his wife, Lois, standing by his side.\n\"It won't bring Reeva back but our hearts do go out to her friends and family,\" Mr Pistorius continued.\nPistorius himself was not there - he had left moments earlier.\nAs the Paralympic champion was escorted out of the courthouse, scores of young women screamed and cheered, like fans at a rock concert.\nBut the case is not yet over. It will resume on 13 October, when Judge Masipa will sentence the athlete.\nFor the past six months, the world has had a front row seat watching the fall from grace of the man referred to as the \"blade runner\".\nAs the case enters its final stretch, two courts in South Africa are now debating Judge Masipa's verdict - the courts of public opinion and of the legal system.\nSome legal experts say she followed the law impeccably, by looking at the evidence before her and then evaluating whether the state had proven its case.\nBut others have been unsettled by her ruling that Pistorius was not guilty of murder, saying the prosecution had grounds to appeal.\nIn South Africa, a perpetrator can be convicted of murder if he or she had foreseen that their actions would lead to someone's death and still proceeded with that course of action.\nMs Masipa said she could find no proof that Pistorius had the requisite intention to \"kill the deceased, or anyone else for that matter\".\nLegal expert Prof Pierre de Vos tweeted : \"Not sure rejection of [murder charge] is correct here.\n\"Surely if you shoot into a door of a small toilet and know somebody behind door you foresee and accept possibility of killing?\"\nBut the judge clearly said on both Thursday and Friday that the prosecution had not proven beyond reasonable doubt that the athlete had foreseen that he would kill someone when he fired four shots through the door of his toilet in the early hours of Valentine's Day 2013.\nThe judge, perhaps anticipating the backlash, said the verdicts had been reached unanimously. There are no juries in South Africa but she was assisted throughout the trial by two assessors.\nJudge Masipa, a figure of quiet authority, has a reputation for fairness in court circles and is well respected - but on the streets this has somewhat changed.\nOn social networking sites and among the crowds outside court, many say they feel Pistorius got off lightly because of his fame and his ability to employ expensive lawyers.\nThankfully for her, public opinion has no bearing inside court.\nSouth Africa itself has been on trial over the same period. The world has been told of police bungling and a spotlight has shone on the fear of crime.\nThere is a perception here in South Africa that most crime is committed by poor black people targeting the white middle classes or the wealthy elite.\nCue \"white fear\" - a phrase used to refer to the rich white haves in society who live behind high walls, afraid of the intruder who may come in the night. It was the threat of this intruder that apparently gripped Pistorius with fear on that tragic morning.\nIn a country where domestic violence is a serious problem, it is not surprising that many hoped this case would be an impetus for change in the laws protecting women.\nIt was never proven that this was a case of domestic abuse but this did not stop political parties and women's organisations from using Ms Steenkamp as the face of the vulnerable woman - failed by her country and the system.\n#JusticeForReeva is currently trending among South Africa's Twitter users.\nOutside court, one protester told me: \"Women always lose\".\nBut whether or not he spends time in prison, the Oscar Pistorius the world celebrated and South Africa collectively worshipped is gone forever.\nWhile the Steenkamps feel they still have not had justice for their daughter.\n\"This verdict is not justice for Reeva,\" her mother, June told NBC. \"I just want the truth.\"", "Pistorius was found guilty of murdering Ms Steenkamp after a court overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict.\nThe sentencing hearing - expected to conclude by Friday - will decide if he will face a jail term of 15 years.\nBarry Steenkamp asked for photos of his daughter's body to be made public so people could see the wounds.\nCorrespondents say Mr Steenkamp's voice broke and tears streamed down his face as he said that he thought about his daughter \"morning, noon and night... every hour\".\nThe 73-year-old told Pretoria's High Court that he had had no contact with Pistorius, but said that wife June had been able to forgive the double-amputee athlete.\n\"You must understand why forgiving doesn't exonerate you from the crime you committed,\" he said.\nBarry Steenkamp, a tall man, looked broken on the stand as he reminded the world that this protracted legal case was about the death of his daughter, and losing her was the greatest pain he had ever known.\nTears streamed down his face as he told the court how he thought of Reeva every day and that even after all this time it felt like it had all happened yesterday. He described jabbing himself with needles from his diabetes treatment to see if he could feel the same pain his daughter must have felt the night she died.\nIn the aftermath of her death, he had a stroke and now has heart problems, which is why he had not been able to testify during the original trial. But he said he felt compelled to speak now.\nEyes red from crying and shoulders shaking, he said that he and his wife had been changed forever and all they wanted was justice - being forgiven, did not exonerate someone from a crime. \"He has to pay for what he did,\" Mr Steenkamp repeated about four times.\nPistorius stared into space as Mr Steenkamp spoke. He too had been crying.\nMr Steenkamp also told the court how the couple had been left in financial \"dire straits\" after their daughter's death.\nTheir landlady had served them with an eviction notice two weeks afterwards - which was why they had initially accepted monthly payments of 6,500 rand ($425; £300) from Pistorius.\nThis was meant to have been confidential and he said he was \"disgusted\" that Pistorius' legal team had brought it up during the trial.\nWhen questioned by Pistorius' lawyer, Barry Roux, Mr Steenkamp confirmed that he and his wife had declined an offer to meet the athlete.\n\"The time will come and I would like to talk to Oscar,\" he said.\nPistorius, 29, killed Ms Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door.\nThe athlete has always maintained he believed he was shooting at an intruder.\nHe was initially jailed for manslaughter in 2014 and was released into house arrest after a year, but his conviction was changed to murder after the prosecution appealed.\nPistorius was released from prison last October and allowed to serve out the remainder of his initial sentence under house arrest at his uncle's property in Pretoria.\nThe South African made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in London in 2012.\nHe competed in the 400m, wearing carbon-fibre blades to run against able-bodied athletes.", "Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga told the BBC she thought the judgement was \"based on technicalities, not on facts\".\nMs Steenkamp's parents have also said \"justice was not served\".\nJudge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.\nShe said the state had failed to prove Pistorius intended to kill.\nMs Motshekga, who is also president of the governing ANC women's league, said she believed ordinary women in the country will now not feel that the law protects them.\nShe said that she found Pistorius' version of events implausible and added she hoped the state would appeal against the verdict.\nSouth Africa's prosecuting authority has said it will wait until after sentencing to decide whether to appeal.\nPistorius faces up to 15 years in jail, although the judge could suspend the sentence or only impose a fine.\nJune and Barry Steenkamp have also told NBC News of their \"disbelief\" that the court had believed Pistorius's version of events.\nPistorius has been allowed bail ahead of sentencing on 13 October.\nJudge Masipa said the athlete had acted \"negligently\" when he shot his girlfriend through a toilet door, but in the \"belief that there was an intruder\".\nThe Paralympic sprinter had strenuously denied murdering Ms Steenkamp after a row on Valentine's Day last year, saying he shot her by mistake.\nBut in the interview with NBC, June Steenkamp said: \"This verdict is not justice for Reeva.\n\"I just want the truth. He shot through the door and I can't believe that they believe it was an accident.\"\nAt the scene: Pumza Fihlani, BBC News\nThere is a perception here that most crime is committed by poor black people targeting the white middle classes or the wealthy elite.\nCue \"white fear\" - a phrase used to refer to the rich white \"haves\" in society who live behind high walls, afraid of the intruder who may come in the night. It was the threat of this intruder that apparently gripped Pistorius with fear on that tragic morning.\nIn a country where domestic violence is a serious problem, it is not surprising that many hoped this case would be an impetus for change in the laws protecting women.\nIt was never proven that this was a case of domestic abuse but this did not stop political parties and women's organisations from using Ms Steenkamp as the face of the vulnerable woman - failed by her country and the system.\nOutside court, one protester told me: \"Women always lose.\"\nDid Reeva Steenkamp get justice?\nWas it wise to televise Pistorius trial?\nEarlier, Arnold Pistorius, the athlete's uncle, said the family was \"deeply grateful\" to the judge for finding him not guilty of murder but added that there were \"no victors in this,\" he added.\n\"Our hearts still go out for her family and friends,\" he said.\nThe athlete was also found guilty on a charge of negligently handling a firearm that went off in a restaurant.\nHe was acquitted of another charge of firing a gun in public, through the sunroof of a car, and of a charge of illegal possession of ammunition in the home where he killed Ms Steenkamp.\nDespite the conviction, the International Paralympic Committee said Pistorius would be allowed to compete in future events.\nDirector of media and communications Craig Spence told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"Oscar's done a great deal for the Paralympic movement. He's been an inspiration to millions, but obviously his priority now is to see what the judge decides.\n\"If he wishes to resume his athletics career then we wouldn't step in his way. We would allow him to compete again in the future.\"", "Defence witness Dr Jonathan Scholtz said Pistorius was suffering from \"major depression\".\nPistorius was convicted at the end of last year of the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.\nHe faces a jail term of 15 years but it may be reduced due to time already spent in prison and mitigating factors.\nThe hearing is expected to last all week with a sentence by Friday.\nUpdates from the hearing and other African news stories\nPistorius, a fallen idol\nThe trial: 10 key moments\nDr Scholtz explained to the court why he felt a jail term would not be \"constructive\".\n\"Since the offence he has developed a serious psychiatric condition which has become worse over the past two years,\" he told the court.\nInstead of a custodial sentence, Pistorius should do community service so that he could help others and had a job offer as a project manager in an early childhood development programme run by his uncle's company, Dr Scholz said.\nPistorius was also now traumatised by the sound gunfire, even in a film, and never wanted to go near a firearm again. As a consequence he had sold all his weapons, the doctor said.\nBut state prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned Dr Scholz' assertion that Pistorius was not fit to testify in front of the court, saying he had given an hour-long interview to a British broadcaster, ITV.\nPistorius had also had temper tantrums in jail and had once banged a table when he got upset with a nurse, Mr Nel said, asking Dr Scholtz why he had ignored Pistorius' actions.\nDr Jonathan Scholtz spent the day detailing Pistorius' mental state.\nHe was called by the defence to help them get a lesser sentence for the disgraced athlete.\nBut state prosecutor Gerrie Nel, poking holes in the doctor's claims that Pistorius is depressed, argued that he had shown no remorse throughout the trial and that should be borne in mind.\nMr Nel told the court that Pistorius only regretted the effect killing Ms Steenkamp had had on his own life.\nPistorius, in a dark pinstripe suit, cast a lonely figure listening to the proceedings.\nWhatever the outcome, he will be sentenced as a murderer, the worst crime under South African law.\nPistorius, 29, killed Ms Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door.\nThe athlete has always maintained he believed he was shooting at an intruder.\nHe was initially jailed for manslaughter in 2014 and was released into house arrest after a year, but his conviction was changed to murder after the prosecution appealed.\nWhen changing the conviction to murder from manslaughter South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court had not correctly applied the rule of dolus eventualis - whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.\nThe panel of judges said that it was irrelevant who he had thought was behind the door.\nOriginal trial judge Thokozile Masipa will hear arguments from both prosecution and defence this week.\nReeva Steenkamp's father, Barry, who has been absent throughout the case due to poor health, is in court and may testify later this week.\nExperts say a custodial sentence seems almost unavoidable but factors such as his mental fragility, disability and good behaviour may lead to a reduced jail term.\nHe was released from prison last October after almost a year in jail and allowed to serve out the remainder of his initial sentence under house arrest on his uncle's property in Pretoria.\nThe South African made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in London in 2012.\nHe competed in the 400m, wearing carbon-fibre blades to run against able-bodied athletes.", "It seemed almost certain Senzo Meyiwa was heading for sporting greatness, but on Sunday he was killed.\nThe footballer was reportedly shot by armed burglars who had broken into his girlfriend's home.\nSouth Africa's minister of sport says the country has been \"robbed of an icon and a legend in the making\".\nFormer England striker Gary Lineker has expressed his shock on Twitter, calling it \"sad news\".\nMeyiwa's death also brings South Africa's gun laws back into the spotlight.\nIt is just days since Oscar Pistorius was jailed for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after apparently mistaking her for an intruder.\nMeyiwa was named South Africa's captain just a month ago.\nOn Saturday his team, the Orlando Pirates, beat Ajax Cape Town 4-1 in the semi-finals of the South African League Cup.\nThat became the last game he would play. Not long after he tweeted this:\nOff the pitch, Meyiwa was married to his estranged wife Mandisa Mkhize and had a young daughter with his girlfriend, South African singer Kelly Khumalo.\nHours before Meyiwa's death, Khumalo, 29, shared a photo of them in the car with her sister in the backseat.\nOn Sunday evening Meyiwa was staying at his girlfriend's house in Vosloorus, near Johannesburg.\nAt around 8pm two gunmen reportedly broke into the building, while a third waited outside.\nSouth Africa's police service said the two men demanded mobile phones, money and other valuables.\nMeyiwa was shot in the chest and taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The suspects fled.\nAs angry crowds gathered at Meyiwa's house and the hospital, police called for calm promising they would do all they could to \"bring Meyiwa's killers to book\".\nThey have offered a reward of around $14,000 for information which leads to arrests.\nAs South Africa woke up to the news that Meyiwa had been killed, President Jacob Zuma said he was mourning the loss of a young footballer who had been \"taken away at the prime of his career\".\nIn a statement he said: \"Words cannot express the nation's shock at this loss.\"\nMany of Meyiwa's friends, fans and fellow footballers have paid tribute on Twitter.\n#SenzoMeyiwa trended top on Twitter around the world, including in the United Kingdom.\nMeyiwa's agent described the 27-year-old as a humble man from a tough background who became a \"hero in everyone's eyes\".\nThis weekend's derby between Meyiwa's club Orlando Pirates and their rivals Kaizer Chiefs has been postponed.\nPlayers from Kaizer Chiefs gathered at the hospital on Sunday night after hearing about the shooting.\nOrlando Pirates Chairman Dr Irvin Khoza said the fact Meyiwa's rivals turned up demonstrated \"the magnitude of what happened\".\nMeyiwa's death comes a week after Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius was jailed for five years for culpable homicide after shooting dead his girlfriend in 2013.\nPistorius has always claimed he shot Reeva Steenkamp by mistake because he thought there was a burglar in his apartment.\nReserve goalkeeper Darren Keet said he'd had enough of \"moving on\" from case to case and wants proper change in South Africa.\nâ€", "He was initially given a five-year term for manslaughter, but was found guilty of murder on appeal last December.\nHe was taken immediately to jail. Both the prosecution and defence can appeal, but his lawyers say they will not.\nPistorius, 29, shot Reeva Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door in February 2013.\nHe admitted shooting her, but said he had mistaken Ms Steenkamp for an intruder and acted out of fear.\nJudge Thokozile Masipa said mitigating circumstances, such as rehabilitation and remorse, outweighed aggravating factors, such as his failure to fire a warning shot, for deviating from the prescribed 15-year sentence.\nMany have expressed shock at Pistorius's sentence, which is much less than the prescribed minimum for murder. South Africans have taken to social media to express their unhappiness, with some describing the prison term as an insult.\nOutside court, legal experts said the sentence was too little. \"The judge was sympathetic and empathetic to Pistorius. It was clear in the tone of her entire judgement,\" one said.\nBut Judge Masipa said she had carefully considered the circumstances around Reeva Steenkamp's death and her sentence needed to be fair to both Pistorius and the family of the deceased.\nSouth Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and some say a short sentence will send the wrong message to would-be-offenders.\nHas Pistorius got off lightly?\nDressed in a dark suit, Pistorius sat and listened to the hour-long session mostly with his head down.\nHe hugged his sister after the verdict, and was taken to Pretoria's Khosi Mampuru prison.\nMs Steenkamp's parents, Barry and June, sat quietly on the other side of the packed courtroom.\nPistorius has already served one year in jail over his previous conviction. He is legally obliged to serve half of his new term before being eligible for parole.\nHis legal team said he would serve the sentence prescribed and would only act to appeal if prosecutors indicated they wanted to appeal.\nProsecutors have not ruled it out and still have 14 days to decide if they will do so, correspondents say.\nBarry Steenkamp told the BBC he was pleased that the trial was over, even though life would never be the same again.\nMs Steenkamp's parents had previously expressed disappointment with the initial sentence, an opinion shared by many South Africans. Women's rights groups considered it too lenient.\nBut Judge Masipa said her opinion was that \"a long term in prison will not serve justice\".\n\"Public opinion may be loud and persistent but it can play no role in the decision of this court.\"\nMs Masipa also said there was \"no indication\" that the victim was in an abusive relationship or this was a case of \"gender violence\".\nSome rights groups have also argued that Pistorius, a wealthy white man and international celebrity, has received preferential treatment compared with others who lack his status or wealth.\nThe Women's League of the governing African National Congress (ANCWL) condemned the sentence as too lenient. \"It is an insult to women in this country,\" ANCWL spokeswoman Jacqueline Mofokeng told Reuters news agency.\nThe six-time Paralympic gold medallist made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012 in London, running on prosthetic \"blades\".\nHe had his legs amputated below the knee as a baby.", "During his emotional testimony he said Ms Steenkamp died before the ambulance arrived while he was holding her.\nHe said he tried to help her breathe and stem the bleeding from her hip.\nThe athlete denies deliberately shooting dead Ms Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year, arguing he mistook her for an intruder.\nProsecutors contend he intentionally killed her in the toilet of his bathroom after a row.\nThe 27-year-old Olympic and Paralympic sprinter, who is a double amputee, faces life imprisonment if convicted of murder.\nOn Tuesday, he broke down in tears whilst describing the events leading up to the shooting and the actual event.\nIf acquitted, South African law stipulates that the court must consider the separate, lesser charge of culpable homicide, or manslaughter, for which he could receive between six and 15 years in prison.\nMr Pistorius also faces charges of illegally firing a gun in public and of illegally possessing ammunition, both of which he denies.\nThere are no juries at trials in South Africa, and his fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.\nOn his third day on the stand, Mr Pistorius described the moments after paramedics had arrived at the scene.\n\"They asked for some space to work so I stood up. Reeva had already died whilst I was holding her before the ambulance arrived. So, I knew there was nothing they could do for her,\" he told the court.\nHe also described his distress as police and other officials arrived at the house.\n\"I asked a policeman if I could wash my hands because the smell of the blood was making me throw up,\" he said.\nHis lawyer Barry Roux also asked him to demonstrate how he would swing a cricket bat.\nMr Pistorius said he was on his prosthetic legs when he used the cricket bat to break down the toilet door.\nHe said the three sounds heard by witnesses at 03:17 local time was the cricket bat hitting the door - about five minutes after he shot at the toilet door.\nHe said he was on his stumps, when he shot at the door.\n\"I can barely stand on my stumps,\" he said.\nDuring his questioning, Mr Roux also mentioned statements from close neighbours who were listed by the state but not called by the prosecution.\nHe said the statement from Kenny Motshoane's house described hearing \"crying\" and not \"a woman screaming\", as mentioned by other witnesses.\nAnother woman living nearby also says she heard \"loud crying\" and not a woman screaming, Mr Roux said.\nBefore Mr Roux ended his questioning he asked Mr Pistorius if he had intentionally killed Ms Steenkamp.\n\"I did not intend to kill Reeva or anybody else for that matter,\" he replied.\nOn Tuesday, the athlete described how the couple had spent a quiet evening together on 13 February, Ms Steenkamp doing some yoga as he spoke to his cousin on the phone.\nHe had then watched TV in bed with his head resting on her stomach and she would occasionally show him photos of cars she was looking at on her phone, he said. He said that they had bought Valentine's Day gifts for each other.\nMs Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, reality TV celebrity and law graduate, was hit by at least three bullets while in the toilet cubicle of Mr Pistorius's home in Pretoria.\n1\n2\n5\n4\n6\n3\nMr Pistorius said in his statement at the start of the trial that he woke in the early hours and walked on his stumps to the balcony, pulled in two fans, closed the sliding door and drew curtains. He said that shortly before he had spoken to Reeva, who was in bed beside him.\nHe said he rejected prosecution claims that a witness heard arguing coming from the house before the shooting.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\n\"Unbeknown to me, Reeva must have gone to the toilet in the bathroom at the time I brought in the fans,\" he said.\nMr Pistorius said he approached the bathroom armed with his firearm, to defend himself and his girlfriend, believing Ms Steenkamp was still in bed.\nBoth sides agree four bullets were fired. Ms Steenkamp was hit three times.\nMr Pistorius said he fired his weapon after hearing a noise in the toilet which he thought was the intruder coming out of the toilet to attack him and Ms Steenkamp.\nHe said he was in a fearful state, knowing he was on his stumps and unable to run away or properly defend himself.\nMr Pistorius said he rejected claims that he was on his prostheses when he shot at the door.\nA witness told the trial she woke to hear a woman screaming and a man shouting for help. She said that after the screams she heard four shots.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom after shooting at the toilet door, still shouting for Reeva. Lifting himself up onto the bed, he felt over to the right hand side of it and noticed Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bathroom but the toilet was locked, so he returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs, turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nForensics expert Johannes Vermeulen told the court that the height of the marks on the door caused by the cricket bat suggest Mr Pistorius was on his stumps at the time.\nMr Pistorius's defence team say he then called security at the gated housing complex and a private paramedic service before carrying Ms Steenkamp downstairs.\nA security guard claimed it was the other way round, and he had called Mr Pistorius first after reports of gunfire. However, phone records shown to the court revealed Mr Pistorius called the estate manager at 3:19am, a minute later he called the ambulance service and at 3:21am he called estate security.\nA minute later he received an incoming call - estate security calling him back.\nAccording to police phone expert Francois Moller, Mr Pistorius called his friend Justin Divaris a short time later and just after 4:00am he called his brother Carl.", "On Monday, a judge-led panel upheld a decision taken in August to block his transfer to house arrest.\nThe panel also said Pistorius should undergo psychotherapy, but his family said he was already receiving it.\nThe 28-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison last year for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.\nHigh Court Judge Thokozile Masipa found him guilty of culpable homicide, or manslaughter.\nThe 28-year-old double amputee had hoped to be freed in August after a parole board ruled that he could serve the rest of his five-year prison sentence under house arrest.\nBut the panel, led by Judge Lucy Mailula, ruled that Justice Minister Michael Masutha had acted correctly when he prevented the release on the grounds that it had been taken prematurely.\nAt the time of his intervention, Pistorius had been granted parole only six months into his five-year sentence.\nMr Masutha had argued that the law states that an offender can only be considered for parole after serving one-sixth of his sentence, in this case 10 months.\nIn a statement, the Pistorius family said it was concerned about the \"legality\" of delaying his release.\n\"Time has now cured\" Mr Masutha's concerns and it could not understand why the panel had referred the case back to the parole board rather than taking a decision, the statement said.\n\"The failure to give proper - and consistent - effect to the Correctional Services Act flies in the face of administrative justice,\" it said.\n\"This experience leaves us with the uncomfortable conclusion that the public, political and media hype that was allowed to develop around Oscar's trial has undermined his right to be treated like any other prisoner - as per the prescripts of the Correctional Services Act.\"\nPistorius: Track champion\nThe making and unmaking of Pistorius\nPistorius was \"receiving regular and ongoing psychotherapy from not only his own psychologist, but also from prison psychologists and a social worker whose reports formed part of the parole decision process\", the family added.\nThe panel had ruled that Pistorius should \"be subjected to psychotherapy in order to address criminogenic factors of the crime he committed\", referring to behaviour that leads to criminality.\nThe psychotherapy should be given \"even if the offender is, indeed placed under correctional supervision\", it added.\nThe panel also ruled that the parole board should consider imposing conditions restricting the use of firearms by the athlete.\nThe double amputee athlete said he mistook Ms Steenkamp for a burglar when he fired multiple shots though a locked door at her in his home on Valentine's Day 2013.\nJudge Masipa acquitted him of murder, saying the prosecution had failed to prove the charge.\nThe prosecution has appealed against this acquittal and the case will be heard next month by some of South Africa's most senior judges.", "Legal experts say she followed the law impeccably, by looking at the evidence before her and then evaluating whether the state had proven its case.\nBut others have been unsettled by her ruling that Mr Pistorius was not guilty of murder, though she has yet to reveal her verdict on the lesser charge of culpable homicide.\nWhile the law makes provisions for how criminal matters should be handled, judges, as custodians of the law, ultimately use their discretion.\nJudge Masipa took the view that the state had failed to prove Mr Pistorius had intended to kill someone, so he could not be convicted of murder.\n\"The evidence failed to prove the accused had intention [to kill],\" she said. \"The accused had the intention to shoot at the person behind the door, not to kill.\"\nRespected veteran judge Willem Heath says Judge Masipa could only base her verdict on the evidence before her and the facts of the case.\n\"She went to the crux of the evidence. On the evidence presented, I am in agreement with her there is just not evidence that he had intention to kill,\" he says. \"She had to analyse the evidence and apply the law to that.\"\nLawyer Mannie Witz agrees, saying: \"The minute you knock out intention, it can't be murder.\"\nBut Mr Witz says prosecutors may have grounds to appeal over how the judge interpreted the law with regard to the lesser murder charge of dolus eventualis, of which the athlete was cleared.\nIn South African law, this charge - also known as common-law murder, as distinct from premeditated murder - applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action.\nThe judge's critics argue that dolus eventualis includes the possibility of meaning to kill one person and ending up killing another. But Judge Masipa dismissed this possibility: \"Clearly he did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door - let alone the deceased - as he thought she was in the bedroom,\" she said.\nThat prompted legal expert professor Pierre de Vos to tweet: \"Not sure rejection of dolus eventualis is correct here.\n\"Surely if you shoot into a door of a small toilet and know somebody behind door you foresee and accept possibility of killing?\"\nMr de Vos thinks this should be enough for a conviction for murder.\nBut as Mr Witz points out \"the onus is on the state to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, while Mr Pistorius' version only needed to be reasonably or possibly true\".\nOn social networking sites and among the crowds outside court, many say they feel Mr Pistorius got off lightly.\n\"I think he should have been found guilty of murder. Killing is killing,\" says Lindokuhle Mohale, who was watching proceedings on a screen outside court.\nBut Ms Mohale's friend, Julia Ntseki, disagrees.\n\"I believe that is was an honest mistake. Yes it was wrong but it was a mistake. He didn't mean to kill - that can't be murder,\" she says.\nNearby, women carrying \"Stop killing us\" placards sang mournful songs in support of Reeva Steenkamp and her family.\n\"Women are being killed and nothing is happening. Our daughters are being killed. What he did was wrong,\" said one of the protesters.\n\"The law has double standards, women seem to always lose.\"\nAnother protester said: \"South Africa has a big problem with violence against women. What message is this sending? Won't men think they can kill us and simply say it was a mistake?\"", "The 25-year-old, promoted as the face of the Games, went into the final without an individual gold but won in a new Paralympic record of 46.68 seconds.\nHe finished almost four seconds ahead of Blake Leeper, with fellow American David Prince taking bronze.\nPistorius also won gold in the 4x400m relay and silver in the 200m.\n\"I think it's how the athletics had to end. It was perfect having Oscar Pistorius as the last event. I am pleased for him as an athlete. You could tell he felt despondent about his performances in his other events, so after all the pressure on him, it's a huge amount of relief. It was never going to be easy to do the two events (200m and 400m) back to back. I was a bit disappointed with Alan Oliveira but it proves he can't run a 400m.\"\nDefending champion Pistorius was expected to win the race easily, although at the 200m mark it appeared that Brazil's Alan Oliveira, who stunned the South African in the 200m, might just cause another Paralympics shock.\nBut Pistorius pulled away from his main rival coming into the final, with 20-year-old Oliveira tying up badly in the home straight and passed by the American pair.\n\"It is very, very special to me,\" Pistorius said. \"It was the last event of my season, the last event of the London 2012 Paralympic Games (at the stadium). It was just so special.\n\"It was the 11th time I was able to come out on the track and I just wanted to give the crowd something they could appreciate and take home with them.\n\"I was very nervous before today's race. I was quite tired but the crowd really kept me going.\n\"For the first time I was actually thinking about something beside my race coming into the home straight.\n\"I could hear the crowd, which was very weird and so loud. I thought 'let's just finish off on a good note'.\"\nThere was no final flourish for Great Britain's athletes in front of a capacity 80,000 crowd.\nWelsh world champion javelin thrower Nathan Stephens finished 12th after two throws and a poor third effort meant a premature end to the 24-year-old's participation in the F57/58 competition.\nJarrow sprinter Hazel Robson finished seventh in the T36 100m - the 33-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, won gold in the event in Sydney.\nBritain have dropped from second to third in the overall medals table behind Russia, which now has 35 golds to GB's 33, with Ukraine just behind on 32 and Australia on 31 ahead of the final day of competition. China are way out in front with 95 golds.\nElsewhere in the Olympic Stadium, world records fell, including in the crowd-pleasing F46 high jump final. Poland's Maciej Lepiato shattered the previous best of 2.05m with a 2.12 clearance.\nMeanwhile, South Africa's Fanie van der Merwe fell over the line to take the T37 100m title. He recorded the same time as China's Liang Yongbin - a world record of 11.51 - but was given gold following a photo finish.\nThe athletics competition finishes on Sunday with the marathons, with GB's David Weir attempting to win a fourth gold of the Games in the men's T54 event starting at 1130 BST.", "Ms Steenkamp, 29, had been about to appear in a celebrity TV reality show called Tropika Island of Treasure.\nIn publicity for the programme, she had said her personal claims to fame were that she was named by men's magazine FHM as one of the \"100 sexiest women in the world two years running\", appearing on the December 2011 cover of the magazine and graduating in law from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, where she had grown up.\nShe had moved to Johannesburg in 2007 after she was chosen to become the first face of Avon cosmetics in South Africa, her profile on the show's website says.\nShe went on to appear in many campaigns and commercials and had presented some TV shows.\n\"She was definitely destined for success,\" her publicist Sarit Tomlinson, from Capacity Relations, told the BBC.\n\"She was a gorgeous girl both inside and out, and also had a brain... she had an incredible entrepreneurial spirit.\"\nHer family were \"shocked and devastated\", Ms Tomlinson said.\n\"She was an absolute angel - the sweetest, sweetest human being, kind human being, it's very, very sad.\"\nOscar Pistorius profile\nMs Steenkamp was first spotted with Oscar Pistorius at the South African Sports Awards in November 2012, when the model said they were just friends, South Africa's Mail and Guardian reports.\nThe couple had been dating for a couple of months, Ms Tomlinson told Sky News.\n\"It's been a healthy fabulous relationship,\" she said.\nThe model was an active Twitter user, where she described herself as \"SA Model, Cover Girl, Tropika Island of Treasure Celeb Contestant, Law Graduate, Child of God\".\nThe day before the shooting, she had said how much she was looking forward to Valentine's Day.\n\"What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay,\" she tweeted.\nEarlier that day she had said she was enjoying a smoothie with her boyfriend: \"It's a beautiful day! Make things happen. Starting my day off with a yummy healthy shake from my boo :) #healthyliving.\"\nThe reality TV show she took part in was filmed on a tropical island and pits seven celebrities and seven other players against one another to win 1m rand ($113,000, £72,600).\nDuring each episode they play a game, the winner of which is able to kick off one of the other contestants.\n\"We are deeply saddened and extend our condolences to Reeva's family and friends,\" a statement on the show's website says.\nFor the show, she was asked to describe herself in three words. \"Brainy, blonde, bombshell,\" she said.\nShe also had a passion for cars and cooking and at the weekends preferred to read a book and spend time with her friends and family, her Tropika Island of Treasure profile said.", "Prosecution lawyer Gerrie Nel made the application after forensic psychiatrist Merryll Vorster said the double amputee was \"a danger to society\".\nJudge Thokozile Masipa said she would announce her decision on Wednesday.\nMr Pistorius denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.\nHe says he accidentally shot her through the toilet door in a state of panic, mistaking the 29-year-old model and law graduate for an intruder.\nBy Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent\nThe prospect of Oscar Pistorius being booked into a medical facility for a month of psychiatric evaluation has lent this long trial a surreal quality.\nBoth the defence and the prosecution insist they do not believe the athlete is mentally ill, making the prosecution's request for the evaluation - in the \"interests of justice\" - more than a little confusing.\nProsecutor Gerrie Nel said he had no option but to ask for it, after the defence raised the suggestion that Mr Pistorius' \"anxiety disorder\" might have affected his behaviour the night he killed Reeva Steenkamp.\nOne theory is that the prosecution is simply trying to fire a shot across the defence's bows - discouraging them from making too much of the athlete's state of mind - and is anticipating that Judge Masipa will reject their application for medical evaluation. They may also be laying grounds for a future appeal.\nThe Pistorius family - and their lawyer Barry Roux - are clearly upset by what they see as a crude \"ploy\" by the prosecutor. But this case may well hinge on the judge's understanding of Mr Pistorius' state of mind when he pulled the trigger, and the prosecution is keen to show that the defence keeps changing its version - from putative self-defence, to accidental shooting, and now to something linked to his \"anxiety disorder\".\nThe prosecution accused the defence on Tuesday of changing its plea - from putative self-defence to a psychiatric disorder.\nMr Nel said that a \"psychiatric evaluation was essential\" and it was in the interests of justice for the accused to be referred.\nThe defence is vigorously resisting the prosecution move, which it argues is \"manifestly absurd\".\nDr Vorster told the court earlier that she would not say that Mr Pistorius had \"a mental illness\" and that he was \"still able to function at high level as an athlete and still able to socialise\".\nBut she said that people with Generalised Anxiety Disorders (Gads) like Mr Pistorius probably should not have firearms.\nShe said that Gad would not \"render you unfit to stand trial\".\nThe BBC's Andrew Harding says that the psychiatrist shored up the defence's argument that Mr Pistorius does not need mental evaluation.\nOn Monday she said that the athlete had had an anxiety disorder since childhood and was \"anxious\" about violent crime.\nHis actions on Valentine's Day last year \"should be seen in context of his anxiety\" and would have been different from \"normal, able-bodied person\", she said.\nIf the prosecution request is granted, Mr Pistorius may spend up to 30 days in a state mental health institution for observation and assessment of his mental health.\nCourt sources have indicated that it is unlikely the judge will grant the prosecution its request, our reporter says.\nThere are no juries at trials in South Africa, so the athlete's fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.\nIf found guilty, Mr Pistorius - a national sporting hero dubbed the \"blade runner\" because of the prosthetic limbs he wears to race - could face life imprisonment.\nIf he is acquitted of murder, the court must consider an alternative charge of culpable homicide, for which he could receive about 15 years in prison.\n1\n2\n5\n4\n6\n3\nMr Pistorius said in his statement at the start of the trial that he woke in the early hours and walked on his stumps to the balcony, pulled in two fans, closed the sliding door and drew curtains. He said that shortly before he had spoken to Reeva, who was in bed beside him.\nHe said he rejected prosecution claims that a witness heard arguing coming from the house before the shooting.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\n\"Unbeknown to me, Reeva must have gone to the toilet in the bathroom at the time I brought in the fans,\" he said.\nMr Pistorius said he approached the bathroom armed with his firearm, to defend himself and his girlfriend, believing Ms Steenkamp was still in bed.\nBoth sides agree four bullets were fired. Ms Steenkamp was hit three times.\nMr Pistorius said he fired his weapon after hearing a noise in the toilet which he thought was the intruder coming out of the toilet to attack him and Ms Steenkamp.\nHe said he was in a fearful state, knowing he was on his stumps and unable to run away or properly defend himself.\nMr Pistorius said he rejected claims that he was on his prostheses when he shot at the door.\nA witness told the trial she woke to hear a woman screaming and a man shouting for help. She said that after the screams she heard four shots.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom after shooting at the toilet door, still shouting for Reeva. Lifting himself up onto the bed, he felt over to the right hand side of it and noticed Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bathroom but the toilet was locked, so he returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs, turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nForensics expert Johannes Vermeulen told the court that the height of the marks on the door caused by the cricket bat suggest Mr Pistorius was on his stumps at the time.\nMr Pistorius's defence team say he then called security at the gated housing complex and a private paramedic service before carrying Ms Steenkamp downstairs.\nA security guard claimed it was the other way round, and he had called Mr Pistorius first after reports of gunfire. However, phone records shown to the court revealed Mr Pistorius called the estate manager at 3:19am, a minute later he called the ambulance service and at 3:21am he called estate security.\nA minute later he received an incoming call - estate security calling him back.\nAccording to police phone expert Francois Moller, Mr Pistorius called his friend Justin Divaris a short time later and just after 4:00am he called his brother Carl.", "Mr Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to intentionally killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.\nHe shot dead the 29-year-old model and reality TV star at his home, saying he mistook her for an intruder.\nEstelle Van Der Merwe, a neighbour, said the row had lasted about an hour.\nBy Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Pretoria\nWell into day two of the trial, and a second witness, and another neighbour of Oscar Pistorius, has told the court about a commotion she heard in the early hours of the morning of the day Reeva Steenkamp was killed.\nIt is still early days, but this the state's argument that Mr Pistorius and his girlfriend of three months had had a terrible row before she died - a version of events the athlete denies.\nThere are grey skies over Pretoria and it has rained all morning, so unlike the first day of the trial, there are no dancing crowds outside court. There is still much interest in case of the \"blade runner\". However, as one woman outside court told me: \"Everything that is happening today is not going to change anything, the fact is that poor girl is never coming back.\"\nEyes of the world on a fallen hero\n\"It seemed like somebody was involved in a fight,\" said Ms Van Der Merwe, who lives in the same gated Pretoria housing estate as the Paralympic athlete. \"People were talking in loud voices.\"\nThe argument woke her at about 01:56 local time (23:56 GMT) and lasted about an hour. After that, she heard four loud sounds in succession.\nMs Van Der Merwe was the second witness to take the stand at the murder trial of Mr Pistorius, which began at the high court in on Monday.\nThe arrest of the 27-year-old double amputee and gold medal winner astounded South Africa.\nFor the first time in South Africa, parts of the trial are being televised live, although some witness testimony, including that of Ms Van Der Merwe, is being excluded from TV broadcasts.\nHowever, the audio of the entire trial is being aired.\nMrs Van Der Merwe said she had been irritated by the noise of the argument and placed a pillow on her head \"in hope of falling asleep again\".\nTuesday's hearing adjourned not long after the third witness, Charl Peter Johnson - husband to the first witness Michelle Burger - had taken the stand.\nThe second day of the trial began with defence lawyer Barry Roux quizzing Ms Burger about her account of hearing a woman's screams, a man calling for help and then four gunshots.\nThe BBC's Andrew Harding in court says the defence line was clear that as Ms Steenkamp was in a closed toilet with a closed window, the screams the witness said she heard could not have come from her.\nIs it OK to bet on the trial?\nSA press review: Pistorius trial\nMr Pistorius was in the bathroom where the window was open so the screams must have come from him.\nMr Roux also suggested expert evidence would prove that Ms Steenkamp would have been unable to scream between shots.\nWhen details of the bullets hitting her head were read out, Mr Pistorius's head dropped into his hands, our correspondent says.\nAt the start of proceedings on Monday, Mr Roux read out a statement from the athlete, giving his version of events of how Ms Steenkamp had died, saying he believed his girlfriend was in bed when he shot at the toilet door.\nState prosecutors say Mr Pistorius planned the killing and shot Ms Steenkamp after a row.\nIf found guilty of premeditated murder, he could face life imprisonment.\nHe has also denied charges of illegally possessing ammunition.\nThere are no juries at trials in South Africa, and his fate will ultimately be decided by Judge Thokozile Masipa.\nMuch of the case will depend on ballistic evidence from the scene of the shooting, correspondents say.\n1\n2\n5\n4\n6\n3\nMr Pistorius said in his statement at the start of the trial that he woke in the early hours and walked on his stumps to the balcony, pulled in two fans, closed the sliding door and drew curtains. He said that shortly before he had spoken to Reeva, who was in bed beside him.\nHe said he rejected prosecution claims that a witness heard arguing coming from the house before the shooting.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\n\"Unbeknown to me, Reeva must have gone to the toilet in the bathroom at the time I brought in the fans,\" he said.\nMr Pistorius said he approached the bathroom armed with his firearm, to defend himself and his girlfriend, believing Ms Steenkamp was still in bed.\nBoth sides agree four bullets were fired. Ms Steenkamp was hit three times.\nMr Pistorius said he fired his weapon after hearing a noise in the toilet which he thought was the intruder coming out of the toilet to attack him and Ms Steenkamp.\nHe said he was in a fearful state, knowing he was on his stumps and unable to run away or properly defend himself.\nMr Pistorius said he rejected claims that he was on his prostheses when he shot at the door.\nA witness told the trial she woke to hear a woman screaming and a man shouting for help. She said that after the screams she heard four shots.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom after shooting at the toilet door, still shouting for Reeva. Lifting himself up onto the bed, he felt over to the right hand side of it and noticed Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bathroom but the toilet was locked, so he returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs, turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nForensics expert Johannes Vermeulen told the court that the height of the marks on the door caused by the cricket bat suggest Mr Pistorius was on his stumps at the time.\nMr Pistorius's defence team say he then called security at the gated housing complex and a private paramedic service before carrying Ms Steenkamp downstairs.\nA security guard claimed it was the other way round, and he had called Mr Pistorius first after reports of gunfire. However, phone records shown to the court revealed Mr Pistorius called the estate manager at 3:19am, a minute later he called the ambulance service and at 3:21am he called estate security.\nA minute later he received an incoming call - estate security calling him back.\nAccording to police phone expert Francois Moller, Mr Pistorius called his friend Justin Divaris a short time later and just after 4:00am he called his brother Carl.", "She is accused of hitting a 20-year-old woman over the head with an extension cord in a hotel room near Johannesburg.\nPolice expected Mrs Mugabe, 52, to turn herself in on Tuesday, but she failed to show up.\nThe first lady's whereabouts are not known but she is believed to still be in South Africa.\nZimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is now also in the country ahead of a southern African heads of state meeting due to start on Friday.\nMrs Mugabe has not commented on the allegation.\nAfrica Live: Updates on this and other stories\nPolice Minister Fikile Mbalula said: \"We, in terms of South African police, [have] already put tabs on the borders in relation to her leaving the country, so there is no question about that.\n\"So tabs have been put, a red alert has been put, so she is not somebody who has been running away.\"\nOn Wednesday, South Africa's police ministry said Zimbabwe's government had sought diplomatic immunity for Mrs Mugabe.\nMeanwhile, South African lawyer Gerrie Nel, who successfully prosecuted Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, is supporting the woman making the allegation, Gabriella Engels.\nMr Nel is now working with the Afriforum group, which mainly lobbies for the rights of Afrikaners in South Africa.\nAfriforum said if the police failed to act in the case then it would take up a private prosecution.\nIt also said that it would fight any move to grant Mrs Mugabe diplomatic immunity.\nMs Engels told the BBC that she was attacked by Mrs Mugabe who believed she knew the whereabouts of her son, Bellarmine.\n\"We kept telling her 'we do not know where he is... we haven't seen him for the night'... She cornered me… and started beating the hell out of me.\n\"That's when she hit me with the plug and the extension cord. And I just remember being curled down on the floor with blood rushing down my face and down my neck.\n\"She hit us with so much hate.\"\nMs Engels has now laid an assault charge and added that she wants Grace Mugabe to \"go to jail\".\nFarouk Chothia, BBC Africa\nSouth Africa's government risks a public backlash if it lets Mrs Mugabe go scot-free.\nThis happened in 2015, when it failed to execute an international arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir who was wanted by the International Criminal Court.\nThe government argued that he qualified for diplomatic immunity, but the country's judges disagreed. The government was then strongly criticised for undermining the rule of law.\nIt seems that ministers want to avoid a similar backlash and are therefore insisting that Mrs Mugabe must appear in court.\nBut by taking such an approach it risks a diplomatic row with Zimbabwe's government - a staunch ally whom it has resolutely defended over the years, despite international criticism of President Mugabe's human rights record.\nSo the two governments, including Mr Mugabe and his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, are bound to be in talks to resolve the crisis over the first lady.\nOne option being mentioned in the South African media is that Mrs Mugabe should plead guilty during a short court appearance, and pay a fine.\nBut it is unclear whether Mr and Mrs Mugabe - known for their uncompromising nature - will agree to this, especially after Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party said in a tweet on Tuesday that the first lady had been \"attacked\", contradicting her accuser's version of events.", "Judge Thokozile Masipa also gave Pistorius a three-year suspended sentence for a firearms charge.\nThe parents of Reeva Steenkamp told the BBC they were happy with the sentence and relieved the case was over. The defence said it expected Pistorius to serve about 10 months in prison.\nPistorius was convicted of culpable homicide but cleared of murder.\nProsecutors had called for a minimum 10-year term, and the defence had argued for community service and house arrest.\nPistorius showed little reaction to the sentence other than to wipe his eyes before being led away to the cells downstairs.\nHe was then driven away from court in a police van to Pretoria's Kgosi Mampuru prison.\nIt is expected that he will be held in a one-man cell in the hospital wing.\nCorrectional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela later told AFP news agency Pistorius was \"already accommodated at Kgosi Mampuru\".\nDefence lawyer Barry Roux said his client was expected to serve 10 months in prison, with the rest under house arrest.\nDup De Bruyn, a lawyer for the Steenkamp family, told Reuters that \"justice was served\", although he believed Pistorius would probably serve two years.\nBefore he went down the stairs and out of court, Oscar Pistorius slipped off his expensive watch and handed it to a relative. It seems the athlete probably knew his sentence beforehand, which helps explains the subdued atmosphere in court today.\nThis case has revealed plenty about South Africa - its gun culture, the strengths and inadequacies of its police and prisons. But above all it has been a simple story, about the rise and fall of a global icon.\nAs the crowds and cameras drift away from the courthouse, what lingers is the sense of waste. Of lives and careers for sure. But of time too.\nA man and a woman went into a bathroom. Only one came out alive. As the judge made clear - the trial should have been over in a matter of weeks. Instead it turned into a tortuous, overwrought epic.\nPistorius's uncle, Arnold, said: \"We accept the judgment. Oscar will embrace the opportunity to pay back to society.\"\nHe appealed to the media to \"accept the ruling of court and let us move forward in this process and give us some degree of dignity and privacy\".\nHe said the family would support and guide the athlete as he served his sentence.\nThe BBC's Nomsa Maseko, outside court, says opinion there was divided on the sentence, with some saying it was too light, others that it was fair.\nJudge Masipa said she considered her sentence \"fair and just, both to society and to the accused\".\nShe said: \"A non-custodial sentence would send the wrong message to the community. On the other hand, a long sentence would also not be appropriate either, as it would lack the element of mercy.\"\nJudge Masipa said that nothing she could say or do could bring back Reeva Steenkamp, but \"hopefully, this judgment on sentence shall provide some sort of closure for the family\".\nThe judge begun reading her decision by saying there must be a balance between retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation.\nIn summarising the evidence, she described defence witness and social worker Annette Vergeer as \"slapdash and disappointing\".\nMs Vergeer had argued Pistorius would be \"a lot more vulnerable than the normal man\" in jail.\nBut Judge Masipa said she was sure prisons were equipped to cater for the requirements of a special needs inmate.\nShe also said she had a \"feeling of unease\" at what she called an overemphasis on the athlete's vulnerability.\nHowever, she said Pistorius had made an \"enormous contribution to society\", in his charity work and in changing the public perception of disability.\nThe judge also said: \"It would be a sad day for this country if an impression were to be created that there was one law for the poor and disadvantaged, and another for the rich and famous.\"\nThe three-year suspended term was for unlawfully firing a gun in a restaurant, in a separate incident before the Steenkamp killing.\nThe case may not yet be over, as both prosecution and defence have the right to appeal.\nThe prosecution service said it had not yet decided and the defence has not yet commented.\nThe International Paralympic Committee told the BBC it would not allow Pistorius to run at any of its events for five years, even if he were released early.\nPistorius, 27, an amputee sprinter who became the first athlete to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, killed Ms Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.\nHe says he shot her by mistake, fearing there was an intruder in his house in Pretoria.\nMs Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, reality TV star and law graduate, was hit three times by bullets fired by Pistorius through a toilet door.\nInside Oscar Pistorius's home\n1\n2\n3\n5\n4\nMr Pistorius said he and Ms Steenkamp had dinner at about 19:00 before going to bed at 21:00. He said he woke in the early hours, spoke briefly to his girlfriend and got up to close the sliding door and curtains.\nJudge Thokozile Masipa questioned the reliability of several witnesses who said they heard screams and gunshots between about 03:12 and 03:17, saying most had 'got facts wrong'.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\nMr Pistorius said he grabbed his firearm and told Ms Steenkamp, who he thought was still in bed, to call the police.\nThe judge said it made no sense that Ms Steenkamp did not hear him scream 'Get out' or call the police, as she had her mobile phone with her.\nMr Pistorius could see the bathroom window was open and toilet door closed. He said he did not know whether the intruders were outside on a ladder or in the toilet.\nHe had his firearm in front of him, he heard a movement inside the toilet and thought whoever was inside was coming out to attack him.\n'Before I knew it, I had fired four shots at the door,' he said.\nThe judge said she did not accept that Mr Pistorius fired the gun by accident or before he knew what was happening. She said he had armed himself with a lethal weapon and clearly wanted to use it. The other question, she said, was why he fired not one, but four shots before he ran back to the room to try to find Ms Steenkamp.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom and noticed that Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet and rushed back to the bathroom.\nMr Pistorius said he screamed for help and went back to the bathroom where he found the toilet was locked. He returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs and turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nWhen the door panel broke, he found the key and unlocked the door and found Ms Steenkamp slumped on the floor with her head on the toilet bowl. He then carried her downstairs, where he was met by neighbours.\n3D animation of the apartment", "The report, read by his defence lawyer, said he was mourning his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.\nOn Monday, the court heard that he was not suffering from a mental disorder when he shot Ms Steenkamp.\nHe denies murder, saying he killed her by mistake when fearing there was an intruder in the house.\nThe prosecution says the Olympic athlete deliberately killed Ms Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, after the couple had an argument.\nBoth prosecution and defence have accepted the findings of the psychologist's report. The BBC's Andrew Harding, who was in court, notes that both sides can interpret its findings favourably.\nTwo reports - one by a psychologist and another by three psychiatrists - were drawn up after a month of tests to evaluate the athlete's state of mind.\nThe prosecution on Monday noted that the psychiatrists' report said Mr Pistorius, 27, was capable of distinguishing between right and wrong and so should bear criminal responsibility for his actions.\nAnother defence witness has described Oscar Pistorius as anxious and vulnerable. Professor Wayne Derman, who has known the athlete and treated him for six years testified about his \"exaggerated response\" when in uncomfortable situations - the \"fight or flight\" response.\nWith the case coming to an end, two reports were pitted against each other, with each side quoting favourable excerpts.\nA report by a psychologist in the panel found that Mr Pistorius showed no signs of an explosive temper, narcissism or abusive behaviour, while a report by the three psychiatrists concluded that he could distinguish right from wrong.\nBoth, however, agreed that he did not suffer from Generalised Anxiety Disorder, discrediting the testimony of a previous defence expert, which had led to the month-long, court-ordered evaluation.\nHow is PTSD diagnosed?\nDefence lawyer Barry Roux on Wednesday quoted the second evaluation as saying that Mr Pistorius, a double-amputee, has a history of feeling insecure and vulnerable, especially without his prosthetic legs.\nIt said he was likely to react more sharply to fear than an able-bodied person would.\n\"Should he not receive proper clinical care, his condition is likely to worsen and increase the risks for suicide,\" Mr Roux quoted the report as saying.\nIt also said he did not show signs of narcissism or explosive rage, which is usually seen in men who are abusive to their partners.\nThe court has previously heard that Ms Steenkamp had sent the athlete a message saying: \"I'm scared of you sometimes.\"\nFinal defence witness Wayne Derman, professor of sports and exercise medicine at the University of Cape Town, said Mr Pistorius was an anxious individual, with hand tremors and chronic problems with the stumps of his legs.\nEarlier, Mr Pistorius' manager was cross-examined, with prosecutor Gerrie Nel concentrating on the sprinter's reported rows with roommate Arnu Fourie and his love life.\nOn Tuesday, Peet van Zyl said Mr Pistorius had become a \"global icon\" at the 2012 London Olympics and could have increased his income five or six times.\nHe competed in both the Paralympic and Olympic games.\nMr van Zyl said the athlete was also an \"astute businessman\" and there were a lot of opportunities for him because of his raised profile.\nOur correspondent says that as he sat in the dock, Mr Pistorius must surely have contemplated the future outlined by Mr van Zyl - a future now utterly transformed.\n1\n2\n5\n4\n6\n3\nMr Pistorius said in his statement at the start of the trial that he woke in the early hours and walked on his stumps to the balcony, pulled in two fans, closed the sliding door and drew curtains. He said that shortly before he had spoken to Reeva, who was in bed beside him.\nHe said he rejected prosecution claims that a witness heard arguing coming from the house before the shooting.\nMr Pistorius said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars.\n\"Unbeknown to me, Reeva must have gone to the toilet in the bathroom at the time I brought in the fans,\" he said.\nMr Pistorius said he approached the bathroom armed with his firearm, to defend himself and his girlfriend, believing Ms Steenkamp was still in bed.\nBoth sides agree four bullets were fired. Ms Steenkamp was hit three times.\nMr Pistorius said he fired his weapon after hearing a noise in the toilet which he thought was the intruder coming out of the toilet to attack him and Ms Steenkamp.\nHe said he was in a fearful state, knowing he was on his stumps and unable to run away or properly defend himself.\nMr Pistorius said he rejected claims that he was on his prostheses when he shot at the door.\nA witness told the trial she woke to hear a woman screaming and a man shouting for help. She said that after the screams she heard four shots.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bedroom after shooting at the toilet door, still shouting for Reeva. Lifting himself up onto the bed, he felt over to the right hand side of it and noticed Ms Steenkamp was not there.\nMr Pistorius said this was when he realised she could have been in the toilet.\nMr Pistorius said he went back to the bathroom but the toilet was locked, so he returned to the bedroom, pulled on his prosthetic legs, turned on the lights before bashing in the toilet door with a cricket bat.\nForensics expert Johannes Vermeulen told the court that the height of the marks on the door caused by the cricket bat suggest Mr Pistorius was on his stumps at the time.\nMr Pistorius's defence team say he then called security at the gated housing complex and a private paramedic service before carrying Ms Steenkamp downstairs.\nA security guard claimed it was the other way round, and he had called Mr Pistorius first after reports of gunfire. However, phone records shown to the court revealed Mr Pistorius called the estate manager at 3:19am, a minute later he called the ambulance service and at 3:21am he called estate security.\nA minute later he received an incoming call - estate security calling him back.\nAccording to police phone expert Francois Moller, Mr Pistorius called his friend Justin Divaris a short time later and just after 4:00am he called his brother Carl.\nMr Pistorius says he fired multiple shots into a toilet cubicle where Ms Steenkamp was, while in a state of panic.\nThe sprinter and Ms Steenkamp, 29, had been dating for about three months before the shooting.\nHe has often displayed his emotions during the trial, including breaking down in tears in court.\nThere are no juries at trials in South Africa, so the athlete's fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.\nIf found guilty of murder, Mr Pistorius, who went on trial on 3 March, could face life imprisonment. If he is acquitted of that charge, the court will consider an alternative charge of culpable homicide, for which he could - if convicted - receive about 15 years in prison.", "Twenty-six are in the name of MQM leader Altaf Hussain. UK-based party officials are waiting to hear if they will face money-laundering charges.\nSix British detectives were recently in Pakistan seeking co-operation in the alleged money-laundering case.\nThe MQM has said Scotland Yard's claims about the bank accounts are baseless.\nBritish police have been investigating the MQM, one of Pakistan's main political parties, for several years but the pace of their investigations has picked up markedly since a meeting in London in April between Pakistan's Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, and Home Secretary Theresa May.\nThe Scotland Yard documents, which include details of both open and closed bank accounts, were submitted to Pakistan's Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) as part of a British request for assistance.\nScotland Yard has declined to comment on the documents.\nThe UK's Crown Prosecution Service is already considering whether leading MQM officials should be charged with money-laundering offences but police say that does not stop them making further inquiries.\n\"The investigation continues and any further relevant information would be discussed with the CPS,\" said a spokesperson at Scotland Yard.\nPakistan's powerful but absent politician\nAltaf Hussain has lived in self-imposed exile in London for more than 20 years.\nWith 24 members in the National Assembly, the MQM is a dominant force in the politics of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.\nThe British police team in Pakistan was also seeking to advance a separate investigation into the 2010 murder in north London of a senior MQM leader, Imran Farooq.\nThree suspects in the case are being held in Pakistan. The UK police want to extradite one of the three - Mohsin Ali Syed - who they claim was present at the scene of the killing.\nPakistan is insisting that either all three should be extradited - or none at all.\nThe MQM denies any wrongdoing and insists that all the allegations made against it are false.\nThe British judiciary has been highly critical of the MQM. Back in 2011 a British judge adjudicating an asylum appeal case found that \"the MQM has killed over 200 police officers who have stood up against them in Karachi\".\nDuring their investigation into the murder of Mr Farooq the police found £167,525.92 (about $235,000) in the MQM's offices in London and a further £289,785.32 in Mr Hussain's home in Edgware, north London.\nPrevious investigations in London uncovered a list in Mr Hussain's home itemising weapons, including mortars, grenades and bomb-making equipment. The list included prices for the weapons.\nThe Scotland Yard documents include a number of other British requests for assistance from their Pakistani counterparts.\nThe British asked for information about cash and weapons found at the MQM's Karachi headquarters. They also asked for official confirmation of Pakistani media reports that the MQM was involved in extortion in Karachi.", "This follows hot on the heels of the Omar al-Bashir controversy, and the trials of Oscar Pistorius and Shrien Dewani.\nWas the report a whitewash? Ferial Haffajee, editor of the weekend newspaper City Press, tweeted: \"Sticking my neck out: I don't think 'whitewash' sticks.\"\nMany South Africans took to social media to condemn the report, especially its recommendations.\nThey wanted to see a huge political figure, such as Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, take responsibility for his actions.\nAt the time, Mr Ramaphosa was a shareholder in Lonmin, the owner of the Marikana mine.\nBut President Zuma was reading the commission's recommendations. These were not his findings.\nReports of this nature appear to be simple but they are full of legalese. A lot of the conclusions are left to interpretation or suggest another investigation.\nOne can sympathise with the people who lost loved ones three years ago and are utterly frustrated by the idea of yet another inquiry.\nIf an investigation is launched by prosecutors, the trial might drag for a very long time, meaning victims and relatives may never find closure.\nWhile the report apportions some fault to the unions who took part in the wildcat wage strike, much of the blame is aimed squarely at the police.\nPolice Chief Riah Phiyega seems to be the highest-ranking person likely to take the hit.\nSome of her junior staff are vulnerable too, such as the regional police chief of the North West province, Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo.\nJust before police opened fire on the miners, Lt Gen Mbombo told the media: \"Today is D-Day: we are ending this matter\".\nLast month, she announced she was retiring.\nThere does not seem to be any politician who is going to take responsibility for the killings of the 44.\nThere is no way President Zuma could afford to let his trusted deputy Cyril Ramaphosa shoulder some of the blame because that would jeopardise the current leadership succession plan.\nIf Mr Ramaphosa had to go to prison for sending emails asking the police minister to intervene at the mine during the violent wage strike, there would be a gaping hole in the post-Zuma ANC leadership line-up.\nOnce the dust settles, we will see whether the police chief will voluntarily step down or if she leaves the man who appointed her no choice but to fire her.\nThe sad part of this saga is that there are no talks of reparations for the miners who died and most of them were breadwinners.", "Five days later, police investigating her disappearance confirmed her body had been found and an extensive search was under way for a second possible murder victim.\nThe following shows the key events in the search for the 22-year-old and the investigation into her death.\nSian O'Callaghan is last seen leaving the Suju nightclub in Swindon alone at 0252 GMT to walk half a mile home to the flat she shares with boyfriend Kevin Reape, 25.\nAt 0324 GMT Mr Reape sends a text message to her mobile phone. Cell site analysis later reveals her phone was in the Savernake Forest area, near Marlborough.\nAt 0945 GMT Mr Reape contacts police and reports Miss O'Callaghan missing.\nPolice issue an appeal for information and reveal they have been searching the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest.\nDet Supt Steve Fulcher, who is leading the investigation, says it has been established that Miss O'Callaghan's LG E900 Optimus mobile phone had activated in a six-and-a-half mile radius of the mast at Cadley.\nAt 1500 GMT Mr Reape appeals for information to help find her at a news conference.\nAlso present are Miss O'Callaghan's parents Mick, 51, and Elaine, 48, and younger sister Lora, 19.\nDetectives release CCTV of Miss O'Callaghan leaving the Suju club.\nAbout 400 people, including Miss O'Callaghan's friends and Mr Reape, help search Savernake Forest after police appeal for the public's help.\nAn anonymous donor offers a £20,000 reward for information to help find her.\nPolice say further use of mobile phone technology had produced several \"hot spots\" that specialist search teams are examining.\nThe public are asked not to join the searches.\nDet Supt Fulcher says the inquiry is moving at a \"rapid pace\" with \"significant lines of inquiry being developed\".\nAbout 200 people attend a vigil for Miss O'Callaghan.\nSpecialist dog teams are brought in to aid the search through woodland.\nPolice make an \"urgent\" appeal to anyone who saw a green Toyota Avensis estate taxi on the day Miss O'Callaghan disappeared to contact them.\nThe reward to help find her rises to £40,000.\nA man is arrested on suspicion of kidnap at a supermarket in north Swindon where police also seize a green Toyota car.\nA police tent is erected in the front garden of a house on Ashbury Avenue in Swindon.\nPolice confirm a number of locations are also being searched as part of the inquiry.\nPolice find Miss O'Callaghan's body and search for a second possible victim after arresting a 47-year-old man on suspicion of double murder and kidnap.\nPolice investigating Miss O'Callaghan's murder say they are searching for the body of another person who went missing from Wiltshire \"several years ago\" at Eastleach in Gloucestershire.\nPolice are granted until the early hours of Monday to question the man being held in connection with Miss O'Callaghan's murder.\nPolice searching for a second body near Eastleach in Gloucestershire find human remains.\nAt 2120 GMT, Christopher Halliwell, 47, of Ashbury Avenue, Swindon, is charged with the murder of Miss O'Callaghan.\nMr Halliwell is remanded in custody by Swindon magistrates to appear before Bristol Crown Court on 30 March.\nMiss O'Callaghan's father Mick says the family's pain at hearing of her death is \"raw and overwhelming\".\nMr Halliwell is remanded in custody to appear via video link at Bristol Crown Court on 8 April. No application for bail is made.\nAn inquest into Miss O'Callaghan's death is opened and adjourned at Oxford Coroner's Court. The hearing is told she is likely to have died of head injuries.\nHundreds of people march through Swindon in memory of Miss O'Callaghan.\nPolice say they have identified a woman whose remains were found near Eastleach in Gloucestershire.\nPolice name the woman whose remains were found near Eastleach as Becky Godden, from Swindon, who had been missing for eight years.\nKaren Edwards, Becky Godden's mother, is joined by about 20 friends and family to lay flowers and a teddy bear at the site where Miss Godden's body was discovered.\nMr Halliwell appears via video link at Bristol Crown Court from Long Lartin prison.\nThe case is adjourned until 14 July for a plea and case management hearing.\nHundreds of people line the streets of Swindon for Sian O'Callaghan's funeral.\nHalliwell denies murdering Sian O'Callaghan at Preston Crown Court but a charge of murdering Becky Godden is removed from the indictment. Mrs Justice Cox rules that evidence gained following his arrest was inadmissable.\nHalliwell pleads guilty at Bristol Crown Court to murdering Sian O'Callaghan. He is sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve a minumum of 25 years." ]

[ "They knew they would win. Even as the Concord Marching Minutemen heeled-and-toed onto the artificial turf, holding their instruments at attention and their chins so high they couldn't see the ground in front of them, they carried themselves with the certainty of champions. Two hundred and sixteen teenagers raised resolute, sure faces to three drum majors, and beyond, to thousands of spectators who filled one side of the massive RCA Dome, where the Indianapolis Colts would play football the next day. They knew, each of them, that they would march in long lines that turned to the right and then snaked back left, that they would follow each other backward through curves, that they'd bring three and four and more rows together on the field and rotate them, keeping each line and each diagonal straight, and do all of this so precisely that the judges watching from boxes high above the field couldn't find a single foot out of step. They'd thought about, and practiced, every move and every sound they made on the field so many times that they could perform the routine on command, with their eyes shut, and now, when it counted. They knew they had the power of a community behind them. They would form their lines on a brightly painted cubist tarp in the shape of a guitar, the neck of which led to a stylized scroll through a series of ramps and platforms. The set had been built and painted over hundreds of hours by band dads now standing on the sidelines in matching green jackets. The dads had run onto the field to assemble the set before the Minutemen went on, and they'd swarm out afterward to take it down. Band moms who all season had tended to blisters, sunburn, thirst, tears; sewed uniforms and served food; dispensed hundreds, thousands of hugs, now stood in a block and shouted, \"Give me a C! Give me an O!...\" For eight minutes, the high school students would play a sophisticated medley that their director called \"Guitarras Españolas.\" First, a concert-band fanfare led by the crack trumpet section, followed by a technically difficult piece that sped up as it progressed, requiring the horn players to double-tongue while they marched nearly three steps every second. Crashing cymbals would herald an edgy concerto for electric guitar and wind orchestra, a composition so new that it had premiered in concert only the year before. Their finale: a swing-band chestnut so familiar no one played it anymore, and therefore shocked with both recognition and surprise. And then they went out and did it. Amanda Bechtel played fast triplets on piccolo while striding backward on tiptoe in a different rhythm. Cameron Bradley swung his saxophone toward the back sideline, and thought, Perfect so far. Brent Lehman marched along the front with the trombones, sending every rapid note straight up to the judges' boxes, daring them to find a single mistake. Nick Stubbs sidestepped along the back of the field, his hands flashing above his snare. He rolled thunder from his sticks, and the long lines atomized, fragmented. The small groups played faster and the music grew more dissonant. Matt Tompkins's solo guitar joined the argument, moving from acoustic Spanish flamenco into rock concert wail and screaming to a final distended high note. And then, tension released and unity re-established, the entire band played \"Malagueña.\" Grant Longenbaugh leaned back on the fifty-yard line and blew his horn. He'd kept the trumpets together during the final dissonant notes of \"Chaos Theory,\" kept them driving to the end, as he'd kept the entire high-brass section together during the past season. All the kids in his section, and in others, too, watched Grant, copied Grant, believed because Grant believed. He never doubted they'd win. After the results were announced, the drum majors swigged milk beneath a sign that said, \"Winners Drink Milk,\" and carried the tall trophy between them as they led the band outside, past a cheering crowd. The 2003 Indiana Class B state champions celebrated on the plaza outside the Dome, surrounded by more than a thousand supporters. Veteran director Max Jones said, in front of everyone gathered there, \"You have been a special band from day one.\" He could have stopped then, stopped talking, stopped working, even, called that win the cap of a long career. But Max Jones had one more mission. He was on the brink of creating one last dynasty: not just a band that brought home trophies but a music program so top-to-bottom strong — from the high school's top jazz and concert bands to the elementary-school band — that it would give thousands more their own shots at becoming champions. He wanted to institutionalize the notion, for every student who came through the Concord music program, that greatness emerged only when all, together, strove for perfection. Along with many in the band and the community — and indeed, along with the students themselves — he thought the upcoming seniors, the Class of 2005, were the ones he needed to he" ]

[ "STEPHIN MERRITT continued.CHARLES SCHULZ, the creator of the cartoon strip \"Peanuts\" died Saturday night. He was 77 years old and had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer. He died the night before his final cartoon ran In the Sunday papers. We remember him with an excerpt of our 1990 Interview With him. (REBROADCAST from 12/18/90) (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES AFTER THE FLOATER).12:58:30 NEXT SHOW PROMO (:29) PROMO COPY On the next Fresh Air . . . love songs about love songs. . .a talk with STEPHIN MERRITT the leader of the band \"Magnetic Fields.\" Their new 3-CD set Is \"69 Love Songs.\" Also -- an excerpt of a 1990 Interview with CHARLES SCHULZ, the creator of the comic strip \"Peanuts\". He died Saturday night shortly before his final cartoon was to appear In the Sunday papers. That's coming up on the next Fresh Air.", "-Camille Paglia stirred up the pot of pop-loving fans of feminist theory last week when she published an article in London's Sunday Times Magazine that attacks Lady Gaga for representing \"the exhausted end of the sexual revolution\" and the singer's fans for \"emotional poverty.\" [Link goes to an excerpt from the essay.] -In the Los Angeles Times, Ann Powers rebuts Paglia's argument, compares Paglia to Quran-burning -threatening preacher Terry Jones, and looks at how other female musicians -- including Katy Perry and Amy Klein of the indie band Titus Andronicus -- are addressing issues of femininity and sexuality in music and media. -More evidence that Swedes run the music industry. The executive music producer for Glee, Adam Anders, explains to New York Magazine's Vulture blog how he manages to arrange and record all of the songs that make it into the show each week, and why musicians who could license their songs for millions take a cut to be featured on the show. An announcement about an announcement about the 10th season of American Idol, after the jump. -Fox says the new panel of judges for the 10th season of American Idol will be announced on Wednesday, September 22 and noon Pacific time. Everyone's assuming the trio will include Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler along with mainstay Randy Jackson. If, at this point, Idol's producers announced that the actual panel would comprise Jackson, Camille Paglia and Oscar the Grouch, I'm not sure I could muster much enthusiasm for this process. The show doesn't start for four months, people. Please pace yourselves. [via EW.com] -In a great essay at Pitchfork, Eric Harvey examines the trend of young indie rock bands using found photography as album covers, weighs the sense of nostalgia communicated by those bands against the prevalence of digital photography, and wonders how older artists like the musician Jandek and photographer William Eggleston are being absorbed into the aesthetic of young bands. -Deadline New York says that Sacha Baron Cohen will play Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in a biopic scripted by Frost/Nixon and The Queen screenwriter Peter Morgan. A director for the film hasn't been announced, but the producers have managed to purchase the rights to Queen's entire catalog, so moviegoers won't have to sit through Baron Cohen singing Zanzibari folk tunes. -Kid Rock spent last week in a DeKalb County courthouse as a result of a 2007 incident at an Atlanta-area Waffle House restaurant in which he and members of his entourage beat up Harlan Akins after Akins was speaking with a woman in the group. The jury awarded Akins $40,000 in damages.", "The Rolling Stones have been making their special blend of music since the early 60s. Led by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, they&#8217;re still cranking it out, still playing to sold-out crowds in huge arenas. A new book, &#8220;Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell The Story Of The Rolling Stones,&#8221; digs into their catalog of great songs (excerpt below). Author Bill Janovitz, best known as singer and guitarist for the band Buffalo Tom, says the Stones weren&#8217;t like other bands when they debuted in the early 1960s. &#8220;The Beatles were still really writing about, sort of love songs,&#8221; Janovitz said. &#8220;The Stones were writing, always, lust songs.&#8221; It was a marketing tool, but it was also indicative of the Rolling Stones&#8217; aesthetic and the changing culture. &#8220;Here were these rebellious, kind of filthy guys,&#8221; Janovitz said. &#8220;They were though of as, really, a parent&#8217;s nightmare.&#8221; Over the decades, the Stones&#8217; style changed to incorporate new band members and shifting musical trends, including disco and funk. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s an amazing accomplishment to put aside all of the concerns, or to sort of get through it all, and collaborate with the same guys for 50 years,&#8221; Janovitz said. Book Excerpt: &#8216;Rocks Off&#8217; By Bill Janovitz Tell Me RECORDING: January 1964, Regent Sound Studio, London RELEASES: UK LP: The Rolling Stones, May 1964 US LP:England’s Newest Hit Makers, May 1964 US single, June 1964, charting at number 24 “We’re making a record, can you believe this shit?” —KEITH RICHARDS, reflecting on the band’s first sessions First, that wobbly adolescence. Though the Rolling Stones had been around for two years by this point, this single, their sixth, marks the first time that the band released a Jagger/Richards–authored original song. The first Stones singles had been covers of Chuck Berry and Lennon/McCartney numbers. They would also cover Arthur Alexander and Buddy Holly hits. But to really take off as a band, they needed to eventually release one of their own. That’s where the money was—in song publishing. Famously, Oldham had taken the extraordinary step of “locking” Mick and Keith in a room with the directive to start writing original material. The duo came up with a handful of mostly forgettable compositions, including such chestnuts as “Shang a Doo Lang,” “My Only Girl” (later released by Gene Pitney as “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday”), and “Will You Be My Lover Tonight?” before penning “Tell Me.” Like many of the Stones’ first songwriting endeavors, “Tell Me” did not mimic the band’s direct influences of hard Chicago blues and American rock ’n’ roll. Rather, they produced this sort of dark, acoustic-based folk/pop. Oldham attempted to influence the band more toward the fashionable pop styles of the day, while the band did their best to keep true to their self-image as an R&B band, with Brian in particular remaining a blues purist. With “Tell Me,” Oldham’s influence won out. The “Tell Me” lyric is a string of clichés, but with enough urgency and snarl behind them to give indication of the Stones’ tougher stance than that of the Beatles. “But this time it’s different … You gotta tell me you’re coming back to me.” Though clearly a nascent example of the Jagger/Richards songwriting, many of the essential elements of the band, the traits that made them great in the long run, were already well established. They would go on to become expert rock ’n’ roll lyricists, despite the merely adequate start on their first original single. But it was the delivery and conviction that mattered more. And they got that right immediately. Even on their earliest recordings of cover songs, Mick sounded confident, to the point of cocksure swagger, like an old blues and soul singer who had seen it all. In 1963, this would have taken tremendous gumption from a skinny English college dropout. But his mates had his back, with surefooted, streetwise R&B that sounded leering and dirty somehow. “Tell Me” nailed the sound Oldham was going for after the first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On” (June 1963), fell “somewhere in that flawed middle ground between what the Stones wanted and what I wanted,” recalled Oldham in his memoirs. “Quite simply, it wasn’t Willie Dixon and it wasn’t the Ronettes.” (The Ronettes, not coincidentally, were burning up the charts in 1963 with their “Be My Baby.”) Keith says that their recording of “Come On” was “Beatle-ized.” They chose it because it was commercial and they wanted nothing more than the chance to make more records. “Then we refused to play it. Andrew Oldham almost went up the wall. ‘You’ve got a hit record and you don’t want to play it?!’ ‘We ain’t playin’ that goddamned thing … it’s awful.’” The independently produced first single was no artistic triumph, but it served its purpose and got them signed to Decca. But by the Stones’ second single, a blistering loosey-goosey take on the Beatles also-ran, “I Wan", "Every September since 1958, the Monterey Jazz Festival has transformed the municipal fairgrounds into a vast, sun-speckled, starlit, warm-days/cool-nights California music weekend. Excitement is in the air — on the main stage, on the garden stage, and under every tent, the programming is up-to-date while honoring what's come before. One great tradition is silver-haired energizer Gerald Wilson — now almost 90 — and his big band, up from Southern California. A newer development is Monterey's annual Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, made up of high-school students, coming on strong with John Coltrane's \"Mr. P.C.\" (arranged by Rich Shemaria). In addition, the winner of the youth composition competition, \"Spectrum\" by Levi Saluyia, opens this JazzSet. Blues is for Saturday afternoons at Monterey. As Otis Taylor makes his Monterey debut, he remembers how his own father enjoyed coming here decades ago. As a youth in Denver, Taylor played guitar and harmonica, then moved to London briefly and began his career. In 1977, he took a long break, but came back to music two decades later with a deep \"trance blues\" sound that's totally his own. When daughter/bassist Cassie sings, there's more country in the mix. Chuck Campbell adds to the highway sound with pedal-steel guitar. JazzSet excerpts two songs: \"Katrina\" and \"Working for the Pullman Company.\" NEA Jazz Master Wilson and his orchestra headline the show with Monterey Moods, commissioned for the 50th Monterey Jazz Festival. This band is a family. The shortest tenure spans almost 20 years, and saxophonist Jack Nimitz has been with Wilson for 50. In our excerpts, Wilson paces a three-syllable melody (Mon-te-rey) at an allegro tempo, as a romantic ballad, and sets it to a Latin swing beat. Wilson does not stand still. Arms flying, he steps in and out of the band as he conducts, and the soloists do their thing — among them son Anthony Wilson on guitar. CREDITS Tim Jackson is the Monterey Festival general manager; thanks to him and his awesome year-round team for our visit. Our music mixes are by Ron Davis and his team, including Rob Mackinnon, Mike Davis, and James Willetts. Technical director Duke Markos, producer Becca Pulliam, and executive producer Thurston Briscoe III @ WBGO in Newark, N.J., and WBGO.org.", "Jeff Tweedy's written a book that's incredibly open-hearted and honest. Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. is a journey in music, friendship and family — from getting his first guitar (which didn't work out so well), to the formation of Uncle Tupelo with his friend, Jay Farrar, their surprising breakup and all the various incarnations of Wilco. It's filled with stories of insecurities, drug dependencies and thoughtful reflections. On this edition of All Songs Considered, I talk with Jeff Tweedy about his remarkable life story, play clips from the Penguin Random House audio version of his book and dig a bit into his new solo album called Warm, which addresses a lot of personal thoughts and feels, to me, like a companion to his book. A few years ago when I talked with Jeff Tweedy for a book I wrote called Your Song Changed My Life, he said something about being in a band that stuck with me: He said his image of band life was shaped by The Monkees, both the TV show and their music. He said he'd concluded \"that a band's supposed to live together and have madcap adventures together.\" So we began our conversation by listening to mid-sixties hit by The Monkees called \"Last Train To Clarksville.\" You can hear our full conversation with the play button at the top of the page and read edited highlights below. Book Excerpt: Jeff Tweedy On Realizing Life In A Rock Band Isn't So Glamorous \"As I sat in our ramshackle excuse for an apartment in Belleville and waited for [former Uncle Tupelo member] Jay [Farrar] to come back, it was so glaringly not a Monkees house. Not just because there was no spiral staircase or advice-dispensing mannequins. It wasn't a true Monkees house because it was empty. There was never an episode of The Monkees where Micky Dolenz said, 'This isn't f****** fun anymore, I quit,' and then disappeared.\" On His Friendship With Jay Farrar \"But writing the book, I was able to talk a little bit more than I've ever been able to about how much Jay and I loved each other — I mean, or at least I loved him. He changed my life and he helped me learn how to play the guitar. We shared a lot of information about records and spent an awful lot of time together trying to figure things out about music and how to be in a band and what other people's music meant to us.\" On Performing Live With Debilitating Migraines \"There have been many, many nights where it is just everything I can do to get to the end of the show, and I've really prided myself on the fact that I've hardly ever cut a show short.\" Book Excerpt: On The Darkest Days Of His Narcotics Addiction \"The worst of it happened when I was alone in my hotel room having panic attacks, taking too many pills and then panicking because I'd taken too many pills. Every night I'd lie in bed — or just as often, in the tub until the bath water would get cold — telling myself, 'if I fall asleep right now, there's a pretty good chance I'm not waking up. People die in this situation all the time.'\" On Pain And Songwriting \"I have a lot of strong opinions about the 'tortured artist myth,' and, in my opinion, the mistaken notion that art grows out of pain. Everybody has pain in their life. Everyone suffers. If art grew out of suffering alone there'd be a lot more art, and a lot of really true horrific suffering on this planet is done by people in positions where they don't have the means of production of any type of art. Their daily struggle is survival... \"I think it's just that art becomes great when people are able to see themselves and recognize themselves in it. And unfortunately one of the most shared experiences for humans is sadness and suffering.\" On Being An Artist \"You're going to write a lot fewer songs, fewer poems, fewer books if you sit around and wait for a bolt of lightning. I think you should put a pencil in your hand, put the guitar on your lap and get to work.\" Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) by Jeff Tweedy, read by the author.", "NPR MUSIC INTERVIEW: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ON NEW ALBUM AND CAREER Conversation with Ann Powers Available Now at NPR Music January 15, 2014; Washington, D.C. – In one of a handful of interviews given for the release of his new album, High Hopes, Bruce Springsteen speaks with NPR Music about its making, and also opens up about his long, storied career. During a conversation lasting more than an hour, Springsteen and NPR Music writer and critic Ann Powers casually discuss a wide-range of topics, including his writing process, playing with the same band for decades, how the Internet has changed the business, and whether retirement is in the cards. The Boss even digs through music on his computer to find songs by bands he likes, including Savages and Jason Isbell. Both audio and a transcript of the full interview are available now at NPR Music; excerpts follow. Asked about how he started writing about social issues, Springsteen says: \"When I was very, very young, I decided that I was going to catalogue my times because that's what other people who I admired did. That's what Bob Dylan did, that's what Frank Sinatra did, Hank Williams did, in very different ways. You know, The Beatles did, The Rolling Stones did. So I enjoyed artists that engaged in their worlds and then created some reflection of it that people could meditate upon and think upon.\" On what it's like to play with the same band for decades, Springsteen says: \"The only way I can explain it is imagine if the people you went to high school with, you have worked with those same five people that were in your math class and you're 60 and those are the same exact people that you've worked with every single day of your life.\" Discussing the Internet and his use of it, Springsteen says: \"We sold 40,000 seats like the first day in Johannesburg. We've never been there. But you've been there somehow because someone wants to come and see you. So the Internet, now, is something that I'm becoming very interested in and trying to find ways of just, you know, getting more music out there. I mean, I'm not going to be tweeting. Somebody tweeted – I think I have someone that tweets for me, you know. Real men don't tweet or something. But someone has tweeted in my name.\" Asked if he sees the end of the tunnel in regards to his career, Springsteen says: \"I believe the band's going to be playing for a great deal longer, alright, but not forever anymore, as you felt when you were 32 years old. You realize, okay, there's a finiteness. There's a moment now when we go to Europe and there's a new group of 16-year-old kids who I know are seeing the band for the first time, or people in their mid-30s and 40s never saw the band until 2000, who, you know, I've seen at 50 shows already. So now, when I go and we get these really young kids and we get a lot of them overseas, you know, I realize, these kids will have never seen the band with Clarence or will have never seen the band with Danny and they will outlive us by many, many years, you know, and so tonight is our night with them. And so you're playing for an audience who will significantly outlive you now which is kind of both wonderful and bittersweet and I look forward to doing that a lot longer.\" All excerpts from the interview must be credited to \"NPR Music.\" Broadcast outlets may use up to sixty (60) consecutive seconds of audio from the interview. Television usage must include on-screen chyron to \"NPR Music\" with NPR Music logo. Contact NPR Media Relations: Emerson BrownEmail: mediarelations (at) npr.org", "Ten years ago today, July 23, One Direction created the universe. Read an excerpt from Maria Sherman's new book, Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS, about 1D's formation and meteoric rise. Once, there was nothing. Then there was something. There was everything. The big bang created the universe. The spectacular explosion, the smallest singularity, inflated for nearly 14 billion years. That time might as well have been filled with darkness, because it wasn't until 2010 that one Irish lad and four young Brits from working-class families — Mullingar, Ireland's Niall Horan, the cute one; Wolverhampton's Liam Payne, the responsible one; Bradford's Zayn Malik, the shy one; Doncaster's Louis Tomlinson, the class clown/bad boy; and Redditch's Harry Styles, the heartthrob — auditioned as soloists on the seventh season of The X Factor. Who could have known that the cosmic microwave called existence would zap up a reality singing competition show, leading to the most glorious time in the universe, the creation of One Direction? Separately, X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, and Louis Walsh couldn't continue to advance the teenage boys in good faith. They were all talented, but not yet great, and they obviously couldn't dance. Malik especially. Then, an epiphany: Simon Cowell (or Simon Cowell and guest judge/Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, if you take her account as the truth) had the idea to group Niall, Liam, Zayn, Louis, and Harry together to form a harmonic quintet, the youngest boy band the show had ever seen. That decision, rumored to have taken Cowell ten minutes to come up with, would prove to be one of the most rewarding, simple experiments in modern pop music history. After two weeks in the show's \"boot camp\" program after auditions — an accelerated timeline for burgeoning friendships, let alone collaborative careers — something clicked. A cover of Natalie Imbruglia's \"Torn\" later, and One Direction (\"1D\" if you're nasty) was official. They came in third place on the show, but that didn't matter.* They had something much more gargantuan in store. Losing the X Factor in December 2010 was a pivotal moment for 1D. At the time, there weren't many popular male vocal groups in the U.K., save for an embryonic version of the Wanted and JLS. Short for Jack the Lad Swing, the R&B-pop group of adult men couldn't really be deemed a boy band, so the need was there. Cowell, an industry Svengali in his own right, instantly saw One Direction's potential. (Not to knock his know-how, but with hundreds of girls lining up for them outside of the X Factor studio during the competition, it would've been hard to miss.) He signed the boy band to his Sony Music record label imprint, Syco Records, in January 2011 in the U.K. Turns out, it was great timing for Cowell as well: another Syco boy band, Westlife, recently announced their retirement. He needed a new group just as much as One Direction needed to capitalize on their nascent popularity. A few months later, One Direction was signed to Columbia Records stateside. With the exception of the Jonas Brothers, American audiences really hadn't seen a monolithic boy band since *NSYNC. They needed them, too. And so, at the beginning of 2011, One Direction got to work. Cowell put them in touch with hit American songwriter Savan Kotecha, a Max Martin protege, who, with a small team, produced their debut single, \"What Makes You Beautiful.\" The song, released on September 11, was exactly what the young group required to not only sustain their hype post–X Factor but deliver on it: an affirming, high-energy, no-nonsense, perfect piece of pop that made them appear sweet, sensitive, and attainable, the kind of boys who put women on a pedestal. If there is a better way of encapsulating exactly what a girl needs to hear while coming to terms with the absolute horror show that is heterosexuality during puberty, when the world begins to instruct her to hate herself, I have yet to hear it. The video, too, was playful with modest touches of sensuality (it doesn't hurt that it was filmed on the same stretch of beach as Blink-182's parodic \"All the Small Things,\" an Easter egg for boy band fans if there ever was one). Kotecha told Billboard that the secret to \"What Makes You Beautiful\" and boy band music in general is doing \"the exact opposite of what's going on... teenage girls need to feel it's their own thing.\" Radio was dominated by Rihanna, Adele, and LMFAO's \"Party Rock Anthem,\" so he certainly accomplished that. A combination of marketing, momentum, and music so joyful it should come with a warning for serotonin secretions, One Direction released their debut LP, Up All Night, with \"What Makes You Beautiful\" and the lovelorn, rock-tinged \"One Thing.\" The album shot up the charts in the U.K. in 2011 and in 2012, debuted at number 1 in the U.S., making them the first English group to ever debut atop the charts with their first album. Really think about that for a", "Andrew Sarris, who popularized the auteur theory and was called the \"dean of American film critics,\" died on Wednesday. He was 83. Fresh Air remembers the longtime film critic for The Village Voice with excerpts from a 1990 interview.", "What do Miles Davis, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bugs Bunny have in common? They're all hip, says John Leland, the author of a new history of that coveted but elusive quality. \"We wouldn't think of Emerson as the classic hipster,\" Leland tells NPR's Renee Montagne. \"He's not Jack Kerouac a century removed. But Emerson and his emphasis on the individual rather than society... and on self-reliance... those are all the building blocks of hip.\" In, Hip: The History, Leland tells the story of America's tense relationship between outsiders and insiders, most profoundly between white Americans and Africans Americans. Modern hipsters owe a lot to African-American folk tales, Leland says. The hero was usually a trickster who was smarter than his oppressors. That story continued, from Brer Rabbit to Huck Finn to the superstar of folk hipsters -- Bugs Bunny. \"I think he taught so many Americans how to be hip...\" Leland says of the Looney Tunes legend who constantly outwitted Elmer Fudd. \"You're smarter than the person who's tormenting you even though he's got more power than you. He's got the big rifle, but you are living by your wits and your own creativity. What did Bugs do? He switches genders, he sasses authority. Bugs does everything that we would tell our kids not to do.\" The following is an excerpt from Hip: The History. Book Excerpt: What is Hip? Superficial Reflections on America The Oakland soul group Tower of Power asked the question in a 1973 song called \"What Is Hip?\" The band had a reputation as wordsmiths, inventing terms like honkypox, for listeners who could not get on the good foot. But on the Hip Question, they found themselves on slippery terrain, as poets before them trying to define soul or swing or love. The language curled back on itself: Hipness is—What it is! And sometimes hipness is What it ain't! Swaddled in nasty horns and a backbeat, this was a coy put-on, staged for the benefit of the honkypox. Everybody knows what hip is. Or at least, everyone can name it when they see it. For something that is by definition subjective, hip is astoundingly uniform across the population. It is the beatitude of Thelonious Monk at the piano, or the stoic brutality of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, performing songs of drugs and sadomasochism as a projector flashed Andy Warhol's films on their black turtlenecks. It is the flow of Jack Kerouac's \"bop prosody\" or Lenny Bruce's jazzed-out satire, or the rat-a-tat tattoo of James Ellroy's elevated pulp lit. Walt Whitman was hip; Lord Buckley was hip; Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is too hip for her own good.Hip is the way Miles Davis talked, dressed, played or just stood—and the way Bob Dylan, after his own style, followed in kind (though both men strayed into injudicious leather in the 1980s). The streets of Williamsburg in Brooklyn or Silver Lake in Los Angeles comprise a theme park in the key of hip. Its gaze is the knowing, raised eyebrow of Dawn Powell or Kim Gordon, bassist in the downtown band Sonic Youth—skeptical but not unkind. Clarence Major, in his study Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang, traces the origins of hip to the Wolof verb hepi (\"to see\") or hipi (\"to open one's eyes\"), and dates its usage in America to the 1700s. So from the linguistic start, hip is a term of enlightenment, cultivated by slaves from the West African nations of Senegal and coastal Gambia. The slaves also brought the Wolof dega (\"to understand\"), source of the colloquial dig, and jev (\"to disparage or talk falsely\"), the root of jive. Hip begins, then, as a subversive intelligence that outsiders developed under the eye of insiders. It was one of the tools Africans developed to negotiate an alien landscape, and one of the legacies they contributed to it. The feedback loop of white imitation, co-optation and homage began immediately. From these origins, hip tells a story of black and white America, and the dance of conflict and curiosity that binds it. In a history often defined by racial clash, hip offers an alternative account of centuries of contact and emulation, of back-and-forth. This line of mutual influence, which we seldom talk about, is not a decorative fillip on the national identity but one of the central, life-giving arteries. Though the line often disappears in daily life—through segregation, job discrimination and the racial split in any school cafeteria—it surfaces in popular culture, where Americans collect their fantasies of what they might be. The center of American culture runs through Mark Twain and Louis Armstrong, and it is impossible to imagine either's work without both African and European roots. Born in radically different circumstances and separated by history, they have as much in common with each other as with their peers from what either might call the ancestral homeland. Both are classicists and bluesmen, masters of language, breakers of the rules that would hold them apart. What they have in common is hip. For better and w", "Carlos Fuentes, one of the most influential writers in the Latin American world, died Tuesday at a hospital in Mexico City. He was 83. Fresh Air remembers the prolific author with excerpts from a 1987 interview.", "Novelist E. Lynn Harris died this weekend at the age of 54. Harris was gay and African-American. Most of his fiction featured gay black characters leading heterosexual lives. We hear excerpts from interviews he gave to NPR over the years.", "Jazz singer Anita O'Day died of a heart attack in 2006. She had possessed one of the music world's most distinctive voices, the product of a botched childhood tonsillectomy that left her without a uvula, and thus, without vibrato or the ability to sustain notes. As a result, her singing had a speechlike, conversational quality, with the timbre of an alto saxophone. In the late 1930s, O'Day joined drummer Gene Krupa's band in Chicago, recording the hit song \"Let Me Off Uptown\" that first brought her fame. Within a few years, she was in California, singing with Stan Kenton, but she bridled at his group's stricter approach to music and returned to Krupa before setting off on her own as a soloist. Her career reached its pinnacle in the 1950s, climaxing with a triumphant performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, before a gradual decline in the next decade, as she began to suffer health problems linked to her heroin abuse. After kicking her drug habit in 1967, O'Day returned to prominence, giving a strong showing at the 1970 Berlin Jazz Festival and starting her own record label. She continued performing well into her 70s. Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, a biographical documentary about the artist, is now out on DVD. This interview with Anita O'Day was originally broadcast in 1987. DAVID BIANCULLI, host: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli of tvworthwatching.com, sitting in for Terry Gross. Back when she was very young, one of Anita O'Day's first auditions as a jazz singer was with the Benny Goodman Band. Goodman rejected her, saying that she didn't sing the melody, but that was one of her gifts: to improvise on the melody and to swing. She first became known in 1941, when she joined the Gene Krupa Band. She later sang with Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman and many small groups. Anita O'Day died in 2006 of a heart attack at age 87. A documentary about her called \"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer\" has been making the rounds at film festivals and theaters for the last several months. It was directed by Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden and has just come out on DVD. Here's an excerpt from the documentary. You'll hear the voices of Anita O'Day, of jazz pianist and educator Billy Taylor, and of jazz critic Bill Friedwald(ph), who speaks first. (Soundbite of movie, \"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer\") Mr. BILL FRIEDWALD (Jazz Critic): Famous story about Anita, that even back in the '40s, when she was still a band singer, that band singers were always these really glamorous creatures that wore these big, flowing evening gowns, and it was very difficult, you know, for these four girls to manage this while they were on the road. Ms. ANITA O'DAY (Jazz Singer): You gotta be pretty, and you gotta wear a dress, but they don't move. (Singing) Love is a many splendored things. Mr. BILLY TAYLOR (Jazz Pianist): She looks gorgeous. She don't move. Mr. FRIEDWALD: And Anita was the first one to insist on just wearing a regulation band uniform and a skirt, you know, not to do the full glamour route. Ms. O'DAY: When Gene was doing it very well at the Paramount Theater, he hired a tailor to give them an outfit, two outfits - one for on the road with green slacks and a checkered jacket and everything, and I just asked him if I could have a skirt and jacket made, and I set that trend, played it like one of the guys. Mr. FRIEDWALD: This is like one of the guys in the band because that was her training, and she knew how to handle all those kind of situations where she was the only woman or whatever, but she was fun. Ms. O'DAY: I got to be one of the guys so much, I used to have the girls waiting for me… (Soundbite of laughter) BIANCULLI: In her 1981 autobiography, \"High Times, Hard Times,\" O'Day explained that her last name was Colton(ph), but she changed it to O'Day because in pig Latin, O'Day meant dough, and she hoped to make plenty of it. Unfortunately, most of the money she did make from her records and concerts went into her arm. She had always been a hard drinker, but in 1954, she started using heroin. It wasn't until 15 years later that she kicked that habit. \"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer\" includes excerpts from a number of radio and television interviews with her, including one she recorded with Terry Gross, which we're about to hear. It was in 1987, during our first year as a national daily show on NPR. At the time, O'Day was 68 years old and appearing at a club in San Francisco. Before we hear that interview, here's Anita O'Day in 1959 with a band led by Jimmy Giuffre. (Soundbite of music) Ms. O'DAY: (Singing) Some day, when I'm awfully low, and the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you, just the way you look tonight. Lovely, with your smile so warm and your cheeks so soft. There is nothing for me but to love you just the way you look tonight. With each word your tenderness grows, tearing my fears apart, and the smile that wrinkles your nose touches my foolish", "Unidentified federal law enforcement officers are scooping up protesters in Portland and detaining them in unmarked vehicles. They were sent to quell protests, but many say their presence is only fanning the flames. We&#8217;ll discuss the legality of a president using federal force in U.S. cities, and what it means for our democracy. Guests Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University. Permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Author of many books, including: &#8220;The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America&#8221; and &#8220;On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.&#8221; (@TimothyDSnyder) Ryan Haas, news editor, Oregon Public Broadcasting. (@ryanjhaas) \nFederal police strike protester with baton, use pepper spray and tear gas outside courthouse in Portland pic.twitter.com/VX2xTVaaYq &mdash; Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) July 19, 2020 Last weekend, as unidentified federal officers beat protesters and detained them in unmarked vehicles, a group of women came together to form a human wall to protect those protesters — a &#8220;Wall of Moms.&#8221; We spoke with Bev Barnum, a 35-year-old from Portland who brought the group together: \nCrowd size in the thousands pic.twitter.com/UID2QBlYKO &mdash; Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 21, 2020 From The Reading List Excerpted from &#8220;On Tyranny&#8221; by Timothy Snyder. Copyright © 2017 by Timothy Snyder. Excerpted by permission of Crown, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. The New York Times: &#8220;Trump&#8217;s Occupation of American Cities Has Begun&#8221; — &#8220;The month after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Yale historian Timothy Snyder published the best-selling book &#8216;On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century.&#8217; It was part of a small flood of titles meant to help Americans find their bearings as the new president laid siege to liberal democracy. One of Snyder’s lessons was, &#8216;Be wary of paramilitaries.&#8217; He wrote, &#8216;When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.&#8217; In 2017, the idea of unidentified agents in camouflage snatching leftists off the streets without warrants might have seemed like a febrile Resistance fantasy. Now it’s happening.&#8221; The Washington Post: &#8220;A Navy vet asked federal officers in Portland to remember their oaths. Then they broke his hand.&#8221; — &#8220;He came to the protest with a question. He left with two broken bones in a confrontation with federal officers that went viral. Christopher David had watched in horror as videos surfaced of federal officers in camouflage throwing protesters into unmarked vans in Portland. The 53-year-old Portland resident had heard the stories: protesters injured, gassed, sprayed with chemicals that tugged at their nostrils and burned their eyes.&#8221; Politico: &#8220;Trump administration weighs a show of force in more cities&#8221; — &#8220;Portland may just be the beginning. Federal law enforcement agencies are gearing up to expand their footprint nationwide in the coming weeks, despite concerns about the recent scenes of violence and chaos in Oregon.&#8221; The Atlantic: &#8220;America Gets an Interior Ministry&#8221; — &#8220;For decades, conservative activists and leaders have warned that &#8216;jackbooted thugs&#8217; from the federal government were going to come to take away Americans’ civil rights with no due process and no recourse. Now they’re here—but they’re deployed by a staunchly right-wing president with strong conservative support.&#8221; Chicago Tribune: &#8220;Trump expected to send new federal force to Chicago this week to battle violence, but plan’s full scope is a question mark&#8221; — &#8220;Chicago may see an influx of federal agents as soon as this week as President Donald Trump readies to make good on repeated pledges he would try to tamp down violence here, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities.&#8221; CBS News: &#8220;Women in Portland form &#8216;Wall of Moms&#8217; to protect protesters from federal officers&#8221; — &#8220;A group of women banded together to form a human wall to protect protesters from federal officers in Portland over the weekend. There have been 52 days and nights of protests since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which have turned violent after federal authorities have been sent in earlier this month.&#8221; The Los Angeles Times: &#8220;Out of Portland tear gas, an apparition emerges, capturing the imagination of protesters&#8221; — &#8220;She emerged as an apparition from clouds of tear gas as federal agents fired pepper balls at angry protesters in the early Saturday darkness. A woman wearing nothing but a black face mask and a stocking cap strode toward a", "On this day in 1964, The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the nonviolent protest of the inequality of blacks in American society. Liane presents an excerpt of his acceptance speech, delivered in December of that year.", "It occasionally happens that a great work is better known by excerpts. Such has been the fate of Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe every since its creation. While occasionally performed as a ballet, it is usually heard in concert, represented by its final three numbers: \"Lever du jour\" (Daybreak), \"Pantomime\" and \"Danse generale.\" Ravel himself designated these excerpts as Suite No. 2 after the score's completion in 1912. Based on a pastoral drama by the Greek poet Longus, the scenario for the ballet was devised by Michel Fokine, a classically trained dancer and choreographer. The first two scenes portray the courtship of Daphnis and Chloe, and the latter's abduction by, and miraculous escape from, a band of pirates. The third scene, comprising the three numbers of Suite No. 2, takes place in a grove sacred to the god Pan. Ravel portrays the murmuring of a nearby brook at daybreak with undulating figures in the winds, harps, celesta and later the strings. In the foreground, birdcalls are sounded by the piccolo and three solo violins. As the shades of dawn give way to the colors of day, a luxuriant melody builds in the orchestra. Daphnis awakes, anxiously looks for Chloe, and sees her among a group of shepherdesses. The two throw themselves into each other's arms, the melody reaching an impassioned climax. Martinon's Controlled Hedonism No French orchestra could play with the kind of power, precision and range of dynamics that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra possessed in 1964. Conductor Jean Martinon brings something special to the music because he was steeped in it from an early age. He knew Ravel personally and came from a generation that grew up with Ravel's music. Martinon had a command of the orchestra that allowed him to bring out precisely that element that is so characteristic of Ravel: the hedonistic aspect. It was the color and sound and texture of the orchestra that fascinated Ravel. This is an incredibly well-controlled, sensuous, atmospheric account of the music, with an explosiveness just under the surface.", "Steve Inskeep talks to Ramez Maluf, journalism professor at the Lebanese American University, about how the Arab media is covering the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Maluf says Arab television featured longer excerpts of the trial, which may have left viewers with a different impression of the proceedings.", "Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick talks to Guy about how the protests for racial justice have resonated with him personally, and how this moment can spark meaningful change for African Americans — in the world of business and beyond. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating turbulent times.", "British comedian Ricky Gervais is best known to American audiences as the bumbling boss David Brent in the British version of The Office and the ever-hopeful wanna-be actor Andy Millman from Extras. We offer highlights of past interviews. The excerpts are from interviews that first aired on Sept. 22, 2005 and Nov. 14, 2008.", "Earlier this evening, the White House press office released a few excerpts from President Obama's State of the Union. They indicate that Obama is going to remind his audience that if Democrats and Republicans are to get anything done, they need each other since both parties are in position to stalemate each other, neither having complete control of the federal government anymore. He also sets out the stakes which are nothing less than the nation's future competitiveness in the global economy. Policymakers can't allow petty politics to get in the way of that future, he'll say. The president will once again talk about this being the nation's Sputnik moment as he has numerous times during his presidency. Read More It's a reference to the Soviet Union's launch in 1957 of the first satellite to orbit the Earth. It was a moment that shocked Americans and commenced the Space Race, with its emphasis on the teaching of math and science to American students with its tremendous spin-off benefits. Here are the excerpts: Excerpts from President Obama's State of the Union Address As Prepared for Delivery- With their votes, the American people determined that governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties. New laws will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans. We will move forward together, or not at all – for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics. At stake right now is not who wins the next election – after all, we just had an election. At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else. It's whether the hard work and industry of our people is rewarded. It's whether we sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but a light to the world. We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again. But we have never measured progress by these yardsticks alone. We measure progress by the success of our people. By the jobs they can find and the quality of life those jobs offer. By the prospects of a small business owner who dreams of turning a good idea into a thriving enterprise. By the opportunities for a better life that we pass on to our children. That's the project the American people want us to work on. Together. … Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik¸ we had no idea how we'd beat them to the moon. The science wasn't there yet. NASA didn't even exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation's Sputnik moment.", "On today's show, Farai spoke with professor Sean Flynn, author of the book, Economics for Dummies. If you have questions about your own financial well-being or you're mystified by how the American economy works, be sure to listen to the segment. Then, click here to read an excerpt from the book, amended specifically for News & Notes listeners.", "Tucked into President Joe Biden’s most recent stimulus package is $5 billion dollars dedicated to Black farmers. The money recognizes decades of mistreatment and discrimination by the USDA. They’ve lost over 90 percent of their land over the past century. But throughout the country, their stories are little known.  Naima Penniman of Soul Fire Farm and author Natalie Baszile talk with us about the history of Black farmers in the United States, the impact of the American Rescue Act and what it means to reclaim the land. Find a poem by Naima Penniman, excerpted from Natalie Baszile’s We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy here. A Love Letter to Future Gen… by wamu885", "Below you can find the complete list of recommended reading for the 2008 Holidays. To print this list, choose the \"Print Page\" icon in the upper right-hand corner. Click on the titles to read an excerpt from the book. Recommended by Nancy Pearl(\"Books Beneath The Reading Radar\") Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment, by Bryan Talbot, hardcover, 319 pages, Dark Horse Comics, list price: $29.95 Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, by Luis Fernando Verissimo, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa, paperback, 144 pages, New Directions, list price: $13.95 The Broken Shore, by Peter Temple, paperback, 368 pages, Picador, list price: $14.00 Firmin, by Sam Savage, illustrated by Michael Mikolowski, paperback, 162 pages, Coffee House Press, list price: $14.95 The Ghost in Love, by Jonathan Carroll, hardcover, 320 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, list price: $25.00 The Ginseng Hunter, by Jeff Talarigo, hardcover, 192 pages, Doubleday, list price: $21.95 The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service, by Andrew Meier, hardcover, 304 pages, W. W. Norton & Company, list price: $25.95 Previously, by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman, hardcover, 32 pages, Candlewick Press, list price: $16.99 Recommended by Karen Grigsby Bates(\"Five Books To Give Yourself This Year\") American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, Random House, Hardcover, 558 pages, list price $26.00 Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas, St. Martin's Press, paperback, 336 pages, list price: $13.95 I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass, Knopf, hardcover, 304 pages, list price: $24.95 Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, Knopf, hardcover, 352 pages, list price: $25 Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach by Meryl Gordon, Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, 336 pages, list price: $28.00 Recommended by Laurel Maury(\"Best Superhero Graphic Novels Of 2008\") Read a graphic excerpt of Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, hardcover, 128 pages, DC Comics, list price: $19.99 Read a graphic excerpt of The Death Of Captain America, Vol. #1, #2, & #3 by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins, paperback, 464 total pages, Marvel Comics, list prices: $14.99 (vol. #1 and #2); $19.99 (vol. #3) Read a graphic excerpt of Runaways: Dead End Kids by Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan, hardcover, 152 pages, Marvel Comics, list price: $19.99 Read a graphic excerpt from Black Summer by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp, paperback, 192 pages, Avatar, list price: $24.99 Read a graphic excerpt of Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, hardcover, 168 pages, DC Comics, list price: $24.99 Recommended by Maureen Corrigan(\"Best Books Of 2008\") Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill, Knopf, hardcover, 272 pages, list price: $23.95 Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, Knopf, Hardcover, 352 pages, list price: $25 Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan, Little, Brown & Co., hardcover, 368 pages, list price: $23.99 The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, translated from the French by Alison Anderson, Europa Editions, paperback, 336 pages, list price: $15 Indignation, by Philip Roth, Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, 256 pages, list price: $26 An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, by Elizabeth McCracken, Little, Brown & Co., hardcover, 184, list price: $19.99 White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple, Knopf, hardcover, 416 pages, list price: $27.95 World War II Writings by A.J. Liebling, edited by Pete Hamill, Library of America, hardcover, 1,100 pages, list price: $40 Recommended by Troy Patterson(\"Best Collections Of Literary Letters 2008\") Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, edited by Thomas Travisano with Saskia Hamilton, hardcover, 928 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. List price: $45 Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger, by Lee Israel, hardcover, 144 pages, Simon & Schuster. List price: $19.95 Dear American Airlines, by Jonathan Miles, hardcover, 192 pages, Houghton Mifflin. List price: $22 Graham Greene: A Life In Letters, edited by Richard Greene, hardcover, 480 pages, W.W. Norton. List price: $35 The Timewaster Letters, by Robin Cooper, paperback, 192 pages, Chicago Review Press. List price: $11.95 Recommended by Booksellers to Susan Stamberg(\"Booksellers' Picks For Your Holiday Lists\") All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays, by George Orwell, hardcover, 416 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. List price: $25 The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway, hardcover, 256 pages, Riverhead Books. List price: $21.95 Downtown Owl, by Chuck Klosterman, hardcover, 257 pages, Simon & Schuster. List price: $24 Esther's Inheritance, by Sandor Marai, translated by George Szirtes, hardcover, 160 pages, Knopf. List price: $24 The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, paperback, 784 pages, Harper Perennial. List price: $18.95 The Economist Book of Obituaries, by ", "Great American jazz singer Susanna McCorkle is dead at the age of 55. According to police reports, she jumped to her death from her Manhattan apartment. McCorkle released 17 recordings throughout her 20-year career and was often listed on jazz critics' lists as one of the top singers of our time. We pay tribute to her talent through music and an excerpt from an interview she did with NPR last year.", "Presidential historian Michael Beschloss' second volume on the LBJ tapes is called <EM>Reaching for Glory: The Secret Lyndon Johnson Tapes, 1964-1965.</EM> Beschloss talks about the tapes and we hear excerpts -- including recordings of conversations about Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. We also hear Johnson speaking with Jackie Kennedy. Beschloss has written five previous books on American presidents and is a regular contributor to <EM>The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.</EM>", "Cathy Hughes is the founder of Urban One, the largest African American-owned broadcast network with 54 radio stations around the United States. Cathy spoke with Guy about the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement and how Black entrepreneurs can meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating turbulent times." ]

[ "By Abby Hassler\nA federal judge dropped Taylor Swift from the complaint in a suit filed by radio host David Mueller.\nRelated: Taylor Swift Takes Stand in Trial Vs Former Denver DJ\nMueller sued Swift in 2015, claiming he was fired after false allegations that he groped the singer at an event in 2013. Swift countersued that same year claiming sexual assault and battery.\n“Taylor Swift did not act improperly,” Judge William J. Martínez said in United States District Court in Denver, according to the New York Times. Martínez said Mueller offered, “insufficient evidence Miss Taylor Swift acted improperly when she reported an assault she truly believed happened.”\nDespite Swift being dropped from the case, the judge allowed the suit to continue against the other two defendants, Swift’s mother, Andrew Swift, and Frank Bell (one of Swift’s managers). Swift’s countersuit will also continue.\nClosing arguments are expected today." ]

[ "DENVER – Closing statements from both attorneys in the trial involving a former Denver radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift before a 2013 concert are expected to get underway Monday morning on Day 6 of the trial.\nLive updates from U.S. District Court of Colorado in Denver can be found below. Refresh page for the latest updates. (All times Mountain):\n8:30 a.m.\nThe day will get underway Monday with a “charging conference” involving Judge William J. Martinez and attorneys from both Swift’s side and the side of David Mueller, the former DJ.\nAt the conference, the attorneys will review and finalize the instructions that will be given to the jury to decide the remainder of the trial.\nAfter the conference is over, the jury will return to the courtroom and hear closing statements from both sides, then will start deliberating.\nBut after Judge Martinez ruled Friday that Swift would no longer be party to the lawsuit filed against her and her team and tossed out four of the five claims against the defendants, there will only be one claim moving forward originally filed by Mueller.\nThat claim—tortious interference with contract claims—is only moving forward against Swift’s mother, Andrea Swift, and her manager, Frank Bell.\nTaylor Swift’s counterclaim against Mueller will also be moving ahead. It involves claims of assault and battery.\nAs in all cases, the jury will have to reach a unanimous verdict to find any of the parties guilty of something.", "DENVER (AFP) - Pop superstar Taylor Swift was celebrating on Monday after winning a sexual assault lawsuit against a former radio DJ she accused of groping her before a gig.\nA jury in Denver federal court deliberated for four hours before allowing her complaint that David Mueller had fondled her buttocks during a photo opportunity in 2013.\nSwift was awarded the nominal US$1 (S$1.38) in damages she had asked for.\nThe 27-year-old issued a statement thanking the court and acknowledging her legal team for \"fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault\".\n\"I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this,\" she said.\n\"My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organisations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.\"\nRelated Story DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift admits picture of incident looks bad\nEarlier in the day, the singer had broken down in tears during the closing arguments in her civil trial. She turned away from the public gallery to wipe her eyes as Mr Gabriel McFarland, the lawyer for Mueller, questioned whether his client would have any reason to assault the star.\n\"I don't know what kind of person grabs or gropes a music superstar but it's not that guy,\" Mr McFarland told the court.\nHe repeatedly said the singer was wrong in her assertion that Mueller had stuck his hand under her skirt.\nThe singer's mother Andrea had tears in her eyes during the session as she handed her daughter tissues.\nSwift's aides complained to the DJ's radio station and he lost his job.\nMueller launched a lawsuit for loss of earnings while she counter-sued for sexual assault.\nUS District Judge William Martinez scaled back the case on Friday, ruling that there was no evidence for Mueller to be entitled to damages from Swift personally.", "Related Coverage Taylor Swift groping trial draws attention to hidden outrage\nUPDATE: DENVER (AP) – The Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local):\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday’s review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n___\nDENVER (AP) – Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star’s mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He’s seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)", "DENVER (CBS4)– Taylor Swift was awarded $1 in the groping trial involving a DJ from Denver. The jury reached a verdict on Monday afternoon, finding that former DJ David Mueller assaulted, battered the pop star during a photo op.\nA jury on Monday started considering Swift’s allegation that a former radio host groped her during a meet-and-greet before a concert and whether the singer’s mother and her radio liaison later set out to destroy his career.\nThe jury also found that Frank Bell and Andrea Swift did not intentionally interfere with David Mueller’s contract.\nIn the dueling lawsuits from Swift and Mueller, a federal judge ruled Friday that Mueller failed to prove that the pop star personally set out to have him fired after the 2013 photo op.\nBut jurors will weigh his identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell as well as Swift’s countersuit seeking a symbolic $1. She says Mueller grabbed her backside and she wants to serve as an example to other women who have been assaulted.\nAdditional Resources:\nRead the following statement from Taylor Swift released at 5 p.m. on Monday:\n“I want to thank Judge William J. Martinez and the jury for their careful consideration, my attorneys Doug Baldridge, Danielle Foley, Jay Schaudies and Katie Wright for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault, and especially anyone who offered their support throughout this four-year ordeal and two-year long trial process.\nI acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this. My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.”", "Story highlights Taylor Swift is no longer a defendant in the lawsuit\nThe suit will continue with her mother and a radio promotions director\nSwift's countersuit against David Mueller will also proceed\nDenver (CNN) A jury will hear closing arguments today in a lawsuit brought by a former radio DJ in Colorado who says Taylor Swift's allegation that he groped her led to his firing. They'll also hear final arguments in Swift's countersuit against ex-DJ David Mueller.\nThe singer was dismissed as a defendant in Mueller's suit on Friday when a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to show that Swift had acted improperly.\nThe federal suit brought by Mueller continues with just the singer's mother, Andrea Swift, and radio promotions director, Frank Bell, as defendants.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her at a meet-and-greet in June 2013. Mueller denies grabbing Swift and claims he was wrongfully terminated after Swift and her mother pressured the radio station to fire him following the alleged incident. Swift filed a countersuit in response.\nMueller's suit doesn't seek a specific monetary amount, but an expert retained by the ex-radio host determined that nearly $3 million was a fair compensation for damages. Swift is seeking $1 in her countersuit.\nRead More", "DENVER (AP) — Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star’s mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)", "DENVER: Pop superstar Taylor Swift was celebrating on Monday (Aug 14) after winning a sexual assault lawsuit against a former radio DJ she accused of groping her before a gig.\nA federal court judge in Denver allowed her complaint that David Mueller had fondled her buttocks during a photo opportunity in the city's Pepsi Centre arena in 2013.", "One win down, one to go for Taylor Swift and her mom.\nOn Friday, a Federal Judge determined that former DJ, David Mueller, did not prove that Swift personally got him fired. Mueller had alleged this in his three million dollar lawsuit and the judge tossed out that portion of the suit.\nIdentical allegations against Taylor’s mom, Andrea Swift, and one of Taylor’s employees, Frank Bell, are still active and expected to go to jurors today after lawyers make their closing arguments.\nOn Friday, Swift’s bodyguard, Greg Dent, took the stand and testified that he was standing a few feet away during the photo op which clearly shows Mueller’s hand on Swift’s lower region as opposed to the rib cage area Mueller claims he was touching.\nDent says he saw Mueller grope Swift, but did not take immediate action because he generally took his cues from Swift and she gave him none. Plus, she has told him in the past not to be so mean to her fans.\nAnd Arnold Schwarzenegger confirmed his role in Terminator 6, but it’s not what you think.\nHe will not be reprising his iconic role T-800 Model 101. Instead, James Cameron (who is penning the trilogy) says he will most likely play the human that was the inspiration for the T-800 Model 101’s appearance.\nCameron says “Now the question is, did that person have some sort of meaning to Skynet on why they chose that one, (Arnold).”\nCameron says we will have to wait to see the movie to find out.", "Pop star Taylor Swift’s civil trial concluded Monday as a Denver jury prepared to weigh in on the singer-songwriter’s allegation that a local radio personality sexually assaulted her four years ago.\nPlay Facebook\nTwitter\nEmbed Taylor Swift groping trial set to begin 2:41 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog\nThe disc jockey, David Mueller, 55, first filed a lawsuit, claiming that Swift, 27, had him wrongfully fired after she alleged to his bosses that he sexually assaulted during a June 2, 2013 concert at the Pepsi Center in Denver. He asked for $3 million.\nSwift countersued, arguing that Mueller definitely groped her beneath her clothes. She asked for $1.\nRelated: Here's Why Taylor Swift Chose to Sue for $1 in Sex Assault Case\nU.S. District Judge William Martinez dismissed Mueller’s suit against Swift on Friday — though he allowed the former DJ’s claim that Swift’s mother and a member of her management team interfered with his $150,000 a year contract at KYGO-FM to go forward.\nDJ David Mueller speaks during the alleged groping trial with Taylor Swift on August 8, 2017 at the Denver Federal Court in Denver, Colorado. Jeff Kandyba\nMartinez previously dismissed Mueller’s defamation-of-character claim against Swift because he waited too long to file it.\nDuring closing arguments on Monday, Mueller’s lawyer, Gabriel McFarland, told the eight-member jury his client would have never compromised his “dream job” to reach under the skirt of one of “the planet’s biggest superstars.”\nMueller, he added, is a “guy who by all accounts has been respectful of women and treated them appropriately.”\nAs McFarland spoke, Swift wept, Reuters reported.\nRelated: Taylor Swift’s Former Bodyguard Says He Saw DJ Reach Under Singer’s Skirt\nDoug Baldridge, Swift's lawyer, countered that eight witnesses saw the assault, and that Mueller lost his job because “he grabbed her butt and got caught. Now he’s victimizing her again to save his butt.”", "Please enable Javascript to watch this video\nDENVER -- The jury will hear closing arguments in the Taylor Swift disc jockey groping trial on Monday morning.\nThe pop star was released from the lawsuit filed by former Denver radio DJ David Mueller on Friday, but her mother, Andrea Swift, and her \"radio guy\" Frank Bell are still defendants.\nThe jury will decide if they interfered with Mueller's employment contract at radio station KYGO after Swift said he groped her before a Pepsi Center concert in 2013.\nRELATED: Taylor Swift trial live blog\nU.S. District Judge William Martinez determined Swift could not be held liable because Mueller's lawyers failed to prove that she personally set out to have him fired.\nMueller is seeking up to $3 million, saying the groping allegation cost him his job and reputation.", "DENVER (AP) - The Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local):\n11:10 a.m.\nA lawyer for the former radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift says the pop star's account is inconsistent with every other Swift team member's testimony and with a photo taken at the time of the alleged incident.\nDuring closing arguments in Denver federal court Monday, attorney Gabriel McFarland told jurors Monday that David Mueller \"is not the guy\" who groped Swift during a photo op before a 2013 concert.\nHe argued that Swift's smiling face in the photo contradicts her testimony that she was groped the instant the photo was taken.\nMcFarland also cast doubt on a Swift security guard's claim that he saw Mueller touch Swift but did not act because he did not think she was in danger.\nHe also said the photographer who took the image \"started it all\" by pulling a photo of Mueller and his girlfriend with Swift from dozens she took during a meet-and-greet and showing it to Swift, who identified Mueller as the person who touched her.\n_____\n10:20 a.m.\nClosing arguments are underway in the civil trial involving Taylor Swift and the former radio DJ she accuses of groping her before a 2013 concert.\nA lawyer for ex-DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, made his case to jurors first on Monday morning in Denver federal court.\nBefore arguments began, Judge William Martinez told jurors that a preponderance of evidence is needed to return a verdict.\nThe verdict form asks if Frank Bell, a radio liaison for Taylor Swift, and Andrea Swift intentionally caused Mueller to be fired from his job.\nIt also asks in Swift's counterclaim if Mueller assaulted or battered Swift.\nThe judge threw out Mueller's case against Taylor Swift on Friday.\n_____\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday's review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n9 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n7:55 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n_____\n1:15 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer's mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ's career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn't prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.\n(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)", "As Taylor Swift 's legal battle against former Denver radio DJ David Mueller continues, Kesha has pledged her support for the fellow performer.\nThe 1989 singer's trial against Mueller began last week, with a judge eventually dismissing Taylor from Mueller's original lawsuit. Mueller claimed Taylor's allegations that he groped her back in 2013 led to him losing his job and ruining his career. Taylor is currently countersuing him for $1 .\nAs of Monday (August 14) morning, attorneys are giving their final statements and jury deliberations are expected in Mueller's suit against Taylor Swift's mom, Andrea and manager, Frank Bell. Also on Monday morning, Rainbow singer Kesha tweeted her support for Taylor. She wrote, \"@taylorswift13 i support you always, and especially right now and admire your strength and fearlessness. truth is always the answer.\"\nLast year as Kesha was in the middle of her own legal battles with Dr. Luke, Taylor donated $250,000 to help with legal fees. Kesha joins a list of other celebrities that have voiced their backing of Taylor.\nRelated: Taylor Swift's Mom Cried During Her Testimony at Groping Trial\nCheck this out:", "Taylor Swift on the red carpet before the The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala in New York City, Monday, May 5, 2014. Credit: CNN\nDENVER (AP) - Taylor Swift has won long-awaited vindication after a jury decided that a radio host groped her during a pre-concert photo op four years ago.\nAfter a weeklong trial over dueling lawsuits, jurors determined Monday that fired Denver DJ David Mueller assaulted the pop star by grabbing her backside during a backstage meet-and-greet.\nThe six-woman, two-man jury also found that Swift's mother and radio liaison were within their rights to contact Mueller's bosses.\nMueller sued the Swifts and their radio handler, Frank Bell, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career.\nJust before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller's lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect.\nThe singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women.", "(AP Photo/David Zalubowski). Fourteen-year-old Kennedy Wares, right, and her grandmother, Nancy Eliott, both of Littleton, Colo., wait at the head of the public line for seats in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017,...\n(AP Photo/David Zalubowski). Members of the media stand on the sidewalk as they wait for Shannon Melcher to emerge from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Melc...\n(AP Photo/David Zalubowski). Fourteen-year-old Kennedy Wares, second from right, confers with her grandmother, Nancy Elliott, both of Littleton, Colo., as they move up the public line to view the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, A...\n(AP Photo/David Zalubowski). Ryan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver.\n(AP Photo/David Zalubowski). Attorney Douglas Baldridge, center, who represented pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the sing...\nDENVER (AP) - The Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local):\n5:35 p.m.\nTaylor Swift hugged her crying mother after jurors decided that a radio host groped the pop star during a pre-concert photo op four years ago.\nAfter the jury sided with her Monday, the singer sent out a statement thanking her team for fighting for her and \"anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault.\"\nThe jury also determined that Swift's mother, Andrea Swift, and radio liaison, Frank Bell, were within their rights to contact fired DJ David Mueller's bosses about the allegation.\nMueller sued over his ruined career, and the singer-songwriter filed a countersuit seeking the chance to stand up for other women.\nIn her statement, Swift acknowledged her privileged position and said she hopes to help \"those whose voices should also be heard.\" She says she'll be donating to organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.\n___\n4:50 p.m.\nTaylor Swift has won long-awaited vindication after a jury decided that a radio host groped her during a pre-concert photo op four years ago.\nAfter a weeklong trial over dueling lawsuits, jurors determined Monday that fired Denver DJ David Mueller assaulted the pop star by grabbing her backside during a backstage meet-and-greet.\nThe six-woman, two-man jury also found that Swift's mother and radio liaison were within their rights to contact Mueller's bosses.\nMueller sued the Swifts and their radio handler, Frank Bell, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career.\nJust before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller's lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect.\nThe singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women.\n___\n4:40 p.m.\nJurors have reached a verdict in dueling lawsuits over Taylor Swift's allegation that a radio host groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet in 2013.\nThe decision by six-woman, two-man jury will be read Monday in U.S. court in Denver.\nIt comes after a weeklong trial. Denver DJ David Mueller sued the pop star, her mother and their radio handler, Frank Bell, after he was fired, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career.\nJust before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller's lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect.\nThe singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women.\n___\n12:35 p.m.\nThe Taylor Swift groping case has headed to a jury in federal court in Denver.\nThe jury got the case for deliberations Monday after Swift's attorney Douglas Baldridge questioned former DJ David Mueller's credibility in closing arguments.\nIn dueling lawsuits, Swift said Mueller groped her at a backstage 2013 event and Mueller accused Swift, her mother and a Swift representative of getting him fired while denying the groping accusation.\nBaldridge noted Mueller lost audio recordings he took secretly during a meeting with his bosses after he was fired from a Denver country music station.\nHe said that \"no credibility goes with a story-changing, evidence-destroying aggressor like David Mueller.\"\nThe eight-member jury must rule unanimously on Mueller's claim that Andrea Swift and Frank Bell wrongly caused Mueller's firing. A judge removed Swift as a defendant in the firing claim.\nThe jury also must reach a verdict on Swift's counterclaim of assault and battery and her request for a symbolic $1 judgment.\n___\n11:35 a.m.\nTaylor Swift's attorney says she's standing up for all women in her federal lawsuit by taking on a man who she says groped her and is saying \"No means no.\"\nIn closing arguments Monday, lawyer Douglas Baldridge characterized the former DJ who sued Swift after he lost his job as an \"aggressor.\"\nFormer radio host David Mueller said Swift's claim that he groped her at a 2013 pre-concert event in Denver is false and led to his being fired.\nBaldridge asked jurors: \"Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?\"\nCiting Swift's counterclaim alleging assault and battery, Baldridge asks jurors to \"return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.\"\n___\n11:30 a.m.\nTaylor Swift cried during part of closing arguments in her civil trial alleging that a former radio DJ groped her before a 2013 concert.\nThe lawyer for former DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, questioned Monday whether the pop star's smiling face in a photo she appeared in with Mueller was the face of someone who was upset.\nSwift's mother, Andrea Swift, touched her daughter's right leg as Swift cried and wiped her face in federal court in Denver. Her lawyer also rubbed her back.\nAndrea Swift touched Swift's hand as McFarland said the photograph taken during the meet-and-greet in meant nothing.\nSwift testified the photo was taken just as she was groped by Mueller, who denies the allegation.\n_____\n11:10 a.m.\nA lawyer for the former radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift says the pop star's account is inconsistent with every other Swift team member's testimony and with a photo taken at the time of the alleged incident.\nDuring closing arguments in Denver federal court Monday, attorney Gabriel McFarland told jurors Monday that David Mueller \"is not the guy\" who groped Swift during a photo op before a 2013 concert.\nHe argued that Swift's smiling face in the photo contradicts her testimony that she was groped the instant the photo was taken.\nMcFarland also cast doubt on a Swift security guard's claim that he saw Mueller touch Swift but did not act because he did not think she was in danger.\nHe also said the photographer who took the image \"started it all\" by pulling a photo of Mueller and his girlfriend with Swift from dozens she took during a meet-and-greet and showing it to Swift, who identified Mueller as the person who touched her.\n_____\n10:20 a.m.\nClosing arguments are underway in the civil trial involving Taylor Swift and the former radio DJ she accuses of groping her before a 2013 concert.\nA lawyer for ex-DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, made his case to jurors first on Monday morning in Denver federal court.\nBefore arguments began, Judge William Martinez told jurors that a preponderance of evidence is needed to return a verdict.\nThe verdict form asks if Frank Bell, a radio liaison for Taylor Swift, and Andrea Swift intentionally caused Mueller to be fired from his job.\nIt also asks in Swift's counterclaim if Mueller assaulted or battered Swift.\nThe judge threw out Mueller's case against Taylor Swift on Friday.\n_____\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday's review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n9 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n7:55 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n_____\n1:15 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer's mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ's career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn't prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.\nCopyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.", "DENVER (AP) — The Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local):\n4:50 p.m.\nTaylor Swift has won long-awaited vindication after a jury decided that a radio host groped her during a pre-concert photo op four years ago.\nAfter a weeklong trial over dueling lawsuits, jurors determined Monday that fired Denver DJ David Mueller assaulted the pop star by grabbing her backside during a backstage meet-and-greet.\nThe six-woman, two-man jury also found that Swift’s mother and radio liaison were within their rights to contact Mueller’s bosses.\nMueller sued the Swifts and their radio handler, Frank Bell, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career.\nJust before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller’s lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect.\nThe singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women.\n___\n4:40 p.m.\nJurors have reached a verdict in dueling lawsuits over Taylor Swift’s allegation that a radio host groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet in 2013.\nThe decision by six-woman, two-man jury will be read Monday in U.S. court in Denver.\nIt comes after a weeklong trial. Denver DJ David Mueller sued the pop star, her mother and their radio handler, Frank Bell, after he was fired, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career.\nJust before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller’s lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect.\nThe singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women.\n___\n12:35 p.m.\nThe Taylor Swift groping case has headed to a jury in federal court in Denver.\nThe jury got the case for deliberations Monday after Swift’s attorney Douglas Baldridge questioned former DJ David Mueller’s credibility in closing arguments.\nIn dueling lawsuits, Swift said Mueller groped her at a backstage 2013 event and Mueller accused Swift, her mother and a Swift representative of getting him fired while denying the groping accusation.\nBaldridge noted Mueller lost audio recordings he took secretly during a meeting with his bosses after he was fired from a Denver country music station.\nHe said that “no credibility goes with a story-changing, evidence-destroying aggressor like David Mueller.”\nThe eight-member jury must rule unanimously on Mueller’s claim that Andrea Swift and Frank Bell wrongly caused Mueller’s firing. A judge removed Swift as a defendant in the firing claim.\nThe jury also must reach a verdict on Swift’s counterclaim of assault and battery and her request for a symbolic $1 judgment.\n___\n11:35 a.m.\nTaylor Swift’s attorney says she’s standing up for all women in her federal lawsuit by taking on a man who she says groped her and is saying “No means no.”\nIn closing arguments Monday, lawyer Douglas Baldridge characterized the former DJ who sued Swift after he lost his job as an “aggressor.”\nFormer radio host David Mueller said Swift’s claim that he groped her at a 2013 pre-concert event in Denver is false and led to his being fired.\nBaldridge asked jurors: “Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?”\nCiting Swift’s counterclaim alleging assault and battery, Baldridge asks jurors to “return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.”\n___\n11:30 a.m.\nTaylor Swift cried during part of closing arguments in her civil trial alleging that a former radio DJ groped her before a 2013 concert.\nThe lawyer for former DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, questioned Monday whether the pop star’s smiling face in a photo she appeared in with Mueller was the face of someone who was upset.\nSwift’s mother, Andrea Swift, touched her daughter’s right leg as Swift cried and wiped her face in federal court in Denver. Her lawyer also rubbed her back.\nAndrea Swift touched Swift’s hand as McFarland said the photograph taken during the meet-and-greet in meant nothing.\nSwift testified the photo was taken just as she was groped by Mueller, who denies the allegation.\n_____\n11:10 a.m.\nA lawyer for the former radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift says the pop star’s account is inconsistent with every other Swift team member’s testimony and with a photo taken at the time of the alleged incident.\nDuring closing arguments in Denver federal court Monday, attorney Gabriel McFarland told jurors Monday that David Mueller “is not the guy” who groped Swift during a photo op before a 2013 concert.\nHe argued that Swift’s smiling face in the photo contradicts her testimony that she was groped the instant the photo was taken.\nMcFarland also cast doubt on a Swift security guard’s claim that he saw Mueller touch Swift but did not act because he did not think she was in danger.\nHe also said the photographer who took the image “started it all” by pulling a photo of Mueller and his girlfriend with Swift from dozens she took during a meet-and-greet and showing it to Swift, who identified Mueller as the person who touched her.\n_____\n10:20 a.m.\nClosing arguments are underway in the civil trial involving Taylor Swift and the former radio DJ she accuses of groping her before a 2013 concert.\nA lawyer for ex-DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, made his case to jurors first on Monday morning in Denver federal court.\nBefore arguments began, Judge William Martinez told jurors that a preponderance of evidence is needed to return a verdict.\nThe verdict form asks if Frank Bell, a radio liaison for Taylor Swift, and Andrea Swift intentionally caused Mueller to be fired from his job.\nIt also asks in Swift’s counterclaim if Mueller assaulted or battered Swift.\nThe judge threw out Mueller’s case against Taylor Swift on Friday.\n_____\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday’s review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n9 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star’s mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n7:55 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star’s mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He’s seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n_____\n1:15 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer’s mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ’s career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn’t prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He’s seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.", "The Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local): 4:50 p.m. Taylor Swift has won long-awaited vindication after a jury decided that a radio host groped her during a pre-concert photo op four years ago. After a weeklong trial over dueling lawsuits, jurors determined Monday that fired Denver DJ David Mueller assaulted the pop star by grabbing her backside during a backstage meet-and-greet. The six-woman, two-man jury also found that Swift's mother and radio liaison were within their rights to contact Mueller's bosses. Mueller sued the Swifts and their radio handler, Frank Bell, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career. Just before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller's lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect. The singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women. ___ 4:40 p.m. Jurors have reached a verdict in dueling lawsuits over Taylor Swift's allegation that a radio host groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet in 2013. The decision by six-woman, two-man jury will be read Monday in U.S. court in Denver. It comes after a weeklong trial. Denver DJ David Mueller sued the pop star, her mother and their radio handler, Frank Bell, after he was fired, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career. Just before closing arguments, the judge dismissed Taylor Swift from Mueller's lawsuit and drastically reduced the amount Mueller could collect. The singer-songwriter said in her countersuit that she wanted a symbolic $1 and the chance to stand up for other women. ___ 12:35 p.m. The Taylor Swift groping case has headed to a jury in federal court in Denver. The jury got the case for deliberations Monday after Swift's attorney Douglas Baldridge questioned former DJ David Mueller's credibility in closing arguments. In dueling lawsuits, Swift said Mueller groped her at a backstage 2013 event and Mueller accused Swift, her mother and a Swift representative of getting him fired while denying the groping accusation. Baldridge noted Mueller lost audio recordings he took secretly during a meeting with his bosses after he was fired from a Denver country music station. He said that 'no credibility goes with a story-changing, evidence-destroying aggressor like David Mueller.' The eight-member jury must rule unanimously on Mueller's claim that Andrea Swift and Frank Bell wrongly caused Mueller's firing. A judge removed Swift as a defendant in the firing claim. The jury also must reach a verdict on Swift's counterclaim of assault and battery and her request for a symbolic $1 judgment. ___ 11:35 a.m. Taylor Swift's attorney says she's standing up for all women in her federal lawsuit by taking on a man who she says groped her and is saying 'No means no.' In closing arguments Monday, lawyer Douglas Baldridge characterized the former DJ who sued Swift after he lost his job as an 'aggressor.' Former radio host David Mueller said Swift's claim that he groped her at a 2013 pre-concert event in Denver is false and led to his being fired. Baldridge asked jurors: 'Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?' Citing Swift's counterclaim alleging assault and battery, Baldridge asks jurors to 'return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.' ___ 11:30 a.m. Taylor Swift cried during part of closing arguments in her civil trial alleging that a former radio DJ groped her before a 2013 concert. The lawyer for former DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, questioned Monday whether the pop star's smiling face in a photo she appeared in with Mueller was the face of someone who was upset. Swift's mother, Andrea Swift, touched her daughter's right leg as Swift cried and wiped her face in federal court in Denver. Her lawyer also rubbed her back. Andrea Swift touched Swift's hand as McFarland said the photograph taken during the meet-and-greet in meant nothing. Swift testified the photo was taken just as she was groped by Mueller, who denies the allegation. _____ 11:10 a.m. A lawyer for the former radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift says the pop star's account is inconsistent with every other Swift team member's testimony and with a photo taken at the time of the alleged incident. During closing arguments in Denver federal court Monday, attorney Gabriel McFarland told jurors Monday that David Mueller 'is not the guy' who groped Swift during a photo op before a 2013 concert. He argued that Swift's smiling face in the photo contradicts her testimony that she was groped the instant the photo was taken. McFarland also cast doubt on a Swift security guard's claim that he saw Mueller touch Swift but did not act because he did not think she was in danger. He also said the photographer who took the image 'started it all' by pulling a photo of Mueller and his girlfriend with Swift from dozens she took during a meet-and-greet and showing it to Swift, who identified Mueller as the person who touched her. _____ 10:20 a.m. Closing arguments are underway in the civil trial involving Taylor Swift and the former radio DJ she accuses of groping her before a 2013 concert. A lawyer for ex-DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, made his case to jurors first on Monday morning in Denver federal court. Before arguments began, Judge William Martinez told jurors that a preponderance of evidence is needed to return a verdict. The verdict form asks if Frank Bell, a radio liaison for Taylor Swift, and Andrea Swift intentionally caused Mueller to be fired from his job. It also asks in Swift's counterclaim if Mueller assaulted or battered Swift. The judge threw out Mueller's case against Taylor Swift on Friday. _____ 9:10 a.m. Taylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury. Monday's review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments. Swift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation. A judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors. Mueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money. Swift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim. _____ 9 a.m. Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert. The former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career. A federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors. Mueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money. Swift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim. _____ 7:55 a.m. Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert. The former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career. A federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. But identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors. Mueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job. Swift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim. She called the encounter despicable. _____ 1:15 a.m. Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer's mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ's career after the photo op took place. A federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn't prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors. Mueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job. Swift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim. She called the encounter with Mueller despicable.", "DENVER (AP) — Taylor Swift’s attorney says she’s standing up for all women in her federal lawsuit by taking on a man who she says groped her and is saying “No means no.”\n11:35 a.m.\nIn closing arguments Monday, lawyer Doulas Baldridge characterized the former DJ who sued Swift after he lost his job as an “aggressor.”\nFormer radio host David Mueller said Swift’s claim that he groped her at a 2013 pre-concert event in Denver is false and led to his being fired.\nBaldridge asked jurors: “Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?”\nCiting Swift’s counterclaim alleging assault and battery, Baldridge asks jurors to “return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.”\n___\n11:30 a.m.\nTaylor Swift cried during part of closing arguments in her civil trial alleging that a former radio DJ groped her before a 2013 concert.\nThe lawyer for former DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, questioned Monday whether the pop star’s smiling face in a photo she appeared in with Mueller was the face of someone who was upset.\nSwift’s mother, Andrea Swift, touched her daughter’s right leg as Swift cried and wiped her face in federal court in Denver. Her lawyer also rubbed her back.\nAndrea Swift touched Swift’s hand as McFarland said the photograph taken during the meet-and-greet in meant nothing.\nSwift testified the photo was taken just as she was groped by Mueller, who denies the allegation.\n_____\n11:10 a.m.\nA lawyer for the former radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift says the pop star’s account is inconsistent with every other Swift team member’s testimony and with a photo taken at the time of the alleged incident.\nDuring closing arguments in Denver federal court Monday, attorney Gabriel McFarland told jurors Monday that David Mueller “is not the guy” who groped Swift during a photo op before a 2013 concert.\nHe argued that Swift’s smiling face in the photo contradicts her testimony that she was groped the instant the photo was taken.\nMcFarland also cast doubt on a Swift security guard’s claim that he saw Mueller touch Swift but did not act because he did not think she was in danger.\nHe also said the photographer who took the image “started it all” by pulling a photo of Mueller and his girlfriend with Swift from dozens she took during a meet-and-greet and showing it to Swift, who identified Mueller as the person who touched her.\n_____\n10:20 a.m.\nClosing arguments are underway in the civil trial involving Taylor Swift and the former radio DJ she accuses of groping her before a 2013 concert.\nA lawyer for ex-DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, made his case to jurors first on Monday morning in Denver federal court.\nBefore arguments began, Judge William Martinez told jurors that a preponderance of evidence is needed to return a verdict.\nThe verdict form asks if Frank Bell, a radio liaison for Taylor Swift, and Andrea Swift intentionally caused Mueller to be fired from his job.\nIt also asks in Swift’s counterclaim if Mueller assaulted or battered Swift.\nThe judge threw out Mueller’s case against Taylor Swift on Friday.\n_____\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday’s review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n9 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star’s mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n7:55 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star’s mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He’s seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n_____\n1:15 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer’s mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ’s career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn’t prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift’s team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He’s seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.\n(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)", "Share\nThe jury members are expected to return a verdict quickly after being handed the case on Monday.\nTaylor Swift brushed away tears on Monday (14Aug17) as a lawyer for the Colorado DJ accused of groping the singer questioned why she was smiling in the photo taken at the time of the alleged incident.\nThe Bad Blood hitmaker returned to a Denver federal court this week to hear closing arguments in her countersuit against David Mueller, who stands accused of lifting up her skirt and touching her butt during a backstage meet-and-greet at a 2013 concert in the city.\nHe had his case for slander, initially filed in 2015, dismissed on Friday (11Aug17) after District Judge William Martinez ruled Mueller had failed to prove Swift's complaint about his reported actions had cost him his job at local radio station KYGO.\nMueller's lawyer, Gabriel McFarland, wrapped up his defense on Monday as he reminded the jury why Swift should not be awarded damages for sexual assault and battery - allegations the DJ has always denied, insisting it was a co-worker who had touched the musician inappropriately.\nAddressing the jury members, McFarland declared Mueller is \"not the guy\" behind the groping, and then referred to the photo evidence from the meet-and-greet, which depicted the DJ and his then-girlfriend posing for the snap beside a smiling Swift. He claimed her joyful expression appeared to contradict her trial testimony, in which she told the court Mueller had placed his hand on her butt as soon as the image was taken.\n\"Look at Ms. Swift's face,\" McFarland said. \"Is that the face of someone who's in shock, who is upset?\"\nAccording to The Associated Press, his remarks prompted Swift to briefly tear up, as her mother Andrea placed a protective hand on her daughter's leg and her lawyer, Douglas Baldridge, rubbed his client's back.\nMeanwhile, Baldridge used his closing statements to hammer home the reason Swift was only seeking $1 in damages, explaining she wanted to stand up for all victims of sexual assault as \"No means no.\"\nHe also branded the DJ an \"aggressor\" and asked jurors to \"return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation\".\nThe case has since been handed over to the jury for deliberations.\n© Cover Media", "A sign in support of pop singer Taylor Swift borrowing a line from one of her songs is spelled out in the windows of an office across the street from the federal courthouse in which the civil trial involving Swift is going on in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nAttorneys for pop singer Taylor Swift, Douglas Baldridge, back left, and Jesse P. Schaudies, Jr., back, right, are escorted to the federal courthouse for the civil trial involving the pop singer in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nAn escort leads attorneys for pop singer Taylor Swift, Douglas Baldridge, center, and Jesse P. Schaudies, Jr., to the federal courthouse for the civil trial involving the pop singer in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nAustin Swift, left, brother of pop singer Taylor Swift, chats with the singer's publicist, Tree Paine, as they head to the federal courthouse for the civil trial involving the pop singer in a case in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nTree Paine, publicist for pop singer Taylor Swift, heads to federal courthouse for the civil trial involving the pop singer in a case in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nSamantha Kosloske of Boulder, Colo., waits in the public line to attend the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift in a case in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nTree Paine, right, publicist for pop singer Taylor Swift, joins Swift's younger brother, Austin, heading to the federal courthouse for the civil trial involving the pop singer in a case in federal court Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nA brace of photographers back up as Tree Paine, front left, publicist for pop singer Taylor Swift, and Swift's brother, Austin, head into the federal courthouse for day six in the civil trial involving the pop singer Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Denver. While the judge has cleared the pop singer, her mother, Andrea, and the singer's radio liaison are still facing allegations that they set out to have a radio host fired for allegedly groping Swift at a photo op before a concert in Denver in 2013. The eight-person jury is expected to decide on that case as well as consider the assault allegation leveled by the singer.\nThe Associated Press\nThe Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local):\n11:35 a.m.\nTaylor Swift's attorney says she's standing up for all women in her federal lawsuit by taking on a man who she says groped her and is saying \"No means no.\"\nIn closing arguments Monday, lawyer Douglas Baldridge characterized the former DJ who sued Swift after he lost his job as an \"aggressor.\"\nFormer radio host David Mueller said Swift's claim that he groped her at a 2013 pre-concert event in Denver is false and led to his being fired.\nBaldridge asked jurors: \"Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?\"\nCiting Swift's counterclaim alleging assault and battery, Baldridge asks jurors to \"return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.\"\n___\n11:30 a.m.\nTaylor Swift cried during part of closing arguments in her civil trial alleging that a former radio DJ groped her before a 2013 concert.\nThe lawyer for former DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, questioned Monday whether the pop star's smiling face in a photo she appeared in with Mueller was the face of someone who was upset.\nSwift's mother, Andrea Swift, touched her daughter's right leg as Swift cried and wiped her face in federal court in Denver. Her lawyer also rubbed her back.\nAndrea Swift touched Swift's hand as McFarland said the photograph taken during the meet-and-greet in meant nothing.\nSwift testified the photo was taken just as she was groped by Mueller, who denies the allegation.\n_____\n11:10 a.m.\nA lawyer for the former radio DJ accused of groping Taylor Swift says the pop star's account is inconsistent with every other Swift team member's testimony and with a photo taken at the time of the alleged incident.\nDuring closing arguments in Denver federal court Monday, attorney Gabriel McFarland told jurors Monday that David Mueller \"is not the guy\" who groped Swift during a photo op before a 2013 concert.\nHe argued that Swift's smiling face in the photo contradicts her testimony that she was groped the instant the photo was taken.\nMcFarland also cast doubt on a Swift security guard's claim that he saw Mueller touch Swift but did not act because he did not think she was in danger.\nHe also said the photographer who took the image \"started it all\" by pulling a photo of Mueller and his girlfriend with Swift from dozens she took during a meet-and-greet and showing it to Swift, who identified Mueller as the person who touched her.\n_____\n10:20 a.m.\nClosing arguments are underway in the civil trial involving Taylor Swift and the former radio DJ she accuses of groping her before a 2013 concert.\nA lawyer for ex-DJ David Mueller, Gabriel McFarland, made his case to jurors first on Monday morning in Denver federal court.\nBefore arguments began, Judge William Martinez told jurors that a preponderance of evidence is needed to return a verdict.\nThe verdict form asks if Frank Bell, a radio liaison for Taylor Swift, and Andrea Swift intentionally caused Mueller to be fired from his job.\nIt also asks in Swift's counterclaim if Mueller assaulted or battered Swift.\nThe judge threw out Mueller's case against Taylor Swift on Friday.\n_____\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday's review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n9 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n7:55 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n_____\n1:15 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer's mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ's career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn't prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.", "Attorney Douglas Baldridge, center, who represented pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nDouglas Baldridge, second from right, attorney for pop singer Taylor Swift, leads his legal team out of the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.\nDouglas Baldridge, front center, attorney for pop singer Taylor Swift, smiles as he chats with an escort while leading his legal team out of the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.\nMembers of the legal team representing pop singer Taylor Swift are driven away from the Ritz Carlton hotel after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.\nTree Paine, left, publicist for pop singer Taylor Swift, leads Swift's brother, Austin, right, past photographers after emerging from the federal courthouse following a ruling in the civil trial for Taylor Swift to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.\nDouglas Baldridge, front center, attorney for pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.\nAustin Swift, brother of pop singer Taylor Swift, heads to a hotel after emerging from the federal courthouse following a ruling in the civil trial for Taylor Swift to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career.\nFourteen-year-old Kennedy Wares, right, and her grandmother, Nancy Eliott, both of Littleton, Colo., wait at the head of the public line for seats in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver.\nMembers of the media stand on the sidewalk as they wait for Shannon Melcher to emerge from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Melcher, who was the girlfriend of the man accused of groping Swift, was allowed to leave the courthouse by a back exit.\nFourteen-year-old Kennedy Wares, second from right, confers with her grandmother, Nancy Elliott, both of Littleton, Colo., as they move up the public line to view the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver.\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 in Denver.\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 in Denver.\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift. Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 in Denver.\nAttorneys for pop singer Taylor Swift, Douglas Baldridge, left, and Jesse P. Schaudies, Jr., are surrounded by photographers as they enter the federal courthouse for the morning session in the civil trial , Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller, to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1.\nEugene Yee of Denver holds up his passes for both the morning and afternoon sessions in the civil trial for pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1.\nA court officer hands out passes to the public for the morning session in the civil trial for pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller, to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1.\nSupplied by a local radio station, boxes of donuts sit on a wall for members of the public as they wait to attend the civil trial for pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1.\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver.\nThe Associated Press\nThe Latest on a civil trial involving Taylor Swift and a former DJ she accused of groping her (all times local):\n9:10 a.m.\nTaylor Swift, her mother Andrea Swift, and former radio DJ David Mueller are back in a federal courtroom in Denver federal as the judge and attorneys for her groping case review instructions for the jury.\nMonday's review is taking place outside the presence of the eight-member jury, which will be called in later in the morning to hear closing arguments.\nSwift alleges Mueller groped her before a 2013 concert and he denies the allegation.\nA judge ruled Friday Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career. Identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n9 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison tried to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nIdentical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the encounter to his bosses. He sought up to $3 million in damages. The judge ruled that he did not make a case for recovering that much money.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will consider her assault claim.\n_____\n7:55 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial over allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a 2013 Denver concert.\nThe former DJ alleges in a competing federal lawsuit that the star's mother and radio liaison set out to destroy his career.\nA federal judge ruled Friday that former DJ David Mueller did not prove Swift personally tried to end his career.\nBut identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter despicable.\n_____\n1:15 a.m.\nLawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer's mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ's career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn't prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.", "DENVER (AP) - Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments Monday in a trial concerning allegations that a former radio host groped Taylor Swift backstage before a concert in Denver, and competing allegations the singer's mother and her radio liaison set out to destroy the DJ's career after the photo op took place.\nA federal judge on Friday determined that former DJ David Mueller didn't prove that Swift personally tried to end his career, but identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Frank Bell are expected to go to jurors.\nMueller sued the three after Swift's team reported the 2013 encounter to his bosses. He's seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job.\nTree Paine, right, publicist for pop singer Taylor Swift, walks with the singer's brother, Austin Swift, out of the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nSwift countersued for a symbolic $1. The jury will also consider her assault claim.\nShe called the encounter with Mueller despicable.\nAttorney Douglas Baldridge, center, who represented pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nShannon Melcher, former girlfriend of a Denver radio host who allegedly groped pop singer Taylor Swift, is helped to avoid the media after testifying in the civil trial in federal court Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nSupplied by a local radio station, boxes of donuts sit on a wall for members of the public as they wait to attend the civil trial for pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nGreg Dent, former security guard for pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial for the pop singer, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nGreg Dent, former security guard for pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial for the pop singer, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1.\nA court officer hands out passes to the public for the morning session in the civil trial for pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller, to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nEugene Yee of Denver holds up his passes for both the morning and afternoon sessions in the civil trial for pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nAttorneys for pop singer Taylor Swift, Douglas Baldridge, left, and Jesse P. Schaudies, Jr., are surrounded by photographers as they enter the federal courthouse for the morning session in the civil trial , Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Radio station DJ David Mueller sued Swift after her team reported she was groped by Mueller, to his bosses at a country music station. He is seeking up to $3 million, saying the allegation cost him his job and reputation. Swift countersued Mueller, claiming sexual assault. She is seeking a symbolic $1. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift. Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nRyan Kliesch, a Denver radio host, emerges from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nFourteen-year-old Kennedy Wares, second from right, confers with her grandmother, Nancy Elliott, both of Littleton, Colo., as they move up the public line to view the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nMembers of the media stand on the sidewalk as they wait for Shannon Melcher to emerge from the federal courthouse after testifying in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. Melcher, who was the girlfriend of the man accused of groping Swift, was allowed to leave the courthouse by a back exit. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nFourteen-year-old Kennedy Wares, right, and her grandmother, Nancy Eliott, both of Littleton, Colo., wait at the head of the public line for seats in the civil trial involving pop singer Taylor Swift, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nAustin Swift, brother of pop singer Taylor Swift, heads to a hotel after emerging from the federal courthouse following a ruling in the civil trial for Taylor Swift to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nDouglas Baldridge, front center, attorney for pop singer Taylor Swift, emerges from the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nTree Paine, left, publicist for pop singer Taylor Swift, leads Swift's brother, Austin, right, past photographers after emerging from the federal courthouse following a ruling in the civil trial for Taylor Swift to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nMembers of the legal team representing pop singer Taylor Swift are driven away from the Ritz Carlton hotel after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)\nDouglas Baldridge, front center, attorney for pop singer Taylor Swift, smiles as he chats with an escort while leading his legal team out of the federal courthouse after a ruling in the civil trial for the singer to determine whether a Denver radio announcer groped the singer in a case in federal court late Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Denver. A judge on Friday threw out a former radio host's case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)", "“Look at Ms. Swift’s face and ask yourself, ‘Is that the face of a person who just had a strange man grab her butt?’”\nThat was, in part, the closing argument of attorney Gabriel McFarland in the case of former Denver D.J. David Mueller against Swift, who accused Mueller of sexual assaulting her at a meet-and-greet in 2013. After a week of testimonies, including Swift’s, McFarland closed with what has become Mueller’s version of the story, after several variations: blanket denial.\nMcFarland continued, displaying the photo of Swift and Mueller when the alleged groping took place: “Not a single witness who was there gave any indication that they saw Mr. Mueller bend over or lean down to get low enough to get under Ms. Swift’s skirt.”\nAccording to Page Six, the singer cried as the attorney held out the now infamous photo. Her mother, Andrea Swift, touched her right leg while her lawyer rubbed her back to comfort her.\nSince the trial began last week, the case has changed dramatically. On Friday, Judge William J. Martínez dropped Mueller’s complaint that Swift had falsely accused him of groping her. He said the Mueller had “insufficient evidence Miss Taylor Swift acted improperly when she reported an assault she truly believed happened.” The suits at issue now are the ones Mueller filed against Andrea Swift and Taylor’s radio liaison, Frank Bell, whom he claims are responsible getting him fired from his $150,000 job as a radio host.\nDuring his testimony last Tuesday and Wednesday, Mueller denied groping Swift, but when she took the stand on Thursday, she was adamant about what happened. She maintained that when Mueller and his then-girlfriend and fellow radio personality, Shannon Melcher, posed for a photo, Mueller noticeably grabbed her.\n“He stayed latched on to my bare ​as​s ch​eek as I moved away from him visibly uncomfortable,” she said.\nIn his own closing argument on Monday, Swift’s attorney Douglas Baldridge was just as adamant. “The guy did it. Don’t be fooled, don’t be snookered. It’s his [Mueller’s] burden of proof. It’s time to stop the victimization in this country and in this courtroom.”\nThis is a developing story.", "By Keith Coffman\nDENVER, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Lawyers for U.S. pop star Taylor Swift and the Colorado DJ she accuses of groping her were due to deliver closing arguments on Monday before the federal court jury weighing her sexual assault claims against his assertion that he was wrongfully fired.\nThe trial stemming from Swift's allegations against radio personality David Mueller headed into its final phase after the 27-year-old singer-songwriter won an important ruling on Friday, which dismissed the DJ's accusation that she wrongfully got him to lose his job.\nThe ruling by U.S. District Judge William Martinez left standing Swift's assault and battery countersuit against Mueller, who insisted during the trial that he was falsely accused.\nThe judge also left intact a single claim by Mueller accusing Swift's mother and another member of her management circle of interfering with his contract, bringing about his ouster from his $150,000-a-year job at radio station KYGO-FM.\nThe judge previously tossed out Mueller's defamation-of-character claim against Swift, ruling before the trial that the DJ had waiting too long to file a lawsuit on those grounds.\nThe weeklong trial stems from allegations by the Grammy-winning artist known for such hits as \"Fearless\" and \"I Knew You Were Trouble,\" that Mueller clutched her bare buttocks during a pre-concert fan reception while they posed together for pictures.\nMueller, 55, initiated the litigation, suing Swift, her mother and her radio station liaison Frank Bell for his termination.\nThe elder Swift said she wanted Mueller fired, and Bell reported the allegation to KYGO management, who sacked Mueller two days after the incident.\nSwift then countersued, saying in her lawsuit that raising the issue of sexual assault \"will serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts.\"\nDuring his trial testimony, Mueller denied having touched Swift inappropriately and said the false allegation cost him his career.\n\"It's a humiliating experience to be accused of something that despicable,\" he said.\nWhen Swift took the stand, she testified that Mueller put his hand under her skirt and \"latched onto my bare ass cheek,\" causing her to lurch away from him.\nA photograph of the incident, shown repeatedly during the trial, depicts Swift flanked by Mueller and his then-girlfriend Shannon Melcher. Mueller´s right hand is concealed behind Swift´s backside, and she appears to be leaning away.\nMelcher testified that she did not see anything untoward during the encounter, but added, \"I don´t have eyes in the back of my head.\"\nSwift is asking for a symbolic $1 in damages, but that does not limit what the eight-member jury could award her should she prevail.\n\"For this reason, any recovery obtained by Ms. Swift will be donated to charitable organizations dedicated to protecting women from similar acts of sexual assault and personal disregard,\" the countersuit said.\nIf Mueller prevails on his claim against Andrea Swift and Bell, any damages would be limited to his two-year contract with the radio station, the judge has ruled.\n(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Nick Macfie)", "(ABC News) — A jury found Monday that a preponderance of evidence showed that former DJ David Mueller groped Taylor Swift.\nThe Denver jury, comprised of six women and two men, also found that the singer’s mother, Andrea Swift, and her radio manager, Frank Bell, did not intentionally interfere with Mueller’s contract and were not responsible for his firing.\nThe jury voted to award Swift the $1 she filed for.\nRelated Content: Taylor Swift groping trial draws attention to hidden outrage\n“I want to thank Judge William J. Martinez and the jury for their careful consideration, my attorneys Doug Baldridge, Danielle Foley, Jay Schaudies and Katie Wright for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault, and especially anyone who offered their support throughout this four-year ordeal and two-year long trial process,” Swift said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this. My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.”\nThe verdict came Monday about four hours after lawyers for both Swift and Mueller made their closing arguments. Last Friday U.S. District Judge William Martinez threw out the former radio host’s suit against Taylor Swift, saying there was not enough evidence to prove she got him fired from his Denver radio station. However, Mueller’s claim against Swift’s mother and her radio manager, Bell, was allowed to proceed, the judge said.\nMueller accused Andrea Swift and Bell of getting him fired.\nRelated Content: Judge tosses DJ’s suit against Taylor Swift in groping trial\nDuring her testimony, Andrea Swift, like her daughter, said she did not intentionally call the radio station looking to get Mueller fired, just that “he committed a sexual assault on my daughter” and “I wanted them [his employers at KYGO] to make their own conclusion.”\nBell, a longtime family friend of the Swifts who serves as an intermediary between the singer and radio stations, said he merely asked the station to look into things.\n“All I asked him to do is investigate and take action,” he said.\nMueller had accused Taylor Swift of “intentional interference with contractual obligations,” which he said caused him to lose his job.\nThe former DJ first sued Swift in 2015, claiming that she falsely accused him of grabbing her backside at a 2013 meet-and-greet, causing him to lose his job. Taylor Swift then filed a countersuit for assault and battery, claiming that Mueller “took his hand and put it up my dress,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.\nRelated Content: Taylor Swift wants case to serve as example to other victims\nLast week, Mueller, Taylor Swift, Andrea Swift, Bell and Mueller’s ex Shannon Melcher, who was present at the time of the alleged incident, all testified in court.\nWhile Mueller and Melcher both testified that the former radio deejay didn’t grab or intend to grab the pop singer on her backside, Taylor Swift herself was adamant when she told the jury that Mueller reached up under her skirt and “latched on to my bare ass cheek.”\nShe added: “He was busy grabbing my ass underneath my skirt.”\nMueller said in depositions that his damages amounted to about $3 million; Taylor Swift was seeking compensatory, actual and punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial.\nThe singer has said that she will donate any money she receives to charities.", "The singer was spotted wiping her tears at her messy groping trial. During the closing arguments, the DJ’s lawyer slammed the star for smiling in the photo which allegedly captioned the very moment he groped her.\n‘Is this the face of a woman who was assaulted?’ the attorney asked causing Swift to tear up and turn her head away.\nAs fans may already be aware, Taylor accused Mueller of groping her bare bottom under her dress during a meet and greet.\nAfter the alleged incident, the singer told security, and he was thrown out of the venue.\nBut Swift did not stop there – she even complained to the radio station where he worked, and Mueller was fired because of it.\nAttorney McFarland added that no one in their right mind would just randomly grope a superstar and throw away their whole career.\nOn the other hand, Douglas Baldridge, Swift’s lawyer claimed that in the photo, the man had a wicked smile on his face and encouraged the two men, six women jury to not be fooled – the DJ is definitely capable of assault.\nHe went on by saying that it’s time for the victimization of victims to stop in this country – the man did a bad thing and deservingly lost his job for it.\nPretty self-explanatory!\nThe attorney also noted that the reason Swift asked for only $1 in the suit is that she had no intention of bankrupting him.\nFor the artist, that one dollar is more valuable than millions because it teaches that no means no!\nIn the end, the judge threw the DJ’s case out, claiming he couldn’t prove he lost his job because of Taylor.\nAdvertisement\nHer countersuit that accused the man of assault and battery still stands, and the jury is deliberating.", "The former radio DJ sued her for 'loss of earnings' three years after the incident.\nTaylor Swift was groped by David Mueller in 2013. PA\nTaylor Swift has won a sexual assault case against a former radio DJ who she said groped her.\nA jury in Denver, Colorado, sided with the pop star and ordered David Mueller to pay her a symbolic $1 (77p).\nMueller assaulted Swift, 27, by grabbing her bottom during a backstage meet-and-greet in 2013, jurors decided after a week-long trial.\nThe ex-DJ, aged 55, had originally tried to sue Swift for $3 million (£2.3m) because his career had been ruined by the accusations, but the judge dismissed his claim.\nIn a statement, Swift thanked her lawyers \"for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by sexual assault\" and said she was planning donations that will help other victims defend themselves in court.\n\"I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this,\" she said. \"My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard.\"", "A jury has ruled in favor of Taylor Swift in a case involving a Denver radio DJ accused of groping the pop singer.\nSwift had accused Mueller of grabbing her butt during a photo-op in 2013. Mueller was tossed by security after being confronted by the singer’s bodyguard, which led to his firing from a Denver country music station.\nMueller claimed innocence and then sued the singer, seeking $3 million in damages. Swift subsequently filed a countersuit to “serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts.” She sought a symbolic $1 in damages, which Mueller will now be required to pay.\nOn Friday, a judge dismissed Swift as a defendant in Mueller’s suit concluding that Mueller had failed to prove the singer personally set out to get him fired. In the verdict issued Monday, a jury concluded Swift’s mother, Andrea, and radio promotions director, Frank Bell, were also not liable for tortious interference.", "Kesha wants Taylor Swift to know she’s not alone.\nOn Friday, a Denver judge dismissed the case against Taylor Swift by DJ and radio host David Mueller, who sought $3 million in damages after claiming she ruined his career. While that case has wrapped up, Swift is still in court for counter suing Mueller for $1, claiming he grabbed her butt multiple times.\nKesha took to Twitter to publicly support Swift in the midst of her legal issues. “I support you always, and especially right now and admire your strength and fearlessness. Truth is always the answer,” she wrote, directing her message at Swift.\nhttps://twitter.com/KeshaRose/status/897086310086836226 . @taylorswift13 i support you always, and especially right now and admire your strength and fearlessness. truth is always the answer. — kesha (@KeshaRose) August 14, 2017\nLast week, Swift delivered a testimony in court that still has celebrities singing her praises. “I’m not going to allow you and your client in any way make me feel like it’s my fault, because it isn’t,” she reportedly said to the opposition, explaining she hopes to “serve as an example to other women.”\nLena Dunham took to Twitter to also show her support.\nhttps://twitter.com/lenadunham/status/895862148362063872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.instyle.com%2Fnews%2Flena-dunham-praises-taylor-swift-testimony Proud of @taylorswift13 for her fierce & cutting testimony & her refusal to settle for being treated like property. Her example is powerful. — Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) August 11, 2017\nRELATED: Watch Kesha's Emotional First Live Performance of \"Praying\"\nOf course, it’s especially moving for Kesha to reach out. The singer has been in an ongoing legal battle with producer Dr. Luke, whom she has accused of sexual assault.", "DENVER — Lawyers for pop star Taylor Swift and the Colorado DJ she accuses of groping her were due to deliver closing arguments on Monday before the federal court jury weighing her sexual assault claims against his assertion that he was wrongfully fired.\nThe trial stemming from Swift's allegations against radio personality David Mueller headed into its final phase after the 27-year-old singer-songwriter won an important ruling on Friday, which dismissed the DJ's accusation that she wrongfully got him to lose his job.\nIn this courtroom sketch, pop singer Taylor Swift speaks from the witness stand during a trial, Aug. 10, 2017, in Denver. Jeff Kandyba / AP\nThe ruling by U.S. District Judge William Martinez left standing Swift's assault and battery countersuit against Mueller, who insisted during the trial that he was falsely accused.\nThe judge also left intact a single claim by Mueller accusing Swift's mother and another member of her management circle of interfering with his contract, bringing about his ouster from his $150,000-a-year job at radio station KYGO-FM.\nRelated: Here's Why Taylor Swift Chose to Sue for $1 in Sex Assault Case\nThe judge previously tossed out Mueller's defamation-of-character claim against Swift, ruling before the trial that the DJ had waiting too long to file a lawsuit on those grounds.\nThe weeklong trial stems from allegations by the Grammy-winning artist known for such hits as \"Fearless\" and \"I Knew You Were Trouble,\" that Mueller clutched her bare buttocks during a pre-concert fan reception while they posed together for pictures.\nMueller, 55, initiated the litigation, suing Swift, her mother and her radio station liaison Frank Bell for his termination.\nThe elder Swift said she wanted Mueller fired, and Bell reported the allegation to KYGO management, who sacked Mueller two days after the incident.\nDJ David Mueller speaks during the alleged groping trial with Taylor Swift on August 8, 2017 at the Denver Federal Court in Denver, Colorado. Jeff Kandyba\nSwift then countersued, saying in her lawsuit that raising the issue of sexual assault “will serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts.”\nDuring his trial testimony, Mueller denied having touched Swift inappropriately and said the false allegation cost him his career.\n“It's a humiliating experience to be accused of something that despicable,” he said.\nWhen Swift took the stand, she testified that Mueller put his hand under her skirt and “latched onto my bare ass cheek,” causing her to lurch away from him.\nA photograph of the incident, shown repeatedly during the trial, depicts Swift flanked by Mueller and his then-girlfriend Shannon Melcher. Mueller’s right hand is concealed behind Swift’s backside, and she appears to be leaning away.\nMelcher testified that she did not see anything untoward during the encounter, but added, “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.”\nSwift is asking for a symbolic $1 in damages, but that does not limit what the eight-member jury could award her should she prevail.\n“For this reason, any recovery obtained by Ms. Swift will be donated to charitable organizations dedicated to protecting women from similar acts of sexual assault and personal disregard,” the countersuit said.\nIf Mueller prevails on his claim against Andrea Swift and Bell, any damages would be limited to his two-year contract with the radio station, the judge has ruled.", "Taylor Swift won her trial against a Colorado radio personality on Monday after a jury found that the former DJ assaulted and battered the pop star by groping her bare bottom, and awarded her the symbolic $1 in damages she had sought.\nTaylor Swift attorney Douglas Baldridge (C) speaks to the media after the verdict came in at Denver Federal Court in the Taylor Swift groping trial in Denver on Aug. 14, 2017. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)\nTaylor Swift attorney Douglas Baldridge speaks to the media after the verdict came in at Denver Federal Court in the Taylor Swift groping trial in Denver on Aug. 14, 2017. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)\nTaylor Swift attorney Douglas Baldridge reacts after the verdict came in at Denver Federal Court in the Taylor Swift groping trial in Denver on Aug. 14, 2017. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)\nA sign in an office building across the street from Denver Federal Court where the Taylor Swift groping trial goes on in Denver on Aug. 14, 2017. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)\nTree Paine, publicist for Taylor Swift, leaves Denver Federal Court after the verdict was announced in the Taylor Swift groping trial in Denver on Aug. 14, 2017. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)\nDENVER — Taylor Swift won her trial against a Colorado radio personality on Monday after a jury found that the former DJ assaulted and battered the pop star by groping her bare bottom, and awarded her the symbolic $1 in damages she had sought.\nSwift cried and hugged her mother as the verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Denver and mouthed an emphatic “thank you” to members of the jury as they left the courtroom.\nThe six-woman, two-man jury, which deliberated for less than four hours following a sensational week-long trial, also rejected claims by radio personality David Mueller that members of Swift’s management team – her mother and a radio station liaison – got him fired from his “dream job” as a DJ by making false accusations.\n“I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this,” the 27-year-old singer said in a statement released immediately following the verdicts.\n“My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard,” Swift said, adding that she would make donations to organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.\nMueller, 55, showed no reaction as the verdicts were read.\nThe DJ had initiated the litigation after he was fired from his job after the groping claim was reported to the radio station. In his lawsuit he called the groping accusations false, and he sued Swift, her mother, Andrea, and radio station liaison Frank Bell over his termination.\nDuring closing statements in the case, Mueller’s attorney, Gabriel McFarland, argued that his client was a respected industry veteran who would never have risked his $150,000-per-year radio job by grabbing a major celebrity’s rear end.\nBut Swift was firm on the witness stand, saying that there was no question in her mind that Mueller had intentionally slipped his hand under her skirt to clutch her bare bottom.\nHer attorney, Douglas Baldridge, said during his closing remarks that Swift was seeking only $1 in damages because she had no desire to bankrupt Mueller, but only wanted to send a message.\n“It means ‘no means no’ and it tells every woman they will decide what will be tolerated with their body,” Baldridge said of the principle Swift was trying to defend.\nU.S. District Judge William Martinez on Friday dismissed Mueller’s accusation against Swift, saying there was no evidence that she had acted improperly. The judge left standing the entertainer’s assault and battery countersuit against Mueller.\nHe also left intact a single claim by Mueller accusing Swift’s mother and Bell of interfering with his contract and effectively ending his career at radio station KYGO-FM. The jury rejected that claim.\nBefore the trial, Martinez had tossed out Mueller’s defamation-of-character claim against Swift, ruling that he had waited too long to file a lawsuit on those grounds.", "Closing arguments are set for today in the civil trial involving TAYLOR SWIFT and former KYGO/DENVER morning co-host DAVID MUELLER.\nThe proceedings ended in dramatic fashion FRIDAY (8/11), when presiding U.S. District Judge WILLIAM MARTINEZ threw out MUELLER’s suit against TAYLOR SWIFT, saying his team had not proven the pop superstar had personally sought to have him terminated. MUELLER was fired two days after a photo-op backstage at a 2013 SWIFT concert in DENVER, in which she and her team claimed he touched her in an inappropriate manner. MUELLER filed suit, naming TAYLOR SWIFT, her mother ANDREA SWIFT, and her radio liason, FRANK BELL, claiming “intentional interference with contractual obligations,” and “interference with prospective business relations.” He is seeking $3 million in damages. SWIFT fired back with a counter-suit, seeking $1, and vowing that any further damages awarded her will be donated to charity.\nWhile TAYLOR SWIFT has been dismissed from the suit, the judge allowed MUELLER’s claim of tortious interference against BELL and the elder SWIFT to proceed. Additionally, the judge has allowed TAYLOR SWIFT’s counter-suit to continue. The jury will consider both suits TODAY (8/14), and must reach a unanimous verdict in each.\nThe tossing of MUELLER’s claim against TAYLOR SWIFT, and the continuation of her counter suit against him are setbacks for MUELLER, adding to another legal setback that took place before last WEEK’s trial began. In JUNE, a judge threw out MUELLER’s slander claim against SWIFT.\nMUELLER had claimed that SWIFT’s statements about his conduct were false and have caused “harm to his reputation, profession, and standing in the community.” The problem is that there was a one-year statute of limitations on slander claims, though MUELLER asked the Court to treat those claims as “counter-counter-claims,” responsive to SWIFT’s charges of assault and battery. His argument was rejected.", "Pop superstar Taylor Swift broke down in tears Monday during the closing arguments in her civil trial alleging that a former radio DJ groped her before a 2013 concert.\nThe singer turned away from the public gallery to wipe her eyes as Gabriel McFarland, the lawyer for David Mueller, questioned whether his client would have any reason to assault the star.\n“I don’t know what kind of person grabs or gropes a music superstar, but it’s not that guy,” McFarland told the federal court in Denver.\nHe repeatedly said the singer was wrong in her assertion that Mueller had stuck his hand under her skirt and “grabbed her bare ass cheek” during a meet-and-greet before Swift’s gig at the Pepsi Center.\nThe singer’s mother, Andrea Swift, had tears in her eyes during the session as she handed her daughter tissues.\nSwift alleges that Mueller fondled her buttocks during a pre-gig photo opportunity. Her aides complained to the DJ’s radio station at the time and he lost his job.\nMueller launched a $3 million lawsuit against Swift for loss of earnings, arguing it was her allegations that had got him sacked, while the popstar counter-sued for sexual assault.\nUS District Judge William Martinez scaled back the case on Friday, ruling that there was no evidence for Mueller to be entitled to damages from Swift personally.\nMartinez said, however, it was possible a jury could award Mueller damages for Swift’s staff interfering with his employment contract with Denver station KYGO.\nThe six woman, two-man jury must decide if Swift’s mother and radio consultant Frank Bell are liable for damages by pressuring the station to fire him.\nIf the jury finds in Mueller’s favor, damages will be limited to the amount he was owed in the remaining 18 months of his two-year contract.\nAlso pending is Taylor Swift’s claim that Mueller’s actions constituted sexual assault and battery. She is seeking a nominal $1 in damages." ]

[ "The Scream, which was stolen from a gallery in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, by armed thieves yesterday, was not insured against theft because it was impossible to put a price on paintings by Edvard Munch, it emerged today." ]

[ "Edvard Munch&#39;s painting of a person screaming and another work stolen from an Oslo museum yesterday weren&#39;t insured against theft, said John Oyaas, managing director at the insurance", "The Scream, one of the world&#39;s most recognizable artworks, was stolen from a Norwegian museum Sunday. Two armed, masked thieves pulled a version of Norwegian expressionist Edvard", "Norwegian police recovered \"The Scream\" and another stolen masterpiece by Edvard Munch on Thursday, two years after the works were seized from a museum by gunmen.", "For the second time in 10 years a version of one of the most famous paintings in the world -- &quot;The Scream&quot; by Edvard Munch -- has been stolen from an art gallery in Oslo.", "Edvard Munch's masterpiece \"The Scream\" and another famous painting by the great Norwegian artist were stolen by armed robbers from an Oslo museum, police said.", "By Christopher Andreae | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor. Since &quot;The Scream&quot; by Norwegian angst-artist Edvard Munch was stolen by armed robbers last Sunday, the media have been asking every art expert in sight, Why does this keep happening?", "OSLO - Norwegian police recovered \"The Scream\" and another stolen masterpiece by Edvard Munch on Thursday, two years after the works were seized from a museum by gunmen.\"We are 100 percent certain they are the ...", "Two Edvard Munch paintings including the masterpiece ``The Scream&#39;&#39; were stolen at gunpoint from an Oslo museum, police said.", "Now if your mobile telephone is stolen, you can scream &#151; and your phone can, too. A new service launched Monday is designed to deter mobile phone theft by equipping telephones with an ear-piercing scream.", "Edvard Munch's paintings \"The Scream\" and \"Madonna\" were stolen from an art museum Sunday while armed men threatened the staff at gunpoint.", "Armed robbers have stolen masterpieces by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch from a museum in Oslo and national radio said a version of &quot;The Scream&quot; was part of the haul.", "A Brazilian museum where two prized paintings were stolen this week admits its collection is not insured.", "Description: A search is under way in Norway for the iconic painting The Scream, stolen Sunday morning from the Munch Museum. Armed men took the expressionist work by Edvard Munch and several other paintings during the museum&#39;s regular touring hours.", "Oslo gallery chief, where robbers snatched Edvard Munch's The Scream, appeals to thieves not to destroy it.", "Two masterpieces by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch stolen from an Oslo museum at the weekend were not insured against theft, officials said.", "The brazen daylight theft of Edvard Munch&#39;s renowned masterpiece &quot;The Scream&quot; left Norway&#39;s police scrambling for clues and stirred a debate across Europe over how to protect art if thieves are willing to use deadly force to take it.", "Armed robbers steal the iconic Edvard Munch painting The Scream from an Oslo museum.", "A new service that makes mobile phones emit a piercing electronic scream if stolen and automatically blocks access to sensitive data was launched in Britain on Monday.", "Armed robbers on Sunday stole a version of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch&#39;s &quot;The Scream,&quot; regarded by many as his most important work and an icon of existentialist angst, from an Oslo museum.", "Two paintings by Edvard Munch stolen during the weekend from an Oslo art gallery were not insured against theft, The Times of London reported Monday.", "A Norway museum published a photograph on Tuesday of Edvard Munch's masterpieces \"The Scream\" and \"Madonna,\" showing only slight damage after police recovered them last month, two years after they were stolen.", "The daring theft of Edvard Munch&#39;s masterpiece &quot;The Scream&quot; has left the international art world in a state of shock.", "OSLO, Norway - Armed, masked thieves burst into a lightly guarded Oslo museum Sunday and snatched the Edvard Munch masterpiece \"The Scream\" and a second Munch painting from the walls as stunned visitors watched in shock. It was the second time in a decade that a version of the iconic \"Scream,\" which depicts an anguished, opened-mouthed figure grabbing the sides of its head, had been stolen from an Oslo museum...", "Norwegian police said Friday they were closing in on gunmen who stole Edvard Munch's masterpiece \"The Scream\" from an Oslo museum almost two months ago.", "Paintings and other valuable works of art are stolen almost every day from galleries around the world, the most recent of course being Edvard Munch&#39;s famous &quot;The Scream&quot;.", "The robbery of Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' is the latest in a string of high-profile art thefts.", "OSLO, Norway -- Police are checking leads in the hunt for armed thieves who stole Edvard Munch&#39;s &quot;The Scream,&quot; as new details show the robbers were more professional than first thought.", "Oslo -- Police fielded a flood of tips but still had no motive yesterday for the daring theft of The Scream and another Edvard Munch masterpiece by armed robbers.", "OSLO, Norway - Norway's police sought to nail down the motive behind the theft of Edvard Munch's \"The Scream\" Monday amid criticism that Oslo's museum security was too lax after gunmen stole the picture in a dramatic daylight raid.", "Art thieves seem to be unable to keep their hands off Edvard Munch&#39;s iconic masterpiece, The Scream, despite the fact that it&#39;s one of the world&#39;s most recognizable paintings.", "The pair of thieves in balaclavas who heisted The Scream from the Munch Museum in Oslo this week sure knew what they had their hands on - art&#39;s single greatest spinoff merchandising moneymaker.", "The head of Oslo's Munch museum appeals to thieves who stole The Scream not to destroy it." ]

[ "London, England (CNN) -- Spanish banking giant Santander on Monday began its campaign to rename hundreds of Abbey and Bradford and Bingley bank branches across Britain. The banking group acquired Abbey in 2004, before it purchased Bradford & Bingley and the Alliance & Leicester in 2008. The first of 300 official Santander branches in the south-east of England was launched in London Monday morning by Banco Santander Chairman Emilio Botín, with a further 700 branches across the UK expected to follow suit by the end of January. In a statement Botin said: \"This is a historic day for Santander as its name is firmly established on the UK high street. \"When Santander acquired Abbey in 2004, there were some who doubted we could make it a success. Today, there can be no doubts. \"Over the last five years we have transformed our UK business into one of the most successful banks in the country. The decision to become Santander will put us in an even stronger position the UK.\" António Horta-Osório, Chief Executive of Santander UK, added: \"The success of our UK business has given us the confidence to move to the Santander name now and with it deliver the next phase of our transformation program and make 1,300 branches available to our 25 million customers in the UK. \"I am confident that this is a very positive move - both for our customers and our employees.\" Over the next few years, Santander says it aims to increase the number of products each of its customers hold through increasingly competitive and market-leading products to its customer base. At the end of 2008, Santander, which was founded in 1857, was the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization and third in the world by profit. It has has 90 million customers, around 14,000 branches -- more than any other international bank -- and over 170,000 employees." ]

[ "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley confirmed Monday it is to become the second bank nationalized by the British government since the financial crisis began. In a deal hammered out with Spanish bank Santander, B&B was being taken into public ownership after uncertainty over its future prompted savers to withdraw \"tens of millions of pounds.\" British Finance Minister Alistair Darling said B&B assets were sold to Santander's Abbey division for just over £600 million pounds, or about $1.1 billion. \"My priority was to protect savers and depositors, but also to ensure that we got a good deal for the taxpayer,\" Darling said. \"We had to stabilize the situation in order to protect the banking system as a whole.\" B&B's mortgage assets will be held by the government for now, but sold in the future, Darling said, once the markets stabilize -- and hopefully at a profit. B&B said it would be \"business as usual\" for its customers. \"Whatever channel they use -- branch, telephone, internet or ATM - they will all be open and operating as normal,\" the statement said. B&B's nationalization follows a similar government rescue of Northern Rock, which faced collapse earlier this year after it suffered heavily from exposure to the so-called credit crunch caused by bad debts. The United States has seen a similar financial crisis. In just the past month, the U.S. federal government has seized control of troubled mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch was forced to sell itself to Bank of America. Other failures or consolidations of financial companies are considered likely, according to analysts. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . Last updated at 3:37 PM on 30th June 2011 . Cutbacks: Lloyds Chief-Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said that 15,000 jobs will go . Lloyds announced that 15,000 jobs will be axed over the next three years to save £1.5billion a year. The huge cull will take job losses to more than 40,000 since Lloyds TSB merged with HBOS in 2009. However, despite the drastic cost-cutting measures the bank claimed not a single extra branch will close. New chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio revealed the cutbacks today as part of his strategic review of the taxpayer-backed lender. No UK bank has ever shed no many jobs in corporate history. All of the jobs will go by the end of 2014. The chief executive said the majority of the the positions set to be axed are at managerial level with hundreds expected to go from the London head office. Branch staff are expected to be largely unaffected as the posts go by the end of 2014. Lloyds will also look to use natural staff attrition and internal redeployment rather than redundancy where possible. However, the Unite union said the review will cause 'deep distress and anxiety' across the company. David Fleming, Unite national officer, added: 'Astonishingly one in eight roles will be lost over the next three years. 'This review is merely another box-ticking exercise to give this bank - which has already, since its creation two years ago, cut over 27,000 staff - an excuse to sack more employees.' Mr Horta-Osorio, the Portuguese-born . banker who took the top post in March after being poached from rival . Santander, also announced plans to reduce the company's international . presence from 30 countries to less than half that number by 2014. He also pledged to revitalise the Halifax brand. Massive job losses: Cull of 40,000 at Lloyds is the biggest round of cuts at a UK bank in corporate history. The majority of the latest round of job losses will be at managerial level . Lloyds Banking Group unveiled Mr Horta-Osorio as its new chief executive in November last year. He joined as executive director in January and started the job in March. He became chief executive of Santander-owned Abbey in 2006, which was later rebranded as Santander UK. During his time at Santander UK, he snapped up Alliance & Leicester for £1.26 billion, Bradford & Bingley's savings book and 197 branches for £612 million and 318 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland. When the businesses all came together under the Santander UK brand at the beginning of the year, it became the UK's third biggest bank - with a customer base of 26 million and more than 1,300 branches. Banking giant HSBC also announced today they will cut 700 jobs across the UK as it prepares for a drop in demand for financial advice due to upcoming changes in the law. The company is reshaping its wealth management business before Retail Distribution Review rules are introduced in January 2013. The new law will mean UK banks can no longer offer financial advice for free, so HSBC expects demand for the service to decline. However, the bank will still have 1,500 advisers across the UK. The blow to staff comes on the day Lloyds Banking Group announced 15,000 job cuts by 2014. Lloyds Banking Group has already cut 27,500 jobs since it was formed less than three years ago. The part-nationalised lender, formed in January 2009 from the merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB, has cut jobs across the business - from motor finance to insurance and from IT to wholesale banking, as well as closing a number of call centres.Since January 2009 the lender has repeatedly unveiled plans to axe jobs - although today's announcement is the largest so far.", "By . Lucy Crossley . A major Canadian pension fund is close to finalising a deal to buy out Burton's Biscuit Company, the makers of biscuit tin favourites Jammie Dodgers and Wagon Wheels. The Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan is expected to buy out the firm, with the deal expected to be sealed in the coming hours. Bidding for the company, which also makes Maryland Cookies, closed on Thursday, after owners the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, private equity group Apollo . Global Management, and Duke Street Capital, put it up for sale in . August. For sale: A major Canadian pension fund is close to finalising a deal to buy out Burton's Biscuits, the makers of biscuit tin favourites Jammie Dodgers . Sky News has cited unnamed sources who claim the sale is close to going through, however, it was still possible that another bidder could make an improved last-minute offer. The Canadian pension fund - which manages assets worth C$127.3 billion (75.6 billion pounds)- has bought several British companies in recent years, acquiring the nursery chain Busy Bees in October and National Lottery operator Camelot, which was bought in 2010. Warburg Pincus WP.UL, Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Apax Partners have all put in rival bids to buy the brand. Potential: If the deal goes through, it could herald an offer from the Canadian fund to buy the larger United Biscuits, which produces brands McVitie's, Jaffa Cakes and Jacob's . Burton's is the second-largest biscuit manufacturer in the UK, reporting a revenue of £342m in 2011. If the deal goes through, it could herald a potential offer from the Canadian fund to buy the larger United Biscuits, which produces brands McVitie's, Jaffa Cakes and Jacob's. United was bought by two private equity firms for 1.6 billion pounds in 2006. Neither Burton's Biscuits nor the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan were available for comment.", "By . Hugo Duncan . PUBLISHED: . 19:06 EST, 12 October 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 01:56 EST, 13 October 2012 . The planned sale of 316 Royal Bank of Scotland branches to rival Santander collapsed last night in a ‘major blow’ to the state-backed lender. Troubled RBS – 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer after a £45billion bailout – has been working on the deal for two years as it battles to recover from the banking crisis. But Spanish buyer Santander has pulled the plug, blaming the poor quality of RBS’s IT systems, which crashed over the summer. Setback: Stephen Hester hailed the deal to sell branches 'an important milestone' The collapse of the £1.65billion deal . is another setback for RBS chief executive Stephen Hester, who has been . forced to sacrifice his bonus for the past two years. The bank is also braced for a large . penalty for its involvement in the Libor rate-rigging scandal that saw . rival Barclays fined £290million. When the deal to sell the 316 branches was agreed in 2010, Mr Hester hailed it as ‘an important milestone in our restructuring’. The disposals were ordered by the European Commission in return for the UK government’s rescue of RBS in 2008. Sources said the bank is confident a new deal can be reached before the EU deadline at the end of next year. Other potential buyers include Sir . Richard Branson’s Virgin Money – which took over Northern Rock – Tesco, . NBNK and Co-operative Bank, which recently bought more than 600 branches . from Lloyds Banking Group. It is thought RBS may even spin the branches off as a separate company and list them on the London Stock Exchange. 'Major blow': Spanish bank Santander pulled out on the deal to buy the branches, blaming RBS' poor quality IT systems . The collapse will throw into confusion the bank transfers of some 1.8million RBS customers. However a source insisted it was ‘business as usual’. Any customer already issued with a . credit or debit card or account number under the Santander brand will be . able to carry on using them as an existing customer of RBS, the bank . promised last night. It said it is ‘determined that the decision will have no impact on the service available to customers’. Mr Hester said: ‘I can assure all . affected customers that there will be no disruption to the service they . receive. It is business as usual in all of these branches, and customers . don’t need to take any action.’ He went on: ‘While this is a . profitable part of our business that we would rather not part with, RBS . has worked hard to ensure it is substantially separate from our UK . branch network and corporate business and largely ready to be taken on . by a new owner. Much of the heavy lifting associated . with a transfer has already been completed, including separating data . for customers and putting in place a standalone management team. ‘It is of course disappointing that . Santander decided to pull out of this transaction, especially for the . customers and staff involved. ‘However, RBS’s strong progress in our . restructuring plans means we can continue to provide a stable home for . this business and its customers pending a further resolution. RBS will . commence a new process of disposal and will provide a further update in . due course.’ The proposed deal, which involved the . sale of 310 RBS branches in England and Wales and six  NatWest branches . in Scotland, has been fraught with problems and delays. The major sticking point has been the . compatibility of the RBS accounts with Santander’s computer systems. The . bank has a poor record in moving other banks’ customer to its own IT . system. Two years ago it bodged the transfer . of five million Alliance & Leicester customers acquired in a . takeover in 2008, and some customers were locked out of their accounts . for weeks.", "By . Lucy Osborne . When bailiffs turned up to evict a cancer sufferer from his home, they had not counted on one thing – the kindness of strangers. In a heartwarming show of support, around 200 people flocked to stop the eviction taking place after owner Tom Crawford posted a video online begging for help. The 63-year-old promised well-wishers a ‘lovely cup of tea’ if they joined his peaceful protest against the loss of the bungalow where he has lived with his wife Susan for 25 years. Scroll down for video . People power: Moved by Tom Crawford's video plea for help, more than 200 strangers stopped the eviction . Mr Crawford, 63, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011, insists he has paid off his mortgage . Mr Crawford and his wife, Susan, 54, appeared overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers at their home . Within hours, the video had been shared more than 7,500 times. And in scenes reminiscent of the 1946 classic film It's A Wonderful Life!, supporters from as far afield as Glasgow descended on his three-bedroom home in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, to help him keep his home. After a tense 90-minute stand-off, the bailiffs left empty-handed. Mr Crawford, who is battling prostate cancer, claims he has paid off his mortgage, which he took out with the now defunct Bradford and Bingley in 1988. But UK Asset Resolution Limited, charged with winding down Bradford and Bingley mortgages, claims he still owes £43,000. Earlier this year a judge ruled against the couple and ordered them to pay off the mortgage or face eviction. But the Crawfords claim that these arrears exist due to an error committed by the bank. They say they believed they were paying off their mortgage when in fact they were paying only interest. In a desperate bid to keep his home, the retired flooring specialist made a heartfelt video explaining his predicament and posted it on YouTube. Mr and Mrs Crawford bought their three-bedroom bungalow for £41,800  in 1988 and raised their family there . In the 11-minute clip, the father-of-three said: ‘Please come and help us. There will be a lovely cup of tea waiting for you. But don’t use violence. They are the ones who use violence. This is a war for the people. ‘It may only be a small bungalow, but it is my bungalow, my land, my home.’ Yesterday, the grandfather-of-two said: ‘This has been a huge battle for me and at times I’ve felt like no one wanted to help us. 'But this shows there are people out there who feel the same way and it has been very emotional to talk to all the people who have come to show support.’ Mr Crawford, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011, and his wife, 54, took out an endowment mortgage to buy the bungalow for £41,800 25 years ago. They expected to own the property outright when the mortgage came to an end last year. Mr Crawford's struggle has echoes of the 1946 film starring James Stewart as a man who faces financial ruin . But Mr Crawford claims the bank told him in 2007 that he would never pay off the loan because there was no record of him taking out the endowment, a type of savings plan designed to repay the mortgage debt. He then claims a bank manager assured him this was incorrect and even sent his wife flowers and champagne to apologise. But soon afterwards he became embroiled in a court battle over the mortgage. Mr Crawford added: ‘They are putting us through hell and something needs to be done about it. They can’t keep getting away with this.’ Bradford and Bingley was nationalised in 2008 during the financial crisis, with the main banking section sold to Abbey National while existing mortgages stayed in public control. They are now collected by UK Asset Resolution Limited, which was set up by the Government. Yesterday, the company confirmed the eviction was called off due to safety concerns. On Christmas Eve George Bailey is desperately troubled . His friends and family pray for him and an angel is assigned to help him . Nothing in George's life has gone to plan, but he has changed the lives of many . His plans to travel the world are put on hold after his father's death . He then takes over his father's business, but after funds go missing he faces jail . George goes to a bar to drown his sorrows . Leaving the bar he crashes his car, then walks to a bridge to take his life . There he sees the angel, Clarence, pretending to drown . He saves him and Clarence then shows him what the town would be like without him . It is a miserable place and nothing has gone well for his friends and family . George begs to have his life back and rushes home . Authorities are waiting to arrest him but his friends have repaid the stolen money . George avoids jail and using additional funds given to him he saves the business . His brother then declares him the richest man in town and Clarence gets his wings .", "(CNN) -- The partnership started as a single shop on Oxford Street in London, opened in 1864 by John Lewis. Today the partnership is an organization with bases throughout the UK, with supermarkets and department stores, employing approximately 67,100 people. All 67,100 permanent staff are Partners who own 26 John Lewis department stores, 183 Waitrose supermarkets, an online and catalogue business, John Lewis Direct a direct services company - Greenbee, three production units and a farm. Every Partner receives the same scale of bonus, based on a fixed percentage of their annual wage. The bonus for 2006 was 18% equivalent to 9 weeks pay, which was rolled out for every employee. Chairman Sir Stuart Hampson retired at the end of March 2007, his successor is Charlie Mayfield. Hampson's salary for January 26, 2006 to January 26, 2007 was $1.66 million which included the partnership bonus of $250,000. John Lewis' consolidated revenue for the last financial year was $11.4 billion. E-mail to a friend .", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 16:01 EST, 22 March 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 16:01 EST, 22 March 2012 . A grieving husband notched up four speeding tickets and named his dead wife as the driver, a court heard. Christopher Bingley was caught speeding four times in 2010 and 2011 in his wife Joanne's Jeep Cherokee car, but had the points credited to Mrs Bingley's licence, it is alleged. Mr Bingley, 44, who set up a charity in memory of his wife, is alleged to have named Mrs Bingley as the driver during the offences, even though she committed suicide several months earlier. Charged: Christopher Bingley, left, is accused of using the name of his late wife Joanne, right, on four speeding offences . Mrs Bingley, 39, was killed when she threw herself in front of a train near Huddersfield in April 2010 following a battle with post-natal depression. Bingley blamed his wife’s death on post-natal depression (PND) and set up a charity to highlight the illness in February last year. Huddersfield Magistrates Court heard father-of-one Mr Bingley continued to drive his late wife's Jeep Cherokee car and when caught speeding had the points credited to her licence. The first count against Mr Bingley alleges that on April 14, 2011, Bingley falsely completed speeding notices addressed to his wife regarding offences on February 20, 2011 and April 9, 2011. The widower was also accused of the same offence for a speeding ticket on August 2, 2010 and the third count relates to speeding on August 6, 2010. Huddersfield Magistrates Court heard Mr Bingley used his dead wife's name after being caught speeding four times in Huddersfield in 2010 and 2011 . No indication of plea was made and the case was adjoured to Bradford Crown Court on March 28. Mr Bingley, a management consultant, has spoken about how his wife struggled with severe depression following the birth of their baby daughter Emily. He launched the Joanne (Joe) Bingley Memorial Foundation to highlight the illness and support those affected by it and also produced a leaflet to outline international guidelines on PND as he claimed local guidance was inadequate. He said he blamed health professionals for Joanne’s death and said she could have been cured if she had been admitting to hospital. An inquest into her death ruled she had not been neglected.", "By . Hugo Duncan . PUBLISHED: . 23:17 EST, 9 December 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:03 EST, 10 December 2012 . A transatlantic banking watchdog would protect American and British taxpayers from bailing out banks which are too big to fail, under plans set out today. Instead shareholders and creditors on both sides of the Atlantic would be forced to take the losses in the event of another banking crash. It marks a significant shift from the situation in which UK taxpayers stumped up billions to rescue stricken lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. 'Shortcomings': Taxpayers stumped up billions to rescue stricken lenders including RBS in the wake of the financial crisis . The British government pumped an eye-watering £66billion into RBS and Lloyds at the height of the crisis and is years away from getting its money back. It was also forced to bail out basket case lenders Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester. 'The too big to fail problem simply must be cured' Paul Tucker, Bank of England deputy governor for financial stability . Officials in the United Kingdom and United States have now drawn up plans to ensure that failed banks can be dealt with in future without taxpayer funds. A single entity would exist in place of national bodies dealing with the subsidiaries of the financial firm in trouble in each separate country. Paul Tucker, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, said: 'The \"too big to fail\" problem simply must be cured. We believe it can be and that this joint paper provides evidence of the serious progress that is being made.' The report by the Bank of England in the UK and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the US says: ‘The financial crisis that began in late 2007 highlighted the shortcomings of the arrangements for handling the failure of large financial institutions that were in place on either side of the Atlantic. ‘Strategies have been designed to enable large and complex cross-border firms to be resolved without threatening financial stability and without putting public funds at risk.’ It will involve shareholders and creditors taking losses instead of taxpayers. Regulators: The Bank of England has said the joint paper is evidence of the work underway to solve the problem of banks being 'too big to fail' Major banks are deemed ‘too big to fail’ because allowing them to collapse would have a devastating impact on borrowers, savers and the wider economy. Today’s report suggests that banks causing distress would be restructured, shrunk, broken up or closed down. It also warns that ‘culpable senior management’ would be replaced and held ‘accountable for their actions’. And it is likely that shareholders would lose all value. ‘The goal is to produce resolution strategies that could be implemented for the failure of one or more of the largest financial institutions with extensive activities in our respective jurisdictions,’ the report says. ‘These resolution strategies should maintain systemically important operations and contain threats to financial stability. ‘They should also assign losses to shareholders and unsecured creditors in the group, thereby avoiding the need for a bailout by taxpayers.’ The report argues that an overhaul is needed because letting banks go bust ‘can create significant and systemic risk for the real economy’ including disruption to critical services and the freezing of financial markets. It says that the fear of such a devastating hit to the economy meant that the UK and US governments ‘resorted to providing large scale public support to failing financial companies during the 2007-09 crisis’. It adds: ‘This public support has exposed taxpayers to loss and resulted in the bailout of multiple financial institutions and their creditors.’", "Caught 'em: Reverend Bev Mason, the vicar at Bingley All Saints Parish Church, photographer the parking violation . A vicar who claimed over-zealous traffic wardens were preying on her Sunday congregation was shocked to see the wardens’ van parked on double yellow lines. Reverend Bev Mason took a picture of  the council van’s parking violation as attendants patrolled outside her church on Sunday, just weeks after they had given her a ticket for the same offence. The incident has been reported to the council, who have reprimanded the offending wardens, and reiterated to others that they must practise what they preach. The vicar said: ‘They must be dreadfully embarrassed. 'They were going round giving more of our churchgoers’ tickets at the time. I couldn’t believe my eyes. 'The warden’s van was parked right on the bend, on double yellow lines. ‘I called out to the two men, ‘Is this your van?’ They were mortified.’ Reverend Mason, who has had four parking tickets since starting at All Saints Parish Church in Bingley, West Yorkshire, described the wardens as ‘merciless’ in targeting her congregation. ‘These people are committed members of our community, they’re so kind and live holy lives yet they feel they’re being penalised for it. ‘Every Sunday there’s someone in our church who gets a ticket.’ She added: ‘The council have restricted the parking in the marked bays to two hours, meaning people who turn up early and stay behind after to tidy up get fined. ‘They sometimes over-run on the parking by minutes and end up with tickets - which, as good Christians, they always pay. ‘For some people, this is the only time of fellowship and they are being penalised. It’s very unfair.’ Those who stay to help with baptisms after the normal Sunday service are also among those to be slapped with fines. No excuse: The picture taken by Reverend Mason shows the council parking wardens van parked on double yellow lines outside Bingley All Saints Parish Church . Ticket targets: Reverend Mason described the wardens as 'merciless' in targeting members of her congregation who parked their cars outside the church . No parking rule: Bradford Council have now reprimanded the traffic wardens over incident outside All Saints Parish Church, Bingley, West Yorkshire . Adding the restrictions were ‘curtailing the activities of the church’, she said: ‘What my people don’t do is park on double yellows on the bend.’ All Saints was hosting a light-hearted ‘Holy Hilarity’ service that morning and Rev’d Mason added: ‘People saw the funny side and were rolling around laughing.’ Shipley MP Philip Davies said: ‘I was very sorry to learn of the concern that traffic wardens in Bingley are targeting people going to church. ‘If that is the case it would be unacceptable. ‘I will pursue this matter on behalf of the Church with Bradford Council.’ A Bradford Council spokesman said: ‘It is clearly unacceptable for a Council  van to be parked on double yellow lines and all Council Wardens have been instructed they must adhere to parking restrictions at all times. ‘We need to look into this matter to see what has happened on this occasion and consider what action needs to be taken. ‘With regard to the other point raised about extending the limited waiting time in this particular street, it is likely that any changes could raise objections from local residents living there. ‘We will contact the Reverend Mason directly to discuss both matters in more detail.’", "(CNN) -- Virgin, a leading branded venture capital organization, is one of the world's most recognized and respected brands. Conceived in 1970 by Richard Branson, the company started out with a magazine four years before that, which Branson began while still at school. The next move was into the music industry, setting up Virgin as a music retailer and then branching out into music production. The first recording was the 1973 smash \"Tubular Bells,\" by Mike Oldfield. The Virgin Group has gone on to grow very succesful businesses in sectors ranging from mobile telephony, to transportation, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays, publishing and retailing. Virgin has created more than 200 branded companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people, in 29 countries. Revenues around the world in 2006 exceeded £10 billion ($20 billion). In 2002, the combined sales of the different Virgin holding companies exceeded £4 billion ($8 billion). The equity of Virgin Music Group -- record labels, music publishing and recording studios -- was sold to THORN EMI in 1992 in a $1 billion deal. E-mail to a friend .", "The company began life in 1989 as MSI Cellular Investments, a telecommunications consultancy company based and operating in Africa. It was founded by Dr Mo Ibrahim. In January, 2004 the company changed its name to Celtel International. In the early days, employees were rewarded with bonuses consisting of shares, so that by 2000, 30 percent of the company was owned by staff. Although the shares were worthless until the company was listed on the stock exchange, they were given an estimated initial value of £0.14 ($0.28) each. When they were eventually bought out in 2005, they were worth £14 ($27.76). In 1998 the company expanded its services to become a mobile telephony operator and now has a series of networks in 15 different African countries, under licenses that cover more than a third of the total population of the continent. The company was acquired by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC (MTC) in 2005 and at the time, Celtel had 4,000 employees, of which 98% were African. Celtel has invested more than $750 million in Africa, as part of a goal to build and operate world-class networks that will keep pace technologically with networks in Europe and North America. E-mail to a friend .", "Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey (pictured) has warned that major economies are entering into a recession that will be remembered for generations to come . A hedge fund manager who made millions after correctly predicting the credit crunch has warned major economies are entering a recession that will be ‘remembered in a hundred years’. In a letter to his well-heeled customers, Crispin Odey predicted that ‘equity markets will get devastated’ and described it as the best time to bet on shares slumping in value since the recent financial crisis. Citing the current turmoil in the markets, including a dramatic slump in the oil price and a ‘faltering Chinese economy’, he said: ‘This downcycle is likely to be remembered in a hundred years, when we hope it won’t be rated for ‘How good it looks for its age!’. Oxford-educated Mr Odey is the founder of Odey Asset Management, which runs more than £7.6billion for investors around the world. As one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the UK, he has made a fortune from betting on shares in companies plunging in value. This is known in the industry as ‘shorting’, a process which involves borrowing shares and selling them in the hope that the price will fall and they can be bought back at a profit. Mr Odey, 55, was one of the earliest to forecast that the borrowing binge that fuelled the economy would trigger a financial crisis. But he came in for criticism when he was outed as one of the fund managers shorting the struggling Bradford & Bingley during the summer. The tactic was hugely profitable for Mr Odey, who paid himself £28million after his company enjoyed a bumper year in 2008. Despite the strong economic recovery in the UK, Mr Odey has grown increasingly gloomy over the last six months. In his newsletter to clients he warned of problems further afield, with the slowing Chinese economy dragging down growth in Australia, South Africa and Brazil. He said the fall in commodities such as oil, which has plunged from $115 a barrel in June last year to under $50, is ‘bringing with it pain to those heavily exposed’ – such as the Middle East, Venezuela, Argentina, mid-west USA, Canada, Norway and Scotland. Closer to home, he warned the European Central Bank’s drastic efforts to revive the eurozone by printing £45billion a month through quantitative easing, would fail to prevent a damaging downturn. He compared the combination of QE and negative interest rates to ‘pushing on a string’, and warned huge levels of debt to build up. Some of Crispin Odey’s critics might claim that he acquired his wealth through the misfortune of others. But in the rarefied world of the Square Mile, he is something of a legend. Born to a prominent Yorkshire family and educated at Harrow and Oxford, he turned his back on a promising law career to become one of Britain’s most powerful hedge fund managers. As early as 2005, he was gambling on shares in high street lender Bradford & Bingley going down in value – a bet which paid off when the firm was nationalised in 2008. And his private life is equally high-flying. He was briefly married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Prudence, before marrying Nichola Pease, a scion of the Barclays banking family. ‘My point is that we used all our monetary firepower to avoid the first downturn in 2007, so we really are at a dangerous point.’ he said ‘If economic activity far from picks up, but falters, then there will be a painful round of debt default.’ Last night one investment expert says it was difficult to ignore Mr Odey’s grim predictions. Mark Dampier, head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Mr Odey can be wrong but he has also been spectacularly right in the past, including at the height of the financial crisis. He has built a hugely successful business, which you don’t tend to do if you’re wrong all the time.’", "(CNN)They say it is the sport of kings, and a king's ransom has been paid for a single horse at auction house Tattersalls. On Tuesday, Sheikh Fahad Al Thani from the Royal Family of Qatar shelled out 4.5 million guineas ($7.3m) for Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Just the Judge, making her the highest-priced filly in training in British auction history. On what was the second day of Tattersalls' December sale, nearly $50m exchanged hands in a litany of purchases. Somewhat bizarrely, Sheikh Fahad already had part ownership of the filly, but was buying out the Sangsters -- a family with a rich history in racehorse ownership and breeding -- in partnership with new co-owners the China Horse Club. It was the first time a Classic-winning filly had been up for sale at Tattersalls for more than two decades. The bidding war at the notorious auction house in Newmarket, England, had opened at 500,000 guineas, before Sheik Fahad battled it out successfully with James Delahooke and Barry Weisbord. However, the monstrous price tag fell just shy of the 5m guineas ($8.2m) paid last year by Sheikh Joaan Al Thani -- also from Qatar -- for an unraced, untrained and untested filly bred from Galileo. The purchase means Just the Judge will remain in Qatar Racing silks next season and continue her partnership with trainer Charlie Hills. Bloodstock agent David Redvers, who acts on behalf of Sheikh Fahad, told Tattersalls: \"This is a new one-off tie-up with the China Horse Club. \"This has allowed us to race another year with her and keep her. As she was our first Classic winner, we were not going to give her up easily. \"We will campaign in the best races, get the best possible opportunities, and then she will retire to Tweenhills and visit the best stallions in the world.\"", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . UPDATED: . 10:47 EST, 15 December 2011 . The £13m boss of Lloyds signed off sick from work because of exhaustion, it has emerged. Antonio Horta-Osorio, who pocketed a £4.6million golden hello when he joined the bank, stood aside on medical advice six weeks ago after suffering insomnia, the firm revealed yesterday. But in a major surprise for the city, the former Santander chief announced he was planning to return to the office on January 9. Exhausted: Lloyds chief Antonio Horta-Osorio (pictured with his wife Ana) signed off work after suffering sleep deprivation . The news came as Lloyds Banking Group named the Co-operative as its preferred choice to buy the 632 branches it is selling under European competition rules. A Lloyds spokesman said Mr Horta-Osorio had been working so hard he found it hard to switch off and couldn't sleep. 'When he started, he threw himself into the job, working like a dog, he told The Daily Mirror. But Sir Win Bischoff, the chairman of the 41 per cent taxpayer-owned company, said Mr Horta-Osorio was 'bushy-tailed' at the prospect of coming back to work. It follows Lord Tebbit’s claims in the House of Lords that the threat of legal action should hang over company bosses as a way of 'asserting the rights' of shareholders. The bank will now enter into exclusive discussions with the Co-op, which beat off competition in the auction from NBNK Investments, a takeover vehicle run by former Northern Rock boss Gary Hoffman. Feeling better: Mr Horta-Osorio hopes to return to the office on January, much to the surprise of the City . The decision to start exclusive talks with the Co-op did not involve Mr Horta-Osorio, the company said. Lloyds is being forced to divest the branches because of the £20 billion in state aid it received following the 2008 financial crisis. The assets being sold account for a 4.6per cent share of the UK current account market and up to 19per cent of the group's mortgage book. There are five million customers and an estimated 9,000 employees.", "LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Serious Fraud Office and London police are investigating an alleged $81 million (£56 million) fraud on the corporate banking department of Allied Irish Banks (AIB). Allied Irish Banks has allegedly been the subject of a $81 million fraud. The SFO said it had searched a business and two residential addresses in London and believed AIB was not the only financial institution deceived by the suspects. It said that between 2003 and 2007 AIB, Ireland's largest bank by market value, loaned money for the purchase of UK investment properties to companies controlled by an individual who was now the main suspect. The SFO said the main suspect operated with the assistance of others. However, in 2008 AIB identified problems with one element of its security interests over the investment properties. \"Following an internal review it became apparent that the guarantees of certain lease payments on these properties by an investment grade counterparty (a blue chip property company) were fraudulent,\" the SFO said. AIB referred the matter to the authorities and also took control of and sold the relevant properties, which resulted in a write down of the outstanding loan balances by £56m, the SFO said. The office said the alleged fraud involved the borrowing companies creating \"overriding\" leases. \"These leases were generally for longer periods and at higher rents than the existing occupational tenants' leases. \"The apparent existence of these additional leases increased the values of the properties, with lease payments being a direct obligation of the investment grade counterparty,\" the SFO said. AIB is considering legal action over the $81 million loss.", "Manchester United have been paired against League Two outfit Cambridge United in the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup. Louis van Gaal side's will travel to Abbey Stadium in late January as the Dutchman aims to end United's 11-year wait to get their hands on the FA Cup. The Red Devils progressed to the third round with a 2-0 win against League One side Yeovil Town and they have been handed another away trip to a Football League outfit. Angel di Maria and his Manchester United team-mates will face League Two outfit Cambridge United . Luke Chadwick, pictured with Roy Keane (left) and Nicky Butt (right) in 2001, will face his former side . Cambridge midfielder Chadwick (right) has dropped down the leagues since leaving Old Trafford in 2004 . January's clash at the Abbey Stadium will see ex-Manchester United midfielder Luke Chadwick face his former side. Elsewhere, holders Arsenal will travel down to the south coast to take on Chris Hughton's Brighton after defeating fellow 2014 FA Cup finalists Hull City at the weekend. Southampton will host Crystal Palace in one of two potential all-Premier League ties of the round if they can eliminate Ipswich Town in a replay at Portman Road. The only other all-Premier League tie will see Burnley or Tottenham face Premier League strugglers Leicester. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho (left) could come up against Ian Holloway's Millwall . Emile Heskey (left), pictured in 2003, will return to Anfield as Bolton have been paired with Liverpool . One of the ties of the round could be an all-London affair between Chelsea and Millwall if Ian Holloway's side can win their replay against Bradford. New West Brom manager Tony Pulis will be hoping he can win his first derby match since taking over the reins at The Hawthorns when his side travel to St Andrew's to take on Birmingham. Emile Heskey will make a return to Anfield following Liverpool's win at AFC Wimbledon. The draw was made by Lawrie Sanchez and local grassroots football coach Stef Loucaides at the Cherry Red Records Stadium before Liverpool's third round match against AFC Wimbledon. Following Everton's 1-1 draw with West Ham at Goodison Park and Scunthorpe's 2-2 draw against Chesterfield on Tuesday night, both will be replayed a week later on January 13. Southampton/Ipswich vs Crystal Palace . Cambridge vs Manchester United . Blackburn vs Swansea . Chelsea vs Millwall/Bradford . Derby vs Scunthorpe/Chesterfield . Preston vs Sheffield United . Birmingham City vs West Brom . Aston Villa vs Bournemouth . Cardiff vs Reading . Liverpool vs Bolton . Burnley/Tottenham vs Leicester . Brighton vs Arsenal . Rochdale vs Stoke . Sunderland vs Fulham/Wolves . Doncaster/Bristol City vs Everton/West Ham . Manchester City vs Middlesbrough . Ties to be played across the weekend of January 24 and 25 . Former Wimbledon midfielder Lawrie Sanchez picked out the away teams .", "Cheryl Cole last night denied using an Irish company to help avoid paying up to £200,000 in UK tax. The singer’s spokesman claimed she had created Tara Entertainment Ltd to deal with her international earnings simply because her accountant is Irish rather than as a way of paying a lower rate of company tax. Tara, which was set up in 2001, and its British-based parent company CC Entertainment International, were put into voluntary liquidation in the last two months, prompting speculation the star is keen to avoid accusations she is dodging UK tax. Cheryl Cole (in between Mel B and Simon Cowell) was introduced to the accountant Alan McEvoy by her former manager Louis Walsh (left) However last night Cole’s publicist Sundraj Sreenivasan insisted the change in her financial arrangements was because her accountant Alan McEvoy had moved to London. Mr Sreenivasan added that the star had been introduced to Mr McEvoy by Girls Aloud former manager Irish impresario Louis Walsh. In a statement he said: ‘Cheryl has used the same accountant in Ireland for 13 years. The accountant was recommended by Louis Walsh, who at the time managed her as part of Girls Aloud. Her accountant has recently set up an office in London so Cheryl’s Irish company has been dissolved.’ The change in Cole’s tax affairs came just days before George Michael, Gary Barlow and dozens of other celebrities learned they are liable for millions in unpaid taxes after HMRC ruled an investment vehicle they had used was a tax avoidance scam. While Cole’s actions are legal, the last accounts for Tara showed assets of £2.5 million at the end of 2012, suggesting the star had funnelled at least this much through the company. Girls Aloud: Sarah Harding, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh . If this was the case the singer would have avoided paying £200,000 in tax that would have been owed in Britain. This is the difference between Ireland’s 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate compared to the 21 per cent rate in the UK. Documents for the liquidation of the company, CC Entertainment – which in 2013 declared only £1 in net assets – now show it has £1.88 million funds, which is likely to be paid to Cole as the company’s sole owner. She has married her French lover Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini, 33, after a whirlwind three-month romance.", "The BBC is to reveal the names of wealthy businessmen it claims have opened offshore Swiss bank accounts without informing the UK tax authorities. The Panorama special edition is set to expose how HSBC helped up to 400 of its wealthiest customers avoid the taxman. All the names are understood to have come from a computer disc stolen from the banking giant’s Geneva office by a whistleblower and relate to its Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank. Scroll down for video . Exposed: All the names are understood to have come from a computer disc stolen from the banking giant’s Geneva office by a whistleblower and relate to its Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank. (File image) The disc, understood to contain the names of 24,000 clients, was leaked by 43-year-old IT and systems engineer Herve Falciani in 2007, who claimed the way some data was managed at Britain’s biggest bank would help tax evaders. He said his suggested reforms were rejected by bosses. Some of the data has since been passed to France, Italy, Spain and Germany, which have pursued claims for up to £180million in lost revenue. Four years ago, HMRC targeted some 6,000 UK-based Swiss bank account holders who may not have declared income and gains from foreign accounts. Officials secured their first high-profile prosecution using details from the disc in 2012 after Berkshire property developer Michael Shanly was estimated to have evaded some £430,000 in inheritance tax. The latest purge by the taxman – and due to be exposed by Panorama – is said to involve a list of 400 high-profile businessmen. Purge: Four years ago, HMRC targeted some 6,000 UK-based Swiss bank account holders who may not have declared income and gains from foreign accounts. Above, the HMRC head office . According to a source they were first approached by ‘aggressive’ letters some weeks ago asking for their comments on Swiss accounts they held. ‘The letters suggested a deadline for a response before the programme is broadcast,’ explained the source. Last night a spokesman for HSBC declined to comment on the stolen disc and the latest moves by the taxman to use information from the bank’s records. Panorama: The Bank of Tax Cheats will be shown at 8.30pm on Monday.", "(CNN) -- Over the centuries, British monarchs have listed their preferred tradesmen and brands, stamping them with a seal of approval known as the Royal Warrant. The warrant -- covering products such as cereals, soaps, sauces, chocolates, cars and clothing -- can only be granted by three members of the family: The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales. It is now held by 850 brands, and allows the businesses to advertise that they supply goods or services to the royal household. New research from Brand Finance estimates the system injects an extra £4 billion to the UK economy. Further, those companies which hold the warrant together enjoy a reputational boost worth around £400 million, according to the Brand Finance research. Well-established brands like Jaguar, Weetabix, Heinz, or Carphone Warehouse may reap largely reputational benefits, while smaller brands can enjoy a significant financial boost from the recognition. \"It certainly helps people have confidence in the company without a doubt, especially with our traditional markets, state insignias and stuff like that,\" said Fiona Toye, CEO of Toye Kenning & Spencer, a family business which has been making military trimmings for more than 300 years, and was given the warrant in 1956. She added: \"They look at the Royal Warrant and say 'yes, what is good enough for the queen is good enough for us.' \"I think there is enormous respect for the British crown and queen all over the world and some of that rubs off on those companies that have the mark of approval from the crown. It's a worldwide mark of quality.\" Toye Kenning & Spencer is making around 200,000 medals for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, a huge order which has boosted the company even as it struggles with a 30% decline in core business over the last decade. The company has suffered as traditional clients such as defence ministries tighten their budgets, while societies and clubs face declining memberships. Toye Kenning & Spencer has responded by diversifying into fashion and expanding overseas, using its Royal Warrant as a calling card. They have found that their royal endorsement has helped them build a big export book, and develop a lucrative market in the Middle East. Such customers demand the very highest of quality but they are also willing to pay the price for the bespoke craftsmanship, John Jenkins, master weaver at Toye Kenning & Spencer, said.", "(CNN) -- From tycoon bankruptcies to billion-dollar takeovers, 2013 has been a roller coaster year in business. As 2013 draws to a close, CNN takes a look at some of the winners and losers of the last 12 months. Some of the highlights include Nick D'Aloisio, the 18-year old tech wunderkind, who sold his app to Internet giant Yahoo!; Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, who rose to third on the Forbes rich list and incoming Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, soon to become the first woman to take the helm at the world most powerful central bank. Have we missed someone? Tell us who you think is the biggest winner or loser of 2013 in the comments section below.", "By . Sam Webb . Business analyst Karl Howes, who drove into a lamppost after a night of heavy drinking and was so drunk he died of alcohol poisoning as he lay in the wreckage of his BMW . A business analyst who crashed his car after a night out was so drunk he died of alcohol poisoning as he lay in the wreckage of his BMW. Company high flyer Karl Howes, 34, ploughed into two vehicles and left a trail of destruction before flipping his own company car onto its roof when it hit a lamppost at 50mph. Despite the impact Mr Howes suffered no life threatening injuries but when police arrived at the scene he had already died as a result of 'acute alcohol intoxication' due to the estimated nine pints of lager and 'several' spirit shots he had drank. Friends who saw him in the run up to the crash said Mr Howes was acting 'like a zombie' but was still able to hug and talk to them. It is believed the grammar school and university educated keep fit fanatic, passed away shortly after the impact in Bingley, near Bradford, West Yorkshire. On December 20 last year after he consumed three pints of . lager with friends at a work Christmas do in Bingley before meeting . girlfriend Jodie Coonan, 29, an inquest heard. He . drank another six pints and spirit shots and planned to leave the black . car and get a cab but the couple became separated and Mr Howes decided . to drive home. As . he did so, his vehicle careered into a bus shelter, hit an oncoming car . and then subsequently swerved into a parked vehicle to his left. Friends . stopped Karl at scene of his first collisions with the bus shelter, to . urge him not to drive, describing him 'like a zombie' - but he ignored . them. A . short distance later, he hit the pavement outside a school and swerved . into a lamppost which catapulted his car upside down. The impact left . the lamppost leaning on a tree. PC . Paul Lightowler of West Yorkshire Police said: 'Karl had the company . car from new. He had been out with a friend for a Christmas party at a . pub. He was observed to consume three pints of lager and then Karl drove . them back to Bingley. 'He . parked the vehicle with intention of collecting it the next day but he . and his partner became separated and couldn’t reach each other by phone . despite a number of calls.' Despite the impact Mr Howes suffered no life threatening injuries but when police arrived at the scene he had already died as a result of 'acute alcohol intoxication' due to the nine pints of lager and the spirits he drank . He added: 'Karl . got into a BMW to drive home. He is seen on CCTV getting in the vehicle . and driving along the main street in Bingley, slowly and meandering. 'He stopped in a layby for some unknown reason then is seen reversing and he collided with a glass bus shelter.' Two . people Mr Howes knew came to assist him and asked him not to continue . driving but he hugged them, got back in his car and carried on. PC . Lightowler added: 'He left the bus stop travelling at a high speed. He . then collided with a white VW. The driver did stop but no damage was . done to his vehicle. 'When . he hit this car he moved to the left of the carriage way where he hit . another BMW vehicle which caused some damage but Karl did not stop and . carried on driving. We can see from footage that he accelerated away . from the incident. 'At . 1.40am an onlooker saw the car coming past at 50pmh and it seemed to . be swerving. The vehicle then hit the pavement, a grass verge, before . effectively using a lamppost as a ramp which turned it on its roof.' A . post-mortem test recorded superficial lacerations to the back of Mr . Howes’ head and forearm but acute alcoholic intoxication was recorded as . cause of death. PC . Lightowler said of the test results: 'I have never seen situation like . this. It is very unique. 'It seems that such a significant event to . happen at the time he died are linked together for me.' Ms . Coonan, 29, told the hearing: 'When I first met Karl he used to go out . on a Wednesday night to a Sunday night drinking. 'He would work those . days but would go out in the evenings drinking around four or five . pints. And all weekend he would drink. 'That . did get lower and lower as I knew him. He wouldn’t really be drunk . after five pints. When I saw him that night you could tell he had been . drinking but he was not stumbling.' He was formerly a national executive at the greeting cards firm Hallmark. It was . claimed he suffered bouts of depression due to his 'high-pressure' career path and began binge drinking and gambling heavily in 2010 . following an inquiry into his company expenses. Mr . Howes’ GP Dr Russell Livingstone told the Bradford hearing: 'He was . binge drinking in excess. He was offered support and counselling. He was . suffering from anxiety symptoms. 'He worked hard to maintain responsibility but explained he was exhausted from working \"silly hours\". 'He was developing negative thoughts and concerned about work. He remained agitated about the expenses action.' 'In . September 2010 he was put on anti-depressants and continued to have . peaks of feeling better and being anxious about the pressures of work. 'After . a period out of work in 2011 Karl was phased back before being made . redundant which he felt was handled badly,' added the GP. In January 2012 Mr Howes got a new job as a business analyst with a Bradford baking company Speedibake and was dealing with multi-million pound contracts and appeared to be happier. Recording a narrative verdict Bradford assistant coroner Dominic Bell accepted the post mortem findings but concluded Mr Howes’ death was 'attributed to a road crash attributed to the use of alcohol'.", "The FA Cup has been an irrelevance to many clubs in recent years – but given the lack of success for most sides in the fifth-round draw, Wembley could be the greatest day out for a whole generation of fans. The weekend exits of Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Southampton and recent League Cup winners Swansea City have given some sleeping giants a real sniff of success at last. If you take out the three favourites – Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool – none of the other 17 clubs left have won a major trophy between them in 10 years. Bradford players celebrate after beating Chelsea 4-2 in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge . Filipe Morais of Bradford celebrates after scoring his team's second goal on Saturday . Middlesbrough striker Patrick Bamford celebrates after scoring for his side against Manchester City . Fourteen of the clubs, 70 per cent of those left in the draw, haven’t won a league championship, FA Cup or League Cup this century. More than half haven’t lifted major silverware for 40 years and seven clubs pre-date the Second World War. Crystal Palace, Fulham, Reading and Cambridge United have never won a trophy. There are some pretty big names who have waited a long time. None of the West Ham players who will face West Brom in the fifth round were alive when their team won the FA Cup in 1980. Blackburn came from behind to beat nine-man Swansea City 3-1 in their FA Cup fourth round clash . 1 year – Arsenal (2014 FA Cup) 2 years – Manchester United (2013 Premier League) 3 years – Liverpool (2012 League Cup) 11 years – Middlesbrough (2004 League Cup) 13 years – Blackburn Rovers (2002 League Cup) 15 years – Leicester City (2000 League Cup) 19 years – Aston Villa (1996 League Cup) 35 years – West Ham (1980 FA Cup) 40 years – Derby County (1975 League Championship) 42 years – Sunderland (1973 FA Cup) 43 years – Stoke City (1972 League Cup) 47 years – West Brom (1968 FA Cup) 57 years – Bolton Wanderers (1958 FA Cup) 75 years – Preston North End (1938 FA Cup) 90 years – Sheffield United (1925 FA Cup) 104 years – Bradford City (1911 FA Cup) No major trophies – Fulham, Reading, Cambridge United, Crystal Palace . Crystal Palace's on-loan striker Yaya Sanogo celebrates during the the FA Cup win against Southampton . Albion fans have to be even older to remember winning a cup. Their FA Cup triumph in 1968 was so long ago, manager Tony Pulis was still a 10-year-old in short trousers. Sunderland have spent the last 42 years trying to emulate their legendary FA Cup-winning heroes of 1973. Yet they are serial winners compared to fourth-round replay opponents Fulham, who have never won a major prize, or prospective fifth-round opponents Bradford City. They reached the League Cup final a couple of years ago but for actually winning something, you have to rewind to 1911. Manchester United were held to a goalless draw with Cambridge United in their tie at Abbey Stadium . Leonardo Ulloa (centre) celebrates equalising for Leicester as they dumped Tottenham out of the FA Cup . Outside the big three, Middlesbrough are the most recent trophy winners, collecting the League Cup in 2004 under Steve McClaren. Fifth-round opponents Leicester City and Aston Villa have also won the League Cup in living memory but they were some time ago; 2000 and 1996 respectively. It will give everyone an extra buzz when fifth-round weekend comes around. And remember only two of the managers left have only won a big trophy in English football – Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, and the aforementioned McClaren, now in charge of Derby County who face Reading.", "By . Adam Lee Potter . PUBLISHED: . 17:40 EST, 12 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 18:49 EST, 12 October 2013 . Poor credit: Former banker Giles Darby is pictured outside the Federal Court in Houston in 2006 . It is a far cry from his days as a high-flying City banker, responsible for millions of pounds of business. But after serving time for fraud as one of the infamous ‘NatWest Three’, Giles Darby has begun a new life running a real-ale pub – and it’s strictly cash-only. The 50-year-old was banned from incurring new lines of credit as part of his terms of release, but that’s not the reason he can’t take credit or debit cards behind the bar at the Marlborough Arms in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. ‘The reason we can only take cash is because of this pub’s credit history,’ Darby said. ‘That makes it incredibly difficult to lease a chip-and-pin machine.’ And perhaps ironically for a man who admitted his role in defrauding NatWest, he blames the banks for that predicament. ‘Lloyds would allow me [a card machine] but they would charge me an extortionate amount,’ he said. ‘We’re a new business – we just can’t afford the bank fees. Maybe that’s karma.’ Darby has made no secret of his conviction in the US courts – even posing the question ‘How long did I spend in jail?’ in a pub quiz soon after taking over. But he remains unapologetic about the case. ‘We were stitched up,’ he said. ‘You don’t go up against the US machine and come out a winner.  But I’ve done my time and things have worked out surprisingly well.’ Darby and his co-defendants David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew hit the headlines in 2006 when they were controversially extradited to the US. In a plea bargain they admitted playing a part in a £3.5million fraud against their employer, NatWest and were sentenced to 37 months in jail. They were allowed to complete their sentence in the UK, and were released three years ago. 'Things have worked out surprisingly well': The peaceful pub in Cirencester where Giles Darby has become landlord after serving jail time for defrauding his former employer, NatWest .", "LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Bank of England bought £2 billion ($2.8 billion) of government bonds Wednesday as the UK introduced quantitative easing to kickstart the ailing economy. UK interest rates are at their lowest levels since the Bank of England was founded in 1694. The move comes after the bank cut interest rates from one percent to 0.5 percent last week -- a drop of five percent since October last year and the lowest in the bank's 315-year history. Central banks worldwide including the Bank of England have tried to encourage spending and lending during the current downturn by cutting interest rates -- with limited success. Rates can now not fall much further -- hence, the Bank of England believes, the need for another strategy. Quantitative easing is often described as \"printing money\" -- although no new notes and coins are actually created. Instead the Bank of England will \"create\" more money on its balance sheet, then use this to buy banks' assets such as home loans and government bonds, thereby pumping extra cash into the system. The banks all have accounts with the Bank of England, and the money will simply be credited to those accounts. The creation of more funds will be done electronically. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, which determines strategy, has the authority to create up to £150 billion ($207 billion) on the balance sheet, although it has said it will only inject £75 billion ($105 billion) over the next three months -- or £5 billion ($6.9 billion) per week. The first chunk is being used to buy government gilts, the UK's Press Association reported, at twice-weekly auctions. Quantitative easing was last introduced in a major economy in Japan from 2001 until 2006. The economy recovered, although expert opinion is divided as to whether quantitative easing helped with anything other than improving sentiment among consumers and business.", "By . Richard Spillett . Britain's biggest philanthropist has cut donations to a children's charity run by his ex-wife following their divorce, it emerged today. Chris Hohn used to give a large chunk of the profits of his successful hedge fund to the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), which is run by his former wife, Jamie Cooper. It was reported today that the £16million windfall the charity received from the fund in 2012 dropped to zero last year after the couple agreed to end the donation following their divorce. Accounts show a successful hedge fund set up by Chris Hohn (left) has stopped its donations to a foundation run by his wife, Jamie Cooper (right), since their divorce . The money instead went towards a £26million bonus deal for him and his top staff, the Daily Telegraph reported. Forbes listed Mr Hohn as one of the world's highest-earning hedge fund managers and traders last year, estimating his annual earnings at around £225million. The Surrey-born hedge fund manager set up the Children's Investment Fund (TCI) in 2003 with most of the company's huge profits being channelled to the foundation managed by his wife. It is estimated the charity made around £1.2billion out of the arrangement, including around £800million in 2007 and 2008, which made Mr Hohn one of Britain's most generous men. Mr Hohn, pictured centre, became one of the UK's leading philanthropists after giving an estimated £800m to children's charities since 2003 . But Mr Hohn, who met American Ms Cooper at Harvard University, posted for divorce in October last year, apparently bringing the deal to an end. Sources close to the couple told the Daily Telegraph that CIFF is now big enough in its own right not to need donations from Mr Hohn. Mr Hohn came to public attention last year when it emerged his investment fund had snapped up five per cent of shares in Royal Mail. The revelation increased pressure on ministers at the time over whether the firm was undervalued before its sale. Mr Hohn was also once described as a ‘locust’ after he helped to remove the boss of Deutsche Börse, a German firm that . was trying to buy the London Stock Exchange. The CIFF and TCI have not yet responded to requests for comment from MailOnline.", "History was made yesterday as the top three teams in the Premier League crashed out of the FA Cup, capping one of the most remarkable days in the 144-year history of the competition. Third-tier Bradford City stormed back from two down to beat league leaders Chelsea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge. Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City lost 2-0 at home to the Championship's Middlesbrough, and third-placed Southampton lost 3-2 at home to struggling Crystal Palace. Bradford's Mark Yeates looks up to the skies as the League 1 side celebrate their victory over Chelsea . Chelsea's starting line-up cost around £98 million – Bradford's team of free signings and loanees, just £7,500 . Bradford City's players can scarcely believe their improbable victory over the Premier League leaders . Middlesbrough also enjoyed a famous victory - beating Premier League champions Manchester City 2-0 . Jubilant Middlesbrough fans celebrate their giant killing fourth round victory away at Manchester City . The greatest shock of the day came in west London where Bradford City - roared on by 6,000 travelling supporters - embarrassed the Premier League leaders. Prior to the match, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said it would be 'disgrace' if his side made up of international stars failed to defeat the League 1 outfit. Chelsea's starting line-up cost around £98 million – Bradford's team of free signings and loan players, just £7,500. Their only player to cost a fee was James Hanson, a former supermarket shelf stacker. And with the home side leading 2-0 after 40 minutes, it looked like Mourinho's men would romp to victory. But a goal by Football League journeyman Jon Stead shortly before half-time brought Bradford to life and they netted three goals in the last 15 minutes to win 4-2 and send their fans in to delirium. They became the first third-tier team to score four against the Blues in 57 years. After the game, Mourinho said he was 'ashamed' and 'embarrassed' by his side's fourth-round exit, but went in to the away dressing room after the game to congratulate his opponents. 'It's a disgrace for a big team to lose to a small team from a lower league. Me and the players must feel ashamed', he said. For Bradford, the giant killing is the latest in a series of remarkable recent cup upsets. While in the fourth tier of English football, the Bantams defeated Arsenal and Aston Villa en route to the League Cup final in 2013. Manager Phil Parkinson told BBC Radio 5 live: 'The lads are absolutely bouncing in that dressing room and what they've done today will be remembered for a very long time - not just in Bradford but all around the country.' Middlesbrough's Patrick Bamford wheels away in celebration after opening the scoring for Middlesbrough . Crystal Palace players enjoy their victory over third-placed Southampton at the St Mary's Stadium . Leicester also celebrated a shock victory - coming from behind to score two late goals against Tottenham . Leicester's Jeff Schlupp leaps for joy after scoring the winning goal at White Hart Lane to defeat Spurs . Blackburn Rovers dumped Premier League side Swansea out of the FA Cup, winning 3-1 . The day was no less embarrassing for Manchester City. After squeezing through the last round against lower league opposition, they were underdone by Championship high-flyers Middlesbrough at the Etihad Stadium. Patrick Bamford, a loan signing from Chelsea, scored the first and the Spaniard Kike sealed the victory in stoppage time in front of their ecstatic army of travelling fans. An incredible round of shocks began on Friday night when League Two Cambridge United held Manchester United to a goalless draw at the derelict Abbey Stadium. It continued on Saturday lunchtime as Swansea City exited at the hands of Championship Blackburn Rovers. Third-place Southampton were beaten 3-2 at St Mary's by Crystal Palace, managed by their former manager Alan Pardew, while eight-time winners Tottenham were knocked out as they conceded twice in the closing seven minutes to lose at home to Leicester City. Liverpool also failed to beat Championship club Bolton, which saw former Reds Emile Heskey and Jay Spearing return to Anfield. The magic of the cup lives on. On Friday night, Cambridge United of League 2 held Manchester United to a draw at the Abbey Stadium . Bolton also held Liverpool to a goalless draw - former Reds striker Emile Heskey returned to Anfield .", "By . Glen Owen . PUBLISHED: . 19:51 EST, 29 September 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 19:53 EST, 29 September 2012 . Liaison: Sir John Scarlett is helping 'soothe concerns' at No 10 . The row over the controversial merger of defence giant BAE with the Franco-German aerospace group EADS took a fresh twist last night after it emerged that Tony Blair’s former spy chief is helping to broker the deal. Sir John Scarlett, the ex-head of MI6 who played a key role in the infamous ‘dodgy dossier’ on Iraq, has been engaged on the £29 billion deal by investment bank Morgan Stanley – which stands to earn millions if it is approved. His role will fuel critics’ fears that the proposed merger between the British arms company and EADS is being ‘stitched up’ by high-level Whitehall figures using inside knowledge and connections. MPs have already called for Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood’s role in the deal to be scrutinised. Sir Jeremy, a former head of Morgan Stanley’s UK Investment Banking Division, has held a series of private meetings with the bank, BAE and EADS over the past 15 months to discuss the plan – a level of personal involvement described by Tory MP David Davis as ‘highly unusual’. The Commons Defence Select Committee is investigating the merger. Opponents argue that the new conglomerate would cut costs by slashing jobs, while national security could be placed at risk if it fell under the sway of the French and  German governments. The Mail on Sunday understands that Sir John, 64, is ‘liaising’ between the bank and the Government to help ‘soothe concerns’ in No 10 about the risks. Oxford-educated Sir John became chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 2004, retiring five years later. He then took up a portfolio of lucrative City jobs, including an advisory role at Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley buildings in Canary Wharf. The company stands to earn millions if the deal is approved . Last night, asked whether Sir John had sought Whitehall clearance to work on the sensitive deal, a Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘His appointment with Morgan Stanley was approved on the advice of the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments that he should be subject to the condition that, for 12 months from his last day of service, he should not become personally involved in lobbying UK Government Ministers or Crown servants, including special advisers, on behalf of his new employers or their clients. Sir John observed that condition.’ A Morgan Stanley spokesman declined to comment.", "The bailiffs didn’t stand a chance. By the time they arrived to turf cancer patient Tom Crawford out of his home yesterday a crowd of some 500 had gathered to block their way. For a few minutes there was a stand-off between the crowd and the burly men inside a white van and a black car. And then, with cheers ringing in their ears, the bailiffs backed off. Scroll down for video . People power: 500 strangers turn up at the home of cancer-stricken Tom Crawford to stop bailiffs evicting him from his home . It was the latest episode in Mr Crawford’s battle to keep his home. The grandfather, who is suffering from prostate cancer, has been battling the bailiffs over claims he still owes thousands in mortgage repayments on the bungalow. Mr Crawford, 63, said he ‘would rather die’ than give up the home he has shared with his wife Susan for the past 27 years. Last July, after he posted a video online begging for help, more than 300 friends and strangers successfully stopped bailiffs from kicking him out. And yesterday, six months after the first eviction attempt, bailiffs were forced to abandon their efforts again. Bailiffs were greeted by a sea of people after serving their second eviction notice on Mr Crawford and his wife, Sue . The YouTube video has now been shared more than 25,500 times and backing for Mr Crawford’s cause shows no signs of waning, with supporters travelling hundreds of miles to join the protest outside his home in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, again. He had been ordered to leave his property by 10.30am yesterday. But supporters began congregating in the road before 7am. At around 11am a white transit van and black Mercedes containing the bailiffs arrived at the bungalow – only to have to drive away. Tom Crawford, pictured outside his bungalow, had been ordered to be out of his home by 10.30am today . The strangers provided a human shield around the bungalow to stop the bailiffs from getting to it . Yesterday, Mr Crawford said: ‘I am humbled by all the people here. All I did was make a little video about what was happening to us and people supported it.’ Mr Crawford claims he has paid off his mortgage, which he took out with the now defunct Bradford and Bingley in 1988. But UK Asset Resolution Limited, charged with winding down Bradford and Bingley mortgages, claims he still owes £43,000. Mr Crawford, who is battling prostate cancer, has said that he would 'rather die' than leave his home . Surrounded: One of the cars carrying the bailiffs was held back from the Crawfords' home of 27 years . Many of the protesters filmed and photographed the bailiffs as they arrived at the property in two separate vehicles . Last year a judge ruled against the couple and ordered them to pay off the sum or face eviction. But the Crawfords claim that these arrears only exist because of blunder by the bank. They say they believed they were paying off their mortgage when in fact they were paying only interest. In an effort to keep his home, the retired flooring specialist posted a video explaining his predicament on YouTube. The father-of-three said: ‘I will never leave my home. I would rather die than leave.’ Mr Crawford said: 'There are not enough words in the English Dictionary for how I feel' Supporters donned 'I am Tom Crawford' hats as they surrounded his home to keep bailiffs out . The strangers turned up at Mr Crawford's home after he posted a video on YouTube explaining his situation online . Supporters called for the bailiffs to stop harassing the couple. Eric Banner, 30, who lives in Nottingham, said: ‘What has happened to Tom is a complete injustice. He has done nothing wrong.’ Tim Fleming, 69, a charity worker from Twickenham, said: ‘It is important to come and support Tom because it could be me tomorrow. We won’t be beaten.’ Mr Crawford and his wife, 54, took out an endowment mortgage to buy the bungalow for £41,800 27 years ago. They expected to own the property outright when the loan came to an end last year. Mr Crawford's court battle centres around an endowment mortgage with the now defunct Bradford and Bingley to buy the bungalow for £41,800 in 1988 . The sea of people that bailiffs were faced with as they arrived at Mr Crawford's home in Nottinghamshire . A member of the bailiff removal team, who was forced to retreat from Mr Crawford's home . But they say the bank told him in 2007 that there was no record of him taking out an endowment, a savings plan designed to cover the debt. He claims a bank manager then assured him this was incorrect and sent his wife flowers and champagne to apologise. UK Asset Resolution Limited said it is discussing the ‘appropriate next step’. Mr Crawford, pictured among the crowds outside his home, wearing his trademark straw hat . The bungalow the is home to Mr Crawford and his wife, Sue, that is at the centre of the row . Mr Crawford's daughter, Amanda Pike, being hugged by a fellow protester as they bailiffs retreate . One supporter said: 'What has happened to Tom is a complete injustice,' as the hung a banner from a car . Supporters, who have made t-shirts and banners, said that Mr Crawford has done 'nothing wrong' Strangers revealed they had travelled hundreds of miles to support Mr Crawford after learning of his plight . Protesters set up a make-shift camp outside the Nottinghamshire bungalow to make sure that the bailiffs did not return . The protesters, who started gathering at 7am, fear that the bailiffs may return tomorrow when they have gone . A police spokesman said that it remained a 'civil matter'  and it was in 'the hands of the bailiffs . Some of the protesters who congregated in the sleepy street in Nottinghamshire wore masks . Mr Crawford's daughter said the support the family had received was 'amazing.' Pictured: Mr Crawford outside the bungalow .", "By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 12:46 EST, 24 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 12:49 EST, 25 March 2013 . An former Halifax worker has been jailed for five years after stealing more than £750,000 from the high street bank's cash machine. Benjamin Sookia, 26, was imprisoned for five years after raiding ATM machines and bank accounts for the cash. He stole £187,155 in cash as well as fraudulently syphoning £565,000 electronically. In court: Benjamin Sookia, 26, was jailed for five years after stealing £750,000 from cash machines . Sookia, who had held the junior position for six years, was investigated in July last year after irregularities were noticed in his personal accounts. He raided the non-customer account from his branch in Redditch, Worcestershire, between September 2001 and July 11 last year. Sookia, from Redditch, was arrested by officers from West Mercia Police's Economic Crime Unit last August. As a counter worker in the bank he was responsible for topping up the cash in the ATM machines when they got low. He stole physical cash from the machines he was meant to be filling before switching to moving money electronically into his own account. Target: The Halifax bank in Redditch town centre where Benjamin Sookia worked . He was charged with three offences of theft by an employee and a further three of fraud by abuse of position on January 16. He was jailed at Worcester Crown Court for five years.", "LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Airways has agreed to buy L'Avion, the French all-business class carrier and plans to integrate the airline into its recently launched subsidiary, OpenSkies. L'Avion was launched in January 2009 and employs 77 staff in Paris. The $108 million (£54 million) deal marks the departure of the last stand-alone all-business airline following the demise of MAXJet, Eos and Silverjet over the last six months. OpenSkies, launched on June 19 between Paris Orly and New York JFK, already operated a codeshare agreement with L'Avion that flies out of Orly to Newark, New York. Following integration, OpenSkies will increase the frequency of its Orly-JFK service to three daily flights. OpenSkies currently operates one Boeing 757 with 24 flat-bed berths in business class, 28 seats in premium economy and 30 in economy. L'Avion, launched in January 2007, flies two Boeing 757s with 90 business-class seats. BA is yet to decide whether L'Avion planes will be changed to a three-class layout. \"L'Avion is a successful airline that has built up a premium business between Orly and New York in a relatively short period of time,\" said British Airways' chief executive, Willie Walsh in a statement. \"It has many synergies with OpenSkies and buying it provides OpenSkies with a larger schedule and an established customer base in the Paris-New York market.\" Christophe Bejach, co-founder and chairman of L'Avion, said he was happy with the deal. \"This transaction will strengthen our current base and enable the combined airline to grow faster and stronger.\" Completion of the deal is expected this month and, if approved, full integration will take place in early 2009.", "London, England (CNN) -- The iconic Abbey Road music studios made famous by the Beatles are not for sale, the music label that owns them said Sunday, after days of speculation that they were. It is seeking a partner to help pay for upgrades, according to Terra Firma, which controls EMI, owner of the recording studios. \"EMI confirms that it is holding preliminary discussions for the revitalization of Abbey Road with interested and appropriate third parties,\" Terra Firma said. But that does not mean the studios are for sale, it added. \"In mid-2009, we did receive an offer to buy Abbey Road for in excess of £30 million (currently about $46 million), but this was rejected since we believe that Abbey Road should remain in EMI's ownership,\" the music company said in a statement. The studios became world famous when the Beatles were photographed crossing the road there for the cover of their album \"Abbey Road.\" But it's not only where the Beatles recorded \"All You Need is Love\" and numerous other songs, but where much of Britain's best known music of the 20th century was laid down. Rock stars Pink Floyd and Cliff Richard, composer Sir Edward Elgar, and the movie soundtracks for \"Star Wars\" and the \"Harry Potter\" films were recorded there. English Heritage, a cultural institution, is considering plans to list the studios as a site of national historic importance, Terra Firma said. That would give it protected status. \"EMI ... supports such a listing as an appropriate way of protecting our world famous music heritage site,\" the company said Sunday. Terra Firma bought EMI in 2007. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer of \"Phantom of the Opera\" and \"Cats\" and one of Britain's richest men, is \"very interested\" in buying the studios, a representative said Friday. \"He first recorded there in 1967 with Tim Rice. Andrew has since recorded most of his musicals there,\" said the representative, Jenni Pain. \"He thinks it is vital that the studios are saved for the future of the music industry in the UK. Abbey Road has such great facilities, with three major recording studios, and Andrew has probably brought more musicians to record there than anyone else, because it has the capacity to record large orchestral productions.\" CNN's Per Nyberg and Morgan Neill contributed to this report.", "By . Sara Malm . PUBLISHED: . 13:22 EST, 19 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 04:07 EST, 20 July 2013 . Jailed: Bank manager Celia Zarebska, 52, stole £315,000 from elderly and vulnerable customers . A bank manager who stole over £300,000 from elderly and vulnerable customers’ accounts so she could ‘fit in with the golfing wives’ in her village has been jailed for three years and four months. Celia Zarebska withdrew £500 cash several times a month, targeting accounts with large sums of money which had been left dormant due to the owner’s ill health or age. The 52-year-old, a £17,000-a-year manager at a Santander branch in Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicestershire, said she had spent the money lavish holidays and expensive dresses. Zarebska siphoned money out of customers’ accounts for seven years before she was caught, Leicester Crown Court heard today. Her thefts were discovered when a woman tried to make a withdrawal from her aunt’s account, meant to contain £62,000, and found it was empty. Zarebska denied any wrong-doing when quizzed by bank investigators, but admitted the offences when she was arrested by the police. She told detectives she had spent the money on paying off the mortgage on her husband’s detached home and buying holidays and clothes ‘to fit in with the golfing wives’. Around £315,000 was taken in total between 2004 and 2011. At least one of Zarebska’s five victims was living in a care home, and another died before she took their money. Zarebska admitted a total of nine charges of fraud by abuse of position and false accounting. The Santander branch where she worked has since closed down. Detective Constable Jenny Tattersall, of . Leicestershire Police’s Serious Crime Team, said: ‘This was sustained . dishonesty over a long period.' Fraud: Zarebska stole £315,000 from customers' accounts at at an agency which ran the branch of Santander in her home village where she worked as a manager (file photo) ‘Zarebska targeted very vulnerable victims - people with large sums of money who were unlikely to be able to check on their accounts,' she added. ‘Cases involving this amount of fraud are very rare, and I hope this sends a message to those in positions of trust who are tempted to abuse their authority.’ Santander has refunded all the money to the victims. There will now be further legal proceedings to strip Zarebska of her illegally-gained assets." ]

[ "One way or another, you've heard Grover Washington Jr.'s saxophone. Perhaps on \"Mister Magic\" or another of his instrumental hits, like \"Winelight.\" Or on \"Just the Two of Us,\" the smash hit featuring Bill Withers. What Washington's sound represents is soul, plain and simple, though it's often been associated with another word: \"smooth.\" A lot of musicians have some choice words to say about that, starting with Washington himself. Jazz Night in America recently partnered with WRTI, in Grover Washington's adopted hometown of Philadelphia, to present a tribute concert at the Temple Performing Arts Center. In this episode of the radio show, we'll put you in that room with a wildly enthusiastic crowd, to hear a reunion of Grover Washington band members, like bassist Gerald Veasley and keyboardist Bill Jolly, as well as two saxophonic inheritors, Gerald Albright and Najee. We'll also hear from musicians like David Sanborn, a near-contemporary of Washington's, about the legacy and presumptions surrounding \"smooth jazz,\" and the ways in which Washington both defined and transcended it. PERFORMERS Najee (tenor and soprano saxophone), Gerald Albright (alto saxophone), Bill Jolly (keyboards, vocals), Donald Robinson (keyboards), Richard Lee Steacker (guitar), Gerald Veasley (bass), Pablo Batista (percussion), Steven Wolf (drums), Carl Cox Jr. (tenor saxophone), Michael Jarosz (trumpet), Brent White (trombone), La' Trese Jones (vocals), Suzanne Burgess (vocals) CREDITS Recorded by Weston Sound; Location engineers: Joe Hannigan, Clark Conner; Audio produced, arranged and mixed by Bill Jolly; Presented by The Philadelphia Jazz Project, WXPN, Temple Performing Arts Center, PhillyCAM, WRTI" ]

[ "For decades, John Blake Jr. created a rare role for the violin within the jazz of his eras. A versatile player, he worked memorably with Archie Shepp, Grover Washington Jr., and McCoy Tyner. He released several solo recordings. He taught in conservatories and mentored many outside the classroom. Blake died Friday, Aug. 15 from complications due to multiple myeloma, according to his family. He was 67. In 2001, Blake appeared on NPR's Billy Taylor's Jazz At The Kennedy Center, a program which brought in guest artists for an interview and performance with Taylor's trio. The episode can be heard at the audio link above. Here's the description of the show as it originally appeared on NPR.org: This edition of Billy Taylor's Jazz At The Kennedy Center spotlights violinist John Blake. Blake has worked with saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and pianist McCoy Tyner, among other jazz greats, led groups under his own name and distinguished himself as a music educator. After opening with an unabashedly swinging reading of Nat Adderley's \"Work Song\" — which also features Dr. Taylor on piano, bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Winard Harper — Blake, a native Philadelphian, begins discussing the origins of his musical development. He informs Dr. Taylor and the Kennedy Center audience that his first instrument was not the violin but the piano. As with many jazz musicians, his musical foundation came from the European classical tradition. By the time Blake reached third grade, however, he'd discovered the instrument for which he is best known and became acquainted with the work of renowned violinists such as Isaac Stern. Later in his musical studies, Blake discovered Indian music — an influence which continues to inform his approach to the instrument and which finds its way into a uniquely lyrical reading of \"All The Things You Are\" with Dr. Taylor and his trio. Following this well-received performance, Blake and Dr. Taylor discuss the influence of the late saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and Blake's five-year tenure with pianist McCoy Tyner. The violinist then delights the Kennedy Center audience with a rhythmically fecund solo reading of Tyner's \"Passion Dance.\" In the course of answering audience questions with Dr. Taylor, Blake is asked the source of his greatest musical inspiration. His mother \"playing behind church choirs,\" he responds, noting that he tries to infuse his playing with the same degree of passion and inspiration. After an appropriately passionate, Latin-tinged interpretation of \"Here's That Rainy Day\" performed with the trio, Dr. Taylor asks Blake if there is a different technique for teaching jazz rather than classical music. Blake tells Dr. Taylor that a key to introducing students to jazz is getting them to embrace the concepts of improvisation and imagination. Those concepts and more are magnificently displayed in the evening's concluding performance, a robustly swinging rendition of the Dizzy Gillespie classic \"A Night In Tunisia.\"", "Many of us now cringe at the music we loved when we were teenagers. Rudresh Mahanthappa isn't one of them. Now that he's an internationally acclaimed saxophonist who tours the world's best jazz clubs and festivals, he freely admits that he had a thing for smooth jazz growing up in Colorado in the '80s. \"Besides Charlie Parker,\" he writes in the liner notes to his latest album, \"the first sounds that inspired me to play the saxophone as a child were soul/R&B and jazz 'fusion' artists such as Grover Washington Jr., David Sanborn, the Brecker Brothers and The Yellowjackets.\" That latest album, 2011's Samdhi, borrows a bit from that past and its electric funk excesses. It also integrates ideas from South Indian scales and modes, hip-hop and computer music programming. Atop all that, Mahanthappa is an astonishing soloist, a swarm of locusts rampaging through an irregular beat. It's an impressive listen which becomes a bug-eyed, mouth-agape experience when you see it live. When Mahanthappa recently toured the Samdhi songbook in Washington, D.C., we had him stop by the NPR Music offices to give us a taste — and he brought along some old friends. Drummer Rudy Royston and Mahanthappa played in a Denver-based band together some 20-odd years ago, and have since reconnected in New York; electric bassist Rich Brown has played in just about every conceivable setting from his home base of Toronto, including the Canadian Indo-jazz group Autorickshaw; guitarist Rez Abbasi is a long-time confrere in the dual worlds of jazz and South Asian music. When Rudresh, Rez, Rich and Rudy tore into the frantic \"Killer,\" everyone immediately perked up. When we in the audience started looking at each other, we were all wearing the same giddy, dropped-jaw smile. Set List: \"Killer\" \"Playing With Stones\" Personnel: Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone Rez Abbasi, guitar Rich Brown, bass Rudy Royston, drums Credits: Producer: Patrick Jarenwattananon; Editor: Doriane Raiman; Videographers: Michael Katzif and Doriane Raiman; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; photo by Emily Bogle/NPR", "Known for the emotional range of his solo work, vibraphonist Joe Locke has established himself as a composer, bandleader and educator. He has recorded with artists such as Eddie Henderson and Grover Washington Jr., and he continues to tour worldwide. In this episode of Piano Jazz, Locke performs his original composition \"Seven Beauties\" on piano, as well as a medley of songs by Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon on vibes. Host Marian McPartland joins in for a duet of the standard \"I Should Care.\" Originally broadcast in the fall of 1996.", "On Kaputt, singer-songwriter Dan Bejar reevaluates his band's sound and drifts away from the David Bowie comparisons that have plagued even his best albums. The key to the New Pornographers member's success: nostalgia. It's difficult to say where — or when — Destroyer's latest album stands, but it sounds like a bright and glorious afterlife for genres deemed dead by modern music. This heavenly plane is where the downfall of disco mingles with the birth of new wave, and where smooth jazz gets a last-minute invite to play along. Bejar finds himself swimming in an ocean of synthesizers and echoing horn solos in \"Chinatown.\" The aesthetic implies kitsch, but he finds enough sincerity to transcend it: The production is crisp, mixing everything into a harmonious balance, even as the track breaches into sweet, chaotic swells during the hook. The eccentric lyricism that usually guides Destroyer's songs takes a backseat here, but \"Chinatown\" leads to someplace more sensual and romantic. In spite of all the song's talk about walking away, the vocals — in which Bejar is paired with singer Sibel Thrasher — draw the song's lovers ever closer together. The effect is like hearing them let go and finally give in to their deepest desires.", "NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving talks with Madeleine Brand about how Martin Luther King Jr. would and wouldn't have recognized himself in the figure of Barack Obama. He also discusses how this moment in American history offers the new president an opportunity for change on a scale only dreamed of in King's day — all from within the establishment. MADELEINE BRAND, host: This is Day to Day. I'm Madeleine Brand. In a few minutes, 80 years in eight minutes: inauguration speeches condensed. But first, today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Commemoration of his 80th birthday was part of the pre-inauguration celebration all weekend in Washington, and it will likely be a major theme during the speeches tomorrow. Barack Obama's ascent to the presidency has been seen as the ultimate fulfillment of Dr. King's dream, but Mr. Obama's political style could not be more different. NPR's senior Washington editor Ron Elving is here now to talk about these two historic figures. And Ron, it's kind of irresistible to link the two, Obama and King. Is there any way to know how Dr. King would have related to these events in Washington? RON ELVING: You know, Madeleine, it's so hard to imagine. The world has changed so much since Dr. King died in 1968, and beyond that, his frame of reference went back really still further, to the post-World War II era of the 1940s and '50s. He was fighting a much more overt kind of racism - the official segregation of the Old South - and it would have been hard for anyone of his time to foresee a personal biography, let alone a political success story quite like Barack Obama's. BRAND: But let's look at the issues, because by the time that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had died, he had moved beyond civil rights and the voting-rights battles of the mid-'60s, and he was really looking at economic empowerment and protesting the Vietnam War. Economic empowerment is something that Barack Obama has talked a lot about. ELVING: Yes, we do tend to forget that Dr. King was still a young man, martyred at the aged of 39, and he was working to expand his movement, taking the moral authority, if you will, from the civil-rights issues and the civil-rights era into broader issues of wage equity, education and job access. And yes, opposition to the war was a big part of that, the war in Vietnam specifically, but also war in general. In fact, Dr. King was as much about nonviolence as a philosophy as he was about anything else. BRAND: And so, how do you see that idea being carried forward with Barack Obama? ELVING: Well, here we are, nearly 40 years later, and we see Barack Obama rising in the midpoint of the - this decade on issues of war protest - Iraq, in this case, really the one issue that differentiated him from Hillary Clinton a year or so ago - and shifting the economic rewards toward the base of the economic pyramid, and racially, emphasizing the transcendence ideal, again, the dream of Dr. King and the idea of common ground. BRAND: But Ron, haven't there been other figures, other African-American political figures, who've been trying to do that, build on King's legacy and try to carry on that idea of common ground? ELVING: Yes, certainly many on the local and state levels have been very successful doing that, and of course, not so many at the national level. That phrase, common ground, of course, we do associate with Jesse Jackson. And he used it in the 1980s when he was a kind of transitional figure, right there halfway between Dr. King in the '60s and our current time, running for president in 1984 and 1988. But he did not manage to transcend race so much as to carry the movement, if you will, the civil-rights movement, into mainstream electoral politics at the highest levels, going beyond organizing boycotts and marches and running for office, including the presidency. And you know, the man had his strengths and his weaknesses, but his greatest handicap may have been just being out of sync with his era compared to now, compared to the era of the '60s. That period when Jesse Jackson was running for office produced Ronald Reagan, and it was not very likely to produce a majority for liberal politics in any guise. BRAND: Ron, there was a poll in the Washington Post today, very interesting, saying that the number of Americans seeing racism as a big problem, that number has declined dramatically in the past dozen years. What do you think, if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, would he agree with that? ELVING: The poll did show a surprising drop from 54 percent calling racism a big problem in 1996 to less than half that, just 26 percent today. And just as striking was that the drop was almost equal among whites and blacks; that might be the most surprising part of the whole poll. King, I think, would salute what has happened; he'd certainly salute Obama himself. He'd be supportive of the shift in political momentum and say that the swinging pendulum is coming back his way, you know, but it'", "Billy Childs was born on March 8, 1957 in Los Angeles. His parents were both teachers in the Los Angeles school district, and they encouraged their son to play the piano they had in their home. At age 6, Childs began taking structured piano lessons, but he wasn't interested in studying music until several years later, when he was sent to boarding school. While there, he began to devote himself to the piano \"out of sheer boredom.\" Childs continued studying piano and learning tunes on his own, and at 16 was accepted into the Community School for the Performing Arts, a music preparatory school affiliated with the University of Southern California. He later attended USC and graduated with a BA in music composition. His jazz education was cemented after six years with Freddie Hubbard's band; Childs wasted no time launching his own solo career with a series of four albums on the Windham Hill Jazz label. After leaving Windham Hill, he released his 1995 album, I've Known Rivers, on longtime friend Chick Corea's Stetch label. That album included the first of several Grammy nominations to come, and in 2006, Childs won a Grammy for best instrumental composition for \"Into the Light.\" In addition to sideman gigs that include work with Joe Locke, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Harrison and Delfeayo Marsalis, Childs is an in-demand conductor and arranger for the likes of Claudia Acuna, Chris Botti and Diane Reeves. Childs has also received more than a dozen commissions for ensembles — including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Brass Quintet, Kronos Quartet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra — and he was awarded a 2009 Guggenheim fellowship for music composition. In 2010, Childs released Autumn: In Moving Pictures — Jazz/Chamber Music, Vol. 2 through ArtistShare. On this episode of Piano Jazz, Billy Childs stops by to perform a set including the standards \"Alone Together,\" \"You Don't Know What Love Is\" and \"Straight No Chaser.\" He also performs his original, \"Hope in the Face of Despair,\" inspired by Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale, as well as his arrangement of \"Scarborough Fair.\" Originally recorded Apr. 11, 2006. Originally broadcast Oct. 17, 2006.", "Grover Krantz died last week. He was an anthropologist at Washington State University and spent his life researching the Sasquatch, also known as \"Bigfoot.\" Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with Loren Coleman, a cryptozoologist at the University of Southern Maine, about Krantz's work. (4:00) <a href=\"http://www.lorencoleman.com/obits.html#Grover\" target=\"_blank\">Grover S. Krantz</a> was a physical anthropologist professor at <a href=\"http://libarts.wsu.edu/anthro/Faculty/Krantz.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Washington State University</a>.", "Trudy Pitts and Bill Carney have been partners in music, and in life, for half a century. Pitts plays piano and the Hammond B-3 electric organ. Carney, known as Mr. C, backs her up on drums. Like many married couples who've been together for a long time, they often finish each other's thoughts. When Pitts and Carney play together, they say, words become unnecessary because they speak the private language of music. \"It's about knowing each other and feeding each other air and spirit,\" Pitts says. \"He might do something on snare, or he might do a cymbal thing. If I'm working out something on the keys, he's into the point where he can lead me in a direction that I'm trying to go.\" The two musicians met in Philadelphia in the 1950s. Carney had a group at the time called the Hi-Tones. It included a young saxophone player named John Coltrane, but Carney wanted to add an organist. \"I called the union,\" Carney says. \"They said, 'Well, we have a young lady down here that plays everything — funerals, cocktail lounges. She coaches classical musicians.' I said, 'Well, I have to meet her.'\" Over the years, they've played with a who's who of jazz, including Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Grover Washington, Jr., and Nancy Wilson. Pitts describes what it's like to create music with her lifelong partner: \"When the two of us are playing, it's being husband and wife; it's being mother and father; it's being up and down; and it's everything rolled into one in your life when you come together to play music,\" she says. Carney says they feel that they are \"missionaries of the Almighty's private language — and that's music.\" \"My biggest love is my partner, who is my queen,\" he says. \"And sometimes she's so spiritual and plays so much, I say, 'Well, [God] sent me an angel.... Amen.'\" Features in this series are produced by David Schulman and NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr.", "The Nashville artist Houston Kendrick contains multitudes. His latest album, Small Infinity, is a rich and vibrant mix of rap, R&B and pop, with technicolor songs that reflect on childhood, young love and the journey of self-discovery. We open this week's show with the track \"Ugly Vybes\" from Small Infinity and talk about the dazzling universe Kendrick has created. Also on the program: Newly signed Sub-Pop artist Hannah Jadagu has dropped her debut EP; The West African kora player Toumani Diabaté has a transcendent new album recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra; the veteran, idiosyncratic rock band Dinosaur Jr. is back with new work as vital as any in its 40-year career and more. Nate Chinen with WBGO and Jazz Night In America joins WNXP's Jewly Hight, NPR Music's Tom Huizenga, Radio Milwaukee's Tarik Moody and Stephen Thompson, along with host Robin Hilton, as they share their picks for the best albums out on April 23. Featured Albums: Houston Kendrick — Small InfinityFeatured Song: \"Ugly Vybes\" Hannah Jadagu — What Is Going On?Featured Song: \"Sundown\" Dinosaur Jr. — Sweep It Into SpaceFeatured Song: \"And Me\" Arooj Aftab — Vulture PrinceFeatured Songs: \"Suroor\" and \"Baghon Main\" Toumani Diabaté and The London Symphony Orchestra — KorolenFeatured Songs: \"Elyne Road\" and \"Cantelowes\" Hasaan Ibn Ali — Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic AlbumFeatured Song: \"El Hasaan\" Other notable releases for April 23: Alfa Mist — Bring Backs; Ethel Cain — Inbred; Jupiter & Okwess — Na Kozonga; Yellow Ostrich — Soft.", "The U.K.'s jazz scene is flourishing these days thanks, in part, to the young artists pumping it with new life. We Out Here, the latest compilation project from DJ and producer Gilles Peterson's indie label Brownswood Recordings, is a fitting proclamation of ownership from the contemporaries who are adding color to the landscape. The project's nine tracks were recorded in August 2017 over a three day period. Smooth and concise, this compilation is spearheaded by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, who is credited as musical director, and features sounds from Hutchings, Maisha, Ezra Collective, Moses Boyd, Theon Cross, Nubya Garcia, and more. Each song has a story of its own, but they all manage to flow together as if one surmounting jam session. \"Pure Shade\" by Ezra Collective seems to finds its foundation in Afrobeat, and there are accents of bossa nova in \"Abusey Junction\" by Kokoroko. Shabaka Hutchings' \"Black Skin, Black Mask\" rides a rhythm defined only by an untamable clarinet. We Out Here is a window into a world of London's ripe jazz renaissance, one that will only spread to new shores as the year goes on. We Out Here is available now via Brownswood Recordings.", "Economists Isabel Sawhill and Brian Riedl discuss the federal deficit: how the country reached this point and how it might get back into the black. Sawhill is a senior fellow and vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Brian Riedl is lead budget analyst and the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank also based in Washington.", "Nine music majors at Washington, D.C.'s Howard University are also part of the schools vocal jazz ensemble AfroBlue. Michele Norris talks with the group's director, Connaitre Miller, and listens as the students demonstrate \"crunchy\" harmonies on a familiar tune, as well as some smooth chords on <em>a cappella</em> versions of \"Surrey with a Fringe on Top\" and \"Sometimes I'm Happy.\"", "Okay, I probably should admit right off the bat that I'm a bit biased when it comes to bass players. Let's just say that my ears are always tuned to a low E. I am extremely reluctant to even say this on a blog about Marcus Miller, but I play the bass guitar. Really, I think I was moved by Marcus Miller's playing long before I ever touched an E string. The bass is often the first thing I hear in any given song. I just didn't know at the time that almost every song I fell in love with had listed somewhere in the album credits, bass: Marcus Miller. I remember when I practically popped my Grover Washington Jr. Winelight cassette from playing it so much. And as much as I loved Grover's sax crooning, it was the bass lines that wore me out. I finally picked up the cover to find out who in the world was playing like that! Some guy name Marcus Miller. Cool. So the next project I discovered and fell in love with was Joe Sample's Ashes to Ashes. Another near ruined cassette. That song \"The Road Less Traveled\"? I had to find out who THAT bass player was. Marcus Miller. Wait a minute! Then I discovered HE'S the blue light in the basement bass player on all those Luther Vandross ballads!! I truly believed I was the only one in the world who knew about this guy. I decided to let my musician friends in on my \"as-yet-unknown\" discovery. \"You know who ya'll need to check out?!!!! This cat named Marcus Miller!!\" The response? \"Oh yeah. He's the man. He played with Miles.\" I've hearted Marcus ever since. Today, he's going to play for you for our full second hour. Call in and talk to him. I'm happy to report that even though he's a musical giant, he's the most down to earth guy you'll ever want to meet.", "To mark Black Music Month, News and Notes with Ed Gordon begins a three-part series of reports on what magazine editors, music industry executives and independent critics think will be the hottest sounds of the summer. This week, producer Roy Hurst checks in with the magazine folks. ED GORDON, host: This is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Ed Gordon. (Soundbite of \"Doing It Well\") Unidentified Woman: (Singing) Doing it and doing it and doing it well. Doing it and doing it and doing it well. Doing it and doing it and doing it well--well, well. GORDON: If you recognized this tune as a rap song, you're not mistaken. Verve Records, a jazz label, is preparing a summer release of music it calls \"Def Jazz,\" a smooth jazz interpretation of Def Jam classics. Def Jam, as you may know, is one of rap music's pre-eminent labels. Smooth jazz rap music, just one of the new releases competing to become part of your summer soundtrack. Here to give us an overview of this and other new releases for the summer is Vibe magazine editor Eric Parker--he joins us from New York; and from Los Angeles, Billboard magazine editor Gail Mitchell; and Janine Coveney. She's a writer and smooth jazz format manager for Launch Radio Networks. And they join us from Los Angeles. I thank you all for joining us. Greatly appreciate it. Eric, let me start with you, and ask you, as we start to hear Def Jam classics turned into smooth jazz, is this part of the mainstreaming of hip-hop, if you will? Mr. ERIC PARKER (Editor, Vibe): I think it is, but it also has to do with hip-hop growing older. You'll notice that a lot of people from the hip-hop generation are in their 30s, some in their 40s, and they're starting to have different tastes. So it gives them another format for them to enjoy their records. So you take something like what you just played with L.L. Cool J's \"Doing It Well.\" They enjoyed it on one level, and now it's something that they can enjoy on another level, maybe with--if they're in the office, or maybe it's something their parents might enjoy, and they can sit down and enjoy it together. So I think it does also bridge gaps to some degree, and I think it says a lot to the hip-hop generation actually growing up. GORDON: Janine, to a great degree we've seen this kind of genre, this format, be a staple for smooth jazz, them taking classics in many areas. I think of--we had Lee Ritenour on recently. He's done a salute to Bob Marley, Mr. Jobim and the Motown sounds. So this is something that we're seeing with smooth jazz a lot. Ms. JANINE COVENEY (Writer; Smooth Jazz Format Manager, Launch Radio Networks): Exactly. But what's new about this trend is the fact that hip-hop covers are now becoming part of the smooth jazz lexicon. Before it was always, you know, `We're going to do instrumental R&B in covers.' This is a phenomenon that's started, I guess, a couple of years ago when Hidden Beach did the first \"Un-Rapped,\" where they had a lot of instrumentalists come in and redo hip-hop classics instrumental style. And they had three successful volumes of that. And as Eric just said, you know, it's the hip-hop generation has grown up, and, you know, maybe they want to hear the music redone in a way that they can listen to, you know, with their friends, at the office. And it's done very well. GORDON: Very well. But, Gail, there are going to be purists as there were in, I guess, any generational music--as when you heard rock tunes turned to Muzak--that will suggest that this is just not the way to go. Ms. GAIL MITCHELL (Editor, Billboard): There will be some that feel that way. Along with what's going on with the jazz and hip-hop, you've got the R&B remixes like the Motown remix album that just came out. And Atlantic just went into its files and came up with \"Atlantiquity,\" I think, is how you pronounce it. And again, you are going to get--I was one of those ones. I'm a purist. And when somebody came to me about Motown remix, I'm like, `Oh, yeah, right.' But when you listen to this album, I think they've got a good balance of the classic, the original, what Motown meant to a lot of people, and then they also jazz it up a little bit and put a little contemporary edge to it so that the newer generation--'cause I've got kids nine and 11--you can sit there with them and listen as well. Mr. PARKER: And by no means, I don't think that this is meant to be extremely hard jazz where, you know, the real purists would actually sit down and pick apart the saxophone, but I do believe it's meant to be enjoyed in much the same way elevator music is meant to be enjoyed--with a twist. GORDON: We are a", "A few weeks ago I took a look at summer jazz festivals that had to close shop for financial reasons. I got the idea for that post by reading a story in the Arizona Republic about the Sedona Jazz On The Rocks festival being put on hold. One of the fest's board members was quoted: \"It may not be a conventional-jazz festival. We may bring in a group like Kool and the Gang, who have played at a lot of jazz festivals -- acts that have a broader appeal.\" Arizona Republic writer Larry Rodgers also interviewed Larry Gittens, a trumpet player for K&TG, about the band being a jazz festival ace-in-the-hole for putting butts in seats (as promoters like to say). I know Larry from my days in Fresno, Calif., where he still lives. I know him to be a serious jazz musician, as well a thoughtful guy who regularly performs with his own jazz group. Here he is in a lower-key setting: Larry Gittens from Kool & The Gang Lets Loose Again! Larry studied at the Berklee College of Music, and has played with Sonny Stitt and Grover Washington, among other jazz elders. He's also performed with The Stylistics, and was once musical director for Stevie Wonder. I suspected he'd have some insightful thoughts for those who might immediately groan when seeing K&TG, or Chaka Khan, or [insert popular band name] as headliners at jazz festivals. ----- Larry, it must be a tough spot to be in when jazz festival promoters hire Kool and the Gang. The band has obvious commercial appeal to a wide audience, which draws people to the festival. But jazz purists would complain that a jazz festival should feature only jazz musicians. How do you, as a graduate of the Berklee jazz program, feel about those kinds of complaints? Are they fair? Larry Gittens: Yes and no. The true jazz side of me somewhat frowned upon this initially, because I was raised listening to real improvisations from jazz giants. However, I never underestimated the power of grooves coupled with dance. It has a profound effect on the listener, be it jazz or funk. Read More >> Do you feel caught in the middle by seeing both sides of the issue? LG: No, because if the promoters are responsible, all can enjoy the musical event. Do you ever get attitude from the jazz musicians at the festivals? LG: Let's keep it real: yes on both sides. Here at A Blog Supreme we've been taking note of how many summer jazz festivals have had to cancel or postpone this year because of the economy. Have you seen the band doing fewer jazz fests this summer? Do you have any idea if the bookings have picked up for next summer? LG: Quite the contrary with Kool and the Gang in terms of straight-ahead jazz festivals. Our bookings for straight-ahead have increased (Montreux, Montreal, Saskatoon, Toronto, etc.). How many horns are in the Kool and the Gang horn section? LG: Four. Tenor sax, trumpet, alto [sax], trombone. You mentioned to me that you and the rest of the horn players are all great jazz fans and have played jazz for many years. You also said you guys show your love of jazz during your solos. Can you explain that again? LG: OK. Instead of using easy, repetitive funk licks, we introduce more complex jazz ideas. So pop music fans are actually getting exposed to jazz and don't even realize it? LG: Yes, essentially, but at the same time they're getting all the groove they can handle, bro. One last question: can you tell us about your experience at the Montreux Jazz Festival last year? As a jazz fan that must have been quite an experience for you. LG: The greatest experience that happened for me personally was meeting the legendary Quincy Jones and speaking with him one-on-one for over 20 minutes about our mutual hero, Mr. Clark Terry. It was fabulous -- and not to mention, he was our emcee the next day for our concert. ----- It's hard not to make judgments and second-guess jazz festival promoters who use popular music bands to help them cover their costs. Having been both a festival promoter and being a musician myself, I'm appreciative of Larry for putting some real-world thought into that messy philosophical intersection of Art vs. Commerce. My thanks to Larry (and his daughter Susan Nury) for taking the time.", "NPR is on stage again at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. for another incarnation of Jazz Piano Christmas. New Orleans keyboard legend Allen Toussaint headlines another stellar program, which mixes established jazz stars with promising newcomers to offer original and unique jazz interpretations of holiday favorites. This year's show features performances from Toussaint, Cedar Walton, Eric Reed, Jovino Santos Neto, Nancy King and 2006 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition award winner Tigran Hamasyan. Felix Contreras hosts. Set List: 'Kings of the Orient' (J.H. Hopkins, Jr.) - Hilton Ruiz'Lo, How a Rose' (Michael Praetorious) - Eric Reed'Christmas Tale' - Tigran Hamasyan'Sleigh Ride' (Leroy Anderson) - Jovino Santos Neto'Boas Festas' (Assis Valente) - Jovino Santos Neto'Winter Wonderland' (Felix Bernard/Richard B. Smith) - Nancy King & Geoffrey Keezer'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)' (Mel Torme) - Cedar Walton'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear' (Edmund Hamilton Sears/Richard Stores Willis) - Cedar Walton'Little Drummer Boy' (Katherine Davis/Henry Onorati/ Harry Simeone) - Allen Toussaint", "The history of jazz in the 20th century is well known, but the course of the genre in the 21st century is still being charted. According to Nate Chinen, music critic for NPR Music and WBGO, jazz in the new millennium has enjoyed a type of Renaissance thanks to some key players. Chinen's new book Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century opens with a spotlight on Los Angeles saxophonist Kamasi Washington. At 37, Washington's collaborations range from jazz greats like Herbie Hancock to rappers like Kendrick Lamar. \"His emergence is just utterly remarkable,\" Chinen says. \"He has this intense physicality as a performer. His music strives for transcendence and I think, often communicates that.\" And while artists like Washington are making jazz cool in the new millennium, Chinen's aim with Playing Changes is to get the root of the resurgence. \"This is a perennial question — this idea of a savior or a messiah figure in jazz,\" Chinen explains. \"I wanted to get to the heart of that question: 'Why do we need someone like that?' What it comes down to I think is a baseline insecurity about the art form's foothold in larger culture.\" Whereas jazz artists used to have to fight to be taken seriously, the perception of jazz in this century has almost calcified to a point where it's seen as a genre that should be respected but not enjoyed. In Chinen's opinion, the image of jazz has become \"too good.\" \"Jazz used to be disreputable. It used to grasp and scramble for respect for cultural esteem. And we no longer have that problem,\" he says. And although that's a good thing, Chinen argues that esteem comes with a certain cost. \"When the push for esteem comes with such a strong veneration for history and for a canon of recordings. Then you begin to see the music at large as a kind of museum piece,\" he says. Like Kamasi Washington, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was greeted as a savior when he arrived on the national scene in the 1980s. Marsalis led a Renaissance that raised public appreciation for jazz through a return to its traditional values. Chinen says that became polarizing when Marsalis became the head of New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center. This drew a clear divide between what Chinen calls \"the traditionalist wing and the experimental wing\" of jazz musicians in New York City. This divide was literal just as much as it was figurative. \"Jazz at Lincoln Center and the mainstream jazz clubs were uptown and The Knitting Factory and places like Tonic were downtown,\" Chinen says. \"There was a kind of sorting into camps.\" But luckily, this rigid division has been relaxed in the last 20 years. Chinen uses Playing Changes to give attention to particular artists who represent something about where jazz is in this moment. Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer is an example of an artist whose work is based on experimentation. \"Vijay is to me a really important figure because he comes out of an avant garde tradition,\" Chinen says. \"He's second generation Indian American. But really he is able to appeal to a really broad base of listeners. He's become sort of a consensus figure for the Jazz establishment.\" And Chinen calls vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant the \"greatest new arrival on the jazz vocal scene.\" \"If she had come up in the 90s, her interest in the past would have led a lot of people to kind of slot her in this idea and it would have become a kind of trap,\" Chinen says. That means jazz's next great hero could be a heroine.", "Where our latest Take Five has me dying to play a contrabass saxophone. --50,000 Turn Out For Kenny G: I promise this will be the only time we lead with Kenny G. (OK, I don't promise that at all.) But news that he drew as many as 50,000 fans for a show at a commmunity college in Syracuse, N.Y. made me perk up a bit. Here's a review, if anyone is curious as to what exactly he played. According to further coverage at Syracuse.com, the parking lots overflowed, and Mr. G also gave away a soprano saxophone. Now, I don't know what percentage of that audience came to really engage with Kenny G's music, but you can't argue with the sheer enormity of 50,000. You don't see those kinds of numbers for anyone playing saxophone who's not in Bruce Springsteen's band. Reading this interview with Syracuse Jazz Festival director Frank Malfitano, it would seem as if he believes a key to jazz's survival is to form a protective trade organization for all forms of jazz. He also blames jazz purists for the current state of the industry. I don't know if he actually believes that having smooth jazz headliners floats all boats, or if he actually believes that smooth jazz represents a positive growth of the jazz tradition. I wouldn't presume to put words into his mouth, but judging from the interview and the fact that the festival also booked Spyro Gyra to headline the first night, both postulates seem logical. Anyone out there with thoughts on the viability of these ideas? --The Ever-Expanding Definition Of The Jazz Festival: Closely related to the previous discussion is this examination of why \"jazz\" festivals book headliners who are not jazz artists. I'll admit that today, it makes sense to book pop artists both to expand the jazz audience and, more importantly, to have them considered in the same breath as reputedly impenetrable \"jazz\" musicians. But taken to its logical end, at some point this trend reaches a breaking point where jazz and improvised music is no longer the core idea of the event. Seems to me that a better model -- where one can afford to do it -- was this year's Meltdown, wherein a jazz legend in Ornette Coleman was effectively given the keys to the castle. It got lots of attention, and with the interdisciplinary bent to the whole thing, nobody really seemed to care what genre was being presented. --Jazz Is Still The Word: While we're discussing the jazz border patrol today, the English blog thejazzbreakfast recently held an online poll to see if the term \"jazz\" was still worth keeping around, given the incredible diversity of what falls under the term now. The results: 66% say yes, 11% say no and 23% take a neutral stance. Now, the data is no FiveThirtyEight science, but the ensuing discussion is what I personally find interesting. It seems as if jazz has become less useful as a genre defined by common sonic elements, but it still has plenty of value as a frame of mind, an aesthetic approach of innovation, a heritage, a catchall for things that wouldn't otherwise have a home in today's fractured music landscape. I understand that the term \"jazz\" is loaded with potentially uncool stigmas outside of jazz circles, but to me it seems easier to wage that cultural war (especially with the Obamas on our side) than to be without a home base for the many things that wouldn't get any attention outside the jazz industry. (And to tear down that industry apparatus in the first place.) Or am I just fooling myself of the importance of the jazz press? --The Founder Of Delmark Records, Profiled: Somehow, last week we missed this New York Times story on Bob Koester, sole proprietor of Delmark Records and owner of the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago. Koester comes off really well here, as someone who documents music because he feels it important rather than profitable. Why else would he have chosen to record traditional jazz, Delta blues and the early AACM recordings on the same label? And his record store fostered a real community of musicians and music listeners. (Howard Mandel counts himself as one of them.) Anyway, we should also mention that Delmark is still putting out important music from the Chicago blues, trad-jazz and avant-garde scenes.", "Presented without commentary. the joy of sax sax appeal ... and all that jazz! jazz up your [future period of time] swing into [future period of time] \"smooth sounds of jazz\" Previously on this (highly informal) series of listicles.", "Saxophonist Euge Groove has made a name for himself in the smooth jazz genre. His fluid melodies sound more like pop and R&B sprinkled with a bit of jazz on top -- think smooth jazz with a twist, a bump and a grind. Groove is a former member of Tower of Power and toured with Huey Lewis, Tina Turner, Richard Marx and Joe Cocker. He's even jammed with Elton John and Bonnie Raitt. Groove's latest CD, Livin' Large, has remained on Billboard's Top 5 Contemporary Jazz Album list since its release. Born Steven Eugene Grove, the sax player took on the funky moniker when he forged his own solo career.", "Whether transcending genres or reinterpreting the essentials, this generation of artists continues to show that jazz is alive and flourishing. To prove it, each month the Jazz Night in America staff will be curating a playlist of new music that's caught our ears. This month, the Jazz Night staff's collection includes recent work from Esperanza Spaulding, Leni Stern, Brandee Younger, Renell Shaw, Kurt Elling, Kenny Garrett and Charles Owens Trio, among many others. Be sure to follow the playlist on your service of choice to stay up-to-date with what we're listening to. Stream below via Spotify or Apple Music.", "Thievery Corporation is the duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, who both function as DJs, producers and musicians. Under the broadly defined heading of electronica, they create music that links dub, bossa nova and jazz with electro-lounge beats, psychedelic flourishes and more than a few elements of world music. Imagine a sound that ties together the dub of Lee \"Scratch\" Perry, classic Antonio Carlos Jobim sides and the Garden State soundtrack. Garza and Hilton's new Versions consists mostly of remixed versions of other musicians' songs -- including sublime covers of songs by Herb Albert, The Doors, Sarah McLachlan, Astrud Gilberto and, perhaps most notably, Nouvelle Vague's cover of Public Image Limited's \"This Is Not A Love Song.\" With its insidious cloud of warm keyboards and droning sitars, Thievery Corporation's cover-of-the-cover qualifies as hipster electronica: It's \"Chariots Of Fire\" for the indie-rock set, yet it's also palatable enough for those who enjoy the faux-fusion that populates countless VW commercials. Most of all, however -- and most importantly -- it functions as a smooth, virtually irresistible pop song. Listen to yesterday's 'Song of the Day.'", "Drummer Max Roach died on August 16, 2007 in New York after a long illness. He was 83. A primary architect of the bebop revolution, Roach was one of the most innovative and influential musicians in jazz. He was also a composer, a bandleader, an activist and a teacher. His transcendent musical contributions also ranged from collaborative works for theater and dance, to his groundbreaking percussion-only ensemble, M’Boom. Roach was born on January 10, 1924 in a poor North Carolina town called New Land. Seeking better opportunities, his parents moved the family to New York City. During the 1930’s, New York was teeming with outstanding bands and musicians, and Roach saw stars like Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford on a regular basis. He recalls what powerful role models these great musicians and bandleaders were to the youth of his day. Roach was captivated by the surging rhythms of drummers like Papa Jo Jones, Sid Cattlet and Chick Webb and decided to take up drums in the boy scout marching band. In high school, Roach was gigging at Coney Island sideshows and after hours joints when a club owner recommended him to Duke Ellington, whose drummer had fallen ill. That night, Roach played at the Paramount Theater with the Duke Ellington orchestra. Soon, legendary saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young also sought his abilities. Roach made his first professional recording backing Hawkins at age nineteen. He recalls these early experiences with such influential musicians as his \"classroom.\" Roach was attending Manhattan School of Music in the 1940s when he met trumpeter Miles Davis. The two were in awe of virtuoso alto saxophonist, Charlie Parker, who was working with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie to push harmony, melody and rhythm beyond all limits. Roach and Davis also displayed innovative techniques and were soon invited to work with Parker and Gillespie. These four, along with pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell formed a core of pioneers who developed the styled called bebop. Gillespie commented that, \"Max was the leading delineator of that music. He was one of the originators of the style, like Charlie Parker was the style on the alto saxophone.\" Roach’s style supported experimentation, improvisation and interaction between members of an ensemble. Drummer Kenny Washington said that Roach shifted the emphasis from keeping a simple, steady beat to facilitating a conversation between the drums and cymbals and the other musicians. Roach set the standard for the modern jazz drummer with his melodic approach to rhythm. In the mid-1950s, Roach led a legendary quintet with trumpeter Clifford Brown before a car accident took Brown’s life at the age of 25. Later, Roach turned his attention to the Civil Rights Movement and composed his Freedom Now Suite, which chronicled the African-American struggle from slavery to the present. Roach collaborated with poet Oscar Brown, Jr., vocalist Abbey Lincoln and a dance ensemble; they toured the show as far as Tokyo. He continued composing theater and dance, for which he has won an Obie award. Beginning in the 1970s, Roach began teaching at the University of Massachusetts, where he passed on his jazz tradition to students and young musicians while helping them explore new ideas. Roach remained at the forefront of rhythmic innovation. He established an entire orchestra of jazz percussionists called M’Boom, and composed numerous compositions exclusively for the jazz drum set. Meanwhile, he continued working with his jazz quartet, which included Odean Pope on saxophone, Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet and Calvin Hill on bass. The group often collaborated with his daughter Maxine’s Uptown String Quartet to form the Max Roach Double Quartet. Roach gave new meaning and respect for the drums. His quest for innovation was unrelenting and he will always be recognized for his contributions to the aritsitc community. From the poverty of the inner city to co-creator of one of the most revolutionary and infuential styles in music, Roach believed that creativity and determination could make opportunities for anyone, no matter how difficult their circumstances. Roach wanted future generations to know, \"It can happen, you can beat anything.\"", "E.J. Dionne, Jr. is a Washington Post columnist, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University. Washington — President Obama faces a choice in this week's State of the Union message: Does he spend the next two years consolidating the gains he has made, or does he go into retreat? My prediction: He will go for consolidation that conservatives will try to label as retreat, even as they attack him for not retreating fast enough. Obama will deliver his address Tuesday evening in an expectedly strong position. His approval ratings are rising and, at least according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, nearly as many Americans see him as moderate as view him as liberal. The immense activity of the lame-duck congressional session is part of the resurgence — including the unfortunate tax deal that made everything else possible. So is the absence of tens of millions of dollars in Republican attack ads that dominated the airwaves before November's elections. Then there was Obama's speech on the Tucson tragedy that allowed him to transcend partisanship. He spoke as a president and as a preacher — the latter a role he performs well (think of the 2004 Red and Blue America speech) but didn't play much in the last two years. Count on more preaching this week. House Republicans are playing their own roles exactly as Obama would cast them. With their vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republicans began their tenure on a negative footing, railing against what was done while offering nothing to put in its place. Whatever the problems with last year's law — and it is slowly gaining popularity as Americans look at what it actually does — the country does not see nothing as a realistic alternative. Now Republicans are arguing over just how much they will cut from the federal budget, focusing less on specific programs to prune than on how big an ax they want to take to domestic government in general. Here is Obama's big opportunity. The reasons behind Bill Clinton's comeback after the 1994 elections have been widely misread. He didn't kowtow to the new GOP Congress. He battled their cuts in \"Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment,\" and beat them. Republican overreach helped Clinton redefine the political center in a way that put the GOP's congressional leaders outside its ambit. Newt Gingrich and his followers then scrambled back Clinton's way, and that's when the deal-making began. Obama will no doubt call for bipartisan cooperation to achieve long-term fiscal balance, but he should also be prepared to fight. With this crowd, his slogan should be: hope, but verify. Obama's priority must be restoring robust growth and job creation. That is where the country's true center is — both politically and geographically. The next election hangs on whether jobs are coming back to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Count on Obama to talk about restoring American manufacturing. Consider that Red and Blue America speech again. \"We have more work to do,\" he said back in 2004, \"for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that's moving to Mexico, and now they're having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour.\" He warned against \"blind optimism,\" defined as \"the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't think about it.\" Smart guy, that young Obama. It's also why any proposal to raise the Social Security retirement age is a nonstarter. There is no reason to waste political capital on Social Security cuts that would do nothing to close the nation's deficit within any reasonable time period. On this issue, the Washington establishment is entirely out of touch with the heartland. It's easy for newspaper columnists, CEOs, investment bankers, and senators to work beyond 68 or 70. It's not so easy for construction workers, nurses' aides, firefighters, or retail salespeople on their feet all day. Some bipartisan work can get done on education reform and energy independence. And Obama should have the guts to call, at the very least, for a ban on those large gun magazines that made the slaughter in Tucson worse. Even Dick Cheney says he is open to that. A restoration of the assault-weapons ban would be better still. If Obama's primary political goal is to keep himself in the ideological center, he has to work hard to define it his way. And, bless them, the House Republicans will be doing all they can to make Obama look like the soul of moderation and reasonableness.", "Norman Brown has been known as a top-notch smooth jazz guitarist. But in his new CD, <EM>West Coast Coolin',</EM> Brown unveils his singing voice. Hear NPR's Tavis Smiley and Brown.", "NPR's Mara Liasson reports on the career of Grover Norquist, the career activist who was a driving force behind the Bush tax cut that the Senate approved this week. Norquist has been advocating for conservative causes in Washington for more than 20 years.", "Pairing vocal groups with jazz ensembles can be a dicey proposition -- these collaborations can feel either under- or overcooked. But they always seem to draw my eye, at least. Can't knock the hustle of anyone who can get a choir to work with him or her for a full album, and there are enough examples of stirring voices + jazz records -- Donald Byrd/Duke Pearson, Max Roach, Eddie Gale, etc. -- that new ones are usually worth a spin. I didn't know who John Blake Jr. was when I picked up his CD from the pile a week ago, but I had heard of Afro Blue, the Howard University jazz choir -- they've performed at NPR before. And I've also certainly heard of pianist Mulgrew Miller, who guests on this album. He's featured on the opening, title track of Blake's upcoming Motherless Child, floating over top of ethereal voices and a \"Man-From-Tanganyika\"-era-McCoy-Tyner vibe in the rhythm section. Here's that track: \"Motherless Child,\" from John Blake Jr., Motherless Child (Artists Recording Collective). John Blake Jr., violin/arrangement; Mulgrew Miller, piano; Boris Kozlov, bass; Johnathan Blake, drums; Afro Blue dir. Connaitre Miller, voices. To be released Mar. 2, 2010. More Information: Artists Recording Collective ----- Blake Jr. is a jazz violinist based in Philadelphia (and the father of the killing younger drummer Johnathan Blake, who appears on this record). For this upcoming album, he enlisted his regular quartet, plus the Afro Blue ensemble and a few guests, for arrangements of African American spirituals. He's not the first to have done something like this, of course, but when it works, it works. And a little digging around revealed that there's more to this project than just music: Read More >> This is the trailer to A Note Of Hope, a documentary film currently being made about John Blake Jr. and co. In addition to arranging the spirituals heard on Motherless Child, Blake brought a version of his ensemble to Africa last summer with a ministry which supports orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS. The movie will juxtapose the history of the African American spiritual with the AIDS orphans crisis. Anyway, I only got to thinking about all this because a curious press release appeared in my RSS reader this morning. Blake Jr. frequently lectures on spirituals and black music history, so it would make sense that he's also helped write a new jazz record inspired by Frederick Douglass. Gah. I wonder how such a prolific artist stayed off my radar when he was making so much music in plain sight.", "Don't see the video above? Click here. This just in: The Muppets have arrived at NPR! The news has stopped! Count von Count and the NPR kids count us down: 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1! And there they are at the Tiny Desk: Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Rosita, Abby Cadabby and Cookie Monster, all singing about a sunny day and how everything is A-OK. The Sesame Street crew — including Elmo, Grover and other surprise guests — visited NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Sesame Street's 50 years of teaching the world its A-B-Cs, its 1-2-3s, how to be kind and how to be proud, all while spreading love and joy. Sesame Street has won more major awards than any other group to play the Tiny Desk, including 11 Grammys and 192 Emmys. There was a lot of love as the cast of Sesame Street got to meet NPR hosts and newscasters, who in turn got to geek out meeting their favorite Muppets and the creators behind the felt and fur. These folks include Matt Vogel, Sesame Street's puppet captain and performer, and music director Bill Sherman. I even got to sing with Grover. And I'll also say, on a personal note, that this may well have been the hardest-working, most dedicated group of performers I've ever worked with. I'm so proud of these Muppets and so happy to celebrate all that they've meant to the world for these 50 years. SET LIST \"The Sesame Street Theme (Sunny Days)\" \"People In Your Neighborhood\" \"What I Am\" \"Sing After Me\" \"Medley\" \"Sing\" MUSICIANS Leslie Carrara-Rudolph: Abby Cadabby, Penguin; Ryan Dillon: Elmo; Eric Jacobson: Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch; Peter Linz: Ernie, Herry Monster; Carmen Osbahr: Rosita; David Rudman: Cookie Monster; Matt Vogel: Big Bird, Count von Count, Mr. Johnson; John Deley: keys; Rob Jost: bass; Michael Croiter: drums CREDITS Producers: Bobby Carter, Bob Boilen, Morgan Noelle Smith; creative director: Bob Boilen; audio engineers: Josh Rogosin, James Willetts; videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Niki Walker, CJ Riculan, Kara Frame, Beck Harlan; production assistants: Bronson Arcuri, Mito Habe-Evans; photo: Claire Harbage/NPR", "Religious leaders in one Maryland community have joined forces to ease racial tensions following a series of violent attacks. During the Lent season, two pastors — one white, one black — are swapping sermon duties at their racially homogeneous congregations to learn more about cultural differences. The Rev. Melvin Grover and the Rev. Lucius Ross share observations from the exchange and explain what they hope it will accomplish. TELL ME MORE: 10 churches, five black and five white, are involved in the project. To hear how things are going we're joined by ministers Lucius Ross, who's black and Melvin Grover, who's white. Both were early members of the pastor exchange. When the project began, Melvin Grover was the pastor of Indian Head Methodist Church. Today he's Associate Pastor of Lexington Park United Methodist Church. Lucius Ross is the pastor of Smith Chapel and Alexandria United Methodist Church. Pastor Ross, Reverend Grover, welcome. MELVIN GROVER: Thank you. LUCIUS ROSS: Thank you for having us. : Reverend Grover, I understand your congregation is mostly white and you were among the first two white ministers to actually join the 210-Corridor. So, what exactly are you trying to achieve through this program? GROVER: I grew up in a neighborhood where I referred to myself as the salt in the pepper shaker. So I really didn't see any colors. I didn't know why we don't worship together to start with. And most of our congregants knew people in the neighborhood and why not come together on Sunday mornings or Lenten services, Wednesday evenings. : That's very interesting because Reverend Ross yours was one of the first black churches to join this cause and as your colleague here mentions, Reverend Grover, you know, he wondered why people weren't sharing worship together already. But decades ago, Martin Luther King talked about Sunday morning being one of the most segregated hours in America at houses of worship across the country, so how different are Sundays now? ROSS: Well, I would have to say that, for the most part, because of the structure of the denomination we are in, they are pretty much the same. But the difference is that the relationship that the black and white churches have with one another has changed dramatically. : What do you mean? How so? ROSS: In past times, both churches were pretty much isolated. Now, since we've instituted this Lenten season and the exchange in the pulpits, we now come together, not just in church, but in public places, wherever we see one another, we stop and embrace one another. We talk with one another. We even sit down and have lunch with one another. We do outreach things together, so even though the 11 o'clock hour may look the same on the outside, on the inside things have truly changed. : You know segregation is still such a problem in the United States. You know, you talk about communities and neighborhoods - and especially in urban areas, in particular, you still see a lot of segregation going on. Is it odd or not, that we still talk about black churches and white churches, Reverend Ross? ROSS: I think it's only odd because we are not open all of the time to new experiences. There comes a point in time when people have to be willing to accept risk, accept change. And a lot of times, we do things based on preconceived notions or ideas that have been implanted in us whether we have actually experienced them or not. And I think a lot of times that forms the basis for how we relate to other people. Once you have come out and been involved in the worship services, people can't wait to get back together again. They want to do things more than just during the Lenten season. They want to have more interaction. But I think, the old stereotypes, they die hard. : Did you find, Reverend Grover, that the initial reaction was a little tepid at first or did people fully embrace this idea? GROVER: Those that embraced it, embraced it fully and those that really wanted no part, wanted no part. The first year of these services - I think the actual first service was held at Smith Chapel - and my sister had died. And I was unable to attend, and I was really curious the next day of how many people from Indian had attended. And I got a phone call from one of the leaders, and she just started naming names. And Indian had, on a good day, had 30 on Sunday, and she named off 25 people that attended that Wednesday night service. And like Pastor Ross said, once they experienced the music they couldn't wait for the next Wednesday to go back to the music because they just loved the music. They were allowed to stand and clap, and sing out loud where most of your Caucasian churches are rather stoic. And if you say Amen you get weird looks, and if you say hallelujah somebody might come up to you and say, what's the matter with you and they can say, I got religion and say, well you better leave because you didn't get it here. (SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER) : So it was a freeing experience. GROVER: Yes i", "At the opening of his 2009 Newport Jazz Festival appearance, Dave Brubeck said, \"A few concerts ago, we were in Washington, D.C., and [it] was Duke Ellington Month. So every church, joint and street corner were doing Duke Ellington, and I said to myself, 'He was my mentor, he helped me get started. Why don't I do some Ellington?' [And I said to the guys], 'Follow me, and I'll think of tunes as we go along.'\" The Dave Brubeck Quartet got rolling with that \"follow me\" and an Ellington medley including \"Don't Get Around Much Anymore.\" Three months later, on Brubeck's 89th birthday, the Kennedy Center honored him along with Mel Brooks, Grace Bumbry, Robert DeNiro and Bruce Springsteen for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. The citation reads: \"Dave Brubeck's genius has dazzled us for six decades, and has helped to define an American art form.\" Brubeck responded that it was significant to him that the honor recognized the importance of jazz. At the Kennedy Center Honors concert, Brubeck and his wife Iola looked down from box seats as their sons played his music. Their daughter Catherine is instrumental in Jazz'd 4 Life, an organization that helps young people worldwide. Dave Brubeck was born Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif. He died Dec. 5 in his adopted home state of Connecticut. In his six-decade career, Brubeck performed and recorded with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic; composed music for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Pope John Paul II; and played for Presidents from Johnson to Reagan to Obama. Years before, when Obama was only 10 years old, he attended his first Dave Brubeck concert. When I was in high school, I saw my first Dave Brubeck performance. It was in Milwaukee, Wis. After almost a decade of piano lessons, I couldn't play even the simplest song by ear. Brubeck swung the door open to a new world of free-flowing, where-is-this-going music. Countless people everywhere followed their first Dave Brubeck concert or recording with a lifelong interest in jazz. It is our joy to reach into the Dave Brubeck archive for this set from Newport, where he was very much at home. Long live his music. Personnel Dave Brubeck, piano Bobby Militello, flute and sax Michael Moore, bass Randy Jones, drums Set List \"C Jam Blues\"/\"Don't Get Around Much Anymore\"/\"Mood Indigo\"/\"Take the 'A' Train\" (Ellington/Strayhorn medley) \"Stormy Weather\" (Arlen/Koehler) \"On the Sunny Side of the Street\" (Fields/McHugh) \"Take Five\" (Desmond) \"Thank You (Dziekuje)\" (Brubeck) Credits Recording by Steve Remote, Aura Sonic Ltd.; remix in surround sound by Duke Markos.", "Another gang rape occurred this week in India. Five young boys were arrested for allegedly gang raping a 10-year-old girl in the northeastern state of Assam on Sunday. This news comes just days after four men were sentenced to death after being convicted of the December gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman. When news of that rape broke, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in protest, igniting a debate and leading to new laws. But is the treatment of women in India actually improving? Vrinda Grover is a New Delhi-based lawyer who has argued on the side of rape victims and appeared before a committee earlier this year to give recommendations for reforms. Certainly we’ve had important amendments. We have also got some changes in procedure — certainly not enough.&ndash;Vrinda Grover, human rights lawyer While Grover applauds the conviction, she told Here & Now that she believes the death penalty is &#8220;counter productive&#8221; and &#8220;distracts both society and the state from creating systemic changes.&#8221; Grover says women’s rights advocates face major institutional obstacles to put women on equal footing with men. Grover cites economic inequality, continued gender bias and the legacy of the caste system, as some of the reasons for pervasive violence against women in India. She cites male officials and lawyers who blame the victim in cases of rape. For example, the lawyer defending two of the four men in the Delhi rape case said he would have &#8220;burned his own daughter alive&#8221; if she had been having premarital sex and staying out with her boyfriend. &#8220;We have to battle against misogyny of the crudest kind,&#8221; Grover said. To change the culture, Grover says the first step is recognizing the biased attitudes against women. &#8220;Let us recognize there is an institutional bias against women,&#8221; Grover said. &#8220;And then start putting in corrective measures, because agencies and institutions, if left alone to act, will act against the rights of women.&#8221; Grover cites incremental changes in the law that are encouraging. &#8220;Certainly we&#8217;ve had important amendments. We have also got some changes in procedure &#8212; certainly not enough,&#8221; Grover said. &#8220;We don&#8217;t see investigation of a professional nature. No special public prosecutors are being appointed for all rape trials. And therefore we still need to develop that kind of jurisprudence and understanding of the crime of rape.&#8221; Guest\n\nVrinda Grover, New Delhi-based human rights lawyer.\n MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI, HOST: It's HERE AND NOW. In India, five minors were arrested on Sunday for allegedly gang raping a 10-year-old girl in the state of Assam. The arrests come just days after four men were sentenced to death for the brutal December gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi. Now that shocking case galvanized India, launched waves of protests and led to changes in how the country deals with rape. But have those changes gone far enough? Vrinda Grover is a Delhi-based human rights lawyer. She's been named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. She also appeared before an Indian government panel to recommend legal reforms regarding sexual assault. She joins us via Skype. Vrinda, welcome. VRINDA GROVER: Thank you. CHAKRABARTI: First of all, what's your reaction to the fact that these four men did receive the death penalty? GROVER: I welcome the conviction. I strongly believe that the death sentence is counterproductive. CHAKRABARTI: Why do you think it's counterproductive? There are many people who would say that it's precisely the deterrent needed to dissuade people from doing such violent acts of rape? GROVER: The death penalty does not create deterrence. What the death penalty does is that it distracts both society as well as the state from creating systemic changes. CHAKRABARTI: Before we leave this issue of the death penalty, I have read - in the Wall Street Journal, for example, you were quoted as saying that, \"violence is very deeply ingrained in us,\" us meaning Indian society. GROVER: India society, yes. CHAKRABARTI: Yes. Seems a rather broad indictment of Indian society. GROVER: Well, it plays itself out almost daily, both in the private and public sphere. I think there are very clear reasons for this violence: the levels of inequality, what the caste system teaches us, the gender bias, as well as the huge disparity in income levels. CHAKRABARTI: Well, after news back in December of the Delhi rape had been released, thousands of people protested in the streets of India. Do you think that the revulsion over that - this case is signs of the beginning of some positive change there? GROVER: Certainly. But I think what I would underline as the major change that has taken place since then is in the articulation of the issue in the public discourse, particularly by women. Women are no longer false saying that they have invited the sexual violence upon the", "The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters award, which comes with a $25,000 prize, is widely described as United States' highest honor for jazz. Today, the NEA announced its four newest recipients of the prize: pianist Joanne Brackeen, guitarist Pat Metheny, singer Dianne Reeves and producer Todd Barkan. The announcement was made on Monday, during a DC Jazz Festival concert featuring Metheny at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. According to custom, the new class will be inducted in a tribute concert and ceremony at the Kennedy Center on April 16, 2018. [Editorial disclosure: The 2017 class of honorees hosted a listening session at NPR's central headquarters in Washington, D.C. following their induction.] Brackeen, at 78, is the oldest member of the 2018 class of NEA Jazz Masters; Reeves, at 60, is the youngest. Between them they have more than two dozen Grammy awards and hundreds of album credits. They share a strong foothold in the mainstream jazz tradition, as well as an urge to stretch and transcend boundaries of style. Each inductee will deliver remarks but not perform, leaving that task to colleagues and peers, at next year's event. At the 2017 concert, this past April, Reeves paid tribute to her friend Dee Dee Bridgewater. Reeves, like Bridgewater, is one of the leading jazz vocalists of her generation, with a regal presence and a commanding instrument. Metheny has been a hero of analogous stature on guitar, and a composer-bandleader with a sweeping approach to timbre and orchestration. Brackeen is known both for her searching solo career and her extensive work with jazz artists from a previous generation, like the saxophonists Joe Henderson and Stan Getz. And Barkan, who will receive the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy, is a veteran record producer who also served for more than a decade as the programming director for Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. From 1972 to 1983 he founded and ran Keystone Korner, a prominent nightclub in the San Francisco Bay Area. (A recently released archival album, Getz/Gilberto '76, chronicles an engagement at Keystone Korner, with Brackeen on piano.) The NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert will be free and open to the public, and streamed online." ]

[ "Cookies at Which? We use cookies to help improve our sites. If you continue, we'll assume that you're happy to accept our cookies. Find out more about cookies\nOK" ]

[ "PASADENA, Calif. (AP) The colorful and lively Rose Parade marched safely Monday under cloudy skies and the watchful presence of more than 1,000 law enforcement officers.\nNo major problems were reported after security and other safety measures were beefed up for the 128th annual parade as a response to several terror attacks in Europe in the past year.\nThere were no known threats toward Pasadena, officials said, but in addition to uniformed and plainclothes officers, additional security measures were taken. Sturdy barricades were erected at more than 50 intersections to prevent a terrorist attack like ones that happened in Berlin and Nice, France, last year when trucks barreled into crowds of people.\nA large law enforcement presence was also seen at the nearby Rose Bowl, where the University of Southern California was to play Penn State.\nAs fans tailgated hours before the game, several truckloads of FBI SWAT officers arrived at the stadium. They were joined by Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies, the California Highway Patrol, Pasadena police, bomb-sniffing dogs and Homeland Security officers.\nThe 5+-mile parade featured marching bands, horseback riders and dozens of ornately decorated flower-covered floats.\nHighlights included a Hawaii-themed float with a volcano and several waterfalls, another with surfing dogs and one honoring the 49 people killed in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation sponsored the float titled ”To Honor and Remember Orlando” that included three survivors of the attack.\nThree Olympic gold medalists – runner Allyson Felix, diver Greg Louganis and swimmer Janet Evans – were grand marshals of the parade.\nTemperatures were cooler than normal, in the 50s during the parade. Spectators who arrived early and some at the end of the show experienced light rain.", "Implementation of MediShield Life (National Health Insurance System) by the government, expansion of service and product portfolio by major public and private hospital chains, rising focus on geriatric care services and increased adoption of healthcare IT were the key factors driving growth in Singapore hospital Market.\nThe report titled “Singapore Hospital Market Outlook to 2022 – by Public, Private Hospital & Not-for-Profit Hospital, by Inpatient & Outpatient, by Acute, Community & Psychiatry Hospitals” by Ken Research suggested a growth at a CAGR of 3.9% in revenue in Singapore Hospital Market by 2022.\nSingapore hospital market inclined at a positive CAGR during 2012-2017. The market is dominated by the public sector which offers specialized and integrated services at affordable rates. The private sector majorly focuses on elite class which prioritizes speed, comfort, assurance of best medical care and privacy.\nMacro trends positively affecting the hospital market include ageing population, rising chronic disease prevalence, escalating healthcare needs and increasing complexity of care needs. The market witnessed higher inpatient admissions, improvement in average revenue per inpatient admission due to higher complexity of medical conditions and increased preference for day procedures and outpatient services. Due to increasing ageing population, both public and private hospitals have invested in offering specialized services for the geriatric population. For instance, SingHealth introduced Steps to avoid falls in Elderly (SAFE) Programme and Singapore General Hospital introduced Community Care Programme in 2016 to aid the old age medical conditions.\nBacked by greater demand, major hospitals have invested in expansion strategies. For instance, IHH Healthcare witnessed positive growth in revenue due to ramp up of Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital as the hospital added 30 beds. Most of hospitals in Singapore have undertaken organic methods of expansion. Public hospitals have extended their capabilities to provide higher grade services at affordable prices. For instance, SingHealth established SingHealth Duke-NUS Disease Centres (SDDC) for diabetes, blood cancer, breast, head & neck, lung and liver transplant in 2017. Raffles Hospital extended its service portfolio to include skin, aesthetics and women related services.\nThe market faces certain challenges in terms of slowdown of medical tourism, retention of quality doctors, rising healthcare inflation and growing competition which has led major hospitals to shift their focus on expansion into neighboring countries such as China and Malaysia.\nThe market is expected to witness an increase in number of outpatients in public and private hospitals due to rising focus on preventive care services and growing awareness about various medical diseases and prevention.\nFor more information on the research report, refer to below link:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/singapore-hospital-market/149669-91.html\nRelated Reports by Ken Research:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/saudi-arabia-healthcare-market-research-report/1106-91.html\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/uae-healthcare-market-report/37505-91.html\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/qatar-healthcare-market-report/99730-91.html\nContact Us:\nKen Research\nAnkur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications\[email protected]\n+91-9015378249", "Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ: CCRN) and Robert Half International (NYSE:RHI) are both business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.\nRisk & Volatility\nGet Cross Country Healthcare Inc. alerts:\nCross Country Healthcare has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Robert Half International has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.\nInstitutional & Insider Ownership\n95.5% of Cross Country Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.1% of Robert Half International shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Cross Country Healthcare shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Robert Half International shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.\nProfitability\nThis table compares Cross Country Healthcare and Robert Half International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.\nNet Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Cross Country Healthcare 1.06% 12.78% 6.02% Robert Half International 6.29% 29.97% 18.02%\nDividends\nRobert Half International pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Cross Country Healthcare does not pay a dividend. Robert Half International pays out 37.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cross Country Healthcare has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.\nAnalyst Ratings\nThis is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Cross Country Healthcare and Robert Half International, as reported by MarketBeat.com.\nSell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Cross Country Healthcare 0 1 4 0 2.80 Robert Half International 0 4 2 0 2.33\nCross Country Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $16.30, suggesting a potential upside of 14.23%. Robert Half International has a consensus target price of $49.40, suggesting a potential downside of 3.46%. Given Cross Country Healthcare’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Cross Country Healthcare is more favorable than Robert Half International.\nEarnings & Valuation\nThis table compares Cross Country Healthcare and Robert Half International’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.\nGross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio EBITDA Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Cross Country Healthcare $854.40 million 0.61 $38.83 million $0.03 475.67 Robert Half International $5.20 billion 1.23 $591.57 million $2.58 19.83\nRobert Half International has higher revenue and earnings than Cross Country Healthcare. Robert Half International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cross Country Healthcare, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.\nSummary\nRobert Half International beats Cross Country Healthcare on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.\nAbout Cross Country Healthcare\nCross Country Healthcare, Inc. is engaged in providing healthcare recruiting, staffing, recruiting and workforce solutions. The Company operates in three segments: Nurse and Allied Staffing, Physician Staffing and Other Human Capital Management Services. The Nurse and Allied Staffing segment provides traditional staffing, including temporary and permanent placement of travel nurses and allied professionals, and branch-based local nurses and allied staffing. The Physician Staffing segment provides physicians in various specialties, certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants under its Medical Doctor Associates brand. The Other Human Capital Management Services is engaged in providing retained and contingent search services for physicians, healthcare executives, nurses, advanced practice and allied health professionals. It provides multi-specialty locum tenens services, as well as other human capital management services focused on healthcare.\nAbout Robert Half International\nRobert Half International Inc. provides specialized staffing and risk consulting services. The Company provides these services through its divisions, including Accountemps, Robert Half Finance & Accounting, OfficeTeam, Robert Half Technology, Robert Half Management Resources, Robert Half Legal, The Creative Group and Protiviti. The Company operates through three segments: temporary and consultant staffing, permanent placement staffing, and risk consulting and internal audit services. The temporary and consultant staffing segment provides specialized staffing in the accounting and finance, administrative and office, information technology (IT), legal, advertising, marketing and Web design fields. The permanent placement staffing segment provides full-time personnel in the accounting, finance, administrative and office, and IT fields. The risk consulting and internal audit services segment provides business and technology risk consulting, and internal audit services.\nReceive News & Ratings for Cross Country Healthcare Inc. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Cross Country Healthcare Inc. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.", "Health Insurance Scheme refers to a programme that covers or shares the expenses associated with healthcare of individuals. It is on the basis of the need to ensure effective healthcare services to all Nigerians at an affordable cost that the Federal Government established the National Health Insurance Scheme under Act 35 of 1999.\nThe scheme has three different programmes to address different segments of the Nigerian society. The first programme is the formal sector social health insurance programme which covers the federal, state and local governments, as well as the organised private sector. The armed forces, the police, other uniformed services and students of tertiary institutions are also covered by the formal sector social health insurance programme. The second programme is the informal sector social health insurance programme. This programme covers the community-based social health insurance programme and the voluntary contributors social health insurance programme. The third programme is the vulnerable group social health insurance programme which covers physically challenged persons, prison inmates, children under five years, refugees, victims of human trafficking, internally displaced persons, immigrants and pregnant women.\nThe mode of operation of the formal sector social health insurance programme is such that the health services of employees in the formal sector are addressed from the funds pooled by the employer and the employees. In the formal sector social health insurance programme, specific responsibilities are expected from the healthcare facility, Health Maintenance Organisation and the National Health Insurance Scheme. The healthcare facility must be accredited with the NHIS and must abide by the operational guidelines of the NHIS. The healthcare facility must provide the services agreed with the NHIS in the benefit package and ensure enrollees satisfaction.\nThe healthcare facility should report complaints to the HMO and the NHIS. It is the duty of the HMO to market approved health insurance plan to enrollees and ensure continuous sensitisation of enrollees. The HMO should carry out continuous quality assurance of healthcare facilities, ensure timely approval of referrals and follow up on the referrals. The HMO should ensure timely financial payments to healthcare facilities and effect necessary returns to the NHIS. Actually, the HMO is the link between the enrollee, healthcare facility and the NHIS. Under the formal sector social health insurance programme, it is the duty of the NHIS to set standards for the programme and accredit healthcare facilities and the HMO. The NHIS should carry out periodic reviews to determine the rates to be contributed by the government, payment rates to service providers, as well as provide technical support for the implementation of the programme. Health education, sensitisation and mobilisation are also expected from the NHIS.\nThe healthcare services will be provided by primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities. The primary healthcare facilities are the point of first contact between individuals and healthcare facilities. They are the gatekeepers of the scheme and they provide preventive, curative and rehabilitative services when operating at optimum capacity.\nThe secondary healthcare facilities provide specialised services and attend to patients referred to them from the primary healthcare facilities through the HMOs. However, under situations of emergency, secondary healthcare facilities can attend to patients without necessarily informing the HMO. The tertiary healthcare facilities provide highly specialised services upon referrals from the secondary healthcare facilities through the HMOs. Employees from the public sector or private sector with staff strength of 10 or more persons are expected to enroll in the programme.\nThe contribution of the employees to the programme depends on the earning of the employees. In Federal Government agencies, the employer pays 3.25 per cent while the employee pays 1.75 per cent, representing five per cent of the employees consolidated salary. For agencies in other tiers of government as well as in the organised private sector, the employer pays 10 per cent while the employee pays five per cent, representing 15 per cent of the employee’s salary. While the employer may decide to pay the entire 15 per cent for the employee, the employee may also make extra contributions in order to improve on the package of benefit available to them.\nThe waiting period during which a participant will wait for their documents to be processed before they can access healthcare services under the scheme is 90 days. The enrollee’s contributions to the scheme will cover healthcare benefit to the enrollee, one spouse and four children who are less than 18 years of age. However, if more people and children above 18 years are to be covered by the scheme, extra contributions to be determined by the NHIS will be paid. Double registration of a spouse or child is not allowed.\nMartins Eke is a Programme Officer at Centre for Social Justice, Abuja (08035066196)\nCopyright PUNCH.\nAll rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.\nContact: [email protected]\n(Visited 445 times, 1 visits today)", "Wiseguyreports.Com Publish New Report On -“Healthcare Staffing Market 2017 Global Industry – Key Players, Size, Trends, Opportunities, Growth- Analysis to 2021”\nPUNE, INDIA, November 14, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ --\nHealthcare Staffing Market 2017\nThe Healthcare Staffing industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Healthcare Staffing market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 2.81% from 3920 million $ in 2013 to 4260 million $ in 2016, The analysts believe that in the next few years, Healthcare Staffing market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2021, The market size of the Healthcare Staffing will reach 4982 million $.\nThis Report covers the Major Players’ data, including: shipment, price, revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better. This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size as well as price data.\nRequest a Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2501614-global-healthcare-staffing-market-report-2017\nBesides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment, channel segment etc. cover different segment market size. Also cover different industries clients’ information, which is very important for the Major Players.\nSection 1: Free——Definition\nSection (2 3): 1200 USD——Major Player Detail\nAMN Healthcare\nAccountable Healthcare Staffing\nAya Healthcare\nCHG Healthcare\nCross Country Healthcare\nFavorite Healthcare Staffing\nHealthcare Staffing Services\nInGenesis\nJackson Healthcare\nMaxim Healthcare\nMedPartners\nMedical Solutions\nParallon Workforce Management Solutions (HCA)\nSoliant Health (Adecco)\nTrustaff\nVista Staffing Solutions\nSection 4: 900 USD——Region Segmentation\nNorth America Country (United States, Canada)\nSouth America\nAsia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)\nEurope Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)\nOther Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)\nSection (5 6 7): 500 USD——\nProduct Type Segmentation (Nurse Staffing Service, Physician Staffing Services , Home Health Staffing, , )\nIndustry Segmentation (Clinics, General Hospital, Specialized Hospital , Family Health Care, )\nChannel (Direct Sales, Distributor) Segmentation\nSection 8: 400 USD——Trend (2017-2021)\nSection 9: 300 USD——Product Type Detail\nSection 10: 700 USD——Downstream Consumer\nSection 11: 200 USD——Cost Structure\nSection 12: 500 USD——Conclusion\nAny Query, Submit Here @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2501614-global-healthcare-staffing-market-report-2017\nTable of Contents –Analysis of Key Points\nSection 1 Healthcare Staffing Product Definition\nSection 2 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Major Player Share and Market Overview\n2.1 Global Major Player Healthcare Staffing Business Revenue\n2.2 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Overview\nSection 3 Major Player Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n3.1 AMN Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n3.1.1 AMN Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-2016\n3.1.2 AMN Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Distribution by Region\n3.1.3 AMN Healthcare Interview Record\n3.1.4 AMN Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Profile\n3.1.5 AMN Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Product Specification\n3.2 Accountable Healthcare Staffing Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n3.2.1 Accountable Healthcare Staffing Healthcare Staffing Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-2016\n3.2.2 Accountable Healthcare Staffing Healthcare Staffing Business Distribution by Region\n3.2.3 Interview Record\n3.2.4 Accountable Healthcare Staffing Healthcare Staffing Business Overview\n3.2.5 Accountable Healthcare Staffing Healthcare Staffing Product Specification\n3.3 Aya Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n3.3.1 Aya Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-2016\n3.3.2 Aya Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Distribution by Region\n3.3.3 Interview Record\n3.3.4 Aya Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Overview\n3.3.5 Aya Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Product Specification\n3.4 CHG Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n3.5 Cross Country Healthcare Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n3.6 Favorite Healthcare Staffing Healthcare Staffing Business Introduction\n…\nSection 4 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Region Level)\nSection 5 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Product Type Level)\n5.1 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Market Size 2013-2016\n5.2 Different Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Market Size Growth Rate 2013-2016\n5.3 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Analysis\nSection 6 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Industry Level)\n6.1 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Industry Level) Market Size 2013-2016\n6.2 Different Industry Trend 2013-2016\n6.3 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Industry Level) Analysis\nSection 7 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Channel Level)\n7.1 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Channel Level) Market Size and Share 2013-2016\n7.2 Global Healthcare Staffing Market Segmentation (Channel Level) Analysis\nSection 8 Healthcare Staffing Market Forecast 2017-2021\nSection 9 Healthcare Staffing Segmentation Product Type\n9.1 Nurse Staffing Service Product Introduction\n9.2 Physician Staffing Services Product Introduction\n9.3 Home Health Staffing Product Introduction\nSection 10 Healthcare Staffing Segmentation Industry\n10.1 Clinics Clients\n10.2 General Hospital Clients\n10.3 Specialized Hospital Clients\n10.4 Family Health Care Clients\nSection 11 Healthcare Staffing Cost of Production Analysis\n11.1 Technology Cost Analysis\n11.2 Labor Cost Analysis\n11.3 Cost Overview\nSection 12 Conclusion\n..…..Continued", "BOCA RATON, Fla., July 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (Nasdaq: CCRN) will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss its second quarter 2018 financial results on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (the \"Company\") intends to distribute its earnings press release after market close on Wednesday, August 1, 2018.\nThis call will be webcast live and can be accessed at the Company's website at www.crosscountryhealthcare.com or by dialing 800-857-6331 from anywhere in the U.S. or by dialing 517-623-4781 from non-U.S. locations – Passcode: Cross Country. A replay of the webcast will be available from August 1st through August 15th at the Company's website and a replay of the conference call will be available by telephone by calling 800-391-9846 from anywhere in the U.S. or 402-220-3132 from non-U.S. locations – Passcode: 2018.\nAbout Cross Country Healthcare\nCross Country Healthcare is a national leader in providing innovative healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services. Our solutions leverage our nearly 40 years of expertise and insight to assist clients in solving complex labor-related challenges while maintaining high quality outcomes. We are dedicated to recruiting and placing highly qualified healthcare professionals in virtually every specialty and area of expertise. Our diverse client base includes both clinical and nonclinical settings, servicing acute care hospitals, physician practice groups, outpatient and ambulatory-care centers, nursing facilities, both public schools and charter schools, rehabilitation and sports medicine clinics, government facilities, and homecare. Through our national staffing teams and network of 73 office locations, we are able to place clinicians on travel and per diem assignments, local short-term contracts and permanent positions. We are a market leader in providing flexible workforce management solutions, which include managed services programs (MSP), internal resource pool consulting and development, electronic medical record (EMR) transition staffing, recruitment process outsourcing, predictive modeling and other outsourcing and consultative services. In addition, we provide both retained and contingent placement services for healthcare executives, physicians, and other healthcare professionals.\nCopies of this and other news releases as well as additional information about Cross Country Healthcare can be obtained online at www.crosscountryhealthcare.com. Shareholders and prospective investors can also register to automatically receive the Company's press releases, SEC filings and other notices by e-mail.\nCONTACT:\nCross Country Healthcare, Inc.\nWilliam J. Grubbs, 561-237-6202\nPresident and Chief Executive Officer\[email protected]\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cross-country-healthcare-announces-second-quarter-2018-earnings-release-date-and-conference-call-information-300675988.html\nSOURCE Cross Country Healthcare, Inc.", "Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter\nPASADENA, Calif. (CBSMiami/AP) — The colorful, rose-covered floats of the lively Rose Parade made their way under cloudy skies and heavy security as crowds celebrated the new year with the annual tradition.\nThe colorful and lively Rose Parade marched safely Monday under cloudy skies and the watchful presence of more than 1,000 law enforcement officers.\nNo major problems were reported after security and other safety measures were beefed up for the 128th annual parade as a response to several terror attacks in Europe in the past year.\nGallery: The Colorful Floats Of The Rose Parade\nThere were no known threats toward Pasadena, officials said, but in addition to uniformed and plainclothes officers, additional security measures were taken. Sturdy barricades were erected at more than 50 intersections to prevent a terrorist attack like ones that happened in Berlin and Nice, France, last year when trucks barreled into crowds of people.\nA large law enforcement presence was also seen at the nearby Rose Bowl, where the University of Southern California was to play Penn State.\nAs fans tailgated hours before the game, several truckloads of FBI SWAT officers arrived at the stadium. They were joined by Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies, the California Highway Patrol, Pasadena police, bomb-sniffing dogs and Homeland Security officers.\nThe 5½-mile parade featured marching bands, horseback riders and dozens of ornately decorated flower-covered floats.\nHighlights included a Hawaii-themed float with a volcano and several waterfalls, another with surfing dogs and one honoring the 49 people killed in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation sponsored the float titled “To Honor and Remember Orlando” that included three survivors of the attack.\nThree Olympic gold medalists — runner Allyson Felix, diver Greg Louganis and swimmer Janet Evans — were grand marshals of the parade.\nTemperatures were cooler than normal, in the 50s during the parade. Spectators who arrived early and some at the end of the show experienced light rain.\n(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)", "Home Healthcare Market report provides the latest market data along with industry future trends, which keeps tracking of users driving revenue growth rate of Home Healthcare Market by application (therapeutic, diagnostic, fitness, nutrition monitoring), type (home health monitoring products, home health services, home health solutions) market status and outlook of global and major regions, from manufacturers, and end industries. As this report is expected to help key players among the Home Healthcare Market it includes the five years Industry analysis and the 6 years annual forecast from 2017 to 2023. Some of the prominent participants in the Global Home Healthcare Market are Philips Healthcare, Almost Family Inc., Abbott Laboratories, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Johnson & Johnson, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Cardinal Health Inc., Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Omron Healthcare and McKesson Corporation.\nGet free Sample Pages of this Premium Report :- https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/reports/sample_request/310\nDue to Increasing Acceptance of Home Healthcare as a Cost Effective Alternative Solution to Traditional Treatments and Growing Number of Workforce Related to these Services Increasing the Demand for Home Healthcare Services\nHome healthcare is a wide range of medical solutions, products and services, which provide health monitoring, treatment and regular support to patients at home. Home healthcare is generally less expensive, more convenient and as effective as care you receive in a hospital or nursing home. Primary factors driving this market include rise in base of geriatric population, increasing number of patients with chronic diseases, growing awareness about home health among the population, growing demand for affordable healthcare treatments, pressure to reduce the healthcare treatments costs, technological innovations, and government support to promote home healthcare. In addition, increasing acceptance of home healthcare as a cost effective alternative solution to traditional treatments and growing number of workforce related to these services increasing the demand for home healthcare services. Moreover, the construction and maintenance of hospitals are capital intensive in nature and incur large investments in terms of capital and operational expenses. Therefore, healthcare providers strategically with the help of mergers and acquisitions are now entering the rapidly growing home healthcare market in an effort to exploit on the available prospects in this market.\nNorth America is Leading Contributor to the Market and Is Expected to Retain Its Position during the Forecast Period\nGeographically, North America is leading contributor to the market and is expected to retain its position during the forecast period. Nonetheless, the market for Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at a faster rate owing to increasing prevalence chronic diseases, growing awareness among the population, increasing adoption of new technologies, large number of new players entering into the market, improving healthcare infrastructure, rise in healthcare spending, and favorable government policies.\nSegment Covered\nThe report on global home healthcare market covers segments such as, type, application and software. On the basis of type the global home healthcare market is categorized into home health monitoring products, home health services and home health solutions. On the basis of application the global home healthcare market is categorized into therapeutic, diagnostic, fitness and nutrition monitoring and other. On the basis of software the global home healthcare market is categorized into agency software, clinical management systems and hospice solutions.\nU.S. Drives the Growth in the North America Region as it is the Largest Market in the Region\nThe report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2015-2023.The countries covered in the North America region include the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; while Asia-Pacific includes China, Japan, India, South Korea, Malaysia, and among others. Moreover, Germany, U.K., France, Spain, and Rest of Europe are included in the European region. The U.S. drives the growth in the North America region as it is the largest market in the region. The Asia-pacific region offers a substantial potential for the market growth owing to rapid growth in markets such as India and China. The APAC region is projected to experience a growth at a CAGR of x.x% over the period of 2017-2023.\nMajor key Players Mentioned in this Premium Report\nThe report provides profiles of the companies in the global home healthcare market such as, Philips Healthcare, Almost Family Inc., Abbott Laboratories, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Johnson & Johnson, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Cardinal Health Inc., Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Omron Healthcare and McKesson Corporation.\nTable of Contents:-\n1. Preface\n1.1. Report Description\n1.2. Research Methods\n1.3. Research Approaches\n2. Executive Summary\n3. Global Home Healthcare Market Overview\n3.1. Introduction\n3.2. Market Dynamics\n3.2.1. Drivers\n3.2.2. Restraints\n3.2.3. Opportunities\n3.3. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis\n3.4. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis\n3.5. Competitive Landscape in the Global Home Healthcare Market\n4. Global Home Healthcare Market by Type\n4.1. Home Health Monitoring Products\n4.2. Home Health Services\n4.3. Home Health Solutions\n5. Global Home Healthcare Market by Application\n5.1. Therapeutic\n5.1.1. Home Respiratory Equipment\n5.1.2. Insulin Delivery Device\n5.1.3. Home IV Pumps\n5.1.4. Home Dialysis Equipment\n5.1.5. Other Therapeutic Equipment\n5.2. Diagnostic\n5.2.1. Diabetic Care Unit\n5.2.2. BP Monitors\n5.2.3. Multi Parameter Diagnostic Monitors\n5.2.4. Home Pregnancy and Fertility Kits\n5.2.5. Other Self-Monitoring Equipment\n5.2.6. Apnea and Sleep Monitors\n5.2.7. Holter Monitors\n5.2.8. Heart Rate Maters\n5.2.9. Other\n5.3. Fitness and Nutrition Monitoring\n5.4. Other\n6. Global Home Healthcare Market by Software\n6.1. Agency Software\n6.2. Clinical Management Systems\n6.3. Hospice Solutions\n7. Global Home Healthcare Market by Region 2017-2023\n7.1. North America\n7.1.1. North America Home Healthcare Market by Type\n7.1.2. North America Home Healthcare Market by Application\n7.1.3. North America Home Healthcare Market by Software\n7.1.4. North America Home Healthcare Market by Country\n7.2. Europe\n7.2.1. Europe Home Healthcare Market by Type\n7.2.2. Europe Home Healthcare Market by Application\n7.2.3. Europe Home Healthcare Market by Software\n7.2.4. Europe Home Healthcare Market by Country\n7.3. Asia-Pacific\n7.3.1. Asia-Pacific Home Healthcare Market by Type\n7.3.2. Asia-Pacific Home Healthcare Market by Application\n7.3.3. Asia-Pacific Home Healthcare Market by Software\n7.3.4. Asia-Pacific Home Healthcare Market by Country\n7.4. RoW\n7.4.1. RoW Home Healthcare Market by Type\n7.4.2. RoW Home Healthcare Market by Application\n7.4.3. RoW Home Healthcare Market by Software\n7.4.4. RoW Home Healthcare Market by Sub-region\n8. Company Covered\n8.1. Philips Healthcare\n8.2. Almost Family Inc.\n8.3. Abbott Laboratories\n8.4. B. Braun Melsungen Ag\n8.5. Johnson & Johnson\n8.6. Becton, Dickinson And Company\n8.7. Cardinal Health Inc.\n8.8. Fresenius Se & Co. Kgaa\n8.9. Omron Healthcare\n8.10. Mckesson Corporation\nBrowse Detailed TOC, Description and Companies Mentioned in Report @\nhttps://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/healthcare_medical_devices/home_healthcare_market", "Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has taken all the risks in his last full budget. The middle class is obviously miffed at the sleight of hand in the income tax announcement. Instead of claiming that the government is giving some benefit through standard deduction, it would have been better to project it as a replacement for transport and medical allowance. Only the FM knows if this was a strategic mistake or a tactical mistake made by the speech writers.\nBudget speech is the most important policy event of the year and is dissected closely. Therefore, it is important that it be fair, transparent and complete. The manner in which standard deduction was announced shows that bureaucrats felt they could fool taxpayers. The lack of details on the massive healthcare insurance scheme shows poor preparedness, too.Two steps are needed quickly on the health scheme or Modicare as it is being called. First, the government needs to explain how it will work and give full details. Second, it needs to be launched quickly so that the benefits can reach citizens before the government gets into election mode. Otherwise, it may lead to a higher discontent.\nLack of details means higher chances of misinterpretation. The healthcare scheme is an insurance for medical emergencies, specifically hospitalisation. Ten crore families that will be insured will have to pay a nominal amount to be recognised and mapped by the insurance system. Jandhan Aadhaar and Mobile is the digital foundation for rolling out this scheme. The government should not run or manage this scheme that’s in insurance companies’ domain. The government’s job is to usher in reforms by revamping the regulatory structure and digital infrastructure to roll out this scheme.\nChanges in regulations will be needed to make sure that the scheme is attractive enough for the sector: insurance companies, healthcare service providers and recipients. The learnings from the failures in the shtriyaSwasthiyaBima Yojana and the best practices from CGHS, the defence services healthcare schemes, need to be adopted in Modicare. But the scale of the scheme is such that some reforms and incentives may be needed to make sure that private healthcare service providers accept it. It is important that the private sector is part of it as it delivers more than 80 per cent of the healthcare services in the country. They have to accept it; the government cannot expect the poorly-run government hospital sector to deliver the mammoth scheme. Let the mistakes made in NHP 2017 not be repeated with Modicare.\nPeople prefer private hospitals over government ones. If the scheme is structured properly, regulatory reforms done will help in solving the biggest problem ailing the healthcare services. Rising healthcare costs are leading families to bankruptcy and poverty. Government statistics show the number of households facing catastrophic expenditure due to health costs was 18 per cent of all households in 2011-12 compared to 15 per cent in 2004-05. Independent estimates suggest that it would be closer to 30 per cent in 2017-18.\nThe most important impact of Modicare is that when the government becomes the largest buyer of healthcare services, it can lead to standardisation of medical procedures and prices. This will bring down the overall prices of healthcare services, help improve services and prevent frivolous tests and procedures for even the middle class. To show its sincerity towards this reform, the regulatory structure for healthcare sector should be done before the launch of the scheme.\nAny insurance company looking at bidding for this scheme, and I am assuming that the government will not manage it, would be attracted by size. Therefore, the access and delivery through JAM -- which means enrolment of citizens already registered as MNREGA beneficiaries or BPL families -- will have to be done. This is the digital infrastructure that needs to be leveraged for reaching 10 crore families. Insurance companies would obviously be interested in accessing such large base. The government should, therefore, negotiate the best premium so that the cost to the exchequer and user can be low.\nThe myth that everything can only be done by allocating large sum of funds has to be broken. Modicare is one reform that can effectively build a new way of delivering better quality of services by creating an enabling environment of regulation and infrastructure around it.\nThe writer is a policy analyst based in Delhi and can be reached at [email protected]", "At least half of the world’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services, and about 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty every year because they have to pay for healthcare.\nNew Delhi: Providing healthcare services free of cost does not ensure equal access to women, revealed an analysis of data on over 19 million Indian households by the University of Oxford and George Institute for Global Health.\nA smaller proportion of women than men received hospital care for gender neutral conditions across age groups and most disease categories, despite a state-sponsored insurance scheme in Andhra Pradesh providing access to free hospital care for poor households, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.\nThe study analysed data on hospitalisation between 2008 and 2012 from the largest state-funded health insurance scheme in India, in undivided Andhra Pradesh.\nIt found that despite comparable proportions of women and men in the population, women had a lower share than men of hospitalisations (42%), bed-days (45%) and hospital costs (39%) for gender-neutral conditions. These findings were observed across 14 out of 18 disease categories and all age groups, but especially for the oldest and youngest women.\n“India has one of the highest levels of gender inequality in the world, and as the benefits of this insurance scheme are shared within households, it could be that the healthcare needs of girls and women—particularly those not of reproductive age—are considered less important than those of their brothers, fathers and husbands,” said Vivekanand Jha, executive director of The George Institute for Global Health in India.\nAt least half of the world’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services, and about 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty every year because they have to pay for healthcare. As women are the majority of the world’s poor and, therefore, less able to afford healthcare than men, universal healthcare coverage is seen as a strategy to improve gender equality.\n“Our findings have urgent implications for the current drive towards achieving universal healthcare coverage around the world, which we would expect to be of huge benefit for women,” said Sanne Peters, research fellow in epidemiology at The George Institute, Oxford.\n“It seems that ensuring that everyone can access essential healthcare services without incurring financial hardship is not enough on its own to ensure equal access by women and men. We need to consider other barriers that women might face in accessing healthcare, which may include families prioritising the healthcare needs of men over those of women,” Peters said.", "The Global mHealth Market is poised to expand at a whopping CAGR nearly 50% over the forecast period (2012 to 2020). mHealth or mobile health involves the use of wireless devices and mobiles to offer healthcare services. Despite considerable developments in the field of healthcare services, there are a number of issues that still persist pertaining to affordability and availability. Penetration of smartphones with 4G and 3G networks owing to urbanization & high income levels is expected to fuel the industry in the years to come.\n3G & 4G LTE networks facilitate the prompt delivery of telemedicine services via speedy data transfers and video calls. High incidence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and heart ailments can contribute significantly to the global industry in the years to come. Various healthcare mobile applications may help patients in managing and controlling these ailments. However, infrastructural security and data privacy and safety may negatively impact overall demand during the forecast period.\nBrowse Details of Report @ https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/mhealth-industry\nThe worldwide mHealth market is segmented on the basis of services, participants, and geographies. According to services, the divisions are monitoring services, diagnosis services, healthcare systems strengthening services, and others. “Others” mainly pertains to wellness and prevention and thus focuses on geriatric care, smoking de-addiction, drug abuse prevention, healthy living, and child care. In 2013, monitoring services held more than 60% shares in the global market. Such services include independent aging solutions, post acute care services, devices (body trackers) for monitoring vital signs, and chronic disease management. Diagnosis services facilitate effective communications between patients and healthcare professionals about various health related issues.\nOn the basis of participants, the industry is categorized into healthcare providers, content players, device vendors, and mobile operators. Being a rapidly expanding segment, mobile operators can continue dominating the global market over the forecast period. Beside connectivity services, they also offer end-to-end solutions, mobile telemedicine, content-based wellness information, and health call centers. This segment generates much of its revenues from monitoring & diagnostics services. Device vendors mainly refer to electronics & technology companies that offer equipment for gathering patient medical data and transmit data to back-end servers through mobile networks. Content players deal with information based services either through collaborations or in a stand-alone manner with mobile operators.\nGeographically, the global mHealth market is segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. With a market share (in revenue terms) exceeding 30%, North America led the global industry in 2013. Regional drivers are surging demand for monitoring services because of growing prevalence of chronic diseases & ailments worldwide. Asia Pacific can expand robustly at a more than 45% CAGR over the forecast period. The region is fueled by growing need for better healthcare services.\nProminent companies operating in the global industry are Vodafone Group, Samsung Electronics, mQure, Orange, and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions among others. Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic’s venture capital unit supports an mHealth smoking cessation program that features an online communication & support platform and a wearable that releases drugs at equal time intervals. The concerned platform is undergoing clinical trials for both European and U.S. regulators. It may be available in the market in 2018 or 2019. Commonly known as the “Smartpatch”, this device releases biologically timed drugs. This action is based on the sensors that are present in the patch for measuring vital signs.\nBrowse Related Category Market Reports @\nhttps://www.hexaresearch.com/research-category/healthcare-industry", "CHANDIGARH: Ayushman Bharat or the National Healthcare Protection Scheme (NHPS) will provide healthcare services through health and wellness centers, a Niti Aayog member has said.\nWhile making a presentation on the scheme at an interactive session here, Niti Aayog member Vinod Paul said that secondary and tertiary care services will also be offered under NHPS through public and empanelled private hospitals by means of a transparent mechanism.\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi launched the healthcare scheme last week with the opening of first health centre at Bijapur in Chhattisgarh.\nIn his address at the session, Paul provided details of NHPS, elaborated on enrolment of beneficiaries, informed about the empanelment criteria of service providers and led particular emphasis on the role of tier II & III cities in the successful implementation of NHPS, a CII release quoting him said.\nPaul highlighted the need of an adequate infrastructure in these cities because of their proximity to the people who are expected to be served under this scheme.\nPaul informed that the government is working on finalizing the packages. Awareness is being created to help estimate the fair costs for various services, he said.\nHowever, Paul emphasized that the model of healthcare service delivery should be changed to high volume with low margin. He also invited suggestions for expanding healthcare infrastructure in the underserved areas.\nA robust system of fraud control and grievance redressal for beneficiaries as well as healthcare providers will be implemented by the state governments based on specific guidelines for public and private healthcare providers.\nThrough NHPS, the government resolved to help create an affordable, efficient and trust-driven system with participation of state government and public as well as private institutions.\nDuring the interaction organized by CII Northern Region, representatives from the healthcare industry comprising small 10-bedded hospitals to 500 plus bedded hospitals highlighted the issues of transparent processes, timely payments, package rates in consonance with the interest of stakeholders as some of the areas which need to be focused upon while implementing NHPS.\nThe Ayushman Bharat scheme has twin missions – first, creating a network of health and wellness centers to deliver comprehensive primary healthcare close to the community, and second, providing insurance cover to 40 per cent of India’s population that is most deprived, for secondary and tertiary care, including for instance, hospitalization costs.\nIt aims at covering 10 crore poor and vulnerable families and provide a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. PTI\nComments\ncomments", "Patient Centric Healthcare App Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2024\nContact\nMr. Shah\n12067016702\[email protected] Mr. Shah12067016702\nEnd\n-- Patient Centric Healthcare App Market Overview:Increasing consumer health awareness and rising prevalence of various diseases is peaking consumer interest towards ways to monitor and maintain good health. Increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes, and high cholesterol levels due to changes in lifestyle and proliferation of smartphones and wearable devices are influencing the populace to opt for various health monitoring apps to monitor and maintain optimal health. Patient centric healthcare apps help users to stay updated about medication times, number of calories consumed, dehydration level in body, etc. As per a recent statistic shared by Apple Inc., on an average, an iPhone user unlocks his phone 80 times a day, while statistics released by Pew Research stated that around 46% of people surveyed in the U.S. claimed that they simply could not live without their phones. This creates a large target population for developers of health apps Increasing trend towards usage of healthcare IT systems to offer access to patients data to practitioners sitting anywhere in world and routine checkup of lab reports, easy access to radiology and pathology reports from mobile devices is expected to boost growth of patient centric healthcare app market.Increasing occurrence of complications due to non-adherence to doctor's recommendations and not undergoing routine checkup due to busy work life, necessitates a companion app that helps users actively monitor their health. The healthcare industry in general is experience an increasing trend towards patient-centric approach in clinical trials focusing on personalized medicine and patient empowerment. This entails enhanced focus on patient care as part of healthcare services and enables the patient to access the various services and take control of their own health. This is expected to further create lucrative opportunities to patient centric healthcare applications providers for diagnostic purpose. Increasing government initiatives to digitalize healthcare system in their respective countries as part of overhauling and strengthening the healthcare infrastructure is acting as a value-driver to patient centric healthcare app. Dubai Health Authority (DHA) launched patient centric app Sehhaty as part of its smart city program. Developed regions such as North America and Europe are expected to contribute major share to the market due to higher acceptance of advanced technologies, complemented by robust healthcare infrastructure and high discretionary income in these regions.Global Patient Centric Healthcare App Market TaxonomyThe global patient centric healthcare app market is classified on the basis of following segments:Category Type:· Wellness Managemento Fitnesso Lifestyle and stresso Diet and Nutrition· Disease and Treatment Managemento Healthcare Providers/Insuranceo Medication Reminders and Informationo Women's Health and Pregnancyo Disease specific· OthersTechnology Type:· Internet-based Technology· Mobile Devices· Home TelehealthOperating System:· iOS· Androids· WindowsEnd Users:· Personal Usage· Hospital· Clinics· OthersMajor Patient centric Healthcare apps in the market: Patient Centric Connected Care (PC3)( Infinite Computer Solutions Inc.), IntelliVue Guardian System (Philips), Philips mobile medical app (Philips), miMeds (iPatientCare), miCalc (iPatientCare), miWater (iPatientCare), Apple's CareKit (Apple) etc.Increasing focus on multi-platform apps for wider penetrationCompanies are focusing on introducing novel apps that can sync with various health monitoring devices and offer compatibility with most major mobile platforms in order to increase product penetration. In July 2014, iPatientCare, Inc., one of the pioneer in mhealth and cloud based ambulatory HER launched its new patient centric app for iphone and ipad. It allows patients and clinicians to remain updated about patient's health. In September 2016, IBA and Philip launched its new patient centric solution for IBA's proton therapy system for treatment of cancer. In 2015, Health Fabric, launched its product health fabric store where clinicians and commissioners create, share and recommend care plans to their patients.Subscription-based services and in-app purchases: A preferred revenue generation model for playersThe global patient centric healthcare app market is highly fragmented owing to the participation of many established and emerging players in the patient centric healthcare app market. Major players involved in the global patient centric healthcare app market include Philips, iPatientCare, MobileSmith, Klick Health, and Health Fabric. Major players provide their apps for free. However, to avail of major services such as interactions with doctors, a one-time fee or a subscription model is adopted. For instance, DynaMed Mobile, Isabel, and Epocratesare some of the many apps in the market that are free to download, though there is a subscription fee applicable to avail of additional services. Advancements in technology are expected to pave way for patient centric healthcare apps that would monitor patient data in real-time and transmit the information to healthcare professionals for analysis.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.", "The term ‘Patient Access’ is broadly used to define as barriers to healthcare as lack of insurance coverage. High deductable health plans and financial limitations. However, these are traditionally termed as front end operations of revenue cycle. Patient access begins with the first point of contact that begins with initial encounter where the staff confirms patient identity, verify insurance coverage provide estimates of ordered services and more. Healthcare industry is currently focusing on streamlining and improving the performance of patient access as accuracy on the front end has proven to reduce bad debts and denials after the patient is either in process or completed the treatment. Technology is a key factor that allows visibility into insurance benefits and other essential sources of information. Patient access solutions comprise web based platforms that deals with electronic medical verification and claims processing system. This system allows the healthcare providers to manage their patient information, access the information in-house/remotely. This service expands beyond traditional healthcare to home, dental, veterinary and chiropractic industries. HealthCare Industry Research Report reveals that the global patient access solutions market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% for the period 2018-2022 and reaching approximately USD 2 Billion by the period end.\nAs patients engage first with the healthcare system, easy access to all the key information is what he or she looks forwards to. With introduction of healthcare reforms, rising patient bad debt, patient access has become the first line of defense to proactively provide patient access solutions and reach a healthcare bottom line. Health Care Industry Analysis suggests that the Patient Access staff is responsible for 80 cents of every dollar coming into a hospital facility. The features and advantages to these solutions are innumerable. Appointments can be scheduled into a single interface to improve workflows and enable patient workflows. Patient access solutions allow patients to fill open appointment slots by enabling patients to easily search for opportunities and to self schedule. These solutions allow healthcare providers to move payment cycle to the front of the revenue cycle. It allows patient to determine out of pocket expenses by comparing cash prices with real time specific member eligibility and other information. The goal is to holistically integrate patient access within the revenue cycle for optimal performance and better servicing the needs of the client. This includes human resources, education as well as integration of scheduling within the billing cycle to create personalized care for patients.\nThe patient access solution market is dominant in the developed countries with high disposable income and technological access. This industry has its roots in the US. Prominent players in the patient access solutions market are The Advisory Board Company (US), McKesson (US), Epic Systems (US), Cerner (US), Cognizant (US), Experian plc (Ireland), Optum, Inc. (US), Conifer (US), Craneware, Inc. (UK), The 3M Company (US), The SSI Group, LLC (US), ZirMed, Inc. (US), Cirius Group, Inc. (US), and AccuReg Software (US). These services are not yet provided actively in India but with recent technological upsurge, this might set its foot in the country in the near future.\nAs technology further expands to the other developing nations, this market shall see an overall increasing growth rate, globally. The goal of Patient Access is to educate and support individuals – patients, staff and providers – on their journey to deliver comprehensive, quality health care services. Accessing quality care can yield many benefits, including improved physical, social and mental health status through prevention of disease and disability, detection and treatment of health conditions, higher quality of life, preventable death and longer life expectancy.\nTo know more, click on the link below:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/SC-91-64.html\nRelated Report:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/indonesia-healthcare-market/143541-91.html\nContact Us:\nKen Research\nAnkur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications\[email protected]\n+91-9015378249", "Healthcare Buildings (Construction) in Egypt Market Share, Opportunities, Segmentation and Forecast to 2021\nPUNE, INDIA, August 14, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Pune, India, 14th August 2017: WiseGuyReports announced addition of new report, titled “Healthcare Buildings (Construction) in Egypt: Market Analytics by Category & Cost Type to 2021”.\nSynopsis\n\"Healthcare Buildings (Construction) in Egypt: Market Analytics by Category & Cost Type to 2021\" contains historic and forecast market data for the healthcare buildings category in Egypt, it also provides detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by cost type (construction materials, construction equipment and construction services).\nGET SAMPLE REPORT @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1697766-healthcare-buildings-construction-in-egypt-market-analytics-by-category-cost-type\nSummary\nThe healthcare buildings category covers the development of facilities that are specifically designed to house healthcare service providers. The category includes, but is not limited to, hospitals, clinics, surgeries and laboratories.\nThe Egyptian healthcare buildings construction category continued to increase in the review period with a value of EGPxx.xx million (US$xx.xx million) in 2016 and increased at a rate of xx.xx% over 2015. The market recorded a CAGR of xx.xx% from 2012 through 2016.\n\"Healthcare Buildings (Construction) in Egypt: Market Analytics by Category & Cost Type to 2021\"' provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the healthcare buildings market in Egypt. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Egypt construction value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.\nScope\n• A top level overview of the healthcare buildings construction category in Egypt.\n• Historic data provided from 2012 through 2016 and forecast from 2017 through 2021.\n• A detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by cost type (construction materials, construction equipment & construction services) across the healthcare buildings market.\nReasons to Buy\n• Provides a top level understanding of the Healthcare Buildings construction in Egypt.\n• Helps you understand the market performance by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and construction cost type (construction materials, construction equipment & construction services).\n• Allows you to plan future business decisions using the forecast figures given.\n• The broad but detailed perspective will help all the players in the construction activity to understand and succeed in the challenging construction market.\nTable of Content: Key Points\n1 Introduction\n1.1 What is this Report About?\n1.2 Definitions\n1.3 CAGR Definition and Calculation\n2 Overall Healthcare Buildings: Market Analysis\n2.1 Overall Healthcare Buildings Output Value, 2012 - 2016\n2.2 Overall Healthcare Buildings Output Value Forecast, 2017 - 2021\n2.3 Overall Healthcare Buildings Output, by Cost Type\n2.3.1 Overall Healthcare Buildings Output, by Cost Type, 2012 - 2016\n2.3.2 Overall Healthcare Buildings Output Forecast, by Cost Type, 2017 - 2021\n3 Healthcare Buildings Output: Analysis by Category\n3.1 New Construction Output Value, 2012 - 2016\n3.2 New Construction Output Value Forecast, 2017 - 2021\n3.3 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type\n3.3.1 New Construction Output, by Cost type, 2012 - 2016\n3.3.2 New Construction Output Forecast, by Cost Type, 2017 - 2021\n3.4 Repair & Maintenance Output Value, 2012 - 2016\n3.5 Repair & Maintenance Output value Forecast, 2017 - 2021\n3.6 Repair & Maintenance Output, by Cost Type\n3.6.1 Repair & Maintenance Output, by Cost type, 2012 - 2016\n3.6.2 Repair & Maintenance Output Forecast, by Cost Type, 2017 - 2021\n3.7 Refurbishment Construction Output Value, 2012 - 2016\n3.8 Refurbishment Construction Output Value Forecast, 2017 - 2021\n3.9 Refurbishment Construction Output, by Cost Type\n3.9.1 Refurbishment Construction Output, by Cost type, 2012 - 2016\n3.9.2 Refurbishment Construction Output Forecast, by Cost type, 2017 - 2021\n3.1 Demolition Construction Output Value, 2012 - 2016\n3.11 Demolition Construction Output Value Forecast, 2017 - 2021\n3.12 Demolition Construction Output, by Cost Type\n3.12.1 Demolition Construction Output, by Cost type, 2012 - 2016\n3.12.2 Demolition Construction Output Forecast, by Cost type, 2017 - 2021\n4 Appendix\n…Continued\nACCESS REPORT @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1697766-healthcare-buildings-construction-in-egypt-market-analytics-by-category-cost-type\nGet in touch:\nLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/4828928\nTwitter: https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports\nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts", "24By7Security, Inc., prominent Cybersecurity and Compliance company named on Top 10 Healthcare IT Security Solution Providers – 2017 by Healthcare Tech Outlook magazine.\nCoral Springs, USA (PRUnderground) December 11th, 2017\n24By7Security, Inc. a well-known Cybersecurity and Compliance services provider has been announced as part of the Top 10 Healthcare IT Security Solution Providers for 2017, in the list published by Healthcare Tech Outlook magazine. The publication recognizes pioneering steps taken by 24By7Security, Inc. in the Cybersecurity and Compliance areas for healthcare, and the work done by the company in assessing and assisting build HIPAA-compliant IT infrastructure to help protect healthcare entities from Cybersecurity threats. The article quotes Sanjay Deo, President of 24By7Security, Inc. in the overall process and recommendations that the company follows in completing HIPAA risk assessments, and in designing actionable programs after an in-depth analysis of the customer’s infrastructure, location of data, policies and processes.\n“The healthcare industry is particularly susceptible to Cybersecurity threats and compliance requirements. We are pleased with this significant honor,” says Rema Deo, Managing Director of 24By7Security, Inc. 24By7Security, Inc. has been in business for over 4 years now, and we attribute the company’s success to a small but well credentialed and experienced team of Cybersecurity and Compliance specialists. The company has not only made a mark in healthcare but has also expanded its reach to other industries such as finance, retail, hospitality and others.\nFor media inquiries regarding 24By7Security, Inc. individuals are encouraged to contact the company via email at [email protected] or via Twitter @24By7Security. To learn more about the company, visit www.24By7Security.com.\nAbout 24By7Security, Inc.\n24By7Security, Inc. is a full service Cybersecurity strategy, implementation, operations and training firm. Our leadership consists of Cybersecurity experts with hands-on experience and have served in various capacities such as Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and active-duty top-secret roles. We provide various Cybersecurity consulting services for multiple industries nation-wide. In addition to general Cybersecurity experience, we are experts in regulatory compliance requirements for HIPAA/ HITECH, FFIEC, FIPA, FERPA, GLBA, PCI-DSS, NY State Cybersecurity Regulations, SOX, NIST-CSF, ISO/IEC 27001 and CFPB/ DFA. We provide Cybersecurity-related services like Security Risk Assessments, Vulnerability Assessments, Penetration Testing, Part-time CISO services, Part-time HIPAA Security Officer services, Policies and Procedure, Social Engineering Testing, HIPAA and Security Awareness Testing programs, Data Breach assessments, Incident Response planning and management services and forensics and recovery. We work with the areas of Strategy, Internal Audit Support, Assessments, Remediation and Training. Our goal is to avoid unnecessary risk to businesses and prevent the next generation of threats that could undermine the stability of companies.", "In 2017 and beyond, consumers will finally start to benefit from some of the innovations that have been evolving over the past year, from 3D prosthetics to customised insurance packages. Many of these trends will be cemented in our routine lives over the next couple of years.\nInnovative insurance\nA new era has dawned on the UAE’s insurance industry since the rollout of the Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) mandatory health insurance scheme. On the whole, the insurance market is embracing transformation, coming up with innovative products and services to increase accessibility and superior customer experience.\nOne of the key trends will be innovative partnerships to bring new products in the market, for example, fitness centres tying-up with insurance companies that monitor a person’s habits and thereby provide an assessment of their lifestyle and activity levels.\nThis data could help customers avail lower premiums by improving on their unhealthy behaviours. The resulting market would be filled with new entrants and millions of new customers that will foster fierce competition over quality and price. For entrepreneurs, it’s crucial to examine how key healthcare players are driving changes to accommodate mandatory health-insurance, and come-up with strategies and services that the current and future market actors will need.\nThe insurance industry, of course, is not an easy one to operate in. Heavy regulations, stiff competition from multi-billion dollar firms and an increasing level of newly formed start-ups, makes for an uphill battle, but for those that can overcome these challenges, there is a significant opportunity to solve a big problem and scale their businesses while doing it. So, those who fail to rise to the occasion and meet customer expectation will undoubtedly struggle and run the risk of disappearing altogether.\nConnected consumers\nDigital technology is a key focus.\nFor 2017, consumers will largely drive healthcare related queries, with the help of smart devices, mobile apps and online healthcare service portals. These technologies will clearly close the gap between caregivers/doctors and patients, streaming communication and interactions seamlessly.\nSubsequently, the constant generation of information and data through real time communication will lead to another growing trend of smart data that focusses on data collection and data analytics, which enables healthcare providers to customise services and improve overall quality of delivery. However, as new concepts, digital and technological trends take the healthcare market by storm, there will be a constant need for healthcare service providers and businesses to adapt to the online behaviour of the consumers.\nFor start-ups catering to this sector, the key challenge will be keeping-up pace with the constantly evolving digital trends, while they are focusing on establishing their core business. Having said that, it is vital for them to stay accustomed with the digital trends to be able to spot opportunities that will help them step up their services, offering improvised products and delivery.\nCross-sector collaborations\nAnother promising trend that’s likely to emerge in the UAE is the alliance of unorthodox businesses across different sectors in a concerted effort to enhance healthcare experience for patients. Globally, there have been examples of healthcare providers and taxi service companies partnering together to deliver a doctor at the patient’s door -24/7 round the clock.\nSo, demand for innovative healthcare services and products are driving strategic partnerships, offering multiple opportunities for start-ups in the Middle East.\nThe knowledge, however, is only the first step towards gaining clarity on your future opportunities, but the outcome will depend on how the organisation capitalises on the micro opportunities at their industry and country level.\nWhat’s required from today’s entrepreneurs is not necessarily the creation of a new smartphone, but the creation of powerful new utilisation methods and tools to execute the ideas.\nRise of the 3-D technology to customise health\nYet another revolution is underway in the world of health due to the growing prevalence of 3-D printing technology, which is so far being used in in many fields such as aerospace, architecture and industrial design. Owing to advances in 3D printing and virtual reality, tailored products, such as casts, prosthetics, wearables, and a variety of patient-designed solutions, will be made to order using software and printed-at-home technology.\nIt represents a major milestone in not just the functionality and aesthetics of artificial limbs, but also the accessibility of them. In less than a decade, it will lead to the creation of a new category of homemade devices that will become accessible to thousands of people who prefer niche health and wellness products.\nAs the maker-movement ushers in, there will be a requirement for new business models. If entrepreneurs find success in creating services that empower healthcare, abiding to the rules and regulatory frameworks that are in place, they will create new opportunities for people to engage and do business.\nAkbar Moideen Thumbay, Vice-president of the healthcare division of Thumbay Group, a DIFC-headquartered international business conglomerate.", "With R^SSO enabled, clinicians can launch third-party applications directly from a patient's chart without needing to re-enter their username and password. While single-sign-on (SSO) solutions have been in place for some time, most of them are focused on the needs of healthcare organizations at an enterprise level. This creates tremendous inconsistency for digital health solutions working across multiple healthcare enterprises.\n\"R^SSO was designed specifically for digital health vendors building solutions that need to be accessed as part of a clinician's normal workflow,\" said Nijay Patel, vice president of product at Redox. \"Our ability to abstract away variance greatly improves the developer experience and application scalability by providing a standardized way to trigger these workflows.\"\nThrough a single connection to Redox, healthcare organizations have access to a marketplace of vetted, easily integrated digital health solutions. With integration concerns no longer slowing the adoption of specialty healthcare technologies, the need for a streamlined way for providers to interact with software solutions in addition to their electronic health record (EHR) system has never been more urgent.\n\"Offering a secure and streamlined way for clinicians to access and interact with a growing suite of technology solutions that augment and extend the traditional health record is a critical challenge facing all digital health vendors and healthcare organizations,\" said James Lloyd, chief technology officer at Redox. \"R^SSO solves this problem and we are excited to offer it to every member of the Redox Network.\"\nR^SSO is an extension of Redox's full-service healthcare integration platform that is used to power integrations between hundreds of healthcare organizations and digital health vendors. To learn more about R^SSO, or to discover how Redox makes exchanging health data easy, visit www.redoxengine.com/sso.\nAbout Redox\nRedox accelerates the development and distribution of digital health solutions with a full-service healthcare integration platform to securely and efficiently exchange data. Healthcare organizations and technology vendors connect once and authorize the data they send and receive across the most extensive interoperable network in healthcare. Redox exists to make healthcare data useful and every patient experience a little bit better. Learn how you can leverage the Redox Platform at www.redoxengine.com.\nMedia Contact:\nAlessandra Nix\n617.779.1860\[email protected]\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/redox-announces-single-sign-on-integration-for-digital-health-vendors-300634793.html\nSOURCE Redox\nRelated Links\nhttp://www.redoxengine.com", "DR. Dorothy Jeff-Nnamani, Managing Director of Novo Health Africa in this interview, uses her expertise in public healthcare management to examine the practice of health insurance in Nigeria within the context of its acceptance, challenges, and prospects. Our guest holds a Bachelor of Surgery, MBBS, Master of Public Health, MPH, and Master of Science, MSc, Infectious Diseases.\nYour name is synonymous with Health Maintenance Organisation, HMO, how did you find yourself in the industry?\nIf I said I had always known that I will be doing population health since I was in medical school, it would sound like a cliché. But that is the truth. In medical school, I found that I had a flair for community health.\nWhen I graduated, I looked at the challenges in our healthcare system and I felt that above all if we are going to be getting the real outcome for treatment provided, we have to deal with the health system by finding a way to provide healthcare for everybody. That understanding encouraged me to do a Masters degree in Public Healthcare system.\nThrough that, I understood a lot about public healthcare financing which is a model that can be used to finance healthcare. It could be health insurance and health tax among others. I also worked as a clinician briefly before opting to be in the public health sector.\nAs a clinician, I found out that treating a person should not just be about going to the hospital. For instance, a diabetes patient can go to the hospital and get treated, but after that, what happens to the management? If the person is not managed properly, if the person does not understand what his or her responsibility is towards the management of diabetes, things may not work out fine.\nManagement of diabetes\nSo there are things that can be sorted out by understanding how the external environment and lifestyle influence health. In my understanding, healthcare has to look at the totality of the individual. What happens is that what some people get in Nigeria is sick care and not healthcare. So, it is important people get reliable healthcare and everything has to come into play. To do that, the healthcare system must be organised.\nAt the time you got into the sector health insurance was literally non-existent in the country, what inspired you?\nIt was tough because already Nigerians had a perception about insurance that was not good. Having to come into a sector that provides services through an insurance principle was really tight. So, we had to start from explaining the difference between what we do as healthcare managers and traditional indemnity insurance.\nThere were people, who were also providing indemnity insurance for health before then. We explained that we as managers don’t just pay indemnity claims, we watch our clients’ back by treating them. We also provide disease management, wellness, and preventive healthcare among others. These are the things we had to explain until people started acknowledging our message. It was tough, but we had to be audacious by saying that Nigeria needs healthcare management. That management aspect is what differentiates us from normal insurance.\nWhen we visit people in the hospital, we talk to them and the doctor about value-based medicine, outcome, overprice and we also ask about the treatment being given to the patient.\nStatistics indicate that only five percent of Nigeria’s population is captured in the NHIS. How come the situation is so when HMOs have been around for a long time.\nThe HMO industry in Nigeria has come a long way. We would not say that we are new, but we are still in that teething phase due to the lack of awareness and understanding about health insurance. The partnership between the person, who is subscribing for the health insurance and the hospital that is providing the services and the HMO that is managing the delivery of those services, is still an issue.\nEnvironment for business\nThis has been the issue with the HMO industry. But the acceptance has increased over the years. People now see the value of protecting themselves financially in terms of ill health. People also see the value of having a HMO watch their back.\nNigeria is known to spend about 1.1 percent of its GDP on the health sector which is far below global standards. How has the National Health Law affected the HMO industry?\nThe law has been helpful in the sense that people don’t just create an environment for business or create a policy. The law has been enacted. Having done that, the law gives the industry that protection and empowerment. That, gave us hope for the future. It made people to start taking the industry more serious. The law has not been fully implemented but some aspects of it have stood out. And that has encouraged us in our practice.\nThere are some of them that I really like to see implemented and they will help us a lot. I am talking about those aspects of patients’ rights. There is a part of the law that actually states the patients’ rights. And if patients begin to know their rights, it will help the health sector.\nWhen they know that when they go to the hospital they can really request the service, know that the doctor is not doing them a favour and know that they are entitled to the service having registered in this scheme, it will be helpful to the system. I am saying so because sometimes people get to live off other person’s responsibility. Sometimes, people get to the hospital and don’t discuss with the doctor without asking questions.\nIt is the right of the people to ask doctors questions but they get to the hospitals and leave their life in the hands of the doctor. That is wrong. It is teamwork. People should learn to start communicating with their doctors by asking questions in line with their rights as patients. When more is done on patients’ rights, it will help the industry by making every stakeholder sit up. The industry will begin to evolve faster if patients start playing their roles. I don’t see any hospital abroad where people just come and sit down without communicating with the doctor. The first thing the doctor does there is to introduce himself.\nConsolidated revenue fund\nThere is also a provision for one percent of the consolidated revenue fund to be dedicated to primary healthcare. If that is done, we will begin to get there. That will also provide services for people who can’t pay because the essence of NHIS is to make sure that every Nigerian has access to healthcare.\nOn primary, tertiary healthcare: Creating awareness is everybody’s duty. The Federal Government has already made it part of the National Health law. I mentioned the basic health care provision fund which is also part of the law.\nIt says that 50 percent of the fund is supposed to be used for the provision of the basic minimum package of health services to citizens in an eligible primary or secondary healthcare facility through the NHIS.\nThen 20 percent of the funds are to be used to provide essential drugs which include vaccines and consumables, then 15 percent is supposed to be used for the maintenance of facilities and 10 percent are supposed to be used for the development of human resources for primary care. If the money is invested in the NHIS, more people will have access to healthcare. If funds are injected into the basic healthcare system, people will go there for basic healthcare but the primary healthcare is comatose. If primary healthcare is well funded, instead of going to treat malaria in the tertiary healthcare, people will go to the primary healthcare so that the people at the tertiary level can concentrate. So, there has not been a clear division on the different tiers of health sector and what services to be obtained there. When that is done, it will lessen the confusion and help in data management.\nThe lack awareness is still a challenge to health insurance in the country. In fact, it has been observed that religious and cultural factors contribute in limiting the awareness about health insurance in Nigeria, how are you coping with that challenge?\nWe can’t really exempt culture in what we do. Culture plays a role in almost every sector. Therefore, in the healthcare sector, we are experiencing its impacts. Nigerians are very religious people. The essence for us is to take awareness campaign across culture and religion. Some churches have even started enrolling their members in health insurance. But some people still have certain beliefs towards health insurance because some will say that they need their pastor to okay if health insurance is ungodly or not. When we want to visit a state or a community, we must know a lot about their cultural background by doing a lot of advocacy and talking to people, who matter. Sometimes, we use their festivals to talk to them about health insurance. The acceptance of the elders of the community is key because they uphold culture and tradition. It is easier to market health insurance to corporate organisations and those, who are exposed than the informal sector.\nWhat is the most challenging experience you have encountered in the course of your job?\nWhat I find most challenging is letting people understand that as much as they have right to health insurance, they also have responsibilities. It is challenging for me. It is a three-way partnership that requires all the stakeholders to understand their rights and responsibilities. If they should understand their rights and play accordingly, we will have a very smooth operation. People offer services at ridiculous prices just to get money at the expense of value and it kills the industry. When they are not able to provide value, the industry suffers it. When someone has registered, it is obligatory that the services are provided. The individual must not be negated by being given a lesser service because he is on health insurance. Hospitals should provide adequate services to anyone who is registered with a HMO because the HMO already has a contract with the hospitals.\nWhat are the ethics that have propelled you to significance?\nTransparency matters so much to me. People grow by growing other. When you are working, it is better to focus on people and keep an open door policy. People should be able to voice out their opinions. I say to my staff that apart from our families, we spend most of our time at work and therefore, we need to be comfortable with each other. Apart from business ethics, I have other principles that drive my everyday life. There should be room for communication and nobody should be left out in an organisation. One should be transparent in his dealings. Our word is our bond here in Novo Health Africa.\nThe post Patients’ Ignorance of their rights not helping healthcare – Dr. Jeff-Nnamani appeared first on Vanguard News.", "Leading recruitment software provider, iCIMS, releases report on hiring in the healthcare industry, sheds light on job growth in the industry\nMATAWAN, NJ--(Marketwired - February 15, 2017) - iCIMS, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based talent acquisition solutions, released a comprehensive healthcare report today, which highlights the factors driving changes in healthcare hiring today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), healthcare professions will add the most jobs of any occupation group from 2014 to 2024.\n\"Healthcare has always been a steady source of job growth and the BLS projects that healthcare-related occupations will continue to grow,\" said iCIMS chief economist, Josh Wright. \"While this need for healthcare positions won't be changing anytime soon, two factors driving changes in healthcare hiring are demographics and policy.\"\nThe report covers hiring metrics, time to fill and the number of applicants per position, for the healthcare industry as a whole and various subcategories of the industry including hospitals, standalone ambula­tory care clinics, nursing/residential facilities and social assistance organizations.\nKey findings from the report include:\nAmbulatory-care employers and nursing/residential facilities face the greatest challenges in attracting applicants, yet ambulatory-care employers fill positions faster than other categories.\nNursing and residential facilities see the fewest applicants per position.\nTechnical healthcare positions receive the fewest applicants per position and have seen the steadiest tightening in their competition.\nHealthcare support positions, such as home health aides, get filled faster than other healthcare occupations, despite usually receiving the most applicants per position.\n\"The number of applicants per open position in the healthcare industry has been declining over the last three years indicating tough competition for talent within the industry,\" added Wright. \"Healthcare recruiters face intense pressure to maintain their current pace of hiring, adapt to emerging trends and plan for longer-term shifts. Ultimately, healthcare organizations will adapt to future needs through a combination of technological innovation and new organizational designs -- everything from emergency rooms and special clinics to telemedicine and data analytics -- but they will also require a greater number and different proportions of healthcare workers to meet the demands of the future.\"\nTo view the full report please visit iCIMS Hiring Insights.\nAbout iCIMS, Inc.:\niCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition solutions that help businesses win the war for top talent. iCIMS empowers companies to manage their entire hiring process within the industry's most robust Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Built on the foundation of a best-to-market talent acquisition software suite, iCIMS' PaaS framework, UNIFi, allows employers to expand the capabilities of their core talent acquisition technology by integrating with the largest partner ecosystem in talent acquisition to help them attract, find, screen, and manage candidates. Offering scalable, easy-to-use solutions that are backed by award-winning customer service, iCIMS supports more than 3,200 contracted customers and is one of the largest and fastest-growing talent acquisition solution providers.", "GREENVILLE — Wayne HealthCare and Premier Health, who owns Upper Valley Medical Center, Troy, plan to move forward with a new joint venture after receiving final approval on March 23 from the Wayne Hospital Company, a community board that oversees the Greenville hospital.\nThe joint venture will create a framework within which Wayne HealthCare can develop an affiliate relationship with Premier Health while still maintaining independent, local control. It also will enable Wayne HealthCare to complete its master facility plan.\n“This broader relationship with Premier Health allows us to provide the citizens of Greenville and Darke County with more health care services close to home,” said Wayne Deschambeau, president and CEO of Wayne HealthCare. “We have been pleased to work alongside Premier Health in the past, and look forward to taking that collaboration to the next level.”\nThe new joint venture will provide opportunities for the two organizations to work more closely together in areas such as strategic development, both at the hospital and system level, as well as on education, training and possible group economies of scale in purchasing.\nFuture projects will include support from Premier Health for the Wayne HealthCare master facility plan that includes a three-story building to house a new obstetrical center, wellness center, a telemetry inpatient unit with 28 private beds, and a replacement for the Wayne Medical Building.\nThis further long term collaboration to enhance health care services is designed to improve hospital operational efficiency and help decrease the cost of care as well. Keeping the services close to home provides convenience to community members, reduces drive time, and increases access to the care they need in a familiar setting.\n“We’re excited and humbled by Wayne HealthCare’s vote of confidence in this affiliation,” said Mary Boosalis, president and CEO of Premier Health. “We very much respect Wayne HealthCare’s tradition of independence and have no doubt that each organization will learn a great deal from the other. In addition, we hope to demonstrate the value that local citizens can gain when a community hospital collaborates with a regional health system.”\nThe joint venture will be structured in a seven-year contractual relationship. At the end of the contract term, Wayne HealthCare will have the right to continue the relationship without change, request a restructuring of the contract elements or dissolve the joint venture.\nDuring the contract period, Premier will make a $13 million investment in Wayne HealthCare. In return, Premier will be entitled to a one-third representation on the Wayne HealthCare Board. Wayne HealthCare will have two ex-officio non-voting seats on the Premier Board. In addition, Wayne HealthCare senior leadership and physicians will participate in applicable Premier leadership conferences and planning sessions.\n“We are eager to embark upon this joint venture, which has all the hallmarks of an enduring relationship,” said Anita Moore, chair of the Premier Health board of trustees. “Both of our organizations share similar missions and visions to improve the health of the communities we serve, and we at Premier can’t wait to see what we can accomplish when we work more closely together.”\nThis next step in a long standing collaborative relationship, builds upon several already successful endeavors including the Wayne Cancer Center, a tele-stroke program, and the Good Samaritan Health Center-Greenville.\n“Premier Health has proven itself to be a good partner, so we’re looking forward to the possibilities created by this joint venture,” said Dr. William Johnston, chair of the Wayne HealthCare board of trustees. “We think Darke County residents will find that this new collaboration will make a meaningful difference in the health care services available to them.”", "Progress, the leading provider of application development and deployment technologies, today announced the availability of Progress® Health Cloud, the first and only enterprise health cloud that fully integrates industry leading frontend, backend and data connectivity technologies into a serverless and HIPAA-compliant platform for quickly creating apps to drive patient engagement and better healthcare outcomes.\nToday, the healthcare industry rates among the lowest of all industries in customer experience scores, according to the Temkin Group[1]. With the advancements in digital business, healthcare providers, insurance payers, pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies need to act like other consumer-facing businesses, delivering high quality, engaging digital experiences that will improve patient care and drive better healthcare outcomes.\nProgress Health Cloud enables healthcare organizations to quickly deliver winning patient and connected care applications to any device, by offering tools to easily build engaging experiences across any and all interface types. Progress Health Cloud comes equipped with pre-packaged healthcare application templates, a flexible, scalable and HIPAA compliant serverless cloud platform and pre-packaged integrations with EHRs and other healthcare data sources.\nWith Progress Health Cloud, healthcare organizations are now in a position to deliver unified digital health experiences in the form of mobile, tablet, wearable, web and chat bot applications. Moreover, they can deliver 5-star app experiences, get to market 75% faster with new applications, cut EHR integration time in half, lower total cost of ownership for applications by 60% and save tens of thousands of dollars per year in compliance costs.\nProgress Health Cloud is built on the Progress Kinvey™ serverless cloud platform and includes NativeScript components for easily building cross-platform native mobile experiences with a single codebase. Kinvey was named a Leader with the highest score for current offering among all vendors in the “Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Health Clouds, Q3 2017.”\n“When we set out to create the digital experience for our members, we knew it had to be incredibly engaging, easy to use and seamless across mobile and web experiences – and it had to support our need to get to market quickly, which is why we selected Kinvey,” said Pam Hudson, CIO, BayHealth Development. “With the release of Progress Health Cloud, Progress has taken the best of the Kinvey platform and layered it with the healthcare-specific expertise required for our industry. It is by far the most robust, relevant offering available today.”\nFeatures of Progress Health Cloud include:\nDigital experience accelerators—Patient experience app templates for popular use cases and SDKs to quickly deliver successful mobile, tablet, web, wearable, voice and chat bot apps.\nCloud service accelerators—20+ integrated, configurable and compliant serverless cloud services, accessible via auto-generated REST APIs, eliminating integration development, testing, infrastructure and operation costs.\nHealth service catalog—Secure, easy access to health services catalog with a multitude of connectors to popular EHR, enterprise and cloud systems with sub-second data delivery and online/offline user access.\nOut-of-the box HIPAA compliance, offering enormous time and cost savings.\n“Patient experience and healthcare outcomes are the top priorities for healthcare organizations today,” said Yogesh Gupta, CEO, Progress. “With Progress Health Cloud, we are offering something truly unique to the market that is enabling our customers to deliver the best application experiences with a fraction of the time and effort of other solutions.”\nFor more information on Progress Health Cloud, please click here.", "Welcome to DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING, the newsletter providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem, produced by Business Insider Intelligence.\nSign up and receive DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING free to your inbox.\nHave feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at: [email protected]\nBEST BUY SEES OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE: Best Buy is testing an in-home health monitoring service, Assured Living, as it explores healthcare as a growth opportunity and potential revenue channel, per CNBC. The Assured Living program helps caregivers and family members check on aging patients with remote patient monitoring (RPM) — mobile technology that enables individuals to track and share their personal health data — which can help the more than half of Americans suffering from chronic health conditions better manage their illnesses. As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, the electronics retailer sees health and wellness as a strategic area for opportunities moving forward, according to CEO Hubert Joly. Best Buy has expanded its Assured Living pilot in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota since launching the program in January 2017, according to the StarTribune.\nBest Buy’s Assured Living could increase customer engagement with the health monitoring technology they purchase from the retailer. The program provides families with an in-home assessment performed by Assured Living Advisors who recommend the appropriate devices based on the seniors’ living conditions and health concerns, and Best Buy's Geek Squad workers install the systems. In addition to the up-front cost of the devices, customers pay Best Buy a $29.99 monthly fee for access to a smartphone app that helps seniors and family members monitor health data and activity. Assured Living's in-home installation service provided by the Geek Squad is a process consumers are already accustomed to — it's no different than installing a smart TV or connected speaker into a customer's home. This could help to normalize RPM technology.\nThe proliferation of RPMs will benefit tech companies and health organizations alike:\nAdvertisement\nRPMs open up opportunities for consumer-facing companies to push into the health space. As consumers become more comfortable with self-monitoring their health through remote devices and smartphone apps, retail companies and tech giants are presented with an opportunity to leverage their existing consumer-facing products as health monitoring tools. This trend has been seen in Amazon's development of Alexa’s healthcare services, and Apple's re-positioning of its Watch as a health monitoring tool.\nAs consumers become more comfortable with self-monitoring their health through remote devices and smartphone apps, retail companies and tech giants are presented with an opportunity to leverage their existing consumer-facing products as health monitoring tools. This trend has been seen in Amazon's development of Alexa’s healthcare services, and Apple's re-positioning of its Watch as a health monitoring tool. Access to more elderly patient data could help insurers and providers cut healthcare costs. Tracking vitals and lifestyle behaviors could help caregivers improve treatment and medication adherence. Providers and insurers are eager for tools that can help clamp down on the 80% of healthcare costs that come from chronic diseases, especially as the US healthcare system stares down an expanding aging population.\nMOST AMERICANS ARE UNAWARE, CONCERNED ABOUT PRECISION MEDICINE: Two-thirds of Americans haven’t heard of personalized medicine or precision medicine, according to a new study commissioned by the Personalized Medicine Coalition and GenomeWeb. Precision medicine, which uses variations in patients’ genes, environment, and lifestyle to guide the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases, has the potential to drive down healthcare costs. For example, the Alzheimer's Association reports that earlier detection of Alzheimer’s can reduce the per-person cost of treatment by $64,000. But low rates of patient awareness as well as uneasiness around how precision medicine will be used are a significant hurdle to increased adoption by providers and insurers. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that the use of personalized medicine tests to deny coverage was a “major concern.” While it’s illegal for payers to use precision medicine tests to deny coverage, patient misinformation on the matter could prevent hospitals from successfully deploying precision medicine in a clinical setting.\nAt the same time, clinician understanding of precision medicine is lacking. Just 14% of providers would be comfortable interpreting genetic tests for their patients, according to Clinical Innovation+Technology. Still, health systems anticipate long-term savings from precision medicine. That’s why providers like John Hopkins University are developing clinical decision support tools that make it easier for clinicians to interpret genetic test data. If health systems are to realize the potential cost-savings from scalable adoption of precision medicine, they’ll need to improve their outreach efforts to assuage patient doubts and clinician familiarity.\nUNITEDHEALTHCARE DOUBLES DOWN ON VALUE-BASED CARE WITH LAB PARTNERSHIPS: UnitedHealthcare signed contracts with LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics — two of the nation’s largest US diagnostic test companies — to bring value-based care (VBC) to laboratory tests, according to Forbes. LabCorp’s renewing its contract, while Quest’s contract makes it an in-network provider for all of UnitedHealthcare’s members. The emergence of the VBC model, in which providers are paid based on positive patient outcomes rather than the number of services the patient uses, is good news for insurers — they get the benefit of healthier members at lower costs. And it makes sense for UnitedHealthcare to emphasize its VBC push in a lab setting — as much as $200 billion is wasted annually on excessive testing and treatment, according to Healthcare Finance News. For providers, the benefits of the VBC model are less clear-cut. In the current fee-for-service reimbursement model, health systems benefit from prescribing additional treatments and services. However, insurers such as UnitedHealthcare argue that the VBC model encourages a faster patient turnaround, which could lead to greater volumes of patients. UnitedHealthcare’s Spine and Joint Solution, for instance, reduced hospital readmission rates by 22%.\nALIBABA HEALTH SPENDS $1 BILLION IN LATEST HEALTHCARE EXPANSION: Alibaba Health Information Technology agreed to spend $1.4 billion to purchase several health-related categories on the online shopping platform of its parent company, Alibaba Group, according to TechCrunch. The deal gives Alibaba Health ownership of categories that include medical devices and services and other healthcare products, which generated over $3 billion in gross merchandise volume in the fiscal year ending in March 2018. The deal, which expands Alibaba Health product offerings and enables it to reach more consumers, comes soon after Alibaba Health announced plans to increase investments in AI for healthcare. Consolidating business-to-consumer products under Alibaba Health is the next logical step to shore up against the healthcare efforts of competing Chinese tech giants Baidu and Tencent.\nIN OTHER NEWS:", "The number of people receiving government assistance for overseas or local medical bills has increased by nearly 50 percent between late 2011 and this year, the Legislative Assembly’s Finance Committee was told Tuesday.\nHealth Minister Dwayne Seymour revealed that more than 1,600 people were receiving permanent or temporary assistance with their healthcare coverage at either non-Health Services Authority facilities in Cayman or at overseas hospitals as of May 2018.\nIn November 2011, that figure was about 1,100 people.\nThe cost of their medical bills at overseas or non-public medical facilities in Cayman was expected to exceed $21 million for the entire year, according to Minister Seymour.\nThat figure does not include the estimated $12 million to $24 million already being spent at public hospitals before those individuals are referred to private facilities in Cayman or overseas medical care facilities for treatment.\nThe 1,600 people identified as “indigents” – those without a healthcare plan – did not include Cayman veterans and seamen, who also receive government assistance for healthcare provided at overseas facilities each year.\nThe numbers were presented as Minister Seymour tried to convince finance committee members to support an additional $8 million in spending on indigent healthcare in the current budget year as costs continue to rise and could put government in danger of not paying hospital bills later in the year if these were not covered.\n“Delaying or denied medical care for seafarers and indigents presents a significant liability to government,” Mr. Seymour said. “If their condition deteriorates [due to a lack of funding for care], the high probability is their family would file a complaint against the government.\n“Inability to meet financial obligations to the overseas healthcare providers could affect the relationship with these providers,” the minister said. “Patients referred by government could be denied access to critical care.”\nThe latter outcome could affect the entire government service healthcare coverage plan, not just what is provided to indigent Caymanians, Mr. Seymour said, if overseas providers become reluctant to do business with the Cayman Islands.\nSome legislators proposed increasing an annual tax on private sector insurers under the standard health insurance contract to help cover the costs. Right now, people insured under private sector plans pay $10 per individual and $20 per family per month toward indigent healthcare – raising about $5 million per year.\nHowever, with costs for coverage now in the region of between $40 million and $45 million per year, those charges do not come close to covering what taxpayers spend on indigent care each year.\n“This amount of money is just absolutely phenomenal,” Savannah MLA Anthony Eden said.\n“We cannot continue this.”\n“The healthcare companies make $50 million profit on insuring 40,000 working people … and then as soon as someone retires from the private sector, they become government’s problem,” said Bodden Town West MLA Chris Saunders.\nMinister Seymour noted that more than two-thirds of those indigents receiving permanent healthcare coverage from government were over age 60.\nHe said the government had not seriously considered proposals to “nationalize” Cayman’s healthcare coverage, but he noted either that option or expanding coverage provided by the Cayman Islands National Insurance Company, which currently insures most government workers, might have to be considered.\n“Every year we continue coming for this [spending item],” he said. “The responsible thing for us to do as a House is look at ways to stem this cost.”\nCivil service plan\nOne option that is not being considered to better fund government-provided healthcare is making government workers pay a portion of their own coverage premiums.\nThis proposal was raised by the previous Progressives administration in 2014 but died after Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said earlier this year that there was “no support” for such a move.\nAt present, all civil servants, their spouses, underage children and civil service retirees receive 100 percent free healthcare coverage, as long as they use the public hospital system. Government taxes and fees are used to fund tens of millions of dollars each year in healthcare payments on behalf of civil servants.\nA review of healthcare liabilities completed in late 2017 had looked at how much the government expects to owe for health costs in the next 20 years, as well as how much taxpayers are funding public sector healthcare annually.\nIn 2014, the government estimated its present value healthcare liability for both current and retired civil servants would be $1.18 billion over the next 20 years.\nBy June 2016, those future liabilities were estimated to have increased to $1.4 billion and last year, to nearly $1.7 billion.", "During her testimony to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen outlined the potential economic impact of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare.\nWhen asked by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez about the effect of the recent budget resolution passed by Republicans that would repeal significant parts of the ACA on the broader US economy Yellen said, \"We would have to look at what the shifts in healthcare have on the economic outlook.\"\nShe continued, \"Healthcare, as you mentioned, does account for a very significant share of spending and a loss of access to health insurance could have a significant impact on spending of households for other goods and services. Beyond healthcare itself, it could have impacts on the economy.\"\nOver the past two years, healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP increased at a level usually seen during recessions according to the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, and out of pocket costs for Americans have been climbing at a rapid pace.\nWhile this shift may already be restricting discretionary spending, as Yellen notes, a sudden loss of insurance could cause households to shift even more household spending away from discretionary goods and services and towards healthcare.\nYellen went on to say that the increase in health coverage and access to insurance under the ACA has helped improve the labor market.\n\"In addition, access to healthcare for some individuals has likely increased their mobility and diminished the phenomenon called job lock where people are afraid to leave jobs because of losing health insurance and that could have implications for the labor market as well that we would try to evaluate,\" said Yellen.\nWhile these issues could be mitigated by a possible replacement plan offered by Republicans, Yellen made it clear that a large overhaul of Obamacare could have implications for the entire US economy.", "Research Methodology – Market Definitions\nHospital Market: The Singapore hospital market includes revenue generated by public and private hospitals established in Singapore. Revenue from outpatient and inpatient services has been considered. Revenues from public and private hospital has been tabulated in the market. Revenue from pharmacy retail though pharmacies located in hospitals has been included. Revenue stream such as lab revenues has also been considered. Revenue generated from walk-in patients for laboratory tests has not been considered. Hospitals with more than 50 beds have been considered.\nPublic Hospitals: Public health facilities refer to those owned or controlled by a government unit or another public corporation (where control is defined as the ability to determine the general corporate policy).\nNot-for-profit hospitals: Not-for profit health facilities refer to those producing health goods and services, but are not permitted to be a source of income, profit or financial gain for the unit that establish, control or finance them.\nPrivate Hospitals: Private health facilities refer to those set up for the purpose of producing health goods and services and are capable of generating a profit or other financial gains for their owners.\nAcute Hospitals: Acute hospitals comprise both general hospitals and specialty centres (excluding Psychiatric Hospitals) with acute care inpatient and outpatient facilities.\nPsychiatric Hospitals: Psychiatric hospitals are those hospitals which offer a comprehensive range of psychiatric, rehabilitative and counseling services in the field of mental health.\nCommunity Hospitals: Community hospitals are those hospitals which cater to rehabilitation, geriatric care and coalescing patients. They are usually funded by charities or religious groups, with assistance from government funds and/or public healthcare professionals.\nResearch Methodology – Consolidated Research Approach\nHypothesis Creation: The research team has first framed a hypothesis about the market through analysis of existing industry factors obtained from magazines, journals, broker reports, investor presentations and annual reports of major companies and several articles. The team has used both public and proprietary databases to define and collect each market data point such as overall market size, segmentations and estimated future growth.\nHypothesis Testing: The research team conducted computer assisted telephonic interview (CATI) with several industry professionals including decision makers in hospitals. The industry professionals included several doctors, management executives, financial analysts and other higher level authorities. The analyst at Ken Research collated their insights on the market onboard and to seek justification to the hypothesis framed by the team. Additionally several clients from different hospitals in the ecosystem have been interviewed to understand their perspectives, needs, requirements and the prices charged for various medical services offered.\nSanity Checking @ Decision Tree Analysis: General consensus on data collected from primary research and public and proprietary databases has been reached by conducting in-house decision tree analysis of the data points available and by comparing it with macro-economic factors. Data has been collected and verified through cross-sanity checking between primary and secondary sources. Secondary data sources include the analysis of existing industry factors, obtained from company reports and from magazines, journals and online articles. The secondary data sources are used to form the initial perception and contention on several forces playing their role in determining the future growth in the industry.\nFuture Forecasting via Poll Opinions and Statistical Tools: Multi-Factor regression and scenario analysis was conducted on the lag variables i.e. on the historical market size of the industry by identifying the independent and quantifiable variables directly affecting the market. The forecasting was done by using SPSS statistical tools. The variables were checked for multi-co-linearity and other bias that could be present in the model. The conclusion from the regression was then double-checked by conducting poll opinions. Structured interviews were conducted through telecom with several industry veterans including major decision makers from. These interviews helped the research team to authenticate the data collected from secondary data sources and to reject or accept the hypothesis regarding the future projections.\nInterpretation and Proofreading: The final analysis will then be interpreted in the research report by our expert team well versed with the Healthcare Market.\nResearch Methodology – Market Sizing and Limitation – Hospital Market\nMarket Sizing:\nInitially, we have compiled a list of private and public hospitals on the basis of number of beds\nAdditionally, our team was able to get revenues from inpatients, outpatients and other revenue stream for certain hospitals, referring to our databases and also through accessing financial report of major hospitals. This helped us to understand average inpatient and outpatient charges on the basis of number of beds.\nFor the estimation of total hospital market, we have categorized the private and public hospital on the basis of number of beds and used average revenue per bed to estimate the market. We have also considered hospital revenue which comes from pharmacy and lab test as well.\nLimitation:\nThe total number of beds in hospitals is not calculated by sum of the number of beds in each hospital. However, the number of beds in Singapore hospitals in fetched either from public database or from market players investor presentations.\nAdditionally, it can also happen that some hospitals might be witnessing higher amount of inpatient or outpatient due to their specialized services, but we have taken an average as it is difficult to get the financial and inpatients/outpatient data for each hospital.\nSingapore Hospitals Market-Future Outlook and Projections, 2018-2022\nKey Takeaway:\nAdoption of telemedicine is another notable trend in this space. Further, medical apps providing virtual consultation. For instance, Doctor Anywhere App was launched in Singapore wherein the patients input the symptoms and the doctor consultation happens through video call. The MyDoc app, launched two years ago and targeted at businesses and insurance companies, lets users access doctors from various medical groups as well as pharmacists from Guardian. The company also conducts health screenings for small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore. Both test results and follow-ups with doctors can be viewed and arranged within the app. The cost of MyDoc’s services is pegged to individual insurance policies.\nSince outpatient care is increasingly being used to deal with common medical issues in Singapore such applications and telemedicine services will enable patients to get accurate medical information at the convenience of home. Further with the growing burden of ageing population, hospitals are engaging robots and other assistive technology to ease the burden on the manpower-strapped sector. A robot can help recovering stroke patient’s exercise, keep early stage dementia patients occupied and alert them to take their medicine, or call for a helper when it senses that they are struggling to get up.\nAutomation of manual work, such as filling in medical information or ordering medications, is expected to allow healthcare professionals to focus on their core work, devoting more time to their clinical and direct patient care roles. Further, data analytics and artificial intelligence can augment care provided at each touch point. Mobile dental units and patient tracking devices are other new projects that tap on technology to improve Singapore’s healthcare productivity.\nFor more information on the research report, refer to below link:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/singapore-hospital-market/149669-91.html\nRelated Reports by Ken Research:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/saudi-arabia-healthcare-market-research-report/1106-91.html\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/uae-healthcare-market-report/37505-91.html\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/qatar-healthcare-market-report/99730-91.html\nContact Us:\nKen Research\nAnkur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications\[email protected]\n+91-9015378249", "India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had a surprise trump card in his pack when he arrived in parliament to submit the country's annual budget 2018 on Thursday, 1 February. Billed as the world's largest healthcare programme, the flagship National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) aims to reach as many as 500 million beneficiaries.\n\"Modicare\", an obvious spin on the American insurance plan Obamacare, is a welfare measure that will offer insurance cover of up to £5,480 per family every year covering 100 million vulnerable families. This means 40% of the Indian population will be covered under the scheme. No cap on the family size has been mentioned.\n\"This will be the world's largest government-funded healthcare programme. My government has now decided to take health protection to a more aspirational level. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme. The government is steadily but surely progressing towards the goal of universal health coverage,\" Jaitley said in his budget speech, which was squarely aimed at satisfying the lower strata of society.\nWith an allocated budget of £131m, the government plans to create 150,000 state-run centres across the country, chiefly in villages, to provide free essential medicines and diagnostic services. Through the newly launched proposal, the government intends to provide cashless, paperless and quality medical care to needy people, said the administration.\n\"The announcement in the area of healthcare is clearly path-breaking for the sheer size, coverage and the amount committed per family. This ushers India firmly into the next generation of social security as India moves aggressively towards a progressive developing economy,\" Milind Kothari, managing partner, head-tax and regulatory services, BDO India, told the Economic Times.\nData from the 2011 census will be pulled in order to earmark the beneficiaries. While the federal health ministry will closely monitor the plan, the measures will actually be implemented by various state governments. The behemoth healthcare programme has been introduced even as a scheme from last year's budget aimed at providing an annual health cover of up to £1,090 per family is yet to be implemented.\nIndia, a $2.5tn economy, has one of the lowest public spending rates on public healthcare with just over 1% of the GDP – less than the global average. However, the biggest challenge for the government will be in implementing the scheme given the high costs of quality healthcare and the notorious private healthcare system. The government has not clarified whether the ambitious scheme would apply to services at state-run or private facilities.\n\"I don't know if 'Obamacare' was successful or not, but people will one day say 'Modicare' has been successful,\" said Jaitley in one of his television interviews following his budget speech in parliament.", "Related News\nThe Nigerian government has given its nod to Community Health Extension Workers, CHEW, to begin administering family planning contraception and implants for women, in an effort to increase family planning coverage across the country.\nAccording to a statement by the Federal Ministry of Health, the ministry and partners have begun implementing the Task-sharing and Task-shifting Policy for essential healthcare services.\nThe policy authorises lower cadres of health workers, including CHEWs, to administer implants and intra-uterine contraceptive devices (IUCDS). Until the policy was unfurled, that responsibility was undertaken only by trained nurses and midwives.\nAccording to the statement by the ministry on Monday, the step was being taken because CHEWs outnumber nurses working in primary healthcare centres in the rural areas, where there is a great need to provide family planning service to women.\nTwo states, Kaduna and Ondo, have been selected as pilot states to kick start the programme.\nThe Ministry, supported by Marie Stopes International Nigeria and other partners, trained CHEWs in the two states to administer IUCDs contraceptives in women who require the services in rural areas.\nSpeaking in Abuja during the dissemination of reports from studies conducted in the two states on the trial programme, the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, said one of the major barriers for accessing family planning in Nigeria is shortage and inequitable distribution of the appropriates cadres of health workforce to deliver healthcare services where they are most needed.\n“There is shortage of virtually all the cadres of healthcare workers, resulting in poor utilization of many of our health facilities for essential services,” the minister said.\nHe added that the National Task-sharing and Task-shifting policy was aimed at increasing access to services such as family planning in Nigeria.\nMr. Adewole said the ministry had approved the policy in October 2014 as a key step to addressed the problem of health workforce shortage with anticipated adaptation and implementation at all levels of national health system.\n“Let me reiterate that the National Task-Shifting and Task Sharing policy was not designed to take away task from any professional group but rather to make the best use of the cadres of staff currently employed and deployed to health facilities across the country,” Mr. Adewole stressed\nIn his remarks at the event, the Country Director, Marie Stopes Nigeria, Effiong Effiong, said the group had supported the ministry and state ministries of health in capacity building of CHEWs to implement the policy in the two states.\nHe said a study evaluated whether CHEWs could insert implants and contraceptives services as safely as nurses and midwives, and showed that with adequate training, they can do so.", "Healthcare OEM Manufacturers Market, by Therapeutic (Ophthalmology, Urology), by Material Processing, by Device, by Application - Global Forecast 2027\nMajor key Players include GE Healthcare,Siemens Healthcare GmbH,Koninklijke Philips N.V,Aramark,Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation,Fujifilm Holdings Corporation” — Market Research Future\nPUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA, August 15, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Global Healthcare OEM Manufacturers Market Report: Market Influencer\nThe major growth drivers of Global OEM manufacturer market includes rising need to cut healthcare costs, reduce estimated time to repair (ETTR) of equipment, innovations in IT to minimize maintenance costs, and growing need to collect equipment data and integrate healthcare systems and increasing availability of data and information. The growing technical advantages and growing GDP are also raising the growth of Healthcare OEM Manufacturer Market.\nHowever, Obsolescence is one of the major restraints for the OEM manufacturing industry; it regularly affects auto parts production as with the change in technology the parts manufactured with existing technology finds less usage. High cost and lack of expertise and professionals is hindering the Global Healthcare OEM Manufacturing Market.\nGlobal Healthcare OEM Manufacturers Market Report: Key Players\n• GE Healthcare (U.K.),\n• Siemens Healthcare GmbH (Germany),\n• Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands),\n• Aramark (U.S.),\n• Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Japan),\n• Fujifilm Holdings Corporation (Japan),\n• Hitachi Medical Systems America, Inc. (U.S.),\n• Esaote SpA (Italy),\n• Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA (Germany).\nRequest a Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/762\nGlobal Healthcare OEM Manufacturers Market Report: Application\nOEM has application in various healthcare areas such as cardiovascular, imaging, surgeries, diagnostics neurology. In present scenario, OEM wrist watches, blood pressure smart watch is been introduced into the healthcare market for the therapy of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular diseases. OEM Diabetic injecting insulin pen is been used by doctors and practitioners for the therapy and study of Diabetes. Also Cardiac rhythm management is performing with the help of OEM photo etching phenomenon.\nTaste the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread in 110 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on “Healthcare OEM Manufacturers Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2027”\nBrowse full report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/healthcare-oem-manufacturers-market\nGlobal Healthcare OEM Manufacturers Market Report: Market Segmentation\nGlobal Healthcare OEM Manufacturing Market by Therapeutic areas:\n• Cardiovascular\n• General surgery\n• Imaging\n• Diagnostics\n• Ophthalmology\n• Orthopedics\n• Respiratory\n• Neurology\n• Urology\nGlobal Healthcare OEM Manufacturing Market by Material Processing Sectors:\n• Material Handling and Packaging Equipment\n• Materials, Chemicals and Adhesives\n• Metal Fabrication and Metal Injection Molding\n• Plastic Extrusions & Moldings\n• Flow Control and Fluid Transfer\n• Fluid Power Components\n• Sterilization Processes\nGlobal Healthcare OEM Manufacturing Market by Medical Device Market:\n• Commodity\n• Non-commodity\nTable of Content\n1 Introduction\n1.1 Definition\n1.2 Scope Of Study\n1.2.1 Research Objective\n1.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations\n1.2.2.1 Assumptions\n1.2.2.2 Limitations\n1.3 Market Structure:\n2 Research Methodology\n2.1 Research Process:\n2.2 Primary Research\n2.3 Secondary Research:\n3 Market Dynamics\n3.1 Drivers\n3.2 Restraints\n3.3 Opportunities\n3.4 Macroeconomic Indicators\n4 Market Factor Analysis\n4.1 Porters Five Forces Model\n4.2 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers\n4.3 Bargaining Power Of Buyers\n4.4 Threat Of New Entrants\n4.5 Threat Of Substitutes\n4.6 Intensity Of Rivalry\n5. Healthcare Oem Manufacturers Market, By Therapeutic Areas\nContinue………………\nKey questions answered in this report\n• What will the market size be in 2027 and what will the growth rate be?\n• What are the key market trends?\n• What is driving this market?\n• What are the challenges to market growth?\n• Who are the key vendors in this market space?\n• What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?\n• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?\nAbout Market Research Future:\nAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.\nMRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.\nContact:\nAkash Anand,\nMarket Research Future\nOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers\nMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,\nPune - 411028\nMaharashtra, India\n+1 646 845 9312\nEmail: [email protected]", "The Global Healthcare IOT Security Market is currently valued at $4.8 billion and will reach $15.82 billion growing at a CAGR of 22%. The growth factors responsible for this explosive growth are cross transferability of the IoT security to a variety of sectors, huge savings due to increasing automation thus causing high adoption among end users, greater integration of devices in the internet ecology, development of smart devices requiring increasing security and rise in R&D expenditure due to increasing awareness about the technology potential and prospects.\nThe Internet of things (IoT) is the inter-networking of smart devices and infrastructure including buildings embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data with minimal manual interference. The system can also be remotely controlled and is highly automated across existing network infrastructure, resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit in addition to reduced human intervention.\nGet Sample PDF Illustration @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/804 .\nKey Players for Global Healthcare IOT Security Market\nIBM Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Sophos Group Plc., Symantec Corporation, Trend Micro Inc., and others\nSegments for Global Healthcare IOT Security Market\nGlobal Healthcare IOT Security Market has been segmented on the basis of component, software and services, applications, by connectivity technology, by application endpoint and by end-users.\nRegional Analysis for Global Healthcare IOT Security Market\nGlobally North America is the largest market for Global Healthcare IOT Security Market. Europe is the second-largest market for Global Healthcare IOT Security Market. However, the developing regions market particularly Asia Pacific will be the fastest growing and will be the key to the future.\nGet Prime Discount on Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/804 .\nSome Brief Table of Contents of Report\nChapter 1. Report Prologue\nChapter 2. Market Introduction\n2.1 Definition\n2.2 Scope Of The Study\n2.2.1 Research Objective\n2.2.2 Assumptions\n2.2.3 Limitations\nChapter 3. Research Methodology\n3.1 Introduction\n3.2 Primary Research\n3.3 Secondary Research\n3.4 Market Size Estimation\nChapter 4. Market Dynamics\n4.1 Drivers\n4.2 Restrains\n4.3 Opportunities\n4.4 Challenges\n4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators\n4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment\nChapter 5. Market Factor Analysis\n5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis\n5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers\nTOC Continued…\nLIST OF TABLES\nTABLE 1 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)\nTABLE 2 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY COMPONENT, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)\nTABLE 3 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY APPLICATIONS, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)\nTABLE 4 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY END-USERS, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)\nTABLE 5 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY REGION, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)\nLIST OF FIGURES\nFIGURE 1 RESEARCH PROCESS\nFIGURE 2 PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODEL\nFIGURE 3 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY COMPONENT\nFIGURE 4 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY APPLICATIONS\nFIGURE 5 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY END-USERS\nFIGURE 6 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE IoT SECURITY MARKET, BY REGION\nContinued…\nAccess Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-healthcare-iot-security-market-804 .\nAbout Market Research Future:\nAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.\nContact Us:\nMarket Research Future\nHadapsar, Pune – 411028\nMaharashtra, India\nPhone: +1 646 845 9312", "Considering the negative effect of its action on citizens especially patients, the Federal Government on Tuesday appealed to striking Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) members to resume work as negotiation was ongoing.\nThe Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, made the appeal at the induction of foreign trained medical laboratory scientists in Abuja by the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSC).\nEhanire, represented by Dr Shuaibu Belgare, Senior Technical Assistant to the minister, condemned the strike which had disrupted normal services in federal public hospitals.\nHe further decried the professional disharmony in the health sector, noting that nobody is considering the plight of patients.\nThe minister said all major stakeholders in the healthcare sector should be concerned with the ethics of their professions.\n“We are all looking for what we can get; nobody is thinking about the patients, which is the primary purpose of being in the workforce.\n“As I speak, JOHESU is on strike; hospitals are not providing services.\n“Please go back to work to salvage the situation while negotiation is going on; government will do everything possible to meet your demands,” he said.\nWhile congratulating the inductees for their success, Ehanire described laboratory scientists as extremely important in healthcare delivery.\nAccording to him, without the laboratory scientists, patients would end up being treated wrongly at every point in time.\nHe enjoined them to consider themselves as professionals and as well accord the profession due respect.\nEhanire identified part of the qualification that must be possessed by the scientists as attaching great value to services they rendered, having compassion for patients been the primary purpose of service, among others.\nHe also urged them to derive pleasure in taking up responsibilities that were rejected by their fellows to ensure professional excellence.\nThe minister identified precision as key in the profession to ensure quality healthcare delivery.\nEhanire intimated them of government policies on quality healthcare delivery bothering on primary healthcare.\nAccording to him, the initiative is aimed at bringing healthcare to the doorsteps of the masses.\nDr Bassey Enya Bassey, the President, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), urged the inductees not to compromise integrity in the course of practice.\nBassey assured them of the association’s support for their well-being to ensure professional excellence.\nResponding on behalf of his colleagues, Mr Ahmad Bakore commended the council for the inductions and called for the support of their superiors to achieve the desired success in their practices.\nHe said: “We can do nothing without our superiors supporting us or beckoning on us when we are going astray.”\nBakore pledged to uphold the ethics of the profession.", "The lack of real-time electronic verification of and authorization for health insurance coverage in the Cayman Islands is driving up costs and “the frustration level” for everyone involved, lawmakers heard Monday afternoon.\nSuperintendent of Health Insurance Mervyn Conolly told the Legislative Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee that the need for a real-time electronic verification system for healthcare claims has been recognized for years, but never successfully implemented.\n“Unfortunately, we know what happened with that particular initiative,” Mr. Conolly said. “It’s really unfortunate. I can’t stress how much we need such a system.\n“It would reduce the number of complaints we receive from healthcare practitioners from 60-70 percent … and it certainly would help the insured persons.”\nWhat “happened” between 2014 and last year was the arrest, trial and corruption conviction of former Health Services Authority board chairman Canover Watson in connection with an elaborate scheme to funnel money from the public hospital’s patient swipe-card system, known as CarePay.\nAlthough the CarePay cards were never used outside of the public hospitals, the former United Democratic Party government had intended at one point to expand the system to the islands’ nine private sector insurance companies. However, the system was abandoned prior to Mr. Watson’s conviction in early 2016 on fraud and corruption charges.\n‘Fairly complex’\nThe Cayman Islands healthcare system currently depends on what Mr. Conolly referred to as a “fairly complex” arrangement between the nine private sector health insurance providers, the public system (Health Services Authority), the insurance companies and the patients.\nMr. Conolly said that while the government maintains stringent requirements for insurers to operate in Cayman, the insurers’ objective is to ensure the healthcare premiums they charge aren’t “outstripped” by the claims they receive from the healthcare providers.\n“I don’t think we can fault them for that” Mr. Conolly said. “Where I have a problem as superintendent of health insurance is where an insured person has a plan of benefits which clearly meets the particular … episode of illness and where those claims are denied with little or no justification.”\nIn those instances, the Health Insurance Commission, which Mr. Conolly heads, pursues the insurer to accept the claims.\nHowever, many insurers in Cayman and elsewhere use a process called pre-certification, or “pre-cert,” which ends up delaying payment of healthcare claims, particularly for elective surgeries and non-emergency procedures, Mr. Conolly said. The use of pre-certification is not regulated in Cayman Islands law.\n“The way it operates now is that a healthcare provider can submit a claim and the insurance company can say ‘we need pre-cert on that’” he told the committee. “There are varying standards that are applied to this pre-cert.\n“This really frustrates the healthcare providers, meaning that a health insurance company can use the pre-cert process, not really to deny the claim, but to delay the claim. When they do that it means that they’re questioning the attending physician as to whether the care is necessary or not. So you have a non-physician, who is questioning a physician as to whether a treatment or service is medically necessary.”\nMr. Conolly said the Health Insurance Commission was looking into the practice and would issue regulations on it if the market “could not resolve itself.”\nDoctors’ pay\nThe current method used by insurance companies to reimburse doctors, referred to as the standard health insurance fees, is there to establish “some level of reasonableness” regarding fees paid on behalf of insured patients for services, according to Mr. Conolly.\nMr. Conolly said the standard health insurance fees, or SHIFs, which have not been changed since 2005, are still being used by about 45 percent of local doctors when charging patients and their insurers for services. The doctors may charge more to patients if they wish, he said.\n“Obviously, [the doctors] would prefer to have fees that are higher than the current level,” Mr. Conolly said. “But the feedback I get is ‘we can work with these fees, the problem is we need to be paid in a timely manner.’”\nThe cash flow issue was expressed by Public Accounts Committee chairman, North Side MLA Ezzard Miller: “When they can no longer deny, they delay, and then when they can no longer delay, they write a check … that takes two months to clear”\nMr. Conolly said implementing an electronic claims verification system would essentially solve the reimbursement lag.\n“We recognize the need for an electronic verification system,” he said. “The technology is there.”\nMr. Conolly acknowledged there is some complexity involved in doing that with a system of nine different approved private sector insurers who are selling a “myriad” of plans.\nMr. Miller suggested having the Health Services Authority charge a service fee for insurance companies for the implementation of a nationwide payment verification system.\n“We have to make it a requirement for each individual licensed insurer,” Mr. Miller said. “How they provide it is up to them to go and negotiate it.”" ]

[ "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An inter-faith group of residents living in Bahrain who are visiting Israel has issued a statement saying it doesn't represent the government in Manama or any of the kingdom's authorities.\nTheir visit has stirred uproar on social media over the timing of their trip following the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last week.\nThe group said in a statement carried by the state-run Bahrain News Agency on Sunday that it \"does not represent any official entity\" from Bahrain.\nThe group, which also has Americans and British nationals, includes Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims.\nAdvertisement\nThe group's members have said they are traveling on their own initiative.\nMany Bahrainis and others on Twitter criticized the visit in the wake of President Donald Trump's move on Jerusalem." ]

[ "Bahrain's Pearl roundabout, hub of 2011 protests for a constitutional monarchy and an elected government, reopened under a new name on Wednesday six years after being demolished and sealed off.\nWitnesses in Manama told AFP that the roundabout, which was one of the capital's landmarks before the protests were crushed, has been replaced with a simple crossroads named Farouk Junction.\nThe old roundabout, which boasted an imposing central monument of a white pearl supported by six white columns representing the six Gulf Arab states, was razed after troops and anti-riot police stormed a month-old protest camp there in March 2011.\nInspired by the Arab Spring uprisings which swept the region that year, demonstrators had taken to the streets of the Shiite-majority kingdom to demand sweeping reforms from its Sunni ruling family, who hold all top government posts.\nSupported by their Gulf neighbors, authorities responded with an iron fist, bloodily suppressing the protests and detaining hundreds of activists in an intensifying crackdown that continues to this day.\nLate last year, the main Shiite opposition party al-Wefaq -- the largest in parliament before the 2011 protests -- was banned. Last month, the leading secular opposition group Waad was dissolved too.\nTiny but strategic Bahrain lies just across the Gulf from Iran and is home base for the U.S. Fifth Fleet.\nAccess to the foreign media is severely restricted. The authorities refuse to allow AFP journalists to be based in Manama.\nThis month, the government banned the independent al-Wasat newspaper on accusations that it \"sowed division\" in Bahrain.", "Manama, Bahrain: The Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, H.E. Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa received a delegation from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on the 3rd of July 2018.\nThe delegation included the Director of Conference Services at UNWTO, Ms. Yolanda Sansegundo, Senior Expert on Innovation and Digital Transformation at UNWTO, Ms. Natalia Bayona and the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at Mastercard, Ms. Diana Robino. The meeting was also attended by the Director of Facilities and Tourism Services at BTEA, Mr. Hesham Al Saken and Advisor at the BTEA, Mr. Jesus Florido-Banqueri.", "People of Bahrain have held a rally to mark the first anniversary of the execution of prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by the Riyadh regime.\nBahrainis took to the streets of the village of Diraz on Sunday also to show solidarity with Bahraini Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim, whom Manama stripped of citizenship in June.\nThe Saudis executed Sheikh Nimr on January 2, defying international calls to release him. The execution sparked international condemnations and angry protests in many countries.\nProtests have been held on a regular basis outside Sheikh Isa Qassim's home, since June 20, when Bahraini authorities stripped the 79-year-old cleric of his citizenship over accusations that he used his position to serve foreign interests and promote sectarianism and violence. Sheikh Qassim has denied the allegations.\nMeanwhile, clashes broke out between police and anti-Manama regime protesters on Sitra Island. According to reports, several people were arrested during the protest.\nThousands of anti-regime demonstrations have been held in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom on February 14, 2011.\nThey are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and let a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.\nManama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist the Manama government in its crackdown. Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the regime’s crackdown on activists.", "Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa joined the blockade on Qatar along with other Gulf nations [Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters] A prominent human rights lawyer in Bahrain has been arrested after launching a lawsuit against the government over its restrictions imposed on neighbouring Qatar. Issa Faraj Arhama al-Burshaid was detained after challenging Manama's sanctions, which include blocking Qataris from staying in the country along with other economic penalties.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Al Jazeera.", "Manama\nBahrain’s most senior Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim has been taken to a private hospital in critical condition after weeks of suffering from deteriorating health. Sheikh Qassim’s family and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights group confirmed his hospitalization on Monday and said he was in “critical condition.”\nHe has been under house arrest for around 500 days amid daily protest gatherings in the northwestern village of Diraz which is besieged by regime forces. Bahrain’s leading political party al-Wefaq and rights bodies said the cleric, who is in his late 70s, was suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.\nDeputy Secretary-General of al-Wefaq Sheikh Hussein al-Daihi said the spiritual leader was taken from his home to a private hospital amid tight security measures. The cleric, known as the spiritual leader of the country’s Shia Muslim majority, has been hailed as a source of inspiration for their peaceful demonstrations against the ruling Al Khalifa regime.\nNew protests have been held in Bahrain against the ruling monarchy’s oppressive policies, especially its ill-treatment of a prominent Shia cleric.—Agencies", "Bahraini authorities have detained a citizen for sympathising with Qatar on social media, the attorney general said on Wednesday, after authorities warned that sympathising with Doha was tantamount to a criminal offence. The department of cyber crime referred a case to the public prosecutor’s office in which “a person of interest had posted comments to social networks that constitute a violation” of a ban against sympathising with boycott-hit Qatar, said attorney general Ahmed al-Hammadi, head of Bahrain’s Terrorist Crimes Commission.\n“The prosecution has begun investigating the matter, and the suspect has been interrogated and is being held in custody,” Hammadi said. Bahrain’s strict cyber crime law prohibits the expression of dissent online, including via social media. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt last week cut diplomatic ties with Qatar over accusations that the emirate was a champion of extremist groups in the region as well as over its ties to Shiite Iran. Qatar firmly denies the allegations.\nManama, which has had territorial disputes in the past with Doha, has announced it would jail Qatar sympathisers, following a similar decision by the UAE. “Any expression of sympathy with the government of Qatar or opposition to the measures taken by the government of Bahrain, whether through social media, Twitter or any other form of communication, is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine,” the interior ministry said last week.\nSunni-ruled Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Authorities accuse Iran of backing the protesters and aiming to incite unrest in Shiite-majority Bahrain, a charge Tehran denies.\nFor all the latest World News, download Indian Express App", "An explosion wounded two civilian passers-by in Bahrain, the interior ministry said early Wednesday, as demonstrators were marking the sixth anniversary of an anti-government uprising that was bloodily suppressed.\nThe ministry did not say what caused Tuesday evening's blast in a village outside the capital Manama but demonstrators sometimes throw petrol bombs during the sporadic protests that still grip the Sunni-ruled but Shiite-majority kingdom.\nThe blast came as demonstrators clashed with police in Manama and several nearby villages.\n...", "DUBAI - Armed men on Sunday attacked a prison in Bahrain where Shiites convicted over anti-government protests are held, killing one policeman and allowing inmates to escape, the interior ministry said. The security forces launched a manhunt for the attackers and the escaped prisoners, the ministry said on Twitter. The attack took place at Jaw prison south of the capital Manama, it said, but did not give more details on the number of attackers or escapees.\nThe tiny but strategic Gulf state has been rocked by unrest since its Sunni authorities crushed Shiite-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Hundreds of Shiites have been arrested and many have faced trials over their role in the demonstrations. Police on Sunday set up or reinforced roadblocks near Shiite villages outside the capital, witnesses said. Despite the crackdown, Shiite protesters have frequently clashed with security forces in these villages. In June, 17 prisoners broke out of Al-Hadd jail east of Manama, but the authorities recaptured 11 of them the next day.\nBahrain, which is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.", "Source: BBC News [UK state media]\n\"Gunmen in Bahrain have attacked a prison, killing a policeman and freeing 10 inmates convicted of terror offences, officials say. A security lockdown has been imposed around Jaw prison, south of the capital Manama, the interior ministry said. A second policeman was injured, when between four and six men, armed with automatic rifles and pistols, attacked the prison on Sunday. An investigation into the escape has been ordered, police said. Sporadic unrest has hit Bahrain since protests in February 2011 demanded an end to discrimination against the Shia majority by the Sunni Muslim rulers. At the time, demonstrators occupied Manama's Pearl Roundabout to press for more democracy.\" (01/01/16)\nhttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38483978", "Antigovernment demonstrators clashed with police in Bahrain on February 14 on the sixth anniversary of the island kingdom's Arab Spring uprising.\nThe protesters chanted \"Revolution until victory\" and \"No forgetting the martyrs\" while holding up pictures of those killed in the government's brutal crackdown on the uprising in 2011.\nIn the capital Manama, protests ended when policemen fired tear gas and stun grenades to prevent demonstrators from reaching the main entrance to the capital.\nActivists posted pictures of injured protesters online.\nSunni-ruled Bahrain has been rocked by low-level unrest since March 2011 when authorities backed by Saudi-led forces put down a month of Shi'ite-led protests demanding democratic reforms.\nSince then, hundreds of Shi'a have been arrested and put on trial, and others have been stripped of their citizenship.\nThe country, ruled by the Al-Khalifa dynasty for more than two centuries, has a majority Shi'ite population which has long complained of marginalization.\nUnited Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on February 14 voiced \"concerns about restrictions on fundamental freedoms, including rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression in Bahrain\" and urged the government to reform.\nBased on reporting by AP and AFP", "Armed men on Sunday attacked a prison in Bahrain where Shia convicted over anti-government protests are held, killing one policeman and allowing 10 inmates to escape, the interior ministry said.\nThe security forces launched a manhunt for the attackers and the escapees, the ministry said on Twitter.\nPT: full details of MOI statement on PMC website https://t.co/DxSvwdVzPS\n— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) January 1, 2017\nThe attack took place at Jaw prison south of the capital Manama.\nThe ministry said four or five members of a “terrorist group” armed with automatic rifles and pistols attacked at 05:30 local time.\nIt said one policeman was killed and another wounded in the attack, which allowed 10 prisoners to flee. Seven had been serving life sentences and three were serving lengthy jail terms for “terrorist acts”, the ministry added.\nThe tiny but strategic Gulf state has been rocked by unrest since its Sunni authorities crushed Shia-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.\nHundreds of Shia have been arrested and many have faced trials over their role in the demonstrations.\nPolice on Sunday set up or reinforced roadblocks near Shia villages outside the capital, witnesses said. Despite the crackdown, protesters have frequently clashed with security forces in these villages.\nIn June, 17 prisoners broke out of Al-Hadd jail east of Manama, but the authorities recaptured 11 of them the next day.\nBahrain, which is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shia Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.", "JERUSALEM (AP) _ An American professional football player has pulled out of a sponsored trip to Israel, accusing its government of trying to use him for PR purposes and citing sympathy for the Palestinians.\nSeattle Seahawks defense lineman Michael Bennett’s last-minute decision came as an embarrassment to the Israeli government, which has invited a group of players to visit this week on a mission aimed at improving the country’s image.\nIsraeli Cabinet minister Gilad Erdan had earlier noted the “great importance” of the visit, saying it would counter “the false incitement campaign that is being waged against Israel around the world.”\nErdan leads the ministry for strategic affairs and public diplomacy, which works to boost Israel’s image and counter the influence of an international boycott movement. His ministry declined to comment Sunday.\nTourism Minister Yariv Lavin had boasted that the players would become “ambassadors of good will for Israel.”\nBut in a letter posted to Twitter on Saturday, Bennett wrote: “I will not be used in such a manner.” He said he still intends to visit Israel, but only on a trip that includes stops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to meet Palestinians.\nCiting the example of Muhammad Ali, and the late boxing legend’s support for the Palestinians, Bennett said he too wants to be a “voice for the voiceless.”\n“I cannot do that by going on this kind of trip to Israel,” he said.\nIn a separate Twitter post, Miami Dolphins receiver Kenny Stills indicated he also will skip the trip.\nThe delegation, which includes Bennett’s brother Martellus of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, is to arrive Monday. Martellus Bennett is among a group of Patriots who say they will not join the team on a victory trip to the White House.\nThe visit will include stops at a hospital, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and a meeting with the “Black Hebrews,” a community of African Americans who live in southern Israel.\nOther players in the delegation include the Seahawks’ Cliff Avril, Delanie Walker of the Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Mychal Kendricks, Cameron Jordan of the New Orleans Saints, Calais Campbell of the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49er Carlos Hyde, Dan Williams of the Oakland Raiders and Justin Forsett of the Denver Broncos.\nAlso On New Pittsburgh Courier:", "According to the Israeli defense minister, residents of the Jewish state’s area populated mostly by Arabs “have no connection with this country.”\nIsraeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has stated that the Arabs residing in the Wadi Ara region “do not belong” to the Jewish state and called for a boycott.\n“They should understand that they are not wanted here, they are not part of us,” the minister told the Army Radio.\nCommenting on Saturday’s protests in the region over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital, Lieberman said that Wadi Ara residents “have no connection with this country,” adding that the riots are “intolerable.”\n“So I am calling for a boycott of Wadi Ara. Don’t go there and don’t buy there. They need to understand that it is impossible to demonstrate with Hezbollah flags, Palestinian flags and pictures of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah. To accept billions from the National Insurance [Institute] and to also destroy us from within,” he said.\nEchoing Lieberman’s statement, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett has stated that “Israeli Arabs should not test our patience.”\nThe statements referred to protests along Route 65, when demonstrators threw rocks at car and a bus, injuring three, while about 200 people blocked the main highway in the Wadi Ara, an area in Israel populated mainly by Arab citizens of Israel.\nREAD MORE: Palestinian FM Believes US Can No Longer Be Mediator in Peace Settlement\n© AP Photo/ Richard Drew Just Say No: UN Rejects White House Recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli Capital\nSaturday also saw protests in eastern Jerusalem, Bethlehem and areas on the Israeli-Palestinian border, with at least 140 Palestinians being injured in clashes with Israeli police, according to the Red Crescent.The protests followed the so-called “day of rage” mass rallies on Friday that have resulted in two deaths and injured over 1,000 others.\nFollowing Trump’s controversial announcement generally criticized by the international community, a number of protests were held in Muslim countries that have slammed the move as destabilizing the situation in the Middle East.", "Dubai : Armed men attacked a prison in Bahrain where Shiites convicted over anti-government protests are held, killing one policeman and allowing inmates to escape, the interior ministry said, reports AFP.\nThe security forces launched a manhunt for the attackers and the escapees, the ministry said on Twitter. The attack took place at Jaw prison south of the capital Manama.\nBahrain has been rocked by unrest since its Sunni authorities crushed Shiite-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.", "JERUSALEM (AP) - In an embarrassment to the Israeli government, only five of 11 NFL players have arrived on a sponsored trip aimed at improving the country’s image.\nThe ministry for strategic affairs and public diplomacy issued an press release after the Super Bowl boasting that the visit would bring “influencers” who would serve as “goodwill ambassadors” when they returned home.\nThe announcement led Seattle Seahawks defense lineman Michael Bennett to pull out. He accused the government of trying to use him for PR purposes and cited sympathy for the Palestinians. Several others players followed suit.\nRambam hospital spokesman David Ratner says Wednesday that only five players arrived for a planned visit to the hospital. The ministry declined to comment.\nCopyright © 2017 The Washington Times, LLC.\nPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.\nDisqus", "Iran Focus\nLondon, 11 Dec - An international security conference has reaffirmed the importance of tackling the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and all other Iranian forces who are supporting terrorism and destabilising the Middle East.\nThe Manama Dialogue 2017, held in Bahrain this weekend, brought together security and military experts to discuss the joint threats of extremism and terrorism.\nBahrain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa explained that the stability and security of the region faced many challenges, especially with the support that terrorists receive from Iran.\nHe warned that the Iran undermines regional security, destabilises foreign countries, and supports terrorism to implement its own malign agenda.\nTerrorism\nUAE Minister of State Anwar Gargash said that Iran's proxies are disrupting the region, citing the Houthis who recently assassinated former Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh on the order of Iran in particular.\nUK Secretary of Defence Gavin Williamson said that the UK would invest at least £10 million to strengthen counter-terrorism and stressed that terrorism must not only be fought on the ground but also by “shutting down their social media mouthpieces”.\nSheikh Khalid rejected the idea that the Houthis had any positive role to play in rebuilding Yemen as they seek to establish an Iranian-backed terrorist state, citing the role that Iran-backed Hezbollah has in Lebanon.\nHe said: “This is in addition to [Iran’s] smuggling of weapons and explosives and training of terrorists to carry out terrorist operations in Bahrain, Kuwait and other countries.\"\nMissile Programme\nGargash also noted that he was concerned about the missile programme, especially after Iranian-built missiles were fired at Saudi Arabia by the Houthis.\nHe said: “We're very worried by Iran's missile capability.”\nJerusalem\nGargash and Iraq's Vice President Iyad Allawi expressed fears that Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a gift to radicalism as radical Islamic terrorists, like Iran, are already using it to stir up sectarian violence.\nQatar\nSheikh Khalid noted that the recent Arab quartet decision to boycott Iran-ally Qatar was a result of attempts by Qatar and Iran to destroy the security and stability of other countries, like Egypt, Yemen, and Libya. He said that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt, would re-establish relations with Qatar if it agreed to demands, including ending its support for terrorism.\nAlso in attendance at the annual Manama Dialogue were Iraqi National Security Advisor Faleh al-Fayad, Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi, and Chairman KKR Global Institute General David Petraeus.", "A Bahraini delegation's visit to Israel amid ongoing controversy over the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognise the city as Israel's capital has sparked anger on social media.\nThe interfaith \"This is Bahrain\" civil society group defended its move on Monday, a day after its visit was reported, as a gesture of tolerance.\n\"The initiative by 'This is Bahrain' is based on the principle of tolerance and coexistence, an approach embraced by the Kingdom of Bahrain and a feature of its society, and aims to visit Islamic, Christian, Jewish and other holy sites across the world,\" the group said, according to a statement carried on Bahrain's state news.\nThe 25-member group, which is on a five-day visit, includes Sunni and Shia Muslim leaders, Christians, the leader of a Hindu temple, and a Sikh.\nThe #Bahrain_resists_normalisation hashtag was used across Twitter as people vented their frustrations.\nThe move comes after US President Donald Trump formally recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a declaration that has caused widespread anger across the Muslim world.\nJerusalem is home to Islam's third holiest site and its status is deeply sensitive for Muslims.\nHere are some social media reactions:\nHussein Youssef, a Bahraini journalist and blogger, said: \"This is Bahrain has carried out a number of activities supported by official figures in Bahrain, but its latest move of sending a delegation to Israel makes any affiliation with it a criminal act, and more.\nIf any of the groups' members denounce the latest move, then they should immediately declare their withdrawal from it. Continuing to be a part of this organisation from now on will only mean endorsing its agenda, which does not represent the people of Bahrain.\"\nأهل #البحرين أهل وفاء وموقفهم ثابت: #القدس_عاصمتنا_الأبدية.\nوالوفد الذي دنس القدس يمثل من ارسله ولا يمثلنا. أما فاضل فتيل... فله الخزي كل الخزي، والعار كل العار، عار وخزي ملحق بمن أرسله — حسين يوسف (@hussain_info) December 10, 2017\nBasmah al-Qassab, a Bahraini blogger, said: \"I believe that the Zionist entity [Israel] is an unjust occupier. The delegation's visit to occupied East Jerusalem is shameful and immoral, and its claim that it represents the Bahraini people is untrue and is insulting to the Bahraini people.\"\nأنا باسمة القصاب من البحرين، أعتبر الكيان الصهيوني غاصباً ومحتلاً، والزيارة التي قام بها وفد جمعية \"هذه هي البحرين\" للقدس المحتلة عار أخلاقي وإنساني، وادعاء الوفد تمثيل الشعب البحريني إساءة للبحرينيين، وأعلن برائتي من هذا الفعل ومن قام به ودعمه. #البحرين_تقاوم_التطبيع — باسمة القصاب (@bqassab) December 10, 2017\nNazeeha Saeed, a dissident Bahraini journalist, said: \"This is Bahrain does not represent Bahrain!!! You call yourselves a multi-religious delegation … Do not use our nation's name in your fake calls to peace and tolerance.\"\n\"هذه هي البحرين\" لا يمثل البحرين!!! سموا روحكم الوفد الواقواقي او المتعدد الديانات.. لا تدنسوا اسم وطننا بدعواتكم المزيفة للسلام والتسامح #عار #البحرين_ضد_التطبيع https://t.co/1MHCSjsBMe — Nazeeha Saeed (@nazihasaeed) December 10, 2017\nRaeda Sabt, a Bahraini social influencer, said: \"Bahrain's support for the Palestinian cause is documented in history books, and we cannot accept people who seek to tarnish Bahrain's reputation and discredit its history by normalisation [visiting Israel] – a move has greatly hurt us.\"\nدعم #البحرين للقضية الفلسطينية مسجّل ومدوّن وثابت في كتب التاريخ القديم والحديث، ولا يمكن القبول بمن يريد تشويه سمعة البحرين، وتلطيخ تاريخ الدعم البحريني؛ بزيارة تطبيعية أساءت لنا كثيرا، وتسببت بتلطيخ سمعة البحرين بين الشعوب العربية والإسلامية\n.\nمن مقال د.ابراهيم الشيخ* pic.twitter.com/GcHqrESwlC — رائدة - البحرين (@RaedaSabt) December 11, 2017\nTwitter user Maitham Almosawi wrote: \"Shame and disgrace will haunt the group that gave up their dignity in the arms of the Zionist entity. And thank God for those who were able to shed light on the truth behind these fake people.\"\nالعار والخزي في الدنيا والآخرة سيلاحق هذه الزمرة التي أهدرت كرامتها بأحضان الكيان الغاصب #بحرينيون_ضد_التطبيع\nوالشكر لله كثير الشكر على تبيين حقيقة هذه الشخصيات المزيفة لكل المشككين في السابق على إعوجاج أصحابها — S.Maitham Almosawi (@mmosaw1bh) December 10, 2017\nUser @SultanAlBahrain said most Bahrainis opposed the visit and believe Jerusalem belongs to Israel, regardless of Trump's sentiments.\nMost of #Bahrain people are against the visit of group of few Bahraini's who visited #Israel recently and we are all against #POTUS statement that #Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. We all believe that Jerusalem belong to #Palestine no doubt! No matter @realDonaldTrump says. — M.I. Bahrain (@SultanAlBahrain) December 10, 2017\n\"As Israel was dropping bombs on Gaza, and Palestinians were protesting Trump's Jerusalem declaration, King Hamad of Bahrain sends delegation to convey 'message of peace' to Israel,\" user @chanadbh tweeted.", "Manama: Microsoft announced the names of the six finalist teams which will compete in the Imagine Cup Bahrain Finals 2017, with a chance to represent Bahrain in the regional round and to move to the Worldwide Finals in Seattle, USA and walk away with a cash prize of $100,000.\nImagine Cup, which was first held in 2003, has since become a global phenomenon. This year, the Bahrain National Finals round of the premier competition will take place on April 19, 2017 at ART Rotana Amwaj Islands Bahrain. Held in strategic partnership with Tamkeen, and supported by partners including Start-up Bahrain, Ministry of Youth and Sports, United Nations Development Program Bahrain (UNDP) and Corporate Hub 9 (CH9), the competition will provide a platform for young developers of Bahrain to showcase innovative, world-changing solutions before industry experts.\nRoadshows for Imagine Cup Bahrain were conducted across various universities, and teams Influx, Anon Coders, O’LINA , Feminspire, Team1 and ARH from the University of Bahrain were selected to represent the Kingdom in the competition.\nThe winning team gets BHD 2,500 followed by second and third runners up to receive BHD 1,500 and BHD 1,000 respectively. One out of these 6 teams will also be selected for the ‘Incubation Award’ a 3-month technical and business consultation opportunity.\n“Located at the heart of the region, Bahrain is a country abundant with opportunities. It has grown significantly over the past decade, establishing a well-set business and entrepreneurial infrastructure,” Sherif Tawfik, Country General Manager, Microsoft Bahrain and Oman, said.\n“We thank our partners for their support in landing and hosting Imagine Cup competition that endorses the spirit of innovation in line with Bahrain Vision 2030, equipping the talented youth with necessary skills that will allow them to thrive in a dynamic global environment, and improve economic competitiveness.”\nThis year, Microsoft Azure cloud is a compulsory component of submitted solutions. Imagine Cup this year is no longer bound by project categories such as Innovation, Citizenship or Gaming; and is instead focused on purely the use of Technology. All projects will be scored by the panel of expert judges from various industries, followed by announcement of the winning team.\nThe finalists will cover an array of topics through their projects, competing to represent Bahrain on a global platform and a chance to win the much coveted Imagine Cup trophy.\nIn total, more than 1.75 million students from over 190 countries have participated in the event, which has evolved over the years. Students at the competition get a chance to network with many other young, passionate people, and establish valuable connections. The event aims to provide the youth of Bahrain with an opportunity to think about their strengths and weaknesses, and learn about the importance of creativity by leveraging technology and ultimately contribute towards a smarter future.", "JERUSALEM -- In an embarrassment to the Israeli government, only five of 11 NFL players have arrived on a sponsored trip aimed at improving the country's image.\nThe ministry for strategic affairs and public diplomacy issued a press release after the Super Bowl boasting that the visit would bring \"influencers\" who would serve as \"goodwill ambassadors\" when they returned home.\nThe announcement led Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett to pull out. He accused the government of trying to use him for PR purposes and cited sympathy for the Palestinians.\nSeveral other players followed suit, including Bennett's brother, New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett, who retweeted his brother's letter.\nRambam Health Care Campus spokesman David Ratner said Wednesday that only five players arrived for a planned visit to the hospital. The ministry declined to comment.\nAccording to the Times of Israel, the five players that went on the trip were? Arizona Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell, Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Dan Williams, New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan, Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks.\nIn addition to Michael and Martellus Bennett, the players scheduled to appear but didn't make the trip were Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills, San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde and Denver Broncos running back Justin Forsett. Retired NFL linebacker Kirk Morrison also was originally scheduled to appear.?\nKendricks and Jordan have posted pictures and video on social media from their visit.?\nThe visit will include stops at a hospital, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and a meeting with the \"Black Hebrews,'' a community of African Americans who live in southern Israel.\nThe Associated Press contributed to this report.", "The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement says the recent decision by US President Donald Trump to formally recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel has made the United States and White House isolated in the world.\nAddressing the nation from Dahieh neighborhood of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Monday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pointed to massive rallies held to oppose Trump’s decision, thanking all those who took part in them to show their loyalty to the resistance.\nAll positions taken on Trump’s al-Quds decision were negative. We appreciate all those countries, nations and freedom seekers, who opposed Trump’s announcement of Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel.\nTrump believed that after announcement of his decision on Jerusalem al-Quds, the entire world would stand in line to follow suit, but all reactions from across the world, including European, Asian and American countries were the opposite of what he expected.\nAs a result of these reactions, Nasrallah said, Trump and White House have become more isolated among world nations.\nHe pointed to massive protest rallies held in all countries across the world, including in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, the Hezbollah leader thanked all participants, inviting them to continue their protests in all manners possible, including through the cyberspace and on social media.\nNasrallah also pointed to recent trip to Israel by a Bahraini delegation, noting that the delegation did not represent the people of Bahrain, but it represented the oppressive regime of Manama and had nothing to do with the people of Bahrain or its scholars.\nHe also thanked two nations, which had stood by resistance in voicing their opposition to Trump’s decision despite huge threats they were facing, noting that those two nations were Yemenis and the Palestinian people.\nThe Hezbollah leader also praised the unity of Lebanon’s people over the cause of Palestinian and the cause of Jerusalem al-Quds.\nNasrallah also pointed to a recent meeting by the Arab League in Egypt’s capital Cairo, noting that special statements by the Lebanese and Iraqi delegates to the Arab League were a “cause of pride for us.”\nExplaining about the widespread demonstrations in occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and the Gaza Strip, he added that what was going on in those territories was a true Intifada (uprising).\nNasrallah emphasized that the US decision on Jerusalem al-Quds was not an isolated decision, but it came in the context a regional plot to destroy Islamic nations, adding, “I had mentioned earlier that the US, which is backing Daesh, aims to destroy our societies in order to destroy the Palestinian cause.”\nThe main goal of the United States and its allies, he said was to forge some sort of settlement between Palestinians and Israelis with support of some Arab regimes in order to put an end to the issue of Palestine.\n“The whole nation must stand in the face of this American threat,” he said adding that Palestinians must be the first in line to stand in the US face.\nAddressing the people of Palestine, Nasrallah said, “If you hold on to al-Quds as the everlasting capital of Palestine, neither Trump nor anyone else can do anything other than that.”\nHe added that the United States was not the sponsor of peace in the region, but it was the sponsor of war and terrorism, sponsor of Daesh, and the main enemy in whose face everyone must shout, “Death to America.”\nThe Hezbollah leader noted that one of the most powerful responses to Trump’s decision was to isolate Israel in all possible ways.\n“We must put pressure on the Arab and Islamic states to repeal peace treaties and other deals with Israel. I call on Palestinians to kick out any delegation that aims to visit them from countries that have normalized relations with Israel, no matter what the background of those delegations is.”\nNasrallah stressed that Palestinians were the final decision-makers in this regard and the resistance front would support them in all possible manners.\nTensions running high in Palestinian territories for 5th day following U.S. decision #FreePalestine https://t.co/VTqbUQ1bEL — Press TV (@PressTV) December 11, 2017\nHezbollah leader also stated that the most important response to be given to Trump was to declare the beginning of a new intifada, noting that “Trump’s decision on al-Quds will be the beginning of the end of Israel.”\nNasrallah also described Trump’s decision as a act of blatant aggression against both Muslims and Christians, calling upon the entire Muslim world to stand up against the US plot.\n“All those who seek to normalize ties with the Zionist regime (of Israel) will be punished by their own people,” the Hezbollah chief underlined.\nNasrallah also stressed the independence and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian nation, saying no one could dictate dos and don'ts to them.\nHe called for a united strategy in the face of new threats from the United States and Israel, emphasizing that “Hezbollah will not abandon Palestine and al-Quds above all.”", "King Hamad bestowing Bahrain's highest medal on Erdoğan\nManama: Bahrain and Turkey have signed a slew of accords to deepen their relations and broaden their cooperation.\nThe memoranda of understanding were signed in the presence of King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had arrived a few hours earlier in Bahrain on the first leg of his three-country four-day Gulf tour.\nThe cooperation agreements covered the military industry sector, education, and visa fee exemptions.\nKing Hamad in his welcome speech hailed Erdogan’s visit to Bahrain, his “second home” saying that it reflected the “robust fraternal ties” and the “growth of shared interests” between the two countries.\n“Your tireless efforts and your pioneering initiatives to build the model Turkish state that seeks peace, progress, tolerance and moderation are appreciated and admired given their great significance to us and their compatibility with what we seek and consider as a reason to safeguard the stability of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the clarity and stability of its relationships and positions, as is the case in the sisterly country of Turkey,” King Hamad said on Sunday evening.\nThe Bahraini monarch bestowed the Shaikh Eis Bin Salman Al Khalifa Medal, Bahrain’s highest distinction, on Erdogan “as an expression of gratitude from the Kingdom of Bahrain and its people, and in recognition of, and pride in, your venerable efforts and noble attitudes in the service and elevation of our Islamic nation and protection of our humanitarian achievements.”\nIn his speech, Erdogan addressed King Hamad as “My dear brother, Abu Salman”, the Arabic tradition of showing respect to a man by calling him after his eldest son's name.\n“You stood with us during our most difficult days and you have held a highly significant place in our hearts,” the Turkish leader told King Hamad who in August became the first Arab leader to visit Turkey following the failed coup attempt in July.\n“I accept the Shaikh Eisa Bin Salman Al Khalifa Medal as an icon of the fraternity between Turkey and Bahrain and it will have a distinctive significance in our shared history,” he said. “The Turkish-Bahraini fraternity will, God willing, sustain and cover all fields. Turkey will continue standing by Bahrain in good and bad times. I believe that we will work together for the stability, security and future of our region.”\nKing Hamad said that Erdogan’s visit reflected deep-rooted relations binding Bahrain and Turkey, stressing the two countries' determination to expand cooperation.\n\"The meeting with President Erdogan represents a good opportunity to consult and exchange ideas concerning steadily-growing relations on all levels\", he said, and hailed the “constructive and fruitful talks which focused on current regional and international developments, particularly with the backdrop of the events unfolding in the region.”\nKing Hamad underlined the crucial role of the two countries in consolidating security and stability in the region, hailing the talks that reflected a strong desire to bolster fraternal relations and explore the adequate ways to overcome problems and end crises which are ravaging the region.\nHe underscored “the crucial importance of strengthening bilateral relations, mustering all efforts and expanding cooperation between all countries, particularly Turkey, a pivotal state which plays an influential role in the region.”\nErdogan is also visiting Saudi Arabia on February 13-14 and Qatar on February 14-15.", "Israel is barring tourists and pilgrims from Indonesia in response to what it says is a ban on Israelis by Jakarta.\nTens of thousands of Indonesian Muslims visit Israel every year as part of a wider tour of the Middle East.\nIndonesian officials have not confirmed Israel’s assertion that they have suspended visas for Israeli tourists. The countries do hot have diplomatic relations.\nBut Indonesians have protested what they say is Israel’s harsh treatment of the Palestinians. Earlier this month, Indonesian demonstrators set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to protest the moving of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.\nThe tourist ban comes amid signs that relations between the Jewish state and the world’s largest Muslim-populated country appeared to be warming.\nTrade between Israeli and Indonesia has expended and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for diplomatic ties with Indonesia.", "At a wake in Iran's holy city of Qom in February, a small group of Bahraini emigres and clerics mourned a young militant killed in a gun battle with Bahrain's security forces. The eulogy was delivered by an exiled Bahraini cleric who has called for the island's Shi'ite Muslim majority to uproot the Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy in a holy war.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at The Star Online.", "DUBAI, June 14 (Reuters) - Bahraini authorities detained a citizen for questioning on charges of sympathising with Qatar on social media, state news agency BNA reported on Wednesday.\nIt was the first time Bahrain had detained a citizen for violating a ban on support for Qatar that Bahrain imposed after it joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in severing ties with Doha. Violators face up to five years in jail and an unspecified fine.\nThe UAE and Saudi Arabia have imposed similar bans. Abu Dhabi said violations are punishable by up to 15 years in jail and a fine of at least 500,000 UAE dirham ($136,000), local media reported.\nBNA quoted the attorney general as saying that the interior ministry's electronic crimes department had filed a complaint about a suspect it did not name, accusing him of social media postings deemed as violating the kingdom's decisions.\n\"The prosecution launched an investigation in this complaint, questioned the suspect and ordered him detained protectively pending questioning,\" BNA said, quoted the prosecutor.\nBahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, survived a 2011 uprising led by majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding reforms and a bigger share in running the small Sunni-led kingdom.\nThe island state has recently stepped up a campaign against dissent, closing down two major political groupings, revoking the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the Shi'ite community and putting some rights activist on trial. ($1 = 3.6724 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Sami Aboudi, editing by Larry King)", "About 2,000 protesters from an Islamic group in Bangladesh have protested against US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel.", "If nothing else, Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital shows how disenthralled his administration is with traditional pieties about the Middle East. It’s about time.\nOne piety is that “Mideast peace” is all but synonymous with Arab-Israeli peace. Seven years of upheaval, repression, terrorism, refugee crises and mass murder in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Syria have put paid to that notion.\nAnother piety is that only an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could reconcile the wider Arab world to the Jewish state. Yet relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Cairo; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Manama, Bahrain, are flourishing as never before, even as the prospect of a Palestinian state is as remote as ever.\nRelations between Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain are flourishing\nA third is that intensive mediation by the United States is essential to progress on the ground. Yet recent American involvement — whether at the Camp David summit in 2000 or John Kerry’s efforts in 2013 — has had mostly the opposite effect: diplomatic failure, followed by war.\nWhich brings us to Jerusalem, and the piety that pretending it isn’t what it is can be a formula for anything except continued self-delusion.\nWhat Jerusalem is is the capital of Israel, both as the ancestral Jewish homeland and the modern nation-state. When Richard Nixon became the first American president to visit the country in 1974, he attended his state dinner in Jerusalem. It’s where President Anwar Sadat of Egypt spoke when he decided to make peace in 1977. It’s what Congress decided as a matter of law in 1995. When Barack Obama paid his own presidential visit to Israel in 2013, he too spent most of his time in Jerusalem.\nSo why maintain the fiction that Jerusalem isn’t the capital?\nWhy maintain the fiction that Jerusalem is not the capital?\nThe original argument, from 1947, was that Jerusalem ought to be under international jurisdiction, in recognition of its religious importance. But Jews were not allowed to visit the Western Wall during the 19 years when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian occupation. Yasser Arafat denied that Solomon’s Temple was even in Jerusalem, reflecting an increasingly common Palestinian denial of history.\nWould Jews be allowed to visit Jewish sites, and would those sites be respected, if the city were redivided? Doubtful, considering Palestinian attacks on such sites, which is one of the reasons why it shouldn’t be.\nThe next argument is that any effort by Washington to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would set the proverbial Arab street on fire and perhaps lead to another intifada.\nThis misapprehends the nature of the proverbial Arab street\nBut this misapprehends the nature of the street, which has typically been a propaganda tool of Arab leaders to channel domestic discontent and manipulate foreign opinion. And it also misrepresents the nature of the last intifada, which was a meticulously preplanned event waiting for a convenient pretext (Ariel Sharon’s September 2000 walk on the Temple Mount) to look like a spontaneous one.\nFinally there’s the view that recognition is like giving your college freshman a graduation gift: a premature reward for an Israeli government that hasn’t yet done what’s needed to make a Palestinian state possible.\nBut this also gets a few things wrong. It will have no effect on whether or how a Palestinian state comes into being, whatever the current histrionics in Ramallah. And it’s not much of a bargaining chip, since most Israelis couldn’t care less where the embassy is ultimately located.\nThen again, recognition does several genuinely useful things.\nIt belatedly aligns American words with deeds. It aligns word as well as deed with reality. And it aligns the United States with the country toward which we are constantly professing friendship even as we have spent seven decades stinting it of the most basic form of recognition.\nRecognition does several genuinely useful things\nRecognition also tells the Palestinians that they can no longer hold other parties hostage to their demands. East Jerusalem could have been the capital of a sovereign Palestinian state 17 years ago, if Arafat had simply accepted the terms at Camp David. He didn’t because he thought he could dictate terms to stronger powers. Nations pay a price for the foolhardiness of their leaders, as the Kurds recently found out.\nPeace and a Palestinian state will come when Palestinians aspire to create a Middle Eastern Costa Rica — pacifist, progressive, neighborly and democratic — rather than another Yemen: by turns autocratic, anarchic, fanatical and tragic.\nFor the international community, that means helping Palestinians take steps to dismantle their current klepto-theocracy, rather than fueling a culture of perpetual grievance against Israel. Mahmoud Abbas is now approaching the 13th anniversary of his elected four-year term. Someone should point this out.\nHamas has run Gaza for a decade, during which it has spent more time building rockets and terror tunnels than hotels or hospitals. Someone should point this out, too. It is indicative of the disastrous political choices that help explain 70 years of Palestinian failure.\nMeantime, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. For those who have lived in denial, it must be some sort of shock.", "MANAMA: The Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Bahrain led by Chairman Mohammed Hussein Yateem has reviewed the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws during its its fourth meeting for 2017.\nThe Board reviewed the topics on the agenda. The Board reviewed the performance report of the bank, the developments in the financial sector for the fourth quarter and the financial performance report of the bank until the end of October 2017.\nThe Board approved the bank’s budget for 2018. The Board also approved the news appointments, license fees for financial institutions licensed to provide financial services to the financial sector, and briefed the Board on the reports on the sovereign credit rating of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the development of work in the joint assessment of the Kingdom of Bahrain on the procedures in place to combat money laundering and terrorist financing laws.", "DUBAI A Bahraini court on Wednesday sentenced two citizens to death over a 2015 bomb attack that killed two police officers and wounded six others, the public prosecutor said.\nThe High Criminal Court also sentenced five other people to life in jail and 15 more to prison terms ranging from six months to 10 years, while two more were cleared, the prosecutor said in a statement.\nAuthorities in the Western-allied kingdom are cracking down on dissent by arresting activists, banning the main Shi'ite opposition al-Wefaq group and taking steps to dissolve a secular association.\nBahrain had been hit by occasional unrest since authorities crushed 2011 protests, mainly by the Shi'ite majority demanding a bigger share in running the country.\nThe al-Wasat newspaper identified the two men sentenced to death as Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Touq and Mohammed Qadhi Abdullah.\nThey had been named in an August 2015 report by state news agency BNA as having been among a group detained in connection with an explosion the previous month outside a girls school in Sitra village, east of the capital Manama, that killed two policemen and wounded six.\nThe court also revoked the citizenship of eight members of the group and ordered seven others to pay 6,640 dinar ($17,616)to cover damages caused by the blast. The rulings are subject to appeal.\nBahrain in January executed three Shi'ite men convicted of killing three policemen, including an officer from the United Arab Emirates, in a 2014 bomb attack. They were the first such executions in over two decades and led to protests in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.\n($1 = 0.3769 Bahraini dinars)\n(Writing by Sami Aboudi, editing by Angus MacSwan)", "Israeli Avihai Shorshan decided to visit Ramallah, and took this photo outside of their municipality building.\nHe writes (translated into English from Hebrew):\nI made a short visit to Ramallah and the surrounding area. When I have time, I will write about it at length, but in the meantime this picture taken outside the town hall of al-Bireh, from my perspective says it all. In Ramallah no one is interested in Yitzhar, Ma’aleh Adumim, Ariel or the Nativ Ha’avot. Their vision is to return to their homes in Jaffa, Lod, Acre, the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva and other places they lost when they did not agree to the Partition Plan in 1948. They understand it well and are aiming for there with all their might, nothing else will satisfy them. I wish that the Israeli public would understand this declaration of intentions seriously and grasp it.\nAnd we know it is not the only such monument.\nOf course, this is not news, especially to regular Israellycool readers. We know our “peace partners” of the PA are anything but. We know they just wear nicer suits than Hamas, but are after the same thing. We know of their incitement and payments to “martyrs”. And we know of their love of maps depicting the entire land of Israel, representing their true goals.\nBut here’ the thing. This is not some map that can be hidden when international guests – including world leaders – visit. Quite the opposite! This is a huge monument that sticks out. It is meant to be seen.\nIn other words, this is the PA sticking out their tongues and declaring “We can do and say what we like. The international community, including governments and NGOs, do not care. They will continue pumping money into us and help fund us.”\nWe can all draw our conclusions as to why the international community chooses to turn a blind eye to this and continue propping up those who want us destroyed.", "Following moves to further criminalize public dissent, the island nation of Bahrain has arrested at least two people today on charges of being “Qatar sympathizers,” based on public comments in which the two men were seen as opposed to the Saudi-led blockade on nearly Qatar.\nOne of the two men was identified as Issa Faraj Arhama al-Burshad, a human rights lawyer who filed a lawsuit attempting to challenge the blockade, accusing it of breaking up families in Bahrain by expelling Qatari citizens. The lawsuit will not happen, and Burshad has been thrown in jail for even trying to do so.\nThe other man was not publicly identified, but was only said to have been a social media user who was accused of making postings that “opposed the decision of the kingdom” to move against Qatar. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have both threatened to jail anyone expressing “sympathy” for Qatar.\nUN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein was critical of the moves against dissidents on the Qatar issue, saying it was a “clear violation of the right to freedom of expression or opinion.” That right, clearly, does not exist as a legal concept in either Bahrain or the UAE.\nLast 5 posts by Jason Ditz", "A Jewish organization is calling on Vancouver’s elected officials to speak out regarding anti-Israeli protests that happened over the weekend.\nB’nai Brith Canada Spokesperson Aidan Fishman says some protesters spewed hate at Jews who attended to show their support for Israel.\nREAD MORE: What does Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital mean for the city’s status?\nHe says Israeli flag was ripped up, and another painted on a piece of cardboard was burned.\n“We obviously don’t expect the mayor to take a position on the Jerusalem issue – that’s not even the point. But we do expect the mayor and other city officials to state unequivocally and on the record that hatred and intimidation will not be allowed in the public square.”\nFishman says there’s no place for that kind of behaviour.\n“It’s one thing to disagree over policy issues, like where Israel’s capital should be or how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be solved. But one way it definitely can’t be solved is by literally burning the other side’s national symbols.”\nThe Canada Palestine Association says while it didn’t organize Saturday’s rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, it says it does not consider burning the flag of Israel an anti-semitic gesture, and don’t equate all Jewish people with Israel.\nThe Mayor of Vancouver has not yet responded to a request for comment.\nThe protests were in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s naming of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of American international policy.", "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Supporters say a prominent Shiite cleric who lost his citizenship and remains under house arrest in Bahrain has returned to a local hospital for surgery.\nSheikh Isa Qassim left his home in Diraz on Wednesday.\nSheikh Maytham al-Salman of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said Sheikh Isa will undergo a hernia surgery. Sheikh Isa was in the hospital in December as well.\nThe cleric could be deported at any time after authorities stripped his citizenship in June 2016 over accusations that he fueled extremism and laundered money. His supporters deny the allegations.\nBahrain's Sunni rulers are cracking down on all dissent on the Shiite-majority island, imprisoning or forcing politicians and activists into exile.\nBahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet." ]

[ "In the course catalog at Appalachian State University, there's a class called \"Honors Chemistry: Intro To Beer Brewing.\" The professor says when he first came up with the idea, his department chair didn't think he was serious. But then they saw the interest students took in the evolution of suds and now the program is seen as a selling point for the university." ]

[ "There's a video floating around on the Internet that some Web slingers are claiming is a recruitment video for Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. I won't say it's the worst video I've ever seen, but it's pretty bad. Watching it might make you want to buy a used car, but not attend an institute of higher education. But was it really made as a recruitment tool? \"We would never create something like that to attract students,\" says Dr. Lorin Baumhover Chief of Staff for the Office of the Chancellor at Appalachian State. \"It's horrible.\" Baumhover maintains the video was created as a kind of joke, to be shared with alumni and friends of the university. He says about a year ago, someone posted it on the Web, and they've been getting queries ever since. \"I wish someone could put a stake through it,\" says Baumhover. It's a lesson for the Internet age. Don't create anything you aren't prepared to share with the entire world. (via Boing Boing)", "A chemistry professor at the University of Southern Maine started asking students to lab-test beer. By the way, testing doesn't mean tasting. Students aren't allowed to drink beer in class.", "A story we ran earlier this week about God and beer by NPR's John Burnett got an overwhelming response on social media. In case you missed it, it was called \"To Stave Off Decline, Churches Attract New Members With Beer.\" You can listen and read it here. (It was paired with another post on the same topic: 5 Things You Might Not Have Known About God And Beer.) Many readers and listeners want to continue the discussion. And so do we. So on Friday, we're going to try something new here on The Salt. Reporter John Burnett is going to lead a one-hour live chat with Philip Heinze of Church-in-a-Pub in Fort Worth, Texas, and Todd Fadel of Beer and Hymns in Portland, Ore. They are each trying to build a different kind of Christian community around craft beer. We'll use a tool called ScribbleLive in the black box below. We need YOU to join the chat. Meet us here at 1 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 8, and log in to ScribbleLive.", "A class at the University of Tennessee called Dolly's America teaches students about modern Appalachia through the life story of native Dolly Parton. Parton tweeted that it's \"a blessing.\"", "You've heard it before — that quip to describe crazy college days: \"I minored in beer studies.\" Well, now you can. Paul Smith's College, a small, isolated campus in the northernmost reaches of upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains, is among a handful of higher education institutions tapping the ever more potent keg of the craft beer explosion. Paul Smith's is offering a new minor degree in \"craft beer studies and operations.\" Twenty-five students are signed up for the major's first suds-specific class next month, with another 25 on the waiting list. It's a three-credit course in brewing, replete with labs and lectures. Students like Ashlee Doele, a hotel, resort and tourism management major from Maine, are psyched, and they're taking it seriously. \"Our professor warned us it's a lot more science than what we expect,\" says Doele. And Doele doesn't even like beer. At least, not yet. \"I'm looking forward to learning how beer is actually made, rather than just sitting there drinking beer.\" Doele and her brew mates will also have to take classes in food chemistry, advertising and promotion, and the business of craft beer. Paul Smith's isn't the only college to offer coursework in beer studies. Hard-core brewers-to-be can attend the Siebel Institute's Master Brewer program in Chicago, or Oregon State University's four-year program in fermentation science. Central Washington University, the University of California, Davis and UC San Diego also have programs of varying lengths. Craft beer has become a substantial industry, with sales up almost 20 percent over last year, employing well over 100,000 people. According to the Brewers Association, the number of craft breweries in the U.S. has doubled to more than 3,000 over the past decade. Paul Smith's student Anthony Pernisi of Syracuse, N.Y., who already has an associate degree in restaurant management and 10 years of experience in the beverage business, says this relatively rare degree will give him a leg up in a bustling industry. Breweries like Dogfish Head were \"thinking outside of the box,\" Pernisi says, \"so I think taking this minor shows we're not in one box of hospitality. We know many aspects of it.\" New York state, in particular, is doubling down on craft alcoholic beverages of all kinds. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has championed new laws that remove fees and red tape from brewers, distillers and winemakers. There are new incentives for producers who use New York-grown raw materials, like hops, grapes and wheat. Evans Brewing Co., based in Albany, just announced this week it's tapping what it says is the first beer brewed entirely from hops and barley grown on New York state farms. (It's an IPA with \"a nice hoppy bite and a dry finish.\") Paul Smith's associate professor Joe Conto, who created and will direct the minor degree, believes it's about much more than jumping on the latest \"it thing\" bandwagon to land a good job. He contends that artisanal food and drink have become \"the new cultural capital\" for tourism and travel worldwide. \"People used to travel to find history and things of that nature,\" Conto says, but today's traveler thinks \"if you want to know who people are, take a look at what they are eating and drinking.\" One of the introductory classes for the craft beer studies is Conto's Six Glasses That Changed the World. For the record, they are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola, Conto says. \"I'm the beverage guy on campus.\" He and his students admit to getting some good-natured ribbing on campus. They are drinking for a class, after all. But Conto says learning about — and tasting — alcoholic drinks as an academic subject allows for \"adult to adult\" conversations, rather than leaving the exploration to the frat houses and dormitories. So, no beer pong? \"They didn't have beer pong when I was in school,\" Conto admits. Then he jokes, \"maybe quarters.\"", "NPR's Madeleine Brand visits American University's class on campaign management.", "Scientists in California think they've figure out why flies like beer. That may sound a bit trivial, but in fact it could lead to new ways of combating plant and animal pests. That flies like beer is well known. \"The attraction of flies to beer was first reported in the early 1920s,\" says Anupama Dahanukar. She's part of an inter-disciplinary program involving neuroscience and entomology at the University of California, Riverside. She's been studying how flies recognize chemicals, so answering the question of why flies like beer is actually quite relevant to her research. It's not a simple question. Scientists are only just beginning to understand the basics of smell and taste in humans, so research on flies has been extremely helpful with that. Since flies are well known to like sugar, it could just be that flies like beer because they can detect some residual sugar in beer. But Dahanukar suspected that might not be the case. So she planned an experiment. She would give the flies a choice between beer and sugar water, and see which they preferred. \"We selected a pale ale, and the main reason was because pale ales have very lower sugar contents,\" says Dahanukar. \"So we were trying to identify other chemicals — chemicals other than sugars that taste good to flies.\" Zev Wisotsky, a graduate student in Dahanukar's lab, actually performed the experiment. \"I remember it was a Saturday,\" he says. \"I grabbed the beer at the grocery store, came into the lab, and performed the two-choice assay.\" The two-choice assay forces the flies to choose between a sip of beer and a sip of sugar water. The flies went for the beer. Now that that was established, Wisotsky and Dahanukar went about trying to figure out which compound in the beer was attracting the flies. \"The answer, as it turns out, was quite simple,\" says Dahanukar. \"It's a molecule called glycerol, which is made by yeast during fermentation.\" Glycerol is the stuff that's used in antifreeze. It actually tastes sweet, but it's not a sugar. Dahanukar and Wisotsky even found the particular gene responsible for flies' ability to detect glycerol. When they created flies missing that gene, and gave them the sugar water-beer choice, the flies went for the sugar water. This research appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Dahanukar is interested in understanding more about the genes responsible for taste and smell in flies. But others are already beginning to turn this information into powerful insect repellents. A team of scientists at Vanderbilt University has found a compound that is more powerful than anything on the market today that takes advantage of this molecular understanding of how insects perceive the chemical world. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: There are certain scientific studies that call out to NPR science correspondent Joe Palca, because they reveal something fundamental about the natural world. For example, a recent study from scientists at the University of California in Riverside reveals why fruit flies like the taste of beer. Surely that's a fundamental fact of nature. Here's Joe. JOE PALCA, BYLINE: I've drunk my share of beer, but I have to admit I was surprised to learn that fruit flies like beer. Apparently I shouldn't have been. ANUPAMA DAHANUKAR: The attraction of flies to beer was first reported in the early 1920s. PALCA: That's Anupama Dahanukar. She's not in the school of bartending science at the University of California, Riverside. There isn't one. No, she's part of an interdisciplinary program involving neuroscience and entomology. DAHANUKAR: We're interested in how flies recognize chemicals. PALCA: So answering the question of why flies like beer is actually quite relevant to her research. It's not a simple question. Scientists are only just beginning to understand the basics of smell and taste in humans. So research on flies has been extremely helpful with that. Now, as everyone, including me, knows, flies like sugar. So it could just be that flies like beer because they can detect some residual sugar in the beer. But Dahanukar suspected that might not be the case, so she planned a beery experiment. She would give the flies a choice between beer and sugar water and see which they preferred. DAHANUKAR: We selected a pale ale, and the main reason was because pale ales have very low sugar content. And so we were trying to identify other chemicals, chemicals other than sugars, that taste good to flies. PALCA: It would be a thrilling, dare I say unforgettable, moment in science to prove that it was something other than sugar that attracted flies to beer. ZEV WISOTSKY: I remember, it was a Saturday. PALCA: Carrying out the experiment fell to graduate student Zev Wisotsky. WISOTSKY: I grabbed the beer at the grocery store, came into lab, and performed the two-choice assay. PALCA: The two-choice assay is where the flies get to choose between a sip of beer and a sip of sugar water. WISOTSKY: They surprisingly went for the beer. PALCA: Now that tha", "Members of a \"religious movement\" born six years ago on a university campus number 40,000 and believe in kindness, charity -- and drinking beer.", "For the fourth time in history, Congress is considering impeaching the president of the United States. For teachers around the country, it's an opportunity to explore concepts and skills that are often relegated to textbooks. We asked social studies teachers from around the country how — if at all — they're using this teachable moment, navigating the nationally polarizing topic and trying to sidestep the often asked question, \"What do you think?\" Many educators told us they're embracing the opportunity to bring concepts such as checks and balances to life. Some say they don't have much time to address current events in class because of the amount of material they have to cover in a year. Still, others may have the time to address impeachment in class but are avoiding the divisive topic because of how polarizing it can be, says Rwany Sibaja, who trains future social studies teachers at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Despite those potential challenges, \"teachers who ignore [impeachment] and don't allow students to ask questions and to be critical thinkers,\" Sibaja argues, \"I think that's sort of a lost opportunity.\" Teachers who have the time and choose to tackle impeachment told us they often have to start with the basics, like, \"What is impeachment?\" Impeachment is a process Riley Hanni is a teacher at Centennial Middle School in Provo, Utah, and she says that her eighth-graders had a \"very basic\" understanding of impeachment. \"They thought that [it] meant President Trump was gone tomorrow. And so I kind of cleared that up — like this is a very big process.\" So she and other teachers walk their students through the complicated, two-step process, starting with articles of impeachment, which must secure a simple majority in the House of Representatives to pass. The next step — the one that could actually remove an official from office — is a trial in the Senate. Anton Schulzki is a government and history teacher at Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., with more than 35 years in the classroom. He's also the vice president of the National Council for the Social Studies. He has explained to his students that \"this is not going to happen overnight. It could take potentially weeks, months before all of this is settled.\" In the meantime, he says he's trying to give his students some historical context to these current events. Luckily for him, this isn't his first impeachment inquiry. The first time was in the late 1990s, when the House impeached President Bill Clinton over the fallout from his affair with an intern. Sibaja, at Appalachian State, was also a high school teacher back then, and he says his students were engrossed in the sensationalized sex scandal involving the 42nd president. India Meissel from Lakeland High School in Virginia recalls that her students were \"gung-ho\" back then to talk about that impeachment and that \"the kids just went crazy.\" But, she says, \"I had to be delicate about things that occurred.\" Meissel, a past president of the National Council for the Social Studies, notes that a lot has changed since then. A big difference is the rise of Twitter and other social media, which has changed how her students talk about what's going on. \"You're a social media generation,\" she tells them. \"My generation was, you waited for the newspaper to come out.\" Schulzki, in Colorado, adds that another big difference this time around is how fast events are moving: At times during the past few weeks, \"I could take something first period, and by the time I got to fifth period or seventh period, things will have changed dramatically.\" For that reason, he says he's trying to stay focused on what the Constitution says about impeachment and help his students process the information they're seeing online. Media literacy and civil discourse Media coverage, many teachers told us, is a big part of their lessons on impeachment. Hanni has assigned her students in Utah to give presentations on current events, which must include their sources so that she and the class can evaluate whether they're reliable. Schulzki says he plans on teaching about news bias from a variety of sources. \"I think having students come to class ready to discuss things by giving them articles from all sides of the political spectrum is really important,\" he explains, \"so that they're absorbing everything and feel better prepared to talk about it.\" Some teachers are using the impeachment inquiry as a lesson in how to speak respectfully, even when students disagree. Hanni says that in her class, \"we never argue, but discuss the different sides of the issue.\" Sometimes, she adds, \"students start to become an echo chamber, so they repeat the same things over and over again.\" When that happens, she tries to raise opposing views or find a devil's advocate. Hearing conflicting viewpoints is essential, Schulzki agrees: \"It's incumbent upon the teacher to ensure that all voices are heard within the classroom.\" Students often", "An Iowa college town is protecting itself from the effects of drinking. People in Ames — home of Iowa State University — noticed a concrete sidewalk cracking in the area where beer distributors unload hundreds of beer kegs for local bars. Some of the kegs get dropped. The city installed a sidewalk made of recycled rubber. Now the kegs will bounce — and with any luck, so will students stumbling back to the dorm.", "A couple of weeks ago, I drove to the mountains of North Carolina, far up into the northwest corner of the state. I wanted to talk with some people about a museum, closed now, never to reopen. My first stop was an overlook more than 3,000 feet high. Deep valleys rolled below. Charles Watkins, director of the now-defunct Appalachian Cultural Museum, met me there, overlooking the hills. \"You can understand how people would have looked at that and said, 'Oh, what an ocean of mountains,'\" he said. \"I imagine if you squint you could see the 18th century.\" Back then, the settlers of this region — mostly Scotch-Irish — came though these mountains. Some pushed on into Tennessee and eastern Kentucky. The Appalachian Cultural Museum was set up to tell the story of the ones who stopped and stayed. You'll find their descendants on the campus of Appalachian State University, in the small town of Boone. From Students, An Appreciation Of Their History Today the contents of the museum are packed up in boxes and crates, hidden away behind a chain-link fence, on the lonely top floor of a building on Appalachian State University's campus. The museum was originally closed five years ago with the intent to reopen later, but this spring, the school announced it was changing its plans and the museum would remain closed permanently. The university says it can no longer afford the money and space the museum requires. State aid has been cut, it says, and with 17,000 students on campus, real estate is getting tighter each year. But the students I met there said there should be a museum to help people learn about this part of Appalachia. Nicole Diggins was aware of the budget problems. \"But it is still unfortunate,\" she said. \"They should find a place on campus for it,\" said Adrian Stefan, another student. \"I initially started school at University of Nebraska, where they actually had a museum,\" he said. \"They had something called an 'Elephant Hall,' where they had several full-size mammoths. I frequented it two, three, four times a month.\" The Fate Of A Museum And The Future Of A School \"There are a lot of people who gave things to the collection that say, 'No, I didn't give it to be scattered, I gave it to the museum,'\" Betty Bond told me. She's a former history professor at Appalachian State, and did some volunteer work at the museum after she retired. For example, she says, a good friend called, asking after a cherry cradle crafted by her grandfather. The cradle once held dolls in the museum's gift shop. Her friend wanted the cradle back. Bond is confident all items loaned to the museum will find their way home. She's more concerned about what might be happening to the university she's worked for and loved as it grows into a new century. She worries the reason the school chose to close the museum is \"because it doesn't rhyme with football.\" The school, however, says it's not a matter of prizing athletics over history. School communication director Jeff Lowrance says it's the combination of shrinking state funds and a growing student population that \"led this university to decide that we really need to focus on our core mission — and that's teaching students through our academic programs.\" One Last Tour When it was still open, the Appalachian Cultural Museum wanted to highlight how people in this part of North Carolina made a living. The leading industry in these parts has long been tourism, and that's why the Land of Oz, a theme park that once thrived on nearby Beech Mountain, was featured at the museum. Associate Dean Neva Specht showed me a pair of red-and-white striped legs with black buckle shoes — the remains of a crushed Wicked Witch of the West. Not far away sat an old moonshine still. Illegal whiskey was another big money-maker. \"Lots of people are always interested in that piece,\" Specht said. As it turns out, some of the guys who drove the whiskey in the prohibition era went on to become NASCAR racers — including Junior Johnson, who donated two of his cars to the museum. Other relics include an old piano from a camp for boys run by Vera Lachmann, who taught classics at Brooklyn College. The camp, Specht said, started off as a place for young Jewish kids who came to the U.S. during World War II. \"Their parents would send them down to escape the city,\" she said, to busy their minds with art and Shakespeare. \"And every night, Lachmann would read either the Odyssey or the Iliad.\" Boxed Treasures Await A New Home Specht is leading a committee to distribute the museum's collection. The loaned items, she says, will go back to their rightful owners. Junior Johnson came and got his stock cars. Otherwise, a lot of people seem to want to find out what's there and what they can have. \"We have so many,\" she said. \"I had a call from a museum in Gaston County who said, 'What can we do to help you?'\" That extra support leaves Specht hopeful the museum's mission won't be lost for good. Much of the Appalachian State material will stay ", "Two college students talks binge drinking on campus. James Poet is a fraternity president at San Diego State University. Meghan Traxel attends the University of Texas at Austin. She's a peer educator of the campus program, \"Choices Lite.\"", "Georgetown University students joined inmates in the District of Columbia for a college-level music class focusing on incarceration in the U.S. WAMU&#8217;s Mikaela Lefrak (@mikafrak) reports.", "Rarely has beer been so elevated in the public discourse; President Obama's much anticipated heart-to-beer with Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has all kinds of ale-drinkers talking about what might be served... Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. told the Globe earlier this week that he prefers Red Stripe, which is brewed in Jamaica, or the German beer Beck's. Blue Moon, a Belgian-style beer brewed by Coors, seems to be the choice for Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley. That's what he reportedly was seen sipping at Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub in Kendall Square Friday when Obama rang him to invite him to Washington, according to the New York Daily News. President Obama, however, will be drinking a Bud Light.", "Southern University sophomore Jerry Jones and Nzingah Tyehemba, a senior at Amherst College, talk about spending their spring break doing volunteer work in the Big Easy.", "A Maine college takes an unusual approach to curbing drinking: allowing students who are over 21 to drink wine and beer with dinner on campus. Colby College's policy is an unconventional method at trying to convey lessons on moderate drinking.", "A Houston school is attracting new immigrants who are older than ordinary high school students -- but who never got to attend high school. Students take classes at night and on weekends. While some have their employers' support, others are persevering despite their employers' objections.", "The 1,500-mile Appalachian Mountain range stretches so far that those on the northern and southern sides can't agree on what to call it: Appa-LAY-chia or Appa-LATCH-ia. The outside perspective on the people who live there might be even more mangled. Stories about Appalachia tend to center around subjects like poverty, the opioid epidemic and coal, but since 1966 a series called Foxfire has been sharing food, culture and life as it's actually lived in the mountain region. Foxfire started as a class project at a Georgia high school — students interviewed neighbors and wrote a series of articles, which turned into a quarterly magazine and then a book, in 1972, with other books to follow soon after. (The name of the series comes from a term for a local form of bioluminescence caused by fungi on decaying wood.) Within the first decade, more than 9 million copies of Foxfire were sold. Today, there are specialized Foxfire books that focus on cooking, winemaking, religion and music. People who have been following the back-to-the-land food trends that have resurfaced in the past decade might find some of the recipes in Foxfire's Appalachian Cookery familiar and focused around a simple, self-sufficient way of life. There are instructions for making bread in a Dutch oven (specifically over coals in the fireplace.) For pork, the authors note that Appalachians \"stand by their belief that virtually no part of the hog should be thrown away,\" and its recipes for homemade scrapple, hog's head, jowl or sausage wouldn't be out of place on a certain kind of Brooklyn menu. When Susi Gott Séguret, author of Appalachian Appetite, saw Nordic cuisine becoming a trend, she thought, \"What's the big deal? It's how I grew up and how Appalachian people have approached food from the beginning.\" The food is defined by the mountains. \"There are certain restrictions and a richness born of that mountain setting,\" Séguret says. Although foraging and using imperfect vegetables and local food are popular concepts today, they've been a way of life for generations in many cultures. Making charcuterie in-house has become a selling point for restaurants; Foxfire was one of the few books to describe how to make sausage from scratch. Yet the Appalachian culture described in Foxfire is still often pushed to the wayside in favor of chefs who have made the traditional seem new. \"One important part of the Foxfire books is the way they elevated women's work,\" explains Melissa Hall, managing director of the Southern Foodways Alliance. \"Those first volumes are focused on home, and the unsung labor of women in creating those spaces and communities.\" What other series would publish Granny Gibson's suggestions on how to cook possum? (She advises boiling the possum until tender, then baking it with sliced sweet potatoes.) Or an interview with a woman named Ethel Corn who loves wild greens, and says that adding them into your diet can provide a corporeal \"spring cleaning\"? There are long recollections of the everyday act of cooking for large groups of people — whether dinner for a big family or special events. Despite the series' esteemed reputation among its readers, there has been a lull in interest over the years. \"I think right now the audience is mostly Southern,\" says TJ Smith, executive director of the Foxfire Fund, an educational center devoted to Appalachian culture which the books' proceeds helped create. Some of Foxfire's strongest advocates are survivalists who see it as an educational guide to topics as varied as building furniture or houses, harvesting crops, hunting and skinning animals, or cooking without electricity. One reason for the lull may be that Foxfire had to close ranks in order to survive a dark period of its history. In 1992, the teacher who started Foxfire pleaded guilty to child molestation. \"There was no way it couldn't have affected things,\" Smith says. \"I will say that some of the students who had been victims still supported the program because they believed in it and they built it.\" The magazine project still continues in regional schools, and the Fund's board is made up of Foxfire alumni. \"They put a lot of their heart into this place and the program,\" Smith says. During the time when the future of Foxfire was in question, a local campaign to save the series had people filling their windows with signs saying: \"Foxfire still glows.\" It's a testament to the importance of Foxfire that it could survive such a horrible twist to its founding story. Séguret, whose family connected many early Foxfire students with neighbors to interview, says she believes the books are beloved because they show that Appalachian history is worth recording: \"Because the students were interviewing family, friends, neighbors and people who were unsung all this time, it served to knit the community together and validate who they were.\" But even in a modern world where most things can be purchased pre-made, the skills outlined in Foxfire resonate with peop", "Students want to cash in on that growing job market. Those high paying jobs are also attracting petroleum engineering professors. So there are fewer professors to teach ballooning classes.", "Archaeologists digging up the grounds of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., found the remnants of a campus brewery from the 1700s. It's already known that slaves sold the school hops. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Years ago in college, a fellow student showed me where he brewed his own beer. He was following an American tradition. Archaeologists are digging up the campus of William and Mary in Virginia. They found remains of an apparent campus brewery from the 1700s. It's already known that slaves sold the school hops. Now the brewery suggests what students did with that ingredient, no doubt purely for scientific or medicinal purposes. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.", "Last week, Ayiana Davis Polen finally set foot on the campus of Spelman College — a historically Black liberal arts school for women in Atlanta. She's a freshman there but had started her college experience last fall taking classes from her bedroom in Puerto Rico. Back then, she wasn't sure if it felt like college — but then again, she had nothing to compare it with. Now, she's about to. Spelman, like many colleges across the U.S., is beefing up its in-person offerings for the spring semester. For Davis Polen, that meant there was a spot for her in a dorm on the picturesque campus. \"It's pretty nice,\" she said Friday, as she settled into her single room. \"I definitely feel the difference, because there's new people all around me. Obviously it's going to have certain restrictions, but I think I'll start to get an idea of college.\" More than a quarter of colleges are offering in-person components this spring, according to new data from the College Crisis Initiative, or C2i, published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Smaller institutions are more likely to be in person, as are private four-year colleges. Public universities and community colleges are much more likely to be online. The data show that about 40% of colleges are primarily online this spring, though about 25% of schools in the data set are listed as \"undetermined.\" \"There is a trend towards more in person, but the majority of changes we're seeing are in the margins,\" explains Christopher Marsicano, who leads the team at C2i and is an assistant professor at Davidson College in North Carolina, where C2i is based. \"We are not seeing many institutions go from fully online to fully in person.\" Instead, he says, colleges are keeping some classes remote but are trying to have more in-person offerings. \"Because that's what students want and that's where the demand is.\" Delaying the start About 200 colleges have delayed the beginning of in-person classes, according to the new data. In North Carolina, several universities, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Appalachian State University, started the semester online, with plans to begin in-person classes several weeks later. Both universities cite high levels of coronavirus spread in their communities for this delay. \"Delays are a fantastic tool to try to keep students safe,\" says Marsicano. \"We know that students coming to campus spread COVID-19. We also know that COVID-19 numbers are the worst they've been in a long time right now.\" And despite the best attempts to maintain a bubble over a campus, there is research to suggest that colleges aren't insular. In the fall, through genomic sequencing, Paraic Kenny and Craig Richmond discovered links between the coronavirus infecting college students in La Crosse, Wis., and patients in nearby nursing homes. \"If you get a lot of cases on the college campus, transfer to nursing homes can occur and it can occur very, very quickly,\" says Kenny, a cancer biologist and director of the Kabara Cancer Research Institute. By the end of last year, 33 deaths in La Crosse nursing home facilities were found to be linked with the same virus strain that was circulating on the local college campuses at the start of the semester. It is extremely difficult to separate campus life from the broader community, Kenny says: \"There are a lot of bars downtown, and the students go to the bars. Students need to eat, so they go to the supermarket. Students have lungs, so students breathe. If you have lungs, you can get the coronavirus. And if you have lungs, you can catch the coronavirus.\" Lockdowns and high case counts And indeed, campuses have already seen high numbers of cases among students returning for the new semester. The University of California, Berkeley is seeing a \"surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases among students.\" The College of Charleston in South Carolina announced concerns that \"large, non-socially distanced, unmasked gatherings\" were contributing to high levels of spread on campus. At the University of Richmond in Virginia, the return of students two weeks ago brought \"a disturbing uptick\" in positive cases. Much of that spread was happening among students living off campus, which caused the university to restrict off-campus students to remote classes until Feb. 8. \"Whenever COVID-19 numbers get higher, any intervention that stops student mobility, that stops students from going from point A to point B, is going to help keep those cases down,\" explains Marsicano. Last fall, several colleges implemented lockdowns under which students could leave their homes or dorms only for essentials, like getting groceries or going to class. Research has shown that transmission is far less likely to happen in a masked, socially distanced classroom than off campus at large gatherings or among students living together. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the local health department last week issued a two-week lockdown for students in an attempt to slow t", "Ring, ring. Hello? It's reality calling. People are shallow, and life isn't fair. In a new paper, a pair of researchers looked at the student records of tens of thousands of students at their university. They compared the students' class grades to ratings of their physical attractiveness, as judged by outside observers from their student ID card photographs. The researchers found that the women judged as least attractive earned significantly lower grades, after controlling for their ACT scores. The best-looking women earned higher grades. And male professors were more likely than female professors to give better-looking women higher grades. But here's what the study's lead author, Rey Hernández-Julián, calls the \"key finding\": When these same exact students took online courses, where appearance is not an issue, the benefits of being pretty all but disappeared. \"The main results in our paper were not about whether there is a return to appearance, but whether it would be smaller in online environments, where the student is not seen,\" he told NPR Ed. The study by Hernández-Julián and Christina Peters, both professors of economics, took place at Metropolitan State University of Denver, a broad-access university with a diverse student population. A large body of social-science research already supports the advantages of being really, really good-looking. Better-looking people tend to make more money. They are more liked and trusted by others. They marry other good-looking people who are also better educated than average. A classic study from the 1970s showed this effect holds true in academic settings as well. Given identical course transcripts, teachers judged prospective students to be more intelligent if they appeared more attractive in a photograph. Rachel Gordon, a professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has published papers with similar conclusions to this latest one — although her work has shown that better-looking men, as well as women, also receive a grade premium. That wasn't the case in the Denver study. Gordon calls this idea of comparing the same students' performance in both online and in-person courses an \"interesting and clever design.\" Previous studies left unclear whether people are reacting to some relevant quality that goes along with looks, or merely looks alone. Maybe students are rated unattractive because they are ill or depressed, which also tends to hurt their course performance. Or maybe good-looking students have more confidence and are more outgoing because they're good-looking, and that leads to better performance. But if that's the case, why don't we see the same effects in online courses? Hernández-Julián is the first to point out that the overall variation in grades on the basis of looks is small. Math class is not modeling school. But, he says, giving all students a chance to compete academically in an arena where looks don't matter might allow more of them to shine.", "Yeast, hops, grain and water all need to combine with biology, chemistry and physics to make a great glass of beer. Charlie Bamforth, University of California, Davis professor of brewing science and author of the new book <em>Beer Is Proof God Loves Us,</em> offers a toast to honor the beverage.", "A small college in upstate New York is using the Adirondack Mountains as a classroom to train young people to become the next generation of loggers. Fernando Narro (@narro93) of North Country Public Radio reports. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "President Trump attacked four freshmen Democratic congresswomen by name, including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, during a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Wednesday night. Here & Now&#8216;s Robin Young talks with Andrew Greene, a student at Appalachian State University and member of the College Republicans, who was in the audience. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "Combining students who will likely graduate high school at age 20 with trouble-making students in an inner city Detroit classroom might lead many to expect a recipe for academic disaster. But one high school is beating those odds, and even attracting students to apply or transfer. This week, the students finally got to go on summer vacation, but they'll be back in class in one month. Robert Frederick investigated the school's successes. He says it has a little to do with students who realize they're all in the same situation -- and a lot to do with a staff that tries to nurture them.", "There's at least one on every campus: a class so popular, a professor so inspiring that there's a waiting list to get in. As students head back to class after winter break, NPR surveys some of the hottest courses on the nation's campuses. In the first part of the series, NPR's Anthony Brooks sits in on a Harvard law history class that's in such demand that students must enter a lottery to attend.", "The sunrise in rural central Michigan reveals a landscape of neatly divided cornfields crossed by ditches and wooded creeks. But few of the sleepy teenagers on the school bus from Maple Valley Junior-Senior High School likely noticed this scene on their hour drive to Grand Rapids. They set out from their tiny school district of about 1,000 students, heading to the closest big city for a college recruiting fair. About 151 colleges and universities were waiting. The students, from Nashville and Vermontville, Mich., were going to the recruiters because few recruiters come to see them. For urban and suburban students, it's common to have college recruiters visit their schools — maybe they set up a booth in the lunchroom, or talk with students during an English class. But recruiters rarely go to small, rural schools like Maple Valley, which serves fewer than 450 seventh- through 12th-graders. \"When we think about an urban high school, a college recruiter can hit 1,500 students at a time,\" says Andrew Koricich, a professor of education at Appalachian State University. \"To do that in a rural area, you may have to go to 10 high schools.\" Rural households also have lower incomes than urban and suburban ones, the Census Bureau reports, meaning that rural students are less profitable for colleges, which often have to offer them financial aid. \"People tend to overlook the rural areas. I think it's kind of disappointing because some able students could get looked over,\" says David Hochstetler, one of the Maple Valley students riding the bus to Grand Rapids. He's interested in pursuing engineering or computer science in college. One recent study by researchers at UCLA and the University of Arizona found public high schools in affluent areas receive more college recruiter visits than schools in less affluent areas. Those researchers also found recruiters from private colleges concentrate disproportionately on private schools. Rural areas usually have neither wealthy families nor private schools. David Morrow, principal of St. Francis Community Junior/Senior High School in the northwestern corner of Kansas, says only a few public regional institutions visit his combined middle and high school of about 130 students. Kansas State University visits, but in the last five years, the University of Kansas visited the school only once. In Sparta, Ga., just a few regional institutions visit the 230-some students at Hancock Central High School, according to counselor Carlton Stewart. The University of Georgia doesn't come, Stewart says, and Morehouse College only recruits for a summer program for high schoolers, not for admission. This anemic outreach is among the reasons comparatively low numbers of high school graduates from rural areas end up in college the following fall — 59 percent, compared to 62 percent of urban and 67 percent of suburban high school grads, according to the National Student Clearinghouse, which tracks this. At Maple Valley, graduation rates are above the national average, but only 45 percent of Maple Valley's 2018 graduates enrolled in college. Why rural recruiting matters \"Providing greater postsecondary opportunities for rural residents isn't simply a matter of equity or moral obligation — it's a matter of continued national prosperity,\" says Appalachian State's Andrew Koricich. He points out that our economy relies heavily on rural communities and workers. Colleges that get most of their students from urban centers have only recently begun to consider rural student outreach as a deliberate part of their recruitment strategies, says David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. Some selective colleges are noticing the importance of rural America, perhaps spurred by a dramatic enrollment decline and the attention that came with the 2016 elections.. According to Patricia McDonough, an education professor at UCLA, they've realized that \"selective institutions should have a broader range of representation of types of students related to the types of adults we have in America.\" The challenges of rural recruiting Colleges that do try to recruit at rural high schools or regional recruiting fairs have cultural obstacles to overcome, too. In her research, McDonough has found even the smartest rural students tend to be reluctant to move far away to go to college. \"It's kind of a golden cage,\" she says. \"You don't want to leave home, family — a way of life that you know and love.\" \"I'm used to smaller settings, not bigger settings,\" explains Britani Shilton, a Maple Valley senior and four-sport athlete. Going to a big state school would be really overwhelming, she says. \"I went to Michigan State for a basketball camp one time, and there were so many people there. I was like, 'Whoa! I don't know what to think about this.' \" Rural parents can also be skeptical of higher education in general, says Julia DeGroot, Maple Valley's college counselor. DeGroot is the daughter of Grand Ra", "Like a lot of rural states, Maine has real trouble attracting and keeping doctors, particularly those who practice primary care. Maine is trying a new tack, though, to boost the ranks of primary care doctors in the state. Earlier this month, the second-ever class of medical students began studies in a program run jointly by Boston's Tufts Medical School and the Maine Medical Center, the state's largest teaching hospital, based in Portland. Read More The program creates a \"Maine track\" for students likely to end up practicing in the state. After spending the first two years in Boston doing the usual coursework, the students head north to Maine, where they spend their final two years doing rotations and clerkships at the medical center and elsewhere in the state. \"Medical students tend to practice where they train, and our hope is that by offering an affordable, quality education close to home, we'll retain some of the state's best and brightest minds,\" says Peter Bates, the medical school's academic dean and the hospital's VP for medical and academic affairs. In each class, 20 of the program's openings are set aside for Maine residents, students attending Maine colleges, or students from adjacent New England states. The out-of-staters also qualify for special scholarships to reduce their tuition burden to what would be comparable to attending public universities in their home states. This week, All Things Considered takes a look at the primary care shortage in a three-part series, focusing on Maine. Michael McDonald is one primary care doctor who's pulling for the program to succeed. He runs Sebasticook Family Doctors, a community health center that serves about 8,000 patients in four counties in central Maine. He just lost one of his doctors and knows it won't be easy finding a replacement. The program to lure medical students to Maine only goes so far. Med students are turning their backs on primary care when it comes time to pick a specialty. \"I would love residency programs to somehow get more of their graduates into primary care, but I'm not sure how you do that,\" says McDonald, who will be featured in part three of the primary care series. \"I'm not sure how you make it a sexy thing,\" he says. Primary care is \"hard work,\" and doesn't pay as well as specialties. Student ask why they should go into it, given all the headaches and problems. \"You've got to really love it,\" he answesr. Now he'll get a chance to persuade some new students to give Maine life a try.", "With Meghna Chakrabarti Some colleges say they’ll match tuition at rival schools. We’ll add up the dollars and costs. Guests Melissa Korn, higher education reporter for The Wall Street Journal. (@melissakorn) Larry Schall, president of Oglethorpe University. Jeffrey Hecker, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost for the University of Maine. Sabrina Manville, co-founder of Edmit, a startup that calculates personalized tuition estimates for students. (@sabrinamanville) From The Reading List Wall Street Journal: &#8220;In Race for Students, Colleges Offer to Match Tuition at Rival Schools&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Escalating the heated battle for students, some private colleges are offering to match public in-state tuition. &#8220;Oglethorpe University near Atlanta will match the tuition of any state flagship university for high-achieving students, and Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh said last week it will charge Pennsylvania residents the same price as local public universities, plus a $3,000 scholarship to boot. &#8220;The discounts aren’t limited to private schools. Public universities in Michigan, South Dakota and Nebraska now let students from other states pay as if they were locals. The University of Maine in Orono matches neighbors’ in-state rates. Public schools regularly charge two or three times as much—or more—for non-residents. &#8220;Some colleges, facing dwindling populations of local high school graduates, are motivated to attract students from across the country. Others are battling the perception they aren’t affordable or just looking to boost their academic profiles. Schools are getting the word out via billboards and social-media campaigns.&#8221; Forbes: &#8220;Two New Price-Matching Programs Rolled Out At Private Colleges&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Price matching isn&#8217;t just for coupon clippers anymore, now college students can get in on the action too. &#8220;Two private schools, Robert Morris University and Oglethorpe University, recently rolled out price-matching programs to compete with state flagship universities and attract students at lower tuition rates. &#8220;At Robert Morris, the Public Price Match Plus program is open only to Pennsylvania residents who were accepted at Penn State or the University of Pittsburgh. Students can expect to pay the average cost of attendance at either school (more than $34,000 including fees, room, and board) and will receive an additional $3,000 scholarship before any financial aid is applied from the state, the federal government, or the institution itself.&#8221; Inside Higher Ed: &#8220;A Private University Matches Public Prices&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;Oglethorpe University staked out new ground Wednesday in the struggle to stand out from the crowd of small private colleges, unveiling a pricing strategy that will match public college tuition rates in every state for members of next year’s freshman class who meet certain benchmarks. &#8220;The 1,280-student university in Atlanta calls the strategy the Flagship 50 program. It’s a non-need-based scholarship pegging the tuition some students will pay to sticker prices at flagship public universities in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. &#8220;Freshmen who qualify will pay the in-state tuition rates of flagship universities in their home state. To do so, a student will need to have posted a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5, plus a minimum test score of 1250 combined SAT or 26 composite ACT. &#8220;In some ways, the new program resembles the University of Maine’s Flagship Match program, which brought in new students from out of state by dangling the prospect that they could pay the same tuition and fees to attend the University of Maine in Orono that they would pay if they were attending a flagship campus in their home state. But Oglethorpe looks very different from Orono because it is a private institution in the South, not a public one in the Northeast. It’s also far smaller, with first-year classes measured in the hundreds, not the thousands.&#8221;", "Children in sepia-toned clothes with dirt-smeared faces. Weathered, sunken-eyed women on trailer steps chain-smoking Camels. Teenagers clad in Carhartt and Mossy Oak loitering outside long-shuttered businesses. When policymakers and news organizations need a snapshot of rural poverty in the United States, Appalachia — the area of land stretching from the mountains of southern New York through northern Alabama — is the default destination of choice. Poverty tours conducted by presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon, almost every member of the Kennedy clan, and religious leaders like Jesse Jackson have all painted the portrait of Appalachia the same way: poor, backward, and white. While the economic despair and major health epidemics are an unsettling reality for the region, a glaring omission has been made from the \"poverty porn\" images fed to national audiences for generations: Appalachia's people of color. \"When we tell the truth about Appalachia, it's only then that we tell the real story about who we are,\" said Aaron Thompson, executive vice president and chief academic officer for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Growing up as an African-American outside Manchester, Ky. — a coal town home to the lowest per capita income in the state, according to US census data — Thompson has become one of the few outspoken role models for young people of color in his mountain home. \"There's no one story of Appalachia, no one voice. It's time for everyone to feel like they can speak up, like their story is important.\" The region's population growth is increasingly fueled by minorities, who have composed almost half of Appalachia's new residents (42 percent) over the past three decades and helped fuel awareness about the heterogeneous reality of mountain towns. Appalachia's history as a mountainous melting pot dates to before the Revolutionary War, when the region's misty crags were an almost impenetrable Western frontier. Indian nations, including Cherokee and Shawnee, were the first to inhabit the area. A major wave of European settlers — primarily of Irish and Scottish descent — arrived via federal land grants in the early 18th century. African-Americans, both free and enslaved, arrived at this time as well. All these groups played key roles in shaping and molding the cultural traditions of the region. African-Americans made up more than 10 percent of the region's population by 1860, with Appalachia's ethnic profile shifting dramatically as multiracial families boomed. (Later, those with blended Scots-Irish, Native American and African-American roots would come to be known as Melungeons.) In the years following the Civil War, former slaves migrated north to the region to escape the persecution of the Deep South. In Eastern Kentucky, Berea College opened its doors in 1867 to students of all races, with the first year's class totaling 187 students: 96 African-American and 91 white. The coal crescendo during the early part of the 20th century brought in even greater diversity, with tens of thousands of Hungarian, Italian and Eastern European immigrants flocking to the mountains to cash in on booming mining towns. After the Great Depression, many of these immigrants — along with African-American families — moved to urban centers such as Cincinnati and Detroit in pursuit of more stable and less backbreaking work. These pioneers were some of the first to create \"urban Appalachian\" enclaves, spreading the traditions of an isolated region to metropolitan areas across the Midwest. This fusion is most obvious in Appalachia's signature food and music. As Rachel Ellen Simon describes in an article for The Appalachian Voice, the African akonting was a precursor to the banjo — the instrument now synonymous with the region's plucky, twangy bluegrass sound. Spoonbread, chowchow and succotash all point to both African and Native American influences and are celebrated as culinary specialties of the area. Despite a long history of ethnic diversity, racism continues to be a problem in the region, particularly as Hispanic communities grow larger. According to reports from the Appalachian Research Commission, African-Americans remain the region's largest minority (bucking a national trend) and make up about 9 percent of Appalachian residents. But Rachel Ellen Simon calculated that the region's Latino population — which composed just over 4 percent of Appalachians in 2010 — has increased by more than 240 percent over the past 20 years. Still, the stigma associated with transient migrant workers remains. \"Even though Hispanic families have been here for decades, they're definitely still unfairly targeted,\" said Megan King, a photographer whose work captures portraits of Latino families in and around Johnson City, Tenn. \"When I was at the police station one day photographing a couple of [Hispanic] cops, a call came in and said that two Latino men were trying to steal a police car. It was the officers I was photographin", "President Obama invited two men at the center of a racially-charged controversy to share a beer with him Thursday evening in the Rose Garden. Afterwards, one of the men called it a positive step for the whole country." ]

[ "By . Sam Webb . New images taken from space show an island that formed last year after a volcanic eruption in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean is swallowing up a neighbouring island. The land mass, named Niijima, was first spotted in November 2013, in the Ogasawara chain around 600 miles south of Tokyo, as a result of continuing eruptions from the volcano below. Initially, scientists were unsure how long it would last because volcanic islets of that type tend to be reclaimed by the sea after a short time. Overwhelmed: Niijima, was formed as a result of continuing eruptions from the volcano below. It has now merged with its smaller pre-existing neighbour Nishino-shima . My, how you've grown: In this NASA satellite image from December 8, Niijima can be clearly seen next to the larger Nishino Shima . But the mass, located in the Pacific's volatile 'Ring of Fire', has grown rapidly to merge with its smaller pre-existing neighbour Nishino-shima, as these satellite images from the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 show. The new landmass measures about 3,000ft across and has soared to a height of 200ft above sea level, reports the Huffington Post. 'The intermittent, pulsing shape of the cloud stream might be a reflection of the volcanic eruption itself,' officials from NASA's Earth Observatory said. Growing presence: This picture was taken on December 6, just over two weeks after the island formed . Smoke billows from the new islet off the coast of Nishino Shima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain off the coats of Tokyo. At that point, it was around 600ft in diameter . The formation of the new island was the first time the phenomenon has happened in almost 30 years . 'Strombolian explosions are essentially bubbles of lava and gas rising from Earth's interior in pulses. 'Underwater, sediment appears to be stirred up in a green plume that stretches eastward from the island.' In September a similar new island appeared off the coast of Pakistan. It was forced to the surface following an earthquake and was made up a mound of mud and rock 70ft high and 295ft wide. The phenomenon on the coastline near the port of Gwadar caused astonishment when it emerged from the Arabian Sea, but experts from Pakistan's National Institute of Oceanography say it is now fast eroding. Although the area regularly experiences earthquakes and eruptions, they are rarely as powerful as the one that formed Niijima. The chain is made up of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands. The islet is made up of volcanic lava and rocks forced from the ocean floor. Volcanologists claim the temperature of the rocks could have been as high as 1,000C when it emerged. Similar eruptions in the early 1970s and 80s created tiny islets in Japan's territory that have since disappeared. Experts initially said the islet, pictured, may not last long due to erosion, but it is still growing . Similar eruptions in the early 1970s and 80s created tiny islets in Japan's territory that have since disappeared . The new islet rose into the ocean near the Bonin Islands, also known as the Ogasawara chain ." ]

[ "If we must imagine the fiery depths of hell, the mental image can't be far from these incredible images by Karel Tupy of Ethiopia's Erta Ale, the world's oldest continuously active lava lake. Photographer Tupy, 35, says he feared his camera would melt from the overwhelming heat of the lava as he captured the daunting scenes of the 150-ft wide basalt volcano. 'The view is simply staggering,' said the 35-year-old. 'Lava inside the volcano is constantly moving, bubbling and bursting.' Scroll down for video . Mental images of the fiery depths of hell can't be far from these very real photographs of Ethiopia's Erta Ale . These incredible images by Czech photographer Karel Tupy capture the world's oldest continuously active lava lake . Lava sprays from the centre of the lake, a rare phenomenon said to be one of just six in the world . Lava illuminates, peeks through cracks and spits (left) and a haze forms above the blazing hot pool in shot by the adventurous 35-year-old . 'The heat was immense, when I got to an edge of the crater, it was unbearable. After couple of seconds, my facial skin was so hot, I had to get away. 'There was even a point where I was afraid my camera was going to melt.' Found in the badland desert area of the Afar Depression in north-eastern Ethiopia, Erta Ale's famed lava lake formed around 1906 and is one of six in the world. The volcano's name translates in the local Afar tribe's language as 'smoking mountain' while the pit to its south is known by locals as 'The Gateway to Hell', an appropriate moniker given the luminous lava spitting lava and searing heat. Karel Tupy said the view is 'staggering', as lava inside the volcano is constantly moving, bubbling and bursting . Erta Ale's name translates as 'smoking mountain' in the local Afar language while the pit to its south is called 'The Gateway to Hell' While locals aren't particularly welcoming to outsiders and the surrounding terrain is far from hospitable, tourists do make the journey to witness the natural phenomenon. In 2009, BBC TV show The Hottest Place On Earth went there to record a world first 3D laser image of the volcano. Durham University earth scientist Dr Dougal Jerram and a team from the BBC explored the Danakil desert, officially known as the hottest place on Earth. 'Like a true journey to the centre of the Earth, volcanoes provide a unique window into our planet's interior,' he later wrote for BBC News. 'Standing at the lip of the lava lake you can see why the locals see this as \"The Gateway to Hell\", as the incandescent bubbling lava lake hisses like some badly burned porridge cauldron, overturning and occasionally belching molten lava.' A visitor mounts his camera on a tripod in a bit to capture the volcano in its full glory while a small group of tourists line the other side . The ferocity of the volcano is clear as lava splashes up from a pool that is said to have formed around 1906 . Having gained his own access to the area, in which five people in a group of scientists and tourists were killed while others were taken as hostages in a 2012 attack claimed by the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF), Tupy couldn't agree more with Dr Jerram's impression. 'Even though the lava is about 25 feet below the edge, sometimes during a burst the lake spits the lava outside the crater, so you have to be careful not to get hit by it,' he said. 'What you get hit by quite often though is fumes.' The photographer says while it's vital to avoid contact with lava, obviously, it's the fumes that can be the worry . Poor road access means the only way to efficiently get to the crater is via four-wheel-drive over rugged terrain . A far less dramatic sight, the lava forms a hard, grey layer when it is given the chance to cool . However, the environment gets far worse that what he experienced. In September 2005 an eruption killed 250 head of livestock and forced locals in the surrounding area to flee. There were further evacuations in August 2007 caused by lava flow, after which two people went missing. The most recent eruption came in November 2008 . 'This place is something you don't see every day,' said Karel. 'As a photographer, I get to see amazing places and when you see that people like those photos. This is kind of a reward in itself.'", "If the mysterious underwater world wasn't already fascinating enough, a diver has captured various fish, crabs, shrimps and coral inhabitants of the Indo-Pacific oceans like never before. Underwater photographer Alex Tyrrell . used a standard DSLR camera in an underwater housing, along with external flash . strobes to create the surreal effect. His stunning images show the flora and fauna that live off the coasts of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines illuminated in bright colours shining like aliens submerged in the deep waters. London-based underwater photographer Alex Tyrrell took these ultraviolet images of underwater creatures as he travelled across Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. He used external flash strobes to illuminate the underwater flora and fauna and, to create the glowing effect, also filmed the marine life using filters and fluorescent lighting. This image shows a golden mantis shrimp . This image shows a spearing mantis shrimp. Mantis shrimps have excellent sight with eyes mounted on stalks that provide almost 360° vision . When diving with a fluorescent mask the diver said he was blown away by the psychedelic colours and immediately wanted to capture the effect on camera. The 39-year-old, from London, took the photos at Koh Tao, Thailand, the Lembeh Straights, Sulawesi, Indonesia and Anilao Luzon in the Philippines. Tyrrell said: ‘I enjoy fluorescent photography as it's a bit different from normal underwater photos. 'When diving the same area repetitively and seeing the same creatures, it makes things more interesting. ‘Not too many people have done fluorescent photography well, so it's quite unique and more of a challenge. ‘My camera is a standard DSLR in an underwater housing with external strobes - but you need excitation filters over the strobes to create the fluorescent effect and then Barrier Filters over the lens to strip away the excess blue light - letting the camera record the fluorescence. ‘You also need a fluorescent light to be able to see the fluorescent in the first place and a yellow barrier filter over your mask, which performs the same task as on the camera but for your eyes.’ In one image, Tyrrell captured a hydroid decorator crab clinging to the side of coral. Small decorator . crabs are often found with stingers on the top of their heads to deter . predators. Decorator crabs have also been known to snap off small branches and hook them onto their shells for camouflage and defense. Another shot shows a freckled frogfish. Frogfish are masters of camouflage and change to match their surroundings. A . stalk between their eyes mimics the movement of other smaller fish and . is used to lure in the frogfish's prey. Their mouths open and expand to . the width of their bodies to easily devour their prey. This image shows a hydroid decorator crab on the side of coral. Small decorator crabs, like this one, are often found with stingers on the top of their heads to deter predators. Decorator crabs have been known to snap off small branches and hook them onto their shells for camouflage and defense . Freckled frogfish, pictured left, are masters of camouflage and change to match their surroundings. A stalk between their eyes, shown in green, mimics the movement of other smaller fish and is used to lure in the frogfish's prey. Their mouths open and expand to the width of their bodies to easily devour their prey. The dusky nebrotha, pictured right, is a member of the Nudibranch family. It is found either on its own, or as part of a pair on coral and rocky reefs, particularly in sand and rubble . In this shot, Tyrell managed to capture the juvenile raggy scorpionfish. Although Tyrrell used red lights to illuminate this fish, adults are best recognised by the tiny light-blue 'eyes', or ocelli cells, scattered across their bodies, as well dark triangles below the eyes. Small juveniles have three distinctive white spots along the back and the species typically lives in coastal reefs, often where the fish can be well camouflaged in areas of algae and seagrass. The spines pictured along the bag are venomous . While the dusky nebrotha, which looks . like a cut out on a Halloween pumpkin in Tyrrell's photos, is a member . of the Nudibranch family. It is found either on its own, or as part of a . pair on coral and rocky reefs, particularly in sand and rubble. Nudibranch are slow moving creatures that . swim using either muscular contractions, or by the millions of tiny . hairs they have on their 'feet'. Nudibranch lay their eggs in a ribbon . effect on the sand, and each species produces a slightly different . colour egg. Among Tyrrell's images is also a Achaeus . japonicus, known as the orangutan crab. It has relatively long arms . that are thickly covered with fine hairs that are reddish brown in . colour, similar to its mammal namesake. These two images show mushroom coral from a distance, left, and close up, right. This type of coral varies in shape and colour and the species is generally solitary and can often appear bleached or dead. Mushroom corals are able to change sex in response to environmental changes . This image is of the Achaeus japonicus, also known as the orangutan crab. It has relatively long arms, which are thickly covered with fine hairs that are reddish brown in colour, similar to its mammal namesake. These hairs collect debris to help camouflage it further and it hangs from underwater plants . Brain coral, pictured, is the name given to the Faviidae family because its surface and grooves resemble that of the brain. Each head of the coral is formed by a colony of genetically identical polyps that release a hard skeleton of calcium carbonate. Brain corals are found in shallow warm water and use their tentacles to catch food at night. During the day, these tentacles are used for protection . The fimbriated moray, pictured, is a moray eel found in the Indo-Pacific oceans, around reefs and harbours. It is often founds at depths of 147ft (45 metres). It is pale green-yellow in colour and has black spots on its face. The eel can can reach a maximum length of 31 inches (80 cm) Tyrrell used standard DSLR in an . underwater housing to take these shots. He fitted it with external strobes, as well as so-called excitation . filters over the strobes to create the fluorescent effect. Additionally, a Barrier filters was placed over the lens to strip away any excess blue light - . letting the camera record the fluorescence. Tyrrell said: ‘You . also need a fluorescent light to be able to see the fluorescent in the . first place and a yellow barrier filter over your mask, which performs . the same task as on the camera but for your eyes.’ These hairs collect debris to camouflage themselves further, and it hangs from underwater plants. In another shot, Tyrell managed to capture the juvenile raggy scorpionfish. Although Tyrrell used red lights to illuminate the fish in his photo, adults are best recognised by the tiny light-blue 'eyes', or ocelli cells, scattered across their bodies, as well as dark triangles below the eyes. Small juveniles have three distinctive white spots along the back and the species typically lives in coastal reefs, often where the fish can be well camouflaged in areas of algae and seagrass. The spines pictured along the back of the fish are venomous. A number of corals were also captured by Tyrrell during his travels. Two images show mushroom coral - one from a distance and a second close up. This type of coral varies in shape and colour and the species is generally solitary. It can often appear bleached or dead. Mushroom corals are able to change sex in response to environmental changes. Elsewhere, brain coral is the name given to the Faviidae family because its surface and grooves resemble that of the brain. Each head of the coral is formed by a colony of genetically identical polyps that release a hard skeleton of calcium carbonate. Brain corals are found in shallow warm water and use their tentacles to catch food at night. During the day, these tentacles are used for protection. The torch coral, pictured left, is often known as trumpet coral or pom-pom coral. It is brown or green and has yellow tips on its tentacles. The yellow will sometimes appear to glow, like in Tyrrell's image. The left-hand image shows a spawning magnificent sea anemone sat on torch coral . This mean-looking fish is the yellowface wrasse. When not lit using UV lights, the fish has a grey body, and as its name suggests, a yellow head with pink bands. They live in coral areas along the shoreline, as well as in lagoons . This staghorn coral is also known as green forest because of its similarity with forests above the ground. It is one of several corals of the genus Acropora which is instantly recognisable for having skeleton branches similar to the antlers of a stag .", "Avalanches and death-defying runs were too tame for one daredevil who decided to take extreme skiing to a whole new level by hitting the slopes on an active volcano. Oscar Hübinette shredded through the snow on the Tolbachik volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia while his friend Fredrik Schenholm photographed his exploits. The adventure photographer looked on in amazement as Oscar flew down the icy slopes, while lava from the 12,000 foot tall volcano bubbled furiously behind him. Scroll down for video . Adventure photographer Fredrik Schenholm looked on in amazement as Oscar Hübinette flew down the icy slopes, while lava from the 12,000 foot tall volcano bubbled furiously behind him . Fredrik said: 'It was mindblowing to see the snow mix with the lava. 'The heat and cold at the same time was incredible. 'The air temperature was around -25C (-13F) and the lava temperature would have been more than 1,000C (1832F). 'Seeing the contrast of the black and red lava to the white snow was like gold to my eyes, and to my camera.' Amazing photographs show Oscar silhouetted in front of the still erupting Tolbachik volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia . 'Seeing the contrast of the black and red lava to the white snow was like gold to my eyes, and to my camera.' Fredrik said . After lying dormant since 1976 the volcano suddenly erupted in November 2012. During the eruption, which lasted more than six months, it regularly emits jets of burning hot lava up to 656 feet high . After lying dormant since 1976 the volcano suddenly erupted in November 2012. During the eruption, which lasted more than six months, it regularly emits jets of burning hot lava up to 656 feet (200m) high. The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 780 mile (1,250km) long peninsula in the Russian Far East. Tolbachick is one of 160 volcanoes on the island, 29 of which are still active. The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 780 mile (1,250km) long peninsula in the Russian Far East. Tolbachik is one of 160 volcanoes on the island, 29 of which are still active . Fredrik added: 'The volcano was very active until the summer of last year. 'It is still active. At this time no lava is coming out of it but that could change at any minute.' The photographer admitted he has been chasing shots of skiers on volcanoes for several years and said he was thrilled to finally capture the image to perfectly contrast the hot and cold conditions. He said: 'It was a bit unreal seeing Oscar skiing near the lava. 'I was chasing this image for around five years and have tried, unsuccessfully, at many active volcanoes in South America, North America, Europe and Asia - but things always stopped me. 'Bad weather often reduced the visibility, eruptions are obviously very unpredictable and skiers weren't always around. 'So to finally get the view of Oscar skiing in front of the eruption was a big deal for me - it really was beautiful. After lying dormant since 1976 the volcano suddenly erupted in November 2012, spewing lava down the mountainside . The air temperature surrounding the volcano was around -25C while the lava temperature would have been more than 1,000C . 'The first thing I did when I got the shot was to scream to Oscar 'We got it!'. 'After that I looked at the display more closely and saw that the composition was really good - Oscar made a really nice turn as I took the shot. 'The lava looked great from the volcano and I had the feeling of perfection which is always a good feeling.' Fredrik said he was fully aware of the dangers of taking such dramatic shots, especially when lava was still flowing from the volcano. 'Seeing the contrast of the black and red lava to the white snow was like gold to my eyes, and to my camera,' Fredrik said . He said: 'Oscar was very brave for doing this - it goes without saying that being on active volcanoes is incredibly dangerous. 'We did wake up one night when the lava flow changed direction and started to flow just 100m (109 yards) from our tent. 'Things can go wild any time, but Tolbachik was pretty much under control and we did feel safe.'", "By . Lillian Radulova . Flights to and from Darwin are expected to resume on Sunday afternoon with volcanic plume and ash clouds expected to clear. Despite Indonesia's Sangeang Api volcano currently erupting  continuously, the plume is being released at a much lower level, according to a spokesperson from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin. The ash is also not reaching as high in the atmosphere as residue from the first explosive eruption. 'The higher level of ash over Australia is dissipating and won't be there much beyond this afternoon,' the spokesperson told MailOnline. Darwin Airport spokeswoman Virginia Sanders has also told the ABC that despite flights remaining grounded on Sunday morning, they are likely to resume later in the day as airlines continue to receive advice from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. 'Today it looks as though we will have some flights come back online, some more Jetstar flights, Qantas will be meeting this morning to find out when their lunchtime flights will come online, and Air North will be operating some flights as well,' she said. Scroll down for video . The powerful explosion took place at Mount Sangeang Api in the Lesser Sunda Islands - an area that plays host to 129 active volcanoes. The Sunda Islands sit inside Indonesia's notorious 'Ring of Fire'. Since Sangiang Api's first recorded eruption in 1512, it is believed to have erupted a total of 20 times . Qantas has also confirmed that their first flight to Darwin will be landing in the Northern Territory’s capital city at about 1pm on Sunday. The airline issued a brief release which stated: 'All Qantas and Jetstar services in and out of Darwin have resumed today following the eruption of a volcano on the southern Indonesian island of Sangeang. All operations are due to operate as scheduled'. Virgin Australia has also issued a statement saying they expect flights to resume by Sunday afternoon. 'Based on the latest advice we have received and with the forecast expected to clear in affected areas near Darwin and Denpasar, we will resume operations into and out of Darwin later this afternoon. We will also resume operations into and out of Denpasar,' a statement from the airline said. Emile Jansons, manager of the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, said plumes posed no threat to the health of people on the ground and wouldn't even be noticed by the naked eye. 'When you're as far away as Darwin is it's really not noticeable for people,' Mr Jansons said. 'There's no ash falling on the ground, there's no smell of sulphur as the ash is quite high up in the atmosphere. So visibly it looks no different to the standard dry seasons we have here which is a little bit of bushfire smoke and a bit of haze in the air.' The 20km-high ash cloud from the volcanic eruption played havoc with Australia's flight paths on Friday. Australians heading to the popular holiday location of Bali found themselves stranded when their flights were cancelled due to the island's airspace being disrupted by volcanic plume. Darwin was also cut off to all air services and thousands of people were left stranded in the city after the ash cloud blew over the Northern Territory coast line, forcing the airport to close. On Saturday night, all flights from Melbourne to Bali were cancelled, reported The Age. Planes at East Kimberley Regional Airport in West Australia were also grounded due to the plumes. Each shape on the map indicates various levels of ash cloud hanging over areas measured from the surface to flight level (SFC). The lowest ash cloud at 10,000 feet, can be seen to the west of the volcano. The highest cloud above Northern Australia at 20,000-45,000 feet, can only be seen in the first box as the cloud begins to clear . Previous graphs: The ash clouds can clearly be seen engulfing the Northern Territory in reports from Saturday . The volcano, Sangeang Api, in Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Island is currently continuously erupting since the first eruption on Friday afternoon. The first ash cloud, between 20,000 and 50,000 feet high and up to 15km wide, moved in a south-easterly direction over central Australia on Saturday night at about 100 knots before scattering quickly. A second cloud at about 45,000 feet was over Darwin and moving east at about 60 knots, while the third ash cloud, north-east of Bali, avoided Australian airspace. On Saturday morning at least 18 flights were cancelled coming in and out of the airport, The Australian reported. Domestic and international flights run by Virgin, Jetstar, Qantas, Emirates, Malaysia, SilkAir and Airnorth airlines were abandoned. A Jetstar spokesman confirmed 530 passengers were affected by the cancellations. Once moving off the coast, the ash cloud moved south towards Alice Springs and sat between 6km and 13km above the ground. The Sangeang Api volcano is about 1400km away from Darwin and is currently continuously erupting but at a much lower level than the initial eruption . Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the issue with flying near or through the cloud was not just visibility, but the effect it had on the plane. He said silica contained in the cloud could cause extensive damage to a jet. 'The damage it can do to the aircraft can be abrasive,' Mr Gibson said. 'It can melt and stick to the engine.' The Bureau of Meteorology continues to monitor the situation. After erupting, the volcano sent a distinctive spaceship-shaped ring of pyroclastic smoke high into the air. Pilots in the area reported seeing the cloud rise 20km high, spreading over a 40km area . The volcano sits in Indonesia's notorious 'Ring of Fire' - an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. It has 452 volcanoes - 75 per cent of the world's total . The incredible moment Indonesia's huge volcano erupted, sending ash spewing an estimated 20 kilometres into the sky, was captured in pictures. The powerful explosion took place at Mount Sangeang Api in the Lesser Sunda Islands - an area that plays host to 129 active volcanoes - and sent a distinctive spaceship-shaped ring of pyroclastic smoke high into the air. The photographs were taken by professional photographer Sofyan Efendi during a commercial flight from Bali to the fishing town of Labuan Bajo in West Nusa Tenggara province. Flights are set to resume on Sunday at the Darwin Airport after multiple airlines cancelled flights in and out of the city after the volcano's initial eruption . The photographs were taken by professional photographer Sofyan Efendi during a commercial flight from Bali to the fishing town of Labuan Bajo . Scores of farmers who work but do not live on the Indonesian island were ordered to leave and not return until the volcano has finished erupting, said Muhammad Hendrasto, head of Indonesia's National Volcanology Agency. There are not believed to have been any deaths or injuries as a result of the eruption. Authorities have had Mount Sangiang Api on high alert for almost a year, he told China's Xinhua news agency. The volcano sits in Indonesia's notorious 'Ring of Fire' - an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. It has 452 volcanoes - 75 per cent of the world's total. Since Sangiang Api's first recorded eruption in 1512, it is believed to have erupted a total of 20 times. Scores of farmers who work but do not live on the island were ordered to leave and not return until the volcano has finished erupting .", "A British scuba diver was glowing with happiness when he captured these alien-like fluorescent underwater creatures on camera. By using special underwater photographic equipment, the scuba diving snapper was able to highlight the fluorescence in marine creatures. The bright green, red and yellow colours are enhanced with ultra violet (UV) and blue-filtered light to see the unique effect. The fimbriated moray eel is found in the Indo-Pacific oceans at depths down to 45 meters. Alex Tyrrell, a scuba diving instructor from London, captured the images while working near the Phillipines and Thailand . When viewed under normal white light, the majority of the creatures have a muted brown and beige colour. But when photographed with the special equipment, they transform into spectacular and colourful creatures. Alex Tyrrell, a scuba diving instructor from London, captured the images while working near the Philippines and Thailand. Using special underwater photographic equipment, the scuba diver was able to highlight the fluorescence in marine creatures. Pictured is a fluorescent mushroom coral . Mr Tyrrell managed to find this spectacular fluo bubble coral (right) and fluo hard coral (left). The 39-year-old said: 'It is still not fully understood why certain creatures fluoresce and others do not...Maybe this is an effect they can turn on and off at will - possibly for communication.' Images such as this one of an anemone hermit crab were enhanced with UV and blue-filtered light to see the unique effect. When viewed under normal white light, the majority of the creatures have a muted brown and beige colour . The 39-year-old said: 'It is still not fully understood why certain creatures fluoresce and others do not. 'I have even seen two identical fish side by side where one fluoresces and the other doesn't. 'Maybe this is an effect they can turn on and off at will - possibly for communication.' The pictures show a 10 centimetre anemone hermit crab who lives in the discarded shell of a snail. A striking vivid yellow and green eel, known as the fimbriated moray, appears to approach the camera ready to bite. Lisa's Mantis Shrimp, also known as Spearing Mantis Shrimp, feed on fish, squid and invertebrates, and grow to a length of about 25cm . On the left a striking striped triplefin fish shines with an amazing red glow, while on the right a fluo mushroom coral lights up the ocean floor in green . Mr Tyrrell managed to find this spectacular fluo bubble coral, fluo hard corals and fluo mushroom coral. A bright green fluorescent sea anemone illuminates the water and is 40 centimetres in diameter. An already alien-like crustacean, about 12cm in diameter and up to 25cm in length, is hidden in its burrow. But it looks even more out-of-this-world when glowing under fluo-lighting. A striking striped triplefin fish and a white-spotted hermit crab light up the water with an amazing yellow and red glow. Mr Tyrrell has completed more than 100 dives using this special fluorescent camera equipment. Pictured are fluorescent hard corals shown against a dive light . A bright green fluorescent sea anemone illuminates the water and is 40 centimetres in diameter. All images were taken in Asian Pacific tropical water that reaches a temperature of up to 28°C . Mr Tyrrell has completed more than 100 dives using this special fluorescent camera equipment. He added: 'I started this because I was diving in the same area repeatedly and wanted to get photos of familiar subjects in a very different light. 'All images were taken in Asian Pacific tropical water that reaches a temperature of up to 28°C. 'I managed to get very close to the creatures and at one point I was only 20 centimetres away from the subject. 'The majority of the photos were taken in Dauin, Philippines, while a few were taken in Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.' A white-spotted hermit crab lights up the water with an amazing yellow and red glow. The majority of the photos were taken in Dauin, Philippines, while a few were taken in Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand .", "A Scottish hotel has been named as one of the most 'jaw-dropping' places in the world to stay. Atholl Palace in Pitlochry, Perthshire, features on a list of 28 unique hotels 'to stay at before you die'. It is ranked alongside a volcano-like lodge in Chile, underwater rooms off the coast of Zanzibar and cottages perched on the limestone cliffs of Negril in Jamaica, in the article by South Africa-based tourism website TravelGround. Atholl Palace in Pitlochry, Perthshire, features on a list of 28 unique hotels 'to stay at before you die' compiled by TravelGround . Top of the list is The Manta Resort in Zanzibar. The hotel describes itself as 'probably as far away from civilisation as you’ll ever get . 1. The Manta Resort, Zanzibar . 2. Hotel Kakslauttanen, Finland . 3. Panchoran Retreat, Bali . 4. Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese, Italy . 5. Montana Magica Lodge, Chile . 6. Burj Al Arab, Dubai . 7. Museumotel, France . 8. Whitepod Hotel, Switzerland . 9. The Caves Resort, Jamaica . 10. Attrap Reves Hotel, France . The four-star hotel, which is placed at number 22, is the only hotel in the UK and Ireland to make it on to the list and it is noted for its turret suites, manor house rooms and formal gardens. Anthony Kelly, spokesman for Castle Collection of Hotels, which includes Atholl Palace, said: 'TravelGround has a massive global following and we are absolutely thrilled that Atholl Palace has been recognised amongst the most jaw-dropping hotels in the world. 'To be the only hotel in the UK and Ireland included in this exclusive ranking makes the accolade all the more prestigious, not just for the hotel but also for Scotland as a world-class destination.' Top of the list is The Manta Resort in Zanzibar. The hotel describes itself as 'probably as far away from civilisation as you’ll ever get. The main attraction is the Underwater Room, where guests can enjoy the wonderful marine life swimming up to their window. The three-floor suite floats within a thriving coral reef and boasts a submerged master bedroom surrounded by windows to view the sealife. Located on the tropical Pemba Island in Zanzibar, the top two floors of the Underwater Room rest above the surface of the water, while the bedroom sits four meters beneath the surface. Besides a double bed to lie on, the room features two large windows on each wall, giving an almost total 360-degree view of the ocean surrounding it. As you can probably guess, the half-submerged hotel suite isn't cheap. Spending one night in the Underwater Room costs £1,000 for two people. Number two on the top 28 places list list is the Hotel Kakslauttanen in Finland. The Hotel Kakslauttanen in Finland was placed at number two in the list of jaw-dropping places to stay compiled by TravelGround . Here guests can enjoy the display surrounded by all the creature comforts of home in one of their specially-designed snow or glass igloos . Here guests can enjoy the display surrounded by all the creature comforts of home in one of their specially-designed snow or glass igloos. Each igloo, which can cost up to £240 a night, is fitted with beds for two people, a bathroom, and - best of all - a personal sauna. Also onsite is the world's biggest snow restaurant, where tables are made of ice, and the world's largest smoke sauna. Showers are available in separate buildings, with separate facilities for men and women. A spokesman for the resort said: 'From inside the glass igloos, you can admire the Northern Lights and the twinkling of the bright, starry sky with your loved one. Each igloo, which can cost up to £240 a night, is fitted with beds for two people, a bathroom, and - best of all - a personal sauna . The Panchoran Retreat in Dubai and (right) Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese In Italy both make it on to the list . 'The best part is that it's all from the comforting warmth of room temperature.' And sneaking into the top three is the Panchoran Retreat in Bali. Designed by interior designer Linda Garland the venue is characterised by its fantasy villas, sparkling waterfalls and sumptuous organic gardens, with sustainability in mind, using both the bamboo that grows wild in the area as well as old telephone poles purchased from the local government. Writing on the resort's website, Garland, who has lived in Bali since the 1970s says: 'We have seven houses, a yoga pavilion, a 'Big Bale' where everyone meets and a large country kitchen, a world of its own. 'Apart from the private pools in the houses, there is a 26 meter lap pool filled with spring water. You can relax on the bamboo bridge perched over the river. We have little hideaway Bales where you can do yoga, have your massage, read, relax or even have a nap.' Other hotels on the list include: 11. Singita Serengeti House, Tanzania; 12. Sala Silvermine, Sweden; 13. Hotel du Glace, Canada; 14. Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Tanzania; 15. Iglu Dorf, Switzerland; 16. Juvet Landscape Hotel, Norway; 17. Amangiri Resort, USA; 18. Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel, Norway; 19. The Tree Hotel, Sweden; 20. Hotel Villa Honegg, Switzerland. Visit http://www.travelground.com/ for the full list. The Montana Magica Lodge is a volcano-like lodge that spews water instead of lava and makes number five on the list . The Burj Khlaifa is regarded as the world's most luxurious hotel, and makes number six on the list . Whitepod Hotel’s 15 dome pods are covered with white canvas in the winter and green in the summer to blend into the environment . Attrap Reves, just outside of Marseille, helps you get closer to nature, and, right, Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese . Perched on the limestone cliffs of Negri, Jamaica, The Caves Resort offers holidaymakers a peaceful luxury .", "(CNN) -- You pull yourself out of bed, bring your coffee to the front porch, and there, right in front of you, is the vast expanse of the Grand Canyon. That's the appeal of staying at El Tovar, which has graced the rim of the canyon since 1905. But it's hardly alone; you'll find great national park lodges all over the U.S. and Canada. And staying at one doesn't mean camping and freeze-dried dinners. The best lodges offer gourmet food, personalized service and rustic yet often elegant interiors. See more of the best national park lodges . Many are landmarks dating back to the park system's early days. In 1903, officials at the Northern Pacific Railroad were inspired to create a lodge with local logs and stone. The result, Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, has a towering lobby that became a model for national park architecture. Travel + Leisure: America's most underrated national parks . From Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to Alaska's Glacier Bay, these historic lodges deliver location and creature comforts. Many Glacier Hotel, Glacier National Park, Montana . Evening glacier tours are, naturally, one of the popular activities during a stay here. Surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, the hotel feels like a Swiss chalet, with windows opening to Swiftcurrent Lake and a dramatic lobby with tree trunks as the support poles. Opt for a suite with lake view and balcony, or a refurbished lakeside room. Then go outside and fly-fish in a setting that will soothe your soul, or take the ferry across the lake and hike to Grinnell Glacier. The Ahwahnee, Yosemite National Park, California . Art Deco, Native American, Middle Eastern and Arts and Crafts influences all contributed to this 1927 landmark's design. More recently, a renovation drew upon Yosemite's historical archives to determine appropriate textiles and colors, giving an English country-house look to the interiors -- rich tapestries, stained glass and hand-stenciled beams. The most elaborate rooms feature balconies and views of Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls or Half Dome. After a day in the great outdoors, take your complimentary afternoon tea on the patio overlooking Glacier Point. Glacier Bay's Bear Track Inn, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska . Yes, you really can see black bears and moose from your bedroom at this gateway to Glacier Bay National Park. Guests praise the personal service -- look for appetizers and homemade cookies each afternoon -- and innkeepers can help arrange excursions from watching humpback whales to taking a dogsled ride. Ice climbing, fresh- and salt-water fishing, guided kayak trips, and visits to Admiralty Island to view brown bears are also popular. On your return, sink into the suede sofas and warm yourself by the lobby fireplace. Travel + Leisure: America's best national park views . Greyfield Inn, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia . If an island with wild horses doesn't sound romantic enough, consider that secluded 16-room Greyfield -- the only inn on the island -- was the choice of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette for their 1996 wedding party. The former home is exuberantly southern, with a sprawling front porch, extensive gardens, and homegrown collards and kale on its locally sourced menu. The all-inclusive price includes everything you need to have a good time: three daily meals, bikes, kayaks, fishing equipment, beach gear and excursions with a naturalist to spot birds and wildlife. Sun yourself on 18 miles of wide beaches, or stroll through the exotic terrain of a maritime forest. Crater Lake Lodge, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon . Oregon may not bring to mind images of volcanoes, but the state has an explosive past. Crater Lake Lodge is positioned right at the end of a caldera (or huge crater) formed by the collapse of an ancient volcano. The upheaval produced lava walls stretching 2,000 feet high and the nation's deepest lake, an exquisitely clear, jewel-toned blue. You can learn about the park's geology on boat tours that run from late June to mid-September. At the lodge, ask for a lakeside guest room for the best views. Alta Crystal Resort, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington . Alta Crystal Resort lies just outside the northeast entrance to the park, giving it the closest proximity to Sunrise, the area's highest point. Each of Alta Crystal's 23 renovated suites has a fireplace and a small but fully equipped kitchen. An arched log entry and handmade doors enhance the appeal of the two-story honeymoon cabin. The pool and hot tub stay heated year round, and you can join the resort's bonfires, barbecues, and other nightly events in July and August (on weekends in other months). Zion Lodge, Zion National Park, Utah . This is the only lodging option that puts you inside Zion National Park. Western-style 1920s cabins combine fir flooring and oak-and-wicker dressers with modern amenities like 300-thread-count cotton sheets. Another 82 guest rooms and suites include private porches or balconies. A 100-foot-high cottonwood tree marks the front lawn, which has a great vantage point for stargazing. The lodge does its part to be a good park tenant. Cabin rooms include an on-demand water heater and LED lighting, and suites have filtered drinking water faucets (no water bottles are sold on site). A recent redesign of the restaurant's walk-in coolers will save a million gallons of water a year. Travel + Leisure: Best national parks for wildlife spotting . El Tovar, Grand Canyon, Arizona . Built on the rim of the Grand Canyon in 1905, El Tovar was once so far from civilization that fresh water had to be delivered by train. It's since become one of our greatest national park treasures, with plenty of civilized touches, including suites with sitting rooms. Bring your morning coffee out to the front porch or lounge deck and gaze at the play of light on the canyon. Then head back inside for a hearty breakfast of Sonoran Eggs, with beans, chorizo, an array of salsas, and fry bread. Jenny Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming . Authentic log walls, handmade quilts, and down comforters make nights cozy in the cabins here at the base of the Tetons. The inclusive room rates cover breakfast and a five-course dinner daily, plus horseback rides, bike rentals, and the joy of having a front porch in one of the nation's most photographed mountain ranges. As part of a new sustainability effort, rooms have high-efficiency lighting and recycled carpet, and guests earn a $10 credit each day they decline laundry services. Volcano House, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii . Closed for several years, Volcano House reopened in 2013 following a $7 million renovation that preserved the character of architect Charles Dickey's original 1941 design. Talk about a view: some rooms overlook Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, while others face native Hawaiian rainforest of ohia lehua and koa trees, accented by tall hapuu tree ferns. Watching the crimson-feathered apapane fly from branch to branch while Halema'uma'u Crater erupts about two miles away is an otherworldly sensation. Even the fireplace in the hotel's Grand Lounge is made of lava rock. See more national park lodges . Planning a getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to the World's Best Hotels . Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.", "Search vessels are preparing to enter a new phase in the hunt for missing Malaysian airlines flight MH370. High-tech equipment including sonar and video cameras are set to arrive at a site in the Indian ocean, more than 1,500 kilometres off the Western Australian coast, within days. Experts believe the plane crashed somewhere in the area after veering off course from it's Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight on 8 March, with 239 people on board. A massive land and sea search has failed to find any trace of the plane. GO Phoenix, the first of the vessels contracted to conduct the underwater search, departed Jakarta, Indonesia more than a week ago, after work was done to prepare the ship for the sea and weather conditions it would encounter. Scroll down for video . Fugro Discovery (pictured), which along with the Malaysian-contracted GO Phoenix, will soon start a new high-resolution search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 . A three-dimensional model of the sea floor terrain, derived from satellite gravity measurements and some from ocean passage soundings. A bathymetric survey currently underway is focussed on gathering more detailed and higher resolution data in preparation for the underwater search phase . Chief commissioner from the ATSB Martin Dolan says the vessel is likely to arrive late Sunday. 'When they get going, they will deploy an underwater sonar in on the end of very long cable, eight kilometres, they will tow that sonar in on a toefish, which contains sonar equipoment, close to ocean floor, 100 metres,' he said. 'They send out sonar signals, get them back, a width of about 1.5 kms, that will go up the cable to vessel and crews to look and anaylise for anything for interest.' 'It will be recorded and transferred in batches, re-anaylised so nothing to be missed.' The new stage of the search comes after months of detailed analysis and sea bed surveys, which has indicated the aircraft should be found along a defined arc in the southern Indian Ocean, where it's believed to have run out of fuel. The primary search area - dubbed the 'priority area' - is an arc 23,000 square miles (60,000 square kilometres) in size, roughly the size of Croatia, 1,120 miles (1,800km) off the Australian coast. 'Three things that make it complicated is that we know aircraft will be found there but have to prioritise high probability areas,' said Chief Dolan. 'Also towing expensive equipment, we need to know closely what the ocean floor is like, the sea floor is quite complex, not just a simple matter, additional attention is needed for some areas to cover them properly.' 'Lastly data itself requires a specialised eye to understand, so we also have the capacity to review.' The chief also mentioned the weather conditions, which can be quite challenging because it is so unpredictable. Images from the bathymetric survey being conducted in the latest MH370 search area: They provide information including the contours, depths and hardness of the ocean floor to ensure the safe and effective operation of equipment in the search . These images show remnants of volcanoes, towering ridges and deep trenches that have been discovered on the seabed of the search area named Broken Ridge, an extensive linear, mountainous sea floor structure . 'Weather is improving and the course of this month is as good as it gets, make the searching as easy as possible but still big swells, storm will come through.' Vessels will also be joining GO Phoenix including Furgo Discovery which has completed fit out works in Durban, South Africa and is en-route to Australia where it is expected to arrive in Fremantle on Sunday. Furgo Equator, the vessel currently being used to survey the search area, is expected to be mobilised as a search vessel when its bathymetric work is complete around the end of October. 'The second vessel, Furgo will be there about the end of the third week of this month, the Equator in Perth by the end of the month to do its first underwater search. This bathymetric survey image shows that the depth of the sea floor in one area of the search site is -5300 metres below sea level (purple) and then rises steeply to -2500 metres below sea level (red) Very few marine surveys have taken place in the MH370 search area. Previous mapping did not show the shape of the sea floor and only indicated ocean depth . 'It's not clear how long that search will take,' Transport Minister Warren Truss said, according to the ABC. `We would hope, obviously, to find the aircraft on the first day, but it could in fact take a year to search the entire area and weather conditions will have an impact.' The chief commissioner said there are several 'high probability' areas located that will be searched in the southern arc of the Indian Ocean. 'The second vessel will go to another high probability area and the third vessel will work between those two areas,' he said. The area being searched for MH370 has been narrowed down to a 60,000 square kilometre arc (grey) in the southern Indian Ocean, 1800km off the Australian coast . The yellow markings represent the area surveyed via bathymetric surveys . 'Until we have more solid data in flight data by boxes no one will  be able to come to form a view, people will speculate.' 'We want to givce some certainty of closure to families. The current plan is scheduled to take up to a year but we hope we won't need that.' 'There are no guarantees.' The search operation is a joint effort by Australia and Malaysia costing $57 million. There has been many theories as to what happened to the Malaysian airlines flight MH370 but there's been increased interest on the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah who reportedly used a flight simulator at his home to plot a path to a remote island." ]

[ "This article considers regional science's role in contributing to migra­ tion research, and population research more generally. Beyond the intrinsic appeal of regional science's systems approach, migration analysis was one of our multidisciplinary field's success stories from the late 1960s through the early 1980s because of a widespread production of results that were of inherent interest, that were in some cases controversial, and that were successful in pro­ voking policy discussions. My main argument is that we experience the vali­ dation of our belief in the importance of analytical, theory-driven perspectives on the world when the theoretical expertise and analytical rigor of regional sci­ ence methods can be brought to bear on real-world empirical issues . Conse­ quently, I argue that we should make population analysis an important, foun­ dational element in regional science training. 79" ]

[ "The notion of proximity is increasing in popularity in economic and geographic literature, and is now commonly used by scholars in regional science and spatial economics. Few academic works, however, have explored the link between regional development and proximity relations. This comprehensive book redresses the balance with its assessment of the role of, and obstacles caused by, proximity relations in regional development processes.", "As a carrier of knowledge and technology,science and technology innovation talent plays an important role in enhancing the regional industries gathering and competitiveness of the regional economy. The gathering momentum of regional science and technology innovation talents comes from the market,location advantages,institutional system and superior innovation ambience. Research on the cause of lacking science and technology innovation talents gathering momentum in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,reshape the momentum system and propose upgrade path,which has a certain theoretical and practical significance in promoting regional economic integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.", "This is a comparative clinico-epidemiological++ investigation of the rate and syndrome structure of psychopathologic states in a mobile population in a new region, and in a stable population. Investigated were also the migrational attitudes in the mobile population. Individuals with borderline psychopathology, slow-progredient mental diseases and subjects predisposed to these disorders displayed an active involvement into migration flow. Psychopathologic syndromes were detected which accumulated into the mobile population and those related with elimination from this population. The role of disadaptation of environmental impact and of the peculiarities of counter++-flow in the mobile population mental health were analysed.", "Gaps remain between the outcomes of biomedical research and their application within clinical and community settings. The field of implementation science, also referred to as dissemination and implementation research, is intended to improve the adoption, uptake, and sustainability of evidence-based health interventions. The articles in this volume's symposium on implementation science and public health identify important directions in the effort to maximize the impact of research on public and population health. Leading researchers present reviews of the use of quasi-experimental designs in implementation science, the movement toward enhancing evidence-based public health, and intervention sustainability. Each article presents lessons learned from prior research and recommendations for the next generation of studies. Collectively, the symposium offers a road map for future implementation science that seeks to optimize public health.", "This symposium arises from a public event held on 14 March 2008 by the Academy of Social Sciences, in cooperation with the University of East London, as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 2008 Festival of Social Sciences. The purpose of the symposium is to explore the contribution which social scientists can make to the understanding of the London Olympics, and to clarify issues of public benefit of different kinds which arise from the hosting of the 2012 Games in London.", "The author uses the results of studies of changes in the regional economy and regional science of Russia after the economic shock. The author analyzes the major contemporary transformation trends in the national economic space, that is, continued interregional social-economic disparities, disintegration and integration processes; shift from economic depression to economic growth. The analysis of transformation tendencies over the decade have allowed the author to identify major stages in the development of the economy of regions – from fall in output, interregional disparities and disintegration (1994-1995) to economic upturn in most regions, resumption of integration tendency and lack of sufficient signs of social-economic convergence of regions (1999-2003). With respect to domestic regional science, it is argued that real changes have been on it more reflected than on other social and economic sciences.", "This chapter examines regional economic conditions and their effects on interregional population redistribution patterns in Russia. After reviewing striking changes in population flows before and after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, an application of the gravity model on population migration in Russia is presented using a newly obtained interregional in- and out-migration flow matrix from 1990 to 2013, which were supplied by Rosstat (formerly Goskomstat). The analysis compared factors affecting migration patterns in the Soviet era to modern Russia, focusing on geographical factors, specifically, the attractiveness of resource-mining regions. The analysis clearly showed major changes in the effect of governmental investment in determining migration flow before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.", "A number of past studies of internal migration have emphasized the importance of distinguishing the flow patterns of return migrants from those of primary and repeat migrants. The migration propensities of persons returning to their region of birth are significantly higher than those of the average individual and they differ in age profile. Consequently the introduction of place-of-birth specific migration rates in to multiregional demographic models produces dramatic impacts on life table measures and population projections. This paper illustrates some of these impacts using interdivisional migration data for the US and contrasts the results obtained for the general and the elderly populations. The elderly behave very much like the general population of which they are a part. Regions that tend to maintain strong ties with their native-born populations tend to do so across all age groups as do regions that have a weak attraction for their returning natives. (authors modified)", "The purpose of this symposium is twofold: (1) to present a group of studies that investigate the importance of context in the study of faultlines; and (2) to create an environment that facilitates ...", "The year 2015 marked the fiftieth anniversary of West Virginia University’s (WVU) Regional Research Institute (RRI), which has played an important role in many scientific collaboration networks. Through social network analysis (SNA) focusing on the RRI research community since its inception in 1965, this article illustrates the role that organizations and the networks they promote can play in scientific problem domains, promoting scholarly collaborations and coauthorship in the field of regional science. We analyzed an evolving WVU RRI coauthorship network that has grown and gained in complexity over time in terms of (1) global metrics, (2) components and cluster analysis, (3) centrality, and (4) PageRank and AuthorRank. The results of these analyses depict a well-developed and influential scientific collaboration structure within both WVU and the regional science research community.", "Resume The pursuit of sustainable fisheries requires a broad vision of fishery science - as the scientilic study of fishery systems. This irnplies the incorporation into fishery science of research on fishery management, fishing processes, fi shcr bchaviour and the human dynamics of fishery systerns. Such rcscarch requires (a) more extensive rnultidisciplinary linkages, with an increased role for cconomic and social science research, and (b) more day-to-day linkages between people, namely thosc involved in fishery science and in managcmcnt, together with fishery stakeholders. This paper rcvicws potential directions for fisheries rcsearch, and suggests a corresponding range of multidisciplinary research priorities, focused on analysis of: (a) the fishery management system, at both strategic and operational levels, (b) fisher behaviour and response to regulations, (c) \"human dynamics\" in fisheries, and (d) fishery systems modelling.", "National census data contain information on place of residence and place of work. It is possible to combine this information~and create journey-to-work flows. The process of establishing these flows are presented in this paper. The intramax method is explained and used to identify functional regions based upon these flows. Interesting applications, such as the demarcation of regions in South Africa are considered and solutions to disputed areas are put forward. The process of the creation of the current provincial boundaries are discussed. New boundaries, based on the intramax analysis of the journey-to-work data are proposed for four or five new provinces. Results compare favourably with those from a principal component and cluster analysis, which has previously been used to demarcate the South African space economy into a hierarchy of development regions.", "The papers in this volume were originally presented at a conference on the analysis of human settlement systems held at IIASA. This meeting closed an IIASA research activity, started in 1975, that had the goals of identifying functional urban regions in several industrialized countries and making comparative analyses of their population and employment trends to enhance our understanding of the spatial and temporal evolution of human settlement systems. This research on human settlement systems and strategies established a wide international collaborative network and created a sizeable data base for examining demographic and economic changes. This book presents the findings of some of this work.", "After more than 20 years of operation and improvement,the management system of Provincial Natural Science Fund has played a very positive role in local basic research's healthy development.In the current management system,Provincial Natural Science Fund played an important role in local science and technology resources allocation,and enhancing the ability of regional original innovation,training local high-quality talents.Based on the analysis of 28 provinces and municipalities' Provincial Natural Science Fund's management system,which including Provincial Natural Science Fund's management,current funding system and operational mechanism,the author has found the existing problems and put forward the corresponding countermeasures.", "As regionalism assumes new importance in Britain and throughout the EU, this work brings together historians and geographers to offer regional perspectives on Britain that avoid both the traditional parochialism of local history and the generalizations of a national approach.", "Regional tourism cooperation is both a new idea and an essential choice to realize the effective integration of the tourist resource,enhance the competitive power of the regional tourism and promote sustainable development of tourism.The regional tourism cooperation,as a phenomenon of radiation,can be explained from such aspects as radiation source,radiation medium and radiation energy.Research on regional tourism cooperation in the frame of radiation theory helps to clarify the principles of regional tourism cooperation and work out specific problems and solutions to them effectively.", "While estimating regional inequality, many economists use inequality indices weighted by regions’ shares in the national population. Despite this approach is widespread, its adequacy has not received attention in the regional science literature. This paper proves that such approach is conceptually inconsistent, yielding an estimate of interpersonal inequality among the whole population of the country rather than an estimate of regional inequality. Moreover, the population-weighted inequality indices do not meet requirements to an adequate inequality measure.", "Introduction to, and overview of, the contents of the Symposium on consent and confidentiality ::: ::: The papers in this symposium are based on a meeting held by the Academy of Medical Sciences in London on 12 February 2002. The decision to hold this meeting, and to explore in detail these important and contentious issues, arose from a number of concerns that the Academy felt about what may reasonably be called “impediments to medical research”. ::: ::: These include:", "New viewpoints of resource,region and development are required for regional study under the globalization.It is of great significance to make the scientific viewpoint of development understood by students through our regional geographic teaching and practice lesson.After theoretical study,senior students will take part in synthesis fieldwork practice of regional geography which helps them to learn regional investigation and analysis combined with physical geography and human geography.Based on the general formula,special subjects should be designed according to the chosen area.(Different) tasks and requests should be accomplished in the different stages of fieldwork.", "This presenter symposium brings together new and innovative thinking on the phenomenon of multicultural teams, both collocated and globally distributed. This will be a fast-paced session, in which ...", "In this paper, based on the merits and demerits of Pratt, Airy and Vening Meinesz isoststic models, a new model which represents the regionalism of isostasy is given, and it can be more conveniently used in actual work. At the same time, a method of calculation of mean height is presented. Lastly, two approximate models are given.", "Industry informatization is an important approach to adjust the structure of industry and change the development mode of economy. In this paper,the connotation of the fusion of informatization and industrialization is expatiated. Then,the research object,research content and research methods of Industrial Information Science and its relationship with Industrial Economics,Regional Economics and Enterprise Management are presented. At last,the progress of Industrial Information Science research is reviewed.", "This paper explores theoretically and empirically the influence of interregional migration on regional fertility differentials. Specifically it tests the hypothesis that regions that are closely linked through migration have all else held constant a lower differential in fertility than regions that are relatively isolated from one another. A model linking the fertility differential between two states to migration as well as a number of socioeconomic variables is articulated. The model is tested by means of a randomization procedure using U.S. state-level data for 1980. Results support the hypothesis that an increasing volume of interregional migration tends to lower regional fertility differentials. (EXCERPT)", "AbstractThis investigation explores the role of science in teaching about diversity in schools and among pre-service teachers. Driven by the ubiquitous presence of scientific innovation and global intersections of culture, a central concern in contemporary society is preparing a diverse and highly skilled workforce. However, increasingly diverse student populations must contend with a demographically homogenous teacher force that is largely unprepared to teach them. Moreover, research on using science to teach about diversity in educational settings is sparse. Recognizing the need for an interpretive and inclusive approach for teaching about diversity issues in teacher education, the article attempts to reposition science as being central to diversity education. Thus, the selected literature addresses Critical Pedagogy and Science; Culturally Relevant/Responsive Pedagogy and Science; Multicultural Education and Science; Multicultural Science Education; and then presents a new framework, Critical Postmoder...", "Title: Territorial identities and fusions ::: - regional identity by interregional fusions ::: ::: Level: Final assignment for Bachelors Degree in Social Science with specialization in Urban and Regional Pla ...", "In this article, an overives of some of the major issues, questions and problems related to gifted females will be presented. These issues include the underachievement of gifted females; creative productivity of females; male dominance in mathematics and science; cultural stereotyping, sex roles and mixed messages; lack of planning; the perfection complex and the imposter syndrome; concerns about counseling and special populations, Research related to the issues of ability, achievement, personality, social and environmental pressures related to gender will be briefly discussed and suggestions for future research directions will be made.", "A panel of geographers and social scientists discusses a broad range of social issues related to the integration and disintegration of the former Soviet Union. Among the factors affecting and affected by the altered character of social interaction in the former USSR and addressed in the panel are patterns of geographic settlement, labor force patterns, ethnoterritoriality, and return migration of Russians to Russia. The presentations focus on Central Asian and Russian ethnic groups in order to illustrate the consequences of interregional migration on both indigenous and nonindigenous peoples. 8 tables, 2 maps, 1 graph, 17 references.", "The analytical demands of research in electro-optics, materials science and biochemistry have stimulated great interest in the longer wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum. New techniques and hardware refinements now allow the of fluorescence spectroscopy beyond the traditional boundaries of the ultraviolet and visible spectrum. The authors describe a system modified for research in the region above one micron. System performance is demonstrated by spectra characterizing the solid-state laser material Nd:YAG, an organic photoconductor, and a sample of chlorophyll.", "This classic text presents, for those in the fields related to the eye, the most recent information and research in ocular physiology. The chapters in the text deal with the various anatomical regions of the eye as well as related physiological topics. Revisions primarily involve updating of chapters to reflect recent advances in the basic sciences related to the eye and vision. New concepts in the explosive field of neural science, and psychophysics are also incorporated in the text. This edition incorporates the newest concepts of neural scence and psychophysics; updates all chapters, and provides new references; and consistency of style is maintained throughout the chapters via a sole editor.", "The expert contributors illustrate that sources of regional competitiveness are strongly linked with spatially observable yet increasingly flexible realities, and include building advanced and efficient transport, communications and energy networks, changing urban and rural landscapes, and creating strategic and forward-looking competitiveness policies. They investigate long-term interactions between regional competitiveness and urban mobility, as well as the connections that link global sustainability with local technological and institutional innovations, and the intrinsic diversity of spatially rooted innovation processes. A prospective analysis on networks and innovation infrastructure is presented, global environmental issues such as climate change and energy are explored, and new policy perspectives – relevant world-wide – are prescribed.", "For bridging clinical data, a study is additionally conducted in new region to demonstrate some similarity in treatment effects between two regions. An alternative bridging strategy is that new region participates in a multi-regional study as one site. This paper focuses on a possibility of bridging through joining multi-regional study, and statistical inference for an interaction term between treatment and region to detect non-similarity of treatment effects among regions/countries. Applying a logistic model with the terms of treatment effect, regional effect and their interaction to dichotomous response data, a simulation study is performed to investigate statistical power to detect significant treatment-by-region interaction, and treatment effect for a variety of sample size configurations. The result suggests that moderate or large sample sizes are required in new region to achieve sufficient power, if a substantial (qualitative or quantitative) interaction exists.", "Indigenous societies across lowland Latin America have recently made impressive political and territorial gains by emphasising their stewardship of and attachment to particular rural landscapes. But surprising new censal and microdemographic evidence shows that these groups have simultaneously been developing a presence in domestic and foreign metropolises. Cities offer employment and advanced education opportunities as well as escape from rural conflicts. We suggest that the dynamics and outcomes of these migrations are distinct from those of other rural Latin Americans. By outlining specific areas in which migration, politics, and territory appear to be interlinked, we seek to stimulate research that engages with these processes and their implications for indigenous advocacy and migration theory." ]

[ "Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) ha vinto il Giro di Polonia. Il 25enne tedesco ha vinto anche la se..." ]

[ "Daniele Bennati (Lampre) ha vinto la quarta tappa del Giro di Polonia, la Bydgoszcz-Poznan di 182 km...", "Fabrizio Guidi (Phgonax) ha vinto la terza tappa del Giro di Polonia, la Gdansk-Torun di 225.5 km. L...", "L'italiano della Lampre, Daniele Bennati, ha vinto la seconda tappa del Giro di Polonia,", "Saranno Daniele Bennati ed Alessandro Ballan i leader della Lampre-Fondital al Giro di Polonia al vi...", "Danilo Di Luca vuole vincere il Giro d'Italia (''per la vittoria finale mi manca solo la salita dell...", "L'italiano vince allo sprint i Mondiali di ciclismo", "Il tedesco Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) ha vinto la quarta tappa del Giro di Baviera, una crono ...", "Il belga Johan van Summeren (Predictor) ha vinto a sorpresa la 64/a edizione del Giro della Polonia ...", "La vittoria al Giro d'Italia consente a Danilo Di Luca di passare al comando della classifica ProTou...", "Settore automotive ha giro d'affari di 55 mld in Italia", "'E' bellissima'. A bordo Schumacher, Bersani, Montezemolo", "Italia favorita per il mondiale di ciclismo di domenica a Salisburgo. E' il pronostico di Paolo Savo...", "Giro di vite su contatori e sicurezza dal 2009", "Danilo Di Luca resta al comando della classifica del Pro Tour dell'Uci. Dopo la vittoria nel Giro d...", "Bilancio finale per la tragedia dell'impianto estrattivo \"Halemba\"Tutti morti i minatori intrappolati a oltre mille metri di profondità Polonia, esplosione in miniera Ventitrè vittime, è lutto nazionale", "Grazie alla vittoria di sabato nel Giro di Lombardia, Damiano Cunego è arrivato alla vetta del Ranking Uci. Il ciclista veronese è in assoluto l&#39;atleta più giovane ad aver ottenuto un simile risultato nella storia del ciclismo.", "Primo giorno di raduno per la nazionale di ciclismo in vista del mondiale di domenica a Salisburgo.", "Anche Christian Preud'Homme era presente alla partenza della 12/a tappa del Giro d'Italia a Scalengh...", "Ai microfoni della Rai, Danilo Di Luca ha commentato la vittoria del 90esimo Giro d'Italia, sancita ...", "Procedura compilazione semplificata e velocizzata", "L'olandese Mac van Heeswijk (Discovery Channel) ha vinto la prima tappa del Giro di Polonia conquist...", "Nonostante la scelta sbagliata per le gomme di Rubens, poi vincitore, ed il testacoda di Schumacher che alla Lesmo dopo lo start si è ritrovato nelle retrovie. Ottava doppietta stagionale, prima vittoria", "La nazionale spagnola di ciclismo potrebbe non correre il Mondiale di Stoccarda. La minaccia &egrave...", "Schumacher ha appena annunciato l'intenzione di ritirarsi a fine stagione ma gi&agrave; circolano le...", "Mario Cipollini &egrave; stato battuto in volata da Boonen e Haussler nella seconda tappa del giro d...", "''Sarei felice se Schumacher venisse da me e dicesse: 'dirigere il team &egrave; il prossimo passo d...", "Pesano obiezioni di Polonia e minacce di Blair", "Seconda vittoria dell'Italia nel Torneo del Mediterraneo, a cui partecipano le nazionali Under 18 di...", "Il voto finale potrebbe avvenire sabato mattina", "Paolo Bettini si aggiudica per la terza volta consecutiva la Coppa del Mondo di Ciclismo nella decima ed ultima prova, il 98.mo Giro di Lombardia da Mendrisio a Como dopo 246 km, vinta dal corridore della Saeco, Damiano Cunego, trionfatore nel Giro d", "'Giro di vite anche per reati di maggior allarme sociale'", "Nel ritorno dei quarti di finale di Coppa Cev l'Asystel Novara ha sconfitto, in Polonia, il Nafta Ga..." ]