text:
George H.W. Bush funeral: Former presidents, world leaders in attendance
Win McNamee

A U.S. military honor guard team carries the flag draped casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush from the U.S. Capitol December 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. A funeral service will be held today for former U.S. President Bush at the Washington National Cathedral. President Bush will be buried at his final resting place at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

UPDATE (11:30 AM ET WEDNESDAY)
The funeral for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush is taking place this morning. All of the living presidents are in attendance with their spouses and sitting in the front room.
Family members and friends of Bush have spoken or read Bible passages during the state funeral, which is happening at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
PHOTOS: State funeral for George H.W. Bush
Amid the long lines of people waiting in the Capitol Rotunda to pay their respects to former President George H.W. Bush and the outpouring of admiration for his life, it's hard to imagine that anyone could have doubted that his memorial services wouldn't be well-attended.
But one person did: Bush himself, his former spokesman said Tuesday night at a memorial service.
"Briefed in 2011 about his funeral and lying in state, the 41st President asked with typical humility, 'Do you think anyone will come?' Tonight, people are waiting hours to pay their respects. This photo, taken Monday, is courtesy the Senate Press Photographers' Gallery pool," tweeted Bush spokesman Jim McGrath, who included a picture of the crowd surrounding Bush's casket as he lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda.
Bush's concern, aside from displaying the humility for which he was known, was a bit unfounded: his funeral is expected to be attended by 3,000 people, a spokesman for the Washington National Cathedral said Wednesday. The service will be attended by multiple former presidents and first ladies, children of past presidents and world leaders.
President Donald Trump has also announced that Wednesday is a national day of mourning.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Open Science roundtable
What does the Open Science Movement mean for the future of the field of media and communication?
The IAMCR Publications Committee will be hosting the first in a series of talks exploring the politics of knowledge and its dissemination.
When: 9 February 2023, at 14h00 UTC / 09h00 New York / 14h00 London / 15h00 Paris / 17h00 Nairobi / 19h30 Kolkata / 22h00 Beijing. The event will last 90 minutes.
Pre-registration is required by 23h59 UTC on 07 February 2023. // Register here.
Moderator: Prof Claudia Padovani, IAMCR Publications Committee.
Prof Lucy Montgomery, Professor of Knowledge Innovation, Curtin University, Australia
Lucy Montgomery is the co-lead of the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative: a major strategic research project exploring how big data can help universities to understand their performance as Open Knowledge Institutions.
Dr Fereshteh Rafieian Najafabadi, Associate Programme Specialist, Science Technology and Innovation Policy, UNESCO.
Location: The meeting will take place on Zoom. Attendees will receive their personal invitation at least 24 hours before the event begins.
Who can participate: The event is open to the general public, but space is limited. Pre-registration is required by 07 February 2023. // Register here.
This series of conversations, hosted by the IAMCR's Publications Committee, will explore the possibilities of open access publishing, and ways of achieving greater diversity and inclusion in systems of knowledge generation and dissemination. Drawing on multiple perspectives from across the globe, the series seeks to discuss how we can achieve a genuinely participatory, multi-vocal epistemic landscape. This would foster a productive dialogue around knowledge exchange, co-creation, with an interest in understanding alternative epistemologies, methods, and pedagogies.
The series will have two strands: the first will look at the possibilities, potential and challenges of Open Access publishing, while the second will explore how communication and media studies can grow beyond dominant epistemologies.


The Spring 2016 issue of The Journal of Retirement features articles that cover a wide range of issues in retirement security. Two articles deal with the thorny issue of financial illiteracy and how it can affect some of the key decisions that employees or personal investors need to make. Another article addresses the recent history and current travails of corporate pension plans. Two articles address annuities: the lead article deals with the role that longevity (long deferred) annuities might play in enhancing retirement security, and the other deals with the fiduciary issues that arise when a retirement plan provider chooses an annuity for its plan members. The Spring 2016 issue also includes an article on the retirement preparedness of small business owners, and an article that explains survivor benefits of Social Security and when to claim them. The background of the authors is as varied as the subjects they address. They include practicing attorneys, Wall Street analysts, academic economists and jurists, and government officials. This diversity is testimony to the multidisciplinary approach that the study of retirement security demands and that The Journal of Retirement strives to foster.
The decline of the defined benefit plan (analyzed in the article in this issue by Martin Leibowitz and Antti Ilmanen) and the dominant role now played by 401(k) and other defined contribution (DC) plans has undoubtedly shifted investment risk from plan providers to plan participants. However, DC participants face another very important risk, one that may not have commanded all the attention it should have: the risk that the savings accumulated at retirement may not last through the rest of the retiree's life. Longevity risk is a major problem. Although economists have long extolled the virtues of immediate life annuities as a form of longevity insurance, these instruments have never proved popular with Americans. In "The Market for Longevity Annuities," Katherine Abraham and Ben Harris provide a comprehensive survey of the economics of longevity annuities, a version of the immediate annuity that may well prove to be more popular, and the regulatory and administrative issues these novel instruments raise.
In the case of longevity annuities, unlike an immediate annuity, payments from the insurance company begin only many years after the contract is signed. Payments are made for a shorter period, and the delay in their start date and the much greater probability that the annuitant dies before receiving many payments mean that they are heavily discounted. The authors compare an immediate annuity bought by a 60-year-old male with a longevity annuity bought by the same person with payments starting only at age 80. The immediate annuity is estimated to pay about $535 per month, while the longevity annuity pays about $2,540 per month, almost five times as much. A longevity annuity can thus provide much more "tail" insurance than an immediate annuity.
The authors survey the arguments that economists have advanced to explain why longevity annuities are superior to immediate annuities. This superiority is particularly evident when the share of a retiree's wealth that will be devoted to annuity purchase is not large. They then turn to address the key question of why the market for these innovative instruments remains so small. They analyze three different barriers to the growth of the market: the behavioral biases of consumers and the biases of financial advisors; regulatory and other barriers impeding plan sponsors from offering these and other lifetime income products; and the inability of insurance companies to insure against longevity risk. To give the flavor of this discussion, longevity annuities, like immediate annuities, may be viewed by consumers as an investment product, and not as an insurance product, and thus compare unfavorably with other investments. Concerns over the financial viability of insurance companies, although not necessarily a sign of bias, are also a factor. Plan sponsors may be inhibited by a safe harbor provision that the authors think is unnecessarily demanding. The lack of good hedges (e.g., longevity bonds) can discourage insurance companies from underwriting annuities.
The authors propose a comprehensive set of measures to dismantle these roadblocks. Consumer hesitancy might be addressed by government guidelines to promote wise financial decisions. The government could issue a financial graphic (as was discussed in the article by William Gale and Ben Harris in the Fall 2013 issue of the JOR). Insurance companies might also be allowed to mention the state guarantee programs that exist to compensate policyholders for insurance company failure; at present nearly all states forbid such mention. Another measure that might increase the popularity of longevity annuities is to include them in the range of options offered by the Thrift Savings Plan, which is the country's largest DC plan. Plan providers' enthusiasm for offering longevity annuities to plan participants could be enhanced by reforming the safe harbor provision to make it a more transparent and easily verifiable test of the financial soundness of insurance companies. Finally, better risk-management options could be developed for the insurance companies that must bear longevity risk. These are but a few of the proposals the authors make in this authoritative article, which could well become a standard reference in discussions and analyses of longevity annuities.
In "Regulatory Recommendations for the Department of Labor to Facilitate DC Lifetime Income," Bob Toth and Evan Giller zero in on one of the factors inhibiting the development of a market for longevity annuities (and annuities more generally), which is also raised by Abraham and Harris: concerns by plan fiduciaries than even the exercise of due diligence will not reduce their exposure to liability. ERISA requires plan fiduciaries considering the incorporation of an annuity in their plan to develop and implement a prudent procedure for selecting an annuity provider. The authors' experience tells them that the typical plan fiduciary is ill-equipped to vet the financial soundness of an insurance company and to choose knowledgeably among different types of annuities. The aim of their article is to make recommendations that will make their fiduciary obligations less onerous. To this end they propose that the DOL and the Treasury combine to develop and host a website that will be a clearinghouse for the information on annuity providers and products that plan fiduciaries need. The safe harbor provisions for fiduciaries choosing an annuity provider (the Safest Available Annuity Safe Harbor regulation) require some formal guidance to clarify the Employment Benefits Security Administration's view of the law. This should increase the comfort level of fiduciaries as they choose an annuity provider. The authors believe that the current regulatory framework is essentially sound, although in need of interpretative guidance. As an example of constructive interpretation, they refer to a recent field assistance bulletin limiting fiduciary liability for the imprudent selection of an annuity product to six years following the date of the contract.
The decline in the labor force coverage of the traditional (defined benefit) pension plan since the 1980s has been extensively analyzed. The surviving plans often have been closed to new employees, or even to established members, who can no longer contribute to the plan. In addition, many plans are now cash balance plans, which are legally DB plans but with the attributes of a DC plan. Those plans that remain typically invest a smaller share of their assets in equities than they used to.
In "U.S. Corporate DB Pension Plans—Today's Challenges," Martin Leibowitz and Antti Ilmanen succinctly analyze the reasons for the traditional plan's fall from grace, before turning to address an important issue that contemporary plans face—how to de-risk the plan, that is, achieve a comfortably high and stable funding ratio (the ratio of assets to liabilities). Today's plans can find themselves in a situation the authors describe as overweight in equities and underweight in duration. A stable funding ratio requires that a duration mismatch between a plan's liabilities and its assets be minimized. In practice, this means increasing the share of bonds in the portfolio. However, the average rate of return to equities is higher than that of bonds, so moving out of equities into bonds can require additional contributions to achieve the increase in the funding ratio. An underfunded plan can allocate a high share of its assets to equities in the hope that a bull market can bail it out. Unfortunately, this strategy can also result in the plan's going further in the hole. The use of options can mitigate this particular risk and help to maintain a stable funding ratio.
The authors find that a strategy of derisking—moving from stocks to bonds—is more likely for plans with funding ratios near 100. The belief that interest rates can only go up makes being underweight in bonds (a duration underweight) more attractive than it would otherwise be. Many plans have committed themselves to a strategy of increasing the share of bonds as the funding ratio increases, perhaps because as the ratio increases, the perceived need to gamble on a bull market recedes. Finally, the authors address the modalities of buyouts and make the telling point that because of the difference in discount rates used by the plan and the insurance company that will assume the pension liabilities, the funding ratio may have to exceed 100% quite substantially.
One of the more important decisions a pension plan member takes is whether to roll over her plan into an IRA. The decision is a complicated one, in which a number of features of the plan and the IRA need to be carefully compared. Perhaps the most important of these are the fees the plan and IRA charge, as well as the range of investment options each can offer. In "Financial Illiteracy Meets Conflicted Advice: The Case of Thrift Savings Plan Rollovers," John Turner, Bruce Klein, and Norman Stein study the behavior of rollovers from the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for federal government employees. The TSP is known for its extremely low fees, which partly result from the huge size of the plan: It is the biggest in the United States. The TSP does not offer its participants a huge number of investment funds, but it does offer enough to satisfy a broad range of preferences for the tradeoff between risk and reward. These features mean that a prima facie argument exists that for most TSP participants, a rollover to an IRA is not a good idea. Nonetheless, some 45% of government employees who separated in 2012 had withdrawn all their funds by end-2013. In 2012, transfers of the full account balance to an IRA or another plan accounted for 65% of monies withdrawn from the TSP. Assuming no difference in rates of return and an average fee for IRAs of 74 basis points (compared with 3 basis points for the TSP), the authors calculate that rollovers into an IRA would cost former TSP participants about $1,000 per year.
The authors recognize a rollover can be a good idea in certain circumstances, but they conclude that a complete rollover from the TSP is rarely good advice. The benefits from the increased diversification an IRA offers are considered small.
The authors scrutinize the advice that TSP participants receive concerning rollovers. The websites they consulted do not recognize the fee differential between the TSP and IRAs. A telephone survey of IRA providers found that only one advised against a rollover. An email survey of personal financial advisors, who are subject to a higher fiduciary standard, found less enthusiasm for rollovers but still more than the authors thought was warranted. The authors argue that a recommendation to roll over funds may reflect the advisor's ignorance of the low fees the TSA charges. However, their clients may simply not be aware they are getting bad advice. The article goes on to review the regulatory framework, arguing that it is not adequate to protect pension participants from seriously bad advice.
Financial literacy is often gauged by the results of a simple questionnaire that tests knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and other financial basics. The authors suggest that a knowledge of the fees their plan charges is also an important aspect of financial literacy. The evidence of their article suggests that many IRA holders are unaware of the fees they pay.
For reasons this letter has already touched on, the ability to make sound financial decisions is more important than ever. A decision to participate and maintain participation in a retirement savings plan, and to make adequately sized contributions to it, is critical for a financially secure retirement. Many employers sponsoring a retirement plan have sponsored financial education programs of one kind or another to help their employees make sound financial decisions. Nonetheless, how effective these programs are has been uncertain.
In "Addressing the Retirement Savings Crisis in the United States: The Role of Employer-Provided Financial Education," Barbara Smith reviews the findings of nine studies of the impact of employer-provided education. These studies each follow one of three different approaches: subjective self-assessments by program participants, econometric studies, and randomized control trials. The studies she surveys sought to determine if the programs, usually seminars, actually changed behavior. She finds solid evidence that they did; for example, participants were more likely to become participants in an employer-provided plan, and their monthly contributions increased. Her article explains why randomized control trials are the best way to determine the effectiveness of financial education programs. In particular, they avoid the problems of self-selection bias and self-reporting bias. Among the studies' findings, the impact on behavior tended to be greatest among participants with modest incomes and young participants. Studies that provided participants with brochures that explained the link between more contributions to plans and increased income or savings in retirement were quite effective. The seminar was an effective communications tool, and personal counseling was also effective. The author suggests that the apparently greater effectiveness found by the studies she surveyed compared with some earlier studies may have reflected the fact that the earlier studies involved participants from community-based, school-based, and other non-employer-based programs, and not just employer-based programs. Comparing the results of these programs with the ones the author surveyed is an "apples–oranges" comparison.
One of the most important financial decisions an American needs to make is when to claim Social Security. The timing of the claim for the retirement benefit has received a lot of attention recently, but the timing of the claim for survivor benefits is also very important, particularly given the loss of income that can occur on the death of the first spouse. In "Social Security Claiming Strategies for Widows and Widowers," Bill Reichenstein and William Meyer offer a guide to the perplexed. They zero in on the complication posed by the fact that the survivor can choose between a survivor benefit and a retirement benefit based on his or her own work record.
The authors present the simplest case, which occurs when the survivor has reached the age of 70 and has not yet claimed her own benefit. The correct strategy at this point is to claim the higher of the full widow's benefit, whose derivation the authors explain, and the survivor's own retirement benefit. Further delay does not change either figure.
In general however, the correct strategy depends on the ages of the deceased and surviving spouse, as well as the deceased's principal insurance amount (PIA)—the retirement benefit the deceased would have received had he or she lived to the full retirement age—and the survivor's retirement benefit. The key to understanding what the correct strategy is for a survivor's given circumstances is to understand that the survivor benefit increases over the range of 60–66 years when the claim is delayed, while the value of the retirement benefit can be increased by delayed claiming over the range of 62–70 years.
It is possible to switch between the survivor benefit and the retirement benefit, and the authors demonstrate that it can often make sense to claim the survivor benefit first and then switch to the retirement benefit. For example, at age 66 a widow might be entitled to a survivor benefit of $2,200 and a retirement benefit of $2,000. If she elects the survivor benefit of $2,200 at age 66, she can switch to the retirement benefit at age 70, by which age it will have grown to about $2,640. Choosing the retirement benefit instead at age 66 would result in more income, but only for a few years. Assuming the survivor lives into her mid to late 70s, if not longer, she is better off electing the first strategy. This example gives only the flavor of the analysis of this detailed and exhaustive study, which should be of great value to advisors with older clients and perhaps even some of their clients.
Writing on the vast issue of retirement security has almost always concerned itself with employees, rather than those Americans who own and operate their own business. It is easy to overlook the fact that over 20 million Americans are small-business owners, for whom preparation for retirement must take account of the special role played by the capital invested in the business.
In "The Retirement Preparedness of the Business Owner," Nancy Forster-Holt sets out a comprehensive analysis of the challenges the small business owner faces in preparing for retirement. She contends that the metaphor of the three-legged stool (Social Security, employer-provided retirement plans, and personal savings) is less well suited for the self-employed than it is for employees. In particular, the retirement dates of the former group can vary more than the latter, and the self-employed have more latitude in making Social Security contributions. The big difference, however, is the role of business capital as an asset that can finance retirement.
The Small Business Administration defines a small business as one having less than 500 employees. The author uses data from the Federal Reserve's 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances, splitting the self-employed represented in the survey into two groups: the "smaller-small" businesses, with an estimated sales price less than $250,000, and medium-small businesses, with an estimated sales price greater than $250,000. These groups are compared with each other, and with employees. The exercise shows that there are significant differences in attitudes toward retirement, such as the subjectively estimated preparedness for retirement and the expected retirement date between employees and the self-employed, but also between small and medium-sized businesses. In particular, while about one in five employees say they will never retire, two out of five small-business owners express that sentiment, and medium-small business owners are more likely to say they will never retire than smaller-small business owners. Employees rate their preparedness for retirement higher than business owners do, but medium-small owners are less confident in this respect than smaller-small owners, and expect to retire at a later date.
The author also argues that small businesses tend to suffer from what she terms income and wealth vulnerabilities, or an excessive dependence on income from the business and a concentration of wealth in the business. In addition, income fluctuations from one year to the next reduce the predictability of Social Security retirement benefits. Small-business owners are less likely to have pension plans and more likely to invest their financial assets conservatively. A further difference between the two business size classes is that it is more realistic for the medium-small business to assume that the business can be sold, although there is inevitable uncertainty about both the timing and the price. These differences are illustrated by an engaging comparison of two photography businesses listed on the bizbuysell.com website.
On the basis of her research, Prof. Forster-Holt recommends that business owners should make preparation for business exit and retirement a priority. Retirement advisors should be engaged early. In addition, policymakers need to be well informed about the special needs of small-business owners. She also suggests that it would be good if financial institutions could take additional modest risks to finance business transfers.
Finally, Christian Weller has recently written a book entitled Retirement on the Rocks: Why Americans Can't Get Ahead and How New Savings Policies Can Help, in which he makes the case that perhaps half of America's working population is headed for a straitened retirement. His book sets out the evidence for this conclusion and proposes a set of measures that will mitigate what he believes to be a very serious situation. Interested readers may consult my review.


Benjamin: Death was due to head injuries.
POLICE in Chikwawa are looking for a man who is suspected to have killed his twelve-year-old nephew.
According to Chikwawa Police publicist Constable Foster Benjamin, It is alleged that the boy, Harry Chimphaka went to his uncle's house on Saturday to visit his playmates.
The visit, however, did not please the uncle since he had already banned the boy from visiting the house because of his alleged troublesome character.
The suspect, Thomas Harry, then dragged the nephew into his house and started beating him up with a metal object, leaving him seriously injured on the head and arm.
The Standard five pupil struggled to get out and collapsed before being taken to his parents' home within the neighborhood.
He was later rushed to St. Montfort Mission Hospital where he was admitted and died Sunday afternoon.
Postmortem results from Chikwawa District Hospital showed that the death was due to severe head injuries.
Meanwhile, police have intensified a search for Harry and, if arrested, he will be charged with murder.


text:
Home Canada News Yukoners go to emergency room for basic care, after territory's last walk-in...
Yukoners go to emergency room for basic care, after territory's last walk-in clinic closes
2,472 Yukoners on wait-list for family doctor
'This healthcare system is shortening my life'
Wait-list to see family doctor up to 2 years long
Need for more holistic and preventative care
For 23 years, Marianne Blythe didn't worry about getting medical care when she needed it.
She was a regular patient of the River Valley Medical walk-in clinic in Whitehorse and never had trouble getting an appointment.
But when the doctor she was seeing recently left town, the clinic stopped taking walk-in patients. It was the only remaining walk-in medical clinic in the territory.
"I feel very betrayed. I feel betrayed by a system that I have supported all my life," Blythe, 71, said.
"And as I age, I expect that the things that I have supported will be there to help me."
Blythe wants to see more action from the territorial government — including a new walk-in clinic sooner than later — and more incentives for students in the territory to become doctors.
Blythe is now one of the 2,472 Yukoners on the territorial government's wait-list to get a family doctor.
And waiting for a family doctor has meant even more waiting for Blythe.
She said she has spent about five hours in the emergency room on two recent occasions, just to get a doctor's signature for regular blood work needed for her chronic condition.
"I get very angry because I don't know the logistics of running an emergency ward, but I know that my being there costs an awful lot of money and there are people who are really sick, who need that," she said.
Also Read: Who Is Thomas Giaradi? 5 Things About Erika Jayne's Ex-Husband – Hollywood Life
The River Valley Medical Clinic in Whitehorse stopped taking walk-in patients in August. It was the territory's only walk-in medical clinic. (Danielle d'Entremont/CBC)
The lack of a walk-in clinic comes as Yukon's hospital system is under strain. The territory is in the middle of a COVID-19 outbreak that has left it with the highest rate of active cases in the country.
And according to a Yukon Hospital Corporation spokesperson, the number of non-emergency visits to the Whitehorse General Hospital's emergency department — such as for prescription refills and common colds — is going up.
These types of visits made up 4.4 per cent of all patients from April to June, and that number went up to seven per cent from July to September, Matthew Davidson wrote in an email to CBC News.
Greg Penner, 59, is another one of the thousands of Yukoners on the territorial government's family doctor wait-list.
To be exact, he and his wife are numbers 1,494 and 1,495 on the list, as of the beginning of this month.
That's according to an email Penner received from the registration team at the Department of Health and Social Services after he reached out to see if there were any updates since they signed up seven months ago, in April.
The email also said that if either Penner or his wife "really need to see a doctor," they should go to the emergency room.
He and his wife have been fortunate, he said, with no pre-existing or pressing health issues. And though he isn't a senior yet, Penner knows the stakes of not getting continual and preventative care as they age are high.
Non-urgent visits to the Whitehorse hospital's emergency department are up, according to a Yukon Hospital Corporation. (Mike Rudyk/CBC)
"I am going to die sooner, because right now … the model of the medical care is, 'don't come to see us until you're really, really sick,'" said Penner.
He worries that without a family doctor he won't have regular access to monitoring for major illnesses like cancer, heart disease or strokes.
"That quite literally means this health care system is shortening my life."
The Find a Family Doctor program was launched by the territorial government two years ago.
Since then, it has matched 1,043 people with family doctors, but the list of people waiting to be matched continues to grow after recent physician office closures.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services, the average wait time to get a match is 225 days. At most, the department said the wait has been just shy of two years, at 720 days.
"The Government of Yukon continues to work with the Yukon Medical Association on the recruitment and retention of physicians," said spokesperson Julie Ménard.
"We are working to expand nurse practitioners to serve communities, aging people, and expand access to virtual care alternatives."
Lillian Nakamura Maguire is a coordinating team member for Seniors Action Yukon, a volunteer group advocating on behalf of seniors' issues.
"If you don't have your health care needs taken care of and … people are left without care for a long period of time, things can deteriorate. And for many seniors … they are more vulnerable populations," Maguire said.
But Maguire said the answer is to provide access to many different medical services, not just family doctors.
"There is a need for long-term care, but a lot of those needs could be better taken care of and … less expense if we had more home care workers and services … as well as preventive kind of services," she said.
But Marianne Blythe isn't so sure she has time to wait for an overhaul of the system. If things don't change for her by the spring, she plans to move south for better care.
"I'm going to be forced to leave the Yukon … and I'm heartbroken about it. I have given my best to the Yukon. Yukon's been very good to me. But on this issue, I will have to say 'ciao.'
"I have received some long-term service awards, and I would like to give them back to Premier Sandy Silver and his crew and say, 'thank you for nothing.'"
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Q: jQuery problem with finding value of multidimensional arrays I have a form with the following inputs:
<input type="text" name="products[1][rrp]" class="rrp">
<input type="text" name="products[1][sale_price]" class="sale-price">
<input type="text" name="products[1][beg_inv]" class="beg-inv">
<input type="text" name="products[1][end-inv]" class="rrp">
<input type="text" name="products[1][sold]" class="sale-price">
<input type="text" name="products[1][sampled]" class="beg-inv">
<input type="text" name="products[2][rrp]" class="rrp">
<input type="text" name="products[2][sale_price]" class="sale-price">
<input type="text" name="products[2][beg_inv]" class="beg-inv">
<input type="text" name="products[2][end-inv]" class="rrp">
<input type="text" name="products[2][sold]" class="sale-price">
<input type="text" name="products[2][sampled]" class="beg-inv">

When the form submits, I want to make sure the user has entered every one of these inputs.  Here is the jQuery I'm using:
  $("form#answerReport").submit(function(){
    if($(".rrp").val()=='' || $(".sale-price").val()=='' || $(".beg-inv").val()=='' || $(".end-inv").val()=='' || $(".sold").val()=='' || $(".sampled").val()==''){
      $(".error.hide").text("Please fill in the product information").show();
      return false;
    }
  });

But the form is still submitted if there's input values for products[1] but not input values for products[2].  Does anybody know where I'm going wrong?

A: you are missing the $ instead of
(".rrp").val()==''

do
$(".rrp").val()==''

your code should be like
$("form#answerReport").submit(function(){
    if($(".rrp").val()=='' || $(".sale-price").val()=='' || $(".beg-inv").val()=='' || $(".end-inv").val()=='' || $(".sold").val()=='' || $(".sampled").val()==''){
      $(".error.hide").text("Please fill in the product information").show();
      return false;
    }
  });

here is the fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/3nigma/NewsM/
Update
im not sure about your scenario but before the submit you should validate the fields if you have the following html
<input type="text" name="products[1][rrp]" class="rrp"/>
<input type="text" name="products[1][sale_price]" class="sale-price"/>
<input type="text" name="products[1][beg_inv]" class="beg-inv"/>
<input type="text" name="products[1][end-inv]" class="rrp"/>
<input type="text" name="products[1][sold]" class="sale-price"/>
<input type="text" name="products[2][end-inv]" class="rrp">
<input type="text" name="products[1][sampled]" class="beg-inv"/>
<input type="button" id="submit" value="submit"/><br/>

on click validate all the input fields of type text
$("#submit").click(function(){
    $("input:text").each(function(){

     if(!($(this).val()))
      {
       alert("validation err");
       return false;
      }
    else
        alert("safe to submit");
        return false;
        //$("form#answerReport").submit(); <-- submit the form here

});
});

here is the fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/3nigma/NewsM/1/

A: $.fn.val is only going to get you the value of the first item in the collection.
http://api.jquery.com/val/

Description: Get the current value of the first element in the set of matched elements.

Since you have multiple elements with the "rrp" class. When you call
$('.rrp').val()

You are only going to get the value for the first element, in your case products[1][rrp].
If you want to check every item with that class, you have to loop through every collection and check the values individually.
var rrpValid = true;
$('.rrp').each(function(){
    if ($(this).val() == '') {
        rrpValid = false;
        $(".error.hide").text("Please fill in the product information").removeClass('hide');
    }
});
// check to see if there are any false values for rrp, sale-price, etc,
// and return false if there are

UPDATE
Even better would be
var validValues = true;
$('.rrp,.sale-price,.beg-inv,.end-inv,.sold,.sampled').each(function() {
    if ($(this).val() == '') {
        validValues = false;
        return false; // break loop
    }
});
if (!validValues) {
    $(".error.hide").text("Please fill in the product information").removeClass('hide');
    return false;
}

A: This works for me
<html>
<head>
<script src="jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
<form method="post" action="google.xml" id="answerReport">
<input type="text" name="products[1][rrp]" class="rrp">
    <input type="text" name="products[1][sale_price]" class="sale-price">
    <input type="text" name="products[1][beg_inv]" class="beg-inv">
    <input type="text" name="products[1][end-inv]" class="rrp">
    <input type="text" name="products[1][sold]" class="sale-price">
    <input type="text" name="products[1][sampled]" class="beg-inv">
    <input type="submit" />
    </form>
    <script language="javascript">
      $("form#answerReport").submit(function(){
        if($(".rrp").val()=='' || $(".sale-price").val()=='' || $(".beg-inv").val()=='' || $(".end-inv").val()=='' || $(".sold").val()=='' || $(".sampled").val()==''){
          $(".error.hide").text("Please fill in the product information").show();
          return false;
        }
      });
</script>
</body>

</html>

A: You could do (using attrubtes starts with selector and saving you a lot of typing):
$("form#answerReport").submit(function(){
  $('input[name^="products"]').each(function(){
  if ($(this).val() == ''){
      $(".error.hide").text("Please fill in the product information").show();
          return false;
   });
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
NI Expands Ability to Serve Australia and New Zealand Markets With Braemac
Braemac will broaden its scope to serve NI customers within this region
January 15, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NI (Nasdaq: NATI), the provider of a software-defined platform that helps accelerate the development and performance of automated test and automated measurement systems, today announced that Braemac is currently the primary authorized distributor of NI products in Australia and New Zealand.
Braemac, an NI Authorized Distributor, will broaden its scope to serve all current NI customers in this region, a move that is expected to help NI fortify and further its business in Australia and New Zealand while helping customers ensure their long-term success.
"Braemac is a leading distribution partner in technology solutions across Asia-Pacific. Collaborating with NI to distribute their products is an exciting addition to the Braemac portfolio, as it complements our engineering pedigree to provide value-added services to our strong customer base," said Kristen Pimpini, CEO at Braemac. "We believe that continuing to deliver an effortless customer experience will help NI further fuel its investment and growth in this region."
"NI partners play a key role in our ecosystem and are critical to our strategy. As NI expands its offerings to adapt to changing customer requirements, Braemac's strong and established reputation in Australia and New Zealand will help us increase our presence and drive regional growth goals," said Joseph Soo, vice president of APAC sales at NI. "We will collaborate closely with Braemac to provide an enhanced experience and help our customers achieve long-term success."
NI is committed to developing high-performance automated test and automated measurement systems to help customers solve their current and future engineering challenges. NI's open, software-defined platform uses modular hardware and an expansive ecosystem to help customers turn powerful possibilities into real solutions.
For more information, please contact alliance@ni.com.
About Braemac
Braemac is a value-added distributor of electronics components and equipment in Australia and New Zealand. With 21 offices worldwide, comprehensive product card, engineering capabilities and a strong partner eco-system, we aim to understand our customer's needs and provide value-added services to achieve great outcomes.
About NI
NI (ni.com) develops high-performance automated test and automated measurement systems to help you solve your engineering challenges now and into the future. Our open, software-defined platform uses modular hardware and an expansive ecosystem to help you turn powerful possibilities into real solutions.
NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
Amy Cearley
pr@ni.com


Oh Squirrel is a stationery brand combining inspiration from vintage books and photographs with a cracking Yorkshire sense-of-humour to create fun, unique birthday cards, badges, hen party favours and wedding stationery. I have been lucky enough to get to shoot products for Katie to use across a multitude of platforms including her own website, Etsy and Not on the High Street.
Event | A Most Curious Wedding Fair.
I popped down to the gorgeous A Most Curious Wedding Fair at Katie's request to take some photographs of her lovely stall for her to use across social, her website and marketing materials. Here are just a few of the photographs I took – more can be seen over on the Oh Squirrel Blog.


Yearbook classifieds for Campbellsport HS yearbooks are listed below. If you want to see if others from Campbellsport, WI high schools want to make a trade for a yearbook, post your info below.
You can share memories of those activities that you were involved with at Campbellsport HS and you can view other alumni and read what other former students have posted about the time they spent at Campbellsport.
Lost my yearbook for 1973 while moving.


Polyclonal Vs Monoclonal Vs Recombinant Antibodies: What's the Difference?
Polyclonal. Monoclonal. Recombinant. These are words you've definitely come across if you work with antibodies in the lab (or maybe you're just an immunology buff). But what do they really mean? Let's take a closer look at each antibody type and explore their advantages and drawbacks.
The terms "polyconal" and "monoclonal" derive from the process of antibody generation in the immune system. When a B-lymphocyte binds a foreign antigen to its cell surface antigen receptor, it is stimulated to differentiate into memory B-cells and plasma cells, both of which secrete antibodies specific to the inciting antigenic epitope. Since antigens can range in size from small molecules to large proteins, many epitopes can exist on a given antigen. Keeping in mind that a large number of B-cells can recognize the same antigen, the resulting response involves antibodies secreted by different B-cells targeted towards different epitopes on the same antigen. Such a response is called polyclonal.
In other words, a polyclonal antibody is a collection of all the antibodies directed against a given antigen by many different B-cell clones.
Now let's say, hypothetically, only one B-cell responded to a given antigen. Since this cell would recognize a single epitope, it would differentiate, divide, and secrete antibodies specific to this epitope only. This is called a monoclonal response.
That is, a monoclonal antibody is a collection of the antibodies secreted by a single B-cell clone, therefore having specificity for only one antigenic epitope.
Selection and preparation of the antigen, taking great care to ensure high purity.
Selection of the host species (often a rabbit or mouse), keeping in mind the quantity of antibody desired and the species from which the antigen was obtained.
Selection of an adjuvant to boost the immune response, if the antigen of interest is weakly immunogenic.
Immunization of a host animal with the desired antigen. The route of injection (subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, intravascular etc.) depends on the chemical nature of the antigen and the choice of host species.
Harvesting of the antiserum once a robust immune response has been achieved. Subsequent purification steps are often necessary to increase sensitivity and specificity of the antiserum.
Harvesting of antibody-producing B-cells from the spleen or other lymphoid organs.
Fusion of B-cells with non-secreting myeloma cells to create a "hybridoma." This step immortalizes the B-cells and allows them to undergo successive passages in vitro.
Screening/selection for successfully fused hybrids in HAT medium and subsequent enrichment of single clones using ELISA, immunohistochemistry, and/or flow cytometry.
Cloning, expansion, and cryopreservation of the monoclonal hybridomas. These cells can now be used as a renewable source of monoclonal antibodies.
Recovery/purification of antibodies from the culture supernatant.
Another method for generating monoclonal antibodies takes advantage of developments in recombinant DNA technology. The procedure for producing a recombinant antibody involves the cloning of antibody gene libraries into phage vectors and allowing the phages to infect a host cell line. The host cells will then produce daughter phages, which express the recombinant antibodies on their surfaces. After a process of selection for antibodies with the desired characteristics, the genes can be inserted into an expression system and the antibodies can be produced in large quantities.
In general, the choice to generate a polyclonal versus a monoclonal antibody comes down to a few factors: the cost, timeline, and intended application of the antibody by the end user are all things to consider.
The main advantage of polyclonal antibodies is their relatively low cost to produce and quick turnaround time from antigen preparation to antibody harvesting. Polyclonal antibodies also have the ability to detect multiple epitopes on an antigen, giving them higher overall affinity to their antigen and therefore stronger detection efficiency. The heterogeneous nature of polyclonal antibodies, however, also makes them more prone to batch-to-batch variability and cross-reactivity with other molecules resulting in higher background. In general, polyclonal antibodies are better suited for applications where high sensitivity is desired and when antigens are present in low quantities or non-native conditions. For this reason, polyclonal antibodies are commonly used in western blot, immunoprecipitation (IP), chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and immunohistochemistry with positive outcomes.
Monoclonal antibodies generally succeed where polyclonal antibodies fail. For example, homogeneity is conserved between batches because the antibodies are derived from a single B-cell clone, and since they only detect one epitope per antigen, cross-reactivity with other molecules is reduced. Hybridomas, once created, also act as a renewable source of antibodies, an advantage over polyclonals, which depend on the lifespan of the host animal. These improvements in functionality come at a cost, however: monoclonal antibodies are significantly more expensive to produce, require more specialized training to create, and have a much longer turnaround time. Overall, monoclonal antibodies can be used in many of the same applications as polyclonal antibodies when high specificity for an antigen is required, for example when studying changes in protein conformation or phosphorylation state. In some applications, monoclonal antibodies may be too specific, a drawback that can be overcome by pooling together multiple monoclonal antibodies. When developing a therapeutic antibody, the specificity of monoclonals is preferred since they are less likely to show off-target binding.
For the most part, the pros and cons of recombinant antibodies are largely the same as monoclonal antibodies. Like monoclonal antibodies, recombinant antibodies require technical expertise and significant investments in time and money to produce, at least initially. Once recombinant technologies have been established, however, antibodies can be produced rapidly and without the need for host animals, which is a major advantage of this method. As recombinant antibody technologies continue to improve, they will likely take over as the primary method to produce monoclonal antibodies.
Wondering what type of antibody is best suited for your specific application? Check out our "Antibody Applications" series where we cover a wide array of antibody applications with tips from scientists with hands on experience.


text:
Thanks to Tim Bryan for subbing this morning's Sexy Spin, 7:00am,Thursday, March 29, 2018!
Track List - The Ride, Wednesday, March 28, 2018
1. Friends (video) - Marshmello & Anne-Marie
2. For You (video) - Liam Payne & Rita Ora (from the "Fifty Shades Freed" soundtrack)
3. No Excuses (video) - Meghan Trainor
4. Popalicious! (mashup) - DJ Robin Skouteris featuring Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue, Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Harold Faltermeyer, Destiny's Child, Rihanna, Salt N Pepa, etc.
5. Fast Car (remix) - Jonas Blue featuring Dakota
6. Things Just Ain't The Same - Deborah Cox
7. If You Could Read My Mind - Studio 54
9. Nobody's Supposed To Be Here - Deborah Cox
10. Calling Me - Aquilo
11. Capital Letters (video) - Hailee Steinfeld & BloodPop
12. Found/Tonight (video)(mashup) - Ben Platt & Lin-Manuel Miranda (from Broadway's "Dear Evan Hansen" & "Hamilton)
Track List - Peak Performance Ride, Tuesday, March 27, 2018
1. Popalicious! (mashup)(video) - DJ Robin Skouteris featuring Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue, Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Harold Faltermeyer, Destiny's Child, Rihanna, Salt N Pepa, etc.
2. Let's Have A Kiki (remix)(video) - Scissor Sisters
3. In My Head (video) - Jason Derulo
7. Get Me Bodied (video) - Beyonce
10. You Don't Own Me - Grace featuring G-Eazy
11. New Americana - Halsey
Thanks again to Colin for trusting me to sub his 12:00 noon class today, Monday, March 26, 2018!
Track List - The Ride, Monday, March 26, 2018
1. Pray For Me (video) - The Weeknd featuring Kendrick Lamar (from the Black Panther soundtrack)
2. Wait (video) - Maroon 5
3. The Champion (video) - Carrie Underwood featuring Ludacris
Track List - Sexy Spin, Thursday, March 22, 2018
3. Viva La Vida/Domino Dancing (mashup) - The Pet Shop Boys
4. You Make Me Feel - Sylvester
5. Borderline - Madonna
6. Let Me Think About It - Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand
7. Always On My Mind - The Pet Shop Boys
8. Whitney Houston Megamix - DJ Jody Den Broeder
9. Pure Imagination (remix) - Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
10. Be The One - Dua Lipa
1. Swalla (video) - Jason Derulo
2. There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back (video) - Shawn Mendes
3. Too Much Information (video) - Duran Duran
9. What About Us - P!nk
10. Love Yourself (remix) - Mary J. Blige featuring A$AP Rocky
1. Umbrella (video) - Rihanna
2. Rhythm Nation (video) - Janet Jackson
4. Get Ur Freak On (video) - Missy Elliott
5. Throb - Janet Jackson
6. Can't Hold Us - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton
7. Dark Horse - Katy Perry featuring Juicy J
8. We Belong Together (remix) - Mariah Carey
9. Party People - Altar featuring Jeanie Tracy
10. Say Something - A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera
11. Let Her Go - Passenger
12. Found/Tonight (mashup) - Ben Platt & Lin-Manuel Miranda (from Broadway shows "Dear Evan Hansen" & "Hamilton")
Thanks to Liz for subbing the Ride with Tommy! this morning, Thursday, March 15, 2018!
1. Let Me Think About It (video of Olympic Ice Skater Adam Rippon) - Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand
2. Finesse (video) - Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B
3. Filthy (video) - Justin Timberlake
9. Say Something - A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera
11. Breathe Me - Sia
2. Mo Money Mo Problems - The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Mase & Puff Daddy
7. September '99 - Earth, Wind & Fire
11. Borderline - Jody Whatley
2. The Middle (video) - Zedd featuring Maren Morris & Grey
3. Side To Side (video) - Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
4. My My My! (video) - Troye Sivan
9. I Just Wanna Dance - Alison Jiear (from "Jerry Springer: The Opera")(Manny Patel Equality Mix 2013)
10. Same Love - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert
Track List - Sexy Spin, Thursday, March 8, 2018
6. One Night Only (remix) - Beyonce' (Dreamgirls Soundtrack)
7. Crazy - Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z
8. One - Mary J. Blige & U2
10. Can't Hold Us - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
11. Dark Horse - Katy Perry
12. Work B!#@h - Britney Spears
Track List - The Ride, Wednesday, March 7, 2018
1. Perfect Struggle (2017 year end mashup video of 118 best pop songs of the year) - DJ Andy Wu
2. Something Just Like This - The Chainsmokers featuring Coldplay
3. Tipsy Fireflies - DJ Scotty Dynamo featuring Owl City & J-Kwon
4. The Cure (DJ Blacklow remix) - Lady Gaga
5. Handclap - Fitz And The Tantrums
6. Strip That Down - Liam Payne
10. One - Mary J. Blige & U2
Track List - Peak Performance Ride, Tuesday, March 6, 2018
2. Despacito - Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee & Justin Bieber
7. Heavydirtysoul - Twenty One Pilots
8. Cake - Flo Rida featuring 99 Percent
9. Can't Stop The Feeling! - Justin Timberlake
10. Piece By Piece (remix) - Kelly Clarkson
11. Evacuate The Dancefloor - Cascada
12. Praying - Ke$ha
Thanks to Colin for trusting me again to sub his class at 12:00 noon today, Monday, March 5, 2018!
Track List - The Ride, Monday, March 5, 2017
1. Uptown Funk (video mashup of 100 movie dance scenes) - Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
2. Bang Bang (video) - Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj
3. Call Me Maybe (video) - Carly Rae Jepsen
4. Rhythm Nation - Janet Jackson
6. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
7. Born This Way - Lady Gaga
8. Don't Forget About Us (remix) - Mariah Carey
9. It's Not Right, But It's Okay - Whitney Houston
10. Enough Is Enough (No More Tears) - Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand
11. I Didn't Know My Own Strength - Whitney Houston
12. One Fine Day - Mariah Carey featuring Boyz II
13. I'm Going Down - Mary J. Blige
2. Fiebre (video) - Ricky Martin featuring Wisin & Yandel
5. Ain't Nobody (Loves Me Better) - Felix Jaehn featuring Jasmine Thompson
6. Believe - Cher
7. California Love - 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre
8. Love Train - IDMC Gospel Choir
9. September - Earth, Wind & Fire
10. Hypnotize - Notorious B.I.G.
11. Can't Fight The Feeling! - Justin Timberlake
12. Enough Is Enough (No More Tears) - Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer
14. One Fine Day - Mariah Carey featuring Boyz II Men
Thanks to Tim Bryan for subbing this morning's Sex...
Track List - Peak Performance Ride, Tuesday, Marc...
Thanks again to Colin for trusting me to sub his 1...
Thanks to Liz for subbing the Ride with Tommy! thi...
Track List - Peak Performance Ride, Tuesday, March...
Thanks to Colin for trusting me again to sub his c...


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« Nigerian President Signs Anti-Gay Law Imposing Up to 14 Yrs in Prison | Main | LISTEN LIVE: Philadelphia's WURD Radio 525P/ET »
Dozens Arrested After Extreme Anti-Gay Law Signed in Nigeria
"Dozens" of gay men have reportedly been arrested in northern Nigeria under an extreme anti-gay law that bans same-sex relationships and membership in pro-gay organizations, according to human rights activists quoted by the Associated Press. The arrested men face sentences of up to 14-years in prison. At least four men say they were tortured.
The arrests happened in northern Bauchi state which is predominately Muslim. The news comes one day after it was confirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill in secret on January 7.
In Bauchi state, police entrapped four gay men and tortured them into naming others, said Dorothy Aken'Ova, executive director of Nigeria's International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights. She said the police have drawn up a list of 168 wanted gay men, of whom 38 have been arrested in recent weeks.
The chairman of Bauchi state Shariah Commission, Mustapha Baba Ilela, told the AP that 11 men have been arrested in the past two weeks and charged with belonging to a gay organization. He denied anyone had been tortured and said all 11 — 10 Muslims and a non-Muslim — signed confessions that they belonged to a gay organization but that some of them retracted the statements when they were charged by a judge.
An AIDS counsellor told The Associated Press he helped get bail for the men and also said a total of 38 were arrested. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear he would be arrested. Aken'Ova's organization is providing legal services for them.
Sodomy is already outlawed under existing federal law in Africa's most populous nation. Twenty-four of Nigeria's 36 states punish same-sex acts with up to 14 years imprisonment. Twelve Islamic states in northern Nigeria—including Bauchi— have introduced Sharia law that has sentenced several gays to death. However, the death sentences have reportedly never been enforced and the sentences were commuted.
The legislation also bans same sex couples from living together, bans pro-LGBT websites or groups and prosecute their friends or human rights activists. The new law is expected to be extremely "popular" and should help President Jonathan's 2015 re-election campaign, adds The Guardian.
The draconian anti-gay legislation is likely to undermine Nigeria's fight against HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The new legislation ... will prevent gay people in the country from accessing essential HIV services, and is likely to spur further hatred of the LGBT community, the two organisations said.
Nigeria had an estimated 3.4 million people living with HIV in 2012, the world's second largest HIV epidemic, they said. In 2010, HIV prevalence in Nigeria was estimated at 4 percent among the general population and 17 percent among men who have sex with men, UNAIDS said.
"The provisions of the new law in Nigeria could lead to increased homophobia, discrimination, denial of HIV services and violence based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity," Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS executive director, said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Previous versions of the bill banned gays from meeting, living together, reading LGBT websites or even going out to dinner. The comprehensive anti-gay legislation was passed unanimously by Nigeria's House of Representatives in late May 2013. It later passed the Senate.
Same-sex acts are currently illegal in at least 38 of 54 African countries. Four nations—Mauritania, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan—boast the death penalty for gays or same-sex activity. South Africa and Seychelles are the only African nations that protect LGBT rights. South Africa is the only African nation that mandates equal marriage.
Some Background ...
Nigerian President Signs Anti-Gay Law
NIGERIA: Katsina Approves Anti-Gay Legislation
NIGERIA: REPORT: Police Arrest "Gay Pastor"
NIGERIA: 3 Gay Men Stripped, Beaten by Mob
NIGERIA: Criticism After Actor Sentenced
Nigerian Actor Sentenced for "Unnatural Offences"
"Daily Sun" Warns "Homosexuals in Trouble"
NIGERIA: Activists Harassed During Testimony
Nigeria Advances Extreme Anti-Gay Bill
NIGERIA: Hearings Begin on Extreme Legislation
Nigerian Village Vows to "Stone Any Homosexual"
EU Considers Suspending Aid to Nigeria
Nigerian Legislators Vote to Ban Gay Marriages
EU: Level of Homophobia in Nigeria "Unacceptable"
Nigerian Mob Attacks Gay Activist
Nigerian Lynch Mob Storms Jail
Nigeria: 18 Gays Face Death Penalty
Nigerian Lesbian In Hiding After Reported Wedding
Nigeria's Homophobia Threatens Bid for Games
Nigeria One Step Closer to Outlawing Gays
Posted by Rod at 11:35 in #Africa, #GlobalDev, #GlobalHealth, #HumanRights, Gay, Global Fund, Health, Health Care, HIV/AIDS, Islam, News, Nigeria, Religion, UNAIDS | Permalink
This saddens me beyond words. In fact, it's just so hard to believe this is happening in 2014. Has GLAAD gotten involved? All I've been hearing about in the media is Russia and it's anti gay laws. Maybe it's because there are some white attractive men living there perhaps...? Figures.
Posted by: Black Pegasus | 17 January 2014 at 11:46


text:
HK gas spat should squeeze more from Air Products
Air of defeat
1 March 2017 By Quentin Webb
A buyout firm has upset the U.S. group's pursuit of Hong Kong-listed Yingde Gases with a rival $1.5 bln proposal. Investors think the intervention could force a higher proposal out of Air Products. That would be a victory for outside shareholders after a rocky few months.
Hong Kong-based private equity firm PAG said it had agreed to buy 42.1 percent of Yingde Gases from the company's three feuding co-founders for $616 million, as part of a planned cash offer for the gas group.
Zhao Xiangti, Sun Zhongguo and Trevor Strutt have undertaken to sell their stakes to PAG for HK$6.00 per share, Yingde said on March 1. The agreement does not hold if a rival offer is made for the firm that is at least 5 percent higher, and various other requirements are also satisfied. Zhao is Yingde's chairman, while Sun is his predecessor and Strutt is the group's former chief operating officer.
U.S. industrial gas-maker Air Products previously proposed paying HK$5.50 a share for Yingde and said it could raise that to HK$6.00 subject to due diligence. Yingde shares rose 16.9 percent to HK$6.23.
"We believe that this is a positive development for shareholders because it potentially sets a higher price for a takeover - equal to or higher than HK$6.30 - whether that ultimately is by PAG, Air Products or another bidder," Seth Fischer, chief investment officer of Hong Kong-based hedge fund Oasis Management Company, told Reuters in a statement.
A Chinese worker cleans valves at a well head in PetroChina's Daqing oil field in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province March 18, 2006. China's subdued inflation means it is a good time to change the pricing mechanisms for energy and natural resources, Wu Xiaoling, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said on Saturday. REUTERS/Jason Lee - RTR17CFE
Reuters: China's Yingde in play as PE firm PAG buying co-founders' stake for $616 million
Yingde statement, March 1
Independent directors' statement, March 1
Air Products' Chinese bid deserves to fly
Air Products can endure Yingde's gas tactics
Air Products has promising formula for Chinese M&A


text:
Cathedral Prep, McDowell hockey teams wait out high school athletics pause
Josh Reilly
Erie Times-News
Unlike other winter sports teams, the Cathedral Prep and McDowell hockey teams were already in the midst of their seasons when the state ordered the latest COVID shutdown.
Prep was headed to a road game against North Allegheny on Dec. 10 when the coaching staff and players heard the news of Gov. Tom Wolf's newest mitigation restrictions that prohibited high school sporting events or practices until at least Jan. 4.
The Ramblers still took the ice that night and dropped a 4-3 contest, but Ramblers coach Alex Luddy was pleased with his team's effort considering the circumstances.
"I was worried about how the guys were going to react," he said. "But they were ready to go. We played a very good hockey game against a very strong team."
Meanwhile, after they heard the news, McDowell's team members gathered on a Zoom call to discuss the next steps in a season that's seen the program ascend to PIHL Class A. The Trojans' roster consists solely of McDowell students for the first time in several years, making them eligible for the PIHL playoffs.
"We let them know our plan," assistant coach Sean Perhacs said. "We see this as an opportunity to take a step forward. We really felt like we were starting to play really good hockey."
McDowell lost its last game before the pause, falling to North Catholic 8-4 on Dec. 8. One game prior to that, it earned a 3-2 league win over Blackhawk.
"It was huge," head coach Hunter Cunningham said. "It's definitely something the boys needed. They needed to realize we can compete here."
McDowell turnaround
Before the shutdown, McDowell had gone 9-10 overall and 1-5 in its PIHL Class A Division. The win over Blackhawk was a defining moment as it was the Trojans' first league win since elevating in the PIHL.
Nico Catalde, who leads the Trojans in PIHL play with four goals and two assists, scored the game-winner against Blackhawk. Jake Harper also has four goals for McDowell.
"We're excited that we're able to be competing with these teams," said senior Brandon Boehm. "The locker room was loud after the win. We were all joyful, joking around and having fun.
"While it gives us confidence knowing that we can compete, it says to the other teams, 'We're another team in the league just like you guys.' "
McDowell has taken advantage of Zoom for group workouts and film sessions. Cunningham credited film study for the team's league win.
"I never thought that we'd utilize that and help the kids with their hockey IQ," he said. "We broke down some film and really executed our gameplan. I was happy for the boys. That was rewarding."
The Trojans will continue to gather on Zoom until they find their way back into the rink. McDowell's first scheduled game after the pause is a road contest Jan. 12 against Fox Chapel.
Boehm looks forward to getting back on the ice and finishing out his senior season.
"We've got a pretty tight group," he said. "Whenever we come in together, we take advantage of it."
Prep pauses after league win
The Ramblers went into the pause with a 3-5 record along with a 1-4 mark in PIHL Class AAA Division play. They defeated Butler 8-2 on Dec. 8 for their lone league win.
Senior forward Matthew Loza leads the team with four goals and four assists in league play. He joined the Ramblers this season after playing 16U AAA hockey for the Cleveland Barons last year.
Another senior forward, Austin Faulkner, has three goals and three assists in the PIHL.
"Over the past week or two, we've really gotten our momentum going," Luddy said shortly before the pause. "We're really going to try and keep focus and keep pushing through."
If the shutdown ends as planned on Jan. 4, the Ramblers' next game will be against that same North Allegheny squad they played before the break. Until then, players will be taking part in at-home workouts and Zoom sessions.
"We just told the boys to do whatever they can," he said. "Cardio and body-weight exercises. Stick-handling is one of the first things that's going to go when you're going to take a hiatus."
The coaching staff has also been able to break down footage for team film sessions.
Like all high school teams nowadays, Prep knew its season could hit a snag at any moment. That has led to an upbeat atmosphere at both games and practices.
"Before every game, we always go in with the mindset that this could be our last game of the season," said senior Ryan McKinsey. "We're going to try to play to our complete potential."
Fellow senior Jonathan Zambroski admitted his disappointment in the pause.
"We all saw what happened with the last lockdown (in March)," Zambroski said. "If this is going to be our last game, we need to come together, focus and have fun.
"All these kids, I've basically grown up with. This will be some of our last years playing hockey. I'm so glad I got to play with these guys all of my life."
Contact Josh Reilly at jreilly@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNreilly.
© 2021 www.goerie.com. All rights reserved.


text:
Three Kentucky Teams Are in the NCAAs, But Only Two Can Advance
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
What seems like the most under-the-radar Kentucky team in YEARS and its hated rival from a mere 65+ miles down Interstate 64 have the exact the same seed in the NCAA Tournament.
UK and Louisville both landed 2-seeds--Kentucky in the South and Louisville in Midwest.
And then there's that third team from the Bluegrass State.
Nope, it's not WKU or EKU or Murray or Morehead...you know, the USUAL suspects when it comes to tourney teams that AREN'T the Cards or the Cats.
No, that third team is the Northern Kentucky Norse, from the Cincinnati suburb ('cause, let's be honest...) of Highland Heights, Kentucky.
And just like in 2005 when the NCAA selection committee paired up 15-seed Eastern Kentucky with UK and put 16-seed Western Kentucky into UK's path in 2012, that merry band of seed scrubbers has done it again and sent the Norse into the South region as a 15-seed against...yep, the Kentucky Wildcats.
Quick, someone get a Division I school started called SOUTHERN Kentucky then get it eligible for the post-season so IT can play UK in the Big Dance, too!
By the way, Kentucky's 2017 appearance is its record-extending 56th. Louisville's 42nd NCAA Tournament bid places it 5th on the all-time list.
Neither has a particularly easy way out of its respective regions and into the Final Four, but I'd submit that Louisville would have a little better shot against Midwest 1-seed Kansas than Kentucky would against South 1-seed North Carolina.
And, I only say that because of revenge games.
Kentucky beat North Carolina 103-100 back in December in one of the most exciting basketball games I've ever seen.
BUT...the Tarheels were not at full strength and now they are.
Should it be a 1 vs. 2 in the South regional final, well...
And that assumes Kentucky gets past South 3-seed UCLA which already beat the Cats--in Rupp--also in December.
Of course, if my "revenge-game theory" were to hold, then Kentucky--a better Kentucky team than the ones the Bruins edged by 5 before Christmas--would have a decent chance to win that game in advance.
I love the tournament!
And, if you DON'T, you certainly WOULD if you won the WBKR 2017 Million Dollar Bracket Challenge sponsored by Spudz-n-Stuff.
Enjoy March Madness...and GOOD LUCK!
Enter to win - $200 Amazon Gift Card
Filed Under: kentucky wildcats, louisville cardinals
Categories: Kentucky News, Regional Sports, Sports


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Category: Startup Demos
Microsoft's Cognitive Services Demonstrate Detection of Emotions in Human Face
NEW YORK—Last August 25, Nick Landry, senior technical evangelist at Microsoft, held at demonstration of Microsoft's Cognitive Services and its 22 APIs (previously called Project Oxford) at Microsoft Reactor at Grand Central Tech.
Imagine an API that could detect the emotion in a person's face in an image, not to mention tell someone's age, which became hugely popular when people used the technology from the How Old Do You Look app?, which it is improving; not good news for those who hide their real age.
Now Microsoft is allowing developers to customize the new Cognitive Services. This was highlighted in previous events of Microsoft this year.
The rebranding to Cognitive Services also means that it brings together Bing, Oxford and Translator APIs.
The new Cognitive Services APIs include emotion (comparing facial expressions); entity linking (a textual analysis function); face (facial recognition); linguistic analysis, speaker recognition, speech (speech to text); video (vision analysis); WebLM (an SDK for the Web Language Model).
Seeing AI shows how these new capabilities can help people who are visually impaired or blind understand who and what is around them. See how it works here https://youtu.be/R2mC-NUAmMk
Landry demonstrated how developers can use all these services at the meetup.
Cognitive Services is reportedly a nod to IBM's Watson, which has been marketed as a "cognitive computing" product, one that's based on the way the human brain works.
Posted on August 1, 2016 February 28, 2018
Living in the Time of Audience Rebellion: No One Wants to Pay for Content
NEW YORK–What's the future of content? That was the topic at the NY Content Meetup last July 28 at Samsung Accelerator in midtown Manhattan. The title seems ominous — but it has to be. After all, there's just too much content out there for everyone to consume–and for those in the business of providing content, less and less opportunities to monetize their content. One thing that can save content is good storytelling, despite some ugly realities.
"We're in the midst of an audience rebellion," Kirk Cheyfitz said as the moderator of an impressive panel of content marketers. He is the CEO and founder of Story Worldwide, a digital-first ad agency, which has integrated journalistic storytelling, with advertising to tell brands' stories in every media channel. Cheyfitz has extensive experience in journalism and has started and runs various media agencies.
It's true. No one wants to pay for content. Not only that, people also want control of what they see and hear. "To force people's attention is over," he added. It doesn't help that people don't get your content directly to your site anymore. Your content gets linked on, say, Twitter. There are fewer people actually going to sites as social networks have become the default place to go to for newsfeeds, even beyond personal cat postings. And if you think people will click on those banner ads, think again. And we haven't even mentioned ad blockers.
In a panel of creative people in the content business, there's always a way.
"Give them some value. Be the destination," Cheyfitz said.
The youngest in the panel, Bailey Richardson, offered the future as "you being the TV network," as she also points how Pop-Up Magazine is making journalists, even print journalists not used to the camera or radio, to broadcast the news themselves live. She was one of the early employees at Instagram, where she worked on the community team.
With Pop-Up's "phone stories" (directly to you), the news becomes very personal, introducing emotion to the (experience)."
Richardson was joined by Jeff Gomez, founder at transmedia Starlight Runner, Mike Knowlton, president and founder at Murmur, a next-generation storytelling studio; Joanne Tombrakos, chief storyteller and business development consultant, and Matt Wellschlager, VP Marketing at Cerosdotcom, an interactive content marketing software company.
The free-flowing conversation resulted in some great insights and new terms on how you can push content that people will listen, read and watch.
Take on a micro-narrative approach
Where is Harry Potter now? (To stay relevant), it's now in Lego Games where it's the gateway drug for young people go before they go to the (Harry Potter) books and movies
Content is the totality, what people are perceiving
Work on the Plurals — those who grew completely internet native
(Address) the different you in different social networks
Do superpositioning. (Example) is Black Lives Matter.
Make use of agile /lean development. See if you can fail faster (so you can recover faster)
The future of content? Check out why people think mobile wallets is the future.
"Listen" to your blind spots
Difference of actual story and content? Content is a photo, moments–not always the long narrative arc. Some are primed for content but are not stories
How would you like images automatically tagged? Clarifai does it
NEW YORK—Last July 18, HUI Central featured Clarifai, the three-year old artificial intelligence company that focuses on visual recognition and solving real-world problems for businesses and developers in its midtown East office.
What problems? Imagine having hundreds of images but tagging each one of them on your site? That would be too much of a chore. Clarifai does the tagging for you when you upload them—automatically.
Presenter Cassidy Williams showed Clarifai's powerful image and video recognition technology, built on machine learning systems and made available to developers via a clean API. Williams showed how the technology works using "convolution neural networks." It reportedly improves its image recognition capability with consistent use.
Williams compared convolution to adjacent by saying the former is fast to train and can find multiple items whereas the latter offers no recognition of special structure but is good for finding a single item. Both, she said, creates a multilayer neural network.
What are convolution neutral networks? Deeplearning.net defines it "as biologically-inspired variants of MLPs. From Hubel and Wiesel's early work on the cat's visual cortex, the visual cortex contains a complex arrangement of cells. These cells are sensitive to small sub-regions of the visual field, called a receptive field. The sub-regions are tiled to cover the entire visual field. These cells act as local filters over the input space and are well-suited to exploit the strong spatially local correlation present in natural images.
"Additionally, two basic cell types have been identified: Simple cells respond maximally to specific edge-like patterns within their receptive field. Complex cells have larger receptive fields and are locally invariant to the exact position of the pattern.
The animal visual cortex being the most powerful visual processing system in existence, it seems natural to emulate its behavior. Hence, many neurally-inspired models can be found in the literature."
Today, big companies are confident how deep learning can handle large data sets plus have greater computing power. It's a game changer for AI prototyping. Not only that, it can serve as a boon for advertisers trying to pinpoint better use and even best timing for any use of photo or videos.
Clarifai has both a REST API that could be integrated with your preferred language along with a Python, Java and Node.js API. For more info, visit developer.clarifai.com or github.com/clarifai
Posted on June 20, 2016 March 1, 2018
Culture hack for startups: Understand your values
NEW YORK–To be guided by values is to be successful, but what if you could not see or articulate it clearly? Last June 16, Columbia Professor Paul Ingram conducted a values workshop to willing participants at Alley which, under Culture Hacks, teamed up to hold the special workshop with Columbia Business School.
Culture Hacks is an exercise designed to help startups understand, develop and strengthen organizational culture.
"I know who I am, I manage people better," a quote read on Ingram's slide as the workshop tackled the importance of knowing one's self.
As we know, values can be abstract or concrete. It can mean happiness, respect, integrity, accomplishment and efficiency. You can have a hierarchy on feelings and decisions. For one person, relationships can be more important than trust, integrity and honesty, while another person could place higher value on honesty. The importance and meaning of values can change with the context.
Context, he said, affects values. Ask yourself, "What is most important to you?"
One last reflection he asked the participants is to think of a great moment they experienced at work. Identifying the most important values is important but having access to your value lead to your best self
After his brief introduction, Ingram conducted the exercise by asking the participants to do build their own values hierarchy. Having a value at the bottom doesn't mean it's unimportant; it could just be a foundation necessary for reaching a higher value. However, he also emphasized how starting with your CEO value (the peak value) is crucial.
Look for means-end relationships (e.g. does openness lead to learning?), he said.
And when you have a working version of your hierarchy, describe it yourself. If it sounds ok, describe it to your neighbor-participant. Ingram said blurting it out loud helps you refine your hierarchy and realize that you can revise it if it doesn't work for you."
Have a "functional test of your values hierarchy" when you go over the exercise. Here are some tips:
List your values with "1" being the CEO and move down the hierarchy. Then for the first scenario, point out satisfaction with your current job.
Staring at the bottom of your value list, score for each value how well/poorly it was satisfied (1= violated; 7 = completely satisfied)
Ask yourself for each value in each situation what you could do, or have done, to achieve higher satisfaction for this value
Ask yourself if the values analysis is in line with your overall feeling about the situation (e.g., if you love your job, but feel all of your values are violated, this suggests something is missing from your hierarchy);
Repeat with the second scenario, "Situation Where You Were Hurt or Angry." The question here is to what extent you see your values are being satisfied.
Make changes to your hierarchy that capture your key work values
Posted on June 12, 2016 April 1, 2017
What early stage CleanTech startups can expect from incubator
NEW YORK–CleanTech was the big topic at the Japan NYC Startups meetup last June 6 at Pivotal Labs. Jiro Otsuka, program manager at Urban Future Lab/ACRE at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, talked about how the cleantech business incubator and how it supports early stage companies in the industry.
http://www.meetup.com/Japan-NYC-Startups/events/230361244/?rv=ea1&_af=event&_af_eid=230361244&https=off
NYC ACRE is a cleantech, smart grid and sustainable, smart cities incubator that supports early stage business ventures with innovative technologies and new business models for a greener, smarter and more connected world.
NYC ACRE offers an extensive community of cleantech industry stakeholders as well as exclusive access to professional services. The incubator grows its member startups from prototypes and pilots phases to fully commercialized entities.
Companies that are accepted into the incubator program get a shared office space in Brooklyn on top of mentors and advisors to guide them. They are also introduced to an extensive network of industry contacts, and customized support services.
If you have a cleantech idea, one can count on the fact that New York City is positioning itself as the future of energy innovation in the US and NYC ACRE it throwing its support in various ways, including the way it positions itself on climate change. Otsuka said there is a need to need to reduce fossil fuel use.
ACRE hopes to grow an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, international companies, and innovative local businesses that provide solutions to climate and energy issues in NYC. Marketing, design, art, engineering, and data science will all be required in this effort.
How does one apply?
Otsuka said applicant companies undergo a VC style due diligence process. As a result, less than 10 percent of companies have been accepted. However, once you're in, you'll receive comprehensive services and benefits—from direction, consultation with and introduction to market channel partners, decision makers, investors and many more.
Plus, there's no equity cost and a very low monthly membership rate.
Mentors provide counsel, pitching and pitching practice as well as researchers and seasoned entrepreneurs for product development. Professional services include access to financial, accounting, legal, sales, marketing, and design services.
Among the companies it has helped and/or supported include the following: Keen Home, Enertiv, Agrilyst, Honest Buildings, EnerKnol, Radiator Labs, Voyage Control,EcoLogic Solutions, Voltaiq, REGEN Energy, Bandwagon, Sealed, HEVO Power, Sistine Solar,Rentricity, Ecological, BlocPower, MJ Beck, DG Energy Partners, Anellotech, Inc., Lumiode,ClearGrid Energy, CleanCapital, EV-Box, ThinkEco, Smarter Grid Solutions, ProjectEconomics,Sollega and Smart Data Science.
Words recreated into 3D scenes, homes more connected than ever
NEW YORK – How do you create 3D scenes by simply describing them in words? How about conjuring some magical UX for IoT? Or having your home products connect with any device? These and more were tackled at the Hardwired NY meetup last June 8 at WeWork in Chelsea.
http://www.meetup.com/Hardwired-NYC/events/231216344/
Bob Coyne, founder and CTO of WordsEye, showed the packed audience how to create 3D scenes simply by describing them in words. Users can reportedly make artwork, express visual opinion or simply play with it. They make good conversation pieces for social networks.
Those concerned about their privacy? Users have the option to keep their input text private even when sharing a scene itself. Any scene that is posted to the gallery or made public via a permalink can be copied by other users if the original scene's text is disclosed.
When a scene is copied from another scene and then posted to the gallery, the new scene will display a small thumbnail in the bottom right hand corner, showing where it was derived from. This way, it claims, users can riff on each other's scenes while still crediting the original artist. Only make use of personal and non-commercial use of their scenes.
How can you take it further? You can comment on existing scenes by opening and modifying them, if not responding with a new scene. If you want to play around with it more, you can change effects with illustrations, even add thought balloons, among others.
Coyne also shared what he and his team have learned.
• New features/content fuel engagement
• Users riff on each other's scenes (visual banter)
• Shared scenes attract new uers
• Users like a token system
• Giving a title is an important part of creativity
• User requests: storyboarding/comic' new 3D content choices; user 3D uploads; VR output; animated output
Chris Allen, founder and CEO of iDevices, has a growing line of HomeKit-enable products sold at Lowe's stores. The company builds products that are compatible across platforms with focus on Siri, Google and Amazon.
iDevices' products include the Socket, Wall Switch, Dimmer Switch and Wall Outlet. These build upon iDevices' first three Homekit-enabled products: the iDevices Switch, an indoor connected plug; Outdoor Switch, a rain-tight, dual outlet connected plug and Thermostat.
Through the use of Apple HomeKit technology, iDevices is able to provide different ways for its users to control their home's lights, outlets, thermostats, and more from their Apple's iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and with Siri voice commands.
The iDevices Connected app provides users with ultimate convenience, comfort and security allowing them to control their home using their iOS 8.1+ mobile phone or tablet from anywhere.
Allen shared a few points about the direction of the market for 2016:
HomeKit: It's early days for Apple HomeKit but there are lots of promising signs
Expenditure: Growth in smart home product and service spend continues to grow, estimated to reach 128 million households by 2018
Intent: 43 percent of consumers are most likely to purchase connected home products when renovating or upgrading their home
Next speaker was Josh Clark, founder of Big Medium, a company that specializes in designing multi-device experiences that blend function and inspiration. The challenge for him is how to create great individual experiences and create experiences across all of these devices.
Martin Broen, VP of Global Product Design at Pepsi, talked about how his design team uses prototyping to lead development of ideas. He cited the importance of not waiting too long to finish products, not skipping steps and not spending too much to test them.
Posted on May 31, 2016 March 1, 2018
Shop while watching a movie
NEW YORK—Last May 26 at the HBO offices, the NY Video meetup featured ConvertMedia, Teleport, TVRunway and Snakt.
http://www.meetup.com/nyvideo/events/230373849/
ConvertMedia's proprietary platform and broad range of video formats allows publishers to strike a balance between revenue goals, the exposure they afford advertisers and how they engage consumers.
Publishers reportedly use ConvertMedia's video gallery to expand their supply of quality video ad inventory. These outstream video ad units are served through its dedicated programmatic monetization platform, which maximizes fill rates. The platform manages outstream video inventory, with controls for audio, viewability and frequency.
As partner with DSPs, CEO and founder Yoav Naveh said ConvertMedia offers access to exclusive video inventory on premium publishers for desktop and mobile that is brand-safe and viewable. It reportedly delivers over 100B display impressions every month.
TVRunway finds the clothes from your favorite shows with a single click while you watch online. Just by inserting 3 lines of code, retailers can have access to a new revenue stream, increased engagement and verifiable viewer data.
Now you can find your favorite clothes from your favorite shows with just one click at TVRunwayit.com. It turns all existing OTT content into an additional revenue stream. With its API, you connect directly inside the online video player, allowing a site's users to click on clothes worn in the video and buy while watching.
"We don't pin, tag, collect metadata," Terena Bells and that means "no plugins, downloads, video editing or tagging."
TVRunwayit.com makes use of machine learning and comparative algorithms to identify items, then displays the top three, real-time matches from about retailers' available inventories. This approach reportedly makes TVRunway instantly deployable and 100% scalable across all videos, no matter when they were made.
"You just need 3 lines of code to connect to your website. It will never take more than 13 seconds," she said, stressing it's a "search engine."
Everytime you hit buy, we share our money with the distributor. "About 75 percent hit the buy button with 72% user engagement," she said.
Teleport's Gavrilo Bozovic presented his interactive online video platform from Sweden. The startup developed a platform which allows distributing scrollable, media-enriched video, through web browsers.
"It's about giving context to your videos," he said.
Last presenter was Snakt's COO and Co-Founder, Tristan Snell.
"Snakt is an invite-only iOS app for video that lets you create 'video legos' of 7-second-or-less clips for infinite remixing and compilations," he said.
Now on open beta in the Apple app store, it is reportedly coming to The Onion while it also continues talking with sports networks. "You can create private group and make videos on Snakt."
Some affiliate marketing will be added as well. "You can add your reaction to movie or TV shows," he said.
Posted on May 24, 2016 April 1, 2017
'Globalization is where you can get everything wherever you are'
NEW YORK—What is lifestyle in the internet age? If the speakers and attendees at the Racked meetup last May 17 were any indication of how the world of tech and publishing could learn more from each other, this is that meetup. But unfortunately, not many tech people, especially those targeting millennial consumers, come to this type of meetup.
http://bit.ly/1TA2OiP
The panel consisted of young journalists: Julia Rubin, Racked features editor and moderator; Helen Rosner, executive editor at Eater; Kyle Chayka, writer and contributor to Racked, The Guardian and The New Yorkers; Alanna Okun, senior editor at BuzzFeed; Rachel Miller, senior lifestyle editor at Buzzfeed and Mark Lotto, co-founder at Matter Studios.
The millennial panel defined lifestyle in many ways:
Rosner: It's consumer identity as a force. It's something that allows advertisers to reach readers.
Chayka: It's so abstract. It means nothing and everything you do. It's the things you most consume or identify with. Lifestyle is composed of objects you identify yourself with
Miller: Everything you do that is not work. Some are essential like food and shelter
Okun: It's the choices (we put) in or around the body.
Lotto: It's brands that (give) a distinct voice
From there, the panel's discussed flowed freely– with almost no moderation.
On how social media impacts lifestyle, Rosner said it allows us to "show the best version of ourselves. Lifestyle is curation. Lifestyle covers you. It's this reflecting game."
But she is also quick to point out how the individual product has become less important. "The barriers are not money anymore."
For her, lifestyle provides excitement: "Lifestyle is when readers need to hang their excitement on something. Everybody is so tired of their jobs."
And what do bored people tired of their jobs do? "They travel," she said. "Everything you want to be is a secret (but they have to be) balanced with (good lifestyle advice).
And where do people get these tips and advice if not the magazine. "The format of a magazine is suited for lifestyle."
Similar to a magazine these days is Pinterest, where Okun said she just spent the whole day figuring out the people Buzzfeed responds to. Lifestyle is also about learning who your readers are. And based on the chuckles from the crowd when Rubin said, "very cerulean" when echoing some of the thoughts by the panel, you know the audience has seen "The Devil Wears Prada."
Beyond Pinterest, Rosner said Instagram has taught people the secrets of magazine photography. With Instagram, everyone seems to have her own magazine online.
"They don't need to pay us a hundred dollars to take their photos. It's richly democratizing," she said.
"Things can make them happy..What is unattainable is now attainable," she added.
Not only that, she said "you are communicating massive multi-consumption about yourself with just one coat."
What is social media if not a lifestyle magazine, it seems. Said Lotto, "We're carrying it in our pocket. It's beautiful, immersive, rich."
What is the future of social media?
Rosner addressed this question seriously, "For PR, it's not always best way to do pitch traditional printing."
What's the next big thing? The panel had some fun answering this question.
Rosner said, "Our parents' parties."
Chayka: "Ugliness is going to be back. Aggressively ugly things"
Miller: Analog note-taking"
Rosner gave some serious thought on the question of globalization of lifestyle because she thought her answer can be a scary thought. "Globalization is where you can get everything here (New York)," she said.
If that is the case, the panelists nodded as if in agreement, because what would be the point of discovery if you can find everything easily, if everything is within reach.
Delivering great search and predictive marketing intelligence
NEW YORK–Nicholas Dessaigne, founder and CEO of Algolia kicked off the monthly Data-Driven meetup last May 19 at AXA Center by talking about the journey of his company in delivering a great search experience for apps and websites with its hosted search API.
http://www.meetup.com/DataDrivenNYC/events/230320649/
Today, Algolia has 1,500 enterprise customers with 36 data centers in 15 regions, serving billions of queries weekly in under 50 ms for more than 1300 customers, including many Fortune 500 companies.
Algolia is scalable and reliable, with a 99.99% SLA and both server and provider redundancy.
In his presentation, Dessaignee talked about its journey through the years since it was founded in 2012. He recalled ow in March 2015, the company spread its US clusters across two completely different providers
2 different data center in close locations (24 miles, 1ms latency)
3 different machines
2 completely different autonomous systems
Algolia is designed from the ground up to maximize the speed of search and solve the pain of relevance tuning. It pushes the search experience beyond its traditional limits for better user engagement.
"Building an HA architecture takes time. Design early (but) do not over-engineer," he said. "Focus on execution."
"You have to be as upfront as you can. Definitely do a post-mortem and why it should not happen again.
Louis DiModugno, chief data and analytics officer at AXA US (global leader in insurance), talked about how the company is enhancing customer experience and making sure it has the right balance of products to protect them.
DiModugno knows data can't flow freely, so it maintains data offices in Paris, US and in process of building one in Singapore. "We are a young company," he said, announcing job openings for engineers in the coming weeks.
6Sense is a B2B predictive intelligence engine for marketing and sales.
Amanda Kahlow, founder and CEO of 6Sense, says it's "all about timing" as she addressed the number one thing CMOs and sales both want to know: "when buyers are in market."
"We accelerate sales by finding buyers at every stage of the funnel," she said.
Founder and CEO Peter Brodsky said HyperScience (AI for the enterprise) leverages a novel approach to AI to automate work currently performed by human data scientists, solving the pain points across the enterprise.
"We identify subnets." Subnets can be used in different applications."
He demonstrated how it works by asking people to upload photos of images he listed on the projector screen where people then tweeted them and HyperScience identified correctly.
"Most databases can only tell you about the past. HyperScience can tell you about the future," he said.
Requiring no data science or statistics, it seems. It is self-configuring, self-tuning and self-healing. It scales horizontally and supports real time queries.
Challenge for startups? Social media makes everyone a publisher
NEW YORK—Last May 10, Spark Labs packed its Union Square office to overflowing. Social Media has become a hot topic for the many complexities it is adding to the conversation, the way new social networks emerge and require us to consider them.
http://www.meetup.com/sparklabs/events/230490728/
"Everyone is a publisher," said Aparna Mukherjee of The Paley Center for Media who was joined by four other panelists in the talk at the Spark Labs' offices near Union Square.
Most startups have indeed become publishers too because of their blog and social media interactions with their customers out there. And many of those who come from a programming background don't have the requisite skills and experience to be publishers themselves. This reminds us how Hootsuite knows how hiring an established journalist to manage its content is crucial.
The challenges facing many startups in terms of putting the word out there is certainlly getting harder with people distracted by so many things online. Or as Christian Busch, investor and former Indiegogo SVP puts it, "Social media is becoming more of a communication tool," adding how people use it even for airing out complaints.
As a publisher, a company or startup has never had so many social tools at their disposal. From Twitter and Facebook to Instagram and Pinterest, to name just a few, everyone is chasing real-time relevance. And talking about real-time, there's an opportunity to market your product or service out there live using live streaming apps like Periscope and even YouTube, which also offers live streaming now.
Little Things' Maya Borenstein said, "We found how viral blogging could be huge tool." It's not often you hear someone say what is really happening out there, but she's spot-on on this one. There's a way to get attention out there with a blog, only if companies realized they have to spend for it as well. "Hire good creatives, incentivize them."
One example of this came from Kristy Sunjaya of Live Person who said companies make use of YouTube for its branded content. Still, she stresses the importance of authenticity.
She admits to going to Alexa every morning. In checking if your social media activities is working, she asks everyone to rely not just on CTR but also engagement and time on site.
The panelists didn't have all the answers.
"What is prized in social is relevance," Mukherjee said but she also addressed the crowd and asked them, "How do you repurpose content that was not relevant before?"