Prompt: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court, two days after hearing a major abortion case from Texas, on Friday temporarily blocked a Louisiana law imposing regulations on doctors who perform abortions in a move that would allow two recently closed clinics to reopen. People stand outside the Supreme Court building at Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., in this February 13, 2016 photo. REUTERS/Carlos Barria In a brief order, the court granted a request by abortion providers seeking to reinstate a lower-court injunction that blocked the Republican-backed 2014 law, which required doctors to obtain a formal affiliation with a local hospital. The

abortion providers contend the law was designed to shut down abortion clinics by requiring hospital “admitting privileges” that are difficult for their doctors to secure. Louisiana will now have four clinics in total. The order noted that one of the eight justices, conservative Clarence Thomas, said he would have denied the application. The order said the court’s action was in line with its decision in June to temporarily block part of a Texas abortion law that was challenged by abortion providers in a high-profile case. The justices heard oral arguments in that case on Wednesday. The Louisiana law mandates that physicians who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the abortion clinic. The regulation matches one in the Texas law. U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in January granted a preliminary injunction sought by abortion providers, finding the law violated the constitutional right to an abortion established by the Supreme Court in 1973. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked that decision on Feb. 24, allowing the law to go into effect. The high court’s action sent mixed signals on how it might rule in the Texas case, in part because the justices previously allowed the Texas admitting privileges provision to go into effect. The action could suggest the court has greater concerns about admitting privileges requirements than were indicated during Wednesday’s argument in the Texas case. Friday’s move effectively put Louisiana’s law on hold while the justices prepare a ruling, expected by the end of June, in the Texas case. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents abortion providers in both cases, welcomed the court’s action. “These underhanded tactics to cut off women’s access to safe, legal abortion simply cannot stand,” Northup said. The Texas case also involves


Prompt: The Super Bowl is over, which means that baseball season is almost here. More precisely, baseball prediction season is almost here, where ostensibly smart writers trip over themselves to be aggressively dumb in public. I know I'm addicted to the rush, not sure about everyone else. There's just something about picking the Royals for third place that really gets the endorphins firing. Before we get to the actual predictions, though, we'll start with something a little lighter. There are six divisions in baseball. All of them will have a champion in seven months. Our job today is to rank the

divisional races to predict which one will be the most exciting. I didn't do this last year, so I can't laugh at past results, but I absolutely guarantee that my prediction for the least-exciting divisional race would have been the NL East because the Nationals were going to win by 13 games. It turns out that the NL East really was a boring division toward the end, but not because the Nationals ran away with it. The same will invariably apply to this year: The best divisions in baseball will disappoint, and a random team will come out of nowhere to be this year's Astros, which will turn an unexciting race into a September thriller. Until then, we'll go with what we think we know. Here are the best divisional races in baseball, in order from "least exciting" to "most exciting." 6. NL East Before you yell at me too loudly, note that all of these divisional races are rare, beautiful creatures that just might steal our hearts by October. A bad divisional race is still a glorious divisional race, and this exercise is like ranking our children. But some kids are objectively worse than other kids. That's not my fault, and I'm not going to apologize for it. And the NL East should have two good teams, one team on the cusp and two lousy teams. That's a combo to make them a clear last-place finisher. While the other five divisions might not have the raw intensity of a potential Nationals/Mets arms race, they'll mix a third team in the discussion that's more interesting than the Marlins, and they'll have more interesting fifth-place teams than the Phillies and a more interesting fourth-place team than the Braves. That applies if those two switch places, too. In the most basic sense,


Prompt: Mar 8, 2015; Newark, NJ, USA; New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur (30) is honored as part of the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 Stanley Cup championship team before the game between the New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports Kevin Weekes released this article today on NHL.com regarding the release of 6 stamps by Canada Post that will feature six great Canadian NHL goalies of the past. We’re going to take a stab at guessing at least four of the six. We’ve been given some hints that should make figuring

this out a little easier. Let’s see if we can fill out the entire six slots. “Only a few goaltenders can be considered to be among the best of the best.” “Hundreds of goalies have laced up the skates, put on the mask, pads and blocker, and had the courage to get in front of the net with pucks coming right at them, with the shots sometimes topping 100 mph. Equipment or not, that’s no easy feat and isn’t cut out for everyone.” “Not only did each elite goalie make an impression, each left a legacy. Our game is so much better for them having played it. Each has raised the standard and helped change the perception about not only how critical but also how dominant goalies can be in the NHL.” “Each of these goalies left his stamp on the game. Now six Canadian goalies will be honored in a collection of Great Canadian Goalie stamps, which debuts Oct. 1.” “While I can’t tell you who the six will be, I’ll say this: Five of the six are in the Hall of Fame, four have won the Calder Trophy, and each has won the Stanley Cup (a combined 20 times). Not to mention two have won the Conn Smythe Trophy. That’s pretty impressive, so clearly each is deserving of the honor.” “The confidence that each of these men gave their respective teammates, coaches and fans while taking it away from the opposition is immeasurable. They were game-changers. They were Game Savers.” Well time for speculation folks as I dig through some old records and awards to see if we can’t identify who the six Canadian legend NHL goalies are. We know 5 of them are hall of famers, with 4 of them being Calder trophy winners. That makes things


Prompt: The analysis on this page is being published shortly before the end of 2009, and at the date of first publication (Dec 31) is missing the final two weeks of the year. Figures displayed in blue are dynamic and will be updated from the IBC database as the remaining days are added. With this analysis IBC is introducing new interactive graphing tools allowing users to create their own trend analyses. We welcome comments to tGeRkX@@iVrEaNqDbOoBdQyLcPoBuHnAtG..oBrEgTRemove the capital letters to get the email address Civilian deaths from violence in 2009 Analysis of the year’s toll from the Iraq Body Count project

First published Introduction This IBC analysis of 2009 trends begins with the same cautionary note that prefaced the largely “surge” focused 2008 report: …a distinction must be drawn between abstractions represented by varying rates of violence and the reality of that violence for those experiencing it. Every statistic on this page can be traced to a human life violently ended, none of whom are any less a victim for having been killed during a downward trend in violence. Trends 2009 has seen a number of significant improvements in levels of armed and non-state terrorist violence in Iraq. However, even taking into account worsening conditions elsewhere in the world, such violence still afflicts Iraq's population more than any other. Findings are summarised below, with graphs and underlying data available via the 'Show graph' buttons. Yearly totals The annual civilian death toll from violence in 2009 was the lowest since the 2003 invasion, at 5,376 by Dec 31 (2008: 10,274), and had the lowest recorded monthly toll (226 in November). However, for the first time since 2006 there has been no significant within-year decline, and the second half of 2009 saw about as many civilian deaths as the first. This may indicate that the situation is no longer improving. Most violent city On a per-capita basis, Mosul (799 recorded deaths in an estimated population of 1.8m) has in 2009 become significantly more deadly than Baghdad (est. pop. 6.5m, 1,725 deaths), despite none of the year's largest-scale bombings occurring in Mosul. Additionally, Mosul's absolute number of violent incidents deadly to civilians in 2009 (592) far exceeded Baghdad's (459). Civilian deaths caused by Coalition and Iraqi state forces Non-combatant Iraqi deaths resulting directly from actions involving US-led coalition forces were dramatically lower than in the preceding year, with a total of 87 reported by


Prompt: Defending World Champions, European Champions in 2008 and 2012, success at the age-group level, Real Madrid and Barcelona continually top or near the top of the wealthiest clubs list and home grown players much sought after around the world – this is a Golden Age for Spanish soccer ........or is it? Last week there was a very public reminder that success has not brought benefit to all. Because for all the success achieved over the last 10 years or so Spain has an unsustainable system by which the top two teams – Real Madrid and Barcelona - siphon off so

much money that the others are faced with accepting the inevitably of irrelevance or incurring so much debt that bankruptcy becomes just another milestone in the business plan. Along the way suppliers go unpaid, taxes owing to governments mount and players and support staff are surprised if a pay check arrives on time. Racing Santander is not a well known name having never won a top honor in their one hundred year history. Fans in North America are more likely to recognize the name on account of US international defender Carlos Bocanegra playing on loan at Santander last season before signing for Chivas USA. Others with a slightly longer memory may remember when Ukrainian-American businessman Dmitry Piterman bought the club in 2003. There is nothing particularly unusual with a foreign businessman buying a Spanish soccer team but Piterman was not content to just own the club he wanted to run and manage every aspect of the club. A short while after buying a 24% stake and controlling interest in the club a TV interviewer asked Piterman is he was not cutting a bit more off than he could chew with his all-encompassing management style/ego-trip. His response was to say the least sharp and to the point; “There’s a dork running the most powerful country in the world without a qualification to his name. And you ask me for a diploma to run a football team? Give me a break.” However, Piterman could not get the Spanish Football Federation to budge on the technical qualifications to actually coach the club but they were no match for Dmitry. Piterman employed someone with the appropriate qualifications and installed his stooge as a figure-head coach. Meanwhile, Piterman accredited himself as the club photographer albeit one who sat next to the bench and barked instructions


Prompt: With the 2016 elections behind(?) us, we can get back to what auto enthusiasts and consumers do best: bashing automotive retailers. And while dealers doing good work using ‘best practices’ may come as a shock, they do exist – and a few are occasionally identified. One of the best is the Dallas area’s Park Place Lexus, recently recognized by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. And no, this isn’t based on owner Ken Schnitzer’s 0-60 times or track day capability; rather, it’s based on the combined assets of Park Place’s management and staff working to ensure client satisfaction. Crazy concept, that…

The release provided by Park Place Lexus is below. And if you can’t have your own Jay Leno-like garage and staff, use Ken Schnitzer’s. His are among the best… PARK PLACE LEXUS RECOGNIZED FOR BEST PRACTICES IN CUSTOMER FOCUS BY BALDRIGE PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE PROGRAM DALLAS (Nov. 18, 2016) – Texas-based Park Place Lexus has been recognized for a best practice in customer focus by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, part of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program. Park Place Lexus is one of six companies in the United States to be recognized. “The path we started more than a decade ago to pursue the Baldrige Program has led to improved strategies and best management practices we have implemented to better serve our clients,” said Ken Schnitzer, chairman and founder of Park Place Dealerships. “We are honored to be recognized for our commitment to consistently deliver a positive customer experience.” Park Place has two Lexus dealerships in North Texas that jointly received the recognition. Park Place Lexus Grapevine, located near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and Park Place Lexus Plano, just north of Dallas, employ more than 570 people. In 2005, the two dealerships received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest Presidential honor for sustainable excellence through visionary leadership, organizational alignment, systemic improvement and innovation. “Based on our continued improvement through a systematic approach to goal-setting, measures and reviews, we offer our clients the best automotive purchase and ownership experience,” remarked Jordan Case, President of Park Place Lexus. ”We continue to improve our processes of learning what we could do better and pushing ourselves to be the best in our industry.” During a recent visit from Baldrige examiners, a site visit evaluation team spent several days interviewing 400 of Park Place’s nearly 600 Lexus members. Park Place Lexus


Prompt: A man holds an envelope of marijuana that he purchased at a pharmacy in Montevideo in this file photo from July 19 ADVERTISING Read more Montevideo (AFP) Uruguay's unique new marijuana industry has run into a hurdle as international anti-money laundering rules are forcing banks to close the accounts of pharmacies legally selling the drug. Uruguayan pharmacies started selling marijuana last month under a 2013 law that made the South American country the first in the world to legalize pot all the way from production to sale. But lenders such as Uruguayan state bank Banco Republica (BROU) now say they

must abandon such businesses. Not doing so would "cause BROU and its clients to be financially isolated," its president Jorge Polgar was quoted as saying by El Observador newspaper. That would "prevent it from carrying out any kind of operation with an international counterpart," he warned. Another major bank, Santander of Spain, said it too would close any accounts held with it by Uruguayan pharmacies selling the drug. "As a global bank with clients in various countries, we have to observe the various norms in force in those places," a Santander source told AFP. - Blow to government - Some pharmacies have warned they will have to stop selling marijuana because of the banking restrictions. "The truth is we did not know... that this could happen," Economy Minister Danilo Astori was quoted as saying by La Republica newspaper. "A way will have to be found and we are looking for one." The marijuana law was launched by Uruguay's last president Jose Mujica. He urged his successor and ally Tabare Vazquez to find a solution. "If this gets blocked, then the whole parliament will be blocked," warned Mujica, now a senator, whose Broad Front party has a majority in the legislature. Despite widespread public opposition, Mujica pushed through the law, saying it would stem violence and crime by undermining the illegal drugs trade. "This is a blow to the government and to the Broad Front," said Adolfo Garce, a political scientist at Uruguay's University of the Republic. "Having made so much progress, having planted and harvested the marijuana and delivered it to the pharmacies... not being able to sell it due to an unforeseen problem is a very hard blow." Another of the architects of the law, Julio Calzada, said Uruguay will now have to talk with US banks to seek


Prompt: The geography of Canada describes the geographic features of Canada, the world's second largest country in total area. Situated in northern North America (constituting 41% of the continent's area), Canada spans a vast, diverse territory between the North Pacific Ocean to the west and the North Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Arctic Ocean to the north (hence the country's motto "From sea to sea"), with the United States to the south (contiguous United States) and northwest (Alaska). Greenland is to the northeast; off the southern coast of Newfoundland lies Saint Pierre and Miquelon, an overseas collectivity of France.

Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude to the North Pole; however, this claim is contested.[1] While the magnetic North Pole lies within the Canadian Arctic territorial claim as of 2011, recent measurements indicate it is moving towards Siberia.[2] Covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi (land: 9,093,507 km2 or 3,511,023 sq mi; freshwater: 891,163 km2 or 344,080 sq mi), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia and slightly smaller than Europe. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than both the U.S. and China; however, Canada ranks fourth in land area (i.e. total area minus the area of lakes and rivers)—China is 9,326,410 km2 (3,600,950 sq mi) and the U.S. is 9,161,923 km2 (3,537,438 sq mi).[3] The population of Canada, 35,151,728 as of May 10, 2016, is concentrated in the south close to its border with the contiguous U.S.; with a population density of 3.5 people per square kilometre (9.1/sq mi), it is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. The northernmost settlement in Canada—and in the world—is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert (just north of Alert, Nunavut) on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island at 82°30′N 62°19′W, just 834 kilometres (518 mi) from the North Pole. Climate [ edit ] Köppen climate classification types of Canada Arctic tundra covers parts of extreme northern Canada. Canada has a diverse climate. The climate varies from temperate on the west coast of British Columbia[4] to a subarctic climate in the north.[5] Extreme northern Canada can have snow for most of the year with a Polar climate.[6] Landlocked areas tend to have a warm summer continental climate zone[7] with the exception of Southwestern Ontario which has a hot summer humid continental climate.[7] Parts of Western Canada have a


Prompt: Jobless benefits cut off for a million US workers 1 March 2010 Inaction by the US Senate last week will result in the cutoff of extended unemployment benefits and COBRA health care coverage to more than one million workers. The cutoff, which began to take effect Sunday night, demonstrates the unbridgeable social gulf between the working class and the denizens of Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans. The bill to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA coverage was blocked by Republican Senator Jim Bunning, an arch-reactionary from Kentucky who took advantage of a Senate rule requiring unanimous consent to bring the

legislation to a vote before the weekend. Bunning, who is not running for reelection, was contemptuous of the suffering that he was helping inflict on more than one million workers, including an estimated 60,000 from his home state. He demanded that Senate Democrats agree to pay for the extended benefits without creating new debt, and declared that his actions were intended “to send a message to the American people.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Richard Durbin repeatedly called the bill up for a vote. Each time it was blocked by Bunning’s voiced objection. But the Democratic Senate leaders declined to declare his action a filibuster and invoke cloture, although the required 60-vote majority would have been easily attainable. Under Senate rules, cloture would have led to 30 hours of debate on the bill, followed by a vote. This process would have avoided the cutoff of benefits, but would have caused senators to miss their flights home for the weekend. The Democratic leadership calculated that by allowing Bunning to block the extension they would be able to put the Republican minority in a bad light. Reid, Durbin and Vice President Joseph Biden issued hypocritical statements denouncing Bunning, but there was no move to invoke cloture. Instead, the Democrats said they would bring the bill up again next week. Responding to the political embarrassment, Republican Whip Jon Kyl said Sunday that while he supported Bunning in principle, the Republicans would vote to approve a 30-day extension for the unemployment program while further negotiations were conducted on a bipartisan bill to extend the program for an entire year. The expiration of the unemployment extension will have an enormous impact on working people, particularly in the states hardest hit by the collapse of manufacturing employment. Michigan, for instance, has 300,000 workers


Prompt: No. 1 seed Virginia (21-11) will host No. 8 seed Norfolk State (21-11) in the National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday, March 19. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 9 p.m. The Virginia-Norfolk State game will be televised on ESPNU and broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. The winner will advance to the second round against the winner of St. John's and Saint Joseph's. Second-round games are scheduled for March 21-25. Virginia is making its 13th NIT appearance and first under fourth-year head coach Tony Bennett. The Cavaliers claimed NIT championships in 1980 and 1992 and are

appearing in the tournament for the first time since 2006. Virginia is 15-10 all-time in the NIT. The Cavaliers are 1-0 all-time against Norfolk State, defeating the Spartans, 50-49, on Dec. 20, 2010. Virginia is 19-0 all-time against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opponents, including a 75-57 win over Morgan State at JPJ on Dec. 19, 2012. The Cavaliers are coming off a disappointing 75-56 loss against NC State in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. Akil Mitchell (Charlotte, N.C.) led Virginia in scoring and rebounding for the fourth consecutive game with 19 points and eight rebounds. Joe Harris (Chelan, Wash.) added 13 points and Jontel Evans (Hampton, Va.) had a game-high seven assists. All-ACC performers Harris (first team), Mitchell (third team) and Evans (All-Defensive) lead the Cavaliers into postseason action. Harris ranks fourth in the ACC in scoring at 16.9 ppg and Mitchell ranks third in rebounding at 8.9 rpg. Evans leads Virginia with 114 assists. The Cavaliers, who earned an at-large bid into the NIT, rank in the top 12 nationally in five defensive categories, highlighted by their fourth-ranked scoring defense at 55.1 points per game. Offensively Virginia is averaging 64 points per game overall, shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from 3-point land. Freshman Justin Anderson (Montross, Va.) leads Virginia rookies in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocked shots. Sophomore Paul Jesperson (Merrill, Wis.) has made at least one 3-pointer in 12 consecutive games. Freshman Mike Tobey, who made his second career start against NC State, is averaging 10.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in the last three games. Bennett sports a 74-52 record, including a 1-0 mark against Norfolk State, in four seasons at Virginia. Bennett, who guided the Cavaliers to their first NCAA Tournament since 2006-07 last season, is the first Virginia coach to post back-to-back 20-win seasons


Prompt: To hear the Conservatives tell it, some things that exist actually don’t, and others that don’t actually do. Confused? I’ll explain. During question period Thursday, New Democrat Murray Rankin rose on a question unrelated to the ongoing scandal surrounding Mike Duffy and the $90,000 payment from Nigel Wright, and harkened back to earlier times, when we were all still talking about the budget. He told the House the Conservative government is one that denounced an iPod tax, but that “has now introduced its own through the backdoor.” That backdoor is in the shape of the Economic Action Plan 2013, a.k.a.

the federal budget, wherein the government decided to raise tariffs, including those on MP3 players. “In a bizarre twist, we learned just today that the Conservatives have long planned on making this tax retroactive, demanding that retailers pay back-taxes on all the iPods they have sold, and even on some TVs, in the past,” he told the Commons. “Obviously, retailers are simply stunned. Why did the Conservatives not even give industry a warning that these changes were coming?” Ted Menzies, the minister of state for finance, stood to respond on the other side of the chamber. But rather than offer an explanation, he decided to instead lend an evaluation of Rankin’s query. “Mr. Speaker, there is no fact in that question. It is all false,” Menzies said. “The only people in the House of Commons who actually want to put a tax on iPods are the New Democrats. They are the only ones who want to increase taxes.” Over at Canadian Business Thursday, Mike Moffat, an economist at the University of Western Ontario, and the man responsible for uncovering and bringing to light the tariff changes in the budget, noted that a number of importers have written to the government in protest. The group, known as the 9948 Fair Treatment Coalition (named for the tariff number) includes a number of MP3, TV, and computer speaker manufacturers and distributors. He wrote: The Coalition alleges that “the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has misled dozens of Canadian companies for years by inducing them to import MP3 players and other goods into Canada duty-free, all the while planning to later collect millions of dollars in back-duties on the goods, with interest in penalties.” The release goes on to quote members of the 9948 group, including, Ken Buschlen, VP of Finance for Panasonic Canada


Prompt: Foretelling the future can be a tricky business. It’s hard to trust your own psychic abilities. They are skills one comes into by accident and design. There are lots of things that you can try. These can help to hone your skill if you’re a beginner or even a seasoned expert. I’ve been reading the cards and getting psychic readings for over three decades. Over the years I’ve consulted with thousands of professionals and clients about what it is you need to know, what you want to know, and how the different systems work. Keep a Record – It is

good magickal practice to keep track of your readings, dreams, and the events that follow. You don’t need to get obsessively anal about it, but if you keep a journal you can begin to see patterns and signs that you may not have recognized otherwise. – It is good magickal practice to keep track of your readings, dreams, and the events that follow. You don’t need to get obsessively anal about it, but if you keep a journal you can begin to see patterns and signs that you may not have recognized otherwise. Observe your own Thoughts – Consider your own personal observations and associations as they relate to the archetypal symbols present in the Tarot. One of the most important things to remember while reading is “wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” – Consider your own personal observations and associations as they relate to the archetypal symbols present in the Tarot. One of the most important things to remember while reading is “wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” Test and Re-Test – Psychic tests can start with something simple. As your cards a question like will it rain on me today? Or Will I get a call from X in the next 24 hours? Choose simple and verifiable questions to start with. Measure your results against the actual outcomes. – Psychic tests can start with something simple. As your cards a question like will it rain on me today? Or Will I get a call from X in the next 24 hours? Choose simple and verifiable questions to start with. Measure your results against the actual outcomes. Practice – How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Ok, I’m a New Yorker, I couldn’t pass that joke up. No matter what you are trying to achieve


Prompt: It’s been a while we haven’t covered any machine learning algorithm. Last time we discussed the Markov Decision Process (or MDP). Today we’re going to build our knowledge on top of the MDP and see how we can generalise our MDP to solve more complex problems. Reinforcement learning really hit the news back in 2013 when a computer learned how to play a bunch of old Atari games (like Breakout) just by observing the pixels on the screen. Let’s find out how this is possible! In Breakout the goal is to destroy all the bricks at the top of the

screen by bouncing a ball over a paddle that you can move horizontally at the bottom of the screen. Every time the ball hits a brick your score increases. The idea If we want to teach a computer how to play that game, one solution might be to use a classifier such as a neural network where the input would be the screen images and the output the action to perform. It makes sense as for each screen we want to know if the paddle should move left or right (or stay still). The problem is that we need lots of training examples. But this is not how we learn! We don’t want someone to tell us a million time what we should do! Instead we learn by observing the reward we get as a consequence of our actions. This is the essence of reinforcement learning. An agent (the player) performs some actions which change the state of the environment (the pixels on the screen) and gets a reward for his actions (increase of score). Reinforcement learning lies somewhere between supervised and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning we have a label for every training example and in unsupervised learning there is no label at all. In reinforcement learning we have rewards which are sparse and time-delayed labels. Using only on those rewards the agent has to learn to behave in the environment. It may seem simple but there are some challenges along the way. When the ball hits a brick it has nothing to do with the action you just take. In fact it was the action performed when the ball bounced on the paddle that sent the ball against the brick. The problem of identifying which action is at the origin of the reward is known as the credit


Prompt: When the photo of Higuain’s secret medical first leaked, Napoli fans across the world were distraught. The loss of our star striker would have hurt enough but to lose him to our most hated rival; that was heartbreaking. Just months earlier he had been kissing our shirt and singing with fans under the stands shouting about defending the city. Now he plays for the team whose fans invoke Vesuvius to bury that city in lava. As if that were not enough, just as hurtful to fans was his motivation. Higuain didn’t leave for money. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis came

forward and said he had offered more to the Argentine striker than he is currently receiving at Juventus. Higuain left “to win”. He obviously didn’t believe he could do that in a blue shirt; and if he didn’t believe it, then why should we as fans? Without his help and that of his 36 goals, what reason would there be to even dream of competing for trophies? While the supporters remained in shock, the club went to work; scooping up some of the most talented young players in Italy and Europe (Milik, Zielinski, Diawara, Rog, Maksimovic). Yet with youth comes inexperience, and it was only natural to think it would take time for the new acqusitions to settle in and contribute on the field. However, the two youngsters that have been given a chance, Zielinski and Milik, have made an immediate impact. Zielinski is already pushing Allan for a starting spot and Milik has made his claim as the starting striker with a goal per minute ratio that is top in Europe. Their contributions so far have been invaluable and they have given us reason to have high, but tempered, expectations for the other additions. Yet what has really stood out is how the team as a whole has performed on the pitch. Sometimes having a star player can damage a team as they look to force feed him the ball in times of need. Perhaps this was the case with Higuain in Napol; for as impressive as Napoli were last season, this year they look even better. The team’s movement seems even more coordinated. At their best, the players have looked like a single attacking entity. They did at times last year as well but these days it seems more like the normal run of affairs. Without a doubt


Prompt: How much are you willing to give up to keep your monsters out of the Graveyard? Rafael answered this question with the Soul Charge Spell Card, and come April 25th you can use it to put yourself to the test! Soul Charge is simple: Give up your Battle Phase, target any number of monsters in your Graveyard, Special Summon them, and lose 1000 Life Points for each monster you Special Summon. Hidden in Soul Charge’s simplicity is tremendous power. Nearly any Deck can use it, and it can create huge plays and turnaround all on its own… if you can

pay the price! In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, Rafael activated Soul Charge in his second Duel against the Pharaoh to Special Summon Guardian Elma, Guardian Kay’est, and Backup Gardna from his Graveyard. By doing so, Rafael emptied his Graveyard of all monsters and cleared the darkness from his heart, making himself immune to the soul-stealing effects of The Seal of Orichalcos. Although you probably won’t use Soul Charge to escape The Seal of Orichalcos, you will be able to use Soul Charge to gain a dominating lead in your Duels. During the course of a Duel, Duelists gradually destroy each others’ monsters to gain the upper hand. Soul Charge throws a wrench into the best laid plans of your opponent by bringing back all of your monsters at once! Losing 1000 Life Points per monster and the Battle Phase is a hefty cost of doing business, but it’s well worth it when you can do things like… Special Summon Fire Fist monsters like Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla, activate their effects, then combine them to Xyz Summon a powerful Rank 4 monster like Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King or Number 101: Silent Honor ARK. and activate their effects, then combine them to Xyz Summon a powerful Rank 4 monster like or Bring back your Level 7 Mermails like Mermail Abyssmegalo and Mermail Abyssteus , then Xyz Summon a Rank 7 monster such as Mermail Abyssgaios , Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack , or Number 11: Big Eye . and , then Xyz Summon a Rank 7 monster such as , , or . Special Summon all of your Harpie Ladies and quickly Xyz Summon Harpie’s Pet Phantasmal Dragon or Lightning Chidori . No Hysteric Party ? No problem!


Prompt: GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Wildcat formation was a couple of weeks in the making, but Green Bay Packers receiver Randall Cobb had angled for it his whole NFL career. "I've been waiting on it for seven years," Cobb said. "It was fun to be back there a little bit." It might be seven more before the former University of Kentucky quarterback gets another chance to take a direct snap. He did it three times in Sunday against the Bears and the results were underwhelming -- runs for minus-1, 6 and 3 yards. "We've got some work to do with

that," Cobb said. "We didn't line up correctly a couple times. We didn't execute the play like we wanted to a couple times. So if we're going to continue to do that, then we've got to clean it up a little bit." It's something coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Edgar Bennett put into the plan after Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone last month. They finally decided to give it a try against the Bears. What you need to know in the NFL • Statistics • Scoreboard • 2017 schedule, results • Standings "I love it," Cobb said. "That's all I did in college, so that's right up my arsenal." Maybe they should just let Cobb throw it. He's attempted one pass in his NFL career -- an incompletion. He played a hybrid role of quarterback-receiver at Kentucky. He threw five career touchdown passes (and five interceptions). "We did the Wildcat; that was like 40 percent of our offensive production," Cobb said. Cobb had one other run on a traditional toss play from quarterback Brett Hundley and totaled just 8 yards rushing on four attempts. His biggest impact against the Bears came as a receiver with three catches for 52 yards, including a 38-yard catch-and-run to convert a third-and-5 on the first drive of the game, which resulted in a field goal. "Randall by far is one of the toughest guys I've ever been around," Bennett said. "He's sharp ... He has a great awareness, his knowledge of the game, his preparation is off the charts. He does an outstanding job. And then you go back and look at that very first third-down conversion: He goes, runs a good route, breaks a tackle. "And that's what we’ve always been talking about as far as breaking tackles creates a big-play opportunity.


Prompt: The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. You have to give President Barack Obama credit for one thing: consistency. Nothing is ever his fault. Nothing will ever be his fault. Faulting Fox News and the American people, on the other hand, now that's a different story. Do you remember when Obama traipsed around the country and desperately pleaded with Americans to vote for Hillary Clinton because his agenda and his legacy were on the ballot? He made a similar pitch before the shellacking his party took in the 2014 congressional elections.

Yet did he acknowledge after this 2014 failing that he had anything to do with it? Does he own up to his leading role in last month's presidential election? Let's rewind the tape further, to Obama's reaction to his party's stunning defeat in the 2010 congressional elections, which was largely about Obamacare. He didn't acknowledge any personal culpability for visiting that monstrosity on the American people through trickery and deceit. He simply lamented that he hadn't done a good enough job getting the message out to the American people about it, despite his 50 propaganda speeches trying to persuade us to ignore our lying eyes. Do you see the pattern here? Obama's view is that the American people -- those in the red states, anyway -- are a little slow, paranoid and bigoted and need to be brought along carefully into the 21st century, where progressivism has ushered in a new age of enlightenment. His only failing has been in inadequately re-educating the bitter clingers. Let me give you another example. Remember Obama's depiction of the Islamic State group as "a JV team"? How about his claim, the night before the terrorist massacres in Paris, that the Islamic State was "contained"? Did he ever acknowledge his errors there? No. Again, his only failing was in not having communicated sufficiently his counterterrorism strategies to the American people. He said his strategy against the Islamic State was working. (This was before, as I recall, his admission that he had no policy.) The problem was that saturated media coverage after the Paris attacks was fueling terror fears in the United States. He said: "We haven't, on a regular basis, I think, described all the work that we've been doing for more than a year now to defeat" the Islamic State. "If you've been


Prompt: Patent Troll That Accused Company Of 'Hate Crime' For Fighting Back Now Asking Court To Silence Company from the you-fail-at-law dept For the foregoing reasons, Lumen View respectfully requests that the Court grant its Motion for a Protective Order ... to protect Lumen View’s confidential information and (1) prohibiting FTB and its attorney from further communicating with representatives of the media regarding confidential settlement information, or posting such information on social media, (2) require FTB and counsel to take necessary steps to remove from the internet its prior media disclosures, blog posts or press releases that disseminate this protected information,

and (3) to grant any other such relief as this Court deems just and proper. Wasserbauer's request has a couple of problems. First, his idea of what constitutes "confidential information" is pretty broad—it includes not just the $50,000 demand but Wasserbauer's own simple admission about who is behind Lumen View. Second, FindTheBest never signed any kind of non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement.... [....] The rule that Wasserbauer cites, Rule 408 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, is not actually the legal gag order he apparently imagines it to be. The rule doesn't say anything about talking to the media. It simply states that offers of compromise or settlement are often not admissible as evidence in court. We recently wrote about how patent troll Lumen View's lawyer Damian Wasserbauer had gone off the deep end, claiming that an entrepreneur who was fighting back against the trolling was guilty of a hate crime . Kevin O'Connor, the CEO of FindTheBest (FTB) didn't want to give in to a patent troll shakedown, turning down a $50,000 settlement offer and pledging to spend $1 million fighting Lumen View just on principle. That's resulted in a countersuit, arguing that Lumen View is engaged in extortion and racketeering. Wasserbauer (who, frankly, appears to be a bit out of his league here) doesn't seem to be handling the publicity very well. He's asking the court for an astoundingly broad gag order against O'Connor, including saying he needs to try toprior disclosures.Yeah, good luck with that...Of course, as Joe Mullin notes over at Ars Technica, the entire basis of Wasserbauer's argument appears to be a significant misreading of the law:And we won't even get into the laughable claims by Wasserbauer that there's no First Amendment worries in such a gag order, because that's clearly false. It seems clear that


Prompt: Document number: N2271=07-0131 Date: 2007-04-27 Reply to: Paul Pedriana Electronic Arts ppedriana at ea.com EASTL -- Electronic Arts Standard Template Library Paul Pedriana Electronic Arts ppedriana at ea.com Abstract Gaming platforms and game designs place requirements on game software which differ from requirements of other platforms. Most significantly, game software requires large amounts of memory but has a limited amount to work with. Gaming software is also faced with other limitations such as weaker processor caches, weaker CPUs, and non-default memory alignment requirements. A result of this is that game software needs to be careful with its use of memory

and the CPU. The C++ standard library's containers, iterators, and algorithms are potentially useful for a variety of game programming needs. However, weaknesses and omissions of the standard library prevent it from being ideal for high performance game software. Foremost among these weaknesses is the allocator model. An extended and partially redesigned replacement (EASTL) for the C++ standard library was implemented at Electronic Arts in order to resolve these weaknesses in a portable and consistent way. This paper describes game software development issues, perceived weaknesses of the current C++ standard, and the design of EASTL as a partial solution for these weaknesses. Introduction The purpose of this document is to explain the motivation and design of EASTL so that it may help the C++ community better understand the needs of game software development. This document is not a proposal, though some of EASTL's changes and extensions could form the basis for such discussions. The large majority of EASTL would be useful to any kind of C++ software development. This document describes an STL implementation (EASTL) developed within Electronic Arts as an alternative to and extension of the STL defined by the C++ standard library. By STL, we mean the container, iterator, and algorithm components of the C++ standard library, hereafter referred to as std STL (with std referring to the std namespace, whereas the S in STL refers to standard C++). By C++ standard, we mean ISO 14882 (1998) and the 2003 update. The large majority of the design of std STL is excellent and achieves its intended purpose. However, some aspects of it make it hard to use and other aspects prevent it from performing as well as it could. Among game developers the most fundamental weakness is the std allocator design, and it is this weakness that was


Prompt: The only scientists who kept the Business-as-Usual sign hanging out during the war were the mathematicians and astronomers. The other men of learning were engaged in war work. Physicists were making better range-finders, chemists were making better poison gases, and theologians were proving that their gods were in the trenches qualifying for meritorious-conduct medals and kisses on both cheeks. But the astronomers and mathematicians were not doing their bits. While the war was in progress, Albert Einstein was completing his theory at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, and British astronomers were working on plans to test it. It was

fraternizing with the enemy. Scientists of this type have always been dangerous internationalists. They did incalculable harm to Church and State at an earlier time by casting suspicion on the Bible truth that the earth was flat and had four corners, and even today a man who meddles with the universe is regarded as unsafe. One of the organizers of the American Legion started an agitation to bar Einstein from the United States as a Red; the Woman Patriot Corporation lodged a complaint against him with the State Department; an American consular official nearly heckled the scientist into abandoning an American trip; Cardinal O’Connell denounced the Einstein theory as false, atheistic, and immoral; a religious writer charged that Einstein had cribbed the theory from the writings of a thirteenth-century saint. Nevertheless, Einstein slipped past the immigration authorities in 1930, and he did it again last October. Today, he is openly carrying on mathematical work at Princeton. The anti-nationalistic taint in astronomy manifested itself when British astronomers, even before the Treaty of Versailles had been signed, confirmed the new theory that had been made in Germany. On May 29, 1919, two expeditions under the Union Jack—one at Sobral in Brazil, and the other at Principe off the coast of West Africa—photographed an eclipse in order to discover whether starlight, as Einstein’s calculations had indicated, was twisted when it passed a massive body like the sun. They reported that Einstein was right. Since then, his theory has been retouched in detail, but its essentials have been repeatedly verified. No important scientist is to be found among the skeptics, although there is every incentive to debunk Einstein, if it can be done. Immortality awaits the man who can overthrow Einstein. The popular uproar over the theory surprised no one more than the author


Prompt: As Dwight Chandler sipped beer and swept out the thick muck caked inside his devastated home, he worried whether Harvey's floodwaters had also washed in pollution from the old acid pit just a couple blocks away. Long a center of the nation's petrochemical industry, the Houston metro area has more than a dozen Superfund sites, designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as being among America's most intensely contaminated places. Many are now flooded, with the risk that waters were stirring dangerous sediment. The Highlands Acid Pit site near Chandler's home was filled in the 1950s with toxic sludge and sulfuric

acid from oil and gas operations. Though 22,000 cubic yards of hazardous waste and soil were excavated from the acid pits in the 1980s, the site is still considered a potential threat to groundwater, and the EPA maintains monitoring wells there. When he was growing up in Highlands, Chandler, now 62, said he and his friends used to swim in the by-then abandoned pit. "My daddy talks about having bird dogs down there to run and the acid would eat the pads off their feet," he recounted on Thursday. "We didn't know any better." The Associated Press surveyed seven Superfund sites in and around Houston during the flooding. All had been inundated with water, in some cases many feet deep. On Saturday, hours after the AP published its first report, the EPA said it had reviewed aerial imagery confirming that 13 of the 41 Superfund sites in Texas were flooded by Harvey and were "experiencing possible damage" due to the storm. The statement confirmed the AP's reporting that the EPA had not yet been able to physically visit the Houston-area sites, saying the sites had "not been accessible by response personnel." EPA staff had checked on two Superfund sites in Corpus Christi on Thursday and found no significant damage. The Houston metro area has more than a dozen Superfund sites. Many are now flooded, with the risk that waters were stirring dangerous chemicals. The Houston metro area has more than a dozen Superfund sites. Many are now flooded, with the risk that waters were stirring dangerous chemicals. SEE MORE VIDEOS AP journalists used a boat to document the condition of one flooded Houston-area Superfund site, but accessed others with a vehicle or on foot. The EPA did not respond to questions about why its personnel had not yet been able


Prompt: Disney submits plans for an omnimover boat ride In case you missed it last night, theme park fans' corner of Twitter erupted with the discovery that the US Patent and Trademark Office last month published a patent application from Disney for a omnimover boat ride . (Here's an easier-to-read version of the application , from Google.) Images from Disney's patent application Into geekspeak? Here's the abstract of Disney's application: "A floating omnimover ride with high capacity throughput and enhanced control over speeds of passenger boats. The ride includes a water containment structure with spaced apart sidewalls defining an elongated guide

channel that defines a loop-shaped ride path or circuit. The ride includes a volume of liquid contained in the guide channel to a desired depth. The ride also includes a chain of passenger boats floating in the liquid contained in the guide channel. Each of the boats is linked to the two adjacent boats with a connecting link such that the chain of boats is a continuous loop. The chain of boats has a length that is approximately equal to a length of the ride path, and during operation of the ride, the boats in the chain are moved along the loop-shaped ride path at a predefined rate by a pump station moving the liquid in the guide channel." Translation? Picture Pirates of the Caribbean or It's a Small World with the boats all hooked together, nose to tail, a la the Doombuggies on the Haunted Mansion. By linking the boats into a continuous chain, Disney would eliminate bumping and slower boats, which can disrupt the flow of guests through a ride. To maximize hourly capacity, the chain wouldn't stop to load and upload riders, so a moving walkway at the load and unload points would be necessary, as on Mansion. But Disney's been thinking about nifty ways to alter the omnimover ride experience. Here's one: "In addition to the guide channel or trough, the ride system may also include an open bay or free-floating portion or section in which the boats are not guided by and do not contact nearby sidewalls. As long as a sufficient number of the floating vehicles are contained in and guided within the guide channel (or flowing or drive) portion or section of the ride system, other sections of the vehicle chain may be “undriven” by the water in the free-floating section or bay


Prompt: The 48 Laws of Power (1998) is the first book by American author Robert Greene.[1] The book is a bestseller,[2][3] selling over 1.2 million copies in the United States,[4] and is popular with prison inmates and celebrities.[4][5][6][7][8][9] Background [ edit ] Greene initially formulated some of the ideas in The 48 Laws of Power while working as a writer in Hollywood and concluding that today's power elite shared similar traits with powerful figures throughout history.[5] In 1995, Greene worked as a writer at Fabrica, an art and media school, and met a book packager named Joost Elffers.[4][8] Greene pitched a

book about power to Elffers and six months later, Elffers requested that Greene write a treatment.[4] Although Greene was unhappy in his current job, he was comfortable and saw the time needed to write a proper book proposal as too risky.[10] However, at the time Greene was rereading his favorite biography about Julius Caesar and took inspiration from Caesar's decision to cross the Rubicon River and fight Pompey, thus inciting the Great Roman Civil War.[10] Greene wrote the treatment, which later became The 48 Laws of Power.[10] He would note this as the turning point of his life.[10] Reception [ edit ] The 48 Laws of Power has sold over 1.2 million copies in the United States and has been translated into 24 languages.[4] Fast Company called the book a "mega cult classic", and The Los Angeles Times noted that The 48 Laws of Power turned Greene into a "cult hero with the hip-hop set, Hollywood elite and prison inmates alike".[4][11] The 48 Laws of Power has been reported to be much requested in American prison libraries,[5][12] and has been studied as a first year text in some US colleges.[13][14] Rapper 50 Cent stated that he related to the book "immediately", and approached Greene with the prospect of a potential collaboration, which would later become The 50th Law, another New York Times bestseller.[15] Busta Rhymes used The 48 Laws of Power to deal with problematic movie producers.[8] DJ Premier has a tattoo inspired from Law #5, "Reputation is the cornerstone of power", on his arm[6] and DJ Calvin Harris has an "Enter with boldness" arm tattoo based on Law #28.[16] The 48 Laws of Power has also been mentioned in songs by UGK, Jay Z, Kanye West, and Drake.[6][17][18] [19] Dov Charney, founder and former CEO of American Apparel, frequently


Prompt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va. (Photo: Courtesy photo) Donald Trump will host a public rally at Asheville's U.S. Cellular Center on Sept. 12. Doors open at 3 p.m., and the event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at no charge through the Trump campaign's website, donaldjtrump.com/schedule/register/asheville-nc. Nathan West, chair of the Buncombe County GOP, which helped organize the event, said he's expecting a casual rally as opposed to a formal, teleprompter speech. “I think it’s going to be more of a rally," he said.

"I don’t think there’s going to be any specific policy, but I’m not 100 percent sure right now. We just wanted to make a statement in Asheville and to let people know Western North Carolina is in play.” The Republican National Committee, the North Carolina GOP, the local Republican party and the Trump campaign are involved in organizing the event, West said. Other GOP leaders will attend the rally, West said, but those details are forthcoming. West said the organizers are prepared for crowds and protesters. “Have we heard of any (protests)? No. But I’m sure that will develop over the next few days," he said. The United States Secret Service is in charge of security in and around the U.S. Cellular Center, said Joey Robison, public information officer for the city of Asheville, which owns the venue. Local law enforcement will play a supporting role, she said. Matt Quinn, public information officer at the Secret Service's field office in Charlotte, said he could not release details about road closures or protest procedures, but he said details might become available prior to the event. Drivers who do not have to come downtown Monday should avoid the area because of traffic and security, West said. The U.S. Cellular Center website encourages attendees to carpool. West said the event will highlight the number of Trump supporters in the area. Republican organizers want to show that Buncombe County and Western North Carolina are significant this election season, he explained. “I think Asheville, specifically Buncombe County, there is some doubt as to the momentum here," he said. The Asheville metro area displayed a variety of results in the presidential primary in March. More Buncombe County residents voted for Democrat Bernie Sanders than all the Republican candidates combined. In Henderson County, where the majority of


Prompt: Introduced in January in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, HB569 would get rid of marriage. Sort of. To be exact, the proposed bill, currently in committee, privatizes marriage. The New Hampshire state government would no longer issue marriage licenses; instead, it would grant domestic partnerships. If you wanted to get married in the traditional sense, you’d go to your religious house of choice. If you wanted the legal benefits of marriage as it currently stands, you’d get a domestic partnership. And all this would apply to gay and straight couples alike. A group of Republican members of the New

Hampshire state house proposed the bill, coming from the libertarian position that marriage is a contract: that should be recognized and applied by the courts, but that the government has no business, in general, decreeing who may or may not make the contract or imposing any prior conditions, as licensure does. Is this where American marriages are heading? Is this the best solution to the same-sex marriage debate? On one hand, the government has a monopoly on marriage, and government-sanctioned marriages have been disintegrating for years—just look at the divorce rate in the United States [PDF]. Since all 50 states issue no-fault divorces, it’s sometimes easier to end a marriage than it is to end a corporate partnership. David Boaz explained the benefits of privatized marriage for both heterosexual and homosexual couples in his 1997 Slate article: Make it a private contract between two individuals. If they wanted to contract for a traditional breadwinner/homemaker setup, with specified rules for property and alimony in the event of divorce, they could do so. … Marriage contracts could be as individually tailored as other contracts are in our diverse capitalist world… And what of gay marriage? Privatization of the institution would allow gay people to marry the way other people do: individually, privately, contractually, with whatever ceremony they might choose in the presence of family, friends or God. Gay people are already holding such ceremonies, of course, but their contracts are not always recognized by the courts and do not qualify them for the 1,049 federal laws that the General Accounting Office says recognize marital status. Those who consider the word “marriage” to carry great importance can still get married; the institution would just belong to religious organizations (as it originally did) instead of the government. If a church or synagogue or mosque


Prompt: A 42-year-old pastor, Chidiebere Ikpa, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly raping his 14-year-old stepdaughter in the Surulere area of the state. The unidentified victim, a Senior Secondary 2 student who reported the incident to the police, insisted she was raped by the pastor on several occasions. However, on his part, Ikpa denied the allegation, disclosing that it was a neighbour, whom he identified only as Richard, that defiled the 14-year-old girl, but he decided not to report the matter to the police because he (Ikpa) had a forgiving character. Narrating the incidence to The

Punch, the victim said she told her mother about it every time the pastor had canal knowledge of her. She added that whenever she told her mother about it, she usually shouted her down, and refused to take any action on the matter. The accused, who hails from the Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, was arrested by policemen from the Isokoko division, while the victim was taken for medical examination at the Mirabel Centre, Ikeja. The test reportedly confirmed that the girl’s private parts had been tampered with. A police source disclosed that the victim reported that Ikpa had allegedly been sleeping with her since she was ten years old and was the one who ‘deflowered’ her. According to the source, “The victim claimed that the suspect deflowered her when she was 10 years. He had allegedly been sexually molesting the girl since that time. “The victim’s mother is culpable because she knew about the abuses. The girl said it was when her mother failed to take concrete steps that she came to the police.” Meanwhile, the pastor, on denying the allegation, said he flogged the girl last Thursday and she disappeared from the house, not knowing she came to the police to lie against him. Ikpa said, “The girl started living with me when she was 12 or thereabout. That was around 2012. It is not true that I raped her. I flogged her on Thursday for being rude and she did not return home after school. We did not see her until Friday. She had been with the police. “The girl has a boyfriend; his name is Richard. He is the manager of a hotel on Rasak Balogun Street. If the medical result shows someone has been sleeping with her, then it is Richard, not me.


Prompt: Bayesian econometrics is a branch of econometrics which applies Bayesian principles to economic modelling. Bayesianism is based on a degree-of-belief interpretation of probability, as opposed to a relative-frequency interpretation. The Bayesian principle relies on Bayes' theorem which states that the probability of B conditional on A is the ratio of joint probability of A and B divided by probability of B. Bayesian econometricians assume that coefficients in the model have prior distributions. This approach was first propagated by Arnold Zellner.[1] Basics [ edit ] Subjective probabilities have to satisfy the standard axioms of probability theory if one wishes to avoid

losing a bet regardless of the outcome.[2] Before the data is observed, the parameter θ {\displaystyle \theta } is regarded as an unknown quantity and thus random variable, which is assigned a prior distribution π ( θ ) {\displaystyle \pi (\theta )} with 0 ≤ θ ≤ 1 {\displaystyle 0\leq \theta \leq 1} . Bayesian analysis concentrates on the inference of the posterior distribution π ( θ | y ) {\displaystyle \pi (\theta |y)} , i.e. the distribution of the random variable θ {\displaystyle \theta } conditional on the observation of the discrete data y {\displaystyle y} . The posterior density function π ( θ | y ) {\displaystyle \pi (\theta |y)} can be computed based on Bayes' Theorem: π ( θ | y ) = p ( y | θ ) π ( θ ) p ( y ) {\displaystyle \pi (\theta |y)={\frac {p(y|\theta )\pi (\theta )}{p(y)}}} where p ( y ) = ∫ p ( y | θ ) π ( θ ) d θ {\displaystyle p(y)=\int p(y|\theta )\pi (\theta )d\theta } , yielding a normalized probability function. For continuous data y {\displaystyle y} , this corresponds to: π ( θ | y ) = f ( y | θ ) π ( θ ) f ( y ) {\displaystyle \pi (\theta |y)={\frac {f(y|\theta )\pi (\theta )}{f(y)}}} where f ( y ) = ∫ f ( y | θ ) π ( θ ) d θ {\displaystyle f(y)=\int f(y|\theta )\pi (\theta )d\theta } and which is the centerpiece of Bayesian statistics and econometrics. It has the following components: π ( θ | y ) {\displaystyle \pi (\theta |y)} θ | y {\displaystyle \theta |y} f ( y | θ ) {\displaystyle f(y|\theta )} likelihood function, i.e. the density function for the observed data y {\displaystyle y} θ {\displaystyle


Prompt: Over the years since the Veterans Administration scandal, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller has made a lot of noise about helping veterans while not doing a lot that was substantive, particularly dealing with staffing shortages. A statement on the veterans suicide rate, a bill supposedly solving a transplant problem for veterans when the donor is a non-veteran, a statement on Veteran’s Day (he’s for it) were among Heller’s news releases. Four months ago, he touted his support for a bill providing interim funding to keep the VA Choice program alive, which begged the question of why the program needed such stopgap

funding mid-year.. The reason was that Republicans keep veteran programs on a short financial leash. Several years ago, when the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association still published report cards on voting records of congressmembers, we reported that Democrats regularly provide greater support for vets than Republicans. That may have seemed counterintuitive to those who think Democrats are soft on military spending, but we quoted columnist Bob Geiger, who scrutinized the scores: “The worst grade received by a Senate Democrat was higher than the best grade received by a Senate Republican.” To put it simply, today’s Republicans who have taken over the GOP do not like government. Waiting lines will always be with veterans until a Congress is elected that does not want to see government fail. Heller is a member of a party that takes pleasure in seeing public agencies stumble because of obstacles placed in their path by Congress. That’s why service to veterans often moves at a crawl. And Heller has not himself broken from that belief system to get more assistance for veterans. This year, though Heller has been quick at every opportunity to portray himself publicly as the veterans’ advocate, he never said a word about the problems posed by the Republican tax cut bill to a troubled Veterans Choice program. Indeed, there is no evidence that Heller even knew about the intersect of the two. The Choice program gives access to services, surgeries, and treatment for vets that Veterans Administration programs cannot provide, and also assures vets in low-population areas care near their homes The army newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that the tax bill “muddied debate … on legislation that would significantly change the system that veterans use to receive private health care. … During the past year, disagreements over how to reform the


Prompt: It was Dec. 1, 2013. With the score at 7-7 in the second quarter, the Philadelphia Eagles marched to the Arizona Cardinals’ 6-yard line. It was at this moment when Chip Kelly unveiled a surprising wrinkle. From Video If Nick Foles was there, who was lined up as quarterback? From Video Meet Brad Smith. He has experience as a wide receiver, running back, quarterback, kick returner and special teams ace. A few things about this play made people believe this was the Wildcat formation. The starting quarterback was positioned as a receiver, and a player who wasn’t the starting quarterback

took the snap. In fact, the Wildcat formation doesn’t require either of those things. From Video The Wildcat formation always uses an unbalanced line, specifically the tackle-over set. The tight end lines up next to the weakside guard, while the two offensive tackles are next to each other on the playside. From Video Motion always sets up the play’s run from the Wildcat formation: usually a power run by the player taking the snap, a jet sweep by the motion man or a pass. Kelly insisted after the Eagles-Cardinals game that he did not call the Wildcat formation. “It was not a Wildcat play,” head coach Chip Kelly said. “It’s just Brad Smith plays quarterback. So let’s straighten that out right now. We don’t run the Wildcat. It’s just a play. He played quarterback. Nick played receiver because Brad’s really good with the ball in his hands.” From Video There was no tackle-over set or motion man. Kelly was absolutely correct when he said this play was not the Wildcat. So, if it wasn’t the Wildcat, what was it? Look at where running back LeSean McCoy lined up. This should be familiar to Oregon and Eagles fans who know how the Inside Zone Read works. From Video Ignore the fact that Smith fumbled the ball. That isn’t the important part. McCoy was preparing for the mesh point with Smith, as he would during an Inside Zone Read. The offensive line was zone blocking the defense. It left the outside linebacker unblocked, probably because Smith was supposed to be reading him on this play. It is also noteworthy that there were three receivers (Riley Cooper, Jason Avant, Foles) who each faced single-coverage. From Video Cooper ran what appeared to be a corner route. Avant ran a crossing route. Foles took All-Pro


Prompt: Nevada OSHA has finished its investigation into the death of Sarah Guillot-Guyard, the Cirque du Soleil performer who fell 94 feet during the climactic scene of Ka on June 29 and later died. OSHA determined that accident happened when the wire rope she was suspended from broke. According to the report, the wire rope “was severed due to the rapid ascent of the performer, ultimately causing the rope to be freed from the sheave/pulley and scraping against a shear point.” OSHA officials cited Cirque du Soleil with six proposed citations and more than $25,000 in fines and MGM Grand with

three citations and a $7,000 fine. Cirque du Soleil and MGM are appealing the fines. One of the citations for Cirque du Soleil includes a failure to “protect or prevent ‘Ka’ employees from striking an overhead grid during the ‘Ka’ show at the ‘Ka’ Theater.” Reporting for the Las Vegas Sun, John Katsilometes wrote that “This matches reports from those familiar with the ‘Ka’ staging and fatal incident that Guillot-Guyard did hit the metal grid over the stage as she ascended high above the Final Battle scene, which jarred the rope connecting her to her harness.” Katsilometes also reported that Cirque du Soleil will be appealing the fine: In a statement that also referenced Cirque’s internal review of the incident, [Cirque du Soleil spokeswoman Rene-Claude Menard] said: “Cirque du Soleil completed an exhaustive review of its safety policies and procedures in the wake of the tragic accident involving Sarah. We have redoubled our efforts to ensure the overall diligence and safety of our performers and crew. We have received and reviewed the OSHA citations. We have initiated the appeal process as part of OSHA’s administrative protocol. Safety always has been the top priority for Cirque du Soleil, its performers and crew members.” On the KTNV website, Krista Hostetler listed the citations OSHA has proposed. They are: Summary of Cited Violations Cirque du Soleil: - NRS 618.375 (1): A General Duty Citation was issued because the employer did not protect or prevent KA employees from striking an overhead grid during the KA show at the KA Theater. $7,000 proposed penalty. - The first part of the General Duty Citation was issued because the employer did not provide proper training for the KA Battle Spearman Warrior employee involved in the accident in the use of equipment and tasks used in the Ka


Prompt: Most Americans do not even think about getting information from alternative news sources The US most popular TV channel Fox News has been beaten by CNN for the first time during the last seven years. Preferences of US citizens were affected by the media reporting of the election campaign and the country’s foreign policy. Twelve million TV viewers preferred the ‘objective’ CNN to Fox News that justifies George Bush’s policy. Most Americans do not even think about getting information from alternative news sources In April 2008 the CNN audience counted 62 million people, while Fox News had only 50 million

TV viewers, Handelsblatt reports. According to US media experts, the reason for this change is the information policy run by the competing TV channels. “CNN has beaten all the TV channels by the quality of its programs concerning the elections,” said Joe Cuthbert, a professor of the Department of Journalism of the Columbia University in the City of New York. Fox News, a part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, engaged in one-sided advocacy of the stance of the current US administration, instead of providing all-round objective reports of election campaigns. Economists proved that George Bush would have never won the 2000 election but for the support from Fox News. The TV channel definitely backs up right-wing Republicans, Cuthbert considers. “Fox is rather the advocate of Bush’s government than a news TV channel. Now the political ship is sinking, and so is Fox.” Jonathan Mann who has been working for CNN for 20 years remembers that “CNN used to be a tiny company with a small budget and minimum possibilities.” Now the moderator is 47 years old, but he started as a European correspondent in Paris, and did reports on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. “At that time we first tried to work in a new way – to broadcast news day and night.” Naturally, some companies followed that example and later turned into our serious rivals: Fox News and MSNBC in the USA, as well as BBC World, Sky News, N-TV, N24 and other channels in Europe. Today in India alone there are over 25 news channels. “CNN sells a certain product – this product is called information,” Jonathan Mann said. In late 1990s CNN reduced the amount of political news and started doing more talk shows. As a result, from


Prompt: The Last Jedi doesn’t feel like a Star Wars movie. This isn’t a bad thing, exactly. There are moments of brilliance where director Rian Johnson is clearly trying to elevate this franchise, imbue it with a greater complexity. There are other moments that feel like the worst of Marvel films. And then there are the porgs, which are a bit like the Minions of the franchise. I’m going to go ahead and discuss spoilers from here on out, because I feel this film is difficult to dissect without going into detail, and let’s be honest, nobody needs a recommendation to

go and see a Star Wars film. So if you haven’t seen it, read no further. Major Spoilers ahead The very first scene, with Hux’s threat to Poe turning into a prank call, was tonally off. Guardians of the Galaxy was heavily influenced by Star Wars, and now it seems that inspiration has turned full circle. In fact, although some of the humor was welcome, there was far too much wisecracking throughout the film. At the end, I half expected Rey’s ship to crash land on Earth and encounter the Avengers, only to turn to the camera and wink as the credits rolled. On the other hand, there are some surprisingly mature themes here, as the franchise moves beyond the very clearly defined good and evil of the past installments. The importance of failure, the refusal to define Kylo by his Force allegiance, and the admission that heroes can come from humble backgrounds are all interesting attempts to diversify the narrative. I confess, I never liked Luke Skywalker as a character before (please don’t hate me), but I really enjoyed his presence in this film. Luke has grown beyond the starry-eyed boy and into a jaded, isolated old master, paralleling Yoda’s journey from the original trilogy. But the moment where he intended to murder the young, sleeping Kylo felt utterly wrong, going against the grain of everything the character is. It may have been only an instant, but Skywalker always seemed genuinely innocent, the kind of guy who doesn’t learn to masturbate until his late teens. The man is a boy scout, and he has no business murdering sleeping students. That being said, Mark Hamill has only improved with age, and I was deeply sorry to see him go. I loved his dramatic force-projection scene with Kylo, and him peacefully


Prompt: + Show + Game 1 08:00 GMT (+00:00) oGsSuperNoVa vs makaprime Game 2 TLAF-Liquid`HuK vs Winner Game 3 MvPviOlet vs Winner Game 4 ChoyafOu vs Winner Game 5 09:00 GMT (+00:00) SlayerSMin vs Winner Game 6 HannibalPrime vs Winner Game 7 SlayerSDrugBird vs Winner Game 8 oGsTheStC vs Winner Game 9 10:00 GMT (+00:00) oGsVINES vs Winner Game 10 NuclearfOu vs Winner Game 11 AnnyungPrime vs Winner Game 12 TLAF-Liquid`Jinro vs Winner vsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvs + Show + FXOpen Korean KOTH Sunday, May 15 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) Presenting the latest line of FXOpen e-Sports events, the FXOpen KOTH . This competition will

see some of the best players across all three servers compete in a king of the hill style format where ladder points and $300 cash is up for grabs for players who accrue the most wins.This event is set to take place each weekend alternating between theandeach time and featuring several players, including those which miss out onparticipation due to other commitments. The ladder points also contribute towards eventual offline events with much larger prizepools to be announced later in the year, and strong performances in the KOTH lead to more invites to anseparate from the previously announced LAN.Keep track of the standings by total wins and ladder points on the FXOpen e-Sports Forums This is the Korean-based event with players selected from Korea and people residing in Korea. Remember, if you don't see your favourite player here many of the names will be recycled each month, while prizewinners from the previous month will be given first chance at a repeat invite!All invited players will play in order against the winner of the previous match. After all players have played, the player standing undefeated at the end will recieve, and the player with the longest win-streak of the night will recieve. Ladder points for the event will also be awarded as below:The last-man-standing and longest streak from the previous month will be invited back to play in Game 1 the following episode, up to a maximum of two events in a row.Last man standing:Highest win streak:In addition to cash prizes, players who participate in our invitational series will accruedirectly towards invites for future LAN events with much bigger prizepools.Maps will be selected by the challenger from the following:Terminus RETal'Darim AltarMetalopolisScrap StationShakuras PlateauThe Shattered TempleXel'Naga CavernsCrevasseFXOpen is a forex trading company seeking to get more involved in the game they are


Prompt: A ship jointly owned by Swedish, Greek, and Norwegian activists hoping to join a flotilla of activist vessels challenging Israel's economic blockade of Gaza, had its propeller cut while in Athen's harbor today. A spokesman contacted by the Monitor said that the damage was a deliberate act of sabotage. Israel and its allies have been working hard to head off the planned flotilla, which is hoping to enter the waters off Gaza in the next week. Col. (ret) Ann Wright, who's organizing a US vessel named the Audacity of Hope for the flotilla, says her ship has been detained in

Athens on spurious charges that it's not seaworthy. She says that charge was made by an Israeli legal group. Now the Juliano is held up. Mikael Löfgren, a spokesman for Ship to Gaza Sweden, says the damage was discovered at 6:30 in the evening Athens time today, and that divers probably cut the propeller in the past 24 hours. "The reports I'm receiving is that it's certain that it was sabotage," says Mr. Löfgren, reached by phone in Sweden. "The propeller and [propeller shaft] has been cut and we have divers that have filmed the damages. Experts have said there’s no doubt" that the damage was deliberate. He says that repairing the damage will take a few days. As to who is responsible, he declined to speculate. "We simply don't know who did it, but it's obviously a hostile act," says Löfgren. Israel has been desperate to stop the flotilla from nearing Gaza. Israel raided a similar flotilla in international waters last year, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists in the process, one of them an American citizen. In the wake of that event, and the international outcry against Israel, Israel eased some of the restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza. This year, Israel is determined it doesn't get that far. Earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approve using any means necessary to stop the flotilla from reaching Gaza. The US has also been putting pressure on the activists to hold back. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton characterized the flotilla as hostile in a comment last week. "We think that it's not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke action by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves," Clinton said. The flotilla, in fact, says


Prompt: The Ice Light is “a portable, dimmable, daylight balanced, continuous LED light source with a built in battery” that costs $450. In this post I will show you how I made a DIY version for less than $30. Parts Used You’ll only need to pick up 6 things to build a DIY ice light: Defiant 700 lumen focusing LED flashlight ($19.88 from Home Depot. Model #: HD14Q406) 24″ PVC pipe, 1.5″ diameter (~$2) 1.5″ PVC coupler (~$1) 1.5″ PVC cap (~$1) 48″ Fluorescent bulb shield (~$2. This slides over a fluorescent bulb to prevent it from shattering) Small piece of

aluminum foil. (Had it in the house, because we’re civilized) The Steps I redesigned the PVC pipe and made it about 5″ shorter. It was too long and unwieldy. I took a little more care in marking off the space to cut out. The blue tape worked perfect to keep a straight line. Cut the opening in the PVC pipe. This can be whatever width you want. Mine is a little less than halfway through. Cut the flourescent shield to the same length as the pipe. Then use a utility knife to cut it longways. Sand the inside and outside of the fluorescent shield to create a “smoked glass” look and set aside. This shows how I got the fluorescent shield to stay large enough to snugly fit into the pipe. Just a simple slit on one side and the other side slides in. Also you can see how the once clear plastic looks after sanding it: Remove the “crown” off of the bulb end of the flashlight. You will still have the reflector cone and clear focuser inside the light. This takes a bit of sanding for adjustment but the 1.5″ coupler almost threads perfectly onto the end of the flashlight. Sand as needed and test fit. Push 24″ PVC into the unsanded coupler end. PVC Cement can be used if desired. I shoved a wrinkled disc of foil in the end cap to reflect light back. Don’t make it too thick or the PVC pipe wont go in all the way. Cut a piece of aluminum foil slightly bigger than then end of the PVC pipe, shiny side toward the flashlight. Fit it over the pipe and slide the PVC Cap about half way on. If there’s any foil sticking out, trim with utility knife. Then press Cap


Prompt: And so, we stagger into an even more uncertain future Emotions ran high as Hong Kong legislators opened debate on a controversial electoral reform package on Wednesday. Supporters and opponents made last-ditch efforts after extensive campaigns to influence public opinion. (In the end, the measure was roundly rejected, with 28 votes against eight in favor of the bill after most of its supporters walked out.) As if these were not enough drama, police smashed a bomb plot on Monday that recalls conspiracies such as the Gunpowder Treason Plot, a failed assassination attempt on England’s King James in 1605, or the

Reichstag Fire, an arson attack on the German parliament building in Berlin in 1933. One can’t help feeling that worse things are about to happen. Prosperous metropolis The British colonial authorities didn’t bother with so-called “desinicization” of Hong Kong. Rather, they gave way to local customs and did not force people to spurn Chinese history, culture, religion and the like. Under the British, Hong Kong earned a place on the global map as a prosperous metropolis unequalled in any Chinese society. China’s rapid rise as a global power and its growing ambitions have had a negative effect on local politicians and the business elite. They have become Beijing’s lackeys to promote its political agenda in Hong Kong including a controversial roadmap to the 2017 chief executive election. Young Hong Kong people see such moves by Beijing as a bad omen, especially after it issued a white paper last year in which it asserted full control and authority over Hong Kong in contravention of “one country, two systems”. Their concerns, dismissed as unrealistic and doomed, remain unanswered by Beijing and their own government. What’s worse, they are increasingly alienated by a government that is not above questionable tactics. Their disaffection has been used as an excuse by so-called “localists” to push separatism. That used to be a pipe dream. Now, the notion of Hong Kong independence has entered the real world. Secessionists are a minority but in a time of globalization and social networking, their message may be catching on. Although it might take a long time before they hit world headlines and begin to rattle China, it cannot be completely ignored. Three-year spiral It has only been three years into Leung Chun-ying’s administration and we’re already seeing a precipitous decline in social cohesion. Leung’s style of governance has led to


Prompt: Robbie Dinwoodie reported in Friday’s Herald (here) that it was likely the Scotland Bill Committee at Holyrood would recommend that the Parliament withhold legislative consent unless joint commencement arrangements for the income tax provisions were agreed. It’s odd that this particular issue should seemingly be the decisive one, though less so if one looks at the conduct of the various parties. The unease of the Holyrood committee about the bill is no wonder. The committee has an SNP majority, including three ex-ministers. The UK Government has declined to amend the bill as requested by the predecessor committee, let alone in

accordance with the changes sought by the SNP Scottish Government. The bill already failed to incorporate some recommendations made by the Calman Commission (notably devolving a share of income tax arising from interest and dividend payments, air passenger duty and the aggregates levy), but included a UK Government wish-list of powers over matters like referrals to the UK Supreme Court and international relations that would increase UK power to control the use of devolved powers. None of that is conducive to helping gain support for the bill at Holyrood. There’s a long list of concerns about the bill, including those set out in my own evidence, and the evidence of Michael Moore and David Mundell last week may have been emollient but it was also unyielding. But perhaps the key issue is the way the Scottish block grant is to be cut to allow for the new devolved power over income tax. This has been a key objection of mine to the bill’s proposals, from the time it was published just under a year ago. It ought to be fairly straightforward to calculate the first year’s reduction, and illustrative figures for that could have been prepared when the first UK Government white paper was published in November 2009 (but wasn’t). What’s more difficult is the methodology for adjusting that amount in subsequent years, so the amount by which the block grant is reduced in year 5 or year 10 after the new system is introduced is still ‘proportional’. This issue was covered in a single sentence into the Calman Commission report, but took 10 pages in the Holtham commission’s report looking at the same issue for Wales. Although the first Scotland Bill Committee made a recommendation about the approach based on the evidence of Gerald Holtham, the UK Government has


Prompt: Concepcion, Chile (CNN) -- You couldn't see the sun rise in Concepcion because the cloud cover was so thick. You couldn't hear a sound because a curfew had silenced the streets. The only activity was the occasional rumble of the Earth. And, after each rumble, a little more brick and roof gave way in this shattered little city. Concepcion feels like it's falling to pieces. It's not just pieces of homes vulnerable to the earthquakes -- most have stood up well. It's falling apart from the aftereffects that have plagued this city since that awful morning: the looting, the lack

of fuel, food and water and a burning frustration that not enough is being done for people with high expectations of their government. A fire at a clothing store seems on the verge of reigniting. Piles of newly fallen bricks and glass block streets, products of a night of persistent shaking. The military seems to have invaded, firing into the air to deter looting and rolling large military equipment through empty communities. Full coverage of the Chilean earthquake All this carries on while a rescue operation seems to be wrapping up. Manuel Mendoza, a firefighter, told a crowd gathered around a collapsed 15-story building that the searchers didn't have the right type of equipment to pick through the rubble. It wasn't long before an aftershock drove his men from even their limited search. They haven't heard sounds of life since early Monday morning. A police unit has shown up to sift through personal belongings recovered inside and marked them according to floor. They wanted something to give to relatives, even if just an unusable laptop. O'Brien: Looters are leaving the biggest aftershocks A woman showed up to marvel at how she and her husband and two kids emerged alive from the 12th floor. It's so low now that her daughter's bedroom window is a foot from the ground. We could poke our heads in and see it was crushed, yet here she was with a soft neck brace. She was ready to leave, and so seemed much of Concepcion. The curfew ran from 6 p.m. to noon, stalling people eager to go out in search of water or fuel. So when it lifted, the town seemed to erupt with activity. After more than three days of looting and aftershocks, people headed to the airport by the hundreds. iReport: Are you


Prompt: Metropolitan News-Enterprise Thursday, December 15, 2005 Page 11 REMINISCING (Column) At 10-2 and 4 OClock , It Was Dr. Pepper Time By ROGER M. GRACE Ive come across an ad for a Dr Pepper contest. To have a chance at winning $5,000 tax free, the ad says, an entrant simply has to supply the second line for this couplet: A lift for life at 10, 2 and 4  . In case youre thinking of rushing to get your submission in, sorry, you muffed the deadline. It was midnight , July 31, 1951. A more recent Dr Pepper contest had

a May 22, 1965 deadline. The first prize was described thusly: Two fun-filled weeks in scenic Switzerland (TIME capital of the world), a car clock (installed in a 1965 Mustang), His and Her Longine watchesand$10.24 an hour, 24 hours a day for 14 days . The contest placed an accent on time, an ad explained, because weve clocked 10, 2 and 4 as traditional Dr Pepper times. The sum of $10.24 was arrived at, it was spelled out, was [t]o remind you of 10, 2 and 4what else! If youre my vintage, or older, or just a bit younger, Dr Peppers tie to the numerals 10, 2 and 4 is no mystery. I strongly suspect, however, that if my daughter were to read the foregoing, it would make absolutely no sense to her. The significance of the numerals to the popular fruit-based soft drink is explained on the website of the oldest bottler of Dr. Pepper (in Dublin , Texas ) as follows: It was in the 1920s that Dr. Walter Eddy at Columbia University studied the bodys metabolism. He discovered that a natural drop in energy occurs about 10:30 a.m. , 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. But he also discovered that if the people in his research study had something to eat or drink at 10, 2 and 4, the energy slump could be avoided. After Dr. Eddys research findings were released, Dr Pepper challenged its advertising agency to come up with a theme which would suggest that Dr Pepper should be that 10, 2 and 4 drink which would keep the energy level up. The result was one of the most enduring of Dr Peppers advertising themes: Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2 and 4. Promotions for Dr. Pepper centered on those numbers. For example, an


Prompt: Microsoft’s policy, which it calls its Services Agreement, allows it to analyze customer content from one its free products and use it to improve another service — for example, taking information from messages a consumer sends on Windows Live Messenger and using it to improve messaging services on Xbox. Previously, that kind of sharing of information between products would not have been allowed under Microsoft policies, which limited the use of data collected under one of its products to that product alone. Microsoft has promised, however, that it will not use the personal information and content it collects to sell

targeted advertising. It will not, for example, scan a consumer’s e-mails to generate ads that might interest the user. Google does that, and expanding its ability to draw on that content was part of the reason Google changed its privacy policy this year. But the new Microsoft policy does allow for such targeted advertising. Microsoft promised not to do so in blog posts and e-mails informing its customers about the change, but not in the formal policy. That has some privacy advocates nervous. “What Microsoft is doing is no different from what Google did,” said John M. Simpson, who monitors privacy policy for Consumer Watchdog, a California nonprofit group. “It allows the combination of data across services in ways a user wouldn’t reasonably expect. Microsoft wants to be able to compile massive digital dossiers about users of its services and monetize them.” Jack Evans, a Microsoft spokesman, says the company’s plans are benign. He differentiates between the Services Agreement, also known as the terms of use, that was changed on Friday and the company’s Privacy Policy, which was last updated in April. “Over the years, we have consistently informed users that we may use their content to improve the services they receive,” Mr. Evans said in a written statement. “For instance, we analyze content to improve our spam and malware filters in order to keep customers safe. We also do it to develop new product features such as e-mail categorization to organize similar items like shipping receipts in a common folder, or to automatically add calendar invitations. “However,” he added, “one thing we don’t do is use the content of our customers’ private communications and documents to create targeted advertising. If that ever changes, we’ll be the first to let our customers know.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main


Prompt: Katedra (Cathedral in English) is a Lithuanian Heavy Metal band, founded in 1986. From the outset, it was significantly influenced by the style of Iron Maiden.[1] Members [ edit ] Current members [ edit ] Former members [ edit ] Povilas Meškėla – vocals (episodically also trombone), Romas Rainys – guitar, Marius Giedrys – drums, Naglis Patamsis – keyboard, Algimantas Radavičius – bass guitar, Domas Dėdinas - drums, Gediminas Jurgaitis - bass guitar. History [ edit ] Beginning [ edit ] In its first incarnation, Katedra was composed of the three musicians: Ričardas Laginauskas on guitar, Algimantas Radavičius on bass,

and Marius Giedrys on drums. Later, former Foje guitarist Romas Rainys and even then-unknown vocalist Povilas Meškėla joined the band. December 1986 was the official start of Katedra. Mors Ultima Ratio and break up [ edit ] In 1989 band finished recording their first LP called "Mors Ultima Ratio" (Latin: "Death is the final accounting"). Although, it was released a year after recording, Katedra's first vinyl album gained extreme popularity in Lithuania. "Mors Ultima Ratio" was also noticed by Edgar Klusener from "Metal Hammer" magazine. He described Katedra as: "that is pure thrash metal act, strong both musically and technically. In fact the formation is superior in comparison with 90 percent of similar Western acts. So it is evident how far the music in Lithuania made headway. Katedra are the only matadors in Lithuania and maybe stand among the hottest European thrash metal bands".[2] Gained popularity, opened doors to concerts abroad. In 1991 Katedra played at "Baltic Sea Music Festival" in Sweden. Unfortunately, it was the last gig for Povilas Meškėla and Romas Rainys with the band. Soon after the festival they left Katedra. Downturn [ edit ] The band was now seeking another shift: Ričardas took over the vocalist position. The band's output at this time included the album "Natus in articulo mortis"; their music became more severe; and Ričardas's vocal entry of the Katedra sounds from the standard clichés.[citation needed] The trio played many concerts and their albums were played on Lithuanian radio stations. Later, and for some time, concert activity was stopped. Although the trio continued to build and perform together, the group's name was almost forgotten. It was a new generation, and new names appeared on the Metal stage. In February 2001, the band was invited to play an acoustic concert on Lithuanian national television. The