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Judge Grants Leagues' Request, Stops N.J. Sports Betting Temporarily
TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge Friday granted a request from the four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the NCAA to temporarily stop New Jersey from allowing legalized sports betting.
U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp issued a temporary restraining order after a request by the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball and the NCAA. He said the leagues have shown they would be irreparably harmed if the state's casinos and racetracks were permitted to allow sports betting.
The leagues' lawsuit against the state to permanently prevent it from allowing sports betting will proceed.
New Jersey would have become just the second state in the country, after Nevada, to offer wagering on individual games at betting locations known as sports books. Delaware offers multi-game parlay pools where bettors must pick several games correctly to win money.
In an opinion read in court Friday, Shipp said he based his granting of the temporary restraining order partly on the public interest in knowing whether state law is in conflict with federal law. He also said the leagues demonstrated they would be "irreparably harmed" if sports betting were allowed in New Jersey.
"More legal gambling leads to more total gambling, which in turns leads to an increased incentive to fix plaintiffs' matches," Shipp said. New Jersey's permission of sports gambling "would engender the same ills" that the 1992 federal law at the heart of the current legal fight sought to combat, he added.
Shipp indicated the temporary restraining order was necessary to ensure the issue is argued in court. The leagues and the state traded briefs this week up until Thursday.
Photo via Aristide Economopoulos/USA TODAY Sports Images
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Hozier to bring 'Wasteland Baby!' Tour to Dublin's 3Arena
Tickets go on sale this Friday
Rory Lynskey
Hozier fans will no doubt be delighted at news that the Wicklow native is bringing his Wasteland Baby! World Tour to the 3Arena on December 10 of this year.
The announcement was made following his headline Friday night performance at Electric Picnic.
He is currently on a sold out tour of Europe, USA and Canada, including shows at London Palladium in October and shows at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom this November.
Dublin festival features all-female-fronted line-up
It has now been five years since his world-renowned 'Take Me To Church' was released.
Last March, he released his highly anticipated sophomore album 'Wasteland Baby!', and became the fourth Irish artist to score a No. 1 album in the USA as well as Ireland.
Tickets from €39.90 including booking fee go on sale this Friday 6th September at 9am.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Anyone planning to attend the March 21 Alzheimer's Disease community forum needs to call the Snyder Chamber of Commerce to reserve seating at the event.
Registration for the annual Snyder Education Foundation Freedom Run is open.
District Judge Ernie B. Armstrong ruled Friday that Kinder Morgan did not file a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by four Scurry County taxing entities in a timely manner.
Scurry County residents will get their chance to sound off about plans to institute a countywide voting system.
Once the rain clears out of the area, extremely high winds are expected to blow through, weather officials said.
A Milam man was indicted by a Scurry County grand jury for driving while intoxicated.
County commissioners will hold a public hearing on proposed speed limit changes on five county roads when they meet Tuesday morning.
Colonial Hill Baptist Church will be seeing a familiar face again.
The congregation voted for a permanent pastor Sunday, naming Reid Johnson as lead pastor.
Despite the rebound in the price of crude oil, production from Scurry County's oilfield fell almost 200,000 barrels last year.
The Girl Scouts of America (GSA) is throwing a birthday party this week.


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Algorithm fatigue: What Evernote's news-recommending product can tell us about privacy
Evernote Context integrates the research process seamlessly into the user's workflow — why don't (some) users like it?
By Caroline O'Donovan @ceodonovan Dec. 5, 2014, 10:53 a.m.
e all remember Clippy, right? He of the friendly, persistent "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?"
Clippy (real name: Clippit) was an innovation for Microsoft; the idea that a piece of software could predict what you were working on based on what you typed was startlingly new to the average consumer. But Clippy was also annoying — very annoying. He popped up all the time, unbidden, and was both rarely helpful and hard to get rid of. Over time, Clippy became a meme synonymous with obnoxious, digital interruptions.
The backlash against the chirpy, distracting animation was widespread and eviscerating. Clippy was killed in 2001; Microsoft actually launched an anti-Clippy campaign to market Office XP in 2002. In 2010, Time named Clippy to a "50 Worst Inventions" list. The backlash against the animated algorithm was so intense, in fact, that it inspired its own backlash; in 2012, developers at Smore built a Javascript Clippy so that the bouncy paperclip could live on in perpetuity.
Clippy made sense in theory, but in practice, the office assistant made users feel intruded upon. Today, the typical consumer is more accustomed to the feeling of being watched by technology. We know that Google reads our email to predict flight times, and we know Facebook tracks our searches to sell to advertisers. But just because customers have come to expect it doesn't mean they like it. The question for tech companies is a tricky one — just how far into their personal and professional lives will users allow software to go?
That question is one that Evernote, the note-taking-turned-workspace app, has been struggling with lately. Earlier this fall, Evernote released Context, a new product that aims to seamlessly integrate the research process into a user's workflow. As you type a note, Evernote not only searches for and provides relevant material from your own and colleague's work, but also from third-party news organizations.
"Think of the note area in Evernote like a big search box," says Andrew Sinkov, Evernote's vice president of marketing. "If you write one sentence and that one sentence contains the word Evernote, we may surface an article about Evernote. But if you write two paragraphs and now you're talking about some specific feature like Evernote Web Clipper, now we have a lot more information to go on catered to the specific search that you happen to be doing. If TechCrunch has written an article about our Safari Web Clipper in the last few months, we will surface that."
To build Context, Evernote needed a way to match what a user was working on with relevant content. To do that, they hired a team of augmented intelligence researchers, who created an algorithm that is constantly trying to match keywords from what users are typing to related terms in outside material.
To get this material, Evernote had to locate willing media partners who would give the company access to some or all of the news organization's archives. Their first partner was The Wall Street Journal, which makes the the most recent 90 days of its archives available and searchable via Context. Next month Dow Jones will add in its Factiva databases. In the future, the program could also surface videos and images in addition to text articles.
The partnership makes sense for Evernote because the majority of its users are "information workers" — small business owners, entrepreneurs — with an interest in reading business journalism. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, gets access to elite users — only Evernote Premium and Business members get Context — and the chance to expand brand recognition outside of the traditional newspaper subscriber base.
"What we're predominantly focused on is giving our existing subscribers a better experience," says Edward Roussel, head of product for Dow Jones. "Point number two, we're looking to recruit new subscribers."
The Journal launched a loyalty in September called WSJ+. Perks of premium membership include subscriptions to things like Evernote Business, one reason the partnership makes sense for the paper. The other reason is growth, especially international growth.
Only a quarter of Evernote's users — 100 million people have signed up for or downloaded the app — are in North America. The rest are mostly in Asia, especially China, and South America. For the Journal, that means Evernote is a platform for continuing to extend their brand globally, something Roussel told Digiday he's explicitly working to accomplish via partnerships with companies like Evernote.
Evernote is also interested in its foreign customers: The most recent addition to the list of Context media partners — which currently includes TechCrunch, Fast Company, Inc., Pando Daily, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn — is the Nikkei, an English-language Japanese business newspaper. (The Nikkei is part of the large media company Nikkei, which invested in Evernote to the tune of $20 million.) As Evernote's presence in Japan grows, the platform could become an inroad for the Journal to build a stronger presence there as well. For example, though for now Evernote only surfaces English-language Wall Street Journal content, down the line Japanese users could be served local, Japanese-language Wall Street Journal content.
"Evernote is very strong in Japan, we're strong in Japan — we have a large number of readers and a strong subscription base. It's the kind of experiment that we're interested in, other things that we can do that are specific to a particular demographic," says Roussel.
For publishers, Context is a unique, if niche, way to get their content in front of engaged, professional eyeballs. What Evernote hopes to offer those users attached to those eyeballs is a productive, predictive way to work the likes of which they've never experienced before.
The problem is not all Evernote Premium and Evernote Business users who have experienced Context see it as a feature.
Not sure about this new Evernote stuff. Why would I want these generic results? And they can't be turned off? pic.twitter.com/a2XdXH22or
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) October 31, 2014
@viticci damn. Context is the stupidest thing @evernote has done in years.
— Rui Carmo (@rcarmo) October 31, 2014
@viticci Actually, this stuff is a real reason that will keep me from buying Evernote Business again.
— Lukas (@Blubser) October 31, 2014
The discomfort with and dislike of Context was so great at launch, in fact, that users soon started sharing methods for disabling it.
The negative reaction to Context springs from two places. The first is that the stories' square-tiled appearance in the sidebar makes them resemble ads, which makes Premium users especially feel like their private workspace is being encroached on.
@viticci Thank goodness it can be disabled, but disheartening that @evernote chooses to spend time on this sort of thing. Ads in my notes?
— Jeff Donnici (@jdonnici) November 2, 2014
@viticci I hate this new feature – feels like advertising inside my private documents. Feels wrong. @evernotehelps are you listening?
— Samuel Jay (@RealSamuelJay) November 2, 2014
Sinkov says the assumption by Context users that recommended links were ads surprised the people who built the product. "Context sits at the very bottom of your note. It's not at the side, it's not at the top, there aren't any popups, it's not flashing," he says. "What is that reaction? Why do you so viscerally hate a rectangle that shows up beneath your note at a distance from your cursor that is pretty significant?"
Despite the effort that went into designing a product that wouldn't annoy or disrupt users, that apparently doesn't change the fact that when some users see a logo in the margins of their screen, they read it as an ad. Both the Journal and Evernote said that no money exchanged hands in forming the Context partnership, but that fact may not be enough in the face of engrained assumptions about how websites treat their readers.
"Unfortunately, ads take so many forms these days there's no way to design a space that could not be perceived as an ad," says Sinkov. "That's the challenge we have."
But Evernote Context has another challenge beyond repairing a spammy-looking interface. Though Sinkov says the third-party publishers have no access to Evernote data, that's not necessarily clear to the user. The idea that Evernote has access to the content of all notes, both personal and professional, and is using that data to power an algorithm without asking the user to opt-in is, to some, worrisome. The fear that those notes — which could contain, for example, proprietary business information — are somehow being made available to unknown journalistic entities could be seen as downright disturbing.
@viticci I want out of the whole algorithm, to be honest.
— Nate Boateng (@nateboateng) October 31, 2014
Sinkov says Evernote is aware of these concerns, and is working to address them with users. "We have these three laws of data protection that we take very seriously, about privacy and data ownership and data portability," he says. For example, though it would be theoretically very useful for Evernote to use the content of notes to learn more about the demographics of its user base — where they work, how old they are, where they live — they don't.
Going forward, Sinkov says Evernote needs to do a better job of publicizing the steps the company takes to protect users. He believes that if people better understood how Context works — that the data flows only one way and that there's no money involved — they would be more open to the benefits of the product. Without that information being made explicit, users often assume the worst of tech companies; with recent headlines in mind, it's not hard to see why.
"We've been beaten down in some ways by expectations that 'the company is going to sell my data, and I'm not going to know about it, and it's going to be bad.' That's why these unfortunate reactions happen," Sinkov says.
There are, of course, Evernote users who enjoy using Context, which makes sense. The idea of having links to background information made available automatically as I write sounds convenient and useful — no more opening a new tab and searching for the CEO's name or the source's appropriate title or the date of the original launch. Frictionless delivery of the facts I need to do my work without having to ask for it sounds, to me, like the future. But it takes a significant amount of private information to power tools like that, and it's often unclear which companies are reliable enough to be trusted with that information. As our digital world becomes increasingly circumscribed by the machines that watch us as we work and play, we will be faced with more frequent decisions about who and what else we want to see in those spaces.
"The algorithms we have running are intended to do one thing. If there's a fatigue that says 'I don't want algorithms,' that's unfortunate," Sinkov says. "There are good algorithms, and there are less good algorithms. If we wanted to stay in a world where it's literally your head to your fingers to a keyboard to a screen, we're there. That's already the world we live in. What's next?"
POSTED Dec. 5, 2014, 10:53 a.m.
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O'Donovan, Caroline. "Algorithm fatigue: What Evernote's news-recommending product can tell us about privacy." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 5 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2020.
O'Donovan, C. (2014, Dec. 5). Algorithm fatigue: What Evernote's news-recommending product can tell us about privacy. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved January 18, 2020, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/algorithm-fatigue-what-evernotes-news-recommending-product-can-tell-us-about-privacy/
O'Donovan, Caroline. "Algorithm fatigue: What Evernote's news-recommending product can tell us about privacy." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified December 5, 2014. Accessed January 18, 2020. https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/algorithm-fatigue-what-evernotes-news-recommending-product-can-tell-us-about-privacy/.
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| title = Algorithm fatigue: What Evernote's news-recommending product can tell us about privacy
| last = O'Donovan
| first = Caroline
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 5 December 2014
| accessdate = 18 January 2020
| ref = {{harvid|O'Donovan|2014}}
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You Are Here: Home » Moods, Music, Music that should have no business being played together but works, Seasonal Stuff » Why am I not Icelandic?
Seriously. While I'm very proud to be Italian and French Canadian (as far as I know), I now feel a bit gypped that I don't appear to have ANY Icelandic blood.
Bjork. You know who she is, yes?
but I've just learned that genetically they are NOT pre-disposed to SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder. Matter of fact, they appear to be the LEAST susceptible of all Earthly peoples. This may explain why they're able to remain chipper while sitting on ice-cubes and hob-nobbing with Arctic Puffins, but regardless – this would be a good time for me to have been an Icelander.
Why, you ask? Because I believe I have SAD. Yup – I've been trying to figure out why I've been in this godforsaken funk for the past few months – no energy, even less motivation, eating like somebody wrote me a free pass. I even asked my doctor to "Emeril" my regular anti-depressant dosage and BAM! he kicked it up a notch. Only marginal improvement. Seriously – this is getting really annoying.
Per Wikipedia: Symptoms of SAD may consist of: difficulty waking up in the morning, tendency to oversleep as well as to overeat, and especially a craving for carbohydrates, which leads to weight gain. Other symptoms include a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating on completing tasks, and withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities. All of this leads to the depression, pessimism, and lack of pleasure which characterize a person suffering from this disorder.
Now, while I assume that I'm not ALONE in this situation, I'm not going to suggest to you ways to rectify it. Nope, you found this blog, so you obviously have sufficient ability to navigate a mouse and keyboard to seek those out yourself; I want no responsibility for explaining to your significant other why you just purchased three cases of broad spectrum lightbulbs and a negative air ionizer from Sam's Club. Besides – everyone's different.
13 Responses to Why am I not Icelandic?
.-= Ash´s last blog ..hang with me folks… =-.
I can't stop thinking of that infernal swan dress whenever I see Bjork.
My husband has SAD too; that's why he constantly reminds me how he only lives in Chicago FOR ME. He hopes that we'll end up in Arizona someday.
That's weird. I'm Italian and French Canadian too.
Just stumbled onto your blog from…I don't actually remember but I really love the concept!
Raising my hand here! Sleeping until 11? Check. Eating chips and drinking Mt. Dew like they're going outta style? Check. Sitting on couch or desk chair … all day? Check. Dealing with stressful family crisis? Check.
I was so happy to see the sun shining today! And in two weeks, my nights will be my family's again!
I hope things start looking up for you, too!
.-= Tiffani´s last blog ..Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" =-.
I can't blame my not wanting to get up in the morning-ness on SAD because it's true for me year-'round. I'm just a night owl.
My husband's solution for getting up in winter mornings is one of those weird sun clocks. He swears by it. Might be worth a shot.
Oh? And Icelandic women? You should see the flight attendants on Icelandair. Blonde goddesses.
.-= Heids´s last blog ..Atop Sugarloaf Mountain =-.
I would like to express thanks to the writer for bailing me out of such a crisis. Because of browsing through the the web and obtaining solutions which were not productive, I believed my entire life was well over. Being alive devoid of the strategies to the issues you've fixed through your website is a serious case, as well as ones that would have negatively damaged my entire career if I had not encountered your blog. Your main expertise and kindness in dealing with a lot of stuff was very helpful. I am not sure what I would've done if I had not discovered such a step like this. It's possible to at this point look forward to my future. Thanks a lot so much for the high quality and sensible help. I will not be reluctant to endorse your web page to anybody who should get guide about this issue.


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Tue, Feb 26, 2019 page10
Roche bids US$4.8bn for Spark
GENE FIX: After Luxturna was approved by US regulators in 2017, Spark said the firm would charge US$425,000 per eye for injecting a working version of a gene called RPE65
Roche Holding AG plans to buy Spark Therapeutics Inc for US$4.8 billion, a deal that would give the Swiss drugmaker one of the first-ever therapies to treat, and potentially cure, a disease by providing a fix for a patient's defective genes.
Roche is to pay US$114.50 a share for Philadelphia-based Spark, a 122 percent premium to the biotechnology company's close in New York trading on Friday.
While the price is rich, Spark shares were trading above US$90 as recently as last year.
The offer was a 19 percent premium to Spark's 52-week intraday high, Roche said.
Along with French biopharmaceutical company Ipsen SA's agreement yesterday to acquire Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc for as much as US$1.3 billion, the Roche deal shows how drug companies are placing big bets on the fraught but lucrative field of rare diseases.
Gene therapies, in particular, are a promising new area of medicine with the potential to cure a wide range of often-rare diseases by replacing or repairing errors in the body's instruction manual.
Their amazing potential has been matched by breakthrough prices, as companies have sought to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for them — or more.
The Roche deal's premium is an outlier, but recent pharmaceutical deals have come with rich valuations.
Acquirers paid an average 45 percent premium in takeovers of listed pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies announced over the past five years, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Spark's therapy Luxturna treats a gene-driven form of blindness by injecting a working version of a gene called RPE65. In people with that condition, the working genes can help restore sight.
After Luxturna was approved by US regulators in 2017, Spark said it would charge US$425,000 per eye for the treatment.
Spark was founded in 2013 at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Along with Luxturna, it is developing gene therapies for the bleeding disorder hemophilia, an area where Roche is seeking to broaden its presence.
Spark already has a licensing agreement with Roche's crosstown rival, Basel-based Novartis AG. Under an agreement struck last year, Novartis has the rights to sell Luxturna outside the US.
Taiwan Business Quick Take
EQUITIES Caution drives TAIEX lower The TAIEX closed lower yesterday as investors locked in their earlier gains because of caution over the outlook for US markets after authorities warned of security threats at US president-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday next week. However, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to rise due to optimism that the contract chipmaker would deliver positive leads in an investor conference tomorrow, helping the broader market limit losses, dealers said. In addition, reports that a mass evacuation of patients from a northern Taiwan hospital late on Monday — implying possible COVID-19 infections within the