So, you've had the same Managed Service Provider for years. Today, after looking at your year-to-date expenditures, you begin to wonder if you are really getting what you pay for. Is it time to break off the partnership? Is the cost of moving to a new provider worth the effort?
Here are 10 ways to tell.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) use comprehensive monitoring systems and sophisticated incident databases to detect and resolve problems before they disrupt your business. When an issue happens, a good MSP has the documentation and systems in place to fix it and an efficient process for resolving the issue if it occurs again.
If you seem to experience the same problems over and over, you may need to find a new provider. Repeated problems indicate they don't track issues correctly, or they just put duck-tape over problems and hope they go away. Failed backups, low memory, and PC or server crashes are all examples of problems your MSP should know about before you do. A good MSP should prevent issues from happening and explain what steps should be taken to ensure they don't happen again.
Are you waiting longer and longer to hear back after you submit an issue? Are you the one notifying your MSP of high-priority issues such as internet outages or a server crash? Do you need to check-in on the status of issues because you haven't heard from your MSP in days or weeks?
There are a number of reasons this could be happening. Perhaps they haven't invested in the technology necessary to properly monitor and track your systems. Maybe they are short-staffed.
Regardless, your MSP should communicate with you frequently. If you email in a support request, you should get a confirmation that it was received. In addition, a technician should be responding within an hour or two (depending on the issue) with an update. If they are unable to resolve it right away, they should give you some indication of when you can expect a resolution. The key factor here is the response.
Most MSPs have a system to help them categorize requests for support. Typical categories are: Critical, High, Medium, and Low. Each category depends on two factors: 1) level of impact, and 2) severity, or the number of people affected.
Critical – Major business processes are stopped and no work can be performed. An example is a server outage. Your MSP should respond to you within 5-15 minutes of receiving this type of alert.
High – The entire business is degraded or a group of people cannot function. An example is a group of people unable to access their email or business critical applications do not function. A high-priority issue should be responded to within 15 – 30 minutes upon alert.
Medium – A group of people are affected, but can still work or a single person cannot function. Examples would include missing files or slowness, you should expect to hear back from a technician within 1-2 hours.
Low – A group or single user is affected, but productivity is not. Examples include inability to access a website, adding an email signature, or installing new software. Low priority issues can be scheduled at a mutually convenient time.
If your MSP is constantly trying to sell you new products or services, without considering what your firm actually needs, it may be time to switch.
A good MSP consults with clients on how technology can make their organization more efficient. Be wary of companies selling services that are unnecessary. Any recommendations should justify the costs, through increased efficiency, security, or long term savings. They should also be able to support their recommendations with data and reporting. For example, if your MSP recommends a new backup server, they should be able to prove that your current server is insufficient by providing analytics that show failed jobs or storage consumption statistics. If they're unable to justify the purchase, they may not have your best interests in mind.
Consulting and recommending additional products or services are not necessarily a bad thing. The key here is that your MSP should be proactive. Frequently reviewing your services and recommending changes or additions that will help you operate more efficiently and securely. Many businesses are not aware of how a simple firewall or vulnerability scan can prevent a major catastrophe. This is the type of "sale" that makes sense.
Your MSP is purchasing and installing equipment w/out your knowledge. The role of a MSP is to help you prioritize, plan and budget for additional expenses, not surprise you with added costs.
There may be a discrepancy between what you thought was covered under your contract and what is actually included. It's not your job to understand all the intricacies involved in delivering IT support, but it is the job of your MSP to make sure you understand what's covered and what's not.
Employees may not understand the scope of your agreement. They may assume that they can call for help with their daughter's laptop or their home router.
Your MSP should be able to communicate at any given point, how much time you're accruing and what your open issues are. Sophisticated ticket systems make it easy to track the status of every issue going on at your firm. If your MSP isn't being completely transparent with the services they're providing, or if you find that they are not explaining lengthy time charges in enough detail – then move on, you deserve better.
Every business has its share of employee turnover, but if it is difficult to reach someone that is knowledgeable about your business, your network, and your people, it may be time to move on. A good MSP should provide you with a team of dedicated support representatives that are familiar with your business' needs and workflow.
This is not to say that every issue should be handled by the IT manager with whom you share many years of experience. Requesting the Director of Technology to help get your Yahoo! email account setup on your new mobile phone may be a waste of his or her talent and time. It's important to allow less experienced technicians to become familiar with your systems, with the knowledge that the Director of Technology is still looking out for your best interests!
A knowledgeable MSP recommends improvements beyond hardware. They provide direction for improved workflow, training, and software systems. They have invaluable industry-specific insights into what can work well and what might not be right for your business. For example, the legal industry is inundated with industry specific systems – your MSP should know the ins and outs of systems tailored to your industry.
Is your MSP emailing you login passwords? Did you just find out that your new intern has access to your firm's HR records? Are they confirming with management that it's okay to unblock www.bejeweled.com for the receptionist? Make sure your MSP is practicing what they preach in terms of security.
If you use a Managed Service Provider, it's likely you're not a huge multinational corporation. Smaller businesses need service providers that are flexible and able to adapt to their changing needs. If your MSP is unable to work with you in terms of services provided, pricing, or contract terms, you may need to look elsewhere.


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Thomas Jefferson Newspaper Quote
Many of the "quotes" frequently attributed to Thomas Jefferson — the third president of the U.S. — are total nonsense. The good people at Monticello have pored through T.J.'s writings to try to.
Sep 30, 2011 · The Origins of That Eisenhower 'Every Gun That Is Made.' Quote The quote currently making the rounds on Facebook is genuine Eisenhower.
Indeed, The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia has a whole feature devoted to debunking the history of that specific quote — and other "spurious" Jefferson quotations. And it's not just Jefferson: Mount.
Stephen Wright? Ernst Berg? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I am trying to discover where the following maxim comes from: The second mouse gets the cheese. Sometimes this phrase appears as part of a longer saying: The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese…
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017 "Thomas Jefferson was.
according to the encyclopedia maintained by Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Former GOP congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough does not appear to know this. In fact, he misattributed that.
During a campaign-style rally on Saturday, Donald Trump used a quote from one of the nation's Founding Fathers out of context to vindicate his war against the media.
Of this religion Thomas Jefferson was more than a prophet—he was a pope. The Adam and Eve letter was written after the news had reached America of the murder of more than a thousand helpless.
This is not Thomas Jefferson's opinion on Newspaper but a comment about how he is not reading the Newspapers anymore and only pertaining to the Panic of 1819. If you want to read the Orginal letter to Nathaniel Macon. Panic of 1819 was the first financial crisis in USA. And the press of the day was putting the blame on the Federal Government.
—Thomas Jefferson, July 19, 1789. Appointed U.S. Minister to France in 1785, Thomas Jefferson was the American Government's man on the ground in Paris in July 1789 when the French people rose up against their rulers and the first blood was shed in the opening days of the French Revolution.
Ohio University Martin Luther King Day Jewish News: One University Circle opens doors for first tenants! Cate Cymbalisty, regional sales and marketing manager for Village Green, which is the managing agent for One University Circle, said floors one through five will see tenants move in during the April 4 weekend. Visit this site for this Martin Luther King Timeline detailing Key
https://t.co/1LioOpY9j0 The "Family Guy" creator offered a final word from no less an authority than one of America's Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who warned that laws must evolve along with.
In the opening of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson introduces what distinctly American political thought? A. It is important to explain to the world the reasons for war. B. Kings have the right to rule despite their personal actions.
Citizens need to understand other people and ideas, to recognize differences yet appreciate how everything is connected. Education should enrich our lives.
For the gun rights advocates who love this line, the good news is that Jefferson did quote it from someone else. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation's website, Monticello.org, has an entire section.
Thomas Jefferson was born into the planter class of a "slave society," as defined by the historian Ira Berlin, in which slavery was the main means of labor production and elite slavemasters were the ruling class. He was the son of Peter Jefferson, a prominent slaveholder and land speculator in Virginia, and Jane Randolph, granddaughter of English and Scots gentry.
During a campaign-style rally on Saturday, Donald Trump used a quote from one of the. on their lies. 'In fact, Thomas Jefferson said: 'Nothing can be believed which is seen in a newspaper'.' The.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was an American Founding Father. Keep Reading. Subscribe to Osho News. SPONSORS / ADVERTISERS. Quote by Osho. When you are with people, remember, for them good and bad still exist. Be respectful to them and their dreams. Osho News is a participant in the Amazon Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising.
Did Benjamin Franklin Signed The Declaration Of Independence Image courtesy of the Library of Congress We hold this truth to be self-evident: John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was too. copy bears the names of 56 signers, including. Jun 28, 2005 · Given that many more prominent American revolutionaries who were also signers of the Declaration of Independence (e.g., Samuel Adams, John
It read, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes" — Thomas Jefferson. This didn't sound very Jeffersonian to me so I looked it.
Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 28, 1786 pic.twitter.com/LEvy1hHRPI — James Comey (@Comey) November 25, 2017 The quote comes from a January 1786 letter. accusing the network of spreading "Fake" news and.
Ted Cruz is not a supporter of nullification. But he sure loves the "chains" quote. "The purpose of the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it, is to serve as chains to bind the mischief of.
Endnotes. 1.Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XIII, p. 292-294. In a letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.
Albert Einstein? Christina Baldwin? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a quotation about art attributed to the famous scientist Albert Einstein which describes a person extending a hand into the universe and acting as a "conduit for passing energy". I am skeptical of this ascription because I have been unable to find a citation.
Benjamin Franklin Hair Color Benjamin Franklin and Electricity. The journey of Benjamin Franklin and electricity began in 1743 when Ben attended a lecture on electricity given by Scottish Dr. Archibald Spencer while on a trip to Boston. Ben was so intrigued with the experiments that he bought some of Spencer's equipment and wrote to his friend Peter Collinson in
Jan 30, 2016 · Later that same year, Jefferson penned another famous quote that referred to Shays' Rebellion: In a letter to Col. William Smith, dated November 13, 1787, he said: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.". Both of Jefferson's famous quotes about Shays' Rebellion are still frequently cited by people who are "mad as hell.
Greeley and lots of other people — including Hoosier newspaper editor J.B.L. Soule. not to mention (please don't) Thomas Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau. Quote mining is, in fact, so easy these.
The University of Virginia president is defending her use of Thomas Jefferson quotations after a group of students and professors criticized her, saying Jefferson shouldn't be used as a "moral compass.
Hundreds of students and faculty at the University of Virginia have asked the school's president to stop quoting President Thomas Jefferson. "For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations.
It's called justice. Meanwhile, is there one journalism professor anywhere who will tell his class, "I want to read you three quotes about the news by Thomas Jefferson. We're going to spend the.
May 02, 2014 · Thomas Jefferson US News. Top Ten Fake Thomas Jefferson Quotes. By Steve Straub Published May 2, 2014 at 11:36am Modified May 2, 2014 at 11:38am Share on Facebook Share Tweet Email Print. There are a lot of fake Thomas Jefferson quotes.
A timeline listing the important events during Thomas Jefferson
National First Ladies' Library's biography for Martha Jefferson
Bruce Gleason, atheist and founder of Orange County's Backyard Skeptics, takes a photo of the new atheist billboard at 1545 Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa featuring a quote from Thomas Jefferson.
The musical Hamilton captures a common perception about the relative importance, and sexiness, of Thomas. Jefferson has.
The quote, however, has been identified as "spurious" by research compiled by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. When asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto whether or not the regulation of firearms offers.
From more than two centuries, thoughtful American leaders have fiercely defended a free and independent press – none more eloquently than Thomas Jefferson. here are a few historic quotes about.
Jul 03, 2007 · So without further ado, we present to you a list – yes, a list – of 10 of our favorite quotes about The Fourth Estate. Feel free to work any or all of them into your bar-b-que plans for the.

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Nancy Pelosi Suggests 'Uprisings All Over the Country'
By Chris Agee
Published June 15, 2018 at 8:54am
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had a lengthy answer to one reporter's immigration-related question during a media briefing this week.
As The Washington Times reported, the California Democrat was asked about the controversial policy of removing children from their parents as part of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" border policy.
Specifically, a reporter cited House Speaker Paul Ryan's opinion that passing legislation is the best way to address a policy many on both sides of the aisle believe is unnecessarily cruel.
"Do you agree with him, that legislation is the best approach?" the reporter asked, according to RealClear Politics.
Drawing from her perspective as a mother and grandmother, Pelosi described the policy as "barbaric" and not representative of the America she knows.
"But this is the policy of the Trump administration," she said.
The congresswoman contended that the same GOP leaders responsible for implementing the practice of separating families could just as easily end it, predicting nationwide "uprisings" if the policy remains in place.
"Do they have any idea the impact on families, on children?" she asked. "Probably — well, maybe they do, maybe they don't. Maybe they don't care."
Do you support the U.S. policy of separating families?
9% (102 Votes)
Pelosi then segued into a recent "moms' summit" held on Capitol Hill last month in which experts warned of the impact stress can have on the health of children.
"Think of the stress of these children," she said. "They take a baby away from a nursing mother. They tell someone … 'We're going to give the baby a shower or bath' and then they take the baby, put them in a car seat and drive them away. This is not normal."
She once again called the policy "barbaric" and said it "has to stop" before suggesting that if the Trump administration does not act, the American people could force its hand.
Pelosi cited a number of statements from religious and other groups who have advocated for refugees and asylum-seekers, including the American Association of Evangelicals' assertion that such compassion represents "the crown jewel of America's humanitarianism."
She accused those advocates for refugees who now support the Trump policy of betraying their principles.
"Crown jewel of American humanitarianism," she repeated. "And in order to do away with that crown jewel, they're doing away with children being with their moms."
Pelosi said she is surprised Americans have not already responded in large numbers to the policy, predicting widespread upheaval when people appreciate the gravity of the situation.
"I just don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country," she said. "And maybe there will be when people realize that this is a policy that they defend."
Reiterating her position that the Trump administration could unilaterally end this practice, Pelosi concluded that she does not see "any prospect for legislation here."
Contributor, News
Chris Agee is an American journalist with more than 15 years of experience in a wide range of newsrooms.
@bcagee
Chris Agee is an American journalist with more than 15 years of experience in a variety of newsroom settings. After covering crime and other beats for newspapers and radio stations across the U.S., he served as managing editor at Western Journalism until 2017. He has also been a regular guest and guest host on several syndicated radio programs. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and son.
Texas Press Association, Best News Writing - 2012
Bachelor of Arts, Journalism - Averett University
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Tags: Border Security, Illegal Immigration, Nancy Pelosi, Politics


There no longer will be "three men in a room" negotiating key state legislation, with the first woman in the state's history being tapped as a leader in the New York General Assembly.
"Congratulations to Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on her much-deserved election to be leader of the Senate majority and the first African-American woman to lead a majority conference in the Legislature," Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Westchester Democrat, said in a statement on Monday, Nov. 26.
Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers also drew praise from Pace University's president, where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees.
Cuomo added: "Since the beginning of her career in public service, Leader Stewart-Cousins has always been a trailblazer. From being the first African-American woman to serve as Director of Community Affairs in the City of Yonkers, to authoring and passing landmark legislation in the Westchester County Legislature to strengthen gun laws and protect human rights, to taking on local property taxes and fighting for our communities in the State Senate, she is a proven leader and a skilled legislator."
"Today more than ever, we need people like Leader Stewart-Cousins to forge the path ahead for this great state. I look forward to working with her to stand up to the extreme conservative agenda and to fight together for our bold progressive priorities," Cuomo said.
Stewart-Cousins received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Administration degrees at Pace University.
Pace President Marvin Krislov said: "Congratulations to State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who was elected today as majority leader of the New York State Senate."


There's alot to be said for that statement. This is my first trip to Sin City, and as glitzy and glamorous as it is, I was quite amazed at the people who sit mesmerized by these machines for hours and hours just plugging in their money and oblivious of anything going on around them. I was shocked that in the first hotel we stayed at – we had to walk through a smoke-filled casino to get to the elevators that took us up to our room. My eyes were burning and my throat felt thick and tight until we got to our room. There at least, the air was fresh.
We did go down to one of the many restaurants that flank the casino to get a bite to eat for dinner. I have to say . . . we had some of the best Chinese food I've had in a long time. It was excellent food, excellent service. I guess that's part of the draw here, cheap really good food! Unfortunately, we won't go back to that hotel because of the "smokey" experience.
Since our reason for being in Las Vegas has nothing to do with gambling, drinking, partying or, well – whatever else Sin City is known for . . . I'll fill you in on the rest of our adventures in the next few posts.
No casino, no smoke, can't even hear the airplanes if you are on the 1st floor. A lovely oasis amid the hubbub of Vegas. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there a couple years ago. Walking distance to several casinos and the tram, just off a main road that leads out to Boulder City (well worth a day trip) and Ethel M's Chocolate factory..
Oh – I didn't know there was a Chocolate Factory! Guess you'll have to come out and meet up with us there one of these years!


We wanted to take a moment and highlight some of the development milestones in a newborn to 24 month old's vision.
Birth To 4 Months - The baby can only see about 8-10 inches in front of it's face. Babies should begin to follow moving objects with their eyes and begin to reach for them at 3 months.
5 To 8 Months - Depth perception begins to develop as the baby can tell things that are closer and farther away. It is generally believed that babies have good color vision by 5 months.
9 To 12 Months - By now, babies should be using their eyes and hands together. They can also judge distances fairly well and and throw things with precision.
1 To 2 Years Old - By two years old a child's hand-eye coordination and depth perception should be well developed. They should recognize familiar objects and pictures and can scribble with a crayon or pencil.
Of course every child is different. They all tend to hit developmental milestones in their own time and that's why these are just average milestones. You do not need to worry if your child is behind. However, if your child is experience symptoms like: excessive tearing, red or encrusted eyelids, constant eye turning, extreme sensitivity to light, or an appearance of a white pupil, contact your pediatrician or optometrist immediately.
If you have more questions don't hesitate to contact the Gordy EyeCare team. We're here to help!


Collected Stories by Donald Margulies. Directed by Lynne Meadow. Scenic design by Santo Loquasto. Costume design by Jane Greenwood. Lighting design by Natasha Katz. Original music & sound design by Obadiah Eaves. Wig design by Paul Huntley. Cast: Linda Lavin, Sarah Paulson.
Schedule: Tuesday at 7 pm, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 pm, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2 pm.
The child that insists at bedtime that a parent read the same story over and over may well be enraptured by its plot, but more likely wants to fall asleep to the comforting tones of a loving voice. So when the familiarity of Collected Stories hits you, as it does early and often in the new Manhattan Theatre Club revival at the Samuel J. Friedman, it's hard to get too worked up about it. The words, after all, are good enough, and they're delivered with enough care and craft to keep you involved for the requisite two hours and ready to drift off to dreamland immediately afterward.
If that's a modest goal for its playwright, Donald Margulies, and this production's director, Lynne Meadow, it's hardly a bothersome one. Not every revival can be as titanic as Fences (which just opened two nights ago), and not every Margulies outing can be as bracing and pointed as Time Stands Still (his most recent new play, and the previous tenant at the Friedman). Sometimes "good enough" is, well, good enough, and if Linda Lavin is on hand, it's going to seem like considerably more than that anyway.
Appearing on a New York stage for the first time since her hilarious turn in Paul Rudnick's The New Century two years ago, and on Broadway for the first time since Hollywood Arms in 2002, Lavin brings an enveloping amount of hardscrabble elegance to her character, Ruth Steiner. Ruth has lived in the same apartment for over 30 years, and demands order, reliability, and brevity from herself, those around her, and her work, qualities that match snugly with Lavin's no-nonsense, Everywoman bravura. She looks completely at home when sporting a pair of owlish spectacles, and sounds just right delivering the reproving speeches and evaluations (encouraging and damning) that define Ruth's current career as a teacher.
Of writing, by the way—her one and lasting true love. An acclaimed author, she's never written a novel, but has made her name entirely through anthologies of short stories that glorify and identify the working Americans history so often renders silent. But it's been enough for her to make a name and a star for herself, and to paint her as the dream role model for up-and-comers, including and especially one of her students, Lisa Morrison (Sarah Paulson), who comes to Ruth's Greenwich Village apartment to get advice on her own writings, and ends up taking a whole lot more.
From there, any plot synopsis must dissolve into tidal waves of keywords: friends, biography, borrow, steal, enemies, recrimination, and so on. The women's relationship, which starts out cold and fractious, develops over the course of six years (from 1990 to 1996) in all the expected ways, with the reversals, retreads, and reconsiderations that constitute the economic, well-made play of the 1990s. The protégée who becomes the instructor, the mentor whose trust is violated by the one she initially trusted but came to love as the daughter she didn't have—these are archetypes, but not ineffective ones, and thus neither force you to turn your head away or draw it forward in penetrating engagement.
When Ruth chides Lisa in their first meeting, over her careless use of the word "Etruscan," she advises, "We must never be arbitrary. Everything has to have a reason." Margulies has followed that advice, for his writing here is structured and tidy—it's just that the reasons he gives are themselves arbitrary, which can make Collected Stories at once as attractive and as artificial as the images Ruth warns against deploying indiscriminately.
What's needed, in the writing and the production, is an anchor that will grant real-world lucidity to the symbolic figures who act out age-old battles onstage. Meadows's production is handsome, contemplative and well-considered, with a warmly hermetic set by Santo Loquasto that resonates the suffusive personality of a woman who's unfortunately created exactly the life she always wanted. But only Lavin finds and applies a dose of recognizable authenticity that makes the play seem like something we haven't seen and heard countless times before.
She shows you, over the show's six-year span, how the burden of living and of trying to help along Lisa's career wears upon Ruth's body and spirit, accelerating the passage of time. Firm and vital at the beginning but almost too weak to move by the final scenes, Lavin seems to wither away before your eyes. The actress becoming less and less herself is the right performance metaphor for Ruth, who loses her own identity to both Lisa and the world at large when she dares share too much of it. But Lavin makes Ruth's every new frailty, of limb and voice alike (Ruth's thick-tongued vocal tics in the final scene are heart-rending coming from a woman who was once so clear-spoken), so specific that you never believe any playwright could have scripted so full a decline.
Ideally, Paulson would display in Lisa the opposing growth, absorbing the strength and stature she saps from Ruth. That doesn't happen to the degree it should—Paulson still looks, very late in the show, as if she doesn't entirely believe that her soft-spoken grad student could morph into literary wunderkind so rapidly. On some level, she's right to question it—it's the play's least convincing plot element. But the actor should leave no doubt of it in our minds, and Paulson doesn't effect a substantial journey between Lisa the insecure artist and Lisa the ruthless artistic businesswoman later. That transformation is key.
Or, at least, as key as anything here is. Though it deals with heavy subjects, the play never owns much weight—it's as if it recognizes itself as one of those 20-page bedtime stories more designed for bonding time than lasting impact. That would explain how Collected Stories occasioned two productions within the first year of its New York life—one at MTC in 1997 with Maria Tucci and another Off-Broadway a year later with Uta Hagen—and continues to compel, inspire, and disappoint, in any and every incarnation. It longs for something—anything—to make it more than the sum of its parts, and promises, like those bedtime tales, that it will utterly transport with just one more reading.


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Louis Vuitton's Virgil Abloh accused of stealing design for Pop Smoke cover
robertj903@gmail.com 0 Comment July 1, 2020
Fans were upset with Louis Vuitton's art director Virgil Abloh's work on Pop Smoke's posthumous album cover. The controversy escalated as Abloh is accused of stealing the design.
Fans were so dissatisfied with Abloh's design that the late rapper's manager Steven Victor guaranteed that it would be changed immediately. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Abloh explained his reasoning behind the creation. However, things heated up even more instead of cooling down.
PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 15: Rapper Pop Smoke, wearing a blue Off-White coat, is seen outside the Off-White show during the Paris Fashion Week – Menswear F/W 2020-2021 on January 15, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Claudio Lavenia/Getty Images)
READ MORE: 5 Things to know about new Louis Vuitton designer Virgil Abloh
"The last conversation I had with @realpopsmoke was about what we were gonna do in the future," Abloh wrote. "This album cover was one of like 5 things we talked about. He mentioned his story felt like the metaphor of a rose and thorns growing from the concrete of his hood in Canarsie, Brooklyn. in your memory, I just finished it yesterday."
Abloh went on to add, "As evidence of the whole idea, the t-shirt insinuates it's mandatory we put an and to this cycle of violence that plagues us, we need to shoot for the moon & aim for the stars. As heavy is it is we are celebrating your life the whole way thru. Rest in peace young one."
This man took the entire chrome rose concept from me, ruined it with careless graphic design and then wrote some bullshit about it. So sad that someone would care this little about art, design and the memory of a human who was so loved to wrap his name up in lies and theft. For a fuller picture of this guys history of theft check the link in my bio.
A post shared by RYDER RIPPS (@ryder_ripps) on Jun 29, 2020 at 5:44pm PDT
After social media's outcry regarding the unpopular design, other creatives began to add in their "two-cents" alledging how the Off-White founder had stolen various concepts and designs. Conceptual artist Ryder Ripps, who worked with Abloh back in 2013 on the brand BEEN TRILL, made it known that not only did he find Abloh's cover art design unsatisfying, but also purloining.
Ripps shared a Google Drive link outlining and comparing his designs dating back to 2013, side by side to Abloh's designs which are more recent.
"This man took the entire chrome rose concept from me, ruined it with careless graphic design, and then wrote some bullshit about it," Ripps wrote. "So sad that someone would care this little about art, design, and the memory of a human who was so loved to wrap his name up in lies and theft. For a fuller picture of this guys history of theft check the link in my bio."
Pop Smoke's Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon debut album is scheduled to release on Friday, July 3. The late rapper's manager announced the Abloh-designed cover art on Monday and faced immediate backlash from fans on social media.
READ MORE: Rapper Pop Smoke reportedly shot and killed in Los Angeles
Hey Virgil we need new album art, they ain't going for this bullshit. Love ya work let's get to it. Steven i told you this shit was eww let get it right! #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi
A post shared by 50 Cent (@50cent) on Jun 30, 2020 at 4:57am PDT
Rapper 50 Cent also put his opinion out there, being that he served as the executive producer for Pop Smoke's posthumous debut album, and called on Abloh to design new artwork on Tuesday. 50 also had let Victor know that the cover art wasn't up to his liking before it was publicly unveiled.
"Hey Virgil we need new album art, they ain't going for this bullshit," 50 posted via his Twitter account. "Love ya work let's get to it. Steven, I told you this shit was eww (disgusted emoji) let's get it right! #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi."
Since then, 50 Cent has taken it upon himself to post fan-made cover art designs for the album on his Instagram.
Take a look at the initial cover art below.
you were always shootings for the stars and aiming for the moon. everything we talked about is happening, the only thing is you're not here in the flesh to see it all come together. you wanted Virgil to design your album cover and lead creative.. Virgil designed the album cover and led creative.. we love you and miss you more and more each day
A post shared by Steven VICTOR (@stevenvictor) on Jun 29, 2020 at 3:12pm PDT
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Black Lives Matter groups plan national convention
NEW YORK (AP) — Spurred by broad public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold a virtual convention in August to produce a new political agenda that seeks to build on the success of the protests that followed George Floyd's death.
The 2020 Black National Convention will take place Aug. 28 via a live broadcast. It will feature conversations, performances and other events designed to develop a set of demands ahead of the November general election, according to a Wednesday announcement shared first with The Associated Press.
The convention is being organized by the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 organizations. In 2016, the coalition released its "Vision for Black Lives" platform, which called for public divestment from mass incarceration and for adoption of policies that can improve conditions in Black America.
"What this convention will do is create a Black liberation agenda that is not a duplication of the Vision for Black Lives, but really is rooted as a set of demands for progress," said Jessica Byrd, who leads the Electoral Justice Project.
RELATED: 9 things to make Black Lives Matter in our public schools
At the end of the convention, participants will ratify a revised platform that will serve as a set of demands for the first 100 days of a new presidential administration, Byrd said. Participants also will have access to model state and local legislation.
"What we have the opportunity to do now, as this 50-state rebellion has provided the conditions for change, is to say, 'You need to take action right this minute,'" Byrd said. "We're going to set the benchmarks for what we believe progress is and make those known locally and federally."
Educators for Black Lives Matter (MailChimp)
The convention was originally planned to happen in person, in Detroit, the nation's Blackest major city. But as the coronavirus pandemic exploded in March, organizers quickly shifted to a virtual event, Byrd said. The first-ever Black Lives Matter convention was held in Cleveland in 2015.
Recent AP analysis of COVID-19 data shows Black people have made up a third of reported virus deaths.
Initial work to shape the new platform will take place Aug. 6 and 7, during a smaller so-called People's Convention that will virtually convene hundreds of delegates from Black-led advocacy groups. The process will be similar to one that produced the first platform, which included early iterations of the demand to defund police that now drives many demonstrations.
Other platform demands, such as ending cash bail, reducing pretrial detention and scrapping discriminatory risk-assessment tools used in criminal courts, have become official policy in a handful of local criminal justice systems around the U.S.
Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which organizes in 15 states, said the 2020 Black National Convention will deepen the solutions to systemic racism and create more alignment within the movement.
"We're in this stage now where we're getting more specific about how all of this is connected to our local organizing," Albright said. "The hope is that, when people leave the convention, they leave with greater clarity, more resources, connectivity and energy."
The coalition behind the convention includes Color of Change, BYP100, Dream Defenders and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which has 16 official chapters nationwide.
Convention organizers said this year's event will pay tribute to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. The Gary gathering included prominent Black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Shirley Chisolm, who ran for president, as well as Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz.
That convention came after several tumultuous years that included the assassinations of Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and outbreaks of civil unrest, all of which were seen as blows to the civil rights movement.
The upcoming convention builds on more than century of Black political organizing.
In 1905, civil rights activist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois formed the Niagara Movement after a national conference of Black leaders near Buffalo, New York. In a written address to the country, du Bois and others decried the rise of institutionalized racial inequality in voting, criminal justice systems and public education.
Protesters take over Hollywood Boulevard during the All Black Lives Matter solidarity march as unrest continues in the wake of the death of George Floyd, on June 14, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
In the 1950s, William Patterson, founder of the now-defunct Civil Rights Congress, led the effort to charge the U.S. with genocide of African Americans using legal standards set by the United Nation. The resulting petition, "We Charge Genocide," is an oft-cited document in conversations about fatal shootings of Black people by police in the U.S.
And in 1998, organizers of the Black Radical Congress in Chicago met to strategize ways to beat back attacks on affirmative action policies that helped to diversify higher education and other facets of American life.
Like any large political gathering, consensus is not guaranteed. The National Black Political Convention caused divisions between participating organizations over the Black agenda's position on busing to integrate public schools and statements on global affairs that some viewed as anti-Israel. Ultimately, the agenda prompted a leader of the NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, to sever ties with the convention.
Somewhat similarly, the Vision for Black Lives platform and its characterization of Israel as an "apartheid state" committing mass murder against Palestinian people drew allegations of anti-Semitism from a handful of Jewish groups, which had otherwise been supportive the Black Lives Matter movement.
RELATED: NY business owners says BLM mural hurting sales
The Black Lives Matter movement's coalition has more than doubled in size in the years since the first platform, largely because of organizers' laser focus on issues central to Black freedom, Byrd said.
"That actually is the Black self determination that our politics require," Byrd said, "that we don't just respond to the Democratic Party. That we don't just respond to the Republican Party. We don't just say 'Black lives matter' and beg people to care. We build an alternative container for all of us to connect, outside of the white gaze, to say this is what we want for our communities."
The August convention will happen on the same day as a commemorative, in-person march on Washington that is being organized by Sharpton, who announced the march during a memorial service for Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held a knee to his neck.
The Black National Convention will broadcast after the march, Byrd said.
August "is going to be a huge month of Black engagement," she said.
Associated Press news researchers Randy Herschaft and Monika Mathur contributed to this report.
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Senate votes to extend small business relief program
Democrats pushed a temporary extension of the Paycheck Protection Program through the Senate with a unanimous vote.
The vote came just hours before the deadline for businesses to apply for the program was set to expire. It will be extended through August 8, if it passes the House and is signed off by President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: HHS awards Morehouse School of Med $40M for COVID-19 relief initiative
$130 billion in funds is still available of the $660 billion subsidies originally created to support small businesses. To date, more than 4 million businesses have accessed the funds. As coronavirus continues to ravage the nation, many more businesses are again in need of financial support.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers that a full economic recovery is unlikely until people feel safer going out.
The program has not been without controversy. Large chain restaurants like Shake Shack, Ruth's Chris, and Potbelly all gained millions of dollars in PPP funds. The backlash prompted many of these companies to return the funds.
Kings Barber Shop Unisesx in Harlem (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Further, many Black-owned small businesses have been shut out of the funds. According to an April report by the Center for Responsible Lending, "upwards of 90% of businesses owned by people of color have been, or will likely be, shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program."
There have also been several cases of fraud. Love & Hip Hop Atlanta star, Arkansas Mo, has been charged with federal bank fraud charges after investigators discovered he used funds from a $2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan to buy luxury items for himself.
READ MORE: Oprah Winfrey donates $12M to her home cities for COVID-19 relief
However, there have also been some outstanding successes. Iconic DC restaurant, Ben's Chili Bowl was approved for a Paycheck Protection Program loan following a public outcry regarding their extended wait time.
The bill is expected to pass the House, however, reports are saying that the Democrats want more data from the Small Business Administration about the program and how the funds have been administered.
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Detroit woman who worked on 'Slave Narratives' dies at 106
Ola Mae Spinks, the retired Detroit librarian who is credited with helping preserve a significant piece of Black history, has died. She was 106 years old.
In 1972, Spinks along with another librarian, Phyllis Williams, went to Washington, D.C., and volunteered to help organize what's known as the "Slave Narratives" in the Library of Congress.
READ MORE: Ohio seeks to amend slavery law still on the books
The firsthand accounts of slavery were captured from 2,000 former enslaved African Americans who were interviewed during the Great Depression.
According to Spinks' son, Bill Spinks, "(The texts were) sorted somewhat by state. But it was just all thrown together in these big baskets, and they began the process of putting it together," Bill told Detroit's WXYZ TV. "And what they did (they) laid the foundation for having those books be bound and so forth and put on microfilm."
German engraving shows slaves as they harvest and process cotton on a plantation, Southern United States, mid 19th Century. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Her sons note that while Mrs. Spinks' contribution to the "Slave Narratives" was indispensable, it accounts for a small part of her significant life. Her son said, "She was just a remarkable person."
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.
A daguerrotype of Renty, a man enslaved on a South Carolina plantation, taken in 1850 by J.T. Zealy for scientist Louis Agassiz. (Courtesy, Berlin Rosen)
The narratives were originally collected in the 1930s as part of the Works Project Administration which was created as part of the New Deal, which pulled the nation out of the Great Depression.
The narratives are often used in education and research. They are organized by state and by the surname of the enslaved person who gave the interview. The narratives are free and available online at the Library of Congress.
READ MORE: Melania Trump visits National Archives to see slavery docs
The publication of the slave narratives helped provide an accurate account of slavery in America. According to the LOC, the Slave Narrative Collection interviews— has been a critical ingredient in a surge of the scholarship of the subject.
"Without the personal accounts of former slaves, any attempt to present an account of slavery or to comprehend the reality of slave culture, especially from the slave's perspective, would have lacked a crucial ingredient," the Library of Congress notes on its website.
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White Florida man charged after pointing gun at Black homeowner
A white Florida man has been charged after pulling a gun on a Black homeowner, accusing the man of stealing a flyer from his own mailbox.
Joseph Max Fucheck is being charged under the state's hate crime law, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced on Tuesday. The real estate owner faces felony charges of aggravated assault with a firearm with prejudice and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
RELATED: White woman in Sacramento gets punched after calling Black woman the N-word
"It is sad that racism can turn the most mundane act into a confrontation with potentially violent overtones," Rundle said in a statement.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, on June 14, Fucheck drove by a Miami home and put his real estate flyer in a man's mailbox.
The victim was outside of his home talking to his neighbor when Fucheck put the flyer in the mailbox. After Fucheck drove away, the victim reportedly went to retrieve the real estate flyer from the mailbox. Fucheck then drove back down the street in his SUV and to find the man holding his business flyer, according Sentinel.
RELATED: Tennessee 'Karen' who blocked Black women from residential pool is on disciplinary leave
The 58-year-old reportedly got out of his car and proceeded to yell profanities at the Black homeowner. Investigators say, Fucheck accused the victim of stealing his business flyer, although the man explained that he owned the home.
Fucheck pulled out his handgun and ordered the man to return the real estate flyer to him. Fucheck got his phone and began to record the incident. The video shows the real estate agent yelling, "This is why you people get shot," along with more racial slurs before getting back in his car and driving off.
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LA city council approves plan to replace cops with unarmed responders
Los Angeles has moved to replace police with unarmed community-based responders for nonviolent calls. The measure was unanimously approved by the city council.
Nonviolent calls include mental health crises, substance abuse, and neighbor disputes. Instead of police, these calls will now be answered by trained crisis responders.
READ MORE: Los Angeles authorities to investigate hanging of Black man after outcry over suicide ruling
"This is the dawn of a new era of public safety in Los Angeles." Councilmember Herb J. Wesson Jr. tweeted.
The Los Angeles City Council has just approved the first step in our plan to replace LAPD with a community-based, unarmed emergency responders for non-violent calls for service. This is the dawn of a new era of public safety in Los Angeles.
— Herb J. Wesson, Jr. (@HerbJWesson) June 30, 2020
"The bottom line is that the way things have been going is not working for our communities." He wrote, "This last month has made that crystal clear. We have a responsibility to listen to our people, and our people have spoken." Wesson stated that he would continue to work with Black Lives Matter-LA.
The new model will be developed by the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) and the City Administrative Officer (CAO), with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department and the city's Housing Services Authority.
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and other service providers will also support the effort.
The change has the support of both the Los Angeles Police Protective League and of LA Mayor, Eric Garcetti. "We must act to reform public safety in our communities — and today, we took an important step forward." Garcetti tweeted.
We must act to reform public safety in our communities — and today, we took an important step forward, thanks to Councilmember @CMHerbJWesson, Council President @CD6Nury and our City Council. We will keep working together to change how we respond to nonviolent 911 calls.
— MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) July 1, 2020
The measure is the first of its kind in a major U.S. city, and Los Angeles hopes that the city will be a leader in developing a national model.
READ MORE: Los Angeles County to allow TV, film production to resume
"I'm optimistic cities and counties across the nation will follow our lead," Wesson wrote.
A similar model is already successful in Eugene, Oregon.
CAHOOTS is a collaboration between local police and a community service called the White Bird Clinic. Ben Brubaker who runs the clinic told NPR that their team is comprised of a medic and a crisis worker — that can go out and respond to the call, assess the situation, assist the individual if possible, and then help get that individual to a higher level of care or necessary service.
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Jada Pinkett Smith denies August Alsina's claim of an affair with Will's 'blessing'
Tuesday, August Alsina made headlines after an interview dropped of him confessing to having romantic relations with Jada Pinkett Smith. Now a rep for the A-list actress is denying those claims in their totality.
During a recent sit-down with The Breakfast Club co-host Angela Yee, the R&B singer dropped a bombshell on his YouTube channel when he confirmed his past love affair with the actress and alleged that their relationship even had the blessing of her superstar husband Will Smith.
"Absolutely not true!" Pinkett Smith's rep told Page Six in response.
(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
READ MORE: August Alsina says Will Smith 'gave his blessing' with Jada Pinkett Smith
The 27-year-old crooner was introduced to the 48-year-old actress in 2015 by her son Jaden and says the two became very close. He vacationed with the family in Hawaii in 2016 and even attended the 2017 BET Awards with Pinkett Smith with whom he was seen taking photos with her on the red carpet.
"I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership … he gave me his blessing," he claimed during the thirty-three minute sit down.
Relationship rumors have long followed Alsina and the Red Table Talk host, especially after the release of his 2019 track "Nunya."
In this song a woman who shattered August Alsina's heart is now tryna stop him from moving on.
I thought it was being subtle cause there's a gif of Jada in the text exchange until I realized "Koren" the name on the chat is Jada's middle name pic.twitter.com/uRiQQd6GM7
— ☼Blue-nita Applebum (@bluecentric) July 1, 2020
As the lyrics go, he sings, "You got me feeling like it was an act, you're just an actress/Putting on a show 'cause you don't want the world to know."
A lyrical video for the song even includes a text exchange between him and a woman named Koren, and as many have pointed out, Koren is the mother of two's middle name. In that exchange, Alsina also uses a reaction gif of Pinkett-Smith to further get his point across.
While speaking about the alleged affair he reflects, "I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really deeply love and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to it, I gave my full self to it — so much so to the point that I can die right now and be okay with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody."
READ MORE: Tami Roman says 'Basketball Wives' ruined friendship with Shaunie O'Neal
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Former Atlanta officer who shot Rayshard Brooks released on bond
Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, has been released on a $500,000 bond.
Rolfe shot Brooks after the man had fallen asleep in the drive-thru of a Wendy's restaurant on June 12.
READ MORE: Woman accused of starting Wendy's arson was Rayshard Brooks girlfriend, lawyer says
The bond hearing was conducted during a video conference in Atlanta on Tuesday. Rolfe attended via video but did not speak. However, Tomika Miller, the widow of the slain man, spoke in opposition to the bond request. Tearfully, she said that Rolfe posed a danger to society.
According to CBS News, Miller sobbed saying, "My husband did not deserve to die, and I should not live in fear while waiting for the man who killed my husband to be tried in court."
She went on to say that her life has been "completed turned upside down," since the shooting which occurred on the birthday of the couple's daughter, and the day before their wedding anniversary.
Former Atlanta officer Garrett Rolfe (left) during police encounter with Rayshard Brooks (right) before Brooks' fatal shooting. (Photo: Atlanta Police Department)
Judge Jane Barwick thanked the woman for her bravery in speaking to the court, however, she emphasized that the issue at hand was not "whether this defendant is guilty of these charges." She ruled that the former officer was not a risk to the community, and was entitled to bond.
Rolfe is facing 11 charges in relation to the shooting including felony murder.
Brooks shooting death has added to ongoing police protests in the city of Atlanta where protests began following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
READ MORE: Family, friends gather in Atlanta for Rayshard Brooks public viewing
Judge Barwick required that Rolfe be required to wear an ankle monitor, obey a curfew, surrender his passport and any weapons, and have no contact with other officers or family members of victims.
Since the shooting, Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms signed a series of orders requiring officers to utilize de-escalation before deadly force. The order also says that if other officers are present, they have a duty to intervene when witnessing their colleagues using deadly force.
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Weinstein reaches tentative $19M deal with accusers
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein and his former studio's board have reached a nearly $19 million settlement with dozens of his sexual misconduct accusers, New York state's attorney general and lawyers in a class-action lawsuit said Tuesday.
The agreement was announced by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Chicago attorney Elizabeth A. Fegan.
The deal, if approved by judges in federal courts, would permit accusers to claim from $7,500 to $750,000 from the $18.8 million settlement.
The former Hollywood producer was convicted earlier this year of rape and sexual assault against two women. Accusations by dozens of women in 2017 destroyed his career and gave rise to #MeToo, the global movement to hold powerful men accountable for their sexual misconduct.
RELATED: Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison for sex crimes
The 68-year-old former film producer was diagnosed in March with the coronavirus just days after he was moved to the state's maximum security Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo to begin serving his 23-year prison sentence.
"This settlement is the culmination of several years of hard work by survivors who not only initiated the #MeToo movement around Weinstein, but also used their platforms to seek justice for all of those who were afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation in Hollywood," Fegan said.
Included in the news release was a statement by plaintiff Caitlin Dulany, who said Weinstein isolated and assaulted her after they met in 1996 at the Cannes Film Festival.
"When I came forward and shared my story about the assault, I knew there wouldn't be a straight path to justice," Dulany said.
"Harvey avoided accountability for decades, leveraging his power to hide behind a web of deceit, and I was determined to join the class action to ensure meaningful change for all survivors," she said. "I am proud that this settlement will help so many women who are long overdue for justice and relief."
Harvey Weinstein leaves the courtroom in New York City criminal court. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
James said in a release that the deal would resolve claims in a New York state lawsuit and in a class-action lawsuit that was pending in federal court.
"After all the harassment, threats, and discrimination, these survivors are finally receiving some justice," James said.
She called it "a win for every woman who has experienced sexual harassment, discrimination, intimidation, or retaliation by her employer."
Gerald Maatman, lead counsel for the Weinstein Companies, declined comment.
Messages seeking comment were left for Weinstein and individuals on his former studio's board.
Attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and Kevin Mintzer, who represent some of Weinstein's accusers in lawsuits, said in a statement that the proposed settlement was "a complete sellout of the Weinstein survivors."
RELATED: Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape and sexual assault
They called it "deeply unfair," saying it does not require Weinstein to accept responsibility and doesn't require him to pay any money toward it. They also said the director defendants will receive millions of dollars to reimburse their defense costs.
The lawyers said the deal would also harm women who do not join the settlement because they would be unable to pursue large amounts of money from insurance companies which would receive protection from the deal.
"We are completely astounded that the Attorney General is taking a victory lap for this unfair and inequitable proposal, and on behalf of our clients, we will be vigorously objecting in court," the lawyers said.
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Judge temporarily blocks tell-all book by Trump's niece
Distribution of a tell-all book by President Donald Trump's niece was blocked by a judge Tuesday after the president's brother said its publication would violate a pact among family members, but a publisher's chief executive says the book has already been shipped and could not be stopped.
New York state Supreme Court Judge Hal B. Greenwald in Poughkeepsie, New York, issued an order requiring the niece, Mary Trump, and her publisher to explain why they should not be blocked from publishing the book: "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man." A hearing was set for July 10.
The book, scheduled to be published July 28, was written by Mary Trump, the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president's elder brother, who died in 1981. An online description of it says it reveals "a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse."
The judge said no portion of the book can be distributed before he decides the validity of Robert Trump's claims. Robert Trump argues Mary Trump must comply with a written agreement among family members that such a book cannot be published without permission from other family members.
RELATED: Van Jones secretly helped develop Trump police reform order
Mary Trump's lawyer, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, immediately challenged the order. Hours later, Simon & Schuster Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Karp said in court papers that the publisher was unaware of allegations of any agreement between Mary Trump and her family until two weeks ago.
"To take the unprecedented action of enjoining the publication of this Book, even temporarily, would interfere with Simon & Schuster's constitutionally protected rights and its mission to inform the American public about newsworthy topics," he said. "It would also interfere with Simon & Schuster's readers' constitutionally protected rights to receive newsworthy reporting."
Presumptive Republican nominee for US president Donald Trump visits Trump International Golf Links on June 25, 2016 in Aberdeen, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Karp said Mary Trump offered "a personal and never-before-seen perspective on President Trump" in the book, which had become No. 1 on the Amazon Best Seller List.
In court papers filed Tuesday night, the publisher's lawyers said thousands of the 75,000 copies of the book that have been printed have already been shipped to sellers.
They noted that the shipping schedule was set far in advance of the court action and was not expedited because of it and that Simon & Schuster had provided multiple booksellers with key information about the book and some of them have published it.
"The trial court's temporary restraining order is only temporary but it still is a prior restraint on core political speech that flatly violates the First Amendment," Boutrous said.
"This book, which addresses matters of great public concern and importance about a sitting president in election year, should not be suppressed even for one day," Boutrous said in a statement.
Adam Rothberg, a Simon & Schuster spokesperson, said the publisher was disappointed but looks forward "to prevailing in this case based on well-established precedents regarding prior restraint."
RELATED: Trump claims he made Juneteenth 'very famous'
Charles Harder, an attorney for Robert Trump, said his client was "very pleased."
He said in a statement that the actions by Mary Trump and her publisher were "truly reprehensible."
"We look forward to vigorously litigating this case, and will seek the maximum remedies available by law for the enormous damages," he said. "Short of corrective action to immediately cease their egregious conduct, we will pursue this case to the very end."
In court papers, Robert Trump maintained Mary Trump was part of a settlement nearly two decades ago that included a confidentiality clause explicitly saying they would not "publish any account concerning the litigation or their relationship," unless they all agreed, the court papers said.
Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report from Washington.
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Protest against Africa's 1st COVID-19 vaccine test shows fear
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A protest against Africa's first COVID-19 vaccine trial was underway Wednesday as experts note a worrying level of resistance and misinformation around testing on the continent.
Anti-vaccine sentiment in Africa is "the worst I've ever seen," the CEO of the GAVI vaccine alliance, Seth Berkley, told an African Union vaccine conference last week.
"In general, people in Africa know the diseases and want to protect each other," he said. "In this case, the rumor mill has been dramatic."
The trial that began last week in Johannesburg is part of one already underway in Britain of the vaccine developed at the University of Oxford. Some 2,000 volunteers in South Africa are expected to take part.
RELATED: First vaccinations begin in Africa for COVID-19 trial
It's important that vaccines be tested in Africa to see how they perform in the local context, professor of vaccinology Shabir Madhi, leader of the new COVID-19 vaccine trial in South Africa, told reporters and others in a webinar Sunday.
But the small band of demonstrators who gathered Wednesday at the University of the Witwatersrand, where the trial is based, reflect long-running fears among some in Africa over testing drugs on people who don't understand the risks.
A vaccine volunteer receives an injection at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg Wednesday, June 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko)
"The people chosen as volunteers for the vaccination, they look as if they're from poor backgrounds, not qualified enough to understand" protest organizer Phapano Phasha told The Associated Press ahead of the event. "We believe they are manipulating the vulnerable."
The activist and political commentator brought up the widely circulated remarks earlier this year by a French researcher, Jean-Paul Mira, who said, "If I can be provocative, shouldn't we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation?" He compared it to some AIDS studies: "In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves."
"The narrative we got is our continent is a dumping ground," Phasha said. First ensure the vaccine works elsewhere before bringing it to Africa, she added.
The French researcher later apologized for his comments, but they continue to circulate on social media among those opposed to vaccine testing in Africa, Meanwhile, anger among African health officials and others was swift.
The Ethiopian director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called the comments "racist" and a "hangover from a colonial mentality." The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, called the remarks "very disgusting" and "condescending."
"Africa CDC will continue to work very closely with the World Health Organization to ensure that only ethically and scientifically sound clinical trials for vaccines and therapies will be conducted in Africa, using exactly the same standards and principles as those employed elsewhere in the world," Nkengasong said in a statement. "These principles will be guided by respect for the dignity of Africans, the beneficence and non-maleficence, and justice."
Madhi, the professor in charge of the South Africa vaccine trial, has said volunteers were given an explanation about the trial and possible risks and then had to score 80% on a questionnaire to take part.
But why not target more affluent parts of South African society? Phasha asked.
"I believe in science," she said. "And I believe that science has managed to solve most of the problems society is faced with. I'm not against vaccinations, I'm against profiteering."
People protest against Coronavirus trials in Africa, outside the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, July 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
It's not clear when Africa's first vaccine trial will begin showing results, but a worried Madhi has said the local surge in confirmed cases could mean seeing them months earlier than expected.
South Africa now has more than 151,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, the most on the African continent. Africa overall has more than 400,000 cases.
As the pandemic picks up speed in Africa, health officials are urging that any vaccine be distributed equitably around the world. A quarter of all vaccines for other diseases are used in Africa and yet the continent has little production capacity, putting its 1.3 billion people at risk of being near the end of the line for any COVID-19 vaccine.
The new global attention to racial injustice creates a key time to act, the head of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control told the AU vaccine conference last week.
"If we don't use this moment when, for better or worse, we have the political attention of people, we will regret it," Chikwe Ihekweazu said.
RELATED: Ghana's Minister of Tourism to Black Americans: Come home to Africa
Africa must play a role in the new vaccine trials, the vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Mamokgethi Phakeng, and the chair of South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Thokozani Majozi, wrote this month in the Sunday Times newspaper.
They, too, brought up the French researcher's comments and they criticized the calls for an "African-only" approach to finding a vaccine, saying it would pull the continent even further from the global stage.
"It would be tragic if Africa chose not to take part, at all levels, in clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine — or any medical treatment that could save lives," they said.
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NY business owners says BLM mural hurting sales
A large Black Lives Matter mural painted on Fulton Street in Brooklyn two weeks ago. The strip has been closed off to car traffic to preserve the art and inspire foot traffic.
However, small businesses located along the strip are saying that the street closure is hurting their sales.
READ MORE: NYC Mayor to rename streets 'Black Lives Matter' in every borough
A report from News12 says that the Bed-Stuy Business Improvement District is reporting that businesses along the strip where the mural was painted are reporting losses from 25 to 50%.
Judy Teko is the owner of J and K Beauty Supply, in the report she said, "We like it, but if you could just open the street so that we can live our normal life?" She said that customers are opting to go to other businesses instead of parking and walking.
Another business owner along the strip said that it's best customers drive and that they need somewhere to park.
Councilman Robert Cornegy, who worked for the creation of the mural, said that he is working community organizations to increase foot traffic in the area. He hopes that the increased foot traffic will lead to an increase in sales.
The Billie Holiday Theatre teamed up with Council Member @rcornegyjr to organize the first BLM mural in NYC in front of The Billie Holiday Theatre. "We are at a watershed moment as a country, no…as a globe, coming to terms with the historic and pervasive racial inequities that have plagued our world for far too long and brave women and men across fields of endeavor who have contested the age-old adage "Quiet as it's kept", to end centuries of silence and baptizing us in their chorus of 'Black Lives Matter.'" @iamindira7 and @iamkennyleon
A post shared by Indira Etwaroo (@iamindira7) on Jun 14, 2020 at 4:57pm PDT
He told CBS News that he hoped that "this would be a plaza where we can come and gather, and really have conversations about the future. And really just a focal point for the change that we seek."
The street closure has also affected a bus route. Buses are being diverted from the area, the MTA said, "We're very supportive of the City's tribute and are working to mitigate any impacts to customers to the degree possible."
READ MORE: White men sue D.C. Mayor Bowser over Black Lives Matter mural
Dozens of artists and local volunteers worked together to paint the Bed-Stuy piece two weeks ago. Dr. Indira Etwaroo, the executive artistic director of the Billie Holiday Theatre, helped coordinate the project.
The mural also features the names of dozens of victims of police and racial violence, including Emmett Till.
The post NY business owners says BLM mural hurting sales appeared first on TheGrio.
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Do you think QA specialists are more effective embedded on product teams directly (working alongside dev and design) or on support teams (working alongside user-facing help teams)? Or something in between, not tied to any other teams?
Author Alister ScottPosted on May 30, 2016 Categories Ask Me Anything, SoftwareTags embedded3 Comments on AMA: embedded QA specialists?
What is your stance on time estimation (involved people, granularity/level of detail, benefit)?
I'd like to start by stating that I'm by no means an expert on this topic; so please take what you will from what I write.
Time and effort estimation for any software development activity is very difficult to do so often we get our estimates very wrong. I believe this is because we try to do up-front time and effort estimation without fully understanding the domain or the extent of the problem we're solving; we still have many unknown-unknowns.
We can still do detailed/granular planning, but we should try to delay the detailed estimation of these until we have more information.
What I prefer is detailed planning up front, which involves breaking large lofty goals down into small goals. These small goals are broken down further into the smallest possible manageable unit of work that delivers something, however small that something is. It's important to break things down to this level as this enables continuous delivery, and flexibility in scope as a project progresses.
Once these small units of work are detailed, before trying to estimate these, I think there's validity in starting work and delivering some of these units of work. This will mean it's possible to more accurately estimate the remaining work based upon real delivery experience.
As soon as you begin working on each unit you should get a feel for the size and effort that is required for each unit, and over a period of time (say a fortnight) you can start to work out how many of these units you can achieve (your velocity).
If you've got the detailed plan of how many units total you'd like to achieve, it is probably at this point where you realise that what you wanted to achieve is going to take too long or cost too much. This realisation means you need to prioritise all remaining work, and focus on what is high priority.
I've never seen a project finish with the same intentions as when it started, so as you progress you will find some items get completely de-prioritised (no longer in scope), some things become higher priority so they get delivered sooner, and some completely new ideas/pieces of functionality may be decided upon and included in your plan.
Since you understand what you've been able to deliver you can then have sensible conversations about what is feasible given the resources available.
Imagine if someone came to you and told you that your website was causing their laptop to throw a fatal system error, the dreaded 'blue screen of death', what would your response be?
Well I know what my response would be because it happened to me. My response was "no way! That can't happen! A website can't make a computer BSOD!" I would have bet $1000 on that. Turns out I was wrong; very wrong.
I was working for a very popular pizza delivery chain and one day our development team began receiving reports of customer's complaints (mostly via social media) that our site was causing their computers to throw blue screen of death errors! We laughed about it, yeah right, that can't happen! Crash a browser tab maybe, but not an operating system. But we tried to reproduce it anyway on the large number of laptops we had and no matter how hard we tried we couldn't reproduce it.
A few days later a member of our customer support team appeared saying our site just BSOD'd his laptop! We were curious, very curious. So we started the laptop back up and visited our site and voila! BSOD!
Now that we had a single laptop that consistently reproduced the BSOD we could work out why it was happening.
It was only happening in Chrome, and only on this single laptop which ran Windows 8. We built/ran our site on a developer's machine and accessed it via this laptop and could reproduce the crash every time.
We noted that the version of Chrome was one version behind the latest version on every other laptop we had – the update had somehow stopped and was stuck at that version.
But we didn't update Chrome as that would have destroyed our single machine that was reproducing our issue! (It is pretty much impossible to get find older versions of Chrome).
After some time, it was a lengthy process as each test would result in a reboot, when we removed a resource reference to a font our site used, which was actually a Google Font on their CDN, it suddenly stopped BSODing. We added it back and voila; it crashed.
A reference to a Google Font on our site was giving our customers Blue Screens of Death.
After some research we discovered it was a Chromium bug which affected all versions of Windows (only), as Chromium/Chrome were working on native font rendering for Windows. Google were very quick to patch this issue, however, if someone was stuck on an older version then it would still be an issue: there wasn't anything we could do about it but inform our customers to ensure they are on the latest version of Chrome.
a website can blue screen of death your laptop.
Since my team (and every team at Automattic) is 100% distributed, it's important that we meet in person a few times a year (somewhere in the world) to hang out, co-work, eat and plan together: we call these team meetups.
Two weeks ago I spent the week in La Jolla in beautiful Southern California working with my team. Each team member was asked to suggest activities/projects to work on for the meetup and I suggested we do a futurespective.
Most people are familiar with a retrospective as they're very common in agile software development, but I've found futurespectives to be much less common.
A futurespective is an activity where a team can work together to create a shared vision for the future.
There's no point working on a team excercise to plan for the future if there's something in the air, so it's worthwhile just checking in on the team and how everyone is feeling about the current state of things.
The prime directive is a good start for this, but it's worth explaining that the team will be brainstorming and working together to achieve a list of action items at the end of the excercise that will directly impact our future.
Get each person to spend 10 mins writing sticky notes about the state of your particular question, what it is like, but not delving into how it is like this.
An example might be: 'everyone is confident in every launch' or 'everyone knows what the right thing to work on is'.
As each person is finished we put these sticky notes on a wall and logically group them, and then vote on which are most important (each person is given typically three votes and marks three notes or groups with a sharpie).
From the first excercise you should have a list of three or four most end-states, and now we use these to brainstorm for about 10 minutes the success factors (hows) that got us to these end-states.
For example, a success factor for 'everyone is confident in every launch' could be 'unit tests are super easy to write/run all the time (fast)'.
Once people have had time to write these up, we logically group them under our three or four headings on the wall so we can see these clearly.
Our final activity is working out what we can do now to lead to these success factors which will get us to our end-goals. At this point you can either brainstorm again, or as a team start discussing what we can do.
If you need some structure you could use "Start Doing/Stop Doing/Keep Doing" to prompt for ideas, otherwise any format you want.
The goal here is after 20 mins have a list of action items that you can easily assign to someone knowing that these will lead to success factors and your end goals you've come up with as a team.
An example would be 'ensure that 100% bugs are logged in one tool (GitHub)' which can be assigned to someone.
Ensure someone is tasked with taking photos and writing up the findings, at least the action items and circulating these around.
The Futurespective we ran as a team was very useful as it had enough structure that enabled us to get through a lot of thought in a short amount of time. We did this on the first morning of our meetup and having this structured activity set the tone for the week as we could refer back to what we'd discussed in future activities during the week.
I thoroughly recommend this as a team planning tool.
I'm a fairly late adopter: I bought an Apple Watch just a few weeks ago after the hype had settled down a bit and I could just walk in, try one on and buy one.
I bought the 42mm 'sport' model because I've got big wrists and my main intention with the watch is to measure various aspects of exercise I do.
The waterproof is really cool: whilst the touch doesn't work well under water, I wear it in the shower, I've worn I swimming in the pool and also in the surf without any issues. It makes me wonder why we can't make all our portable devices this waterproof Apparently it's not waterproof (see comment below) and this isn't recommended.
The battery isn't that bad: I charge it overnight, and monitor a hour or so of exercise most days, and I still get to the end of the day with 50-60% of battery remaining. It could be better and last multiple days, but since I wear it overnight it doesn't bother me.
The notifications are awesome: The best part for me was that by default the notifications mirror your iPhone. I have minimal notifications set up (none for email etc) so I get minimal notifications on the watch. And apps don't need to support the watch or be installed on the watch to send notifications on the watch. Plus if you're using your phone your watch doesn't notify you and vice versa. They've done really well with this.
I don't really use watch apps: There will probably be better ones with the new WatchOS that supports native apps, but the main purpose for me is glancing at my watch face and quickly seeing notifications. The only app I really use is the exercise one from Apple which monitors your heart rate, distance etc when you're exercising.
I use the modular watch face: it offers a good range of information I can glance at. Some of the other watch faces are fancy but can only see myself using these as a once off.
The activity rings are a good idea: especially the standing ring which notifies you towards the end of an hour when you haven't stood up. Great.
Transferring anything to the watch is really slow: and updates are really slow to install. But these happen so infrequently it doesn't really matter that much.
Nightstand mode is half done: I'd like it to be like an school alarm clock and always show the time in the dark, but unfortunately it only shows anything when tapped etc. Kinda defeats the purpose of this. Maybe there will be some options to enable always on in future updates.
Do you own an Apple Watch or another smart watch? What do you think of it?
How can open source projects deliver high quality software without dedicated testers?
I recently received the following email from a WatirMelon reader Kiran, and was about to reply with my answer when instead I asked to reply via a blog post as I think it's an interesting topic.
"I see most of the Open source projects do not have a dedicated manual QA team to perform any kind of testing. But every Organization has dedicated manual QA teams to validate their products before release, yet they fail to meet quality standards.
How does these open source projects manage to deliver stuff with great quality without manual testers? (One reason i can think of is, developers of these projects have great technical skills and commitment than developers in Organizations).
I'll start by stating that not all organizations have dedicated manual QA teams to validate their products before release. I used the example of Facebook in my book, and I presently work in an organization where there isn't a dedicated testing team. But generally speakingI agree that most medium to large organizations have testers of some form, whereas most open source projects do not.
I think the quality of open source comes down to two key factors which are essential to high quality software: peer reviews and automated tests.
Open source projects by their very nature need to be open to contribution from various people. This brings about great benefit, as you get diversity of input and skills, and are able to utilize a global pool of talent, but with this comes the need for a safety net to ensure quality of the software is maintained.
Open source projects typically work on a fork/pull request model where all work is done in small increments in 'forks' which are provided as pull requests to be merged into the main repository. Distributed version control systems allow this to happen very easily and facilitate a code review system of pull requests before they are merged into the main repository.
Whilst peer reviews are good, these aren't a replacement for testing, and this is where open source projects need to be self-tested via automated tests. Modern continuous integration systems like CircleCI and TravisCI allow automatic testing of all new pull requests to an open source project before they are even considered to be merged.
If you have a look at most open source project pages you will most likely see prominent real time 'build status' badges to indicate the realtime quality of the software.
Peer reviews and automated tests cover contributions and regression testing, but how does an open source project test new features?
Most open source projects test new changes in the wild through dogfooding (open source projects often exist to fill a need and open source developers are often consumers of their own products), and pre-release testing like alpha and beta distributions. For example, the Chromium project has multiple channels (canary, dev, beta, stable) where anyone can test upcoming Chromium/Chrome features before they are released to the general public (this isn't limited to open source software: Apple does the same with OSX and iOS releases).
By using a combination of peer reviews, extensive automated regression testing, dogfooding and making pre-release candidates available I believe open source projects can release very high quality software without having dedicated testers.
If an organization would like to move away from having a dedicated, separate test team to smaller self-sustaining delivery teams responsible for quality into production (which my present organization does), they would need to follow these practices such as peer reviews and maintaining a very high level of automated test coverage. I still believe there's a role for a tester on such a team in advocating quality, making sure that new features/changes are appropriately tested, and that the automated regression test coverage is sufficient.
Author Alister ScottPosted on July 21, 2015 July 21, 2015 Categories SoftwareTags FOSS, open source, OSS5 Comments on How can open source projects deliver high quality software without dedicated testers?
We recently had a competition at work where you had to create a 'useless website'. There weren't many rules to the contest (make it publicly accessible, SSFW, enter as many times as you like), so I decided to hedge my bets and create/submit half a dozen simple sites all using the same concept of randomly generating something.
It was a good example of disposable software as I could churn out an entire site in 10 or 15 minutes including publishing it live on github and didn't have to worry about tests/technical debt or any such thing. It was really fun.
I ended up with a runner's up award for the sloth site, the winner was my very talented colleague James and his 'Potato Simulator 2015'.
Are you faster than a sloth?
Are you taller than a giraffe?


text:
Q: sqlalchemy different behaviour on different table in same schema I am connecting to clickHouse database by means of sqlalchemy. ne table is okay but another one acts weird.
When I print querystatement, the table name is loaded twice in it! Can anyone helps me to find out why two different tables might act differently .
My code :
session.query(className)

query.statement:
select a,b from table_name, table_name

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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10 SEO Services Myths Busted!
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As search engine algorithms constantly evolve and develop, so too do the methods of optimisation behind them. The SEO services world has drastically changed in such a short amount of time, so it's no surprise if you're struggling to keep up with what's what…or what's not. There are commonly held ideas and theories about Google's search rankings, which are completely false and misleading. We've compiled a handy list of the top ten SEO myths (BUSTED!), to help you get the most out of your efforts and, you know… rank!
Top 10 SEO Services Myths Busted!!!
SEO Services Are Dead
To kick us off, the big one – SEO services are done and dusted. Sure, the traditional methods of boosting search engine rankings may be futile today, but that doesn't mean the entire concept as a whole is dead. Nowadays, it's simply different – SEO services need to be considered as part of a wider content marketing strategy and not just as a few simple tricks to get your site on the top of search pages. Combine your usual SEO tactics with thorough, engaging copy, social media community engagement and effective audio/visual content for a more well-rounded approach to boosting your rankings.
Links Are Most Important
Getting links and backlinks may seem like a surefire way to drive traffic to your site, but this isn't necessarily the case. Inbound links are still likely to boost rankings but it's better to focus on quality over quantity. More and more people find what they need through social media nowadays, so create engaging, quality content that users will want to share, rather than planting backlinks anywhere you can.
Keywords Are Everything
Gone are the days where you could simply repeat your main keyword as much as possible or hide them in the background of your page to rank higher in search results. Google are very much on to this – the algorithms factor in more than just the number of keywords (like bounce rates and user experience) so your page will drop substantially. This technique is also considered 'blackhat' and could shut down your site entirely.
Exact Match Domains Rank Higher
If your domain name matches your keyword exactly, it doesn't necessarily mean you will be the number one search result. Spammers started claiming domain names for ad purposes years ago, and Google is wary of it. Back it up with high-quality, relevant content.
Bing Doesn't Matter
Of course, Google is the most dominant force in search engines (…and the internet in general), but it doesn't mean you should rule out other search engines, like Bing, entirely. Bing holds a 15-18% share, a figure which has steadily grown since it's launch in 2009. The stats show that Bing users are generally older, family-oriented and less tech-savvy. If that's a demographic you're trying to reach, it wouldn't hurt to learn more about Bing's search engine algorithm. Bing also has a few different partnerships with Facebook, and as it's a less competitive sphere, it may hold some great opportunities for your site.
Subheadings Are Integral
By and large, subheadings H2 through H6 don't actually add a huge amount of value to your SEO. Subheadings are fantastic for user experience, engagement, and readability, but in the entire scheme of things, subheadings alone won't provide you with a page one ranking it's very limited. Focus on all-round great content for best results.
Images Have No SEO Value
It's true that the bots cannot 'view' image and video content, but that doesn't mean it can't help your SEO. Adding appropriate tags to your pictures and videos give the search bots clues as to the nature of the content, and, with the rising popularity of interactivity, can boost your SEO in other ways. Similarly to the overall appearance of your website, creating pages and content that are accessible, functional and user-friendly can boost your rankings through other key metrics.
Social Media Guarantees Success
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are so prominent nowadays, it's hard to imagine life without them. And while a social media presence is crucial in garnering traffic, simply having a Facebook account just isn't going to cut it. You need to spend time developing your social media by updating it daily, building a following and finding your own unique voice. Only then will it be likely to attract visitors and eventually, bolster your search rankings.
Paid Links Boost Organic Search Results
We all know that paid links will drive visitors to your site, but that doesn't mean it will feed into your organic search rankings either. Users today are extremely wary of sponsored links and promotional content, and will leave as quickly as they can if they think they are being marketed to. Paid links might boost your figures temporarily, but organic search is where it's at – you want your site to be relevant and trustworthy.
It's Too Late To Start
Sure, the SEO services world is hugely competitive and there are some very established sites out there, but it doesn't mean your website can't have a shot at a top ranking. It's never too late, and it doesn't have to be that difficult! Find a gap in your market to target, create engaging content, and dive right in.
By avoiding these SEO services traps, you can bring your work into the now and get the best possible outcome for your website. It's a bit of a maze out there, but changing your mindset of these misconceptions and applying your existing SEO knowledge to high-quality, functional, engaging content will boost your search engine rankings naturally and do wonders in the long run.
If you're just starting out and need some SEO and Content Marketing advice, get in touch with us.
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