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http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-telecoms-struggle-to-answer-challenge-from-messaging-apps-1464038370
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160809050059id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/global-telecoms-struggle-to-answer-challenge-from-messaging-apps-1464038370?mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_NeedToKnow
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Global Telecoms Struggle to Answer Challenge from Messaging Apps
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20160809050059
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The global telecom industry is scrambling to compete in mobile messaging with the likes of Facebook Inc.-owned WhatsApp and Apple Inc.’s iMessage.
Some mobile carriers are playing catch up, rolling out clones of the popular messaging apps—with mixed results.
Others aren’t trying or have given up, saying they can’t compete with Silicon Valley and are better off focusing on their core voice and data services. The stakes are...
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Traditional texting is on the decline as consumers switch to messaging apps for texting and sharing of photos and videos. The global telecom industry is scrambling to come up with new products and strategy to compete with popular apps such as Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage.
| 1.66 | 0.66 | 1.62 |
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/knicks-grant-gets-shooting-lesson-from-former-nba-guard-1463613477
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160809075646id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/knicks-grant-gets-shooting-lesson-from-former-nba-guard-1463613477
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Knicks’ Grant Gets Shooting Lesson From Former NBA Guard
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20160809075646
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It’s not unusual for NBA players to post workout photos to their social-media accounts during the off-season—especially rookies, who want to impress their teams by showing strong work ethic.
But it came as a surprise to see Knicks guard Jerian Grant (pictured below) in a photo posted to Instagram Wednesday by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the former NBA guard (originally named Chris Jackson) whom team president Phil Jackson compared earlier...
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Knicks guard Jerian Grant was in a photo posted to Instagram Wednesday by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the former NBA guard whom team president Phil Jackson compared earlier this year to Golden State Warriors MVP Stephen Curry.
| 2.205128 | 0.769231 | 9.128205 |
low
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2016/08/06/rio-olympics-2016-bomb-scare-at-beach-volleyball-arena-while-ope/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160809095700id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/olympics/2016/08/06/rio-olympics-2016-bomb-scare-at-beach-volleyball-arena-while-ope/
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Rio Olympics 2016: Bomb scare at Beach Volleyball Arena while opening ceremony is being staged
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20160809095700
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Michel Temer, a 75-year-old law professor, became acting president after the Senate voted in favour of launching an impeachment trial against Rousseff, suspending her.
One of the posters amid the protests, translated, read: "'Out Temer! The people should decide," while a bin with a spray-painted stencil had the words "stop coup in Brazil."
|
Police cordoned off a large area around the Beach Volleyball Arena in Copacabana and deployed robotic bomb detection devices on Friday while the Rio Olympics opening ceremony was being staged at Maracana Stadium.
| 2.147059 | 0.176471 | 0.176471 |
low
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low
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abstractive
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5012972/Vending-machine-cooks-pizza-in-minutes.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160809113556id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5012972/Vending-machine-cooks-pizza-in-minutes.html
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Vending machine cooks pizza in minutes
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20160809113556
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The machine, which costs £22,000, was developed with the help of the Anglo-Dutch food conglomerate Unilever.
Mr Torghele hopes that in these economically straitened times, in which families are eating out less, his three-minute pizzas could grab a large slice of the takeaway food market.
A few of the machines are already in operation but he hopes to sell a lot more in Italy and other European countries this summer.
But the guardians of one of Italy's most famous culinary exports are far from impressed.
"Pizza that comes out of an automatic machine has nothing to do with Italian pizza," said Pino Morelli, the head of the Association of Italian Pizzerias.
"It might be alright for McDonalds and other fast-food chains or for foreign markets like the US, China and India but anyone wanting to eat a real pizza has to go to a traditional pizzeria."
Italian pizza makers were the envy of the world and could not be replaced by a machine, Mr Morelli said.
"The craft of the pizza-maker has been rediscovered, and the number of people wanting to learn the art of the pizza is growing. It's a reliable and well-paid craft."
Despite the image of Italians indulging in long lazy lunches and favouring fresh ingredients over frozen food, the country embraces vending machines with gusto.
Italy boasts more than 600,000 of them – more than in the UK – and they sell everything from espresso coffee to cut flowers.
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A pizza vending machine which can make the classic dish from scratch in three minutes has been launched in Italy.
| 13.904762 | 0.666667 | 0.857143 |
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160809145607id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602
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IPhone and Android Apps Breach Privacy
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20160809145607
|
Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off.
These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"—games and other...
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The results of an investigation of smartphones are disturbing.
| 8.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-61816
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160810081843id_/http://www.msnbc.com:80/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-61816
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This Week in God, 6.18.16
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20160810081843
|
[Tuesday] on “The 700 Club,” televangelist Pat Robertson reacted to the massacre at an Orlando gay club by making the absurd claim that liberal LGBT rights advocates have aligned themselves with radical Islamists and are now reaping what they have sowed.
Robertson said that liberals are facing a “dilemma” because they love both LGBT equality and Islamic extremism, and that it is better for conservatives like himself not to get involved but to instead just watch the two groups kill each other.
“The left is having a dilemma of major proportions and I think for those of us who disagree with some of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and let them kill themselves,” he told his audience.
As the Right Wing Watch report added, Robertson’s show later clarified that the televangelist was “referring to politics – killing themselves politically.” I’m not entirely sure what that means.
For the overwhelming majority of Americans, the massacre was a gut-wrenching tragedy, but for some Christian extremists, this attack was a blessing to be cheered. That shouldn’t be considered the norm among Christian preachers, but this doesn’t make their radicalism any less offensive.
Also from the God Machine this week:
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Most religious leaders responded to the Orlando with sorrow, but a handful of evangelical pastors went in a direction so ugly, it has to be seen to be believed.
| 7.5625 | 0.5 | 0.75 |
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http://www.aol.com/article/2012/02/15/mcdonalds-works-to-take-animal-cruelty-off-the-menu/20171903/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160810152304id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2012/02/15/mcdonalds-works-to-take-animal-cruelty-off-the-menu/20171903/
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McDonald's Works to Take Animal Cruelty off the Menu
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20160810152304
|
) has finally caught up with consumer sentiment on the subject of factory farming and the inhumane treatment of animals. The fast food giant is
to push its pork suppliers to phase out confining gestation crates for their pigs.
when The Humane Society of the United States filed a complaint with the SEC against one of its major pork suppliers, Smithfield Foods (
), over its environmental and animal welfare policies. These included the use of cruel gestation crates for breeding sows while claiming "ideal" living conditions for the animals.
The timing coincided with McDonald's relaunch of its popular McRib sandwich, adding an extremely unappetizing PR angle to the event.
Confining breeding sows to gestation crates where they can't move for their entire lives is inhumane in itself, but the HSUS also pointed out that Smithfield had engaged in many other torturous practices. For example, the HSUS claimed Smithfield subjected animals to castration, tail-trimming, and tooth extraction without painkillers.
Plenty of other fast food chains have shown it's possible to eradicate these painful practices from their supply chains -- or at the very least make major progress in removing it. Wendy's (
), Harris Teeter, Quiznos, and Safeway (
) have all been lauded by the HSUS for having made great strides to avoid pork suppliers that abuse their animals.
Smithfield, meanwhile, has announced its own plans to end inhumane treatment of its pigs by 2017.
) have both completely banned suppliers that use gestation crates. And here's an ironic factoid: Chipotle was once owned by McDonald's, but it banned the practice from its supply chain nearly a dozen years ago.
Now, McDonald's is finally getting with the program. This week, the fast food behemoth announced plans to engage with its suppliers and demand outlines of their plans to phase out the practice.
"McDonald's believes gestation stalls are not a sustainable production system for the future. There are alternatives that we think are better for the welfare of sows," McDonald's spokesman Dan Gorsky said. "McDonald's wants to see the end of sow confinement in gestation stalls in our supply chain."
Scientist and animal welfare advocate Dr. Temple Grandin has chimed in, too:
Moving from gestation stalls to better alternatives will improve the welfare of sows and I'm pleased to see McDonald's working with its suppliers toward that end. It takes a thorough plan to address the training of animal handlers, proper feeding systems, and the significant financial investment and logistics involved with such a big change. I'm optimistic about this announcement.
HSUS, a tireless proponent of animal welfare initiatives, has applauded McDonald's new efforts, too, calling this development "important and promising."
Putting the 'Happy' Back in McDonald's Meals
McDonald's stance is indeed significant. This megacorporation wields major influence over suppliers. Mickey D's accounts for 1% of all pork purchased in the United States. Not just for McRib's of course: Think of all the bacon and sausage used in millions of McBreakfasts.
But anyone seeing the end of gestation crates as a win for animal rights over profits is likely mistaken. Iowa State University researchers have showed that pasture-based, group hog breeding (as opposed to confinement or indoor options) actually can be a cheaper approach to raising the animals.
Last but not least, haven't we got good, old-fashioned American ingenuity on our side? At one time, factory farming may have seemed "innovative" as our culture ramped up food production, but there's no reason America's innovative spirit can't be applied to use better, more humane ways to raise animals with respect and as little pain and suffering as possible.
Now that McDonald's is on the case, pork production should be on a far more positive path going forward.
|
McDonald%27s%20has%20finally%20caught%20up%20with%20consumer%20sentiment%20on%20the%20subject%20of%20factory%20farming%20and%20the%20inhumane%20treatment%20of%20animals.%20The%20fast%20food%20giant%20is%20using%20its%20massive%20leverage%20to%20push%20its%20pork%20suppliers%20to%20phase%20out%20cruelly%20confining%20gestation%20crates%20for%20their%20pigs.
| 371.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/08/09/16/41/further-delay-for-indigenous-referendum
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160810164036id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/08/09/16/41/further-delay-for-indigenous-referendum
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Further delay for indigenous referendum
|
20160810164036
|
A referendum to recognise indigenous people in the Australian constitution won't be ready by the proposed date of May 2017.
The Referendum Council set up to advise the prime minister and opposition leader said in a statement on Tuesday consultations would continue into 2017 "with a view to presenting a final report by mid-year".
The consultations will include "regional dialogues" due to start this year, with a separate process involving the broader Australian community.
Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull met last week to discuss progress on the issue, having agreed to appoint a council of 16 eminent Australians in December 2015.
The Labor leader said last week the May date would be an "ideal goal", but he wanted to hear back from the council.
The council, which met in Melbourne on Tuesday, said in a statement the two leaders had sought an interim report by September 8 "to outline progress to date and the next phase of consultation".
Mr Turnbull had told the council no proposal should proceed without the support of indigenous people, the statement said.
It must also be achievable and capable of receiving "near-universal support", the council said of the prime minister's advice on the referendum.
About 150 people have attended initial talks on the issue in Broome, Thursday Island, Melbourne and Sydney.
From those talks, the council noted a strong message that "the consultation process should not be rushed by working to an artificial deadline".
A discussion paper, translated into a number of indigenous languages, will be published just before the next round of consultations.
An independent report released in September 2014 called for the referendum to be held no later than May 2017 "within a 50 year window of the 1967 referendum".
In 1967, more than 90 per cent of Australians voted for the inclusion of indigenous Australians in the national census and a new commonwealth responsibility for indigenous policy matters.
The independent report said: "The recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our country's founding document is a matter of profound importance."
Referendum Council co-chair Mark Leibler said it would've been nice to hold the referendum on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 vote but insists it's more important to make sure it's done properly.
"This is the first time that our indigenous people ... have ever been invited to design their own consultations," he told ABC radio.
"They need to get it right, they're taking this very seriously."
He said talk of treaty "may well impact" what emerges from the consultations, insisting the matter was "on the table".
"What we may well end up saying is 'here is a proposal for amending the constitution - but if you want to guarantee its success ... you need to understand there are other issues around and treaty maybe one of them'."
Other issues that may have an impact are the timing of the same-sex marriage plebiscite and the royal commission into the Northern Territory juvenile justice system.
|
The Referendum Council says it needs more time to consider how to best recognise indigenous people in the constitution.
| 29.6 | 0.75 | 2.05 |
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http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37011806
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160810184807id_/http://www.bbc.com:80/news/technology-37011806
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Facebook tests Express Wi-fi service in India
|
20160810184807
|
Facebook has confirmed that it is in the early stages of testing a wi-fi service with Indian internet service providers (ISPs).
Express Wi-fi allows users to purchase data from local providers in order to access the web.
A pilot version with a state-run telecoms company has already been offered at 125 rural wi-fi hotspots.
In a statement, Facebook said the tests were being carried out with "multiple local ISP partners".
Facebook is probably hoping that users who first encounter the web via a Facebook initiative will be more likely to become users of the social network - rather than a competitor - according to Ian Fogg, an analyst at IHS Technology.
"In emerging economies, Facebook is pursuing an intervention strategy to increase the pace of internet and online usage because this will also raise the addressable market for Facebook," he told the BBC.
Earlier this year, Facebook's Free Basics internet service app was blocked by India's telecoms regulator.
A ruling in favour of net neutrality put a stop to the plans, which would have offered free access to a select number of websites only.
|
Facebook confirms that it is in the early stages of testing a wi-fi service with Indian internet service providers (ISPs).
| 8.84 | 0.96 | 21.2 |
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http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/aereo-signals-it-sees-path-to-survival-if-classified-as-cable-system-1404963150
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160811102641id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/aereo-signals-it-sees-path-to-survival-if-classified-as-cable-system-1404963150
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Aereo Signals It Sees Path to Survival if Classified as Cable System
|
20160811102641
|
Aereo Inc., the online video company that was widely expected to go out of business after losing a high-stakes Supreme Court case in June, signaled Wednesday that it sees a path to survival if it is classified in legal terms as a cable system.
The Supreme Court sided with TV broadcasters, who had sued Aereo for copyright infringement, saying the Web startup was selling their programming without permission. In the ruling, the high...
Aereo Inc., the online video company that was widely expected to go out of business after losing a high-stakes Supreme Court case in June, signaled Wednesday that it sees a path to survival if it is classified in legal terms as a cable system.
The Supreme Court sided with TV broadcasters, who had sued Aereo for copyright infringement, saying the Web startup was selling their programming without permission. In the ruling, the high court described Aereo as "highly similar" to a cable system.
Aereo spotted an opening from that part of the decision. In a letter Wednesday to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan —in whose court the Aereo case originated—the online startup argued that it should enjoy the privileges of cable systems, including a compulsory license that would give it legal access to content and allow the site to continue operating.
"Aereo is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act," the letter states.
Cable systems are able to get compulsory copyright licenses for the broadcast channels they rebroadcast, meaning they don't have to seek individual permission for every copyrighted piece of content. Compulsory license fees are paid to the Copyright Office and are generally considered inexpensive, according to media lawyers. Cable systems then typically pay broadcasters for the right to broadcast their feeds through negotiated retransmission consent agreements.
In its letter, Aereo argued that the Supreme Court effectively overturned an earlier judicial decision that had prevented online video companies from obtaining compulsory licenses. "The Supreme Court has announced a new and different rule governing Aereo's operations…after the Supreme Court's decision, Aereo is a cable system with regard to those transmissions." Aereo said it was proceeding to file the paperwork required to pay copyright fees.
Aereo isn't the only online streaming company making this argument in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision. FilmOn, another company with the capability to stream broadcast channels online that has been sued by broadcasters, said it also was seeking to be classified as a cable system.
If either Aereo or FilmOn were to get a compulsory license to stream broadcast content live, it would have a profound impact on the future of television online, removing one of the largest hurdles keeping the most popular television from being available live on people's smartphones and tablets, where viewers are increasingly spending their time. While networks and local TV stations have been working on mobile apps through a strategy called "TV Everywhere," they have been slow to roll out.
In the same letter, which was a joint statement from both Aereo and the broadcasters that have been suing it, the broadcasters said it was "astonishing for Aereo to contend that the Supreme Court's decision automatically transferred Aereo into a cable system" under the Copyright Act. Broadcasters said Aereo was contradicting the position it took in the case, when Aereo argued that it was merely an equipment provider that rented antennas and DVRs in the cloud, not a cable system.
Write to Keach Hagey at keach.hagey@wsj.com
|
Aereo, the online video company that was widely expected to go out of business after losing a Supreme Court case in June, signaled that it sees a path to survival if it is classified in legal terms as a cable system.
| 14.886364 | 1 | 15.909091 |
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http://www.thepostgame.com/2016collegefootballseasonalabamauscmichigansecbig12
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160811225852id_/http://www.thepostgame.com/2016collegefootballseasonalabamauscmichigansecbig12
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Top Burning Questions For 2016 College Football Season
|
20160811225852
|
The 2016 college football season is just a month away, with Cal and Hawaii scheduled to kickoff Down Under on Aug. 27 in Sydney. The media days for the various conferences have wrapped up and the practices will start in earnest in about a week.
So, while we're counting down the days, the mind wonders ... can Alabama continue its crimson dynasty, or will we see a third different champion in as many years of the College Football Playoff era? Might there be a legitimate party crasher from out of the Power 5 conferences? Who's going to take home the stiff-armed statuette, maybe not a quarterback?
You have questions. We have answers -- from on the field to off of it -- for the 2016 season:
Sure, Nick Saban is just going to reload, no matter how much he's lost in the offseason. But it might not be that simple. The Crimson Tide will debut a fourth starting quarterback in as many seasons and must address attrition throughout both sides of the ball, including Heisman-winning running back Derrick Henry.
Add road games at LSU, Ole Miss and Tennessee, the task of repeating suddenly looks pretty daunting.
Under first-year coach Tom Herman, the Cougars seemingly came out of nowhere to go 13-1, claimed the Group-of-Five bid for a New Year's Six bowl and blew out Florida State in the Peach Bowl. Houston then added the most impressive recruiting class among G5 schools.
With nonconference home games against Oklahoma and Louisville, the Cougars may get a shot (though a long one) at a playoff berth if they can go undefeated.
It's not a matter of if, but when, will the Big 12 add at least two more teams to make its name eponymous again. And that will happen before the end of the year. The top candidates for the conference’s expansion are BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, UConn and maybe UCF and USF.
There's a chance that the conference might not stop at just two (but at four) and it's willing to consider football-only membership as well.
Commissioner Jim Delany is a shrewd negotiator. That is why the Big Ten just landed the most lucrative television deal in the history of college sports. Between Fox, ESPN and CBS, the Big Ten will rake in $2.64 billion over the next six seasons, tripling its previous haul as each member school is now scheduled to make north of $40 million per season. The wealth gap in college sports just got wider.
Let's see: the Trojans open against Alabama at Jerry World, play road games at Pac-12 champ Stanford, Utah, Washington and UCLA, and they also get Oregon at home and finish the regular season with Notre Dame. Is that all? This is by far the hardest schedule any team will face this season, if not in recent memory.
Helton, in his first full season as USC's head coach, will have his hands full, even with a very talented squad.
In this century, the Heisman has been dominated by quarterbacks. You have to go back to 1998-99 to find non-QBs winning the statuette in consecutive years. That may happen again this year, as most of the Heisman front-runners are running backs, including last year's runner-up Christian McCaffrey of Stanford, along with LSU's Leonard Fournette and Florida State's Dalvin Cook.
Clemson QB Deshaun Watson may have a different idea, though.
Watson, who dazzled in the national championship game and nearly single-handedly took down Alabama, is back with the Tigers. But Florida State, which won the last BCS title in 2013 and also made the inaugural playoff in 2014, will want to reclaim supremacy in the ACC. Their clash on Oct. 29 at Doak Campbell Stadium will settle a lot more than who wins the conference title.
Given the current playoff format, each season at least one Power 5 conference will be kept out of the four-team field. And don't laugh, it might be the SEC's turn in 2016. Should Alabama stumble in conference play and no dominant team emerges in its stead -- especially if the still-rebuilding SEC East wins the title game -- the "toughest conference in college football" just might miss out.
Without question, since he returned to college football last year, Harbaugh has been the No. 1 newsmaker in college football. Whether it's his satellite camps, recruiting tactics and clever subtweets, the Michigan coach has had everyone's rapt attention.
But the thing he craves the most is winning, and this year he might have a team to compete not just in the Big Ten but also for a playoff berth. If the Wolverines win the conference for the first time since 2004, Harbaugh-mania will only proliferate.
Last year, only Alabama made it back to the playoff after being in the inaugural field in 2014. This year, Clemson will be the only team among last year's final four to return. Our crystal ball (not the BCS kind) sees ACC champion Tigers joined by Big Ten champ Michigan, Pac-12 winner Stanford and the surprise entrant Houston in the four-team field.
Clemson will win it all this time, defeating Heisman winner McCaffrey and Stanford in the CFP championship game.
More College Football: -- Can Colorado Go Home To Big 12? -- Pokemon Go Places Pikachu On Nick Saban's Desk -- College Football's Offseason Winners And Losers
-- Samuel Chi is the managing editor of RealClearSports.com and proprietor of College Football Exchange. Follow him on Twitter at @ThePlayoffGuru.
ACC, Alabama Crimson Tide, big 10, Big 12 Conference, Clemson Tigers, College Football, Houston Cougars, Pac-12 Conference, Southeastern Conference, USC Trojans
|
A review of the top questions entering the 2016 college football season.
| 86.384615 | 0.846154 | 2.538462 |
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http://time.com/money/4445082/2016-rio-olympics-ticket-sales-rafaela-silva/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812060622id_/http://time.com:80/money/4445082/2016-rio-olympics-ticket-sales-rafaela-silva/
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Brazil Wins Gold Medal, Ticket Sales Rise
|
20160812060622
|
Brazil’s first gold medal has boosted Olympic ticket sales and organizers expect attendance to pick up in coming days, although some venues including the Copacabana beach volleyball arena are still struggling to fill seats.
Judoka Rafaela Silva, who grew up in Rio’s notorious Cidade de Deus favela, burst into tears on Monday as she held up her medal to a roaring crowd as the Brazilian national anthem played.
”There is nothing better for ticket sales than when the country wins its first gold,” Games spokesman Mario Andrada told reporters on Tuesday.
”Brazilians, as has been widely said, are late buyers, but it’s impossible to resist when you have the Games at home,” he said.
Some 100,000 new tickets were taken up on Monday, much better than the average of 10,000 per day about two weeks before the Rio 2016 Games kicked off. Around 82% of tickets available for Monday were sold, Andrada added.
”We wish we could have done this before but we’re not complaining, we’re looking to the future and we’re going to sell more and more,” he said.
A late surge in attendance could help compensate for a shaky start, with organizers admitting this week that only Friday’s Opening Ceremony had sold out.
Even iconic venues like beach volleyball on Rio’s famous coastline have seen a good chunk of seats stay empty, although Brazilian crowds tend to show up late and trickle in and out of events.
Prices for the Rio tickets range between $10 and about $1,150 for the Opening Ceremony. More than half the tickets cost $17 or less, about half the price of London 2012 tickets.
But for many poor people in Brazil, a developing country, those prices remain cruelly out of reach.
The Latin American powerhouse is also struggling with its worst recession since the 1930s and there is strong opposition to hosting the Games amid the crisis.
In addition, long delays at security checkpoints on the first day of full competition frustrated spectators, some of whom missed the competitions they had wanted to see.
Not even Brazil’s soccer team in their first match at the Games attracted a capacity crowd and on Sunday the women’s sevens tournament was played in front of at best half-filled 15,000-seater Deodoro stadium while only a few thousand spectators watched the women’s cycling road race.
|
Judoka Rafaela Silva took home the gold on Monday night.
| 41.454545 | 0.818182 | 1.545455 |
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/bad-week-boris-johnson-theresa-may
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812071608id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/politics/2015/jul/15/bad-week-boris-johnson-theresa-may
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Bad week for Boris as May tells him to put away his hose
|
20160812071608
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An opening eBay offer of 99p (plus £2.75 postage and packing) for three Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000s wasn’t quite what Boris Johnson had hoped. But it did go some way to recouping the £218,000 the mayor of London had spent on the water cannon that had just been condemned to eternal rust by the home secretary.
Theresa May doesn’t often smile in the House of Commons but for this particular parliamentary statement she was prepared to make an exception. There is no longer any fun to be had in making Labour look stupid – it is managing to do that itself without any help – so the government front benches are having to find their pleasures elsewhere. With George Osborne using last week’s budget speech to start building the third runway at Heathrow, Boris baiting appears to have become the Westminster theme park’s top attraction.
“Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000,” May sniggered repeatedly, making Boris’s mighty water cannon sound like a children’s toy. Which, to be fair, might not have been too far off the mark as Yvette Cooper – in a rare gesture of cross-party friendship – was keen to point out. “The water cannon that the mayor of London has bought,” she said, “are 25 years old and have 67 defects. The home secretary is quite right not to authorise their use.”
Anyone other than Johnson might have now been wishing he had spent the capital’s money more wisely on the latest Ziegler Wasserwerfer 12000 GTX Hybrid, which is now available from all good Ziegler Wasserwerfer stockists. Or, better still, waited until he was given the go ahead to use his Poundland master-blaster.
The mayor, though, came out with all hoses blazing. The Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000s had been a fantastic deal, he declared. Had he bought them in good working order, they would have set back London a cool £4m; so to snap up three that were completely useless for just £218,000 had been the deal of the century. For the Germans.
Johnson also struggled to understand the physiological differences between Londoners and the Northern Irish that allowed water cannons to be a constant presence on the streets of Belfast. May was patience personified as she explained how the people of Northern Ireland had evolved separately from the rest of the British mainland and actively enjoyed being pounded with high pressure water jets.
At least they would if they worked. She was less happy to be reminded that Dave “Never Miss a PR Opportunity” Cameron had been ecstatically enthusiastic about water cannons during the 2011 riots, so she reluctantly allowed Johnson to keep his second-hand Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000s locked up in a garage for a rainy day.
It hasn’t been a good week for the London mayor, but at least he takes his defeats with better grace than the prime minister. Despite Labour being on life support and Harriet Harman barely going through the motions at the last prime minister’s questions before the summer recess, Cameron was on tetchy form. “Put that in your leaflets,” he snapped sweatily, when asked about his national living wage.
The uncanny ability of his ministers – step forward Punxsutawney Chris Grayling – to turn victory into defeat through a complacent disregard for legislative procedure must be getting to him.
Evel may just be an unnecessary Evil, but the embarrassment over the fox-hunting U-turn is more personal. Cameron had been hoping to reacquaint himself with Raisa the police horse – if not the nag’s owner, Elisabeth Murdoch – in the autumn. Raisa said the delay was a huge weight off her back.
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Boris baiting seems to be the top attraction at Westminster these days as the home secretary rejects the London mayor’s request to use his water cannon
| 25.555556 | 0.814815 | 1.777778 |
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http://time.com/4396030/sarah-silverman-icu-epiglottitis-hospital/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812082619id_/http://time.com:80/4396030/sarah-silverman-icu-epiglottitis-hospital/?xid=homepage
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Sarah Silverman Almost Died in Hospital Last Week
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20160812082619
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The comedian Sarah Silverman is usually quite active on social media — it’s an ideal medium for the candid stream of consciousness that characterizes her comedy — but for the past week or so, she’s been quiet. On Wednesday, she took to Facebook to explain why.
In a frank statement, Silverman said that she spent last week in the intensive care unit with a “freak case” of epiglottitis, a rare inflammation of the cartilage at the base of the larynx. In extreme cases, the swelling can close the windpipe altogether, sometimes leading to asphyxiation.
Silverman’s was an extreme case. “I am insanely lucky to be alive,” she wrote in her post. For five days, she said, she was medicated, intubated, and operated on.
“There’s something that happens when three people you’re so close to die within a year and then YOU almost die but don’t,” she wrote. She expressed her gratitude to her boyfriend, Michael Sheen, and the friends who sat by her side as she recovered.
“It makes me cry,” she wrote. “Which hurts my throat. So stop.”
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"I am insanely lucky to be alive," she wrote on Facebook
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http://www.aol.com/games/play/masque/solitaire-central/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812085116id_/http://www.aol.com:80/games/play/masque/solitaire-central/?
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Play Solitaire Central Online
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20160812085116
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Games.com presents Solitaire Central. All your favorite Solitaire games are now in one place! Classic Solitaire, Tri-peaks Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Gaps Solitaire, Free Cell Solitaire, Pyramid Solitaire, and Golf Solitaire. You can play the normal versions at your own pace, or play the Challenge versions, where you compare scores after five hands. We won't be happy until we're everyone's one stop shop for the best Solitaire games anywhere. Let us know how we're doing!
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Play this online solitaire game from Masque Publishing. Games.com presents Solitaire Central. All your favorite Solitaire games are now in one place! Classic Solitaire, Tri-peaks Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Gaps Solitaire, Free Cell Solitaire, Pyramid Solitaire, and Golf Solitaire. You can play th
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303973704579350933495131904
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812091653id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB10001424052702303973704579350933495131904
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The Garden's New Bridge Seating Comes at a Hefty Price
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20160812091653
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I never thought it would be possible to get closer to Madison Square Garden's roof than I did watching the Knicks back in the '70s from the "blue" cheap seats, but I topped myself when I sat on one of the new Chase Bridges during a Knicks-76ers game last week.
Part of the Garden's $1 billion renovation, they're twin 233-by-22-foot spans with two rows of seats and a third row of counters and bar stools that run parallel to...
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Ralph Gardner Jr. tries out the expensive nosebleed section to watch the Knicks
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http://time.com/4395770/apple-iphone-ios-10-best-features-2016/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812092918id_/http://time.com:80/4395770/apple-iphone-ios-10-best-features-2016/?
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The Best New Features Coming to Your iPhone
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20160812092918
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Apple’s next major iPhone software update isn’t officially launching until the fall, but the company is letting users test an early version of it starting Thursday.
The update, iOS 10, is one of the biggest iPhone software releases in recent years. Apple is giving third-party developers access to services like Siri and iMessage, and the company has redesigned some of its own apps, like Maps, Apple Music, and Clock.
Here’s a look at what I liked the most about Apple’s new iPhone software after spending a few days with it. It’s important to remember that this is an early version of the software, so not every new feature is working just yet.
Sometimes an emoji just says it better than words ever could. In iOS 10, you’ll be able to tap a word to replace it with a corresponding emoji. This already works well in the beta version of iOS 10. On multiple occasions, I tapped words ranging from emotions to food or animals and was able to replace them with emoji.
Our iPhones already perform doubly duty as out alarm clocks. With iOS 10, they’ll be able to remind us when to sleep, too. The new Clock app sets a bedtime for you based on what time you want to wake up and how many hours of sleep you need during the night. The interface looks a lot like Apple’s Activity app, which isn’t too surprising since sleep and exercise are both important to your overall health. You can also choose to set bedtime reminders for certain days of the week.
If you’ve ever been confused as to whether or not you’ve received a spam message when getting a link via text, this new capability should put those concerns to rest. Website URLs sent through iMessage will appear as rich links in iOS 10. This means that instead of displaying a link as a string of characters, it’ll show the title of the website and a corresponding image. If the link is to a video instead of a website, that clip will start playing directly in the message.
Apple is making it possible to view more information without having to unlock your iPhone. Just swipe to the right, and a list of widgets will show you the weather, your next calendar appointment, news headlines and more. Android has long offered such capabilities through lock screen replacements, or third-party apps that change your lock screen’s appearance. It’s refreshing to see Apple go beyond just showing notifications on the lock screen.
When iOS 10 launches, you’ll no longer have to remember when or where a photo was taken to search for it in your photo library. The app will be able to scan your collection to analyze the subject matter of each image, meaning you’ll be able to search for things like “cat,” “beaches,” or “sunsets” to find photos. This worked well in the beta of iOS 10; I was even able to narrow down dogs by breed when sifting through my library.
You’ll no longer need to tap a button to see the latest notifications on your iPhone’s screen. With iOS 10, your iPhone’s screen will turn on as you lift it. It’s a handy time-saver, although I still find the Galaxy S7’s always-on screen a bit more useful.
I don’t have an Apple Music subscription, but I often use the Music app to access the library of songs I’ve downloaded onto my iPhone. The new version of this app in iOS 10 makes it much easier to dive right into your music and sort it by playlist, artist, album, or song. When opening the app, these options are presented in a neat menu that’s easily accessible.
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We've been using Apple's next big update
| 80.777778 | 0.444444 | 0.444444 |
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http://time.com/money/4364047/summer-jobs-teens/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812111527id_/http://time.com:80/money/4364047/summer-jobs-teens/
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American Teens Are Not Getting Summer Jobs
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20160812111527
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Don’t expect to see as many teens at the lifeguard stand or scooping ice cream this summer.
That’s because the number of jobs secured by people between ages 16 to 19 in May, when summer hiring ramps up, was only 156,000, a 14% decrease from last year, Marketwatch reported. Similarly, last year, the number of teens who had a summer job was about 11% lower than the year before.
Teen unemployment during the summer has been a trend for several decades. While more than half of teens had summer jobs in the 1970s and 1980s, now less than one-third do, according to a 2015 survey from Pew Research Center.
Read More: These Are the 4 Best Cities for Summer Jobs
The primary reason for the decline is, simply, teens are choosing not to work. Instead, they’re trying to pad their resumes for their college applications by volunteering or enrolling in educational programs. They’re also faced with fewer opportunities: Restaurants and retail stores are not hiring as many teens because they don’t need as many workers to meet seasonal demand. And many traditional summer employers, like summer camps and amusement parks, don’t add new jobs each year.
Still, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that teens are eschewing summer employment. A summer spent volunteering could be more enriching than slaving away at a thankless minimum-wage job. Taking on less responsibility could also give teens more time to devote to college planning. And of course, some admissions officers may look more favorably on a student who took summer classes rather than one who spent July and August flipping burgers.
Read More: Here’s Why the Summer Job is Disappearing
Other experts, however, contend that teens are missing out by not having a summer job because they’re not learning character traits like grit and accountability—skills also valued by future employers. Perhaps most significantly, summer jobs teach teens the value of money. “It’s easy to slide when there is no money involved,” New York-based career coach Roy Cohen told Marketwatch.
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Many are choosing to volunteer or take classes instead.
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http://time.com/money/4446393/girl-scout-cookies-smores/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812111615id_/http://time.com:80/money/4446393/girl-scout-cookies-smores/
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Girl Scout Cookies Have Two New S'mores Flavors
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20160812111615
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On Wednesday, the Girls Scouts of the USA announced that it’s adding two new cookie varieties, both based on the graham-cracker, chocolate and marshmallow combo of everybody’s favorite camping dessert: the s’more.
Timing the announcement in conjunction with National S’mores Day (you did know it’s National S’mores Day, right?), the Girl Scouts broke the news with a Tweet picturing the two cookies along with “nom nom nom” and “yum!”
The Girl Scouts said the new flavors evoke the “adventurous spirit” and “love of the outdoors” that people associate with the gooey, toasty campfire treat. Accordingly, one of the new Girl Scout S’mores cookies has a graham-cracker cookie base and is dipped in white icing, then coated with chocolate. The other one is a sandwich cookie (also graham-flavored) with chocolate-marshmallow filling.
This is the first new entry to the Girl Scouts cookie lineup since last year, when the group rolled out three new goodies, including a couple of gluten-free varieties. Earlier this year, it partnered with Pillsbury to roll out baking mixes based on its popular Thin Mint and Samoa flavors.
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We can barely contain ourselves.
| 38 | 0.166667 | 0.166667 |
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http://fortune.com/2016/08/10/disney-data-sheet-bob-iger/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160812122608id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/08/10/disney-data-sheet-bob-iger/
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It's the End of the Bundle as We Know it, and Bob Iger Feels Fine
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20160812122608
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No, the cable bundle isn’t dead. It’s more like an aging dictator who’s starting to show signs of weakness. Those around it, meanwhile, are already agitating for change.
In the last few months in particular, there has been growing evidence of this revolution. After tiptoeing around the demise of the bundle for years, Disney CEO Bob Iger is finally taking bigger steps to ensure his company’s viability, with or without the traditional cable bundle. On Tuesday, during its quarterly earnings call with investors, the Mouse House announced it is paying $1 billion to acquire a 33% stake in BAMTech, the streaming platform built by Major League Baseball over the last decade and a half.
The goal? To launch a direct-to-consumer, subscription sports service. Unfortunately, at least initially the new offering will not include current content from ESPN’s cable network. That said, the announcement is still a significant step toward an inevitable direction.
And that’s not all. Online-only companies, which have far less to lose from the downfall of the once-mighty bundle, are about to make much more aggressive moves.
It has been reported that Google’s YouTube will launch a live TV service sometime next year. Hulu, meanwhile, has already announced its plans to do so. (The latter streaming service is co-owned by Disney dis and Comcast cmcsa , among others, which is as good of an example as any of their need to hedge their bets.)
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Online-only bundles will bring certain live television offerings to the Internet for a lower subscription fee than the traditional cable bundle. They will likely feature subpar content at their start. For companies like Disney, they will also likely have leaner profit margins than the traditional cable bundle. But they are inevitable. You can try to beat ’em or join ’em, but at some point, companies like Disney won’t be able to do both.
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Disney's big investment in video streaming service BAMTech was mostly inevitable.
| 29.923077 | 0.538462 | 0.846154 |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/3336551/Top-ten-cheap-eco-friendly-cars.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160813105328id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/earth/3336551/Top-ten-cheap-eco-friendly-cars.html
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Top ten cheap eco-friendly cars
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20160813105328
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All the cars on our list emit 130g of CO2 or less per kilometre - dodging that new first year rate - and our chosen few range from £17,100 at the upper limit down to £10,500 at the bottom, covering the spectrum of car sizes. We've deliberately left out electric cars, which are only really suitable for city living.
Here are our top affordable eco machines.
1: Seat Ibiza, 1.4 TDI 80PS Ecomotive, diesel
Seat's probably not the first name you think of when it comes to green cars, but this three-door supermini's both cheap to buy and cheap to run.
2: Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion, 1.4 TDI 80PS
This little diesel has all the solid German build quality you'd expect, plus an incredibly economic engine that'll make the man at the garage a distant stranger.
3: Honda Civic Hybrid 1.4 IMA ES
As the cheapest hybrid in the UK, the Honda Civic Hybrid is a good, small family alternative to the Prius -- so long as you can stomach automatic transmission.
4: Renault Megane Sport Hatch 1.5 dCi 86 Expression 3 door
Like Citroen, Renault's one of the unsung French brands which has been doing a huge amount to cut emissions across its range. This small family car is a particularly economic example.
The Citroen C3 is an efficient, straightforward car with a big boot and not quite enough legroom at the back.
6: Ford Focus ECOnetic 1.6 TDCi
This is a brand new version of Britain's most popular car. It's incredibly fuel-efficient and, if it's similar to the Ford bioethanol Focus we reviewed, will make for a good reliable drive.
7: Renault New Laguna Hatch dCi 110
As it emits 130g of CO2 per kilometre the Laguna is just on the borderline of being a greener option, and it's also on the pricey side. But it has some of the best green creds you'll get for a car of this size.
8: Skoda Fabia Estate1.4 TDI PD 80PS
No more funny jokes about Skodas. This one is big and clever -- not to mention as cheap and green as estate cars come.
9: Peugot 207 SW, 1.6 HDi
Another big but green option. According to Autoexpress it's a little dear, but it has everything you could want in an estate.
With their heavier frames for safety and structure, it's surprising any open-top cars made this list. But we can fully recommend this Smart, since it emits so little CO2 and only costs mite over £10K.
You can see more low CO2 cars by class on the Government's Best on CO2 site .
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One of the few good green things to come out of Alistair Darling's Budget was his shake-up of vehicle excise duty - better known as road tax - to penalise gas guzzling cars.
| 14.108108 | 0.513514 | 0.675676 |
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323423804579024961181137926
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160813120317id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB10001424127887323423804579024961181137926
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Napa winery Clos Pegase sold to Dean & Deluca owner
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20160813120317
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Prominent Napa Valley vintner and Dean & Deluca owner Leslie Rudd and other investors bought Clos Pegase Winery on Tuesday, promising to expand and improve the vineyard known as much for its art and architecture as for its wines.
Clos Pegase founder Jan Shrem was one of Napa's first winemakers to spend heavily on the design of his winery three decades ago, when he and his late wife tapped the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to...
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Clos Pegase winery, known for its art and architecture, sold to Dean & Deluca owner in third big vineyard deal this year
| 3.458333 | 0.708333 | 2.291667 |
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2016/08/11/park-that-chariot-ben-hur-back/uqKYH6wq1ECn7cJuHV0NwO/story.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160813132900id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2016/08/11/park-that-chariot-ben-hur-back/uqKYH6wq1ECn7cJuHV0NwO/story.html
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Park that chariot: ‘Ben-Hur’ is back
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20160813132900
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Is “Ben-Hur” the most epic of Hollywood epics? It’s hard to top the birth of Christ, the Roman empire, the Holy Land, galleys at ramming speed, the most famous chariot race in movie history, the Valley of the Lepers, and, yes, Christ’s crucifixion. As a box-office proposition, combining piety and spectacle is tough to beat.
The latest “Ben-Hur” opens Friday. It stars Jack Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”) as the noble Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur, and Toby Kebbell (“Fantastic Four”) as Roman bad guy Messala. Morgan Freeman, that Good Housekeeping Seal of Cinematic Approval, is Ilderim, the Arab sheik who befriends Ben-Hur and whose horses he uses in the chariot race.
This is the third feature-film version of Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.” That’s along with an 1899 stage extravaganza, 1915 movie short, and 2010 Canadian miniseries, with Hugh Bonneville, no less (“Downton Abbey),” as Pontius Pilate. Surely, the only public hand-washing the Earl of Grantham ever did involved finger bowls.
To get a sense of how large “Ben-Hur” has loomed in the culture, and for how long, begin at The General Lew Wallace Study and Museum, in Crawfordsville, Ind. Yes, there is such a place; and, yes, Wallace really was a general. Before becoming a novelist, he rose to the rank of major general in the Union Army during the Civil War. He commanded a division at Shiloh and at war’s end oversaw the surrender of Confederate forces in Texas.
Francis X. Bushman and Ramon Novarro in the 1925 silent film “BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST,” directed by Fred Niblo and Charles Brabin.
Wallace’s military experience might help account for the appeal of his novel. The writing is wooden and sententious, a kind of King James Version chop suey. It’s the sort of novel where characters are constantly saying “Nay!” Yet Wallace knew how to maneuver his narrative forces and keep things moving. He never met a coincidence he didn’t exploit.
Readers certainly responded. With sales of 50 million copies and counting, “Ben-Hur” has never gone out of print. It succeeded “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as best-selling American novel, holding that title until “Gone With the Wind,” half a century later.
The stage production toured for 21 years, on three continents. Playing Messala in the original Broadway production was future movie cowboy star William S. Hart. A 25,000-candlepower beam of light — the CGI of its day — represented the character of Christ. More than 20 million people saw the adaptation, which earned some $10 million.
Maybe it should have, since the 1925 feature film very nearly bankrupted MGM, the studio that made it. Costing $3.9 million, it was the most expensive silent movie ever made. The production, wildly over budget, was yanked back from Rome to be filmed in Los Angeles.
The chariot race was shot at what is now the intersection of La Cienega and Venice boulevards. Filming used 42 cameras and required 50,000 feet of stock. It became such an event that stars joined in as extras, the better to take in the show. Among them were Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd, and Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Other extras included future stars Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Gary Cooper, and Clark Gable.
Although Ramon Novarro makes for a rather foppish Ben-Hur, Francis X. Bushman, as Messala, is to charioteers as Gronk is to tight ends. Those biceps, that nose.
MGM marketed “Ben-Hur” as “The Picture Every Christian Ought to See!” and “The Supreme Motion Picture Masterpiece of All Time.” Many scenes are hand-tinted, with several in two-strip Technicolor (three-strip, which came along a decade later, is what we now think of as Technicolor).
Morgan Freeman plays Ilderim in the 2016 film “BEN-HUR.”
One of the 62 assistant directors on the chariot race was William Wyler. Wyler directed the 1959 version. Knowing what he was in for, he asked David Lean to handle the chariot race. Lean declined.
The silent “Ben-Hur” has a positively svelte running time of 2 hours and 23 minutes. Wyler’s film lumbers in at 3 hours and 44 minutes. It doesn’t help that things begin with an overture lasting 6 minutes and 23 seconds, with a 4-minute musical interlude at intermission. Even more than the silent version, this “Ben-Hur” was An Event. Its winning a record 11 Oscars reflects that fact -- as does its taking in $75 million at the box office (on a then-astronomical budget of $15 million). Both “Titanic” and the third installment of “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Return of the King,” also won 11 Oscars — but with more available categories.
One of the Oscar winners was Charlton Heston, for best actor. In the title role, Heston is at his most Hestonish. Both Paul Newman and Burt Lancaster turned down the part. Rock Hudson was interested but had a schedule conflict.
Perhaps that’s just as well. Karl Tunberg’s script was the work of many uncredited hands, including the playwrights Maxwell Anderson, S.N. Berhrman, and Christopher Fry; that great old Hollywood pro Ben Hecht; and the novelist Gore Vidal.
Vidal’s most famous, or notorious, contribution involved the relationship between Ben-Hur and Messala. Boyhood friends, they become the bitterest of enemies after a five-year separation. What explains so extreme a reversal? Vidal suggested to Wyler that they had been lovers when young. Messala wants to resume the relationship, and Ben-Hur rejects his advances. Hell hath no fury like a Roman nobleman spurned? According to Vidal, Wyler loved the idea, on this condition: Tell Stephen Boyd, who plays Messala, but don’t tell Chuck.
Heston later called Vidal’s story preposterous. Hmm. With the Vidal explanation in mind, the intensity of the scenes between Heston and Boyd makes absolute sense, explaining both the vehemence of affection and how quickly it gives way to such vehement animosity. The many subsequent scenes during Ben-Hur’s enslavement that show off the ropey beefcake of Heston’s body don’t exactly hurt the Vidal argument. Maybe there was just something in the movie air that year. In ”North by Northwest,” Martin Landau sure seems to have a thing for James Mason. Oh, and “Some Like It Hot” came out in 1959, too. Go figure.
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“Ben-Hur” — first a silent movie, then an Oscar winner in 1959 — is back.
| 63.238095 | 0.904762 | 2.047619 |
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/gov-andrew-cuomos-investigator-has-difficult-task-amid-federal-probe-1464123825
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160813151321id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/gov-andrew-cuomos-investigator-has-difficult-task-amid-federal-probe-1464123825
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Investigator Has Difficult Task Amid Federal Probe
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20160813151321
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Since last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pointed to his hiring of an internal investigator as evidence that his administration is taking seriously the U.S. attorney’s probe into one of its signature economic-development programs.
But as the investigator, Bart Schwartz, proceeds with his own probe, aspects of his role remain ambiguous, and former prosecutors said a thorough internal audit amid a federal criminal inquiry could...
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has hired an investigator to review his administration’s upstate economic-development program. But former prosecutors said a thorough internal audit amid a federal criminal inquiry into the matter could prove challenging.
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http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/05/will-generic-viagra-transform-china.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160813170524id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/08/05/will-generic-viagra-transform-china.html
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Will generic Viagra transform China?
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20160813170524
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"The availability of cheap knock-off or grey market products -- essentially the same formula -- is already pretty high," Ben Cavender, an analyst at China Market Research Group, told CNBC. "You can walk into any drugstore and get it for not a lot of money."
Read More Pfizer's 2Q profit sinks 79 pct but tops forecasts
Cavender also expects that most of the "recreational" users -- or those who fall into the "fun to try" rather than health-related categories -- will just continue to use grey-market products.
The cheaper pills also aren't likely to sway social attitudes on the mainland much, Dr. Wang said.
"Compared with Westerners, China's attitude towards sex is more conservative," Dr. Wang said, although he noted a gradual shift on views toward sex education is already underway, driven by growing affluence and exposure to foreign cultures.
China's efforts to nudge its birth-rate higher also aren't likely to get a fillip either, Cavender said. Late last year, China eased its one-child policy, in place since the 1970s, allowing couples to have two children, if one parent is an only child.
But Cavender doesn't believe health concerns have much to do with many couple's lack of interest in a second child.
"They want careers and extra income. They aren't rushing to have a second kid," he said.
Dr. Wang agreed. "The birth rate in China is significantly affected by economic affluence, popularization of education, urbanization and other factors," Wang said.
The first approved pills will likely hit the market by end-year, based on the filing status of an application from Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharma, Citigroup said.
—By CNBC.Com's Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter @LeslieShaffer1
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Viagra's patent in China has expired and some analysts expect cheaper prices will bring a surge of demand for the storied erectile dysfunction drug.
| 13.615385 | 0.423077 | 0.5 |
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/brexit-offers-many-advantages-for-the-u-k-1456517404
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160813174629id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/brexit-offers-many-advantages-for-the-u-k-1456517404
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Brexit Offers Many Advantages for the U.K.
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20160813174629
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Regarding Ed Balls’s “British Influence and Prosperity Depend on Staying in the EU” (op-ed, Feb. 12): Membership in the eurozone is one thing, whereas membership of the 28-state political entity that is the EU is an entirely different and much larger issue.
Current U.K. polls indicate a strong shift toward exit from the EU. The constant stream of EU laws, regulations and court decisions emanating from Brussels and Strasbourg has steadily reduced the ability of Parliament in London to govern in important areas, often to...
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U.K., Brexit, European Union, referendum, Ed Balls, trade, secession, sovereignty, economic not political union,
| 4.391304 | 0.565217 | 0.652174 |
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http://www.aol.com/article/2016/08/12/us-womens-soccer-team-knocked-out-of-rio-olympic-in-shocking-lo/21450684/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160814002931id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/08/12/us-womens-soccer-team-knocked-out-of-rio-olympic-in-shocking-lo/21450684/
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US women's soccer team knocked out of Rio Olympics in shocking loss to Sweden in penalty kicks
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20160814002931
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The US women's soccer team is out of the Olympics after falling to Sweden in penalty kicks in the quarterfinals.
It's a shocking result. The loss marks the first time in team history that the women did not at least reach the Olympic semifinal.
After a scoreless first half, Sweden struck first with a goal in the 61st minute. Alex Morgan responded in the 77th minute with a crucial equalizer.
SEE MORE: Everything you need to know about the Summer Olympics
In the extra time, both teams had goals disallowed. Carli Lloyd appeared to find the back of the net for the USWNT, only to have it called back because of a questionable foul. Just moments later, a Swedish player broke through and slotted a finish home, though the refs incorrectly called it back for offsides.
For the first time in Olympic women's soccer history, the game needed penalty kicks to decide a winner.
In penalties, Alex Morgan went first for the US and missed. Luckily, Hope Solo denied a Swedish player one round later to even the score. In the fifth and final round of penalty kicks, Christen Press' shot sailed well over the cross bar for the Americans. Sweden then converted, ending the game and the American's chance for a gold medal.
The US women entered Rio as the defending World Cup champs and the heavy favorites to take home gold, and at the very least medal. Losing to Sweden in the quarters is nothing short of a shock.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
More from Business Insider: Here are the gold-medal favorites for every single event in Rio When they aren't competing, Olympians are all over Tinder in Rio 10 celebrities who are totally obsessed with the Rio Olympics
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The American women are out of the Olympics in the quarterfinal, their earliest exit ever.
| 20.117647 | 0.705882 | 1.647059 |
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http://time.com/4445101/israel-charges-un-employee-hamas/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160814025642id_/http://time.com:80/4445101/israel-charges-un-employee-hamas/
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Israel Charges U.N. Employee With Assisting Hamas
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20160814025642
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(JERUSALEM) — Israel on Tuesday said it indicted a Palestinian U.N. employee in the Gaza Strip, accusing him of assisting the territory’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers, just days after it charged the Gaza manager of the international charity World Vision for allegedly funneling millions to the group.
Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said 38-year-old Waheed Borsh has worked as an engineer for UNDP, the U.N. development agency, for 13 years. It said he was arrested in July and confessed to using his position to help Hamas. He was indicted two weeks ago, it said.
The Shin Bet said Borsh used UNDP resources last year to build a jetty for Hamas’ naval forces and that upon request by Hamas he persuaded his managers to prioritize the reconstruction of houses damaged in conflicts with Israel in areas where Hamas members lived.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it has informed U.N. officials of the arrest and the allegations and expects the U.N. to “take concrete measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in need in Gaza instead of assisting the terrorist leaders of Hamas.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said he was concerned about a “worrying trend of U.N. exploitation by Hamas.”
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem denied the allegations. “These Israeli claims are baseless and the purpose of these claims is to justify the continued siege on Gaza.”
A U.N. spokesman in Jerusalem could not immediately be reached.
Tuesday’s accusations are less severe than those aimed at Mohammed el-Halabi, World Vision’s Gaza office project manager, who last week was charged with diverting some 60 percent of the organization’s yearly budget to Hamas’ armed wing.
The Shin Bet says el-Halabi crafted an elaborate scheme to funnel funds, food, medical supplies and agricultural equipment to Hamas. He fraudulently listed the children of Hamas operatives as wounded, created straw organizations, and inflated project costs to divert cash, the agency said. Building supplies intended to support farming projects were transferred to Hamas for constructing tunnels and military installations, according to the Shin Bet.
World Vision has stopped its Gaza operations while investigations continue but said Monday that Israel has accused el-Halabi of funneling what appears to be an impossible sum of money to Hamas.
The Shin Bet said el-Halabi siphoned about $7.2 million a year to the Islamic militant group over a period of five years. World Vision Germany spokeswoman Silvia Holten said the charity’s budget in Gaza in the last decade totaled $22.5 million.
The allegations against el-Halabi and Borsh, if proven correct, would bolster Israel’s arguments for maintaining its blockade of Gaza, imposed after Hamas seized power in the coastal strip in 2007. Israel says the closure is vital to preventing Hamas from importing weapons and materials used to attack Israel. Egypt has imposed its own blockade on the territory.
Israel and Hamas has fought three wars over the past decade. Israel often accuses international aid groups of being biased against it.
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Israeli officials said the employee worked as an engineer for the U.N. development agency
| 41.142857 | 1 | 3.428571 |
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http://www.bbc.com/hausa/sport/2016/07/160719_ioc_to_decide_on_russia
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160814032522id_/http://www.bbc.com:80/hausa/sport/2016/07/160719_ioc_to_decide_on_russia
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Rio 2016: Shin ko za a dakatar da Russia?
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20160814032522
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A ranar Talatar nan ne ake sa ran Kwamitin wasannin Olympics na Duniya, IOC, zai sanar da kodai za a haramtawa 'yan wasan Russia shiga gasar wasannin Olympics da za a fara ranar 5 ga watan Agusta, a Rio, bisa dalilan wuru-wuru.
Hukuma mai hana shan kwaya mai kara kuzari a lokacin wasa ta nemi da a haramtawa 'yan wasan Russia shiga gasar Olympics da za a fara ranar biyar ga watan Agusta.
Hakan dai ya biyo bayan rahoton da hukumar ta fitar wanda ya nuna gwamnatin Russia ta yi rufa-rufa a lokacin daukar samfirin fitsarin 'yan wasan nata domin gwaji.
Rahoton hukumar dai ya gano cewa Russia ta shekara hudu tana irin wannan rufa-rufa.
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Kwamitin kula da wasannin Olympics na duniya, IOC, zai yanke kodai za a hana Russia shiga gasar wasannin Olympics ta Rio ko a a.
| 5.192308 | 0.846154 | 4 |
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http://fortune.com/2016/08/08/blackrock-diversity-gender/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160814044731id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/08/08/blackrock-diversity-gender/
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BlackRock's Senior Management Is Overwhelmingly Male
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20160814044731
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Asset managers are finally opening up about gender diversity.
A number of money management firms shared diversity data with the Financial Times, which published an analysis of the numbers on Sunday. According to the publication, this is the first time BlackRock blk , the world’s biggest asset manager, has shared information on how many women it employs at the senior level.
Only about a quarter of the behemoth’s senior leadership team is female, which, according to the FT, is pretty much on par with such competitors as Fidelity and London-based Schroder’s. Scottish fund house Aberdeen stood out from the pack with a leadership team that is 37% female.
These numbers are in line with Morningstar’s 2015 industry research, which showed that only about 2% of funds have solo female managers and only about 9% of fund managers are women, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For anyone keeping tabs on diversity in the financial world, the lack of women in leadership will not come as a surprise: Women make up about 25% of senior leadership at J.P. Morgan Chase jpm , 23% at Citi c , and 21% at Goldman Sachs gs .
Subscribe to the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.
In mid-2014, Fortune wrote a long profile of BlackRock and its CEO Larry Fink. The article included a picture of seven BlackRock executives who are considered the next generation of the firm’s leadership and are potentially in line to one day be CEO of the firm. All seven of the executives were male.
BlackRock did not respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.
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Not a single one of the top contenders to be the firm's next CEO is a woman.
| 16.473684 | 0.736842 | 0.947368 |
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http://time.com/money/3680474/starbucks-fast-casual-mcdonalds-fast-food/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160814070410id_/http://time.com:80/money/3680474/starbucks-fast-casual-mcdonalds-fast-food/
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Triumph of Starbucks & Fast Casual Over McDonald's & Fast Food
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20160814070410
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The quarterly results released at the end of the week from Starbucks and McDonald’s paint quite a picture of how America’s quick-serve consumption habits are changing. Namely, that we’re growing increasingly more likely to indulge in pricier on-the-go food and drink that’s deemed upscale, healthier, or otherwise superior in quality than we are on the stuff that’s tempting mainly just because it’s cheap.
Starbucks posted outstanding results that immediately juiced the company stock price, with store traffic up 2% (double the growth rate of the previous quarter) and same-store sales rising 5%, plus $1.6 billion added to Starbucks Cards (up 17% compared to the previous year) and a very impressive increase of 9 million sales over the same period a year prior. McDonald’s results, on the other hand, were disappointing, with same-store sales in the U.S. dipping 1.7% and quarterly profits dropping 21%.
Neither McDonald’s recent struggles nor the success of fast casual players such as Starbucks, Panera Bread, and Chipotle should come as a surprise. The core fast-casual pitch—food and drink that’s higher quality and yet only marginally more expensive than fast food—is one that consumers have been buying into for years. On the other hand, the attempts by traditional fast food giants to follow the fast-casual playbook and push quality and prices up and up haven’t gone over so well with consumers. And the costs of expanding menus and adding personalization options so that McDonald’s and its ilk can better compete with Chipotle or Starbucks have hurt profits, confused customers, and angered franchise owners.
What’s especially interesting is that all signs indicate that a broad swath of consumers have been plenty game to spend more on everyday eating ventures—and that they’ve grown increasingly likely to do so during a long stretch when the middle class has supposedly been gutted and incomes have largely been flat.
Using as a launchpoint the impending IPO of Shake Shack, Danny Meyer’s no-hormone, no-antibiotic $7 burger chain, business columnist James Surowiecki offers the long view of the fast-casual/fast food showdown in the latest issue of The New Yorker.
“For most of the fast-food industry’s history, taste was a secondary consideration,” Surowiecki writes. But in the ’80s and ’90s, the economy boomed, and the typical American employee was overworked—leaving him with disposable income and little time or interest to cook. Enjoying the finer things day-in, day-out came to be seen as the just rewards of one’s labors. The foodie movement hit the mainstream, with skyrocketing sales for products once deemed by the masses as snobby, elitist, and perhaps pretentious, including wine, craft beer, and, of course, organic foods sold by the likes of Whole Foods.
And yes, upscale coffee too. “In 1990, the idea of spending two dollars for a cup of coffee seemed absurd to most Americans,” Surowiecki explains. “Starbucks changed people’s idea of what coffee tasted like and how much enjoyment could be got from it.”
This once niche idea—that it’s a no-brainer to spend more money on superior food—is largely assumed to be the way to go by the kids born in the ’90s, the millennials, a generation that arguably loves food and restaurants more than any previous group. To a large extent, the shift to fast-casual has arisen hand in hand with the coming of age of millennials. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out last summer, the percentage of teens and 20-somethings who hit McDonald’s at least once a month has been falling for years, while the number of millennials who regularly visit Chipotle or another fast-casual restaurant steadily rises.
So no wonder McDonald’s has been having such a rough go of things lately, and no wonder company morale is down in the dumps.
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In the battle for consumer food and beverage dollars, upscale is winning out over cheap. Starbucks' sales, store traffic, and stock price are all booming, while McDonald's continues to flounder.
| 20.131579 | 0.763158 | 1.184211 |
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http://time.com/4444403/philippines-donald-trump-ban-terrorist-joey-salceda/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160814213326id_/http://time.com:80/4444403/philippines-donald-trump-ban-terrorist-joey-salceda/
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Lawmaker Wants to Ban Donald Trump
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20160814213326
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It’s fair to call Donald Trump a divisive character. The Republican presidential nominee’s call to prevent Muslims from entering the U.S. and to build a wall to stop Mexican “drug dealers” and “rapists” has drawn censure from around the world. In the U.K., a petition calling for the real estate mogul to be banned from the country collected over half a million signatures.
On Thursday, it was the Philippines’ turn to be outraged. During a speech in Portland, Maine, Trump implied Filipinos were part of a “Trojan horse” of “terrorist nations” plotting to wreak havoc on U.S. soil.
“We are letting people come in from terrorist nations,” said Trump. “An immigrant from Afghanistan who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, an illegal permanent resident from the Philippines were convicted for plotting to join al-Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill as many Americans as possible.”
In response, Philippine Congressman Joey Salceda filed a bill at Manila’s House of Representatives calling for Trump to be barred from entering the Southeast Asian nation. “There is no feasible basis or reasonable justification to the wholesale labeling of Filipinos as coming from a ‘terrorist state’ or that they will be a Trojan horse,” he said.
However, this is far from the first time Philippine politicians have taken umbrage at criticism from abroad. And it’s not certain any ban would stick — especially should Trump win the Nov. 8 race to the White House.
“It looks like a PR stunt to me,” Joseph Franco, a Filipino political scientist at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, tells TIME of Salceda’s bill. “My compatriots have a reputation for being onion-skinned at times.”
Homeland star Claire Danes found this out in 1998 after she described Manila as “ghastly and weird city” that “smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over, and that there is no sewerage system, and the people do not have anything — no arms, no legs, no eyes.”
Her remarks prompted then Philippine President Joseph Estrada to say Danes “should not be allowed to come here. She should not even be allowed to set foot here.”
Other celebs to have spurred a Pinoy tongue-lashing for perceived slights include Justin Bieber, Teri Hatcher, comedian Adam Carolla and Alec Baldwin; the latter was even made persona non grata by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration over a comment about mail-order brides. In 2009, Hong Kong magazine columnist Chip Tsao was banned from the Philippines after referring to it as a “nation of servants.”
Not even the Beatles were immune from Philippine ire. In 1966, the Fab Four had two concerts booked in Manila but skipped an appointment with First Lady Imelda Marcos, wife of Ferdinand Marcos, who would later rule as dictator. In retribution, they were reportedly met with a huge tax bill, refused room service, had elevators sabotaged when they approached, and were even attacked by a mob on their way to the airport. Ringo Starr later described it as “the worst experience of my life.”
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Trump said Filipinos were part of a “Trojan horse” of “terrorist nations”
| 37.5 | 1 | 12.375 |
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http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Colin-Kaepernick-out-for-49ers-preseason-opener-9142139.php
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160815034927id_/http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Colin-Kaepernick-out-for-49ers-preseason-opener-9142139.php
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Colin Kaepernick out for 49ers’ preseason opener
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20160815034927
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Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press
San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick passes during NFL football training camp on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Kaepernick will not be playing in Sunday's preseason opener due to a shoulder injury.
San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick passes during NFL football training camp on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Kaepernick will not be playing in Sunday's preseason
San Francisco 49ers' quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert, left, and Colin Kaepernick practice during an NFL football training camp on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
San Francisco 49ers' quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert, left, and Colin Kaepernick practice during an NFL football training camp on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
Colin Kaepernick out for 49ers’ preseason opener
Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick will not play in tonight’s preseason opener against the Texans because of a shoulder injury that prevented him from throwing in the last two practices.
On Friday, Kaepernick said he wasn’t “too concerned” about what he termed tightness in his shoulder. Kaepernick suggested it was tied to his inactivity in the offseason. Kaepernick didn’t throw for at least five months after undergoing three surgeries (non-throwing shoulder, thumb, knee).
“Made a lot of throws, especially coming back from three surgeries,” Kaepernick said. “So want to make sure that we’re staying ahead of things.”
On Thursday, two days after a trainer stretched out Kaepernick’s arm and shoulder late in practice, Kaepernick had what a team spokesman termed a “planned rest day.” However, Kaepernick also didn’t throw during a joint practice with the Texans on Friday. Head coach Chip Kelly said Friday that Kaepernick wouldn’t need an MRI.
With Kaepernick sidelined, Blaine Gabbert will start tonight, with rookie Jeff Driskel, a sixth-round pick, and Thad Lewis also taking snaps.
In addition to Kaepernick, WR DeAndre Smelter, S L.J. McCray, S Eric Reid, DT Glenn Dorsey and DT Arik Armstead won’t play tonight.
Armstead (shoulder) has been limited in recent practices, while McCray and Dorsey finished last year on injured reserve with knee injuries. Smelter, who sustained a hamstring injury in early June, has been limited in practice recently with an undisclosed injury. Reid didn’t attend practice because of a personal matter. The Sacramento Bee reported his wife was expecting a baby.
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Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick will not play in tonight’s preseason opener against the Texans because of a shoulder injury that prevented him from throwing in the last two practices. On Thursday, two days after a trainer stretched out Kaepernick’s arm and shoulder late in practice, Kaepernick had what a team spokesman termed a “planned rest day.” With Kaepernick sidelined, Blaine Gabbert will start tonight, with rookie Jeff Driskel, a sixth-round pick, and Thad Lewis also taking snaps. In addition to Kaepernick, WR DeAndre Smelter, S L.J. McCray, S Eric Reid, DT Glenn Dorsey and DT Arik Armstead won’t play tonight. Armstead (shoulder) has been limited in recent practices, while McCray and Dorsey finished last year on injured reserve with knee injuries.
| 3.253333 | 0.973333 | 28.666667 |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/11330043/Cirque-du-Soleil-Kooza-Royal-Albert-Hall-review-nerve-jangling.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160815204102id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/11330043/Cirque-du-Soleil-Kooza-Royal-Albert-Hall-review-nerve-jangling.html
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Cirque du Soleil: Kooza, Royal Albert Hall, review: 'nerve-jangling'
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20160815204102
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Mind you, I wasn’t quite as uncouth as the woman in the row in front, who couldn’t resist tapping away on her phone every few minutes. That’s plain rude but it does attest to the problem the gargantuan, money-spinning Canadian company are up against: we’re glutted with extraordinary imagery these days and even though what happens in the “ring” at Cirque is for real, not computer generated, you have to pinch yourself sometimes to make it all matter terribly.
To be fair, while Kooza is festooned with lavish costumes and awash with mystical, globalised sounds, it’s less encumbered than other recent extravaganzas with pretentious over-arching conceits. In its concentration on acrobatic prowess, it has a back-to-basics feel – even if its thematic emphasis on clowning (a boy-like figure is led into the “dreamworld” of the show by a sinister jester) is every adult’s nightmare. Once again, its zany buffoons, sometimes enlisting help from hapless audience-members, break new boundaries in creating laughter-free zones.
Kooza begins to look like lots of fancy packaging, with fairly ordinary goods inside, when the evening raises its game, literally, towards the end of the first half.
The double high-wire act (two Spanish brothers, Vicente and Roberto Quiros Dominguez and Colombians Jhon Brayan Sanchez Munoz and Flouber Sanchez) is sensational. The quartet bound and hop along the wires, as light and fearless as birds, then up the stakes – not just wheeling two cycles along the highest wire but balancing a chair on the pole between them, and having one of their number stand on that.
Despite a safety net the risk factor is palpable and in the second half, that’s upped again with “Wheel of Death”. Rock music blares as harness-free duo Jimmy Ibarra and Ronald Solis, dressed like devils, walk, run, swing and jump inside and out of a rotating pair of human hamster-wheels. They defy gravity and achieve a surreal, breakneck grace.
That won me over, as did an equally nerve-jangling turn from Chinese youth Yao Deng Bo, performing hand-stands on a vertiginous tower of stacked chairs, and a “Teeterboard” finale that propels assorted acrobats high in the air, some on stilts. More derring-do where that came from would be welcome, but it’s a relief to report that Cirque du Soleil can still send even the most doubting spirits soaring.
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Cirque du Soleil had Dominic Cavendish pinching himself
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http://time.com/4403221/black-lives-matter-help/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160815232627id_/http://time.com:80/4403221/black-lives-matter-help/
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Black Lives Matter Organizers Tell How You Can Help
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20160815232627
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Two organizers in the New York City division of Black Lives Matter, Autumn Marie and Nakisha Lewis, spoke with TIME and ESSENCE on Facebook Live Tuesday about the recent police killings of black men Delrawn Small, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. They talked about how to cope during the days after the three deaths, how to respond to the counter-refrain of “All Lives Matter,” and how the effects of unfair deaths can ripple out and change how black children see their self-worth. Three main ideas emerged from the discussion:
1. The first reaction should be one of healing.
LEWIS: What does it mean to start your day like that and still need to go about your day—to be fully functioning or partially functioning as a human being in the world?
I think first and foremost is to allow yourself to be. To actually acknowledge that you are a human being, you are a human spirit, and you are connected to other people. And so when pain is literally oozing through the cracks in our concrete, you are going to feel that.
It’s my hope that employers, teachers, folks who are really engaging with people and have the ability to hold space, are allowing folks to be able to emote—whatever that looks like. And folks who are able to continue to create spaces for people to be able show up and express themselves talk about what they’re feeling. If it’s sleep that you need, then get the rest.
MARIE: There’s the waking up and existing and actually living and going on personally that sometimes can feel like too much. But then on another level there’s also the fact that a lot of people have to go into workplaces and jobs where they’re facing the same sentiment or the same type of people that are hurting us in what we see in the news or that are replicating or perpetuating that, either in the way that we are not acknowledged or in the hurtful ways that we’re acknowledged at work.
When mass shootings happen, whether they are in Sandy Hook or in Orlando or in other tragedies such as Dallas, the workplace is talking about it, and there’s a place for that. But when tragedies happen in the black community and with police murders, there’s no talk about it at work. And so what happens is black people go to work, and they’re feeling this, and they’re not in a space necessarily where it’s welcome to talk about it. But not only that, but your boss is then like: “Hey, what about these deliverables? What about this?” And you’re being hit with that, and there’s no room to say: “Hey, how are you?” But when these other tragedies happen, there’s space at work where people say: “Oh my gosh, how are you today?”
And so, even just realizing that, and that people are going through that, there are no counselors brought in. When things happen at schools at mass shootings, there’s a day of counseling. And I really look for the day when society can move toward that and be able to offer that in the workplace as well. On Friday, I had to take time. I took real time to unplug for as long as I could or to partially unplug and just cry.
2. “All Lives Matter” is the wrong approach.
MARIE: All lives will matter when black lives matter. It’s interesting: whenever women assert ourselves, that we matter or we rock, or we assert that black people matter or any other group that is against the status quo of white male heterosexual patriarchy, the first thing we hear is: “This is wrong. This is racist.” or “This is against this.” No. The standard is against us. Which is why we have to say it. There are clear facts. There are clear numbers.
When we look at the court systems both from the standing laws as well as the prosecution and lack of accountability around black murders in this country, and the process that tell us that black lives do not matter, according to the system that is set up and the institutions that are set up and the legislation that is set up, the fact that that is a threat [to which] people need to respond, it clearly brings up for us, and it clearly illustrates those people who actually do have issues with their own internal white supremacy and their own white privilege, because that’s what’s really speaking. And it’s the fear that this is going to threaten your white privilege for black people to actually matter.
LEWIS: As a queer woman of color, as a queer black person in this country, I have looked at all these different struggles for humanity, right? For the people who live at the intersection of multiple oppressed identities. And so the first thing that came to mind for me when I first started getting hit with this All Lives Matter versus Black Lives Matter conversation was: “Hm, wasn’t it just a few years ago that queer people were fighting for marriage equality?” And so many straight folks were like: “This is an attack on marriage.” “This is queer folks trying to shift how we understand marriage and therefore dismantle the sacredness of this institution.”
We, as an American people, got very clear that that was their own hatred speaking. They were feeling as if there was a threat to their humanity. When in actuality, someone getting married to someone of the same gender does not in any way impact your union. I promise you. Their union does not impact their union. And so in that same manner, I would really love for people to pause for a second and think: “Does it really mean that my life doesn’t matter if I am not a black person because black people are getting that they matter and are speaking that?”
Because affirmations matter. Just like human lives matter, affirmations matter. Affirmations matter not only to those of us who are adults and can really understand the nuance and the history on which this work builds, but also for our children. I think about the young people who growing up in this time—so this 4-year-old who just witnessed one of the adults in her life be murdered probably does have real questions about her mattering, probably does have real questions about the mattering of the people in her family when her mom sat there in handcuffs after doing nothing wrong. Even if she can’t even process what has fully occurred here, there’s something that means: we’re a little bit different than these other folks.
I want our children to be very clear. I want our communities to be very clear. And I want us to be reminded if at any point in the conversation, we’ve lost stake in who we are as a people, then allow this to be a moment for us where we get that we matter, and those that may not ever have been in the same place with us or who themselves have forgotten that black people are indeed human beings and worthy of dignity and respect, that they, too, get to be reminded.
3. We must create a positive example for children.
MARIE: Every time a black person is killed and nothing is done about it or there are no repercussions, rather, that come out of it, or whenever children are witnessing this in their family as well and just seeing that trauma, they are being told: “Black lives do not matter.” You have to realize that in the same way that we talk about all the other things with our children in terms of internalizing these things and taking them on—they take on what they see in the media, they take on what they see.
When you see numbers going up in Chicago, look at what’s going on in that same year with black people getting murdered. If we live in a society that reaffirms our life, reaffirms our dignity, it is that much easier for our children to reaffirm that and look at each other differently. But if you’re constantly telling them by your laws, by your actions, by your lack of accountability, by the disparity in resources and love that they see in their community and things that are given to their community and provided there by the disparities in education, then you’re constantly sending them a message. They are not only internalizing that but also reflecting that back to the black people around them.
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Members of the organization reflect on the past week in the black community
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/13/father-of-five-stabbed-to-death-after-closing-time-at-local-pub/
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Suspect arrested after father-of-five killed at village pub in Burnham
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20160816141325
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Mr Haverley's brother Craig said the deceased was a "loving father who will be sorely missed by his whole family".
"Dean was cruelly murdered while on a night out in a Burnham around midnight on August 12. He has left behind a wife, five children and 2 step children," he said.
"He was an upbeat, funny guy, always laughing and he had my kids in stitches. The last time I saw him was about two or three days ago when he came round to mine and we watched some TV and had a few beers in my man cave."
Today the area was sealed off by police as officers investigated and no arrests have yet been made.
Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Steel of the Major Crime Unit, described the assault as an isolated incident.
"We are conducting a thorough investigation to find out what happened inside the public house last night," he said.
"My appeal is to anyone who was in The George Inn around midnight who witnessed the assault or has any information regarding the incident to contact police immediately.
"A scene watch will remain in place at the public house and there will be police activity in the area. If you have any concerns please don't hesitate to approach one of our officers or PCSOs."
Colourful bunches of flowers have been left outside the pub in tribute to the 48-year-old.
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Detectives investigating the fatal assault on a father of five in a village pub have arrested a man.
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http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/dems-v-gop-on-new-drugs-1470957481
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817010709id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/amp/articles/dems-v-gop-on-new-drugs-1470957481
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Dems v. GOP on New Drugs
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20160817010709
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As a leader in the Republican Party for the past 40 years, I’ve been involved in the development of 10 party platforms. Party platforms are important because they are more than a list of policies. Instead, they are a statement of the very different world views that explain those policies.
This year’s Democratic and Republican Party platforms provide a useful example of differing world views on an issue that will dramatically impact the health and well-being of every U.S. citizen: biomedical research.
The GOP platform praises the promise of biomedical research, saying it is “the consequence of marrying significant investment, both public and private, with the world’s best talent.” The Democratic platform says “We recognize the critical importance of a fully funded National Institutes of Health to accelerate the pace of medical progress.”
Notice that the Democratic platform fails to “recognize” the vital importance of private funding. EvaluatePharma estimates the private sector will invest $144 billion this year in biomedical research. That’s more than four times as much as the National Institutes of Health’s $32.3 billion a year in grants and in-house research.
This blind spot in the Democratic Party’s understanding of what it takes to achieve medical breakthroughs explains why their platform can simultaneously call for accelerating the pace of medical progress while proposing destructive policies that would reduce the amount of money available for the research and development of new cures.
The Democrats’ platform calls for de facto price controls in the form of importing prescription drugs from other countries and allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers. Artificial price-control mechanisms like these try to reduce costs today at the expense of continued innovation.
Democrats ignore the fact that while new medicines and treatments may start off being relatively expensive, they invariably reduce in price over time, increasing their value to society. Meanwhile, the higher revenue generated from the first few years of availability is reinvested into research for the next round of breakthroughs. This is the recurring cycle of innovation that creates lower-price and more-effective medications.
Consider statins, a cholesterol-lowering medication. Since statins were introduced in the late 1980s, prices have dropped precipitously. One study published in HealthAffairs in 2012 estimated that the use of statins between 1987 and 2008 generated $1.25 trillion in economic value from the years of life saved for those taking the medicine. During that time about $200 billion was spent on statin drugs, meaning that the use of these medications resulted in a net benefit to society of $947 billion. That is a roughly 4:1 benefit-to-cost ratio.
The Democratic platform also chastises drug companies for the high cost of some new, breakthrough drugs. However, it fails to account for their value relative to their cost.
For instance, while new breakthrough treatments that can cure hepatitis C in a few weeks have large price tags, they save even more money—not to mention suffering—by avoiding the continued hospitalizations and liver treatments associated with the disease. They are also dropping in cost due to competition as more treatments become available. According to Steve Miller, chief medical officer of Express Scripts, the cost of hepatitis C drugs is now lower in the U.S. than in Europe.
Instead of calling for artificial price controls that would reduce medical innovation by choking off the resources needed to develop new cures and treatments, the Republican Party’s platform takes a different approach to lowering drug costs.
It recognizes that it is becoming more expensive each year to bring lifesaving new cures to market. This is because drug developers are unable to take advantage of new technology and up-to-date approaches to doing their research and, especially, their clinical trials. A recent study in the Journal of Health Economics estimated it costs an average of $2.6 billion to bring a FDA-approved medication to market.
Moreover, an analysis published in January 2015 in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that drug manufacturers have shifted resources from early-stage research to lengthy, expensive clinical trials. This kind of resource shift will lead to fewer breakthroughs and fewer cures.
Biomedical research is one of the few areas where there is little doubt that investment pays for itself. Any policies that reduce resources—public or private—available to invest in research and development are akin to killing the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. As Bill Gates, the world’s top philanthropist when it comes to delivering medicines to the poor, has said, “The drug companies are turning out miracles, and we need their R&D budgets to stay strong. They need to see the opportunity.”
Of the two parties’ platforms, only the Republican Party recognizes the vital role that private research plays in the development of new drugs, and takes an appropriate approach to lowering the cost of prescription drugs that will preserve the research base necessary for medical innovation. This is an approach that will save lives and save money.
Mr. Gingrich is a former speaker of the House of Representatives. He is an adviser to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group.
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich compares the Republican and Democratic party platforms on biomedical research: The GOP recognizes the vital role private research plays in new drug development.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/pax-global-video-of-cfo-booting-analyst-makes-more-enemies-than-friends-1470969622
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PAX Global: Video of CFO Booting Analyst Makes More Enemies Than Friends
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20160817025555
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Be kind to your enemies and they may become your friends. Be mean, and your enemies multiply.
Hong Kong-listed electronic-payments firm PAX Global Technology is learning that lesson after unceremoniously booting the only analyst who had a “sell” rating on the company’s stock from an earnings briefing. Worse yet, it was caught on video.
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Pax Global Technology’s CFO unceremoniously kicks out the only analyst with a sell rating on the company from an earnings briefing
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http://time.com/4177122/mosquitoes-diseases-zika-virus/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817113738id_/http://time.com:80/4177122/mosquitoes-diseases-zika-virus/
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Why So Many Diseases, Like Zika Virus, Come From Mosquitoes
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20160817113738
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Zika virus, the latest mosquito-borne virus to hit the United States, joins a long list of other infections the insects can carry, like malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya and West Nile. How can these bugs—so tiny that we often miss them at first swipe—be responsible for so many infections? It turns out their vampire-like tendencies are largely to blame.
“Mosquitoes literally drink blood, and by doing so ingest microbes directly and can pass them directly into the bloodstream of others,” says Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Health Security. “They are very mobile and can move over distances—a few miles—allowing them to have some trajectory in finding their blood meals and spreading disease in the process.”
It’s the female mosquitoes we really have to worry about, since they’re the ones that ingest blood, which provides nutrition needed for their eggs.
According to Janet McAllister, an entomologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), not all mosquitoes are good at transmitting disease, but the ones that are have evolved to live closer to humans. “Some of these species have even developed a preference for feeding on humans over other animals,” she says. “Mostly, those that will bite humans have become very good at taking blood from us without us noticing. Some prefer to bite at night when we are sleeping. Others, those that bite during the day or early evening, have chemicals in their saliva that allow them to bite without us noticing it right away. That way, they can get their meal and leave more disease-causing organism before the itching starts.”
The movements of mosquitoes (often via human travelers) are to blame for bringing the once uncommon ailments to new places. “A lot of these viruses are arboviruses,” says Nikos Vasilakis, an assistant professor at the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “They are ancient viruses, like dengue and Zika, that have evolved alongside mosquitoes. The most prevalent vector is the domestic Aedes aegypti mosquito, which originated in Africa, but now its range is global.”
Climate change is also at least partially responsible for where mosquitoes and the diseases they carry end up. “Whereas in the past, Aedes aegypti would not establish itself in more temperate regions, climate change would result in its northern or southern expansion,”says Vasilakis. “That change in range will also be accompanied by the introduction of these viruses in these territories.”
Consider chikungunya, a virus that causes debilitating joint pain and infected more than one million people globally in 2014. It started in Africa but spread rapidly into the Caribbean and Central and South Americas, and even hit the United States. In previous years, the CDC would report an average of around 28 cases of the infection in the U.S., mostly brought in by travelers, but in 2014, more than 2,811 stateside cases were reported. “We are very concerned about chikungunya moving into the Western Hemisphere,” Dr. Roger Nasci of the CDC told TIME at the end of 2014. “We have the two different species of mosquitoes in the U.S. capable of spreading the virus.”
The saving grace for Americans is that the U.S. climate is not the most welcoming for mosquitoes, since regular winters kill many of them off. As TIME previously reported, the new Zika virus case could pose more of a problem for warmer regions in the country.
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From malaria to dengue fever to Zika virus, here's why mosquitoes can give you so many different diseases
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/merrill-cio-resigns-amid-wealth-and-retirement-shuffle-1437162321
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817120705id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/merrill-cio-resigns-amid-wealth-and-retirement-shuffle-1437162321
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Merrill CIO Resigns Amid Wealth and Retirement Shuffle
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20160817120705
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Bank of America Corp. BAC 1.00 % ’s chief investment officer for its Merrill Lynch brokerage has resigned amid a reshuffling within its wealth and retirement unit.
CIO Ashvin Chhabra will leave the firm to run a family office, a Merrill spokeswoman said. Mr. Chhabra had overseen the delivery of investment advice and strategy to Merrill’s more than 14,000 brokers since 2013.
Mr. Chhabra initially told brokers of his resignation on June 23, but he continued at the firm for several weeks throughout the transition.
Instead of simply replacing Mr. Chhabra, Bank of America has opted to create a joint CIO role that works with both Merrill and private bank U.S. Trust, streamlining the investment advice given to advisers in the two units. It named Chris Hyzy, the chief investment officer for U.S. Trust, to the role, making him the new head of the Global Wealth & Investment Management chief investment office, which reports Andy Sieg, head of wealth and retirement solutions, and U.S. Trust President Keith Banks.
Besides that, David Tyrie, head of retirement and personal wealth solutions, will now oversee retail and preferred products in Bank of America’s consumer banking division. His move triggered a series of subsequent shuffles throughout the retirement and wealth unit.
Managed Solutions head Lorna Sabbia, who has been responsible for the rollout of advisory platform Merrill Lynch One, will replace Mr. Tyrie, the bank said.
Replacing Ms. Sabbia as managed solutions head is Keith Glenfield, who led the wealth unit’s alternative investments business. That group will now be led by Nancy Fahmy, who previously led private-equity origination and technical sales.
Bank of America also named Patricio Diaz its chief operating officer for the global wealth and investment management unit, replacing Stephen Hostetler, who joined the bank’s global risk division as a strategy, governance and data executive. Mr. Diaz, an eight-year veteran of Merrill, was most recently the COO of the investment management and guidance business.
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Ashvin Chhabra had overseen the firm’s delivery of investment advice to brokers
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/its-the-sweet-16-of-bro-campuses-1458772661
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817122915id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/its-the-sweet-16-of-bro-campuses-1458772661?mod=e2fb
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It’s the Sweet 16 of ‘Bro’ Campuses
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20160817122915
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The 16 schools left in the NCAA tournament are, by the tournament’s standards, the worthiest college basketball teams in the country. But a glance at these campuses reveals another thing they have in common: They are some of the country’s finest habitats for “bros.”
There is no standard definition for what makes a person a “bro,” but you generally know one when you see one. They are mostly male students from the East Coast who join fraternities, gravitate to majors in finance and can tell you exactly how many beers they...
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This year, many schools left in the NCAA tournament have strong “brotastic” reputations. The Count breaks down which of these schools is the bro-iest.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/08/16/18/26/30k-stolen-from-funeral-plans-tas-police
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$30K stolen from funeral plans: Tas police
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20160817135107
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A Devonport man has been charged with stealing almost $30,000 from pre-paid funeral plans.
Scott Allan Dickey, 39, faced court on Tuesday where it was alleged he misappropriated $29,770 in funds from seven victims linked to Kentish Funerals, police said.
Dickey has been granted bail and the matter will be mentioned in court again on September 8.
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A Tasmanian man has faced court charged with stealing almost $30,000 from pre-paid funeral plans.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/regulators-to-goldman-sachs-living-will-falls-short-of-dodd-frank-proviso-1460548806
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Regulators to Goldman: ‘Living Will’ Falls Short of Dodd-Frank Provision
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20160817150031
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Regulators told Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to rewrite its plan detailing how it would go through a potential bankruptcy.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday that it doesn’t think the bank’s so-called living will meets the requirements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. The Federal Reserve stopped short of deeming Goldman’s plan “not credible,” but also identified weaknesses that must be addressed.
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Regulators told Goldman Sachs to rewrite its plan detailing how it would go through a potential bankruptcy.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/startups-find-home-in-kodaks-vast-industrial-space-1452032103
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817150522id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/startups-find-home-in-kodaks-vast-industrial-space-1452032103
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Startups Find Home in Kodak’s Vast Industrial Space
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20160817150522
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ROCHESTER, N. Y.—When Eastman Kodak Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, Jack Wade’s department was eliminated in a single day and his 34-year engineering career with the company came to an abrupt end.
Three years later, the 62-year-old chemical engineer found himself back in his old office. But instead of making film, he is evaluating the size of marijuana plants as a project manager for Columbia Care LLC, one of five...
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A growing number of startups are moving into the industrial space left behind by Eastman Kodak after it decided last year not to sell its 1,200-acre campus in Rochester, N.Y.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/secret-deal-squeezes-mexicos-drug-sector-1466381531
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817152639id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/secret-deal-squeezes-mexicos-drug-sector-1466381531?
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Secret Deal Squeezes Mexico’s Drug Sector
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20160817152639
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MEXICO CITY—Last August, Mexico’s antitrust commission approved the purchase of the country’s third-largest pharmaceutical distributor by a little-known Dutch fund, saying it didn’t believe the tie-up would hurt competition in the marketplace.
What regulators didn’t know at the time was that principal owner of Nadro SA, the country’s leading drug distributor, was actually behind the Dutch fund that bought Casa Marzam SA, Nadro’s rival.
The Dutch fund, Moench Cooperatif, paid $83 million for Marzam. But the entire purchase was financed by Marina Matarazzo de Escandón, the wife of Nadro President Pablo Escandón, according to documents allegedly leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and published in April by a Mexican news website.
In response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, the head of Mexico’s antitrust commission, Alejandra Palacios, said the agency “is currently carrying out several actions intended to verify” the authenticity of the information related to the purchase of Marzam. She said that at the time of the purchase, the commission wasn’t informed of any link between the Dutch fund and Nadro.
If there is enough evidence, the commission could open a formal investigation. Mexican laws allow the commission to cancel the transaction if it proves Nadro was behind the purchase and that the tie-up hurts competition.
“Many people inside the commission feel they have been fooled by Nadro,” said a top government official with a close relationship with one of the commissioners.
Nadro and Mossack Fonseca declined to comment. Marzam and Luis Doporto, one of Moench Cooperatif’s main shareholders, didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. Attempts to reach Mr. Escandón and Ms. Matarazzo were unsuccessful.
The secret purchase of a rival is only one of several steps the closely held Nadro took in the past year to give it a dominant position in the drug-distribution business, allowing it to raise drug prices so quickly that some retailers like Wal-Mart de Mexico SA WMMVY -0.86 % B are now refusing to carry some prescription drugs, according to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Just three days before the purchase of Marzam was approved by Mexico’s antitrust commission, Nadro signed a sales and distribution agreement with the Mexican subsidiary of AstraZeneca AZN -0.42 % by which Nadro became the sole distributor of AstraZeneca medicines for some large wholesale clients, according to a copy of the agreement seen by the Journal. Such clients include major retailers like Wal-Mart, WMT -0.28 % Soriana and Costco. COST -0.61 % The agreement included clauses where both Nadro and AstraZeneca agreed on the prices of medicines sold to retailers.
AstraZeneca’s Mexican subsidiary declined to comment.
Nadro also has deals with other major drugmakers that required them to not sell the medicines to other distributors at different prices, according to documents seen by the Journal.
Mexican laws consider exclusive distribution deals—known under the law as “allocation of customers”—and the fixing of prices to be monopolistic practices.
Asked about the contract, Mexico’s antitrust agency said it would consider opening a separate investigation to review possible anticompetitive practices.
Nadro and Marzam together control about 50% of the distribution market for branded drugs to the private sector across Mexico, where there are an estimated 25,000 pharmacies and hundreds of private hospitals, according to industry group Unefarm and several industry executives.
Nadro’s longtime top sales executive, Héctor Manzano, was named Marzam’s commercial vice president after the Marzam purchase.
A third player—Fármacos Especializados SA—has around a 25% share and the rest is fragmented among several regional and smaller companies. Drug sales in Mexico amounted to about $11 billion in 2015, according to Unefarm.
Major drug-distribution companies’ size gives them clout over drugmakers. Exclusivity contracts like the one signed by AstraZeneca are commonplace in the industry, say industry executives. The current chief operating officer at Nadro, Ricardo Álvarez-Tostado, was AstraZeneca’s head in Mexico from 2001 to 2013.
“The pharmaceutical manufacturers feel tied to certain wholesale distributors as they need to place their medicines in the market,” said Victor Soto, the head of the smaller distribution firm Levic, which is currently focused on distributing generic medicines.
Tomás Rodríguez, the head of the industry group representing Nadro, Marzam and Fármacos Especializados, said there is enough and healthy competition in the distribution market despite the reduced number of companies operating in it.
“In most countries, the distribution is made by very few companies. The distribution requires firms to operate with big volumes in order to be efficient,” said Mr. Rodríguez.
Wal-Mart de Mexico, the country’s largest retailer, says it saw a range of drug prices start to rise noticeably—by more than 10%—toward the end of 2015. The company asked drugmakers whether they had raised prices and were told it was the distributors’ decision, according to Wal-Mart spokesman Antonio Ocaranza.
“We decided to not pass on those price increases to our clients, and that led us to stop buying medicines from 13 drugmakers,” said Mr. Ocaranza. The result for Wal-Mart has been a shortage of some medicines like Bayer’s Protect aspirin for heart patients.
Soriana and Costco didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The average price of medicines in Mexico has increased around 12% since early 2014, according to a review of data collected by the national statistics agency, double the rate of inflation during that period.
But that figure includes generics, which have risen far less than patented medicines distributed by companies like Nadro. Patented medicines have soared about 40% in price over the past two years, according to Unefarm. About half that increase was due to a stronger dollar that affected the price of drugs in pesos, and about half was due to less competition in the drug-distribution business, according to Unefarm.
“Most independent pharmacies have no choice but to accept the distributors’ conditions,” said Juvenal Becerra, the head of Unefarm.
For decades, a handful of drug distributors have dominated Mexico’s private market, serving as middlemen between big pharmaceutical firms and the thousands of mom-and-pop pharmacies spread across rural Mexico. Their lock on distribution meant generic drugs—which had far lower margins—didn’t make it big in Mexico until a decade ago, when an independent pharmaceutical chain, Farmacias Similares, began specializing in generics.
In 2014, the market began to change as longtime industry leader, Casa Saba, ran into debt trouble and nearly went bankrupt.
When Casa Saba’s problems turned it into a much smaller player, analysts said Nadro had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to aggressively expand its business.
In early 2015, Genomma Lab, a local pharmaceutical company, put up for sale a controlling stake of Marzam. Moench Cooperatif won by bidding $83 million.
Ms. Matarazzo, Mr. Escandón’s wife, granted a loan to Moench Cooperatif through three different front-companies, according to the so-called Panama Papers documents. Attempts to reach these three companies for comment were unsuccessful.
Write to Juan Montes at juan.montes@wsj.com
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Mexican authorities didn’t know that the owner of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical distributor was behind the purchase of a rival when they approved the deal last year.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/10125304/Channel-4s-Repo-Man-loses-licence.html
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817154726id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/10125304/Channel-4s-Repo-Man-loses-licence.html
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Channel 4's 'Repo Man' loses licence
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20160817154726
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This followed the owner of the company, Sean James, and his employees as they repossessed cars and other assets from those who had not kept up with their loans or finance agreements. This included one couple who had bought their car second hand, without realising there were still outstanding debts secured on it.
Mr James started his first repossession company in 1996, when he left the Royal Navy. His own website estimated that when the firm was at its busiest he was repossessing between 20 and 30 cars a day, with just a two-man team. His strong-arm tactics may have made compelling TV but it is understood to have caused problems with the regulators.
The Staffordshire-based firm traded under a number of names, including Donegal Finance and Donegal Recovery.
A spokesman for the OFT said it could not comment on the specific evidence or detailed reasons that had led to the firm's credit licence being revoked.
These new powers were introduced in February this year. They give the OFT power to suspend a credit licence with immediate effect in the most serious of cases, which include those where there is evidence of immediate harm to consumers.
The suspension means it is now a criminal offence for DFL or any of its directors, employees or agents to engage in any of these activities using the DFL licence.
Donegal Finance Limited has been invited to make representations to the OFT, and an adjudicator will take these into account when deciding whether to confirm the suspension or withdraw it.
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The firm of debt collectors featured in "The Repo Man" has been stripped of its credit licence by the OFT.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704094304575030320508272654
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160817154853id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB10001424052748704094304575030320508272654
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My Korean New Year
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20160817154853
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My finest hour as a Korean took place on a Seollal morning, the first day of Korean New Year's, in January 1976.
I was 7 years old, and my family still lived in Seoul, where my two sisters and I had been born. Seollal, the New Year's Day of the lunar calendar, is one of South Korea's most significant holidays. The busy nation rests for three days for family reunions, New Year's greetings and scrumptious feast dishes.
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How a Korean family tradition endures over New Year with three days of reunions, greetings and scrumptious feast dishes.
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HP Enterprise Joins Internet of Things Platform Wars
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20160817155924
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. HPE -1.29 % is joining a crowded race to help companies get a leg up on one of tech’s hottest trends, the Internet of Things.
The company on Tuesday introduced what it calls the HPE Universal IoT Platform, software designed to help manage many kinds of network-connected devices and collect and analyze the data they generate.
It isn’t exactly an original idea. Companies including Amazon.com Inc., AMZN -0.58 % General Electric Co. GE 0.06 % , International Business Machines Corp. IBM -0.44 % , Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.29 % , Cisco Systems CSCO -2.46 % and Salesforce.com Inc. CRM -2.03 % have their own offerings for the Internet of Things that they call platforms.
Where some vendors are focusing on smart hardware -- devices as prosaic as door locks enhanced with sensors, computing and communications circuitry -- many players in the computer industry hope to generate more profit selling software and cloud services that support the Internet of Things.
With its platform offering, HP Enterprise hopes to distinguish itself with the ability to take in data generated in many kinds of formats and convert it into consistent formats, so it can be placed in databases and analyzed, said Nigel Upton, HP Enterprise’s director and general manager for IoT. “We normalize the whole thing,” he said.
HP Enterprise said its new software can be run on servers operated by customers, or on machines operated by the company or by the public cloud services of Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Mr. Upton said his company was bidding for business from a car company that summed up the philosophy of many customers.
“They said, ‘We don’t want a killer application but a killer platform that allows us to integrate everything.’” Mr. Upton said. In other words, he said, companies such car makers, telecommunications providers and energy services are making products that churn out data that needs to be centrally collected and organized.
HP Enterprise inherited business software and hardware product lines that were part of Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ -0.10 % before that company broke up in November. Mr. Upton said the company, besides being a major vendor of server and storage systems, is also a big supplier of boxes called gateways that help coordinate clusters of digital devices in settings such as factories and office buildings.
The company’s announcement, made at a Silicon Valley event called Internet of Things World, is the latest sign that tech companies are investing heavily to get in on the trend.
Cisco this year purchased Internet of Things platform maker Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion. Database software pioneer Oracle Corp. ORCL -0.51 % last week said it would pay $532 million to buy Opower, which sells cloud services to utilities, one of the hottest arenas for smart devices.
“There really is a business in this space, and a lot of it is the data,” said Mike Bell, chief executive of Silver Spring Networks Inc., which originally focused on utility communications and is adding more Internet of Things applications.
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. is joining a crowded race to help companies get a leg up on one of tech’s hottest trends, the Internet of Things.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/watches/23124/jaeger-lecoultre-hails-new-era-in-grand-complications.html
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Jaeger-LeCoultre hails 'new era in grand complications'
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20160817184210
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Watch complications such as tourbillons, moonphases and minute-repeaters are, as the name suggests, complicated, and therefore they necessarily make watch movements thicker. For this reason, the art of making ultra-thin watches is one that exists, generally speaking, in parallel to the art of making grand complications.
Nevertheless, Jaeger-LeCoultre – no stranger to either the very thin or the very complicated – has combined the two disciplines in the 11 watch in its Hybris Mechanica collection, the snappily named Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon.
There have been other complicated ultra-thin watches before – notably from Patek Philippe – but none with a flying tourbillon, where the bridge is removed to give a better view of the mechanism.
The new Jaeger-LeCoultre, unveiled at SIHH in Geneva, is also the thinnest minute-repeating watch in production, with the case thickness of just 7.9mm eclipsing Vacheron Constantin’s Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731. JLC has made over 200 minute-repeating timepieces, which strike the hours, quarters and minutes on demand. The latest one comes with a brand new system which reduces the gaps between sounds to avoid breaking the chiming tempo.
Another innovation is the use of a peripheral winding system which, by taking the winding module from the top of the movement and moving it to the edge, has the dual benefit of reducing thickness and also making the mechanism visible through narrow cutouts around the perimeter of the dial.
Jaeger-LeCoultre gives thanks to the manufacture’s “insatiable visionaries” and calls the Ultra-Thin “a new era in the world of grand complications”. With JLC’s impeccable history, and with the release of one watch that achieves so much within such a slender a profile, it is difficult to disagree.
Mechanical automatic movement, Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 362, crafted, assembled and decorated by hand with 45-hour power reserve
Minute repeater equipped with silent-timelapse reduction function
Flying tourbillon with flying balance-wheel
Automatic winding via a peripheral oscillating weight
18-carat extra-white gold, 7.9 mm thick, 41 mm in diameter, polished lugs, entirely polished caseband and bezel
Black high-end Jaeger-LeCoultre alligator leather, white gold high-end pin buckle
294,000 euros exc tax (£242,000)
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The Hybris Mechanica 11 is Jaeger-LeCoultre’s first ultra-thin grand complication
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http://archive.fortune.com/galleries/2011/autos/1106/gallery.10_ugly_cars_1950s.fortune/10.html
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10 ugliest cars from the 1950s
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20160818102523
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One of four Packards produced during its last year of production, the Hawk was a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk differentiated by a fiberglass front end and a modified deck lid. The changes did nothing to improve its appearance. A low and wide snout that opened just above the front bumper and stretched the width of the car earned it the nickname "catfish." The metallic gold finish on the tailfins was a unique touch, and the raised spare-tire hump on the trunk lid added another dimension of cheesiness. Just 588 were sold, and then Packard was gone.
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The end of the tailfin era produced a landmark in awful car design. Here are 10 of the decade's most egregious examples of excess.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-deep-blue-scene-1458238123
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The Deep Blue Scene at Roger Vivier’s Tribeca Spring Lunch
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20160818120150
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“CANADIAN TUXEDO? I don’t know this expression,” said fashion stylist Camille Seydoux, when asked for her thoughts about wearing denim on denim. “But, yes, it can be very chic.”
Her just-launched mini-collection of multitone-indigo bags and shoes for Roger Vivier certainly supports that argument. Ms. Seydoux was in New York for a lunch at Maman Tribeca to celebrate the debut with her co-host, fashion blogger Garance Doré, and friends, who sported pieces from Ms. Seydoux’s line. Featuring a bootie, platform sandal, sneaker, mini-bucket bag, backpack and shoulder bag, the collection is a free-spirited riff on Vivier’s leather-collaged Prismick bags, introduced in 2012. “Mixing different shades of denim is young and fun,” said Ms. Seydoux, dressed iconoclastically in a graphic jacket, denim shirt and tweed shorts over ruby-red tights.
The invitation had urged guests to wear “a touch of denim,” and many obediently, and stylishly, complied: Singer Jihae layered a furry vest over a faded jean jacket and Leandra Medine, the fashion blogger behind “Man Repeller,” wore embellished kick-flared jeans by Rachel Comey. Table settings underlined the blues worship: On each plate sat a lone pocket from the rear of a pair of jeans with cutlery and a menu tucked neatly inside. (An intern spent the better part of a day unstitching any logos from the vintage pockets Vivier had sourced on Etsy.) As guests nibbled on quiche and cauliflower salad, they loaded their Instagram feeds with snaps of the tableau. “This is so cute!” one woman said to her neighbor. “I’m just not going to think about who wore these jeans.”
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French fashion stylist Camille Seydoux celebrated the launch of her mini-collection of Prismick bags and booties for Roger Vivier with blogger Garance Doré and other pals at Maman Tribeca this week.
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Jobi McAnuff: Stevenage sign Jamaica winger on free transfer
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20160818123055
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Stevenage have signed Jamaica winger Jobi McAnuff on a free transfer.
The 34-year-old left Leyton Orient in May at the end of his contract, having scored six goals in 57 games.
McAnuff has won 29 caps for Jamaica and was involved in all three of their matches at last month's Copa America.
In a career spanning over 600 games, Watford paid £1.75m for him in 2007 before he moved on to Reading two years later and helped the Royals win promotion to the Premier League.
Stevenage have not disclosed how long a contract McAnuff has signed.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.
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Stevenage sign Jamaica winger Jobi McAnuff on a free transfer after his release by Leyton Orient.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160818174723id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/08/16/tudor-said-cut-workforce-after-withdrawals-losses/Ej7bSQNca048eMPFlrpJwO/story.html
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Tudor said to cut 15% of workforce after withdrawals, losses
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20160818174723
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NEW YORK — Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones dismissed about 15 percent of the workforce in a shakeup at his hedge fund that’s reeling from more than $2 billion in investor withdrawals this year.
Tudor Investment Corp., which oversees $11 billion and employs about 400 people, on Tuesday informed the affected employees, which range from money managers to support staff, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The firm got redemption notices for $400 million this quarter, according to another person, after being hit with $1.7 billion in withdrawals in the first half.
The cuts at Tudor, one of the oldest and most expensive hedge funds, shows the upheaval in the industry is engulfing even the most renowned firms, as large investors sour on the high-fee managers.
Tudor, founded in 1980, trimmed fees this year after lackluster returns, while some long-time money managers left. Jones has in the past year accelerated a revamp of the firm using quantitative tools.
“Amid a changing operating environment, we have made strategic adjustments to our firm’s staffing,” Tudor said in a statement, which didn’t specify how many jobs are being cut. “These difficult changes were made after conducting a deep and broad review of our business and are meant to optimally size the firm for future success. We are committed to treating our departing employees with care and support and appreciate their many contributions to Tudor.”
The current job cuts are focused on money managers who had posted losses or failed to post profits, said the people who asked not to be identified because the firm is private. Tudor, which is based in Greenwich, Conn., and has offices in cities including Singapore and London, is reducing headcount globally, they said. Of the firm’s 409 people, about half are in investing roles, according to the latest regulatory filing.
Tudor has hired scientists and mathematicians, some with doctorates, to help money managers with trading. Jones has told colleagues that his firm needs to get up to speed with newer technologies as quant funds post robust profits, the people said.
Tudor this month hired Amit Tanna, a macro money manager, and quant trader Lykomidis Mastroleon, who has a PhD in electrical engineering, both from BlueCrest Capital Management, one of the people said. In June, Tudor hired Brad Davis, a money manager who focuses on financial stocks, from Balyasny Asset Management, and Jonathan Kommemi, a quant trader and former instructor at Princeton University, the person said.
Jones, 61, helped spawn a generation of macro traders who bet on everything from currencies to commodities. Like other firms, Tudor has struggled to outperform markets since the 2008 financial crisis. Its main fund lost 2.5 percent this year through Aug. 5, according to an investor.
A fund that is based on the performance of multiple teams of managers, Tudor Discretionary Macro, has lost 2.8 percent this year. That fund was started in 2012 to help with succession planning for Jones. It has yet to yield a standout manager.
Tudor isn’t the only macro hedge fund suffering. Last year, Brevan Howard Asset Management cut 50 jobs, mainly support roles, amid shrinking assets and losses. The reduction represented more than 10 percent of the 435 employees the firm employed as of June last year. The firm’s main fund fell 2.25 percent this year through July, extending two years of declines.
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Tudor Investment Corp. is reeling from more than $2 billion in investor withdrawals this year.
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http://www.people.com/article/madonna-rocco-ritchie-cuba-birthday-celebrations
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Madonna Dances with Son Rocco During 58th Birthday Celebration : People.com
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20160818195640
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08/17/2016 AT 10:20 AM EDT
celebrated her 58th birthday on Tuesday by dancing with one special partner – her 16-year-old son Rocco!
The "Material Girl" is currently in the "
" of Havana, Cuba, where her birthday celebrations included a "family mambo, Cuban style."
She shared video of the party on Instagram Tuesday night. The black-and-white clip shows Madonna and Rocco hand-in-hand, each taking turns spinning the other around in the packed restaurant while a happy crowd claps in time to the music. Mother and son are all smiles, embracing at the end in a big hug.
Now that Madonna and Rocco have settled their differences following a
, the two seem to be inseparable.
in London, they went on a
to raise awareness for charity.
Madonna even took to social media last week to celebrate Rocco's birthday.
"Happy Birthday to my first born son," she captioned one shot of Rocco with David. "A true warrior with a beautiful heart. Let the sun shine!"
"Happy Birthday Wild Child," she wrote in another adorable photo, showing a young and older Rocco photoshopped together in the same shot. "Time waits for no one."
Perhaps the most emotional of all her birthday tributes was a throwback photo she posted of herself holding a toddler-aged Rocco.
"Once my baby always my baby," she said. "Happy Sweet 16!"
While they each had birthdays to celebrate during their dance together Tuesday night, fans all over the world – including
– paid tribute to the birthday girl using Snapchat's custom Madonna filter.
"Thank you to all my fans and everyone who is in my gang for all your birthday wishes!!!!" Madonna said later, on Instagram. "You know how to make a girl feel special!"
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Madonna celebrated her 58th birthday with her family – including son Rocco – by her side
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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/08/meet-man-cleaning-mexico-murders-160811074403935.html
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Meet the man cleaning up after Mexico's murders
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20160818204206
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Mexico City, Mexico - Unseasonal rain is tipping down outside the diner by Mexico City's Benito Juarez airport. The brake lights reflected in the puddles on the wet tarmac make them look like pools of blood. The air is one huge engine roar: planes above, cars all around.
With its bottomless coffee, red banquette seating and dim yellow lighting, the diner could be the scene of a 1950s noir movie. It's a fitting choice for the suited man with the silver crew-cut sitting alone at the foot of the room.
Forty-three-year-old Donovan Tavera is Mexico's only government-certified forensic cleaner. Since launching his private company 16 years ago, his work has taken him all over Mexico into the darkest, loneliest corners of a country locked in a militarised war on drugs and swept away by rapid, voracious modernisation.
"Because I'm the first, I have to be the best," he says, lighting the first of an endless chain of Montana cigarettes. He uses matches because lighters accrue too much dirt. "That means I have to make the most personal sacrifices."
Still, he says, "The credit for the job goes to every doctor or pathologist who answered my questions, or who lent me their laboratory. I didn't invent this: I just brought together the information."
At his home laboratory in Texcoco, in the state of Mexico, Donovan has invented some 370 chemical formulas to eradicate traces of murders and suicides, home fires and abandoned bodies.
"My goal is for every place I work in to appear as though nothing tragic ever happened there," he says, his gaze fixed on the coffee pooled in his cup like the pupil of an interrogating eye.
"My formulas make the difference between me and other people who try to do this," he explains. "So many office and domestic cleaners get contracted for jobs that are beyond their capacities: They simply throw bleach and water on the material and their clients believe the work is done. This is deceit, as far as I'm concerned. Blood is dangerous.
"Just because the stain and odour have gone, you may still have tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis live at the scene without a deeper chemical intervention. Stabbings sometimes leave blood mixed with pericardial fluid that requires one particular formula. The spatter patterns spread after a shooting require various different preparations, since a bullet cuts through various different tissues. Where you have an abandoned body, you may have acid and other digestive fluids, so, once again, I have to make a different formula."
Donovan speaks in complete paragraphs, in a tone of quiet authority, but the voice emanates from a heavy-set physique that is a testament to his previous careers as a soldier and a private bodyguard.
The money would be better in either of those professions, he says, but his motive is personal, not commercial.
"In the United States, I could charge $400 per hour," he explains, cleaning his fingers on a napkin. "This figure is the maximum I can ask for here [for the entire job]. When you take into account my expenses - the chemicals, transport, my assistant's wage - I have a very slim profit margin."
His career is the culmination of a lifelong obsession dating back to his childhood in 1980s Azcapotzalco, a gritty industrial area of Mexico City, smothered under a blanket of smoke from the Pemex refinery that dominates the neighbourhood.
READ MORE: Mexico's citizen detectives take forensic studies into their own hands
"Since I was 12, I've asked myself the same question," he says. "Where does the blood go?"
"One Saturday afternoon, I looked down from our apartment to see the victim of a hit-and-run lying dead beside a taco stand - just 200 metres away. His blood was pouring into the gutter. I asked my mother where this blood would go, but she had no answer. The following morning, I watched the taco stand owners rinsing away the blood with soap and water. By midday, it was business as usual, queues of people standing eating tacos where the body had lain. No ritual, no nothing. The event had been rendered invisible. I felt so sad.
"When we talk about this as a family, my mother talks about how I was traumatised by what I saw that day. Maybe I was, but I know that this gave me the impulse to start my life's work. I decided that if nobody else was going to care about these things, I would. That's why I spent my adolescence in the library and in our garage, trying to find out how to replicate the precise texture of blood - not the film effect stuff, the real thing - at the level of chemical composition and so on. When I mixed my first formula, and it dissolved the fake blood I had made, I knew that I had a future as a forensic cleaner."
"Something like Sherlock Holmes?" I ask him.
"Maybe a little," he chuckles. "I love those books, even though they're not very realistic. A Study in Scarlet is my favourite one, because you get to see how he learned everything he knew. And, of course, this fantasy that there is a solution possible for every problem always appeals to me."
Being self-taught is in part a personal preference for Donovan . "I've always been pretty independent. I left the army when I was 23 because I just didn't feel stimulated intellectually. Working as a bodyguard gave me more freedom in that regard," he says. But it is also because, as he puts it, "forensic cleaning doesn't exist in Mexico".
"I learned almost everything myself. I was nearly 30 years old before I spoke to a pathologist, and that was my wife's idea. Accessing that type of profession can be complicated. There is still quite a frozen social hierarchy here," he says.
Although his work has been covered in the English, Spanish and national media, there are moments in our conversation when Donovan cuts an isolated figure.
"We don't have a culture of due diligence in Mexico," he says, looking physically deflated. "Most of my work is cleaning up after the police investigating the crime: fingerprint dust, boot-prints, even scraps of evidence that they've rejected or ignored."
While forensic sciences are enjoying a roaring trade in Mexico, with hundreds of students subscribing annually to courses at prestigious universities and private institutions, the application of these sciences is behind the pace of the violence sweeping the country. The country's forensic services are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies.
According to the executive secretary of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), 57 people have died from violence each day in Mexico this year. This figure represents an increase of 15 percent on the toll for the same period last year [PDF].
According to another government institution, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), only one percent of all crimes reported to the authorities are resolved.
Forensics bear the brunt of this systemic failing. According to an AFP report published in July, mortuary freezers in Acapulco, Guerrero State - the country's most violent city - are literally overflowing with the bodies of murder victims. One container with a capacity for 95 bodies was found to be holding 174 cadavers: almost double its limit.
The situation seems to invite comparisons between the Mexico of 2016 and the country as it was during the violent post-revolutionary decades, when its first forensic services were founded in order to alleviate the pressure on public hospitals.
Donovan 's lonely, almost invisible work is a reflection of a country struggling to establish the rule of law.
Edgar Elias Azar, the president of the Mexico City Court Service, whose organisation oversees forensic science instruction in the nation's capital, says that Donovan "is doing important work in a field that leaves a lot to be desired".
"If people begin to recognise the value of what he is doing to prevent health risks, forensic cleaning will be taken a lot more seriously. But for the moment, he is all we have," he continues.
Indeed, forensic cleaning is so unrecognised in Mexico that Donovan had to write his own paperwork when seeking to register himself with the government watchdog, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS).
"At that time, they had no frame of reference for this type of thing," he recalls. "At one point, they asked me for my clients' names and contacts, to make sure everything was above board. I couldn't do that. Their discretion is primordial for me. When you win their trust, you have to respect it through attention to detail and some sort of 'professional warmth', if that can be said to exist.
"The client is never in their ideal circumstances when I meet them, of course. That's why I read a lot of sociology and psychoanalysis - Durkheim on suicide, Freud on mourning and melancholy - to be sure I'm treating them correctly. The interaction I have with them is very short, and very delicate. I require logistical information, but they're vulnerable, so you have to be very human about asking the questions. I pay a lot of attention to this, so that's why I get a lot of word-of-mouth business.
"I arrive, I work, and I disappear."
Donovan becomes animated when discussing the results of his cleaning jobs, sitting more upright in his seat, gesturing, the cadences of genuine passion audible in his voice.
"The relatives look so tired, so sad when they are telling me what they need. The relief is just as visible when I'm finished. Our work is the last phase in their grieving process, coming after the collection of the body and the organisation of the funeral. The police call it 'liberating the scene' when the investigation is finished and the site of the event is open to access again, but the real liberation happens when I'm finished cleaning.
"I watch the families come in and breathe the air without the emotional shock of reliving that initial trauma. It's gone. The scene has been liberated. Certain events leave an emotional trace in the air, something like atoms of trauma. After one multiple-homicide in Colonia del Valle [a middle-class neighbourhood of Mexico City], for instance, there was a vapour in the air, the impotence and fear of the victims, the fury of the aggressor, the pain of everybody involved. At the end of the job, that wasn't there anymore. That's a true liberation of the scene."
We leave the diner, Donovan driving us around the empty streets of Mexico City at midnight. The sound of the motor undulated with the bass-lines of the traditional acoustic bolero songs playing on the radio.
"I prefer the city by night," he says, relaxing in his driver's seat, the solitude of his car seeming to make him more comfortable than the forced sociability of the diner. "I hardly go out during the day. The noise, the traffic, the quantity of people all around - it all makes me a bit claustrophobic," he says.
"The night is quiet and empty, and I can drive for miles and miles without interruption. I enter into a trance. Everything dissolves."
This same trance-like state descends upon him during his cleaning work. "My emotions freeze. I don't notice the time pass: There is too much to do," he explains.
"First, I scrape off the dried residues, then I add formulas to kill bacteria. If there is fauna or fungal formations of some sort, I dissolve these, too, before disinfecting the trash and contaminated objects on-site. Then I clean and clean until the room looks like new. Everything there seems brighter afterwards, as if there were more light coming into the room. It's a beautiful moment."
When asked about the emotional impact of his work, he flexes his fingers on the steering wheel and answers with a heavy sigh.
"Look, the hard thing isn't the work: It's not having work," he explains, shifting gear and taking a route through the Blade Runner landscape of the capital's business district, all cold neons, gleaming skyscrapers and pulsing emptiness.
"In the 16 years that I've been cleaning full-time, I've seen this city and country get so cold. I've cleaned up after bodies forgotten inside residential buildings for weeks, sometimes months. The neighbours tell me that they only realise this person existed when the smell of their corpse begins to spread through the walls. Can you imagine?
"The indifference we live in gets stronger by the day, it seems like. I have to clean up more suicides than I used to, and more of these are about money issues. In the past, it was mostly people who couldn't live their sexuality openly."
Donovan has his own money issues. "I always have fears of falling into financial problems. When I'm between jobs, I think about this so much. Without work, I feel impotent," he says.
Government surveys indicate that almost half of the Mexican population live in some degree of poverty, while the OECD ranks Mexico 14th in the world for its levels of personal debt.
The impending privatisation of the country's vast onshore oil reserves has not brought the expected economic stimulus , while the national currency continues its steep freefall against the dollar.
"It's affected us directly," says Donovan , turning off the intestinal coil of the Periferico highway towards the city's main boulevard, Avenida Reforma.
"Straight zeros in the bank account after Christmas. We didn't receive a single cleaning. It's always like this, but the situation lasted longer this year. I became very stressed. Some work to live, others live to work. I do both."
The city's iconic Angel of Independence monument is lit up as the car slows to a halt on the empty roundabout. We get out.
"Cleanings are a ritual for me," Donovan explains. "They permit me to structure the chaos. I put on Tristan and Isolde by Wagner while I clean, because I genuinely feel something like heroic when I tape myself into the suit and put on my ventilator.
"[But] for those months [without work], I had no idea what to do with myself. I tried to remember other cleanings, because these excite me. I had to keep my cool, stay in the moment, same as I do when working. I had my Bach and Black Sabbath albums, the self-defence classes that I teach part time, but only spending time with my wife and daughter made me feel better. My daughter's six: too young to be upset by this work. She tells her classmates 'Daddy cleans dead people', and that's fine, but as she gets older, I want to protect her a bit from the more upsetting aspects of the job."
Donovan leans against the car and looks up at the Angel monument. The occasional wail of a siren cuts the night, but other than that, there is silence.
"I would love to change the whole country, but cleaning is the only contribution I can bring to the little part of the world that's under my control," he says.
"Corruption and impunity allow violence to continue in Mexico. Taking care of the dead, of the forgotten, is part of the solution. I'm almost always happy with my job, but there was one case that really disturbed me."
He lights a cigarette and takes a puff. "Even without the bodies, I can read what happened, see it again as in a film. In the stains, I saw people running, their faces, the knife coming down, the patterns that indicate attempts at self-defence.
"But I have my rituals for containing all that," he continues. "I drive here, for example. If I come back home and I'm stressed, my wife tells me it's because I didn't go to the Angel. She's always right."
The bolero songs can be heard through the open car door: Los Panchos, Los Tres Diamantes, Los Dandys. The weak AM radio signal seems to cross the distance between the time they were recorded and the present day.
"I love this station," Donovan says with a contented sigh, exhaling a long garland of smoke. "There's no news. I can pretend [to be] in a safer, more innocent moment.
"I had a phase where I liked to drive all night out to small towns in adjacent states. I'd go to a cantina or a restaurant and get people to tell me their stories of the '50s, '60s, '70s ... all those lost moments. At that time, everything was safer, and their memories seemed to me to be even safer. Now, I wouldn't dare to take that kind of trip: It's all too dangerous."
He watches the arc of his flicked cigarette butt before continuing. "But I'm lucky. I love my family. My life with them is a space of safety, of innocence.
"My wife, uncle, parents, and sister all work with me, so my two lives are combined in a way that's really lovely. And it's because of my wife that I stay following my passion. She worked as an administrator at the bodyguard agency where I worked: She could tell I wasn't happy, even though I was earning good money. So she pushed me to give this a shot."
He stretches, straightens his suit and checks his reflection in the wing mirror. Then he climbs back into his car for the drive home to Texcoco.
"Sometimes I get frustrated with my job, of course. I leave my business cards at police stations, I explain what I'm about, and the detectives look at me funny, like I'm doing something unimportant. If they call me afterwards, I have to give them a cut of my fee, and that stings a bit.
"But I understand my role. I have to be a model for the ones who come after me. Soon, people will believe in the value of what we're about. It won't take long," he says before shutting the car door and setting off for home, his car's brake lights tapering through the night like comet trails.
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As Mexico's only government-certified forensic cleaner, it is Donovan Tavera's job to clean up the worst crime scenes.
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http://time.com/money/3669688/cuba-travel-new-rules/
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How Traveling to Cuba Just Got Easier
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20160818210302
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On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments issued new rules governing how Americans can legally travel to Cuba. The announcement comes about a month after President Obama ordered the resumption of diplomatic relations with the country on December 17.
Here are the new travel-related details, which take effect Friday:
1. While tourism to Cuba is still technically banned, U.S. travelers will now be able go to the country for any of a dozen reasons, all without—and this is the big change—getting a special license from the government. The allowable reasons have remained the same and include, among others, educational and religious travel, visiting family, and people-to-people trips, which focus on allowing Americans to interact with Cubans and learn more about the island’s culture. Previously, any person or group wanting to visit the island had to prove that their trip would meet the government’s strict standards. Now, if you’re traveling for one of the approved reasons, you’ll just be able to book and go. (It’s worth noting that, despite the low burden of proof, The Washington Post reports that an administration official says travelers who disregard the categories will be penalized.)
2. U.S. airlines and travel agents will no longer need a special government license to book travel to Cuba. That could mean that airlines will soon begin offering scheduled flights to the country.
3. American travelers can now use their credit and debit cards in Cuba.
4. Visitors will be able to bring back $400 worth of goods, including up to $100 in alcohol or tobacco products (including Cuban cigars). According to USA Today, Americans visiting Cuba were previously permitted to spend only $188 a day. Now that cap will be lifted.
Ready to book your trip? Here are 5 things you should know before you go.
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New, more lenient rules for visiting the country go into effect on Friday.
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Amazon Prime Takes on Netflix With Monthly Subscriptions
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Online-retail giant Amazon began offering monthly subscriptions for its web-streaming service on Sunday, as it seeks to compete directly with online video sites like Netflix and Hulu.
Amazon Prime, the company’s bundle of offerings that also includes a music library and unlimited photo storage, will cost $10.99 a month, CNN Money reports. The bundle was previously only available for a $99 annual fee.
In an apparent direct response to Netflix’s dominance of the online television space, the company will also offer separate monthly subscriptions for Prime Video at $8.99 per month. Netflix, meanwhile, will reportedly increase its monthly fee from $7.99 to $9.99 from May onwards.
Although the annual subscription will still work out to be cheaper, Amazon says it wants to offer customers the option of avoiding a yearlong commitment.
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It could help Amazon compete with Netflix
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How your TV could soon book your dream holiday for you
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Imagine watching a film or TV show featuring breathtaking scenery. You don't know where the place is but you'd love to visit it one day.
Now imagine being able to stop the action, ask your smart TV for the location, then have it work out how to get there, including flight and accommodation details.
It may sound far-fetched, but this kind of "joined-up" travel tech is closer than you think.
It's all part of an effort by airlines and other transport providers to broaden their appeal and compete with the new app-based travel companies, such as Airbnb and Booking.com.
They want to give us the tools to turn our wanderlust into reality.
And travel inspiration can come from anywhere - even episodes of the seminal TV series, Sex and the City.
Madrid-based travel technology company Amadeus noticed that during one episode in which the lead characters went to Jamaica for the weekend, there was "an interesting spike in search activity for destination during the programme's ad break", says Rob Sinclair Barnes, strategic marketing director for the firm's IT Group.
"This started us thinking about how we could implement the technology to build on it."
Amadeus was then approached by US carrier United Airlines to develop a product that could exploit emerging technology from the likes of Apple TV and others.
The prototype makes use of GPS location tracking embedded in the filming process. By integrating airline data into the coding, the viewer can be given information on the best flight options and travel deals.
This level of personalisation may not be mainstream reality yet, but it's an indication of where we're heading. And with the data analytics and machine learning capabilities we have these days, we may soon find ourselves booking holidays to destinations we didn't even realise we wanted to go to.
"Personalised technology will become so sophisticated that travellers will be offered what they want, when they want it, before they even need to ask," says Mr Sinclair Barnes.
"We're seeing massive growth and spending in this area over and above others and that's healthy for the travel industry as a whole as it will stimulate continual technology advancements and improve the experiences for everyone."
In another example, German airline Lufthansa has opened up its huge passenger and flight status databases to about 400 third-party app developers, allowing them to access the data through an open API (application programming interface) and integrate it into a new range of travel apps.
This is a first for the airline industry.
Lufthansa's Reinhard Lanegger says that these days for an airline to be known only for operating passenger planes is "the very worst case scenario".
"We looked at how Amazon uses its data and it really made us think about how we interact with start-ups. You can fence yourself off from them or become an active partner to achieve the level of customer service that is now expected," he says.
Planning a trip is not just about getting from A to B. There are recommendations to read on social media and travel review sites; bookings to be made, often for multiple forms of transport and different types of accommodation; routes and itineraries to be planned; insurance to be bought; pets to be fed and walked when you're away.
All these elements are coming closer to being integrated to create a near-seamless travel experience.
Mr Lanegger envisages apps that "heat up your house based on the estimated time of arrival" or "alert your car to rebook the flight when you are too far away to reach the airport in time".
He says such services will enable the airline "to transform our offering and better reach the younger demographic that now lives online".
Smart automated assistants will use all this data to make a lot of the routine travel planning decisions for you.
"For example, if you live in New York and schedule a meeting in London… you won't have to worry about booking your trip," says Mr Lanegger.
"Your calendar will automatically research flight options based on your travel preferences and send them to you so you can book the best flight with one click."
If you "like" a photo of some idyllic sandy cove posted by your friends on Facebook or Instagram, it may seem relatively straightforward for a clever app to pick up on this and provide you with the cost options for getting there.
But Andy Hayler from IT research company Bloor, points out that achieving this kind of integrated, personalised marketing is not that easy.
"Getting a clear picture of a single customer, never mind anticipating their future possible needs, requires well-integrated, accurate and easily accessible customer data," he says.
"Few airlines today have their customer data in such an ideal state. And integrating this customer loyalty data with the new data that is appearing from social media is also a non-trivial task."
And do we even want this type of intrusive "push" marketing?
The key to success for Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at tech consultancy Quocirca, is for this kind of "contextual" marketing to be integrated with smartphones and tablets so that the main action on TV isn't disrupted.
The travel companies also need to be pretty sure who they're targeting.
After all, he says: "What's most likely to appeal to a 20-year-old watching a Bond movie action scene set on boats in the Norwegian fjords probably won't be a cruise holiday."
But travel firms are undoubtedly getting better at knowing who we are and where we'd like to go.
Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter
Click here for more Technology of Business features
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Airlines and travel companies are trying to extend their reach into interactive entertainment.
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Hundreds in London 'kissathon' for Sainsbury's complaint gay couple
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20160818230306
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About 200 people carrying rainbow flags descended on an east London supermarket for a mass "kissathon" after a gay couple were ejected for holding hands.
Thomas Rees, 32, and Joshua Bradwell, 25, were in Sainsbury's on Hackney Road when a guard told them a woman had complained about their behaviour.
The protestors danced outside the Hackney Road store on Saturday night before kissing in the aisles.
Sainsbury's apologised for the incident and offered the couple a £10 voucher.
Mr Rees said he had been holding Mr Bradwell's hand and may have put an arm around his partner's waist as they were buying food on Monday evening.
But after they paid, a security guard beckoned them outside to tell them about the complaint.
Mr Rees said it "knocked me for six" and left him "analysing how I'm perceived", but since the incident they had received messages of support from around the world.
Mr Bradwell said the number of people who turned out to support them was "absolutely insane".
During the event one person was heard to shout at the group to "get off my street", but the protesters carried on undeterred.
A spokesperson for Sainsbury's, which provided biscuits and water for the protesters, said: "It's been a really great event and an important opportunity for the community to show their support.
"We do our best to make sure everyone feels welcome in our stores but occasionally we make mistakes. We are working hard to make sure lessons are learnt."
The supermarket said it was conducting an investigation into the incident.
Two years ago, a "big kiss" protest was held at a Sainsbury's store in Brighton after a lesbian couple were asked to leave when one gave her partner a kiss on the cheek.
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About 200 people descend on an east London supermarket for a mass "kissathon" after a gay couple are ejected for holding hands.
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Ford's autonomous promise, EPA cracks down on big rigs, and more
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20160818232340
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Perhaps the doldrums of summer have lead makers of cars and policies that affect them to fill the media void with grandious plan, or perhaps the powers that be are just feeling refreshed after their summer vacations, but for whatever reason yesterday was an ambitious day in the automotive world.
Between resurrecting retired model lines, setting progressive environmental policies and promising to put fully autonomous cars on the road in the next five years, something has the industry feeling a little froggy this week. Let’s start in California, where Ford kicked off the ambition showcase by promising a driverless ride-hailing fleet by 2021.
Get through this Wednesday edition of the Daily Drive-Thru and you’re officially over the hump day hump.
Consider the gauntlet thrown all the way to the ground. No, scratch that. Picture the deepest hole you’ve ever seen, peer over the edge and all the way down there, that little glimmer of light in the darkness, that’s the gauntlet. In other words, Ford put the automotive world on notice yesterday by announcing its plan to mass produce a fully autonomous car, not eventually, not by 2030, but by 2021.
In a press conference held at it is Palo Alto, California Research and Innovation Center and streamed live on YouTube, Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields detailed his company’s plan to have a fully-automated car on the road within five years. The autonomous system will be rated SAE Level 4, meaning it will need no human driver and it will be able to function under normal city driving conditions. The vehicles will come with no steering wheels and no gas or brake pedals.
The vehicles will be used exclusively in conjunction with a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service, at least upon their initial release. Tuesday’s announcement was a landmark for Ford, which has been less vocal about its autonomous ambitions than competitors such as Chevrolet—which plans on launching an autonomous ride-sharing pilot program with Lyft by next year—and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which has partnered up with Google.
To achieve its ambitious goals, Ford is doubling the size of its Silicon Valley research team and expanding its Palo Alto campus.
Watch the full press conference above.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation announced stricter emissions and fuel consumption standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks yesterday, as well as the first-ever greenhouse gas standards on trailers. The new standards will be rolled out gradually between 2021 and 2027 and are projected to cut CO2 emissions by 1.1 billion metric tons while reducing oil use by two billion barrels over the lifetime of the vehicles touched by the program, resulting in an estimated fuel cost savings of $170 billion.
Primarily used for commercial purposes, heavy-duty trucks are the second largest transportation segment in terms of emissions and energy use in the U.S., according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, or NHTSA, and they’re on pace to surpass passenger car emissions by 2030. The cost of these improvements should not impact vehicle owners, however, as the EPA and DoT estimate that the average long-haul trucker would be able to recoup the added cost of the new emissions-cutting technologies through fuel cost savings in just two years.
The new regulations are part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan that was introduced in 2013 and updated the following year.
Flooding this past week in Baton Rouge and elsewhere in Louisiana has killed at least 11 people, displaced tens of thousands more and has cause, no doubt, astronomical damages to homes and businesses. The waters have also claimed a fair amount of cars as well, with more than 3,200 vehicle claims being filed with State Farm in the state's capital area earlier this week— and that's before the flood waters even subsided.
At least 40,000 homes were impacted by the flood waters, so the number of cars that are damaged could easily rise into the tens of thousands as well. As in other areas impacted by flooding (including areas in the Northeast after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy) people often try to resell water-damaged vehicles as if nothing happened, a spokesman from the National Insurance Crime Bureau told Automotive News, so southern Louisiana car shoppers will have to be wary of that once the river waters finally recede.
Following last fall’s Paris Climate Summit, several states, provinces and countries made promises to do away with gasoline-powered cars by the midpoint of this century. While this is a nice idea and certainly an admirable goal to shoot for, it’s logistically tricky given the cost of electric alternatives not to mention political red tape. But neither of those things seems to be stifling the Dutch, who are well on their way to implementing a gasoline engine ban by 2025.
The country's lower parliament has already passed a law that would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in less than a decade and it seems poised to become law. If that weren’t progressive enough, the proposed law even goes so far as to ban hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles as well. While Dutch drivers have bought no more than a couple thousand all-electric vehicles this year, Holland has a whopping 20,000 charging stations, so the infrastructure is there. The old Field of Dreams adage teches us that "if you build it, they will come," so let's see if that holds true for the electric car market.
Sources: Autoblog, Yale Climate Connections
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and when the car buying public gives you an insatiable demand for crossover SUVs, you make more crossover SUVs. GMC certainly is, as it prepares to bring back an old crowd pleaser, the Jimmy. Built on the same body as the old Chevrolet Blazer, the Jimmy was a staple of GMC’s lineup for more than 20 years before it was discontinued in 2005.
Now, the Jimmy is set to make a triumphant return to production in 2020 and, seeing as it will be built in General Motors’ Wentzville, Missouri assembly plant, the same place as the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, it will likely share a platform with those vehicles.
Check the Daily Drive-Thru every weekday morning to get the latest on the most important news and trends in the automotive world.
You can find Tuesday’s installment of the Drive-Thru here and view the rest of our archives here.
Got a news tip or a comment? You can find me on Twitter where I go by @ByKyleCampbellor email me at kcampbell@nydailynews.com.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.
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We've also got news from flood-ravaged Louisiana, the Netherlands and elsewhere in today's Daily Drive-Thru.
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Multigenerational Households: The Benefits, and Perils
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20160819015821
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Even though the recession officially ended seven years ago, a housing trend seen during the downturn has endured: The number of multigenerational homes continues to grow.
A record 60.6 million people, or 19 percent of the American population, lived with multiple generations under one roof in 2014, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of federal census data. That compares with 17 percent in 2009, the year the recession ended, and 18 percent three years later, in 2012.
Pew defines a multigenerational household as one that includes two or more adult generations — say, baby boomer parents and their adult children — or one that includes grandparents and grandchildren.
The share of households with multiple adult generations has been growing since hitting a low of 12 percent in 1980. The trend greatly accelerated during the 2007-9 recession, when high unemployment pushed younger people, in particular, back home to live with their parents. The question was whether the trend would ease, as the economic recovery made it more feasible for people to strike out on their own. So far, the shift shows no sign of abating.
“The striking thing is that this really has persisted after the recession,” said D’Vera Cohn, a senior writer and editor at Pew Research Center. “Perhaps this trend is here to stay.”
There are many economic benefits to living with parents or grandparents as an adult, Ms. Cohn said: If you’ve lost a job, moving in with family keeps a roof over your head and helps keep you out of poverty, and those with student debt can pay down loans more easily. “All of those things are still true,” she added.
Another possible reason for the trend, Pew’s report noted, is that the Asian and Hispanic population is growing more rapidly than the white population, and those groups are more likely to live in multigenerational households.
John L. Graham, professor emeritus at the business school at the University of California, Irvine, and co-author of “All in the Family: A Practical Guide to Successful Multigenerational Living,” said he saw the trend as part of a return to interdependence within the extended family. “This is the way people have always lived around the world,” he said.
The economic benefits of sharing services can be substantial, Mr. Graham said: Grandparents and older family members can provide child care, while younger adults can care for elderly relatives. Travel costs are reduced, as members don’t have to pay for gas or airfare to visit. “There’s a saving,” he said, “ in having the family close by.”
But living in a multigenerational household also means getting used to sharing financial responsibilities. Financial planners advise that families talk early and often about who will pay for what, and what everyone’s expectations are, regardless of whether the shared household results from economic need or simply a desire to have family members nearby.
“Everybody needs to start with a candid and open discussion about the money,” said Dave O’Brien, a financial adviser with Evolution Advisers near Richmond, Va.
Sometimes, a grandparent who is financially sound may feel inclined to pay for groceries or dinners out — even though his or her adult children are capable of paying their own way. The grandparent could help in other ways, he suggested, such as by arranging activities with grandchildren.
Lauren Locker, a financial planner in Little Falls, N.J., said that if younger family members are having financial difficulties and can’t afford to pay much toward rent or utilities, the arrangement can still work, with the younger participants providing services — keeping up the yard, for example, or cooking meals — in lieu of cash. “The parents can say: ‘You don’t need to pay me, but you have to do A, B and C. Does that work for you?’”
Here are some questions and answers about multigenerational living:
What is the best way to manage costs in a multigenerational household?
Ms. Locker suggests holding family meetings monthly, or at least quarterly, to go over budgets and air any concerns. Budgeting tools like Mint.com or Quicken can help families analyze costs to make sure bills are equitably allocated.
Jean Setzfand, senior vice president of programs at AARP, says sharing a household can have a financial downside, if parents delay saving for their own retirement to cover costs of other family members. While unrelated roommates don’t hesitate to divide household costs, she said, family members “tend to see the money situation more loosely, since ‘we’re all related.’”
She suggests that household members make a list of regular expenses, like the mortgage and utilities, and clearly agree on what share everyone will pay. “Forget those familial ties,” she said, at least while talking about the budget.
How can families maintain some privacy in a multigenerational household?
A loss of privacy is the main drawback when multiple generations live together, Mr. Graham said. Having separate entrances and kitchens for different wings of the house can ease that problem, he said; families considering moving in together should seek a home with those features.
Some states, like California, are debating changes in building and zoning codes to allow for accessory structures or studios, also known as “granny flats,” to allow family members to live close to one another, but with a bit of space between them.
Where can I find information about managing multigenerational living?
Generations United, a nonprofit group, offers a tip sheet on its website, www.gu.org.
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Despite recession’s end, a record 60.6 million people, or 19 percent of the American population, lived with multiple generations under one roof in 2014.
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Liberty Ross -- Kristen Stewart's Lover's Wife ... NOT Wearing Wedding Ring
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20160819120645
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While her cheating husband has been seen
after being caught having an affair with his "Snow White and the Huntsman" actress
, director Rupert Sanders' wife
surfaced without her wedding ring in L.A. on Monday.
While neither Liberty nor Rupert have officially filed for divorce, the wronged mother of two -- who looked chic in a navy suit -- appears to be sending a loud and clear message about the status of their relationship.
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While her cheating husband has been seen still wearing his wedding ring after being caught having an affair with his "Snow White and the Huntsman" actress…
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Female first for Victorian Freemasons
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The secret's out - a woman will lead the Freemasons in Victoria for the first time.
Jane Sydenham-Clarke, a former senior executive at Federation Square, was confirmed on Friday afternoon as the new chief executive of the 127-year-old organisation.
The daughter of a freemason, Ms Sydenham-Clark said her immediate challenge was attracting younger members and to recapture the community's attention.
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Accomplished executive Jane Sydenham-Clarke will be the first woman to lead Freemasons Victoria in the organisation's 127-year history.
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SA man in pink gown had toy not weapon
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A man's pink dressing gown wasn't concealing a real weapon outside a petrol station in Adelaide's south last week as suspected, police say.
Police called for information on Thursday to help identify the man who was spotted wearing the pink number, a black beanie and sunglasses, due to concerns he had a weapon.
Speaking with witnesses has reassured police the concealed item was actually a toy that posed no real risk to others.
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There wasn't a weapon underneath a man's pink dressing gown when he was seen at an Adelaide petrol station, police say, despite fears otherwise.
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Jared Haibon Calls Ashley Iaconetti Possessive : People.com
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20160824140958
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08/22/2016 AT 10:00 PM EDT
. His onetime almost paramour turned No. 1 biggest fan
isn't making things easy for him on
, even threatening to derail his burgeoning relationship with
. Still, the 27-year-old nice guy doesn't have a bad thing to say about her.
"It's not that difficult to be sweet to Ashley I.," Haibon tells PEOPLE exclusively. "She can be a little possessive, [but] that is something I very much adore about her."
Haibon says that when it comes to a relationship with Ashley that, "unfortunately, it just wasn't there for us," but he says he has no regrets when it comes to his time in
"It was difficult and stressful at times," he says. "But I made incredible friendships."
As far as the future, Jared is still hoping to be "wifed up" soon. "Everybody wants that," he says. "Everyone is looking for someone they can really put their trust in, share memories with and fall in love with."
airs Mondays and Tuesdays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
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Jared Haibon opens up about his real feelings about Ashley I.
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The NFL reacts to Kaepernick's decision to sit during the national anthem
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San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick, left, and Blaine Gabbert stand on the sideline during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Green Bay Packers on Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. Green Bay won 21-10.
San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick, left, and Blaine...
During a preseason game Friday night against the Packers, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the national anthem.
In a statement given to the NFL Network's Steve Wyche, Kaepernick explained that his reason for not standing up was due to the oppression of black people and people of color.
"To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way," Kaepernick said. "There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
As expected, Twitter and other social media channels were on fire with reactions on the quarterbacks decision to take a stand on racial injustice on such a public platform.
In the meantime, the NFL released a statement on Saturday stating, "Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the National Anthem."
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During a preseason game Friday night against the Packers, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the national anthem. As expected, Twitter and other social media channels were on fire with reactions on the quarterbacks decision to take a stand on racial injustice on such a public platform.
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FRANKLIN L. ORTH, GUN CONTROL FOE
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 4— Franklin L. Orth, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association for the last 10 years, and president of the United States Olympic Corn mittee since last spring, died today in Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., apparently of heart attack. He was 62 years old and lived in Gaithers burg, Md.
The Milwaukee‐born lawyer left Government service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army in 1959 to take the rifle association post. He had come to Washington in 1946, After service with Merrill's Ma rauders in the Burmese jungle in World War H. He reached the rank of colonel.
Mr. Orth began as legal con sultant to the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, and held le gal posts in the Bureau of In ternal Revenue and Office of Price Stabilization before Pres ident Eisenhower named him to the Army post.
With the assassination of President Kennedy, the N.R.A., which had been principally concerned with holding the an nual national rifle and pistol matches at Camp Perry. Ohio, became a focus of gun‐control sentiment. Mr. Orth was a de termined opponent of what he considered excessive controls, but he warned his million members that all‐out opposition might bring stricter curbs than would be imposed if the asso ciation acted moderately.
After a 1964 gun‐control bill died in Senate committee, an article in Harper's magazine denounced the N.R.A. as “a high‐powered pressure group within gunshot of the White House, which has managed to kill even mild firearms control bills.” Mr. Orth termed the charge “scurrilous and inac curate.”
The next year Mr. Orth pleaded with the American Le gion to oppose a stronger bill, which would have outlawed mail‐order sale of all firearms, warning that it “would disarm the lawabiding citizen and not the criminal.”
The American Bar Associa tion's House of Delegates in 1965 took the unusual step of asking two nonmembers, Mr. Orth and Senator Joseph D. Tydings, Democrat of Mary land, to debate gun control. The bill at issue was one by Senator Thomas J. Dodd, Dem ocrat of Connecticut, to pro hibit all mail‐order sale of fire arms, the sale of handguns to minors, and the importation of European war‐surplus arms such as the rifle that killed President Kennedy. The House of Delegates voted to support the bill.
Another defeat for Mr. Orth was the withdrawal by the De partment of the Army support for the 1968 marksmanship contests at Camp Perry, osten sibly as an economy move. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, ap plauded the action as the fore runner of abandonment of the matches. Mr. Orth said he agreed that economy was in order, but later wrote to The New York Times that he con tidered the 65‐year‐old pro gram worthwhile. The matches were held without the custom ary Army subsidy.
Mr. Orth's new post as head of the Olympic Committee tould have involved him in more controversy. The 1968 games were marred by racial protests and charges that con testants were paid to use spon sors' equipment. Mr. Orth, had he lived, would also have had to referee the continuing wran gle of the Amateur Athletic Union and the National Col legiate Athletic Association over control of college ath letics.
Mr. Orth graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1928 and received his law de gree there in 1931.
He leaves his wife, Helen, and seven children.
A funeral service will be held at the Fort Myer Army Chapel at 10 A.M. Wednesday, with burial in Arlington Na tional Cemetery.
We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.
A version of this archives appears in print on January 5, 1970, on page 37 of the New York edition with the headline: FRANKLIN L. ORTH, GUN CONTROL FOE. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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Orth, Franklin L
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93-year-old vet Ernie Andrus completes three-year run across America
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Aug 26, 2016 7:23 PM EDT CBS Evening News
By Steve Hartman / CBS News
ST. SIMONS, Georgia -- At the age of 93, just making it down all four steps of an RV is quite a feat. It’s even more remarkable to wake up at 5 a.m. for a five-mile run.
And at 93, what’s most amazing of all, is that Ernie Andrus’ recent jog in St. Simons, Georgia, was just the final leg of a much, much longer run -- a run that began nearly three years and 3,000 miles ago at the Pacific Ocean.
“I’m running the whole thing, every step of the way,” Ernie told us when we first met him just outside Phoenix as he slowly inched his way through the Sonoran Desert.
He would run five miles, get a ride or hitchhike back to his vehicle, then run the next five miles two days later. It’s all for one purpose. “I want people to know what the war was all about and what it took to win it,” Ernie explained. Specifically, the old Navy man was running to raise awareness for an unsung hero of World War II -- a ship he served on called an LST, or landing ship tank. It’s how the allies got heavy equipment onto beaches.
There’s one you can visit in Evansville, Indiana, and Ernie thinks people really need to go.
“This shouldn’t be forgotten,” he said. “Eisenhower and Churchill both made a similar remark that it’s the ship that won the war. ... Without ‘em how could you ... even [take] Normandy?”
Which is why, 70 years later, Ernie was out there returning the favor all by himself. But that didn’t last long.
“I joined him in Mississippi. Ran in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and now Georgia,” one fellow runner told us. Another said he ran 44 legs with Ernie.He had quite a following the second time we saw him in Waco, Texas -- but that was nothing compared to what we found last weekend in St. Simons. Hundreds of people from across the country had joined Ernie’s army. “The American people are the most loving and generous people in the world,” Ernie said. Three years ago most people thought there was no way a man in his 90s could make it across the country. And for good reason -- before him the oldest person to do it was a mere 73.
But there he was, on the soft sand of the Atlantic.
He stormed the beach one last time, to fervent chants and flying colors, showing us all that the greatest generation is no less great today.
To contact On the Road, or to send us a story idea, email us: OnTheRoad@cbsnews.com
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Ernie Andrus ran 3,000 miles across the country to raise awareness about an unsung war hero
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Vic litter bugs pay up big for cigarettes
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Chucking a cigarette out of a car window has landed almost 15,000 Victorians with eye-watering fines up to $600.
During the 2015/16 financial year the Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) handed out more than $6.5 million in fines.
Most of the fines were related to cigarettes, Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said.
"More than 75 per cent of reports made to EPA were for people discarding cigarettes from their cars, which equates to more than 10,000 cigarette butts that have been thoughtlessly thrown onto Victorian streets in the last year alone," Ms Ambrosio said in a statement on Sunday.
Fines range from $311 for a small piece of rubbish or unlit cigarette to $622 for a lit cigarette.
People from Craigieburn, Werribee and Reservoir were the worst offenders, while the most reported cases were in Melbourne, Altona and Altona North.
Ms D'Ambrosio said overall, Victoria's total litter count is 47 per cent lower than the national average.
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Victoria has dished out more than $6.5 million in fines for littering, with 75 per cent of reported cases about discarding cigarettes from cars.
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No gunman found in LAX: police
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Terminals at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) have been evacuated briefly after reports of gunfire that police later determined were incorrect, in the second recent false alarm at a major US airport.
At least two terminals were closed on Sunday night while security personnel checked them for anything suspicious, according to Officer Alicia Hernandez of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The central terminal's arrival and departures areas as well as all other terminals re-opened after about two hours.
An investigation was underway, Andy Neiman, head of media relations for the LAPD, said in a Twitter message.
The alert came two months after police temporarily evacuated a terminal at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport while they investigated reports of gunfire there, also later determined to be false.
A preliminary investigation of that incident, which also occurred on a Sunday night, found no evidence of foul play or suspicious activity.
US airport security officials have been on heightened alert in recent months following deadly attacks at international airports in Belgium and Turkey.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said on its website that air traffic to LAX was being delayed at the point of departure.
Airport authorities said in a Twitter post that an individual in a Zorro costume had been detained there, without indicating whether that incident was connected to Sunday night's scare.
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Police are investigating unconfirmed reports of shots at Los Angeles airport.
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Scottish boy's death in WA 'an accident'
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Scottish boy Ewan Williamson, who died of heat exhaustion in WA in 2012. (Supplied)
The death of a 14-year-old Scottish boy, who suffered severe heat stroke while on a bushwalk, has been ruled an accident by the WA coroner.
Ewan Louis Williamson became disorientated with his father on the Badjirrajirra Walk in the North West Cape in December, 2012 and an inquest examined the difficulty in getting emergency services to the scene.
In her findings, Coroner Ros Fogliani said the boy's father had miscalculated the effect the heat would have on his son, who had arrived from Scotland where it was winter, and at one point took a wrong turn on the trail that meant Ewan spent longer in the tough conditions.
"The tragedy of Ewan's death is magnified by the immeasurable grief of his parents," she said.
Ms Fogliani said the officer who took the emergency call from the father did not realise the severity of the situation but should have.
"Had an ambulance arrived earlier, it would have increased Ewan's prospects of survival," she said.
"However, it cannot be said with certainty that his survivability would have been assured, or sadly, that it would even have been likely."
Ms Fogliani said police did not cause or contribute to the boy's death and also noted "the courageous and sustained efforts" of emergency personnel working in an inhospitable environment.
Since the teenager's death, there had been significant improvements in procedures, resourcing and technology so there was no need to make any recommendations, Ms Fogliani said.
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The WA coroner has ruled the death of a Scottish teenager, who suffered heat stroke while bushwalking, was an accident and has not made any recommendations.
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Labor fails on push for bank commission
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Federal Labor has failed to convince parliament to push for a royal commission into Australia's banking sector.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on Wednesday called on parliament to recognise that scandals by the banks had ripped off Australians, including retirees.
Outspoken independent MP Bob Katter backed the move.
But Nationals MP George Christensen launched a counter move, amending the Mr Shorten's motion to note the coalition's commitment to cracking down on bank misconduct.
The government eventually used its numbers - 75-73 - to win the day but not before Mr Shorten accused the prime minister of protecting the banks.
He argued a royal commission was the only avenue with the necessary coercive powers and jurisdiction to fix the sector.
"(The prime minister) and his coalition are running a protection racket to protect big banks of Australia," he told parliament on Wednesday.
"Australians are sick and tired of the scandals being investigated after the harm is done."
Mr Christensen's counter motion noted most of the banking scandals occurred on Mr Shorten's watch when he was the minister responsible for financial services.
Mr Shorten neither initiated a royal commission nor "took meaningful action" against the banks when he was responsible for the sector.
"They're lions in opposition, little mice in government," Mr Christensen said of Labor.
The MP revealed government plans to establish a "one-stop shop" to rule on consumer complaints about the financial sector.
The coalition is also planning to haul big banks before a parliamentary committee at least once a year.
But Labor wants to know how widespread the problems are in the sector and whether Australian regulators are equipped to monitor the banks, which could be investigated by a royal commission.
The series of motions and votes held up government legislation for just under two hours on the first day of parliamentary business since the July 2 election.
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Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has accused the prime minister of running a protection racket for big banks, as Labor pushes for a royal commission.
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JoJo Fletcher Wishes Jordan Rodgers Happy 28th Birthday : People.com
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08/30/2016 AT 08:55 PM EDT
celebrated his 28th birthday on Tuesday and kicked off his new year of life with a morning hike.
And who better to hike with than his fiancée
"Morning hike with this one," Fletcher, 25, penned of the two hiking Upper Bidwell Park, close to Rodgers' hometown of Chico.
"Happy Birthday my love! Can't wait to celebrate many many more with you @jrodgers11. #monkeyface #alreadysore," she added to the post.
Two weeks after the couple revealed their engagement on
in Fletcher's hometown of Dallas.
"I'm ready for a sense of normalcy," Rodgers told PEOPLE. "We want to get into a routine with each other, getting into one place, moving in – I can't wait to go furniture shopping and grocery shopping. I love that. I'm so all about that."
The couple will appear on
, set to premiere Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. EST on Freeform.
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The SEC sportscaster turned 28 on Tuesday
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‘A View From the Bridge’ Review: Troubled Waters of Self-Regard
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Ivo van Hove, whose high-concept 2010 off-Broadway staging of “The Little Foxes” was the most pretentious revival of an American classic I’ve ever seen, is upping the ante by directing two Arthur Miller plays on Broadway this...
Ivo van Hove, whose high-concept 2010 off-Broadway staging of “The Little Foxes” was the most pretentious revival of an American classic I’ve ever seen, is upping the ante by directing two Arthur Miller plays on Broadway this season. Judging by Lincoln Center Theater’s transfer of the Young Vic’s London production of “A View from the Bridge,” I shudder to think what damage he’ll do to “The Crucible.”
“A View from the Bridge” was last seen on Broadway five years ago in a tautly understated production directed by Gregory Mosher that came as close to perfection as a revival can get. Mr. Van Hove, by contrast, has opted for the same ostentatious minimalism that he inflicted on “The Little Foxes,” setting Miller’s 1956 drama of incestuous love on the Brooklyn waterfront beneath a giant charcoal-gray cube that hovers over a playing area denuded of props and set pieces. The actors walk around barefoot for no apparent reason, accompanied by snippets of the Fauré Requiem that are played on an endless loop, with a drum tapping at maddeningly metronomic intervals to signify…what? Only, it seems, that Mr. Van Hove is so determined to put his personal stamp on “A View From the Bridge” that he doesn’t seem to care whether any of his over-familiar avant-garde tricks are organically related to the script. Instead, they’re poured over it like a rancid sauce.
What I find most puzzling about Mr. Van Hove’s method is that when you scrape away the sauce of self-regard, what you find underneath, here as in “The Little Foxes” before it, is a staging that gets to the point of Miller’s play with near-naturalistic directness. Not only does he move actors around fluidly, but he also knows how to pick them: Mark Strong is simple and forceful as Eddie Carbone, whose illicit lust for his 17-year-old niece ( Phoebe Fox ) leads inexorably to his own destruction. Unfortunately, he neither trusts them nor the play, which is pretentious in its own way (Miller lays on the Greek-tragedy parallels with numbing obviousness) but can be shatteringly effective when done well. I suppose Mr. Van Hove’s gimmickry might have worked—sort of—had he superimposed it on a lyric drama, but there is no lyricism in “A View From the Bridge,” only a gauche pseudo-poetry that cries out for a purifying plainness that is in short supply here.
One more thing: The mostly British members of the cast speak in an incoherent mélange of accents, some of which are convincing enough and others downright laughable. To perform a play set in Brooklyn in front of a New York audience without attending to aural authenticity is asking for trouble. Could it be that Mr. Van Hove, who is Belgian, is simply unaware of the problem? Or was it another of his too-clever tricks? Whatever the reason, the play would have been far better served had everyone stuck to working-class British English.
—Mr. Teachout, the Journal’s drama critic, is the author of “Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington.” Write to him at tteachout@wsj.com.
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Ivo van Hove tries too hard to make his mark on Arthur Miller’s drama about incestuous love.
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http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/09/09/07/00/turnbull-lands-in-micronesia
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'New ideas' needed for Pacific problems
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The challenges of climate change, the tyranny of distance and illegal fishing in the Pacific require more engagement and fresh ideas, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says.
After days of spruiking Australia's role as a peace broker in South East Asia, Mr Turnbull swapped a business shirt for a green and blue leaf printed number as he got down to business at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Pohnpei on Friday - 4500 kilometres north of Sydney in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
The island of Pohnpei - which has a populated of around 36,000 people - is, like many of its neighbours, struggling with remoteness and size.
As the largest and most populous member of the PIF, the Pacific Island nations want Australia to take a more active role in the region.
Something Mr Turnbull underlined in his address to the forum saying: "My government recognises that Australia interests in the region and the complexity of the challenges we face demands more engagement at every level, more integrated policy and fresh ideas."
"For Australia, there is no more pressing need for regional action than on climate change and resilient development."
To this end he committed an additional $80million on top of $300 million over the next four years for the Pacific island region - $75 million of which will go specifically to disaster relief.
But according to the World Bank, the FSM alone already incurs, on average, $US8.8 million ($A11.5 million) per year (about 3.1 per of GDP) in losses due to typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Climate change, they say, will only increase this vulnerability -- resulting in more intense typhoons, sea level rises storm surges, floods and droughts.
Oxfam said Australia also had a long way to go to meet its responsibilities - not only through funding but in reducing its own pollution.
Publicly, at least, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was more philosophical.
"You can't demand the (Australian) government to give you all the money you want. The more they give the better it is for the region," he told reporters.
It's not just climate change that is worrying the PIF.
Among the five priority areas set to be discussed are the challenges around fisheries.
This year's Pacific Tuna Report Card found that while stocks of Yellowfin, Albacore and Skipjack remained healthy Bigeye tuna is overfished.
Meanwhile Illegal fishing is costing a precious $600 million a year.
Australia will inject up to 21 boats to help patrol boats to Pacific Island countries to promote air surveillance to monitor illegal maritime activities.
The messages of counter-terrorism and territorial tensions that dominated the summit in Laos felt another world away from Pohnpei.
But by Friday afternoon, North Korea's announcement that it had successfully tested a nuclear weapon showed that the pressures on global peace were never far off.
Describing it as reckless, provocative and dangerous, Mr Turnbull said it was why Australia and Myanmar secured the agreement of the leaders at the East Asia Summit yesterday to end the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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Malcolm Turnbull will now turn his eye to the Pacific and climate change, after landing in the Federated States of Micronesia for the Pacific Island Forum.
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Olivia Cooke on Audition for Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One : People.com
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09/11/2016 AT 04:20 PM EDT
What's it like to audition for one of Hollywood's preeminent filmmakers?
found out first hand, after going through the process to star in
's adaptation of Ernest Cline's
"I auditioned in New York for the casting director, then was flown over to L.A. to read with Spielberg, and mix and match with a bunch of boys over two days there. Then I was flown [back] to New York," Cooke said at the PEOPLE /
portrait studio during this year's
, where she was promoting the films
The actress, who broke out in last year's
, said the audition was covered in a "veil of secrecy." She was later given the script to read at the casting director's office. "She said, 'It's looking good for you, that's the reason why I wanted you to read the script. Do you like it?' I'm like, 'Of course I do!' "
Cooke found out she scored the role three days later, she said, while doing laundry. "I'm just like, 'What is my life?' It's bizarre."
Due out on March 30, 2018,
tells the futuristic story of a virtual universe created in a world crumbling because of economic and environmental trauma. Cooke stars alongside Tye Sheridan, Mark Rylance, T.J. Miller, Ben Mendelsohn and Simon Pegg, among others. It's set to be Spielberg's next film, following this year's
"I think what I've learned with
is patience and being durable and being prepared for anything," Cooke said. "Because when you've got a tiny, tiny movie, your schedule is set. That you have to make these scenes on that day, we can't go over. There's no money to go over. On this big studio movie, there could be five units going on at once."
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Olivia Cooke found out she scored a role in Ready Player One while doing laundry
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Syria shoots down Israeli warplane
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The Syrian army says it has shot down an Israeli warplane and drone in Syria after an Israeli attack on a Syrian army position.
It comes less than 24 hours after a ceasefire came into effect in an effort to end Syria's war, now in its sixth year.
Earlier, the Israeli military said its aircraft struck artillery positions in Syria after a projectile hit the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights.
The incident was the first since the US-Russian brokered truce went into effect at sunset on Monday, local time.
Israel has largely remained on the sidelines of the fighting, but has carried out reprisals on Syrian positions when errant fire has previously landed in Israel.
The Israeli military has denied any of its aircraft were shot down in Syria, saying two missiles were fired during an air strike but missed.
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Less than 24 hours after a ceasefire came into effect in Syria, the war-torn country has shot down an Israeli warplane.
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Bachelor Nick Viall Gets Candid About His Fourth Shot at Love : People.com
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20160915173028
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09/14/2016 AT 01:15 PM EDT
is certainly no stranger to looking for love on reality TV.
begins his run in January, it will be his fourth time on the franchise. Not that Viall minds.
In fact, he tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week's issue that "it's frustrating that there is this idea that I was always a bridesmaid, never a bride kind .... It's not fun knowing that people know me as the guy who professed his love for two women on national TV, only to realize that they probably weren't the ones for me. But I'm actually really happy with the way things played out."
In 2014, Viall was the runner-up on
; the following year he finished second place again, when Bachelorette
left him broken-hearted. This summer, Viall fell for fellow
but left Mexico as a single man.
Renée Zellweger on the cover of PEOPLE
Still, the 35-year-old entrepreneur says he doesn't want any pity. "While it was heartbreaking in both [Andi and Kaitlyn's] seasons, I'm really grateful that they made the decisions that they did," says Viall. "And Jen was an amazing woman, but that didn't work out. A lot of people have relationships that don't work out! Mine just happen to be on television."
Continues Viall, weighing in on the criticism that he's only on television for the fame: "People meet people in lots of unique and crazy ways. [Going on
] doesn't mean I'm not genuine. Hopefully people will form different opinions along the way."
And now, as he prepares for his new role, Viall says he's grateful for past experiences. "I've grown and matured a lot [since my first season on
]," says Viall. "I'm a better communicator now. And I know myself a lot better. I never want to let the negative experiences make me too afraid to take risks in the future."
returns to ABC in January.
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The new Bachelor opens up about his past failed reality romances
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Qld looks to grow manufacturing sector
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Queensland is looking to beef up its manufacturing industry in a bid to bring back well-paying jobs and capitalise on emerging opportunities in the sector.
Acting Premier Curtis Pitt has announced the Queensland Productivity Commission will hold an inquiry into manufacturing, which already contributes $20 billion into the state's economy each year.
The inquiry will investigate how to build on the state's traditional manufacturing base and specifically look at how the government can help bring well-paid manufacturing jobs back to Queensland.
It will also examine opportunities in advanced areas including health, mining, transport and the environment.
"This is an important inquiry," Mr Pitt said at a window manufacturing business in Brisbane on Thursday.
"In 2014/15 manufacturing contributed more than $20 billion to the economy."
Australian Industry Group Queensland director Jemina Dunn welcomed the manufacturing industry's referral to the productivity commission, saying the sector had great potential despite having faced a series of challenges.
Innovative firms had already emerged even though the sector had faced challenges posed by cheap imports and a high Australian dollar, she said.
More than 170,000 Queenslanders work in manufacturing, making the sector one of the state's biggest employers.
The inquiry is expected to start soon and be completed by August next year.
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Queensland's Productivity Commision will examine how to grow the state's manufacturing sector, the government has announced.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/09/27/03/35/grandpa-saved-girl-from-abduction-police
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Grandpa saved girl from abduction: police
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A 12-year-old girl was rescued by her grandfather after a man allegedly broke into the Gladstone home where she was having a sleepover and attempted to abduct her.
It's alleged Cory Dean Caulton broke into the house at 1am on Sunday where three girls, all aged 12, were sleeping in a "random attack".
Police allege the 24-year-old lay down on the mattress and touched the girl before trying to drag her outside but her screams woke her grandfather who came to her aid.
Police say the girl and her family weren't known to him.
Caulton is facing a number of charges including child abduction, assault and indecent treatment of a child.
He was remanded in custody when his case was mentioned in the Gladstone Magistrates Court on Monday.
His matter is due to return to court on Wednesday.
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A grandfather has saved his 12-year-old granddaughter from an alleged middle-of-the-night abduction attempt in central Queensland.
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http://www.thepostgame.com/fan-loses-ring-yankee-stadium-proposal
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http://web.archive.org/web/20160929141120id_/http://www.thepostgame.com/fan-loses-ring-yankee-stadium-proposal
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Fan Loses Ring In Yankee Stadium Proposal
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There are many reasons to think twice about proposing at a sporting event. At Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, one of those reasons captivated a national TV audience.
Andrew Fox, 29, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, went down on one knee to pop the question to girlfriend Heather Terwilliger of Fredonia, New York. The video board showed Fox opening a Kay Jewelers box, but the ring was missing.
Fox and other fans in left field scrambled to find the runaway ring.
Because every proposal story includes searching for the ring: https://t.co/KvxY6WwLEU pic.twitter.com/MLGo5XiATv
— MLB (@MLB) September 28, 2016
A guy tried to propose on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard. He opened the box. There was no ring. They cut away. The crowd laughed.
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) September 28, 2016
It was going so well, too. PA played Frank Sinatra. This dude actually wasn't booed like most dudes proposing here. Then, he loses the ring
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) September 28, 2016
Whole stadium just erupted. It seems the man found his ring.
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) September 28, 2016
"Ladies and gentlemen, they found the ring," the Yankee Stadium PA announced.
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) September 28, 2016
ESPN also devoted time to this struggle on the national broadcast.
Luckily, Fox recovered the ring and Terwillinger said, "Yes," despite her now-fiancé embarrassing them in front of millions of people across the country.
"I literally started crying because I thought it was lost," Fox told ESPN.
The Yankees beat the rival Red Sox, 6-4, and with an Orioles loss, the team moved to four games back of the final AL Wild Card spot with five games to play. The Yankees end the season with three home games against the Orioles.
-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.
Baltimore Orioles, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, ESPN, marriage, Michael Kay, MLB, New York Yankees, Proposal, ring, yankees stadium, YES Network
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A Yankees fan got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend, but he was missing the ring, and the video board caught it.
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http://www.people.com/article/billy-on-street-season-5-trailer-donald-trump-mocked
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Donald Trump Targeted in New Trailer : People.com
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20160929142747
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09/28/2016 AT 02:25 PM EDT
Billy is back and he's making it rain on the streets of New York City thanks to
In a new trailer for season 5 of TruTV's
, a loudmouth, pop-culture savvy comedian, tracks down random unsuspecting New Yorkers and asks them all types of absurd questions.
Lupita Nyong'o and Billy Eichner in Billy on the Street
The clip begins with Eichner asking a woman to name a racists for a dollar.
"Trump," she says without hesitation.
He then continues to run up and down the streets telling random women to stop playing the woman card.
Eichner finally gets one woman to stop and he asks her to name a liar for a dollar.
'F--- yeah!" the 38-year-old says while pelvic thrusting into the air.
This season features appearances from Jon Hamm, John Oliver, Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg, Keegan Michael-Key, Lupita Nyong'o, Aziz Ansari and Jacob Tremblay.
starts November 15th at 10:30 p.m. ET on TruTV.
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The Season 5 Billy on the Street trailer lets loose on Donald Trump
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/09/29/16/21/vic-fire-union-boss-fears-mass-exodus
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Vic deputy premier to hand over fire docs
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20160930163119
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Victoria's Deputy Premier James Merlino has to hand over documents to the Supreme Court in a fight over a new pay deal for firefighters.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Jack Forrest on Thursday ordered Mr Merlino, who is also emergency services minister, and the newly appointed chair of the CFA board, Greg Smith, to make the relevant documents available.
Volunteer firefighters and the CFA are in court over a controversial new pay deal for career firefighters, which led to the resignations of emergency services minister Jane Garrett, CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan and CFA chief fire officer Joe Buffone.
Government departments, including the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Treasury and Finance, will not have to surrender documents that had been requested.
Justice Forrest said they "did not relate to a genuine issue in the trial".
In Victoria's upper house, United Firefighters' Union boss Peter Marshall said the controversy around the new deals could lead to a suicide or mass exodus.
He urged politicians to be careful with the rhetoric they used around the dispute over new CFA and MFB pay deals, which have dragged on for years.
"I'm very, very frightened that we're going to end up with a suicide or alternatively, mass exodus," Mr Marshall told a Victorian upper house inquiry on Thursday.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
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Victoria's firefighters' union boss fears a suicide or mass exodus due to the divisive dispute over new pay deals.
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49ers OC: No concerns about frustration with Torrey Smith
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20161004211947
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Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne intercepts a deep pass intended for Torrey Smith on Sunday.
Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne intercepts a deep pass intended for Torrey Smith on Sunday.
Dallas Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne (24) runs with an interception in front of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Torrey Smith (82) during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Dallas Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne (24) runs with an interception in front of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Torrey Smith (82) during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif.,
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers makes a touchdown catch against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers during the game at Bank of America Stadium on September 18, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers makes a touchdown catch against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers during the game at Bank of America Stadium on September
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers scores a touchdown against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers in the 2nd quarter during the game at Bank of America Stadium on September 18, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 18: Torrey Smith #82 of the San Francisco 49ers scores a touchdown against James Bradberry #24 of the Carolina Panthers in the 2nd quarter during the game at Bank of America Stadium on
3. Three players dropped passes - tight end Garrett Celek (10 yards with running room), running back Carlos Hyde (5 yards with running room), and wide receiver Torrey Smith (5 yards no running room).
3. Three players dropped passes - tight end Garrett Celek (10 yards with running room), running back Carlos Hyde (5 yards with running room), and wide receiver Torrey Smith (5 yards no running room).
San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald and Torrey Smith against Los Angeles Rams during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, September 12, 2016.
San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald and Torrey Smith against Los Angeles Rams during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, September 12, 2016.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Torrey Smith, left, and tackle Joe Staley, right, sit on the bench during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Torrey Smith, left, and tackle Joe Staley, right, sit on the bench during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, in
San Francisco 49ers' Torrey Smith and Colin Kaepernick enjoy Smith's 76-yard touchdown reception on sideline in 2nd quarter against Baltimore Ravens during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, October 18, 2015.
San Francisco 49ers' Torrey Smith and Colin Kaepernick enjoy Smith's 76-yard touchdown reception on sideline in 2nd quarter against Baltimore Ravens during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on
49ers OC: No concerns about frustration with Torrey Smith
Torrey Smith is the 49ers’ No. 1 wide receiver, but he ranks 70th in the NFL in targets and is on pace for a 36-catch, 424-yard season.
On Sunday, he had just one catch for three yards, but he unofficially had game-high honors in visible displays of fourth-quarter frustration in a 24-17 loss to Dallas.
Most notably, Smith came to sideline and threw his helmet after Blaine Gabbert underthrew him on a deep throw that was intercepted by cornerback Morris Claiborne. On the previous series, Smith, who was running a vertical route, punched his right arm in the air after Gabbert threw incomplete to Jeremy Kerley on a deep route on 3rd-and-2.
Smith hasn’t spoken to the media since Sunday’s loss, so offensive coordinator Curtis Modkins was posed a question about his state of mind today. Has he needed to speak with Smith after a frustration-filled game in which he was tageted with two of Gabbert’s 23 passes?
“Well, Torrey Smith is the one human being on this earth that you don’t need to counsel about doing the right thing,” Modkins said. “I don’t know what you’re referring to, but that would be the least of my concerns with Torrey Smith.”
A primary concern, presumably, is how to get Smith the ball more often.
It’s been on ongoing issue for the 49ers since Smith signed a five-year, $40 million deal last year to serve as their much-needed deep threat.
In his 20 games with the 49ers, Smith has 42 catches, 769 yards and five touchdowns. In his final 20 games with the Ravens, he had 60 catches, 943 yards and 11 scores.
“We’ve just got to keep working,” Modkins said. “Torrey’s working his tail off. Blaine’s working his tail off … Things happen. Who gets the ball depends on what we see from coverage. We’re not trying force anyone the ball.
“Torrey’s going to get his looks. That’s going to happen. We’re confident in that. Torrey’s confident in that. What the defense tells us is kind of where the ball goes.”
Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil said rookie DT DeForest Buckner (foot) was day-to-day and was optimistic the No. 7 overall pick could play Thursday night against the Cardinals.
Buckner, who was carted to the locker room Sunday, remained in a walking boot Monday and is not practicing again today.
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Torrey Smith is the 49ers’ No. 1 wide receiver, but he ranks 70th in the NFL in targets and is on pace for a 36-catch, 424-yard season. On Sunday, he had just one catch for three yards, but he unofficially had game-high honors in visible displays of fourth-quarter frustration in a 24-17 loss to Dallas. Most notably, Smith came to sideline and threw his helmet after Blaine Gabbert underthrew him on a deep throw that was intercepted by cornerback Morris Claiborne. On the previous series, Smith, who was running a vertical route, punched his right arm in the air after Gabbert threw incomplete to Jeremy Kerley on a deep route on 3rd-and-2. Smith hasn’t spoken to the media since Sunday’s loss, so offensive coordinator Curtis Modkins was posed a question about his state of mind today. In his 20 games with the 49ers, Smith has 42 catches, 769 yards and five touchdowns. Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil said rookie DT DeForest Buckner (foot) was day-to-day and was optimistic the No. 7 overall pick could play Thursday night against the Cardinals.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161005044900id_/http://people.com/archive/producer-allan-carr-waxes-fat-and-fortyish-on-the-gross-of-grease-vol-12-no-6/
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Producer Allan Carr Waxes Fat and Fortyish on the Gross of
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20161005044900
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Anywhere else but Hollywood he would be dismissed as too bizarre, and even in Hollywood he looks as if he just wandered off the set of a Fellini film: an elephantine man of 42, who conceals his bulk in gaudy caftans and kimonos, gets his hair waved into chestnut ringlets at Sassoon’s and makes and breaks friendships with the speed of light. He is a one-man talkathon who pauses only long enough to slake his thirst with Perrier, who revels in his camaraderie with the stars and who gives parties so extravagant they would impoverish small nations. (For him, they are tax write-offs.) Gross is the word—to almost coin a lyric—that occurs to some. But in Hollywood gross means bottom line, and three years ago Allan Carr co-produced Grease, which has earned $150 million to date. As a result, he is acknowledged as a serious and successful filmmaker who can, he insists, walk into any studio in town and find the management on bended knee, urging him to accept its production millions. Carr juggles scores of movie ideas simultaneously and an amazing number actually get made. Two that blessedly did not were Candide, starring Elton John, and The Student Prince, with Ann-Margret and Englebert Humperdinck. Carr also is in demand by studios to create promotion campaigns for their movies. His latest venture: The Deer Hunter.
“I have my finger on the pulse of the ordinary man,” Carr boasts. God knows where Allan finds him. Certainly not among his neighbors in Beverly Hills and Malibu. Maybe when he goes to McDonald’s “to pig out,” as he delicately puts it. No matter where he encounters Everyman (or woman), he does not linger long. He has his own lavish life to live. “I am very rich,” he acknowledges. Indeed, his first royalty check from Grease came to $8 million. “I am also very happy. I’m the Bianca Jagger of producers, always in the columns. People think I’m half Mork and half Mindy.”
Carr bought a $1.8 million Tudor mansion in chic Benedict Canyon seven years ago. The 15-room house had been the pad of a succession of luminaries, a history which thrills Allan. “Do you know who lived here? Ingrid Bergman! Imagine!” Later director Richard Quine bought the house to entertain Kim Novak, planted lavender flowers, installed a mirror over the bed and built secret closets where Carr now keeps his collection of five dozen caftans, Japanese kimonos and velvet and satin suits. The living room is three stories high, large enough to play basketball in, which is what James Caan, the tenant before Carr, did. The massive fireplace has “Hilhaven Lodge” carved into the mantel. The bedroom once occupied by Bergman’s daughter, the TV newscaster Pia Lindstrom, is now a guest room and remains much the way she had it as a child, all chintz and ruffles. The young men who live or work at Hilhaven occupy the other bedrooms.
Carr schedules people in and out of his living room at half-hour intervals during workdays while three assistants screen phone calls in an office behind an Olympic-size pool. The cabana is reminiscent of the palatial ones at the Beverly Hills Hotel. A screening room and a $100,000, copper-walled disco chamber provide the final touches of luxury for the movie mogul. Yet, four years after buying the canyon house, Carr plunked down another $1 million for a Malibu hideaway with a stunning view of strand and ocean. Allan Carr proclaims, “This is my fantasy, all of it. The houses, my parties, so many stars. I’m dreaming all this, and I’ll kill the son of a bitch who tries to wake me up.”
Until he made it big as a producer, Carr was known in Hollywood principally as the man who turned Ann-Margret’s career around. He first arrived in the film capital from Chicago in the early ’60s to chaperone a young would-be actress. “She was going out to do The Honeymoon Machine with Steve McQueen,” Carr explains. “I told her mother, who was a friend of mine, that I would look out for her. When she finished the movie she packed up, went home, married a nice man and settled down in Highland Park. I didn’t ever want to leave.”
Carr already had credentials as a theatrical producer and manager of promising talent in Chicago. He had discovered and promoted a onetime hamburger waitress named Judy Collins and a wryly funny accountant, Bob Newhart. In California, with the help of agent Marty Baum, he signed other clients, both rising and falling stars, and hyped their careers and his own. His clientele has included Keir Dullea, Roz Russell, Tony Curtis, Mama Cass Elliott, Marvin Hamlisch, Nancy Walker and Won Ton Ton, the German shepherd. Carr has not always been successful. He steered Walker into two disastrous series at ABC-TV, while Fabian (remember him?) has been reduced to working second-rate lounges. Both Paul Anka and Dyan Cannon decided they could do without Carr’s managerial services.
Some of his client relationships have been long-lived and lucrative for all concerned; others turned out to be brief and bitchy. Despite his lavish hospitality as a host, he is a tightfisted businessman who, perhaps because of the short actuarial odds, has never signed formal contracts with his clients. Among recent defectors (and ex-chums) are Marisa Berenson (who for a while was married to Carr’s best friend, Jim Randall) and the leading ladies of Grease, Stockard Channing and Olivia Newton-John, both of whom show little inclination to work for Carr again. Newton-John is mum about the rift, but Channing says it “uh, has something to do with money. Bookkeeping.” Snarls Allan: “I made these people stars. Made them financially independent, and they turn their backs on me. No breeding.” His reputation for feuding, he says, is “just my style. I get things in the open. I don’t like festering discontent.” A fellow producer sees it otherwise: “Allan starts projects with great verve and enthusiasm, gathering people as he goes. They all become his instant friends. Then because of some perverse, self-destructive streak he starts to humiliate these people in public. He has an empty brillance.”
His current coterie includes Bruce Jenner, who seems out to prove he can be as nimble at disco as he was with the discus, the volatile Valerie Perrine and the Village People. All will appear in Carr’s $12 million Discoland…Where the Music Never Stops, which has just gone into production.
Carr’s eye for the right property showed itself first in 1975 when during an Acapulco vacation he saw queues of people waiting to see Supervivientes de los Andes. It was a Mexican potboiler about the true-life ordeal of 16 Uruguayan soccer players who survived a plane crash in the snowbound Andes for 10 weeks by eating the bodies of their dead companions. The film had been made from Survive, a paperback dashed off by journalist Clay Blair right after the crash. Even though United Artists had announced plans to film Alive, the soccer players’ authorized version of their grim story, Carr snapped up non-Spanish rights to the Mexican film for a borrowed $500,000. He dubbed in some dreary English dialogue, added a few scenes and exploited the film with his considerable talent and the backing of Paramount. Many in Hollywood deplored Survive as a vulgar rip-off, but it made a $13 million profit. “It was not a good movie,” Carr admits, “but I think the eating scenes were tasteful.”
The subject of food is vitally important to him. “I am an emotional eater,” Carr once said. “I eat to fill the void inside of me.” By the time Survive made him a millionaire, he had blimped to 310 pounds (on a 5’7″ frame). Drastic action was called for, so Carr had 18 feet of his intestines tied off in a bypass operation. The results were dramatic: In 12 months he shed 130 pounds, including 50 during the filming of Grease. But complications arose, and the doctors had to reverse the bypass. Carr then had his jaws wired shut for a week. Now he relies on dieting and exercise machines, but his body is inexorably ballooning again to more than 200 pounds.
Carr cannot resist party-giving any more than food. He has earned the sobriquet “the Elsa Maxwell of Beverly Hills.” There was a bash for his friend Truman Capote in an abandoned Los Angles jail: Guests were subpoenaed rather than invited, and fingerprinted at the door. Another do honored Rudi Nureyev, who posed for the six-foot golden replica of Oscar that stands beside Carr’s Beverly Hills front door. This one had a Russian Easter motif (lots of Soviet vodka and caviar) and guests were advised to wear black tie or “glitterclutz,” a word the host made up. The most flamboyant of Allan’s social events was his coming out at the beach house after his bypass operation, a two-day fiesta that has come to be known as the “Rolodex party.” It was called that because the guests were invited alphabetically in two herds, A to L on the first night, the rest of the alphabet on the second. One meanie suggested that Allan had invited the Beverly Hills telephone book, but actually there were only 750 guests. Roman Polanski, the star of the second evening, received a standing ovation when he arrived. At the time, he had been charged with child seduction.
“For my Rolodex party I wore a La Vetta scarf caftan one evening and a Japanese obi jacket and harem pants the next,” Carr recalls. “For the 1978 Academy Awards I wore a satin three-piece suit and some tasteful diamonds.” He no longer appears in his floor-length mink, though: too tacky. His new favorite is a Levi’s coat with a chinchilla lining.
It is a long way from Highland Park, Ill., the Chicago suburb where Alan Solomon, an only child, was born in 1937. He insists it was 1942, but his birthday, like his name, has been changed. His father was a well-heeled furniture dealer. The senior Solomons were on the brink of divorce, Allan says, as far back as he can remember. “We always kept saving for a rainy day, putting off our happiness. I don’t make that mistake anymore,” he says. He remembers his childhood as “traumatic. I guess I went to school and had friends and all that,” he adds, “but mostly I remember the movies. My life didn’t start until I was a child of 13 or 14 and invested in my first Broadway show.” Actually he was 18, and the show, a revival of the Ziegfeld Follies starring Tallulah Bankhead, closed before it got to Broadway. Carr put up $750 after introducing himself to Walter Winchell on a Florida beach. As a teen, Allan ushered at the Chicago Symphony, worked as a skip tracer for a finance company and helped out in his father’s store to finance his passion for becoming a Broadway angel. Also, “I could always put the arm on my father and mother,” he says. “They divorced when I was 17 and they felt guilty. I used that.”
In his senior year at Lake Forest College Allan dropped out to become a full-time entrepreneur. “I thought I knew something about the theater so I went and rented one for myself.” His first production, Tennessee Williams’ Garden District, starred Diana Barrymore and dealt, prophetically, with cannibalism; it was a moderate success. Over the next two and a half years Carr made a name for himself locally as a boy impresario. “People like Phyllis Diller and Bob Newhart kept asking me to manage their careers,” he says. “I was a star.” But Cook County, Ill. was not where he wanted to twinkle.
The rest is acetate and U.S. Treasury notes. “I’m the Mike Todd of the 70s,” Carr exults. “People think I can, and will, do anything. They think I can get reservations at Mauna Kea [the posh Hawaiian resort], for God’s sake. I guess it’s a form of flattery. People want nostalgia and good times and pretty people. Ugly and poor are disgusting. I try to provide a fantasy trip. I want upbeat. I want fun. I want to enjoy.”
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Anywhere else but Hollywood he would be dismissed as too bizarre, and even in Hollywood he looks as if he just wandered off the set of a Fellini film: an elephantine man of 42, who conceals his bul…
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/05/10/44/deaf-qld-woman-loses-high-court-juror-case
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161006133810id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/05/10/44/deaf-qld-woman-loses-high-court-juror-case
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Deaf juror ruling 'a smack in our faces'
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A Queensland woman who wanted to become the country's first deaf juror says a High Court ruling against her is "a smack in the face" for deaf Australians.
Gaye Lyons, who is profoundly deaf, on said her case was about the principle of justice and equality for "every citizen of Australia".
"Deaf people should not be treated any differently," Ms Lyons said.
"The High Court does not see that."
The deputy registrar of an Ipswich court told Ms Lyons in 2012 she must be excused from jury duty because there was no provision in the state's Jury Act to swear in an Auslan interpreter, or for that person to be allowed in the jury room.
Ms Lyons took the case to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Queensland Court of Appeal, where the decision was upheld each time.
The High Court on Wednesday dismissed her appeal.
Chief Executive of Deaf Australia Kyle Miers said the court had failed to recognise the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
"'It is time for all states and territories, including the Commonwealth government, to take immediate action to amend their Anti-Discrimination Acts and to remove discrimination in all areas, and more importantly, recognising the right for deaf people to use Auslan," he said.
Their honours agreed that Queensland law did not permit an interpreter to be present during jury deliberations in the absence of specific legislative provisions.
In arguing Ms Lyons' case, solicitor Kylie Nomchong SC rejected claims about possible errors from interpreters and said there was just as much chance that a hearing juror would be bored, distracted or suffer a lapse in concentration.
Lawyers for the state said there was no way to test the accuracy of interpretations and the Jury Act was simply being administered as it was intended.
The High Court ruled that the presence of a person other than a juror in the jury room during deliberations was "an incurable irregularity", regardless of whether or not they participated.
Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said the confidentiality of jury deliberations and the right to a fair trial were "among the most fundamental tenets of our justice system."
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A deaf Queensland woman has lost a discrimination case in the country's highest court.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/05/09/57/we-ve-changed-anz-says-after-fees-refund
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161006145430id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/05/09/57/we-ve-changed-anz-says-after-fees-refund
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We've changed, ANZ says after fees refund
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20161006145430
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ANZ has changed its processes after having to repay nearly 400,000 customers almost $29 million in overcharged fees, a parliamentary committee has been told.
The fees were supposed to be imposed on payments made to another person or business, but were wrongly charged to some customers transferring money between their own accounts.
"That was a mistake, it was a mistake made in the programming, the algorithm if you will of doing that," CEO Shayne Elliott told the House of Representatives economics committee in Canberra on Wednesday.
"We have done an audit of that and we have changed our processes in terms of testing and making sure that terms and conditions are transferred into absolute accurate algorithms and charges going forward."
Mr Elliot admitted there would have been consequences for staff who made the mistake, but he would have to come back to the committee with details.
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The head of ANZ says the bank has changed its processes after repaying nearly 400,000 customers who wrongly paid nearly $29 million in fees.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/06/10/05/vic-real-estate-agent-fined-for-misconduct
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161006145941id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/06/10/05/vic-real-estate-agent-fined-for-misconduct
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Melbourne real estate agency slapped with record fine of $330k for selling the ‘illusion of a bargain’
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20161006145941
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The Richmond office of real estate giant Hocking Stuart has been handed a record fine for duping customers, as the state regulator warns underquoting is a significant problem for Victorian home buyers.
Hocking Stuart Richmond was ordered to pay $330,000 in the Federal Court today for manipulating 11 house price estimates to deceive home buyers with "the illusion of a bargain" and drive up its profits.
Justice John Middleton said the office’s behaviour “involved the creation of an enticing but illusory and fictitious marketing web” that inconvenienced, disappointed and deceived customers.
"Price is an essential piece of information about the property being offered for sale," he said.
"Some (home buyers) may have missed the opportunity to buy elsewhere, being lured to a bargain that did not, and was never going to, eventuate."
Consumer Affairs Victoria, which prosecuted Hocking Stuart Richmond, initially sought $750,000 from the real estate agency, but Justice Middleton determined the penalty from $30,000 per property, plus legal costs of up to $90,000.
Hocking Stuart Richmond has been ordered to publicly acknowledge its deceptive conduct by issuing a notice in The Age newspaper, and implement a compliance program.
Consumer Affairs Victoria director Simon Cohen says there is "no question" there is a problem with underquoting in Victoria.
The Richmond office was fined $300,000 for manipulating house prices. (9NEWS)
"We have seen at consumer affairs a significant increase in the number of complaints we have received about underquoting."
"We currently have 13 investigations underway in relation to underquoting, which makes it the most significant nature of real estate practise we're presently investigating."
He said Justice Middleton's penalty will have a "chilling effect across the industry".
Hocking Stuart Richmond earned commissions of $148,044 from the sale of the houses in the sought-after areas of Richmond and Kew between January 2014 and June 2015.
Prices for homes, including the one pictured, were underquoted in Richmond and Kew between January 2014 and June 2015. (9NEWS)
Hocking Stuart chief executive Simon Jovanovic said he was disappointed the Richmond office was being made an example of for an issue that affects the real estate industry as a whole.
"This is an area that agents, regulatory bodies and industry associations need to come together on to ensure the best outcome for home buyers," Mr Jovanovic said.
The company was further ordered to pay court costs of up to $90,000 for the serious breach.
Victoria's Attorney-General Martin Pakula said underquoting is not a smart sales tactic - it is illegal.
"There's nothing clever about deceiving people who are making one of the biggest purchases of their lives," Mr Pakula said.
New laws set to come into effect in 2017 would force agents to provide prospective buyers with an indicative selling price, the median price for the suburb and ban words such as "offers above", "from" or "plus" in advertising.
Under the planned new legislation, agents would receive fines of more than $31,000 and face losing their commission.
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Hocking Stuart Richmond has been fined for underquoting on 11 residential properties.
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http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/2016-ducati-xdiavel-s-review-a-bruiser-cruiser-of-a-motorbike-1475785286
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161007073908id_/http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/2016-ducati-xdiavel-s-review-a-bruiser-cruiser-of-a-motorbike-1475785286
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2016 Ducati XDiavel S: A Bruiser-Cruiser of a Motorbike
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20161007073908
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YOU KNOW HOW they say if you ride a motorcycle long enough you’ll go down? I have never accepted the truth-value of that statement. Certainly, Risk x Miles = Exposure. But to go around thinking that falling is inevitable creates an expectation to be fulfilled, if only subconsciously. I will not go down because I will it so. Or at least I did.
Three weeks ago I borrowed Ducati’s latest piston-powered codpiece, the XDiavel S ($22,995), to use as a get-around bike in Los Angeles. And despite my Nietzschean mastery of fate, I let the thing get the better of me at an intersection in downtown Santa Monica. Not dropped so much as gently laid down, without a scratch. But oh my God was it embarrassing. I wanted to crawl up in my borrowed $1,500 helmet and hide.
That’s the other thing: I was on my way from a speaking engagement, and I was wearing a gray check Brooks Brothers suit, which typically have little Kevlar in them.
As you will see later, I bravely lay all the blame on the bike’s throttle-by-wire ride-mode calibrations and the ungentle clack of the 1,262cc L-win below 3,000 rpm. That’s not so much a liability of these giant Vs, chattering with Ducati’s signature desmodromic valvetrain, as their sought-after essence. That’s how you know they are Ducatis.
To the City of Santa Monica, you’re welcome. Few things bring Americans together—wealthy and homeless, gay and straight, vegan and very vegan—like the sight of a rich noob falling off his obviously overcompensating motorcycle.
This could be an experiment in a social-psychology class. Two cases: In one, a young girl in a summer dress loses the handle on her Vespa. Time stops. Everyone’s heart is in their throats. Horror, concern! Sidewalk heroics.
In the other, a man in a business suit stumbles gracelessly off his massive luxury sport bike. In this scenario, bystander concern is replaced with giddy schadenfreude. If enough people have exactly the same thought at the same time with sufficient force, you can actually hear it, as I did: dork.
It wasn’t as if nobody was looking. Aesthetically, the XDiavel S commands your attention like a slingshot pointed at your face. This is Ducati’s entry in the growing bruiser-cruiser segment. These are big toys—usually 600 pounds or more—for not-fully-baked boys with upwards of $20,000 to fall off of.
As compared to full-on sport bikes, cruiser-bike anatomy is longer, heavier, lower saddle, way more fork rake, fat back tires and forward-position foot pegs, the last sort of by definition. It’s a comfortable and, yes, badass way to sit on a motorcycle, no doubt. But however pleasant the saddle, these are naked bikes, without windshields or aero fairing. Range is determined not so much by gallons in the tank but bugs in the teeth.
These dreadnaughts vary depending on the designs’ relationship to modernity. One subset hews to the neo-traditionalism of Harley-Davidson , like the new Indian Chief, or the Yamaha XV1900. The next category could be called retro-modernism, bikes with high-tech streaks over the classic big-cruiser ligature, a la Victory Motorcycles. Then there are the tart expressions of European brands, like the Triumph Rocket III and Moto Guzzi Eldorado, with its inimitable transverse-mounted V-twin engine.
The XDiavel S—a constructivist collage of heat-purpled alloys and black-hearted masculinity, technical surfaces and primitive urges—looks like a time traveler, a bike from a future where Italian dudes really, really lay out the vibe.
The X could stand for extra large. The XDiavel S sits on a 63.6-inch wheelbase, 1.36 inches longer than that of the majestic Diavel sport cruiser. Or extra low. XDiavel S is the proverbial regimental soldier, with a seat height of only 29.7 inches, nearly 3 inches lower than the Diavel. Or X rated. The XDiavel S front fork rake reclines seductively at 30 degrees, 2 more than its sibling.
All of which imbues the XDiavel S with an even lower center of gravity and greater stability and makes my bobble all the more shameful.
Ah well, in fairness to me, these bikes can be a little truculent at walking speeds. I was turning right at the intersection, waiting for pedestrians to cross, and commenced to ease on the throttle when a last chicken decided to cross the road. I touched the front brake lever, the stupendous Brembo M50 caliper bit, the engine died, and the 545-pound bike fell over between my legs like a rifled buffalo.
I managed to keep to my feet and save the Brooks Brothers, but you can imagine what was going on inside my helmet. My own shouted curses deafened me. All the adrenaline taps opened and I deadlifted the bike upright, threw a leg over and thumbed the Start button and held my breath.
Several asthmatic, high-compression turns of the crank later, the engine lit, its brattiness unabashed. I gave it the gun and tore away from the scene, nearly swinging wide before I got fully in the saddle.
I was still fuming when I laid into the throttle joining the I-10 East with more lean angle than is prudent for a man in a suit. The Testastretta L-Twin pounced at the chance to accelerate, and the waste-y, frapping exhaust note grew taut and urgent. From half-twist to full-twist in second gear, the XDiavel pulls like a 16-hog chariot at full torque (95 lb-ft). I wrung it out two, three seconds, trying to touch the 9,000-rpm redline, my two-vent flapping like a hurricane pennants, before I had to shut it down. X’ing hell.
As fans of the brand know, Ducati’s elaborate ride-by-wire system, now aided by a gyroscope-like sensor called an IMU, provides for three separate ride modes—Urban, Sport or Touring—with anti-lock braking, stability control, wheelie control, launch control, everything but bladder control.
And I was just toggling through these menus on the bike’s TFT display when a shirtless kid wearing a Swedish-flag helmet ripped past me, splitting lanes at 80 mph on a Chinese sport bike.
Wait, no! I’m in Urban mode! I need time to recalibrate! No problem, though: The Ducati saw him too. We ducked between the endless rows of cars and I rolled on. Engine vibration blurred the mirrors.
But I suddenly thought better of it. No, I will fall no more forever.
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The Ducati XDiavel S cruiser motorcycle pulls like a 16-hog chariot at full torque. Dan Neil takes it for a test ride.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/06/16/50/hazard-reduction-burn-sparks-nsw-bushfire
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161007181051id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/06/16/50/hazard-reduction-burn-sparks-nsw-bushfire
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Hazard reduction burn sparks NSW bushfire
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20161007181051
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An out-of-control bushfire is burning on the NSW south coast after hazard reduction blaze on a naval base jumped containment lines.
The Department of Defence was conducting the operation on the base in Jervis Bay when the fire got away about 2pm on Thursday, the NSW Rural Fire Service says.
No one needed to be evacuated but a number of fisherman were asked to leave the area.
An RFS helicopter has been sent to contain the blaze, which is moving from Honeymoon Bay towards Lighthouse Rd.
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The Rural Fire Service has been called in to contain a bushfire on the NSW south coast after a hazard reduction burn broke containment lines.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/07/12/13/coles-fined-for-selling-underweight-bread
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Coles fined for selling underweight bread
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20161008172600
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Supermarket giant Coles has been fined $7500 after some of its private label loaves of bread sold in three Brisbane shops were found to be underweight.
Regional manager Tammy Banks pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to three shortfall offences in which bread was found to weigh less than the advertised amount on the packet.
The Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday heard the incidents at New Farm, Redbank and Mt Gravatt over an 18-month period happened because of mechanical failures in the bread-making process.
Most of the loaves were only about five per cent lighter than they should have been, with the greatest discrepancy peaking at 19.8 per cent.
Coles' lawyer Jamie McPherson said no financial advantage was gained from the incidents and the supermarket had not intended to deceive its customers.
The court heard Coles co-operated with investigators and put in place mechanisms to avoid the shortfalls from happening again.
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Coles has been fined after pleading guilty to selling bread that was lighter than the advertised weight on the package.
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http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/10/10/12/05/debate-could-be-trump-s-last-shot
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Trump, Clinton clash in fiery debate
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20161011161535
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Donald Trump has attempted to keep his troubled US presidential campaign alive in a fiery, insult-laden debate with Hillary Clinton where he threatened to put her in jail, labelled her as the devil and branded her a liar for denying a trade comment she made in Australia.
The debate at St Louis' Washington University on Sunday (Monday AEDT) began with a chill when Mr Trump and Ms Clinton broke tradition and refused to shake hands.
It quickly moved to the scandal that erupted on Friday where Mr Trump was caught bragging in 2005 about groping, kissing and attempting to have sex with women.
Mr Trump described the conversation, which he believed was private, as "locker room talk".
"You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?" debate co-moderator Anderson Cooper asked Mr Trump.
"No, I didn't say that at all," Mr Trump responded.
Asked if he has kissed or groped women without their consent, Mr Trump replied: "No, I have not".
Mr Trump pointed to the sexual past of Ms Clinton's husband, former US president Bill Clinton.
"If you look at Bill Clinton - far worse," Mr Trump said.
"Mine are words and his was action.
"What he has done to women there has never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation who has been so abusive to women."
The real estate mogul held a pre-debate press conference with four women who claimed to have been mistreated by Ms Clinton and Mr Clinton.
The women also sat in the audience for the debate, just metres from where Mr Clinton was sitting.
In last week's first debate Mr Trump targeted Ms Clinton's changed stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal proposed between the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and seven other Pacific Rim nation.
Mr Clinton and Ms Clinton do not support the TPP, but when Ms Clinton was US secretary-of-state in 2012 and on a tour of Australia she described it as setting "the gold standard in trade agreements".
"She called it the gold standard," Mr Trump said.
"By the way at the last debate she lied because it turned out she did say the gold standard and she said she didn't."
Mr Trump also sensationally announced if he became president he would pursue Clinton legally for using a private email server while secretary-of-state and deleting 33,000 emails.
"If I win I am going to instruct my attorney-general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception," Mr Trump said.
In another verbal joust Ms Clinton said "it is just awfully good someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law with our country".
Mr Trump quickly responded: "Because you'd be in jail".
Ms Clinton shook her head. "Look it's just not true."
He continued the personal attacks, describing Ms Clinton as having "tremendous hate in her heart".
Clinton's former Democrat rival Bernie Sanders is supporting her campaign, a move Mr Trump slammed.
"I was so surprised to see him sign on with the devil," Mr Trump said.
Asked at the end to name one thing each admired about the other, Ms Clinton said she respected his children for their ability and devotion to Mr Trump. In response, he called her a fighter and said he admired her for her refusal to give up.
The third and final debate will be held on October 19 with the election on November 8.
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With prominent Republicans already abandoning Donald Trump in droves, the second debate may be his last chance garner support.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/10/14/16/parliament-pays-tribute-to-israel-s-peres
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Parliament pays tribute to Israel's Peres
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20161011162309
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Federal parliament has paid tribute to the long and eventful life of former Israeli president Shimon Peres, who died last month.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull related a story of his wife Lucy's recent meeting with Mr Peres, who told her the secret of perpetual youth was to ensure one's list of dreams was always longer than the list of achievements.
"In that sense, this very old man, after such a life of extraordinary achievement and such an eventful one, nonetheless died forever young," Mr Turnbull told parliament on Monday.
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has lead federal parliament in a tribute to former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/11/08/25/blaze-at-old-sa-function-centre-suspicious
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Blaze at old SA function centre suspicious
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20161011162553
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A blaze that has destroyed part of an old function centre in Adelaide has been deemed suspicious.
Emergency services were called to the unused Oakden property early on Tuesday and brought the flames under control, preventing them from spreading to neighbouring buildings and a nearby school.
The fire caused around $200,000 of damage to the function centre and is being treated as suspicious, the Metropolitan Fire Service says.
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A fire at an old Adelaide function centre early on Tuesday is considered suspicious.
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http://people.com/archive/nicki-minaj-on-rap-and-inspiring-women-with-beyonce/cm.peo/
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161012132715id_/http://people.com/archive/nicki-minaj-on-rap-and-inspiring-women-with-beyonce/cm.peo/
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Nicki Minaj on Rapping and Inspiring Women with Beyonce
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20161012132715
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When you hear the word “boss” who comes to mind? If it’s not Nicki Minaj, you’re not thinking straight.
The 33-year-old rapper and entrepreneur has been changing the game since day one. From breaking Billboard chart records with four songs simultaneously in the Top 10 Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart, to being the first and only female rapper in Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings list—she has proven time and time again, to be the best.
Now, the Trinidad-born artist is speaking out about what it’s like to compete in the male-dominated music genre of rap. The “Anaconda” star recently told Marie Claire that it was Jay Z’s transition from rapper to businessman that inspired her to make big moves in her career, saying: “I felt like anything he could do, I could do.”
RELATED VIDEO: The Four Legendary Women Who’ve Headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show
Although Jay Z has played a big role in inspiring Minaj’s success, we can’t forget about Blue Ivy’s other parent, Beyoncé, who has been know to slay collaborations with Nicki. Besides putting out music that is absolute gold, Nicki’s “Feeling Myself” and Beyoncé’s “Flawless” remix, the two have been known to have social media buzzing with their collabs. “Every time Bey and I do something together, I see how women are inspired,” Minaj tells Marie Claire. Their girl-power message reminds women around the world that they’re in charge, “You should be the boss of your own career and the brains behind your life or your decisions.”
This message of feminism is something the YMCMB artist truly believes in, “I want [every woman’s] goal in life to be to become an entrepreneur, a rich woman, a career-driven woman.” Seeing young women get married and rely on their husband for money, is not something the Pinkprint rapper supports, “I don’t want that to be a woman’s goal in life.”
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When you hear the word “boss” who comes to mind? If it’s not Nicki Minaj, you’re not thinking straight. The 33-year-old rapper and entrepreneur has been changing the game si…
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/11/11/32/mps-urged-to-vote-on-marriage-equality
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ALP wins praise for killing plebiscite
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20161012154523
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Same-sex marriage advocates say Labor has put Australia on a path to historic social change in opposing the government's push for a plebiscite.
The Turnbull government's plebiscite was all but killed off on Tuesday when the Labor caucus formalised its opposition to a bill that would have allowed a national vote next February.
Marriage reform campaigners are celebrating, and say the next step must be a stand-alone vote in parliament but the Australian Christian Lobby says the government will be betraying voters if it changes its position.
"The coalition went to the last election promising a people's vote and won the election. It would be a breach of trust by government members to allow any other pathway for change," ACL spokesman Lyle Shelton said.
Labor had denied ordinary people a say on the biggest social policy change in a generation, Mr Shelton said.
And he could not fathom why reform advocates are against a popular vote when they claimed to have broad community support.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten denied Labor's stance will kill off the issue of marriage reform in the current term.
The lobby group PFLAG - Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays - says timely meaningful change is still possible but it's up to the prime minister to do the right thing and allow a parliamentary vote.
"They (Labor) are in the process of changing history and they will be on the right side of history," PFLAG's national spokeswoman Shelly Argent told AAP from Canberra.
She said a recent PFLAG poll showed 65 per cent of gay and lesbian people didn't want a plebiscite under any circumstances, "and that means they'd rather just wait, or go without".
Australian Marriage Equality chairman Alex Greenwich said Labor had listened to the concerns of the gay and lesbian community and the end game must be a vote in the parliament.
"The political reality is that the plebiscite is dead and there's strong support for marriage equality in the community," he told AAP.
Veteran marriage reform advocate Rodney Croome says some in the Liberal party are again taking about a parliamentary vote.
"Not only is there another way forward, it is already taking shape with Liberal backbenchers talking privately about revisiting a free vote and with various supporters of marriage equality talking about a cross-party bill in the Senate," he said.
Labor understood the plebiscite would have been a "disaster" for marriage equality and the LGBTI community, he said.
"I'm relieved that there won't be a plebiscite because it will literally save lives," he said.
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Federal politicians are facing fresh calls to hold a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage after Labor decided to oppose the government's plebiscite bill.
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http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/10/13/07/22/a-facelift-for-the-moon-every-81000-years
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161013135933id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/10/13/07/22/a-facelift-for-the-moon-every-81000-years
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New video captures stunning flyover of the moon's surface
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20161013135933
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Stunning new footage taken from the moon’s orbit shows the havoc space rocks cause the satellite’s delicate powdered surface.
Although its mission ended in 2009, video from Japan’s Selene lunar orbiter has only now been made public, giving viewers an unparalleled look at the moon’s desolate exterior.
While the video shows some amazing glimpses of Earth, it’s the moon’s cratered surface that has sparked the attention of scientists.
Recent NASA data has revealed the Moon is bombarded by so much space rock that its surface gets a complete facelift every 81,000 years.
This churn - affecting the top two centimetres of mostly loose moon dust - happens 100 times more frequently than previously thought, scientists reported.
The study also estimates that asteroids and comets crashing into Earth's only natural satellite create, on average, 180 new craters at least 10 metres in diameter every year.
The findings, published in Nature, come from "before and after" pictures taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, which has been mapping the Moon since 2009.
By comparing images of the same area at regular intervals, a team of scientists led by Emerson Speyerer from Arizona State University in Tempe, were able to tally the number of new craters and calculate the entire surface of the Moon.
"We detected 222 new impact craters and found 33 percent more craters with a diameter of at least 10 metres than predicted" by earlier models, the researchers concluded.
The scientists also found thousands of subtler disturbances on the surface, which they described as "scars" from smaller, secondary impacts that -- over thousands of years -- churned up the top layer of the Moon without creating craters.
Earth is also constantly pelted by asteroids and meteors, but is protected by a thick atmosphere.
More than 100 tonnes of dust and sand-sized particles rain down on the planet every day.
Even space rocks up to 25 metres in diameter will likely explode and disintegrate in the upper layers of our atmosphere, causing little or no damage, according to NASA.
The Moon's ultra-thin atmosphere only contains about 100 molecules of gases and elements per cubic centimetre.
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The Moon is bombarded by so much space rock that its surface gets a complete facelift every 81,000 years, according to a study released Wednesday based on NASA data.
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/13/08/37/vincent-stanford-bride-killer-sentenced
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Vincent Stanford sentenced to life behind bars for Stephanie Scott's murder
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20161013142154
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School cleaner Vincent Stanford has been sentenced to life behind bars for murdering NSW teacher Stephanie Scott.
Stanford, 25, was sentenced today in Griffith courthouse in southwest NSW by Justice Robert Hulme, who said the case was one of "great heinousness".
He said Stanford's culpability was "so extreme" that it could "be met with only one response".
Stephanie Scott (L) and right, her killer Vincent Stanford. (AAP)
He sentenced Stanford to 15 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault, but did not impose a non-parole period as there was "no utility" due to the life sentence for murder.
Stanford's demeanour in recorded police interviews, he said, "clearly demonstrated a lack of emotion".
"There was not the slightest hint of remorse," he said, adding Stanford was a "very disturbed individual".
The court today heard Stanford stalked three other females before Ms Scott's murder, including two adults and a 12-year-old girl of whom he had 1805 images.
Outside court after the sentence was handed down, Ms Scott's mother Merrilyn Scott told reporters her daughter embodied "all that is good about humankind".
"So much has been taken away from us and Stephanie has had everything taken away from her," she said.
"Losing her has shattered so many lives and we are all struggling with the consequences.
"We have had to show restraint in all we have said and done and have had to grieve in the public eye."
She thanked police and detectives involved in the case for their hard work and for maintaining "humanity and compassion in such difficult circumstances".
She said her daughter would want her family and friends to resume their lives.
"We need to be kind to ourselves and let the music and fun back in," she said.
READ MORE: Have a cup of tea and a mint slice for Stephanie's birthday tomorrow
Stephanie Scott and her fiance Aaron Leeson-Woolley were due to be married six days after she was killed.
On Tuesday, a courtroom packed with Ms Scott's family and supporters was shown disturbing video footage of him confessing to the April 2015 murder.
Stanford told detectives, "I think I went a little nuts."
He said when he saw the bride-to-be alone at the Leeton High School on Easter Sunday 2015, he felt "just that I had to kill her".
He dragged Ms Scott, 26, into a storeroom at the school and attacked her with his fists and a large knife.
"I beat her and I hit her in her carotid artery with the knife," he said.
He washed the scene with a high pressure cleaner and took Ms Scott's body 70km away to the Cocoparra National Park, where he burned it.
According to an agreed statement of facts the cleaner had regularly searched for violent rape, hard-core porn and murder online and had ordered handcuffs and a "half-sword" through a security company.
Soon after he began working at Leeton High School he made a number of internet searches related to brides, including "bride rape" and "bride kidnapping", according to the facts.
Crown prosecutor Lee Carr cited an expert medical report that said Stanford revealed thoughts of killing people since the age of seven or eight.
According to the report, Stanford has autism and once said he couldn't adapt to society because he would have to acquire emotions, of which he had almost none - except hatred.
Marcus Stanford, Vincent Stanford's identical twin, walked free from jail last month after serving 15 months in prison.
Ms Scott had been due to marry her fiance Aaron Leeson-Woolley six days later.
Stanford's identical twin brother Marcus Stanford was released from prison last month after serving 15 months for selling Ms Scott's rings and burning her driver's licence.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016
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School cleaner Vincent Stanford is expected to learn soon whether he'll spend the rest of his life in prison for raping and murdering NSW teacher Stephanie Scott.
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http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/10/18/02/32/britain-nz-to-start-regular-trade-talks
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161019103708id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/10/18/02/32/britain-nz-to-start-regular-trade-talks
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UK, NZ agree to start regular trade talks
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20161019103708
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Britain and New Zealand have agreed to set up regular trade policy talks to help push for greater global trade liberalisation and reform as Britain leaves the European Union, trade minister Liam Fox says.
Britain, which voted to leave the European bloc in June, is keen to court countries outside the EU on trade, but cannot formally agree to any deals until it has left the bloc, a process which will take at least two years from when it starts divorce talks.
"In leaving the EU, we have the opportunity to drive even greater openness and put Britain at the forefront of global trade," Fox said in a statement after meeting New Zealand's minister of trade, Todd McClay.
"This new trade policy dialogue reflects a strong political commitment from New Zealand and the UK to take the lead in pushing for greater global trade liberalisation and reform and I look forward to working closely with them."
Prime Minister Theresa May, appointed leader shortly after the June referendum, has said she will trigger the formal divorce procedure -- Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty -- by the end of March next year.
New Zealand, Australia, Canada and other members of the Commonwealth, whose members are mostly former British colonies, have been targeted by British officials as potential areas of growth.
McClay said New Zealand was keen to agree a trade deal.
"The UK is a major trading partner for New Zealand, and we have signalled our interest in a free trade agreement with them when they are in a position to negotiate one independently of the European Union," he said.
"In the meantime, we hope this dialogue will allow us to develop a better understanding of one another's trade interests."
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As the UK readies to leave the EU it's shoring up other options, starting with regular chats with New Zealand to push for great global trade liberalisation.
| 11.2 | 0.8 | 1.4 |
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http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/20/17/30/tostee-walks-free-in-dramatic-scenes-outside-brisbane-supreme-court
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http://web.archive.org/web/20161021121516id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/20/17/30/tostee-walks-free-in-dramatic-scenes-outside-brisbane-supreme-court
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Gable Tostee murder trial: Tostee walks free in dramatic scenes outside Supreme Court
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20161021121516
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Gable Tostee has walked free from the Supreme Court in Brisbane to face a waiting media pack and several intrigued passers-by, who filmed him as he exited the building flanked by his lawyer.
The interest in the case was manifest in two extra court rooms being opened for an overflow of media, family, friends and members of the public.
Gable Tostee was met by a large media pack. (AAP)
Mr Tostee stood in silence next to his lawyer as the statement was read out detailing his awareness “of just how tragic this has been for many people”.
He did not respond when 9NEWS reporter Michael Best enquired whether he would like to make any comment.
Mr Tostee made no comment. (AAP)
Mr Tostee was held up as he crossed busy George Street next to the court room, as several onlookers flocked to take photos.
A statement was read out by his lawyer on his behalf. (AAP)
Gable Tostee and his lawyer, Nick Dore. (AAP)
READ MORE: Woman identified herself as jury member on Instagram
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016
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Gable Tostee has walked free from the Brisbane Supreme Court to face a waiting media pack and several intrigued passers-by, who filmed him as he exited the building flanked by his lawyer.
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