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A fan has stated that she created the watercolor drawing of a fox, added some of Taylor’s lyrics and signed the artwork as her own, posting it. Ms. Swift, believing it to be the fan’s original work, reposted the fan’s art, with her own comment, continuing the social media conversation. Ms. Burguieres did not contact Taylor’s office, but she posted on social media her claim that the fan had used her drawing. We found that posting, accepted it at face value and immediately took down Taylor’s posting of the fan art. At no time during these postings did Ms. Burguieres contact our office directly. Notwithstanding the huge publicity this has generated for Ms. Burguieres and her store, in early November Ms. Swift’s office made a fair offer of payment well above a reasonable licensing fee for the short time that the fan art was posted online. The offer was for a payment to Ms Burguieres—there was no requirement of a contribution to any charity. Her lawyer further advised us that Ms. Burguieres chose to go after Taylor only and not against the woman who has admitted she used Ms. Burguieres’ work as inspiration. Ms. Burguieres’ lawyer acknowledged Ms. Swift’s action was unintentional, but rejected the offer. She promised to get back to us with an explanation of why she felt Ms. Burguieres was entitled to more money, but she never did that and the next we heard was Ms Burguieres’ new posting. We have tried on multiple occasions to address Ms. Burguieres’ concerns, but these actions make it clear to us that this is just an unfortunate effort to extract more money and more publicity.
‘Elixiter’s marketing automation capabilities and specialized Marketo services are highly complementary to those of our award-winning digital agency, Perficient Digital,’ Perficient Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Davis says in a statement.
Perficient Monday said it has bought Elixiter, a digital marketing company that will boost the solution provider’s marketing automation services as well as help it forge customer relationships with Fortune 1,000 companies across several verticals.
The deal also adds 40 consulting, technology, sales and general administrative professionals to Perficient’s workforce. Elixiter is a $6 million marketing consultancy, specializing in Marketo marketing automation services.
Jeffrey Davis, Perficient’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement that he is excited to strengthen Perficient’s digital capabilities with Elixiter.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Perficient was not available for immediate comment.
Elixiter founder and President Andrew Hull is expected to join Perficient in a key leadership role.
St. Louis-based Perficient, No. 55 on the 2018 CRN Solution Provider 500, has found success buying smaller companies and incorporating them into its business. According to its August earnings call, Perficient saw its third consecutive quarter of double-digit services growth, and delivered adjusted earnings above consensus and near the top of the company's previous guidance range.
In July the company acquired Stone Temple Consulting, a Boston-based digital marketing agency focused on search engine optimization and content marketing services.
That followed the June 2017 acquisition of Clarity Consulting, a 160-person software consultancy based in Chicago, which Perficient said it used to expand its cloud and custom app development capabilities. Clarity, with annual revenue of $27 million, became part of Perficient’s dedicated Microsoft business group, a move that was expected to nearly double the unit’s size to 330 employees.
In January 2017, Perficient purchased RAS & Associates, a 40-person management consultancy to boost technology investment in areas such as systems integration, data reporting and analytics. Buying Denver-based RAS was also seen to strengthen Perficient's presence in the Rocky Mountain region, the company said at the time.
In October 2016, Perficient purchased $7 million Bluetube, a 60-person digital consultancy that works with The Home Depot, the New York Philharmonic and Turner Broadcasting, to boost its expertise around enterprise mobile applications, creative services, marketing and strategy.
In what might resemble a horrifying moment in a science fiction film, astronauts aboard the International Space Station will toss an empty spacesuit overboard next week.
The Russian suit will carry three batteries and a ham radio transmitter and antenna. Amateur radio operators on Earth will be able to listen to its transmissions over several days until the batteries fail.
The space station has long had a bond with earthbound amateur radio operators, and there is a ham rig on the station to communicate with them. The idea of turning a suit into a satellite came from the Russians, NASA officials said.
In a few weeks, the orbit of the suit (designated SuitSat-1) will decay, and the suit will burn up as it falls into the atmosphere. Kwatsi Alibaruho, a NASA flight director who spoke yesterday at a news conference in Houston, said, "No part of the suit is expected to survive re-entry."
The suit will be released during a spacewalk on Feb. 3 in which the astronauts, William S. McArthur Jr. of the United States and Col. Valery I. Tokarev of the Russian Air Force, will also repair a moving platform that carries the station's robot arm.
In December, a safety device designed to cut snagged cables cut one of two control lines to the platform; NASA is studying why the accident occurred. The spacewalkers will install a bolt that will keep the second line from being cut until a more complete repair can be carried out.
"It's very important that we repair this," said Kirk Shireman, the deputy space station program manager.
Anyone with a ham radio or police scanner that picks up the FM frequency 145.990 MHz can listen to the spacesuit's transmissions. NASA has put a computer program online at http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/25/JPass.asp to help people figure out when the suit will be traveling overhead.
The suit will be unpressurized, but the astronauts have stuffed it full of discarded clothing so that it should retain a somewhat human shape. Sensors will monitor the suit's temperature and battery power, which will be transmitted along with a message in five languages.
The message (which is not "heeeeeellllllppp!") will include an image and secret words for student listeners to decipher.
Mike Williams just can't seem to get on the field.
The Chargers' first-round pick out of Clemson will miss the rest of OTAs with a mild disc herniation in his lower back, the team announced on Tuesday.
Williams, who caught 21 touchdown passes during his Tigers career, has not practiced since Rookie Camp and, according to coach Anthony Lynn, has fallen behind in his development.
The designer talked to Vanity Fair about her mission to give women a voice and power in the Trump era as she celebrates her eighth annual namesake awards.
Diane von Furstenberg never mentioned Donald Trump by name on a recent phone call, preferring the occasional “he” and “him” as she ran down a list of traits and exploits that left little room for guessing.
The president and his policies, she believes, have made the act of supporting women more important than ever. The rights she and millions of other people thought of as permanent gains, she said, seem once again up for grabs. But the longtime president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America knows what she’s up against in the fight, especially given the historically liberal fashion industry’s thorny relationship to the Trump administration. This is why, despite being in what she refers to, with a dash of black humor, her “third and last act,” she’s embarking on a new chapter in which she intends to focus on celebrating and empowering women.
“I want to devote most of my time [to] mentoring and helping,” she said.
In 2010, von Furstenberg launched the DVF Awards, which each year recognize notable women who use their platforms and visibility to help other women. This year’s ceremony, held on Thursday night at the United Nations headquarters in New York, honored Karlie Kloss and Dr. Jane Goodall with its Inspiration Award and Lifetime Leadership Awards, respectively. There were also lesser-known honorees, such as International Award winner Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban blogger and journalist working to establish a free press in her home country, and People’s Voice Award winner Louise Dubé, who works to expand access to civic education in America. The foundation grants each woman $50,000 to go toward her cause.
Before the night officially began, von Furstenberg told Vanity Fair that holding the ceremony at the U.N. “gives it a lot of gravitas.” Because of the location and the gravitas, security was intense. Though Seth Meyers trying to streamline the check-in process by corralling guests waiting to go inside may have been more comic than helpful. Around 9 P.M., everyone made it into the venue, where white couches took the place of chairs and tables, and hors d'oeuvres, including hamburger sliders and macaroons, were offered in lieu of a seated dinner. Tracee Ellis Ross and Allison Williams were quick to praise the evening’s namesake and the event’s intimate-yet-powerful atmosphere.
While she was able to realize her American dream via her much-celebrated wrap dress, and the wardrobe possibilities it offered the working woman and mother, she said she hopes to expand her reach even more during her aforementioned third act, which, from the sounds of it, will hue closely to the DVF Awards’ mission.
This year marks the 160th anniversary of one of the strangest experiments in U.S. military transportation and one that, if not for the intervention of the Civil War and the taint of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, might have resulted in a very different looking Army in the years between the Civil War and World War I.
Imagine, if you will, this scene in a John Wayne war movie: The troops are pinned down under enemy fire and in dire need of fresh support. They radio for help, desperate for aid to arrive from afar. Just as all seems lost and the sad strains of violin music begin to play them off into eternity, a bugle call rings out across the night and to the rescue comes the Duke and his brigade of cavalry, riding across the countryside on … camels?
As early as the 1830s, the U.S. Army had begun to discuss the possibility of using camels, particularly in the American southwest where hot and arid conditions made it difficult for horses and other pack animals. Those calls intensified in skirmishes with Native American tribes that had been forced westward and finally, in the mid 1850s, the plan found the high ranking support it needed in the man who was then the United States Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis.
In 1855 Davis convinced Congress to appropriate $30,000 to send an expedition across the Atlantic to bring back camels for military use. Major Henry C. Wayne, a Savannah, Georgia native who had convinced Davis of the usefulness of the idea when Davis was a Senator from Mississippi, was placed in charge of the expedition that left New York City in June of 1855.
After several stops in North Africa, Major Wayne returned with 34 camels. Davis was impressed, and had the support of President Franklin Pierce, and so Wayne immediately made a second trip and acquired 41 more camels. On Feb. 10, 1857, the United States Camel Corps was formed at Indianola, Texas.
There were quite a number of doubters. In the 20th Annual Report of the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry, published in 1903, Charles C. Carroll pens an entire chapter on ‘The Government’s Importation of Camels.’ In it, he tells of an exchange shortly after Wayne set up the Camel Corps in 1857.
He writes that one day Major Wayne became ‘greatly annoyed at the skeptical attitude’ of the locals and, ‘particularly by the jests of the unbelievers in the Texas town.’ As a result, he set up a test to both embarrass and silence them.
He brought one of the camels up into town. He commanded it to kneel and then ordered his men to load two 314-pound bales of hay on the back of the camel. The locals were convinced that there was simply no way that the animal could stand with 628 pounds on its back. It was then that Wayne ordered another two bales to be loaded on the camel.
Now the locals ‘laughed in scorn’ when the Major ordered the animal to rise while carrying 1,256 pounds. Carroll writes, ‘To the amazement of all, and to the utter confusion of the scoffers, the camel, at the word of command, easily rose and walked off with its burden.’ The locals were so impressed that Wayne reported to his superiors that one resident wrote a poem about the experience and had it published in a local newspaper.
Pierce was succeeded by James Buchanan in 1857. Davis was re-elected to the Senate and Wayne was reassigned to be the quartermaster of Washington, D.C. The camels were assigned by contract to a formal Naval officer named Edward Fitzgerald Beale. Despite their complimentary performance, there were some drawbacks. Their aroma bothered other pack animals and their handlers found them more difficult to control than horses.
In the end, however, it was neither their smell nor their skill that decided their fate. The Civil War broke out and there just wasn’t time, energy or money for dabbling in dromedaries. And when the war was over, those camels were tagged as being the pet project of a treasonous prisoner of war who had turned against his country to become President of an insurrection.
Documents at the National Archive suggest that the camels were turned loose in the late 1860s. Different sources state the last of the wild camels was seen in Arizona as early as 1878 and as late as 1905. But if not for the intervention of war and the memory that their support came from the Confederate President, camels might still roam the American southwest today.
Bombargo lead singer Nathan Thoen performs at Rock Trout Cafe. Herald file photo.
Classic Canadian rockers Harlequin and up-and-comers Bombargo are among the acts announced this week as part of the inaugural Chester Fest Couch and Music Festival.
The inaugural festival, set to be held at Par Place this July, is bringing together local, Saskatchewan and touring acts for a unique experience just outside of the city.
Today, festival organizers Joel Rohs and Kayanna Wirtz announced the majority of the lineup.
Harlequin, known for songs such as ‘Thinking of you,’ was announced Monday as the headliner for Saturday’s show.
“It’s a little surreal. I’ve been a huge Harlequin fan since I was a little kid,” Rohs said.
Some local singer-songwriter acts will still be added, but for the most part, the two-day festival is set.
Today, organizers unveiled the rest of the lineup, which features a variety of acts representing different music styles.
That was the intent, Rohs and Wirtz said, as they didn’t want to become just a country festival or a rock festival.
“It’s a very good mix, some local performers, lots of Saskatchewan performers, and then some touring and bigger acts as well,” Rohs said.
The hope is that for local acts, appearing in the same concert as major names such as Bombargo, the Dead South and Harlequin will encourage them to keep playing.
It also serves as great exposure.
“People coming to see Harlequin will realize, hey, there is some awesome talent here in town,” Wirtz said.
Alternative country singer Kieran West.
The festival will feature two days of music, including a main and an after-hours stage, all in a field of couches.
It will feature music, food, free art classes, a foosball tournament a community art piece and more. It’s set for July 5-6, 2019 and tickets are already going fast, Rohs said.
Win their final regular season home game on Wednesday night and they are in the playoffs. In fact if they win any of their final three games, or simply make it to overtime in two of them, they’ll be in the playoffs.
But winning on Wednesday in front of the home crowd is definitely the way they’d like to go.
Reaching the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Playoffs should be made a tad bit easier because the Gulls are getting some reinforcements at a very good time. Their parent club, the Anaheim Ducks, missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in seven seasons so they sent some of their young rising stars back to San Diego to get some more ice time.
Center Sam Steel, left wing Max Jones, and defensemen Jacob Larsson and Jaycob Megna were all reassigned to the Gulls. They all spent a few months in the NHL and that experience should do nothing but good things for the Gulls.
There’s also the fact the Gulls are playing San Jose on Wednesday. The Gulls are 6-3 against the Barracuda this season, outscoring San Jose 37-27 overall. If there’s a little more of a sense of urgency … and judging by the crisp pace of practice on Monday in Poway there definitely is … it’s warranted.
The Gulls don’t want 2019 to end the way 2018 did. A year ago they went to Tucson for their final two regular season games needing just one point to reach the post-season and came up empty.
Their final two games of this season are both back in Arizona. Hopefully this time they’re just trying to get a better playoff seed instead of fighting for their post-season lives.
The puck drops on Wednesday night at 7:00 at Pechanga Arena. If they hang on to their current seed their first round opponent would be the Barracuda.
Almost five years ago, I was invited to apply for the deanship at Manchester Business School. The principal reason for my interest was the international orientation of the school and, indeed, the global nature of the entire UK higher education sector, especially compared with the US universities in which I had worked.
At MBS, 35 per cent of the undergraduate students are from outside the UK, and the postgraduate programmes have students from more than 80 countries at any time. Similarly, the faculty is drawn from the best and brightest from dozens of countries.
The consequence of this openness redounds to the benefit not only of the students who are provided with the best possible preparation for their global business careers but also for the UK, which has attracted exceptional talent, and for the Manchester region, which has reaped the economic development rewards of a new, large export industry – higher education.
This special feature of UK higher education is now threatened by the UK government’s proposed changes in immigration policy. The proposals amount to a “triple whammy” that could end up reducing the flow of talent to the UK, decreasing innovativeness and removing a major source of economic development.
The proposed limit of 21,700 tier one and two work visas per year – a reduction of 20 per cent – is way too few for the UK and will inevitably constrain universities and other skill-intensive organisations. When MBS, for example, has a vacancy for a professor, we search all over the world for the best candidates, regardless of nationality. That is how we maintain our high global ranking. It is unthinkable to be prevented from doing that because of a work visa quota.
As to the proposal to tighten student visas, the stated focus is on students seeking to come to the UK for courses below degree level. However, the UK government’s Home Office has made the student visa process more burdensome for all applicants. At MBS alone last year, over a dozen highly qualified foreign students were unable to begin their postgraduate studies because of undue delays in the visa application process.
The third proposed change – the elimination of the post-study work visa – is the most troubling. There is evidence that foreign students have chosen to matriculate in universities in the UK, rather than in the US, continental Europe or Australia, because of the opportunity to get two years of work experience in the UK before returning home. This has benefited not only the student but also companies in the UK (particularly smaller ones) that need workers with foreign language skills and cultural knowledge. Research shows that very few of the jobs taken by post-study visa holders would have otherwise gone to unemployed Britons. We also know that the vast majority of these temporary visa holders return to their home countries after two years. This proposal is worrisome because it is likely to reduce the number of applications for our postgraduate programmes in particular.
There could not be a worse time to reduce the innovativeness and vitality of the British economy or to stanch the flow of foreign currency into the UK. The four largest institutions of higher education in Greater Manchester enrolled more than 11,000 non-EU students this past year, who collectively injected almost £250m directly into the region’s economy, in fees and living expenses. If we apply a commonly used economic multiplier of three we can say that foreign students accounted for £750m of economic impact in the region. If the government’s proposed changes reduced the flow of foreign students even by 10 per cent, the region would stand to lose £75m in spending each year and hundreds of the associated jobs needed to provide goods and services to those students.
I do not dispute that the UK immigration system has problems that need to be addressed but the focus on highly skilled and post-study work visas is misguided and these proposed changes need to be rethought.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army deployed forces near Manbij in northern Syria on Friday, a war monitor and a U.S. official said, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged Damascus to protect the town, where U.S. forces operate, from the threat of a Turkish offensive.
Manbij, which U.S.-backed forces captured from Islamic State in 2016, has emerged as a focal point of new tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces whose presence has effectively deterred Turkey.
After a Syrian army announcement declaring government troops had entered Manbij, Turkey-backed Syrian rebels stationed in nearby territory said they had begun moving together with Turkish forces toward the town in readiness for “the start of military operations to liberate” it.
A witness said convoys of Turkey-backed insurgents, with armored vehicles and machine guns, were moving toward the frontline with the town.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said the Syrian government forces had entered a strip of territory at the edge of Manbij, not inside the town itself, creating a barrier with Turkey-backed fighters nearby.
Manbij, where U.S. troops have a military base, is held by a local militia allied to the YPG which Turkey deems a security threat.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that U.S. troops had not changed their positions in Manbij and dozens still remained. The official said they had not seen Syrian military forces inside Manbij but rather on the outskirts of the city.
The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State said that “despite incorrect information about changes to military forces in the city of Manbij, Syria, (the coalition) has seen no indication that these claims are true”.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has vowed to crush the YPG, said Turkish officials would visit Russia - Assad’s most powerful ally - on Saturday and discuss Syria. He indicated Turkey was not in a hurry to launch an offensive.
Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops from Syria has alarmed the Kurdish-led fighters who have fought Islamic State alongside them for years.
Kurdish leaders are scrambling for a strategy to protect their region stretching across the north and east, where the presence of some 2,000 U.S. troops has so far deterred Turkey.
A deployment of Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, would complicate any offensive by Turkey and its Syrian rebel proxies.
U.S. military support for the Kurdish fighters has infuriated Turkey, which sees the YPG as an extension of the PKK movement that has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey for decades.
The YPG said on Friday its fighters had withdrawn from Manbij before to fight Islamic State elsewhere.
“We invite the Syrian government, to which we belong, as people, land and borders, to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect Manbij in the face of Turkish threats,” it said.
In November, Turkish and U.S. troops began joint patrols near Manbij after reaching a deal that includes the YPG exiting the town.
Coco Crisp homered twice and drove in five runs, going 4 for 4 with a three-run shot in the 10th inning that sent the Oakland Athletics to a 6-4 win over the New York Yankees on Wednesday night.
The loss knocked the Yankees out of first place in the AL East, dropping them behind Boston when the Red Sox finished off a 13-2 rout of Texas.
No. 9 batter Scott Sizemore was 4 for 4 with a tying double off CC Sabathia in the eighth and Oakland won at Yankee Stadium for the second consecutive night to clinch a series victory. The A's had lost 10 straight series against New York, an Oakland record for futility against any team.
Nick Swisher homered twice and Mark Teixeira also connected for the Yankees, who played without Alex Rodriguez (sprained left thumb) for the second straight night. New York had dropped only two of its previous 20 series since June 10. Oakland goes for a three-game sweep this afternoon (1 p.m., YES) with Rich Harden on the mound against Phil Hughes.
Trevor Cahill finally held New York in check, and the A's improved to 7-26 against the Yankees since 2008. The last time Oakland won a series against New York was the summer of 2007, when they took two of three at old Yankee Stadium.
Crisp also walked during a perfect night at the plate and matched his career highs for hits and RBIs. The A's have won six of eight following a four-game skid.
Fautino De Los Santos (2-0) struck out two in a perfect ninth for the win. Andrew Bailey earned his 18th save in 20 chances, closing out the Yankees for the second straight night.