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Comedy recordings have actually been around as long as there have been record players. |
After battling the FCC and the broadcast network on the numerous legal technicalities for decades, a pay cable network makes its debut in 1972 transforming the comedy landscape forever. |
Mia Anderson was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in December of 2014. She finished her semester exams, drove home, and collapsed at the front door. |
Mia is naturally philanthropic and has always donated her time and energy to causes she feels passionate about. She decided to sell her bracelets to raise money for Dr. Montoya’s ME/CFS research and to spread awareness about this little known illness. She hoped her bracelets would spark conversations about this devasta... |
In late 2015, Mia debuted an earthy, colorful collection of bracelets made with beautiful Tibetan beads. She and her mother hosted a jewelry party and by the end every bracelet had been claimed. Since then, Mia has created a Facebook page, where she displays and sells her bracelets. |
Through Dr. Montoya, Mia met another young person with ME/CFS, Brian Thompson. Like Mia, Brian has had to put his life on hold indefinitely. In December 2015, Mia profiled Brian for her blog. Soon after she published his profile, two other young people reached out to share their stories. |
In the medical world, “bedside to benchside” is a common idiom for translating medical research into treatment. Mia feels she will be well enough to accept the invitation to come to Stanford this summer. She will assist Dr. Montoya and his team with ME/CFS research. |
One day, Mia hopes to be able to give back to the world, as a doctor or physician’s assistant. In the meantime, she plans to continue making a difference and raising awareness for ME/CFS, bead by bead. |
You can read Mia’s blog by clicking here. |
You can see Mia’s jewelry by clicking here. |
Nearly 17 years ago, Sandra’s 10-year-old daughter, Rachel, came down with what seemed like an ordinary case of mononucleosis. But when months went by, and Rachel did not get better, Sandra knew that something was wrong. After visiting many different specialists, Rachel’s pediatrician, who had completed her residency a... |
Around the same time, Sandra also developed ME/CFS, which may be genetic in nature. One day at work, she went from feeling normal to feeling incredibly weak and faint. That marked the beginning of her and her daughter’s struggle with ME/CFS, a disease they live with to this day. |
“We all want hope, and it’s hard to come by,” Sandra said, when sharing why she supports Dr. Jose Montoya’s research. Sandra first read about Dr. Montoya’s work on a patient-run blog. Reading about his research filled her with hope, and moved her to make a gift. |
While Sandra and Rachel have not fully recovered, they are doing their best to live life to the fullest. By negotiating considerable accommodations for her health challenges, Rachel graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and completed a prestigious graduate program at the London School of Economics. She... |
By supporting Dr. Montoya’s research, Sandra is doing her part to ensure a future where ME/CFS is easily detectable and treatable. All gifts to the Stanford ME/CFS Initiative go towards researching this complex, little-understood disease, with an eye towards creating new treatments that will improve the lives of all ME... |
Top performances from Thursday's Lafayette area high school events. |
Benton Central's offense was in high gear from the tip Thursday night, and the Lady Bison surged to a 77-36 victory at Delphi. |
Audrey Strawsma had a game-high 22 points for BC (20-2), which led 20-11 after one quarter. Kelsey Coffman added 14 points and was one of four Lady Bison in double figures. Emma Fisher contributed 13 points and six assists, while Tressa Senesac had 12 points. |
Turnovers hindered any chance Delphi (10-8) had to make a comeback. Lillie Smith had 18 points to lead the Oracles. Harley Myer added eight points and five rebounds. |
Jaimie Diedam scored 25 points to become South Newton's career scoring leader with 1,071. |
Sara Rose's game-high 23 points helped the Vikings (12-7) pull away in the second half against their county rival. |
Maggie Gutwein had nine points for Twin Lakes (6-14). Lucy Mowery grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to go with eight points. |
Camryn Geheb was 5 of 12 shooting from 3-point range as part of a game-high 21 point performance that led the Hornets (5-13), who snapped an eight-game losing streak. |
Megan Wagner's 13 points led the Cougars, who couldn't overcome Western's 19-2 start. |
Adin Vallier’s victories in the 200-yard IM and the 100 breaststroke led the Bronchos. |
Walker Hands (200 freestyle), Kyle Mellady (50 freestyle) and Aidan Shoemaker (100 butterfly) were victorious for Fountain Central. |
Katherine Cockerill led the Bronchos with victories in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke. |
Gretchen Ratcliff was also a double-winner for Fountain Central, touching first in the 50 and 100 freestyle races. |
The delegation comprised former minister and MP Madan Lal Sharma, former MLC Ravinder Sharma, former minister Shabir Ahmad Khan and senior leader Kuldeep Raj Verma. |
The Congress in Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday reached out to the family of CRPF jawan Naseer Ahmad who was killed in the terrorist attack on the force’s convoy in Pulwama district, a party spokesman said. Ahmad, a resident of Dodasanbala in Rajouri district, was among the 39 other CRPF jawans killed after a suicide bomber ... |
A delegation of senior party leaders and functionaries of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) visited residence of Ahmad and conveyed deepest condolences to them, the spokesman said. The delegation comprised former minister and MP Madan Lal Sharma, former MLC Ravinder Sharma, former minister Shabir Ahmad Khan an... |
The leaders observed two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the jawans killed in the attack. They said the nation will not forget the supreme sacrifices of jawans who are fighting militants to defend the nation and save the lives of its citizens. |
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has stated that he wants the US to maintain its military presence in Syria. “We believe American troops should stay for at least the mid-term, if not the long-term,” he told Time Magazine on Thursday. |
The crown prince's statement came amid US President Donald Trump's declaration that American forces are set to leave the war-torn country in the near future. |
Surprising his advisors, the US president told cheering crowds at a rally in Ohio last week that he will soon pull US forces out of Syria. |
The Wall Street Journal later reported that he plans to freeze $200 million in basic State Department funds for Syria’s recovery. |
The policy move is a significant blow for Israel, which is relying on American support to prevent Iran’s spread across Syrian territory. |
The Saudi crown prince, who is midway through a tour in the US, expressed similar concerns, stating that the American troops' presence is the last effort stopping Iran from continuing to expand. |
Bin Salman remarked that without US presence, Iran would gain a greater foothold in the region, establishing a "Shi'ite Crescent." |
“If you take those troops out from east Syria, you will lose that checkpoint [...] this corridor could create a lot of things in the region." |
“But I believe that [Syrian President] Bashar [Assad]'s interest is not to let the Iranians do whatever they want to do,” he concluded, hopeful that despite the American decision, Assad would not become an "Iranian puppet." |
Google’s Featured Snippets are not only often wrong, they’re also damaging to small businesses that depend on search traffic. |
Denise Truscello / WireImage / Getty Images - Floyd Mayweather Jr., Rob Kardashian and Kim Kardashian dine at Stack restaurant at The Mirage Hotel and Casino on March 16, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. |
CelebrityNetWorth.com launched in 2008 because Brian Warner, a former finance major working at a digital media company, wondered what Larry David was worth. |
According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Larry David is now worth $400 million. Warner acknowledges that it’s an inexact science, but he and his employees don’t simply conjure their numbers. They look at real estate transactions, news reports of large purchases and salaries, and sometimes even correspond with the celebrity ... |
This line of questioning — how much celebrities are worth — is popular enough that Warner was able to quit his day job in 2012 to focus solely on the site. At its height, he said it had a 12-person staff. |
For most of its history, Google was like a librarian. You asked a question, and it guided you to the section of the web where you might find the answer. |
But over the past five years, Google has been experimenting with being an oracle. Type in a question, and you might see a box at the top of the search results page with the answer in large bold type. When is Easter? Who won The Voice? Can you give a dog sushi? |
Some of these answers include information sourced from a database that Google curates called Knowledge Graph. That’s where most of the numerical and date-based answers come from, as well as some searches that will pull an answer from Wikipedia, a site Google trusts. |
But some of the answers aren’t curated, but are instead algorithmically pulled from the web. These are called “Featured Snippets,” and they have caused Google trouble in the past, as the search engine has inadvertently highlighted answers are racist, sexist, or blatantly false. |
In 2014, Warner got an email from Google asking if he would be interested in giving the company access to his data in order to scrape it for Knowledge Graph, for free. |
If approved, this meant that any Google search for a celebrity’s net worth would return that pullout answer. The answer would include a link to Warner’s site, and Google promised him it would be good for his brand. But it would also drastically cut his traffic. Most people just want the number; they aren’t as intereste... |
In February 2016, Google started displaying a Featured Snippet for each of the 25,000 celebrities in the CelebrityNetWorth database, Warner said. He knew this because he added a few fake listings for friends who were not celebrities to see if they would pop up as featured answers, and they did. |
Celebrity Net Worth uses Google’s advertising network, so he tried reaching out to Google through his advertising contact. No luck. He was doubly upset when he realized that many of Google’s Featured Snippets didn’t credit CelebrityNetWorth for its work. Many of the links went to other sites, like the mortgage referral... |
Google’s ability to make or break small businesses is well-documented. Something similar happened when the search engine last year added “Local Business Cards,” essentially highlighted results for area businesses. As a consequence, local businesses that had worked to get their sites ranked well in Google were suddenly ... |
Google’s push into direct answers has wide-reaching consequences for more than just small business owners who depend on search traffic. The email Google sent Warner in 2014 gives some insight into how Google selects reputable sources. Google wouldn’t answer questions about this, but based on the emails, the vetting was... |
It should be noted that Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets answers provide the text that gets read out loud by Google’s voice assistant and Google Home — a huge part of the motivation for the aggressive rollout of what’s clearly a flawed feature. |
At the time of writing, the queries “Larry David net worth” and “how much is Larry David worth?” both turned up the answer $900 million and credited Business Insider. The Business Insider story says that “it has been estimated” that Larry David is worth up to $900 million and links to a press release from the wealth ma... |
Google does change these answers constantly, sometimes improving them, as I’ve reported in the past — but not always, and it has not been specific about how it processes user comments filed through the “Feedback” form it includes under every Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippet. |
The highlighted answers given prime placement over search results are often shockingly bad. |
The financial services royal commission is turning its attention to problems with the sale of life and general insurance products and the handling of claims. |
The insurance industry has been able to fly under the regulatory radar, say consumer groups who hope the banking royal commission will shine a light on issues hurting consumers. |
Poor sales practices including pressure selling of products that people don't want or need, lengthy delays in settling claims and unfair contract terms are expected to be canvassed during a two-week public hearing focused on insurance that begins on Monday. |
Consumers are often left with "claim shock" when they discover their insurance policy does not cover what they expected, Consumer Action Law Centre senior policy officer Susan Quinn says. |
"People at a really difficult time in their life will suddenly find their insurance doesn't cover them for what they thought it did and what they need it to cover them for," Ms Quinn told AAP. |
Consumer advocates say many of the problems are due to gaps in laws, which mean unfair contract term protections do not apply to insurance contracts and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission lacks the power to regulate insurance claims handling. |
"The insurance industry has managed to fly under the radar with a lot of regulation for a long time," Ms Quinn said. |
"I would hope that part of what this royal commission does is throw light on the shadier areas that are causing devastation to people when they make claims." |
Ms Quinn and Financial Rights Legal Centre policy and advocacy officer Drew MacRae both criticised the self-regulation of claims handling by life and general insurers through industry codes of practice. |
Mr MacRae said the codes themselves need to be strengthened along with the committees monitoring them. |
"They need to be better resourced, they need to have greater scope to be able to examine their industry and they need a complete regulatory toolbox with all forms of sanctions available," he said. |
Mr MacRae expects the royal commission will uncover more shocking behaviour during the insurance hearing. |
"Even though we hear day in and day out a lot of these stories, we are still shocked by some of the really poor behaviour and we do expect the same thing will occur in the insurance round." |
Along with unfair contract terms, Mr MacRae also highlighted problems with policy definitions including out-of-date medical definitions. |
"No two definitions are alike between insurers so you don't really know what you're getting," he said. |
The federal government plans to extend unfair contract term laws to cover life and general insurance. |
It was consulting about removing the exemption for insurance claims handling practices from the definition of a financial service in the Corporations Act, but has put that work on hold until the end of the royal commission. |
Ms Quinn said even if someone had adequate cover when their home was destroyed in a disaster, there can be lengthy delays. |
She also pointed to cases of insurers paying cash settlements rather than repairing or rebuilding a home, which can be inadequate for someone to do the work themselves. |
The moon will appear bigger and brighter than usual and have a reddish hue. Pic: PA. |
A total lunar eclipse is set to take place in the early hours of tomorrow, making the moon turn red. |
Astronomers and skygazers are particularly interested in this year's Super Blood Wolf Moon, as it is the last of its kind for two years. |
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes exactly between the sun and the moon, creating a shadow which stops solar rays reaching the lunar surface. |
Spectators can expect the moon to begin to darken slowly before turning red as it becomes completely caught in Earth’s shade. |
A full moon in January is also known as a ‘wolf moon’, as Native American tribes said wolves would howl outside villages during full moons at the beginning of the year. |
And as the eclipse will occur when the moon is at its closest point to Earth, it will appear 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter - making it a supermoon. |
"We're going into this unusual lull in total lunar eclipses over the next couple of years," said Tom Kerss, an astronomer from the Royal Observatory Greenwich. |
"So this is a really good one to catch, as it's going to be a long time before you catch another one like this. |
"We will have other lunar eclipses, we just won't have anything quite as spectacular until May 2021." |
The eclipse is set to begin at 2.36am on Monday, January 21, though observers are unlikely to see anything until much later in the morning. |
The best time is around 5.12am to catch the maximum eclipse, when the moon will be completely submerged within the Earth's shadow. |
"The moon will be red between about 4.40am and about 6.45am, so it's actually more than an hour that you have to observe this blood moon phenomenon where the moon is totally eclipsed," Mr Kerss said. |
The Royal Museums Greenwich is hosting a Facebook Live event from 4am, where viewers can watch as events unfold. |
Tonight might be a good night to see the spectacular phenomenon, however, as a clear night is forecast for the North East. |
Two out of five paintings will be returned to the heir of Viennese businessman Karl Maylaender, the original owner of the artworks who died during the Holocaust. |
REUTERS - Vienna's Leopold Museum said on Thursday it had reached a settlement over five Nazi-looted works of art in its collection that will return two of them to the heir of their original Jewish owner, a victim of the Holocaust. |
The five pieces, all by Austrian painter Egon Schiele, had been owned by Viennese businessman Karl Maylaender, who died after being deported to a labor camp during World War Two. The museum will return two watercolors, including a self-portrait of Schiele, to Mayhlaender's 95-year-old heiress. |
The remaining three pieces will stay in the museum, which owns the world's largest Schiele collection. |
"This is a happy day," Austria's Culture Minister Josef Ostermayer said at a news conference. The long-running discussion had cast a shadow over the museum and now a "Solomonic solution" had been found, he said. |
Under Adolf Hitler, the Nazis forced Jewish artists and collectors to sell or give away their works, and many pieces were confiscated outright. A law Austria introduced in 1998 directed that its museums return the looted art, and major works have been given back to descendants of the former owners. |
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